bwestgat’s BodyBlog

I was out of town today.  It was -4 degees Celsius outside but clear and sunny.  The ice was hard and the snow was ice.  So being as I was on the road I decided to go for a run.  I ran for 22 minutes but it was gruelling because I had horrible gas pains!  Just what you wanted to hear I know.  Nonetheless I got my cardio in and I ate well today so it was a successful day.  For my meals I had my eggs and raisin bran, a steak wrap, cottage cheese/yogurt/strawberries, another steak wrap, for dinner I had lasagna (only two pieces) and then finished the night off with protien and water.
Tomorrow is back and traps.  I am looking forward to it.  Keep going everyone, stay motivated and follow the basics.  Good luck.

No time to write anything lengthy today.  I did the ultimate pyramid todau but decided to add one thing - dips.  So I did dipd in the same number as I do inclined pushups.  So I was able to 100 pullups, 200 pushups, 200 dips and 300 crunches.  Felt really good.  Tomrrow I head out of town but if the weather cooperates I will go for a run.  Don’t wait up for me.

I weightlift 4 times a week doing chest and tris one day, back and traps the next day, shoulders and bis the next day and the last day is legs.
I do 2 days of interval cardio that lasts between 20 and 25 minutes and then I do abs the same day using a triset for three sets for my abs.
My eating consists of 6 meals that are a balance between lean protien (chicken breast, lean ground sirloin, egg whites, etc.), complex carbs (brown rice, whole wheat bread, whole wheat noodles) and veggies or fruit.  The portions are small enough that I am hugry in about 2 - 2.5 hours (I eat ever 2.5 - 3 hours).  My last meal of the day is protien and water (I stay away from carbs before bed).
I drink a lot of water throughout the day (usually a large glass of water before every meal, etc.) and I drink green tea to speed up metabolism.  I have a multi-vitamin every morning and other than that I do not use supplements. 

Lastly I cheat once a week.  I pick one day and cheat this way if I get cravings during the week I know I have the motivation to hold tight until my designated cheat day then I eat whatever I was craving throughout the week.
That’s it in a nutshell.  For more details you can check out my bodyblog for more details.  My goal is to be cut and big for the beach this summer.  Wish me luck.

We just had this one tonight and I forgot how much I love it.  It really easy tasty and very healthy too.  Taco Pasta Salad contains as usual with all my recipes, lean protien, complex carbs and veggies:

Cook up 8 ounces of whole wheat rotini

Cook up 900g of extra lean ground sirloin

Cut up into small squares one green pepper and one red pepper and add to extra lean ground sirloin and cook until veggies are tender.  Add taco spice and water (as per directions) stir and add to pasta top with shredded low fat cheddar cheese.

Makes about 4 servings

Add no fat sour cream and salsa for taste

For more veggies put this on a bed of spinich.

Enjoy!

If you had a great workout you know the next day or even that day because your muscels get extremly sore.  Many people take ibuprofin to take away some of this soreness.  Studies have now shown that taking ibuprofin after a workout, or to take away typical workout pain will actually half you muscle gains.  Very significant!  So the take home message when building muscle is to avoid ibuprofin for typical weightlifting pain.  This doesn’t mean you cannot use it for fevers, and other strains that are not "good pain".  But instead of taking ibuprofin learn to enjoy the pain.  The pain shows you did well and if you flex the muscles that are sore and feel that pain you can actually shoot a few endorphind into the sytem making you feel good - a job well done.  SO suck it up and live with the pain rather than relying on drugs to take the pain and the muscle away.

I had tuna casserole tonight with my daughters.  They just eat this stuff up.  They love it.  It is a great meal with a good mix of healthy low fat protien (tuna) complex carbs and some veggies (probably a little low on this one).  Anyway here is the recipe:

Prepare 8 ounces of whole wheat rotini pasta

Coat a glass cake pan with pam cooking spray

Place cooked pasta in abking dish and add 2 cans of tuna, 1 can of low fat, reduced sodium cream of mushroom soup, add 1/2 a can of skim milk and 1 cup of frozen peas (I usually do 1 1/2 cups)

Stir this up and bake uncovered at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.

This serves 3-4 people.  I usually put them in ziplock containers for lunches the next day.  Just pop it in the microwave for one minute and you have a healthy hot lunch.  But I have to watch out my daughters always attack me and eat most of it.  Enjoy!

This is a workout I got from the United States Navy Seals workout program.  It is intense!  Do this once a month or so to break through those plataues.  If you are struggling to increase your pullups, this workout will definately help.  WARNING VERY INTENSE!

So here it is:

1 pull up, 2 push up, 3 crunches

sound easy huh, don’t worry you will feel like you want to puke after you finish this workout.

2 pull ups, 4 pushups, 6 crunches

there is no relaxing during this routine just keep going:

3 pullups, 6 pushups, 9 crunches

starting to see a pattern??

4 pull ups, 8 pushups, 12 crunches

5 pullups, 10 pushups, 15 crunches

Follow this pattern until you get to 10:

10 pullups, 20 pushups, 30 crunches

Your not done yet, this is a pyramid so you have to come back down:

9 pullups, 18 pushups, 27 crunches

Take this all the way until you get to

1 pullup, 2 pushups, 3 crunches

When I do this workout, I start feeling dizzy and nauseated.  SO that is your warning.  However I have never seen a workout break through plateus the way this one can.  So try it out, do it once a month.

If you cannot make it up to 10 go as high as you can (let’s say 7) then come back down.  Next time you do it try for one higher (let’s say 8.  Keep at it until you get to 10.  If you can get to 10 and come back down that works out to 100 pull ups, 200 pushups, 300 crunches.  I have made it as high as 12 and have come back down.  I spent the next 20 minutes trying not to puke.  You can do this workout in about 30 - 45 minutes.  Good luck and don’t say I didn’t warn you:

I have had a few questions lately on how I got my abs.  Most are asking what excercises I do to get them.  It may surprise you to know that I don’t do much in the way of ab work as there are other things I do that are more important.  I will break it down into three categories, 1) basic weight training, 2) Nutrition 3) Cardio

1) Basic weight training

OK, first and foremost is weight training.  When I workout my routine typically sticks to basic compound excersises.  What does this have to do with abs.  Well heavy compound excercises like squats, bench, military press, barbell curls, etc. requires that you use stabalizer muscles.  When you curl think about what your abs are doing.  They are rock hard and flexed.  When I see trainers training people in my gym it drives me nuts because they have these poor souls doing all their weights on one foot balanced on a ball.  What the hell!  This is not going to do anything for you.  What it does is over works your stabalizer muscles (the small muscles) and hardly works the large muscles at all.  I say if you want to get the most out of your workouts you need to work the large muscles.  Its a cost benefit.  Besides someoone benching 300 lbs is working thier core just as hard as someone benching 100 lbs on a ball.  And that is about all they can do.  Crazy!  So to summarize heavy sets of compound excercises works your core intensly.  For those still wanting to do some ab work I do 1 to 2 days a week.  I do a tri set of reverse crunches, crunches and side crunches for sets of 20.  I find that even if I don’t do this I still have abs due to what I have already said and the next 2 points.

2) Nutrition - OK I think this is very important for abs.  I spent many years in the gym working as hard as I could on the weights and never saw my abs.  Once I started eating 6 balanced meals a day (protien, complex carb and fruit or veggie) and eating no carbs at night and drinking lots of water, I started loosing wieght, gaining muscle and seeing my abs.  So for crying out loud, eat right.  It is so important.

3) Cardio - Cardio has to be intervals!  Intervals take off the fat without taking off the muscle.  i do 20-25 minutes of intervals.  have you ever seen a ong distance runner with big muscles.  I haven’t they are usually skinny and even scrawny.  have you seen a sprinter.  They are buff and muscular.  Intervals people, they work.  I do intervals 2 a week.  Don’t over due the cardio or you will start to loose the muscle.  But do some to burn that fat.

Conclusion - to see abs you have to build muscle and loose fat.  Only when you have lost that fat will you see your abs.  Crunching a 1000 times on a ball is not going to do it.  You have to get all three points above aligned before you see a difference.  Good luck.

Ok you have seen my progress pics now it is time to update you on my stats.  They are looking pretty good.  I have seen growth in my arms and calves and seen decreases in my belly and my body fat.  Here is the breakdown between December 26, 2006 and January 24, 2007 (less than one month):

weight  - 196 down to 189

Body fat  - 18.1 down to 16.8

Waist  - 35 down to 34

Chest  - 43.25 down to 43 (lost some fat here - very noticable in pics)

Arms  - 16.25 up to 16.5 (this caught me by surprise)

Thighs  - 23 up to 23.25

Calves - 14.25 up to 15 (wow this one really caught me by surprise)

Shoulders - 48 stayed the same

All measurements are in inches and pounds.

A good month I would have to say and I am planning on another month even better than the last to really bring my body fat down.  Wish me luck.

Well I got up this morning jumped on the treadmill, cranked it to 7.0 and started running.  I started doing intervals and about 16 minutes into it I started getting side cramps so had to stop.  Very frustrating.  Oh well tomorrow I will have some time again (I have been interviewing and working through lunches) and will hit the weights hard.  Not being a great role model here but tomorrows post will be a good one I promise.  Nonetheless I ate well and I have lost 7 pounds total as of today.  So I am still loosing and am happy with my progress so far.  So here is what I ate today:

Meal 1

egg with 4 egg whites, rasin bran and skim milk

Meal 2

Fajita

Meal 3

slamon in teryaki sauce, brown rice and broccollii and cauliflower

Meal 4

fajita

Meal 5

1 ckicken breast with bullseye BBQ sauce, mashed potatoes (only using skim milk - no butter or slat) and raw carrots and raw celery (dipped very lightly in humus)

Meal 6

protien and water

Lots of water and make sure to have your multi vitamin during a meal every day (avoid it when drinking coffee)