Roosters body blog.

I failed to mention long ago that my best friend and training partner really lost interest in training. I’ve been training by myself for months now, I had actually grown to like it more. However we all know when you have that training partner they push you through plateaus and give you that extra motivation to do amazing things. I’ve just started lifting with a new partner, who was a friend of a friend and who is now mutual. He is much stronger and in much better shape than I am. I would consider his training habits to be "Hard Core" compared to mine at least. My workouts usually run 1 hour, his run 1.75 to 2 hours. He also has been lifting a lot longer and more consistently than I have. It’s funny with all the reading and research you do you feel you have a pretty good grasp on what your doing. After chatting about our upcoming training week yesterday evening it was evident I’ve been doing many exercises very wrong. There is only so much a video or picture can do. He also trains later in the eveing than I normally do. I’m going to make a few small sacrifices like going into the gym later, going 5 times a week instead of 4, and training for twice as long each day. But the way I see it, with all the experience he has and the personal results to back it up. It’s very much like I’ve just gained a training partner and personal trainer. I think this is exactly what I need, the push that is going to get me in the best shape I’ve ever been in for this upcoming Christmas, the Arnold in March and looking amazing for summer 08. We have lifted once so far with an intense chest workout. Monday we start our newly planned "balls to the walls" training regiment. I’m also about 3 pounds away from 210lbs, as soon as I hit that goal I’ll be posting another progress picture. I’ll post a blog update at the end of this next week.

So as of recent my weight loss has slowed significantly. I was initially starting to worry, the mirror was telling me I was still progressing and then the BF% test showed I’m still on track. About 6 weeks ago I was at 17.3% body fat now I’m down to 14.3%, it might even be less now. With the way things are going I might just make it to 210 by Christmas. That means I have about 2 and ½ months to lose 8 pounds. I’m more concerned with the mirror than the scale but I would still like to reach that number since it was a goal I set for myself. After that goal is reached my next short term goal will be 10% BF by the end of February, hopefully that will include a flat stomach. February 29^th specifically, I’ll be flying out to Ohio for the Arnold Expo. I’m not going to see the bodybuilding competitions, I’m going to check out some of the other sports events and sit in on some of the seminars. I won’t be updating any pictures until my next goal is met near xmas. After that I’ll have plenty of pictures from the Arnold. The Arnold should be a great time!

Everything went ok for the pool party at my buddy’s house though I was off on the number of days it was 19 days from my last post. I lost 5 pounds in those 19 days which wasn’t bad, during that time I did sort of a re-feed day, I ate clean but I ate as much as I wanted the entire day, other than that my diet was 100% on during that time.  During the past week or so I’ve upped my gym time significantly, last week I hit the gym 6 times and on my off day I did some medicine ball exercises and stretches in the back yard. With all that I was expecting to at least see about 2 pounds less on the scale but to my surprise it has not moved at all. Which makes me wonder if beating the crap out of myself actually put a small amount of muscle. Might even just be bone mass? I doubt muscle because my clean eating habits and reduced caloric intake of about 2000 to 2500 calories hasn’t changed much. I did however change my %s as far as macro nutrients, I stepped up my protein to about 50% as opposed to about 30 something % prior in place of some of my carbs. So right now it’s roughly 50% protein 30% carbs 20% fats. I made these changes based on cravings because I’m a believer in listening to your body, I get more cravings for chicken and fish when I do more workouts at the gym it seems. Lastly the only other things I’ve changed are more sleep, I was getting about 6-7 hours a night and after the recent adds in gym time my body was telling me it needed more so I’m getting 8-9 every night. I’m going to keep up with this for another 3 weeks are so and see what happens, then I’ll make a decision if I want to force myself back to what I was doing before or just keep going with the instinct. I’m considering getting some kind of electronic scale that can check BF% because not knowing exactly is going on as far as my progress kinds of worries me.

I’ve been very happy with all my progress so far. My diet is very strict, your typical fat loss diet, 5-6 meals a day, very wholesome and healthy. However one night a week I usually have a pig out cheat meal, usually Friday or Saturday nights, whatever night I decide to pick. I have a pool party to go to in about 2 weeks. This pool party was originally suppose to be in the middle of July, which is why I set my short term goal for July 15th @ 250 lbs. Well I was 237 as of the 15th, despite that I want to make sure I’m looking as good as possible for the pool party on August 4th. So no more cheating until the day of the party, and I’m going to make a few extra trips to the gym along with some extra at home sessions with my medicine balls. Will losing another 4-5 pounds before then really make me look that much better? Not really…but to know I kept 100% on game for the two weeks prior and got the absolute best out of each day. Even If I don’t notice a change in the mirror I’ll show up at the party better looking on the inside, because I’ll feel better about my hard work. It’s kind of like taking a nap on the job, you might be able to do it, get away with it and still get your work done. But you’ll feel guilty at some point for not really earning all of your paycheck. Though in reality cheating on your diet is like a dock in pay ;p