bigjeff0065’s BodyBlog

Found this quote, and it’s what I’ve been trying to say when I respond to a blog of a newbie to the site.  Let’s face it, how many are here for a week and gone?  Lots.  This is of course a lot more eloquent than I have put it, but it says the same thing.

"In the confrontation between the stream and rock, the stream always wins -  not through strength, but through persistence."  - attributed to Buddha.

Maybe Buddha should have applied this quote to his fitness philosophy.  Apparently, he did not follow a BB lifestyle.

Well, I’m writing this because I’ve gone a few days without blogging so it is time.  I’m really happy with moving shoulders to my first day back from a rest day.  I used to hit them next to last, but they were hurting a lot.  I take precise care to warm them up, maybe even too much, but then again, they don’t hurt hardly anymore.  I still have a little pain when benching, but it’s a lot less than when I was putting shoulders last.  Hopefully, I’m on the backside of the bum shoulder, though I don’t lift as heavy as I’d like to on shoulder day just in case.  

I’d like to see some more movement on the scale, but it seems like the drops have stopped, which is ok, provided the BF keeps declining.  Friday is BF measurement day, so we’ll see how that goes.  Most analysts are expecting a slight downturn, but not as significant as I desire.  Of course, I’m still a month from my BF goal date, and I feel as though I’ll get there.  If I hit 10% by Memorial Day, I’m not wearing a shirt except for work and grocery shopping.  Whooo!  Must have something to do with my secret redneck desire to mow the lawn with my shirt off.  My neighbor does, but he’s about 290 lbs, no shame to his game.

Ok, I’ve gotten some pretty cool messages from people and I appreciate every single one.  I wanted to post a pic that shows that anything is possible.  So, I grabbed a pair of my old jeans (Waist =40) and take a pic.  I don’t think my brain has caught up with my body as I still think and feel like a fatty, and I’m not as lean as I’d like, but then again who is?

I want anyone who reads this who thinks that they cannot transform their body or that they don’t have the discipline to eat right that you are WRONG!  I was a clean your plate and go back for more kind of guy.  I ate big and was big.  If I can overcome my nutrition issues, anyone can.  You CAN do it!  Start slow and build slow.  Rome wasn’t built in a day.  Commit yourself to one meal or day a week to eat healthy and exercise.  Add days/meals every week.  Success begets success. 

Hold yourself accountable.  Keep a promise to yourself.  If you can’t keep a promise to yourself, who can you keep one for?

Good luck and get to working hard!

I’ve been thinking lately.  Dangerous… I know!  Anyway, I take the comments I get from people I am in human contact with and compare them to the people that only see a picture of me online.  Of course I’m closer to the human contact persons, I call them my friends.  I’m just a little tired of bitter comments from my friends who tell me I’m too skinny now or I need to quit losing weight.  The BB.com community has been awesome with their support and motivation and these are people I might not recognize on the street!  It’s weird. 

Upon further analysis, while I’m not in great shape by my standards, I look better than I ever have in my life.  Maybe it’s that they are all now hitting their mid-30s and realizing that they can’t stuff crap down their throat and drink a few beers every night and not pay the consequences.  Maybe they are upset with themselves because they COULD do what I’m doing.  Maybe I’m just a d*ck.  Who knows?

The good news is that I don’t care what they think is the right body for me.  I have a vision and a plan.  I am happy and healthy and yes, I could stop and still have what is considered in the excellent bodyfat range for my age, but why?  Why should I pull up short of my innermost secret goals?  The ones that were only pipedreams a few years ago? 

I started this a year before I found out I was getting divorced, so I didn’t do it to attract ladies, though that is an added bonus!  I am doing it for me! ME,ME,ME!  Call it greedy, call it vain, call it what you will.  Now I know the bbers won’t call it that, but my friends might.  I don’t sacrifice time with my son nor am I missing out on anything.  I guess some people just don’t get it.  That’s ok with me.  I’ll do my thing, you do yours.  It’s all good right?

Well, it’s official as of today.  I have officially lost 100 lbs.  I’ve still got to drop 2.2 lbs. in 11 days to hit my short term goal, and I’m not likely to be able to hit that, but it was a fairly lofty goal.  I set the goal date shorter than usual to see if that would push me harder, but it didn’t really.  I’ve been going harder because I"ve challenged myself to keep beating records.  I keep a post it note on my treadmill with cals burned, distance, and time.  While the time will be the same, I want to continue to break those records.  I do it for the weights, so why not the cardio too?  So far, so good, though I might just push myself into a heart attack at some point. 

Regardless, I’m coming to the conclusion of my long term goals when I hit 10% BF.  When I started, it sounded nice, like a far off dream of an island vacation that you want to go on, but deep down know you will never see.  I didn’t think it was genetically possible.  Well, this big boy is going to have some abs this summer.  I see hints of them here and there, and that is some good motivation.    Abs at 35, over 100lbs lost (not including my ex-wife)… is there anything I can’t do? 

Well, never got to back nite last night.  On nights when I have my son I workout after his bedtime (8:30), but last night I must’ve been tired because I fell asleep reading his bedtime story.  Good news though, I’m well rested!

So tonight becomes back night and I’m excited because I’m going to focus on a problem area which is my lower lats.  I have high lat bellies and need to get the lower growing to even out.  I guess I never really thought about how to work the lower lats, but this months Flex had an article where Charles Glass talks about what he did with Silvio Samuels lower lats, so it’s gotta work for me too. 

And to punish myself for missing a workout, I’m going to do double cardio on Saturday.  Yeehaw!

Well it wasn’t really wacky, that was just a catchy title.  Took the day off from lifting and cardio to break up my week.  I’m glad I’ve decided to catch a day off in the middle of my lifting week.  I think a lot of my shoulder aches were due to the continuous stress placed upon my body by going 5 days straight. 

I also moved shoulders from the tail end of my week to the beginning.   The thought process behind this was that by the end of my training week, my shoulders were hurting pretty bad and they got a cautious yet rigorous workout or skipped to heal.  By moving them up front, they are getting good work in, they are fresh and ready to grow.  So far it is working, so I cannot complain. 

Also helping is that I went and saw Doc Moss this week.  He’s my chiro.  He gave me a good crackin’ and I feel great.  I couldn’t believe it had been 8 months since I’d been in there last.  Won’t happen again, I feel too good to not at least go once a month.

Tonight is back night.  Looking forward to it.  HIIT afterwards  looking forward (maybe) to it as well.

Well, got out the old calipers and tested bodyfat.  I did five measurements.  The lowest was 10.2 and the highest 13.6.  I got 12.1 twice and 11.5 once.

11.5 would coincide with my weight loss and lean mass from the last reading, but I have probably lost some muscle too.  The average of the five readings is 11.9.  The reading I got twice in 5 is 12.1.  So, I’m going to call it 12, which is right between the two. 

It is really hard to believe these numbers.  I always tested higher out in the 20s as a kid, so I guess I never really believed I could get to my long term goal of 10%.  I thought when I put it on the site that I’d never really get there.  Well, I’m coming 10%.  Then maybe 8%.  Why not?

Well, dropped one more pound, and this was the hardest one to drop.  Weight just kept sticking at @ 190.  Sure it’s just a number, but it’s a psychological thing at this point.  I have officially lost 99 lbs. since my heaviest recorded weight.  I want 100 lbs. lost just to be able to say I did it.  Yes, I might be an egomaniac.  But that’s not the point.  The point is that if I can say I have lost 100 lbs. what a great psychological boost.  Not everyone can say that, nor would a lot of people want to admit that they had gotten 100 lbs. overweight.  Sure, I could still do some freakishy athletic things at 288 lbs., just looked like a fatty fat fatso while I did them.  I want to be able to say I lost 100 lbs. because if I can do that, then there’s almost nothing I cannot do.

Breaking out the calipers this evening to measure BF, a smaller number there will bring a huge smile and one helluva workout this evening. 

Monday is here!!!  Not too exciting that I got to go back to work, but I love planning my meals and workouts for the week.  Actually, I’m usually a week ahead on planning, it must be the German blood in me.   Had a great shoulder workout last night and a slow cardio session.  Just trying to change up the cardio so I don’t get used to certain work levels.  I’m doing my HIT after python training and plan to step it up a notch on the levels. 

Nutrition wise, I only had one cheat food last week and that was a bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit during our weekly meeting.  I am to the point where I really don’t want a cheat meal, so I’m just going to keep skipping them.  Hopefully this will help with my last 5-10 lbs to drop, although I have had success after cheat meals in kickstarting my metabolism again.  I’m just going to play it by ear.