This post may anger a few people, but oh well. Every year about this time, everyone and their momma is ready to workout and be healthy. You see people buying all of this healthy food (or what they seem to think is healthy), buying all of these supplements, and not to mention the increased number of gym memberships. Now all this is great; if you see your goals all the way through. I hate it when someone who I haven't seen dot the door of the gym in months tries to tell me what I should be doing. I'm a very even tempered person, but even for me it takes a lot to not tell them to shut up! it's great that you have enthusiasim. It's great that you want to change your lifestyle. It's great that you want to workout like mad. However, let's see that same drive when you don't see the results you want, when you're tired and sore, when you have to say no to the treats at work or the alcoholic nightcaps. Let's see that drive some spring and summer, or even better, let's see you be more determined than ever. I'd never claim to be perect or holier than thou, but I can tell you that I've NEVER given up the fight! I present the same challenge to everyone, let's not give up the fight. Forget the new year resolutions, and change your lifestyle. Work harder than you ever have, dream big, and don't give up. The best to everyone and stay diciplined!

about a month ago, I met a trainer at m gym.  I was talking to her a bit about what I wanted to do, and maybe even compete.  She'd seen how hard I work at the gym, and offered to help with my diet and such.  She changes things around with my marcos, did my bodfat, etc.  When I started with her, I was at 293lbs, 21%BF (I had already lost 16lbs on my own before this).  I was surprised with the BF; I was sure it'd been much higher.  I met with her again yesterday.  After just under a month, I'm now down to 15% BF, and 283lbs!  Also, almost all of my measurements went down as well.  I'm pretty impressed with the results.  I had her look over my food journal, and she made a few suggestions which I will get to here soon.  Well shall see what the next month has in store for me!

it's been awhile since I've blogged anything.  Things have been going well.  I've been hitting the gym hard 6 days a week, and recently have started to get my diet back on track.  For the first time, I've started writing everything down I eat, good or bad.  It's really helped me stay on track because I have to be accountable.  Right now I'm just keeping track of my calories and protein.  I'm trying to get in at least 300g of protein a day.  On Mondays I'm taking in 2800 calories, Tuesday and Wednesday 1800 calories, Thursday 2200 calories, Friday 1500 calories, Saturday is my cheat day and I've been averaging about 3000 calories, and Sunday 2000 calories.  I'm trying to keep my body guessing.  I'm also getting about 1/2 gallon of water in, but I know I need to get that up to atleast a gallon.  Other than water, the only thing I drink is Crystal Light.  My woorkouts have been intense to say the least.  I've been doing drop sets on the last set of the majority of the exercises I do.  I've also been getting between 20-30 min of cardio in a day on average.  A trainer told me today to try to keep my HBM at about 135, which was difficult, but I was able to get an hour of cardio in with ease.  I then came home and did another 15 minutes.  My goal is to try to do a show next year, but we'll see how that goes.  Overall, things have been going very well!

So I took yesterday off; not only from the gym, but from my diet, and you know what, I'm not even mad about it!  I've been busting my ASS as of late, and mentally, I think I really needed a "slob" day.  However, I'm back on the grind today and going back to the office to put some major work in!

Things are going EXCELLENT!  My weight is dropping pretty quickly; almost too quickly, so I'll adjust my diet in a week or so if it still continues to come off too quickly.  I'm doing a very good job of listening to my body, and training accordingly.  I'm also taking that apporach with my nutrition.  If I feel I need an extra 100 calories or so, I'll take them in.  BUT, that's only if I REALLY need it.  However, I know I need about 20g more of protein in my day.  I'm continuing to hit the weight hard, and keeping a good varitey in what I'm doing so I don't plateau or drop.  Also, my cardio is on point these days!  I keep a very good variety in that as well so it doesn't get too boring, even though I really don't mind cardio too much.  Though I def LOVE hitting the weights more, when I do cardio, mentally I feel like BF is just dropping off.  Thanks to all of you who are following me and let's all continue to work hard!

So I've been gettting many questions about my cardio.  The very simple answer to it all is, I just know I have to do it! lol!  I try my best to get some type of cardio in everyday.  If I hit the weights hard, I try to get at least 15 minutes in afterwards.  I try to devote two days in each cycle just to cardio, and to let my muscle heal a bit.  As far as the actual cardio, I just keep changing it up.  I walk to in tradmill on an incline, do the eliptical, stairmaster, the bike, etc.  I do it all!  Sometimes if I'm getting bored with one of them, I'll do something like 30 min on one, and 15 on another.  Or I'll do 3 different ones all for 15 min a piece.  Also, within each cardio session, play games in my head so I stay focused.  For instance, I'll decide I'm going to do 30 min.  I'll warm up for 3 min, then I'll go hard for about 12.  Then I'll cool down for about 3 min, and do HIIT for 10 min, and cool down the last 2 min.  That's just an example.  I think the most important of it all is the mental.  I key in hard on where I was, where I am, and where I want to be.  I take all of the negatives and focus on making them positives.  I constantly train my mind, and therefore, my body not push harder.  But I also listen to my body and have learned when I can kill it, and when I need to cool out a bit.  So there it is.  That's how I get through my cardio.  I know it's not fun, but it is necessary, so buck up and get at it!

I've been thinking about my training, and I think I'm going re-arrange my training and TRY to limit weight training to 30 min.  This will be extremely difficult for me because I LOVE to lift, but I have to keep my goals in mind and I'm thinking this ma be the right move.  It'll force me to focus even harder on what I'm doing and allow more time for cardio.  We shall see!

Rest is what's needed today!  I've been killing it in the gym like always, and the diet, as of late.  However, today I know my body just needs a break.  I'm going to stay diciplined on the diet, even though I will not be at the gym today.  Things have been going very well.  I just got finished with a 4 week full body program, and now I'm back into my split routine.  I LOVE just being able to hit a bodypart hard, but I defintely needed to chnge it up, because now that I'm back to the split, I can tell a huge difference.  I'm also impressed that my strength levels are stay pretty high.  Usually when I kick in the diet, I lose a little strength, but I've stayed consistent and if anything, increased strength in a few places.  I LOVE moving big weight.  I must admit, it's fun watching people watching me like, "there's no way he's going to move that weight", and when I do, and do it with ease, I can hear them thinking to themselves, "damn, I really need to kick it in gear myself".  Litle do they know, that's years and years of hard work, and little do they know, I don't care so much about moving big weight, I want a great body!  My diet has been on point the last 3-4 weeks as well.  I'm eating about 6-7 meals a day (including a couple of shakes), about 2200 calories, and 290 g of protein.  My body always changes quickly and dreasically when I clean up my diet.  I just need to learn to keep it up longer the 8 weeks.  But the summer is quickly approaching, so I really need to get it together.  Thank you all for your support and let's all continue to work hard towards our goals!

I haven't blogged in awhile, so here it goes!  As some of you have noticed, I went back into my split routine a couple of weeks ago and I'm LOVING it!  I almost forgot how nice it is to just blast a bodypart until you can't do more, lol!  I've also changed a few things in my diet.  I've added about 70 extra grams of protein a day, and about 300 calories.  I've also decreased my cardio as a result of the split routine taking a bit more time and time for my body to recover.  Right now I'm doing about 20-45min, 4-5 times a week.  Because of these changes, I've gained about 7lbs, but my body is looking better, and clothes are continuing to become looser.  I'm trying my best not to get on that scale even though it's tough.  I just have to remember losing weight isn't necessarily my goal, changing my body is!  I've also dedicated a workout totally to abs.  in the past I've done abs as an after thought after one of my routines, but I've decided to give them their own workout.  I'm paying for that decision, lol!  All in all, things continue to go well.  I'm just going to stay focused and determined on moving forward everyday!

This week I decided to go back to my split routine, and I'm glad I did!  I'm sore in places I haven't been in awhile.  I'm definetely going to try to remember to change my routine every six weeks or so.  I feel that my body is responding well to the change.  I've also decided to cut back on my cardio a bit.  I was feeling good, but I want to focus more on lifting now that I'm back to the split.  My aim is to get about 8hrs of cardio in a week.  I've also increased my calories by about 150-200, and increased my protein by 70g/day.  In addition, I'm going to try my best not to look at the scales!  The reason for these changes is because I as falling back into focusing on the number on the scales decrease rather than changing my physique.  It's not worth all the effort I'm putting in if I don't get the results I want.  All three phases (lifting, cardio, diet) are still going really well.  I'm very pleased with my results thus far.  Hpwever, I did purposely cheated on my diet this past weekend to try to trick my body, and I think it may have worked.  I'll try to post more progress pics in a couple of weeks.

What's new people?!  Figured I should write a blog since it's been awhile.  Things are going VERY well.  I needed to drop 5lbs to make my goal for January, and it didn't happen at all!  But I'm cool with it.  I was talking to my friend who is a trainer, and he suggested that I up my protein a bit more.  So last week I started ingesting about an extra 70g and I'm sure that's had an effect on my body, but positively.  He also reminded me to pay attention to how my body looks and my clothes fit rather than the number on the scale, which continues to haunt me, lol!  But the diet continues to stay on point, as does the cardio and lifting.  I haven't lost any strength, and if anything, gained some with many things.  I'm still debating on when/if I'll go back to my split routine.  I'm still seeing great results with the full body workouts.  I suppose I'll decide at some point.  But yes, overall, all three are going excellent and I'm very much on track for this summer!

Well, I was sure today was going to be an amazing day on the scale, but I was wrong.  Stayed the same!  BUT, I'm positive tomorrow will be the day since today wasn't, especailly with it being a cardio day.  I figure as long as I continue to eat very clean and get that cardio in, the #'s will be lower tomorrow.  Also, I have to say I'm very pleased with my strength!  Usually when I get on teh cardio grind, I lose some strength, however, this go around, my strength actually continues to increase.  The only thing I can attribute it to is diet.  It really is 80%, no joke!

Tomorrow starts beginning of the work week for 2010.  I'll be going back to my 2 workouts per day routine.  I took it a bit easier on the cardio today because I know I'll be back to my regualr rountine of things tomorrow.  I'm still mulling over going back to my split routine or not.  I've been seeing really good results with the full body workouts, and by doing them, it allows for more time to focus on cardio and resting.  HOWEVER, I also really love killing a particular body part.  Suggestions/comments are welcome! 

People have asked me how I'm able to do so much cardio.  I thought I'd take a bit of time to answer this.  First off, I make sure I have some sort of carb before I hit the gym, usually a peice of wheat toast or something similar.  Also, about 2/3 of the way in, I drink a protein shake.  But I think the two most important things I do are making sure I'm eating the right meals, right amounts, at the right times throughout the day, and also making sure there is A LOT of variety in the cardio I do.  I use pretty much every cardio machine in the gym, I do intervals, I do steady state, etc.  I also make sure to listen to what my body is telling me.  If I have a lot of energy, I'm going all out, and if I'm a bit sluggish, I adjust accordingly. 

Also, people ask about my diet.  If you like, you can check on my healthly foods on my page.  I'm still updating it, but for the most part, it's the same foods, but switching some out for others for variety.

All in all, things have been going EXCELLENT thus far.  I'm very pleased with the progess I've made with my body and I'm going strong into week 8 and 2010!

I've had quite a bit of time off of work over the holidays.  I set a goal to lose 10lbs over the break, before I go back to work on the 4th.  I realize this is a loft number, but I feel that if I set my goal high, I should fall in the the range, and it would keep me on track.  Right now I'm at -6lbs, which isn't bad at all.  I have 5 days to lose 4lbs, AND I'm resting the next couple of days.  I probably won't quite make it, but I'm roaring into the new year and week 8.  -34 lbs thus far.