Training Hard, Living Well

I’ll be out of here and out of the loop for a few days. No net, no gym *cry* As soon as I get back I want to bulk up, but I refuse to stop eating clean. And I want to eat as naturally as possible.

5 improvements:

1. Track workouts more consistently 
2. Meal planning 1 week in advance
3. Produce will be as unprocessed as possible
4. Change out my supps
5. Stay motivated

Consistency is king. Diet, exercise, rest. I keep forgetting that rest thing, too. Dammit!! I like sleeping and I like lifting! Whats a guy to do?

Ive got less than 2 weeks to go. Once I get back stateside, I will start all over again.

//understand, my diet here is rather controlled. I am very limited in my food choices. Good because there isn’t a lot of junk, but bad because I don’t have the variety of fresh or high quality produce back home.

Fish, for example. Cans of tuna are here, sure, but no variety. No salmon, tilapia, grouper, halibut, snapper, ahi (: , well……you get the point. I live off of chicken breast and microwaved veggies. The veg I can nuke until they are hot and crisp, steam-consistency.//

What it comes down to is re-programming myself when I get home. All my friends are going to want to drink and party, which is cool, to a point. I’m going to hit an adjustment period, but I don’t wanna slack. I want to grow, to develop, and stay within a trim BF. Settling in will mean working hard and learning the gyms I will attend.

I feel good that I am thinking about this now. Previsualization, in a way.

Soon I will post more pics. I am scared to compare, partly because I am weary there won’t be much of a difference between my 207lb and 202lb self. Nah, there won’t be. Its only 6lbs, right? Hrm.

I’ve been eating pretty good up until today. I had some cheese and wheat thins, and a half of bag of mini snickers. I was kind of celebrating St. Patty’s since I do not drink. And I dropped down to 202. Some of it water to be sure, but I’ll get the rest of this fat of in the next few weeks.

Also, I participated in a St.Patricks Day 5K run. My pace has been wrecked by all of my fartlec/interval sessions and as soon as I was leading the group for the first 1/4 I knew I had messed up. Usually I use negative progression, starting slow, and speeding up as my body warms. Not today. The end result was the same: 22m07s. On par. Two factors that definitely slowed me down was a ab cramp at 2K and a nasty head-wind on the return.

Fartlek runs are good, and fat-burners, but not a replacement for an endurance run. 5K is nothing!! 10K woulda killed me. Hahaha

As I typically avoid lower back and legs, which is probably typical of most guys, I have attempted to make some progress in those areas. Stupid me, I guess I tried to progress too fast. On set #3, rep 2 of my deadlifts, during the return upward I felt my back twitch. It was like an electrical shock: numb, then pain, then numb again and I lowered the bar back to the floor.

The rest of my back workout I tested it out. I was pretty sure it was a muscle pull and not a disc. Afterall I wasn’t doubled over or in constant pain, just uncomfortable and during certain ROMs the dull pain gradually appeared. I finished all my exercises and even did 4×15 Back Extention (hyperextensions) and Supermans…

Next day, my back was tight, but I could still touch my toes. Sitting in my chair at work was not a problem and had only a mild discomfort at the gym the next day. Tomorrow is my next back day and I plan on keep developing my back only at a hi-rep, mid-intensity for the next month or two. Wish me luck.

There isn’t much time left. Time enough to get motivated, stay focused, and complete my goal. Just a fist full of fat on my belly and today it felt kinda loose. Is that normal? Is that an indication that its about to fall off. It doesn’t feel at home there anymore, I guess. All the definition I am seeing is making it less and less welcome.

Dinner tonight was perfect. Baked, skinless, chicken breast, with a small handful of rice, seasoned with pepper, and steamed broccoli. Dessert was 6oz of chocolate milk.

I had to take an extra day off in order to complete some school work and get my office work done, too. Missed my leg day, which won’t help my goals. I will probably tack on some cardio after my workout this morning

Yesterday I had a great chest workout and even had some time to catch a lil tanning action. I ran intervals on the stairmaster to break the monotony of the treadmill and it resulted is a satisfying downpour of sweat. Got my HR to 162, which has been a challenge. In the future I would like to own a Polar or some other device suitable for tracking HRs.

Chest day consisted of BB Benchpress: 4x 10rep@255#; DB Fly: 4x 8rep@45; Weighted Dip: 4x 10rep@+50#; Seated Cable Fly: 6x 12rep@20-30#(per different ROMs); Inclined Pushups: 3x 20,15,12reps. I finished with Triceps: Tri Rope Pulldown: 4x 10rep@55#, Tricep Curl: 3x 10rep@45,40,40#, Tri Rope Raises: 3x 10rep@40#

Ate a Grilled Chicken & Salsa Salad (dammit I added cheese), watched some stupid friggin TV, and slept like a baby.

Wow, I guess it *has* been a few since my last post…and chest day again, lol.

My back day was rather successful. Continuing to improve on my weighted pull-ups, which is making unweighted pullups almost effortless. Rawr. I was such a wuss with pull-ups last year and forever before, its great to knock out 20 without a hitch. I hit a knew personal best on the bent-over rows. 2×10@85lb for warmup and then 3×10@100lb. Rawkin’. I’ll ratchet it up some more, probably hit at least one set of 110 in 2 weeks.

Also saw some minor weight loss this week, hopefully it will continue a steady fat burn. Mixing HIIT into my cardio plan might have helped me afterall. It definitely gets my heart pumping. Theres a 5k on Monday, but I haven’t decided whether or not to do it. Tempted to, if just to see if I can break my sub 22min barrier. Hmmm.

I enjoyed my day off and caught up on some much needed sleep. I resisted the urge to splurge on food and gave myself a small taste of peach cobbler. A single spoonful was enough to tide me over.

This discipline/self-control exercise is really good for my person. I have always been a glutton and gorged myself on whatever I had in front of me. Whole pizzas, plates of food, it didnt matter…

I could make excuses about Plate-Cleaning Syndrome or something, but bah. Come on, really. Its all about self-control. We are grown-up’s here right? Adults? Obviously, its time to take responsibility for the actions, and here, my actions affect my diet, my body, and ultimately my confidence and sense-of-self. I think it pays to match my diet with my metabolism.

In a few hours, I’ll be at the gym. Its chest day, a fun day for me. Just need to stay motivated and put my body to the test during my cardio interval.

When I first arrived in Qatar, I had a rather ill-planned personal body weight goal of 225lbs. I made it, but I didn’t have the right plan to reach it. Basically I was lazy. At 227lbs I had a really hard time running more than 2 miles. Talk about a downer. Of course, the humidity was 98% and the ambient temp was in the 110s.

Since late August, I refocused my efforts: I started going to the gym three times a day. Morning: Stretching and random Tai Chi/Yoga I’ve picked up, Lunch: Heavy lifting major/minor muscle group, and Dinner: I would finish off the muscles and ensure soreness for the next day.

I went from 227 to 203 in almost 90 days, keeping, I think, most of my muscle, not all of my fattieness. Goddamn if it isn’t impossible to rid myself of handles and happy-trail-hill! GRRR. All-told: me + progress = satisfied.

Recently, I’ve made some gains: up to 213 now, my lats are filling out, and my traps are taking shape as well.

I am in a new phase this week to continue for the next 3.5 weeks. Cutting. Circuits and cardio. And a clean diet. My expectations are high, but I not meeting them will only drive me to try harder next time.

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