My BodyBlog

Why can’t I make my abs sore?  I’m doing crunches, twists, side bends, leg pull-ins, leg raises, and more.  Based on my research I feel I am getting a consistenly intense workout, hitting all abdominal muscles.  I’ve tried supersets, high reps, slow reps, basically everything I can try, I will.  I make my abs feel tight and fatigued during the workout, so I know I’m hitting them.  But no matter how much I work them, they are never sore the next day!

March 1st will be my 4 year anniversary of consistent gym workouts.  During that time not a week went by that I didn’t do abs at least once.  For the past year, I’ve been doing them twice a week, and for the last 10 days I’ve been doing them at every workout.  I’ve worked them 3 of the last 4 days.  At times I’ve experienced next-day soreness in all my muscle groups, but never abs.  Is this just the nature of abs or am I doing something wrong?  I know my abs are developing, because I can feel them when I push on my final layer of stomach fat.  Is the fact that I can’t make them sore a good sign or a bad sign?

My goal for 2008 is to bring out my abs.  I am focusing on my nutrition to do this, as well as doing some extra cardio and working the abs often.  I’ve got a mental image of how I want my body to look after I lose the rest of the fat so my abs are uncovered.  It’s part of what keeps me motivated to eat right and exercise consistently.  For me, seeing my abs will be a powerful symbol of accomplishment, an achievement that I believed impossible for most of my life.  I’ve read that some people will never get their abs to show no matter how hard they try because of genetic factors.  Is this true?  If I’m one of those am I wasting my time focusing so much on my abs?  If that’s the case I’ll be very disappointed.  First and foremost I want to be healthy, but a close second is my desire to have a lean and muscular body.  For me, abs are a vital part of the complete package, I won’t be truly satisfied until I have them.  If there’s anything (natural, that is) I could be doing differently or better I’ll do it.  I’ll keep working hard and keep reading, and if you have any comments on this topic, please give them! 

While we were grocery shopping yesterday, my wife noticed the eggplants and wondered what they would be like.  Neither she nor I had ever eaten it before, and we had no idea how to prepare it.  She bought one and said she’d cook it.  She found a casserole recipe on the internet, and made it for lunch today.  All of the ingredients were healthy, so I agreed to try it.

Now, you have to understand that my wife actually wanting to cook is a big thing in our household.  She does it infrequently, and over the years there have not been very many successes.  Casseroles are hard to spoil though, if you follow the recipe.

I sat down at lunch to dutifully try the dish.  The casserole looked like baby food with lumps of red and green (tomatoe and green pepper).  I tasted it and….it wasn’t too bad.  The eggplant has a mild, almost bland taste.  It was something I could eat.  I took another spoonfull and that’s when things went bad.  All I could taste was strong, raw onion.  You see, she had chopped up a cooking onion and mixed it in the casserole.  She baked it for 30 minutes, but that wasn’t long enough to cook the onion.  If it was a Spanish onion with a milder taste, it would have worked out, but that cooking onion….I didn’t feel too bad when I saw her picking bits of onion out of her own serving!  She agreed that the onion kind of ruined the dish.  I didn’t have the patience to pick out the onion, so mine went in the garbage and I made a roast beef sandwich.

So, what lesson did I learn from this?  Well, before I started eating clean I was stuck in a rut, eating the same unhealthy food day after day, meal after meal.  I always resisted trying anything new, I was happy with what I was eating and couldn’t be bothered with anything else.  Now, I have introduced many new healthy foods into my diet and I’m completely open minded when it comes to trying whatever else new that I might encounter, as long as it is good fuel for my body.  The way I look at it now, the more healthy food choices I have, the lesser the chance I will get bored and the lesser the chance any unhealthy food will creep back into my life.  So, anything healthy is on the menu, even eggplant!

So what will happen to all the leftover eggplant casserole?  I suggested cooking it for another half an hour.  I’ll try it again, but if it those onions are still strong, I won’t be eating it!  I have plently of food in this house so I don’t have to eat something I don’t like!  My wife insists she’s going to eat it because the eggplant cost almost $4 and she doesn’t want to waste it.  Fine by me.

If history repeats itself, there will be no more food experimentation by her for about a year.  So, it’s back to my recipes and food management.  And I couldn’t be happier.  Maybe I’ll try my own eggplant recipe….. 

I am far from being a competent chef or experienced cook, even though I’ve been buying and preparing my own meals for most of my life since I was 15, roughly 27 years.  For most of that time my food choices were not good, which contributed to my weight problem.  My skills have increased since I set up housekeeping with my spouse 14 years ago, but I still did not always make good choices about what I was cooking.  I do the cooking because my wife didn’t learn any cooking skills growing up and she has no patience for it or interest in it.  I like to cook when I have the time, which is not the case most days.  Up until September of 2007 that meant a lot of fast foods, frozen and canned foods, and quick fixes.  I remember one week last year we had hot dogs for supper three times in one week!  This domestic situation has turned out to be a blessing in disguise, since I am in complete control over purchasing and preparing food.  I decide what I am going to eat.  I have turned that power to my advantage in conjunction with my new attitude towards food that I’ve written about in other blogs. 

How many people trying to change their eating habits must rely, for at least one meal each day, on someone else to prepare their food?  I’m sure there are a lot of people out there who rely on a parent or spouse, or someone else in their household, to buy the groceries and prepare the food.  This is an unavoidable situation for many, due to work, education, or family commitments.  There are only so many hours in the day and many households can only function if one person is primarily responsible for food preparation.  Say you decide to start eating certain types of foods, but you don’t cook.  Hopefully, the food preparer will oblige you, but what if no one else in the household wants to eat the same food?  Is it fair to ask someone to prepare a special meal for you?  Some situations will work out better than others, but in many cases I’m sure this domestic reality would be serious barrier to someone’s efforts to improve their health and transform their body.  Recognizing the problem is the first step.  I can’t give any specific advice on what to do about it, there are different solutions for every different situation.  I just know that, unless you have a personal chef who will do everything exaclty as you tell them (ie. Oprah!), then your food management may not be as effective as in could be.  In extreme cases, not being in control of your own food leads to serious weight problems and an unhealthy relationship with food.  I’m going to talk about this problem in a future blog post concerning obesity.

Since October 2007 I have used my food control power, along with my ever increasing knowledge of nutrition, to ensure that I am in a position to make healthy choices consisting of my ‘Anytime’ foods at every meal.  How has this been going over with my wife?  Fairly good, although there have been a few bumps in the road.  She doesn’t like all of the same foods I do, and she doesn’t like all food cooked the same ways I like it, and she also wants to eat some foods that I don’t want to eat.  This means some challenges for me in keeping her happy, while staying faithful to my ‘Anytime’ foods.  For example, she doesn’t like brown rice, whereas I avoid white rice.  So I often cook both kinds and prepare them the way we both like it.  Also, I often have the same meal two evenings in a row, whereas she doesn’t like to do this.  In such cases I will either do her a different side dish, or cook her something different.  Now, I no longer want to eat many of the foods I used to, but my wife still wants them.  I could tell her she had to eat whatever I prepare, but this would hardly be fair since she does things in our household for me that I’m sure she’d rather not do (washing my underewear, ironing my shirts, etc).  I’ll accept this reality and strive to give both of us the types of food we want to eat. 

Planning is the key for me to be successful with having the foods I want to eat available for every meal in our household.  I am not interested in fancy dishes or elaborate food preparation methods.  I do basic cooking with basic food.  I like the food to taste good, but I’m more concerned about it having good nutritional value.  If I don’t dislike it, I will eat it.  If I like the taste, that’s a bonus.  As I talked about before, I am no longer eating for pleasure, so striving for taste is not part of my plans.  I also strive to minimize the amount of time I spend in the kitchen.  I’d much rather be at the gym, out walking, or even on-line!

Here’s what I’ve been doing for the last three months and will continue to do:  On Sunday I set aside time to cook.  I cook enough items so that I will have a source of protein ready to take out of the refrigerator or freezer for at least five evening meals.  I don’t cook fish or some cuts of steak in advance, they are quick anyway.  On a typical Sunday I might cook any of the following: pot roast, lean pork loin chops, bone-in skinless chicken breasts, lean ground beef dishes (meatloaf, meatballs, burgers, or something creative), beef stew, chicken stew, turkey soup (there are more, but you get the idea).  I put one or two meals in the regrigerator, and divide whatever else I have cooked into meal size portions for two people and freeze it.  Then, its only a matter of taking it out of the freezer and it can be heated and served for the evening meal.  The most I would have to do is prepare a side dish (potatoe, rice) and a vegetable to go with the meat, and sometimes add a sauce to my wife’s portion that she likes.  This ‘cook-ahead’ strategy saves me on average an hour each evening and when I know I have a cooked item ready to use I don’t have any tempation to eat out or make an unhealthy choice.  That hour adds up quickly to extra time I have to be active or do other things I enjoy!

I also make sure I have plenty of healthy items around to snack on - apples, oranges, bananas, low fat skim-milk puddings, low-fat yogurt, whole grain cereals, oatmeal.  I drink a glass of low-sodium V8 juice every day in case I don’t eat enough vegetables, and I take a daily multi-vitamin.  I am trying to cover all the basis in case I’m not getting everything I need in my food.

A big downfall of my diet used to be white bread made from enriched white flour.  Many days I’d have 2 slices for breakfast, two for lunch, a sandwich snack in the evening, and some days I’d also have hamburger rolls or hotdog rolls, sub rolls, etc;  I was eating far and away too much of this and according to nutrition articles I’ve read, enriched white flour is high calorie/low nutriton value.  I tried switching to brown bread (whole wheat bread) for years but could never seem to develop a taste for any of the kinds I tried.  Thankfully, after a lot of experimentation I’ve found a couple of brands that I enjoy.  I believe getting all that enriched white flour out of my diet will pay great dividends in the long run.

As for cooking methods, I rarely use cooking oil.  I use a no-fat cooking spray when I want to fry something.  Mostly I boil, steam, or bake my foods. NO DEEP FRYING!  I don’t add salt to my recipes or meals.

That pretty much sums up my food management strategies and actual food items that I stick to on a daily basis when I eat at home.  When I’m not at home its more of a challenge to eat healthy but it can be done if you are determined to do it and know how!  I’ll talk about it in the next and last blog instalment of ’Food Management Practices and Strategies". 

It’s that time of year again.  My gym is filled with the New Year’s Resolution crowd (I’ll call them ‘Newbies’ for convenience).  You might be one of them.  I used to be one, as far as dieting was concerned.  Over the next few weeks the usual pattern will repeat itself.  I will see fewer and fewer Newbies as they quit and by March there will be precious few who have actually stuck to their ‘New Year’s Resolution’.

I’m not knocking the fact that people are making an effort.  That’s great and I applaud them for it.  Unfortunatly, I believe the majority of people, especially first timers, who make dieting and/or exercising a New Year’s Resolution are setting themselves up for failure.  I hate to see this happen to people since the feeling of failure discourages them from trying again.  What are the reasons for Newbies giving up and what can be done about it?  I believe that at the root of the problem is improper motivation, unrealistic goals and expectations, and poor choices relating to exercise and food.  I will explain this with some examples.

In an ideal world we would all have a knowledgable personal trainer by our side to advise us at every workout.  Using a personal trainer isn’t practical or affordable for a lot of people.  Having a workout partner is great, but you will still face days when, for whatever reason, you have to go the gym alone.  What I am getting at is that in essense, working out at the gym is a solitary activity and you have to accept this and be committed to working out alone if those are the circumstances you face!  I’ve seen Newbies in pairs many times.  They do cardio side by side, work on the machines and dumbells together, all the while laughing and chatting, apparently having a great time.  Then one day, both of them disappear from the gym.  If one decided to quit, what happened to the other one?  In this case I don’t believe either of them had the proper motivation for the gym.  It was a social event or one was only going because the other wanted them to.  Neither of them were there for what they could get out of it for themselves.  If you have to depend on the company of another person to stick to your workouts, then you will fail sooner or later.  The motivation and commitment has to come from inside you.

Another typical scenario I’ve seen is someone who starts doing the treadmill and they go at it religiously, even jogging.  I hear them tell someone how much they hate the treadmill, for one reason or another.  They stick to it a couple of weeks and then they disappear!  No surprise to me, why should you want to stick with an activity that you don’t like?  If you want to do cardio you have lots of options, both inside and outside the gym.  Find an individual or group activity that you enjoy and do that!  This seems like common sense to me, but not so for the Newbies who have it in their mind they have to torture themselves at the gym doing what they don’t like if they are going to make progress!  If you don’t like the gym, don’t go.  Find other physical activities to improve your fitness level.  Personally, I don’t understand why anyone, after seeing all of the variety of ways you can workout your body at even a modestly equipped gym, wouldn’t be able to find exercises they enjoyed that would make them want to keep going back!

To recap on motivation, many Newbies fail because they aren’t motivated by a genuine desire to make a change in their lives, and they aren’t motivated because they do not enjoy the exercises they are doing during their workouts.

Motivation is also influenced by goal achievement.  Accomplishing goals boosts morale, increases commitment, and increases motivation.  Many Newbies make mistakes in goal setting such as:

1. Setting unrealistic short-term goals such as trying to lose a lot of weight in a very short period of time.  When it doesn’t happen, frustration sets in, motivaton suffers, and the chances of quitting are greatly increased
2. Not setting any short-term goals.  Even though long-term goals may be achievable, when there are no short-term goals it makes it more difficult to remain committed and maintain the motivation necessary to keep working out over the long haul.  When you don’t feel like you’re accomplishing anything because your goals are so far away from being reached, the chances of quitting are increased.
3. Not setting any goals.  This scenario would make it very difficult for the vast majority of Newbies to have any chance of sticking with working out.  If you don’t have a reason for doing an activity, why do it?

I am a strong believer in the critical importance of setting realistic short-term goals in order to maintain a high level of commitment and motivation.  For example, I have made goals as simple as increasing my jogging time from 5 to 20 minutes.  I accomplished it in about 3 weeks, and it felt great.  Now I’m motivated to make jogging part of my regular cardio activities.

Another aspect of failed New Year’s Resolutions is what I will refer to as workout intensity.  Everyone who starts to go to the gym is starting from a different place both physically and mentally.  We have different capabilites and limitations which are affected by our age, fitness level, health factors, and other things.  Starting a workout routine causes stress to the body.  You’re asking it to do something new, and it needs some time to adapt.  If you do too much too quickly for your body to adapt to, it will react in a negative way and this will be a source of great discouragement.  The examples of this are endless.  The most extreme negative impacts are injury, whether they be from weight lifting and cardio.  Less severe but equally discouraging impacts are feeling so sore or fatigued that you suffer after a workout and dread going back to the gym again.  Your workout should be designed so you fee pysically and mentally BETTER the next day, not worse!  Some soreness is to be expected, but it shouldn’t restrict your ability to move or make it difficult to do your regular activities!  Newbies who start working out with too much intensity suffer physical and mental stresses which greatly increase the chances of quitting.

If you’re new to working out, how do you know what level of intensity is right for you?  The lucky ones (like me) figure it out over time after making some mistakes and having to learn a lot on our own.  The smart ones seek professional help from a certified trainer who can assess your fitness level, help you set realistic goals, orient you to the gym equipment, show you proper form, give you nutrition advice, and design a workout program that you can use as a foundation for long-term success.  Even a couple of sessions can make a world of difference to how a Newbie gets started.  A little knowledge and some positive encouragement as you start your workouts can mean the difference between sticking with it for the long-term or giving up quickly for any of the reasons I’ve talked about above.

It seems to me it would be a smart thing for fitness centres to make at least one session with a personal trainer mandatory for Newbies.  I believe it would reduce the number of dropouts, and probably mean more memberships and revenues for the gym in the long run.  Maybe some gyms do this, mine doesn’t.  Looking back on when I started, some advice from a personal trainer would have sharpened my learning curve tremendously and I would have gotten better results a lot faster.

Knowledge is a key factor in the success of any activity.  Working out is no exception.  It is even more key in the area of diet and nutrition.  Bad nutrition can result in situations arising that lead to discouragment and quitting.  I won’t get into the whole issue of dieting in this post, that’s a large topic in itself.  I will limit it to saying a few thing only.  First, someone whose Resolution includes a strict diet along with their workouts in my opinion runs a high risk of failure.  A diet is putting another stress on the body along with the workouts.  Working out means your body needs more nutrients for energy and recovery.  Unless a person is very knowledgable and knows how to eat to increase energy and lose fat or gain muscle at the same time, success will be very difficult.  Without proper nutrition you’ll be more tired, hungry, and also mentally tired and stressed.  You will not continue very long on a diet or with your workouts when feeling like this.  Newbies who put themselves in this situation are doomed.  My advice is to stay committed to a sustainable workout schedule and to change your diet slowly by cutting out the least nutritious foods and adding more nutritios foods.  Easy to say, but hard to do.  It gets easier over time, as your body gets stronger and you learn more about nutrition.  Approaching my lifestlye change this way worked for me in the long run, and I enjoyed the journey up to now and am looking forward to great success in the future.

The reasons for failure I’ve been describing apply to being a Newbie at any time, not just at the start of a new year.  The biggest problem I see with making working out a new year’s resolution is that it puts added pressure on the entire process that makes it harder to succeed.  People have the attitude that ‘it’s a new year, time for a fresh start in life, time to turn over a new leaf, I’ve got to get healthy this year, I’ve got to look good for the beach time summer, it’s time to get fit because my friends are doing it’, and the list of reasons to start working out and/or dieting on January 1st goes on.  Then, when a setback occurs, for some even a minor one, people give up because the Resolution has been broken.  One strike and you’re out.  Failure happened, it’s all over.  That’s how a lot of people look at it and once they’ve decided that they’ve failed, then its all over until maybe next January 1st, when its time for a NEW new year’s resolution.  I’ve done that when it comes to dieting.  But guess what?  Working out and healthy eating is not an ’all or nothing’ activity!  Success and failure is not cut and dried, it’s not black and white.  It’s a PROCESS that we go through for a LONG period of time.  We LEARN how to do it better as we go along, provided that we’re COMMITTED to make it a part of our daily lives and we NEVER give up.

Looking at it from my point of view, it’s clear that making working out or eating properly a New Year’s Resolution carries so much baggage with it that it’s probably the worst way to start on your journey to better health.  Start today, do what you are able to do, do it in such a way that you improve your quality of life right away, and be as consistent with it as you can be.  Have patience and over time the results will come! 

My first week of recovery went better than I expected.  After a couple of days of stiffness and not being able to bear any weight, I had steady improvement for the rest of the week.  Now, the stiffness is gone, I can use it much more without pain, and I just have a little bruising about one third of the way between my wrist and elbow.  I’ve been typing a lot at work this week, but that didn’t seem to bother it too much.  Overall, I’m lucky that the sprain wasn’t worse and I’m confident I will fully recover in a few weeks.

I think I must have also injured my arm in that fall one week ago.  It began to ache on Monday, part way between the elbow and shoulder.  Nothing too bad, I mostly feel it when I’m lying down.  It doesn’t restrict any of my daily activities and I’m not taking anything for it.

I’ve been careful at the gym not to use the wrist and arm too much, although during my workout tonight I used my arm for a few sets, and it doesn’t feel any worse.  I will continue to be very careful with what I’m doing so I don’t slow down the healing process.

I’m thankful things are working out so well, it could have been worse.  Going through this injury, which is more of a minor convenience than anything else, gives me great admiration for all those I’ve read about who’ve been severly injured and worked their butts off to get back to where they were and to be even better. 

My system for categorizing food requires putting both individual foods and recipe ingredients into one of 3 categories - ‘Anytime’, ‘Rarely’, and ‘Never’.  I didn’t consciously start out by categorizing food this way, it just started to happen as a realistic strategy for me to manage what I was eating.  I began doing it instinctively as something that works for me.  I’m not a nutritionist or dietician, I’ve got no related academic background whatsoever.  I only have my life experience and knowledge and I hope a lot of common sense and ability to keep learning.

When I ate whatever I wanted, almost everything was in the ‘Anytime’ category!  There were some in the ‘Rarely’ category, and precious few in the ‘Never’ category.  Today, I have shifted many foods to ‘Never’ and ‘Rarely’, and added more foods to ‘Anytime’, as well as eating my ‘Anytime’ foods much more often.  I also strive to have some lean protein at every meal, and on a daily basis eat some of the better sources of carbs, eat raw fruits and vegetables, and drink skim milk.  I also work to vary my foods so I don’t get bored with it.  If it sounds like just having a healthy, sensible diet with some extra protein for my muscle growth, then you’re right.  Nothing revolutionary here.  But I couldn’t do it without the food classification rules!

It’s impossible to list all the individual foods I eat.  What is in the ’Rarely’ or ‘Never’ category is probably more important to focus on.

‘Anytime’ Foods - Skinless turkey or chicken, beef and lean ground beef, chicken bacon, lean cuts of fresh pork, canned tuna packed in water, fresh salmon fillets, fresh cod fillets, eggs, oatmeal (not pre-packaged), brown rice, whole grain breads and cereals, legumes, potatoes, tomotoes (including tomatoe salsa), lettuce and other greens, turnip, peas, onions, broccoli, cauliflower, corn, peppers, apples, oranges, bananas, pears, peaches, grapes, pineapple, skim milk, low-fat yogurt, pure fruit juice, tea, peanut butter, ketchup, relish, mustard, fresh herbs and spices.

‘Rarely’ Foods - Brown sugar (use occasionally on oatmeal), salad dressing (use sparingly on green salads, always use fat-free varieties) mayonnaise (use fat-free sparingly on a sandwich), canola oil (use a little with certain recipes), grilled chicken choice at a fast-food restaurant (always hold the sauce, I put on relish, mustard or ketchup instead), bottled barbeque sauce or other bottled sauces (use sparingly in some recipes), cheddar cheese, deli roast beef (trim any visible fat) frozen ‘Lean Cuisine’ meals

‘Never’ Foods - Traditional ‘Junk’ Foods’ (chips, cheese sticks, candy, chocolate, ice cream, pretzels, cake, cookies, pie, donuts).  Processed and pre-packaged meats, pork bacon and sausages, frozen dinners, white sugar, enriched white flour, fats (chicken skins, any visible fats on meats), most traditional ‘fast food’.

Since there is such a large variety of foods in the ‘Anytime’ category, there is no logical reason why the vast majority of my food choices cannot be from this category.  The ’Anytime’ foods provide my body with the nutrients I need to function in a healthy way and to allow me to meet my bodybuilding goals.  Foods in the ‘Never’ category detract from my health and goals, and if I were to choose one it would be for an emotional reason, a situation which is to be avoided at all times.  I am succeeding in making consistently healthy food choices by following this philosophy.

A key factor that allows me to follow this philosophy is that I AM IN CONTROL OF THE FOOD THAT I EAT.  Ultimalty, everyone controls what they eat unless you are being force-fed and have no choice.  We always can chose what we do and do not eat whenever there are choices to be made in every eating situation!  Our choices are influenced by our emotions, motivating factors, goals, nutrition knowledge, and many other things.  I have talked about some of these in my earlier blogs.  A key to my food management success is being in control, but not only in the sense that I chose what goes into my body, but I’m also in control from the point of view that on a day to day basis I decide what food is going to be prepared and served at my meals (unless I am away from home, then I have different strategies).  I purchase the food items and ingredients, and I do the food preparation.

Given that I’m self-employed and work long hours, I frequently travel to other towns to work, and I walk almost everyday and workout 3-4 times a week, how can this be possible?  It’s possible because I have decided its critical to my food management success and body transformation goals, and I have developed strategies to make it work.  More about this in Part 4 of ‘Food Management Practices and Strategies’…..

I sprained my wrist Friday.  My last post described how it happened.  I did all the things I read could be done at home for a sprained wrist (icing, wrapping, keeping it levitated), and by Saturday afternoon, just over a day after my fall, it felt a little better.  The constant ache was gone, there was just very slight swelling, and the biggest symptom was stiffness and the fact that it hurt if I tried to lift something or grip something tightly.  All normal from what I’ve read.

I skipped my usual Friday evening gym workout as a precaution.  I think that was a smart move since it was only a few hours since the fall.  So there I was on Saturday afternoon, debating what I should do.  I wanted so very, very badly to get back to the gym.  My last workout was Wednesday, and when I take two days off I’m itching to get back.  My body and mind get tense, and I feel like I just have to go.  I knew I couldn’t do chest, which was due for a workout.  If I went I’d have to be very cautious and only do exercises that didn’t involve my right hand.  On the other hand, what if something happened and I set myself back even further?  It would have been so easy to err on the side of caution and not go.  That’s what my wife thought I should do.  But a strong voice in my head was saying to me "Come on Tony, you’re not stupid.  You know there’s a lot of exercises you can do without using your wrist at all.  You will be careful.  You will regret it if you don’t go.  Just do it!"  So, I did.  I spent half an hour on the treadmill, then another 45 minutes doing abs with body movement only, and also legs using 4 different machines.

Physically, it wasn’t a very intense workout compared to what I’ve been used to over the past 4 months.  I made the best out of a bad situation, and even a light workout will contribute towards my bodybuilding goals.

Mentally, it was a great workout!  I got off my ass and did something constructive for my body, when it would have been easy to justify taking another day off!  In the past I probably would have taken the easier road of staying home.  Now, thanks to my motivation and positive attitude, I did not what was easiest, but what was the best thing for me in the long run.

Now, 48 hours after the injury, my wrist is improving.  It’s not as stiff as yesterday, and the swelling is almost gone.  I’m looking forward to my next workout.  Even if I still can’t use my wrist I can still do a lot of good for my body.  Maybe this is a blessing in disguise since I haven’t totally rested chest, back, shoulders, biceps and triceps for a long time.  This will be an opportunity for them to recover and get some solid growing time.

This situation has reinforced a valuable mantra for me, one that I think is important for everyone to remember: no matter what your physical limitations might be at any particular time, never give up doing whatever you can to improve your health.  Any amount of physical activity will have a positive impact on your body and mind.  Small but consistent amounts of activity can lead to great results.   

As I type this I am in pain.  With my right hand I can still type as long as I don’t move my hand around too much on the keyboard.  What happened??

My adventure into ice skating has hit a bump in the road.  If you’ve read my blogs on the subject, you’ll know I’m a beginner.  I’ve been getting better steadily, and today was no exception.  Everything was going fine until about 10 minutes to go.  I was getting tired, but wanted to get in as many laps as possible so I was pushing myself a little.  In hindsight, not a good thing to do.  My feet must have gotten tangled up or something because  without warning, I went down.  Didn’t even feel like I was losing my balance, I just fell.  It was my second time falling since starting to learn, the first one was painless.  No such luck this time.

My feet went forward and my rear went towards the ice.  Instinctively, I stuck out my arm to cushion the fall and….you guessed it.  I came down on it.  My right wrist and hand, to be specific.  Imagine your hand being squashed between a 215 pound body and rock hard ice.  Potential for real damage there.  I knew right away I had done something.  I quickly got on my feet though, and went back to the bench.  After resting for a couple of minutes I got back out there for 2 more laps before the time was up.  Really glad I did that, it was important to me to end the session with something positive to build on for next time.

Back to my hand.  Right after skating I gave it a good look at, and I’m pretty sure what I have is a sprained hand/wrist.  I had full range of motion, no swelling and no sharp or stabbing pains, so I’m pretty sure there’s no break.  I’ve been using my hand ever since, and now, 6 hours later, I’m finding that it is stiffening up considerably and there is a constant, dull ache.  My wife thinks this is normal for a sprain, and it will be stiff and aching for a few days.  I will see how it feels in the morning.  I hate emergency rooms, and will only go there for this injury if the pain gets worse or if I think its something that won’t get better on its own.

My immediate concern was about how this injury will impact my workouts.  I was planning to go this evening, but I decided I should take the night off and not move my hand around too much.  I wouldn’t want to make it worse.  I will get back to the gym tomorrow though, I’ll probaby wrap the wrist and hand.  I’ve been thinking about how a hand/wrist injury will impact what I can do.  Worst case scenario, I won’t be able to lift any barbells or dumbells with my right hand for weeks or even months while this heals.  Best case scenario, it will heal quickly and I can gradually start using it again, probably doing exercises with low weight/high reps.

Doing abs, legs and calves will be no problem.  Lots of exercises there that don’t use the hand.  I can do left biceps and triceps using dumbells and cables, and I since I do each body part once a week, I’m not too worried about my left arm getting much bigger than my right.  Six months or longer would be a different story, but a few weeks or even a couple of months?  No big deal.  I guess the same goes for the chest.  I can do dumbell presses with my left side.

Deadlifts and bench press will have to wait until it heals.  Back and traps will be more difficult to do.  I don’t want to do traps on the left side only, and most everything I do for back involves using two hands.  I will have to do some research and see what kind of alternative exercises I can come up with.

Injuries are a part of life.  If you don’t get any, that means you aren’t doing very much.  The important thing is to not to let an injury get you down.  Do what you have to do to heal it as quickly and as well as possible, and in the meantime, unless its impossible, work around the injury and keep exercising!

I’ll be back on the ice again next Friday morning.    

I hadn’t tried jogging in over two years.  Before that, it was when I was a young adult, many moons ago!  Every time I had tried jogging in my life it was a thoroughly unpleasant experience.  My shins would ache and I’d be quickly out of breath.  What else could I expect carrying so much unnecessary body fat around with me?

Of course I know the importance of cardio for reducing body fat and improving overall fitness.  When I started working out I made sessions on the ‘Arc Trainer’ a regular part of my routine.  I can work up a good sweat using it, with no stress on the joints.  I’ve also been walking just about everyday I can, thanks to my wife who loves to walk.  This cardio has no doubt contributed to my body transformation.  But jogging?  Sorry, not for me.  That’s for professional athletes and fitness nuts, right?  Then why do I see many of the bodybuilders at my gym going on the treadmill and doing short but fast- paced jogging sessions?  Obviously, because it’s one of the best and least time-consuming ways to reduce body fat and stay trim, that’s why.  Once I set my major goal for 2008 to be bringing out my abs, I could no longer avoid the reality that the best thing I could do from an exercise point of view was to start jogging to help burn my remaining stomach fat.  Reading up on it, I knew that jogging 20 to 30 minutes, 3 times a week, in conjunction with my improved eating practices, would be the fastest way to achieve my goal.  I had a mental block about jogging, caused by the very bad experiences of my past.  If so many others were jogging, so could I.  It was time to just do it.

I started on the treadmill by briskly walking for 5 minutes, then I increased the speed until I was jogging at what I would describe as a moderate pace.  That first time, in early November, was not easy but it wasn’t as bad as I expected either.  I was breathing rapidly and sweating, but I had no ankle pain.  I lasted five minutes before I felt like I had to give up.  I reduced the treadmill back to a brisk walk and stayed on the treadmill for 20 minutes total.  I had no ill effects after the session or the next day.  Encouraged, my strategy was to slowly increase the jogging time.  In the next few sessions I went to six, seven, eight, nine, then ten minutes.  I found that my breathing was becoming easier during each session.  I focused on breathing slowly and deeply, and keeping an even pace during the whole jog.  Once I got past the half-way point of my session goal, I found the last half to be easier (probably a mental thing?).  I was working up a decent sweat at the end of each jog.

The night I intended to jog 11 minutes, I was feeling good at the end and did 12!  I was very  happy with my progress in only a few short weeks.  The next session I got bold and planned to jog for 15 minutes.  I jogged, watched the TV, watched the minutes fly by, and before I knew it I was approaching 15 minutes, and to my amazement I wasn’t really very tired!  I jogged for 20 minutes that session and by the end I was very tired but not exhausted or hurting in anyway.  That session was incredible for my pride and motivation.  I had overcome yet another mental barrier that was holding me back.  I knew I could jog just like everyone else, I just had to get used to it.  Jogging will now be a regular part of my cardio.  Who knows how far I will be able to take it? 

And I am getting the results I want.  On December 31 I weighed 215.  I was 220 on November 30.  I checked my weight on December 31 so I could put it into my body stats tracking section on bodybuilding.com.  As I said in other blog posts, I’m not too concerned about the pounds I weigh, its the body fat I’m focused on.  In this case however, the difference in my weight in one month was a clear indication to me that jogging is having a positive impact!

I’m jogging because its convenient, an effective use of my time, and it will give results in a reasonable time.  I’m getting used to jogging, but I know it isn’t for everyone.  Still, there’s no reason why everyone can’t find some cardio activity that they can enjoy and that fits in with their lifestlye and limitations of their body.  So get moving and start reaping the benefits! 

Experienced bodybuilders will find it laughable that it took me so long to figure out what I am about to tell you.  I guess it comes down to the fact I was on my lifestyle change journey alone, I hadn’t done much reading about bodybuilding, and I wasn’t ready think about it until the beginning of October.

My workouts had been improving a lot in 2007 as I got stronger, began to do splits and upped the intensity.  One problem I noticed was the increasing levels of fatigue I was experiencing, especially in the mornings after doing an evening workout.  It was all I could do some mornings to drag myself out of bed!  At the same time I was becoming friendly with another gym rat who I seemed to have a lot in common with.  He snacked on protein bars at the gym, and I asked him about it one day.  Turns out he supplemented with protein powder too, both for recovery and to help with muscle growth.  As he talked a light bulb went off in my head:  My body needed a lot more protein that I was getting through my food!  Again, at the same time I was flipping through a magazine between sets and I saw an add that included the bodybuilding.com website.  I had never heard of it, and never even thought about using the internet to get information on working out.  When I went home I went to the website, and I was immediatly hooked!  Here was a place dedicated to the very lifestyle I aspiring to lead!  To finish my protein story, after talking to my gym friend and then reading about it on the website, I knew that the solution to my fatigue was to start protein supplementation.  I bought my first can of chocolate flavored whey protein powder in early October, and after a couple of days I started to feel the impact!  The fatigue disappeared, and after using it now for almost 3 months I can see good progress in my muscle growth and overall strength at the gym.

The chocolate flavoured powder had an unintended good benefit too!  In Part 1 I told you about my chocolate craving.  Although reduced, it was still there.  To my amazement, I was now drinking chocolate flavored water or skim milk at least twice daily!  I was getting the taste of chocolate I enjoyed and it was actually improving my health and helping me transform my body!  Any unexpected cravings for chocolate disappeared, I didn’t even need the semi-sweet chocolate chips anymore!

During the month of October I spent countless hours on bodybuilding.com, soaking up all the informaton I could get about exercise and nutrition.  Articles, videos, profiles, blogs, galleries, I looked at hundreds!  The wealth of knowledge and experience at my fingertips was fantastic!  I learned more during that month than I learned from 3.5 years of observation and experimentation at the gym!  Just as important to me was the inspiration I received from reading about members’ experiences and seeing ordinary people do extraordinary things with their bodies through hardwork and dedication.  What had the greatest impact on me I think was reading profiles of ’Over 40′ bodybuilders.  Here were people older than I was excelling at bodybuilding, many of them having started just as late in life as I had!  The more I read the more motivated I became to improve the quality and intensity of my workouts, and thanks to my new found knowledge I’ve been able to do it!

Perhaps more important for me personally was the impact that my reading had on my attitude towards food.  Although I’d come a long way on my own, and I had realized that my nutrition was a very important part of my body transformation, I saw on bodybuilding.com just how critical the right food is for long-term success.  By reading about what others are doing through profiles, blogs and articles, I realized my food management was good, but not good enough if I wanted to make my body the best it could be.  I was motivated to take the extra steps necessary to do everything I needed to do to eat clean….cut out all unhealthy food and introduce new things into my diet that were good for my body.  I decided that I owed it to myself to get 100% serious about my diet so I could see for myself what I could achieve….and during November and December I did it!  My progress over the past two months has been phenomenal, as my improved workouts, better diet and protein supplementation all worked together to start giving my muscles more definition and grow my muscles faster, and shed that stubborn body fat around my mid-section!  As the new year starts my new lifestlye is firmly entrenched and I’m expecting great success in the coming months.  THANK YOU bodybuilding.com!

Food used to be the enemy and the cause of my downfalls.  Now it is the key to my success!  See Part 3 for what I eat and how I manage food in all situations in my life!