Journey Thus Far

So lately I’ve been taking it a little easy because well it’s summer, I’ve reached my initial fitness goals, and I’ve been having a hectic schedule. This week I decided to get a little more serious again and pick up the slack. Last night I decided to check my bodyfat using the home accufit(??) calipers. It’s been reading in the 12-14% bodyfat which is what I’ve been thinking I was at. But then I noticed this little part on the caliper that you use to tell you the measurement. Basically It’s a little marker you use to measure your bodyfat. Without getting confused, I was reading it wrong this whole time?! If I’m doing it right, I’m basically at 8-9%!? While that sounds great, I don’t think I look like I’m 8-9%. Although I do think I’m more of an ectomorph, superlean, and lacking muscle. Either way I’m going to get an official test at the gym today hopefully, and then make the plans to start building muscle.

So I’ve definitely been slacking a bit lately. I’ve been doing my three fullbody workouts a week. I’m trying the 5.x.5 program to try and get my strength up. Supposedly in about two months in the program I should be able to bench 200 and squat 2.5 x my body weight. But I haven’t been doing my cardio and my diet hasn’t been the best. the week has been fairly clean, but I’ve been missing meals here and there. The weekends I’ve been drinking a bit just because of different events going on. This week is going back to 99% perfect (I still have my saturday morning breakfast with friends). I’m not afraid to admit it tho, because I’ve done fairly well until now. A little break is ok as long as I know to get right back on that horse. I’m about 14-15% bodyfat still I think and around 164 lbs. I need to get under 160 and get close to 10%. Then it’s on to the clean bulking.

So I’m reaching about 14% bodyfat. Currently 165lbs or so. I’m still working out to get to 10%, but cut the cardio out now because I’m looking pretty skinny (though I do have some muscle definition). I switched to doing a pyramid full body routine because I needed to build a better strength base. I have reached some all time highs on the bench and squat (165 and 185 lbs respectively). I think I’ll continue for a few more weeks to lose those last few pounds to get close to 10%.
But I need advice from anyone reading this. I’m gonna try my first attempt at lean bulking soon. I know I need to eat about 100 more clean calories, and I am going on a 5 x 5 routine. Does anyone else have any advice? Anyone recommend weight gainers? Supplements? A specific food?
I want to clean bulk for the summer so I have a fit body, and in the fall and winter plan on hardcore bulking. Let me know, what worked for you

So I had a goal of losing 10-15 lbs and reach 15% Bodyfat by May 1st. I started at the end of January around 185 lbs. I am currently 167, which is 18 lbs lost! Now I haven’t tested my bodyfat but I know it’s close to 15% and I’m going to say I reached this goal because my body looks way better than it did last year at 15%. Primarily due to a few things I learned this year which has made my fat loss more successful:

- I learned to live with and balance carbs. Last year I tried going way low carbs (around 30-40 grams a day). At first the weight came off quicker than this year, but I also was always low on energy. By eating low carbs I lost muscle and overtrained last year. By the time I got to the point I’m at now I completely gave up last year. Additionally, I looked really scrawny. This year however I learned to add some more carbs but timed it better. I eat at least 60-70 grams of carbs post work out through ON’s Recovery 2:1:1. This has helped me get the right balance of proteins and carbs after workout. I feel my recovery better, my energy levels up, and haven’t lost any muscle. Thus, I look alot better than I did last year at around 15%.

- I learned to not be afraid and play with my workouts. I stopped writing stuff down ( I know how important it is to record you workouts), but I felt since I was losing weight I didn’t want to overtrain my body like last year. I started out just doing simple split routines where I trained one body part per day five days a week with 30 min cardio. I did different excercises everytime, whatever I felt like doing, and lifting weights that I felt challenging but also i could do with perfect form. I wasn’t trying to beat last week’s workout weights, or following a rigid structure. I wil probably record more when I start to gain / bulk, but this style helped my body catch back up and I have seen great increases in strength. But I also learned to change it up and try different things. Right now I do a full body routine three days a week (instead of individual body parts), and only do cardio twice a week. And I’m seeing even better results. I think the key is to know your body, know how this body building thing works, and then find what works for you.

- Diet. I’ve learned to eat completely clean, but also be okay with not sticking with it 100%. On the weekends I’ll have that cheat meal. I’ll have that shot of alcohol, and once in a blue moon I had that awesome piece of ice cream. And the pounds keep dropping. I think as long as 95% of your diet is on point those times when you let "loose" so to speak helps keep your metabolism from slowing down. More than that though I thnk it makes me realize that my lifestyle is healthy and I am in control and not stuck in a diet box.

This all stuff you’ve probably read, but my experience has reassured me I’m doing the best I ca at being the best I can be. I’ve gotten comments that I look great and even that I look younger (I’m 26! makes me wonder what people thought I looked like before lol).

From here I want to keep cutting down for the rest of this month until I go on vacation at the end of May. Hopefully I’ll be floating around 160 lbs and 10-12% body fat. Then the rest of the summer I’m going to try a clean bulk to maintain my cut. Maybe in the fall I’ll try the big bulk. Either way I feel great. You can read about my other posts about trying this last year for 6 months only to give up and regain all my weight. I feel like I redeemed myself finally and made up for my screw up.

I just read someone’s post about haters and it started to remind me of the other day, but before we get to that here’s some reference for you readers.

I remember last year during my first real attempt at getting in shape my girlfriend (ex-girlfriend) would make fun of me for my big tub of protein and vitamins. She would call it "creatine" in a mocking voice and always throw it into the back of the cupboards behind stuff when she knew I used it everyday. Long story short: She’s not my girlfriend anymore.

Then this year after being newlysingle and a new year I decided to get back on the horse, so to speak. I have two buddies I live with currently. One day I brought home a huge tub of ON protein and some other stuff and put it up in the cupboard. They laughed asking what it was and if I was serious. Their friends would come over and use my protein shaker cups for their own drinks. People would laugh and say " is this for your working out?".  Pissed me off, but I used it for fuel for my workouts.  Started training, etc, etc (by the way I need a camera for new progress pics!).  I stopped going out to eat, and started cooking from home. I should note that our kitchen was disgusting and NEVER used (I moved in earlier this year, they had lived there for over a year before I moved in).

So the other day… I noticed one of my roommates wanting to grocery shopping for the first time with me. He bought groceries and cooks his dinner at home every night. Now, I don’t think he’s going to get all serious into lifting like me, but he’s definitely becoming aware……. He even asked me how my protein works

:)

I realized the other day that I had been using Bodyspace for exactly one year this month. In the last year my physical fitness has gone through some crazy times. I started my journey at 195 lbs closing in on 200 and about 22% bodyfat or more. This was horrible as growing up I had always been a skinny kid. Although I did have really horrible eating habits. Fast food and soda were pretty much the staple. I never even thought twice about what I ate. Then around 2003 I started lifting, but had horrible knowledge of the gym and training routines. I learned over time, but it wasnt until I found bodyspace and learned what training and lifestyle change really meant. The experience hasn’t been without its setbacks. Last year I completely screwed everything up by giving up and regaining most of my weight, but this past February I began getting back to where I need to be. I’m still learning and I feel confident that this time around I have learned how to integrate my lifestyle to my goals. I’m currently 172lbs and closing in on my goals. It’s still a struggle at times, but what is life without a little challenge right? All in all I have to say I am probably the healthiest and best shape of my life at 26. Honestly I can’t wait to drop my bodyfat to close to 10% and start bulking. One year from now I hope to write another blog about how far my journey has taken me.

Finally, I am just about back to where my body was last fall when I gave up and ruined all my progress. I still have alot more bodyfat to lose, but this time I’ve done an even better job at my diet (upping and balancing my carbs) and I’ve retained more muscle than last year when I lost weight. I finally look like my progress picture, probably even better (which means I really gotta go out and get a camera). I feel great, which is good because I came close to losing motivation a few times in the last week or two. Now that I’ve reached the point I quit at last year, every time I look in the mirror I think every workout is now taking my body where it has not gone before. Every day is another step towards new changes and new places. I feel good.

Read this article: http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20090202/NEWS01/702029896/0/RSS02

About a lady who is now 67. "At 47, the 5-foot-5-inch-tall woman was dangerously obese, weighing 235 pounds — a body mass index of about 40. A body mass index of 25 is considered overweight; obesity starts at 30.

Since then, she’s dropped five dress sizes and is a comparatively svelte 180 pounds.”

“At 68, Pristell set world records for her age in bench press, 176.2 pounds, and in dead lift, 270 pounds, for her age group and weight class, according to World Association of Bench Pressers & Deadlifters.”
And on last excerpt, “We are all dealing with something. If you let whatever you’re dealing with control your life, you have no quality of life,” she said. “When you really cut down to it, a lot of people are worse off than I am. I see it all the time.”

In March at a state powerlifting championship in Olympia, she will attempt to shatter her own record and deadlift 300 pounds.

“Sometimes they call me a freak,” Pristell said. “That’s OK. I like being called a freak sometimes. It’s kind of unheard of, a person being my age doing what I can do. For me, the older I’m getting, the stronger I’m becoming.”

Hope that motivates some of you. It’s motivated me.

Tips from Jay-Z on how to live a better life.  From Better Life Magazine
Be Your Own Biggest Fan…
“Believe in whatever is you’re doing.
If you don’t believe it, no one else will”

Don’t Stop Growing…..
“Growth doesn’t stop when you’ve become successful. That’s when it starts.
”

For the first time since I started my second attempt at training I’m feeling progress. I’m in a month or so and I’m feeling like I’m getting somewhere. By end of this month I should start seeing the progress. So first month should be feeling it. Second month should start seeing it. By the third month I should be close to my goals. I’m hoping by May regardless of where I’m at I’m going to bulk a bit. I even got comments from people saying I’m looking healthier and looking like I lost weight!. Motivation is going up a notch today.