Week 6 Recap 12/26/11

Countdown: 42 days

Six weeks complete, first day of week 7, I'm thrilled to be here at this point.  My weigh in was 253 1/2 lbs and my belly was 48.25".  My body fat percentage is 29.6%  :(  So this week I went up 1.5 lbs, my belly gained 2", and body fat percentage went up 1/10 of a percent.  This transaltes into about 3/4 lbs of mucle and 3/4 lbs of fat.  Bah, there should be no fat gain!!!  I also need to make sure that I am consitent in my measuring I think I may have been a little optimistic on my belly last week, maybe I was breathing in or too tight or both, but need to make sure I'm relaxed and not holding my breath.

My  workouts went well and I eliminated my extra HIIT cardio on the bike on lifting days.  It felt awkward to walk out after lifting those days.  However, after my results this morning, I am going back to my cardio on lifting days.  I believe my nutrition may be slightly off and the cardio was actually keeping it in check.  Also, on Wed. this week I began a loading phase of creatine, basically 25 g. a day through yesterday, now I will just maintain the required amount daily.  This should have increased my muscle volume, which to the eye I definitely see, but not sure how the numbers would change with this increased volume of water in the muscles, weight, lean body mass, fat?  I'll have to read up and see.  Regardless, the clothes still feel good.

My cheat day this week was Sunday, Christmas Day.  I had my cravings for sugar cookies filled and overindulged with two plates of mostacolli, ribs, and a slice of red velvet cake!  All in all, I overate, felt bloated, and did not feel that good.  Like they say, it's a reminder to how that feeling was.  I'll stick to Sundays for this feeling only!

Week	Date	Weight	Chest	Arms	Waist	Calves	Hips
START	11/14/11	265			53.00
1	11/21/11	262
2	11/28/11	262			50.25
3	12/05/11	260			49.50
4	12/11/11	255	47.5	15.75	48.25	17.00	43.50
5	12/18/11	252	47.25	14.75	46.25	17.50	41.00
6	12/25/11	253.5	47	15.00	48.25	17.50	44.00

Week	Shoulders	Neck	Thighs	Forearms	BF% Omron Monitor	Lean Mass	Fat
START					35.00%	172.25	92.75
1					NA	NA	NA
2					NA	NA	NA
3					NA	NA	NA
4	52.00	18.50	25.00	12.00	NA	NA	NA
5	52.50	17.00	25.25	12.25	29.50%	177.66	74.34
6	54.00	17.75	24.75	12.50	29.60%	178.464	75.036

Saturday scare...

Countdown: 44 days

Halfway there, 6 weeks complete!

Staying focused with the holidays, I hit the gym this afternoon on Christams Eve Day prior to the festivities.  I had my lower body work out and was going very well, until I hit my abs.  Now abs have never been my favorite, but with BFL's approach we train them just like everything other body part, which allows me to see progression and it's not the same thing for me as what I was used to.  The only drawback I have always had is that I always tweak my back, whether it be bad form or something, it helps deter me from focusing.  I was diagnosed with Degenerative Disc Disease years ago in my lower back, but in all honesty it's wear and tear that can get progressively worse.  My Dr. informed me back then that as long as I build my core muscles, the problems go away.  The doc has been right through the years, when I did workout and kept the weight off I felt great, but when I stopped and gained all the weight back, all sorts of aches and pains started up again.  When I first started 6 weeks ago, boy was my back sore and stiff, but by week 3, it started feeling better, dropping weight, working out, all helped it.  Back to Sat.  I was doing abs and was on my set of 6 and upped my weight on the ab crunch machine to 60 lbs.  On the 2nd rep I felt what felt like a shock run up my lower back through my shoulders and I was like OH NO.  I thought I hurt something and was just floored and thought the worst.  I immediately stood up cautiously and stretched a little, did some twists, reached for the sky, etc., and thought it's not too bad.  In finishing my reps, I decided I should rest my minute, drop the weight, and see if still an issue.  I went back down to 45lbs and just tried to crunch and felt the similiar pain, maybe a pinched nerve or something is what I was thinking.  That is when I noticed that I had the seat one notch to high and I think I may have been using bad form and used my back to the point I pinched something.  I put the seat to where it should be and dropped the weight to nothing and realized I was able to complete a set of 12.  I then did a set with 25lbs, not wanting to have any further damage and super setted with my oblique  twist with a new high max.  The scare was there, but smart quick decisions, helped me work through the issue... so happy it was nothing worse.  Be careful and listen to your body, that's the moral of the story.

Mid- morning meal

It looks so blah, but was really delicious!

Awesome upper body pump!

Countdown: 46 Days

Started a load phase of creatine Wednesday, swear I can feel the difference in just my second day!  This is just after completing my upper body work out.  Stay focused!

Cardio Confusion...

Up through the end of week 5, I had added an additional HIIT on the bicycle on my lifting days.  Optigirl from http://www.bodyforlife.com/ forums, reminded me about "cardio trap".  Basically cardio trap is what happens when you do additional cardio than what is recommended in the BFL program and actually could help diminish your gains by possibly dimishing muscle by being burned for energy instead of fat.  After much debate I decided that I would only do cardio as scheduled and no more starting this week 6.  It's been really hard the last few lifting days to be done after my last supersets and not hit cardio.  Subconsciously, I'm almost convincing myself to go do cardio lol...  I guess I'm just a creature of habit.

I've noticed this week that my hear rate is lower than what it use to be, so I must be getting more efficient.  I have had to shorten some intervals and push the mph to help accomodate my target heart rates.  I can say, that I feel good... it's good to feel like you can actually run again :)

Keeping the motivation... it's about progress not perfection.

Five completed weeks, 13 lbs down, over 6" lost around my belly, pants fitting better, shirts that were too tight I can now wear, think I was happy, ABSOLUTELY, BUT I wanted pictures to see the difference.  I made the mistake of not taking my pictures day one.  My first picture was on 11/29 and only a frontal.  How I wish I would have done a front, rear, and side to compare to todays.  I encourage you to complete this now!  What happened when I looked at the pictures on Sunday, really discouraged me.  Why?  I guess what I saw in the pictures today was where I had convinced myself I looked like already.  You see I was always comfortable with 250ish.  I bought flex pants and wore baggy clothes, so I hid the increasing size.  Well at least in my head I was hiding it.

Purchasing the fat monitor will help me understand what is going on inside my body.  If you look at the numbers below, I've actually lost 18lbs of fat and gained 5lbs in muscle, which nets the total of 13lbs lost.  The scale doesn't show that change in body composition.  This confirms what I have been physically seeing in my upper body on my shoulders and arms, as well as noticing my legs toning up. 

Weight	Body Fat %	Lean Mass	Fat
265	35%	172.25	92.75
252	29.50%	177.66	74.34

Last week I started measuring all the recommended areas and comparing to this weeks measurements again confirms the progress of reducing overall fat in major areas of chest, waist, belly, hips, shoulders, neck and in my arms.  When I work out my upper body, I'm starting to see definition on the muscles during the pump :)  You see the measurements confirm what I feel of forearms and legs actually growing muscle week to week.

Chest

Arms

Waist

Calves

Hips

Shoulders

Neck

Thighs

Forearms

47.5	15.75	48.25	17.00	43.50	52.00	18.50	25.00	12.00
47.25	14.75	46.25	17.50	41.00	52.50	17.00	25.25	12.25

All this helps keep the motivation.  It's about progress, not perfection.

Cardio's getting better!

Countdown: 49 Days

It amazes me how when I started my cardio how out of shape I was.  My first session on the treadmill the easiest part was my warm up at 3 mph walking lol...  I was dying on my first interval when I went up to 5mph.  I checked my heart beat and I already was at over 150 bpms, I wanted to QUIT!  Just remember, everyone starts somewhere and as I keep reading, it's about progress, not perfection.  I did quite a few intervals of 3445, where 4's are a slow jog.  As the sessions went by I would extend my minute to the next level of speed eventually working my way up on speed and effort.

This mornings session felt good, I ran like the wind lol..  I was excited that my 4 intervals consisted of mph of:
3,4(30secs),5(90sec)6
3,4(30secs),5(90sec)6
3456
34556

I always measure my BPM's on the 3's to make sure I'm where I need to be for my age and bpms.  My goal here is to be able to actually remove the 4's from the intervals :)  That would be most excellent :)

Week 5 Recap 12/18/2011

Countdown: 50 Days

Five completed weeks, what a success!  My weigh in was 252 and my belly is 46.25", all good numbers.  I was all excited to try out my new toys that arrived on Thurs. to see how my body fat percentage plays out as I continue to monitor all my measurements.  I had my wife take some pictures of me to see if I can see a difference 5 weeks complete.  I'll cover my thoughts of the measurements and pictures on another post... my wheels have been spinning in my head all day about these two topics.

My work outs both lifting and cardio went relatively well.  I have been posting on http://www.bodyforlife.com/ and I mentioned in a post that I have been following the program but added additional cardio on my lifting days.  After my workouts I added a 20 minute HIIT on the cycle.  My opinion was asked if I had done this the last time I followed BFL ten years ago and what I thought about a topic of "cardio trap" and it got me to thinking on Thurs. with my lower body workout.  Maybe I am overworking myself.  Maybe I'm actually letting my body eat away at muscle, when I need to focus on growing muscle to help burn the fat.  Up to this point it's worked, but maybe it's time to go all in with the program and only do the three HIIT cardio days as in the plan.  Before I worked out that night, I was going to stop the extra cardio, but as I warmed up I convinced myself to finish this week 5 cycle as I have been doing and start fresh eliminating the extra cardio starting week 6.  I had an off day Sat.  I don't know if it was lack of sleep, food, getting burned out, but I started strong with chest and shoulders, but fell hard when I went to my max weight on 6 reps for the remainder of the workout.  This only helped encourage me to drop the extra cardio starting my next week beginning tomorrow.

My food intake has been good, but my weaknesses since I started my transition is cheese and mayo.  I know, I haven't mentioned this to date, but I'm coming to terms with it now.  I don't over indulge on the mayo, but it's usually a quick 1" dot on each side of my bread.  Cheese, mostly Mexican style cheeses... Chihuahua, Fresco, and then mozerella, another achilles heal.  I also need to make sure to incorpate more green vegetables, as I don't feel I am fulfilling my two servings per day that is required in the program.

This week I didn't really have a craving develop, but my mother in law came over one night and had my wife help her bake 5 dozen sugar cookies... my wife's recipe, that I just LOVE.  By the time they were decorated and all, they sat in my kitchen on cookie sheets and all I did was stare at them... I'm laughing about this again, as I took pictures of them.  I really wanted one, so I had to share (take) one of my three year old sons.  I explained to him that it was my special treat for "working out".  Cookies don't help me build muscle, but I waited until today to eat one.  He actually understood, it was cute.  When I bit into it, it was like... this is what I waited for all week?  It really wasn't all that, but good thing they were picked up Friday, because I wanted more, but in all honesty it was just in my mind.  If they were there I may have gorged, I guess we'll never know. ;) 

The family made the trek to a family style local Greek restaurant where I indulged in a breakfast skillet, bacon, sausage, ham, mushrooms, sunny side up eggs, potatoes, cheese, and served with a side of pancakes.  It was good, made me full and had a little of many things I would normally feast on but have severely limited to cheat days.  I then finished the day with a Portillo's cheesy beef, large cheese fry, and a diet coke as in good measure lol... I actually was addicted to Diet Coke, more on that some other time.  I convinced my son he wanted a shake, so we hit Sonic on the way home for a Cherry Creamie Slushie we split.  One thing I realized this morning is that I need to still eat my six meals every two- three hours even on cheat days.  I missed breakfast and adjusted for all my meals later in the day, but the realization is that I should still drink my protein shakes, and just use my actual meals as my cheats.  Could be up to three separate cravings if I really needed it, but I seriously think that the progress and nutrional changes are changing my taste buds.  The bad stuff still tastes good, but not as good as I thought I remembered it.

Week	Date	Weight	Chest	Arms	Waist	Calves	Hips	Shoulders	Neck	Thighs	Forearms	BF% Omron Monitor	Lean Mass	Fat
START	11/14/11	265			53.00							35.00%	172.25	92.75
1	11/21/11	262										NA	NA	NA
2	11/28/11	262			50.25							NA	NA	NA
3	12/05/11	260			49.50							NA	NA	NA
4	12/11/11	255	47.5	15.75	48.25	17.00	43.50	52.00	18.50	25.00	12.00	NA	NA	NA
5	12/18/11	252	47.25	14.75	46.25	17.50	41.00	52.50	17.00	25.25	12.25	29.50%	177.66	74.34

Creation of my first blog

I've officially started my first blog!  Let's see how this works, I've recapped my journal notes back to my start of 11/14/2011.  I started this in hope to help motivate others, but more importantly to keep me honest and accountable to myself.

Week 4 Recap 12/11/2011

This weeks weigh in was an official 255lbs and 48 1/4" belly.  That's a total of 10 lbs and almost 5" lost in 28 days!  I decided to move my measurement day to Sunday, because after splurging on my Sunday cheat days, I worry that my measurements may not show my true progress.  Ok, really, I just don't want to be ashamed of the bad food I'm eating on cheat day lol... so take the measurements before!  This week had some major hits and boosts to the ego... I brought it to the next level and boy did it ignite a flame in me.  I'm seeing progress in my strength and cardio endurance so this was exciting!  Shirts that I stopped wearing because they were too tight because of my belly, I'm able to wear again without embarassment.  Pants fitting much better, even the larger belt I had to buy, is now too big and I have it on the last hole for tightness and it's way loose :)  After glancing at the http://www.bodyforlife.com/ website for years, I decided to join today after noticing that a few people had the same start date as me.  It's good to have support and common goals to keep you going.  I hope to get and give some.

On Wed. I felt horrible, a cold had hit, sinus infection, watery eyes, misery.  I panicked.  I was extremely worried that this would lead me back to the bad habits after this progress mentally and physically.  The happy ending to my story is that I was able to push through it.  I read online about the neck rule, if the symptoms are above the neck you should be fine, if the symptoms are below the neck or in your lungs, then you need to recover.  If you have a fever, no go as you could overheat and dehydrate yourself.  That was enough for me to take the chance and make the trek, so I completed my cardio in the morning with the thought that I could stretch the interval in between workouts until as late as I could wait Thurs night and then push Sat until as late as I could, just to make it to my cheat/ rest day.  The hard part was getting there, as every part of me just wanted to cuddle into the fetal position on the couch and go to sleep lol... but once I worked out I felt great!  The mornings were tough... it hit my like a ton of bricks.  I had no appetite to be honest, but I forced myself to eat all my meals including my three protein shakes.  I used a netti pot on my sinuses almost every two hours, kicked up my hot tea intake, and beat it!  Fastest recovery ever!  This is a big accomlishment for me in my experience as I now know I can push through this scenario.

In order to avoid the dissapointment of the weight scale and keep some positives for motivation, I purchased a tape measure from Walmart for about $2.  Going forward I will be taking all the recommended measurements to see my progress and not let the weight scale drag me down.  I started doing some research on tools for measuring body fat.  I've used calipers in the past, but what seems like a simple measurement never seemed consistent for me.  I decided to purchase the Accumeasure calipers and Myotape body tape for measurements.  As I was placing the order on Amazon, I noticed an Omron Body Fat Monitor (My wife use to work for Omron), so I read on.  It was about $30 and free shipping, after reading many reviews and doing some online research on it, I decided to get all of them for $40 shipped to my door.  This way I could get comfortable using the calipers and utilize the monitor for accuracy.  Can't wait for them to come in now :)

This weeks cheat day is something that I have been longing since I embarked on this journey consisting of a good treat of Bdubs!  Habenero and carribean jerk wings, blue cheese, wedges, cheese, sour cream...  stuffed like a turkey, but so worth squashing my cravings.  And the icing on the cake... I still have had no BLUE MOON!  Those that know me realize, this in itself one of the biggest sacrafices I have made.  Blue moon and I go hand in hand... well did.  I still insist that I don't "need" one, "want" one, yes, but I can wait and I don't want alcohol to effect my metabolism.

So here is the new table I completed and will fill in going forward :)

Week	Date	Weight	Chest	Arms	Waist	Calves	Hips	Shoulders	Neck	Thighs	Forearms	BF% Omron Monitor	Lean Mass	Fat
START	11/14/11	265			53.00							35.00%	172.25	92.75
1	11/21/11	262										NA	NA	NA
2	11/28/11	262			50.25							NA	NA	NA
3	12/05/11	260			49.50							NA	NA	NA
4	12/11/11	255	47.5	15.75	48.25	17.00	43.50	52.00	18.50	25.00	12.00	NA	NA	NA