Lost four pounds so far, four more to go.  I think the next two weeks might start to get a little harder.

Woke up monday at 5:45 to go to the gym and realized I was just too sick to work out.  My cold was so bad, I didn’t go to work Monday or Tuesday.  Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to recognize the signs of over training, but blockhead that I am, I’m not going to give up.  I will lose 8 lbs - of fat - by Dec 31. After binge drinking Sat, did an hour of cardio on Sunday - which is probably what put me over the edge.  Took off Monday sick. Tuesday afternoon picked up my routine of 500 calories per day cardio and my 5 x 5 weight lifting routine modified to fit 25 minutes.  Saturday - today - I meant to do my last workout routine for the week chest & cardio, but last night I fell ill again!  Chills coughing, blah, blah.  Still haven’t learned, I’m going for my goal

Did my weigh in today - only one pound for the week, but still on track for the month.  Need to lose two pounds by the end of next week.  That will be the real test.  The mid 180’s really seem to be my resistence point.  

The one mistake I won’t repeat is drinking too much this weekend.  Today’s my cheat day on diet so I can have alcohol if I want but it won’t be more than one or two for the day, not seven like last saturday

All in all encouraged by the mirror, encouraged by hitting the mid point and being on target.  

This Week’s Summary

Starting Weight:  190 lbs
Ending Weight:  189 lbs

Just completed week one of a four-week cut.  Since this summer, I’ve gotten back up to 193 lbs – and a lot of it was not muscle!  My new goal is to lose 8 lbs of body fat in 4 weeks. So I’ve worked out the plan below.

• Burn 500 calories per day doing cardio.  500 Monday thru Friday, Saturday off, 1,000 Sunday.
• Cut 500 calories per day through diet.  Based on weight & activity level, my maintenance calories is 2,400.  Diet below has 1,900 calories, or 500 fewer than maintenance.


• Breakfast:  Protein shake with scoop of oatmeal
• Morning Snack:  1 apple, 1 oz. almonds
• Lunch:  1 can of tuna, slice of Ezekiel bread
• Early Afternoon Snack:  Cottage cheese with tomato.  Surprisingly tasty… reminds me of pizza!
• Late Afternoon Snack:  1 hardboiled egg, 1 stalk celery, 1 carrot
• Dinner:  7 oz grilled fish or chicken with steamed veg, usually broccoli
• Between cardio & diet that’s 7,000 calories a week or 2 lbs.
• Continue 20 minutes lifting 5 times per week to maintain muscle while I lose fat. For that I’ve resurrected my Optimum Anabolics 5 x 5 routine that I dropped off on in August with one superset cut out per day so I can keep the entire workout to under 60 minutes a day.

And I just completed Week One!!!  Woo Hoo!!!  Three more to go…

Here are the numbers

  

Day	Date	Treadmill		Work Out
		Minutes	Calories	Body Part	Sets
Sun	12/02	60	962	-	-
Mon	12/03	30	529	Chest	12
Tues	12/04	30	546	Shoulders	12
Wed	12/05	30	550	Arms/Abs	12
Thurs	12/06	30	527	Legs	12
Fri	12/07	30	574	Back	12
Totals	6 days	3.5 Hours	3,688	5 days	60 sets

Starting Weight:  193 lbs
Ending Weight:  190 lbs

Same White Door. . . Same Black Speedo

And now for the photo finish.  On the left where I left off …in August!  On the right… One week into a four my week cut.  Besides my new camera not appearing to be as good in low light,  the chest & arms look like they’ve lost a little and the middle looks a little flabbier.  But all in all doesn’t look too different 3 months of not doing anything.  Either I’ve managed to keep my gains… or I never really gained that much to begin with.  Oh well, in the end I’d rather be thin and have less muscle mass, then heavy with more muscle mass.

8/11/07 187 lbs, 19.5% bf

12/08/07 190lbs, 21.5% bf

Now on to Week Two

Yesterday was my cheat day.  And cheat I did.  Oh, boy too much holiday season partying. I was dragging today, but I did manage to get in my 1 hour of treadmill this morning 990 calories.  I’m ready to DROP.  Tonight it’s light dinner & early to bed.

Next week, same diet, same cardio & week 2 of Optimum Anabolics program, again with one fewer superset.  I may change cardio machines the following week.

Oh, and I’m also determined to get my back bigger. but I hate chin ups.  They’re so….compound.  Here’s the approach on that one.  One a day.  Today I started with one chin up.  Tomorrow it will be two.  By end of the week I’ll be up to seven.  Then I’ll see if I can get up to 21 a day by the end of three weeks.

Diet’s been a little all over the place.  Not really over eating, rather not eating all those small meals I’m supposed to and getting a little lax on the carb/fat/protein counting.  But not too radically off base.  I’ll get back a little more rigor next week.

I’ll post another progress picture tomorrow after my last day for the week.  I want to put them in some sort of animated gif generator.  But I don’t know how dramatic it would be.  The progress week to week is pretty subtle on my digital camera.  Even though to me if feels like great strides.

I keep thinking about week #7 where I’m supposed to do protein deprivation wondering what that will be like. I think it might be a bit of a relief.  I’m kind of getting sick of all the chicken, tuna, salmon and cottage cheese…

I was content to say so long as i’m going down, who cares about the absolute number.  But I’m not going down.  Have I been spinning my wheels for 6 months?  It’s just not possible.  Maybe after my 9 week optimum anabolics program I’ll do some sort of radical cutting diet.  I dunno…  <sigh>…

Decided to do some push ups tonight at home since I didn’t get to the gym this am for cardio as I had wanted.

Tried a new trick tonight to squeeze out 240 push ups and make it seem easy. I did 1 set each of 2, then 4, then 6 then 8, then 10, and so on up to 20 reps.  Makes a total of 240 and it was easy!  To think I coundn’t get out more than 12 a few months ago.  Gives me a nice sense of accomplishment.

1 x 2
1 x 4
1 x 6
1 x 8
1 x 10
1 x 12
1 x 14
1 x 16
1 x 18
1 x 20
1 x 22
1 x 24
1 x 26
1 x 28
1 x 30
= 240 reps

Took new pics for my profile and progress.  Back up in weight since the April 1st reading.  Mostly just bloated from the eating out and drinking.  

Traveling for 10 days next week.  Hard to keep any regularity with work outs.  Push ups and chair dips are my only saving grace.  150 push ups is the goal for tonight.  Gym tomorrow night, then off to Sedona.

Bought a new post work out supplement Anator P70 and will try it out for the month.  Have my standby protein blend for morning and afternoon.

The move really put a dent into work schedule (but I was faithful on the 5 x per week of cardio each morning).  Now in new place with gym in the building and a full service gym that I joined across the alley.  No excuses now .

I will take and post a new progress picture on Sunday after a day with the family at the beach.  I hope to look somewhat less tired and haggard than I feel right now.  God, moving is stressfull.  Looking forward to a weekend off!!

Need to push out my gym days to Thurs and Sunday this week because of the house move.  I’ll be doing push ups, sit ups & dips in the interim.  With my cut in calories to make my April 1st numbers, they’re about all I can manage.

Feeling less bloated with the higher protein lower carb intake.  I know it’s not permanent, but my belly looks and feels better for now. 
The scale is another matter:  184.5 lbs with 19.1% BF, but then
again:  5 days left…

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The first 2 months saw me exceeding my goals! So much so that I set a stretch plan for April First: 185 lbs, 17.9% body fat. Now I’m getting a little worried I might not even make my posted plan of 186.6 lbs and 18.6% body fat.

Time to get the lead out!

Did one hour of cardio yesterday and thirty minutes today. I’m planning to do cardio sessions each morning for the next seven days. Additionally, I’ve decided to eat low carb till Sunday April first. Six days left to make it happen…

Set up my bodyblog yesterday. Will post a new progress pic on Sunday. If I don’t look too embarrassingly out of shape, I’ll pick one of the photos for profile picture. Till then I’ll have to keep the gray face with a question mark.

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