9.30.07 - Weight 188 - Shoulders/Forearms/Abs/Calves

I was kind of expecting to step on the scale and see a little bit of a difference, but nope. I have been lifting a lot lately and my weight is staying the same so I can only hope that I am loosing some fat and gaining back some muscle. I will say that my pants are looser, my shoulders and arms are getting way more defined and my face is thinner than ever before so I am confident I'm moving in the right direction.

This morning I woke up, downed a couple Ripped Fuel pills with a monster energy drink and then did 30 minutes cardio. I finished that up with a protein shake made with milk.

I made the worlds best brownies last night, the family has been asking for them for days so I decided to make them. I had a few bite size pieces but all in all I think I resisted pretty well. I am looking forward to making to shoulders and forearms today. I am digging the definition I am seeing in my arms and shoulders. The more and more weight I loose the better and better my arms are looking....especially on workout days, they get huge after working them out! :)

I want to switch to a 5-6 meals a day plan but its harder than it sounds when your not used to it, especially when no one else around me does it. I need to make the extra effort and just do it though, I've read that it will significantly increase the metabolism by doing so, so we'll see. I want to get all the cardio and lifting in that I can before I leave for WA. on Thursday. I will be gone Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday so I'm not sure how much time I can really get in working out. The hotel will probably have a workout place but I'm not sure what my schedule will look like, I will see what I can do but I have a feeling I'll have to rely on controlling my eating to make any progress while I'm gone. On a better note, though, I will hopefully have an offer on a house when I come back. WA here we come!

SHOULDERS
E.Z. Bar Row
1 Set/8 Reps with 50lbs
4 Sets/8-12 Reps with 80lbs

Rear Delt Dumbbell Row
4 Sets/10-12 Reps with 25lb Dumbbells

Lateral Rope Extensions
4 Sets/10-12 Reps

E-Z Bar Press
1 Set/12 Reps with 60lbs
3 Sets/8-10 Reps with 70lbs

FOREARMS
Dumbbell Forearm Curls
3 sets/12 reps with 25lb Dumbbells

Behind the back E-Z Bar Curls
4 sets/15 reps with 50lbs

TRAPS
Dumbbell Shoulder Rolls
3 Sets/10 Reps with 25lb Dumbbells

Behind the Back E-Z Bar Shrugs
3 Sets/10-12 Reps with 50lbs

ABS
3 Sets/25 Reps Crunches

CALVES
Weighted Calf raises
3 Sets/15 Reps

Single Leg Calf Rasies
4 Sets/10-12 Reps

FOOD AND SUPPS FOR TODAY
7:00 AM - Ripped Fuel (2 pills)
7:10 AM - 30 min. Cardio
7:40 AM - Protein Shake (made with milk)
8:30 AM - 1 Piece White Toast
8:30 AM - Fish Oil, Vitamin E, L-Carnitine, Green Tea Extract, B-Complex
1:00 PM - 3 Small Baked Fish Fillets (360 kcal) + 1"x1" brownie bite
5:00 PM - Ripped Fuel (2 pills)
5:30 PM - 2 small Chile Colorado Burritos with fat free beans
5:30 PM - Fish Oil, Vitamin E, L-Carnitine, Green Tea Extract
7:45 PM - 1 scoop protein shake
9:30 PM - 35 min. Cardio

9.29.07 - Weight 188 - Biceps/Triceps/Abs

The kids had their soccer games today so I was out at the field all morning. I had my usual breakfast this morning except I added a little cheese on top of the egg. For lunch we let Adrianna pick where we would go, she picked 'Red Robin' so we ate there. I ate 1/2 of a cheeseburger, and about 1/2 the fries that came with it. I had water with Lemon as a drink.

Taking yesterday off from lifting helped. I woke up much more refreshed today and my lifting today was awesome, I got a great arm workout.

My cardio tonight sucked, for some reason I was very tired, my legs were like jello and I was getting light headed, I decided to cut the session at 35 min, thats after about 5 min of 1/2 speed. Oh well, tomorrow is another day.....

BICEPS
E-Z Bar Curls
1 Set/14 reps 60lbs
3 Sets/10-12 reps 70lbs

Standing Dumbbell Curls
4 Sets/10 reps with 25lb dumbbells

Concentrated Dumbbell Curls
3 Sets/10-12 reps with 25lb dumbbells

Seated Hammer Curls
2 Sets/10 reps with 25lb dumbbells

TRICEPS
Overhead E-Z Bar Press
2 Sets/8 reps 70lbs (my form was way off, so I reduced the weight, that helped a lot)
4 Sets/8-10 slow reps 50lbs

Bent-Over Tricep Extension (Rope)
3 Sets/10-12 Reps

Standing Rope Press
3 Sets/10-12 Reps

Dips
3 Sets/8 reps


FOOD AND SUPPS FOR TODAY
7:30 AM - 2 Eggs with +- 1 oz. of cheese and 1 piece white toast
7:30 AM - Ripped Fuel (2 pills)
12:00 PM - 1/2 Cheeseburger and Fries from Red Robin
5:00 PM - Ripped Fuel (2 pills)
5:00 PM - 1.5 scoop Protein with Milk
9:45 PM - 35min Cardio

9.28.07

Its Friday FINALLY! My legs were like Jello when I first woke up this morning, I think the sudden increase in Cardio is leaving my body wondering what it did to deserve this. Hopefully next week will go smoother.

I did shoulders yesterday, they are sore this morning but nothing too bad, it makes me wonder if I am recovering quickly or if I'm doing something wrong, I'm not getting as sore as I used to, if someone is reading this and has an answer to that, let me know. The last thing I want to do is spend all this effort and get nowhere.

I mixed up the shoulder routine last night and added an extra exercise in hopes to thrash my delts but this morning they feel not that bad. The injection spot from my flu shot yesterday (on my shoulder) is more sore than the muscles are.

Lunch was rough today, but I guess it could have been worse. I ate a grilled chicken sandwich from Wendy's, I shared a medium fry with my wife. I scraped off the mayo on the sandwich cause I forgot to say no mayo but oh well. I'm not sure what were having for dinner but I'm pretty sure it will be fatty and loaded with carbs, my family loves everything with carbs, I used to practically live off bread, potatoes, and pasta. Its becoming extremely difficult to pick foods that we will all like but are still acceptable for my diet. That is one of the reasons why I decided to add another cardio session a day was to combat the higher carb/fat in my diet. Right now I am trying to keep my calories around 2000/day, I am attacking this pretty aggressively since I am burning more than 800 cal/day just in cardio alone. That is why my estimate is 10% BF in 8 weeks.

Although I know that my intake is low compared to someone that is trying to gain muscle, I am still on the primary focus of dropping weight for the next 6-8 weeks. I think I can get down to 9%-10% body fat in around 8 weeks and then I will re-adjust my diet for muscle gain.

On a funny note, I found some old pics of me when I was around 280lbs, they actually made me really mad to look at them but I must say they gave me a kick in the pants as far as upping' my workout. I am more determined now than I ever have been.



I also just passed the 17 months without smoking mark too! That was a tough thing to do but my body and workouts are much better now. It was a challenge working out, doing 30-45 min cardio, then hitting the weights really hard, then walking out and lighting up a cigg only to cough my lungs out from the smoke. What a joke I was. Its pathetic and embarrassing to think of who/how I used to be. Thank GOD that I came to my senses and started getting in shape.


FOOD & SUPPLEMENTS FOR TODAY:
6:00AM - Ripped Fuel (2 pills)
6:15 AM - 30 min. Cardio
7:00 AM - 2 Eggs and 1 piece white toast
7:00AM - Fish Oil, Vitamin E, L-Carnitine, Green Tea Extract, Vitamin B Complex
11:15AM - Ripped Fuel (2 pills)
12:00 PM - Wendy's for lunch (Gril'd CHKN sand. + small fry = 600 kcal, 20g F, 74g C, 32g P)
5:00 PM - Chicken Rice Bowl
5:30 PM - Ripped Fuel (2 pills)
8:00 PM - 1/2 bag of light micro. Popcorn
8:30 PM - 45 min. Cardio

I did not lift today, my body is pretty soar, I thought it would be best to skip the lifting and start back up tomorrow. Its Bi's and Tri's tomorrow.

9.27.07 - Weight 188 - Shoulders/Forearms/Abs

Shoulders day. Argh, I love working my shoulders but I always feel numb all over my body when I'm done. Its crazy, when I do Bi's and Tri's my arms hurt and feel weak but when I do shoulders my whole body feels weak.....lets pray that means its working somehow! haha

My weight jumped a little over the last couple weeks, however about 2 weeks ago I started taking Muscletech's Cell Tech Hardcore. Its a creatine supplement. It did everything it promised, I was recovering faster, my muscles appeared bigger, I was lifting more weight, all in all it was OK, a little expensive but it works. I stopped using it this week. I have to frequently remind myself that my primary objective is to loose the rest of the weight. I would love to get to 10%-9% body fat, then I'll start bulking up on the weights. I gained some water weight that has slowly been fading away over the last few days. My goal is to get back down to 180 by Thanksgiving, while at the same time bulking up on some muscle.

Tonight's workout was:

SHOULDERS
Upright E-Z Bar Row
1 warm up set with 60lbs
4 sets/8-10 reps 90lbs

Overhead Shoulder Press
1 warm up set with 60 lbs
4 sets/8-10 reps 70lbs

RearDelt Dumbbell Raise
4 sets/10-12 reps 25lb Dumbbells

Lateral Rope Pulls
4 sets/10-12 reps

Seated Dumbbell Press
3 Sets/12 reps with 25 lb Dumbbells



FOREARMS
Dumbbell Forearm Curls
3 sets/12 reps with 25lb Dumbbells

Behind the back E-Z Bar Curls
1 set/8 reps with 70lbs
2 sets/8reps with 50lbs

ABS
2 sets/25 reps Sit ups
2 sets/15 reps Leg Raises


My Daily supplements consist of;
Fish Oil twice a day
L-Carnitine twice a day
Green Tea Extract twice a day
Vitamin E twice a day
Ripped Fuel 3 times a day (Just started on this 3 days ago)

After work out;
1 heaping scoop of Protein shake.

My meals today were;
6:15 AM - 30 min. Cardio
7:00 AM - 1.5 scoops Protein Shake with about 10 regular animal crackers and vitamins for breakfast
10:30 AM - About 1/4 cup of rice and about 1/4 cup of Chicken Tika Masala (Left over Indian Food)
5:00 PM - 1 Scoop Protein Shake
7:00 PM - Small portion of Ziti Pasta with 3 bread sticks with Vitamins
9:15 PM - 1 Scoop Protein Shake
9:30 PM - 45 min. Cardio

My 2 Year Journey

About 2 years ago I was in a mall waiting for my wife (slender and extremely attractive) to use the bathroom. At the entrance to the bathrooms they had a 25cent scale. I thought, what the heck I haven't got on a scale in years. Little did I know that $.25 would change my life. I deposited the quarter, stepped on and was blown away when I saw the weight on the screen. 280lbs. Holy crap, no way, am I that big? It seemed like just yesterday I was in awesome shape, working outdoors, I was the guy who got the stares when I walked in the room, and now what is this, 280, that scale must be busted, it has to be wrong I told myself.

I wasted no time going home and weighing myself again. It was exactly what I feared, the scale at the mall was not busted, I was 280 lbs.

For some people this might be the instant drive they needed to get their arse on a treadmill, but for me it made me depressed. I knew that I was 100+ pounds overweight and it felt out of reach, I got depressed and sad, I started loosing even more self respect and self image.

After obsessing on it for a while, I decided to get in shape, I knew it would be tough, I knew it would be the hardest thing that I had ever done, but I also knew how rewarding it would be in the end.

Its been 2 years, I've lost 100 pounds, and I'm about 10 pounds away from my goal. For the first several months I only did cardio. Cardio became my best friend, I usually did 2 cardio sessions a day for 5-6 days a week. I then decided to start lifting weights as well and that led me to where I am today.

I am not in perfect shape by any means, I went to the Dr. a couple weeks ago and although she gave me props for loosing all I have, she also pointed out I have more to loose. Its not over yet, but it is getting harder. I have been stagnant for months now. Recently I made a commitment to myself to loose the rest of this weight. To do so will require me to focus on my diet again, as well as hit the cardio hard.

This blog (if your reading this) will serve as my training diary and hopefully when I hit my weight loss goal will serve as my weight lifting diary.

Even when I started I didn't truly believe I could do it, but I knew that if I took every day at a time and focused on smaller goals it would be a little easier. If I can do it you can do it.

Here I am at around 280 lbs.....

This is me at about 195 lbs, I will be taking more recent photos soon....