Hi Everyone,

I'm currently on my Day 24 in my Body For Life program and I wanted to share with everyone on my progress. I'll will be posting on this site because I love forums and I love to be part of the John Stone phenomenon. Here is a little bit about my history in working out.

This is going to be the 3rd time I'm going through the Body for Life program. The first time I did it, I stopped after week 8. I got sick and I never bounced back. I got some decent results, but nothing spectacular. I think it had to do with a lot of my eating habits. I just didn't know enough about how important is plays in your work out routine back then.

The 2nd time I did the Body for Life, I was able to complete the 90 day program. Again, the work outs were great and I gain some mass, but my diet was not that strict. Also, I took pictures every month, but I did not measure my body or my body fat. So I was not sure what gains I had. From the pictures, it looked like I did gain some mass, but I did not lose as much fat as I wanted.

Timeline: 4/14/03 - 07/23/03 Then the next work out program I did was called "Power90". If you seen the informercial, you'll know what I'm talking about. The reason why I decided to do "Power90" was because it was very similar to the Body for Life program, 3 days weights, 3 days cardio, 1 day rest. Another reason was that I could work out from home. I this point in my life I was really lazy and I wanted the easiest, most convienent and time efficient way to work out. So I figured I can sacrifice 40 minutes a day and just follow some instructional dvd. This program was great for me because it taught me how important it was to watch what I ate. The work out were also challenging for me as well even though I don't think it's a mass building/muscle increasing work out routine. I had some pretty good results in this program and I was very happy in completing it. Actually I was very happy in completing the Body for Life program as well but the results wasn't what I was expecting.

From 8/03 to 12/03, I've been off and on in my work outs like always. Not very consistent. Not eating right.

Now we forward to the present. On Dec 23, 2003 I started making some very drastic changes in my life. From that day, I haven't missed a workout since Dec 23, 2003. I decided to start another Body for Life rotation for the third time on January 5, 2004. Today is my 24th day. I have a 6 month goal. Initially I was just going to do the Body for Life program for a month and then alternative to the Power90 program. But now I think I'm just going to do Body for Life for the whole 90 days. I'm not exactly sure what I'll do the next 90 days, but I'll figure it out by the end of Feburary.

I ran into John's site around January 6, 2004. I was very impressed with John's dedication and I'm glad he decided to form a community of people seeking similar paths and rewards. I like to contribute to the community as well and this is my contribution.

My measurements: (12/27/03)
Age: 28
Height: 5'8
Weight: 140
Waist: 32 1/2
Chest: 38
Left Arm: 12 1/8 (13 1/2 flexed)
Right Arm: 12 1/4 (14 flexed)
Neck: 14 1/2
Right Quad: 21 5/8
Left Quad: 21 1/2
Right Forearm: 11 1/8 flexed
Left Forearm: 10 1/2 flexed

Body Fat:
18.9% using the Sharper Image Body Fat Manager (not very accurate at all, but I'm hoping it's consistantly inaccurate)
12.7% using Accumeasure Calipers with chart. (I didn't like this because the reference chart was that percise)


My Goal for July 1, 2004:
Weight: 140 lbs
Waist: 30
Chest: 39
Arms: 13.5 normal, (15 flexed)
Quad: 24
R. Forearm: 12 flexed
L. Forearm: 11 flexed

Body Fat:
12.0% using the Sharper Image Body Fat Manager ( I doubt this will work, this thing is not budging at all)
8.0% using the Accumeasure Calipers

The purpose for me working out.
1. I want to get stronger. I will probably chart out specific weight goals I want to be able to lift.
2. I want to have the body I've always wanted. This includes a visual six pack. It's been a dream of mine for a long time and it's time to fulfill this dream.
3. I want to look good in fitted clothes and suits.
4. I want to be able to inspire others to be physically active and move their body.
5. I want to be able to run faster.

My work out routine is this:
Day 1 - Upper Body (Chest, Shoulders, Back, Triceps, Biceps)
Day 2 - Cardio & Abs- Run for 20 minutes
Day 3 - Lower Body (Quads, Hamstrings, Calves)
Day 4 - Cardio & Abs - Run for 20 minutes
Day 5 - Upper Body (Chest, Shoulders, Back, Triceps, Biceps)
Day 6 - Cardio & Abs - Run for 20 minutes
Day 7 - Rest Day. Next week start I'll do Lower Body twice that week and Upper Body once.

On days I go to the Gym (Day 1, 3, 5) For each body part I do 5 sets and I use only 2 different execerise for the body part. This whole routine takes about 60 for upper body, 35 minutes for lower body.
1st Set - 12 reps
2nd Set - 10 reps
3rd Set - 8 reps
4th Set - 6 reps
then super set 12 reps + 12 reps (Different execerise)

On day I do cardio (Day 2, 4, 6), I run using High Intensity Interval Training method. I usually run outdoors and try to sprint when I hit intensity level 9. After I'm done I do Abs (200 reps total. 10 different excerises, 20 reps each). This whole routine takes about 35 minutes.

I try to eat 5 times a day. I'm suppose to be eating 6, but it's not working very well for me. I just make sure I get as close to 40% protein, 40% carbs, 20% fat. But I'm more guess based on portions, I don't count calories and am not that detailed like John.

My supplements per day consists of:
1 serving of whey protein
1 serving of creatine
1 serving of glutamine
1 multi-vitamn
2 serving of "green drink"

I'll post some pictures up from my previous progress soon. I expect to have some updated pictures by the end of this month (Day 30 pics!!!)

[update: 2/9/04]
Measurements for Day 35 stats (using Myotape):
My measurements: (2/8/04)
Age: 28
Height: 5'8
Weight: 140
Waist: didn't measure.
Chest: 36 3/4
Left Arm: 12 1/4 (13 3/4 flexed)
Right Arm: 12 1/4 (14 1/4 flexed)
Neck: 14
Right Quad: 21
Left Quad: 20 5/8
Right Forearm: 10 1/2 (11 flexed)
Left Forearm: 10 3/8 (10 3/8 flexed)

Body Fat:
18.7% using the Sharper Image Body Fat Manager (not very accurate at all, but I'm hoping it's consistantly inaccurate)
11.9% using FatTrack Digital Body Fat Caliper . (1st time using this)

Some notes:
I shrunk a lot in my neck, my chest and my legs. How? I have no idea, maybe it's the fat. I'm not sure. This is the first time I used Myotape since I just got that can be a factor (inconsistant measuring device). The last time I measured, someone else helped me and I wasn't using myotape. I was really discouraged when I saw that I shrunk. But after enough convincing, I finished my measurements and continue with what I needed to do. Plus, I like how I look now, so who cares about the numbers. I just have to readjust my goals for June so that I won't set myself up for failure. i.e. There's no way I'll hit a size 39 on my chest and still have a 6 pack at the rate I'm training. Yes, I know some of you know that it is possible, but not at the rate of my training regimen and align with my other goals (low body fat, cut abs, etc.)

I really hate measuring my body fat. Not that I'm in denial or anything, but I'm not sure how to do it accurately. The device ranges so much and it's so sensative. Urgh, I think I'm going to take pictures from the side of my bending my back and see how much fat rolls over. That's how I'm going to measure it. My goal, no rolls when I bent over. Yes, I want to be one skinny crack head.

Well, now that I got the intro out of the way, here is my work out today.

I did upper body today and it was great. It took my 71 minutes to finish though (I'm suppose to finish in less that 50 minutes). That was because I rested too long in between sets. But I had a very good work out and I can feel my body is just spent throughout the day. Good thing I'm fueling it with protein and water. I hit four intensity level 10s today. This is very rare for me. The only body part that I didn't hit a level 10 was shoulders. I think I could have if I went slower down on my shoulder flys. Other than that, I got some slow weight increases and I felt GREAT!

Tomorrow is Sprint day, so I look forward to see how well I do tomorrow.
Take care all,
-Frank

Man, doing Sprints is HARD. I mean, it's really tough. But it's so fulfilling after your done. Today, I was able to Sprint as fast as I can for a full minute in 3 intervals. On the fourth interval, I couldn't do a full 1 minute Sprint. I was just too damn taxed. Not to mention on the 4th internal, I'm suppose to Sprint for a 2 minutes!!! Yeah right. Not yet my friend.

The funny thing is today, I was running around the park in the morning and there's usually people that does their morning jog there as well. Well this morning, while was doing Sprints, on the my 4th and last Sprint, I passed up this old man, 50 years old or so, and I guess he's been seeing me doing my work out routine and for some god damn reason, he decided to start racing me when I passed him up. I was like "Hello!!! I'm trying to get my work out routine done here. I'm not trying to race you." But anyways, I felt like I was Seabiscuit and there was no way I was going to let this old fart pass me up. LOL.

Actually I enjoyed the competetion, it drove me to push harder. However, I knew he wouldn't be able to catch up because I know how hard it is to do a full sprint for a full minute. After all I just did 3 in the last sixteen minutes. Even though I was dead tired, I was determined to not let him pass me. Yes, he pushed me and I thank him for it. I just hope he didn't get injuried, that silly old man. You can easily pull a groan muscle or your quads if your not ready to do bursts of intense movements (if your body is not use to it). That's why I want to do this a regular basis so my body can go into burst mode and I don't have to worry about injury.

After that I did the Power90's Ab Ripper 200 routine. It was good. I was sweating like a pig. I felt good, then I drink my drugs.

Have a good day.
-Frank

Hi Everyone,

Well I did lower body today. I'd be lying if I said it was a great work out. The fact is, it was a hard workout. Hard in terms of mentally hard. I just did not feel like working out today. But the fact is, I still did it even though I did not feel like it. I made a commitment to myself a month ago that I was stick through this program no matter what and I would do my best to reach my goals at the end of six months. So with my purpose in mind and my goals driving me to do what I was dreading, I still finished my work out. I feel good now because I know I didn't just excerise my leg muscles today. Today, I really challenged my "will" muscles and my determinism and dedication. These days are the hardest and most challenging days because it asks me if I am really determined.

Life was asking me these questions today. "Frank, are you really determined?" "Frank, are you really dedicated?" "Frank, do you really have self discipline and a strong will?" For now, for the rest of today, I can say "Yes, I do." Tomorrow, it might be different, but for today, I maintained my integrity. Like always it feels GREAT after your work out (even though you didn't get a great work out) because you made an accomplishment for the day. But let me tell you this, it feels even better as I write this because my promises to myself are more rewarding and fulfilling than anything physical.

Good day to you all and I hope you can over come your whatever adversity that challenges you this weekend i.e. Lots of beer, chips, and junk food!!!

Btw, speaking of Super Bowl weekend. I, myself will personally be eating some junk food. I mean, it's Super Bowl weekend for christs sakes. I will enjoy my weekend, but I will enjoy it with moderation. Plus, UFC is on Saturday night and you know I'm going to having a cold one (or two) with my friends as I watch some ass kicking action in my living room. I'm not as strict as John Stone in my eating. I don't believe in being an extreme-ist and having a "all or nothing" approach. I believe in doing things in moderation. Temperance. I think eating bad one day (or in this case 2 days, since it's super bowl weekend and ufc weekend) is not going to destory your progress. I don't diet. I just have a standard eating habit that I try to follow in my daily life routine. That's why I don't mind when I eat bad once in while because of the time, I'm eating right. Psychologically, this is great for your body. You don't deprive your body. This is why I like the Body for Life eating plan where you get one free day a week where you can eat anything you want. Eventually, you don't even care that it's a free day because you know it's bad for your body. But on special social events, it's ok (at least in my rules) to enjoy yourself and enjoy food, friends, family, and the atmosphere.

Btw, I'm going to take my Day 30 pictures tomorrow (Saturday) before UFC and before Superbowl. LOL. I'll post them up to share with everyone.

Also, I wondered why my body was not feeling it today. I concluded with a couple of factors that affected my state this morning.

1. Yesterday I had a Spinich salad with bacon and oil. It has A LOT of oil in it and a lot of bacon. I think that had an effect on me because I really regretted eating it. I still regret it now. It was not fulfilling at all. It didn't even have a good portion of protein. I don't know what the hell I was thinking. Temptation tempted me and I bit the carrot.

2. I did not have any glutamine in my supplement in take.

3. I did not have any light force last night. My alkaline input was short.

4. I played video games last night instead of read. This may not have a direct affect to working out, but it affects my attitude toward life. I was determined to read last night and I didn't because I got this new game and I was eager to try it out. I've been waiting a long time for this game and it was finally in my posession. So instead of doing what I told myself I was going to do (which was to read), I played video games. The result, I violated my integrity last night. Plus, like as always, after I played the game, I felt empty, very not fulfilled. I think this trickled down to my work out this morning that spirtually, my body was just not happy.

5. I trained jiu-jitsu lfor 2 1/2 hours ast night and my body is just started to get over burned for this week. That's why I needed my alkaline and glutamine so bad. It's a drug. Yes, I'm dependent on drugs. I can't help it. I'm an addict. LOL

These are just some random thoughts and factors I think affect my performance this morning. Honestly, I think it's the video games. Btw, this is the first time in a month I didn't feel like working out. Usually when I start a 90 day work out program, these times (week 5, week 6, week 7) are the hardest time when you want to quit. Well, guess what, I ain't quitting so you can just scratch that idea. But at least I'm consciously being aware of all these factors. Nothing is stopping me, nothing.

Good day to you all.
-Frank

Today I ran outside and tried to do some sprints. I didn't go as hard, but I still got a great work out. I can feel my stamina getting better. It's a matter of time before I sprint and not have to walk right after. I can't wait when that day comes.

Today is also the day I take my Day 30 pictures even though technically, it's not day 30. But who cares. Like it matters these days. I just needs a monthly snap shot so I can track my progress. Btw, UFC is tonight and I can't freakin' wait. I'm going to go kickboxing and jiu-jitsu for a couple of hours and then rest, relax, and enjoy my Saturday.

Have a great weekend folks. Eating hardy, enjoy life, and don't go overboard.
Take care,
-Frank

Here's a link to my day 28 pictures in the Photo Gallery (http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showthread.php?t=577).

I did upper body today and god I am spent. I can feel my muscles all fatigued as I type this up in my desk. I guess that's a good sign since it means I had good work out today, which I did. However I still feel bad about all the crap I ate this weekend. I can totally feel the impact all that bad food had on my body, not to mention the beer! But the fun is over, now it's time to get back on track and focus on my goals for this month. Hopefully I'll be able to cut my body fat better this month by eating more cleaner foods.

Wish me luck folks.
-Frank

Well, it was raining outside today, so I decided I didn't want to run in the rain in the change that I might slip on my ass while trying to run as fast as I can. Actually, I really didn't feel like doing sprints this morning when I woke up, went outside and saw that it was raining, I was a bit relieved. The Gods must have been by my side today. So instead I did my 50 minutes cardio workout in my living room while following the Power 90 cardio work out dvd. It was not as intense as running, but it was good enough for me giving my state and mind set this morning. So I'm redemmed again this morning and I'm off to do my thing.

Goal of the day, eat right. Please, eat right dude.
-Frank

Hi everyone,

I guess today is a pretty good day. Not the fact that I had a pretty good leg work out and that I had a lot of energry. Or that fact that I'm so excited my Chinese class that I'm taking and all the crap I have to learn just so I can catch up to the class. Or the fact that I can't wait to start working on my web site. But the simple fact that I went up in weight in my 6 rep squats today. Oh yeah. Slowly I will go up even higher. I can feel it. I should try to get an exact weight and declare it in my 6 month goal. I will work on that soon, I promise. Having measureable goals (as in numbers) really helps gets you excited and progress on ward. Btw, I bought the digital body fat measuring calipers with myotape from bodybuilding.com that John uses. That sharper image body fat manager just does not move! I'll be updating my numeric stats soon.

It's funny, I look at my pictures around 12/26/03 and I just can't help laugh at myself and those pictures. Thank goodness I did something about them. Everytime I look at that picture, especially that 12/26/03, I can't help being embrassed a little bit. I worked so hard prior to that and just let all my hard work slip away but not keeping up with my eating habits and my work out. Well, it ain't going to happen again Mister. Not on my watch. Plus this time I'm tracking more stuff down in greater detail. It really holds you more accountable. Much like how if you take pictures of yourself everyday and post it on the internet for the world to see. But I must say I wasn't impressed with the picture taking by John as much as I was impressed by his daily menus and number crushing. Jesus christ that's dedication. I've been eating good the last 2 days. Getting in 6 meals!!! Man, I feel lucky/fortunate/grateful. I also feel that I'm getting stronger. It's the CREATINE people! That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

Btw, in case you guys didn't know. It's Feburary (well, I'm sure you guys knew that already), and I turned up the heat and started doing 9 pull ups everyday (last month it was 8). If the planets are aligned correctly, I should be doing 20 pull ups by the end of this year. I can't wait for 2005 to roll around.

Good day to you all.
-Frank

Hi folks,

Well I did my running this morning. I guess I should call it running and not sprinting since technically I'm not sprinting that hard anymore. I can't get myself to do a full out sprint. I'm trying, but it's just so damn though. This is a hard ass cardio work out. Thank goodness it's short (20 minutes) or I wouldn't be able to make it all the way through.

First of all, I stayed up late last night doing my web page so I wasn't all gong-ho about waking up and getting ready to hit my work out (Although I should be. I should be like that dude on Jerry Maguire that goes, "I LOVE waking up in the morning. I clap my hands and I say to myself, it's going to be a GREAT day!") When I first started to jog, I felt the side of my stomache had a sharp pain. I thought to myself, "Oh great, watch me quit like a little weaklin' that I am." But I was determined not to quit because I missed my running last Tuesday and if I don't do it today, I'll never get better. So I sucked it up and I just took the pain for a little bit. After a while, I wasn't thinking about the pain anymore because I was too busy trying to catch my breathe. Jesus christ, I don't know what it is, but I just can't keep up a full hard run for a minute straight. Jesus man, it's ONLY one freakin' minute.

Anyway, by the time I was near the end of my work out, I had to try to make an attempt to hit a 10 on the intensity meter for today. But at this point, I was just spent. During that last minute, I really had to talk to myself about getting through it. I was telling myself, "You need to get a ten. Your tired, you got no energy in your legs but this is where your determination takes over. This is where you'll know if you deserve a 10 or not today." Well, after it's all said and done, today I say I deserver a 10 on that last sprint interval. It felt good because it was all in my mind in that last minute. I hit my high point for the day. It was short, it was brief, and it was intense. As Bill Phillips would say, "It's exactly where I want to be."

Then I went home and did the Ab Ripper 200 and I drank my mega nutriants for the morning and now I'm at work typing my silly ass away. Pretty good day so far.


Take care all,
-Frank

Well another day, another work out accomplished. But it wasn't without it's struggles. It was really hard for me to get up this morning. Extremely hard. I always wake up a 7am, no matter what. No matter what. Last night I went to bed at around 2am because my went to watch my friend play in his band at a club. The experience was great. I really enjoyed myself. However, while I was there I tried to fight the temptation of drinking alcohol, but I have to admit, I lost that battle last night. I was doing so well through out the night, until my friend offered me a half shot of left over whiskey that no one else seems to want to finish. How gay. I fought for a good half of the night and I caved in to left overs. Now I reflect on it, it's pretty sad. LOL I do have to admit I did losen up a little bit more after took that shot (errr.. half shot). It was just enough to get me going. But as soon as I drank it, I knew I had to dilute that crap in my body. "Bottle of water please. $10 bucks. No problem."

The reason I try to fight so hard not to drink was because I knew today was upper body day. I LOVE doing upper body days. My body gets so pumped by the end of my work out and I just love looking at the little striations forming on my muscles as my sets gets more intense. Yes, vanity is my sin, but looking at how my muscles are responding stress is so motivating and it helps push my efforts harder. I look in the mirror and I say to myself, "That's is exactly what I've been working for." LOL.

Also, another reason I knew I shouldn't do anything bad to abuse my body last night was because I knew I didn't sleep early the night before. I really thought out if I should go see my friend and drive all the way to the city knowing that I'll be coming back home late at night. I didn't give my body enough rest the night before (cuz I was doing my web page) and I was uncomfortable with the thought of not giving it the amount of rest it deserves last night. But none the less, I went to see the band with the intent of leaving early and trying to get to bed in a reasonable amount of time. Ofcourse that didn't happen.

Yet another reason why I didn't want to drink was because I knew today I was going to work out in the morning. But I also knew that I was going to go kickboxing and jiu-jitsu later on in the evening. That's 3 hours additional training. Plus on top of that, I have to wake up in the morning on Saturday, do my daily work out and do another 3 hours of kickboxing/jiu-jitsu. So in the time span of 36 hours I'll be doing a lot of physical activities, I'll be doing around 8 hours of physical activity. That's like a full days work! God knows I abuse the hell out of my body with all the physical activities that I do, and I disrespect it by not give it the rest it deserves. Furthermore, I poison it more with alcohol. Jesus man, have you no self control? Do you not give a shit about how well your body treats you? hahaha.

Seriously though, I do acknowledge how much stress I put on my body. That's why I'm being so anal about not giving it the time it needs to recuperate and for drinking. I do respect my body and what it does for me. That's why I make sure I feed it the MEGA-nutrients that it needs in forms of supplements and 5-6 meals a day. Ofcourse it also needs to rest and sleep. And god knows I love to sleep. So tonight, I will sleep like a newborn. 8 hours baby. (But ofcourse I know I won't sleep that long because tomorrow is the weekend and usually I can't wait to get up in the weekends cuz I don't have to go to work and I can focus on doing my own shit.)

Btw, I did feel the effect the lack of sleep and alcohol in my body in my work outs. I was weaker today. That is another reason why I'm so pissed off. I knew it would happen and I was right. I didn't get a 10 in my chest work out and usually I always get a 10 on chest. I was just tired and just did my best to finish my routine. However, when I did biceps today, oh man, was it great. I don't know where I drew the strength from, but I told myself in my last work out session that I was go up in weight. Well I did go up in weight and I paid for it big time. God damn that last set was hard. Yes, by the 8 and 9 rep, I was cheating like a high school junior with internet access, but those last reps was killing my biceps. "This is exactly where I want to be." LOL. I think I found a new appreciation of what a REAL level 10 feels like. Needless to say, I really felt that I deserved a 10 today in my bicep work out. It was a great way to end my work out and to start the day. I hit a High Point.

One last note, when I came home from the club last night I got my package from bodybuilding.com. I was so excited cuz I knew it was my digital calipers and myotape. I was going to measure my body fat and body right then and there but I was just too tired by that time. Plus, I got alcohol and in my body and probably 2 lbs of water I drank trying to dilute that crap to minimize it's effect. Plus I would of had to spend at least 1 hour trying to figure out all how to use the damn calipers and damn it, I needed to sleep. So I'll be doing my measurements tonight after jiu-jitsu. I'll post the results tomorrow. Yay for me, I'm a happy boy.

Take care peoples,
-Frank

I'm so glad I finished my workout for this week. Yay for me. Now I can do some work on my web page and study some Chinese. I ran today. I actually felt better today, like I had more stamina. I guess it was just one of those good days or maybe it's the alkaline talking. I don't care what it was. I'm just glad I was pushing myself at interval level 9 and I'm not such a pansy on the tracks no more. Jiu-jitsu for me in three hours, so I better get some work done before that or my would not be riding the wave of momentum that I started this morning. Booya!

Later folks,
-Frank

Well yesterday was rest day and today I'm back for more. I did legs today but it wasn't a great work out. First of all, I got knee-ed hard on the thigh on Saturday in kickboxing class. It feels like a really bad "charely horse." I thought it wouldn't bother me when I did my work out, but it did. As I was doing my squats, I was beginning to worry. It was starting to hurt more than I wanted to test it. So after 3rd set I decided to stop doing squats (even though I LOVE them) and just finish my quadricep work out with Leg Extensions. Good thing the leg extensions was not as painful. I was still able to get a 10 on the intensity meter today. Yay for me. I can usually get a 10 in my quadricep work out because squats and leg extesions kill me. Today the Leg Extensions did not fail me. After my super set (12 reps + 12 reps), I was crying like a little fat school boy that just shoved off the swing.

Yesterday was Sunday, my free day. Now it was my intent to eat good even on my free day, but Pride was on tv yesterday so I drank a beer (one beer, only one) and had some chips (very little) and some beef jerky (very little) and fruit while watching the event. I do feel a little sluggish this morning and I'm blaming it on the chips and beer from last night. But maybe that's all in my mind or maybe it isn't. Have I developed an acute sensory for ill nutriants that's damaging to my body? I highly doubt it, but it fun to believe (or make believe) that eating right making nurturing my body is developing sensory accuity for fat in my body.

Btw, I took some measurements yesterday. I'll update real soon.
-Frank

Hi everyone,

Well I ran today and it felt great. The reason being is that I'm can feel my improvement. I am able to run for a full minute now. Now, it's not a full sprint, but I'm pushing pretty hard and that feels great. On my last minute, I felt good because I was running like my legs were on automatic mode. It was just going, no more if I was tired. I felt this experience before on the trendmill but never on pavement. This is exactly where I want to be when I aim for a 10. Needless to say, I got my 10 today. Yes!

I still need to be more restrictive on my eating though. Yesterday I eat very well except the last meal. I was controlling my protions the whole day and then in my last meal, I over ate. That is real bad as we know that the last meal we should try to eat less (especially for me since I eat very late) before we go to sleep. Urgh, I paid for that one last night. Instead of my body burning off fat while recovering in my sleep last night, it was snuggling with the layers for fat, oil, and grease cumulated in my last meal. Never again. But I did get 6 meals in yesterday, so I'm a happy camper about that. Oh yeah, and I'm still a water guzzling tank.

Take care all,
-Frank

I did upper body today. What I thought was going to be a great workout because I was looking forward in tackling my upper body again, resulted into on an OK workout. I only got one 10 today and that was in chest. But it was a great 10. I had a spotter today and he helped me push a bit harder. However I couldn't get a 10 on any of the other body parts, including biceps. I always get a 10 on biceps, but I guess today it was just an off day. Still, I did what I needed to do and I feel great about my workout today.

Last night however I still didn't eat as good as I should have. I ate a little bit in excess again and I felt it again while working out. My body fat is not coming down. It's discouraging. I don't know what the hell I'm doing wrong except eating wrong. hahaha I guess I'll try to keep an closer lid on my eating tonight. I'll probably put away the "not so healthy" chinese food first before I sit down and have my chicken breast. I want to drop my body fat. Today I weighed myself and I gained 2 lbs. How? Impossible. It's wierd how my body fluctuates in weight. I range from 140-145 all the time. Day 60 is just around the corner, I better get my act together or else it's counting calories for me. hahaha. God I hope not.

Take care all,
-Frank

Well today I hit the tracks again. Not really, I just ran around a local park on pavement, but boy was it good. Actually, it was only good, not great. I say if I would give myself a score on the last ran to the nearest one/tenth decimal place, I'd give a 9.8. It wasn't a TEN. Mainly because I only ran and pushed myself for 55 and not the whole one minute mark. "Damn it Frank, you were so close and you gave up! You fuckin' quitter!!!" haha

Hey man, it's hard to run as fast as you can, while puffin' and huffin', and try to read the seconds hand on your wrist watch at the same time. You know how thin that seconds hand is on your wrist watch? Well try to imagine how thin that damn thing is when your vision is distorted because all your blood is being pumped through your lungs and legs? haha

But nonetheless, I was really amazed by my body today. It readjusts and adapts real fast. I only say this because today when I ran my first sprint, I felt great. I wasn't even that tired. Yes!!! I remember back in the days (a couple weeks before) when I ran my first one minute of sprints, I was crying like a pansy and I didn't even ran for the whole minute. Now, today, ha ha, it was a different story. This is exactly why I wanted to do sprints. To increase my ability to run faster and better. Ha ha, it's working. I love it when my plan works.

Anyways, I don't want to celebrate too early, but I'm just glad things slowly coming together. Yes!!! I can't wait to see how I'll respond come Saturday. Maybe it's the alkaline. haha Funny thing is last night I knew I was going to do sprints today, so I almost had to force myself to get up and drink that last serving of green drink at 10pm. Btw, it was worth it. Even though drinking that thing may or may not of actually helped me, but I don't care, psychologically, that shit was my lifesaver LOL.

Ok, I start Yoga today. Downward doggie dog here I come.
-Frank

Ok, today was one of those days were I just dreaded doing my workout. It was very hard for me to wake up in the morning. Very hard. I couldn't have been partially because I couldn't fall asleep last night and I stayed up until 2am. But regardless the reason, I still had to get up. So I dragged my silly ass out of bed and started to get ready for the day, whether I wanted to or not. My attitude is usually like this at the end of the week. I'm just so burnt out by this time, it's really a challenge to stay gong-ho about working out. Also, I also anticipate how hard the next couple of days is going to be on my body, and I think body is not looking forward to the abuse. I mean after all, yesterday I did ran, then I did yoga a couple hours later, then I did jiu-jitsu at night. Urgh. I love it all, they are my passion, but I think my body is saying "Yo! Slow down, I need to rest." And today, I knew I had to do legs in the morning and then possiblity kickboxing/jiu-jitsu tonight. Then tomorrow morning (Saturday) I have get my silly ass up again, do my run, and then a couple hours later do jiu-jitsu again. Oh yeah, come to daddy. Give me the pain. haha

I doubt I'll go do jiu-jitsu Saturday because I have to travel out of town that day and I can't do 3 hours of kickboxing/jiu-jitsu and except to make it to my destination on a reasonable time. But I still want to train. It's wierd. I just explained that my body is obviously saying "No mas" and I'm being a stubborn bitch and telling it shut the hell up and quit complaining and not listening to it. Without patting myself too hard on my back, but I think my will and desire is strong, stronger than I am physically capable of producing (even with the help of Alkaline). LOL. By the way, that's exactly what a 10 should feel like. LOL

Anyways, we'll find out what I do in the next couple of days. Now on to the workout. Even though I dragged my lazy ass to the gym, excepting to have a half-ass workout, I still got in there. And it's wierd how sources of motivation pop up out of no where. I workout at my work's gym. Not many people work out there and even less workout there in the morning. So the idea of seeing a slightly cute/attractive girl in the gym is usually out of the question. But today, low and behold, MOTIVATION was on the stair master. LOL.

Now I don't go to the gym to check out girls (obviously, cuz there ain't none at my work, duh), but there's something about having a cute girl working out in the same room as you that gives you a little extra push. For me, just knowing in the back of my mind that she can be possibly be checking me out while my muscles are ripped and pumped as I'm pushing for the last rep right will drive me to work harder. LOL. Hey, I will be the first to admit this is all played out in my mind and I'm just bull shitting myself and you know what, I don't give care! I will use any kind of instrument I can just get my little greedy hands on to help change my state and so I can get the best workout with my time spent. If I have to lie to myself, fuck it, I'll do it. I need to get through this workout. Shoot, I post half naked pictured of myself on the internet to get motivation for christ sakes, how much is little white tale of egotistical psychology is going to hurt? So as soon I stepped into the gym today, my whole attitude changed. No more feeling sluggish, no more "oh your body needs more rest, you weaklin'... your abusing your body". Nope, my energy level was back to optimal. It was like I just got injected with a pint of pure alkaline and I was ready to rock and roll. I was ready to hit them weights. Needless to say, I got a 10 on quads, 10 on hamstrings, and 10 on calves today. "Good work there Frank, redemption is oh so satisfying."

Now here is the kicker. The girl all was done with her workout while I was planning my workout and stretching. By the time I hit my first rep on my first set of squats, she was out of the buildling. LOL. But that doesn't matter, at that point, my state has already changed and my drive was back and totally different from what I felt when I woke up this morning. The moral of the story, just get your silly little ass to the gym and take it from there.

On more retarded thing that happened to me today. I weighed myself today and look WTF happened. I was at 139lb! What the hell is wrong with my retarded body? Wasn't I just bitchin' about being 143 a couple of days ago? You mean to tell me I did jiu-jitsu a little bit last night and dropped 4 lbs. Yeah, freakin' right. Anyways, I do have to admit, I did not eat that much last night. After jiu-jitsu I just had half a roast beef sandwich, a whey protein shake, and some Light Force green drink to replenish all that alkaline I left on mat in jiu-jitsu class. LOL. Anyways, my body weight is retarded and I wanted to share that with everyone.

Have a great weekend peoples,
-Frank

I'ved decided to not workout today. Acutally, I didn't really make that decision, my body did. It's still sick. I'm afraid if I try to push it too hard, I'm going to be really regretting it later. So for today and tomorrow, I will just rest my body and not do any physical activities. I hope by Monday, my body will be recovered. I feel really bad about this decision. Yesterday, I talked about will. And today, I feel like I'm giving up and that I have none. I made a declaration and I couldn't back it up. This is very hard for me to swallow, but I have to listen to my body and do what's right for it. I have to accept that there are conditions that I didn't anticipate, like getting sick, that will cause me to have some drawbacks. I guess the test is how I respond to those conditions. How do I respond to adversity? In this case, did I just give up? No. My will want to. I'm not trying to make excuses. There is nothing I rather do than to do some sprints, go train jiu-jitsu and then drive to my friends house later on today for his birthday. But instead, it looks like it will be me and my bed and some light reading and some Chinese memorizing for me today. I also feel bad about not being able to make it to my friends house. However, there is no way I can be on the road for 2 hours today. We will see what happens Monday.

Until then, take care peoples.
-Frank

I woke up this morning with a terrible headache. It didn't matter though, cuz I still had to wake up. "No matter what." So I got dressed and got out the door to walk my dog. During my walk, I felt pretty good. I didn't feel sick at that much, other than that pounding headache that only appears if I thought about it. Hmmmmm... should I train today? haha. My body was testing me. I told myself yesterday that I wasn't going to train today, but I felt pretty good today and ofcourse I wanted to redeem myself from being such a pansy yesterday. "Come on you little bitch, you want some?" That's what my body said to me. Oh yeah, it was on. I didn't think I was going to do sprints today because I thought it would be way too intense for my body at this state. But you know what? I felt good and most of all, I didn't care. I think I can handle it. Here was my experience.

So after I walked my dog, I got home, did my 9 pull ups which got the blood and oxygen going through my system and I start to stretch and prepare myself. "I could do it man." I felt excited as this thought came though my mind. I know I can. So I got out the door and started my walk to the park. Now the first interval wasn't that bad, until I started to jog. "Oh man, I'm breathing a lot heavier on this slight jog than I'm normally use to, but that's acceptable given the state of my body right now." But nonetheless, I felt good. Then my first interval of sprints came. I ran and ran, and then I just stopped. I have no endurance what so ever. My interval of sprints was somewhere between 30-40 seconds. That's it. But you know what? That was plenty good enough for me. I just needed to get through this workout.

My second and third interval of sprints was very similar to the first. I just didn't have the will to do it for a full minute. I didn't have the endurance to push myself that hard. I did good for the first 10-20 seconds, after that, as soon as I felt a little challenge, I caved like a little school boy handling his lunch money to the buddy. In the back of my mind, I really didn't want to push myself that hard. How much did I have to prove to myself today? Will I not be happy until I see flashing red lights and hearing sirens in the background? haha I may exaggerate a bit, but I was really testing my body. And that's what was. Just a test. To see how capable I was today. If I can only do sprints for 30 seconds or so, than be it. I'm very content cuz my silly ass is out on the tracks.. urhhhh.. park.

On my last interval, I felt great. In the back of my mind, I couldn't wait to finish. Not because I was tired, but I wasn't (it's the alkaline I tell you...). It was because I was so close in redeeming myself from my "lose" from yesterday. I was very excited coming in that last lap. In the last run, I had to do something to make it feel like I earned it. Usually I'm suppose to sprint for 2 minutes. Now I never done that yet, but I will eventually, but today I thought. I'll run hard for 30 seconds, rest for 30 then give it my all for 1 full minute. And that's exactly what I did. Pride was my alley today. God damn it felt good after the last minute was up. I was so happy. Redemption.

Then ofcourse when I got home I still had to do my Ab Ripper 200. Let me tell you, 200 sit ups have never felt so challenging as it did today. Yes, I cheated. Yes, I just doing the movements. I didn't care. I just needed to get through this. I didn't care about feeling that "crush" today. Today it wasn't about working the body. Today it was about working the will. I am very happy. And ofcourse immediately after I drank my MEGA-nutriants and my alkaline. I love my alkaline. It's full of shit, but I still love it. Now I'm going to sleep all day so my body can really fully recover. hahaha. I just wish I had some asprin around the house for this stupid headache. haha. Come on alkaline, work. Make me a believer. LOL

One more thing. It's the end of week 6. That means I'm half way there in the Body for Life program and I can now proudly say I haven't missed one work out yet. Yeah!!! Nothing can stop me. Not even all the germs and bacteria this side of California can throw at me. Yes, I rock man!!!

Just feeling good.
-Frank

Today, since I didn't have to go to work, I decided to stay at home do the power 90 circuit training program to substitute for my upper body program. However, I stayed up til 4 am last night getting drunk. Nonetheless, I still got my silly ass up at 7am and started my day. I did not however workout in the morning. My stomache was just not settled. Not to mention I ate some really bad (but good) greasy snapper at 3:10am and then went to sleep. WTF was I thinking? I don't know. Someone slap me with a trout.

Eventually after I took a nap I worked out. Today was not a good workout at all. I can feel the left over alchohal vapor coming up as I was catching my breathe. That sucks. I didn't really push myself that hard because I knew my stomache wasn't settled. Urgh. But I got my workout in, even though I wasted an "upper body" day. Oh man, I better tighten up my game because day 60 pics is just around the corner.

Today I wanted to see what state my body is currently at. Ofcourse I want it to be optimal, but that's not likely since I don't think I can recover from my sickness that quickly. Nonetheless, I was going to try to push it. So I did my run today and guess who was on the tracks today. Seabiscuit part II. haha

I was feeling ok this morning. My stomache was not settled? I don't know WTF is going on with my stomache. I haven't ate anything sent 10 pm last night. Something is still not right. I started my run and I wasn't sure if I was going to push myself hard today in case my stomache cramps up. I hate it when that happens. Oh well, only one way to find out if it will. So I got to my first interval of sprints. It felt ok, but I still get winded before the minute. But today I was able to attempt to keep running til the minute was up. Decent first lap.

On my second lap, I felt better more energy. Then on my 3rd lap, our paths crossed again. I was on intensity level 8 when I was just about to pass Seabiscuit. Today I really acknowledged his presence and I'm going to make sure he knows that I know. So I'm coming up behind him and he knows it. He's walking and I'm doing long strides but not running. I pass him and I look at him straight in the eye and I smile. As soon as he was no longer my visual peripheral, I hear his foot steps moving. Oh yeah, intensity level 9 is around the corner. I look at watch, wondering to see if this old man is going to try to to keep again. When that seconds hand hit 60, I wanted him to know that I know, so I looked back, smiled at him and and give him a salute. Then I was off. "I'm the real Seabiscuit you bitch." I was running. Carl Luis would have been shock his head in disgrace. But I don't care, I'm not black and I don't have big ass legs, but I did my best. However, my man did not follow today. I think he lose his will the moment I layed eye contact with him. haha j/k

I did not run that long in that interval. I think I used all my juice in the first 20 seconds when Seabiscuit needed to make a statement. haha. After the minute was over, I wanted to see how are he got. But he was gone. God damn, I ran so fast, my fast burners vaporized him. Poor old man, that's what you get for playing with fire. hahaha. Seriously though, he lives right on the edge of the house and I think he just went home after he will was crushed over by the my uhaul. haha. On my 4th lap, I saw him in his garage and as I passed him I gave up the good ol' *thumb ups* as he waved to me with a smile. I hope to see him on the tracks Thrusday.

-Frank

Sweat, beeds of sweat. It's been a while since I felt my the drip, drip, drip of sweat dripping down my forehead after the completion of my squat workout. I forgot this is how I was meant to train. I love how after my lower body workout, I dread the sight of a flight of stairs. Whatever I have, or whatever I had, I left in back in the gym. Today I had a great workout. I pushed hard. I was focused. My legs payed for it. The Gods must have been in a good mood today.

However, I did notice that I do not focus at the moment in my workouts. It's sad, I see myself thinking about the day in the middle of my sets. What type of lame concentration is that? I think about what my current experience and how I'm going to put it down on paper later on. Geezus man, where is your heart? I mean, I finish my workout and everything, but I think my can make my workouts even more intense if I focus on every rep, every muscle tissue being stretched, every fiber being worked. I need to focus more; more intensely. Day 60 is coming up.

-Frank

Another Thrusday, another day of cardio. I have to admit when I woke up this morning, I didn't want to run. I thought to myself, "Well I can just do cardio at home and do my Power90 cardio workout. It's still cardio." But it's not the same cardio as running. You don't push yourself as hard and you don't improving your running speed. The easy way out is always easy. So I sucked it up. I stretched. And I got myself out on the tracks ... errr... park.

I felt good today. It's easier and easier for me to start a fast run as soon as the seconds hand hits the beginning of the minute. Keeping it up for a full minute is still hard, but it is getting easier. I still don't believe I'm at 100% but I feel good. Today's run was still just a 9. There was a point in the last sprint of 2 minutes where I did not push hard in the beginning. Therefore, I'm going to be a bit tough on myself these days because my training is starting to be a bit easier.

Btw, I've been having craving for bad foods lately. Yesterday, I wanted chocolate. I wanted a sneakers. I wanted something to munch on. So last night, after my not so clean last meal (some Chinese food), I also ate some banana bread. That was good. I don't feel that bad for eating it though because I don't want to be too stern in my eating habits where I'm going to start hating my program. I guess all that talk about will is gone out the tube. LOL. Seriously, psychologically, eating bad once is while is good for you. It's ok for me. I didn't feel I damaged my integrity. Now if I said that everytime I had an urge or I used that as an excuse or I do it in excess; I'd feel bad.

Ok, take care peoples. Tomorrow is upper body day. I look forward to it all week (since I didn't get to do it on Monday... grrrr...). I feel hella skinny. I feel I lost a lot of muscle last weekend from the sickness. Time to get it back.
-Frank

I had a pretty good workout today. Everytime when I can feel my muscles all fatigued as I type in my journal, I can't complain about the workout. Today I had 3 10's in the intensity meter. I can't believe how hard I pushed myself in triceps. Sweat, sweat, sweat. I love it. I felt bad for not doing my upper body on Monday. I think it's psychologically playing a factor in my mind, like I lost muscle! I'm shrinking!!! hahaha. Well, today's workout will mend those woons. I'm still not getting stronger though. I need strength. I want it. I'm desperate for it. I'll do anything. ANYTHING. hahaha

Anyway, I'm going crazy and I'm running out of things to say so.
Have a great weekend peoples.
-Frank

So today it was sprinkling a bit outside. Did that stop the hammer? Oh no, I ran. I ran like a stallion in the meadows. haha. Well maybe not that fast or free, but I did what I needed to do which was to get my workout in for the day before my day starts. I love when I accomplish something productive first thing in the morning. A personal promise to yourself already validated before you tackle and interact with the rest of the world. Even though I truely feel I did not deserve a 10 in my workout today, I still feel great because I did what I promised myself I would. Another week accomplished. *Self High Five* for me.

It's so easy to quit. It's so easy to just give up. All you have to do is just stop. That's what did in my last interval. After 30 seconds, I stopped. I stopped because I wanted to rest for 30 seconds and then go for a full minute of hard bursts. Maybe that was my intent or maybe that was just an excuse to rest because I couldn't push myself hard enough today. I think it's a bit of both, but nonetheless, I quit pushing myself hard for that 30 seconds and I'm disappointed in myself. I'm harder on myself these days. I'm not going to give away 10 likes they're in season. Oh no, I'm going to make I earn that puppy. Today, I honestly feel I did not earn it. A 10 should be something I'm real proud of. A very satisfying accomplishment. My efforts today, although great, was not something I'd hang on my wall. I did give up for a brief minute and I will acknowledge that. But next time my friend... next time.

Mondays are always hard to up to workout for me. I think Mondays are easy for people that haven't been working out and are planning to "start anew" for this week. They have the attitude "I'm going to start working out next week" and they do. Monday workouts are easy for them to get up in the morning because they are at the beginning of something new, something exciting, something different. There's a potential for them to start a new trend, a different lifestyle. But for me, it's a different story.

Mondays are tough. There is no longer the excite of doing "something new". This is routine. This is upkeep. This is maintainence. This is a process of becoming a habit. It does get relatively easier since I'm getting so use to it. Sometimes, I look for to Mondays because I've rested my body Sunday and I have a lot of energy. Especially if I'm going to do upper body. I guess today I'm not feeling it because I didn't get great rest this weekend. It was busy and hectic, but very productive. Even though today is beginning of week 8, I should be very excited. It's pictures time at the end of this week. I guess part of me is not so excited because I had some set back. I got sick and I lost some progress. Nonetheless, I still think I got some good gains. Not great, but very good. I've also started to drink coffee now which I don't think is in tier 1 and 2 food groups. haha. I hanging around more coffee shops lately and I've been consuming more "unauthorized" foods than I should. So psychologically I know I'm taking a hit in my progress.

But still, I'm in week 8. I feel very proud of my progress. The hardest hurdles are all over. It's smooth sailing here. I'm actually looking forward to see my pictures this Saturday. But I still have to train hard til then. Good thing I did train hard today.

Even though I wasn't feeling it this morning when I got up, I still got myself in the gym. And lookie here, "motivation" was elliptical this morning. Man, I love cracker jack surprises. But really, I didn't really care. I was more motivated to see the "regulars" there today than seeing some random "Oh I need to start working out this week because I just ate half a cow this weekend" person. Don't get me wrong, I admire their desire to want to get into shape, but I way more inspired by the people I see in there week after week, day in and day out. Still, eye candy is eye candy, and we all love candy now don't we boys and girls. (Not me, it makes me fat!)

Seriously though, today I had no mercy for my legs. I focused hard on every rep of my squats. It felt great. Then after my last set, time to continue on with the super set with leg extensions. I told myself, "Now it's time to die you little bitch." And I literally killed my legs. "Ohhhh yeah, that's a 10." It was great workout. It was great because my quads, hamstrings, and calve were all burning after the last set. I was limping like I just got a "charley horse" on the thigh. I love killing myself. Self torture, self inflicted pain. Ahhhhhhh yeah....

So it rained last night and the tracks... err.... I mean the pavement was wet. I did not feel like taking a risk of falling on my ass while running so I decided to stay home and do the Power90 Cardio workout instead. I have to say todays' workout was not the best. It was not even a 8.5 on the intensity meter. But it doesn't matter. I did my 40 minutes of cardio and 10 minutes of abs. I'm a good boy and I did got my workout in for the day. I do have to admit that I ate some top ramen last night. I feel bad for it and I still am going to complain about not seeing improvement in my body fat reduction. Still I will try to keep at it for week 8.

Today was upper body day. I was looking forward to this workout. I love training upper body because I love seeing my muscles all pumped when lifting. It gives me a false perception that I'm actually bigger than I really am. haha. Seeing that your muscles working does give me some drive to train harder. Today however, I did not get a great workout. It was ok, but it wasn't great. I only got 2 10's on the intensity meter. One for chest and one for biceps. But I always get 10's on those 2 body parts. The problem is I think I still need a lot of work on my chest. I miss doing barbell presses. All I do now is dumbell presses and inclined dumbbell presses. Maybe I should switch to some other excerises like flys or something. Hmm..... maybe indeed.

I just finished my workout so I'm not sure how much I killed my body today. I can feel my forearms a bit tired from the curls I did, but usually when I do a good upper body workout, I can feel my whole body just beat and fatigued through the day. Hopefully I'll feel this later on in the day. Yeah, I know I'm sick in the head. I like feeling not 100% optimial. Then I know my time spent in the gym was efforts worth spending.

Good training to you all.
-Frank

Today is cardio day. I was debating if I should go out and run. I mean, the rain stopped but the pavement was still all wet. I didn't want to take the risk of slipping on my ass and getting injured. Not on week 8. I need to finish this program. But I wanted to run, so I decided to that today, I will run for 40 minutes (approximately 4 miles), but just jog the entire time. I figure my power90 cardio program is about 40 minutes, so I wanted to try it out to see if I have to cardio to go that long while jogging. I never jog/run for endurance. I wanted to try it to see how I liked it. Plus I wanted to see if I can actually do it. Usually my cardio workouts are short, fast, and intensive. Today it was a test of just doing a long, stretched cardio workout. Plus, I needed to plan my day so I figured I'd do it during my run. LOL

To make things a little bit more interesting because I had a feeling it was going to be a little boring so I thought I'd tried something I learned from yoga. "Miss. Yoga instructor, why do we breathe out through the nose?" "Because it give you STRENGTH." .... hmmm.. strength huh? "It's also good for sport activities too." Hmmmm... I kind of doubt that, maybe for like easy sports activities like the elliptical, but no way are you going to convince me that I should be breathing out through my nose when I'm sprinting my ass off. It's just too hard. How come Carl Lewis doesn't do it? But I don't know everything there is to know about anything, so I'll try it. I'll be gennie pig Frank again. So today during my run, I'm tried to breathe only in and out of my nose. It was interesting.

So I was running. I knew it was hard. I'm not use to it, but I wanted to see if it would make a difference. "Strength huh?".... Take the path of most resistence. It's good for you. It'll make your stronger. After the 1st 2 laps, I wanted to stop breathing out my nose. It was just too difficult. But I stayed with it. So I jogged and jogged and thought about my day. Man this shit is boring. How can people be running marathons. Now, I wasn't pushing for time at all. I wasn't trying to up my speed. I was just do a light jog today but for a longer period of time. After the 5 or 6th lap, I felt that I was getting use to breathing out through my nose. Cool. It's working. My persistence paid off. As I was jogging I feel like Forrest Gump, running across America. I wasn't sweating that hard or breathing that hard. I was excerising, but not really. Plus running this long a pavement is really killing my knees and ankels. I might need new running shoes. What color shoes should I get? What should I do this weekend? Geezus man, am I even working out here? What the hell am I doing here? So at the end of the 7th lap, I thought to myself, man this is hella boring. I'm going to sprint the last one and I'm going to try to sprint without breathing through my mouth. Let see if this yoga instructor knows what the hell she's talking about. I'm still gonna try to get a 10 today. hahahaha.

So on the 8 th lap, injury conscious or not, I ran. I ran like I was fueled by super unleaded gas with octane (in actuallity I'm fueled by Alkaline!!! LOL). I ran for one full minute, rested for 30 seconds and ran again for another full minute. I kept my mouth closed and my air intake and exhaust through my nose. It felt great. It was hard. I got my 10. I worked out for 40 minutes on cardio today. And best of all, I did what I set out to do and I accomplished it. Now time to go home and do some abs work. Good work today Frank, I make me proud.

Ah yeah.... it's near the end of the week. Last weight training session of the week is done. Today, my heart was not in my workout. Even after reading John's inspiring entrying yesterday about wobbling legs, I did not push myself to my limit today. It's ok, I still got a decent workout. Even though I did not give myself a 10 today, I still panted and struggled through my sets. I guess I didn't feel I deserved a 10 today since my heart and mind was not 100% commitmented to getting a great workout. I just matched my numbers that I recorded from my last workout session and did my reps. I was just a robot today. Although, I like to known as Drago from Rocky i.e. "He's not a man, he's a machine." Today, I was not on combusting like an engine. That's the type of machine I want to be. Not Mr. Roboto from the Jetsons.

Anyways, I'm still excited about day 60 pictures. Even though it'll actually be day 56 or so. But who gives a shit. It's the end of the month, it's the end of week 8 and I want to see my pictures and measurements. I'll be posting them up Saturday or Sunday depending on how many dates I have that night. LOL j/k

Btw, I started reading about Max-OT so I can start planning on what to do after my body for life program is over (after March). I feel like shit when I read that program because it's totally saying that I'm totally over training my body. Which I knew, but I like to live in denial. Anyways, I'm going to finish reading that and then read the HST program that John mentioned and decision which one I want to do in April.

Take care peoples. Get your silly ass to the gym and have a great weekend.
-Frank

Ahhhhh... sun. I love it when I wake up to the rising sun. I open the door to the bright, gleaming rays of mother nature and it immediately made my day. Oh yeah, I'm definitely going to run today. No rain, no wet pavement. Today, the tracks are mine!!!

So I'm excited for my run today. I wondered how well I would do today since I substituted the last two days of cardio for something else other than my regular "run your ass off" workout. Well I still have pretty deceit endurance? Only one way to find out.

So I started my run and I felt great. The sun was starting to rise, the air was as fresh as it can be for an suburan park, and my enthusiasm for today's run was pretty high. However, after my first lap, I realized that my physical energy couldn't met up to my expectations. I started off my sprint really well, Carl Lewis well (maybe not that well, but it felt great). The thing was I couldn't keep it up, not for a whole minute. After 40 seconds I wanted to stop. After 50 seconds, I did stop. Urgh. How painful it is to reflect that I gave up before I was allowed to. I felt bad at the time, but it's ok I'll make up the second lap.

The second sprint comes around. This time I try again. "Keep it up for one minute dude." Nope. Couldn't do it. Again, I stopped around the 50 second mark. Errrrrr... the pain. I couldn't bare it long enough.

On the 3rd lap, I was getting pretty tired. I didn't have the burst of energy like I did during the first lap. I had to start digging in deep. All these stupid bumper sticker slogans started to pop in my head. "Just do it", "No pain", "No fear"... urgh.. I hate these sayings. Don't get me wrong, these are great attitudes to have, but these slogans has been so washed out that I feel ashamed trying to use them. I was however able to finish the full minute on the 3rd lap, but that becauase I didn't start out as strong in the beginning of the minute. I paced myself on this one, which is exactly what I'm not suppose to do. It's called "intensity" for a reason you dork.

On my fourth and final lap I was determined to finish strong. It's week 8 gosh darn it. Today is picture day. I want to earn a 10 today. I will not quit and rest during the first minute of intensity level 9 interval and I will run my ass all the way to the bank during my 2nd minute at intensity level 10. More slogans poppped up in my head as I prepared for my final lap. "Pain is only temporarly, pride is forever." Urgh, wrestling slogan. But it's still true. It is only for 2 minutes man. You can do it.

I reflected back when I first started to do sprints I recall the times when I pushed myself real hard and remembered that at the end of intensity level 10, I wanted to throw up. That's when I knew I earned my ten for the day. Well, let's see if I can get the feeling again today shall we? So intensity level 9 interval comes around. I'll feeling tired already and it's only 30 seconds into the minute. "No, I will not stop and rest." Keep up truckin'. "Do it, do it, do it man." Eventually, that minute was up. Now for the final minute. Earn this shit big daddy, you only got one shot. I sucked it up and I yelled aloud, "GO!" and I was off. I was as "off" as I could be after 18 minutes of intense cardio, but I still wanted to push myself for the full minute. Oh boy did I dig in deep on this last run. Now my own sayings that I use started to pop up in my head. Not the over hyped, marketed statements you see on $5 t-shirts and Mountain Dew commercials. The ones I believe in. "Persist see", "Take the path of most resistence", "This is exactly where you want to be." I had to use them to get me through this minute. I saw my marker. I will not stop until I hit that fuckin' marker. A mini goal set within a minute. A mini goal fulfilled within the last 10 seconds of my run. Yes, I earned my ten today.

Now, did I feel like throwing up? Did I get to the point of where I wanted to be? Yes, for half a second I felt like throwing up, but I couldn't because I was too busy trying to catch my breathe. LOL. It felt good. During my warm down phase I walked with my hands interlaced behind the back my head trying to get more air in my lungs. I couldn't help to think this was a physical symbol representing my body surrendering to my will. "Ok, you won today 'will'. I was at your mercy," said my body. As I walked I felt fulfilled. I clinched my fist and I raised my bent right arm partially in the air. "Fuckin' redemption," I proclaimed outloud. I didn't give a shit if there was people that heard me or thought I was a wierdo because I was talking to myself. I felt too good at that point. I just redeemed myself for one more day.

Now, I can't really describe how great it really feels after that last run. It's something I hope everyone of you get to experience sometime in your own workout. Internal concurrence is one of the greatest feelings I can reward myself. I don't get this experience that often in my workouts. Maybe I get a sliver taste of it everday after I finish my workouts, but sometimes when I get have a big bite of it like I did today, I savior that flavor like it was the last meal I will ever have. I really do hope that we all get to experience this feeling. It makes every other tough workout day so worth while.

Have a great weekend peoples. See you on Monday.
-Frank

Here a link to my updated pictures thread in the photo gallery.
http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showthread.php?t=577

Strength. Some days, your in the gym and you just feel stronger. I was very grateful that today I had the experience. It was fun seeing that I was slowly increasing my weights on certain excerises today. It's wierd because this morning I did not feel like working out. I mean I was looking forward to it because I always look forward to upper body day. But I wasn't gong ho about it but nor did I feel like not working out. I was just in a "blah" mood. Must be the 4 hours of sleep I got last night.

Nonetheless, after I got to the gym and did my first set, I felt pretty good. So I pushed and pushed my way through my routine and I was done after 1 hour and 15 minutes. I'm noticing that my workout sessions are way longer than they should be. I really try to cut down on my rest time, but I think I might be taking too long doing my reps. Usually I always try to go for a very slow negative. These days, I always do more than 12 reps on some body parts, like triceps. I'm deviating a little bit from the Body for Life program and I'm probably over training. But hey, I can't argue with visable results (just not measureable results.. *snob*). I'm kind of curious on how my body will react to my next workout program. Let's finish this one first buddy.

-Frank

Today I ran. It felt great. I pushed hard. I got a 10. I'm a happy boy.

Today "Seabiscuit" was out on the tracks again. This time though, my experience with him on the field as a little different. I started my jog and I passed him up. But today, I didn't really care if he was going to follow me or not. It just didn't matter to me. I'm here doing my thing, he can do whatever he wants. But it was no surprise to me that when I started to jog, he jogged along side with me. Yes, this time I saw it as "along side with me" not trying to compete with me. It was a very mutual experience. I felt good that he decided to keep pace with me. I felt we were working out together. We were working together in synergy. Him being along side with me, gave me strength. This happened for 2 minutes or so before I started my first sprint. During this time was a very fulfilling experience. Then the minute mark hit and BANG! I was off. Once again, I ran so fast, I vaporized him. After my minute was up, I looked back and he was no longer on the tracks. WTF happened to him? He dissenagrated.

Today I also discovered something new. Actually it wasn't a discovering per say but more of a reminder. I noticed that when I am truely running hard, trying to run as powerful and fast as I can, I pump my arms hard as well. I remember back in high school our track coach told us to use our arms as well when we're running (I never did dashes when I was in track, I only did long and triple jump). They called it "hammer" or "hammering." As in you swing your arms as if your hammering something. Alright, that's cool. I like M.C Hammer, I like "Too Legit To Quit", I like saying the term "it's hammer time." Now, it really is "Hammer Time!!!" LOL. So next time I run, I'll keep this little tid bit in mind.

-Frank

So it was lower body day today. My attitude today? Just get in there and get it done. Regarding what John posted on his message today about people's motivation starting to die down, I was feeling that today. I think the next time I feel this, I'm going to try to do what he suggested and recall my dreams. Recall something vivid, motivating, and inspiring. Nonetheless, I did my squats, I did my leg extensions, I did my leg curls, I did my lunges, my calve raisers, and lower back flexers and I finished my duty for the day. I accept that I can't always get a great workout day. However, I'm happy that I can still finish my call of duty even though I may not feel like it 100%. Like I said before, consistency is the hardest part. It's not something new and exciting. This is maintainence stage. Day in and day out. This is the real hard part of working out consistently. Just be consistent. Now matter what. Do it. Get in the gym. Start moving. Keep that promise. It's only one hour. Then the rest of the day, the sense of pride and honor stays for twenty three more hours.

I have to admit the last two to three days I have not been eating clean. Most of the day I eat well, but my last meal, that stupid last meal when I go home, I eat more that I should. It's going to bite me in the ass soon if I don't start being more conscious about this. So here is me being conscious about it. Try to stay strong tonight Frankie boy.

Take care,
-Frank

Oh yeah, Day Sixty. Thirty more days and then, PICTURES!!! haha Anyways, today was running day. I was surprised to see my old high school buddy walking his dog again today. I saw him last Tuesday, but I didn't have time to catch up with him because I was in the middle of my workout and there was no way I was going to do "remember the good ol' days" recap during my twenty minutes of fame. After my workout last Tuesday, I didn't feel like running up to him because at this point, I've ran enough for the day, so I just went home.

But today, I saw him out there again. He lives right next to the park where I run, so it's really convenient for him to just get up and go for a walk. To be honest, I was not expecting to see him again. Usually, people have these "cravings" to get it shape. It's not a real commitment, it's just something new and different from their everyday life of being out of shape. Their intent is good, just not their desire. So they think that "oh yeah, I'm going to get in shape next week" and they get all pumped and excited and get their new workout shoes and outfit. Only to workout for that one day and realize how hard it is to get up early, to accept how out of shape they have become, and to do it day after day after the excitement dies now. Now I don't mean to shit on people and their will, I mean, I've been through this cycle many times myself and I'm guilty of it. I know how hard it is. I still struggle with it everyday. And I don't like the idea that I see people's will in a negative way and not giving them the benefit of the doubt that they can change. Actually I know they can change, I believe it in my heart. I like to see people in a positive light. I really want to give them more credit. However, my point is that it's just not surprising to me if I don't see them doing it on a consistent basis. I understand how hard it is. However, in the future, the more times I see my friend out there with me, the more I'll inspired by him. Like when I see "Seabiscuit" and his crew walking every morning with me as I walk my dog. Man, I'm so lucky to be around such dedicated people. There's a set group of regulars every morning doing their morning walks. These guys are my embassadors of "will." I give them so much respect (much like everyone that's staying committed in these forums). There's something real powerful knowing that I'm doing this alone. There are people out there that have similar desires and strengths that is so strong, I can borrow from them even though they don't consciously realize their assistance to me. I can't help to be humbled and in awww of the commitment that these people have. *tear*

Anyways, I digress. So I saw my friend was jogging with his dog. He was ahead of me and I was about to do my first sprint run. So when the seconds hand hit the big six-zero and I was off. I ran right past him like I had absolutely no respect for his morning jog. I didn't really intend to do that (actually I did... heheh *evil smirk*), but I was just doing my thing and he happened to be a relative comparision this morning. I would have ran the same way even if he was not there, however my mind set would have been a little different. I wouldn't have been thinking, "Man, I'm going to burn this dude." So I ran for sixty seconds all the way this time. I felt good, actually I felt great, and I looked back and I became disappointed. He was still there. I didn't vaporize him with my fumes like I do "Seabiscuit". LOL.

The funny thing is, he eventually caught up to me because I usually walk for another minute after my sprint so I can recover and get ready for the next sprint. So we started to chat a bit while I was jogging on intensity level 6 and 7. I needed to end the conversation fast if I wanted to have a decent workout today. I'm didn't get my ass out of bed just so I have a high school reunion. So I told him I had to get back into my workout and continued with my run. Overall I had a good run today. Not great, just good. The final sprint I did not push super hard. I pushed hard, just not super hard. My didn't focus hard enough today because I got distracted with high school buddy being there. I didn't run with my arms today. I tried to, but I just didn't put enough focus on it. I'll try again Saturday. It was good seeing my friend though. I hope to see him there Satuday. Yeah right, on a weekend? No way dude, he ain't going to show. But I'll be hella impressed if he did though.

-Frank

Well today was upper body day. I don't know if I ever mentioned this before, but I love upper body day *smirk*. I'm so vain, I swear. I just like looking at my scrawny 140lb frame slowly get pumped up as I rotate my workout from one body part to another. haha. Anyways, today was a pretty good workout day. I was focused today. Usually Fridays are hard for me because I'm so beat from training throughout the week. Today was no different, but I used very little tool I knew to get me through my workout. Some things that I do to help me get the edge is I breath outloud hella loud. I don't know why this works for me, I guess just exaggerating my breathe gives me more energy. It is a wierd and retarder I know, but it works and I'll take it. Another thing I did today was mentally picturing the body part I'm working on. As I did flat bench presses, I pictured my chest expanding and contracting. I was focused today man. I was visualizing. By the way, I went up in weight today in my chest and arms. Yes!!! Creatine, THANK YOU! One more crazy thing that I do in the gym that's kind of nuts that helps pushes me to move is I mumble words underneathe my breathe. Ok, I don't actually mumble, I'm straight yelling at myself. Random words that would come out of my mouth would be things like, "Come on....", "Go, go, go", "Arrrgghhhhhh...." haha.

So there, my secrets of a successful Friday workout. One more thing that I like to share today. Heed these words, "Respect the whey protein." That shit is powerful. How powerful? Well, after my workouts, I usually drink my whey protein with creatine and glutamine on the side. I put all my servings in power form into my blender cup before I add water to it and start blending the crap out of it. However, today, I was totally dumbfounded on how strong whey protein is. I could not blend the shit. Even at the highest RPM setting on my blender. I'm was shocked as shit. I tried to shake it, I tried stirring it with a spoon, I tried different speeds on the blender, that shit would not budge. Then I smelled something in there air. *Sniff*sniff*. Holy shit, the motor in the blender starting to smoke. Geezus man, this is some strong ass whey protein. Now I know I'm taking the right stuff. LOL. So I'm without a blender now. My whey protein kicked it's ass and I'm going to have to use the "protein shaker" now. haha. Respect the whey protein peoples, it can kick major ass.

Have a great weekend,
-Frank

Oh yeah, the end of the week. Week 9, I just kicked your ass. Oh I love it when I kick someone or something's ass. It just feels so good to stick that boot so far deep into their ass I can feel their spine with my big toe. hahaha. Anyway, I had my run today but I really did not feel like doing it this morning. Maybe it was the 5 hours of sleep or me forgetting to drink my aklaline enriched "Light Force" green drink last night. Whatever the reason (I think it was the sleep), I still got up and did what I needed to do.

On my first sprint, I did not even try to push hard. I just ran fast, but not explosively. Who cares, I'm out here doing my thing. But I would be lying if I didn't say the thought of just saying "fuck it" today didn't cross my mind. "Oh no, no, no, you little bitch. You're not going to quit on me today fuck face." I like cursing at myself under my breathe, it builds up my self esteem. haha So I was running and I remembered, "Hey, my friend is not out here today. I was right in my prediction, human beings are so frivolous." After all it was the weekend, and he deserved to sleep in late today because of the long work week. Whatever. Say whatever you need to help get you up in the morning... or in this case, keeps your lazy ass in bed. I don't really care. I'm doing my thing. So I continue my run.

Then out of nowhere, I see a person leaving my friend's house with their dog. "Oh shit man, I'm so humbled." Yeah, I was wrong. I'll admit it. I'm so freakin' glad I was wrong. Human beings are so powerful sometimes, they put me in awww. In my quest to find any evidence to prove that my initial thought of my friend not being able to follow up today was correct, I instead got humbled by his actions. Cool, motivation just gave me the energy boost I needed for me to still claim my ten for the day. I can't be looking like a half-ass working out in from of my high school friend. I better show him what's up or he'll think I'm one those guys that comes out here because it's the 1st of the month and I just read an inspirational magazine article last night.

However, as I ran, I noticed that my friend had long hair. Wait, my friend doesn't have no long hair. Shit, that's not my friend at all, it's he's girlfriend that came out to walk their dog. HAHAHAHAHA, I was fuckin' correct, human beings are naturally weak willed. LOL. God damn it I wish that wasn't true, but all the evidence in the universe is proving me otherwise. It doesn't matter though, my friend being out or his girlfriend being out, I still got the motivational juice I needed to push hard in my last two runs. After all, she was a high school/college friend as well and there is no way I'm going to look like a chump in front of her given that I haven't seen her for almost five years. I have to make her believe I actually do this everyday. hahaha. Suckers.

Anyways, I acknowledged that her that I saw her there by saying hi but told her I cannot chit chat right then and there because I'm too busy pretending the cops are after me and I need to get this groceries back home or mama's got beat me with the whiffle ball paddle. So I ran freakin' hard. The 3rd lap, not so hard. After all, I didn't have my alkaline last night. But the 4th lap, oh that last lap, man I was jamming. The first minute, I pushed hard, but I knew I needed some reserved for the next minute. But I pushed for that first full minute. Then the next minute came up. I dug in deep and I just keeping pumping my arms. "Run with your god damn arms Frank," was the words I kept telling myself. I was breathing hard and I loved it. It gave me strength. Then the last 10 seconds I had one more challenge that awaited me.

When I run around the park but it's in a residential area. So when I run on pavement, it's actually the side of the road where cars drive. The part where I run is basically the side of the street which boarders the grass around the park. So everytime I run when there's cars passing by, and I'm trying intake air like I just stayed underwater for 5 minutes, I really don't appreciate all the fumes and smog that goes into my lungs. So today, on my very last sprint, for like a couple of seconds, I was running hard. Then this van crips up in parallel along side with me and started to accelerate hard. I mean, I heard that engine started to suck up that gas like it was big gulp. "Oh hell no man. Fuck that, you not showing me up you fuckin' car." Yes, I'm stupid and retarded, I know. I was trying to race a car like I was the "6 million dollar man." It only lasted for a couple of seconds, but I don't give a shit. I was so fuckin' shocked I still had some reserves lift. I dug my foot deep into the pavement in tried to hard to burst whatever ounces of energy I had left to try to keep up with the car. Needless to say, yup, I vaporized that car just like I did "Seabiscuit." LOL. j/k. Ok, so I didn't actually beat the car (as hard as that is to believe). But in my mind, for a sliver of a second I actually kepted up with it. A very short, minute, tens to the thousands decimal place, sliver of a second. But I don't care, it fuckin' pushed me to a place I didn't know exists and I got me a ten. Fuckin' high five for Frankie.

Alright time of Jiu-jitsu.
Take care all, have a great Saturday and go out there and race some cars.
-Frank

Today I did legs. As everyone and their grand childern know by now, Mondays are hard for me to workout. I just don't have a high drive to push myself in the beginning of the week. For me, Monday's workouts is something I have to get in because it drives my momentum for the rest of the week. Mondays are like warm up days. It tells my body to think in terms of working out and that it's going to be a tough challenging week coming so be prepared. So today, I just got a one ten on the intensity meter out of three body parts. That's ok. I'm still impressed that I can slowly adjust and add more weight to my sets. Oh the beauty of creatine.

In case anyone is wondering. I was able to fix my blender this weekend with some WD-40. That thing fixes any damn thing. I don't know how smart it is to spray WD-40 in my blender. Afterall I do drink out of that thing everyday. So now I guess I can add a dash of WD-40 to my list of supplemental nutriants. Whey protein, glutamine, creatine, mult-vitamin, alkaline, and now WD-40 for all my squeaky joints and rotator cups.

On a side note. I noticed that lately my entries have been a little more aggorant than I like to be. I apologize to anyone that's taking offensive to what I write as sometimes I say things without thinking about the reprocussions. I've been feeling really good about workouts lately and I try to ride my wave of momentum and excitement as far as I can. I do get carried away a bit and get a little big headed. I want to acknowledge that and try to balance that out as part of my process. Anyways, I just want to put that out there for anyone that is a bit sensative to some of the stuff that I write.

Take care,
-Frank

Alkaline? Check. A well rested sleep? Check. Hot morning sun bursting through the clouds. Check. Oh yeah, I'm ready for my run today. My knee is bothering me a bit, but not enough to stop this jerky from getting my ten for the day. I felt good today knowing that I did what I needed to do last night to get my body at optimal state for today. I love it when things workout synergistically and I can do my duty without much adversity for the day. It takes a lot of planning and preparation the night before, even the week in advance, but it makes having an optimal workout more easier. I don't plan my workout or my food as much as I use to. It's gotten to a point where it's routine. Hopefully within a few more months, it'll get to the point where it becomes a habit.

Today I discovered another new revelation. As I was trying my best to "run with my arms" by hammering down my fists as I did my sprints, I remembered something else I needed to do. I pretty sure my old high school track coaches also told me everytime I hammer, I should exhale. I couldn't comprehend this at first, I mean, how I can breathe at such a rapid pace. Do you know how fast and repetitious I "hammer" when I'm running. There was no way my lungs and heart can keep up with the pace I'm moving my arms and legs. Short, fast, and explosive breathes. I couldn't relate before because my aerobic capability wasn't up to per. How can it be possible to breathe at such a hard, fast pace? Well, today, I was very happy to have a glimps of this theory and try to understand it more through my training.

I can't believe I was actually capable of breathing at such a fast pace. This running crap is actually working. My lungs has a higher capacity then I thought it was possible. I couldn't even comprehend it's strength before and now I'm excerising it. I love discoverying revelations like this when I workout. It's a slow, growing, surprising process that's goes beyond the physical fulfillment of excerise. Needless to say, I will add this little tid bit the next time I run, along with all the other little motivational candy I use to get my through my workouts. "Breathe out with each hammer." Oh yeah, I got a ten today. Btw, I'm starting to yell at myself a loud a lot more than a sane man should when running by himself. So what, I'm already know I'm a little bit on the looney side. This is no surprise to me.

-Frank

Upper body day. The only upper body day I get this week. I better make it count. That was my intent going into the workout today. Actually I was looking forward to today's workout since Monday, but something happened last night which drained all my energy and I did not have that much reserves to use this morning. I still got a pretty decent workout today though. The lighting in my work gym is pretty good. Without trying to sound conceited or anything, but I'm seeing some strange muscle formations around my tricep and forearms. It looks like some crazy lines are forming around my tricep. It's looks cool but weird. I like it. I like wierd/cool things. Anyways, not much to talk about today except I feel great finishing my workout even though this morning I felt I had no energy. Chalk up another notch on the "determination" board.

Take care,
-Frank

It kind of feels good to be reminded what it's like to quit once in a while. This feeling sucks and I experienced it today. During my first run, for some reason I just didn't have the drive to go for it. My legs were tired. Why? I don't know. I guess I have a couple of theories like lack of sleep last night and very bad nutrition yesterday, but all that doesn't matter. Today I accepted that it was just one of those off days. Plain and simple. The gods were not looking after me today. If I wanted to make through this workout, I had to look after myself. So I dug in deep. Yes, "persistence" and "will power" stayed home today. Why? I don't know. They just did. It's wierd when I run, I also have to remind myself what these terms really mean. "What really is persistence? What really is determination? Do you know Frank? If you do, then prove it. You might have known it yesterday but unless you show me it today, you really don't have a clue." So I drove hard on my last run. It felt pretty good because my legs were burning as if I was doing leg curls. However, I did not get a ten today. My first two sprints were pathetic. I gave up so early before the minute was up. Yes, I quitted today. Not the entire workout, but during the small duration of my mini workouts. It sucked. I hate feeling like I have no will.

Now, more flame to the fire. Yesterday, my will power sucked even more as I mentioned earlier. I ate some pretty bad crap yesterday. Lasuana with cheese, a diet coke, and a bag of milk chocolate M&M's. Yes, that bag of M&M's was good and the Lasuana did satisfy my cravings for some really bad, nasty, chessey food, but at what price? I felt my body fat increasing by 2 to 3 percent for every bite that I gobbled. Yes, my fat cell acuity is just that sensative these days (LOL, just kidding). So this is my confession of my sins for yesterday. I better tighten up because the end of week 10 is just around the corner and week 12 is coming up. Also, I've been hanging out more these days in coffee shops so that means I've been drinking a lot more coffee and cider than I should. I don't recall coffee and cider being in the tier 1 and tier 2 food groups, so I better stop that crap out as well. I guess I'll just buy bottled water next time I lease a spot in the coffee shop. I honestly don't know how people can drink coffee every morning and add all the sugar and cream and crap in there. I drink mine black just because I don't want all those extra calories. I'm even more amazed how people can do that and still cut down their body fat. I'm not worthy.

I got in a pretty good leg workout today. Well at least in my quadracips. I finally felt my legs screaming in pain today. It's been a while since I got this feeling. I knew I was doing the right thing today. I noticed that I'm starting to get burnt out on my workouts. I just want to acknowledge this feeling even though I know that I have about two to three more weeks of training left on this program. It's wearing me down and it's harder and harder to stay on top of my workouts. Yesterday I had sugar free hot chocolate. Fifty god damn unpresented calories. I'm starting to break. I'm really looking forward to my two weeks of rest after this Body for life program is over. But until then, must... keep... moving.

Yes, it's the end of the week. Guess what? Week 10, I kicked your ass again this week. However, I lost the battle of nutrition this week. Yes, I was weak. I accept my defeat. The next 2 weeks should be interesting. My legs were very tired from my lower body workout yesterday so my run is a bit of a challenge. But it was a good challenge. I didn't go crazy until the last run, then I just let it all loose. When I run, I usually use markers along the side of the road like light poles and fire hydrants to measure how long I've been running without looking directly at my watch. I kind of know how far I can run within a minute these days based on using these "markers." Usually I like running along side all these people doing their morning walks because there's just "magic markers" everywhere to push me to run a little bit farther than I'm use to. "I'm going to catch up to this jabroni," is the thought that goes through my head. Ofcourse I don't really think they're jabroni's, I just like saying that as an after thought. When I'm running I just focus on hitting that new mobile magic marker. They really drive me to push hard. Plus, I LOVE just running right past them in the final stretch. hahaha. I'm evil.

Have a great Saturday everyone.
-Frank

My workout wasn't that great today. I had too much on my mind and I couldn't focus on the moment as much as I liked. Too bad because today was upper body. I'm thinking about my next workout routine after Body for Life. I think I will take 2 weeks off and then do 2 weeks of my Power90 in home workouts just because I really like the challenge for their circuit workouts. I breathe so hard by the end of the 40 minutes. I miss it even though the resistence training isn't as strong as with doing weights. But the intensity and the way it builds my heart and lungs, I really like. So far, I like the concept of the Max-OT workout program. Short intense workouts that is very focused. The only thing is I have to workout everyday. When will I do cardio? I'm still deciding on which route to take.

Hmmm.. let's see what nutrious foods I had yesterday ok. Shrimp cocktail and 2 steak tacos for lunch. Well, that wasn't that bad. Shrimp has decent protein and the steak tacos are pretty low in calories. How about after dinner? Pork skin. Mmmm..yum. That's tier 1 food for sure. How about Lay's potatoe chips? Yup, up there in the high nutrition low fat cataglory as well. hehe. Yesterday, I broke like a little kid in a candy store. There's something about just sitting on your ass, watching sitcoms and wanting to snack on something while your doing it. I'm not going to blame the sitcom. I was my fault. I broke down yesterday. This is not good. I've haven't been eating that well last week neither. I better straighten up before all this hard work I've put in all goes up in flames. At least I got my 10 for today in my run. I had a great run today. Maybe it was from the fat that I was a total pig last night and I needed to do something fast to get some instant gratification. haha. How lame. I think it was because I just had a good night's sleep last night and I was pretty energized this morning even though I felt sluggish from all that crap I ate last night. But yay for me, I was able to finish my workout.

Urgh. I'm sick. I woke up this morning with a soar throat. I was really debating if I should go to work today let alone go workout. I could use a rest day but for some dumb reason, I sucked it up and got my butt to work. And I worked out as well. It was an ok workout. I hit some good reps with decent weights. It was a respectable workout but nothing spectacular. I'm just glad I was able to actually do it. Now I'm going to drink pints and pints of orange juice and water. I'm going to make sure I eat well today and hopefully rest good tonight. I think the cause of my sickness was driving with the windows down last night and letting the cold night air take it's toll on me. I'm don't know what caused it.

Man, the run today wasn't all that great. I'm still a little bit sick so I'm wasn't expecting much from myself. Wait, what am I talking about. No wonder my run wasn't great. Look at this bad attitude I have going into it. Anyways, the only part of the run I was real proud of the 2nd, 3rd and last minute of the 4th lap. The 1st and first minute of the 4th lap was lame. I gave up on the 1st minute of the 4th lap. I think I started my minute too early and I couldn't tell how long I ran and the markers were all messed up and I just decided to stop and walk for a bit before the last minute. But the last minute, that was fun. I pushed hard. I felt my leg muscles burning and aching as I picked my legs up for long strides. I tried to explode with every last ounce of energy I had. I really enjoy this moment because I don't realize how much I can still give out. The last minute made the run really rewarding. But I have to admit, I am quite burned out. I just realized this is going to be a 13 week program not 12. Urgh. Oh well, I wanted to do upper body twice on my last week anyways and I need to monitor what I eat more carefully anyways.

Today was one of those good days. One of those days where I just go in the gym and I have energy beyond my belief. Yes, today I felt very ambitious and the way I attacked my weight showed it. I went up in weight today in my dumbell bench press. Although I did not get a full six reps on the weight I did, I felt great. I felt so strong. This was the weight I was planning on achieving in the end of my six months program. I'm very close it this goal now and it's only been three months. YES!!! Then I hit my shoulders. Again I went up in weight in my heavy set and again it was the weight I planned to achieve in my six month's goal. This time I got five reps. Double YES!!! Oh I have a feeling I can get six reps on both these exercise by the end of this workout session.

Oh man, I'm so feeling the effects of my workout right now. My body is screaming in recovery. Too bad I had spaghetti for lunch. Fuck. However, as for my third and fourth meal I plan on going to togos and get me this 102g of protein chicken sandwich. http://www.togosspeedlunch.com/TOGOsOnLine/PDFs/CaliforniaChickenSandwhich.pdf Can you fuckin' believe it? One hundred and fuckin' two grams of protein. That can't be right. It does come with a heafy price of 1030 calories though and hella sodium and hella calories. I don't care. I want to know what a 100+ grams of protein chicken sandwich tastes like. LOL.

Ok, great workout. Almost ended the week. Time to party this weekend. Voot for me.
-Frank

Today run was great. It was better than great, it was spectular. I felt so good today. It was weird because prior to the first lap I was all sore and stiff from training martial arts last night. But then after my first pathetic lap, I got pumped. Somehow I drew energy from the elements and I was on fire. I pumped hard with my arms today. I really forgot how good and strong this feels with my really over exaggerate my arm movements. It gives me so much power. Although I can't last as long if I waste so much energy, but who cares, I want a tough workout. Overall, it was just a great run because the last sprint, I pushed really hard. I always love it when I can really surprise myself on how hard I can push myself. I was a bit worried about injuries today because on my first lap, I felt a stiffness in my leg. I was scared I was going to pull something today but good thing the gods were with me and I came through today with no injuries.

Ok two more weeks to go and then I can rest this beat up body for a bit. Until then I have to stay strong and focused. Also, the togos sub I mentioned yesterday does not exists anymore. The California Roasted Chicken. But if you want togos, get the french dip. The regular size. It is decent in nutrition in case you need something on the go. No, it does not have 102 grams of protein like the California Roasted Chicken, but it's still good in case you need fast food.

Take care and have a great weekend everyone.
-Frank

Day 78. The beginning of week 12. And I'm sick again. Urgh. I'm not super sick, but sick enough to know that my body is not at optimal and I shouldn't be pushing myself that hard today. I'm just glad I was able to get up and hit the gym. It was not an easy process. I was at the gym and I know if I didn't write a journal and if I wasn't on a workout program and if I didn't record how much I lift for every session, I would have easily decided to not workout today. This journal and every other little thing I do keeps me committed to my workout routine. At times, it is very tough for me to feel that I have write something everyday. But it keeps me honest and aware of my progress and nutrition. It makes things more on the conscious level so during the times of tough decisions, it's harder for me to give in to the path of least resistence. I was really grateful that I write in this journal today.

Now my workout was not so great, but again the point is that it got done. I didn't get any 10's today at all. My currently energy state is really low so I'm just at the point where I'm grateful for what I have and if I can just maintain it, I'll be a happy camper. No high ambitions for me today. Just get a decent workout, fatigue my legs a bit, and then let my body recover. I'll hit legs again on Friday so I'll pay "you" back then.

On nutrition. I know I said last week I was going to watch what I ate. Well, I didn't so I'm going to try it again this week. It's harder now because I'm getting more cravings everyday. But I'm making some good readjustments. I bought me some protein bars in case I need to snack on something. Yes, the calorie and fat count are still a bit high, but it's not as high as a "Snickers" bar (I think). Plus it has protein. 31 freakin' grams of it. Nice. I hope I don't start eating it like candy. Another great substitute I've found for my trips to the coffee shops is tea. Green tea. I read it someone on the forums that it was benefitting someone. It got me curious and I did some research. I guess green tea is part of a fad these days as part of a weight loss program. LOAF. Whatever. But it has great benefits and no bad nutritional numbers. 0 calories, 0 fat, 0 carbs, 0 protein. It's absolutely nothing. The only "bad" effect is it has caffeine. Well, this is perfect for me because I need caffeine in my body because I'm sleep deprived, but I don't drink coffee. So I've been getting my caffeine from diet coke, but I know that's not a good idea even though the nutritional numbers are decent. So now I got a GREAT substitute. I'm going to drink this puppy like water. LOL. Wish me luck on my food intake this week peoples. I'm going to cross my fingers and try to stay strong.

-Frank

I'm still a bit sick and I had to wake up a little bit earlier because I needed to visit the eye doctor today. My run was very good. I pushed hard today and I really liked my effort. Therefore I give myself a 10 for my run and a *self high five* for putting in my hard work with lumps in my throat and all. I don't think these new protein bars are going to help me in cutting down the body fat. Genius thought huh? "You really don't think so Frank?" I'm still going to eat some though because I bought $30 dollars worth of bars and I ain't wasting my money. I think just the thought that I have them in my posession and I have access to them whenever I want will make me eat less of it. It's weird, I feel I can control my urges more if I know I can have it when I want it. Hopefully, I won't be eating more than one of these a day. That's my plan. I will eat/nibble on small pieces throughout the day just to get my fix in. Please god let this work and not give me a bunch of excess calories that I don't be needin'.

Geezus man, I can't believe I'm still sick. 'Theraflu' is not my friend. Usually when I take that puppy I recover real fast. This time around my recovery is super slow. Must be because my body is too busy trying to rebuild all those muscle fibers that I'm breaking down during my workout session. Yeah, that's exactly it. haha. Anyways, regardless of this sickness, I still worked out today. I don't care if it's counter productive. I'm on week 12 damn it. I'm almost done. And plus, today is my only upper body day this week; there is no way in 'heck' that I'm going to miss this day. I knew that I wasn't going to have the greatest workout today, but I still gave it my all. My efforts were appluasable given the current circumstances. I had a great back workout which is a rarity for me. Yes, 10 on my back today because I was stretching my lats like a rubberband. Full extentions and I felt each contraction as I squeezed my should blades together. Ahhhhh.. the power.

I'm still eating these protein bars like they're candy. Yesterday I had one and a half bars. I think I'm going to try to have just half a day. Maybe. Urgh, why did I buy them? The temptation is too strong for little ol' weak Frankie to fight. Oh yeah, I forgot, 31 grams of mega nutrients. Still that's a lot of calories to sacrifice for the protein. Maybe if I scrape off the chocolate or yogurt coating that surrounds the actual protein part of the bar, then I'll be able to get all protein without all the calories. Nah, I ain't that anal. Plus I'll end up eating it later anyways because I'm just that weak willed. Urgh, 10 days baby. Stay strong, stay on track, and keep on truckin'.

4 days in a row and I'm still sick as a bird. Why? I don't know. So what if I'm not sleeping anymore than I regularly would. Big deal. So what if I'm still pushing myself everyday and not just resting and relaxing. Ok, so many all this play into account so today I think I'm just going to stay at home and not go to work and see how long I can sleep. I'm also going to try to stay off of this internet thing and just veg in my bed and in front of my tv. But with all this planned, I still worked out. I don't know, I'm just crazy I think. I feel the sickness mainly in my throat but physically I don't feel sick. So I ran and ran like there was no tomorrow, although it was a hard decision for me to make. The only thing that pushed me was the fact that I'm on week 12 and that I only have a couple of more days to go until I'm done and I will never have to workout again for the rest of my life. hahaha. Today I did not get a 10. I stopped 5 seconds too soon. Oh well. I'll get 'em next time.

I hope you get better soon!

Well, I'm still sick, but I'm still dumb as ever. Yup, I worked out again today. Last weight training session of the week, so I can't go out like a 'sucka'. Anyways, I had a decent workout today. Even though my throat is dry is heck, I still managed to get a couple of good sets and felt some burn in my quads, hams, and calves. Now I plan on sleeping for the rest of the weekend. If I'm still sick come Monday, I'm going to be very upset at myself.

Alright, week 12 done. This week has been a hard struggle but I only have one more week left and then... REST!!! I love rest. Although I do have one more week of 2 upper body workouts and 1 lower body workout and then PICTURES. I'm not too thrilled about pictures this time around because of all these protein bars I've been eating. It's been reflecting in my gut too. haha. I better cut it out next week or else it's going to be backward progress for me. I've found out that black coffee has no calories. Isn't that cool? All black for me from now on and green tea ofcourse. Double Voot for me on that one. Anyways, my run today was good. I love just burning all these people strolling around the park as I run pass them and blow then top hats off and left up their skirts with my lighting fast speed. LOL. Yeah right. Do I look like I wear a red suit and have lighting bolt markers as my ears and on my chest? Didn't think so. Anyways, enough being a dork. Time to train the mind. Have a great weekend everyone.

Oh yeah, the beginning of week 13, my last week. I started my workout late today but I was able to get in a pretty good workout. I hit my goal of doing 6 reps of 150lbs on the flat dumbell bench press. Yes!!! I'm a goal achieving master. (Not really, but I'm riding my high right now, so I'm going to exaggerate a little bit more than usual). But I'm really glad I hit this weight. I was NEVER able to hit this weight before in all my past workout experiences, so I'm reall proud of this achievement. I feel good today so hopefully my nutrition will follow my lead this week and I'll have some decent results by the end of this week. Haha, it's funny how I think one week for real serious effort is going to make up for all the bad food intake I've been doing the last 2 weeks. Well, I'm at the end of the stretch, so I can only pray for the best (and do my best to get the best results). I'm excited people. I'm almost done. Voot! Voot!

So I had to come in early for work today for a morning meeting so I wan't able to do my run around the park like usual. So instead, after my meeting, I went out gym and tried to run on the treadmill. Man, trying to do high intensity training on the treadmill is not good for your health. Meaning it is very dangerous to manually adjust the treadmill speed while exhausted and running at the same time. I don't know how I did this before but I had some balls back then. So after the first internal, I decided to screw running on the treadmill and just jump rope with intensity interval trainning. This worked out well. I didn't know how to adjust to it because I don't know what feels like a "10" when jump roping. But by the end of my workout, I know exactly what I should do during the intense one minute bursts when I jump rope. What I ended up doing was just jumping high and trying to get the rope to loop around twice. And yes, I have to keep this up for a full minute. Yeah right, that was next to impossible. So the next best thing was doing 3 big jumps and then skip for 5 rotations and repeat. This killed my lungs. I was panting like a dog on a hot summer day. That's when I knew I found and alternative to running. When will I incorporate it into my workout? I don't know, but I like having options.

Man I feel good today. Tony Robbins good. Why? Because I've just finished my last lower body workout routine for the rest of my life. Yay for me. I really pushed hard today and I didn't even realize it was going to be my last legs routine until I hit the gym this morning. I guess that's what happens this workout thing slowly becomes a habit. I just get up and go do it. If I'd known today would be my last "legs day" or thought about it more last night, I definitely would have gotten more rest and prepared myself a little bit better.

But none of that matters because I still got me a great workout. 10's all across the board today kid. And on top of that... hmmm... let's look at Frankie's goals for end of June 2004 again.

My Goals for July 1, 2004 (Strength Measureable Goals)

Dumbell Bench Press: 75lbs - 6 reps @ intensity level 8.
EZ Curl Bar: 75 lbs - 12 reps on the superset @ intensity level 10.
14 Pull Ups
Squats: 180lbs - 6 reps @ intensity level 8.
Dumbell Military Presses: 50lbs - 6 reps @ intensity level 8.

So guess what weight I squated today? That's right. 180lbs for 6 reps @ intensity level 8. Voot for me again. Hit this goal in half the time I was expecting. That's 2 for 5 so far. On Friday I will try the Military Dumbell Presses @ 50lbs. I've been doing them for 5 reps the last two times I've tired them, so maybe this Friday, lady lucky will be by my side again. Oh please lord give me the strength I need to kick this goal's ass. I don't think I can hit the EZ curl bar goal. Right now I'm doing 65lbs at 12 reps and I am crying like a little bitch at the end of my workout session. But that's ok, I like to cry from tearing my muscles fibers apart in pain and agony because then I can say I earned my 10 for the day and walk around for the rest of the day knowing I gave it my all in the gym earlier in the day.

Anyways, I'm excited for Friday. Voot, voot.

Well today was my run and the workout just didn't come out the way I wanted it. Sure I wanted a great workout, my mind was ready for one. However my body refused to corporate and I ended up just having a mediocre workout. Still I did my laps and went home to do my abs. I finished and stayed commited to the program. That's what matters most at the end of the day. I know I can't always have a great workout everyday, I've accepted that already. But I can try my best and give it my all for this given day. So I only got a 9 today. Boo-hoo for me. Tomorrow is my last upper body workout session. I pray for a good workout and I plan on resting early tonight to give my body the energy and preparation it needs to be optimal tomorrow. Wish me luck.

Ok, so today is the last time I'll ever hit the gym at my work for the rest of my life (or until I start the Max-OT program). I tried last night to prepare my body to be optimal for today's workout. I even skipped my martial arts training last night just to make sure I didn't get injured for my last workout routine. However, I failed miserably. I was so excited and anticipated for today's workout that I couldn't fall asleep. How lame. I ended up having probably 3 hours of sleep, but still I had a pretty kick ass workout. Voot for me. I was able to hit my dumbbell bench press goal again today so now I know that last time it wasn't a fluke. I was also a hit my military dumbell presses goal that I mentioned last time, so a double voot for me today. Voot! Voot! However the rest of my workout sucked. At this point I was tired and I just wanted to finish this damn routine so I can go drink my whey protein. However I did kill my forearms during my bicep exercises so overall I had a great workout. It was a pretty good way to end this Body for Life workout program. Ofcourse tomorrow is my official last day after I run around like a wild chicken that just got her head cut off. So I also look forward to tomorrow's workout just because it's the big NINE O. Too bad I can't be drinking no beers tonight or eating no chips as I watch my favorite pay per view event, the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) fights. Oh well, the sacrifices I make for day 90 pictures. LOL.

Well today ends the last day of my Body for Life program. I am very proud of this accomplishment because all the previous programs I've tried before, I've fall off the wagon somewhere in between or I've missed a couple of workouts. I'm proud to say that I didn't miss one day in this program and I finished in exactly the time I was suppose to finish. This is a big milestone for me and I'm glad I was able to experience with everyone that reads my progress. The gains and physique I've obtained this time around was something I was never able to obtain before. I'm very grateful for the hard work and dedication I've put myself through on this program and I will reap my rewards with joy and pride.

With that being said, my workout today sucked. LOL. It wasn't that bad but it was just ok. I ran, but I didn't feel like it. My heart wasn't there. Although my 2nd lap and 4 th lap were pretty good, I'm not going to give myself a 10 today because I truely didn't deserve it. I don't know why, I've got plenty of sleep last night. Actually, the most sleep I've gotten in a long, long time. I was just so beat from yesterday's workout and the lack of sleep the night before. Anyways, I was surprised today that when I do my final last "sprint", I'm not really doing a full sprint. Today I've kind of really felt what I full sprint should be feel like. All the other times, I been just "running fast." Because if I were to be doing a full sprint for a full minute, my muscles would die. Today, I felt this because I pushed hard in my final minute. I was running on my toes and my quads were on fire!!! I never used this much muscle strength before when I ran. I have to do this next time as I think this is the real way to do this as oppose to the way I was doing it. I have to keep this in mind next week.

Well, I'm starting my rest time away from lifting weights for the next 2 weeks but just because I'm not lifting weights it doesn't mean I'm just going to sit on my ass all day. I plan on doing my martial arts training during the time that I usually workout in the morning and I plan on continuing with my runs. I also plan on starting some long distance running just to build my endurance up, but that will only be once a week and plus I can get a change in environment and scenery.

I'm going to stop taking creatine and glutamine during the next month because I read somewhere that I should take a break from creatine once in while (although I forgot where I read it). I'll just finish off the what little I have (probably 2 more scoops, so 2 more days of creatine for me) and I'll be off of that thing for a little bit. I'll still take whey protein everyday and I'll eat well since it's just habitual to me these days to look at calorie numbers before eating something and to look for protein, carb, fat ratios in my foods and watch my protions. That's what's great about going through a workout program, it makes my mind conscious about things so it's ultimately an endless test of my own will and free choice. I've become responsible and there's no one else to blame for whatever setbacks or fatness I gain because every decision is my own. I understand the consequences of every double pound fudge cake I eat and I can choose to accept or not accept it into my body. It gives me great power knowing I have this free will. That's the beautiful thing about going through a strict program. It spans way beyond the physical layer of working out. I think the true strength ultimately is what it does for my mind and attitude in life.

Anyway, I'm not sure how John feels about me posting my training experience in jiu-jitsu and kickboxing on here, but for those that are still interesting in reading about my workouts that's not specific to weight training, you guys can follow it on my web site at http://www.franksjourney.com. I'm going to revise it a bit later on this week, but the content should stay pretty much the same. I'll still post about my running experiences here and when I start my next workout program in 2 weeks or in a month, I'll continue where I left off here.

I'll have pictures up in a couple of days after I revamp the workout section in my personal web site. Thanks to all those that been following my progress on this run and I hope your training sessions are going well for you.

Take care,
-Frank

Wow Frank! I just checked out your website and I'm very impressed with your transformation. From what I can tell, you've shed a lot of body fat and packed on some quality muscle at the same time. You sort of look like a cross between Yuki Kondo and Genki Sudo (sans the tatoos) ;)

Well I continued with my running today. I'm not sure if the way I was breathing is the best way for me when I run. Lately I've been trying to breathe hard and fast. Like for every other stride of my legs or pump of my arms I would breathe out and then breathe in when the other side strides/pumps. This is a very fast and furious breathing pattern and I thought it gave me a lot of strength. But it's also very tiring I think. I can't keep it up long. I tried breathing a little slower today, just more natural and I felt I can concentrate more on picking up my legs and going more natural and longer without being as tired. I'm not sure if this is making sense but I felt different based on how I was breathing. I'll keep this in mind the next time I run. I look forward in starting my "longer" runs/jogs this weekend. Maybe I'll invest in some new cross training shoes since the ones I'm using now are like 7 years old. Yes, I know. I'm lame.

seeDerekNow - Wow. Thanks for the kind words and thanks for visiting my site. Kundo and Sudo are my two favorite Japanese fighters so for you to even reference me in the same sentence as them really made my day. I hope one day to be accurate and precise with my strikes as Kondo (or maybe even powerful) and I hope I can be as expressive and free as Sudo when I spar. Plus I love how he is very philosophical in practice of mixed martial arts. I hope your training is going well bro.

Well I did my run today while trying to focus more on my breathing. I definitely feel that if I don't breathe too fast i.e. at a rapid pace where everytime I "hammer" it exhale, the I can "flow" better in my runs. I definitely don't go as fast, but I feel lighter and my strides don't feel as forced. I don't know how to explain it, but I think I will keep trying this for a couple of more times to try to be more aware of this.

For those that don't know, I practice yoga once a week. There's this type of breathe that we do called "Ujjayi" breathing. Anyways, I'm always crazy and experimenting with different stuff. When I first asked my yoga instructor about why we breathe this way, she said, "For Strength." Strength eh? Interesting. Anyway, I think I mentioned this before where I tried to run while practicing this type of breathing where I just breathe in and out of my mouth. Well, today I tried it again on certain laps and I think I'm going to practice it a bit more. It's freakin' hard. But I like a little challenge. I don't know what benefits it will give me (if any), but it's not comfortable, it's tough, so I'm going to stick at it for a little bit. I think one immediate benefit is that I can lower my heart rate faster because this type of breathing is really deep and slow. And I do it right after I do my one minute of "running fast" and then focus on "Ujjayi" for the next 2 minutes as a start to walk and jog to recover from my fast running.

I plan on going jogging tomorrow. I usually run about 2 miles in 20 minutes in my cardio workouts when I talk about my running. I'm thinking about going to do some long distance running with a constant pace. I think it will benefit my endurance, plus I just think it will be something cool to do. I want to be able to say I can run 10 miles??? Maybe. Ten is a good, solid, round number. So why not. 10 miles in what time frame though? Hmmm. I don't know. I need to do some research to fine was is a respectable time. For now, I'm just going to see where I stand. Hopefully, I'll be able to hit 2-3 miles tomorrow easy. We will see.

In case some people are interested more about "Ujjayi" breathing. This is taken off of my instructions site http://www.yogamotionstudio.com

Ujjayi is often called the "sounding" breath or "ocean sounding" breath, and somewhat irreverently as the "Darth Vader" breath. It involves opening the back of the throat while breathing to create an "ah" sound.


Benefits
Focuses the mind
Increases mindfulness
Generates internal heat

How to do it
1. Come into a comfortable seated position with your spine erect, or lie down on your back. Visualize lifting you belly towards you chin and begin by taking long, slow, and deep breaths through the nostrils.

2. Allow the breath to be gentle and relaxed as you lower the tongue and open the back of the throat creating a steady "Darth Vader" sound as you breathe in and out. The sound need not be forced, but it should be loud enough so that if someone came close to you they would hear it.

3. Lengthen the inhalation and the exhalation as much as possible without creating tension anywhere in your body, and allow the sound of the breath to be continuous and smooth.

To help create the proper "ah" sound, hold your hand up to your mouth and exhale as if trying to fog a mirror. Inhale the same way. Notice how you opent the back of the throat to create the fog effect. Now close your mouth and do the same thing while breathing through the nose.

When to do it
During asana practice
Before meditation
Anytime you want to concentrate

I was able to have to day off today from work I decide to go for my "long distance" long today instead of the weekend (although today is technically a weekend for me, the start of a 3 day weekend. Voot!!!). Anyway, I wanted run for like 4 miles today, but insted I only ran 2 miles. I went to this new area, around a lake in Fremont called Lake Elizabeth and I wan't familiar with the trail so I decided to just run around the lake once to get familiar with it. It took me about 18 minutes to complete the 2 mile course. I think I'm going to try to hit 15 as a goal. During the whole time I was practicing my Ujjayi breathing. It was kind of hard, and after a while I couldn't get very deep good breathes in my lungs but I still managed to maintain breathing just through my nose. It was a fun little challenge. I'm going to keep trying to do this whenever I do long runs to see how long I can last. haha. I think I need to learn how to measure my heart rate so I can see if this Ujjayi breathing is actually keeping my heart rate down. Who knows. I'm just experimenting anyways.

Well, I didn't get to run last Saturday because my left foot was slightly injuried during my kickboxing class Friday night. So I decided to not run on Saturday, but I ran today instead. I'm still on my rest week and I'm enjoying this rest a lot. However I've been eating really bad lately. So in my attempt to keep a daily log of my "workout" progress, I guess I'll be adding some of my nuitrition info on here on the days that I'm not working out. This is sort of a confession/tracking tool. I'm trying to be as honest with my meals as I can.

So yesterday meals (Monday, 4/11/04): (Very bad meals yesterday, I went crazy)
- 11 am - Protein bar
- 1 pm - 2 big slices of Chicken Pizza and a 16oz Dr. Pepper
- 2 pm - 4 pieces of easter chocolate candy
- 3 pm - 1 can of diet coke
- 5 pm - Chicken and Salami salad with dressing and chess.
- 6 pm - 1 can of Sprite
- 7:30 pm - Orange and Banana
- 10:30 pm - Kung Pow with white rice

That is what I call a "fucked up day" of eating. I ate similar to this on Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday evening. Yeah, I went bucky wild. Way too many free days.

Today's meals (4/12/04)
- 8:30 am - All the Whey Orange Blended (Very tasty) and Light Force Green drink
- 11 am - 1/4 of a Protein Bar
- 12 am - Meat Loaf w/ Mushroom sauce, Brocalli, and Mac & Cheese
- 2 pm - Cellery and Carrot sticks. Plain.
- 3 pm - More Cellery and Carrot sticks. With Ranch and Peanut butter dippings.
- 4 pm - 1/4 of Protein Bar and 1 can of Diet Soda
- 5 pm - 2/3 serving of Chicken Caesar Salad
- 10 pm - Chicken Breast with white rice and salsa

My run today was good. I guess I missed it since I didn't get to run on last Saturday, although I did do a quick run on Sunday at the end of my hike. I love "running fast". I always think the cops are after me. I'm starting to think that I going to try to "run fast" for a minute and 10 seconds and start building upon it by adding 10 seconds each month. I plan on starting this in May. That way I should be able to "run fast" for 2 minute interval by the end of this year. Yippy for me.

Today's meals:
9:40 am - Protein Shake (All the Whey Strawberry - Not very good) and "Very Green" Green Drink from Trader Joes (Surprisingly very good).
12:30 pm - Tostada Chicken and Beef with black beans and Spanish rice. Usually I don't have sour cream, guacamole or cheese with my Mexican food, but today I did just to remind myself of the taste. It was good.
2:30 pm - Orange and Banana
4:30 pm - 1/2 of Southwestern Chicken Salad + 1/2 of Protein Bar
6:00 pm - 1/2 of Southwestern Chicken Salad
9:30 pm - Probably some left over Chinese food.

Well today was "run" day and I did my run. I still love running no matter if I'm not technically working out this week. I just try to do my best and try to push my lungs during the times when I'm "running fast." I guess it's just fun for me to see what my body is capable of pulling off. I definitely need to get some better running shoes though. These cross trainers that I've been using are just not cutting it.

Meals for the day:
8:30 am - Protein Shake, "Very Green" green drink
10 am - One Multivitamn
11 am - One Banana
11:30 am - One Orange
12:30 pm - Tri Tip with Coconut rice and pineapple cole slaw
3:00 pm - Chinese Chicken Salad with some left over tri tip
5:00 pm - Chinese Chicken Salad with some left over tri tip
9:30 pm - Left over Chinese food (Kung Pow Chicken I believe) with rice. And tofu soup with boiled egg white and yolk.
11:00 pm - "Very Green" Green drink.

Meals for the day:
10 am - "Very Green" green drink
11 am - One banana, One multivitamn
12:30 pm - Spaghetti with meat sauce, garlic bread, side salad with dressing and 2 1/2 pieces of cake
4:00 pm - Trail Mix with Orange
5:00 pm - 2 Serving of instant cup of soup
10:30 pm - Protien Bar
1:30 am - Tuna with white rice and Green drink

About 8 cups of water today.

Well, I didn't get a chance to post this weekend, because I was just lazy. But I wasn't lazy enough not to do my weekend run. On the weekends, I'm planning on doing longer distance runs since I have more time to spare. So this weekend, I ran. Initially I was going to run on Saturday. I got up, got all dressed, got my gear and water and then opened the garage and BLAM, rain outside. Well, I can't run in the rain (well, I can and sometimes I'm crazy enough to do it, but just not that day). But I was able to do my run on Sunday, but I only ran 2 miles. Very lame effort. I wasn't even tired by the end of my run. I was able to do it in 18 minutes, which I think is a pretty lame time. But oh well, I never ran long distance before, so this is going to be a big change for me. But it should be FUN!!! I was planning on going 4 miles last week, but I'm running in a new environment and I want to get use to the terrian before I start going for goals.

Bad things I ate this weekend:
Pork (Saturday)
One Grande Coffee Frappachino from Starbucks (Saturday)
Korean BBQ at 2 am in the morning (Sunday)
2 shots of Vodka, 1 serving of Johnny Walker, and something else??? (Saturday)
4 serving for Apple Pie - That's one half of a whole pie (Sunday)

Ok, needless to say. I'm feeling guilty as hell today. However, I knew I was going to start eating clean again this week, so I binged a bit (Ok, A LOT). That's 2 weekends in a row of undisciplined eating. Very bad. And all this left over Chinese food from last week is not helping. I'm feeling it now though. It's harder for me to get up, I have less energy and my self esteem is doing to the pooper.

Oh well, all that ended today as I starting to workout again. 2 weeks of no weight lifting is too depressing for me. Although my body physically needed it, no working out affected other parts of my life drastically. Anyway, for the next 2 weeks I'll be doing my Power 90 circuit routine at home just to get back into the swing of things. Today it was very hard to get back. Mondays are usually very hard for me in general, but Monday after 2 weeks of no lifting weights, is even harder. I used very light weights today just to get back into the mood and finishing the whole workout routine. I felt great afterward and my spirit and confidence level got boosted again. It was exactly what I needed to help me come back. I think this time it's harder because I'm not doing anything "new" and "exciting". It's just a continuation of a way of life that I choose to live.

This is going to be a major challenge for me because EVERYTIME in the past I've tried to continue with my workout routine after I finish a program, I fall out of consistency and start flopping in and out like a dead fish. This is why I like being on workout programs, they help me be consistent. And for me, working out is all about being consistent. Consistent in the way I eat, the way I keep active, the way I plan. Without it, every other part of my life pays the consequence is some way as well. It's weird how working out affects other areas of my life, but it does and I can't deny that.

Anyway, enough ranting for a Monday. I'm glad I'm back on track, and the goals for this week is to eat clean, drop some body fat, and build my heart rate back up from the circuit program. Wish me lucks.

Well today was cardio day. I was going to run however it was raining outside. What a drag. Well, the weather gave me reason to revisit my Power 90 Cardio workout. So I did that for 40 minutes instead of my usual 20 minute intensity workout. My right calf is bothering me a bit. Sometimes I don't know if I should just let my body rest or just keep training even if there's some slight pain. I guess "slight" pain is ok. If it is sever pain, I would have to sit on the side lines. Although I enjoyed doing my Power 90 workout today, I must say it was not that much of a challenge. I guess I could have made it more challenging if I brought up the intensity. I probably will next time, but that's the thing about following a program on TV or a set routine program that I know what's going to happen next; I can just go into auto pilot and just do the movements. When I run, I can't do it. I have to push, push, PUSH myself and my will everytime. That's probably why I can only do it for 20 minutes. Anymore than that, I'd really dread the experience. Anyway, today I'm still in the "get back into the swing of things" mood. Hopefully tomorrow I'll "bring it" when I do my circuit workout again.

Meals for yesterday:
8:45 am - Protein Shake (Chocolate) and Very Green alkaline drink
11am - Banana
12:30 pm - Spanish Seafood dish with calms, mussels, and yellow rice and flat bread (Not very clean)
2:00 pm - Orange
2:30 pm - Diet Coke
3:30 pm - 1/2 of a roast beef sandwich with 12 Grain bread (not good).
5:45 pm - the other half of the sandwich
8:00 pm - Chicken Breast with white rice and salsa and some left over pork on the side.
9:00 pm - Grapes
12am - Very Green alkaline drink

Not very clean yesterday, but getting better. I usually don't eat "pure clean" anyways, yesterday is a good sample of how I usually eat. Last week, "forget about it..." LOL

Well, today's workout was super hard. "Hard" in the sense that I did not want to do it. I swear I lose focus and reason why I workout sometimes. But I was able to push through my power 90 circuit program and after 20 minutes into it, I started to feel slightly good about the workout. It was still not a joy to do. I don't even know why I don't have the energy. I'm sleeping more now. I'm drinking my alkaline. Maybe the new brand "Very Green" from Trader Joe's is just not working. I don't know. All I know is that I was feeling tired today and it sucks to try to workout when my heart and mind is not up to it.

Anyways Meals from yesterday:
8:30 am - Protein Shake and Very Green green drink
11 am - Orange
11:50 am - Thai Turkey Lettuce wrap with peanut noddles (1/2 serving)
2:00 pm - Other half serving of Thai Turkey Lettuce wrap with peanut noddles
3:30 pm - 1/2 Roast beef sandwich on 12 Grain bread
5:30 pm - The other half of sandwich
7:40 pm - Celery and Carrot sticks
9:40 pm - White Rice and Fried Fish (Bad!!!)
11:20 pm - Very Green green drink

Bad eating yesterday I think. I think dinner was bad, everything else was relativity good.

Meals for today:
8:30 am - Protein drink and "Very Green" green drink
10 am - Orange
12:20 pm - Turkey breast with stuffing and carrots
2:30 pm - One Protein bar
5:30 pm - Steak Salad with dressing
8 pm - Chicken Breast with white rice and salsa
11 pm - Green drink

Well, I decided to go for my run today. Since I have't done any "running fast" since last Thrusday, I knew today was going to be a bit of a challenge. For some reason, I've been feeling weak lately. Is it because I've stopped using creatine and gutamine? Well, it can't be the gutamine because they have some in the "All The Whey" whey protein products, unless those bastards are lying like they lied about giving out samples (I was rejected from any samples after I order all 5 flavors of "blends", 2lbs each, from their site. I asked for 5 different samples of the "isolate" and they said they couldn't do it because of cost reasons. It was hard for me to attempt since they are willing to give out samples to people who don't even order from their site. Go figure. I would have asked for just one sample after that the exchange of emails, but by this time, I was tired of being a petty begger and didn't want to hear another sob story of how "their margins" was very little for every whey protein product they sold. Well, change your damn business model you dumb fucks. Anyway, enough ranting... Btw, I do appreciate how cheap their whey protein are and I will buy from them again if their prices remain low. Somehow I doubt it will by the way this company complains.)

Anyway, my run was good. Fun and good. I love fun and good. Actually, I was more into my run because my mentality in running changed. I thought about my run as way to exercise "personal growth" instead of thinking of it as something I have to do to "upkeep" my physical level. Sure, the "upkeeping" part comes along with it naturally (i.e. I run, I maintain my endurance. Duh.) But just the change in mentality today changed my energy level. I will keep trying this to see how well it works for me. I like the feel I get when I say or picture the activities that I do, I do it for "personal growth". Ahhhh.... those two words, "Personal Growth," they make me feel so powerful. Btw, I didn't get a 10 today on my run. But I got a good 9.

Today I decided to say the hell with the Power 90 Circuit workout and I hit the gym at my work again and decided to hit some weights. I followed the upper body workout from Body-for-LIFE today. The main reason was that I missed the feeling of lifting against weights and the resistence I got. Plus, I feel it's a much more effective weight lifting workout than the Power 90 Circuit training. I just want to feel my upper body all tired and sore later on in the day. I miss that feeling and the Body-for-LIFE program usually gets me to this state when I train with convection. Today, I felt good. I didn't train super hard since it's been a couple of weeks since I last hit the weights, so I did a moderate workout. To my surprise, most of my strength has not left me. Yippie for me.

The thing was I really like the benfits of the Power 90 circuit workout. It is really tough for me because it trains my heart more than my muscles. It's basically, no rest for 40 minutes. I end up doing rep after rep until I start sweating and my heart is pumping and I'm breathing super heavy. But I don't get a good "pump". I don't feel like I fatigued my muscles after my workout. I feel like I fatigued the hell out of my heart though. But right now, I want muscles. So I decided to do Body-for-LIFE today. Yeah, I'm a "short term goal" outlook type of guy. LOL. Anyways, no "10's" for me today. All "9's" but feeling great.

Meals for yesterday:
9:15 am - Protein Drink and green drink
10:30 am - Orange
12:30 pm - Chicken Kabob with Rice and side salad
2:30 pm - 1/2 serving of Chinese Chicken Noddles
5:00 pm - 1/2 serving of Chinese Chicken Noddles
6:00 pm - Banana
10:20 pm - Rice with Fried Fish and Pork (BAD!!!)
12 am - Greek drink

Ok, so I broke a little with the "Noddles" and the "fried fish". I was just too tired to cook chicken last night after training jiu-jitsu.

Well today I was able to get in my run. I feel really good right now because of this run. 4 miles. It might not be a new record for me, but it was a real challenge for me to hit this mark. During the run itself, I didn't know if I was going to be able to complete it. Around the beginning for the first lap, I wasn't sure if I was going to do a second (1 lap is 2 miles). But at the end of the first lap, I asked myself this simple question. "What is discipline?" I've been writing and reading a lot about discipline lately and this question just hit the mark I needed to go the next 2 miles. I was not able physical condition at all. I knew I had it within me to run another even though my legs were feeling a bit fatigue. However, in my heart and mind, I wasn't sure if I could do it. Well, today, I was able to overcome this obsticale and try to define what discipline was. I told myself last week and all this week I was going to do 4 miles today. I did it and now I'm going to eat ice cream. Just kidding.

Meals for yesterday:
- 10:30 am: Protein Shake
- 1 pm: Tuna Kabobs and rice
- 3 pm: 1/2 serving of Tortilla Burger
- 4 pm: TWO servings for ice creams with various toppings (VERY BAD!!!)
- 5:30 pm: 1/2 serving of Tortilla Burger
- 6:30 pm: Banana
- 9:20 pm: Greek drink
- 9:45 pm: Chicken Breast and Rice

Ha ha. All this talk about discipline and I didn't have ANY yesterday. I couldn't resist the "ice cream" we had a work. That damn ice cream was good too. Especially with all the toppings. I forgot how good ice cream was. Good thing I reminded myself yesterday. I wish I asked myself the question yesterday, however I think I did think about "discipline" but caved. Oh I was weak yesterday. Today, I will eat well. I will be disciplined. Tomorrow, nope, I will drink my beer, eat my chips and watch my Pride with joy.

Meals for yesterday:
9:30 am - Whey Protein and green drink
2:40 pm - Chicken breast with rice and tofu
6 pm - Rice and Fish and tofu
9 pm - Green Tea and 1/2 of protein bar
12 am - Tuna and rice and green drink

Not a great day of nutrition but I didn't intake any real bad food expect maybe for the fish since it was bought at a Chinese deli.

Today I did upper body again. It was great workout and I had A LOT of energy. I was hitting pretty good numbers on the weights even though they were not my max numbers when I finished the BFL routine 3 weeks ago. Nonetheless, I'm happy I haven't lost too much strength and I've stopped taking creatine and gutamine. But that's only because I ran out of creatine. I just ordered 2000g from bodybuilding.com based on what John (www.johnstonefitness.com) uses. I think it helped in my strength training last time, however they recommend 3-5 times a day. I use to take it only once a day. LOL. No wonder I never gain any weight. Oh well, it worked for me in the past, no need to change it up now. Plus, everytime I take supplements, I feel uneasy about it because I'm afraid that my body is going to start depending on them to come in on a regular basis. If I stop, I'm afraid I'll start getting real sick, real fast.

Anyway, great upper body workout today. I'm starting to feel my arms all tired and fatigued already. I LOVE IT!!! One thing I know I need to work out more now is my lower body workouts. It's weird. I know in the past when I did the BFL lower body workouts, my legs have really good gains. But not this time around. I wonder why? I guess I'm not pushing myself hard enough on the legs workout or before when I did my cardio on stationary machines at the gym, I was able to manually adjust the resistence. Now all I do is run, so not adjustable resistence. But running fast should have blown up my legs. Weird. Need to experiment more on this.

Meals for yesterday: (Yesterday was cheat day for me)
- 9:15 am - Protein Shake & green drink
- 12 pm - Dark meat chicken with rice
- 2:30 pm - Quizno's beef and cheeder on wheat without mayo or mustard
- 4pm - Alcohol time! One serving of "Mojitos"
- 6pm - Grilled Steak and rice, one sausage.
- 7 - 10 pm - Probably overal 4 servings of chips and salsa and 2 beers.
- 10:30 pm - 2nd sausage with ketsup

Good eating yesterday considering that it was "cheat" day. I knew I was going to eat bad today and I don't care. I love to enjoy myself after a week of "semi-good" discipline. I'm still killing myself about the second serving of ice cream I had last Friday though.

I've finally up my Day 90 pictures in the Media Gallery forum. Click on this link if your interested. Day 90 Pictures (http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showthread.php?p=4124#post4124)

So I did my cardio today. It felt good. I don't know where I'm getting the energy these days, but I pushed myself pretty hard today. It must be the bright morning sun. I thought about how I plan on running for longer periods of time, like starting next month, I plan on adding 10 seconds to my "run fast" time. Then I thought to myself, "10 seconds is a freakin' long time." LOL. Oh well, I'm up to the challenge. Again, I'm not just about maintaining, but constantly trying to improve. I was thinking maybe just adding 5 seconds, but that interval is too short for now. So 10 seconds starting in May. Fun, fun, fun. I'm not sure how I'll get my cardio in on Max-OT program, so I still need to plan and play around with that. After my run, did my 200 reps of ab exercises and drank my protein and green drink. Yum.

Meals for yesterday:
11:30 am - Protein shake
1:30 pm - Salmon with rice and veggies and salsa
3:40 pm - 1/2 serving of Chicken cobb salad with bacon and gucamole and dressing
5:30 pm - 2nd half serving of the chicken cobb salad
8:30 pm - 1/4 of a protein bar
9:40 pm - Deli Chinese food with rice and fish (BAD!!!)
12:00 am - Grapes and Green drink

Ok, pretty bad eating yesterday. Not really, but the deli chinese food was just so convenient. I'm not too strict with my intake these days, but I should still watch what I eat. The bacon and the gucamole I could have doen without as well, but it sure tasted good.

Holy sh*t! You're now more shredded than ever! 7.5% is incredible. You've surpassed your original goal of 8%. Great job. I need to read your journals more carefully to learn how you did it. Do you sprint a lot? Is that your preferred form of cardio?

SeeDerekNow - Yes I do "run fast" a lot. It's not really spiriting, but I make a hard effort to run fast. There is no way I can spirit for a full minute, my legs would literally explode into a thousand tiny pieces. When I was doing the BFL program, I ran 3 times a week on the days that I was suppose to do cardio (Tuesday, Thrusday, Saturday). Now I just do my run twice a week (Tuesday, Thrusday) and on Saturday I still run, but I run for longer distance to get the "long distance" endurance capacity higher. Yes, "running fast" is my perfered cardio exercise over anything else. It's functional, it's hard, and it gets me outside where I don't have to go to the gym every freakin' day so it changes the atmosphere. I really don't like running on the tread mill, let alone trying to "run fast" on it. Way too dangerous for my blood. Thanks for you kind words. Hopefully I'll put on some mass when I start Max-OT.

You should definitely post your before & after pics in the Multimedia gallery. I think a lot of ppl will be inspired by your transformation.

I trained legs today. It's been probably 4 weeks since I last did legs. Although there's lower body protion in the Power 90 circuit program, it's not the intensity is not the same. My legs are beat right now, but surprisenly, I didn't lose too much strength. It's the whey protein. LOL. I'm really looking forward in starting the Max-OT program to see how much mass and strength I can put on. I think my new goal is 150lbs. So I will try to gain 10lbs in 3 months. I think must of the weight will be gained on my lower body. I will see when the time comes.

Meals for yesterday:
- 8:30 am: Protein drink and green drink
- 11 am: Banana and 1/2 Orange
- 12 am: Mahi Mahi with rice and veggies
- 2 pm: 1/2 Roast Beef & Chicken salad deli sandwich
- 4:30 pm: 8 pieces of Spicy Tuna Roll
- 7:40 pm: Other half of sandwich
- 9:50 pm: Green drink
- 10:20 pm: Fish and rice and some left over chicken
- 11:30 pm : Grapes

Ok eating yesterday. I'm not as strict as before just because I'm not on any program right now. But I'm not going crazy eating bad neither, the worst thing I had yesterday was probably the left over chicken and the fish for dinner (since they are all Chinese deli food).

So today was cardio day. However, my workout program has suddenly changed. I just signed up to run the Bay of Breakers on May 16th. So I'm changing my workout routine on days that I do cardio, I'll be running for at least 6 miles. Today I did my 6 mile run. It was fun. I have to train to run for 7.2 miles, so I'm probably going to train to run 8 miles, just to make it a nice even number. My goal eventually was to be able to run 10 miles anyways. I was going to try to hit this goal on a very gradual process, but now it looks like I'm going to turn up the hit in training since I only got 2 weeks before the actual race. After today's run, it looks like I'll be able to hit this race with very little problem. I was able to hit 6 miles pretty easy, my heart was not even beating fast nor my lungs. I'm pretty sure I could have went the whole 7.2 today, but I didn't want to push myself that hard since my physical body, my feet, joints, and ankels is not use to the long period of consistent impact yet. It will be though. I'll probably hit 8 miles by the middle of next wekk.

Meals for yesterday:
- 10:30 am: Protein drink and multivitamn
- 12:30 pm: 1/2 serving of Pad Thai
- 3:30 pm: 1/2 serving of Pad Thai
- 5:00 pm: Beef Taco
- 6:00 pm: Chicken Taco (hard shell - BAD!)
- 9:00 pm: 1/2 Protein bar
- 10:30 pm: Rice with fish and green drink

Not a great meal yesterday, but still go in 6 meals.

Meals for today:
- 9:30 am: Protein drink and green drink
- 12:30 pm: Chicken breast with white rice
- 3 pm: 1/2 Protein bar and MSM pill and tropical tea
- 5 pm: Tuna and Rice
- 10 pm: Chicken breat and rice

Pretty good in eating today. The only "bad" thing was the tropical tea and the protein bar. Everything else was pretty clean. Good work.

I'm writing about my Friday workout on Sunday because I didn't have time to write it down on Friday. But my Friday workout was pretty good. I did my upper body BFL workout and it was pretty intense. Although I have to admit, my mind was in the mood of working out. Sometimes I just have force myself to just keep going. Ideally, I like to think that I don't have to "force" myself to workout and finish my workout, but sometimes I just don't feel like working out. And when this happened, I hate having to admit that I have to force myself to workout but it happens. I'm just glad I get it done in the end.

I didn't get to workout yesterday because I went to Reno with my friends. Usually I plan my workout before hand but I knew that with the schedule of the trip, I had to wake up earlier than regular to get my workout in. However, I knew there's no way I would have woken up early because I partied on Friday night. LOL. So I made up my workout today on Sunday. I'm still in Reno, however I was able to get my workout in early this morning with a run around Boomstown. There was no gym, there was no track, so I just decided to run on the side of the road. I'm still currently training for the Bay of Breakers and today I wanted to prepare my body more for the constant ponding on my legs and feet. So I ran for a full hour. Although I'm not 100% sure how far I ran, I'm pretty sure I ran somewhere between 6.5 to 7 miles today. Hopefully sometimes next week, I'll be able to hit 8 miles and then I can start concentrating on picking up my time.

I decided not to do my Max-OT workout this week. The main reason is because the program requires me to workout with weights everyday. And since I'm training for Bay of Breakers, I need days for cardio. So I figure keep doing the BFL workouts for 2 more weeks, since I'm already familiar with the workot routine and I know there are days specificially for cardio. On those days, I can run. So I have a little slight change in the initial plan. It's ok, I'll just start in the middle of May or in the the beginning of June. It's not a big deal for me, though my goals for the end of June might change a bit.

My eating habits in Reno is pretty bad. Ofcourse it was and I didn't really care. That's because I knew eariler this week that I was going to go to Reno so I already knew I was going to eat bad. I don't really care because I ate relativity good last week and one day a week is not going to kill me.

Did my legs workout today. I felt great this morning during my quad excerises. I was ON FIRE!!! However, as soon as that was over, my energy levels died down fast. As I was doing my hamstrings, I got more tired and tired. I'm not surprised since I didn't get that much sleep this weekend nor last night. But I was shocked that I had some much energy for my quad excerises. Nonetheless, I had a great workout and I did abs work today as well.

Meals for today:
- 10:30 am: Whey Protein, multivitamn, MSM, and green pill.
- 12:30 pm: Cubin sandwich (BAD!!!)
- 3:15 pm: 1/2 serving of Chinese Chicken Salad
- 5:15 pm: 1/2 serving of Chinese Chicken Salad
- 8:00 pm: Chicken breast with rice
- 11 pm: Green drink

I had a great run today. I'm still training for the Bay of Breakers so that means 8 miles of running for me. And 8 miles I did. I'm pretty sure it was 8 miles. 16 laps around the park. Every 2 laps is one mile or they say. I think it's true based on my timing. I was able to run the 16 laps in about 63 minutes. I was trying to pace it at around 15 minutes for every 4 laps. That means 3 3/4 minute for every lap. I definitely need a better watch if I plan on doing this right. I think I'll look for one tomorrow night.

I felt pretty good during my run today. My legs and feet are adjusting to the constant pounding. I'm accepting the fact that after 2 miles, it all feels the same. If I ever give up, it's not because I can't physically run it based on fatiqueness. If I stop, it's because I'm weak in the mind. This is what I'm experiencing in running long distance. It's all in the mind because I feel the same from running 2 miles verus running 8 miles. Today was actually the first time I ran 8 miles and I'm already racing against the clock. I like racing against the clock. It gives me something to strive for. It's like a big metaphor in life. Time is not absolute. Just like in life, time is fixed. I only have a fixed amount of time to get what I need to get done. This is why it's good to run against the clock. I could have taken my time and I know eventually, I will finish. I can walk 8 miles for God sakes and I'll finish. But why do that? Where's the challenge? How is it a "workout"? How do a grow from this experience if all I'm doing is just "wondering about"? For me when I play with "time" as my motivator, I'm so focused. This is true for the HITTS program as well. I have a goal. I have a set time. Now, GO! GO! GO! It's so exciting to me. Ofcourse in the beginning it does drag on. Doing lap 1 knowing that I have 15 more laps to do is not too motivating. However, doing lap 1 knowing that I better finish this lap in 3 minutes and 45 seconds will push me to work my ass off from the beginning.

Anyway, I hope I can cut my time down and that the miles I'm running now are close to being accurate. I'll attempt this again Thrusday. Oh yeah, on the last mile, I turn up the heat and during the last straight away, I "run fast." It felt great to finish so hard at the end of my run. I'm starting to take creatine again.

Meals for today:
- 9:30 am: Protein, green drink, MSM, multivitamn, and creatine!!!
- 11:50 am: 1/2 serving of Water Trout with salsa, rice, and vegs
- 2:00 pm: 1/2 serving of Water Trout
- 4:15 pm: 1/2 serving of Chicken Cordu Blue with rice, mashed potatoe, and brocolli
- 6:00 pm: 1/2 serving of Chicken Cordu Blue
- 8:00 pm: Celery Sticks and Carrots
- 9:30 pm: Chicken Breast, rice, and salsa
- 11:30 pm: Green drink

Hey Frank,

Are you upping your calories in order to accomodate all that running? Are you concerned about losing lean mass?

Derek

I did my upper body workout today. I notice that my strength isn't as strong as before. For my max weight reps, I can only do 4 reps instead of the 6 I use to do. That's ok. Hopefully when I start the Max-OT program, my strength will gradually increase. Also, I really can't wait to start Max-OT. Doing 5 body parts a day on Upper body day is killing me. I can totally see that I'm over training. My focus loses it's intensity after doing 2 body parts. Sometimes it comes back, but most of the time, I'm struggling near the end of my workout session. Hopefully with Max-OT, my workout time will be shorter (gives me time to stretch and shadow box) and my body will appreciate working only one body part a day.

Meals for today:
- 10:30 am: Protein, green pill, MSM, multivitamn, and creatine!!!
- 12:50 am: Noddles with beef with soup base
- 3:00 pm: 1/2 serving of Chicken Faijta with black beans and Spanish rice.
- 5:00 pm: 1/2 serving of Chicken Faijta with black beans and Spanish rice.
- 7:00 pm: Probably some Mexican food since it's Cinco De Mayo!!! And chips and margaritas and all that bad greasy stuff. Yes!!!
- 11:30 pm: Green drink

-SeeDerekNow: Thanks for the response. I'm not trying to eat more these days. This is usually how I eat. I'm noticing that I am starting to drop some more body fat from my new cardio routine. I'm not concerned because I always LOVE dropping body fat. I'll try to gain some mass later when I start doing Max-OT but for now, my eating habits has been the same. I still have my cheat day once or twice a week depending on how discipline I am that week.

Well, I just broke my 8 mile goal today. I ran 8 miles in less that 60 minutes today. Now the initial goal was to run the Bay to Breakers in less than a hour. I already know that's not going to happen because of the traffic. I'm just going to enjoy my moment there. But the main drive for the goal was the run 7.2 miles in less than an hour. That I have already done for sure. There are still 2 factors that can make affect my judgment.

1. 16 laps around the park is not exactly 8 miles. I'm not 100% if every 2 laps around the park is a mile. I'm pretty sure, but not 100% positive. If it is not, I'm probably under calculating.
2. I haven't ran up hills yet. Bay to Breakers has an incline to run. I plan on practicing this weekend and try to get use to running on an incline. Last Sunday when I tried to do this, it was very tough. I was breathing very heavy by the time I got to the top. I will run up Cal State Hayward this weekend to get my body use to running up an incline. I hope them cars don't be trying to hittin' me.

That being said, I think I've already hit my goal since I'm don't plan on running hard during Bay to Breakers (not because I don't want to, but because of environmental factors i.e. a freakish amount of people). So I think I'm just going to go for my ultimate goal now which is to run 10 miles. So come this Saturday, I'm going to start attempting to run 10 miles. And then ultimately try to cut my time to do it all in less than 60 minutes (6 minutes per mile). My only concern now is that my body is still not use to the impact. I almost pulled a muscle today during my 15th lap. I felt something in my hamstring and it concerned me a bit. So I have to be careful about this. Now as I wake, I can feel some aches in my knees and groin muscles. So this is relatively new to me, but I pretty sure I can do 10 miles now. Because as I mentioned before, after 2 miles or so, it's all in my head. There's really no difference for me after 8 miles and then adding 2 more miles. Just add 15 more minutes to my run.

Meals for today:
- 9:30 am: Whey protein, green drink, MSM, multivitamin, and creatine.
- 11:40 am: 1/2 serving of Indian Chicken with rice and green beans
- 1:50 pm: Orange and some celery and carrot sticks
- 2:10 pm: 1/2 serving of Indian Chicken with rice and green beans
- 4:00 pm: 1/2 serving Chicken sandwich with roast beef on Wheat
- 5:00 pm: Celery and Carrot sticks with peanut butter and ranch sauce.
- 10:30 pm: Chicken Breast with rice and salsa
- 11:30 pm: Green drink

Today was lower body day. I felt pretty good going into the workout, but like last Monday once I started doing my hamstrings, my energy levels died down. I have to admit I wasn't focusing 100% on the exercise. I had something else on my mind and I think I was also getting distracted by the TV that was on at the gym. I really don't know why people watch TV while they are working out. It's such a big distraction. I think TV's a big distraction in general, but I just don't see how someone can focus on their workout while the TV is on and the volume is nice and loud. I personally get sucked in very easily, but maybe that's just me and my weak will. I mean, it's hard enough to maintain a level of focus during my rest times, but with TV on, man, my one minute rest sets becomes two minutes, then my start to warm down and lose concentration. Then after that I just feel like calling it a day because I'm not focused at my task at hand. And when I'm lifted heavy objects, best believe I better be focused or else I shouldn't even bother because that's just asking for injury. Anyway, I once again "willed" my way through my workout and completed another week of an attempt to gain some muscle.

Meals for today:
- 10:30 am: Whey Protein, creatine, glutamine, MSM, multivitamin, and green pill
- 12:15 pm: Chicken breast with carrots and mushrooms and potatoes
- 2:00 pm: Orange and Banana
- 3:10 pm: 1/2 serving of "Santa Fe Steak Salad"
- 5:15 pm: 1/2 serving of "Santa Fe Steak Salad"
- 9:30 pm: Fish and rice
- 11:30 pm: Greek drink

Ok, so I didn't update my workout progress this weekend because I didn't feel like hopping on the internet this weekend and writing. But I did do my run. My initial plan was to run 10 miles. WRONG!!! I couldn't do it. At the end of my 8th mile, I felt some pain on my right ankel. So instead of trying to be "Mr. Macho" and tough it out, I decided it was wiser to just stop and try it again another day. I think I'm trying to progress too fast in terms of my running so I'm going to be patient with myself and let me body adjust to this new activity that I currently started doing.

Also my run around Lake Elizabeth was longer than excepted. I couldn't run around the whole lake in under 15 minutes as I thought I could when I ran around the park. I rather use the lake as a measurement for running 2 miles because I just like running around there a lot better. So I think I over shot my initial goal and gave myself false confidence. So for now, I'm going to concentrate on trying to run around the lake in less than 15 minutes first. Last I checked, I was doing it in 16 1/2 minutes. I'm not sure if I want to acheive the 15 minute time first before tackling running 10 miles or do that 10 mile and try to run every 2 miles with 15 minutes at the same time. Oh the dilemma.

I decided to run a bit more today because I knew I needed to feel what it's like to run up hill for a long period of time. I ran up the hill for Cal State Hayward. My official time up is 13 minutes from the bus stop to the peak of the hill which was measured with a stop sign marker. Now this run was freakin' hard. It was very challenging. I don't know what I was thinking when I thought I wanted to do this. But nonetheless, I didn't stop when I was running up that hill. It was hard, the grade is 18% (which I don't know if it's a steep hill or not), but it felt very steep. I wouldn't even say I was running up that thing. I was more like "baby stepping" up. But I plan on doing this a couple of more times just because it was FUN!!! Actually because it was hard. I don't enjoy going down though. They need to have a lift or a slide. I wonder when is the day when I'll try to do 3 laps of this craziness. The thought crosses my head, but not yet. I'm just glad I was able to finish one attempt without stopping.

Today was upper body day. Man I felt really bad this morning when I woke up. I didn't even want to wake up nonetheless go workout. But I think my routine has come to the point where I just do it. I don't care if I don't feel like it. I woke up, I have 2 hours before I need to go to work, I will go workout even though my body does not want me to. I'll even get in a lazy workout. A half-ass one if I need to, but I will be lifting some weights for that day. The day when I give up and say "I don't have to workout today" without a real legitament excuse is the day when I know I rather take the easy way out in life. That's kind of hard for me to shallow even though at times I do take the easy way out in other areas of my life. But I try not to when it comes to working out. I've worked so hard to build up my inner strength for me to just surrender to my "mood of the moment."

Anyway, I still had a pretty decent workout after I start to pump some weights up and down. So once again, just get my butt in the gym and start moving. 1 hour later, if I still don't feel like it, I can get out of there and cry to my mommy then. But only after I commented some time in there and not give into my moods.

I ate very bad this weekend. Usually I have one free day a week and I can eat any crap I want and I usually don't feel too bad about it. Even on my free days, I usually just have one or two free meals. But not eat bad for the whole day. Well, last Saturday I ate bad for the whole day. I went to a BBQ and I was eating a piece of pie here and piece of cake there, beers, chips, on the works. It tasted great, but I still feel guilty doing it because it was a bit extreme. Then on Sunday I went with my family to a buffet for Mother's day. Again I went crazy. Not good. The result is a gain of 3 lbs this morning when I weighed myself. I can feel it in my body too. Oh well. I feel a bit down because I've been able to drop a few % of body fat last week. It's all that long distance running I believe. Now I wasted all the effort with some beige eating. Errrh..... *bunks me-self on the head* Oh well. More running for me this week and try to get back into some respectable eating habits again.

Today I did my run again. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do prior to this morning so I just decided to run 16 laps around the park again even though I wasn't quite sure if it equaled exactly 8 miles. My goal was to try to do it in less than 60 minutes again. However, I did not acheive my goal today. I'm not sure why, I think it's because I start very slow. I like to warm into my run so my first two laps I really take it easy. Then after that I start picking up the pace. I got a new way of running where I turn up the intensity every 2 minutes for 2 minutes. So for 2 minutes straight, I think about running faster and focus on my legs taking long strides. Then after that I focus on my breathing and let my legs rest a bit.

Running for a long time is still hard for me, especially physically on my legs. My legs just get so tired. It's not like "running fast" where my lungs and heart get tired. This is just taxing on my legs. But I don't give up. I just keep going until my number of laps I predetermined is up. It's all in the mind when I run long distance. But now I want to run long distance and run faster. So I have to pace my time and energy. I'm not sure how to do it yet. I'm sure I'll figure out a good strategy later. I need to settle on which days I will be doing "long distance" running and which days I'll be sprinting. This, plus I'm going to start Max-OT probably next week after the Bay to Breakers. For now, I'm just running more long distance so I can get my body ready for this event.

Meals for yesterday:
- 10:30 am: Whey Protein, green pill, creatine, glutamine, mutivitamin, MSM
- 12:30 pm: Baked Chicken breast with potatoes
- 2 pm: Orange and banana
- 3 pm: 1/2 serving of Buffalo salad
- 4 pm: Nuts trail mix
- 5 pm: 1/2 serving of Buffalo salad
- 8 pm: Some chinese food
- 10 pm: Sun flower seeds, almonds, and some crackers
- 11:30 pm: Green drink

Bad eating yesterday. Still getting cravings but doing better than this last weekend.ugh

Meals for today:
- 9:30 am: Whey Protein, green drink, creatine, MSM, multivitamin
- 11:50 am: 1/2 serving of Tuna steak and rice and green beans
- 2 pm: 1/2 serving of Tuna steak and rice and green beans
- 2:30 pm: Banana
- 3:00 pm: Orange
- 4:00 pm: 1/2 serving Turkey with potatoes and green beans
- 5:00 pm: 1/2 serving Turkey with potatoes and green beans
- 6:00 pm: Tropical Trail Mix
- 7:40 pm: Protein bar
- 9:15 pm: Left over Chinese food

I'm getting a lot of cravings lately. Thus the reasons of me snacking a lot the last two days. My snacking isn't that bad, and I don't feel to bad eating them since I know I've been running and doing cardio for a long period of time these days. Last week when I ate well, I dropped a lot of body fat. I was planning on doing the same this week, but since I'm snacking so much, I don't think I'll get the same results as last week.

Oh man, I know I've been saying this a lot lately but today I definitely did not want to workout. I don't know what it is these days. I have a feeling that it's what I've been eating, but I'm not 100% positive. Yesterday I ate some pretty bad food I think. So I'm going to try to not eat as bad these next few days to see if it helps me get up in the morning and be more eager to workout.

So today was leg's day but I knew I was not in the mood to do anything heavy. So I just did a half-assed workout and went through my whole routine. I didn't push myself that hard, but that's ok. I'm just glad I finished my routine. I'm even more glad that sometimes my values are greater than my moods. My moods lately is that I don't feel like working out. If I were to give in to my moods, I'd really be going down on a slup. I know that these times are very criticial times. It can break me if I stop. I've seen this before. One day becomes two days, then three days. Then I say I'll start again next week, and the it drags and drags until I become discouraged from having negative progress. The cycle is sick. It's very hard to overcome this until I've hit bottom and then start climbing back up again. I don't want to put myself in this compromising position. That's why on days like today, I rather have half-assed workout than no workout. At least I'm still moving forward. I still keep my promise to myself and my integrity. Not everyday is a "gain" day. Not everyday is a day where I will be "motivated." Some days are like today; very hard to overcome. But the strength is knowing that I have the potential to overcome it and actually proving it myself by doing it. I felt real good after my workout was complete, even though there was no real physical justification why I should be on cloud 9. Like I mentioned before, working out to me is not really about the "physical" part. The physical part is more like the natural reward for all the mental dedication.

Meals for today:
- 10:30 am: Whey Protein, green pill, creatine, glutamine, multivitamin, MSM
- 1 pm: Chicken and seafood tostada with spanish rice
- 2:30 pm: Oranage and banana
- 3:30 pm: Catfish with rice (1/2 serving)
- 4:30 pm: 1/4 protein of protein bar
- 5:10 pm: Catfish with rice (1/2 serving)
- 8 pm: Chicken breast with rice
- 11 pm: green drink

I didn't workout today. I actually started my run and I ran a lap around the park however I just had too much on my mind. I usually don't like making any excuses for me not being able to workout and this is no different. I don't really feel bad not working out today because I needed to focus on another area of my life that's been really bothering me lately. So I took the time out this morning to focus on that instead of working out. It was time well spent. However, it's writing about this because now I feel guilty. However, I don't regret it. Tomorrow I will hit the gym again. No excuses. I don't expect to have a perfect track record, just a pretty good one. My goal in working out and everything in life is just to have a pretty good "batting average." Consistency is the key principle for me. If I mess up once a long while, I don't bonk myself in the head too hard. It happens. I accept it and move on. Today was one of those days.

Ok, I've decided. I really like my body with very low body fat. Seriously, I don't think I've mentioned this, but last week I've measured my body fat and I was down to 7%. This is really an amazing feat for me and I felt my body really lean. Needless to say that I LOVED the feeling. I think it has to do with all my long distance running and eating right last week. But that was last week. Since I pigged out last weekend and I've been eating pretty bad this week as well (although I promised myself that I would be eating better this week), I gained a lot of weight back in a very short time. I weighed myself this morning and I'm like 4-5 lbs more than regular. Of course, this is not good. I feel sluggish. I felt tired this whole week and it was hard for me to wake up. Granted I think part of my eating bad this week and feeling like crap is the other areas of my life that's been bothering me. But I still like to keep this area, the "physical", on par. Granted I know I can't always be on top of my game, but I like to be aware when things are starting to look like it's falling apart. From me eating bad these past couple of days and me not working out and me not being able to "spring up" out of bed, I know something is wrong, wrong, WRONG!!! So here is me acknowledging that I need to pay attention to this area before things really starts to break and go ape shit.

I'm so glad that the Bay to Breakers is this weekend. I really tired of my old workout routine (because it's so long and I think I'm over training) and I'm tired of running for such a long time on cardio days (again, because it's so long). I can't wait to get pass this Sunday so I can start a new shorter workout routine and get back into doing "running fast" cardio again. I still don't know when I'm going to do my cardio (maybe after work) because I'll be working out everyday when doing the Max-OT program. I think the next 2 weeks is going to be "getting use to this new program" phase and I'll official start in the beginning of June. Seems like I'm just delaying this workout program huh? Well, I am, but things come up and I adjust. Plus I am in no hurry. I have time by my side. I may not hit my original workout goals that I've made for June 2004. I think I hit most of them, the main one being 140 lbs and 8% body fat. I like my physique now (not these last couple of days because of the gained body fat from all the excess eating lately), but now I want to try to gain some strength and bump up my weight.

I think my natural weight is 150 lbs, but the weight I like to be when I'm "leaner" is 140lbs. I like the way my body looks at 140 lbs, but I want to look that way and still gain some weight. I really don't like my scrawny legs and calves so I think I can get some weight in that area if I focus my workout hard in my lower body. So that's my new goal, 150lbs after the Max-OT program. That's starting June, 3 months later, so by the end of August 2004, I should be at 150 lbs and a lot stronger. That's the plan. Hopefully the Max-OT "overloading" theory will work for me. I still don't know how I will adjust my eating habits for gaining mass. I'm still "duh" about the knowledge in this area. I think I will try it first by using the same eating habit that I've been using (when I'm doing it right), and see how that goes. If I'm not getting the results in 3 months, time to play mad scientists again and start mixing compounds and test tubes to see what needs to be done for me to be at a "lean" 150lb.

Ok, I think that's all I wanted to get off my chest today. I felt good in my upper body workout today. I guess I'm just excited about starting a new program next week even though I'm still a bit hesitant since it's "new" and "different" and I don't know how to adjust to it yet. That's why I give myself 2 weeks to play around with this thing to see how I can incorporate it into my life.


Btw, I declared yesterday as my "cheat day." This weekend I will eat right. I ate really bad yesterday, here's what I had. I'm not proud of this menu and I was ashamed to write about it yesterday. But I want to put it out just because it's the truth and I mess up from time to time.

Meals from yesterday (Bad eating day)
- 8:30 am: Whey Protein, green drink
- 8:40 am: Dry Ramon (400 calories, 52 grams of carbs)
- 9 am: Crackers
- 9:15 am: Jelly Beans (about 12)
- 10:00 am: More Dry Ramon (400 more calories, 52 grams of carbs)
- 10:15 am: Grapes
- 11:30 am: 3/4 of Protein bar
- 12 am: Banana and Orange
- 2 pm: Turkey Meat Loaf with potatoes (1/2 serving)
- 3 pm: Celery Stick and Carrots (munching)
- 3-5 pm: 9 pieces of import chocolate
- 4:30 pm: More Celery Stick and Carrots (with ranch sauce and peanut butter)
- 5:00 pm: Turkey Meat Loaf with potatoes (1/2 serving)
- 10:00 pm: Left over Chinese food and green drink
- 11:30 pm: 2 cups of Coke
- 1:45 am: Cup of Noddles

Urgh, I feel sick just reflecting upon it. No MORE!!! Please...

Hey Frank,

Don't be ashamed of your cheat day. For a guy w/ 7% body fat, a cheat day like the one you just had will be nothing more than a minor speed bump. In fact, you probably needed one. Once you start approaching sub 7% BF, you start charting dangerous territory. So a little extra fat will do you some good.

Thanks for the support man. I appreciate it.

So I didn't write in my workout journal this weekend. However, I was able to prepare and actually run for the Bay to Breakers. My own official time was 78 minutes from the point where I started to "run" (the starting point) and to the finish line. The actual "clock" time was 107 minutes. So that means I was stuck in the crowd for about 30 minutes before I even hit the starting line and before I could even attempt to jog. The event was fun. I enjoyed running with everyone, but I probably will not do it again. Trying to run around people and waiting for them is too much hassle for me when I want to excerise. If I run it again, I will definitely not even care for my time and just run and walk and run, whatever the pace the people around go are willing to go at.

So I ran 8 miles around the lake on Saturday. My time is a lot slower these days. It took me 73 minutes to finish. So I average about 18 minutes per 2 miles. That's far from my "15 minutes per 2 miles" goal that I initially wanted. So I think I'll work on this after I start running 10 miles on a consistant basis. I don't think I'm going to cardio this week. Not even "run fast." I think I'm going to let my legs rest from the back to back running days. Plus I started Max-OT this week and I don't want to start worrying about when I'm going to fit cardio days into this new routine.

I like Max-OT so far. 32 minutes workout today and very focused. I can focus all my energy on one body part and then I'm done. I like that. I just wonder how well it will work for me. Keep fingers crossed.

Max-OT should really be called "Dangerous OT." I was training back today, man do I feel that my lower back will give out at any given minute. I have to figure out how to do these exercises without putting much my danger to my back. I don't feel that I got a great workout today, but I'll keep playing around with this workout program for a bit longer to see how I like it. It's good that the workout routine is short, but I don't want to get injuried and doing heavy weights all the time is just asking for injury. Who knows. I do want to get stronger so I guess I'll just have to train smarter and make sure the exercises that I use are not so dangerous.

I've been eating bad the last 3 days. My weight is about 147 lbs this morning. I can't fight off the temptation of eating sweets and junk food these days. It is my time for set backs? Nah. I hope not. I really hate body fat. It's my arch nemesis. However, the cravings just get the better of me. I better cut it out before I have to fight a tough battle back. Now that I'm not doing cardio this week until Saturday, it's going to be harder for me to keep the body fat low.

Today's bad food was:
- One Blueberry Muffin
- 1/2 a protein bar
- One piece of German chocolate

Yesterday's bad food was:
- Fruit and Yogurt mix with granolla sprinkles
- Grapes late at night

Sunday's bad food was:
- Forget about it. Slurpee, chips, polish sausage, pie, ice cream, and dry ramon. Nuff said.

Freakin' cravings. How do I fight thee? Body fat is gonna get the best of me. Urgh.

Another Max-OT day. Today was legs. I think the reason I wanted to do Max-OT was to gain some mass on my legs. I thought training legs would be perfect for this type of workout routine, but today I'm not so sure. My legs aren't screaming after my workout like they are when I do the Body-for-Life leg routine. I have too much rest, but yet today I went heavier than I ever had on BFL. However with the heavy weights there is greater chance of getting injuried. I felt a little something on my lower back today after my last squat set. I don't like it when I feel potential aches and pain that can cause future injury. I have to be so focused and so careful when I do Max-OT otherwise one bad form will lead to injury. I'm a bit scared, but then again I do want to increase my strength and gain some mass on my legs. Let's see what happens.

I'm thinking on just doing Max-OT routine when I train Chest, Legs, Shoulders, and Biceps. I don't think I can do it when I train Back and Triceps. I'm not sure what to do yet, for now it's just a thought. Another thought is that I might have to join a gym. The weights at my work gym is not enough for me. I need some place that has more weight selection and better equipment.

Today I did "Shoulders" for my Max-OT day. Now shoulder I can do for Max-OT. I don't feel like I'm endangering my body when I did shoulders today. I'm still trying to get back into lifting heavy. I'm not use to it yet. I have to be really careful. One thing I'm noticing is that my time in the gym is not decreasing. My workout session is about 45 minutes. I thought it was going to be only like 30 minutes. I guess I'm doing a lot of warm ups. I do probably 5 to 6 warm out sets. Then I do like 8 Max-OT sets. For shoulders, those rock. Also they rock for Legs too and for Chest because today my legs are pretty sore. It feels great. I'm gonna get super big buff vain popping legs. LOL. So I'm excited for Biceps and Triceps tomorrow. Should be a great Friday workout.

Yesterday I say my only "bad" food was a cup of caccachino (sp?). I did have Japanese noddles and Terkiyaki Chicken Breast for dinner, but I don't find that really "bad." So yesterday I did pretty well in eating.

Today, I had some tempura vegatables that is bad and some pork cutlets. Also, I ate until I was full at night, which is a big NO NO. I just couldn't stop eating the chicken. Anyway, I think my weight is starting to drop again. I still hate body fat so I will keep battling this thing out. Also, this weekend I'm going to a wedding so I already know I'm going to eat relatively bad. I better try my best to eat well before then.

Ok so today was Max-OT arms day. I felt pretty good doing biceps however I'm not getting the "pump" feeling that I'm used to when doing arms. I usually do a lot of reps, but I know that I'm over training them. But I like the pump look and feel. However, I'm experimenting with something new now. I'm just going to go with it and see what type of results I'll get. So my bicep workout was pretty good and I felt strong. I didn't need to cheat that much and overall, it was a decent experience. But when I did triceps, oh my god, talk about danger. I don't do french curls do to that fact that it kills my elbow joints. I tried to do dumbell tricep extentions but that was not a smart move neither. That kills my elbow joints as well. So I did tricep cable pull downs. With heavy weights, this is not fun at all. But I was able to do them, but I think I cheat a lot on the reps. Last was kickbacks, that I did heavy as well but I don't feel I get full extention when I go heavy. So for triceps I'm not sure if I want to go the Max-OT routine. For now I will, but I have some doubts.

Today was Max-OT chest day. I had a pretty good, intense workout today. I didn't think it was possible with Max-OT to have a intense workout since each rep is so short, but I was sweating and breathing heavy today. I guess this week, I'm not worried about the routine anymore, I'm just focusing on the workout itself. Today was a pretty good chest workout. I'm already at the Max weight available for dumbbells at my work's gym. I guess I won't be doing dumbbell bench presses anymore. I hope my chest is soar tomorrow like it was last week. I love feeling a bit soar. It tells me that I'm breaking down my muscle fibers and my body need to regenerate it. That means, bigger muscles, stronger muscles, more mass. Sometimes I don't know where I get my goals from. I just pick some random number and say, "I'm going hit this target, it sounds reasonable enough." I guess part of me don't really care for the goals itself more than the fact that I have to be consistent in my workout. And that every workout I try my best and put in an effort. Sometimes, depending on my day, the effort displayed has more heart than other times. But nonetheless, my workout was done and I know if I keep doing it on a consistent basis and truly be honest with my efforts, my goals will be actualized eventually. Or I'll readjust my approach until they do get actualized. So right now I'm a point in my confidence level in that, I'm positive that I'll hit 150lbs eventually and most of it will be build on my lower body. It's just a question of when or how soon. Will it be within the 10-12 weeks of Max-OT? I'm not sure yet since I don't know what type of results to expect from this workout plan. I don't even know if I'll like it. The only thing I know about Max-OT is that it's dangerous. Very dangerous and if I don't want myself, I'm going to hurt my back or my shoulders or just something stupid. I hope God watches over me during every workout and make sure I allow myself to be aware of dangers of lifting heavy before I actually pick up the weight.

I was able to run a bit yesterday. This is my first time running since last Sunday at the Bay to Breakers. I was planning on running 10 miles now, since on my weekends I plan on running long distances. However, my body was not up to the task and I just stopped at 4 miles. However during my first run, I was running fast and breathing hard. Usually when I run for long distance, I don't breathe hard. But yesterday I was pretty stubborn and I wanted to try to finish running around the lake in 15 minutes. However, I only did it in 15 minutes and 30 seconds. Damn. I think I will try to hit 10 miles first and then after I do that on a consistent basis, I will start try to focus on running fast and closing in my time. I'm not sure when I'll do my run yet. Saturday or Sunday. Btw, I was talking to someone that does "ultra-marathons" (which is 100 miles). He mentioned to me that a marathon is 26.2 miles. Hmmm... the idea that I am capable of running a marathon type distance is intriguing to me. However, let me hit 10 miles first and then I'll think about expanding from there. But I do like the sound of me saying that I capable of running a marathon. Maybe once during this lifetime.

One more note on meals. I'm pretty proud of myself of controlling my temptations this past weekend. Now I did eat bad and I did have my cheat day. I love my cheat days but how I exercise that day is the challenge. For the past 3 weekends every time I had a cheat day, I think I would go over board. For me, my rule is that it's ok to eat bad. I just don't want to do it in excess. I mean, so what if I have one scoop ice cream. I just don't want to eat up having 2 or 3 scoops. To me it's not the fact that I'm eating bad that bothers me. To me it's the fact that I lose control of myself and I let myself go crazy and start eating in excess. That to me is very disappointing and it's not the type of person I want to be. I mean one scoop is enough for me to fulfill my cravings and satisfaction. Having more than I need is just a sad display of weak will. And I don't want to be known as a person of weak will. So whenever I'm really hard on myself is because I do go crazy and that I do feel that I went overboard with my actions. But this weekend, I was good. I had temptations of eating more than I should but I didn't. I was real proud of myself. I think writing and expressing my disgust in myself is really the power that drives me from saying "NO" during the tough times of "mood driven actions." That why I really appreciate my discipline to write on an almost daily basis. It understand and appreciate it's power. But the last thing I want to do this Monday is write about how weak and sad and pathetic I was AGAIN for the 4th weekend in a row. I thing I know I'll do is write and admit my faults during the weekend. That I won't skip. It's hard to admit my flops and fumbles, but it's even harder to deny them and pretend that don't exist. But even hard than that is having to admit to myself of my faults over and over again and realize that I don't have the power or the will to change.

Today was Max-OT back day. I'm not too sore from yesterday's chest workout like I was hoping I would be but still it was a great workout yesterday. Today's workout was also great. I felt so strong today. I was shocked at how much I was able to pull down. I can't say it's the workout program since it's still too early, but I can say that I'm a lot stronger than I thought I was. I guess Max-OT allows me to realize this about myself. So in a way, that's what's great about this program. And last time I was concerned about my lower back when training. Well, not today. I was training more smarted and focused more harder and I didn't feel my lower back at risk today. Thank goodness. However, I maxed out in weights at my gym. I don't know what to do now for one of the dumbbell excerises. Maybe I'll join a gym. I don't know yet.

Tomorrow is legs day. I'm still concerned about my lower back when doing squats with such heavy weights, but I think Max-OT is great of lower body workouts. I'm betting 10 lbs on it. So I'm very much looking forward to tomorrow leg's workout. Good luck to me. I hope God looks over me and my safety.

I did legs today. Now during the beginning of my workout, I did not feel like working out at all. But at the end of it, I was on fire. I don't know what caused the change in my workout. Maybe more consentration. More focus. The warm up sets. Or a prayer to God. I not sure exactly which one caused me to turn on, but by the time I started doing my Max-OT sets, I was ready. And my legs are tired and sore right now as I type this, so that means I did good today. 2 points for me today. And my calves are sore and stiff right now as well. I was real careful today about watching out for my lower back because last week, this was a big concern of mine as I felt a sharp pinch on my lower back during my last squat rep. So I think when I make myself fully conscious of possible problems when lifting heavy, I can alert my body to be more careful and pay more attention. So I have a GREAT lower body workout today and my hope my ass is sore from it come tomorrow.

Meals for today (since I've been slacking off on writing this down)
- 10:30 am: Creatine, Glutame, whey protein, green pill, MSM, multivitamin.
- 12:15 pm: Banana and Orange
- 1:30 pm: Ground Beef Burrito with refried beans (bad) and spanish rice. No cheese, no sour cream, no guccamole. ( I could have split this into 2 meals but I was hungry)
- 2 to 4 pm: Snacked on Carrot sticks and celery sticks with peanut butter (not so good)
- 4:30 pm: Southwest Steak Salad with a bit of ranch
- 9:30 pm: Chicken Sandwich
- 11:30 pm: Green Drink

I did Max-OT shoulders today. One thing I noticed is that I can shoulder shrug a lot more than I thought I could. I'm still not don't know my Max-OT set for shoulder Shrugs yet. But for the rest of my shoulder excerises today, they all felt great. I felt a little bit of pain on my left shoulder but I don't know if it's because of the weight or I'm getting a good workout. I'm not 100% sure, but nonetheless I felt great and I had a great shoulder workout.

One thing I'm already noticing about Max-OT is that I look like I'm starting to gain some mass on my upper body. This is just from glancing in the mirror and noticing that my upper torso is bigger than before. It's only been 2 weeks since I started Max-OT, so I'm not sure if I'm just seeing things. I just want to see this mass being developed in my lower body. And I checked my weight earlier today. Still at around 143 so I'm not gaining too much weight. Another thing I noticed is that my arms aren't as defined as when I was doing BFL. However, if they increase in size, I will make the trade off. I'll know this weekend when I take pictures and measure myself again, but I'm not expecting big changes since I've only been on this program for 2 weeks.

Meals for today
- 10:30 am: Creatine, Glutame, whey protein, green pill, MSM, multivitamin.
- 11:50 pm: 1/2 serving of Chicken, brocolli, carrots, and egg noddles
- 2:00 pm: 1/2 serving of Chicken, brocolli, carrots, and egg noddles
- 2:30 pm: Orange and Banana
- 4:30 pm: Chicken Cesar Salad with cheese and ranch dressing and crutons (BAD!!!)
- 9:30 pm: Chicken Breast and rice
- 11:30 pm: Green Drink

NOTE: Wow, there's a lot of fuckin' journals being written these days. I DIG all of you guys for your commitment. Keep it coming!!!

Today was arms day. Now I'm alittle concerned about my shoulder. I felt something yesterday on my left shoulder and it just felt weaker and weaker during kickboxing class last night. So today I was a little concerned if I should go heavy doing curls. Well, I tried it and it felt ok, but there's definitely something not right there. So I think I've decided to not do Straight bar military presses from the front anymore. I want to minimize my chances of getting injuried and I know from before, military presses are bad for me. My shoulder just do not like them. As for my arms workout, I think I had a great bicep workout. However, since my shoulder started to hurt, I went light on my tricep workout and just did the BFL routine for my triceps. Hopefully it doesn't mess up any cycles in my tricep growth and recovery interval.

Anyway, last workout day for this week. I feel great. I'm eating pretty good these past few days because I know this weekend it's going to be a bit rough for me because I'm going camping and I won't be eating well during that time. Plus, I don't want to since it's Memorial day weekend and it's time for some BBQ and some grilling action.

Meals for the day:
- 10:30 am: Whey Protein, creatine, glutamine, MSM, multivitamin, Green pill
- 12:15 pm: 1/2 serving of Salmon on rice and mushrooms.
- 2:10 pm: 1/2 serving of Salmon on rice and mushrooms.
- 4:00 pm: 1/2 serving of Fish tacos.
- 6:00 pm: 1/2 serving of fish tacos.
- 9:30 pm: Chicken breast and rice (I think)
- 11:30 pm: Green drink

I didn't get a chance to workout today (Monday 5/31/04) due to Memorial Day weekend and I just got back from camping. Usually, I don't give a rats ass if it's a holiday or a birthday or whatever special occasion that day is, I'd still workout if my body was up to it. But since I just got back from camping, I decided it was not a good idea to workout since I've been sleeping for 5 hours on the floor the last 2 nights, I've been in the sun all day, and my body seriously needed some good R&R to recover. So I think this week, I'm going skip my shoulder workout since it was bothering me a bit last week and a bit this week. So I'm going to give a full weeks worth of recovery.

And of course this weekend, I ate like a pig in the camp site. I'm kind of proud that I brought my whey protein and supplements to camp with me as well as tuna sandwiches and protein bars. haha. But even with all thos mega nutriants being there, they still didn't stop me from munching on chips and cookies and donuts and hot dogs and burgers and beer and hard liquior. I was weighing 145 this morning. haha. Oh well, it was very enjoyable and relaxing and I don't think I went too overboard with my junk food intake so I'm very content with what I ate and don't have any regrets of this weekend. It was so fun and relaxing. Need to do it again, next year.

Today I was able to train my chest. I had a pretty decent workout considering that I'm not feeling 100% from my long weekend. However, I felt good enough to get a couple of good Max-OT sets. Like I mentioned earlier, I'm really to start liking the Max-OT workout because I feel that I'm getting stronger and that I can see some mass building up. All this and it's only been 2 weeks into the program. However, maybe most of it is just psychologicial but working out is mostly psychologicial for me anyways. As long as I can trick my brain into liking this stuff, I'll keep with it. So today I switched up from doing dumbbell presses to straight bar presses on a smith machine. I wish my work had a olympic bench press, however we don't so I have to make due. I'm curious to see how much I can do on that smith machine by the time this program is over.

Meals for today:
- 10:30 am: Whey Protein, creatine, glutamine, MSM, multi-vitamin, green pill
- 11:50 am: 1/2 serving of cat fish with casun rice and corn
- 2:00 pm: 1/2 serving of cat fish with casun rice and corn
- 3:30 pm: Orange and Banana
- 4:15 pm: chicken and bacon (BAD!!!) cobb salad with raunch dressing
- 5:00 pm: 1/4 of Protein Bar
- 9:45 pm: Chicken breast and rice and salsa
- 11:00 pm: Green drink

I had a pretty bad workout today. I tried to do pull ups with a dip belt. Either the pull up bar sucks at work or I suck. I think it's a little bit of both. Anyway, I did enjoy my workout experience today. I think the experience of using a dip belt is still new to me. I will try again next week. However, all my other back excerises sucked today as well. My workout was not that intense, however one thing did happen though. I did finish my workout routine as planned. That always feels good. Tomorrow is legs day. Hopefully I'll have a better nights sleep tonight and have more energy to get in a couple of good Max-OT sets in.

Oh yeah. I'm getting mad muchies cravings these days. If I had some change in my wallet today, I'd definitely would have bought something from the vending machine. Oh god give me the strength to say no to these excess calories. Don't know how to fight these cravings off sometimes. Stay strong dude.

Meals for today:
- 10:30 am: Whey Protein, creatine, glutamine, MSM, multi-vitamin, green pill
- 11:30 pm: Orange and Banana
- 12:40 pm: Vietnamese Salad with beef
- 1:30 pm: Protein bar
- 3:30 pm: Chicken Ceasar Salad
- 6:00 pm: ???
- 9:00 pm: ???
- 11:30 pm: Green drink

Good lower body workout today. I'm at the point in my workout program where I don't really feel like working out today. But as history repeats itself, I still do it even though I don't "feel like it." I think my secret is that I warm up really slow. I mean, I must take like 10 minutes to just stretch. Then I do my high rep sets slowly, rest, and slow build up. By the time my Max-OT set comes, I'm ready and pumped. I always tell myself to watch out for my back and keep good form. The last thing I want is to force a rep and have a cracked back. No injuries for me please. I'm very conscious of this process and try my best not to prevent injuries if I can.

I'm running out of weights in my gym. I can't do dumbbell straight leg dead lifts anymore. I can't do dumbbell calf raises and calf presses anymore. The only thing I got is the smith machine. I'm thinking about starting to do some "Good mornings" but again, I really have to watch my back on this one. All this for the love work Max-OT!!!

I really need to watch what I eat. I'm at 145lbs right now, but I think it's particially because I'm not as strict in my eating and because of this crazy program. Also I haven't been doing cardio at all. I plan on start running again this Saturday with my "fast running" and my long distance running. Eventually I want to continue doing my "fast running" consistently like before and only do long distance running like once a week. So I'm glad that I'm gaining weight, but I want to gain weight while eating clean and doing my cardio so I know what I'm gaining is straight up muscle. I got a couple more weeks of playing around with this program before it's over.

One more thing. I'm at 13 pull ups now and it's getting tougher. I think it's particially because I'm gaining more weight and my forearms are still weak from the weekend of wake boarding.

First of all I like to say that I'm a pig and I can't control my cravings. Yes, that's negativity talking but I couldn't control my cravings today and I'm blowing up like a big ballon. And this weekend is not going to be nice to me since I have a lot of social gathering to attend to so I'm pretty much shit out of luck. Will try harder next week to have some discipline.

As for my workout today, it was pretty good. I'm not getting stronger in my biceps, but my triceps, man, I still haven't found my Max-OT weight yet. Then again, my form isn't the greatest so I guess I am cheating a little bit. Let's just hope I don't get injuried. Ok. Running this Sunday. Hopefully I'll be able to hit 8 miles again like before. It's been a while so I'm just going to go with how I feel.

Chest day today. I felt pretty good today and had a decent workout. I'm trying the weighted dips with the dip belt and I can feel that exercise work my chest pretty well. It took me a couple of sets to find my Max-OT weight for this exercise, so next week, I should be set.

I'm gaining a lot of fat these past 2 weeks. So now it's time to cut down on the food cravings and the calorie intake and have some control and discipline. I was at 149lbs this morning and even though my goal was to hit 150 by the time Max-OT ends, I don't want 10lbs of fat and tub. So I'm going to cut down back to 140, if possible, and measure myself and hopefully, I'll gain some size.

I think part of the reason I've been getting fat is because I haven't done specific cardio exercise for like 3 weeks now (ever since I started doing Max-OT). I still haven't found a schedule to fit into my cardio routine (mainly running). My weekends has been busy and my week days I haven't set the time out to schedule in my 20 minute cardio workouts. Hopefully things will settle down and I can get a good exercise routine going.

I did do about 10 minutes of jump rope today just to start hitting the cardio again. My intent was to do 20 minutes, but after about 10 minutes, I decided to stop and do some shadowing instead. The idea is to get my body prepared for some cardio action again so hopefully slowly I'll get back to where I use to be during my BFL routine.

Back day today. I had a pretty good workout experience today and I'm getting used to the "weight belt" when doing my pull ups. I think I know how to adjust my position so I don't swing everywhere when I'm doing my pull ups and that I'm using all my strength and focusing at the exercise. I felt pretty "ON" today in my workout. I think warming up well is very important for me to get in some good Max-OT sets. If I'm not near peak after my warm ups, I don't think I will have a good workout session.

I ate pretty good yesterday. Nothing really bad, but not 100% clean neither. I'd say I ate about 93% clean which is pretty good. I think I need to focus more on drinking water again. I'm not as conscious about this as before and I think I should be.

I wanted to mention one thing about the supplements that I take. I don't really take the recommended amount of supplement as prescribed. Basically I just take one pill a day of multivitamin, green pill, MSM. Also I only take on serving of protein, creatine, and glutamine. Most of the recommended intake is 2 to 3 servings a day. The only thing I try to take twice is my "green drink." I believe I need more of that because I need more alkaline in my body. The reason I bring this up is because I'm not sure what the effect these supplements are really doing for me since I'm not taking the amount prescribed. If I ever need change up my workout routine or if results are just not happening for me, I guess I can change this accept of "workout experience" (especially the creatine and protein intake).

I woke up late today because I couldn't fall asleep last night. Actually I didn't wake up late or over sleep. I just decided to keep on sleeping after I woke up because I rather have a rested body than a unalert and grouching body to tackle the day. I decided to workout during lunch since I started my day late. I also decided to do shoulders instead of legs today since it's not as demanding as legs. So tomorrow will be legs day for me. Today's workout was decent. I no longer do barbell military presses since they hurt my shoulder. Now I just use dumbbell presses. Now I can do 6 reps for 2 Max-OT sets on 55 lbs. When I move up to 60lbs on my 3rd Max-OT set, how come I can only do 1 rep. One freakin' rep. That's lame. How am I suppose to go up. There isn't any 57.5 lb dumbells in the gym. Anyway, I'll try it again next week. Also, I think instead of doing 5 different exercises 2 sets, I'm just going to do 3 different exercises for 3 sets. It's pretty much the same and less time switching between weights and exercises. Well try it again next week.

I came in this morning and weighed myself. Earlier this week I was at 149lbs. Today I was at 143lbs. WTF? There is something definitely wrong here. There's no way I can get losing that much weight that fast even if I was eating really good these past 2 days. Also I am basically weighing myself the same time even though today's weigh time was 3 hours later (still on an empty stomache). Oh well, try it again tomorrow, but I do like 143lbs more than 149lbs. I hate body fat.

Update: So after work I decided to do my run routine which I haven't done for about 7 weeks. I really miss "running fast" and I was looking forward to the experience. I forgot how hard this cardio activity was. I also forgot how good it feels afterward. I'm out of practice. Today's run was very hard for me. One minute of running fast seemed very long. I bought myself a count down watch when I was running for "Bay to Breakers" and I haven't got a chance to use it during my "running fast" routine. Today I used it and it's great. I don't have to look at my watch now. I just run for a minute straight or until I hear my watch start beeping. One minute is a long time when I'm out of shape. I look forward in doing this again Saturday. I think doing this twice a week is not enough. I really want to do it 3 times a week, but I have to find some hole to fit it into my schedule. Great run today just because I haven't done it in a while and I forgot how good it feels.

I had a decent legs workout today. I just hope my ass is sore tomorrow so then I know I broke down some muscle fibers. Today I weighed 146lbs. That's a much reasonable weight than what I saw yesterday. Tomorrow is arms day. I'm getting tired of working out, thank goodness the weekend is coming. I'm not sure if I like Max-OT. I guess I like the stretch improving part, but it's just so hard on my body. I have to be real careful because the weight I use is just so heavy. I'm not looking that forward to my arms tomorrow because I know it's going to put some strain on my joints when I do curls. But I will finish this program and decide what to do after this one. August can't come sooner.

Oppps. Forgot to post last Friday.

I had a pretty good bicep workout today. I was actually feeling a pump during my Max-OT bicep routine, which I haven't felt before with this exercise program. So I hope my biceps will be sore tomorrow like my legs are today from all that deep squating yesterday. However my tricep workout left a lot of room for improvement. I'm not sure what exercise to do for triceps yet. Doing heavy cable pull downs is killing my joints. I can't keep doing those exercises. I'm thinking about weighted dips. I will experiment next week.

No cardio for me tomorrow as I'm going backpacking. That's too bad, I'm looking forward in doing my "running fast" routine too. Well start again next week. I'm feeling a bit sick today and yesterday. That sucks since I'm going backpacking tomorrow. Maybe I'll feel better once I get some food into my body. Speaking of food. I did pretty well this week except Wednesday night, but that's because I went out with my friends and we were just hanging out. Usually when we hang out, we're snacking on something. And being the social person that I'm really not, I snacked along with them which was not good in terms of watching my intake, but it was good in terms of maintaining a strong friendship. Ok, enough garbage talk, time to focus on the task at hand.

No workout today. I'm trying to recover from being sick this weekend so I thought I shouldn't push myself today even though I am feeling a lot better. Hopefully tomorrow I can get back on track and hit the weights again.

I finally finish reading the Max-OT training program. Wow, I didn't realize how important it was to not miss a workout. Also I have a better understanding on cardio and fat less. Hopefully I'll be able to apply my knowledge and try to more intense workouts in and incorperate more cardio workouts in my current workout routine.

I had a putting good chest workout today. When up in my bench on the smith machine again. I hope to do 2 plates on the smith machine by the end of the Max-OT routine. I'm pretty close to that goal already. Voot!!! So I'm excited about that. I also increased my weight on my weighted dips. So a double Voot!!! today. I'm getting a little tubby in the waist these days. Part of it I blame on my sickness. Part of it I blame in my sickness with my cravings. Geez man, is the process forever or what. Oh well, I hope I can battle this out for the rest of my life. Ok, I'll be happy if I can continue until I'm 40. I saw my dad the other day, he's 70 now and he has a spare tire. I wonder if I'll end up like that. But then again, he is not active but he doesn't eat sweets neither. I guess age just catches up with you.

My intent today was to change my routine up a bit since it's week 5 in my Max-OT workout and I've read we should switch our routines a bit every 4 weeks. So maybe I'll do something different tomorrow. I'm not sure since I have limited equiment in my gym and I'm only comfortable doing certain excerises that I feel doesn't have a high risk of injury. We'll see tomorrow.

I had a good back workout today. I slowly tried to add more weight today and it worked. I had a slight increase in my pull downs and in my pull ups. Yes!!! I guess I'll just keep going for these "modest" gains every time I workout and eventually I'll be pretty freakin' strong! Ha ha. That's the idea anyways. Hopefully I can slowly add weight as I progress. I was planning on doing back and biceps today. But after my back routine, I was just too tired. I think Max-OT is right in that our mental focus can't go beyond more than 45 minutes. I think I focused too much on back and did too much sets and I didn't consider that I still have biceps to work on. Thus I spent all my energy and focus on my back and when it was time to work on my biceps, I was too spent. Oh well, I guess I'll just train biceps on Friday and not train triceps this week. Legs tomorrow. I'm not skipping legs that's for sure.

Update: Did my "run fast" cardio workout tonight. That shit was hard. I miss it though. The same feeling I had last week. Then I got sick and I couldn't continue my training during the weekend. But today I experienced it again and it's da shitz-nitz. I got the same feeling as before too. "I wanted to quit after the 2nd internval, but the words echo in my mind 'what is will?' 'what is discipline?'" and I press on. And the funny thing is "It's ONLY 20 minutes dude..." But boy is it a tough 20 minutes. Fuck, it's a tough 1 minute when I have to run like dogs are chasing after me. And I suck these days. My cardio went down and I want it back. I'm fighting for this one. I can't wait until Saturday when I hit them tracks again. I'm not sure if I'm going to be doing the long distance running anymore. Sure I want to do 10 miles in an hour thing, but I have other desires and dreams that's stronger than this desire. This goal was just something random which is not something I've ALWAYS wanted to do. "Trickz" and improving Jiu-Jitsu is something I've always wanted to do so I think I'm going to try to allocate my time more towards those activities on Sunday instead of trying to be Forrest Gump and run across America.

I had a pretty good legs workout today, but it was way too long. The session lasted about 67 minutes. By the time I was doing calves, I couldn't focus on my task. However, since calves does not demand too much of my attention, I was able to go through it without too much focus.

I'm eating pretty well these days, but my last meal of the day, I usually way over eat then I should because I eat very late and it's not good to eat too much before I go to bed. Also I eat more bad food during this last meal of the day than I usually do throughout the day. I eat too much Chinese deli food during this meal with my chicken breat and rice. I think the end result is that it's harder for me to drop weight this week. Hopefully I'll be able to see some changes next week. I am seeing gradual increase in my stregth during my workout sessions, but I still want to drop body fat.

I'm considering increasing my whey protein intake to either 2 servings a day in 2 settings or have 2 servings in one setting. I'm not sure if I will yet, but all I know is after I read that Max-OT document, it seems like I'm not getting enough protein in my body. So I want to try to get some more in there with extra whey protein intake or start using replacement meals like Met-Rx. The problem with replacement meals is the extra calories that comes them. But they seems to be pretty good for me. I will see.

I had a very exhausting workout this morning. I made an attempt to train bicep, shoulders, and tricep. Not very smart. My bicep workout was pretty good. Went up in weight again. But then my shoulder workout sucked because I was getting real tired and I couldn't focus on going heavy. For my tricep workout, I just did the BFL routine and went lighter. I actually like the BFL intensity routine with more reps better. But I'm on the Max-OT program so I'll keep at the same routine until the end of July.

Looking forward to my run tomorrow and Sunday. Time to kick my lungs and hearts ass again.

I lost some stregth in my chest workout today. I don't know what caused this to happen. If I think about it can it be the 3 days of staying up late and partying this past weekend and 2 nights of heavy drinking? Yeah, I guess that plays a factor even though I tried to rest yesterday but I just beat up my body too much this past weekend. Oh well, I still had a pretty decent chest workout but I wanted to see some gains. I guess I shouldn't expect much when I put my body through such ordial. Will I do it again? Probably because this past weekend was major fun. Actually I did go up in weight in my weighted chest dips so I'm happy about that. But I want to go up in my flat bench press so I can feel like a pimp and hit my goal way before the end of this program. Patience.

I had a decent workout today. Not the greatest but I went up in weight again in my pull ups. YES!!! My workouts could have been a little bit more intense today but I sleep late last night and I was just glad I could do heavy today and not have to sacrifice the amount of weight I'm lifting. Tomorrow is legs day. Voot, voot!!!

I've been eating pretty good lately and my body weight is reflecting that. But I don't want to drop back down to 140lb. Currently I'm at 143lb and have decent body fat. I'll measure by the end of this week and put up my new stats and pictures. Hopefully I have some gains in the measurement. Please God, pretty please...

I had good workout today. During dumbell presses for some reason on my 2nd set, I couldn't get the weight up. It was really weird. My shoulders just felt really drained so I had to drop down in weight just so I can continue with my workout. I don't think I need to drop since on the previous set with the same weight I was able to get 4 reps in. But anyway, I'm going to try that weight again next week to see if it happens again. I went up in weight up upright rows and bent dumbell flys again. So slowly I go up in weight, but I want to increase in the main excerises like dumbell presses. That means everything to me in terms of shoulder strength measurement.

I'm dropping weight again. Today I was at 141 lbs. Geez man, how'd that happen. I mean I like the lean look but I want to have it while trying to increase in weight. 150 lbs in about a month? Let's start counting them pennies. I'm starting to also do a double protion on my protein shakes after reading how little protion I'm intaking relative to how much "they" think I should take. Maybe that will help in the increasing my weight issue. Legs tomorrow. I know I said I was going to do legs today in yesterday's entry, but I decided to change it up this morning since I plan on training on some other stuff afterward.

I got a decent "legs" workout today. Learned a new lesson about "Do. Don't think" where I just have to do the activity and not think about doing it. I guess I've been practicing this often in my workout experience. This is what I actually do to overcome the "I don't feel like it" syndrome. I know I've mentioned a thousand times before about me saying, "Just finish the workout routine. It doesn't matter if it's not a great workout. Just finish it and redeem yourself for one more day." I guess that's the same theory behind "Do. Don't think." Because thinking will make one focus more on your current mood and the more one think about that, the more likely the mood (which is usually "laziness") will take over and you will end up no working out. So I like the idea of "Do. Don't think." It actually helped me get through my workout today and it gave me some added strength.

So I went up in my squat again today but it's still hard and heavy. I don't even think I go all the way down these days but I can't be sure since I don't have a mirror in front of me. I need to ask someone if my form is ok when I doing these "Max-OT" heavy sets. I also went up in my leg curls. I swear I'm able to go to the maximum weight on the machine soon. Don't know what I'll do then. I hope by that time my Max-OT workout routine will be over. After Max-OT will be over (July 31, 2004), I plan on taking 2 weeks off and then try HST. Yeah, I like being a gennie pig. Plus I like to experiment with things.

So I had a pretty decent workout today. I did arms and my biceps didn't gain any strength today but I did increase by one rep from last week. Voot!!! Overall, my workout wasn't all that. I started doubling my whey protein intake after my workout. Let's see how this affects my body and progress. I believe I will take pictures and get some measurements this weekend since I didn't do it for the end of May. Let's hope for some decent results.

I decided to train back today since my shoulder is extremely sore from playing dodge ball yesterday. My workout was pretty good considering that I am still pretty tired from my restless weekend. Overall I'm very happy to get back into the swing of things even though it was just "a weekend" that just pasted. I didn't go up in weight today, but I felt on some exercises I can go up the next time and I did increase the number of reps that I can do, so that shows that I increased in stregth (I think). Overall I had a good workout. I'm not sure what to train tomorrow since my legs and my shoulder are still super sore.

Btw, I didn't get a chance to do any running this weekend. Urgh. Trying to get back intgo this routine is getting very tough.

So I decided to train bicep and triceps today since my shoulder is still sore and my legs are not 100%. My workout was no that intense. I felt my joints give way when going for heavy Max-OT sets so I decided to just lighten up my bicep workout today as well as my tricep workout. Overall, I'm very happy I was able to get up and get my workout in. The intensity wasn't there, but I still got a decent workout.

However, today I ate really bad. I had a peanut butter sandwich. A Starbucks Java chip frappcino. Some chips. And not a very health Japanese Bento box lunch. Not a very healthy sandwich. Not a very healthy dinner. Basically, my whole day worth of eating as not great. I'm not feeling good right now so hopefully I won't do this to myself again tomorrow. Let's hope.

Trained legs yesterday but I didn't focus any exercise specifically for the hamstrings since I was still recovering from pulling my hams when playing dodgeball last Sunday. But overall my legs workout was good. However, it's not sore today. Wierd.

I ate like a pig again yesterday. Let's see if I can recall all the junk I ate. Chicken Bake with Cheese from Costco. Angus Burger from Burger King. Light Cafee Vanilla from Starbucks. Snow Bubble Coffee with Pearls from Tapioca Express. Vietnamese Sandwich and some Ruffos chips. Fried Fish and Margiritta's and burrito, refried beans, and spanish rice. Chow Mein. Ok, I fucked up bad yesterday. Real bad. Oh my god I can't believe how crappy I ate yesterday as I type this up and think about it. And guess what? I'm going to eat equally as bad today cuz I'm on vacation!!!

I had a pretty good chest workout today. I'm still not increasing my stregth in my flat bench on the Smith machine but I increased my inclined dumbell press and my weighted dips. So Max-OT is still allowing me to gain strength so I'm happy about that. Short and intense workout today. Just the way I love it. I think I'm going to eat pretty bad again today. Wish me luck.

So I skipped my workout last Friday because I went on a back packing trip to Big Sur. That is acceptable. However, I also skipped Monday's workout because I was just plain lazy and I stayed up too late the night before and I thought to myself, "Hey, I deserve a rest day since I'm still technically on 'vacation'." Now that was not acceptable. I feel really bad about skipping my workout yesterday. When these days of "laziness" hits me, I really question my motive and dedication to working out. Sure I'm not competing or doing anything drastic. I'm just working out. Making it a daily routine. Making this activity a part of my life. Well, it's not really a part of my life when it's not a part of my life right? So yesterday, it was "not a part of my life" because I caved to "laziness" and I just "didn't feel like doing it." That is really upsetting to me. Because I know that soon one excuse will come another and then another and then soon I'll be in "tub" land full of lazy people that are an excuse of everyday of the season. Hopefully I can break out of this "groupie" soon.

Fortunately, I was able to workout this morning and did my shoulder routine. However, I did end up skipping my yoga practice because "I didn't feel like it." Oh how this pattern is starting to form a new, cool, hip thread. Oh hell no. I'm not jumping into this fashion scene. I can do without it for the rest of my life for all I'm concerned. I just have to make sure it doesn't creep up on me unexpectedly and bite me in my behind.

I'm happy to say that I'm currently on my week 8 on my Max-OT program. I'm happier to say that I took measurements this weekend and I've gotten some pretty nice gains in every part of my body. *Self High-Five* for Frankie. Unfortunately with gain in size there's also gain in belly. I've been eating bad these past 2 weeks, so I think I'm going to start cutting down on the "tub" food and try to eat smart for my last Max-OT picture coming at the end of July. Hopefully, I will see something other than "tub-ba-licious" around my waist. Update pictures and measurements are posted on my website if people are interested in a visual progress.

Trained bicep and back today. I have to add some "2 body part a day" into my routine since I got lazy on Monday. One thing I noticed is that my focus really does not go pass one hour (as indicated in the Max-OT manual). I try, but after 40 minutes or so, I just cannot give 100% to heavy weights. What funny is when I was doing BFL, I use to workout up to 70 minutes on upper body days (I'm suppose to workout only to 48 minutes.. wierd). Anyway, so that was my little discovery that I'm noticing more and more these days. And because of this, I cut my back workout really short and just some minor excerises. Well, little workout is better than no workout. So I'm a happy camper.

I really did not feel like working out this morning. But as always, I know that if I just stick with it I will eventually get through my workout program. It's only 45 minutes dude. I'm more careful these days when I have days like today where "I don't feel like it." I'm a little bit more aware. I don't push myself as hard just in case I might do something stupid and get injuried. I know that I wasn't 100% focused today, so I backed off a bit in the Max-OT sets and just did enough to get by the workout program. I still feel accomplished and good with my efforts. I did the best I could on this given day. And that is all I can ask of my body today.

I'm gaining a lot of weight lately. This is caused from bad eating and lack of cardio exercise. The eat I know I can improve. The cardio, I'm just finding it harder to get motivated to do them after work. Laziness is taking it toll on me for the past few days. Hopefully this is just temporarly.

I had a pretty good workout today. It was not as intense as I like it, but overall, I had a great legs workout. I did increase in weight again on my squats which is always a good time. I just have to really watch my form and make sure that I do the excerise slowly. However, I've been slowly playing around with the idea that if I want that extra boost of energy I should really focus on becoming angry or as I would call it, "Become Wrath." I think this helps a bit to get an extra burst of intensity into a set. However, I have to watch out for my form when I do this as when I try to explode too hard or without too much control, I might get injured.

So I did my run today. I haven't been running for at least 2 weeks. I really missed it and plus I just don't feel the same when I don't run (psychologically, like I don't have the endurance in the back end). It felt great however I didn't finish it completely. After the 15 minute mark on my last spirit I felt something not right with my right knee so I just decided to call it a day. I felt this problem when I went backpacking as well. I hope it's nothing major. Maybe I should start wearing some kneed support when I run. But I felt good about my run today. It will help me psychologically more than anything. Plus I slept early last night and I had plenty of energy this morning. It's surprising how good a well rested body feels.

Did shoulders today. Overall, I had a decent workout however now I feel a little pain in my right lower back. Why? I felt something on the last rep of my last set. How tragic? The very last rep. Oh well, it's not too bad where I can't do anything tomorrow, but it's bad enough for me to feel that it's not normal. Grrrrr... Max-OT is almost over. In a way, I'm kind of glad. I really want to try HST and do high rep, low rest workouts again.

No workout today. My lower back pain got worse last night during class and even worse while I read. So I decided to not train today in hopes that it will get better by Wednesday and hopefully good enough to train Legs on Friday.

I'm so tired today from lack of sleep. I'm still glad I worked out even though I didn't do the Max-OT Bicep and Back regime. I decided to go light today and do the BFL routine instead. Ha, I finished my workout in less than 25 minutes. Anyway, I'm still a bit concerned about my lower back and I want to rest it a bit more before getting back into Max-OT. The end of July can't come sooner. I really need to watch what I eat these days. I'm not going crazy on any given day, but slowly one bad day after another things start to accumulate and Mr. body fat is getting more stronger. No, must suppress the tubness.

So I didn't workout yesterday because I was lazy. It's getting harder and harder for me to workout again these days. I think I'm losing my motivation or that I'm hitting near the 12 week mark and I really need a rest. I think it's both. I really can't wait until Max-OT is over. I want to get it over with now, but I will keep on truckin' along and see what results it bring come the end of July. I'm ready for rest. I'm ready to move on. I don't really like Max-OT that much because it's so hard on the body. I have to be focused every workout. And days like today where I just don't have it in me, well, I'm really scared to go to Max when I'm not 100% focused. Injuries are more likely to happen when so much strain in on the body. Plus, I'm getting a lot of aches and pains in little areas of my body these days. I don't want to add more to those problem areas if I can advoid it.

So today I just did a light chest and tricep workout since I wasn't feeling it. I hope in the next 2 weeks I can really focus on finishing the Max-OT program strong. Let's hope I get enough rest and food and eat right.

Trained Chest today. After a weekend of not doing much, I'm very much well rested and it reflected in my workout today. I had a great workout today. Very focused. Even though I didn't go up in weight in any of my exercises, I felt strong and confident in my lifting. It feels good to be focused. Now I got 2 weeks left in Max-OT. I really want to watch what I eat to cut down the body fat that I've been gaining in the last couple of weeks and to try to get some much gains in size and strength as possible. Hopefully I can be focused and get the task done.

I didn't get to run this weekend due to laziness and not being able to get up in the morning. Poor me. Also, I'm thinking about how to eat less portions. I think the key is even though when I'm done finished eating and I'm still hungry, I should just drink a lot of water to make my stomache full. I think this is a good plan and I hope to be able to practice this and make this a habit.

Urgh. I had a bad back workout today. I was feeling real sleepy this morning for some reason. It's wierd how the previous day, I couldn't wait to get up and start my day and blam! I have so much energy to workout. And then the day after, urgh, I can't even get up to brush my teeth. What's up with that? Anyway, it is what it is. I could have slept eariler last night, I'll admit that. I'll try to do that tonight to see if it helps. Tomorrow is legs day so I hope to get an extra boost since I skipped my legs workout last week.

I had a great legs workout today. It was fantastic. I'm really glad too because one of my goals was to focus on my lower body during my Max-OT routine. I did mess training legs last week though, but I'm glad I've gained confidence and strength from the lay off last week. I'm happy to say I already hit my squat goal that I've set for myself for the end of July. I wonder what other strength goals I'll be able to hit by the end of next week. I'm close to a lot of them, but I wonder if I'll be able to fully execute. We will see.

I'm trying harder to eat better and drink more water. I think I can still drink more water and allow it to full my stomache when I get hungry. I will keep trying this method to see how well it works for me.

So I did my shoulder workout today. It was a decent workout. Nothing great, nothing bad. I just did what I needed to do. I think the intensity of my workouts have really died down. I'm not sure how to "give it more spice." I guess it's hard to be intense when the weights are just so heavy. I'm not sure, but right now I just want to finish this program and rest my body. I really can't wait until July is over.

I'm currently weighing at about 146. My frame looks bigger from before, but so does the increase in my body fat. Overall, I think I like the 140lb leaner look better than my current physique. Thus another reason why I want to stop doing Max-OT and get back into doing more cardio.

Trained arms today. It felt pretty good. I can't wait until the end of next week when I can say bye bye to Max-OT.

So I trained Chest today. I thought I was going to get a good workout, but I was wrong. I'm not sure why I wasn't hitting the heavy sets today. I felt great but for some reason my body was just not physically there. I had a hard time with my Max-OT sets. That's too bad concerning this is my last Max-OT Chest workout for this round of this program. That's ok. I felt good and strong and hopefully I'll be able to do more the next time I decide to do Max-OT again. I plan on doing the Max-OT Chest and Legs workout and incorporate it into my current workout program. But not sure how to do it exactly yet.

Although I was very focused today and felt that I had a lot of strength, I didn't get a good shoulder workout. I wasn't concentrating 100% on my workout as I had something else on my mind (I was thinking about a chant for dragon boating). It's wierd that even though I felt focused and strong, it still didn't show in my shoulder presses. I couldn't get any more reps from 2 weeks before and I didn't go up in weight. I think I might have maxed out on my shoulders for now. That's ok, I still feel stronger from the Max-OT experience on my shoulders.

Wooo hoooo!!! Today was my last Max-OT workout session and now I can put this program to a close. Through the last 11 weeks was a pretty tough process for me. I didn't like doing this program, but I wanted to finish it. I did like some of my results that I got from this program, like the mass gain and definitely the gain in strength. However, the sacrifice from this program was that with the gain in mass, I also gained in body fat. And I hate body fat! "She's" my arch nemesis in life. But I'm glad I persevered through this workout program and now I can close the books and say I finished Max-OT once in my life time. Voot!!!

It's always a GREAT feeling to finish something I started. It shows my determination and will to commit and follow through even through times of adversity. And I think that's mainly the real reason why I workout and stay committed day after day. Because any day that I don't express this commitment is a day that I am not committed. And I can't be a committed person if I don't commit. Some there's only one way to do it and that's to do it all the way (or at least do it with a respectable "batting average"). So I'm so happy today because of this little personal goal of mine that I've accomplished. Voot for me and a freakin' self high-five. Pictures and measurements this weekend I hope and then, ICE CREAM!!! LOL.

Kick ass bro! I've been following your MAX-OT journey. I'm a little reluctant to try it myself, but I admire the fact that you stuck through it until the end. That takes heart & b@lls. Your overall transformation over the years has been nothing short of amazing. You should be very proud of yourself.

SeeDerekNow - Thanks for you kind words. I think the next time I do Max-OT (a long time from now) I'll get better results. I think I know what I need to do to modify the changes I did this time around so that I'll push even harder at my next attempt. Although I have to admit, it was pretty hard this time around though. LOL.

So it's rest week for me this week. I plan on not gripping anything since my grip still hurting from bowling??? Yeah, it's lame. So I'm going to rest it up and let my muscles recover. I plan on doing a lot of stretching and shadowing in the morning still. And start my running routine again.

I took my July pictures this weekend and will post them shortly when I get a chance. As for my measurements, I didn't see any improvements since the last time I took them, but that's ok. I'm just glad to finish the program and gain some small results.

I still haven't started my running routine yet. Today I jump roped for 20 minutes and I started to play around with trying to cross my arms as I jump roped. Yes, the motivation is to show off and to look cool, but I've always wanted to do some "fancy smancy" tricks while jump roping. Plus it changes up the pace and mentality when I do that.

After jump roping I hopped on the elliptical and did 20 minutes of interval training. It feels good to sweat. Sweat hard. I haven't do cardio specific workout routine for a while and during my 2 weeks off, I think I want to focus on this a bit more. I really want to get back into running, but I'm still being a bitch about it and trying to put it off. Eventually, once I get my body moving again, I know I'll have my desire to run again and then after that, all hells going to turn lose.

So I'm eating bad this week and I didn't work out at all yesterday (except Dragon Boat practice). I think I'm going to eat bad for one more day and then get back into habit. We will see, but I don't feel too bad. But when I do eat bad, my stomache gets bloated and I start to have pains. That's a main insentive for me to keep junk food intake to a minimium so I can advoid the pain. Maybe my pants are too tight. I'm not sure.

It's been a while since I wrote about my workout routine. Mainly because I haven't been working out. Not even cardio. I mean I still do my kickboxing and dragon boat paddling, but still, nothing specific to weight or just straight up cardio. But yesterday I got back into the grove of things. I got on a exercise bike and started paddling for like 20 minutes using interval training. I really don't like doing HIITS on the stationary bike because my butt cheeks really suffers after all that rubbing and friction.

The reason I biked instead of ran is because I think I hurt my lower back paddling last Saturday. It's really bothering me and I think I'm going to lay off any more paddling until this thing heals. However it did not stop me from working out yeterday and today. I was able to jump rope for 20 minutes, than I ran on the tread mill for 14 minutes until I really felt that my right knee couldn't take it no more (still don't know why this is happening) and then I hoped of the elliptical for 10 more minutes to finish off my workout. It feels pretty good to sweat. I havent' do specific cardio training in so long (except the random running on various Sundays during my Max-OT workout program), I forgot how good it feels.

Anyway, I'm still a little bitch about starting my run again. It's hard. But you know what? Even after 50 minutes of cardio, my heart was being pushed hard. So I guess the only thing that can really make my suffer is doing sprints. It really works my heart and beats the crap out of me in just less than 20 minutes. That's got to be by far the best cardio workout I can ever do by myself in such a short time. However, getting my butt out there is not easy because I know it's so tough. Urgh.

So I'm still on my break from lifting weights. This is my 2nd week and I want to recover this injury I have on my finger/grip before picking up any weights. I can't even do my pull ups these days because I want this finger to heal up. Also with thsi new lower back injury, I think I'm just going to chill out this week like I'm suppose to and hopefully by next week, I can start another tour for Body-for-LIFE and get lean again. I'm eating so bad these days and temptation and cravings are really getting the best of me. The fight is never ending, but I like that my attitude is still to fight on and to not give up. Wake up early helps. Working out and moving my body helps. If I don't do these things, I'm a goner.

Started my 4th tour of Body-for-LIFE modified. Did chest and shoulders today. The modification is that I'm going to incorporate some Max-OT sets on intensity level 8 and give myself 2 minute rest. But I only do this on the first exercise (namely on Bench Press, Pull Ups, and Squats, maybe weighted dips). And I will try to hit my mark and workout for a maximum of 45-50 minutes. I wonder how well this will work, but I plan to get great results, gain mass, and strength will looking very defined. Thank you God for looking guiding me along this process and looking after me to make sure I don't get injuried. 3 months of training, here I come.

Ran again today. It felt great. However, I'm still not as strong as before. I know it will take some time for my body to catch up to were I use to be, but I look forward in getting even stronger and running sprints for even longer than 1 minute.

While I'm on this modified BFL program, I'm going to change the eating habits as well. Yes, I'm going to go on an alkaline diet for 10 days and see how my body feels after that. That diet is no whey protein, no creatine, no meat, no daily, no sugars, no coffee, no soda. Just plain veggies, fruit, and water and of course "Green drink" or green foods. It's going to be super crazy man. I wonder how my body will respond to this. I look forward in seeing the effects.

Trained lower body today. Did it in 45 minutes. Yes!!! I'm still strong as an OX even after 2 weeks rest. My Max-OT set was not at the limit of where I was at the end of my program, but it's very close. Double YES!!! But I passed over my BFL weights when at intensity level 9 and 10. Fuck yeah!!! Dude, I'm so strong now. Oger like strength man. haha Anyway, I'm very happy to see an increase in strength from the results of my Max-OT training. I still need to put up my weight stats on the site.

Did my run again today. The last minute was fantastic. I pushed hard today and it felt very natrual and smooth. I don't know how I do it sometimes because the minute before the last one, I was dying. Then I just yelled out "GO!" when the last minute came and my body said, "Oh shit, we better start moving. This dude is serious." LOL.

My new "diet" is pretty tough. I'm starving all the time, left and right? Why can't salads and water fill you up? Anyway, I bought more fruit today so it should help. Also, I'm snacking on more almonds now, so that should help too. However, this morning I woke up with ease. That's what I was looking for. To not have to struggle to get up and to have energy throughout the day. So far, at times, I still get tired, dose off a little bit. I think that's caused from lack of sleep. Last night I slept long and good. But I know I still need to catch up on my sleep from the weekend abuse.

I had a great workout today. I woke up at 6:15 with ease. This is the best part about this new eating habit. Anyway, I trained back, triceps, and biceps. My back is still as strong as ever. I can still do my Max-OT set where I left off. Yes! However my bicep is not as strong as before, but that's ok. It's still pretty strong.

Now for the diet. I was straving again yesterday. My body is always hungry. I eat a salad and then a hour later, I'm hungry. I try to suppress the feeling with H2O, but that does not last a long time. I think today I'm going to try to suppress it with excess H20. Like drink a lot of it at one setting and just overflow my stomache with it. Ice cold H2O. This approach has worked for me before and it should work again. I hope.

Yesterday, I woke up with ease after sleeping for like 7 hours. I want to get down to sleeping 5 hours and still wake up with ease. I like to see if this is possible. So far what I don't like about this diet is the hunger feeling. And yesterday I had such a craving for sweets and a protein bar. However, I resisted my temptation and just sipped on water. Mmmm... how satisfying. To suppress my hunger I ate A LOT of almonds again. This helps, but I have to consistently do this. Also, eating salad all the time, I'm getting tired of the tangy dressing. I need to find something to change the tastes of all these greens.

Overall, I'm enjoying the experience and like I mentioned, it's only for 10 days. 10 days. That's not asking too much. I eat "10 days" of determination and persistence for breakfast. One concern I have is that I'm not getting enough protein and that I'm losing muscles mass. I train so hard working out in the morning and to not have enough protein to replenish my muscle just doesn't make sense to me. But again, it's only 10 days and I'm committed. However, after 10 days, I think I'm going to start adding whey protein and creatine to the diet to supplement the lack of protein. I notice that my muscles are sore for longer days than I'm use to and I think it's because the lack of protein the muscle needs to recover from breaking it down during my workout sessions. Just a theory though. We'll see next week when I try this puppy out.

So I ran today and I'm starting to feel good on my runs. I can push pretty hard on the last 2 minutes, especially on the last minute. Even though I'm super tired, I still go all out. Today however, I had to stop 30 secs into my last minute because I saw a person walking there dog. And I had a feeling it was not a good idea to try to run as fast as you can past a dog. So I decided to just stop and try it again next Tuesday.

I decided today that after my run I would take protein and creatine again for my supplements. It just does not make sense to me anymore to stick hard to this diet and not replenish my body with supplements after an intense workout. It's really counter productive. I don't think this "alkaline" diet is meant for people that demands a lot out of their body physically. We will see.

After after my run I went Dragon Boat practice and paddled for about an hour and half. After that, I want to Jiu-Jitsu practice, but that was a very light workout. Then the rest of the day I went to Trader Joe's to get some veggies and have something to eat for the week. I discovered a new source of protein. Tofu and it's super ease to make. Easier than chicken breasts. Yes!!!

I had a pretty great workout today. I trained Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps. However, my shoulder workout was not as good as I liked. I lost a lot of strength. I think it's the lost of muscle from the alkaline diet. I'm not sure though. I ate a lot of chips this weekend from watching UFC and Pride. They were "vegatable" chips and "black bean" chips so technically I was not viloating the "alkaline" rule. But who am I kidding. Those damn things were fried, but I find loop holes to the system all the time. I don't feel too bad about it, but I know I shouldn't have really ate them.

I personally feel the alkaline diet is a lot harder than just being a vegatarian (even though I've never been a vegatarian before in my life). I can't eat dairy, no breads, no pasta, no chips. Urgh. I'm really restricted. Thank goodness for tofu and I'm not even sure I can eat that. I'm not even sure if I can eat seeweed. Man, these 10 days is really going to up my discipline muscle. And that was exacly the idea.

It was very hard for me to workout today. During my morning walk all I can think about is how I did not feel like working out. Even when I got home, changed, and put on my running shoes, in my mind I still did not want to workout. As I stretched, I did not want to workout. And even when I started to walk to the park and picked up my pace for my run, I did not feel like it. But I did it anyways and that, my friends, is the best feeling on earth. To overcome adversity. I can talk about the joys and the rewards of this moment AFTER I did it all I want and say how it's the best feeling and to know that I put myself in uncomfortable positions and to say that I expressed another day of discipline and that I have heart and that will power is strong and I have strong purposes and reasoing to stay consistent and all that crap. But the truth is, it's just plain fuckin' hard to workout on days like this. But I am very proud of the fact that after the deed is done, I can really feel proud of the accomplishment.

To me, sometimes it's not about the act of working out or getting that dream bod. It's more about knowing that there are tough times, times that I "don't feel like it" but am still able to concure due to straight up, plain and simple will power. I did not look forward to today's workout at all. I don't even know if my attitude will stay the same for this coming week. God I hope not. But I acknowledge today was very hard. I hope tomororw will be a different story. It's wierd. I'm in week 2 of this next BFL-mod tour. And usually I don't get burnt out until week 3 or 4. I guess I already got some good physical results from previous attempts and I don't have the excitement from working out as much. But I want better results and I want to grow more. So that will be me motive and also, I want lower body fat. LOL.

As for my "alkaline" diet I found black bean soup. I didn't go hungry at all yesterday which is great. I think with finding tofu and black bean soup, I can finish these last few days strong. After this 10 day challenge is done, I'm definitely going to eat like before, but adding more greens to my diet and more vegatables and less meat.

I don't write my workout entries everyday now. Why? It's really sad that I can't even devote like 10 minutes to write an entry. I am super, duper busy and focused. But yet, if I was really determined, I can spare 10 minutes. Yet sometimes it's hard to get started and just put something down. The act of thinking about writing is harder than writing itself. Anyway, I've been working out, just not updating. Urgh. Lame excuse I know. There is no excuses on this one.

Anyway, I trained back and biceps and I think shoulders today. The reason I say "I think" because I'm doing this new "straight up pull down arch" excerise. I think it's for the back, but it works the shoulders too I think. Anyway, I had a great bicep workout and I hope I'm super sore tomorrow because of it.

My wrist was injuried the last 2 days and today it was feeling good. I was scared that I would not be able to put in 100% of my effort in my workout because of the injury, but thank goodness it did not bother me. It did bother me on Wednesday, thus my lower body workout on Wednesday was not that great.

I had a bad workout yesterday. I did Chest and Shoulders and although I a little bit sore today, I think I could have gotten a better workout. I just wasn't focused yesterday.

I think the reason of my lack of will to workout is because of my eating. The more I eat, the fatter I get. The fatter I get, the less motivation I have to push harder because I'm progress backwards. And when I don't feel like I'm doing the best I can in my workouts and in my diet and in keeping my body optimal, I don't have to killer instinct and don't try to do my best. This is a vicious cycle.

These past of days have been bad for me in terms of eating. I'm eating real bad and I'm not stopping. I need to stop. I want to stop because it's killing me inside. Every fat I gain, I get more depressed. But sometimes I can't control my urge for bad food. I get tempted and once I break one promise and break one instance of will, I break another very easily. And then another and another and the cycle starts. It's so important to not break a promise and my own integrity and promise toward self. Because once I break it, I just keep breaking more. I have this problem I think. I give myself a little pain, and then I want more. I fall into the hole and I just want to put myself deeper and deeper into it until I get to the state where I'm at currently.

But I want to change. I don't like this state. It kills me. I don't have confidence in myself. My outlook in life sucks. And I don't have the substance behind the backing of the life that I want to live. And it all starts again at the physical level. It's always here. This is my base. Without the physical dimension taken care of, every other dimension in my life crumbles. I'm aware of this now and this is a MUST for me. So for now, this MUST be my strict discipline and I MUST control my eating once again. Fuck I hate it when I have weak will. But I like acknowledging it because it gives me strength to improve on it. Even though admitting it is super tough and super hard to swallow.

Btw, cardio today was jump rope for 10 minutes this morning (I was suppose to do 20, but again, I gave up. FUCK!!!). And I'm going to do 20 minutes of cardio at the gym during lunch.

Oh yes. I'm going to commit to write everything down that I ate again, based on time so I can start controlling my eating habits again. This is a commitment. This helped me before, it sucks, it's hard, but it's good for me so I going to do it to strengthen my will again.

I had a good workout today. I wasn't super strong today, but I felt very energized and focused. I train back, biceps, and triceps. I'm listening to Tony Robbin's Get The Edge audio program again about the "alkaline" diet and I'm trying more and more to incorporate into my life slowly. I went too fast and too extreme last time. This time around, I want to try to make it a habit.

Meals for today:
- 10:15 am: Whey Protein, creatine, green drink, MSM, multi-vitamn
- 12:00 pm: 1/2 Serving of Salmon and greens
- 3:00 pm: 1/2 Serving of Salmon, rice and mushrooms (mushrooms are not authorized)
- 5:00 pm: Soba salad with tofu and chicken
- 9:00 pm: Green drink
- 9:15 pm: Rice and mixed veggies and bean tofu
- 10:45 pm: 2 plums and a peach and green drink
- 3:30 am: Green drink. Yum

No workout today. I came home way too late last night and although I could have woken up this morning to workout, I thought I should rest since I was going to go dragon boating and then kickboxing and the grappling. I was able to do those thing, but just not run.
- 8;30 am: Green drink
- 11:00 pm: Banana and half of orange
- 12:45 pm: 3/4 of Zone Bar
- 2:30 pm: Green drink
- 3:00 pm: 1/4 of Zone Bar and rice and mixed veggies and bean tofu and some unauthorized meat.
- 9:00 pm: Green drink

No workout yesterday. I got back from Sac and I was planning on working out then I hopped online and then that was the end of that. Damn match.com. That damn site is a time killer for me these days.

Meals for today:
- 10:00 am: Green drink.
- 1:30 pm: Rice with mixed veggies and squid and beef.
- 4:00 pm: Plum, sun flower seeds, and grapes
- 5:00 pm: Watermelon
- 8:00 pm: Rice with mixed veggies and squid and beef.
- 9:00 pm: Mango ice cream bar and plum
- 12:15 pm: Green drink. Yum

I worked out on chest, shoulders, and abs today. I was going to train triceps but I knew I was going to dragon boat later on today and I didn't want to over do it. I think I'll be over doing it anyways. I should have workout yesterday instead and did cardio today. Lazy me. I mess up my own workout plans.

I going to try to get 3 servings of that green drink a day now and 2 servings of the MSM. I want to slowly get my body use to getting more of these supplements and see how it adjusts to them.
Meals for today:
- 10:00 am: Whey Protein, Creatin, Green drink, MSM, and multi-vitamin.
- 12:00 pm: Chicken Burrito, No Cheese, no sour cream. Black beans.
- 3:00 pm: Chicken with rice and veggies.
- 5:00 pm: Chicken with rice and veggies and Green drink.
- 11:00 pm: Green drink. Steak and rice and some veggies.
- 3:30 am: 2 plums

I trained legs today even though I've slept only like 4 hours last night. I stayed up late last night being online (on match.com again). Damn that site. Anyway, I got a quick workout today. 8 minutes on quads and finish my whole legs workout in 37 minutes. Damn that fast. I'm thinking about not doing my Modified BFL routine anymore and just do the regular BFL routine. I'm not seeing good progress, but I guess I'll still with it. I want my body looking pumped all the time. haha.

Meals for today:
- 11:30 am: Whey Protein, Creatin, Green drink, MSM, and multi-vitamin.
- 1:30 pm: Chicken breast grilled with skin with veggies
- 2:30 pm: Snacked on sun flower seeds
- 5:00 pm: Chicken legs and thigh grilled with rice. (felt very tired after I ate this. I think it was the rice (carbs) mixed with the protein). Bad food combinations.
- 9:00 pm: Green drink with MSM. rice and veggies.
- 11:00 pm: 2 slices of water melon and green tea earlier.
- 12:00 am: Green drink.

I tried to run today, but I didn't feel like it. In the middle of my run, my stomache started to hurt and that's when I called it quits. I gave up today and I'm not proud of it. But still, I do like it when I listen to my body at times and not try to over will myself everytime.

Meals for today:
- 9:30 am: Whey Protein, Creatin, Green drink, MSM, and multi-vitamin.
- 2:00 pm: Pad Thai (not authorized)
- 3:30 pm: Chinese Chicken Salad
- 5:30 pm: Chinese Chicken Salad
- 9:00 pm: Green drink with MSM. Rice and veggies.
- 11:00 pm: Plum and grapes.
- 12:30 am: Green drink.

So I've decided to go back to doing the regular BFL workout instead of my modified one. I think this one is better for me because I get more pumped and it's more intense. What I didn't like about it was that on upper body days, my workout sessions go as long as 70 minutes. That's way to long for me. It's TOO intense. Anyway, I think I've discovered some way to cut down the times so I'll be able to do 1 1/2 body parts a week, just like before.

I got a great workout today. It was very intense and I was pretty focused. I want to filling of tiredness when I walk around after my workout. I miss those days and now I want it back. So BFL to 2 more months for me again.

Meals for today:
- 10:30 am: Whey Protein, Creatin, Green drink, MSM, and multi-vitamin.
- 12:15 pm: Tuna, rice, veggies, plum sauce
- 2:30 pm: Tuna, veggies, and some salad
- 4:30 pm: Chicken Salad
- 5:00 pm: Green drink.

Yesterday I had a great workout. Even though my squats wasn't that good and today my legs aren't super soar, I still remember yesterday's workout was awesome. I did hurt my left leg a bit during my squats, that why I didn't push myself that hard. However, I've moved one upper body exercise for lower body days to cut down the time train during upper body days. I think this new system is going to be super duper funky fresh.

Today, it was my intent to run and do some sprints but I haven't been getting enough sleep lately. Nonetheless I still woke up and jump roped for 20 minutes and the finished my workout with some ab work.

Yesterday, I didn't get to drink my green drink 3 times. I only drank it twice. I was just too lazy to get up and make me a green drink. You know you've been bitten by the lazy bug when you can't even get your ass up to make a green drink with a blender. It was very disappointing.

Meals for today:
- 10:30 am: Whey Protein, Creatin, Green drink, MSM, and multi-vitamin.
- 12:15 pm: Steak, potatoe wedges (bad), veggies, and some mushrooms (bad).

It's been about a week since I last wrote in my workout journal. Well the good news is that it's not because of my lack of motivation in working out. I worked out everyday that was scheduled last week dispite being tired and having lack of sleep. And I ate very well last week except during the weekend where I gave myself a break with get together gatherings and birthday parties. This week, I'm starting off well, but I'm starting to not eat well again. Hopefully, I'll get more focused today and try to control some of my temptations.

I had a good run workout today. My abs are getting weak for some reason. So I guess I'll try to focus on them this week and get them strong for my big dragon boat racer this weekend.

I've been doing well in drinking the green drink 3 times a day. I think that's my going to be my daily drink and I really like the effects it has on my body. Let's hope for no long term side effects.

So one of my biggest struggles right now is not actually working out but writing about my workout. I have not been doing this on a consistent basis and I want to. I feel this is part of my workout routine and I've been slacking off on it. So I hope to maintain this ritual and keep in up in the weeks to come. 5 minutes or so is not asking too much of me. I find I'm writing less in genernal and that's a no no.

Today I didn't do my run but instead I did my Power90 Cardio 3-4 routine instead. Hmmm.. Can someone say "I'm out of shape?" Either that or I wasn't feeling it. I think it was a bit of both. I havent' done the routine in a while and I was feeling it today at all. But I finished my routine and I got my workout in for the day. I remember I use to own this routine. But today, it was a bit of a struggle to finish it. Maybe I'll try it again Thursday. Depends on how I feel.

Great workout today. I've found motivation again to workout. Again, it is all intrinsic and it revolves with the statement, "Life is hard."

Great workout today. And I had a great workout on Friday and Saturday as well, though I didn't make the time to write about it. Today I was focused and I got a lot 10's on my leg workout. I feel good. I hope I can keep up the intensiy for the rest of my BFL experience. Also before my workouts I set my mind to look forward to my workout. I wonder to myself, "I wonder how strong I'll be today?" and I look forward to my workouts. Or I say, "how am I going to grow today?" or "I wonder how strong I'll be today." So I'm alway curious. Again my mentality is to do the hard stuff so when I don't feel like doing it, I just say to myself, "This is the hard stuff, that's why a lot of people don't do it." And then I do it.

Another great workout today. Thinking about growth and how I can grow in today's workout session really helps. I'm back about ~145lbs again. I was at about 152lb-ish before because I was eating bad. I need to start taking pictures again because I'm so vain. LOL. I'm hoping to get stronger and my legs are starting to form as well. I love working out even though today it was very tough to stil motivated. I moved very slow in the beginning, but eventually it picked up. I was still sluggish and my workout time extented to a longer period than I wanted. 63 minutes. That's way too long.

I had a pretty weak cardio workout this morning. Only 10 minutes of jump roping because I was running late. However, I was able to do some abs afterward. But I know I didn't push myself hard this morning like I should be and I'll probably regret it the rest of the day. Maybe I'll do something after class tonight.

I had long workout today. Not 100% focused. I was thinking too much about life and philosophies and the benefits of working out. It's weird, the more I workout these days, the more I think during my workout sessions. Hello! I should be focusing on the task at hand and not thinking about theories. I should be applying theories through action! Anyway, I'm glad I finished up my week with legs. I only missed cardio no Tuesday this week. That's pretty good. I plan on running tomorrow to finish up my week. I plan to take some pictures this weekend too. An update is surely needed and I totally slacked off about this last month.

So I've been debating if I should end this journal on this forum. I still plan on continuing writing a "daily" journal on my workout progress on my own personal website (except the writing part hasn't been so "daily", since I been caught up in other times at work.. like working.. haha). But I thought about it and part of me thought that writing in this journal was kind of superficial. Like I was doing it for the wrong purposes. Like it was some what ego driven. And I don't want to do it for those reasons. Part of me writing in my journal is for myself, as it helps me stay consistent and I see it as part of my workout routine. And even part of me write it because I feel I'm contributing, in my own, to this community. Although I have to admit I am not an active member of this specific community and forums (i.e. I don't post to other threads that much), I think my little form on contribution does help and my story and experience shared with this group will make some type of impact... as little as it might be. Part of my main reasons is to express "determinism" and the grace of "persistence." So in order to do that, I have to continue. I don't think want to think I'm all noble and shit like I'm doing it for a greater good, but I know my journal gets read and it might or might not help a couple of people out there. If it does, I'm totally oblivious to it as I hardly get any feedback. This is not a cry to beg for acknowledgement or anything. But like I said, I don't want to do it for fame or popular or persistege. I do it for me. I workout for me and I contribute for me. I'm not active in this community but I'll still share my stories. As I know sharing stories and experiences with others and reading theirs has helped me and even at time motivate me. I hope to be able to contribute back that way just the same. Plus, it's just cut and pasting for me anyways. LOL. What's an extra 5 minutes.

I had a great run yesterday. I spirinted pretty hard and got a good workout on my heart. I love it when I push myself real hard. I felt strong yesterday. It's probably because I was in a real good mood because other areas of my life was good. So I ran strong yesterday. And then I did my abs and finished off this week's workout with grace.

I had a great workout today especially my biceps. I pushed it hard and it felt great earning a 10 at the end of my workout. I had to workout at lunch and break away from my regular morning routine, but nonetheless, it's just a great feeling keeping a commitment to myself for another day. Although I have to admit I did eat kind of bad this weekend and I did have 2 donuts that I shouldn't have this morning. But still, I think I'll be able to cut some more fat this week if I'm careful and stay disciplined.

I had a really good run today. At first I didn't feel like it. I had way too much on my mind. But by the time my 4th interval came up, I want all out. I have to admit, I didn't know what a 10 really felt like until today. I gave it my all and damn near died in the process. Ha ha. Maybe not that extreme, but I did push myself harder than I ever have before in my run. I did my last sprint for basically 2 minutes instead of one. That killed me. I should have been doing this a long time ago, ever since I started sprinting, but I was too weak to do it. These days, I'm getting stronger so I'm willing to push myself further. Let's hope I do this again come Thursday.

I wasn't too focused on my workout today. My mind is currently thinking a lot about my career however I still worked out and did my thing for the day. It was a decent workout and I even went up in weight. However, it was not a great workout. I was not "feelin' it." Nonetheless I'm proud of my dedication for the day and did what I needed to do. I order Power 90X and am planning are starting to workout at home again. It won't be so bad now that winter is coming and my living won't be so hot. I look forward in getting a lot of strength increase and body control with P90X. Should be a blast!

I had a decent run today. I'm still trying to run hard for the last 2 minutes. I'm getting better at this. I'm definitely hitting it hard the very last minute even though the minute before that I'm pushing myself. I feel so good to realize how much I can push myself beyond what I thought was capable. Well, it feels better upon reflection then when I'm actually doing it of course, but it feels better good when I'm doing it at well. I'm slowly starting feel the sense of "tranquility" that I didn't think was possible when doing sprints. I use to feel it all the time when running for long distances and at a steady pace, but to get it doing sprints is blissful.

I didn't put an entry for my last Friday's workout, but I recalled that I had a great workout and my focus was really good. Unfortunately, I can't say the intensity carried over to today (Monday). Currently I'm at work, in my cube, hating it and I haven't worked out yet. I have too much things on my mind and I focus isn't at working out. I know this is the time when I definitely need to workout, but yet, I don't always do the best things for me. Why? Because it's hard and I think my time will be limited. I pretend that the other things are more important, they are the quadrant one activities and I need to get them done. Yet I type into my journal and not workout. This is not good. The plan is to workout during lunch today. I don't forsee this happening at my current rate.

By the way, this weekend I ate really bad and I started off my week eating bad as well. I drank too much beer this weekend, ate too much chips, played too much, and didn't sleep enough. On top of that, I was feeling sick and I still didn't do things to allow my body to recover properly. Yet, I feel ok today, but still, this is not how I'm suppose to take care of my body.

So I didn't end up working out yesterday at lunch or after work. My mind was just not committed in doing it and neither was my body. Actually, I felt like I needed to after writing my journal, yet I still did not make my move. I feel a bit regret and remorse knowing that I caved and couldn't take action even though theoritically I should have been able to get my butt off the seat and to hit the weights. However, I trained my lower body workout today and I'm just going to accept that I missed a day yesterday. Actually I missed Saturday's cardio workout as well, but who's counting.

My workout today was not great. It was ok, but the point is that I got it done and I redemmed myself for another day. That's the most important part for me. That I'm able to follow up on a self promise. So I ate bad this weekend and had a big lunch yesterday (which could have attributed to me not being able to get up and get moving). So today, my focus is to try to get back into eating well.

So I did my workout today. Today was nothing special. Just another day at the gym. I wasn't too focused in my workout as I'm still worried and thinking about joining my group and trying to impress the boss and all the stupid retarded stuff in joining a new team. Anyway, I'm glad I got my time in but now I have to play catch up and do some work. Eating wasn't that great yesterday, hopefully it will be better today.

Not sure if I'm going to workout today at lunch. I had to go to a denist appointment this morning so that cut into my workout. That's not an excuse why I couldn't workout, it just that I don't feel a need to really get my cardio workout in and on some days, I can miss it and not feel too bad. One days where I do weights, that's a different story. However I am committed to this workout program, but sometimes I have to train smart not beat myself on the head and be stern and rigid in my approach. Sometimes, I'll miss a workout. It's not a big deal, but it better not happen often. I should always make an effort to fight for it.

So I tried something different in my workout today that I usually don't do which is listen to music. Usually I just listen to whatever is playing at the gym. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it totally sucks. Most of the time the gym is quiet and I'm just focused on my task at hand. However today I listened to my own music. Yes, today Eminem was my workout partner and dare I say, he is the best motivator a guy can have. Man, I was pumped today. I was so focused. I had so much strength. I couldn't believe my squat intensity. It was off the charts. I will do this more often, but not all the time. Having music to bring in the mood and assist in the intensity really helps. I never did it before but now after a while I'll try anything new and different. Now I just need to find more "angry" music. LOL.

Btw, I didn't get to workout yesterday because my scheduling was off. In short, I was lame and it wasn't in the top most thing that I wanted to get done yesterday. So I missed it and now I'm moving on. No more beating myself on the head and no more self put downs. Next. I will try to do my cardio run tomorrow morning but I don't forsee it being easy as I'm going to be out partying late tonight and will be up in the wee hours of the morning. But I will try. :)

I ate pretty bad this past weekend. Pizza for 3 days in a row. That's not good. On top of that I went to a buffet Sunday night and I just went wild there. So now I'm back at 150lbs and I gained about 3 lbs this weekend. Time to eat well this week and try to cut 5 lbs and get me back to 145 again. It will be hard this week because I'll be going to San Diego and I won't have my "daily" routine life. I wonder if there's a gym at the place I'll be staying at and I'm wondering how I'm going to be eating. It should be a good challenge to eat well, but I believe I can do it even better there. There will be less distractions even though there's less convinence. It will be a good test of will and determination.

Today's workout was ok. I was listening to my ipod again while working out yet I was still not 100% pumped and focused. Actually after a while I turned off my music and just concentrated on my task at hand. Overall, I'm glad with my workout but last week I didn't do any cardio at all so this week, I have to get back on it. Especially after all the crap I ate this past weekend. I hope I can stay on a good eating plan this week.

I didn't do weight for about a week since I went to a seminar in San Diego. I'm pretty sure I lost some muscle mass. But now I'm back and my schedule has changed a bit so I'm not sure how to incorporate my workout time. But I will make it work. I was able to train up body yesterday and I haven't worked out yet today. I feel a little bit of a sore throat and I'm not sure if I want to push it. I haven't been getting enough sleep for the past 6 days so slowly I'm trying to get more. I think I will substance lack of sleep for good nutrition and plenty of water. I'm not 100% sure I'll get a workout in today. :(

Alright back on the road again. I hit upper body today even though I'm still a little bit sick. I feel good though. Working out always makes me feel good. It's like a little investment I make with my soul everyday. That little promise that add strength to my confidence in myself, knowing that I am 100% committed. It just feels good. And the act of working out feels good as well. I have to admit I lose some muscle during last week when I didn't workout and eat well. So slowly I have to get that back again. I plan on staring Power90X in Nov 15. I hope it can give me some great results. I'm looking for strength increase and I want to hit my 150lb goal with 5% body fat.

So I haven't done cardio in like a week and a half now I'm starting to feel like crap. So tomororw, back to cardio training. Also I plan on eating very clean this week as this is the end of my Body-for-Life 4th tour. I'm not getting exceptational results this time, but I did enough to maintain what I currently have. To be honest, I haven't trained super hard, nor have been 100% consistent in my workouts. Especially the cardio. I also was very lenient with myself on my eating habits. Overall, I plan to get strict again when I start Power 90 X and see how this program can assist me in my continuous growth.

My workout was O.K. today. I'm just glad I did it. I haven't trained lower body for about 2 weeks as well, I wonder how it will affect my training come Wednesday. So I'm glad I was able to workout today and expressed discipline. Ipod really helps me maintain my focus (and it also distracts it at times).

I was able to do my run today. It was hard, but I managed to finish. My eating could have been better last night. I told myself and my friend that I would not eat anything other than just Chicken and rice and salsa last night, but I ended up eating a little bit more than that. Damn it I hate it when I break promises to myself and others.

Wow. I just did my 1st Power90X workout and boy was I not prepared for it. I didn't think it was going to be that tough, but it was good. I didn't push myself hard today since it's still new and I didn't know what to expect. But I have to admit, I forgot how hard Power90-ish still workout were. Very little rest and very heart intensive. So far so good. I'm going to enjoy the next 90 days very much. I can see how I will improve my strength a lot if I keep my focus. Time to write down some goals. I love how they make you keep track of your results as you go.

I'm not going to do any paper work this week. This week is going to be my "workout with the video and prepare myself on what's to come week." Next week is my official start week that way I can get some measurements and pictures and mentally ready for next week. Voot! I can't wait til 90 days is up.

So I wasn't able to workout yesterday because I got caught up with work assignments. I thought it would be ok since I was still on my "trial" week for Power90X. However, I notice that I can't make it up. For cardio days, it will be a different exercise every cardio day until like a week later. So I guess I'll make it up on Sunday.

Today was arms and shoulders day. It was awesome. I'm still not using heavy weights yet or keep track of my reps and weights. I will later, but for now I just want to get use to the program and see what intensity level I need to take it to get results. It looks like this program is going to push me really hard. I'm still sore from Monday's workout and I haven't been sore in a long time. This program kicks ass!

I hope I'm sore on my arms and shoulders tomorrow. If so, that means I'm working super hard my muscles are breaking down. AWESOME!

Well today was Yoga X day. When I popped on the dvd and saw that the workout was 1 hour and 30 minutes, my jaw damn near dropped to the floor. I knew that was going to be way too long for me so I decided to do it for 30 minutes and stop. I just wanted to see what is going to happen. I guess I'll have to bring it next time I do it. I was just not prepared to be doing yoga for that long.

Man, Power90X kicks my ass. Geezus man this workout program is hard. I have to admit there are MANY times during the working session when I feel like just stopping. But of course, through my experience in working out, I don't stop until I"m done (unless I feel I might get injuried, then I just play smart). But I like this challenge. I can totally see how after completing this workout program, I'm going to be in such awesome shape, I'm going to kick mucho ass! I can't wait until next week when I really start charting my results and when I really start training for keeps. Oh I hope my lungs and heart can hand it. Most of all, I hope my will and spirit can because this program really test that part the most. And that's why I LOVE IT!

To be honest with y'all, I didn't think I was going to LOVE this program as much I am starting to. I didn't go in with that much expectations but it is really forcing me to bring up my standards fast. Wooo Whooo! I love raising my standards, especially in this dimension of my life. I'm very excited about the next 90 days especially during Thanksgiving and Xmas when my will will really get tested once again (just like last year). I'll know if I'm playing for keeps for if this is just the current "cool," "in-trend" thing that's happening. haha. Fuck that. When I workout, I workout with the intent for growth and development. I have to admit that the last month or so I haven't been pushing myself that hard and my tubby tub baby fat has been showing that attitude. Well, that ain't gonna happen no more. I think I'm going to start feeling like I'm going to puke again during my workouts. Oh boy, I can't wait. *giggle*

However I did not do ab ripper X today. I'm gay. I quit and stopped just like I did yesterday. These workout sessions are super long and I need to start adjusting my time accordinly. But I need to because now I'm going to take it to the next level or as they say, "Bring it! (Sucka!!!)" Ok, looking forward to the next couple of test workout sessions.

So I was able to do Kenpo X yesterday and it wasn't as hard as all the other workout programs but it was not easy neither. Yes I was sweating which if fantastic in my books. I guess it was not so tough on me because I have martial arts background, but it's still a great workout. I look forward in doing this more often and I have to watch myself when I push because yesterday I did feel that I over extended my elbow a bit and it did hurt. Good thing if feels good today.

I was able to do Ab Ripper X yesterday since I skipped out on it Friday. So I did my abs 3 times this week and I feel good. Can't wait for next week or tomorrow.

Alright. Day 1 of Power90X. I don't even know why I choose to start this week. Thanksgiving is on Thursday. haha. Oh well. I love challenges during the holidays. It really tests me to see if I'm truely committed in my workout programs and routine. So I'm going to start eating good today and I'm going to keep it up for 90 days. That is my social declaration.

With that being said. Today's workout was AWESOME! I was mentally ready today even though those later sets of pull-ups and push-ups were super hard. My god they were hard. Still I started writing down my numbers. I still did not take my before and after pictures nor did my I take my measurements or do my physical tests. Am I really that busy where I can't even take an hour out to do these tests. Yes. Fortunately. And I LOVE it!

Day 2 of P90X. So I did plyometrics X today and it was awesome. Last week I didn't get a chance to do this, so this week it was a first for me. And I have to say I'm really glad it's in P90X. One concern I still have for this program is that I won't be building mass and I'll get too skinny. However, I'm sore as shit from yesterday's Chest and Back workout. Another concern I have is that my lower body won't have a good workout. Plyometrics will change that if I CHOOSE to push myself hard on these workouts. With this and yoga and the weight training days, it's like we're doing strength training everyday. This program is to build a very functional body. I LOVE IT.

Day 3 of P90X. I woke up a little later than I wanted, but then again I slept very late last night as well. My workout today was shoulders and arms and I was kind of surprised that it was getting easier for me. haha. Just last week I was complaining about how hard these workouts are and already I'm stating that it's getting easier. I guess it is all in the mind and now that I'm perpared for what's to come, I don't get as surprised and know what intensity I need to BRING IT when I come working out. I do like bring the intensity and I'm starting to chart everything down. I still need to take by before pictures and my measurement. I'll do this this weekend after some Turkey dinner. And yes, I still will workout tomorrow. Turkey day or not!

Day 4 of P90X. Ahhhh... Yoga X. I forgot how much I missed yoga until I started doing yoga X. Yoga is so beneficial and it's so challenging. This exercise routine was making me doubt myself and my strength in about the 20 minute mark. Of course the whole routine is about 90 minutes, but I realized that only the hardest part is up until 45 minutes. I can do 45 minutees really challenging exercises.

One thing I noticed about Yoga X and Plyometrics routine in Power90X is that I'm really going to gain a lot of lower body leg strength is I don't cheat in my form and I always try to go down lower and really push myself to the limit. I can't forget my goal is that I want to get stronger, especially in my lower body. Actually I want to get stronger in my upper body and have more mass in my lower body. Yoga X and other P90X routines are great tools for me to reach my goals. I just can't cheat myself and cut it movements short when I'm doing these excerises or else I'll really be cheating on myself and I won't reach my goals.

Speaking of cheating, I do have to confess that yesterday I cheated on my eating. I was so bad yesterday. 3 ice cream bars. Chips. 3 pieces of chocolate. And just mainly really bad, non-clean food throughout the day. Not a good way to start a workout program. And I missed my kickboxing class. haha. What does that have to do with food? Nothing. But still, once I start getting hard and down on myself, everything else that I did "wrong" yesterday will follow and come up. My conscience don't allow me to deny the truth. Anyway, I feel bad for eating bad yesterday and I knew when I was eating them that I would regret it the next day, yet I still didn't have the will power to stop myself and control my urges. Today being Thanksgiving and all, well it looks like I'll eat a couple more bad stuff. But hopefully not too much. I know I'll have a piece of pumpkin pie for sure and maybe some ice cream. :)

I did take my "Before" pictures today and hopefully later on today I'll take some measurements and do my fitness test so I can have to some goals to reach for.

Day 5 of P90X. Oh my god, today I did not feel like working out. I just wanted to get up and start doing some work and jump on the market and start trading. haha. But I said no to temptation and did what I was meant to do which was to workout every day since I'm on this program. And I committed and followed through. It feels great afterward, but during the first 5 minutes, it was a long struggle. I do have to admit I did not eat well yesterday. I ate some turkey and stuffing and gravy and some ice cream cake and some other really bad foods. My stomache is big because of it and I feel a little groogy. Hopefully I can stay good for the rest of the weekend and test myself again when I go to San Diego next week. :)

Day 6 of P90X. So yesterday I was able to do Kenpo X early in the morning before my kickboxing class. It was good, but I do have to admit Kempo X does not kick my butt like the other programs. I do get a good heart rate when I do it and I do sweat, but I'm not begging for the clock to come around like I do the other programs. I was even to Ab Ripper X afterward since I skipped it on Friday.

However, I got injured in kickboxing class yesterady and now I'm not sure if I'll be able to workout this week. I pulled my left calf muslce and now I walk with a slight limp. How disappointing. Anyway, this injury will heal eventually, but I'm sad that I might have to miss a week or two of working out. I'll see how I feel tomorrow before making any decisions.

Day 8 of P90X. So I decided to not workout today. My calf is still not healed and I'm not sure I want to be pushing it and get it more injuried. So I decided to just rest today and hopefully I can do today's workout, tomorrow (and just skip plyometrics this week). The reason I want to do this is because I know that I can't be jumping around on my feet at all, so plyometrics is totally out of the question, but by tomorrow I'll probably be able to do Chest and Back. So that's what I'm hoping for.

Day 9 of P90X. It was very hard for me to workout today. I woke up late, I didn't feel like it, I had a lot of other things I wanted to do, I was hungry, my house is super cold, and I just wanted to get out of the house. I had all these reason why I didn't want to and should have worked out and the only reason that I did end up doing it was because I knew I had to. All those reasons were all the reasons why I needed to workout. When I ask myself do I feel like working out or should I workout and when I respond to neither a "No, I don't feel like it" or a "Yes, but I don't feel like it," then that means more than ever that I must workout. I know this is because I know I can always give myself one thousands reasons why I don't feel like it and I can and probably always keep saying this. This "feeling" will always be here and will always reappear, no matter how strong I think my will power and determination is. The true expression of my will and determination is acknowledging that this "feeling" of laziness will appear and it is alway how I respond to this feeling that strengthens my proactive muscle and my determine fibers. So today, I've strengthen my will a little bit more and it feels freakin' fantastic! P90X Chest and Back. Done. And I gain some reps on a couple of the exercises as well. Calve is still a bit sore, but not sore enough to stop me. Of course I bailed out on Ab Ripper X today. I was glad I did my Chest And Back routine. Time is short and I do have other things to attend today. Still, I am happy that I got my workout in today. Persistence wins again.

Oh wow. It's been 12 days since I haven't written in this journal. I didn't realize it has been that long. I haven't been working out during these last 12 days. I just came back from a 6 day Tony Robbins Seminar and during that time, I fought that it was really hard for me to get my workouts in (The seminar starts at 9am and ends around 1am). I just didn't have the energy to be working out P90X style. That's ok. It was my intent to workout on the road, but I didn't realize my schedule would have been that draining. But it was worth it. Also the food I had there wasn't that great for me neither. But I made due with what was avaliable to make sure I didn't starve myself.

So now I'm going to start over my P90X experience again. Starting tomorrow. I'm going to start at Day 1 again. I finally did all my fitness test this morning and I'll post some stats later. For now I just want to share that I'm starting all over and I'm excited to see what results it'll bring. I can't believe it's been so long since I worked out. How times flies when we're not consistent with our workout routines. Oh yes, I remember I also had this incident with my dog last week that stopped me from working out. Not an excuse, but just a reflection.

Some stats from my fitness test: 12/12/04
Body Fat: 5.8%
Weight: 140lbs
Chest: 36 1/4 inches
Waist: 29 1/4 inches
Hips: 35 inches
Right Thigh: 20 1/4 inches
Left Thigh: 20 inches
Right Arm Flexed: 14 inches
Left Arm Flexed: 13 3/4 inches

0) Heart Rate in the morning after waking up: 75
1) Max Pull Ups (wide grip, all the way down, arm fully extended, chin over bar): 16
2) Vertical Leap: 18 3/4 inches (1ft, 6 3/4 inches)
3) Max Push Ups: 60
4) Toe Touch: +8 1/2 inches beyond toes
5) Wall Squat: 1 min 10 seconds (gave up quickly)
6) Bicep Curls: 30 lbs, 15 reps
7) In and Outs Abs: 50 reps (can do more, but didn't care here)
8) Heart Rate Maximizer:
a) 216 after 2 minutes of Jumping Jacks
b) 137 after 1 minute cool down
c) 124 after 2 minutes cool down
d) 122 after 3 minutes cool down
e) 114 after 4 minutes cool down

Starting over is always very hard. Actually starting over is not that hard. Getting back into the groove of things from a long break of eating bad and not living healthy is hard. And not to mention jumping back into one of the most extreme workout programs I can pick. That is hard. Today was a very challenging day for me in my workout. But I BROUGHT IT even though during the workout session in my mind I was thinking that I couldn't make it til the end. Not only did my body become weak during my little break, my mind also has become weak. My psychology muscles has become dorment. I recall when during my workouts I was determined to finish, no matter what. Quitting was not even an option. Today I did not feel that strong in my mind. That I feel is the worst setback I can have. Having a weaker psychology from the lack of workouts. The muscles and the strength and low body fat I know I can get back. The psychology I know I can get back as well, but that is the part that I dread losing the most. So now I'm on my way to get it back slowly. Tomorrow is Plyometrics. I will not quit in the middle.

Btw, I didn't do Ab Ripper X today. In my mind, I just felt that I couldn't do it after Chest and Back. But the weird thing is I decided before Chest and Back was over. And after Chest and Back was over and Ab Ripper X started to run, I knew deep inside my body still and was able to do it. But in my mind, I've already given myself permission to quit. That's the sure way to failure. I must remember now to count myself out so fast next time. But with weak psychology to start with, it was hard to win this game. That's why I must keep maintaining and building upon a stronger mind and do not allow it to fatigue and get weaker.

Oh yes. Today I start eating good again. I'm going to be really anal and strick on my eating habits and really catch myself when I'm eating to change my physiology. I know I do that often like I eat when I have doubt or when I don't feel like doing something. Like I eat when I face adversity or when I have to do something uncomfortable. I'm going to catch myself from now on and make sure I don't do this to sabatage myself. Also I'm going to make sure I don't eat past my limit. Like eat until I'm full and over indulge in the flavor of the food. I will eat so I don't stay hungry.

Wow, another day of pretty hard to get up in the morning to workout. I think it's so important to wake up at a fixed time and do exactly what I plan out in doing. If I wake up even a hour or so later than I expected, I feel that I'm cheating my day away. So I'm going to start trying to be more fixed on my waking up time and my sleeping time. Otherwise, I'll have this "I don't want to workout" in the morning feeling and that is very discouraging.

So I did Plyo yesterday but I had a business meeting yesterday so I didn't have time to write down my workout. I could have wrote it down later in the day, but I got lazy about it. Anyways, I did do my workout yesterday and today (Shoulders and Arms) and I feel great. I don't feel great about my eating habits as of yet, but I'll be getting bad into that strictly as well. I know I've been saying that for the past 3 days or so, but it's tougher than I thought.

I realize I eat to change my state. Like I eat when I'm nervous or when I don't want to concentrate and other bad habits associated to eating. It's a really disgusting behavior and I plan on elimating it soon with the skills I learned from Tony Robbins seminar and material. I just need to have the discipline to sit down and drill it into me.

I'm still not doing ab ripper X completely. This is my excuse. I'm still not 100% into workout mode yet. So today I just did like 1/4 of the routine. By next week, I should be doing it completely. That's my plan. Right now I'm just getting my body and life back to balance so things are still pretty hectic. But slowly I'll be back to normal.

So I didn't do my Yoga X workout yesterday, but I did end up doing Ab Ripper X last night from the guilty of skipping my workout. I really like Yoga so I decided to do that instead this morning. On thing I really don't like to commit on Yoga X is the 90 minute workout. I feel that is a bit too long. It's a great workout, but after the 50 minute mark, I just want it to end. Anyway, I plan on doing Back and Legs tomorrow and then finish it up with Kempo X on Sunday. Eating is still not that great. I plan on not being too hard on myself this weekend because there's going to be a couple of parties and get togethers. Hopefully I won't over indulge. This is something I'm really looking out for these days.

Alright. I was able to get up this morning after a late night of drinking and hitting the bar scene. I didn't get up exactly at 7am like I wanted, but I did get up at around 8am after the dog got restless. So I did my walk and started my P90X Legs and Back workout. It was hard to do, but I finished and now I'm one happy boy. Of course I still skipped Ab Ripper X. After Legs and Back, I really don't know how I can do Ab Ripper X. It's just too tough doing those 2 back to back.

So I missed 2 days so far in my P90X workout routine and I just re-started last week. Not a positive way to start an entry and definitely not a positive way to start a workout routine. Yesterday I just didn't have the mental energy to workout. I didn't get a good night's rest the night before and I was just not mentally focused. So the lesson for me was that it is very important for me to start sleeping well again. I've learned my lesson from my mistakes. The funny thing is that these tendencies are not new to me. I've seen these problems before and they come back often. However I am aware and I am slowly adjusting to correct them.

Chest and Back and Ab Ripper X today. Wooo whooo! I feel good today because I finished everything. However, I'm need to focus on my eating habits really seriously now. No more playing around. No more giving to temptations. It's really time to shape up on this. My discipline has not been great at all. It's actually very ashameful to have to admit this time and time again. But it's time to end the on going struggle and really commit to this strongly. Chicken, rice, and salsa. Here I come again. :).

Plyometrics. Damn today was tough. I have to admit I had to stop a lot today and recover. A lot of the time, in my mind, I gave up. I wanted to quit and in a way, I did. But I still finished the routine even though I half-assed it on some of the exercises. It didn't feel good knowing that in my mind I did give up. But I'm glad I can say I continued through all the way until the end even though it wasn't the best workout I could have done.

So I did Shoulders and Arms and Ab Ripper X today. It felt great. Still it was very hard for me to get up and stay commitmented. That's because I didn't workout yesterday and I got lazy. I find that every time I get lazy, it's a lot harder to get back into the motion. At least that's the truth for me. Whenever I break a promise to myself, my will and confidence in myself gets weaker. I know this. So I fight very hard to make sure that when I'm starting to notice that I'm going down on a slump, I make sure I get back up. That's exactly what happened today. I really wanted to not workout this morning. But I knew that I if I didn't know it, it would only make things worse. I would start hating myself more, my self-esteem would get lower, and I would start losing belief in myself and my abilities. So the task of working out is very rewarding and fulfilling to me. Often times, I forget this and I get lazy or get caught up in doing other things (new things) in my life. But if I neglect this task too much or too long, it comes back to haunt me.

But right now I feel freakin' awesome because I just finished my workout. I noticed that there are some other tasks in my life that I promised myself that I would a regular basis that I haven't been doing lately. Namely my martial arts practice and my study of Chinese and Stocks. It's time to reclaim myself and my inner self. Fun, fun, smile. :)

Did Yoga X today. Great workout. Had to cut it short so I can take my nephew to the movies ("The Incredibles"), but still did the owems in the end. I love that stuff.

I couldn't get myself to workout yesterday because I got distracted in the morning trading stocks. Bad, lame excuse, and not acceptable. However, I did Chest and Back today and it was fun and tough. As always. I ate too much crap this past weekend and I noticed whenever I eat too much "bad stuff" and start to feel "tubby" in my stomache. I don't feel like doing Ab Ripper X. It should be the other way around shouldn't it? If I do eat too much and feel tubby, I should make myself do Ab Ripper X. I don't know why my psychology is reversed on this one. So for me to do get back into doing more scheduled Ab Ripper X routine, I better watch what I eat more.

Back on the grill again. I going to do week 3 over again for P90X since last week I only worked out twice. Very not good. But I'm back again this week planning to rip it up and be consistent in my workouts week in and week out. Also this week is starting the week of resisting tempations from food and start my discipline again. I'm not proud of my lack of consistent since starting P90X. However I am happy that I'm still on it and I know with the balance of proper nutrition and watching what I eat, I can get really ripped on this workout program. It's been over 6 weeks since I started this program and I can tell already that I've gain some size, especially after my workouts were my body is really pumped. And all I'm doing it pull ups and push ups. haha. Anyway, this week start eating well again. Wake up on time again and start the discipline and be consistent. 90 days baby (well not exactly 90 days, since I'm not starting over). I can do this, easily.

Ok, I did Plyometrics today. This workout is hard. I get up heart rate up to 180 on some routines and that's when I do deep squats on my jumps. But most of the time my heart rate is about 170 which is above my target heart rate for my age (age 29, range 165-170). I find that it is still hard to want to keep going after the half way point and that sometimes if I don't be cautious, I can really get hurt here because I'm tired and I'm not aware of how hard I'm landing on my jumps. This consciousness I feel is very important on the landing or else I will bust and ankle or bust a knee. And I don't want to do that.

Today I'm going to Costco to stock up on some chicken breast and tuna and protein bars. Chicken breast and salsa here I come again.

Alright. Shoulders and arms and abs done. I went to Costco last night and got me some food for the month. Chest breat galore. Also, I'm going to start making tuna sandwiches for mid afternoon meal. i.e. meal #3 or #4. I know promised a person that I am going to start focusing on my eating beginning this year and I am. Yesterday, I forgot that promise on my last meal and ate too much. i.e. I ate til I'm full, not until I'm not hungry anymore. Also, I'm going to start being more conscious about my water intake again. All these little things will help me get to my goals. Which I have not set specific numbers for yet.

I had a good yoga workout today. I saw pretty well yesterday. I had 6 meals. Yes. And I drank plenty of water. Yoga burns the cramp out of my legs when we are in a stance. I look forward to passing the 45 minute mark every time. That is some intense posing. When I get worried sometimes that when I hop or jump into a pose or come down too hard that I'm going to injure myself (like going to plank). So I make sure I do those really slow and steady. Especially when my body is already fatiguing out.

I was able to work on Legs and Back today. I missed working on it yesterday as I got lazy. But I'm glad I did it today as it is super hard and I do die after doing it. But I did Ab Ripper X after and I feel like da man right now. This weekend someone mentioned that I looked like I've been working out. Well duh! I've only been doing it for freaking forever. Anyways, any compliment is a great compliment for me and for that I was very appreciative and flatters by her nice words. It feels good to be da man for a second or two.

Alright Week 4 of P90X. My routine changes up a bit today. No resistence training at all this week. So I did YogaX today. It was tough, but fun. I was super flexible today, but then again, I did workout in the afternoon today. I hope this rest week will be good for me and if I keep strict to my workout diet and routine.

Hey, man. I just wanted to say keep up the good work. I remember looking at your pictures on your site last year and being really inspired. Best of luck with your current routine. -Jeremy

Day 23 of P90X. Wow, a new routine today. Core Synergetics. This one was kind of weird to me. I guess it's because it was totally new I didn't know what to expect. But of course, I liked it. I love new things. It started out harder than I was expecting, but after a while, it was really fun. And I like fun. I was able to wake up on time today and get to work (as in working out) so I'm very proud of that little fact. I'm trying to sleep early so I'm proud of that as well and I'm kicking butt on this program. :)

Jeremy/Yirmeyah,

Thank you for you kind words. I'm super excited about the results that I'm going to be getting from my current workout program. I haven't updated any pictures on my site since July I believe, but I got them all taken and archived. I just haven't sat down and put in the time to update my site with my current progress.

But in time, that site will be up to date. :)

I hope your having a great new year in your workout progress as well.
-Frank

Hey, man. I just wanted to say keep up the good work. I remember looking at your pictures on your site last year and being really inspired. Best of luck with your current routine. -Jeremy

Day 24 of P90X. So I got lazy yesterday and I didn't do my workout. I couldn't get myself up in the morning. But today I made up for it and did yesterday's workout which was Kempo X. The heart rate monitor really helps on this one. I see that I need to pick up my pace if I want this workout to have any effect on my cardio. So I recommend everyone to get one. It really helps. Today I had a blast. There are some kicks that I'm still not flexible at or it's not as smooth for me (like the side kick), but in time, I will get it back.

Eating wise. I'm doing really good. I'm happy! And I'm starting to feel that I'm dropping fat again. Yippie!

Day 26 of P90X. So I did Stretch X yesterday however I didn't put in an entry. I also did Core Synergentics today which was awesome. I enjoyed it. It was hard. I like hard. I lke pushing myself. I was breathing hard. I was crying a bit. It felt good. I'm a happy boy now. Now I can get to go eat some more healthy food and enjoy myself. Yay for me. It's going to be a great Saturday.

Day 29 of P90X. Alright. So I did Yoga X yesterday on a Sunday so that means last week I had my first complete week of P90X (except I did a half routine of Stretch X last Thursday). That was weak. Today was Chest, Shoulders, Triceps. This routine was totally new to me and I had to drop down in weight to make sure I knew what the hell I was doing. The exercises are cool, I like them all. But I don't feel I pushed myself as hard today. I still want good results so come Wednesday I'm going to push harder.

My eating was really good last week. I slacked off a bit by the end of the week, but still it was nothing that bad. And of course yesterday I had my free day so I was a happy camper. I have a mocha freeze. Large even. Yum!

Day 32 of P90X. So I Tuesday I broke and didn't workout at all. Bad for me. I also ate bad on Tuesday as well. These days I think I'm being way to easy on myself and that I'm way too lenient. If I mess up, I say it's ok. And I'm not hard on myself enough where I feel there is severe consequences. But yet when I'm hard on myself, I feel that I beat myself up too hard on the head. So which route should I take? I'm not sure, but I guess I'm just trying to find the balance. But I accept I did get off track again this week on Tuesday but I bounced back Wednesday and today as well. I ate well yesterday and I'm going to eat well again today.

The new workout routines are great except I take a long time in between sets and I have to pause often just to make sure I know what to do and I'm doing the exercises right. My bicep has a good peak now after my workout and this is something I've never gotten. Thank goodness for P90X. I still want to get more ripped and lose more body fat, but that can only happen if I traing martial arts again and really watch what I eat.

Day 33 of P90X. Alright Yoga X today. I feel good today. I had a great workout. I notice when I really focus on my Yoga and poses, the moves are really harder and it really drains on my body. That's because I go down deeper in my squats and lunges and I got really stretch and extend myself. It feels great to be totally engaged and focused in the moves. I plan to be more focused tomorrow as well when I do legs and back. I love doing legs and back.

I didn't eat as well yesterday though. I planned to, but my focus was off. I notice I eat bad when my life is going not so great. Yesterday was a down day for me. But I can't complain. I choose to let the day turn out the way it did. Now, today, I choose otherwise. It's going to be fantastic day today. Awesome!

Day 35 of P90X. So I finished this week of Legs and Back. I was able to workout 5 out of the 6 times which is a ok with me. I'm glad I got in 5 workouts. This week was an off week for me in terms of working out. I'm getting a lot better, but my eating this week was off a bit. Tomorrow should be a lot better for me. I look forward to another great week.

Day 37 of P90X. Today was Plyometrics. To be honest, I did not feel like working out today. But I grunted it out and did my thing. Near the end of it, I was jumping high like a kangaroo! Actually, I did push myself hard near the end which made my legs burn real good. So even though as I started, I didn't feel like it, I still ended up with a great workout. Good for me. :)

Eating wise, I'm not as strict as I can be. I'm getting a lot more muscular from my workouts, but I still have a lot of baby fat I can concentrate on losing. I just have to keep my focus and discipline.

Day 38 of P90X. Back and Biceps today. I remember training this last week and the rest of the day, my forearms was spent. Today, I realized that this routine is super tough. Especially the last couple of sets and the Corn Cobs pull ups. Oh man. But I feel good after I do it as always. But while doing it, I really have to take a lot of rest in between sets. Today I went up a bit in weight, but not much. I push myself hard, but not rediculuously hard.

Day 41 of P90X. Yoga X today. I got lazy the last 2 days and decided on not working out and eating junk food. Actually I'm still eating junk food today, but at least I worked out. haha. Well, this week has not been perfect in terms of fitness, but I'm still happy that I worked out 4 times so far and I might even workout tomorrow. We will see. I have off weeks. Sometimes, I'm not as strict. This is not an excuse. It is what it is.

Day 45 of P90X. So my workout routine last week and this week has been pretty bad. I didn't workout Monday and Tuesday due to laziness. I'm really trying to overcome this obstacle. On top of this challenge, I'm also not eating well. I'm tempted to eat some junk food as I type this out. That is not good. So slowly I have to adjust my life to where I don't give into my temptations and realign myself with my values. This is going to be challenging, but of course, I know I can do it if I really make a hard sincere effort. Just sometimes I forget and lose my focus. Time to reclaim it.

Day 51 of P90X. Oh man. Another not so great week of working out last week. I trained probably only twice last week and substituted a day of cardio with a jump rope workout. I ate pretty bad this past weekend as well. I'm talking about a Jumbo Jack and one can of Pringles and soda. Then Superbowl Sunday didn't help. It's ok. I know I've been saying that I need to focus on my eating and it is always in my intent to keep my word, but I've noticing that I haven't been making a hard effort to keep my word. I am going at it again this week. This time I have a stronger motivation. I see my love handles starting to form again. Oh no. That's not a good thing. My focus in my workouts and my nuitrition is bad these days. But the thing that kills me is the lack of commitment I can keep to myself and that I always have to write about how undisciplined I am. And writing this and admitting to it is hard. I don't like it, but I do it. Seeing that I sometimes lose my integrity is not something that's easy for me to take. So I have going to really be serious about being disciplined again this week. Wish me luck world.

Day 54 of P90X. So I did Kempo X today. I looked over and updated all my progression pictures last night. I noticed that from August to now, I've really lost a lot of lean-ness in my body. I started to slow gain body fat and these days, it's getting worse. I really love using progression pictures as a motivator. Since I have updated my site or my progress for about 6 months, that probably how long since I haven't been seriously serious about my workouts. My results show for it as well as my lack of discipline. I still think that I have a lot of discipline, my body and actions are not backing that up. It can be told by the way I'm eating. So I think the first thing I'm going to do is really update my website and get some new goals and see where I am now and really be honest with myself and my progression. Then after that, I think the discipline will be a lot easier because I'll have a more definite vision on where I want to be.

Day 01 of P90X. So I decided to restart my P90X experience. I'm getting fat and part of the reason is because I haven't even made half the effort I could have in my nuitrition. Plus I feel I've missed out on too much workouts. So I decided to restart the whole program over and try to be as consistent on it as I can this time around. I really want great results from this program. I need to start training and focusing like I mean it. So today was Chest and Back again and it was hard. I had to stop half way through the program to rest because I feel I'm really out of shape these days because I've gain so much fat. So now it's time to restart and recollect myself once again. I need to relearn in how to be more response-able.

Day 2 of P90X. I got up this morning to workout again. 2nd day in a row. I feel good about getting up and doing what was needed to get done. Working out is something that I have to do. I forgot how important it is in my life. I talk about how it tests my ability to respond to things that "I don't feel like doing" Basically it strengthens my emotional intelligence as well as my physical intelligence and physical condition. It does a lot to my spirit. That's why I treasure this process so much. But again, the process is only half done. The rest of the day will be tested when I start watching what I eat.

I'm going to start writing down my meals again, just so I can keep myself more accountable. I also need to start tracking how much water I'm drinking. Also, how much hours I slept the night before. I want to start tracking these little tid bits consistently again even though it takes a bit of work and brian power.

Meals for today:
09:30 am: Whey protein and creatine.
12:15 pm: Tuna and white rice w/ hot sauce
03:20 pm: Tofu and white rice w/ soy sauce
08:20 pm: Chicken breast and white rice w/ sauce and brocolli
11:00 pm: Green drink

I was reading over the nutrition plan on P90X and it's basically a calorie counting nutrition plan. I never tried it before, so I might start playing around with this idea of a couple of weeks to see how it works. Basically I'm in the "Level I" nutrition cataglory and I should be taking about 1800 calories a day. I can only have about 500 calories from proteins, 200 calories from carbs, 240 from dairy, 100 from fruits, 120 from fats, 100 from snacks, 100 from a bar, 100 from a protein shake, and 50 condiments. I'm not sure how this is going to work, but it looks like less white rice for me and I'm really going to get super skinny if I follow this one for a month.

Day 3 of P90X. I woke up extra early this morning after not being able to sleep well last night. I was too excited for today. But I didn't workout in the morning as I had to do something for my business this morning. So after I finished my work, I went back to sleep and worked out after I woke up again. Shoulders and Arms and Ab Ripper X was on the menu today. I thought about the meal plan yesterday, I really cannot reduce my number of carbs. I just workout way too much to be reducing carb intake (since I take martial arts as well). So I think I'm going to have at least 2 portions of carbs a day just so I know I have enough energy to for my martial arts training. I still work out in the morning on an empty stomache, so hopefully some of this baby fat is coming off and I can get my metabolism back. But because my eating time is a bit off today, this will affect my body a bit. Not good. Not smart. Stick to a regular eating time.

Meals for today:
02:00 am: Whey protein and creatine. And green drink.
03:00 pm: Tofu and white rice w/ soy sauce
05:00 pm: Tuna sandwich
07:30 pm: Tuna sandwich
09:30 pm: Chicken breat with rice and salsa
11:00 pm: Green drink

Day 5 of P90X. So currently I'm sick. I felt sick yesterday when I woke up and I decided to not push myself and just try to recover. I think that was the wrong choice. I think I could have done Yoga X yesterday if I really put my mind to it. But instead I decided to take the easy way and just allow my body to recover. Maybe that was the smart thing to do, maybe not. Regardless I feel bad for not sticking to the workout program and now I have to play catch up for the rest of the week. Today I still feel a bit sick but I woke up early anyways and did my Yoga X. I felt really good doing it as well, so that why I know that I could have done decently well yesterday if I really just put my mind to it. But anyways, no more remorsing about the past about what I could have or should have done. Now it's about what I'm going to do now and how I'm going to finish up strong for the rest of the week. Today I did Yoga X, tomorrow I plan on doing Legs and Back and Sunday I'll do Kenpo X. So yesterday was basically my rest day. It's going to be pretty hard working out Sunday, but I know I can do it if I keep focused and be really adamant about getting my workout in.

Meals for today:
10:30 am: Whey protein and creatine and green drink.

Meals for yesterday:
10:30 am: Rice with take out greasy chicken and shredded perserved tofu and cabbage. (Not good for me food).
02:00 pm: Orange
04:30 pm: Pot stickers (Not authorized)
09:00 pm: Tofu
12:00 am: Green Drink

As you can see from my meals yesterday, I slacked off because I was weak willed and undisciplined. Sure I was sick and just wanted to eat what was convenient, but it's no excuse for being unwilling to control my emotions and moods. Today I plan on getting back on track even though I'm still sick because I know I can if I keep focused and stick to my promise to myself.

Day 6 of P90X. Alright. So I was able to get up this morning even though I'm still feeling a bit sick. And I was able to train legs and back. On the legs workout I didn't use any weight because I really didn't want to push myself that hard and except my body to recover while trying to health my body from the sickness. I'm really pushing my bodies recovering system a bit too hard. But it doesn't matter because I'm really serious about making sure I finish this workout routine this time. I'm not playing around anymore. So with this dedication and commitment, less excuses are allowed and I'm must making sticking to my workout plan a must. After that, I'm sticking to making other plan in other dimension of my life a must as well.

Meals for today:
10:00 am: Whey protein and creatine and green drink.

Meals for yesterday:
10:30 am: Whey protein and creatine and green drink.
12:00 pm: Chicken breast and rice and vegatables
05:30 pm: Tuna and rice
09:30 pm: Sweet and sour soup with rice (not authorized)

Day 8 of P90X. I'm pretty proud of myself of my current workout progress. The reason being is that even though I was sick last week, I still did all 6 of my workouts and I even worked out today. Even though I didn't write an entry for my Kempo X workout yesterday (Sunday), I'm still proud and glad I was able to get in a workout after a couple of meeting in a Sunday afternoon. Of course I am not as proud of my eating habits Saturday and Sunday as I went to a few gatherings and ate more "tasty" eating foods than I should have. Especially when we went to 7-eleven. Yikes. But still, I don't beat myself on the head about it. It is what is it. That's what happened. I can control my cravings during the weekdays and when I'm at home, but when I go out on the weekends and with social gatherings, I'm usually less strict on myself. I can control myself more and don't start eating in excess, so that I can still use more work on.

Now time for the confessions. This part won't be easy.

Meals for today:
01:00 pm: Whey protein and creatine and green drink.
03:00 pm: Chicken breast and rice and salsa. And veggies.

Meals for yesterday (Sunday):
12:45 pm: Chick breast and rice and salsa.
03:00 pm: 2 cups of green tea.
06:45 pm: Whey protein and creatine.
08:30 pm: Varity of Korean food. Includes pan-fried makeral, prawns, perserved cabbages, and fried osters, and soup.
10:30 pm: Junk food city. 40 oz blue berry slurpee. Some corn nuts. 3/4 bags of M&Ms. 1 light beer. 3/4 bag of beef jerky.

Meals for (Saturday):
10:00 am: Whey protein and creatine and green drink.
12:00 pm: Rice with some hot and sour soup.
03:00 pm: 1 cup of green tea.
05:00 pm: Orange.
08:00 pm: Varity of Vietnamese food. And chocolate cake. 2 beers. Some chips.