Scraps and the Scrapper

I can’t say that my motivation level to lift, run and stick to my diet is 100% every single day but it always seems to be the one thing that spikes my confidence when I’m following through. I was thinking about that tonight as I was jogging. I don’t have a set routine. Right now I’m just lucky I found an hour the past couple days to even get to the gym. It’s been killing me not being able to get to the gym the past few months, and if I’m not finding time for the gym it’s easier to forget about what I’m eating. That’s not an excuse but just in the last two days I can feel such a change mentally. My self confidence, peace of mind and happiness are all affected. There’s not much that can compare to this high.

Sometimes when I write it helps.. not sure it can cure this one for me though. Last night I think it’s safe to say I had the WORST workout of my life. I did lifts for all of my favorite muscles but just couldn’t get into it. My intensity and focus were out of reach. Overall I just wasn’t having an ounce of fun. This has never happened to me before. I can’t explain it. I mean I’ve been supplementing creatine with naNO Vapor and got some amazing results in just the past week. These kinds of results are what fuels me to push harder.

To make matters worse, I just found out I’ve been invited to train in Orlando again for a couple weeks this summer with some of the top wakeboarding coaches. The catch is I need to come up with $3G’s in 5 days. Utterly impossible. That alone would’ve killed my motivation for a week.

I don’t know, I feel like I’m in a pretty tough spot. Finals are coming up for school and I’m also in the beginning stages of branding for a client which will move into web development and designing further marketing materials. The plate’s full..I’ve gotta find a way to push through this.

Winter always seems to bring sickness once throughout the season. Getting over and past that I started lifting a new 6 day split about 3 weeks ago. No cardio, yet. My diet is pretty clean, consuming around 1800-2000 calories a day. My weight thus far has only dropped a pound, but my body composition is obviously changing. I don’t have much freelance design work to be doing beyond school now so I thought this would be the opportune time to kick my leaning out mindset into a higher gear. I’ve been looking at supplements, a lot of Controlled Labs stuff because I absolutely love their Purple Wraath mix and tried a couple of samples of REDuction and White Flood(? think that’s what it’s called, it’s the white ____, whatever it is). I’m looking to order REDuction and some creatine monohydrate within the next day or two. I’d like to cut out my appetite and cut down to 12-1400 calories, maybe a little more if i do cardio. I’d also like to cut out the fat and gain lean mass. Maybe I’m stacking the wrong supps but hopefully it’ll work out for me. I never have the patience to sit down and study the science of this. Here we gooo…..

As of Sunday this week, I’ve decided to focus more on my cardio workouts.

A month ago, when I started getting serious again I knew when I had cut down in the summer that I wasn’t happy with my own muscle mass, not to mention the proportions. For some reason I’ve developed an obsession with equal proportions in the past year, which is fine, but it means I need to fine tune myself a little. I remain at right around 150lbs, but my waist and thigh measurements have gone down so I know I’m improving. My issue is I hate looking at my soft form, I’m much more motivated looking at a leaner version of me.. I have a suspicion that everyone is.

I’ve switched up the ratios in my diet and cut back a little in total calories I’ll consume for the day. I do cardio 5 times a week; 2 HIIT sessions and the rest are low intensity, my knee can’t handle much more and actually I could be overtraining as it is. I’m going to see how I finish out the rest of this week and make a few changes if needed. I wish I had more time to do low intensity cardio!

Anyways, we’ll see where this gets me and go from there. It’s strange to think a year ago today I was just getting started, so motivated. I’m just glad I’m not over 160lbs and completely lacking any endurance!

So, the long and short of it is this… all my summer activities have come to a screeching halt due to Minnesota’s abrubt hot to cold weather change. No more wakeboarding =( BUT there’s always the gym. I’ve missed it. This summer I definitely lost a ton of dedication but the last couple weeks I’ve been sizing up new goals and I’m going at it hard again. I need to get some pictures up here from the summer, I guess I got lost at the lake and forgot about the whole updating and tracking results thing. Soon! ….after the gym tonight

i’m starting to feel like i need a registered dietitian to make a meal plan for me. i seriously don’t have the patience, time, possibly even discipline to look through all of the articles in here and make my own.

i switched to lifetime fitness last week, it got annoying to have to take a bus downtown to work out at the YMCA or pay for parking OR workout around older, family type people that do not motivate me what so ever. so lifetime is good.
As with any new gym i got a free personal training session. I tried to take full use of it and told the guy my eating, cardio and lifting plan (who looks around 40, has an extremely thick russian accent and seems to know enough about bodybuilding as he said he did it when he lived in russia). So my eating is alright, when i have the time to make the right foods at the right times.. i don’t eat enough protein, but i already knew that. For cardio, well i suck, i hate it still. I’m going to get a metabolic test to find out what heart rate i burn fat the most efficiently, but that costs money so, i’m waiting to get paid again. As for my lifts, i’m doing alright, just not spending enough time on lifting, so i’m gonna add another exercise for each muscle group.

Oh and i get a free meeting with a professional nutritionist, not that i need it but if it’s free i’ll take all the info i can get even if it’s repeated..

I’ve been sticking to my lifting and cardio plan. Actually I’m just starting to really get into cardio, which is awesome because normally i hate running; now i’m finding myself looking for an extra half hour in my day to do a few intervals.

On the scale I can’t really see a ton of results, i’ve lost a solid 8lbs in a month which i’m actually really proud of. I never really measured my bodyfat before starting out but i’m sure the percentage has gone down because the love handles i had are disappearing! I’m happy.

My only concern is that all of my results are the aftermath petty fights with my girlfriend which really get to me and overall the gruesome end to one of the best friendships i’d ever had. I tend to make working out my life when nothing else is going right..so what happens when it starts coming back together? We shall see……

After my first week in this, I’ve decided to change a few things.

To be honest, my biggest challenge (which I already knew) will be trying to eat without giving in to coffee downtown, the tea garden every time I study and the temptation to let my girlfriend buy me food from places that really have nothing on the menu that follows my goals. I cheated, a lot this week. So I decided the best way to fight this, is to make my "off" day for a healthy diet on a day that I’m downtown for class for 9 hours straight with little to no breaks.

Second, I decided I don’t like the exercises on my Friday workout. I’m now going to try doing:
Concentration Curls
Close Grip Lat Pulldowns
Bent Over Barbell Rows
Hyperextensions
Side Crunches

I should also state that from here on out, not that I do it more than once or twice a month,  there will be no alcohol consumption. The only exception I can foresee will be the night of New Years..but maybe not. We’ll see.

So last night I went to the gym to figure out what weights i’ll be at for each exercise so i’m not messing around with that my first day on this.. here’s the plan:

Mondays:
Bench Press
DB Shoulder Press
Tricep EZ Bar Extension
Knee Raises

Wednesdays:
Leg Press
Leg Curl
Leg Extension
DB Calf Raises
Decline Sit-Ups

Fridays:
Concentration Curl
Seated Low Pulley
Lat Pull-down
Side Crunches

I was gonna research multi vitamins and see which would be best so I can pick one up when I go get my Myoplex before Monday..other than that I have whey protein. I’m pretty anxious to get started!