tolewfo’s Bodyblog of Change

I am now beginning my 3rd week in my 10 week challange.  Everything has been "so far so good"…  I have a healthy diet and I am losing weight pretty fast.  I hope I don’t plateau soon because the change is feeling good.

I hit the gym everyday this last week.  I did 7 sessions of cardio and 5 days of resistance training.  I am doing the same workout routine as the previous 2 wees and will change it up after week #5. 

Again, "So far, So good"

There is now nine weeks left of the year.  My first week of my challange was great.  I was motivated, my nutrition was great, I hit the gym everyday except today (Sunday) which was a planned day off.  I also have been sitting the Jacuzzi and in the Sauna at night.  I like the feel of the heat.  It seems wonders on my muscles which are sore.  I have lost about ten pounds which I think is due to my diet.  I have cut my caloric intake by 500 calories.  I don’t find myself getting extremely hungry but the temptation is there.  On Halloween I was good.  I made sure I had gum in my mouth when I was around the temptation. 

My friends came into town and left this afternoon.  They weren’t burdensome, but then again they never are.  They didn’t want to do anything crazy and we ended up watching the USC / Oregon game at a local casino.  It was great.  I didn’t have to worry about drinking and eating wrong.  That always seems to happen when I have company come in from out of town. 

So, now comes week two.  I am doing the same training as last week except I am going to add a timed run / jog / walk in the morning around my city block.  It is 2.2 miles.  I went out and got a stop watch.  My goal is to beat my previous weeks time.  I am going to do that on an empty stomach and try to add some HIIT in the run.  I know I am going to get some stares.  I am also going to change my post resistance cardio from the treadmill to the Eliptical trainer.  I think that will confuse my body for a bit.  I know that I had some serious weight loss in the first week.  My goal was 5 lbs and I doubled it.  I am shooting for 5 lbs. again.  But, I am going to be realistic this week and be happy with half that.

So, Happy November and the holiday season is coming really fast.  I hope I don’t blow it.

There is only 10 weeks until the end of the year and I am going to be doing a strict 4 day split.  It will be targeting weight loss and maintaining muscle.  I am starting off every morning by walking / jogging around my city block.  It will be a fasted cardio.  I will time myself every morning in hopes of seeing better times.  I want to run a 5K in 2010 so I think that this will be a good start.  My diet as of late has been really sucky and it shows.  I have fallen into the crave temptation.  I started out great and then relapsed into the crappy nutrition.  I am writing out a meal plan and I am going to stick to it.  NO CHEATS!!!  I will edit in my meal plan and my resistance training routine as soon as I come to a couple of conclusions.  My goals are realistic and not overwhelming.  If anyone else, besides me, is reading this, I would love some input and encouragement.  I am going to revive my journal and if you are interested you can follow me there.  It is in the over 35 section of journals titled…. Tolewfo is in it for the long haul.  I will do a weekly blog to summarize my week and write my totals.  I am still using the same body stats as before as I don’t think much has changed.  I am also going to be taking a daily video to show my progression.  Fat pic’s and everything.  Lucky you!!!

This week was much better than last week.  I still had / have a little cough that can be nagging.  I have been living on cough drops this week at work.  I was able to hit the gym with confidence and it was productive. 

I took my body fat test and measurements this week and eventhough I didn’t like the numbers I saw, I knew where I was and where I need to be.  The numbers weren’t as bad as I thought they were going to be but were bad none the less.

My diet through out the week is always pretty good.  But, I tend to throw it out the window when I have company come in to visit.  It’s my cousins again from Arizona and they get the best of me.  They brought the makings of a serious BBQ and took over the grill before we went to the UNLV game.  At the game my diet isn’t any better.  I had to have a soda and a pretzel with salt.  All of this after the BBQ.  Today wasn’t any better because they left all of the left overs in my ‘fridge.  So, needless to say, I splurged this weekend.  I won’t let it get me down though. 

It’s a new week this week and I am hitting my goals.  My goals are taking a little longer to make but they are being made. 

So this last Tuesday I was feeling great and then all of a sudden, BAM!!! it hits me.  I have the flu.  I call in sick and of course they tell me that I have to have a Dr’s note to clear me to work.  I understand that but it’s still a hassle to go to the Dr’s and have him tell you what you already know.  And, no, it’s not the H1N1.  But, I know that I’ll be dealing with all of the jokes this week. 

Anyhow, my workout’s have struggled.  My diet struggled as well on the downside of my flu.  When I got my appetite back; I went to town.  I am afraid to step on the scale tomorrow morning because I think that I have gained.  I am still way down from when I started but I am afraid that I have lost my gains.  I’ll start again tomorrow and hit it hard.

Today is Labor Day and I am here in Vegas.  My cousin and her family came in to hangout and do the strip and downtown thing.  They drove in Saturday morning and left today to beat the traffic.  They live an hour and a half away but if you don’t leave early it can be close to 3 hours.  So, Saturday night we went downtown to check out the Freemont St. Experience… It was fun but packed at the same time.  The light shows were good and so was the people watching.  A bunch of crazies!!! In between the light shows we walked around and did the touristy things.  Of course there was booze everywhere which my cousins loved and took advantage of.  We also stopped in Mermaids because they wanted to have the Deep Fried Oreos and Chocolate Covered Bananas.  But, I was good.  I didn’t drink or even come close to having as much as a taste of the goodies. 

Now, don’t get me wrong, I love my cousins but whenever they come into town they like to eat and drink.  It’s the same when I go down and see them.  I just have to be careful of the trouble I can get in.  I find myself wanting to preach the word of good health and diet but I can’t judge.  I don’t know if it’s my right to tell them that what they are putting in their body is pure crap.  For right now, I am going to be tight lipped and hopefully let my progress do the talking.

Speaking of progress, I have had another great week at the gym and my diet was right on.  I made it to the gym everyday except yesterday (Sunday) which is my day off.  I ate a little more then I wanted to yesterday but it was all good stuff.  Anyhow, I am down below 255 and that is a drop of over 13 lbs. since week 1.  I am still taking it slow on the cardio until my body fully recognizes what we are doing again.  I am on target to hitting my goal and couldn’t be more happy.  Well, I could but that is a different story.

So, today is the start of Week 4 and I am going to go hit the gym.  Today is Chest and Biceps day.

I am now 2 weeks in to my journey to under 200 lbs.  I have had some really good days and some ****ty days as well. 

To start off, here are the good days:  I hit the gym on Monday, as everyone on the board calls it, the dedicated Chest and Biceps day.  I went through my workout and realized that I truly was starting over.  After looking at my old charts, I saw a major decrease of strength.  But, I didn’t let it get me down.  I moved forward and wrote down my new numbers since I own them now.  Tuesday, the dreaded leg day… I got to the gym and I was quickly reminded on the day hated by many lifters.   Here is a link to a great thread started in the OV35 forum.    http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=118685751   So, I powered through the day and I felt the jelliness immedidately after the workout.  It wasn’t until Saturday did I feel the effect wear off almost completely.  Wednesday, an off day, I would say that this is when I get in trouble.  I will tend to eat a lot more on my off days then on the days I work out.  Thursday, shoulders, I went back to the gym with a totally different walk from Tuesday’s workout.  I always feel like I get through my shoulder workout fast.  It felt like time has just flied by.  I went back later that night to do some cardio.  Because, I continued eating okay until, I was invited to go out to dinner with a friend, I ate like a pig.  Again, due to leg day, I was walking funny on the treadmill and it put a little strain on my knees.  This is when I realized how important a good pair of shoes really are.  I think one of the reasons I stopped working out in the past was because of my shoes.  I know how lame that sounds but I think it is true.  I didn’t look forward to going to the gym because I was getting blisters on my small toes and the nasty tearing of the back of my heel.  My socks were all bloody and gross.  I went through this because I didn’t want to spend more money on a pair of good shoes.  Well, I let it happen again with the same pair of shoes.  I am taking care of it today.  I am going to be less stingy and buy a decent pair in which I can do some decent cardio and push it a little harder.  I let this get the best of me and the rest of my workout for the remainder of the week.  I also went to celbrate a birthday at a pretty decent resturaunt and ate horribly again.  So, eventhough, I am still down from my first week, I am not where I was planning on being.  I will have to push it much harder this week to see some really good gains…..

With all of this said, I am going to go out and find a good pair of shoes.

I am now one week in to a journey that I have taken before.  I have to remember to take it with its peaks and valleys as well as its’ plateaus. 

I am doing well on my diet with only one semi-cheat meal.  It was this morning, which I planned. I went out to breakfast with my folks and their neighbor.  I still was relatively "clean".  I had a 3 egg omelete w/ avacado and no cheese, hash browns, dry wheat toast and one root beer.  I think that this will be my "once a week" cheat meal.  I am going to start taking Whey protien this week for my after workout drink.

My cardio is obviously going to start slow again.  I have walked on the treadmill this week doing various settings.  I do the hill setting and also the manual setting the most.  I have walked close to 28 miles.  I forgot all about the walkers rash between the thighs.  I have to get some sort of rash guard or stock up on some vasaline (gross)…

I am starting my weight training tomorrow (start of week 2)… I am going to do the push pull…:     M - Chest and Biceps   T - Legs   W - Abs   Th. - Shoulders   F - Back and Triceps   S - Abs   Su. - off….     I have to remember that I can’t do the same weight that I was doing just a little over a year ago.  But, I want to still be intense and get a good pump. 

I have also remembered to record my advances on my little flip camera and may post them here sometime…. only when I feel comfortable to do so.  I don’t like the way I look on it.  Maybe on week 5 or 10 I’ll post them.

So, here it is Aug. 2009 and I am back for round two.  I have lost a lot of weight in round one but I ended up gaining 50 lbs. of it back.  I am up around 270 right now and I am disappointed in myself.  I was one of those guys that thought I could keep this up and then I failed.  I don’t want to be fat!!!  I want to be lean again.  So I am going to hit the gym and feel good again.  Not just physically but mentally as well.  I started to avoid this site because I didn’t want to reveal how bad things have gotten for me.  I felt that I lost control and couldn’t face the people here that were giving me hope and praises.  I just couldn’t let them down.  But, I did… But, most of all, I let me down.  So with all of that said, I hope that I can start again and be accepted here once again.  Thanks for reading this and lets hope that there is no round three.

A little over a month ago I decided to change the way I live and what I want to be.  I have been living in Las Vegas and not really doing anything with my life.  I wasn’t heading in the right direction and I was just in limbo.  I have given up on life goals.  Be it starting a family, owning a home or other things people my age have already made for themelves.  Let’s face it, I am behind by about 10 years.  I have realized that I needed to grow up a bit and quit acting like I did in my early twentys.  My move was to, in fact, move myself into a change for the better.  I am living in So. California now and I am going to go back to school and focus on my goals.  I know that this is a body building site and I owe a lot of my better judgements because of this place.  I pretty much belong to the OV35 forum and have found people that are struggling and have struggled with my same issues.  I read a ton of the posts and I feel encouraged.  I believe that because I have been bettering my physical shape my mind has followed.  I have been thinking clearer and making better judgements.  So, eventhough I haven’t posted a lot lately, I am doing better and making strides. 

I have changed gyms.  I am at a 24 Hour Fitness now.  I don’t know if I like it yet.  I have been so spoiled by my last gym (Las Vegas Athletic Club).  I miss the cleanliness, the professionalism, the up to date equipment and the overall atmosphere of the club.  The gym I go to, the one nearest my home, seems a bit dingy.  There has yet to be a time that I go and see clean equipment.  I always have to wipe down the dried up sweat residue left by the last person.  That is what grosses me out the most.  I don’t understand why people don’t wipe down their mess.  But, I digress…  The gym is satisfactory and has everything that I need to continue my eternal march toward a healthier body and lifestyle.  I have fallen back a bit… Because I am in a relatively new environment, I tend to eat out a little more.  I haven’t been making the right nutritional choices and I know that I have to do better.  The steps that I need to make are coming back slowly but surely.  It’s also funny, I don’t know if I am the only one here that does this or not.  I tend to not want to post a blog, update my page or participate in a forum if I am not doing the right thing physically or nutritionally.  Weird, I would think that it would be more beneficial if it was then that I came to this board to seek encouragement and advice.  Again, I digress… I have been hitting the weights hard or as Tank would say "Killing the Steel"… I feel and look strong.  I still have a gut that I want to get rid of and I know that it is my diet.  That will no longer take a backseat to my healthy goals.  

I feel encouraged and refreshed as well as a little scared about my immediate future.  But, that is also the exciting part.  The "not really knowing where I will land" part of life.  I will try to update everyone about the new journey that I am on.  Even if no one else reads this, I will at least have an idea about where I have made a significant change in my life.