grahamjd’s BodyBlog

Quick funny story. Yesterday on the treadmill, I’m busting my tail, having an intense cardio session. I’m scanning back and forth at all the lovely tvs in front of me and I catch the title "Vaginal Fitness" on one of the screens. It was like a car wreck. I tried to look away but couldn’t. It was some show called Dr’s, or something like that. I was listening to my ipod, so I couldn’t hear what was being said. It proceeded to show fancy 3D diagrams of the female anatomy, then it showed what looked like two balls, and I can only imagine what those are used for in relation to "vaginal fitness". I had to look away. I couldn’t decide if I thought it was funny, disgusting, or what. I turned to the guy on the treadmill next to me, and he too had caught a glimpse of the show. We both laughed, and tried not to look at that tv again. This "incident" took a little from the intensity of my workout, but it was funny. Anyone else catch this incredible, informative show yesterday?

I started the Mitotropin program today. I was pretty excited about it. I had a great workout this morning and then I moved on to my cardio. I was running on the treadmill, iPod blasting, and I felt a boost of energy kick in. This boost hit just as the song "Walk it out" started playing. I felt so dang good, I just had to walk it out on the treadmill! Ok, I’m kidding. I don’t think I could ever be so bold as to "walk it out" on the treadmill in the middle of the gym. But I admit, I sure did feel like I could today! That’s how awesome I felt this morning! Just wanted to share a little of my humor. Chew on that.

I’m following the program exactly as it is written in the manual. I expect to be in the best shape of my life at the end of the 30 days. I’ll be keeping a supplement log in the forums. It’s titled "OPERATION "The Mitotropin Program" for anyone who’s interested.

I’m going to start blogging my workouts instead of using the workout tracker - I think it’ll be a faster and much easier way to keep up with it.

Tonight I listened to Bill O’Reilly’s A Bold, Fresh Piece of Humanity while I did my cardio. It’s a great book, with lots of funny stories. It was actually a nice change from pumping my normal workout music during cardio. I’m a huge O’Reilly fan!

I’ve got 30 days to reach my goal of "a 6-pack by Christmas 2008". I’ve busted my tail since August 5, and I’ve come a long way, but I’m not there yet. I’ve lost 20lbs, but still have some bodyfat to lose. It’s going to be tough with the holidays approaching…busy schedules, holiday meals, etc. I have 2 graduate classes to finish in the next 2 weeks, my 5 year wedding anniversary, my daughter’s first birthday, and I started building a privacy fence in my backyard this past weekend and it’s got to be finished by Christmas! Bad timing on that one - Regardless of all that’s going on - I’M DETERMINED TO REACH MY GOAL! I’m going to aim for 6 cardio workouts (45 min. minimum) with 3 full-body workouts plus abs per week. We’ll see what happens.  

Morning Weight - 177.5lbs 

CARDI0-8:05pm-Treadmill

2min warmup - 3.5mph

15 min jog (5min at 5.5, 5 min at 6.0, 5min at 6.5)

3min at 3.5

10 intervals (1min at 9.5/2min at 3.5)

Totals: 50 minutes, 4.5 miles, 465 calories burned

I weighed in this morning under 180 for the first time in almost 7 years! Weight was 179.5! Just wanted to share the good news. 7 weeks left to reach my goal!

Hey, I managed to celebrate my birthday w/o eating any cake!  However, I was in the lunchroom today and all of the students started singing happy birthday to me. It was pretty funny, I was a little embarrassed actually! The lunch ladies (whom I mentioned yesterday) figured out it was my birthday, and sure enough, here one of them came w/ a special treat just for me. She said, "I know you’re on a diet, but here you go" She gave me a serving of bread pudding. I politely said thank you, took the dessert and had ONE bite. The rest was given away. I guess that’s not too bad, considering the normal ice cream and cake birthdays I’ve had every other birthday of my life! I’ve got a GOAL and I plan on ACHIEVING it!

I teach middle school and for my first 3 years at my school, I ate the cafeteria food practically everyday. I made it a habit to be very "sweet" to the lunch ladies and of course they loved it and began to pile the food on my tray each day. I got the "special" pizza with all the extra toppings (while the students just got pepperoni), Mrs. Sue’s "special" hamburgers, special Chili, special cornbread (this was actually really good), and of course plenty of extra scoops anytime I wanted them - most of the time at no extra charge! Well, my current health/fat loss transformation started at the beginning of this school year, and there hasn’t been one day that I’ve eaten the cafeteria lunch (my lunch is chicken breast with brown rice - everyday). I started to notice that when I went to get napkins and forks from the serving line, the lunch ladies were starting to seem a little upset with me!

So, today they were serving a fried chicken sandwich and french fries, and I decided I would cheat, just a little bit, and get three of those potato wedge fries. I went back to the serving line, with napkin in hand, and held it out and asked my favorite lunch lady for just 3 fries. She seemed so excited to see me coming for food! She smiled, and took my napkin and said "Oh I’ll give you a little bit more than 3!" I said, No - really, just three fries, that’s all I’m going to eat". She looked at me with disbelief! She gave me a "what’s wrong with you look" and said something to the effect of - why are you doing this? I responded, "I’m following a very strict diet". She said, "is it health related?" (Like there was a medical problem or something) I paused, thought to myself, there’s no way these ladies are going to understand. And I said, no I’m just trying to eat as healthy as possible - I didn’t know what else to say! How do you explain to mostly overweight lunch ladies that you’re trying to lean out and get your abs to show? Why in God’s world would I, or should I deprive myself to achieve that-they would ponder! She looked at me with a perplexed expression. I’m sure she thinks I look very healthy already, which, comparatively, I probably am one of the top 3 healthiest/fit people in the school. But, I’m far from MY ideal body.  

She smiled, said "Ok", and handed me a pile of fries in my napkin - not the 3 I asked for! I’m sure she was thinking this guy’s lost his mind, something’s wrong with him.

I’m NOT trying to pick on the lunch ladies or speak negatively of them. They’re very sweet, work very hard, and try to provide good food for the people at our school. I just thought it was funny how most people just don’t understand why in the world someone would eat so healthy. Needless to say, I’ve gotten many comments from other teachers as well about how disciplined I am, or how committed I’ve been, or "DANG, you’re eating chicken again?" I don’t mind that at all, it actually makes me feel stronger and more confident in my ability to maintain discipline with my diet.

They just don’t get it.

By the way, I ate THREE fries and gave the rest away!

So I was in the buff, about to get a shower, and I decided I should give my head a fresh buzz. I got out the clippers and started cutting (I don’t use a guard). I was just about finished when the clippers suddenly slipped out of my hands. This is bad I thought as they fell towards the countertop. I grabbed for them, missed, and they hit the counter and bounced towards my manhood. Yep, they got me. If you’ve ever been pinched by clippers, you know it doesn’t feel so good. Well let’s just say this was a little bit worse. It got both parts of my package. Luckily, it was just a "pinch" from the clippers.  How awful would it have been if they really cut me bad, and I had to get medical attention! LIFE LESSON LEARNED - Don’t try to shave your head while fully nude!

I weighed in this morning at 184.5 (before going to the bathroom)! I’m pretty excited - it’s been only 9 1/2 weeks and I’ve lost about 13lbs. It’s been slow and steady, which is great b/c I know it will stay off. I’m wearing 31 in waist jeans, whereas before I was squeezing into 34’s ! My body is a changing! Still have bodyfat to lose though…..only a matter of time! Man do I feel a lot better!

I’m considering changing my current program. I’m doing 4 days a week - Chest & Biceps, Back & Abs, Delts & Triceps, & Legs. My workouts take about an hour. Considering my goal is to lose as much fat as possible, I’m considering changing to 6 days a week - Chest, Delts, Triceps - Back, Biceps - Legs - and then repeat this cycle - doing 8-10 reps on everything and then doing 12-15 reps the second time in the week with a little lighter weight. I’d try to aim for 45mins. or less lifting, and then do 20-30 minutes of sprint intervals on the treadmill. This would hit every body part twice a week and I would be able to get my cardio and weight training in almost the same amount of time. This would be a much more high intensity workout. Any feedback on this blog would be appreciated. If you’ve got a better program, or any other ideas - let me know.