robmckim2’s BodyBlog

I’ve not been blogging in a long time and there are several factors leading to my recent lack of motivation that have led me to this current post.

We switched to the "Midnight" shift on 1 OCT which seriously affected my sleep pattern for a long time; thus I didn’t do the cardio I must do to maintain a lower BF percentage.  Then, in November I went on vacation for most of the month and when I say that I was lazy…well, that’s an understatement.  Not to mention that I was back stateside and I ate, ate and ate some more.  I enjoyed ALL the wonderful tastes and smells that I’ve missed for the last year + and on top of it; I believe they were even better since I enjoyed them for the first time since I QUIT smoking…it all just seemed better.  Sex, food, family, my kids all seemed better but that wonderful vacation has led me back down to where I started out; practically.

When I returned back to my Platoon I immediately hopped on the scale and had a tape test performed to solidify what my gut was telling me; that I was again a Fatty!  What’s worse, is I also became a LAZY Fatty!  My weight (and fat) is back up to its original status…well mostly.

So I have started back, hitting the weights and the cardio as of the last 2 days.  But it’s like starting all over again, quite literally, but it did feel good to pound some iron again and as far as the cardio…well it sucks wind ALOT right now but I’m bound and determined to get back on track as quickly as possible.  The hardest part is my diet; it’s not like we have wonderful cuisine to dine on or any 4 star establishments BUT when we do have something that’s good, it’s just my luck that it’s something that I really shouldn’t eat. 

SO…while I am confident that I’m back in the gym doing the necessary things to get my weight back in check, it is my diet that I am going to have to work the hardest with!  I do enjoy food but have to readjust so that I am not enjoying it nearly as much.

First of all, I’ve neglected posting for quite sometime now.  I’ve been working out hard and making some good gains in strength and size but at a small sacrifice.  I’ve put on nearly 20 lbs in the last 2.5 months because I quit doing my cardio all together and started eating like a MAD MAN!

So the important thing…I’ve reached an important goal of mine!  I benched 305 lbs last night for my 1RM!  My goal was to do that by Nov and I have!  It felt awesome and I hope to reach my new goal of 350# by Jan!

Hope all is well in your part of the world!

I’ve not posted anything new in about a month and thought it was about time.  Besides I got the day off today and have to fill my entire day with "stuff" so that I don’t go to sleep!  I am changing shifts (yet again) as of today for the 3rd time in the last 10 days.  I went from midnights to days (for a class) back to midnights, now they want those of us that got certified to be on a completely different, albeit better shift from 0630 to 1830.  I WILL NOT complain about being on these hours at all but just need to get normalized so that my sleep pattern can be once again-a pattern!

On to my workouts…I mentioned previously that I was going to bulk since being on midnights and would be doing very little to no cardio…well it has shown a little.  I’m up about 11 lbs and all of my lifting has increased as well as measurements, including my waistline a bit but I’m bound and determined to fix that now.  Since I’m back on days I’ll be doing my cardio again daily and working on getting that BF% down to where I want it before November!  I did a 30 min. session this a.m., and although I was sweating seriously…it felt great to be running and I actually ran at a better pace than I was previously; part of that is contributed to my continued dedication of quitting smoking.  In 8 days it will be 2 months smoke free!!!  I feel pretty darn good and want to start looking as good as I feel, so here comes me on the damn "dreadmill"! 

I’m going to be lifting as hard as I can while increasing my cardio daily from 30 min. to an hour every day; of course allowing myself at least one rest day a week.  I’m also trying to fine tune my diet much better.  The last month(+) I’ve been eating just about anything and everything I wanted, keep in mind that my choices are very limited BUT I WILL BE BETTER!  I also ordered some basic supps from my fav and yours-BB.com, you know, BCAA’s and the like, just to tune in my diet, cardio and lifting for a good balance. 

I have about 3.5 months to reach my goal and I am going to start hitting it hard so that I AM at under 10% BF, looking good and cut, strong and healthy.  I don’t want to disappoint myself now do I!?!

Question: Is it possible to drop 8-9% BF in 3.5-4 months? 

I’m sure as hell gonna try!

Whew…squats are a killer!  This is something that I have in fact known but I haven’t practiced using squats for a very, very long time.  I had a lower back inury while serving in Iraq so since then I just haven’t done squats at all; was just chicken I guess…or maybe gun-shy; however you judge it~I just haven’t done them.

Well, today I decided was the day to incorporate them into my leg workout.  I’ve been back at the gym now for a couple of months, done my leg work regularly with leg presses, extensions, curls, calf raises, ect…so I figured that I had decent strength.  I do not!  I’ll admit, I went easy on the squats today…more important to me to have a good, full range of motion and a quality, controlled lift.  So I started very light…95 lbs, and did 6 sets working up to 185 lbs for 8 reps.  Not much weight but a starting point!  Damn they sure kicked my butt…seriously, my glute are quite tight today, along with every other muscle in my legs…LOL!

It felt good to do squats again though; I’m glad to work them back into my routine!

I feel better today than I have in the last few days; I actually got some sleep yesterday.  Not like 8 hours of deep, REM sleep but at least I DID sleep for a few hours!
Then this morning (last night) when I got up, before I went to work I decided to check my BF% at the advice of someone on BB.com.  Well, my waist line has actually gone down a couple of inches, dropping my overall BF% down with it!  I know it’s not much to most, but any sign of improvement is important to my motivation.
So only 5 more hours till I get off shift and then it to the gym, shower and off to bed to TRY to sleep even more!  Wish me luck and best of luck to all of you with your goals!

Sleep?  What’s that? 

This whole schedule/time change thing has got me so f@#^d up, I don’t know what else to do to get my body to sleep-good sleep-during the daylight hours!  It’s been a few days and I thought I would start getting into some type of sleep pattern.  That has NOT happened yet; hell I even worked out 3 times to try to make my body tired and wanting to sleep.  Still, I went to bed at 1345hrs and didn’t sleep but maybe 2-3 hours, very sporadically until I got out of bed at 2200hrs.  I tossed, turned, got up to pee, got up to investigate a couple explosions, got up to eat…I was up anyway an thought the protein would do me some good…all in all, I laid in bed trying to sleep and only managed to get a few hours of rest…not real sleep!  So here it is 0200hrs and I’m not tired or sleepy but I don’t have any real energy…but I’ll keep trying to make myself sleep when I go to bed, eventually I will get adjusted.

Has anyone ever used melatonin as a sleep aid?  I ordered some today in hopes that it will help…just don’t want it to be the type of thing that makes me feel like crap afterwards.

As if the days in Afghanistan aren’t long enough.  Today/tonight we are making the transition from working the day shift to working the night shift.  It means that we all work an 18 hr shift, take 12 hrs off and then begin working from midnight to noon.  No big deal really; it just makes my schedule goes BONKERS and throws off everything from the sleep pattern to the workout and cardio times.

So I tried to stay up all night last night to sleep SOME during the day today; funny how that never really works the way I want it to.  I managed to stay up till about 0500hrs discovering that the suns starts to rise a 0410 here right now.  Went to sleep and woke up again at 0800 (bathroom calling) layed back down but only slept till around 1200hrs when I started to toss-n-turn till almost 1300hrs.  Finally gave up, got out of bed and went to the cardio room. 

Wanted to do an hour of low intensity, fat-burning cardio when I HAD to go to the latrine 30 minutes into it.  So when I got back I just started over at 0…did an hour, then off to work the abs for about 20 minutes, multiple angles and exercises before I finished up with an easy 20 minute jog on the DREADMILL! 

Did I do too much cardio, maybe but it felt good I didn’t feel like I "over did it".  Anyway, I’m now…4.5 hrs into this looong night in Afghanistan and wondering how many more times I’ll sleep not sleep and train; just to get through the long shift.

Yeah for me…today makes 7 full days of being smoke-free!  I plan to make this a life-long change to benefit the fact that I’m working out so hard AND that I’m running so much…it all helps and I feel TONS better for not smoking!

I hate to admit it but I did, not HORRIBLY but not wonderful; that’s for damn sure!  Yesterday and today both were just bad days for the food intake department.  There just wasn’t any "healthy" choices at the mess hall today…other than salads, vegetable…you know, the stuff I should’ve eaten and do all the time, except that is, the last 2 days!  Anyway, I know it’s a lame excuse and I was just seriously craving JUNK!  Part of it is phsycological…I’m also quitting smoking, today is day 5! and I let myself junk-out because I’m trying…no, because I AM quitting for good!
So I junked out but I’m not down and out, I’ll get back on track tomorrow and do my best to keep it on track!  I’ll still workout tonight, as I did last night and as I do most nights after shift (Midnight, local time) and hopefully that workout combined with my daily cardio in the a.m. (on an empty stomach) will combat the 2 days of junk food and unhealthy choices I’ve made in my diet!
Just gotta keep the motivation going, I’m feeling GREAT and looking better…don’t want to waste the progress I’ve made thus far!

Having and incredibly outstanding morning so far!  Just finished my "official" weigh-in for the US Army and I’m down to 193 lbs!  I was so excited I celebrated by going for a 5 mile run and a nice cold protien shake afterward!

I’ve just got to keep working both cardio and lifting in order to stay motivated and on the correct path, to reach my goal weight I have to keep moving in this forward direction!  I would really like to be able to change it up for good this time and get that nasty BF% down, lower than ever before, into the single digits!!!

Feeling Great this morning!