Hello Everyone,
I had to make a goofy eye catching title, it seems to be the trend here and since the other trend is that of great turns for the better for bodies, I felt I'd jump aboard. I suppose I should buckle down and write a little about myself to hopefully entertain you and eventually motivate me.

My name is Geoff. I'm 25 years old and currently 5'10" 207lbs. As to how I feel about myself, I dislike a lot of what my body looks like, but have fairly good self esteem in general *I dress up well*. I was not always a fat guy however, as far back as 9th grade in Highschool I weighed a whole 135lbs at 5'7" and played football. A consequence of playing football was the destruction of my right knee. I blew out my knee maybe the 5th game into the season my freshman year and was told that I just stretched ligaments and they would heal up soon enough. I then spent the next 3 years trying to do things to strengthen my knee only to knock it out of place again and finally it got to the point where I hit depression.
I was always a video game player, but I was active outdoors before this. Once depression kicked in I played games day and night, as well as ate terrible food all day with no regards to how it would change me. By my junior year I was 200lbs and out of shape, well cardio wise, I had lifted throughout that time for my upper body so I was strong. I always complained about my knee but I got the old reply, "Suck it up." So I did.
I then went to college, where I proceeded to gain weight and by my senior year of college, I weighed 250lbs. I finally couldn't take it anymore and knew my friends wanted me to go to florida with them at the end of the year, over summer. Something had to be done! So in 2002, I went on the Atkins diet, which works but is frickin impossible to stay on *for me*. I dropped 30lbs on atkins and sat happily at 220lbs, happy with what i had done. I was lifting hard during that time as well *not my legs mind you, as they still sucked, I mean I lifted, but weakly* and I could bench a fair amount, high 200s. I continued to lose weight throughout that summer and got to around 205-210lbs. I felt great, and actually walked around the beach with my shirt off, even though I still didn't like how i looked, it was so much better that... well, I felt good.
After that, I got into the lovely world of work and have since battled from 200-220 back and forth with varying degrees of strength but I'm not as strong as I once was with my chest, but stronger with my stomach... *shrug* I lost muscle. All the while, my knee kept me from doing things like running hard, because I was scared I'd hurt it, which I often did. Last year, October 2004, I had the final straw. I stood up and my knee went out on me, I mean... Stood straight up. BOOM knee goes out and I can't barely walk for 3 days. A few days later, I'm getting an MRI...
Turns out I have a completely torn meniscus and my acl is all but gone. It had tiny nubs left. All those years of "sucking it up" tore my knee up bigtime, tons of cartilage flying around and strained ligaments. That november I had an ACL replacement and all the stuff in there cleared up. Here it is, a good 9 months later and I can do everything I want to, even ski this winter. Mainly I just wanted to get back to Jiu Jitsu, which once my thumb heals *different story* I'll be back in it.
Now here are the main reasons I really want to lose weight. I want to have less weight so that I don't have any extra chance of injuring my knee. I want to have less weight *and when I say weight, I really mean fat* so I can compete in jiu jitsu more in lines with guys my strength/size. I want to be attractive to women. I am downright lacking confidence with women. It all stems from how I feel about how I look and I want that to go away. Obviously just losing weight won't change everything, but it will make me feel a lot better about attempting to "get a date." As it currently stands, if I get shot down I instantly think its because of how I look, when I could have just been a complete idiot and no matter what I looked like I would have failed. Point is, losing fat will make me happy.

To restate:
5'10"
207lbs *I started a week ago, I was 215 then... water weight for the win?*]
JUST got my scale to read bodyfat correctly today *I was a friggin idiot setting it up* so 29% is what it says so thats what I'm going with.

Goal = 180lbs by February 1st. Maybe 20% bodyfat? What is a realistic goal for getting to 180lbs?

Measurements in inches as of 7-27-05:
Waist: 40
Hips: 42
Forearm: 13
Wrist: 6.75
Arm: 15.25
Thigh: 23
Calf: 16.75
Chest: 44

I'm trying for around 2000cals in 6meals a day, 40/40/20 mainly, though I hit protein a bit much sometimes. I will post some pictures when I get home from work, feel rather akward doing that here. Currently I'm doing some low intesity cardio 6-7 days a week, and have starting lifting this week with light weight. I'm fine with losing more muscle to get rid of the fat, as I do build muscle fairly easily. That'd make me what, an endomorph with mesomorphic tendencies? Anyway, I'm just doing this in hopes to get positive feedback because we all need it and don't necessarily get it from those around us. Also, you all seem to be quiet a fount of knowledge, one I'd like to take advantage of.

So in closing, thats me. A bit long winded perhaps but I figure its best to let it all go and then keep it tidy in the following posts. I definitely intend to update weekly with pictures as thats how its going so far, and doing measurements monthly. And thankyou John, you making the step to suck it up made me want to suck it up *this time for a good thing like weight loss, not walking on a blown knee* again.

FRONT
Front 7-27-05 (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v108/Geo247/Front7-27-05.jpg)

Front 8-05-05 (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v108/Geo247/Front8-05-05.jpg)

BACK
Back 7-27-05 (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v108/Geo247/Back7-27-05.jpg)

Back 8-05-05 (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v108/Geo247/Back8-05-05.jpg)

SIDE
Side 7-27-05 (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v108/Geo247/Side7-27-05.jpg)

Side 8-05-05 (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v108/Geo247/Side8-05-05.jpg)

Well today went as most days do. Woke up at 6:30am. Now I've heard good things about the fasted cardio, but I gotta admit, I prefer doing it after work around 4pm. Its hard enough to get up that early to do it. The first week I did do it as fasted cardio but that cuts into my sleep too much so unless I find that doing it later in the day is detrimental to my cause, I think I'll stick that way. Now my current meals at work go like this:

Breakfast 7:30am
3/4 cup Oatmeal w/sugarfree maple syrup, splenda, and 1 tblspoon of peanut butter. *Some days without peanut butter, just depends, today i had it*
Roughly 330 calories

10:00am
Protein shake, which varies. I make a double serving that I split between my 10am and 2pm meals. Its about 440 cals if I just make it normally. It can be +190 if I add peanut butter. I like peanut butter btw. Today I made it with half a serving of peanut butter so its about 540Cals/2 so 270cals per serving there.

12:00pm
Turkey Sandwich on stoneground wheat bread*No enriched flour, 15 carbs per slice* with a few small pieces of cheddar cheese and mustard. The bread itself is around 160cals, so with everything else I'd guess I'm around 350cals with that sandwich.

2:00pm
The rest of the shake as stated before.

4:00pm
Cardio/Workout

5:00/5:30pm
Chicken breast with a small piece of feta cheese warmed up on top. Heaping portion of baby spinach. Banana. This is about 400cals.

8:00pm
Cup of low fat Cottage cheese mixed with Kashi Go Lean
340cals or so.


That ends up being roughly 2000cals. Suggestions are welcomed, I know you all know more than I do.

Welp, did 30 minutes of cardio last night and shoulders. Woke up and weighed myself and ye olde scale says I lost half a pound and gained a percent of bodyfat haha... *shrug* you'll have that I guess? I just use the scale as a measurement tool but not as the end all be all... I feel better, my chest and stomach feel tightened so screw you scale!

Woke up a little bit later than usual for work and one of my coworkers heckled me as i got to work a bit later, granted I can just stay later and its fine. Somethin about playing a game til 11, then trying to get up at 6am just doesn't quite click! Alas I basically play WoW as my freetime-eater so sometimes it requires staying up a bit later *Some people here seem to be wow fans as well, wow = world of warcraft* especially when we're doing BWL. Anyway. I told myself with the whole weightloss that I don't care if I lose some LMM as long as I am losing fat as well.
I need to find a pool around here to swim in for laps, that has always been my favorite form of cardio. My elliptical is cool, but bleh, I'd rather be swimmin!

Welp I'm off to do some work, and I forgot my protein shake today, so I'm going to have to make due with some eggs/veggies or somethin from the cafe.

Did another 30 of cardio, sweated like mad, and same results this morning, 206.5, 30% Bodyfat. I look pretty similar to John's before picture, tho I look "flubbier". I would guess thats about right. Tomorrow is my next "picture" day, so we'll see if they show any improvement, I sure feel better. Even though I sit at my desk a ton, I was feeling like my gut was going to bust out of my shirt a lot of the time, not so anymore. One thing odd about my scale is that I can flex really hard and that somehow adjusts the bodyfat %? Like 1 or 2%. I'm just going to continue to stand on it like a lump and go with that, as its what I've normally been doing anyway. Its a tanita btw, not sure of the model. Its fairly simple.

I really really ate bad yesterday, in a sense of my timing. I ate good things, but I got spread out badly because I forgot to bring my shake, which... I did today as well. I didn't forget it today, I just didn't have time to make it as I was rushing around. I really need to make that the night before *ponders*. I'm pretty sure I didn't eat "enough" too. Yesterday consisted of a chicken breast, couple pieces of deli ham, spinach, oatmeal, a sandwich with turkey and a little bit of cheddar cheese, and my shake at night. I didn't feel crappy however, so who knows.

Tonight I'm going to do biceps, back, and abs. Hehe... abs... I'm workin on my keg right now, someday I'll get a 2pack! Regardless I feel better, I don't know if I look better, but feel is where its at.

Week 2 down, picture day whee. Was 206.5 29%bf today... *shrug* At least I lost a pound this week. Now lets see if I can attach this... They will be in order of Newest to Oldest.

Whew, got throught the weekend unscathed. Two nights of hardcore drinking! By my friends that is, I was the DD. I had 1 beer over the weekend, a michelob ultra. I also only took sunday off, I lifted on saturday and got some cardio in as well.

I weighed today and was at 204lbs, 29% bf. I'm completely befuddled by my scale, and I'm debating not even paying attention to the bf rating. I was at 205.5 on Sat with 28%, then on Sunday i was 203.5 with 27% and now I'm 204 with 29%? I kept fairly hydrated throughout it all so I'm just confused. Oh well, I feel tighter especially around my lats, which is where i seem to lose weight first. Screw you scale, I feel better regardless of your numbers! Didn't even eat a cheat meal or anything, I just tried 1 piece of fried cauliflower and let me tell you, that sucks.

Welp off to type my way through the day.

Doo b doo, the scale it doth annoy me! I think I may just weigh in weekly, instead of daily. My caloric intake has been kinda low I think. For instance yesterday was....

Oatmeal 3/4 a cup.
Turkey Sandwich on Whole Wheat bread w/mustard and a little bit of cheddar cheese
An apple
A chicken breast from a rotisserie chicken.
1 Cup of Kashi Go lean
2 legs and a thigh from the same rotisserie chicken
A pickle
About 18 grapes
A few pieces of cantalope
And an atkins bar, I had a hunger strike!

That keeps me pretty satisfied really though, but I am working out every day too, whether it be cardio or weights, sometimes both. I get a lot of protein normally, since I normally have shakes. *Shrug* Everything I wear is better now, I gotta just quit worrying about the retarded scale and its evil numbers!

I did deadlifts for the first time in like maybe, 6 years? I went way wussy on the weight to make sure I got back into it correctly, a whole 135lbs! Hah, well it actually gave me a good workout for my back so I'm happy and had I done somethin stupid weight wise I'd be in the form of a question mark today. I've jacked my hip before doing back exercises so never again. I remember doing back extensions on a bench while holding a 35... a week later, I had ridiculous pain in my hip for like 6 months... it was great.

Anyway, off to do my work!

206.5 and 28%bf... hah, I'm climbin the scale! Whether thats right or wrong, I feel good. Much tighter all around and I look better in the mirror. I drank tons of water yesterday, a little more than usual, but I've been keeping pretty constant with my water intake, not letting myself get dehydrated. I really haven't had much salt either, the only thing "salty" I had yesterday was a pickle...

I noticed while laying on my side before going to bed last night that my gut was more "in check" than it used to be. Its still there in full force mind you, but its not as goo-like. Makes me happy at least! I try to look at it from the beginning til now, I mean its 8.5lbs in 20 days. So what if I'm going up and down a good bit right in the middle of this week? Eat me calendar! I shall look at the big picture and not day to day stuff! Well, I'll look at it, but I'm not gonna let it depress me hehe.

Did triceps and chest last night, I'm really going to have to condense things, but I'm just trying to get back into lifting without being a walking lump of SORE. Though with deadlifts the day before, and my chest getting blown up yesterday, I'm failing haha. Thats ok though, it does feel good to feel sore, if its for the right reasons.

I'm going to have to check out what everyone else is eating, while I know you should pick what works for you, I don't want my food intake to stall me out or anything. I've ate almost totally clean the entire 20 days. Should I count myself as the lowest modifier for BMR? I lift or do cardio everyday, but I work at a job where I type most of it, walk around some, but generally am sitting. I mean if I was trying to lose 2lbs a week at the lowest modifier we're talking 1600 calories a day, as opposed to like 2000-2200 depending on the next two modifiers up. Guess I'll investigate more...

Have a good day folks! Enjoy your oatmeal if its still the morning where you are!

And so it continues, took a dip down to 206, with 29% bf again. Yesterday was way low in calories I think.

3/4 cup oatmeal 225 cals
1 scoop of protein 110 cals
lil bit of sugar free syrup, like 10 cals maybe?

Apple 80ish cals
1 cup Kashi Go lean which is like 160 calories I believe

Salad with brocolli, spinach, red lettuce, a little bit of ham, a few olives *like 8*, a very small amount of mozzarella cheese, like... less than 1/4 a cup shredded, and some mushrooms sliced. I got balsmaic vinagrette on the side, but it tasted like arse so I just ate the entire thing plain. I also ate 3 egg whites with it. God knows how much was in that, but it couldn't have been much. Lets say, 300?

PWO was 1 scoop of protein 110cals, 1 banana 170 cals, and a serving of peanut butter 190 cals. 470

Then for dinner I had a chicken breast, with a few grapes, and left over oatmeal, like 1/4 a cup with sugarfree jelly and less than 1tbls of peanutbutter. So around 400ish cals for that dinner?

Grand total of 1700ish calories? That was spread out fairly well, I felt fine all day, little hungry here and there. I'm wearing a shirt that was a little snug around the chest two weeks ago just fine today. I don't feel odd at all in it. I only did 40 minutes of cardio yesterday on the elliptical, but it felt good, I sweated like a maniac and felt good burn in ye olde legs. Tomorrow is picture day, for my 3rd week progress, I'm sure people aren't caring much about seeing me post my fat butt on here, but its good motivation for myself! Kinda shooting for a point at which someone will notice a difference and say something hah. Well folks, have a good day.

Welp its friday, my weekly photo posting time.

FRONT
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v108/Geo247/front.jpg

BACK
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v108/Geo247/back.jpg

SIDE
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v108/Geo247/side.jpg

Was 205 this morning, 29% bf so my scale still says. Blew up my legs and biceps last night, I think I'm gonna be in trouble tomorrow with my legs hehe. Too much work this morning so can't say much more!

Hah and fear the legs!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v108/Geo247/legs.jpg

In reference to the leg picture, don't mind the hand placement, those are the kind of boxers that lick "open up" if you bunch up the boxers and hence thats why I'm holding them as I am. annnnyway.

The weekend went well, UFC was on and I was excited about that. I managed to not drink while all my friends did *on saturday* however I had a couple beers at a bar while we played darts friday, but it wasn't a whole lot. Ate at a Ruby Tuesday's friday and had tilapia and broccoli, was pretty tasty, haven't had fish in ages. Then on Saturday we went to see the 40 year-old virgin which is actually very funny, check it out sometime if you wanna see a movie. We also ate at a place called Garfield's Saturday, but I only ate grilled shrimp and a small steak and broccoli there. However I did eat 2 chicken fingers that were left over later from my friends food, but I was down on intake that day anyway since I was not at home for 2 days straight.

I just don't drink enough water on weekends, need to remedy that because it makes my weight readings on the weekend pretty worthless. Saturday I weighed 204 I believe, then 203 on sunday, then 204.5 today, with 28% bodyfat. I was on my friends scale over the weekend, his read 25% bf, but I just ignored that and will continue to use my scale as a benchmark regardless if its right or wrong, its pretty constant.

Going to see Cirque Du Soleil: Verakai in 2 weeks. I want to be near 200 by then because the girl I asked to go I actually am pretty into! I'd like to look as good as possible then just for my own confidence standpoint. I doubt it will be all that noticable to other people, but to me when I feel thin, I have a lot more confidence, remember the word thin is relative here! I'll also take my first measurements since the beginning of my journal at that time. First comparison measurements that is. I've cheated a little and checked my chest measurements, which seem to be down a couple inches.

Good times good times, I'm enjoying eating rather well, I just feel flat out better. I got some natty peanutbutter, I was previously using Jif. It cracks me up how frickin PEANUTY that stuff is. I've never had it before actually, its good, but man it coats your mouth bigtime! I really need to make some turkey chili or something, I'm craving a spicy kick type meal. I'll put that on the old, to-do list this week. Welp thats that, tonight is Back/Bi's and abs, whee!

Have a good day everyone!

Kerpow, the days continue. Yesterday was a good day, I rehydrated and was only at 205 today, and still 28% bf. So in theory, thats good! I did deadlifts last night and man.. after doing pullups and rows, my grip was absolutely shot after the 4th set of deadlifts. It was lights out. I intended to do biceps but I wasn't really able to hold the weights well enough to do a good bicep workout. I figure I'll do them tonight with triceps and perhaps my chest. I dunno! Still feeling out what works for me.

I really... wish I didn't like cheese so much. I could kill that stuff all day. Thats like.. my vice food, its pretty much the only one! Drives me looney I say.

Also, I really think I'd prefer to do Jiu Jitsu as my cardio, it straight destroys any kind of cardio I ever did with the exception perhaps of swimming. Its such a full body workout. Need to get back to the gym in Columbus. Did anyone watch the Ultimate Fighter? Jorge Gurgel was like the star of the show haha, what a bunch of whiners they were last night, sheesh!

Got owned by work! Meant to update earlier and didn't get the chance to submit it and lost what i was saying! Shenanigans!

Anyway, I weighed 204 this morning, with 29% bf... boo to my scale!

I get to start jiu jitsu up tomorrow so that will be great for working out. I also ate some chinese today, but it was just chicken broccoli onions spice and a bit of cabbage... Not too bad I don't think and was a relatively small portion!

In any case, I'm feelin good, gonna blow up my arms today to catch up for my slackitude last night... I barely got in 4 sets of dips... and then I was toast. I got all screwed up eating and had no energy last night so I figured I'd just use the night to rest!

Tonight... arms dieeeee!

Hrm... seem to be bouncing from 204-205... Was 205 29% today... I need to evaluate some things obviously. Then again I ate at a chinese place yesterday, so perhaps that made me gain a lil, but I really didn't go off on it. I feel GOOD as far as how I look and everything, so I'm not too concerned about the up and downs of this past week.

I am a little concerned about my stomach, inside that is. My stomach has been feeling kinda "crampy" lately, probably the past 10 days. I've been toying with the thought that perhaps I'm constipated to a degree? I'm not going to go into details, I want to spare you all the pain, but whats going on sure seems like a bit of constipation. If thats the case, I may be carrying around weight thats no bueno! The problem is it just doesn't seem right based off what I'm eating. Oatmeal every morning, kashi, fruits, veggies... I mean I get a good bit of fiber! Yet somehow I'm having this issue... Perhaps I shall go nuts on water and eat even more fiber and see if that fixes things. I've also decided to no longer eat any cheese except for cottage cheese. I wasn't eating much at all, but if its causing me to feel crampy, then by god, screw it! I don't drink milk either, haven't for like... a year. As far as protein is concerned, I normally have a chicken breast, eggs, whey shake for pwo, cottage cheese, and some peanut butter, sometimes turkey on a sandwich.

I dunno, its not cool to feel like you may have to go to the restroom, but yet can't really! Tommy no likey! I'm also kinda having issues feeling hungry the last week, I feel sorta full, always. No desire to eat so I still eat, but its like, not enjoyable at all. Boo to this! Maybe wrestling tonight will loosen things up in there!

I only did biceps last night, but am quite sore today. I did ez bar curls with my elbows pulled into my stomach, kinda resting in front of me, that way they couldn't go anywhere, I was getting this cool vein popping out of my left shoulder. Then I did concentration curls. Layed down on my bench and did whatever kind of curls those are called. Then did hammer curls.

Meh... work calls!

When it comes to constipation... I find that running in the morning prevents that (or takes care of that)... too much info I'm sure. Good luck man.

When it comes to constipation... I find that running in the morning prevents that (or takes care of that)... too much info I'm sure. Good luck man.

Pfft any information is welcome! I'm not offended by anything really. I'll give that a shot tomorrow morning, I'd do handstands and backflips if I thought that would fix the situation! *If I could that is...*

Boy o boy. Jiu Jitsu was AWESOME last night, I love that stuff. There were a lot of newbies there, myself included sorta, but I have a lot more experience over 4 years so I guess I wasn't NEWBIE newbie. I've just never been able to go for an extended period of time because my knee always blew out *acl wru*.

In any case, I did pretty well last night and was pleasently surprised by most peoples guess at my weight. No one guessed correctly, they all choose 190 or so. Good self esteem boost there, cuz its a bunch of guys that don't give a damn about hurting feelings by saying too much. Really nice crowd here in columbus too, but it almost always is for Jiu Jitsu guys *and gals*, lots of respect to Dustin Ware. There was a guy there named Ezra, and I was definitely better than... har har laugh it up!

It has been a month, for some retarded reason I'm going to measure next week, so I'm on the "first friday of each month" schedule for measuring. I was at 203.5 today, with 29% bf... Now thats some annoying crap, I'm going to flip out when its consistantly like 27% or somethin hehe. And yesterdays topic is slightly concluded, yet I still feel there is some more "clearing" that needs to occur. Between jiu jitsu and jogging, I hope that clears it up.

Now for todays progress pics! The side pic I think really looks a lot better!

FRONT
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v108/Geo247/Front08-26-05.jpg

BACK *I stood funky, boo*
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v108/Geo247/Back08-26-05.jpg

SIDE
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v108/Geo247/Side08-26-05.jpg

And a front double bi and back double bi! Of which I can't pose for crap and didn't flex in the front one nearly enough!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v108/Geo247/FF08-26-05.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v108/Geo247/BF08-26-05.jpg

Got through the weekend again, I actually am slacking on eating in the weekend, not eating too much. Forever just getting stuck at friend's houses and not eating. Played entirely too much Tekken with a friend of mine, something to the tune of 80+ matches... and whats worse is we're both good so the fights last quite a while.

I had a good chest workout on Saturday, and I pretty much slacked on Sunday. I always dip down like a lbs or two on the weekend, then Monday I'm back up to where I was Friday, or maybe a lil less... currently today I was at 203 with 29% bf. Still good in my opinion, my actual "goal" for this week is 205, going towards the progression that I wanted at least. I really would like to be 200 though, so we'll see. Gonna get some good cardio from Jiu Jitsu this week and I'll make sure to lift the days that I don't have it.

You know, I always kind of wondered how these really thin and normally pretty attractive girls that I see at parties, can drink all they do, and not really look worse for the wear. It then hit me in a discussion with cute girl Saturday night. We were at a party in which there had been food *before I got there* and some folks were getting hungry as the night progressed. A rather large friend of mine, roughly 300lbs, had a girl cook him some brats. While this is going on both he and I are talking to a girl, probably... 115lbs. She then says, what I should have known, but I never really thought about it until she said it, but "I don't really eat anything, I just drink beer." So while I was thinking, man, how can they drink all this beer and not gain weight?! Well thats because thats all they have in them! I'm quickly growing annoyed at parties because I don't drink at em anymore and I just hang out with friends, but dayum, when you're not eating and just drinking awful bread-in-a-bottle as your form of sustanence, thats just... dumb. This is probably no revelation for the great majority of folks, it just smacked me in the face. Now I realize, she obviously has to eat SOMETHING else, but the grand majority of what this girl is ingesting is just crap, shes gonna look like hell in a couple of years, and her muscle has gotta be just.. going bye bye. And this is no different from a lot of my friends either. I've got a friend who is like 160 and bitches about being small, but eats like twice a day at fast food restaurants and drinks all weekend, and lifts! He lifts a lot! And he gets all pissed cuz hes not getting much stronger or having issues putting on mass. I yell at him and tell him whats up, he just doesn't listen. He wants to take the easy routes like steroids or something. Its just dumb. The more you don't drink, the more you don't want to drink. This isn't a knock against anyone who likes drinking, I still imagine I'll drink here and there, but man, I don't want to meet girls that way anymore. *shakes head* Crazy! Anyway, gonna eat my food and do my work!

Blargh I drank entirely too little water. Need to be like Txitalian! I think I had maybe 3 liters yesterday... sad.

Woke up and weighed 204 with 28% bf today. I sooooo am retaining the water tho, but whatever. I did my back yesterday and I'm really needing to increase my grip strength, after things like deadlifts and pullups, my hands start to weaken considerably. I have wrist straps but I really don't want to use those. Tonight is jiu jitsu, so that'll be a great ab/cardio workout. Heck, it does pretty much everything on your body. I think its a Gi night, so I'm sure I'll have "burns" all over. If you don't know what a gi is, picture a really strong bath robe.

Got the Cirque thing this weekend, and then the following week I've got to go see a friend of mine in Cinci. Shes gonna be studying abroad soon... well off to work!

Alright...
After a month of tracking my bodyfat/weight on my scale, today I finished up at 205, 28% bf. I started off at 215lbs and didn't check my bodyfat for a while. Now since I didn't have that original bf% to work with, I missed out on some impact chance, since being higher and now being lower would have been a larger difference *But who cares, I know I've changed*. I basically lost 2.91lbs of fat, and only 0.09lbs of muscle, if the scale is correct. Now over the course of this, I've lost 10lbs, but I'm sure thats water as this would indicate.

Now that makes me happy because its progress, but I feel like I've slacked a bit too much. There are multiple things I'm doing wrong and I need to correct them. Bluestreak's verbal slap in the face in one of his previous posts was a good motivator for me. I've not ate poorly, I've ate very well and I'm happy with that. In fact over the course of the month the only thigns I've had that were "bad" were a couple chicken fingers one weekend, and perhaps the moukasa *greek food* I had the other day, but I had very little of it. Otherwise, I've been good! Weight lifting has been steady, I do it pretty much every other day, but some days I lacked intensity, or I ate wrong and I felt lethargic *not excuses or reasons, just saying what I did wrong.* So I really think if I can crank out 40-50 minutes of GOOD SOLID weightlifting with intensity that will enhance things. Cardio, boy, cardio is where I've slipped, for like 2.5 weeks I was doing it like every day, then the third week I did it like every other day, then the 4th I did it like twice. *slaps self* I think I stalled myself out by not getting enough cardio to burn up calories. I eat less than 2000cals a day, so I should lose weight regardless *as i am* but with cardio I know that would go much better. So I've got to decide how I'm going to do this.

Jiu Jitsu days, tuesday and thursday, I have to be at work at 9:30am, and I'll get home around 9:45pm. So smart thinking, would be to wake up early enough before work, to do some fasted cardio. That should be easy, I will do that from now on. Feel free to heckle me if you don't see me post about doing it, because its nice to have someone giving you hell for slackin. Thats 2 days of guaranteed cardio, how many should I be doing, should I really be looking to do 7 days a week of cardio? I know John did that when he was cutting, so obviously thats good stuff, but I'd prefer to not lose a TON of muscle. That said, 4 days of cardio should be the minimum I believe. Even if I didn't do cardio on the other days of the week, m/w/fri, the weekend should be easy to catch up my two other days.

Ok so currently, my big issue on back day, is that my grip starts to die. I have wrist wraps, so I'm going to get over my pride and use them when my grip starts to go, I'm not working my forearms here, its my back! If I'm going to lift 3 times a week, I need a good bodypart split, I'll probably do abs every other day, regardless of lifting/running. You know what, strike that, I WILL DO ABS EVERY OTHER DAY. Mondays: Back and what else? If I do biceps, my grip will be jacked from my back and I won't be able to do as much. So can someone help a little if what I begin to say sounds goofy? Back + Legs? Thats a LOT of muscle to be working in one day, I imagine I'll be very tired doing that... however, my grip won't be a limiting factor for most of the leg exercises, and deadlifts work both sets. I also have to consider that I'm losing weight here, not trying to pack on muscle, so super duper thrash my body sets aren't necessarily needed, nor would my caloric intake really allow that to be a good choice. Ok so, lesse... if I want to shoot from my 40-50 minute workout, I'll plan on 1minute of rest between sets. That leaves 20-30minutes for actual exercise. So lets say then that I should be looking at around 20 different sets, 6 or 7 different exercises would get me right into the goal territory, since I can do (6 or 7) *3. Now lets see, most places suggest changing up your weight lifting scheme every month or so, so I'm going to go ahead and pick 7 exercises to do for september.
Deadlift *Romanian or Stiff legged, any suggestions on which is best?*
Pullups
Dumbell Rows
Dumbell Lunges
Hindu Squats
Standing Calve Raises w/Dumbells
Exercise 7 - Open to suggestions

Wednesday: Seems like this would be the smart day for Chest/Tris? Keeping the same formula as before...
Dips
Bench Dips
Dumbell Kickbacks *Perhaps not the right name?*
Diamond Pushups
Wide Grip Bench
Dumbell Flies
Pushups on pushup bars

Friday: Bicep/Shoulders?
Ez bar curls
Concentration Curls
Lay down on bench curls *haha don't know the name, very good stretch on these however*
Lateral Raises
Cuban Press
Front Plate Raise
Arnold Dumbell Press

Anyone see holes in the exercises I've chosen, suggestions as to a better mix, or does that look fine? I'm not asking anyone to give me the secret ingredient or do the work for me, I just want some input, it makes it easier to be confident in what you're doing when you haven't perfected your style yet.

Anyway, that was a rather lengthy post, and I need to go eat, so... have a good one folks, feedback is muy appreciated!

Ok so! Took measurements from the beginning and have new ones now
Measure 7/29/2005 9/2/2005

Waist 40 38.5
Hips 42 41
Forearm 13 13
Wrist 6.75 6.75
Arm 15.25 15
Thigh 23 23.5
Calf 16.75 16
Chest 44 41.5

Weighed in today at 202, 29%bf today. Jiu jitsu was ROUGH last night. I rolled with a wrestler... I have no idea what it is about wrestlers, but those guys FOREVER jack up your face. I must have taken a good 4 knees, 3 shoulder checks, 2 headbutts, and 1 kick... to the face... last night. I busted my lips in 3 places, 2 inside 1 out. My nose hurts, my orbitals hurt. I still had fun, and I didn't bitch about it while I was there, but god, take it easy killer, we're both white belts, LEARN SOMETHING. I tapped him out severely when I could to let out some of my anger. He gurgled a few times from rear-naked chokes. I landed a REALLY cool triangle setup, didn't actually get the triangle, but got to it. I can't really explain here what it was because it wouldn't make sense to the vast majority unless you were into Jiu Jitsu, and by me saying what i just said, you'd already have an idea!

The worst part of this is that I have a date tomorrow, and I'll be going with... busted lips, its not awful, but that puts a damper on things. I warned her last night, she just laughed, I doubt shes really going to be bothered by it. Heck you'll see some of it today when I post pictures since its weekly picture time! wooooo I know you're all excited, heck I know that I like checking out peoples progress pictures. I'm in awful shape but I figure it gives others something to look at.

After yesterdays revelation of sorts, I'm instilled with vigor about working out, but there is no way I'm lifting tonight, I'm ULTRA sore from last night at Jiu Jitsu, I'll make sure to do cardio saturday and sunday, but today is going to be rest.

On to the pictures:
FRONT
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v108/Geo247/Front9-2-05.jpg

BACK
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v108/Geo247/Back9-2-05.jpg

SIDE
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v108/Geo247/Side9-2-05.jpg

Haven't posted in a while, just been doing Jiu Jitsu and eating right.

I'm down to 197 now. Thats 215-197 since July 27th. I feel tons better, I look tons better *especially clothed hah* and Soon I'll be able to be in a division in Jiu Jitsu that I should be a dominant force in per my strength vs weight.

Didn't update with pics as I didn't have a camera for it, last week that is.

However I have new ones today.

FRONT
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v108/Geo247/DSCN2771.jpg

SIDE
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v108/Geo247/DSCN2772.jpg

BACK
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v108/Geo247/DSCN2773.jpg

FRONT FLEX
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v108/Geo247/DSCN2775.jpg

BACK FLEX
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v108/Geo247/DSCN2774.jpg


Anyone actually see the difference, I do. Oh and fear the bruises and cuts you get from Jiu Jitsu.