newsgrant’s BodyBlog

Been eating clean for about a week now. Working out like crazy… heavy lifting and intense cardio sessions.  Haven’t seen much progress on the scale.  If anything, my weight might have gone up just a hair.  But I’m definitely seeing a difference in the mirror and in my clothes, even in just one week.  I haven’t tested my bodyfat again for a month or so, but I definitely believe it has dropped a bit.

One week down… many, many weeks to go.  But I won’t give up.  Not this time.  This time, it’s for life.

Worked hard up until Thanksgiving but my diet was crap.  Then went on vacation to be with family for Thanksgiving week & ate a ton.  Got back this week, though, and have been hitting the weights hard, doing 30 minutes of interval cardio training, and eating clean.  Have seen a huge difference already as my weight has gone down a few pounds this week alone.  Did an early morning session today & will do another training session tonight.  Same tomorrow.  Want to push myself hard before Christmas comes (so I stay motivated & don’t give up any progress with eating crappy Christmas food!) and thought a few double days between now & could surely help.  When I had my bodyfat tested around a month ago and saw that it was almost 30%, I knew I had to get my butt in gear and get rid of the oh-so-unhealthy belly fat!  Don’t want to toy around with any chance of prospective heart disease or diabetes.  Hope to get BF tested again in the next few weeks to see some official progress.

During my childhood & teenage years (and still today), my family was very inactive.  As such, I never learned from them what health & fitness were and how important they were to truly living well.  I never played any sports; couldn’t even tell you where the gym was located… let alone tell you what it looked like inside.   In fact, I remember my freshman year of high school… We had to run the mile in P.E. as part of our final exam.  As the other guys in the class lapped me one after the next, I felt as though death was breathing down my neck!  Okay, I admit guilty to a bit of exaggeration, but I think you get the drift.

When I stumbled across BodySpace a few months ago, I became truly motivated.  I started hitting the weights in January, joined a gym, and to date, have lost about 15 pounds.  While I am proud of my success, I grow very impatient with the speed of my results.  I look at the guy next to me repping 350 pounds on the bench while I struggle to get 150 up at all.  I must daily remind myself that Rome wasn’t built in a day… and that it will likely take years of hard work & dedication to develop a physique even remotely similar to that of the countless "studs" who belong to BodySpace.  All this to say I wish I could turn back time and have started this journey much earlier in life.  In the meantime, I’ll keep hitting it one day at a time and hope that a year from now, I will see drastic results!

Gym was great today.  Started out rough, though… I haven’t squatted since high school gym class (almost 10 yrs ago).  So I tried Smith machine squats today and really struggled.  Not only was I seemingly week with them, they were extremely awkward and difficult.  Maybe it was because it’s a new exercise for me.  After that, though, got back on with my usual lower body routine…leg press, extensions & curls and calf raises.  Then followed with HIIT.  Good day.  Ready for tomorrow.

When I went to bed last night, I was excited about today’s workout: back, abs & cardio.  When I woke up this morning, though, I felt like I had just run into a wall.  Yep.  You guessed it: a cold.  So I took a good nap & will get to bed early tonight.  Gotta get healthy so I can get back in the gym!

This week I revised my workout schedule a bit.  As such, today was arms day (and day #2 at the new gym).  What a great workout!  My arms are so fatigued I can hardly hold them up long enough to finish this blog.  Then I followed weights with 10 minutes of HIIT.  I definitely accomplished great things today in my pursuit of a stronger, leaner body.  Can’t wait until tomorrow… to hit the weights all over again.

First shot at new gym was awesome.  Smaller gym, but great service and good machines/free weights/cardio equipment.  Excited to hit it again tomorrow…arms day. 

Today is an exciting day…  going to look into a membership at a gym.  I’ve been using the gym in our apartment complex.  It worked to start with, but it limits me to essentially only 1 workout per muscle group.  I have known for awhile that I would soon need to step it up and actually purchase a gym membership, but didn’t want to spend the money.  It’s worth the price, though, and I need to make it happen.  The free 10-day pass will help as I try to identify whether it’s the right place for what my wife & I need. 

What can I say?  … I’m a hairy beast!  So I shaved my chest & torso last night… and much to my surprise, I can actually see the beginnings of what might be called muscle!  I’ve been training hard the last couple of weeks and am pretty motivated already.  I’ve been eating pretty clean, for the most part.  Last night my wife baked a cake and I wasn’t even tempted to sniff in its direction.  But this muscle "sighting" was exactly the motivation I needed to step it up a bit.

I’ve been working out hard, mainly lifting…cardio has slacked off for the last few weeks.  My eating hasn’t been all that great … decent at best.  So I’ve researched & have developed a new plan.  Starting a new phase tomorrow…  Similar lifting schedule but on my cardio days, I’m going to pick up HIIT.  Gonna dedicate myself to it and try it for 8 weeks and see what changes come in my physique.  Wish me luck…