In Hell without a snowball.

At least it is the good kind of pain. I have worked out the last 4 days straight and the only part of my body that is not in pain is my chest; that will be hurting after tonight. I had a good leg workout Tuesday (translation: I am barely walking) and a great back workout last night. The only problem was my grip cannot keep up with my back muscles. I need to get lifting straps so that I can push my back muscles harder. Other than that I am loving the burn.

I had another great day in the gym. This time I had NO in my bloodstream when I entered the gym and damn I could feel the difference. I also gained in every exercise from when I last worked out. I was scared of losing on everything, but I guess the break (stress relief) really helped. I am going full steam (with a sanity check) and working out 6 days a week. I am trying for an hour of weights, with 1 minute between sets, and 45 minutes of cardio (15m warm up and 30 m after weights). I will take progress pics and measurements 2 weeks from now to see how my workouts are going. Wish me luck!

   Well almost. I had some personal issues with friends come to a head and basically told one of them that I did not need friends like him. It was a messy ending to a good friendship but sometimes you need to take a stand in what you believe in. It was very stressful and afterwards I knew that I had to hit the gym.

   It was unbelieveable! I had not lifted for over 3 weeks (read previous blogs) but it felt like I was entering the gym after only having a few days off. I gained in every exercise and I did all of this with NO Caffeine, Creatine, or NO! I felt the difference after the first few sets but I lifted more in Bicep Preacher Curls than I ever have! I was amazed. I am still a little ways off from my Bench max, but Biceps are my favorite muscle group and I was surprised. After I was done for the night I was flying high and it added to the determination I have to keep working out.

     I took the following few paragraphs from an article I found on Comcast, on health and science, labeled: "Eating Less Meat May Slow Climate Change" 

   Eating less red meat would also improve health in general. Powles and his co-authors estimate that reducing meat consumption would reduce the numbers of people with heart disease and cancer. One study has estimated that the risk of colorectal cancer drops by about a third for every 100 grams of red meat that is cut out of your diet.

"As a society, we are overconsuming protein," Brewster said. "If we ate less red meat, it would also help stop the obesity epidemic."

Experts said that it would probably take decades to wane the public off of its meat-eating tendency. "We need to better understand the implications of our diet," said Dr. Maria Neira, director of director of the World Health Organization’s department of public health and the environment.

Since I am still not able to lift weights I have been doing some "light" cardio which is 60 minutes on the elyptical on the "fat burning" setting. Keeping my heart rate low and kept it up for 60 minutes last night. The only difficult part of working out was seeing all of the weights just sitting there calling out my name; it was a temptation. I made some "protein waffles" this morning that tasted very good, but they were very dry! I think I ended up drinking two large cups of water to get them down. I will need to adjust the recipe and see what happens. Any ideas?

   I am hitting the gym tonight for some light cardio. I have not worked out all weekend due to a systems upgrade that didn’t go as smoothely as possible. Everything is good, but I ended up working all weekend and I was mentally fried by the end of the day. i know I still should have went to the gym, but I needed a little R & R. I will update as possible throughout the week.

   The good news is still good though, nothing on the test so far. I am tempted to have my doctor perform a blood test just to give me the 100% good sign. I have not had a physical done in like 6 years so I am contemplating it. Enough for now, I have to get back to work.

The tests were fine. I am on to the next phase, which my doctor will be prescribing me Muscle Relaxers to take at night. Unfortunately, the doc says not to start lifting yet . I can start doing heavy lifting in 2 more weeks, BUT I can start cardio and light lifting. Which fro me, means cardio. I do not know how to do "light" lifting. Once I hit the gym and I start, there is no "backing off". It is all or nothing.

     I called the doctor and of course, she was not in, but the receptionist stated the results were in and she did not sound very concerned. Of course, I do not know if this was because they were fine or if she did not look at them. It makes me feel a little better.

    Still no word on the scans, but I did just have them done Tuesday. I have actually been pretty patient, the few times that I wanted to call the doctor is when other people start asking me. I have heard from others that when they had a scan done they knew the next day. Oh well, if I do not hear anything by lunch time, I will call the doctor and talk to her. Other than that there is no real update.

I am getting better with my diet and I am still losing weight. I had a little bit of a plateau there but I think that was the partying (no excuses, I know). What I am looking for are good meals to have during the day that are easy to fix and easy to store. Any ideas?