tolewfo’s Bodyblog of Change

I am so happy this week is over.  My diet and training went to hell.  My family can kill a diet especially here in Las Vegas.  I had to drive everyone around.  Playing tour guide sucks at times.  There was a lot of poor choices made this last week in food.  Pizza, alcohol, sweets and 2nd to 3rd helpings… I swear I don’t know how I didn’t gain a ton of weight.  I ended up weighing the same I did when the week started.

 So, today is the start of Week 6.  I got to the gym and started a new resistance program and it felt great to be back.  I got after it and pushed myself.  I could go up in weight on some of my lifts and I will.  It was just great to be back and doing it again.  For the next 4 weeks I’ll have no interruptions and hope to make gains.  I am back on my nutrition plan and that too feels good.  Maybe the break was good because it showed me what could happen to me if I stop working out.  I let it happen to me once and I vow to not let it happen to me again.

I say, "Goals, watch out, I am coming for you and I will obtain you!!!"  I am already looking forward to making new goals after my 10 week challange is over.

Today is the start of my 5th week in my end of the year 10 week challange.  My goal is to weigh 200 lbs.  I know that can be a stretch because I started at 250 lbs.  However, by the end of my 3rd week I was down to 225 lbs. and things were looking great.  By Friday of my 4th week I was down to 223 lbs. and I was going to hit my 5 lbs. a week goal.  Then, BAM!!! Sunday hits, I eat one crappy meal and I wake up Monday morning at 230 lbs.  I didn’t workout or do cardio on Saturday but Sunday morning I did an hour on the treadmill and burned a ton of calories, or so the machine says.  I never know how accurate those things are.  Anyhow, I don’t know why I gained 7 lbs.  I was frustrated this morning when I weighed myself.  I know that the scale isn’t the only monitor of ones success but it still does monitor it.  I mean, I feel good, I am on the last loop hole on my belt, but I still gained weight.  Anyhow, I am not going to let it get me down and still persevere.  I have goals and I will hit them by the first of the year.  We’ll see how that goes.  Next week I am going to schedule a Body Fat test and do my measurements and see how far I have come in that aspect.  Maybe, that will give me enough motivation to get through my personal challange.

 I have changed my motivation status from 10 to 8 because of my weight gain.  I am still confused…

Today is the beginning of my fourth week of my ten week end of the year challange.  I have lost another 7 lbs and I am feeling good.  I learned a lot this last week about proper nutrition and my macros.  I am trying to apply that knowledge to my nutrition plan.  As you may know, I am keeping a journal in the OV35 section.  Here is the link if you want to follow along…     http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=118536421    Here you will find some great people who are giving me great advice and taking the time to answer questions.  This is one of the many reasons why I love this site.  People are encouraging, caring and are extremely helpful.  They are helping me obtain my goals and that means a ton to me.  So, I am really motivated to see this ten week challange through to the end.  At the end of my personal challange I will be starting a new one.  One that will shape my body and make me feel human again.  I think that I want to run a race this next year… Be it a 5K or whatever I can find. 

So, my goals for this week are going to be similar to the last 3 weeks.  Lose 2.5 - 5 lbs, eat healthy, hit the gym at least 5 days this week. 

I am really motivated!!!

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.