cdncuteboy’s BodyBlog

OK, now we’re getting serious.

Again.

Have done the measurements again, in the proper way, so there may seem to be a big jump from the last time in some respects—actually, less than I expected although my chest lost half an inch in there somewhere.

My new goal is to lose 5lbs by Pride, so that’s down to 180lbs in just over 3 wks.  Well, 20 days from now actually, but over 3 wks from the start date of last Thursday or Friday.  I did well with my workouts last week, getting in 3 HIIT sessions and two good weight-training sessions.  I would ideally like to add in a long, consistent intensity cardio session to this as well of 45-60 minutes.

My nutrition strategy is just to be more strict.  Weekends are the big problem. I will spend the next two weekends being more careful with what I eat and not just snacking on whatever’s to hand because it’s there.  The same goes for alcohol: drinks are only acceptable on one night a week.

I’m setting longer-term goals as well, to see me right through to our departure for the UK in August–so that’s 12 weeks.  I’ve got vague goals sketched out for that 12 weeks but I will re-evaluate these at the end of June.

Ok, have really got off-track a bit.

Things were good the week before we left for Montreal, which was two weekends ago.  My weight was down to a new low for the last several months.  The only annoyance I had was that my day-to-day log was inaccessible because of server trouble at work, so I hadn’t been able to log the week’s progress, but I was at least sure I was still making progress.

I got a wicked cold or virus or something in Montreal, and spent way too much of the weekend in bed asleep or trying to breathe.  My appetite was all over the place and I was a bit drugged up on decongestants.  The strong Quebec beer didn’t help either as I felt a heavy obligation to my party, who’d never been there before and was there to party.

Here it is a week and a half later, and my workout log is still inaccessible, and my progress has done a big backslide.  In getting over this cold I spent one week only doing moderate-intensity cardio and no weights.  Went back to the weights last weekend but admit that I was a little overzealous with Monday’s legs workout, which left me barely able to walk and certainly not fit for a follow-up work out thus far.

It’s clear I’m not anywhere near my goals for 23 June.  Once I can finally get back into my log, I’ll have to re-examine them and start from scratch.  Just so frustrated this week!!

Okay, last week I was in Vegas for five days to go to a tradeshow with work.  Much as I expected, it was a huge disruption to my routine, especially my sleep cycle which still seems to be recovering (been back for five days now).  I didn’t even attempt any workouts while I was there: instead I figured my body could use the rest.  It was my first week off since the end of January, and a week without any supplements as well since I’d been on creatine for about 5-6 weeks.  I didn’t even take any glucosamine or multivitamins.  I did tonnes of walking though, and aside from one night out when I arrived, my alcohol consumption was pretty contained as well, with a pint of beer at most on the other days I was there.  I didn’t go whole-hog on the buffets and in restaurants, I know I didn’t eat as I would have at home but that couldn’t be helped.  The worst part is the infrequency of my meals though, as on a couple days I only had about two meals.  That’s something I should have been more careful with.  In all, my weight change was a gain of a pound and a half which I feel is forgivable.

The only sucky part of this weight gain is that I’m now off-track from my plan.  It means that to get back on track I have to lose about five pounds by 23 April–which is less than three weeks away.  I’m not sure I would want to do it: what would that weight be coming from, fat or lean mass?  I think I would be happy with losing about 3.5 lbs, and even that might be pushing it.  I’ll have a better idea how to adjust my goal after next week’s weigh-in, as I may shed some of the Vegas weight quite easily once I’m back into my routine.  The routine will take a further hit with the Easter weekend though, eating my mother’s cooking this Friday & Saturday won’t exactly be fueling a fat-burning furnace.

The part I do regret about the last two weeks is that I missed my measurement-taking on 24 March, there was no opportunity to do it before I flew out.  Not very keen on measuring post-Vegas, but I may break down and do it all the same just to see the scope of work I have to do over the next 10-12 weeks to meet my goals!

I’ve changed my routine in the gym as well.  I’m keeping the interval training on Tuesdays & Thursdays as I think it’s working well, and I’ve only scratched the surface on what that strategy could accomplish.  My weight routine is still Back on Monday, Chest on Wednesday, Legs/Shoulders on Thursday but I’ve changed up the exercises, and reinstated a bit of light arms work (obviously, biceps on Monday and triceps on Wednesday).  I’m doing 3 sets of 5 reps with heavier weight, but may move up to four sets instead after another week, once I have the right weights.

OK, actually been checking out a few blogs on here lately and thought I would give my own a try.  Won’t be able to write every day but hopefully once a week at minimum. 

I got married in December 2006, having left my job and the UK in September of that year.  Yeah, that’s a lot of change for four months!  New job, new marriage, new apartment.  I put on a lot of weight, especially over the wedding and as I got settled into a new job.  Not happy—I hit 190 lbs after New Years and that’s the heaviest I’ve been in my whole life.

I knew what I had to do, at least the basic methods.  My breakfast was already good; I switched to eating two meals over the course of my workday, consisting of chicken, brown rice, and steamed vegetables (variations on broccoli, carrots, courgette, spinach, and wax beans).  Dinner was pork tenderloin, steamed fish, or occasionally lean steak, with two different vegetables (anything goes except potatoes).  1-2 hours before bed I had a small snack of cottage cheese mixed with fruit yogurt.  I would also have 1-2 pieces of fruit during the work day, and 1-2 large cups of coffee (skim milk no sugar).  Weekends were open season, but I found that I didn’t have the capacity of food I’d had in December.  Alcohol was cut out through the week, except a small glass of red wine on a weeknight on average every other week.

I saw big changes right away, dropping 5lbs in the first week.  My workouts consisted of weights four mornings a week, cardio 2-4 mornings.  When the progress ground to a halt around week 5, I re-evaluated the diet.  I’ve since added a protein shake right after the gym with one of my pieces of fruit, and cut back on the carrots (no more than once a day, and usually only 2-3 days a week).  Most of my nutritional advice has come from blogs on this site or T-Nation, as well as John Berardi.

I changed the workouts as well.  First I changed the weights, from a four-day split (taken from the Men’s Health website Personal Trainer service) to three days a week.  I concentrate on bigger compound moves like squats, deadlifts, rows, and bench presses.  Each day features something for legs and abs, but the major focus is back on Monday, chest on Wednesday, and legs & shoulders on Friday.  That left me doing 45 min of steady-state cardio on 2-3 days a week, varying between the upright stationary bike, the recumbent bike, the cross-trainer, and the elliptical trainer (I hate treadmills and abhor running–blame my PE teacher from intermediate school!).  My progress still slowed, so this past week I have changed my 45 min steady-state cardio to mixed-intensity cardio for 30 min.  I can feel the difference in the challenge it provides, and it’s poured a bit of lighter fluid on my fat-burning once again. 

I took careful measurements on the first week of this programme (25 Jan 07), and set a goal date of 22 Jun 07.  I broke it into 5 equal(ish) parts and set a specific goal for each period, the most important ones being waist measurement and mass.  First period results were ahead of target, and I should be able to meet the second period ones as well (midway through that period now).

Watch this space!