EDIT: 1 month photos added on page 3.

Well I just finished reading Bill Phillip's, Body for Life, and I am very glad that I decided to buy it. I was really curious to learn what the challenges were all about.

Last year I was fairly successful at dropping fat over a period of 6 months between Jan 04 to Jun 04. I went from 211lbs down to about 167 (5'10", 28yo). I lost the weight by lifting weights three times a week and eating a clean diet that resembled 40.40.20. I actually didn't do any cardio, because I had hurt my leg early on trying HIIT when I probably wasn't ready. In July I got married, then the honeymoon, then I moved, then holidays, blah, blah, I just basically haven't worked out since June of last year.

the one thing I have kept up all this time is that I have been generally following good eating habits. Each day fluctuates quite a bit, but on average, I get 5 or 6 meals a day. I eat way more protein than back in my old days prior to 2004. I always wake up early and eat breakfast first thing. And we (my wife and I) cook most of the time and limit takeout food to about once a week. So I think because of this I have been able to successfully keep about 90% of the fat off. Currently I'm like 172 pounds, although I have probably lost some muscle and gained some fat from when I was below 170 last summer.

So basically the main goal of my 12 week challenge is to reintroduce weight training into my life. Although not for just 12 weeks, the goal will be that over the next 12 weeks, I make weight training a habit, so that it becomes a permanent activity in my life. The reason I want to focus on weight training, is that I really feel that it was major part in the success of my transformation last year.

I will be starting the twelve weeks in a few days and will track my progress here. Plenty more details to come.

I really liked the book, Body For Life, especially the beginning. It really preps you mentally for the 12 week challenge. I hadn't expected that. I decided to do what the book recommended and write down much of the visualizing that is talked about in Part II.

My reasons to change:
-I want to be fit for the rest of my life, I never want to be heavy again.
-I want to be in shape when my children are born and when they grow up. Set an example for them, so they can be proud of me.
-I want to stay fit for my wife.
-I want living healthy to be a daily habit.

Dreams that I would like to make a reality:
-Look great on the beach
-get some leg muscles
-impress my wife
-make healthy habits that will last my entire life
-Increase flexibility and stability

5 specific things or goals I want to accomplish over 12 weeks:
1) lose 10 pounds of body fat
2) perform 15 chinups (currently can do 9)
3) Create 5 new healthy dinners, to work into my usual lineup. Limit takeout to once a week.
4) Lift weights 3 mornings per week. Specifically incorporate more leg and back exercises such as squats, stiff-legged dead lifts and bent over rows.
5) Be able to palm the floor while standing

Three patterns of action that might prevent me from reaching my goals:
1) Staying up late (past midnight), and sleeping late
2) Not food shopping or cooking
3) skipping meals

Three new patterns of action that will help me reach my goals:
1) plan what to eat earlier than 30 seconds before I put something in my mouth. Go food shopping every week.
2) Turn off the television and computer at 11:30 pm every night so I can go to bed.
3) Lift properly, with correct form, and concentrate on both the contraction and extension part of the movement.
-Always contract muscles while lowering the weight
-Realize that maximum intensity occurs after perceived failure.
-Don't let my mind limit what I can accomplish in the weight room.
-Find something inside of me to push beyond what I think I am capable of.

You really absorbed what you read. Are you entering the challange officially with EAS or is this a personal challenge?

You are off to a great start! :tucool:

You really absorbed what you read. Are you entering the challange officially with EAS or is this a personal challenge?

You are off to a great start! :tucool:

Thanks for the reply. Maybe I'll officially enter when I'm done. But I don't think I have any real chance of winning. I lost a great deal of fat last year. Perhaps I would have had a chance then, but I didn't know about it. The goal for this challenge is that I just make fitness apart of my everyday life. I figure I'm pretty close to doing that right now, but I was still afraid of the slimest of possibilities that if hard times were to come up, I could let myself go really bad again. But by giving myself a challenge like this, and perhaps another after that, I can ensure that my life will include fitness from here on out.

Today I officially started my 12 week challenge. May 31 is the end of my challenge. I went weightlifting this morning for the first time in 8 months. It was not bad. I'm sure I'll be sore tomorrow morning.

I've decided to stick with the weight system I was following before, but modify it by incorporating new exercises. I won't be doing the two day split system from the BFL book. I mainly like doing the same things on the same day of the week.

This is my weight plan right now:

Tuesday: Chest, Shoulders, Triceps
Exercises in order:
Dumbell (DB) press, incline DB press, seated DB press, DB side raises, tricep pushdowns, bench dips

Thursday: Back, Biceps
Exercises: Two-arm cable rows (or one-arm DB rows), wide-grip pulldowns, DB pullovers, seated DB curls, incline dumbell curls

Sunday: Legs, Abs
Exercises: DB squats, DB lunges, seated calf raises, decline situps, bent knee leg raises

I plan to mix the exercises up along the way. The goal is to do 2-3 exercises per muscle group. It is different from last time for two reasons. I am doing a lot more dumbell exercises. I like the simplicity of them and the extra stability I need in all three dimensions. Also I am adding a lot more leg exercises as I was just not familiar with them before and didn't want to stress my injured leg.

My ATW shipment arrived today, Woohoo! 4 days after I placed the order, great service. I got 10 lbs of chocalate blend and picked up some sample packs of the blend and the smoothie meal replacement.

Tomorrow, I'll take my offical start photo and record my stats. Freezing here in boston, snowing with 50 mph winds. :eek:

A little sore today, but really not bad at all, as I didn't overdo it yesterday. I took my start photos this morning which I'll post later today.

My starting statistics are 172 lbs and 16% body fat. Body fat was determined using a tape measure and the Healthcentral.com website. Maybe I'll pick up some calipers. In my goals I wanted to lose 10 pounds of body fat. If my muscle stays the same that would put me at 162 and 11% body fat. I think this could be feasible. Although 162 would be pretty light for me, I hve to go back to Senior year highschool the last time I weighed that much. We'll see how it goes.

Day: 3, Days left: 81

Lifting this morning was pretty good. this is what I ended up doing for back/biceps:

cable rows
Lat pulldown
DB pullover

Seated DB curls
Incline DB curls

All exercises were 3 sets by 10 reps.

The only one I didn't like was the DB pullover. I just couldn't get comfortable doing these. I have only read about how to do them in the BFL book so I may be doing them wrong. I couldn't find them on bodybuidling.com. I think I am going to drop them and replace them with a lower back exercise. maybe stiff legged deadlifts?

I have been trying to make proper form my number one goal while I'm in the weight room. If I can't lift a weight with proper form through the entire range of motion than I use a lighter one. I figure this is the only way I will be able to continue to increase the weight I use safely. Along with proper form I have been concentrating on controlling the weight in both the positive and negative movement. In the positive my goal is to keep the movement at a constant velocity through the whole range of motion. If I don't focus on this, I find I have the tendency to quickly pull/push the weight very quickly in the beginning (accelerating the weight) so that at the end of the movement it is easier. Also in the negative, I don't want the weight to just free fall, so I keep the muscle I am working tensed throughout the negative movement as well. I think it makes for a really nice fluid even motion.

Since I have been concentrating on these things I have noticed how many people do not care about their form nor how they control the weight. Often on the positive motion, they are just throwing the weight and then letting it collapse on the negative. And of course many people are throwing their bodies around as well to get extra help. It's so obvious now that I am thinking about it, I am positive I was doing it before.

I found the lat pulldown to be the exercise that I usually always would accelerate at first, then when the weight gets down to you it doesn't do anything at the most critical part.

Anyway, good day so far.

Day 5, Days left: 79

Okay so here are my start photos for this 12 week challenge. They were taken on 3/9/05.

http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/BFL_start_front.gif http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/BFL_start_side.gif

I think the look pretty similar to where I was at last May when I stopped taking photos although I have gained a little fat since then.

http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/4m052404_front.gif http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/4m052404_side.gif

Here's what I looked like way back in january of last year.

http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/4m011704front.gif http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/4m011704side.gif

And here are current front and back flexed photos.

http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/BFL_start_front_flex.gif http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/BFL_start_Back_flex.gif

I feel like an idiot trying to pose. I have no idea what I am doing. But I wanted to take these, because I really hope to see a difference in muscle definition. I'm also a little freaked out by the front flexed shot. My left shoulder looks so much bigger than my right. It looks like I have some serious alignment issues. I don't know, weird.

I think my legs are particularly weak. I am looking forward to working them out.

Well, hopefully by the end of my challenge, I will have some pretty kickass photos to put here.

WOW!!! You have made an amazing transformation already! :tu:

You will be looking fabulous in 12 weeks. :gl:

Day 6, Days left: 78

Hello anyone reading this.

I had my first official leg workout this morning. It felt pretty good. I did dumbell squats, dumbell stiff legged dead lifts and did the calf machine. I used pretty light weight but my legs felt pretty worked over. I also did abs, decline sit ups and the one where you lay on the ground and raise your legs.

I was cracking up over some of the people in the weight room, throwing the weights around, completely ignoring the negative portion of the exercise. It inspired me to come up with some saying to have on a t-shirt. That way people can read it and learn I guess, at least maybe question what they're doing.

Day is good so far. I think I must be watching a Law & Order marathon on TNT right now. It's crazy. This show is so easy to watch, I could just watch it all day. They play it so continuously that the credits of the previous roll under the beginning of the next.

later,
GH

Hey GH!

I am reading, so keep on writing. So far so good. :tucool:

Y

Hey GH!

I am reading, so keep on writing. So far so good. :tucool:

Y

Thanks Yvette. Knowing that at least one person is reading my journal makes a huge difference. :nod:

Grav,

Keep up the good work. I'm looking forward to watching your progress. You've done great things so far. This BFL challenge will really step things up for you. :tu:

Thanks chason. I feel really good about this challenge too. :)

This morning was tough, my quads, hamstrings and abs were killing me. I hadn't worked out any of them in a long while before yesterday. It was a good pain though. I'm looking forward to my chest, shoulders and triceps workout tomorrow. I took it easy last week because it was my first time in a while. I'll step up the weight this time, but only a little.

I haven't weighed myself since last wednesday. I'm going to weigh and measure myself weekly. Last year I use to weigh myself daily. We'll see how it goes.

Goodnight!

Awesome workout this morning. My second chest, shoulders and triceps workout so far. I really like doing chest and shoulders together it feels really natural. Especially since right now I am doing dumbell exercises.

I just use an adjustable bench. And it is really easy to go from flat DB presses, to incline dumbell presses, to seated dumbell presses, just by adjusting the incline.

Some notes on the workout. I've decided to switch the incline DB press to 30 deg, instead of 45 deg. This way my chest is worked more than my shoulders. Also I noticed a form issue on my seated DB press (or military press). In order to get more leverage I was pushing my head back against the seat and I think this is not good as I could feel stress on my spine (aah!:eek: ) So on the last set I did it with my head lifted an inch away from the seat. I felt it so much more on my shoulders and I could only do 7 out of 10 reps.

I am still so disturbed by seeing people swinging weights. Why do they think this is helping them? I just don't understand. this guy was doing seated curls and just letting the dumbell arc backwards, using his shoulder and gravity as a spring to force the weight back up. He probably only feels it on the last 25% of the contraction. oh well. I really want to get a shirt that says something about this.
"swinging the weight does nothing" I think this would be strong enough.

have a good day!

AMEN to the "weight swinger" comments! That always bugs me too. A guy I work with (who is now my boss, for better or worse), does that relentlessly. Swings the weight and grunts ferociously. He's got some pretty strong lifts, but *I think* his goal is fat loss, since I'd estimate him to be 5'7", 250, 40% BF or so. He's an Atkins addict, lost about 50-60 pounds a few years back, but has gained it back since.

Good progress so far, GHomer!

Good progress so far, GHomer!

Thanks woodman, more readers of my journal, woohoo!

The question is, would you workout with your boss and wear a shirt that said, swinging a weight is useless. :confused: , maybe that's not a good idea.

The question is, would you workout with your boss and wear a shirt that said, swinging a weight is useless. , maybe that's not a good idea.

lol. Actually, I don't workout with him, we just belong to the same gym and see each other there on occasion over the lunch hour. I worked out with him a few years ago when we were in another office, but because of the "weight swinging" issues, I gave up working out with him. Working out with him did nothing but frustrate me and tear up my shoulders some!

As for the shirt: Maybe, just mabye...even those in administration need a l'il smackdown now and then! :lol:

You had me staring at guys in the gym this morning Homer. So here are these two relatively strong (not chiseled - sort of that power lifter chubby look) guys in the gym this morning doing shrugs and upright rows on a smith machine. I couldn't help but find myself staring and wondering "what is the point?" after you harping on this for the past week or so. You're right though - its no wonder more and more people just throw the weights around - I found myself even trying to reason it out - "look how big those guys arms are - it can't be all wrong!"

Specific examples - they're doing shrugs - at what can only be described as roughly the rate of 10 shrugs per second. So he knocks out 20 or so - with a decent amount of weight - putting his WHOLE body into it. WHATS THE POINT OF THAT??

Then they start doing what I affectionately call "full body upright rows" where they are standing by the smith machine and with each jerk - are lterally rolling their WHOLE body into moving the weight 12 inches from their sternum to up over their neck. WHAT IS THE POINT!!!!

I blame my new found annoyance on you Homer...... lol. :cool:

I blame my new found annoyance on you Homer...... lol. :cool:

Sorry man, didn't mean to shake things up for you so much. But I just can't help but notice it now. Ignorance is bliss, knowledge is painful.

What it has done for me, is I've become really focused on having good form. Nice steady, full range of motion movements, feel good and I think look good to an observer. I tried to do too much weight with dumbell side raises and they just look stupid if I'm trying to throw the weight up there and can't get it near the height of my shoulders.

subscribing

Hello everyone,

This morning I weighed myself and took measurements. It has been one full week since I started my challenge. Didn't take any pictures. I think I'll only do them monthly, that way I'm not squinting to see changes.

Here are the measurements I took. All body measurements (besides weight) are in inches.

http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/BFLstats01.gif

Not sure how acurate the online body fat calculator (http://www.healthcentral.com/cooltools/CT_Fitness/bodyfat1.cfm) I use is but so far it says that the 1.4 pounds I've lost is all fat, WooHoo! The measurements going down in the waist and hips is what I am most happy about.

Tomorrow is St. Patrick's day and I will most likely be going out with friends. hopefully this won't throw me off course too much.

hope your day is well,
GH

It might be st. patty's day but i still expect an update! :cool:

Not sure how acurate the online body fat calculator (http://www.healthcentral.com/cooltools/CT_Fitness/bodyfat1.cfm) I use is

I wouldn't count on it too much man. I put my measurements in that thing and it said I was at 9.6% - which i KNOW is not true.

Try http://www.mybodycomp.com or Jeremy's (http://www.naturalphysiques.com/tools.php?itemid=31) ( Jeremy's uses calipers - mybody comp is tape measure)

It might be st. patty's day but i still expect an update! :cool:

Aw, snap. Well I missed it by 2 hours.

Well, of course this day was quite a cheat day, but I expected it. St Patrick's day was pretty good. Went out with some friends to a bar/restaraunt that was not too crowded yet crowded enough to feel festive. I ate lighter than usual during the day, because I knew I'd be getting some extra calories tonight. ;) I did not overdue it, which I am quite proud of. Back when I was 40 pounds heavier, my tolerance was very high, and since dropping weight, it was hard at first to get use to drinking less, but tonight was a good example of having a great time with far less alcohol than in the past. I'm comfortable leaving that to the younger kids now, by 11 pm I was ready to head home.

Earlier this morning, was a great back and biceps workout. I mixed up the back part of the workout. I did cable rows, followed by one arm dumbell rows, followed by the lat pulldown.

On each exercise I feel I got better at form, especially the lat pulldowns. It is really hard to avoid accelerating the weight and just pull at an even pace, but I finally felt I got it down. And I felt by slightly arching my back, I was able to concentrate on my lats more than my biceps. Each workout seems to get better.

Ah, but the weight swingers are always there. Swinging away.

Tomorrow, my wife and are driving down the east coast to first stop by her parents and then mine. This saturday is a surprise 50th birthday party for my Mom. Should be a good weekend. I'm going to watch my meals as best I can. I'll think I'll pack the portable dumbells inorder to get my leg workout in on Sunday.

Despite things going on I want to be sure I stay well on top of things for my challenge, since I have so many folks checking in now. :D

I wouldn't count on it too much man. I put my measurements in that thing and it said I was at 9.6% - which i KNOW is not true.

Try http://www.mybodycomp.com or Jeremy's (http://www.naturalphysiques.com/tools.php?itemid=31) ( Jeremy's uses calipers - mybody comp is tape measure)

Thanks for the links, and for checking it out yourself, vatechguy. Maybe I'll have to look into getting some calipers. Based on looking at so many different pictures in the media gallery and seeing what people say is their BF%, I think the number I get looks fairly consisitent with what I see in the mirror, but I may be wrong. Any way, I think the website still may work for tracking changes, even if the absolute value is not all that great.

GHomer....just a quick note to let you know you've got another lurker here :tu: Have a great trip this weekend w/ the folks....and congrats on your newfound dedication....it looks like you've really got a handle on things......oh, and by the way....you've done it to me too; while I've always strived for great form, I never watched others as closely before.....it's actually quite comical :lol:

Have a great weekend!

john

Thanks john jones!

This morning was a little rough getting up, yesterday was a looooong day. I resisted the urge to weigh myself even though I was curious about how my cheat affected me last night. But I'm going to stick to weighing myself once a week. This isn't something I did last year, but I like it this time around.

Unfortunately my cheat last night extended to lunch today, I had chicken lo mein. I don't know, maybe with the alcohol last night and the clean diet, it just seemed like my body needed some grease and oil, and so I went with it. I think I just need grease every once in a while, but most usual days I really prefer to go without it because of how sluggish I feel from it.

People reading this might be wondering, hey, where's the cardio in this challenge you have set up, because I haven't actually talked about it. Right now my cardio consists of walking either to or from work about 3-4 times each week. I've been doing that for the last couple of months. I really enjoy it and get a lot of use out of the ipod I got as a wedding present last year. It takes me about 35 minutes to make the trip, which I think is about 2 miles. I know it is not the ideal recommended cardio but its what I am going with for right now. On mornings that I lift, I take the bus, so that I'm fresh for the workout.

Well, I'm skipping out of work early, try to get a jump on traffic. Have an awesome weekend everyone! :tu:

Hello everyone,

This whole second week of my challenge has been pretty derailed. This past weekend was so hectic and jam-packed I wasn't able to get my leg workout in. And my diet has been way less than ideal. Combine that with St. patrick's day last week and it amounts to a pretty crappy week fitness wise.

Today was the first day I was able to get back on track. I did the leg workout I missed and I really felt good. I am slowly progressing in weight on my squats and SLDL. Form felt pretty good too. Special shout out to the guy who left 90 lbs on the seated calf machine so I could get some extra squats in. thanks buddy :tu: I wish I could do that much. I just put a 25 on and my calves are dying after 12 reps. I do them really slow and pause at the contraction.

I'm not looking forward to my weigh in tomorrow morning. Fortunately I don't think there will be any more traveling at least for the next month.

later,
GH

So as I suspected, my weigh in was not that great today. I'm just under my starting weight. I'm not worried about it. I'm sure after I eat far cleaner food this week I will see better results next week. More body parts have dropped in measurement since my start so I think I am losing fat. The BF% calculation shows me adding some muscle, but I'm pretty much not going to listen to this anymore. I think I really need to get some calipers and see what they say.

Either way the tape measure doesn't lie, and my waist and hips grew since last week, could be water maybe. Well see next week.

http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/BFLstats02.gif

hey gravityhomer!

good luck! i've bought the BFL book and read it cover-to-cover. the one cool thing that i like about it is the fact that you count portions, not calories. i actually had my girlfriend's roomates try it (2 of them). the results, SPEAK for themselves!

3 months down the line, they both lost 10 lbs (exactly what they wanted), eat healthy without counting calories and exercise (actually, just walking around 8000-10000 steps a day). i'm sure there could have been better results if they incorporated some weight training, but i was still shocked.

stick with it! don't get discouraged!

Thanks jtchen22. I really liked the book too. But I guess I am not following it exactly. I borrowed the visualization involved in the beginning because I thought it was great way to focus on goals. And in general I really like the idea of setting myself a challenge. But I'm not really following the weights, cardio, or eating routine. Oh well, I guess I should have called this thread, Gravityhomer's hybrid BFL challenge.

In terms of food, my main priority is to eat 6 times a day. Then I use general common sense to choose the food. It somewhat follows 40/40/20, but I don't keep track. I know that it is not very precise but this is the way I plan to live for the rest of my life and that's why I prefer not to count calories or portions. But I don't fault anyone for doing it if it works for them.

I pretty much summed up my attitude toward fitness in Guava's journal here. (http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showthread.php?p=134862#post134862)

I enjoy walking a lot more now than I ever have before. it is my sole source of cardio right now.

Aw, snap. Well I missed it by 2 hours.


Earlier this morning, was a great back and biceps workout. I mixed up the back part of the workout. I did cable rows, followed by one arm dumbell rows, followed by the lat pulldown.

Tomorrow, my wife and are driving down the east coast :D

Hi! Question for ya...you had written that you are doing BFL but you only worked Bis and Back today. Are you tweaking the program? IS your cardio HIIT? I liked BFL but didn't like working my entire upper body at a time.

Hi! Question for ya...you had written that you are doing BFL but you only worked Bis and Back today. Are you tweaking the program? IS your cardio HIIT? I liked BFL but didn't like working my entire upper body at a time.

Hey Ginacop,

Take a look at the post right before this one. I conceded that actually my program deviates quite a bit from the BFL one. I guess the concept of a challenge is why I called my journal a BFL one. I don't do HIIT, I actually just walk, pretty quickly about 1.5 miles 3 or 4 times a week, never before or after weight lifting. My weight lifting is a three day split. The split is detailed in the first couple posts.

I think I'll ask John to change the name of my thread, to prevent confusion with someone doing strictly the BFL program.

So tomorrow is my back and bicep day and I've decided to try out this pullup experiment that Leftnut told me he followed to be able to eventually do 5 sets of 10 pullups and now he works with weighted pullups.:eek: Quite an accomplishment! here is a link to his explanation. link (http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showthread.php?p=135560#post135560)

In place of lat pulldowns tomorrow, I'm going to start off with pullups. The goal is to do 50 pullups, in the fewest number of sets as possible. In between each set I will rest for 2 minutes. My usual sets of pullups went like this before I started lifting again:
9
6
4-5

I use to do this at home as sort of a back workout (pushups would be the chest workout). So that is only like 20. I'm not sure how many reps I could potentially do on sets after the third one. We'll find out tomorrow. If by like the 7-8 set I am nowhere near 50, I may cut it down to 40 in the beginning and see where I can go from there.

One of my goals is to do more pullups in a single set, I set the number at 15. Hopefully this will get me to that goal.

Hey Ginacop,

Take a look at the post right before this one. I conceded that actually my program deviates quite a bit from the BFL one. I guess the concept of a challenge is why I called my journal a BFL one. I don't do HIIT, I actually just walk, pretty quickly about 1.5 miles 3 or 4 times a week, never before or after weight lifting. My weight lifting is a three day split. The split is detailed in the first couple posts.

I think I'll ask John to change the name of my thread, to prevent confusion with someone doing strictly the BFL program.

Hello! I actually ended up reading the next post right AFTER I posted my question! Thanks! I like to see that a tweaked BFL program is working because I like the basics but didn't care too much for the exercise program. Your doing great!!!

Happy Easter everyone!

So here are the results of my pullup experiment. I had 2 minutes rest between each set and they went like this:

10, 7, 5, 3, 2.5, 1

Started out better than I thought but then totally died. Let me tell you, doing that last set of 1 rep, I was dying all the way up, pure agony. People must have been looking at me crosseyed as I did a single pullup agonizingly slow. Anyway, I took leftnut's advice of not continuing any sets past only 1 rep. My muscle were on fire at the end of this, they felt ready to burst. It was awesome.

I've never felt that I really got a good workout on back/biceps day. But today my biceps and back are quite sore. this is the first time I have felt soreness in these muscles, It's awesome.

So 28 pullups total in less than 18 minutes. Not bad. We'll see how I improve next time, next week.

Note: the bar that I was doing the pullups on was one of the metal ones with the diamond surface finish. Why they do this I have no idea. So I put on some winter gloves to do the pullups, it helped a lot. I'm sure my hands would have gotten pretty beat up, preventing me from doing all the sets.

Hoooomer! Where did you go!?

Still here. I did my weekly weigh in and measurements this morning, but forgot all the information at home. I'll post it when I get there. The numbers looked good, but I need to compare.

I'm still sore from my Tuesday morning legs/Abs workout. I think my first stint at squats and dead lifts are going well. My thighs feel more solid. I've never had visible thigh muscles, but I think I can see something now.

Long day at work. I'm whuped, time to go home.

Good morning. here are my third week stats. Not bad. I'm below 170 pounds for the first time in over 8 months. I'm shrinking on most measurements, my hips have seen the largest change so far. I have size 33 pants and they're falling off, I can almost take them off without unbottuning them.

http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/BFLstats03.gif

I'm pretty much going to ignore the BF% measurement method I use right now. I am going to buy some calipers as I think the website I use just doesn't make sense any more. I really don't think I actually lost any muscle.

It was an awesome morning in the Boston area today. Low 50's out. I walked to work with a light jacket and no hat. I was really happy. I think I need to remind myself how much better I have it now than 5 years ago. I am really glad how things have recently turned out.

Instead of leisurely walking to work by the harvard football stadium at 9:45am, five years ago I would have already been at work for two hours in my half cubicle. I lived alone in an apartment in the middle of connecticut, not really near anything (CT has no real culture that I could find), 2 hours away from my girlfriend. No real friends in the area. I worked at a job that paid well and was really cool at first but the environment and the people just ended up making me completely miserable. It was an engineering company so I was mostly surrounded by older white males. Which can be quite depressing, after coming from a highly diverse college filled with young people. There were some young people, but we were the minority and all our bosses were old, I didn't make any close friends. I was there for two years when I decided I needed to get out. I couldn't do it anymore. So I had set up a plan to go back to school, and also be closer to my girlfriend in NYC and as soon as I set up the plan, I immediately felt better. Things didn't go exactly the way I thought, in fact I think they only turned out better than I thought, as my girlfriend decided she didn't like her job either and we both came to boston for school. We're poor, but far happier than before.

So I don't know, if there is anything out there making you miserable, don't discount the possibility that you can change it.

Good morning. here are my third week stats. Not bad. I'm below 170 pounds for the first time in over 8 months. I'm shrinking on most measurements, my hips have seen the largest change so far. I have size 33 pants and they're falling off, I can almost take them off without unbottuning them.

http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/BFLstats03.gif

I'm pretty much going to ignore the BF% measurement method I use right now. I am going to buy some calipers as I think the website I use just doesn't make sense any more. I really don't think I actually lost any muscle.


AWESOME! I can't wait till I follow you down into the 160s!! :claplow:

Yesterday was my chest, shoulders and triceps day.

DB bench press, incline DB bench press, seated DB shoulder press, DB side raises, DB shrugs, Tricep rope pulldown, seated dips.

It felt like a good workout at the time. I do 3-4 sets per exercise. I use weight that puts me at failure between reps 8-10.

So usually last year, chest day would always be my best workout. The one that would totally kick my ass. So that later that day I would be quite tired and the next day, sore as hell. That is what I consider a good workout and chest day was always better than back day. But yesterday I wasn't all that tired, and this morning I wasn't sore. So chest day had gone from my best workout to the worst behind back/biceps and legs/abs. My recent Back/biceps and legs/ab days have killed me. Awesome workouts. I really like how they are set up. I was physically exhausted afterward and sore for at least a day or two. The focus for each are the pullup routine and squats respectively.

I think a big reason that chest day is not that great yet is because I am using dumbells now instead of barbell exercises like last year. Yesterday I did my final set with 45lb DB, whereas last year I was up above 135 on the bar. This is a 45 pound difference! and I don't think I am much weaker than last year. It must be that smaller stabilizing muscles are getting tired causing me to fail, which wouldn't happen with the bar. I'm going to stick with it for and see if things improve. I think my exercise choices are good. The only one I'm not a big fan of is DB side raises. I just don't think I get a great workout with that. I may have to come up with a better shoulder exercise there.

If anyone has any thoughts or advice that would be great.

It was an awesome morning in the Boston area today. Low 50's out. I walked to work with a light jacket and no hat. I was really happy. I think I need to remind myself how much better I have it now than 5 years ago. I am really glad how things have recently turned out.

Instead of leisurely walking to work by the harvard football stadium at 9:45am, five years ago I would have already been at work for two hours in my half cubicle. I lived alone in an apartment in the middle of connecticut, not really near anything (CT has no real culture that I could find), 2 hours away from my girlfriend. No real friends in the area. I worked at a job that paid well and was really cool at first but the environment and the people just ended up making me completely miserable. It was an engineering company so I was mostly surrounded by older white males. Which can be quite depressing, after coming from a highly diverse college filled with young people. There were some young people, but we were the minority and all our bosses were old, I didn't make any close friends. I was there for two years when I decided I needed to get out. I couldn't do it anymore. So I had set up a plan to go back to school, and also be closer to my girlfriend in NYC and as soon as I set up the plan, I immediately felt better. Things didn't go exactly the way I thought, in fact I think they only turned out better than I thought, as my girlfriend decided she didn't like her job either and we both came to boston for school. We're poor, but far happier than before.

So I don't know, if there is anything out there making you miserable, don't discount the possibility that you can change it.

Awesome post. I wish all people realized that they have the power to change their life the way you did. I did the same thing a few years back...completely changed my life and today, outside of my weight, my life couldn't be better. Congratulations to you and for finding someone to do it with!!!

My Gosh, the more I read of your progress, both in your body and in your life overall, the more I am inspired to move forward in similar ways. I'd love to be living proof that even old white guys can do it!!! ;) -Martin

My Gosh, the more I read of your progress, both in your body and in your life overall, the more I am inspired to move forward in similar ways. I'd love to be living proof that even old white guys can do it!!! ;) -Martin
Thanks martin! Hope you enjoy the book. It's his second, the first one is called, The Truth Machine. Also really interesting.

So yesterday was my back/biceps day. I was really looking forward to doing my pullups again, but I didn't do as well as I hoped. These were the sets:

9, 6.5, 4, 3, 3, 2.5, 1

I started out worse than I did before but ended better. I think what I learned is that I need to do a warmup with lower weight. On my first set I felt the oddest sensation. Something was tugging up my right arm across the back of my hand and along the back of my middle finger. It was really weird. I was able to do the pullups but it was quite distracting. Then I realized that I was jumping into a rather heavy weight without a warm up at all. So next time I am going to use the pullup assist machine at my gym and warmup with half my body weight. I'm hoping this will correct the problem. The workout felt good. I was exhausted at the end of the pullups, double over.

Although this morning I really don't feel that sore. I think I'm going to take this as a good thing. I forgot that this usually happens to me. The first time I do something, I am quite sore, but then my body gets use to it and I am less sore.

I saw Sin City last night. I like it. Good movie, different than the usual crap that has been out lately. The public was screaming for a good movie. I see movies alot. Usually 2 a month. But this whole year so far there has been nothing worth remembering. Although the near future is looking great for movies. with Hitchhiker's Guide on Apr 29 and Star Wars on May 19.

My wife and I also played some pool last night. which was cool. Have a good Sunday! I'm gonna do nothin.

ps. don't forget about setting the clocks ahead.

So yesterday was my back/biceps day. I was really looking forward to doing my pullups again, but I didn't do as well as I hoped. These were the sets:

9, 6.5, 4, 3, 3, 2.5, 1

I started out worse than I did before but ended better. I think what I learned is that I need to do a warmup with lower weight. On my first set I felt the oddest sensation. Something was tugging up my right arm across the back of my hand and along the back of my middle finger. It was really weird. I was able to do the pullups but it was quite distracting. Then I realized that I was jumping into a rather heavy weight without a warm up at all. So next time I am going to use the pullup assist machine at my gym and warmup with half my body weight. I'm hoping this will correct the problem. The workout felt good. I was exhausted at the end of the pullups, double over.

Although this morning I really don't feel that sore. I think I'm going to take this as a good thing. I forgot that this usually happens to me. The first time I do something, I am quite sore, but then my body gets use to it and I am less sore.

I saw Sin City last night. I like it. Good movie, different than the usual crap that has been out lately. The public was screaming for a good movie. I see movies alot. Usually 2 a month. But this whole year so far there has been nothing worth remembering. Although the near future is looking great for movies. with Hitchhiker's Guide on Apr 29 and Star Wars on May 19.

My wife and I also played some pool last night. which was cool. Have a good Sunday! I'm gonna do nothin.

ps. don't forget about setting the clocks ahead.

We are going to see Sin City this afternoon-looking forward to it. We go to the movies every week, and lately, like you said-theres nothing worth paying for! I do want to see the Jacket-that looks good.

Hi Homer, I see you haven't updates the thread for a while. How is the challenge going? Got any pics? :o

Hi Homer, I see you haven't updates the thread for a while. How is the challenge going? Got any pics? :o

Things are good. Got lots of food this weekend from the grocery. I'll be posting pics this week as a part of my 1 month comparison.

EDIT: Oh I like your sig. The lines in that movie are great. "you keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

Leg/abs workout this morning. Man am I beat. I have to say, legs/abs day is really the only day that I get a full body sweat going while working out. It feels good. I definitely sweat the least on chest/tris/shoulders day. I went up in weight for squats and deadlifts. :D

What a nice day out. It hit 60 degrees in Boston. We ate lunch outside.

Last night I watched Supersize Me. I thought it was a good movie. His premise totally had the feel of a college bet. And although it wasn't rocket science (we all knew what would happen if you eat crap everyday), I think it was good that he did it anyway. That whole thing with his liver getting really affected was disturbing. I know people are saying that it was more of a cheap shot at McDonald's and that it was very biased and that he didn't choose healthy options, and that he ate other food in between the McDonald's meals, but I don't care. It was good that he did it. Because I think some delusional people at McDonald's actually think their food is not that bad, and is not a complete fat filled, salt filled endulging feast.

I wish McDonald's would embrace what it is. A supplier of salty, fat food. That's what you sell, McDonald's. That's your business, so just accept it. Stop trying to create this image of a company that cares about providing nutritious food, because you have some salads. Seriously, of all the nutritous food out there, salad has to be the most bland one you could find. Of all the vegetables, there is none more tasteless than iceburg lettuce and tomatoes. So your salads don't mean anything. It's the burgers and fries that keep people coming back, so stop trying to pretend otherwise.

Their slogan should be, "Nothing beats the taste of salt and fat, so for your next endulging meal come on down to McDonald's". Then there wouldn't have all this confusion and accusations about how McDonald's is responsible for america's obesity problem. It would be much more open, common, knowledge. "Oh you're looking a little fatter, too much McDonald's huh?"

Anyway, tomorrow is one month weighin and measurements.

So, 1 month down so far. I think things are going well. It's different than last year. I had lots of fat to lose so my weight was dropping a lot. This time my weight is not dropping at all. But I think that is fine. My measurements show that I am shrinking in the places where I usually store fat (stomach, chest and ass), but my weight is staying the same. This can only mean that I'm building some muscle, hopefully. Unless I am forming some sort of new super dense fat. But that's just ridiculous.

Anyway here's the stats. Pics to follow later in the week, I took them already, but need to crop resize, etc...

http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/BFLstats04.gif

Alright, here are the 1 month pictures. I'm not sure if I see much change at least in the photos. I think the zoomed back shot might show the biggest change. I did take the plunge and decided to cut my chest hair short. Felt pretty weird at first, but no so bad now.

In each pair the first photo is the start photo and the second is at the 4 week mark.

http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/BFL_start_front.gifhttp://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/1m_front.gif

http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/BFL_start_side.gifhttp://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/1m_side.gif

http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/BFL_start_front_flex_zoom.gifhttp://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/1m_front_flex_zoom.gif

http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/BFL_start_Back_flex_zoom.gifhttp://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/1m_back_flex_zoom.gif

Here's my attempt at flexing.

http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/1m_flex.gif

This is my trophy belt. I have now punched 7 new holes into it since Jan. 2004, the last one I punched yesterday. The holes are spaced 1 inch apart, meaning I lost at least 7 inches on my waist since the very beginning.

http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/Trophy_belt_4_2005.gif

GH,

I do see a difference. Look at your back. It is much more V-Shaped. Look at your arms. Much more definition.

I like the chest much better without the hair. ;)

GH,

I do see a difference. Look at your back. It is much more V-Shaped. Look at your arms. Much more definition.

I like the chest much better without the hair. ;)
Thanks Yvette! I think you're right. I didn't notice the shape of my back changing until you pointed it out.

Thanks Yvette! I think you're right. I didn't notice the shape of my back changing until you pointed it out.

And whats really strange is that something was clawing at your back while you slept!

You have to tell the girlfriend not to get all crazy with you on picture mornings.

;) Just kiddin with ya. Nice work man!

And whats really strange is that something was clawing at your back while you slept!

You have to tell the girlfriend not to get all crazy with you on picture mornings.

;) Just kiddin with ya. Nice work man!
haha, yeah it looks pretty funny. I have always been like that. I must have dry skin, but if I get an itch and start scratching I get red marks really easily. I'll have to remember to avoid it on picture day.

Yeah! it was up to 69 F degrees in Boston yesterday. I walked around with only a T-shirt. Of course today is a high of 49F, but we're getting there.

I'm really pleased with how things are going so far. I feel like I am so close to having visible abs for the first time in my life. Just a little more fat to drop from my waist.

Another good back and bicep workout. I changed around my pullups experiment again. I added a warmup set at about half my body weight and then I chose a shoulder wide grip, which is much narrower than what I was using before. I went with a shoulder-wide grip based on a thread I read on working out the back here (http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showthread.php?t=14235&page=1&pp=20)

Here was my results:

10, 5.75, 4, 3.75, 2.5, 2.75, 2.5, 2

I feel like I am improving even though my second set contiues to drop each week. I think I am having a problem with dehydration. When I get toward the end of a set i start to get the worst headache. And then when I finish my head is just pounding. And it takes about 30 seconds for it to go away, usually while I am drinking water. The headaches feel similar to how a bad hangover feels, so I can only assume it is dehydration. Next time I am going to try to drink as much water during the day before the workout to avoid this.

After any set yesterday i also started to feel nautious. My body felt so drained that I thought I could throw up. I'm not sure if this is good or bad. Maybe it's related to the dehydration. I'll have to see.

Everyone have a good day, and have fun doing taxes this week.
-GH

Keep up nthe good work man! You will see your abs in no time. I keep having dreams about me standing in the mirror with a 6 pack... that unfortunately, is a long way off for me!


Keep plugging!

Pug :cool:

This is my trophy belt. I have now punched 7 new holes into it since Jan. 2004, the last one I punched yesterday. The holes are spaced 1 inch apart, meaning I lost at least 7 inches on my waist since the very beginning.

http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/Trophy_belt_4_2005.gif

WOW. I just went back and was reading your journal a little bit. Awesome job! What weight did you start out at? If I could knock 7" off my waist I would be into like 35" pants.. WOW.. that would rock :)

Keep it up man!

Pug

Hey Pug,

Thanks for the post. At my largest I was 210 lbs. And my stomach at the largest point measured 41". My pants at the time were a 36" waist. But I have to say that was in the special ultra baggy jeans, which I'm sure are just like size 38" or something. That belt is a size 40" that I got on sale at the Gap, it fit fine on the smallest hole, so I said, ah it fits, I don't care if it is too long. Thank god, I didn't decide to fill into the larger holes. When I started dropping weight, I thought it would be cool to keep punching new holes. the last hole I just punched is a smaller waist than my now 33" jeans. So I am probably more like a 32", but I can't buy new pants again so soon, so oh well. Now my stomach is down to 34", so the math does work out, huh.

On another note, I just got my taxes done. My wife and I filed jointly for the first time since we just got married, last year. She is just beginning as a freelance photographer and therefore her business is operating at a loss, which just reduces my already low salary. so big fat return for us :claphigh: yay.

Great measurment results. It's very encouraging to have to punch new holes in your belt...

And congrats on the taxes - I hope you'll treat yourself... we actually owe $18 bucks this year - darn...


G

Thanks Jabba. Several times people suggest getting a new belt, but I won't. I have some other ones for looking spiffy, but for everyday I wear this one. I use it to so that I always remember what it was like. And as long as I stayed on the same hole or shrunk, it was a good way for me to be sure I was keeping the fat off without having to weigh or measure myself for the latter half of last year. I totally recommend it to people.

Are you getting excited for episode III? I have been carefully avoiding all previews and articles about it. I like to go into movies with no idea of the visuals ahead of time.

So I made a tremendous discovery this morning during my leg/ab workout. After my first set of squats I got the same horrible headache that I had got with the pullups. Then half way through the second set it got so bad I thought I needed to stop the set, but I was able to pull through it.

When I was standing there, huffing and puffing, face all red, it occurred to me what was wrong. I wasn't breathing right at all during the exercise. On the eccentric part of the exercise I would inhale but not very deeply, then on the concentric part (the contraction) I would exhale for a very long time as I struggled through the rep. As I did each rep I would deprive myself of more and more oxygen, because my exhale would be very long and my inhale was very short. This is why I got the terrible headaches. How do I know? Because on the 3rd set I concentrated on inhaling deeply on the way down and then exhaling (but not over doing it) on the way up during my squat and I was able to do the full set with far more ease and no headache at all.

Man, I feel like such an idiot. I was pretty much doing a slightly lesser version of holding my breath while weightlifting. For the whole rest of my workout I felt so much better concentrating on breathing right for both movements of the exercise. In and out. The same amount each way. For some exercises I found it pretty challenging to breath correctly. I think it is my way of compensating when I am really struggling with a rep, I tend to take a half breath and then blow it out very far. When I am really struggling, I seem to forget about my breathing. But what is amazing is that if I concentrate on the breathing I can perform the rep far easier.

Next weekend I am really eager to do my pullups again. And this time I can make sure I am breathing correctly so there are no more headaches. Well I feel pretty stupid but also relieved to know what the problem is. I was thinking all sorts of crazy things.

If you are having difficulties with a particular exercise, think about your breathing. Maybe that is what is preventing you from advancing.
later,
GH

So I made a tremendous discovery this morning during my leg/ab workout. After my first set of squats I got the same horrible headache that I had got with the pullups. Then half way through the second set it got so bad I thought I needed to stop the set, but I was able to pull through it.

When I was standing there, huffing and puffing, face all red, it occurred to me what was wrong. I wasn't breathing right at all during the exercise. On the eccentric part of the exercise I would inhale but not very deeply, then on the concentric part (the contraction) I would exhale for a very long time as I struggled through the rep. As I did each rep I would deprive myself of more and more oxygen, because my exhale would be very long and my inhale was very short. This is why I got the terrible headaches. How do I know? Because on the 3rd set I concentrated on inhaling deeply on the way down and then exhaling (but not over doing it) on the way up during my squat and I was able to do the full set with far more ease and no headache at all.

Man, I feel like such an idiot. I was pretty much doing a slightly lesser version of holding my breath while weightlifting. For the whole rest of my workout I felt so much better concentrating on breathing right for both movements of the exercise. In and out. The same amount each way. For some exercises I found it pretty challenging to breath correctly. I think it is my way of compensating when I am really struggling with a rep, I tend to take a half breath and then blow it out very far. When I am really struggling, I seem to forget about my breathing. But what is amazing is that if I concentrate on the breathing I can perform the rep far easier.

Next weekend I am really eager to do my pullups again. And this time I can make sure I am breathing correctly so there are no more headaches. Well I feel pretty stupid but also relieved to know what the problem is. I was thinking all sorts of crazy things.

If you are having difficulties with a particular exercise, think about your breathing. Maybe that is what is preventing you from advancing.
later,
GH

I KNOW I dont' breathe right and its why I get so winded SO fast with cardio and sometimes lifting, I need to learn more......thanks!

Hello folks,

Haven't posted in a few days. No need to worry, just a little busy. Still going strong on my fitness plan. I recieved my Fat Tracker II on tuesday just in time for my weekly measuring.

I'm using the 3 site measurement system, and taking 8 measurements for each site and then averaging. when I first got it I practiced taking the measurements on the three parts of my body over and over until I feel confident that I was actually pinching the calipers the same way every time. I found out that you can get very different readings if you have your fingers out toward the end of the pinchers rather than the middle. you get more leverage. For the top pincher there is the blue button you need to hold, but for the bottom one there is the chance to not be consistent. Especially since you seem to need to contort yourself to take some of the measurements. I tried to keep my finger on dead center of the bottom pincher.

Here's the results:

chest: 10, 9, 10, 12, 8 9, 8, 7 Average = 9
Abdomen: 20, 16, 17, 17, 16, 19, 20, 18 Average = 18
Thigh: 12, 13, 13, 15, 14, 15, 13, 13 Average = 14

With a final result of 12% using Jeremy's website, rounded to the nearest whole number. Does this sound like a reasonable number? The health central website was more like 14%. Maybe I should average the two. But I have to think the fat calipers are the more accurate so I may just go with that one. what do you guys think?

http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/1m_front.gif

Hello folks,

Haven't posted in a few days. No need to worry, just a little busy. Still going strong on my fitness plan. I recieved my Fat Tracker II on tuesday just in time for my weekly measuring.

I'm using the 3 site measurement system, and taking 8 measurements for each site and then averaging. when I first got it I practiced taking the measurements on the three parts of my body over and over until I feel confident that I was actually pinching the calipers the same way every time. I found out that you can get very different readings if you have your fingers out toward the end of the pinchers rather than the middle. you get more leverage. For the top pincher there is the blue button you need to hold, but for the bottom one there is the chance to not be consistent. Especially since you seem to need to contort yourself to take some of the measurements. I tried to keep my finger on dead center of the bottom pincher.

Here's the results:

chest: 10, 9, 10, 12, 8 9, 8, 7 Average = 9
Abdomen: 20, 16, 17, 17, 16, 19, 20, 18 Average = 18
Thigh: 12, 13, 13, 15, 14, 15, 13, 13 Average = 14

With a final result of 12% using Jeremy's website, rounded to the nearest whole number. Does this sound like a reasonable number? The health central website was more like 14%. Maybe I should average the two. But I have to think the fat calipers are the more accurate so I may just go with that one. what do you guys think?

http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/1m_front.gif

Awesome! I opened up your first post and the ab definition is great! Good job! :tucool:

Thanks Gina.

Had a good weekend. Weather was great in Boston. Lots of walking around. This morning's workout was just so so. I was really psyched about using pullups as my main back exercise at first, but I just don't think that I am improving at all. If anything I seem to be getting worse.
The sets went:
8.5, 6, 4, 4, 3, 2.75

Despite trying to control my breathing, I still seemed to get headaches at the base of the back of my head and also behind my eyes toward the end of the first and second sets.

I think what I am going to do is switch to doing assisted pullups and do 3 sets of 6-8. Then I am just going to work up to my body weight. I'll see how that goes for a little.

Saw Amittyville Horror today. Man, that movie is scary. I have never been scared by a movie in a movie theater more than that. I didn't scream out, but my wife did quite a few times. there was a good number of screamers in the theater. It made for a real fun movie going experience, I highly recommend it. Ryan reynold's physique is good motivation too. I am determined to look like that.

So, I am half way through this challenge. I think I am doing good based on these numbers.

http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/BFLstats05.gif

Things I can be proud of:

I've lost 3 pounds of fat.
I've lost 1.25 inches off my waist, 1 inch off my hips.
I've doubled my squat weight.
I can see 4 abs in the morning right when I wake up.

I have a couple of regular dinner meals now. They are not great in terms of variety but they get the job done.

Meal 1: Boiled chicken breast, boiled string beans and edamame beans

Meal 2: Low fat, healthy choice hotdogs on wheat bread, boiled string beans and edamame beans

Meal 3: Italian wedding soup - low fat ground turkey balls boiled in water with low carb protein-enriched pasta and spinach

Okay only three so far, but I like'm. People must think this is pathetic, but coming up with meals that I like and which are also healthy is hard for me. I love the edamame bean, it is my most favorite addition.

I am so close to having abs...I think. I eat healthy the entire day. My only indulgence is that some nights I'll have some m&m's with peanut butter, which is just my favorite treat since I was little. I really wonder how much this hinders my goals. Maybe I'll go without for a few weeks and see what impact it has.

This past weekend was the Boston marathon. The whole city has off for it. I really like how it is such a community holiday. Everyone suddenly becomes a huge fan of fitness. The runners are referred to as heros. Which is a little odd. But I really like the respect that shows. People really respect the marathon as an achievement and I do too. I had to watch it on TV because I was working, but just seeing it made me want to get out and run. So I ordered some new shoes online.

I'm from philadelphia originally, so I think I'll set a goal to run the Philadelphia distance run which is this september. It is a half marathon. I got this idea because I was worried that I was starting to become a little too vain, in my fitness goals. I would like to make them more functional. This is why I am going to start running again.

I think rock climbing would be another sport that would really take advantage of the my fitness goals. I got to think that low BF% is a real advantage there. You need to be efficient strength-wise to haul yourself up a mountain wall.

damn man! looking at your latest pic , it seems like me and you are in the same spot. so if your coming up with high 13s, that probably where i am too.

looking good tho! i can see your ab paremeter well!

woops, i thought that was you with the axe. the pic before that was good too ;)

damn man! looking at your latest pic , it seems like me and you are in the same spot. so if your coming up with high 13s, that probably where i am too.

looking good tho! i can see your ab paremeter well!
Thanks man. I feel really close having some kickass abs. When I move around and flex in different ways, I see the hint of something good going on. I'm going to really focus the second half of this challenge. I want abs you can see anytime. How awesome would it be if we all met our goal and had ripped abs by this summer?


woops, i thought that was you with the axe. the pic before that was good too ;)
I get that all the time, I'd say over the course of any given day, I am shirtless and holding an axe about 90% of the time. I'm at least one of those 100% of the time.

Come to think of it, how cool would it be to walk around with an axe? Say you live in a bad neighborhood, like pug use to. You're walking to the store to pick up some milk and some punks try to mess with you. Now say you are holding an axe with a 4 foot handle. I'm thinking your gonna be okay.

Come to think of it, how cool would it be to walk around with an axe? Say you live in a bad neighborhood, like pug use to. You're walking to the store to pick up some milk and some punks try to mess with you. Now say you are holding an axe with a 4 foot handle. I'm thinking your gonna be okay.
Its been done...
http://arboretum.sfasu.edu/events/amt/images/july11/jack%20with%20axe%207-11-04.jpg

I am so confused by that photo. but I have to say, it makes a nice addition to my journal.

Wow, what a weekend. Spent the weekend with the in-laws in NYC. It was a great weekend fun-wise, and culture-wise. But unfortunately not great fitness-wise. We went to two cool photography exhibits including Ashes and Snow www.ashesandsnow.org , we went bowling. I scored 100, that's perfect right? My first time in 12 years. I tried to eat as healthy as I could but we tended to go to restaurants where you order all as a group and then share (sushi, malaysian, dim sum). The food was really good, more fatty than sugary. I am taking that small consolation.

And unfortunately I had to miss my back, biceps workout. Although this I don't mind too much. In the 6.5 weeks of this challenge, this is only the second workout I missed. I think I needed a break. I'm interested to see the measurements this week. Today I definitely burned a hell of a lot of calories. After walking into work, I had to walk to and from this Photography lab that is about a mile away twice. Man I'm beat. Time for a protein bar.

Oh also, This weekend I saw the first hint of the bottom two abs coming in when I was looking in the mirror. There was some really extreme lighting in the bathroom I was in so it was just coming from one side and I swear I could see the elusive 5th and 6th ab with some tauntingly light definition. A few more weeks, and hopefully I can see it without blinking. I've got pics coming up in a week and a half. I'll try to take some different lighting shots.
later,
GH

bottom 2 abs? man... im jelous. someday though...

oh, and if you're taking pics soon, hold a big axe in one of your shots like ryan reynolds. if you do it, i'll do it.

Crap, now I have to find an axe. They're just not laying around like they use to. At least not in a city environment. I can't imagine the look on my wife's face when she stumbles out of bed to see me standing in the living room with my shirt off and an axe. Amityville horror was scary enough.

Maybe I could go to Home Depot to check one out, and then naturally I'll have to see how it feels with my shirt off and then when no ones looking snap a photo. Man, these are all sounding like bad ideas. Do you're friends end up getting in lot of trouble wh0?

Edit: I think Leftnut would look pretty bad ass with an axe.

there were the occasional pranks in highschool - bikes in people's trees, dead animals on people's cars, etc. but no one has gone to jail yet.

I see this whole axe thing becoming a trend. A year from now it will just be another standard shot for measuring bodyfat. Front, Side, Back, Axe.

"sorry new guy, its hard to tell bodyfat from your pictures - try holding an axe next time."

I see this whole axe thing becoming a trend. A year from now it will just be another standard shot for measuring bodyfat. Front, Side, Back, Axe.

"sorry new guy, its hard to tell bodyfat from your pictures - try holding an axe next time." :rolleyes:

oh god that's funny. There is unfortunately no way to convey how much in text, so I won't try. I could not resist adding the rolling eyes.

I agree, the axe will become the new accessory for the modern day man. They'll be everywhere like cellphones. Different finishes, metals, personalized handles. They'll keep coming out with harder and sharper ones every 18 months. And everyone looks thinner with an axe. it'll be the new black.

I want to talk about tracking progress in the weight room. When I go to the gym, I am the only person with a pad and paper writing down the weight and reps for every set of every exercise. I put notes after a set if I feel it wasn't good, maybe too much weight or I felt bad form. I put a note if the set was awesome. If I feel the weight was too light I write that too, so I know to move up next week.

I see people come into the weight room, throw some weight around and walk out. Do they know what they just did? Do they remember from week to week what they are doing? How do they judge whether to move up in weight?

It is such a tremendous help to be able to look back over the last couple times to see how you are doing. It's also great to just know what you are going to do today. It doesn't take a pre made spread sheet. All's you need is a pad of paper and a pen. You write the exercise, then the weight/reps for each set.

For example:
dumbell squats - 25/8, 40/8, 40/8, 40/8, 40/8

there you go, that's it. I did a warmup with 25 lb dumbells and then switched to 40 for four sets. If it felt good, I'll write that right after. If I feel I should move up, I'll write that.

I just wanted to let anyone know who thinks they don't have the time for it or have never done it that it takes no time and is ridiculously beneficial. You have to rest between sets, right? Just make a note on a pad, takes all of 3 seconds.

GH,

I too am the only one I have ever seen in the gym with a journal. I think I would walk around in circles if I didn't have it on me.

I think I need to do what you are doing and set a time limit to my challenge. You are doing fantastic! Keep it up. :tucool:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v720/vatechguy/homer_front.gif


:tu: :nod: :tu:

I see people come into the weight room, throw some weight around and walk out. Do they know what they just did? Do they remember from week to week what they are doing? How do they judge whether to move up in weight?

I have never used a journal in the gym. I'm not saying it's wrong for people that do, I just don't. I remember my exercises for that day and I always remember what weight I did the previous week. I move up EVERY week in weight, even if it's only 5 lbs. If I can't get my reps and go to failure for a set, I repeat the set one more time. I know some that say this is wrong, it's just how I do it.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v720/vatechguy/homer_front.gif


:tu: :nod: :tu:
Thanks man!! That's awesome! :D Look at me shrink. god, computers are useful. How big is the file? can you email it to xxxxxx ?

Or maybe the email is xxxxxx one of those should work.

Thanks for posting it!

I remember my exercises for that day and I always remember what weight I did the previous week.
That's impressive. I usually end up forgeting something.

That's really cool GH!

You are doing a fantastic job. It proves it just by being invited sickofbeingfat.

:claphigh:

Awesome morph man. You're doing an awesome job in your transformation!

Well. sorry it's been so long since an update. I have my 8 week results listed together with my 4 week results too. This past month has been much better than the first. Based on my measurements, I've lost about 6 pounds of fat and kept nearly all my muscle. I am really excited with how things are going right now.

I took my 2 month pictures on Wednesday, and I was very excited by what I saw. I don't want to give anything away until I post them but I was like this :jumping: after taking them. I'll get them up this weekend after I have time for the usual cropping and such. These numbers don't have the same feeling as photos, but I'll get them up tomorrow hopefully.

http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/BFLstats04.gif http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/BFLstats08.gif

Well. sorry it's been so long since an update. I have my 8 week results listed together with my 4 week results too. This past month has been much better than the first. Based on my measurements, I've lost about 6 pounds of fat and kept nearly all my muscle. I am really excited with how things are going right now.

I took my 2 month pictures on Wednesday, and I was very excited by what I saw. I don't want to give anything away until I post them but I was like this :jumping: after taking them. I'll get them up this weekend after I have time for the usual cropping and such. These numbers don't have the same feeling as photos, but I'll get them up tomorrow hopefully.

http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/BFLstats04.gif http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/BFLstats08.gif

Good job man! I can't wait to see the pictures!!!!!

Pug

wow. you're 5'10 and weigh the same as me about. that's not a good sign for my muscle mass. congrats non-the-less.

instead of giving you a cookie, here'r some good quotes:

"Yeah, but doctor, his pants were down around his GOD-DAMNED ankles"
"i'm... sorry, i....don't speak German..."

Okay, here are my 2 month photos. Hopefully they show the six pounds of fat I lost. In all cases the first photo is from now (the 2 month mark) and the second photo is from 2 months ago.

These are the standard front and side shots as compared to 2 months ago.

http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/2m_front.gifhttp://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/BFL_start_front.gif

http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/2m_side.gifhttp://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/BFL_start_side.gif

Front and back flexed shots.

http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/2m_front_flex.gifhttp://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/BFL_start_front_flex_zoom.gif

http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/2m_back_flex.gifhttp://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/BFL_start_Back_flex_zoom.gif

This flexed shot is compared to 1 month ago.

http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/2m_flex.gifhttp://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/1m_flex.gif

I was really excited about seeing some good ab definition. I tried to capture this better by not using the flash.

http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/2m_abs.gif

I really like this shot.

http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/2m_flex2.gif

:claphigh: :claphigh: :claphigh:
:bow:

I can totally see a difference! Just think, that was is only one month.

Keep up the great work!

look at your waist area on back shots. THAT'S progress. no more lovhandles whatsoever. very nice.

Thanks guys!

Yes, I am amazed at how in just the last 2 weeks my love handles have shrunk a lot. They are still there when my arms are down, but I think I am at the point where my love handles and lower stomach are pretty much the last haven of fat on me.

I was really happy to see a definition line separating the very bottom two abs. I have never seen that, ever, in my life. Even in highschool when I was the same height and weighed about 155 lbs, I didn't have any lower ab definition.

So I was thinking about why I have been so successful recently. I think it is because I walk so much every week. I walk to and from work every day except on days I lift, I take the bus in, but then walk home. So that leaves about 8 trips a week, either to or from. According to mapquest the distance is 2.83 miles, for a total of ~23 miles of walking each week. I've also found, that because I am so use to walking, that I don't hesitate to walk fairly long distances on the weekend. A fifteen minute walk to the store is nothing, when I am walking for like 40 minutes to work everyday.

I'm really psyched to see how I do in another month. On memorial day, we are heading down to my parents place near Philly. They just moved into a new house this past winter and will have just finished up on a bunch of new renovations on the house, including cleaning out and filling the inground swimming pool in the background. It's going to be awesome to take off my shirt then and have abs staring people in the face. Actually, to tell you the truth I'll probably feel pretty weird about it. I don't like having attention drawn to me. At least not for how I look.

Oh and if people are interested. I put up a bunch of photos on boomboom's website www.sickofbeingfat.net

the link to my profile is in my sig.

FANTASTIC!

WHAT A HUGE DIFFERENCE MAN. Great job!!!!!!


:cool: :D :) :tu:

Pug

hahahhahaha. isnt that weird? this whole time we're cutting so that we can take our shirt off in the summer time, but now we're too bashfull/modest to do it now that we look better? ('we' including me in 1.5 months)

how long as it been since your parents have seen you?

In addition to losing the weight, you gained some nice size in your delts and lats. Nice work! :tucool:

Thanks pug and slushpuppy!

Wh0, unforunately the decades of me being fat have done a number on my ability to feel comfortable in my skin. Damn't I'll just have to get to use to it. I was back in philly at the beginning of march right when I started this recent challenge. But I'm sure they haven't seen me with my shirt off since, i don't know, well over a year I think :confused:

the big shock was last year, when I hadn't seen them for 3 months and I had lost like 25 pounds in that time. At my wife's bridal shower my mom kept swearing that I had gotten taller. It was really funny.

you must still meet people you haven't seen in the last year. That must be crazy. do their jaws just hit the floor?

heh... christmas was interesting - getting together with everyone who hasnt seen me since i weighed 265, now seeing me at ... i think i was 180 this past christmas. every family member showed up separatly at our house, so every 5 minutes there was another "OH MY GOD!!!! WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU???"

Just wanted to let folks know that I'm still going along fine with my fitness. I need to get week 9 and now 10 measurements posted.

Also, I wanted to let people know that I pretty much just put all advice I have on fat loss in one place here: http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showthread.php?t=16232

Thanks guys!

So I was thinking about why I have been so successful recently. I think it is because I walk so much every week. I walk to and from work every day except on days I lift, I take the bus in, but then walk home. So that leaves about 8 trips a week, either to or from. According to mapquest the distance is 2.83 miles, for a total of ~23 miles of walking each week.

Hey first off, awesome results from your new challenge after your first major fat loss cycle. You're going from that skinny look to the muscular/toned look which everyone wants. Big ups for the abs pic, that is like such a dream for me at this point, but I am happy that you are living it bro.

I like the idea of walking as I am a little injured still, and I have read soooo much literature that says walking is garbage, you don't burn calories, you don't elevate metabolism after like HIIT, you don't attack muscle glycogen, you will look like a marthoner, or do you want to look like a sprinter (do HIIT). But you know what, there is wayyyy too much information out there on ANY TOPIC in fitness.

I like the idea of walking, so I will give it a shot for a few weeks, doing a few miles a day of brisk walking. I'll give you an update on what happens.

Thanks alot snoopy99. You're definitely doing the right stuff, based on the weight you've lost so far. I really enjoy walking right now. I think some day in the future I'll start running again, but walking really fits into my schedule now. Good luck!

Alright here are the stats for all 10 weeks.

http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/BFLstats04.gif
http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/BFLstats08.gif
http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/BFLstats10.gif

Week 10 results were very unusual. I decided to take the week off from weight lifting because I had a head cold and I was traveling this weekend to NYC. I think I needed a rest after 9 weeks of lifting and only missing 2 workouts.

And while in NYC I had lots of different food, with a good amount of fat in it. So I was really surprised to see that my waist shrank by 0.5 inches, and I've now lost about 8 pounds of fat.

It seems like the high levels of fat I had last weekend caused my body to shed fat even faster.

I pretty much have a six pack all day long at this point. It is a very unusual feeling, something I have never felt in my life. We'll see where this goes from here.

I pretty much have a six pack all day long at this point. It is a very unusual feeling, something I have never felt in my life. We'll see where this goes from here.

That's the kind of thing I like to hear. I would kill to know what that feels like.

I also can imagine that everytime you eat something that isn't very clean you feel like you're ruining your six pack.

That's the kind of thing I like to hear. I would kill to know what that feels like.

I also can imagine that everytime you eat something that isn't very clean you feel like you're ruining your six pack.
You are definitely right. It could get obsessive. But I have not been eating completely clean. Most of my meals are but every few days I will have a snack or something. Lately all of my snacks have been star wars m&m's. But even with some bad food, the weightlifting and continual feedings of clean food the rest of the time, in addition to the walking, is why I think I've been still losing fat. It definitely cycles up and down but the overall trend is down.

So I think by doing it this way-incorporating some bad food into my diet-I don't really have the fear that I need to eat perfectly.

this week my abs are definitely less visible due to all the snacking.

Here are my stats for week 11. I think last weeks weight was definitely a fluke, maybe I was extra dehydrated or something. I'm glad my weight came back up, but my measurements still stayed the same, which is good. Right now I'm showing about 9 pounds of fat loss and 2.5 pounds of muscle gain. I'm pretty happy about that.

http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/BFLstats11.gif

Next week is final pictures.

One of my goals for this challenge was to lose 10 pounds of fat. I'm not sure if I will be able to do it as I am heading to Philadelphia this weekend to see my parents for three days. It's almost mandatory to have at least one cheesesteak. If I was staying home, I would say I could definitely lose the last pound. Anyway, I'm not really worried about it. I'm pretty happy with how this challenge turned out.

The whole point was to get me to go to the gym three times a week. Have it be a habit and also enjoy it. I think I pretty much did that. When the twelve weeks are up, I don't plan on changing anything at this point. I want to see if my LBM continues to increase each week. If it does, then I would be content to stick with this lifestyle for a long time. Even if it takes me 2 months to add a pound of LBM that is prefectly fine.

See, at least right now, I can never see myself going for a true bulk. I like the amount of food I eat now. I am never starving. If I could slowly add muscle over the course of a year. like 5 pounds a year, that would be great.

GH,

I think you have an awesome attitude. I also think that adding 5 pounds of LBM is very realistic, especially if you continue the workouts and eating habits.

I am very proud of you that you stuck to your 12 week challenge! :tucool:

I just spent the last 2 hours reading your journal from start to finish. I'd seen your pictures on sickofbeingfat.com but never read your journal until today.

I know you have to be on Cloud9 every single day just knowing how good you look and how much you have accomplished. It's guys like you, citrix, wh0, leftnut, who give me with the willpower to keep on keeping on day after day. :nod:

Thanks for the kind words Yvette and Mooshie. Keeping this journal has really helped me to focus my energy on making fitness apart of my daily life. I may stray from week to week, but the key is that a vast majority of the time I am choosing food and working out to drop fat and increase muscle.

Today, in philly, we went shopping for a flat panel TV for my parents. We wound up with a 42" Panasonic Plasma TV. Wow, I am blown away by the picture. And they have never had anything like this so they are amazed. The first thing we had lying around was Blade trinity, so we popped it in. It's very impressive and motivational how physically fit the people in that movie are. I think we're going to have to visit a lot more often now.

Did everyone see this: http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showthread.php?t=16768

I can't believe this. I can't believe people can't find ten dollars some where anywhere to help keep this site free and open.

http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showthread.php?p=160336#post160336

Today, in philly, we went shopping for a flat panel TV for my parents. We wound up with a 42" Panasonic Plasma TV. Wow, I am blown away by the picture. And they have never had anything like this so they are amazed. The first thing we had lying around was Blade trinity, so we popped it in. It's very impressive and motivational how physically fit the people in that movie are. I think we're going to have to visit a lot more often now.

Drools..... :drool:

Hell I want to visit your folks now too..... hehe :D

How much did they plunk down on that couch potato heavenly device?

Makes me think of this: Escape the Sofa! (http://www.gagreport.com/bizarrenews%20-%20video%20-%20escapesofa.htm#news)

Drools..... :drool:

Hell I want to visit your folks now too..... hehe :D

How much did they plunk down on that couch potato heavenly device?


It was the floor model, so it was down from 3600 to 2800, then I printed out 15% coupon that gave an added reduction on top of that to 2400.

they were having trouble viewing cable so the bestbuy tech came out. Seems not all the software was loaded onto the TV. And the guy said it is very suspicious and might mean some bestbuy employee has been doing something he shouldn't. Ever hear of this before? they got the warranty so they should be all set.

Here's all the stats for the 12 weeks:

http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/BFLstats04.gif

http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/BFLstats08.gif

http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/BFLstats12.gif

As I thought, this past weekend stalled any hopes of hitting 10 pounds total fat loss.

I didn't take pictures this week. I didn't want all the yummy salty pork i had last weekend to cover up a month's worth of progress. this weekend I'm not travelling, so I decided to let myself detox and take photos next week.

As I said before, I'm pretty much going to keep going like this for a while. I'm really interested to see how far my current lifestyle will take me. I'm trying to add muscle and lose fat at the same time. I've been successful so far. We'll see how it goes.

I am really happy I started this 12 week challenge for myself. The whole concept of 12 weeks was to get me motivated. to get me to the gym, and eating well. Now I'm just going to stay with it. It's a habit at this point.

Special props to vatechguy who is now a lifetime member of JSF!!

I can't believe this. I can't believe people can't find ten dollars some where anywhere to help keep this site free and open.



FINE!

oops sorry, my bad, didn't mean to shout. It was my guilty conscience talking (hangs head in shame).
You are right, I should have done this a LONG time ago :d_frown: but it is done now. :nod:

Thanks for the reminder GH.

Also, you are an inspiration. :tucool:
Six-pack abs (heavy sight). I'm working on it!:db:

Thanks for the reminder GH.

No problem, that's awesome you're now one of the supporters. Didn't mean to lay too much of guilt trip, no wait, I think I probably did.

Also, you are an inspiration. :tucool:
Six-pack abs (heavy sight). I'm working on it!:db:
Thanks! My abs are a bit elusive at the moment. There and then not there. I think in a few weeks I'll get through this gray area. You can do it too. Just don't give up or lose focus and remember it's not a race. You have lots of time, even small progress will get you there.

You are right, I should have done this a LONG time ago :d_frown: but it is done now. :nod:



:claplow: :claphigh: :claplow: :claphigh: :claplow: :claphigh:

Owning up - I like it.


Homer's my hero too - someday I think I might see my abs too.... :confused:

Thanks vatechguy. What you have done is amazing especially since you have a whole family to look after and spend time with. And now you're stepping up looking after the forum too. :tu:

You'll get to where you want to be, I'm sure of it.

Here's my 3.25 month photos. I've lost ~9-10 pounds of fat in the last three months.

These are the standard front and side shots as compared to 3 months ago.

http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/3m_front_w.jpghttp://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/BFL_start_front.gif

http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/3m_side_w.jpghttp://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/BFL_start_side.gif

Front and back flexed shots.

http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/3m_front_flex_w.jpghttp://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/BFL_start_front_flex_zoom.gif

http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/3m_back_flex_w.jpghttp://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/BFL_start_Back_flex_zoom.gif

This flexed shot is compared to 2 months ago.

http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/3m_flex_w.jpghttp://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/1m_flex.gif

Abs compared to 1 month ago

http://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/3m_abs_w.jpghttp://www.geocities.com/brian_r_tull/Fitness/2m_abs.gif

hmm...I can't quite figure out why the photos aren't showing up :confused:

stay tuned.

very nice

Excellent stuff - everything is much tighter & toned...

Keep on moooooovin', :tucool:

G



P.S. I'm always so impressed with your avatar transformation too...

Hey what's up folks. I've decided to keep posting in my journal. Been a while. The last couple months I haven't been around the boards much. I wonder if the subscribers are still on the forums.

Sunday I ran my first half marathon. I trained for it for about 6 weeks. I wasn't running for a long time as some people know here. I really missed it because I have had an awesome time running the last 6 weeks. I really genuinely like it. And being like 40 pounds lighter than the last time I ran on a regular basis is the best part.

The half marathon went well, 1:43:08, which is a 7:52 mile pace. It was in Philadelphia, where I am from. My goal was to try for an 8 minute a mile pace for as long as I could and at least break 2 hours. I think I took a bit of a risk going as fast as I did. At around mile 8 I started to feel pretty bad. But I got water at every mile, which really rejuvenated me. One thing that I didn't realize was how hard it was going to be to run that pace. It was really hard. I went as fast as I could, and I couldn't believe that people were able to go faster. People that looked to be in a lot worse shape than me.

Anyway, I really like the distance, so I am going to make it a habit to run several half marathons a year. I'm sure I can improve on the time. My breath was not the problem, nor the mental part. My legs were the biggest problem. Hopefully as I train more they will not hurt as much. I'll have to look into some training guides.

Of course I will keep weightlifting as apart of my fitness plan. I think maybe I will switch to a full body workout twice a week and then run 3-4 days a week and take the other days off.

The one thing I love the most about running, is the amount of food you can eat every day. I don't think running long distance is necesarily the best way to burn the fat you already have but it is great for using the food you eat that day. Anyway, that's all for now. I'm off to look up more half marathons.

later,
GH

Just listing races:

October 8, 2005 (Saturday)
United Technologies Greater Hartford Marathon
Hartford, CT 8:00AM Bushnell Park, Bushnell Park, Hartford, CT (Marathon, Half Marathon, 5K, Team Relay,)
Contact: Hartford Marathon, USA, 8606528866 info@hartfordmarathon.com

October 9, 2005 (Sunday)
14th Annual NewportFed 1/2 Marathon & 5K
Middletown, RI 9:00AM Newport County YMCA, 792 Valley Rd
Contact: Jeff Robison, 792 Valley Rd, Middletown, RI, USA, 02842 401-847-9200 jeffr@newportymca.org


October 16, 2005 (Sunday)
Baystate Marathon
Lowell, MA 8:00AM Tsongas Arena, Arcand Dr. (Lowell Sun 1/2 Marathon)
Contact: Mark Coddaire, 118 Merrimack St., LOwell, MA, USA, 01852 978-323-4400 glrrmc@aol.com


November 13, 2005 (Sunday)
Larry Robinson 10 Miler & Alex Miliotis 5K Race/Walk
Andover, MA 9:00AM Andover HS Field House, Shawsheen Road (off Route 133)
Contact: Roy Dennehy, P/O Box 295, Andover, MA, USA, 01810 978-937-4200 rkd6@msn.com
> Yahoo! Maps | > Register Now

Monson Memorial Classic Half Marathon, 5K, & 2 Mile
Monson, MA 12:00NOON Town Hall - Downtown Monson, 198 Main Street (Certified Half Marathon & 5K)
Contact: Lee Williams, USA, 413-267-5811 leew@runnergirl.com

November 27, 2005 (Sunday)
The Tough Ten Mile Turkey Trot for the Marlboro Food Pantry
Marlborough, MA 9:00AM Ghiloni Park (Across from Marlboro Country Club), Concord Rd (Sponsored - Marlboro H.S. Track Teams)
Contact: Mark Vital Coach, MHS 431 Bolton Street, Marlborough, MA, USA, 01752 508-229-3160 run5kfast@yahoo.com
> Yahoo! Maps

December 17, 2005 (Saturday)
The Norfolk Pub 10 Miler
Norfolk, CT 11:00AM Norfolk Town Hall, Maple Ave
Contact: Will Graustein, USA, 860-485-1506 info@greystoneracing.net
> Yahoo! Maps

February 26, 2006 (Sunday)
Four Points by Sheraton Hyannis Marathon, Half Marathon, 10Km & Marathon Team Relay
Hyannis, MA 10:00AM Four Points by Sheraton Hyannis Resort Hotel, 35 Scudder Avenue
Contact: B.A. Event Promotions, P.O. Box 2184, Hyannis, MA, USA, 02601 617-625-2140 BAEvents@aol.com
> Yahoo! Maps


May 6, 2006

Big lake in NH
http://www.biglakehalfmarathon.com/biglake.html


August 6, 2006 (Sunday)
Sound Runner Sea Legs Shuffle
Guilford, CT 8:00AM Jacob's Beach, Seaside Avenue (10Mile/5k/Children's Run)
Contact: Julie Francis, 1088 Main Street, Branford, CT, USA, 06405 203-483-8222 sound.runner@snet.net


September 3, 2006 (Sunday)
Swanzey Covered Bridges Half Marathon
Swanzey, NH 8:30AM Monadnock Regional High School, 580 Old Homestead Highway (Scenic Rural Run Through Covered Bridges)
Contact: Elijah Barrett, 122 Key Road, Keene, NH, USA, 03431 603-357-3232 info@gotENDURANCE.com

Applefest 1/2 marathon in NH, Oct 2006
http://www.gatecity.org/AF/index.html

OMG, had my wisdom teeth out today. I am the very definition of uncomfortable right now. but pain killers are cool.

Oh man, I am slowly fighting my way back from having all four wisdom teeth extracted last Thursday. I had my first meal of solid food tonight. Well not that solid, we had sushi to go easy on my chops. But it was great to chew. So much of the pleasure of food comes from chewing and savoring the flavor.

I tell you, I am going to enjoy chewing so much more now after not being able to do it for 6 days. Swallowing things simply sucks. You still get filled up but you are just not satisfied. I'm so glad I had a sample pack of Allthewhey smoothies, it really helped me through it.

I look like the walking dead right now. I only lost 5 pounds but it feels like more and as the swelling in my mouth dies down I've developed some yellow bruising on either side of my mouth leading down my neck. It's like I have some 18th century plague.

anyway, off to sleep and keep healing.

man... that must suck life through a straw.

I guess you haven't been working out?

What was your nutrition intake like during the past week?

I've read about people who subsist solely on liquids: Boost, Ensure, SlimFast, etc... but I can't imagine actually doing it for more than like a week or so. I guess as long as your overall intake and the ratios are OK, there's really nothing wrong with it though...

man... that must suck life through a straw.

I guess you haven't been working out?

What was your nutrition intake like during the past week?

I've read about people who subsist solely on liquids: Boost, Ensure, SlimFast, etc... but I can't imagine actually doing it for more than like a week or so. I guess as long as your overall intake and the ratios are OK, there's really nothing wrong with it though...
Yes it does suck. Although it is funny that you say that because you actually can't use a straw. Something about the sucking force can cause the blood clots of the surgical site to, ahem, this is getting kind of gross. Let's just say that bad things happen.

No I haven't been working out unless you count walking from the couch to the kitchen to the bathroom and back a workout.

This thing seriously wiped me out physically. I didn't eat anything at all for the first 48 hours. The only thing I had was water and sprite. And I only had very little, pretty much just enough to swallow the various pills. This left me with just enough energy to walk slowly, like a feeble person. You really don't want to have anything else. For the first 12 hours your bottom lip down to your chin is completely numb, which makes drinking a real challenge. After the numbness goes away, then you realize you have 4 giant wounds in your mouth, and I had to have gauze in my mouth all during the first two days to make the bleeding stop. sleeping isn't fun either. The 48 hour point was really the low point.

Finally on the third day I had scrambled eggs and chocolate ice cream, in addition to the water and sprite. The next day I remembered about the smoothie protein mix and started drinking that a lot.

The next couple days I pretty much ate anything I could put in my mouth and swallow without chewing. It was about getting calories in me so I could feel stronger, I didn't care about the nutritional value, it was mostly soup, smoothies, and ice cream. I still can't eat anything crunchy, I am worried about getting food stuck in the wounds.

I don't know how people could live by simply drinking things, I can't. Eating last night for real was awesome. I think I'll have a new appreciation for eating now. Even if its healthy it will still be great, because chewing kicks ass.

I found something out today. It seems that I can't run on a treadmill. Today was to be my first day back running since I got my wisdom teeth out 10 days ago. Since it was raining I figured I would check out all the new cardio machines my school just got in the newly renovated gym. All the machines are brand new and have flatscreen TVs mounted on them.

After running for about 2 miles at 8 minutes a mile pace I started to feel a pulling, tugging along my left knee, exactly in the same place that I had iliotibial band tendenitis at the beginning of last year. How did that develop? Well by running on the treadmill.

So I stopped and stretched some more and then started again slowly, but by the time I got up to the pace i wanted to run, again I felt the same tugging. I immediately stopped (beacuse that injury just s