September and I'm back to cutting

Back down to 1800ish calories. I put on 26 pounds in August. Maybe... oh... half or less of that was muscle. Time to cut again and get that fat down. Fun fun. Bye bye food.

August Picture Is Up

It looks slighty better than July. Not much progress. In my defense, only half the month involved workouts, and hardly any of it involved diet. September's picture should be better.

Ahh.. .freaking out a bit

I completed my first week of "power lifting" and I feel like I've been worked over with a baseball bat. That's the good news. Sore muscles means growing muscles.

Here's the bad news:
This new plan has me scared shitless. I went from eating 1800 calories a day to eating 3000. The idea is, I haven't lost a pound in over a year, and the fitness guru guy I'm working with says it's because my body has finally adapted to 1800 calories, and that is now my "normal" calorie intake. It's no longer considered a "deficit" by my body. So his plan is to jack my calories up, and have me start power lifting. The idea is to pack on a bunch of muscle (and some fat), and then switch back to the deficit and start cutting fat again.

So far? All I notice is I'm fatter. I'm freaking out. I've gained 6 pounds or so in the last two weeks. I'm supposed to think it was at least half muscle, but it looks a lot like fat in my face and gut.

We'll see. I will try to stick with it for at least the first 8 week cycle.

I feel so much better about this new approach

Alright. Here's a reality check.

Why am I doing this?

Fact:
Before when I was 250 and quite a bit fatter, I had zero health problems. No high blood pressure. No high cholesterol. Nothing.

So to get right down to it. I'm doing this purely for two reasons:
1) Physical Appearance
2) Physical Ability

That's it! So why would I weigh myself? I don't care what I weigh. I only care about looks and abilities. So abilities is an easy one. Can I run further and lift heavier things than I could the month before? Easy to check. Looks are a little tougher. I'm taking monthly photos, and we'll see if there's a difference.

This makes much more sense. Weight be damned. Muscle bound football players who have amazing physical abilities and amazing bodies are all 250+ pounds and "obses" according to BMI.

If I end this journey as a muscled up guy who can run a marathon, then I win.

And for some motivation, here's me at my buddy's wedding a few weeks back. I actually think I look pretty decent!

Doing things differently for a bit

I'm trying to manage burn-out, so I'm going to stop with the daily weighings and stop with the log tracking.

I'm doing a test run of my new plan this week and getting all my lifting weights figured out. I'm doing a lot of lifts I've never done, and so I'm establishing a baseline.

I'll be doing monthly pictures for now instead of weights and charts. I'm worrying FAR too much about what the scale says, and not nearly enough about what really matters. I gain 5 pounds of muscle and lose 3 pounds of fat, the scale says I gained two pounds, and then I feel like a failure. That is a crappy way to do things. So screw the scale for now. Screw the log. I know if I'm eating right and hitting my workouts. For now, I don't need the accountability, and don't want the overhead of messing with the chart.

I'll most that picture in my post down to a permanent spot, and then post up monthly pictures and we'll see if there's a change.

I think I have my muscles ready to go

I hope to start my new plan on Monday. I spent this week getting my body used to being pushed again. I think I'm ready to go. This new plan makes SOOO much more sense to me. I hope I get results out of it.

I've sucked so much ass in the last month it makes me cry

194 bitches. That's right. 194. I was 194 this morning. I'm damn near back to last year's weight. It's freaking AMAZING how quick it goes. In about 6 weeks I put on 10 pounds, can't run for shit, can't lift for shit, and look like this:

That's some bullshit. I mean, that ain't a BAD body, but it is WAY worse than it was 6 weeks ago.

So I start a new plan today. I have this week to re-aclimate myself to strenuous workouts and dietting, and then next week it's ON! I wasn't going to post this horrible picture, but I have to be honest with everyone. You can't get anywhere if you're in denial about where you're starting from. I mean, even at my current state I'm 56 pounds down from where I started. I'll get this. It just takes more dedication.

The two-week void

Alright I'm not even going to attempt to fill the chart in for these last two weeks. I was on vacation. I was eating crap most of the time, but sometimes I ate really well. I did a bunch of hiking some days, and other days sat on my ass all day. So I can't even say it was just two solid weeks of red days. I'll just leave it blank and start tracking again on Sunday.

I'm freaking 10 pounds heavier than I was a month ago. This blows so bad.

Ahh..

Back from vacation, and I brought a few things back with me.
1) A nice calm mind.
2) A renewed sense of purpose for getting in shape
3) About 10 extra pounds :)

So, as with all things, the first day weighing in after eating like a mad man is super super heavy. This morning I was 195.1. So... I'd guess my actual weight right now is around 188-189 or so. I will be a good boy from now on and get some serious work done before Kalahari and Myrtle Beach.

I've changed a little bit of my direction as well. I now desire strength over running. I know that I will never be a super fast runner, and will never be a race winner. I'm quite happy being able to comfortably cover the distance. I need to get up to full marathon, but I don't see a need in shaving 10 seconds off my 5k time. I competed for the first time at my last 3k. What I mean by this is, I never knew anyone running who was similar in ability to myself, so I was only ever competing against my own personal records. At the 3k, a friend was running who was right around my same ability. I edged him out to beat him by like 20 or 30 seconds, and really took no joy in it. I've always known that I'm not a competitive person, but I was a little shocked that I didn't care about beating him. I guess that just goes to show myself that getting faster and winning races wouldn't really matter to me. I'm happy to get out and run. I really don't care how fast I do it.

Now strength on the other hand, I could use. I would REALLY like to be extremely strong. I think my body is better built for strength than speed anyway. Running has been a constant pain inducer for me. I have more troubles with running pain than anyone else I know. I have some friends that are already up to running half marathons after less than a year of running, and are pain free. It took me years to get up to that, and I still have sore legs after simple 4 mile runs. I still can't run back to back days. It's really rather annoying. Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to drop running. I'm just shifting my focus a little. Lifting has always been something I did on my off days because I couldn't run two days in a row. Now I want to have the mindset that running is the cardio I get on my off days because you're not supposed to lift two days in a row. I found myself going through the motions on my lift days, and not working as hard as I could. I want to change that for now.

So... look for me to get a lot stronger, and talk about lifting more than running. That's all.

Stay tuned!

Just throwing a post up

Just letting everyone know I'm still here. I'm not posting as much, but I still fill out my chart at the bottom of the blog every day.

I did a 3K the other day. I turned a better time than I expected. 13:34. It was only good enough for 8th in my age group, but I'm sure I can get faster. I was 20 seconds off 5th place and a medal.

Cathy ran it as well. It was her first race ever. He best training time was 24:00. She turned a 21:15 at the race! I couldn't be prouder.

Half done

I finished another half marathon yesterday. My goal was to complete it in under 2 hours. My last half was 2:14, so 2:00 was a ton of improvement. I hit the last mile at like 1:53. That didn't leave me much time so I sucked it up and damn near came to a full-out sprint for that last mile. I crossed the finish line at 1:59:11. Goal attained!

Now on to the long-standing goal of getting in shape. Cathy and I are going to try to hit hard starting this week. Wish us luck.

12 Miles done, no problem for the half

Did 12 miles on Sunday. Expect that I was coughing my lungs out the whole time because I'm still sick, it was a pretty decent run. I figure if I can turn 12 miles in 2 hours while hacking up a lung, I should be able to finish the half marathon in about the same amount of time. So, I'm shooting for 2 hours on the nose. That would shave 14 mins off my last half. I'll have to hold a 9:09 pace. Which, with walk breaks at water stops, needs to be more like a 9 flat. That shouldn't be a problem, but we'll see. Unfortunately with this race being so early in the summer, I haven't had a chance to acclimate to the heat. If it's all of a sudden in the 80's, it may slow me down quite a bit. Of course the race is quite early in the morning, so hopefully it will be fine. I like to run at 50-60 degrees.

On the lifting front, I'm almost back to 100%. My elbow is still a little sore, but it's not bad. I've started my once a week heavy lift. Not to sound like I'm bragging, but I'm way stronger than I thought I was. I normally was curling 20's. So for my heavy day I started with 25's, no problem. On to 30's, no problem. On to 35's, there I was feeling it. 35's? That's almost double what I was curling on my light days. I had no idea I could curl 35's. So now yesterday I went back to my light day, and 20 all of a sudden felt really light. I can already see how this 1 heavy day a week is going to increase my overall lifting weight. I still can't bench to save my butt, but I'm working on it.

April Results

Well... the bad news is I ended the month at 186 average. The good news is my daily weight today was 184.

My grade ends up being:
Lunch: 45% F
Dinner: 35% F
Exercise: 67% D

Total: 49% F

Hoorah! F!

May has to be better.

Last week

Was better than the week before, but it still needs to get better.

The good news is I did 10 very comfortable miles on Sunday. I should be just fine for the half marathon in 3 weeks.

OK. . It's on like Tron

IT'S ON!

8 Miles yesterday. It wasn't fun. Of course, I was running in a decent downpour of rain the whole time.

I'm back to ???.?? for 10-day average weight. I only have like 3 weigh-ins in the last 10 days so I can't take an average. I'll started weighing daily again this morning. I'll have a new 10-day just in time for my May 1 milestone. At this point, I don't assume I'll even make it back to my April 1 weight, but we'll see.

I really am going to try to get back to it

I really am.

How about I start this Sunday. Fresh week. Fresh effort.

Changing up my lifting

I had a long talk with a VERY strong friend of mine at the gym. He was benchpressing 335 just before we started talking.

So I asked him "How the hell do I get that strong?????" After he was done laughing, we starting talking. He had remembered that I was doing this whole light weight/perfect form thing. He said that doing that was great for sculpting my body and building sizeable muscles. He had noticed that in the last 3 months I was noticeably more cut and had much larger arms. He said strength, however, requires going heavy. So we put together a little different routine. It's not too different as far as what lifts I do, but the weight and reps are quite different.

Now I will have 2 routines.
Routine 1:
Heavy weight, 4-6 reps, 3 sets.

Routine 2:
Light weight, reps to failure, 4-5 sets.

I'll do Routine 1 once a week, and Routine 2 twice a week. This way I should have best of both worlds. We both agreed that looking and feeling good is more important, but I want to be strong as well.

My goal is to someday press 315. That magical 315. 6 plates on the bar. I'm a LOOOONG way off.

Alright. Time to get back to it.

Fun time's over. Motivation or not, it's time to get serious again.

I did good on exercising last week, but still pooched the diet. Gotta be better this week.

I've lost motivation

It happens. I'm completely unmotivated to keep going. It's low tide for me. When this happens, I just try to hang on until the motivation returns. No need to encourage me, it won't help. I will try my damndest to get the spark back this month, but we'll see. I'm doing the workout stuff, but the diet is just not there. At some point, you get sick of eating bird food for too many months in a row.

Blah... depressed.

First days back SUCK

First days back suck.

First day back to running: 4 miles and ankle pain.
First day back to lifting: HA! suck.

Hopefully second day back will be better.

A bad week

In more ways than one. I'm sure most anyone who knows me is aware of what happened last week, so I'm not going to talk about it here. Needless to say, I had a solid red week. I've paid for it on the scale as well. I was 186.3 this morning, which is 3+ pounds over my 10-day average from April 1. I have a solid week of missed weights, so I'm going to wait the 10 days until I have a new 10-day average to report. I'm back on the wagon now. I think April's A grade is shot, but I'll try for a B.

Woooo look at all that Red!

That's pretty. I like red. Red is both tasty, and doesn't wear me out. I can't say the same for green. Green makes me hungry and tired. I like Red better.

So I'm 182.79 this morning. I am confident I'll stay under 183.0 and beat my April 1 goal.

I'm back on the wagon now with a renewed sense of dedication. I enjoyed my hiatus, but now it's time to get back to work. I have a half marathon in 7 weeks or so. I'm also T-minus 26 weeks until Myrtle Beach. Half a year. I expect to be in damned good shape by then. I'm not sure about weight, so I think I'm going to let the weight goals go. When I was 230ish I set a goal of 170. Now that I'm closing in on 180, I can say for sure that I have more than 10 pounds to lose, so 170 isn't low enough. Maybe 160? Looking at my body now, I would think 22.79 pounds off is probably about right. It may be a little low though. 165 might be right. Basically, I don't know. I've never been in shape, so I have no idea.

So... I think for April I'm going to start a new goal program. Instead of weight loss goals, I'm going to go with green consistency. March is completely shot. Assuming I'm good today and tomorrow, it's looking like I'll have:
Lunch: 77
Dinner: 74
Workouts: 65
Total: 72, so a C for the month.

Since I'll have no other goal, I'd like to get an A for April.

Stay Tuned!

March can kiss my ass

Yep... kiss it. Screw it, I don't care LOL! I'm hitting my weight goal for April, so I really don't care about March's grade.

I'll be back on the wagon in April.

Took a last red day yesterday

Took one more red day yesterday. I think I'm up to working out again, but Cathy is sick now and I decided to spend the evening with her.

The good news is, I hit my goal 10-day average of 183.0 today. Now... I have to hold it for 6 days :)

Two more days of red

I was sick as a dog though, so it's not my fault. I'm pretty sure I had food poisoning. It was kinda fun though. According to the scale, I lost just over 5 pounds in 1 day!! Yes I know, that's not even close to real, but it was still kinda neat to see :) I've had two days in a row at 181. We'll see what my weight is after a couple days of eating again.

This is why I had so many reds last week

My nice new 2009 Subaru Forester! Between my car dying, buying this one, and the associated stress... ya, like 6 reds in 3 days. awesome.

BUT! I was 182.8 this morning. Lowest single day yet!

So far so good

I was 182.9 this morning. If that continues I'll be under 183 for April 1.

If I hit 180 I get to think about shaving my goatee. I tried when I was 195ish and it was WAY too soon. That goatee hides a lot of neck and chin :)

I would like to not have it though. Hopefully 180 will mean my neck is skinny enough that I won't look fat without it. We'll see. Worst case, it takes me about 4 days to grow it back :)

Yay a 5 red week

Yay! Most likely pissed away my A for March. Yay! I couldn't help a lot of it. I had a VERY interesting end of last week. My car died Wednesday. I had a concert Thursday night. Had to spend all day Friday buying a new car. Cathy's birthday was on Friday so we went to dinner. Cathy's mom did a birthday thing on Saturday. On and on and on.

BUT! I had my three lowest weights Saturday, Sunday and Today. Today's was the lowest yet, 183.1. My average now is 184.57. I'm still very much on track to hit 183 by April 1. I may even be below that if I keep my current pace up.

Red meal, Rest night

My car died (again) last night, so I was in the shop all night. That meant red dinner and no workout. The workout is still green because I plan to workout on Friday, so last night would just become my once a week rest. If I miss Friday as well, then last night will become Red.

Stupid car. Screws up my mobility, my money, my workouts, etc....

Week 1 in the bag, and I got an A!

Oh yeah. First week of March and I pulled a 90%. I can basically do 2 cheats a week and still get an A. I think I should be able to hit all the workouts, so that would leave me 1 cheat lunch and 1 cheat dinner. Actually, Cathy and I are trying to avoid cheats altogether. I'm finally starting to show some real progress again, and that makes me happier than pizza.

My average is 186.4 right now, but that's due to some pesky 188's hanging around from last week. I was 184.9 on Sunday morning and 184.0 this morning. I am very much on track to hit my goal of 183 by April. Actually, I should be able to beat that goal. I would need to start hitting 183 by mid month to make it. That means I roughly have 1 week to get my daily weight down another pound. Should be doable. Either way, I'm wearing 32x30 jeans today ;)

Report Card

Alrighty here's my new thing. I'm doing report cards for the month. I'm going a standard 90, 80, 70, 60, 50 for A, B, C, D, F. Only have 3 classes; Lunches, Dinners, Workouts.

January:

New weight loss: 7.85 pounds
Green Lunch %: 89% = B
Green Dinner %: 71% = C
Workout %: 96% = A

Net %: 85% = B


February

Net weight loss: 4.25 pounds
Green Lunch %: 79% = C
Green Dinner %: 61% = D
Workout %: 75% = C

Net %: 72% = C

I sucked in February.... March better be better.

Goal Achieved!

Ya baby. I wanted to hit 188 for 3/1. I hit 187.8! Nice....

So, how about 5 more for March? Let's say 183 for 4/1?

Skipped workout

I didn't want to. I was working until 11:30

Had my lowest weight this year though. 187.8

1 week left.

1 week left in February. I'd REALLY like to be at 188 for March, but I don't think it's going to happen. That would mean I'd have to start turning 187's for the next 5 days. Nope... not gonna happen.

I had a great run on Sunday. It was 6" deep snow most of the way. I felt like Rocky from Rocky 4.

I could really go for some Jello Pudding Pops

Ya see.. You gotta zip zop some jello pudding pops.

OK Fun Week is Over!

Fun week's over. Back to the grind.

I'm 2 weeks in and 2 pounds down for Feb. I really want to get another 2 pounds off before March, but I'm not sure it's possible. We'll see.

Expect lots of Green this week.

This is a very colorful week!

Looks like a stoplight. Nice. Much prettier than all green. All green is boring.

OK you know what?

Screw this week.

If I make it through this week without strangling someone, it's a win.

It's only Wednesday, and so far:
My 61" television exploded
My production system at work crashed
My production system at work crashed again
My car blew up
I couldn't get reservations at the restaraunt my wife wanted to go to Valentine's Day

I really couldn't care less about diet and exercise this week. You know what? I registered my lowest single day weight this year today. 189.7. I assumed I'd gain weight this week. If I can even show a little progress this week, then it's a major win.

Why or why did I give up boxing? I could really stand to pummel the crap out of a heavy bag right now, lol.

Had me a good 'ol fashioned pity party

Yesterday sucked, bad. Big depression day. Meals sucked. Workout sucked. Ya.

I'm good now though, and back at it. I REALLY want to get my average into the 180's by March. Like I always say on this thing "it should be possible". Getting it done, however, is a LOT tougher.

To all you newbies losing like 10 pounds a month, ENJOY IT WHILE IT LASTS! The road becomes a LOT slower and tougher as you get closer to the end. It's like having a super steep hill in the last 2 miles. Just when you're running out of steam, they throw the hill at you. Most tumble back down, and put all the weight back on. The strong push through and see it to the end.

I'm trying to be strong.

What a nice day Sunday!

I got out for a nice 6-miler. It was the first time in months I've been able to run without a balaclava, knit hat, and spikes. MAN I was like lightning. I didn't realize how much weight those spikes add, and how much bounce they remove. I felt like someone was pushing my foot forward every time I took a stride. I'd say those cleats must be coming close to doubling the weight of my shoes. The downside is, the snow actually cushions your foot fall quite nicely, so now it's back to rock solid concrete.

So I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but I'm doing another half marathon in May with 2 buddies (Steph and Joey) who have taken up running. I've heard Steph is up to 6-miles already. With 3+ months to go, I'm sure she'll make it. I haven't heard Joey though.

I was going to be all cool and tell them that I'll run at their pace to make sure they stay on that pace. With the progress Steph is making, she's going to have to slow down to wait for me! That's no good. I'm going to have to get some more runs in, lol. I'm supposed to be Mr. Running-Guy who's been running for a couple years now.

Nah it's cool. I'm just THRILLED that I'm not the only one trying to get in shape. For a couple years there I was alllll alone. Now my wife, my cousin, and at least 4 friends are all on the quest too. Awesome!

There we go

Back down to the 191's for my 10-day average. Nice.

GAH!

A bad weight day and it pulled my average up. BOOOOOO.

The lax weekend is OVER. Time to get busy. If I weigh in tomorrow what I was before the weekend, my average will drop into the 191's.

January Results

Starting Weight = 199.9 lbs
Ending Weight = 192.05 lbs

Net loss = 7.85 lbs
Not bad at all.

I don't have the metrics, but I've lost size in the fat spots and gained size in the muscle spots. So that's good as well.

Plans for February:
I'm going to hold my long runs at 6 miles until it gets a little warmer. It's very incovenient to carry water in the winter, and 6 miles is about as far as I'd like to go without water. Plus, it's tough to run over ice and snow, which fatigues me faster than normal. So 6 miles is the limit for the rest of winter.

I'm going to continue on my improved diet. That has been doing wonders for me. I only missed 1 day of exercise in January, so I'd like to keep that up.

All in all, I'm feeling better, looking better, etc... I'm still very much on track for my 2009 goal of having a beach body by the time I go to Myrtle Beach in September.

Stay Tuned!

Changing it up a little

At this point, I need more fat loss and less muscle build.

So instead of 3 days cardio, 3 days lifting, I'm doing 6 days cardio 6 days lifting. So instead of my normal lift day of a little over an hour, I'm going to do half an hour of cardio and half an hour of lifting. I'm going to split up my full body routine into 3 partial bodies: Legs/Shoulder/Abs, Biceps/Back/Abs, Triceps/Chest/Abs. I'll do each partial twice a week.

Hopefully with the 3 extra half hour cardio sessions I'll see some more weight loss. I actually have a large amount of muscle already. There's just so much fat on top that it's hard to see. Priority one should be to get the fat off. I'll build a bunch of muscle on top after that.

A red lunch

We had our team lunch at Harry Carry's. I'm taking it as red, but it wasn't that bad. Here's what I had:
5 pieces of the table bread and butter (it's my weakness)
A good helping of calamari
Pan-seared Salmon on a small bed of mashed potatoes and spinach.
Water

Not horrible by any means, but way over my targetted 400 calorie lunch. I was considering going yellow, and could probably justify it. That just screws me in the end though. I justify why it was yellow instead of red, and then a week from now when I haven't lost much weight I look back at my log and wonder why. I'd rather take a red, and lose more weight than expected than take a yellow and lose less.

Either way, I still weighed in under my average this morning.

BAH!

An accidental yellow dinner. I fully intended to have a green dinner. I had NO IDEA that my peanutbutter and jelly sandwiches were 500 calories apiece. Blew my mind. 100 a piece for the bread, 200 for the peanut butter and 100 for the jelly. WOW! I had two of them. There goes 1000 calories. Plus another 400 of things I won't talk about and I end up with a 1400 calorie dinner. It was still only 600 over my goal dinner amount, so it's only yellow, but still.

The run sucked too. My treadmill tears my legs up. I need to replace the belt. It slips too much and jacks your knees up.

Week 1 in the bag

Not bad.

One red dinner. One yellow lunch. No skipped workouts.

My official starting weight for 2009 is 197.55. That's not horrible. I was 191ish before I started packing on pounds in November/December. My lowest ever average was 188. My lowest single day was 184. So.. the goal is to be comfortably in the 180's come spring. Then comfortably in the 170's by summer.

A green rest day?

Yep. The 1 day of rest every week is part of the plan. It's not a skipped day, so I'm not making it red. On the other hand, my weekly cheat meal is not necessary, and so it will still be red.

Tried my new workout for the first time last night

WOW! OK, first things first, you need to be secure in your manhood to do this workout. The first thing I had to do was cut all the weight I was lifting in half or more. We're talking I'm down to 40 pound curls, 115 bench, 20 pound shrugs (I was shrugging 80!!), etc...

Now, you need to do PERFECT form. That's the kicker. There will be nobody else at the gym doing perfect form. When curling, for example, you hold your dumbbells flat against your leg. Now curl one arm up without bending your knees, swaying your back, or moving your head. Keep the ENTIRE rest of your body relaxed except the bicep. This way, nothing is helping the bicep pull the weight up. Raise the weight until it's at about a 45 degree upward angle (any higher and you're resting), pause for a second, and then slower lower it back down until your arm is straight again. Nobody else will be doing it like that. They all will be swinging their hips, bending their knees, coming all the way up and then only like 75% of the way back down, etc... Alternate hands until you are so fatigued that you break form. Don't bother counting reps, they don't matter. Just go until you can't maintain perfect form. Then IMMEDIATELY turn your hands inward so you're holding the dumbbell like a beer mug and start over. These are called Hammer Curls. Do these the same way, coming up to a 45 degree angle and then ALL the way back down. Do these until you can't hold perfect form. That's one set. Now rest 30 seconds and go again. Do 4-5 sets. Even with just 20 pound dumbbells, you will be FRIED after 4 sets.

I have a number of these lifts to make up the routine. I did it for the first time last night. I had to skip 5 lifts due to time, and I'm still sore today. WOW!

I expect to see some progress out of this routine.

My first non-green of 2009 :(

We went to Houlihans last night :( It was really good though.

Disclaimer! I didn't do THAT bad. I had a little calimari, some chicken tortilla soup, a chicken ceaser salad, and half of one of the little desert shot things. It wasn't a green dinner, but it wasn't pizza hut either. I'm marking it as a yellow day. A yellow day is when I didn't eat super healthy, but I didn't eat super bad.

It should break down like this:
Green days = weight loss
Yellow days = weight maintain
Red days = weight gain

Yesterday was surely not a weight GAIN day, so it's yellow.