day: twenty nine

truncated meal schedule today due to a long ass homework project i spent until 10:30 working on at the office.

eh, whatcha gonna do?

day: twenty eight (weigh-in)

well folks it's that time of the week; my fourth weigh-in since i started my "quest". it's been a month!

first, my measurements taken last week at the same time of day:

Body Weight: 188.8 lbs
Chest: 23 mm
Waist: 25 mm
Thigh: 26 mm

Body Fat: 20.7%
Lean Mass: 149.72 lbs
Fat Mass: 39.08 lbs

and now for this week's results:

Body Weight: 187.4 lbs
Chest: 21 mm
Waist: 23 mm
Thigh: 23 mm

Body Fat: 18.9%
Lean Mass: 151.98 lbs
Fat Mass: 35.42 lbs

i lost 3.66 lbs of fat and gained 2.26 lbs of muscle!

so, this is pretty big, i'm starting to see some real muscle gain. i'm guessing this is attributed to the extra rest days (2 instead of 1) between workouts + continuing to add weight on critical exercises. also, i've switched up my order of lifting, started eating a small amount of carbs before i lift, and added a lower back exercise*.

i've finally passed the 45 lb hurdle on the biceps and have hit the century mark on the bench press. today, my weights were as follows (change from beginning workout plan):

Leg Presses - 210 lbs (+140)
Leg Curls - 100 lbs (+30)
Calf Raises - 100 lbs (+45)
Abdominal Crunches - 110 lbs (+70)
Lower Back - 60 lbs (+0*)
Tricep Pressdown - 55 lbs (+25)
Barbell Curls - 45 lbs (+15)
Lat Pulldown - 90 lbs (+30)
Lateral Raises - 12.5 lbs (+2.5)
Bench Press - 100 lbs (+35)

adding extra carbs has not seemed to negatively effect me, in fact i feel more motivated since i can have a yam, or fruit, or rice with my meals.

thus far, i've lost 19.12 lbs of body fat and gained 4.52 lbs of muscle.

day: twenty seven

turkey burger and yam fries!

yum.

day: twenty six

had some wine tonight. i bit too much i believe. i've got to bring things back under control lol.

day: twenty five

killer workout today...i upped ALL my weights. it was freakin sweet.

had a glass of wine this evening with jon, good times, good times.

day: twenty four

i really wanted to workout today, but i had to listen to my body and give it another rest day. i'm pumped and ready to go tomorrow after 2 midterms and a board meeting; i'll need the stress relief after all that for sure.

hah.

day: twenty three

good rest day today. accidently missed a shake this afternoon. not much else to report!

day: twenty two

awesome workout today! it ended on a bang. i upped my bench by 10 lbs and totally destroyed it. it was freakin sweet.

i'm guessing that those extra rest days contributed something to that. so, on that note, i think i'm going to wait to workout again until thursday; 2 rest days will be glorious i think. it should help me increase my weight more consistently.

as for food, i'm adding cottage cheese back in as my nightcap. and i'm trying to figure out if i should be eating another meal right now or not...*puzzled*

day: twenty one (weigh-in)

well folks it's that time of the week; my third weigh-in since i started my "quest".

first, my measurements taken last week at the same time of day:

Body Weight: 191.6 lbs
Chest: 25 mm
Waist: 27 mm
Thigh: 27 mm

Body Fat: 22.0%
Lean Mass: 149.45 lbs
Fat Mass: 42.15 lbs

and now for this week's results:

Body Weight: 188.8 lbs
Chest: 23 mm
Waist: 25 mm
Thigh: 26 mm

Body Fat: 20.7%
Lean Mass: 149.72 lbs
Fat Mass: 39.08 lbs

i lost 3.07 lbs of fat and gained .27 lbs of muscle! not as spectacular this week, but things are starting to even out as i knew they would. also, i had dick's on friday so that didn't help much. and i had a pretty big dinner too so that may be some of it.

i'm beginning to add carbs back into things (fruit, yams, cereal) so we'll see how that fairs with my goals. thus far, i've lost 15.46 lbs of body fat and gained 2.26 lbs of muscle; not bad for three weeks.

as i experiment with my diet we'll see what happens...

day: twenty

had a fruit salad and rice with dinner tonight, trying to add back some carbs to the mix.

blew it and had dick's last night...let's just say it was extenuating circumstances.

i also bought yams, need to find a good way to cook them!

day: nineteen

i had to sit in a room full of people eating chipotle burritos today: killer. but i faired well indeed. i was planning on going to workout today, but, again, i feel as if my muscles are still fatigued from wednesday. if i workout without full repair it will just be a waste of my time.

soooo...i'm going to either go tomorrow or sunday.

the weekend approaches...

day: eighteen

web problems today. today is the last day for my extremely low carb nutrition plan, i'll begin adding back some important carbs over the next couple days to get to a more normal level.

day: seventeen

workout felt really good, besides the fact that i didn't have a protein shake right prior so i was a bit hungry. i went a little earlier today than usual and everything felt good. my muscles are a bit sore though, i'm thinking i might need to start lengthening my recovery time. i'll figure that out after this week's weigh-in i think.

day: sixteen

late dinner today. feelin good. short update :)

day: fifteen

i've hit a wall on my biceps. it's really starting to irritate me. i've been able to up my weight almost every workout for each muscle group, but my biceps are stuck at 40 lbs. i'm thinking that i do so many other exercises that may affect the biceps that by the time i get to the curls they are already tired. i might try mixing things up a bit in order to try and get some progress in that area.

my list of weights for today and how much i've increased since my first workout (in parenthesis):

Leg Presses - 200 lbs (+130)
Leg Curls - 95 lbs (+25)
Bench Press - 85 lbs (+20)
Lat Pulldown - 80 lbs (+60)
Lateral Raises - 10 lbs (+0)
Tricep Pressdown - 50 lbs (+20)
Barbell Curls - 40 lbs (+10)
Calf Raises - 85 lbs (+30)
Abdominal Crunches - 100 lbs (+60)

so as you can see, my two nagging areas are barbell curls and lateral raises. i want to get to 15 lbs in lateral raises and 45 lbs in barbell curls by friday!

day: fourteen (weigh-in)

well folks it's that time of the week; my second weigh-in since i started my "quest".

first, my measurements taken last week at the same time of day:

Body Weight: 196.4 lbs
Chest: 27 mm
Waist: 32 mm
Thigh: 30 mm

Body Fat: 24.6%
Lean Mass: 147.78 lbs
Fat Mass: 48.22 lbs

and now for this week's results; again, above my expectations!

Body Weight: 191.6 lbs
Chest: 25 mm
Waist: 27 mm
Thigh: 27 mm

Body Fat: 22.0%
Lean Mass: 149.45 lbs
Fat Mass: 42.15 lbs

i lost 6.16 lbs of fat and gained 1.36 lbs of muscle! i'm hoping my measurements are correct, i at least know the scale is.

day: thirteen

had to improvise a bit today due to some hospitality at a tail gate party at autzen. had a polish dog with no bun and some nuts. i think everything went pretty well though.

i can feel my muscles are much more recovered.

day: twelve

road trip! stopped in centralia and had a big salad. everything worked out pretty well. i'm going to postpone my workout today in order to have some more recovery time for my muscles.

day: eleven

had roasted chicken with taragon and paprika with a side of carrots today at a new restaurant on the ave: "light gourmet"

it was quite good and i believe that it fit pretty well within my nutrition parameters.

going down to oregon this weekend for the football game; i'm going to have to packup shakes and then try and find things to eat on the way. should be an interesting challenge!

day: ten

food intake is going peachy keen. i can tell that i'm losing weight, i just don't know how much since it's not sunday yet! my muscle tone is progressing quite nicely.

i accidently (due to a miscalculation of barbell weight) attempted to increase my bicep weight by 20lbs today...instead of 5. needless to say, i about ruined my bicep reps because of it. i think my body might need one additional rest day in order for my muscles to properly recover. i've been working out every other day, but i think instead of working out on friday i'm going to try saturday this week. i'm guessing that it's because i've been increasing weight each workout so my muscles are having a hard time keeping up.

also, i bought some weight training gloves today, which drastically improved my grip. my hands were getting a bit beaten up by all the lifting!

day: nine

i cut back just a bit on the protein today. i'm still slightly over 200 grams, but just not as high as i was loading before. i'm hoping my muscles are recovering quick enough for a good workout tomorrow, i feel ready to lift!

made some good chicken tonight, pan-fried in olive oil and garlic. with this new diet i'm refinding my intrigue with cooking my own meals. we'll see how creative i get over the next couple of weeks as i begin to add more things back into my diet to keep it balanced.

day: eight

i hit some walls on my weights this evening. abs and lateral raises couldn't take a complete increase in weight. will try again on wednesday.

day: seven (weigh-in)

well folks it's that time of the week; my first weigh-in since i started my "quest".

first, my beginning measurements taken last week at the same time of day:

Body Weight: 202 lbs
Chest: 29 mm
Waist: 37 mm
Thigh: 33 mm

Body Fat: 27%
Lean Mass: 147.46 lbs
Fat Mass: 54.54 lbs

when i stepped on the scale tonight i was just hoping for something, anything to show that this was beginning to work. let's just say i'm quite happy with the results thus far!

Body Weight: 196 lbs
Chest: 27 mm
Waist: 32 mm
Thigh: 30 mm

Body Fat: 24.6%
Lean Mass: 147.78 lbs
Fat Mass: 48.22 lbs

i lost 6.32 lbs of fat and gained .32 lbs of muscle! this is a great start! i'm really excited that i was able to lose weight, yet keep muscle loss under control. i'm even more pumped now than i was when i started this last week! while i know that future weeks will not have the same kind of drastic loss, i'm glad to see that i'm moving down the right path.

pictures are available at the link on the right of the page; not a huge difference...yet.

day: six

today i had to move around my meals since i woke up so late. the tougest thing with this routine is definitely going to be the weekend night owl syndrome lol.

i still was able to get my meals in, although i had a steak for dinner instead of a chicken breast. hopefully that's not too bad of a deviation since it is still very protein rich.

felt pretty good about things today. i can tell, at least aesthetically, that i've made progress thus far. will have to wait until tomorrow to do an official "weigh-in"!

day: five

less carbs today, worked out quite well actually. the only problem was that it was a friday. it's interesting to try and work my eating around the fact that i like to be a night owl on the weekends. i had to tweak things around a bit, but it ended up working out.

my workout: kicked ass! i upped all my weights again and man-oh-man, i could feel it on the biceps. i still think i can keep upping weight some more, but on a couple exercises i'm going to need a spotter.

Leg Presses + 25 lbs (125)
Leg Curls + 5 lbs (80)
Bench Press + 5 lbs (80)
Lat Pulldown + 0 lbs (70)
Lateral Raises + 0 lbs (10)
Tricep Pressdown + 5 lbs (40)
Barbell Curls + 5 lbs (40)
Calf Raises +10 lbs (70)
Abdominal Crunches + 10 lbs (90)

day: four

second rest day. i was overly tired this morning. after waking up and making my breakfast, i ended up going back to bed until almost 12:30. i just couldn't pull myself out of bed. i'm not sure if it was from the workout, the diet, or both. i missed my 10 o'clock meal, but i don't think i burned my first two meals off in time anyway since i was sleeping.

when i got home, i began looking into ways to tweak my nutition plan. i went back to the book and began reading the nutrition section and comparing it with the sample meals. i feel as if i might have mis-stepped myself when starting this plan. i was having WAY too many carbs. the first two weeks are supposed to have a significant drop in carbohydrates in order to level off insulin levels and jump start the fat burning. it's not a no carb, but it's supposed to be around 25-40 carbs per day.

essentially, i scrapped my previous meal plans and started over from the 2 week plan in the book. slightly less calories and carbohydrates, more healthy fats, and a bit less protein. tomorrow, i'm going to start this new plan and continue it until october 20 in order to correctly get my body burning fat and building muscle.

i don't look at the first four days as a loss, but more as an easing of my body into the nutrition change.

for the next two weeks, i'm going to be extremely strict on following the above plan, i want to make sure things start correctly this time :)

day: three

second workout day. i felt as if my first day was good, but did not have the correct amount of weight. i upped weight in almost every exercise:

Leg Presses + 30 lbs
Leg Curls + 5 lbs
Bench Press + 10 lbs
Lat Pulldown + 10 lbs
Lateral Raises + 0 lbs
Tricep Pressdown + 5 lbs
Barbell Curls + 5 lbs
Calf Raises +5 lbs
Abdominal Crunches + 40 lbs

my workout was really good; got tough at the end, but i could really feel it. i think i can increase the weight on a couple areas friday.

for the most part, my diet stayed the same as the first day, except no pro-fusion at night.

day: two

first rest day. i realized that i didn't have to have pro-fusion (micellar casein) every night, but that cottage cheese also has the same properties. i had a bit less calories than day one and didn't workout. my muscles were sore, but i could tell that they were recovering faster than i was expecting, probably due to the large amounts of protein i was taking in.

i was trying to pay attention to my body so that i could see what alterations i would need to make to my food intake.

day: one

it was a very interesting adjustment the first day. i was preparing shakes and meals, eating egg whites, and working out for the first time in months. i ingested about 2,400 calories, 240 grams of carbs, 312 grams of protein, 27 grams of fat and worked out a variety of muscles.

while this would take some getting used to, i was pleased with how things went.

the beginning

i decided to take a real look at my nutition and exercise. conclusion? they suck. i eat horribly, been drinking a lot, and don't exercise at all. this is probably the worst shape i've seen myself in EVER. since jamaica (march 2005) i'd gained almost 20 pounds. this just won't do anymore, it's time to make a change.

looking for guidance on how to get healthy is like sifting through junk mail. everybody in this country wants the next "QUICK! EASY! NO WORK!" diet and workout plan it's quite difficult to find something realistic. i didn't want something quick and easy; i knew it would take work. i finally found a resource that made sense, didn't try and sugarcoat things, and provided a fair amount of detail on both nutrition and weight training.

i read the book, quite intrigued to be honest. it seemed to make a lot of sense and worth a shot. i purchased a scale, fat calipers, and quite a bit of protein from bodybuilding.com and awaited their arrival. i crafted a nutrition and workout plan, and picked a start date: monday, october 3, 2005.