jackets5’s BodyBlog

Hi everyone…I know I know, I’ve not wrote a blog for a bit but between the last month of school, my sister is having her baby and all her baby crap going on lol, my mom’s health problems, all my friends are leaving so we’ve been doing the good bye hang outs constantly, work, rehab, etc… I’m flippin strapped. I’ve been doing pretty good keeping up still but getting real run down. The knee is doing better. I will give an update when I can, but it may not be until next month after finals. So if you have commented me, messaged me, etc…I sincerely apologize for not getting back to you. I only have time for a few minutes on here when I’m on.

 As far as exercise…I’ve been lifting 4x/wk, I split up my routine and then 3-4 days of stuff for my knee. 2x of that is lifting for it, and 2x is jogging and agility drills now, which by the way I started about 3 wks ago. So weird to teach yourself how to run again but now I’m up to 10 min straight. This week I’m trying 15 min and maybe pick up my pace. I’m about 4.5-4.7 mph…I can’t quite stride out yet because it hurts. I got this bionic woman type brace now that helps. I do agility drills such as basketball slides, cariocas, mini jumps (some plyos and such). Stepping down stairs is still real hard so I practice that at least 2x a week too. I’ve been biking on the wkends sometimes fridays. During the summer it’ll be at least 4x a wk. I want to compete in the El Tour de Tucson come Oct or Nov I think…its about 100 miles maybe or there is one at 70…who knows. Lets see my upper body is getting stronger. I am now to 40s dumbells on shoulder press. 55s for incline and 65s for bench. I decline benched 135 for 4×10 the other day which I haven’t been able to do in years. Everyone last week was hogging the regular bench so I’ve not checked that yet…but last time I did 2×125x10 and then 2×115x12. My upper back is going well…I’m up to 120 on pulldown for 10, but I know machines aren’t the same everywhere. Seated row for us here I’m up to 85/95 x10 which is probably 110 or 120 anywhere else, its a little harder at our gym in my experienc. Bentover row is 95 for 10, and the assisted pull-up thing I’m down for 4×10x50 which is about 72% of my weight mind you is right around 166 rt now. So not bad…I hope to be able to do some pull-ups on my own real soon but I can’t jump up to grab the bar yet with my knee. 

I wish I could say my diet was still real strict but with everything going on I have been bad on the weekends. I do alright during the weekday but still so busy that I think I’ve hit subway up like 15 times in the past 2 wks. I think I’m still holding steady though at about 166-168 which is still better than where I started at 172 or so. I can’t wait until school is over…I"ll have so much more time. Anywho alrighty that is a quick update. Hope all is well w/everyone! take care

What was thought to be a problem with Lipo-6 (still may be a problem), may have actually been a problem with alcohol. I don’t drink a crazy amount but at times can be a weekend warrior. I have always had some reactions that I thought were normal when drinking. I get flushed quite often even to the point people would comment and I would just say ‘yeah doesn’t everyone get red?’ I’d get headaches while drinking too. No biggie right. Well the past 6 months or so of going out here and there, there have been more ‘weird’ things happening beyond the above mentioned. The few weeks have been horrible but I thought I was just having regular allergies. My stomach nausea turned into cramping and dizziness on top of that after I have been sober for about 5 hrs. I only had a moderate amount on St. Patricks Day and it made me completely ill that night about 5 to 6hrs later and all the next day to the point where I couldn’t breath, felt shakey, dizzy beyond comprehension, and like someone was grabbing my heart. I didn’t associate it with the drinking since I only had a few. Then that Sat we had a BBQ and same thing had a few rather strong drinks, and started drinking water about 5 hrs before we left since I was the DD. The entire time I started drinking i was real flushed and had a horrible headache. When we got home I got into bed and bam it hit me hard. Keep in mind I was sober. I became extremely dizzy, bad mental confusion, couldn’t breathe, my HR sored, bad cotton mouth, stomach cramping and nausea. It got worse and worse to the point I thought I was seriously having a heart attack. My mother has heart disease and became diagnosed at a young age after having a heart attack…so I thought I may be experiencing that. Took a lot for me to ask my roommate to take me cause I hate the ER in general especially here plus its a 100$ co-pay. So at the hospital of course they blow it off like I was joking or something. It started to subside after about two hours. They checked my heart and it was ok, my blood pressure and HR were up but not to the point they needed to do anything. They monitored me and I got to see the doc once and they sent me home. I was real sick the next day dizzy and such but nothing like that night. I went to the doc and lo and behold…I may have an alcohol intolerance where my body can’t break it down so well so I have these symptoms…usually happens among the asian community. So I’m waiting for the tests but all my symptoms matched and I can’t imagine what else it could be. I’ve not been that scared for a long time. Anywho people with this have a higher chance of having liver damage quicker because it accumulates and the liver works 2x as hard to finally break it down. I tell you I will stay away from that shit if it makes me like it did the past few weeks. YIKES! Anywho, I can manage but we are weekend warriors…maybe a blessing in disguise me thinks.

Well I tried Lipo-6 for 2 weeks and I noticed I was real antsy and nervous. I thought the effects woul go away once I got use to the caffeine but it didn’t. I was find with being jittery but I noticed when I would work out my heart felt like it had a lot of pressure on it then I had bad headaches. I started tracking my blood pressure. I took it before I started my work out and every day it was usually between 136-142/80-90. Now I know that’s high and I have rarely had my bp over 120/60 let alone it be that high. A few workouts I had to stop because I felt naseous and like my heart was going to explode. I drank lots of water, am eating well, etc. I gave myself one more week and kept taking my bp…same story. I even lowered the dose down to half of what it said I should take and still same bp, same feeling. So I decided to stop them. The next day was my rest day and then the next I took my bp just like before, and it had dropped down to 120/70 or so. The next day it was down to 116/65. The next day even lower. Now I’m no doctor, but seems to be a correlation here. My jitteriness has subsided, my workouts have returned to normal and my bp has dropped. I’m still taken my protein and such. After the two weeks, I flucuated 4-5 lbs and I’m holding steady at 170. I’m not sure if its water weight or what. I will continue to try to eat well. I had a few cheat days here this mid-term week and this weekend, no excuses though. I’m back on eating right tomorrow. This weekend I was at my parents and didn’t have time to make my stuff before I left. I didn’t eat my ‘usual’ things, but had some ok stuff there. Who knows, the monthly is upon me and food cravings seem to overwhelm me sometimes. I caved in a few times but won’t beat myself up over it. Its spring break and going to try to relax as much as possible.

I’ve not really been lifting to improve on my weight really, but I guess its inevitable. I’ve been lifting to get back into it, to tone up really. Since my knee dictates what I can and can’t do that day, I have a semi-routine. I’ve only been lifting 2-3x a week at a full body type doing only major exercises. I have made some improvements which I want to log here:

DB Bench Press - Went from 50’s to 55’s 3×10.

Hammer Strength Bench Press (machine type) - 4×10 w/55 on ea side

Lat Pulldown - went up a plate (can’t remember weight) for 4×10

Seated Row - "     "             "

DB Shoulder Press - need to move up. Going to try 40’s. Did 3×12x35s easily the other day.

Upright row (cable) - went up a plate (can’t remember weight)

DB Bicep Curls - 3×8x30s or 4×10x25s

All of my leg exercises (rehab exercises) increasing slowly - can now squat the bar. Mind you that I could squat well over 250 not too long ago but this injury…I have a hard time w/even the bar…crazy! I do 3×20 squats with it. I added 5 lbs on ea side and did 3×15. What else? hmm I’ll have to write out my rehab exercises and the improvements separately. I have to get to class.

I completed my first week of biking since I was released to get on my road bike. Log as follows thus far:

Sat (3/1) - 16 mi

Sun - 15 mi

Tues - 16 mi

Fri - 20 mi

Sat (3/8): 40 mi

 Booooyyyy the 40 mi may have been a little too much for my knee right now. I could harldy walk the next day so I took it off. Today I’ll probably go in and do my rehab. It feels better. I basically rode to visit my parents in their town about 20 mi away and rode back. It was pretty tough considering the terrain is all hills. Regardless, it was 3 hrs of cardio ha! Right now it takes me about an hour and a half to go 20 mi. A straight 20 mi probably less, but this was hilly. I didn’t lift over the weekend. I had a kink in my neck/shoulder from Fri lifting session. Hurt it doing DB Bench Press. Anywho, thats for another blog.

So far I’ve gotten about 47 miles on my bike since released. I’m going to keep track of this number. I had jury duty today and it was actually not too bad. Got home at a decent time to where I couldn’t get back to work, so I went off on the bike and rode to the gym…skipped class to go work out though…oops. There is just something about road biking that is addicting. It’s a little hard to bike during the week though since I have work then class in the evening. I’m going to find a way as soon as it gets darker later. So since I’m keeping track I’m going to log my bike miles from time to time:

 Saturday - 16 mi

Sunday - 15 mi

Tuesday - 16 mi

 The knee is doing ok. It was hurting a little when I got done so I laid off my exercises here at home. I’ll do them tomorrow pending on how it feels. I measured my thighs from one leg to the other. I have to get my one leg back to the same muscle build. Right now my legs are huge and I’m working on trimming them up. However I still need them the same:

My bad leg - is 22 1/2 in 5 in up from the knee cap

My good leg - is 24 1/2 in 5 in up from the knee cap

I have 2 inches and 4 months to go before I can get back to playing some basketball and flag football. poop . Much better than being down 4 to 5 inches on the bad leg. Its amazing how much muscle you lose in 2 wks of not being able to use  your leg. Alrighty thats enough for today.

I had a better day today with the supplements, but I only took one Lipo-6 pill in the morn as opposed to 2 and then 2 in the afternoon. I’m going to try 2 tomorrow morn to see what happens again. My workout was better I biked to the gym and lifted heavy. A very minute headache made me curious as to what my blood pressure was. I waited a while after my last lift and then measure it. It was pretty high for me. Above 120. I’m usually below 110 for the top number. My bottom number was fine. I know lifting increases the top number mostly. I’m going to have to take it at complete rest tomorrow. I guess I’m off to the store to buy a blood pressure monitor. I’m having trouble finding a multi-vitamin that doesn’t upset my stomach even with food. The only ones that never upset it were the flinstone chewables ha ha…so I took two of those at a time. Any suggestions would be great on any of the above or if you know of a multi-vitamin that is semi-cheap and doesnt kill the stomach. I appreciate it.

I bought some supplements last week like Thur and surprisingly they arrived Sat already! Wow! Over the weekend I took them as instructed by the directions and I was fine…but today…holy crap! I was feeling like crap. I’m not a big fan of fat burners but I wanted to try one…I got the Lipo-6. I got the optium gold standard whey protein and some fish oil as well. I took two pills this morn of the Lipo-6 and felt 10x worse than the weekend when I started. I was real shakey and such. I took a multi-vitamin I had from before as well and it didn’t go well with the stomach. I was sick all morning. I couldn’t hardly eat much during the day and started getting a horrible headache…then when I was working out my headache got much worse. Kind of scared me. I’ll keep trying it for a bit maybe only take one pill but sucks to spend all that money and have a bad reaction. It has caffeine in it and I don’t drink/eat much caffeine usually. So maybe I need to stick with one pill for a while even though it said the two days then move up. hmmm. Any suggestions whoever reads this? I may post on the forum tomorrow pending on how I feel as well. I need to get to bed.

I agree with this, but I didn’t write it ha. –>im tired of people askin me for advice and not taking it.   or people askin to workout with me and when we get to the gym  they do nothin.   EITHER TRAIN HARD OR DONT TRAIN AT ALL….

 This blog was suppose to be about my getting back on my road bike because I was released from the doc to do so Fri. So Saturday morning I biked to the gym, worked out, then biked back about 16 mi. A little rambunctious (sp?) me thinks…but then on Sunday I biked 15 more….DOH! I’m so excited I could pee my pants…been waiting for this for a long time! Thanks for listening

This will be my first official original blog on here seeing as how the others I did for my other site.

I’ve been doing ok on my diet. I had a horrible cheat weekend last weekend because it was everyone’s and their mother’s birthdays. No excuses. I am changing my diet a little bit. I may be consuming a few too many calories with my portion sizes. Since Tuesday I started measuring out and counting calories officially. I’ve decided to try to cut down to about 1500 or so instead of the 1800-2000. My original RMR calculation may have been overestimated. I will try to be a little more stricter on what I eat as compared to what I originally had. I am the type of person who gets real bored with the same foods though. So this is definitely tough. Basically my new diet will be, in the broad sense, although I am going to measure out most of it besides the veges and fruit:

breakfast: three eggs (1 yolk/2whites) and oatmeal or my total’s cereal. On the weekend I may do hashbrowns in a small portion for a change and the three eggs

snack: yogurt or fruit or possibly a protein shake w/my flax oil when my supplements come in

Lunch: grilled chicken or tuna/fish/shrimp and salad or steamed veges or raw veges and brown rice or pasta

snack: same as above

Dinner: similar to lunch. May have a whole wheat tortilla wrapped with the chicken/fish/shrimp to mix it up.

before bed snack(depends on what day since weekends my routine usually starts later): glass of milk or small protein shake when it comes in or protein snack of some choice

 I think what it comes down to is that I haven’t been too disciplined. I tell you one of my down falls is…I like to party on the weekends. I like to hang with my friends and the temptation to eat bad food is always there. I refuse to stop hanging out but I have made some changes in the type of alcohol I consume and how much. Although its sick…I have been doing straight shots to avoid any mixing of more cals. Its not too bad once you’ve had two or so . I am not competing or anything…and if I do someday then I’ll make the ‘hang-out’ as far as drinking sacrifice. Long weeks = stress and one thing I look forward to is hanging out with my friends on some weekends. Take that away and it may hinder my motivation for my exercise and such. Anywho ramble ramble…bye