papahumphreys’s BodyBlog

the alarm chimes at 4:45am. i hit the snooze. 4:50 rolls up, so do i. found a new track to run on at an elementary school. very excited to get there. no music, just an empty track and my determination. i jog 2 laps for a warm up and stretch a bit. it’s time to do it, so i take off. i ran 3 one mile repeats. 1st one comes in at 7:59, i’m surprised. last week my 1st mile was 9 min. i have a 3 min recovery. second mile, i have to be faster. i’m still smoking and i’m spitting up the results. i huff past the finish at 7:50. i’m pleased. it was in fact, faster. 3 min rest is over, time for the last one. i’m focused. 1st two laps are good. i use a slower pace on the 3rd lap, as a recovery so i have a strong finish. i always want to finish strong. 2 laps to go. some others show up at the track and i squeeze out just enough wind and noise to say hi. i’m on the last lap now. i’ve got to go all out. i’ve got to get this done. 7:25, my fastest mile ever. time to go home.

…with real people and everything. i haven’t been to an official gym in a couple of years. if i don’t use our apartment’s facility i usually hit it up at home. i also think 45 a month is a little more than i want to pay and i really don’t like 2 year contracts. luckily i found a fee day pass. boy was it fun. i was only in there for about an hour and fifteen minutes but i definitely could have doubled that time if i hadn’t had to get back home before my wife went to work. one of the main things i miss about a gym is they have a lot more free weights and barbells, oh i miss the barbells. i started out with 3×10 power clean, squat, and press. that was fun. i then supersetted (SS) that same exercise with incline bench. i did about 4 sets and moved on to the hammer strength incline SS with pwr cln and press. i stayed there for a bit and then started some squats SS with a decline bench and hammer strength bench and did about 5-6 sets. i didn’t really keep up with sets and reps, i just did as much as i could or wanted and then changed it up. i just tried to take advantage of the things that i don’t available and that packed the biggest punch. i got a real good muscle pump out of the free weights and just by the other people being around seemed to motivate me to keep going. all of the mirrors were motivational as well. i’ll just have to wait until there’s a gym that i like to get a membership.

“I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be honorable, to be compassionate. It is, after all, to matter: to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all.”
<strong style=”font-size: 15px”>– Leo Rosten

well i say just another day for improvement. i felt great all day! i started off with a double protein shake that packed 52g. i knew that i was scheduled off today but i just felt too productive to sit and do nothing. i was doing some dips here and there and watched what i ate. i didn’t worry about my calories i just wanted to keep it healthy and get all the nutrition i could. i think i needed it. sometime mid-afternoon i did an amazing circuit workout that only lasted 12 min but was and extreme 12 min. i posted the workout in my journal in case anyone would like to try it out. http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=114038421

be warned it contains burpees. i haven’t done that exercise since college ball, and i think i know why. it’s freakin’ hard! but the cardio benefits are out of this world. it really got my heart rate up and i’m going to incorporate it for the remainder of this transformation.

so after my circuit i was feeling so pumped that i was and extra step towards reaching my goals. i had another double protein shake and ate some more and ate some more. it felt reeeeaaalll good. i wasn’t done for the day though. i still had a urge to do something for the triceps. i ended up doing 3×10 dips SuperSetted with 3×10 db kickbacks with 20lb. and then i ate some more. the crazy thing about it all is that when i weighed myself this morning (day after)  i weighed in at 209.2 with a 9.8% BF. now i don’t know if i trust the scale for my BF but i do know that 209 is the lightest i’ve been in about 10 or so years.

 all in all, i had an amazing day off!

 stay inspired! stay pumped!

most productive week yet! i set my goals high, and i achieved! i put my distance running on hold for the week but i still got plenty of cardio in. i still wanted to run but i put the treadmill on a higher incline than i have been. up to this point i set it at 2% and that’s where it stayed but this week i started it at 3% and moved it up every 1/4 mile or so to where i was doing about a 6% on the home stretch. i picked up my speed whenever i could but i was mostly concentrated on the incline. as far as lifting is concerned, i got in 2 workouts a day. the second being more a finishing workout to make sure i really targeted the muscle group i was working. my muscles seem to be recuperating a lot faster. i even worked my chest twice this week and want to start doing each major muscle group twice a week. something i will work towards. it’s all about knowing when my muscles are ready and when there not. that mind muscle connection. i’m beginning to see more definition and less jiggle on my entire structure. my weight hasn’t dropped like i had thought but i know that muscle weighs more and as long as my BF% keeps dropping, and it has by 6%, than i’m on the right track.

now let’s talk about the nutrition. i was very conscious of what i put into my body this week. i showed great constraint and discipline. until….my second day off, sunday. i don’t really know what happened. if it was the fact i knew i did so well the entire week, or it was brought on by my quiting smoking urges, or i just didn’t care. one things for sure, my alter ego bingy was here for the day. the problem with working at a restaurant with tasty food is that you want to eat the tasty food. i’m not going to let this get me down because there is nothing i can do about it. yesterday is a memory and i can look at it as a negative or a positive. so…positive it is. i know i didn’t really want to eat all that crap, i just need to manage my calories better and bring more healthy things to work with me. i know that eating like that took me off purpose and being on the right track is too important and exciting to me to derail from my coarse. all-in-all, lesson learned. today is a great day!

i was a few days ahead of my official weekly weigh in, but i stepped on the scale saturday just to see where i was at. it read 212lbs. i know at first this number doesn’t seem as special as you would think, other than being 8lbs down from when i started my bodyspace. well, it is special. you see, may of last year when i was a staggering 263lbs, and waking up at night to painful feet and ankles when i stood up, i set a goal for my self to lose 50lbs. i didn’t have a time limit i just wanted to do it. on saturday i surpassed my goal of weighing 213lbs by 1lb. holy crap! i did it! it just snuck up on me. and it seem like i didn’t even have to try. i just stayed focused on my goal and was conscious of everything that i did. weather what i was doing was helping me or hindering me i was conscious of it.  and i achieved!

i’ve kept the same quote in my short term goal from last week, because i love it so much, but this week i also feel this one is very appropriate.

Every ceiling, when reached, becomes a floor, upon which one walks as a matter of course and prescriptive right.
Aldous Huxley

oh how true it is! i love walking on this floor!

i hope everyone has a very inspiring week.

p.s. i went to the movies on saturday as well, and saw the reader and the curious case of benjamin button. both really good movies. instead of getting the usual over sized cherry coke and a box a chocolate raisins i went with a moderate size diet coke and i brought in a clif bar and some wasabi peas. my how i’ve grown.

another one bites the dust. week two went real good. i accomplished all of my lifting and running goals. my chest routine seemed a bit stale so i think i will add some actual weights to it this week. my leg and lat exercises were killer. i felt the effects for days. i felt the most wear and tear in my calves and lats. probably because i haven’t actually worked those in a couple of weeks. will have to make sure i hit ’em again this week.

as far as my running, it’s getting easier. i’m getting faster and my longevity is extending farther than i have ever imagined. i never thought i would actually run for more than and hour and a half straight. every step i took was more empowering than the last. this week the longest distance is 8 miles. easy!

i did more ab and core exercises like i wanted, as well as kept up with my nutrition better. i still was a little high on calories and fat on a couple of days. i really want watch that in week 3. i’d like to hit it hard and set my goal to lose 5 lbs. it’s possible and probable. feeling very satisfied of the work i’ve accomplished and it’s beginning to become my habit not just my hobby. very excited to see how much discipline i have in week 3. let the games begin.

feel free to check out my workout journal at

http://forum.bodybuilding.com /showthread.php?p=286149991

Well 1st week of this contest training is done and over. What did I learn? Welp, i learned by looking at my progress pics that i have already lost a lot of size since may of ‘08. i knew i had lost a good amount of weight i just didn’t know the physical difference. my diet stayed clean all week. i even noticed that i was turned away from the things that wouldn’t help me in my journey. like when i was at work and i was going to get something to drink i initially filled my glass with some coke. all of a sudden it’s like my new self woke up and a feeling a disgust came over me as i poured it out while saying i don’t want this, and refilled my glass with water. i feel like a new person! i did have a minor injury this week. i smashed my finger at work. f#*$ing hurt! i actually had to go to the doctor to he could poke a hole in my nail to drain the blood. my wife tried to do it the night before, with a paper clip and lighter, but i pulled back right before she broke pay dirt. i have a thing with poking holes in my nails.

 anyway had to push back some workouts towards the end of the week. i still got them done though. all my running and lifting except for my pull-ups and biceps workouts. i tried but to much blood was pumping into my arms,which lead to my finger, which lead to throbbing pain. i managed to accomplish most of my running goals this week as well. 3 4 3 10 miles that is. i got the 3 4 and 3 with out any hiccups but when i got to my 10 mile day i was going really good until i out ran my mp3 player on mile 6. still having to go 4 miles i wanted some pumping music, so i decided to swing by house and grab a new battery. i was in and out pretty quick but not quick enough. i don’t know what happens when you stop running but something does. when i got back to the trail i felt like i had bricks tied to my feet, i felt hungry all of a sudden, and if i closed my eyes long enough i am sure i could have fallen asleep while running. i got one more mile in and called it quits at 7.

pushing most of my workouts toward the end of the week fatigued me. i probably should have eaten more before i left. and i definitely should not have stopped. i still went 7 miles and burned more that 1000 cal. so great way to finish off the week.

 all in all had a great 1st week and am looking forward to my 2nd. should get my protein powder in the mail sometime soon. i want to try and track my nutrition more and get more ab and core exercises in.

 I am ready!

ps

i put up a new quote in my short term goal today. it did read “He who cannot change the very fabric of his thought will never be able to change reality.”
<strong style=”font-size: 15px”>– Anwar al-Sadat

i had to change it a little bit. so i put ” He who CAN change the very fabric of his thought will be able to change his reality”

i’m trying to get rid of negative thinking so i think i passed the test

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