fitliftkit’s BodyBlog

Well, it’s been about one month.  3/3/09 was the start of new workout program with Judy O’Lone and 3/5/09 was the start of the nutritional program from Paul O’Lone at Accessible Fitness.  I did create a nice blog post a while back, but the BB.com interface isn’t very intuitive and it "vanished".  I’m trying again because I feel there are some useful kernels in my mind and heart today.

I’m excited about the hydrostatic body testing tomorrow in SF to determine my percent body fat.  I use a pretty sophisticated scale at home that tells me percent body fat, body fat weight, bone density, and body water in addition to weight.   It’s great for capturing trends e.g. up or down, but I’d like to know just how accurate the % body fat measurment is.  The test tomorrow will give me a decent calibration.
After ordering a GoWear fit ("Bodybugg"), then not opening after it arrived for a few days, I finally got over my indecisiveness about whether this somewhat costly electronic device ($250) is worth it and whether I want another "gadget" in my life.   I researched the products in this space befoe ordering and felt this was the best price for the best technology on the market at this time.  I was not aware, however, until my neighbor, Kevin, told me, that Polar (I’m familiar with their running watches) made a watch that could tell me how many calories I was burning, amoung other things. The cheapest would run me $90 which sounded pretty good, but the quality of the device and display didn’t seem that great, I wasn’t convinced the technology was sophisticated enough, and a $75 battery replacement tipped me over.   Mostly, I felt Polar is too diversified with it’s products and functionality and I really just wanted very detailed information re: metabolism to make nutrition decisions.  Honestly, if the Sensewear (a medical grade "Bodybugg" device for bariatic patients and their medical professionals) wasn’t $450, I would have bought it.

I’m impressed that the GoWear fit even records a tiny measurements like how long it took me to fall asleep and even if I woke up for a split second in the middle of the night and few right back to sleep.  I was even see the increased activity which tells me when I left the house for work that morning or when I came back home.  I can’t wait till this type of technology gets really sophisticated.  Just think of the patient care uses!
I broke into 18% body fat on my scale two days this last month, but decided to make adjustments to my nutritional program in the interest of time.  I’m running out of time to "cut" before competition dates and "cushion time" is wiser than just barely skidding in on time.  The original diet program developed for me by Paul has been a great "starter" program for me.  In fact, I will probably use a version of it for a regular/off season diet.  Nevertheless, I think it was probably underestimated how extreme we would have to go to get me to loose this belly in a short amount of time.  I need an extreme diet because I had been eating a reduced calorie, clean, and healthy fare for a long time - just not smart enough to make a bodybuilder’s body.  After all, I have been at 19-20% body fat for the last two years.

New diet is similar (The Cut Diet V. 4 from Scivation).  Major differences:  no complex carbs (e.g. starchy carbs like oatmeal) except a carb refeed every 16th meal (or 3 days) and healthy fats with every meal.  Breakfast is rather large, but I just take my time.  There are lots of smaller changes, but just minor tweaks.  I’m really excited because today when I go to the grocery store I will be shopping for peanut butter.  !!!  It’s gonna take a lot of discipline to not stick my spoon in the peanut butter jar every time I walk past the kitchen!