Rev’s Gym

Wow, there’s so much swirling around in my head this morning. Sorry in advance if I ramble more than normal.

I weighed in this morning @ 217. I’m apparently adding muscle. I’ve got increased definition in my midsection this past 7-10 days as the scale continues to go up. I think part of my gain (for bad or good) is from increased cortisol production. My stress levels have been through the roof and my sleep has been greatly diminished over the same 10-14 days (ok, longer than that for being above where it should be, but still). However, I think that my body may be catching up with the demands in the form of this added…weight (too soon to call it only muscle).

Christmas eve services tommorrow. Office this morning, then visitation, bible study, meeting, lift, dinner, meeting, sermon work. Tommorrow is office, worship prep, worship, x-mas party/visitations, worship prep, worship, home. Then CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!! I am really, really looking forward to Thursday and watching the boys. Hope Ian is feeling better by then (had a bad cough last night. We sat in the chair downstairs together for a good part of the morning so far). Kyle and I are moving Thursdays workout to Friday this week. Yesterdays workout was not that great. We had a max effort day on the deadlift and a normal squat workout. DL’s were less than spectacular. Squats were ok, but hard to get into after the dl’s. We never did make it to the supplementary lifts due to time.

     Bench and max-effort military presses today. I’ve also gotta work in some time this week to write my annual report and schedule some more visitations. I’ve been asked to increase my visitations of the sick and shut-in members from 1-2 hours each every 6-8 weeks to 1-2 hours each every 4 weeks. I don’t know how I’m going to get them all in. At least I’ll begin to receive reinbursement for my mileage beginning in January, so money issues might ease up a bit.

     Two of my peers have put in for transfers out of the area. One has been granted and he’ll be gone by mid January. He’s unofficially asked me to be the interim pastor for his congregation. Not up to him or me really, that’s the bishop’s job. But, that discussion is comming up. My buddy/peer has his call papers in as well. Nothing heard from yet, but he’ll be gone by April to the Richmond VA area with his wife (she got offered a GREAT job in her field down there). I figure I’ll get tapped for at least one if not both of those congregations. Not sure how my congregation is going to take it. Heck, not sure how my wife is going to take it. It needs to be done and we can definitely use the money if the offers do indeed come, but it is more time away. Interim work involves meetings with council and call committees, visitations, and sick calls. All told, not too much a month. But added to the extra that I’m trying to do here…hehe. Sorry. this isn’t related to working out is it?

Anyway, if you’ve made it this far, thanks for the attention. Have a great workout and a Merry Christmas!

What I ate:

1. 2 scoops whey, 8 oz 1 percent milk, 34 oz water

2. 1 Cup 1 percent cottage cheese, 34 oz water

3. 1 packet 24/7 post workout carb drink. 12 oz water (tastes just like coolaid, but has little white floaters in it) 

4. 18 oz chicken breast, 3 small tortillas (6 in rounds), 2/3 C corn & black bean relish, 1/4 C lite sour cream, 1 onion, 1 green pepper, 1 oz chedder cheese, 34 oz water

yesterday 215, today 217, tommorrow…who knows

*to the tune of Jingle Bells*

(for added effect jingle the buckle to your weight belt or a hand full of powerlifting chains)

Dashing to the gym,

Weight belt in my bag,

For today is squats,

Must lift until I gag.

My boots are all laced up,

The bar is in the rack,

Now all that’s left for me

is to put it on my back!

OH! My home gym, my home gym,

oh so nice and big.

Oh what fun it is to lift so close to my fridge!

Oh! My home gym, my home gym,

The chalk is gonna fly,

For when all of this is said and done,

I guess I’m just a guy (who loves to lift)

Happy workouts every one!

       I must admit that I’m feeling a bit ragged these days. I’m looking forward to Thursday very much. Can’t wait to have a day with the family and watch both of my boys go crazy. We arn’t even entertaining this year. No relatives at all (they all decided to come up early this year) so it’ll be jammies and coffee all day.  I’m hoping that things will slow down a bit after the new year, but I’m not holding my breath.

Workouts are conitinuing to go well. I’m definitely seeing and feeling progress from the westside principles.

Anyway, take care.

This week I had a great phone conversation with Cardio Colin, one of Idaho’s cadre of BB.com’er workers. I really and truly enjoyed our conversation. We spoke of motivation, supplimentation, use of the site, even things that could be added to an already wonderful bb.com. Furthermore, for listening to me squawk for 15 minutes, he/they sent me a shirt, a bag, a shaker cup, and a trial pack of 24/7!

     So let me say thank you to Colin and BB.com. Thank you for caring what I think. Thank you for your gifts. But most of all, thank you for the chance to speak aloud what I’ve tried to understand for myself: namely why I love this sport and this site so much.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyOTOkOe3Io[/youtube]

Evan’s sumo style DL with 8 lbs @ 29 lbs & 14 months old

No joke. Yesterday was day two of "Rep Week". I did 175 on the bench (50% of max) for as many reps as I could in 1 hour and 145 (about 40%) for seated cable rows. By 30 minutes in my triceps were engorged. By 45 minutes my front and rear delt felt like they’d swelled to double the norm. By 60 minutes…well…I was just happy that I was done

  All told: bench 175 for 122 and Seated rows 145 for 151.

Today is to be a cardio and yoga/stretch day. Tommorrow is DL’s and Lateral raises.

weight today 213

Had a great (but crazy) meet on Sunday. I ended up with 2nd in the 220 Deadlift category, beaten only by the "Best Deadlifter" award winner. I also got it with a new personal record of 505 in competition. I got it up on the second attempt and, for the first time in my life, lost my grip and dropped the bar! So, I came back and nailed it for my third (2 whites & 1 red, due to "slight hitch" as seen from the side judge). Felt GREAT.  Now, with the next competiton months away in April, it’s time to up the reps and attack this fat loss with a vengence.

    I’ve started us this week with a "Rep" week. Simple really:

1.)We take 50% of our max lifts on 6 exercises.

2.) We put 2 exercises on a day.

3.) We superset the exercises.

4.) We see how many reps for each exercise we can do in 1 hour.

    Hope is that this will wake up the muscles after all of the low and heavy work of the last few months as well as break up the mental barriers of how much/many to lift. Yesterday was Squats and Bar curls. 225 lbs on squats for 81 reps and bar curls with 85 lbs for 102 reps. Amazingly enough, I’m not too sore today either.

Today will be Bench press @ 175 and Seated Cable Rows @ 200.

Thursday: Deadlifts with 252.5 and lateral raises (my workout partner’s choice) with 30’s.

What I ate:

1. 1 cup cottage cheese, vitamins, 34 oz water

2. 9 oz tuna, 2 T brown mustard, black pepper, 34 oz water

3. 8 oz chicken breast, 3 6"tortilla, 1 onion, 1 green pepper, 1 C fat free refried beans, .5 oz shredded chedder, 50 oz water

4. 8 oz 1% milk, 6 spice cookies, 1 bag popcorn, 34 oz water

current weight: 213.5

We’ve begun a new family tradition. Ian has been begging to go to the "Donut Shop" (Dunkin’ Donuts) for a few days now, but Kim and I aren’t big on the excess sweets thing. The boys have a stash of chocolate chip cookies that they can have 1 or maybe 2 of a day, and they have their advent calendars that have mini chocolate bars and/or flavored holiday marshmallows in them. Aside from that though, we try to keep it to the old 4 food groups, heavy on the meats and veggies. But, Ian’s been a really good boy, and Evan has been as well, so we decided that after we got the tree today we’d swing by the donut shop and get some for the kids.

It felt so right that Kim and I both said almost simultaniously "This feels like a family tradition".

Each of the boys picked out 2 christmas sprinkled donuts and Kim, eternally low on calories these days and making GREAT progress in her weight loss, treated herself to 2 classic glazed . Me? 2…pounds of coffee beans. No donut for me. Didn’t even want one to be honest! They smelled great, but the thought of eating one, with the sweet fried bread taste in my mouth, made me lose my appetite. Instead, I bought myself some coffee and we picked up a roast chicken for supper.

    Tonight we’ll decorate the beautiful tree. Also, supposed to have DL’s today but they’re on hold till after Sunday. So, light cardio for 30-60 minutes instead.

Weighed in @ 210 today (I could squeek 209.5 out of the scale, but I try to be honest)

Ok, the title is a bit misleading. Yesterday’s day included 2 or 3 cans of tuna and 12 oz of tilapia. I don’t know why but I was craving swimming-critters for some reason. But the diet thing is actually about the day before. I went over my maximum target caloric intake by about 200 calories and lost some weight. I’ve had this happen before and understand about kick-starting my body, or shocking my metabolism, or forcing out water, etc. etc. etc.

   But…I don’t know. Something feels funny about my progress. I’ve been wondering for awhile now if I need non-digital equipment for measurements as the digital scale and bf moniter are just sooooo inconsistant. But, perhaps it is just my body makeup.

Anyway, Powerlifting meet on Sunday. I’ve begun my water loading now and will keep going till friday night. Weigh-ins are Sunday morning @ 7am.

Weighed in this morning @ 211 & 20.9%.

Early Christmas present yesterday from my workout partner and his family: two 100 lb olympic plates!!!

    They’re calibrated no less, @ 100.25 each. I was giddy as a schoolboy yesterday. I also ended up doin my squat workout even though I wasn’t going to lift this week due to the meet. I just had to try them out though. Awesome.

Yay! Advent is here. All the closer to the next turkey meal, x-mas songs, and winter workouts in the nice hot basement.

I spent most of yesterday doing laundry and walking steps. We had church in the morning and got home around 12:30. Evan even fell asleep on the way home (a Christmas Miracle in itself), so Kim went down for a nap, Ian played Word World, and I cleaned. It felt good to begin to reclaim our house from the clutter that has been amassing itself here and there. By 6 o’clock dinner was ready and we ate as a family  in an almost reclaimed home. Then, shift change: I put the boys to bed and Kim took over the cleaning and put away 5 loads of laundry + socks.

   The family slept till 7am, I’m drinking coffee, and the sun is up. I love this time of year.

This is meet week. I’ll do some light cardio over the next five days and maybe some warm-up weight lifts, but thats it till Sunday.

Almost there.

What I ate:

1: apple, 34 oz water, multi vitamin

2: 2 cans tuna, 3 Tbs brown mustard, 1 T relish, 34 oz water

3: 12 oz chicken breast, 1 C snap peas, 8 oz baked potato, 1 tbs smart choice buttery spread, 34 oz water, 1/2 C cottage cheese, 1 stalk celery

4: 1 bag popcorn, 1.5 oz peanut brittle, 34 oz water