Rev’s Gym

The oddessy continues. Weight=stable. BF%=stable, date and time measured=consistent. Yet my strength goes up and my measurements continue to improve! I lost another 1/2 inch on my waist this week and I’m now even (or close to even) with all of my 5 rep personal bests in the 3 power lifts. I am a bit worried about peaking too early in my strength cycle for the event, but we’ll just see.

I had a great weekend. Took a busload down to West Virginia to do some demolition work on a new community center that is being built by a church down there. Best part, the entire time we were there I stuck to my diet! No donuts, no chips, no cookies, no fudge, no pizza, etc. . The only time I had any "cheat food" all weekend was Saturday night after we had returned home and still needed to go grocery shopping (can’t eat clean if it’s not there). I had four slices of meat lovers pizza and one piece of cheesy garlic bread from pizza hut for supper that evening. It was delicious. However, Sunday was back to the grind and ate clean again. I weighed in at 224.5 today but I’m not too concerned over the little setback this early in the week. If it still reads like that on Friday, then I’ll be upset. Until then I’ll just reminisce upon the meal of the weekend.

Now, my hands and forearms ache from swinging a pick axe breaking stone all Saturday morning. Must be a decent grip workout.

goal today: legs and biceps, cardio

what I ate yesterday: 1/2 C oats, 1 T jam, 34 oz water, vitamin, 2000 mg fishoil, 1 niacin

1 metrx protein bar, 34 oz water

1 protein plus bar, 34 oz water

2 Chicken breasts, jerk marinade, 1/4 C chedder cheese, 1 can green beans, 34 oz water

3 slices oatmeal wheat bread, 3 T peanut butter, 34 oz water

2000 mg fish oil

Down to 220 this morning! I had a great night’s sleep the evening before and a good workout yesterday. I then had 25 minutes of cardio @ 4pm and that was it! No real change in diet, no change in water, and no real change in cardio. It must just be the sleep and the plateau being gone. In any event, keep it comming! I’m officially in the 220 weight class again! That’s 14 lbs total! Almost half way there (and honestly, if my lifts continue to improve at the rate in which they have, I’m not too concerned about being in the bottom of the weight class).

What I ate yesterday:

meal 1: 1 egg + 1white, 1/2 C oats, 1 C peaches, 2000 mg fish oil, 1 multivitamin, 1 niacin, 34 oz water

meal 2: metrx bar, 34 oz water

meal 3: 2 cans tuna, 3 T spicy brown mustard, 2 T pickle relish, 34 oz water

meal 4: (post workout) EAS soy protein shake, 34 oz water

meal 5: 10 oz chicken breast, 1 C rice-and-gravy (not clean but tasty and my wife made it), 2 C green beans, 3/4 C peas-and-corn, 34 oz water

evening: 1 mug apples & cinnamin herbal tea, 1000 mg fish oil,

goal for today: Not too sure. Supposed to take today off before Deadlifts tommorrow. Probably just "massage and rest" day. Oh, and "Don’t gain back weight".

I’ve never been happier to see the scale move in my life. I try not to get caught up in scales this far out from a contest, but having been stuck at 224 or above for weeks and weeks had made me become "caught" again. This morning when I did my normal daily check-in (I only really count Friday, but I like to see where I’m at), wonder of wonders, the scale said "223". I almost fell into the coffee pot! I have done no cardio since Friday night and only lifted yesterday. I reset the scale and stepped back on. "224" was the next reading. Reset and step again and "223.5". Again, "223". Needless to say, after 4 or so more resets and steps (I really need a more reliable scale) the average of all of the readings was 223.5.

I’m a happy camper. Through the plateau, time to start making some progress again!

What I ate yeseterday:

meal 1: 1 egg + 1 white, 1/2 C oats, 1 C peaches, 34 oz water, 2ooo mg fish oil, 1 multivitamin, 1 niacin,

meal 2: 1 metrx bar, 34 oz water

meal 3: 2 cans tuna, 2 T pickle relish, 3 T spicy brown mustard, 34 oz water

meal 4: 1 can tuna, 1/4 C shredded chedder, 2 T salsa, 16 oz water

meal 5: 10 oz meat loaf (ground beef, oats, 1 egg, ranch seasoning, black pepper, ketchup, liquid smoke, garlic, minced onion, brown sugar), 1 1/2 C corn-and-peas, 68 oz water (yes, yes, I’m a fish, I know)

NO SNACKS OR MEALS AFTER LAST FEEDING!!! YAY!

goal for today: New chest, shoulders, and triceps workout. Eat clean and stick to meal plan.

If you can’t progress then do not regress. I logged in this morning at 224 and 23.7% again. Several weeks in a row now. I know that I can break through this plateau, I’m just trying to figure out where I’m cheating myself. I’ve been eating clean and working out, so perhaps there is some more fine tuning I can do. Maybe up the intensity on my lifting (hehe, maybe) and the duration of my cardio. My body doesn’t normally adapt this quickly but perhaps that’s what’s happening.

     Speaking of progress though, this latest progression program has been doing WONDERS for my power lifts! I’m feeling very excited and strong for my goal in that regard. The system cycles by the week heavy then light, then heavier then then light, repeat. within a week or 3 I’ll have surpassed my alltime 5 rep personal record in ALL # LIFTS AT ONCE! That is very encouraging.

Now, to dial in the fat loss…

I’m so confused now it’s almost funny (ok, ok, it is funny). Lock-ins always mess up my schedule and internal clock a bit, and new years gets me for a day or two when it comes to writing the date. However, between the weird schedule this week, working on my old day off, not getting a new day off as of yet, and now taking a sick day to take care of my wife so that this feels like a day off (even though I’m just going into work in the evening) I am having a very hard time figuring out consistently what day it is. I KNOW it is Thursday, I KNOW I have a chest workout today, and I KNOW I teach class tonight. But my internal time-table just KNOWS that it’s Monday and is trying to act accordingly. Oi.

Diet is back on track the past few days and I’ve been able to keep up with my weekly goal so far. I’ve eaten clean and not missed a meal, added in an extra 60 min of cardio last night, and so on, so we’ll see how my progress goes come next week. As of right now I held at 225. I only count the Friday weigh-ins/bf% measurements, but the weekly weigh-ins do seem to help me from going off of the deep end unknowingly.

Today’s Goal: chest workout, eat clean, don’t miss a meal

what I ate yesterday: normal diet!!!

sleep: midnight till 7:50 with 3 wake-ups (2:20-2:30, 4:05-4:20, 6-6:30) so about 7 hours.