Happy Birthday to me. Mr. 44! I'm the strongest I have ever been. I'm in the 1000 pound club with my squat, dead lift, and bench press. I'm still fighting obesity and will continue to do so for as long as I can. I'll be working with my old trainer again soon to improve my form and get beyond partials in some my heavier attempts.  My next goal weight is 270 taking me down to my first 100 pounds lost.

Simply amazing. I set out to try and best myself from last week and I did! I'm still pretty blown away as I sit here trying to get this down on my bodyblog. I predicted that it would be a while before I broke the last record. I will never doubt or limit myself again when it comes to my training goals. 

I'm going to set out to surprise my wife while she is gone this coming month by doubling up on my training and hacking my nutrition to optimum levels for fat loss and muscle gain. 

I'm calling it "China's Biggest Loozer: 30 Pounds in 30 days". I can do this!

I've been setting out to break new records with my workouts. I've
managed to continually do it over the past few weeks. I'll be curious
how long this will stand. 1200 reps vs. 189,750 lbs (86250 kg.) lift
volume. Thanks to bodybuilding.com and their workout tracker. I can't
wait until I add the app to my phone. Look out!

Today is the first day to the next 12 weeks.

I have my supplements.

I have my training log.

I have my fist workout in.

I have to keep the ball rolling.

My plan is to cycle calories. Two days less at 1800 and one day over at 2600. The same with lifting and HIIT cardio. Track progress and adjust as needed. I've topped up again at around 150kg ~ 330 pounds. I think I can get to 299 in 12 weeks.

I'll need to stay extremely hydrated to deal with the heat and added workout sweat loss, with a minimum of 3 liters per day but a goal of 4-5.

I'll need to do some creative juggling with my teaching schedule and daily preparation, planning, for nutrition and exercise. 

Tracking takes about an hour for input, analysis, and posting.

Thank you bodybuilding.com work out tracker, you are still the best training buddy a fit geek can have! 38 work outs 1367sets 16454reps 1,664,839 lbs in 60days 

Okay, let's compare the second month with the first month.

38 work outs 20 more than the first 18

1367 sets an additional +786

16454 reps an additional +9018

I really want to be grateful for so much in my life. Still, the last few days have left me with a bad attitude. I took a one day layoff that turned into three and I'm sure that didn't help matters. The dead gray skies of Guangdong winter have set in and the pollution is thick enough to cut with a knife. I'm grumpy, impatient, and ready to smash something. Nothing like being a moody, petulant, man child to remind one of how silly this is all is. It becomes a crappy loop of aggression, repression, and depression. I've got to break out of it this somehow. I will break out of this.

I WILL: drink 4 liters of water everyday.

I WILL: Do HITT Cardio 5-6 days a week.

I WILL: Lift weights with muscle building gusto at least 4 days a week.

I WILL: Eat clean as hell, low unprocessed carbs, high protein, and a ton of vegetables.

I WILL: Overcome bad attitudes and have gratitude.

I WILL: Lose body fat.

I WILL: Build Muscle.

I WILL: Increase my endurance.

I WILL

Still Improving! 12 minute tread test = 1200 meters or .7456 of a mile over .5437 first  time 3 weeks ago
Mets 9.5 HR 162 V02 36.01 also improved speed 5.5 - 5.9 (was a little slippy should check eq before).

Okay, I needed that. I was a little down about the other numbers from the tape. Getting some gain on the tread test and the bench justifies the effort. I'm going to turn a big corner here soon, I just know it!

TRANSFORM

How quickly I grow impatient. I need to continue to focus on each day and keep my nutrition optimum for fat loss and muscle gain. It's a matter of perspective that I should maintain. I didn't get this heavy in 7 weeks and sure as hell won't reach my goals overnight. Indeed, winning is not about how many times you get  knocked down but how many times you get up. I took the weekend off for some rest and cheat calories (not too many). Back to Monday here in China: another day to lift and do cardio with about a week or so away from progress pictures.

Until then: http://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/ where we can see several bodybuilding.com shout outs!

I was pleased to see some new comments. I'm going to add in a extra set for each one today (+5).

DJ Paul V is spinning over at moheak.com and posted some podcasts of past NEON NOISE shows (excellent for cardio because of the energy, length, and variety)  http://www.divshare.com/download/12945187-668

****ght Sonic Reducer...bring it!

IMPROVED 12 minute tread test = 1150 meters or .7146 of a mile over .5437 last time.

Mets 3.2 HR 143 V02 36.01 also improved speed 5.3

I am going to get a 12 minute mile  sooner than later!

Now  to lift!

Thanks to all the recent active bodybuilding.com peeps who have accepted my friend request. I don't choose lightly LOL.Friday was a mug. I woke up on the wrong side of yesterday to the nerve tightening noise pollution that is living in the giant populated construction zone of SoChi (Southern China). We made an escape to a hotel but I remained a grumpy fat bastard until the weekly "cheat" dinner. I knew being tired and hungry was an uphill battle yesterday. Thank God I bounced back today. I'm not at full strength, so I will rest tomorrow from the weights but keep the cardio. The plus side is we may be moving soon like The Jeffersons "on up" to a place on the 20th floor, up above all this nonsense. Like I said before, time for some other major changes in my life for the better. It's a total lifestyle, isn't it?

Really? 40 days. Still a long way to go on this journey. I have to keep that in mind.

I'm pleased to see so many positive fit statuses being posted about Thanksgiving. It's easy to forget here in SoChi (Southern China...you want rice with that? LOL) The good thing is that it's never a fall down day the last four years here. Still, the sentiment remains and I appreciate that.

I've been struggling with work and environmental issues.  Looks like I'll have to make some big changes in those areas if I want to make it through to the other side of this. The benefit of being so focused and committed to this fitness battle is that it's been much easier to de-prioritize the foolish demands of unreasonable people who's sole focus is only themselves. It's a damn shame that personal values of respect for others is not ubiquitous among others, or as Nietzsche astutely pointed out, "Hell is other people." That's the beauty of weight lifting, it can be just "you", the weight, and gravity. Being able to change two out of three in that equation is more than enough.

So indeed, happy Thanksgiving and good thoughts to everyone and their loved ones back home.

Here is a list of negative calorie foods. This doesn't mean the
foods actually have negative or reverse calories. I wish. What this means is that
when you eat these foods raw or in some cases slightly cooked with nothing on them
your body burns more calories digesting and processing them than what
is in the actual food itself.

Fruits

apple
cranberries
grapefruit
lemon
mango
orange
pineapple
raspberries
strawberries
tangerine

Vegetables

asparagus
beet
broccoli
cabbage (green)
carrot
cauliflower
celery
Chile peppers (hot)
cucumber
dandelion
endive
garden cress
garlic
green beans
lettuce
onion
papaya
radishes
spinach
turnip

HIIT warm up

Squats 69kg 3 x 20 (who has 69kg at home? I do my lovely Wife. "Uhm honey how much did you say you weigh?"...."Okay, c'mere...hop on." LOL) She's a trooper and totally supportive.

HIIT :30/:30s x 10 minutes walk/run in place (high knees all out)

Supermans 4 x 10

Ab Crunch Ball HIIT version 150 10/10s (10 super slow + 10 super fast)

Plyometrics 30 minutes before lunch 30 minutes before dinner

High-intensity interval training (HIIT) I'm sold!

I was getting impatient with myself, as I'm always prone to do expecting overnight success with my weight loss battle. I've really tried to mix things up as much as possible this past month. Then with a little research and try to replicate some of my past success, I knew the HIIT would be the way to go this new month. The first thing I notice was that my HR stayed higher overall between intervals on the elliptical. Normally I would work at a constant HR of around 75 to 80%...by bouncing back and fourth between walking and sprinting I was operating closer to 80 to 85% of MHR and I noticed it too! I did 10 minutes of 30/30s (30 seconds walk + 30 seconds sprint) then the next 10 minutes of 60/60's (yep...bouncing from 133 HR to 153)

I also attempted a VO2 treadmill test. Far from scientific but enough to collect some data to build on. Bodybuilding.com's workout tracker has got me hooked on data scrapes for performance. I ran for 12 minutes for 875 meters or .875 km or .5437 mile 2871 ft 956.9 yards or 9.6 Football Fields or 11 Manhattan Blocks. Thanks  http://www.wolframalpha.com/ (my other fat battle tool...more later on that).

Okay, my Wife has made an incredible nutritious dinner for me! BRB

I looked at several VO2 calculators online including the one on this sight.  Most of them are based on the Cooper test. I found the Rockport Walking Test to be the most encouraging as it includes input for weight and HR especially if you put your self out there for 59 minutes (which I can do)
http://health.drgily.com/walking-test-peak-aerobic-capacity.php

Revel Sports I found to be useful as it had some stats and averages and Cooper's formula

http://revelsports.com/Articles/VO2_Max.htm

Again, none of these could be very scientific under my current operating conditions as there are several variables which could effect an accurate number (my fat arse being the main one! LOL)

Bottom line how well can my body use oxygen in this environment? We have peanut-butter air here in SoChi (Southern China) it comes in smooth and chunky style.

What I can learn is that I can attempt to improve my running time and endurance.

Until then...see you in the Chinese gym...I'm the Big Foreign Devil who still has his clothes on, wipes down the equipment he's using, re-racks his weights,  and isn't spitting on the floor!

Thank you bodybuilding.com work out tracker, you are the best training buddy a fit geek can have! 18 work outs 581sets 7436 reps 715,113 lbs in 30days 

I was a little bummed that yesterday's workout was not so great and I even hesitated to add it in the workout tracker, but after imputing the data I was actually pleased with the results. Now looking back on the past 30 days I can see what else I have learned: