VanDukester’s BodyBlog

Wednesday, this week, I took a complimentary check up at work.  Something the insurance company was promoting.  Blood sugar and pressure were excellent. Eyes, were normal, but I might need glasses due to small tendency towards astigmatism. And, the gem of the whole experience, a BMI calculation.  I loved it.  To be honest I haven’t seen anything more intricate and complex as taking my weight, my height, and then asking my age to calculate that I have a BMI of 26.  As the "doctor" put it:  I need to lose 20 or so pounds to be in "ideal" weight, for my height.  Fantastic!  Here I was wondering what goals to set for the next year.  This person just lit up my path, like a beacon on a misty night.
Never mind muscle vs fat weight.  You see, I’m at peril here. I need to lose weight to get out of the bad "Overweight type 1" range of 25 to 26.9 and get in the nice, peaceful "normal weight" range of  18.5 to 24.9.  I mean, I’m straying from my path here!  I can have heart disease or high blood pressure if I keep gaining weight and becoming more of a blimp that I am now according to this!

I have a cold.  Last time I trained was on Sunday.  I’m getting better, but I don’t like the fact that I have to stay away from training for possibly a week.  The problem is that last two days my training was very intense, and I’m afraid that I might lose momentum from it by this short hiatus.  But, that’s life, I can’t avoid sickness all the time.

40 posts that is…

I have not updated my stats in a while, so I’m planning on checking how bad off i am lately.  I’ve cut cardio way too much and the eating is not as rigorous as I would like it to be.  A lack of planning on my part.  Nevertheless, I am not backing out.

One of my friends seemed to be happy when I decided not to go to the gym.  The one thing I like doing, and I can’t have that. Really nice, eh?  I feel bad that I can’t find people to talk about dieting, and working out outside of this venue.  I actually hate that.  I’m looked at as obsessive, because this is what I like to do.  "Too thin, too muscular, etc"  Has someone looked at my pics?! seriously! Is it that I AM too thin/muscular/etc based on what the average body looks like; or am I defying someones image of myself? It’s easier for me to be seen as always watching over people. I guess i can set aside whatever I want to just pay attention to the few friends I have and their problems, while I see myself growing older and just watching e-ve-ry opportunity go to waste.

Truth is, I am tired, of being anyone’s confident.  I’ve wound up being that persons emotional punching bag also, and this year that thing stopped.

Bodybuilding is the one thing I have going for me.  I love it, and if I had to choose one thing to do primarily, one lifestyle to follow, it would be this one.

That’s all…

Well, it’s been a while since I written here.  So far, I changed from cutting to bulking. I have controlled my sleeping habits, and managed to somehow derail from them; i got my fat percentage up (have not measured, but I did gain some lard), which is normal since i’m eating more. 

I’m going to proceed to update my photos, with um… yeah, the current pics.  I haven’t done a clean bulk, which is what i wanted, so i’ve gained some of the fat i lost back; but i feel a bit bigger.  Anyway, in the words of Marvin Gaye: "… that’s all, nasty head…"

This week I’ve changed my workout routine.  I’ve taken the two day split, and added two days of cardio (day 3 and 6).  I don’t want to lose a lot of definition, but I want to add some mass.  I’ve seen that I can take my body fat down.  Now I want to see how much lean mass I can add to it.

My workout routine for the last 16 weeks consisted of 3 days of weight training and 3 days of 45 to 1 hour sessions of cardio.  After the weights I did an additional 45 minutes of cardio (each day I did something different like treadmill, gauntlet, bike, elliptycal, etc).  The last 4 weeks, I’ve reduced the 45 minutes of cardio to 30 minutes of cardio, so with this change I’m going to be letting go a bit of the cardio. 

Diet is going to be a bit calorie friendly, but nothing crazy.  I did like the addition of veggies into my diet so i’m keeping that, the whole grain bread, granola (no bars), yogurt, and egg whites (occasionally, since it’s hassle to separate them).  The occasional sweets and alcohol will be present. 

My main concern though, that goes outside the diet and excercise subject is the fact that I’m not sleeping more than 6 hours per weeknight.  I am going to sleep more.  No trying, no wishing, no effort making; I’m just going to do it.

This week I’ve changed my workout routine.  I’ve taken the two day split, and added two days of cardio (day 3 and 6).  I don’t want to lose a lot of definition, but I want to add some mass.  I’ve seen that I can take my body fat down.  Now I want to see how much lean mass I can add to it.

My workout routine for the last 16 weeks consisted of 3 days of weight training and 3 days of 45 to 1 hour sessions of cardio.  After the weights I did an additional 45 minutes of cardio (each day I did something different like treadmill, gauntlet, bike, elliptycal, etc).  The last 4 weeks, I’ve reduced the 45 minutes of cardio to 30 minutes of cardio, so with this change I’m going to be letting go a bit of the cardio. 

Diet is going to be a bit calorie friendly, but nothing crazy.  I did like the addition of veggies into my diet so i’m keeping that, the whole grain bread, granola (no bars), yogurt, and egg whites (occasionally, since it’s hassle to separate them).  The occasional sweets and alcohol will be present. 

My main concern though, that goes outside the diet and excercise subject is the fact that I’m not sleeping more than 6 hours per weeknight.  I am going to sleep more.  No trying, no wishing, no effort making; I’m just going to do it.

So I got my body fat measured today: around 8.5% (short only by 0.1% of my short term goal). Now, since it is my birthday, I also ate birthday cake… And since I’m only going to turn 27 once (unless time travel with memory retention and aging reversal becomes an affordable reality for me), I didn’t feel guilt about it.  Tomorrow though, is a regular post-birthday day for me, so that means I will go back to my beloved greens, whole grains, lean meats, fresh fruits, water, and powdered protein.  Because being able to reach 8.5% body fat, was the one gift no one but myself could give me….

I cheated on my diet this whole weekend.  I did all the cardio, but cheated on my nutrition.  I have to focus, I know it; but that won’t change anything if I keep tripping over the same stone.

Today I did what I was suppossed to: Ate 5 meals my plan calls for, and did the 1 hour cardio session on my schedule.  The food is ready for tomorrow and in a few minutes I’ll call it a day.  I’m tired of cheating, not resting and skipping days.  If my body fat has gone down following the rules, then why break them?  My main concern is sleeping enough. If I don’t get any rest it screws up the other things, which results in me being temperamental, and then wanting comfort food, etc, etc.  

I’m going to focus on how today felt.  I’ve been asking myself if for a week I could do whatever I tell myself to, just out of curiosity, how would that be?

2 weeks after my first official diet, i’ve managed (in spite of cheating on several days throughout the week) to maintain by bf % at 9.4 (yes, I know the stats are not updated).  Now, I’m thinking of using supplements (like lipo 6, hydroxycut, et al) to boost up my fat burn.  I’ve heard about Yohimbe, and I’m a bit leaning towards it since it’s been recommended by trainers at the gym.  Word of mouth is that it basically works at a hormonal level targeting the largest bodyfat deposits in the body (ie my gut) and concentrating the consumption to that area; as oppossed to the normal burn which involves, from what I’ve read/heard, the use of all the body’s fat (subcutaneous or visceral).   I’m still curious about yohimbe.  I’ve already tried hydroxycut and didn’t find it so interesting; it did give me energy, but so does coffee.