dstumpy13’s BodyBlog

So with the new job and college I wasn’t making it to the gym.  I finally went today and hope to tomorrow as well.  I like this gym.  There’s a lot more equipment then my old gym and there are these cool touch sensitve bar racks for the barbells.  I never even knew those existed until today.  I started light as its been almost 3 months since I’ve done a ligit workout.  Twenty minutes on the eliptical and some weights.  Back, bi’s, tri’s, and chest.  Just some familiar favorites even though thats not how I usually group the muscles that I work out.  It felt good to get back and now I’m wishing I had done it a lot sooner.  I forgot how much I enjoy working out.  It’s funny how I "couldn’t" find the time.  Now I wont want to give that time up.  I know myself.  I finally moved into my buddies place in the city.  Everything is a lot closer now.  Everything isnt all put away and I might need to get myself some new dressers and some shelving but I’m adjusting nicely.  Being closer should help my mind set as well.  I’ll get my routine down and get back on it.  I’m stoked.  For working out and because winter is upon us.  Hopefully we’ll get some good snow soon and I can get out and have some fun!

So wow… what a summer.  I would have to say that I’ve had more fun this summer than I’ve ever had.  Ever.  Two country music fests.  Four stag parties.  One which I had to throw.  Eight weddings.  Two which I stood in.  Three roofs.  A concrete floor…. and some damn crazy parties with some really great friends!  So what does all that mean??? My fitness went down the crapper.  OH and bonus… I got a new job!  I’m offically a teacher!  That also means I have had to find a new gym.  Well I’m still in college and can go to their gym for free.  So I signed up last week and will start going soon here.  I’m moving too so while I’m in the process of packing, studying, grading students work and trying to maintain my hectic social and bleak love life I’ll find the time to get back on the weights.  I’ve reduced my caloric intake while are get used to my new sleep and eating schedule.  I never realized how condusive my old work schedule was to working out.  I had it good there as far as that goes.  I dont miss my old job though.  Eight years and I was ready for something new.  Teaching is great and I seriously fell into the job.  I’m not entirely sure that I was ready for it… but its been five weeks and I’m adapting well.  I’m happy I made the move.  It was an oppertunity I just couldn’t pass on for sure.  So I’ll begin working out at the gym at school.  They have a lot of equipment but it seems like most of it is machines and I perfer free weights.  We’ll see, I’m going to use some of my workouts that my old trainers gave me.  Then I’ll adapt them to that gym.  I’m not sure what they have for training advice at the gym.  Theres a lot of good routines here on this site (almost too many.. you have to search through them) and also a lot of good routines in the fitness mags I get.  It’s been almost a month and a half since I last worked out.  I dont have the energy that I once had, nor the endurance.  I need to get back in there to help balance me out again… and we’ll see how I do at this blogging thing again.

That area is still a bit sore.  I didn’t lift at all last week after Monday’s pain onset at the end of the day.  I did some lifting today, but kept it on the light side I suppose.  I’m just not going to do anything heavy or any lifting with my legs for a couple weeks.  I’m just going to do a bunch of cardio and toning.  I dont want to push it and really hurt myself.  I cant wait for school to be over and I can have some time back to myself again as well.  Went to my cousin’s wedding this weekend.  I love my family.  We are so much fun.

I may or may not have pulled a hernia.  I was squating last tuesday and I’ll be damned I felt my muscle right at the joint of my leg near my groin just do something real funny feeling.  I’m not exactly sure how to describe it to be honest.  Just uncomfortable.  I’m a little sore now and then too.  Today I was standing during a meeting at work and I felt it again and thne after I swore I could feel a bump in my muscle.  When I went to the doctor last week after it happend there was no bump.  Now the bump is gone and I’m nervous about lifting on it again.  If I feel that bump again I’m gonna go to see the doc again.  I really hope its not a hernia.  I wasnt kind to my diet this past month either.  It amazing how 3 weekends of fun can blow 3 months of work.  We’ll see what the next few weeks bring.

… I’ve had a bit of a break with the girl.  It’s been affecting me for sure in all aspects.  I’m not going to lie, I am a bit depressed about it.  I’m starting to break out of my funk.  Her and I are on a break but I’m still not sure if its for good yet.  She’s asked me not to go to Puerto Rico with her any more.  Great.  So there goes my goal for being fit.  I’m better off not going anyhow.  I would be missing my cousin’s wedding.  This is my Godmother’s daughter Rachael.  Further more, my godmother’s son, my cousin Chris, Rachael’s older brother, is probably the best friend I had all growing up and we are still pretty close.  I don’t want to let any of them down.  Those are the people I should really be focusing on in my life anyhow.  Reguardless my new goal will not be looking good at the beach… but looking good for the wedding!!!  Weddings are probably the only time ever where I like to dance.  So yeah buddy I’m going to look good doing it!  I am down on average 7 pounds since January depending on what scale I go by.  So I am very stoked with my progress.  Lately I seemed to have a lot of pent up energy when I’m in the gym.  I have to turn my focus back onto myself… my body, my career, my finances, and my education… everything else will fall in line after I take care of those things.  Nobody I know, knows that I have started this blog.  I haven’t shown it to anybody.  So if you’re reading it, and I do or I don’t know you, you’re getting an insite of me that no one else is… feel free to comment.  This is the closest thing I’ve ever had to a diary.  I’m almost ready, almost to the point where I might put a link on my AIM to my bodyspace.

 Enough of the BS.

I’m disapointed that my arm size has been going down slightly.  Though I should realize with the type of workouts that I am doing I might lose some size.  I am trying to lean out.  My goal is to be 185 by the end of Feburary.  I am going to keep hitting the gym hard.  I’ve done well so far.  I did miss a week when I started my new semester which also happend to be the week after my girl and I went on the break.  Took a week of worthless and stupid self pity… never again.  I’ve noticed it in my face that I am losing BF%.  That I am definitely stoked about.

 Winter hasn’t been that great.  There hasn’t been a lot of snow.  The Sabres also haven’t had that great of season.  I’m generally frustrated.  I’ll manage.

Week two.  Went into the gym today and between the scales there and the one here at home, I am consistently down 4 pounds from last Monday.  I’m not going to record my daily weigh-in here on this site.  Just my monthly.  I suppose I could do weekly.  I’m usually my lowest weight on a Thursday.  Perhaps I should put down my Thursday weight for each week.  School starts next week.  I have to get to work earlier so that my workouts do not interfere with either work or school.  I have been waking up a lot better but still laying around or taking my time in the morning so I’m still not getting to work any earlier.  I need to set that routine this week.  Tomorrow.  I was a bit tired today.  Not sleepy or even drained.  Just not fully energized.  My workout definitely helped my energy level though.   I really like my new routine of doing cardio before I hit my weights.  It feels good.  Though there isn’t anybody in the gym it seems while I’m doing the cardio.  Then when I go to hit the weights, it’s super crowded.  I might have to reverse them just so I don’t have to fight for an apparatus or share anything.  I’m good about sharing usually but I don’t like doing it.   When you’re on a truncated timetable it sucks to have to share.  

Well this week was a good test week.  I did my new program through the whole week at the gym.  It felt good.  I hit all of my target areas at least once a week.  Legs everyday.  I still want to add pushups and crunches to my morning.  That will give me some more chest and much needed ab work.  However, I’ve never been much of a morning person.  I have been going to bed earlier and wakeing up earlier.  Still not quite enough though.  But better than I have ever been.  It’s really nice being well rested and strong all day.  But damn 10:00pm hits and I’m lucky if I’m not falling asleep where I stand.  Maybe I’m just getting old.  Reguardless… the new workout seems to be treating me well.

So I started the new routine today.  Not bad.  Felt good to do some cardio before I did some lifting.  I had a tiresome but fun weekend in Vermont with Kelly and her friends.  We went snowboarding at Jay Peak on Saturday.  We did a nice hike on Sunday also.  I was feeling the energy drain today.  I haven’t yet begun to do a morning routine.  I need to catch up on some sleep and get into a good sleep pattern.  I’ve determined that I probably will never be able to win the biggest loser contest that we’re doing.  I just cannot based simply on the percentages.  I don’t have as much to lose as everyone else.  I will just have to stay as dilagent as I can.  I know I can do well and get my BF% real low.  I just want to look really good.  I also seem to have better focus when I’m training hard.  That goes for school and work as well.  School starts back up in a few weeks.  I was hoping on getting more snowboarding and snowmobiling in around here before it did, but with 60 degree weather thats not going to happen.  I have a dentist appointment tomorrow.  There’s also a Sabres game.  They’re playing at NJ.

So its a new year.  With it comes new goals.  I almost feel like I’m starting a new life.  There will be new workout practices.  I need to continue to improve my diet.  I also need to drink less often and when I do, I need to drink less. 

My girlfriend’s family all go to a little island right off of Puerto Rico every year and they’ve asked me to come along.  This should be fun as it is the first time I will ever have taken a vacation from work to go somewhere tropical.  So my girl and I kinda started a bet to see who could get in the best shape.  Specifically who could loose the most weight percentage.  Its a risky bet for me as she already weighs a lot less than I do and thus her percentages improve.  Well some of my family caught wind of this and over Christmas we all decided to do a Biggest Loser contest of our own.  Everyone who’s in throws 20 bucks in the pot and the best percentage takes it in April!  This is great as my family is a fun group, somewhat competitive and we all could definitely be more fit.  I want to see how well I can really do.  I’ve learned a lot in the last 5-6 years or so that I’ve been working out.  Every year my personal goals mature and change.  I want 2008 to be my best year ever.  I want to look good in April for the beach.  Now my GF and I will look even more awesome next to each other in our bathing suits.  She’s super competitive and my sister and her have become friends and may begin working out together.  Which will be great for both of them to have a work out partner.  Personally I don’t like working out with anyone.  I like doing my own thing.  Hammer down, shower and get back to work.  I have a whole bunch more new music to throw on the mp3 player and I’m excited to get back in the gym since being on holiday since December 20th.  Well anyways, I’m still thinking I want to do a side bet with just my GF.  Still have our own thing.  We’ll see.

So I have to come up with a reasonable goal.  I have 3 months.  I weighed in at 201.2 today.  A 7 site pinch test put me at 14% body fat.  I figure I can realistically get myself to about 9%.  Eight percent would be even better.  That would put me in the 189 - 191 range if I could keep all of my lean body mass.

I’m going to implement a new style of work out.  I never really warmed up before.  So going into the New Year I’m going to make sure that I schedule in a proper warm up into every workout.  I actually want to make sure that I do 15 minutes of cardio everyday right before I lift.  I will also add more compound movement exercises to my routine.  With school and working fulltime, I really don’t have a lot of time to do my workouts in so I’m going to try and get a few days a week where I do another session.  It will probably be cardio to keep it simple.  I have a pretty good base for muscle mass.  I need to drop my BF% more.  So I’m going 15 minutes of cardio, add in compound movement exercises, with a few heavy lifts here and there, all in an interval style program at first.  If anybody has some suggestions on good 30-40 minute program that would be cool.  I’m hoping this will be a better system for me.  I’ve kinda hit a personal plateau of sorts and I need to kill it. 

I want to also do pushups and crunches in the morning.  Every morning.  I also went and got myself a jump rope.  I like aerobic workouts that incorporate arm movements too.  So, jumping rope, rowing, and the elliptical machine will most likely make up most of my cardio.

Today when I went to the gym, I had Matt my trainer do my all my stats.  My BP was good, 122/76.  After that I went out, warmed up, and tested a few of my one rep maxes.  That was neat as I had never really done that before.  I’m not positive I even did it right, but I got a good idea of where I should be.  Tomorrow I will do more of them and figure out what excersizes I will be doing for the first part of my training.

If I can get to 9% bf by April, I might try and get to 6% or 7% in the fall and try my luck at doing a show.  I think it would be neat to be able to say that I have done at least one.

So I didn’t hit my goals.  I didn’t stay diligent.  I had a lot of fun this summer.  Today was my first day back to school so I will have to be a bit more focused and I will not be able to slack off and go out booze’n.  Just makes my time all the more precious when I work full time and go to school at night one class short of fulltime status.  On the positive side I did really well at the gym this summer and I am stronger and leaner than ever.  I still need to loose a lot of belly fat.  I’ll just keep up my intensity coming into this semester and cut back on the beer and wings LOL.  My diet is 75% good and so I am also feeling like Im only at about 75% of my potential fitness level.  Seeing my BF% go down while my weight going up this month along with my strength and some key body areas is actually inspiring me.  I suppose I’ve bulked enough and should cut.  I’ll have to do some research.  My gf and I broke up yesterday.  I’m sad about it because we both really care for eachother, its just that it isnt working the way we had hoped and doesnt look like it will really get any better.  We will remain friends.  So now I will just focus my attention on me, my body, my job and school.  I will have to set new goals.  I will have to make these tangable ones.  There are two new trainers in my small gym at work.  I’m going to try and get some of their opinions and what I should do next and where I should go from here.  I need to get with a nutritionist to help me build a menu plan that will fit into my busy schedule.  I have one from the Beverly Center that has been pretty helpful.  I modified it slightly but I need to have more diversity than what that plan gives me as I am getting sick of eating the same things day in and out.