Houston, we have a problem....

I made the trek last night to Houston and the hotel has a nice fitness area, but anyone else see what's missing?  No real good leg machines!   Lets hope my company's fitness center has a better selection.

Here's another pic of what 20 minutes of HIIT and an additional 10minutes of moderate cardio look like here.  I'm drenched!   Good thing I picked up 5 gallons of water at the grocery store last night.  I'm going to need them just for this mornings work out lol..

I did my weigh in and measurements yesterday and will post up tonight where I am at.

Challenge 2 Week 2 Recap 02/20/12

This week's weigh in was 243 lbs.  I was hoping for more, but am working on developing some lean mass for a 4 week interval, so scale weight isn't something I am too worried about.  I've removed the recommended Hussman Fitness max cardio tweak but have replaced with 10 minutes of moderate cardio to each HIIT and still have a 40 minute moderate added on my normal free day.  I have one complete week off of creatine and am currently in the second week of cycling off of it, but I thought I would have more weight lost thinking I would lose more water weight.  I actually thought it would get me closer to 240 quicker... guess not lol.  The only measurement this week that moved on me was my thighs, which made sense to me.  Friday I was looking in the mirror and saw my quads just popping out.  It's been a long time since I've seen those puppies, but just a quarter inch reduction shows them so much better.  I can't wait to continue to see these type of motivational progress points.

Everyday I have so much I want to talk about, but I have been too busy with work that I haven't had a chance to blog about them.  Some topics I have in mind are protein and how we all use it in our daily meals, cost of supplements vs. real food, trying to find how many people if any at or over 35% body fat have sucessfully transformed like the pictures in 12 weeks.  This last one in particular is one that I think many who have committed to the BFL way need to think realistically about.  I see so many people discouraged in their progress, but in reality they are doing awesome!  I just now how I feel and look compared to where I started and want them to realize as they say that it is about progress, not perfection.

I'm in the groove with my new exercises and feel on track again with weights and intensities so that is a plus for me.  I've taken a look further into my nutrition to make sure that even though I am following the portion rule with my fist, that I am truely eating the amount of protein I should be eating.  I have come to realize that at times I have not with certain meal combinations.  As I read more about nutrition and macro breakdowns, I need to be at 40-45 grams of protein to be where I need to be.  In some meals I was only getting about 20-30 grams.  My Myoplex shakes have 42g, so no issue there, but I have began supplementing with protein powder where needed.  Sometimes it's a half scoop for an additional 10g of protein or at times adding a full scoop for an additional 20g of protein.  The good thing is that I get to eat more :)  The complicated part is the "for life" part.  What does that mean?  The challenges continue with the cravings at times, I've been able to do well with the exception of the weaknes I had last week with a few beers, but there are times I just want to binge.  Sunday I did just that, binge.  I would like to say it was awesome, great, can't wait to do it, but in all seriousness, I felt like I was going to puke.  For a cheat day, I wasn't going crazy with horrible things, but where I went wrong was servings.... a tortilla soup... that was probably about 3 cups in broth, diced chicken, cheese, avocado, sour cream, fried tortilla chips... then add on to that Mexican tortas, which are basically large bread sandwiches loaded with carne asada, cheese, sour cream, beans, lettuce, tomatoes, salsa... and then I had the second one.  This meal alone was probably what we would normally consider 4 servings!  If you think I was done, nope... dessert followed up with a small slice for me and then eating the 3/4 slice of leftover from my son.  All this was a late lunch... where I went wrong was then having a late dinner loaded with even more calories, a beef with cheese, a large cheese fry, large diet coke... oh my what did I do.  My last meal should have just been my protein shake, but I just had to have this.  I tossed and turned, felt like I was going to puke, felt so bloated, sick... you name it, I felt it.  The guilt in my head built... how could I do this to myself?  It's a cheat day... but I hope that this experience will remind me the next time what I should be doing.  I calculated loosely what I ate and not to my surprise, I was at least at a minimum of 4500 calories.  The day would have been wonderful if I had just stuck with the proper servings.  Lesson learned, it's for life, so these obstacles we need to learn from and apply to going forward, but the focus to stay on track is what we need to continue to do throughout our life.  It can't just end at the 12 weeks, but we also need the dedication and focus to do.  It's about progress, not perfection. ;)

Challenge 2 Week 1 recap 2/13/12

Week 13

This is my week 1 recap of my second challenge.  In the last week, I only lost 1/2 lb and really had no significant changes in any of my measurements.  I say only, but it's better than gaining!  Some additional motivation has finally come from some coworkers who have begun to compliment me and ask me what I am doing.

I think it's very important I share this with all of you, as it helps in our devoplement through the transformations.  I started this week strong but fell of the horse when I received some news late in the week that led me to break from my nutrition one evening and even involved a few Blue Moons.  This wasn't a guys night out or any type of special occasion, but something that I am shocked by.  Honestly it's trivial in comparison to real issues out there, but this has been on my mind non stop since then and I have had some ups and downs.  The words "give up" crossed my mind and even came out of my mouth on Friday and thank you to my wonderful wife, when she muttered one simple word... "why?"  What's funny is that such a simple answer to my words was like a light bulb going off in my head.  She was right... why would I give up all this focus and determination I have had in twleve weeks plus just because of a few beers and a bad meal?  I refocused and finished the week strong and need to focus on NOT EMOTIONALLY EATING.

I took this picture late Saturday night after my upper body workout and I laughed because I couldn't take a picture because I was trembling so much I took about 7 pics, then had to walk away to relax for a minute lol... 

I have been trying to focus on fat loss, but I have now completed 4 full weeks with the Hussman Fitness BFL max cardio tweak.  It has kicked my rear and I decided that I have pushed myself so much that I no longer did my low/ moderate cardio on the bike after lifting days.  I have kept it to 20 minutes HIIT on the treadmill and added the additional moderate running for another 20 minutes and an extra 40 minute run on my off day. 

The next 4 weeks I will be adjusting my cardio to 20 min HIIT and 10 additional minutes to help focus on building some lean mass and burning off some fat at the same time.  I have also stopped taking creatine and will be cycling off for the next two weeks.

I took my cheat day Sunday and had ricotta/ sausage pizza and some chocolate covered popcorn.  I took my son to see monster trucks and on the way home I had a taste for some McDonald french fries.  I ended up getting a double cheeseburger to go with it.  Needless to say, the fries were okay... but the burger... ugh, what a sad excuse for edible meat.  I can't believe I actually use to eat these like nothing.

Put your game face on people!  Don't forget, you are doing this for yourself!

Hello old friend...

So I had a below expectation lifting experience on upper body Tuesday and decided I better make up for it in my Thursday lower body workout.  I again changed up most of my exercises and pushed through.  Well late this morning a few hours after HIIT w/ Max tweak, I could feel my legs screaming at me in and out of my car, walking, walking up stairs, sitting down.  I'm feeling like I did back after my week one workouts!  Yesterday, I did the "I dunno" shrug and made myself wince and almost bust into tears... it wasn't until I brushed my teeth before bed when I felt the same pain that it dawned on me the pain was in my shoulders and traps from the upright rows!  Ah what a feeling... good to know I still have even more muscles to stimulate hiding, just waiting to be discovered . :)  At least now I know why today's normal 10 on the treadmill was below my recent 7mph lol...

Worst work out yet...

what a bummer to my first weight session in challenge two.  Not sure if it was the time or if tonight was just the night everyone decided to work out at 930 pm.  Throw into this that I completely changed my exercises and had no idea what weight I needed to work with, but what a disaster.  My rest intervals were all botched due to machines or weights not being available at the time I needed and I just wanted to go through the motions and get the night over with.  I had envisioned such a satisfying workout all day, trying out new exercises, using the cables for certain body parts... worst part, I never got to use the cables!  Ugh.  Well shake is down the hatch, throwing down some cottage cheese and off to bed.  Early morning HIIT.  Good night.

Challenge 1 Week 12 Recap 02/06/12

Countdown: 0 days!!!!


                 Week 2                                 Week 12
I completed my challenge and all was a success.  I am very proud of myself.  My final weigh in was 244 lbs and my belly was 46" and my body fat percentage was 27.3%.  Do I have a six pack?  No.  Did I transform?  Yes, both physically and mentally, but there is more on the physical that needs to be done.  It's about progress, not perfection, and that it is.  I lost 26 lbs of fat and gained 5 lbs of lean mass, with a net scale difference of 21 lbs lost.  Below is a recap of my numbers.

Week	Date	Weight	Waist	BF% Omron Monitor	Lean Mass	Fat
START	11/14/11	265	53.00	35.00%	172.25	92.75
12	02/06/12	244	46.00	27.30%	177.388	66.612
Goal	02/06/12	240		17.50%	198	42
Actual	02/06/12	21	7.00	7.70%	5.138	26.138

Here is a chart that shows my progression on cardio for those who feel like I did when I started, I couldn't even fathom running!  I was so aerobically out of shape, I almost wanted to cry.  It's possible, just stick with it!

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
1	3	3	3	4	4	5	3	4	4	5	3	4	4	5	3	4	4	5	5	3
4	3	3	3	4	5	6	3	4	5	6	3	4	5	6	3	4	5	5	6	3
8	3	3	3	4	5	6	3	4	5	6	3	4	5	6	3	4	5	5	6	3
12	4	4	4	5	6	6	4	5	6	6	4	5	6	6	4	5	5	6	7	4

Week	NOTES
1	I was so winded, omg!
4	Still challenging.
8	On the 4 and 5, I was doing 30 seconds on 4 mph and the other 30 seconds on 5 mph.
12	Actually feel like I can run again!

  Goals, I went in with none numerically, but had two that I had in mind:

• Make it to the gym to workout
• Eat nuritiously

Once I conquered those a few weeks in, my goals expanded to more physical goals:

• Lose 25 lbs and be at 240 lbs.
• Reduce my body fat percentage in half from 35% to 17.5%
• Maintain my muscle mass
• Lose as much fat as possible
• Fit into my 38" pants

My 38" pants fit again, but want the handles gone now.  I didn't meet my weight or body fat percentage goals, but came close on the weight.  As I have done more research on body fat percentages, it's apparent that I may have been a little too optimistic with how much fat I would be able to lose.

I have decided to continue on with my challenge and skip the active rest.  I am going to continue with my focus on fat loss until I can reach 240 lbs while maintaining my current muscle mass utilizing BFL and the Husssman Fitness max cardio tweak.  Once I have reached this goal hopefully in a few weeks, I will most likely then switch back to the BFL straight to the book and focus on gaining some lean mass for about 4 weeks, then reassess where I am at and adjust the remaining time likely for additional fat loss.

My immediate goals for challenge two are based on my last challenge numbers.  I understand that fat loss is not linear and I may not see the same results, but it gives me a number to shoot for.

• Weigh in on the scale at 223 lbs
• Lose 26lbs of fat
• Gain 5 lbs of lean mass
• Measure in at18% body fat
• Be able to complete my HIIT intervals at a 4,6,6,7 mph pace.  This will lead into a future goal of running a decent paced 5k in the spring/ summer.
• Sleep a minimum of 8 hours
• Be at the gym at 0600 hrs EVERYDAY

I am going to continue on with my blog, as it has helped me through this process and I really hope that it has been of some benefit to someone out there.  Let me know if it has, would help motivate me ;)

PS: Challenge 2 is officially on its way, it started with my HIIT and extended tweak this morning :)

12 week celebration

I made in to the gym for cardio at 10am and am celebrating with the family at BW3s. Bluemoon... yummy:)

Countdown 1.90 days

Countdown 1.90 days

It's 1:33 in the morning, Sunday.  I finshed my lower body workout about 20 minutes after midnight and finished up my moderate intensity bike for 20 minutes.  I walked back into the locker room with many thoughts on my mind.  This wasn't my best lifting workout, probably doesn't help the time that it was, but I finished strong with my cardio.  As I changed my clothes and packed up my stuff I was just about to walk out, when I realized that I just completed my last lifting of my 12 week challenge.  It kind of took my breath away, I dropped my bag and sat down and just stared into space for a what felt like a few minutes taking it in.  I did it.  I still have my 40 minute cardio on my cheat day in the morning, just want to make sure I get 6 hours of sleep in.  I'm shooting to be in there by 8 am.

The last few days have been a blur and due to the blur I almost botched my nutrition and was telling my wife I almost threw in the towel on Thursday.  She asked why, what was on my mind that would put the thought in my mind.  I wasn't sure, but I felt angry.  As the day progressed I realized what the issue was, I was thinking about my good friends mother, my father in law, and others who have passed recently, and felt a little angry.   In a nutshell, really trying to understand why.  Why do things happen when they do... and I know I won't ever have an answer, but it doesn't stop the thought.  I read a book by Mitch Albom a few years back , Tuesdays with Morrie, about a mentor with advice.  Without ruining the book, it had a good influence on me and reminds me of our lost loved ones.  Then about a year later, a good friend of mine recommended a book called, "the five people you meet in heaven" which happened to be written by Mitch Albom as well.  It helps put another twist on the after life and recommend it to anyone with the loss of a loved one, just puts some good thoughts in your mind.  Anyway, my point was this has been on my mind, thinking about my faith, thinking about my family, my children, my wife, and so on, and almost brought me to a screeching halt.

Thursday was the wake and words can't explain the experience, but if you've been there you know what I mean.  Just surreal.  I try to make light of the memories and try to bring the smiles on all the grieving and it works well.  I came home tucked the family in and went off to the gym for a good upper body workout.  It was late and needed to get to bed.  Friday was the funeral and I over slept a little.  I did make it to the gym, but since I was running late I had to make the decision to only do my 20 minutes of HIIT and extra 10 minutes of moderate running on the treadmill and off to the funeral.  Spending some time with my friends and their families helped me be at ease and I think I did a good job of helping ease them as well.

All in all, I lost a mentor, a friend this past week.  I lost another mentor and friend last May, my father in law.  What has been bothering me is the fact that I have a family now with a beautiful wife and two lovely kids, but yet worry about being in that position of losing another loved one and having to go through the grief process.  None of us like it, but it's a fact of life.  If I've come away with anything through these experiences it's to live life to it's fullest.  Deep down, my father in law may have been the one to push me in that gym 12 weeks ago, bless his soul, and Dangerous Diane, your the reason I got back on the horse.  Here's to all our lost loved ones and friends... and don't forget to reach out to your family and friends today to say hello, give that extra hug, that extra kiss, don't forget to tell them you love them, and do it often, so they never have a doubt.

Good night all, stay focused.  It's about progress, not perfection!

Balancing the day to day stuff

Countdown: 5 days


Wow... I don't want to slip into bad habits again, but it's going to be challenging at times.  It doesn't start with food, but usually could end there and what I worry about is it will then spread to my workouts.  So what happened?  Work, it get's in the way.  All kidding aside, it's part of life, but one thing I haven't touched base on during this whole challenge is the demands of my job.  I took a good window of opportunity to do me time to get myself back where I need to be.  It helped the way the holidays were spaced out and paid time off to take advantage of being out on PTO longer utilizing them strategically.  Unfortunately, the demands begin to creep back up.  I tell myself, don't put yourself in situations that you could have easily avoided.  My only other worry is, what happens if or I mean when I have to start travelling again?  If this is a change I am doing for life, then I need to make sure the commitment is there for me for life and I will need to plan accordingly.

It started yesterday with almost forgetting a deadline and next thing I knew time was tight and dinner was in question and I still had to workout.  To add to the confusion, I had to stop at home to pick up my 3 yr old to help the wife keep her sanity in getting our  5month old to bed as well.  Luckily I had picked up a box of protein bars and snagged one on the way out.  We made the trek to the pet store as we were out of dog food and unfortunately the local one's don't carry the brand we use and they were at least 30 minutes away and we were fighting against their closing time.  I was STARVING.  The bar held me over for a little, but I hadn't had real food since 1pm and it was half a sub that was lacking my normal amount of protein and greens.  We made it home and I got him settled in and I'm hungry... but I need to hit the gym and do my lower body workout.  I make the trek and walk in the entrance, happy that I am finally here even though it's after 10pm, but wait... what is that smell?  Pizza?  Oh come on, seriously??  Customer appreciation day?  Seriously... who orders a ton of pizzas at a fitness center for people who are technically trying to stay fit.  My mouth started watering at the first smell by my nose, it doesn't ever forget it's old friend lol... All I could do was walk by just shaking my head, I just find it hard to believe that in all the previous 11 weeks, when I wasn't starving, there was never pizza at the gym.  I almost felt like it was one of my tests for a right of passage and I passed with flying colors.

This morning I had a great cardio day, HIIT was on and I managed to hit a new high for me on intervals.  I survived the below intervals:
4,4
4,5,5,6
4,5,5,6
4,5,5,6
4,5,5,6,7
4

My BPM's were at 170 after my last interval high point, HOLY COW!!  To this I added an additional 20 minutes at 4mph.  Felt great.   Stopped at home, got ready for work, packed up my food and off I went.  However, I messed up.  I brought my stuff to my office, but then left in the afternoon to one of our other buildings.  As I was walking out, I thought to go back and get my snacks and water bottle, but had every intention of coming back.  As you know, it never works out the way you want it to and you got it, I never made it back there and missed my 4 pm shake and boy was I hungry.  Calls went longer than expected and before I knew it 630pm was here and I decided just to go straight home.  The lesson I learned is that my food needs to be attached to my side just like I had it on vacation.  It would have been no bother to bring my cooler with me, but you live and learn.  I'll be making my last protein smoothie shortly and off to bed I will go.  I have my last upper body workout of my first challenge tomorrow, weird to say that... but I'm pretty sure I'm going to go straight into my next challenge next week so it's not like I'm going to miss anything lol...