My Body Blog

This week  was the wrap-up for my HST 7 rep set, and I was pleased with how it went. I had some other issues I was focused on and afraid I might be distracted going into the gym, but I was really focused and for the most part had two great workouts. Here was my routine for the last three weeks. I did the far right column this week.

Couple of notes, I had a knee issue going the first time I did the deadlifts, which  seems to be resolved. I am slowly working up the weights, and 135 felt like a piece of cake. Hoping to up the poundage significantly the next few weeks.I also had a hard time on my last upper body workout with the shoulder press. Just hit the wall after the heavy declines & weighted dips and couldn’t get those 50’s over my head, so I dropped back to 40’s. Have to confess that I also blew off my calf raises & tibia raises the last lower body workout. Mostly it was a time issue, I had an appointment, and my workout was going a little longer, so felt like the calves were logical place to cut.

My diet hasn’t been as strong, partly because of working out harder and I’ve just needed more calories. However I did a better job of eating 5-6 smaller meals. I but a lot of plastic containers and have a set of 9 small ones that I load up as my meals for 3 days at a time, and I’ve been eating salads at night at least 2 nights a week.

Got the calipers out and the measurements around my waistline were minutely smaller than last reading, but really hard to tell if that was real progress or imagined. Looking in the mirror, I can see a difference, but I’ll give it another week or two before I can say one way or not.

So for the next 3 weeks I am going to four sets of 5 reps each. Should be great workouts!

So this week was more about not falling back then making any progress. I started to come down with a cold end of last week and although I never really got too sick, I had a sinus ache and runny nose most of the week and felt crummy. So didn’t do any cardio all week, and just lifted twice.

This week, my HST program went from 2 sets of 10 to 3 sets of 7 (volume change from 20 to 21 reps). Since this was a transition week, I went a little lighter on the weights, partly because I wasn’t feeling so hot and partly because it’s actually good for you to give your tendons a break while you transition.

I also had to travel this week. I was on the road Monday through Thursday, and was dead tired each night by the time I hit the bed. One nice thing was that my wife came along on the trip and it was good to have her company. I also got to see an old friend who is headed off to Iraq for a 15 month tour. We’ve known each other for nearly 15 years and it was so nice to connect with him again. I’m praying for his safe return and very grateful for the sacrifice he makes for our country.

So with the travel and the cold, my diet was a little off. It wasn’t so much that I ate badly as that I had a hard time getting my meals in on time and didn’t drink as much protein as I needed. Good news is I weighed in Thursday and weight was still the same. Measured my waist and also used the calipers and everything was still same as last week. So good news is I didn’t go backwards, but also failed to keep the cut going. I’m not going to get hung up over it and just focus on tightening things back up again this week.

I’m also feeling a lot better after getting a lot of rest this week, and psyched about hitting the gym again. I went for a run this morning and was only about 80%, but hope to be back on top again by the end of the week.

Progress is coming along well, I finished my 2nd week of the HST routine, and still fine tuning some of the weights and exercise order. Used the calipers again today and navel is at 18 mm (down from 20), hip at 6 mm (down from 8mm) and love handles still at 16 mm. Waist measurement is down 1/2 inch to 33.5, but other measurements chest, arms & thighs are same or bigger, so cut is working the way it should (so far). Here’s a few pics.

I did have one little issue, the very first leg day I felt a tweak in my knee. I went ahead and worked through the session, but it has come back to bother me a few days. I am icing it now trying to give it a chance to recover, but I don’t want to push my legs until I get this under control. Worst case would be I had to forget about legs for this cycle, but we’ll see how the icing/rest goes.

Diet has changed, I want to give credit where it is due to a few other people on who have pointed me in the right direction. ChickenTuna is really lean and on her blog she made a comment that helped me. She would love to eat pizza, but makes lean meal choices because they help her reach her goal NOT because they taste good. Seems obvious, but it was what I needed to hear. Another tip was from GoddessAthlete who had more specific diet suggestions about eating more vegetable and low glycemic fruit carbs in the evening. Again, seems obvious, but was what I needed to hear. One final tip from Lyle McDonald, who has a great website was that any caloric restricted diet should help you cut, provided you are taking enough protein.

So diet has been stricter, carbs eaten in the morning hours, sucking down 1.5 g/lb of protein, eating more salads in the evening, and generally keeping my diet about 2300 kcal on an off day and 2500 kcal on an exercise day.

OMG, I found an old recipe I tore out of an issue of M&F a few years ago and cooked it today, it was fantastic.

Here’s how it goes… Brown 2 lb’s extra lean ground beef, then rinse with hot water to remove all grease. Throw it back into the pan with a diced shallot and chopped portabella mushroom; cook a little longer until the shallots and mushroom are browned. Add ¼ cup light milk, and enough flour to thicken, add nutmeg then simmer with a bay leaf, about 3-5 minutes then remove the bay leaf.

In another bowl, mix 28 oz can diced tomatoes with Italian spices, pepper and if you like a dash of cayenne (I like the additional spicy flavor). Boil 9 lasagna sheets (or as many as you need for two layers in your pan). Put half the tomatoe mix in the bottom of the pan, cover with a layer of noodles, then spoon half the meat mix on to and repeat with the second layer. Lightly sprinkle small amount of parmesan cheese on top.

For the toping, mix two eggs with 1/3 a cup of plain yogurt, and spoon it onto the top of your dish making sure you cover all the noodles and put it into the corners and edges. Cook covered for 40 minutes in 350 degree pre-heated oven, then remove cover and cook another 20 minutes uncovered.

Remove and enjoy with friends!

I’ve been reading a lot of tips and basically determined that I need to reduce my carb intake, especially the cheater stuff. I found this article for spicing up the diet and thought I would share my own spicy recipe. Thai Curry makes anything, even chicken taste soooo good. 

First, brown diced chicken breast in small amount of olive oil with sliced shallots and as much paste as you can handle (start with 1/2 tsp per serving size and add more if you like). If using red curry, add diced tomatoes, small amount of chicken stock and chopped veggies (bok-choy goes well with the red too) canbe added. Use a small amount of sweetener (such as Splenda) and fish sauce, then simmer until chicken is cooked and veggies are tender. Add coconut milk last or else it will curdle in the heat.

Variations: with green curry use tomatillos and squash, for yellow use fennel and yellow bell peppers. Experiment with your favorite veggies to find the combination you like best. One thing I have noticed is that the spiciness will diminish overnight, so even if it seems too hot when you cook it, the next day it is liable to be perfect.

I usually cook a couple of big batches of food on the weekend and then my wife and I just pack meals the rest of the week. I use a rice cooker and make a big batch of brown rice, but sometimes I will dice up sweet potatoes and through that into the curry instead of rice. 

Tip: If you like the curry paste, look around for a restaurant supply store. In our area we have Cash & Carry, where I can buy a 6-mo supply of curry paste and big bags of Oatmeal and brown rice for about the price of the small packages they sell in the grocery store. 

Starting the first week of January, I’m beginning an 11 week HST routine. Here is my list of exercise I will do.

For reps, I will do 1×20, 2×10, 3×7 and 4×5. For progresion, I will do 3 work outs (one each week) at each rep count. I would also post my max weights for each, but there are a few I am not sure about my max, and will have to fudge it once I get into the gym. I don’t want to mess with my SD phase right now.

As I mentioned, I am only lifting twice a week, so I have a weeks rest for each body part. That’s why I call it a modified HST, since they recommend more workouts. However, I did this routine over the Fall and saw good results. I didn’t really track my progress, so this is an attempt to formally validate what I think will work wel for me.

As I discussed in my profile, my goal is to lower my body fat, so in addition to the weights, there is nutrition, cardio and rest to factor in to my routine. I will discuss these in more detail in a later posting. I’m measuring my fat at the midsection with calipers, here’s what they read now. Navel: 20mm Hip: 10mm Back: 16mm. I’d like all of those measurements to be 1/2 what they are today