Rev’s Gym

Well, the new beginning has stuck so far. I’ve made progress across the board. I havn’t been doing my daily cardio/nepa, but I seem to be progressing anyway, so cool. I’ll have to be ready to put that part back in though if I stagnate.

       today/last week

wt: 218.5/221

bf%: 22.0/22.4%

    No more going back!

My body that is. I feel like I’ve been well worn out today. It was a light day in terms of duties and whatnot, but a grueling and great workout this afternoon.  My whole body has that…tired feeling to it. Like I’d just swam for the week, or carried rocks up and down a ladder for a few days in a row. I’m looking forward to the gains this produces.

Today:

cardio: umm…bowling? circuit training 120 minutes

training: speed work box squat 5×5, close grip bench 5×5, sumo deadlifts 5×5. Also circuit of "100’s" for panora press, ez curls, and lateral raises.

meals:

1: 4 oz jerky (60 grams protein

2: a two inch cube of birthday cake (mMMMMmmmm….)

3: BK Tendergrill without mayo

4: creatine and 4 oz applejuice/4oz water

5: 10 oz chicken breast, 1/4 C marinara sauce, 1 T parmasean, 1.5 C steamed green beans, 3 T dried cranberries-and-almonds, .25 C balsalmic vinegar and olive oil

6: 2 C broccoli flourettes, raw. Balsalmic vinegar and 1 T almond slivers., 3 oz chicken breast

Great day today! My eldest turns 4 this morning (Wednesday). Have some visits and 2 services scheduled, cake and family party today and an afternoon/evening bowling party with his friends tommorrow.

   Yesterday was a fairly normal Tuesday. Training wise we did a bench blitz: 5×3 Barbell Bench and then "Dumbell 100’s": twenty sets that total 100 reps with only time for the other person to complete their set in between(1×10, 1×9, 1×8,1×7, etc. down to one and then 1×1,1×2,1×3,1×4,1×5, up to 10 again). ended with reverse close grip pulldowns (think weighted chins) for 4×10.

  The convienant store on my way to work was having a sale on beef jerky ($2 a bag) so I grabbed a few. I figure for the next few days it wouldn’t hurt to have a quick protein source handy in the car.

yesterday:

cardio: none. Bench, dmbl 100’s, reverse grip pulldowns

food:

1: 2 scoops protein powder & water

2: 1 bag jerky, water

3: 2 cans tuna, water

4: creatine, water, 2 oz apple juice

5: Church’s Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper & talent show: 4 pancakes, 2 links sausage.

6: 3 C broccoli, 1/3 C almonds & dried cranberries, 1/4 C lite ranch, water

I due full squats (hamstrings fully on calves for me thanks to my short legs) for a few reasons: 1. that’s how we’re supposed to do them for strength and development 2. in competition we must break parallel. w/my legs and stature I feel that I have to bury the squat in order to dispell any doubt about depth. This is fine and good. I like full squats. But I have hit a snag recently: On my way back up I’m stalling out at or ju-u-u-st above parallel with maximal weight.

I think I’m going to dial it back a few pounds on my max effort set and see if a few weeks there will help me blow through where I want to be (dialing back to 445 and wanting to be 455). I’m also looking back into assistance work that will help with the stall.

Yesterday:

cardio: none, lifted squats, ghr’s, goodmornings, shrugs

what I ate:

1: 8 oz chicken, 1/3 C garlic, lettuce leaves

2: 2 cans tuna

3: 1 apple, creatine

4: 8 oz chicken, 1 medium onion, 1/2 Green pepper, taco seasoning

5: 4 oz jerky (60 grams protein)

6: 1 bag popcorn w/pepper (I slipped!) 

I feel silly, but I came to a silly realization this week: I’m understanding old favorite songs differently now. I had loaded my ipod with new songs for a new "heavy bag" play list to listen to during cardio. I used to love doing cardio to rap and hip-hop because of the rhythems, so I loaded on a bunch of old favorites. Went to work out with them and BANG! I’m feeling differently about the songs (still good, but different).

Duh! Why wouldn’t I? I’m older, have a family, living in  a different place, have different goals, etc.

Examples *Warning, explicit lyrics*:

Dr. Dre., "They forgot about Dre"

feelings then: Dude, cool beat. Man, Eminem has good diction.

Feelings now: Dre has a valid point. Young whipper-snappers think they invented the game?! Go get ‘em Dre. Show ‘em how it’s done.

Ice Cube: Wicked

Then: hehehe, he said his mom has a trunk full of 9’s.

Now: Wow, something really set him off and now he’s exploding. Wonder what it was.

Eminem: Just the way I am

Then: Waaaa! Nobody understands me! Hey! Nobody understands him either!

Now: Dude, I thought I was under alot of stress. Poor guy. I should buy him a beer.

Anthrax and Public Enemy: Bring the Noise

Then: Wow, mixing rap and rock is cool. Wonder why nobody else does this? This song is so deep. Fight for your rights man!

Now: …ummm…I think it’s about…uhhh…sure! It’s about…in my opinion..you know…umm…

                      Still great to workout to though!

Yesterday:

1: scoop protein and coffee, water, vitamins

2: 1 can tuna

3: chicken and broccoli

4: 8 oz chicken breast

5: Tai-style chicken and garlic wraps: 8 oz chicken (chicken breast, dill, orange juice, crock-potted), 1/4 C pickled garlic (Cabella’s outfitters, it’s awesome stuff), 8 or so lettuce leaves. water

Cardio: none (Sunday)

Strange thing this week. I had meetings scheduled for every evening this week except Monday. Wasn’t really an intentional thing, but a necessity. Looking at the calendar in the kitchen on Sunday Kim and I just sorta buckled down and planned our strategy for dinners/bath/bed time for the boys, and buckled down to get through the week.

But it didn’t happen.

    Monday is my day off, so np there. Tuesday came and my council meeting happened as scheduled. but then that was it. Wednesday’s meetings got cancelled due to snow, thursday got postponed due to scheduling conflicts, Friday’s meeting showed up 3 hours early and was done by 5, and two of my three meetings for this evening (before and after worship tonight) have been postponed for awhile due to work/illness. What was a somewhat hectic week went to a very doable one. Kinda cool.

    So, having gotten paid yesterday (yay) and picked up some groceries as a result (yay-yay) I am now sitting down drinking my first cup of protein coffee (thanks Shanbl, it DOES taste just like a cafe mocha) and contemplating a series of healthy meals over the next week.

   Which makes me ask: What’s your favorite healthy dinner? I’d love some ideas! Please lemme know!

Yesterday:

cardio: 20 minutes: 10 minutes sled, 5 minutes recumbant, 5 minutes elliptical

           20 minutes snow shovelling

what I ate:

1: 5 egg whites, coffee, water

2: 1 slice whole wheat pizza

3: 1 slice whole wheat pizza

4: 6 oz whitefish, 1/3 C coleslaw, water

5: 6 oz whitefish, water

So the Birthday challenge didn’t go too well in terms of bodyfat loss.

…it did produce 2 tied pr’s in Squat and DL and a new pr in the Bench.

…I’ve slid back into the 220’s and 22%’s.

…I’ve been motivated to reevaluate my diet and cardio.

…I’ve gotten some great ideas on food prep and meal planning on the run that I’m going to implement as soon as I get paid again (lol, gotta buy the good food before I can eat the good food) which is supposed to be tommorrow.

…I’ve gotten a clean bill of health from the Dr. and the Dentist.

    So, is it a back slide or a new beginning? I’m not sure yet. I think it’ll all be dependant upon my actions from here on out. It’s a back slide if I don’t improve and just continue to slip on the diet and skip the cardio. It’s a new beginning if I rededicate myself and use this as a corner to fight out of, not going backwards anymore but taking control and being deliberate about what I eat, when I workout, and how my time is spent.

So, I’m going for a new beginning. I’ve posted current progress pics to force me to look at it too.

Here’s to new starts, may this be the last one needed!

Yesterday:

weight:221.5

cardio: circuit training 90 minutes

what i ate:

meal 1: 5 egg whites, water, coffee, vitamins

meal 2: 2 cans tuna

meal 3: 2-3 oz smoked ham, 1 oz slice lowfat cheese, 1 whole wheat hamburger bun

meal 4: Protein Lovers whole wheat crust pizza: whole wheat crust (water, olive oil, whole wheat bread flour, salt, yeast), mozarella, pepperoni, sausage, garlic, black olives, parmasean cheese, tomato sauce (tomato sauce, paste, ground beef, spices).

ok, ok, meal 3 & 4 wern’t the best choices. Like I said, I need to go grocery shopping.

Concept for new meal plan:

meal 1: protein coffee, 5 egg whites, 2 yolks (55 grams protein)

meal 2: 1 can tuna or 1 scoop protein powder (25-30 grams protein)

meal 3: 1 can tuna & lettuce or 8 oz chicken & broccoli (30-45 grams protein)

meal 4: protein coffee (25 grams protein)

meal 5: apple & creatine

meal 6: 8 oz chicken or 6 oz ground beef or 8 oz turkey, 1 can green beans (45-55 grams protein)

meal 7: popcorn

So, so far here are the results:

weight 222 (gained)

bf% 22.5% (gained)

squat: to be done Thursday

Bench: 355 (new pr)

DL: failed 510

     Very disapointing. I’m hoping to salvage at least a squat pr to add to the bench, but my true hope was for that 19% bf. C’est la vie. Just dial in the diet and up the cardio.

This morning: 219.5 (-3 lbs)

I ate very low carb yesterday and kept up a fairly steady pace of movement from 7-5pm. I’ve begun to increase my water intake again as well, but MAN is it fun finding bathrooms between visits lol!

I picked up some roses and twizzlers for Kim yesterday as a gift from the boys and I for Valentines day. Aside from our wedding I’ve never given her the standard 1 dozen red roses until today. She really liked them, but I think she might have liked the 12 red twizzlers tied to the top of the box a bit better . We’re planning on making some birthday cakes for Kim’s workout partner (feb. 17th) and I (16th) today. Mine is too cool. Kim is making it in the shape of a giant coffee cup. We’ll take it to worship tonight so that we can "spread the calories around". Amy’s will be in the shape of an m&m character and covered in m&m’s. I think it’s going to church tommorrow or to Amy’s house.

Yesterday:

Cardio: 10 min walk, steady "going" from 7pm to 5 or 6 pm.

 What I ate:

Meal 1: Jerkey, water, coffee, (45 g prot.)

meal 2: jerkey, water (45 g pro.)

meal 3: 2-3Tbs peanutbutter

meal 4: sloppy joe salad: 24 oz 90/10% ground chuck browned, drained, and patted dry. Garlic, onion, ketchup, worchestershire sauce, low sugar bbq sauce, black pepper, 4 Tbs pineapple juice, red curry powder, 2 Tbs brown sugar. Served with lettuce leaves tai-wrap style. I had 16 oz of it with about 1/2 a head of lettuce.

meal 5: 1 cup coffee, water. (no snacking!!!!!:)  )

Ok, today is friday and an official weigh-in day. Weighed in at 222.5 and 22.0%. The % is down .5 from earlier this week while the weight stayed the same. Al, I think you were right!

I reviewed my old blogs to see what was going well with my fat loss in the past that had changed and I found something interesting: everything had changed. Diet, time of meals, tracking meals here, frequency, amount and quality of carbs, water intake, cardio levels, n.e.p.a. levels, etc. No WONDER I slid backwards.

So, yesterday I tried to get back on track. I’m still going to fininsh the Birthday challenge, but let’s see how long this takes to get to 19% now.

yesterday:

Cardio: 10 minutes high on sled-mill and recumbant bike

meal 1: buffalo jerky (52 grams protein, 6 sugars)

meal 2: 6 oz fish

meal 3: 1 tsp creatine, 1 tsp sugar, water

meal 4: 14 oz chicken, 2 Cups rice, 3/4 can fat-free cream of chicken soup, garlic

meal 5: popcorn

meal 6: 8 oz milk