Here's a couple weeks worth of posts:

I keep forgetting to update this thing. I log everything at JP Fitness so here's a couple weeks worth of posts. This is just copied/pasted, so no editing or spelling correction, plus it starts in reverse order:

10/8
Final week of Break-Ins

Break-In A:

Superset:
Front squats 65x15; 95x12 (my wrists hurt, i was holding the bar like a clean, but it hurt, i'll have to find a different grip)
static lunges: 25s x 15; 10x 15 (went down because i knew i wouldn't get close to 15 on the second set)

Superset:
one-arm 2pt. db rows: 40x15x2
pushups: 30; 25

Cable crunches: 150x25; 150x20

all numbers went up. not as tired, so that's good. definitely too much food this weekend, 5 cheat meals instead of 4. it's hard watching the patriots and red sox at 99 without eating gold fever wings (what can i say, i rationalize the protein). must be better this week. i'll try some intervals or bodyweight circuits (i found one of ballantyne's) tomorrow or wednesday. definitely elliptical intervals next saturday, too. this week will be good because i have much less to do now that my graduate portfolio is done. i'm just job-searching and playing madden the rest of my days. anyway, felt good today.

10/12
final Break-In B:

Superset:
-Deadlifts: 205x15; 245x12
-step-ups: 35x12x2

Superset:
-Close-grip lat pulldowns: 130x11; 130x9
-Single arm standing dumbbell press (neutral grip): 40x15x2

everything goes up again. i guess i get next week off from lifting, but i'll do intervals and some abs on my regular days


i can't wait till i'm done with these 15-rep sets. i haven't looked at the Fat Loss I workouts so I don't know what the rep ranges are on that. some of these i could probably get more reps but the burn sucks. doing step-ups is the worst because they take forever with each leg at that rep range. heavy sets were always my favorite in the old days.

10/14

Abs and intervals today.

Tri-sets of planks/side planks: 3x30s

Supersets of reverse crunches and med. ball throws on bench 2x6 of each

5-min treadmill walk
10-min 30s/60s elliptical intervals
5-min treadmill walk cool down

tired.

eating Protein Pumpkin Pudding recipe from Mike Roussell, getting ready for the Pats to destroy the Cowboys today. It's good, I guess. I've never so much as eaten pumpkin pie but this is okay.

10/15

5m treadmill warm-up
10m 60/30 elliptical intervals
5m treadmill cool-down

Fat Loss starts next week, figure I might as well get a head start.

10/18
off-week workout 2:

abs superset:
reverse crunches 2x10; med. ball throws from decline bench 2x8

planks/side planks 30s x 2

-5-minute treadmill warmup
-10-minute stationary bike intervals (i hate the bike, the ellipticals were full)
-5-minute treadmill cooldown

i've had better interval workouts. but i was 213 this morning, down 4 pounds since i started NROL last month. i expect that to accelerate during the next several weeks of Fat Loss I. My diet has improved, especially in the last few days. I'm cutting out more carbs after reading about Adam's Diet and a little of the TNT Diet book and even in the last couple days i've noticed a difference. I think I've got a good pre-and-post workout nutrition thing set up with whey and gatorade, so we'll see how that goes. Going to have cheat meal #1 tonight.

10/22

Today began Fat Loss II. Since I'm on the 2-day-a-week plan, I guess I skip Fat Loss I. I don't know how it went, it didn't feel great. I felt that it wasn't as hard as the Break-In workouts, though I rested a little bit longer than 60 seconds. I felt I had a lot of trouble with some of the lifts, especially the push press and the supine hamstring curls. I definitely need to practice those more. The push press wasn't bad but with the little toe raise at the end my timing was off. My hamstrings did feel worked after doing the sets of curls on the ball, but I felt like I was moving nothing. I'm not going to do the Russian Twists on the ball yet, those were too awkward. I did them on the lower back extension chair. I sit in it backwards with a 25 and do the movement. That move on the ball will also take some practice. The cable machines are as far away as possible from the squat rack, so I substituted wide grip bent-over barbell rows. Here are the numbers:

Superset:
-front squat: 95x15; 95x12; 105x10
-wide grip bb rows: 95x15 (easy); 115x15 (easy); 120x15 (pretty much easy)

Superset:
-supine hamstring curls: bwx15x2; bwx25 (felt like i was moving nothing, yet they felt swelled up after the sets, so who knows. i think the ball was too big.)
-push press: 65x15 (easy); 85x12x2 (again, not great form. will take some practice)

Superset:
-dynamic lunge: 25x12x2; bw to failure
-russian twist: bwx15; 25x10; 25x9

Since the workout itself wasn't great, I followed it up with intervals on the elliptical for 10 minutes. I have jelly legs. Of course, I get home, check my blogs and I see a Ballantyne article about how ellipticals suck. Yea, well, whatever. I'm using it for now.

Friday is Workout B. It will take a couple weeks to get used to these lifts, but I'm still sweating and pretty tired so all in all an adequate workout.

Diet has been very good. Only 3 cheat meals last week (though they were AWESOME, my fiance made fillet mignon with blue cheese sauce and apple pie) I like the gatorade/whey pre and post workout shakes. Pretty much my only sugary carbs for the day.

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that's it for the past couple of weeks.

I weighed 214 this morning 10/23. So, down 3 pounds since I started this program, 16 since the start of summer. I think it's more than 3 pounds of fat, though, because I'm taking creatine and lifting, so there's going to be some water retention and muscle gain which would account for the scale numbers not moving where I'd like them to be. I'd like to be 212 by the time I get home Friday. I feel that my clothes are fitting better (my 36W jeans are really loose, haven't tried the ol' 34s yet) and I think my face looks thinner. Going low-carb this past week has been kind of hard, I start dragging around mid-afternoon, but I'm not that tempted. I read that it takes time for your body to really burn fat for energy instead of carbs, so this is expected. I feel very dedicated to this program right now and I think it's only going to get better as I keep reducing the startchy carbs. Thank god for coffee and green tea. I immediately feel my blood sugar spike after I have a PWO shake with gatorade/whey, but I get that's the idea. Something about nutrient timing or something, I don't know I'm not a fucking biochemist...Do "biochemists" exist or did I just invent that profession? It doesn't sound right. Anyway, I'll update this again Friday.

Last Week of Break-Ins

Tuesday:

Not much activity today. Maybe some simple stretching and mobility work later tonight, but probably not. Resumes are in the mail, I'm getting headhunter recruiters calling me like all damn day. I suppose constant job opportunities are a good problem to have. Better than none.


Monday:
Break-In A:

Superset:
Front squats 65x15; 95x12 (my wrists hurt, i was holding the bar like a clean, but it hurt, i figured i would have to find a different grip but a guy on the forums said it just requires more stretching. I'll get to 135 again in a couple more weeks. Having a big plate on the squat bar is much less embarrassing)
static lunges: 25s x 15; 10x 15 (went down because i knew i wouldn't get close to 15 on the second set)

Superset:
one-arm 2pt. db rows: 40x15x2
pushups: 30; 25

Cable crunches: 150x25; 150x20

All my numbers went up and I'm not as tired, so that's good. Definitely too much food this weekend, 5 cheat meals instead of 4. I was 215 a couple days ago but probably not now. It's hard watching the Patriots and Red Sox at 99 without eating gold fever wings (what can i say, i rationalize the protein). I must be better this week. I'll try some intervals or bodyweight circuits (i found one of Ballantyne's) Wednesday. Definitely elliptical intervals next Saturday, too. This week will be good because I have much less to do now that my graduate portfolio is done. I'm just job-searching and playing Madden the rest of my days. Anyway, felt good today.

Saturday Session

Quick interval/abs session at PF today.

-3 plank/side plank supersets of 30s or more
-Decline bench medicine ball throws...first attempt at those. My lower back is sore from deadlifts yesterday, as is the one spot where I tweaked it, so couldn't go all out on those.

-Elliptical intervals for 10 min: (30s high intensity, 60s moderate...more or less). Seriously, try these if you haven't before. Jogging on the treadmill or leisurely pedaling the elliptical for 45 minutes is nothing compared to interval training. I turn the resistance up all the way and just go balls out for 30 seconds, then rest and repeat. Done in 10 minutes, legs swell up big time. Then 5 minutes on the treadmill (incline) walking to cool down.

Now outside for a nice walk while the weather is still nice. Too bad my iPod is in the shop.

Anybody else heard the 300 soundtrack, or at least remember any of the music from the movie? Very good for the gym. There is an instrumental by Nine Inch Nails called "Just Like You Imagined" which is pretty awesome for lifting/cardio. I'm gonna listen to that now to get it in my head.

Week 2: Break-In B

From Friday Oct. 5:

Superset:
a) deadlifts 185x15; 225x12 (a little overzealous today, felt a small twinge in my lower back)
b) step ups: 30x15; 30x10

Superset:
a) single arm dumbbell shoulder press: 35x15x2
b) close grip lat pulldowns: 130x9; 130x7 (way too hard)

reverse crunches: 10x2

Totally beat after this. had the burning feeling in my lungs like after a long run. Supersets using your whole body for medium rep ranges are fucking brutal.

I did eat pizza last night as a cheat meal, so that's one marked off. I'm considering the middle of the week as one cheat meal. While nothing really qualified as one, it wasn't quite good enough that I'll let myself get away with it.

Middle-of-the-Week Downers

I stay at my aunt's house in Franklin for 3 days during the middle of the week until the end of Novemeber, and so far I haven't done a lot of working out while I'm here. I did some sprints last week, but that gave me shin splints. I don't imagine that I will as much as I plan each Tuesday before I head up here: I don't have a gym, I don't like bodyweight exercises, I've got a bit of work to do each evening. Of course it's possible, but honestly I'm not likely to really do anything consistently here.

Therefore, my diet is the most important thing while I'm here. I've been relatively out of sorts this week, at least compared to what my plans were. I make and pack 3 days worth of my own food so I can stick to my goal. This week was different. With late pre-cana class in Auburn the other night, I didn't get home until 10PM. My shakes and the like were in a cooler all day in my car, but I was out so long (6:30AM-10:00PM) that everything got too warm. Two large shaker bottles down the drain. I probably could have drank them as meal replacements, but the cottage cheese scared me (last thing I need in a school office full of women is stomach discomfort).

So, I've been eating what is available at my aunt's that comes close to my diet. That means a lot of eggs, wheat toast (not the carbs I was planning on, but not terrible), yogurt, a couple Fiber 1 bars, peanut butter, etc. I haven't fallen off the wagon because those foods are all still pretty good, but it wasn't what I had planned on so mentally I don't feel right.

In a way, this is good because even straying from my plans this little bit has upset me. I haven't eaten pizza, cookies, banana bread, or anything else I could have yet I feel that I have cheated in some way. This is motivation to get back on it and continue to be dedicated when I go home tomorrow and hit the gym. Also motivation to pick up a couple more ice packs.

I also realize that despite the title of this blog, I haven't been thinking about getting in shape for the wedding: I'm doing it because I want to get in the best shape that I can possibly achieve. This is great because it shows that I'm not doing this for outside reasons and that I'm doing it for myself.

Week 2

Week 2: Break-In A:

Superset:
front squats: 2x15xbar (much better form than last time. easier, too)
static lunges: body x 10; body x 6 (seemed harder than last time)

Superset:
One-Arm 2 pt. DB rows: 2x35
Pushups: 2x20

Cable crunches:
140lbs x 20; 140lbs x 16

About 35-40 minutes. My squat form is getting much better. Front squats feel very comfortable. I'll throw a few more pounds on next week to get my morale up. It's also feels weird to be done with a workout in a little over a half hour. Walking out of the gym I feel like I'm leaving too early. Not lifting long and heavy is mentally difficult right now, but I'll get there...

Next to Planet Fitness is a (sort of) new protein shake bar, I think called Body Control. I had the Peanut Butter Mocha shake and it was very good. $5.25 is pretty expensive, but you figure a medium coffee drink from Starbucks is pretty comparable, and this was pretty healthy. I had to pound it in my car before getting my haircut right after my workout, so a little bit of an ice cream headache. I definitely think my shakes are missing ice, that thickens them up and gives them a good milkshake-like texture.

In other shake-related news, I've figured out a way around the Soylent Green veggie shakes: A couple strawberries and some sugar-free raspberry Jell-O packets. I can't even taste the vegetables at all, and that means I can put more in. Frankly, I don't care how weird it looks or what my mom thinks about it. If I'm going to get healthy again, this is how. I've solved the problem through ingenuity.

Gonna up the deadlifts on Friday. With my portfolio passed in by Friday (!), I'll have less to do this fall, at least in the short-term. That gives me more time to focus on these goals. Onward.