I've Moved

In case you haven't noticed, I've switched my blogging program to WordPress, so check it out here.

I'm a big fan of WordPress now, no offense to Blogger. Check there from now on, I update at least a couple times a day.

Workout B, Part I:

Finally starting to feel better, I was about to throw up. Again, I did two thirds of the workout before feeling woozy. My theory is this: I don't eat many carbs during the day, but right before and after my workouts I have shakes made with whey protein and Gatorade powder that has a ton of sugar in it (that whole insulin-spike thing that delivers the nutrients, or whatever). I think this is shooting my blood sugar through the roof during this time which is making me feel ill. I'll have to cut down on the Gatorade powder and I'm sure it will be fine in the future. I still need to drink a shake in a few minutes to get something during that post-workout period. I'll have Wednesday to make up the rest of this workout and do some intervals and extra ab work. I'm going to go rest, that was really hard.

1A) Snatch deadlifts: 185x12x3
1B) T-pushups: 12x3

2A) Bulgarians split squats: bwx12x2, 10x12
2B) Underhand lat pulldowns: 120x12; 140x10
2C) One-arm dumbbell shoulder press: 30x12x3

"We're here to win again! Harvard's team may fight to the end, but Yale win win!"

Got back from New Haven today after attending the Harvard/Yale football game yesterday with some friends. While this portion of the fight song predicts a Yale victory, they actually got demolished yesterday. A very good time, but I got home later than expected, therefore no gym today. I also ate pretty poorly, starting with a sausage/cheese calzone Friday night at Amici's and ending with pancakes, hash browns, and bacon this morning, not to mention a decent amount of booze throughout. Not exactly according to plan, but weekends like that don't come along very often. It's always good to see friends and if that means indulging more than I want to, so be it. As long as it's limited to once every few months.

Workout B...

No time for Part B today, I have appointments and I'll be away till Sunday. I'll do it then.

Workout A...

Fat Loss II A:

1A) squats: hack squats again (tried dumbbells, way off balance) 45x15x3, i'll give it a better shot next week
1B) bentover rows: 135x15x3

2A) ham curls on ball: bwx12x3
2B) push press: 85x12x3

3A) lunges: 25sx12x3
3B) russian twist in chair: 25x12x3

very beat today. felt like i had to puke, but a really good workout. stuck with the same weights, got all 12-15 reps in each time. part B tomorrow. only 2 more weeks of this commute, so everything will settle down after that and i'll be able to get probably 3 workouts a week, maybe 4 depending on soreness. diet was really good too. i haven't weighed myself but i feel skinny.

Workout A...

Skipped Monday's Fat Loss II Workout part A yesterday due to scheduling conflicts and laziness after work. I'll get the two this week in Thursday and Friday. Just ate pizza with Jaylynn but we had a good excuse. I'll just cut a cheat meal out of the weekend.

Fat Loss Workout(s) B

I split Workout B into two days, I was so sleepy yesterday and didn't want to completely push it. Friday I did:

1A) Deadlifts: 225x12; 185x12x2 (cut down on the weight, hit the reps, no pain, a-ok with me)
1B) T pushups: bwx12x2; bwx10 (those are harder than they look, i can't quite figure out why)

**here's where i didn't want to push it. i was afraid of doing the bulgarians without looking at some diagrams/videos just to make sure, so i just did the underhand lat pulldowns with very little rest
100x12x2; 110x12

Then today (Saturday) I did:
-bulgarian split squats: 10x12x2; bwx12

3A) romanian deadlifts w/ bent over row (i did these with dumbbells, i can keep the form easier: 45x12x3
3B) russian twist in chair: 25x12x3

to get a little extra in, i threw in some giant sets of standing Arnold presses/side delt raises/front delt raises/Roman chair leg raises.

i guess it's two hard workouts instead of one REALLY hard workout. i definitely understand how hard these Fat Loss workouts are now. I'm so winded after every one, which is great. i was also 209 this morning, my lowest in a while. It's not as hard as I thought cutting out so many carbs. I definitely feel tired a lot more, but I'm sure it will just take a little longer to really get used to. I haven't exactly been compliant to my 90% standard but I'm doing well. Sometimes I'll get back to Kathe's after a day in Ashland and just make a peanut butter sandwich on whole wheat bread. I cannot resist. In any case, the fact that the numbers on the scale keep moving to the left will keep me going.

Fat Loss II, Workout A

So I've had another one of my trademark changes of heart. I weighed myself today and I was 211. I thought that my last week of poor eating and no working out would have lead to a gain of at least a couple of pounds. I was discouraged by that that I was going to scrap my plan and start over. However, the 211 I weighed today means I only maintained what I had lost before, which is awesome. I decided to stick to the plan and here's how it went today:

Today's numbers for Workout A FLII:

1A) Front squats: 95x15; 105x12; 115x8 (i am having a hell of a time with this form, or any squat form for that matter. my wrists really hurt on these again)
1B) Wide BB rows: 125x15; 135x15; 145x12
**since i wasn't pleased about the squats, i threw a couple of sets of...wait for it...the hack squat machine (i know, i know...), 45s on the machine, 2x15 to really fatigue my legs. felt pretty jiggly after those.

2A) Leg curls on ball: bwx15; bwx12; bwx12 (i think i have the form right, now, those were pretty hard)
2B) bb push press: 85x12; 85x12; 95x10

3A) lunges: bwx15x3 (my legs were really fatigued thanks to the extra sets of hack squats, so not what i did before)
3B) russian twists (in low back chair, backwards) 25lb plate x15x3

no intervals, felt extremely tired. adjusting to the time change? anyway, i feel pretty good. we'll see how Workout B goes on Friday. hopefully i don't mess up my back again!

onward and upward

Sunday Evening

It's 5:35, I'm watching the Pats and Colts, currently a 7-6 Patriot lead. I feel nervousness in the pit of my stomach....and as I type this, Joe Addai goes 73 yards for a touchdown. I am bullshit right now. 13-7 Colts.

In any case, I've decided to forget my shitty week and re-focus starting tomorrow. I think I'm going to change up the order of the programs and do a hypertrophy program starting tomorrow. For the layperson, hypertrophy means "get wicked jacked." So the rep ranges change and I get to eat a bit more. That means I don't have to feel so bad about eating Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and Superbowl food. I know those things are going to come up far more during this part of the year, and as evidenced by my mood this past week after indulging on my some Halloween candy, I'm not very pleased about it. I'm going to go easier on myself in that respect.

While I do need to lose some fat, I also need to add some serious size. I just think adding muscle at this time of year makes more sense. I'm not going to the beach any time soon, and I'll really need to cut down starting in the spring and summer, especially heading into the fall for the big day.

So, I'm not going to weigh myself. I'm going to take some measurements of arms, chest, legs, etc. I think that I will feel better about this whole process. I like hypertrophy rep ranges, the fat loss ones are too high and I didn't really enjoy those workouts two weeks ago. I still think I'll lose some fat at the same time, as long as I'm eating within reason.

So there you have it. A couple of days and I feel back to normal...minus Joseph-Fucking-Addai's touchdown run RIGHT BEFORE THE HALF!!! I am so fucking BULLSHIT right now!!!

Look for the log update tomorrow.

Shitty Week

Lousy week and a half. I tweaked my lower back again during deadlifts, this time on the snatches. Never doing that grip before, I thought I could lift the same amount. I packed it in after that and took Monday off to rest rather than re-injure. Really discouraging.

Since then I've felt very off, physically and mentally. I told myself I would get my workouts in Thu/Fri of this week but I've bailed on those, too. I have a ton of work to do for this weekend and next week, but I know those are excuses. I've felt like shit all week. I've had no sleep, I'm drinking coffee like water, I'm battling a wicked cold, and I've eaten more than a few Halloween mini Reeses and Snickers from the kids at school where I'm doing my internship. I think I ingested approximately 0 vegetables, and I skipped a couple meals when I was late for work (again, no sleep). I was still relatively low-carb, but certainly not much.

I'm really pissed at myself. I know a week off isn't the worst, but I had such great momentum. I weighed 211 last Friday, my lowest since probably February.

I feel like this final push of grad school is getting the best of me, fitness-wise. My head is killing me, I'm on no sleep, and the constant packing/unpacking/preparing 3 days of meals thing is wearing on me so bad.

I bet this just sounds like I'm rattling off excuses, but that's what I feel like doing right now. I'll start again Monday with Fat Loss II as if this week never happened.

The good news is I was offered a job last Friday after my interview, and I think that's where my head has been. I walked into the gym after that interview to start the workout, and all I could think about was the job. I'm overwhelmed with the end of school and a new venture, but once these final 4 weeks are over, it will calm down. Maybe not smooth sailing, but at least I'll be in one place and not have to worry about a lot of those things. I'm sure I can get into a groove then. After all, I took about 6 months off from health and fitness, a week isn't going to kill me.

But please, somebody give me a kick in the ass, I need it.