2/7/04
Hi all,

Just a quick history. I started Body for Life in July of 1999, at an all time high weight of 265 lbs. After completing a couple of challenges I dropped below the 200 mark for the first time since high school. I was proud of my accomplishment but not fully satisfied. Any way I became content to keep my weight hovering around the 220 mark. I kept doing BFL off and on for the next several years but I never fully committed myself to it like I had the first couple of times. My results since then had not changed much. Last year I recommitted to the plan and was able to drop about 15 pounds to reach 215 lbs. Afterwards I totally fell of the band wagon. I stopped working out, I stopped eating correctly, etc... The bottom line is I began this year at 247.5 lbs and I knew it was time to refocus my efforts and achieve the body I was meant to have.
I reread the BFL book, I read ABSolution, and I read Bill Phillips new book Eating For Life (I highly recommend it, great balanced recipes).
My program began 1-5-04
Stats:
Male
247.5 lbs
5' 10"
24% body fat
LBM=188lbs
My program is essentially the BFL program and ABSolution program combined.
I do weight workouts and 30 min of moderate cardio on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
I do Cardio and abs on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.
My normal nutrition goes something like this:
(note: I work third shift hours so the times are a little strange to most)
12:00 am 1 cup Cottage cheese and fat free fruit yogurt.
2:30 am 5 slices of Smoked turkey lunchmeat and an apple
5:00 am Protein shake with banana
Sleep till 2:30 pm, then workout
5:00 pm Egg white buritto w/ onions, mushrooms, and green peppers and salsa.
7:30 pm dinner recipe from Eating for Life book
9:30 pm Leftovers from dinner.
I also drink over a gallon of water a day.
and I enjoy my freeday but do not go overboard( I don't make myself sick)
At my most recent weigh in 1-26-04, 3 weeks into my program I had dropped 8.5 lbs of fat and gained 1 lb of muscle, If bodycomp.com is correct.
Everything was running pretty smooth till an unexpected family emergency occurred. We had to take an unplanned trip to Oklahoma from our home in Minnesota and stay with relatives. So in other words my routine was thrown totally out of whack. I couldn't eat my normal meals, I was too busy to work out so basically this last week has been a total wash.
Not to worry though I will be getting back on the horse again on Monday. :db:
Feel free to drop me a line
And to John, Love the website man, you are an inspiration
Till tomorrow
Dave

FEBRUARY 9 2004

Well, Saturday sucked. The whole family was sick this weekend. I spent all day in bed or the bathroom. I don't know what it was, I guess some kind of fast acting stomach flu. I did not eat at all on saturday.

Sunday was a little better. I was finally able to eat without feeling too bad. I am ready to get back on track with my workouts and nutrition plan on Monday.

Well here it is Monday morning. I am at work, planning out my workout for this afternoon. It's a new 4 week period, time to change the exercises a bit.

2-10-04

Great workout today!! I changed up the exercises and hit it with a vengance. It felt really good to be back in the gym after a nearly 10 day absence.
I tried something with nutrition today that I've heard others doing but had never done myself. I had a protein shake immediately after working out. I think I may incorporate that into all lifting days. :eat:

Normally, I would wait for an hour to eat, whether I lifted or did cardio. I kinda felt a little energy boost by having that meal after working out. I don't know maybe it's just me or just a fluke. But I'll try it for now and see what effect it has on my fitness.

2-11-04

Well, not much to report today. I got out of bed around 3:00 pm (I work nights). Didn't feel like heading to the gym just for 20 min of HIIT, and unfortunately not all of us live in Florida, so I wasn't able to go outside to run (too much snow up here in Minnesota). I decided to do an hour of Tae-Bo. That is a pretty good cardio workout. It really gets my heart pumping.

Got in 5 meals today and plenty of water. I do like the occasional diet soda though just for a little flavor. I know it's not great for me but it's not as bad as regular soda plus I always drink extra water to offset it.

I'm feeling pretty good today. I'm comfortable with my decision to reach my best body. I just wish I could convince my wife. She's one of these types who feels she doesn't have the time to get everything else done in her day let alone workout too. I've tried to tell her she needs to take the time for herself and everything else would fall into place.
Oh well, I'll just try to be a good example. She's also one of these people who won't be forced into something. She has to come to the decision on her own. Which is precisely what I let her do. It's much easier on me if you know what I mean. :whistle:

Enough for today.

2-12-04

Well today was an OK day. unfortunately I missed my leg workout due to a combination of factors. 1. I overslept, 2. We got more snow, :(
3. I had to blow the snow off the driveway, 4. my turn to cook dinner, 5. had to come into work early. So basically I just ran out of time.

Not too worry, I will be doing a cardio and a leg workout this afternoon to make up for it.

on a good note, I did continue to eat well and drink plenty of water. The meal I fixed tonight was Shrimp Scampi for the Eating For Life book, very tasty.

oh well better get back to work, gotta plan a killer workout for legs. :db:

2-13-04

I had a great leg workout today. I started out with the leg press and finished up with stiff legged dead lifts. I also hit back and biceps today. I finished up with 30 min on the recumbent bike at a moderate intensity.
Just trying to burn a little extra fat on weight days.

On a different note, I pride myself with eating 5 to 6 meals per day, proper planning blah, blah, blah. Anyway I come to work last night with 4 meals, When I left this morning I had only eaten 3 of them. I know, it's not a big deal, but I just don't know how it slipped my mind. I love to eat. So basically I only got in 4 meals yesterday for probably under 1400 calories. I know thats low for me, but what am I gonna do? Live and Learn. Oh well I will do better tomorrow. Progress not perfection will help me reach my goals. :nod:

2-17-04

Well here it is Tuesday Morning. I am at work, thought I'd pop in and post quick.
I had a great workout yesterday. I did legs, back, and biceps. I hit it pretty hard and I can feel it right now. I also did well on my nutrition yesterday. I had 5 meals, and consumed approximately 2100 calories at a ratio of 50, 25, 25 for protein, carbs, and fats.

So far I am on my 6th week of an ongoing transformation. Things have been going well. I am planning on doing a weigh in this weekiend. The first 3 weeks I dropped 7.5 pounds. I am anticipating that this 3 week period will have as good or better results. :gl:

We shall see, I will post the results next week.

2/18/04
Well today was an interesting day. I woke up late, had to run errands, and when I finally got home to do cardio my daughter springs on me that she has a band thing to do.
To top it all off I had to come into work early tonight. It would have been easy to just forget about cardio for the day and try to make it up tomorrow. Trust me I wrestled with this for several minutes before my better sense won out. I went to the gym and did some sprints, Very Intense workout, I use them as a form of HIIT.
With me doing cardio late it meant I had to eater later than usual as well. I ended up stopping by a chinese place and ordering a dinner to go. Not the best I know, but I did split it up into 2 meals.

On another note my left heel is bothering me a little. Don't know exactly what it might be, but it hurt worse after doing sprints. I hope it's not a problem. It doesn't really bother me enough to warrant a visit to the doctor. I'll just have to find a different form of HIIT I guess.

Oh well, till tomorrow,

2-19-04

Well today is starting off pretty good. I woke up this afternoon a little late so I wasn't able to workout prior to work tonight. Not to worry though, I brought my workout gear with me and will stop by the gym after work.

On another note, I made asian beef stir fry from the Eating for life book, very good. I can't say enough about the book. The recipes are properly balanced. They are easy to make. And the best thing is they are very good.

They are good enough that I've even got the wife and kids eating and liking them. Though truth be told the kids don't care to much for the veggies, but then again what kid really does? Anyway I like them and thats the bottom line. I'm eating good, I'm working out, and I'm well on my way to a smaller yet healthier me. :claphigh:

2/20/04

Well today was a pretty good day. I left work this morning and had a killer upperbody workout. I finished it off with 30 minutes on the recumbant bike at moderate intensity. I ate well all day and had plenty of water. I also had a couple glasses of diet soda, but other than that everything else was dead nuts on.
Tomorrow is leg day and then Saturday is the big weigh in. I can tell I've lost a little. I've had to move the belt 2 notches backwards so my pants don't fall down around my ankles. Not that thats a bad thing, theres just a time and place for it and work isn't the place or the time.

But I digress, I am still feeling a little pain in my left heel. I don't think it will keep me from doing lower body tomorrow, but I'm not too sure about running sprints anytime in the near future. That's too bad, they are quick and intense and you can really feel it in your legs for days afterwards. Oh well I will just have to find something different, perhaps the bike or the elliptical machine.

thats all for today

2/21/04

Well here it is Friday night and I'm working a little OT this weekend. I overslept again this afternoon. I don't know what the deal is, perhaps my body is telling me I need a little more sleep. Whatever it is, I don't like it. It's annoying sleeping till 4:30 or 5:00 in the afternoon. Theres no way I want to even attempt going to the gym at that time. There's just way too many people there then.

I will hit the gym hard after work this morning, but I prefer to do it right after I get up in the morning. I will adjust my schedule next week and hopefully get the sleeping thing down.

On a good note, my nutrition has not faltered. I am continuing to eat 5 to 6 balanced meals per day. I figure why f*$# up the whole program if I miss a workout or two. Though I plan on keeping those missed workouts to a minimum.

It is also time for my weigh in this morning. I'm a little nervous about it. I mean I can tell I've lost some just by the fit of my pants. But , how much. The first three weeks it was 7.5 lbs, I can only hope this three weeks is the same or better. If so that would keep me well on track to drop 30lbs this 12 weeks. :gl:

One of these days I'm gonna have to borrow a digital camera so I can post some pics on here.

Thats all for today!!

2/22/04

Well, It's Sunday night,

I had an awsome workout on saturday morning after work. I did my weigh in on saturday morning after my workout. Iv'e got good news and bad news. The bad news is it appears I only lost 1 pound in the past three weeks. :( The good news is I can now fit into my size 40 jeans. :claplow: I started out in tight 44's. The whole weight thing is a little frustrating, I've been eating good, keeping my nutrition in the 45, 35, 20 range. I've been tracking my calories on fitday.com and keeping them in roughly the 1900 to 2100 range. I've been drinking plenty of water. And I really haven't went overboard on my free day. The one thing that I can think of which might be detrimental to my efforts is I've been drinking diet soda during the week.
I am going to make a few changes and see if I can get the fat furnace burning again. I am dropping diet soda alltogether and it might help to just drop down to a free meal or two instead of a whole day. I also think I will start weighing in weekly.

On a good note, I not going to let the weight thing get me down because I am making progress whether the scale shows it or not.

Well tomorrow is upperbody day
gotta go for now
till tomorrow

2/24/04

Well, my post was a little down yesterday. I got much better news today. I entered my measurements on mybodycomp.com and was surprised to find that I had lost 6 pounds of fat but gained 5 pounds of muscle. This is why I showed only a 1 pound net loss. More good news was that January 5th when I started, my body fat % was 24.5%. As of today my bodyfat is at 19.7%. :claphigh: :jumping: :spaz:
It was quite the pleasant surprise. I'm much more upbeat about it now than I was yesterday.
Well today was a great workout day, I hit upper body pretty hard. This is the week when I get to hit upper body twice, woo hoo. Tomorrow is cardio day. Trying to decide whether to do HIIT or Tae-bo. I'll let you know tomorrow

2/25/04

Just a short post for today. I decided to do tae-bo today, 60 minutes of fat burning martial arts cardio. I've got several tapes, all slightly different cardio routines, so I don't get bored. I'm feeling pretty good today. I really love the fact that I can fit into my old jeans again. Now I want more.

Gotta go for now, off to plan a lower body workout for tomorrow.

3/2/04

Well last week was a bust. I was dealing with a little stress at work. We had a pretty big layoff, so I was concerned. I realize there is I shouldn't dwell on things I have no control of, but it's hard not too when your worried about your family, mortgage, bills, etc...

That being said, it is time stop worrying about what I can't change (my job) and start taking control of what I can change (me).

It is midnight here in Minnesota. Time for the 1st meal of my day.

12:00 am 1 cup Cottage cheese w/ 1/2 cup lemon yogurt.
2:30 am 1 can tuna and 1 banana
5:00 am 4 slices smoked deli ham and 1 banana
6:30 am workout - Upper body
3:30 pm workout cardio 30 minutes
5:00 pm Scrambled egg whites in wheat pita w/ salsa
7:30 pm Dinner from Eating for Life cookbook

That should bring me about 1800 calories for the day.

Time to begin training for Adventure Racing this summer. :db: :bb:

3/2/04

Well I had a good day today. I changed my mind about the weight workout and switched it to a cardio workout instead.
The problem basically is working nights is a killer, particularly Sunday nights. I ended up over sleeping today and did not want to fight the crowds at the gym. I've got it timed out pretty good, if I make it to the gym by 3:00 pm it's OK I can get my workout in no problem. If I make it there after 3:30 pm it gets very crowded.

Today will be better, I will get up and be at the gym by 3:00 pm and get in an awsome upperbody workout. :bb:

Gotta go for now

3-3-04

Well today was definitely better. I did make it to the gym on time. But I did meet my wife for a meal at KFC. We haven't seen each other all week, and it just so happened I met her after my workout. So basically I was pretty hungry. We were out looking at new carpeting for the house.
Anyway, it's not an everyday occurence so I won't beat myself up over it. I will just focus on doing better the rest of the week.

Well gotta go for now, time to plan my cardio for tomorrow. It looks like I am going to have to increase it so I can be ready for Adventure Race Season. I am still going to hit the weights though.

See Ya :tucool:

3/4/04

Well, I had a very good upper body workout yesterday morning. Afterwards I went home and hit the sack. After I got up I went ahead and did an hour of Tae-Bo. That really is a great workout.

I told my wife that she can be my "coach" through adventure race season. I just need someone to keep me honest with myself. No more missing workout sessions for stupid reasons. Hopefully I won't need to rely on her to keep me motivated, but it's nice to know that on those days when I just don't have the energy to do a workout, I've got somebody ready to kick me in the ass to stay on track.

gotta go for now

Dave

3-8-04

Well it is 61 days till the first of 4 adventure races this summer. I am rededicating myself to my fitness program. this past month has been a series of ups and downs. I have not been terribly consistent. All that changes now.

I have got to get in decent shape to be somewhat competitive this summer.

I'm doing upper body today and adding extra cardio to increase my endurance.

My plan is cardio everyday, 3 days moderate, 3 days HIIT, and 3 days weight training.

gotta go for now

later

3-9-04

In my fitness journal I've noted several times that I was having a little pain in my left heel. I never knew what it was, but just assumed it would go away. Well today I finished my weight training and decided to hit the treadmill for a 30 minute uphill walk at a fast pace. At the time my heel was feeling fine but afterwards it started hurting again. So finally I got fed up :( and decided to research it a little to see if I could find out what was wrong. based on my research I've come to believe I have a heel bruise. It is basically a thinning of the fat tissue under the heel bone caused by plyometric type exercises such as jumping or running on flat hard surfaces. The treatment is simply stay off it for awhile and or use heel gel pads for my shoes.

So for now I am going to follow the advice of several websites and stay off of it as much as possible. In the meantime I will also get a gel pad for my shoes.

This kinda bums me out because I'm in training for adventure racing this summer. But, I want to be pain free for these races as well. I will perhaps try some cardio that doesn't put any stress on my heel such as bicycling or swimming.

3/11/04

Ooops, forgot to post yesterday :mad: . Well just to bring you up to date, I did get some gel cups for my shoes. It seems to be helping, but what do I know. I just want to start running again. I've found that it is the best for me even though it's not my favorite. When I do interval training running sprints, man do I get a workout. I feel it cardio wise, but I really feel it the next couple of days in my legs. No wonder sprinters have such great legs.
Anyway, I see the doctor this afternoon just to get clarification on what is wrong with my heel. Hopefully it is what I suspect and the doc will just tell me to keep doing what I'm doing.
I had a good cardio workout today. I did Tae-bo for an hour. I took care not to do any bouncing on my foot but still managed to get a pretty good cardio workout in. I'm a little concerned about doing a lower body workout. I don't want to injure my heel any further. I will check with the doctor and get his reccomendation.

thats it for today ;)

3/25/04

Well, it's been about 2 weeks since I checked in. I figured it was time to bring everyone up to speed. :D
I finally went to the doctor about my heel problem. I ended up taking a couple weeks off so it would hopefully heal on it's own, unfortunately no such luck. I did manage to get a couple of weight workouts in but nowhere near what I would like to be doing. Anyway it turns out I have Plantar Facitis (sp). The doctor sent me to the physical therapist who recommended off the shelf orthotics for my shoes. These are considerably less than orthotics that would have to be custom made. I've had them about three days now and it seems to be working.

The therapist told me it was OK to start training again. I just haven't had the time this week, and I think I'm still a little reluctant to try all out cardio yet. I know thats a cop out but I plan to get back on track today. I've already done a lower body workout this week. Today its time for an upper body workout and a cardio workout to boot. I think I'm going to ease into the cardio so I don't reinjure it right off the bat. I've got my adventure race coming up in about 5 1/2 weeks so it is definitely time to knuckle down and get on track with my training. :bb:

4/4/04

Well it's good to be back. I have been taking it easy, easing back to all out training. Since I last checked in I have done 2 upper and 2 lower body workouts. I have also began to do some cardio again. So far so good. This week it's time to hit it hard for the next few weeks to get as prepared as possible for the race. I have let my nutrition slip just a little. But I am going to tighten that up as well this week.
In addition to begining my training it may be just a good time to restart my next 12 weeks. The last time started out well. but seemed to lose steam after a few family emergencies, then the heel injury popped up. I tried to continue, but for some reason I couldn't maintain the momentum or intensity I'd had at the beginning.
Oh well, I am the master of my own fate. Just because I've had a few setbacks does not mean it's time to bury my head in the sand and shelve my plans for having a great body. It's time to attack it head on.You know what they say, "That which does not kill us only makes us stronger" and I ain't dead yet!! :tucool:
On a different note I have decided to quit smoking again. :claplow: I had quit at one time for over a year and a half but restarted again about 6 months ago. Don't ask why, the only answer is stupidity. So I am going to use the page as a quit diary as well. I will keep you posted.
Other good news, my wife and I just found out she is 5 months pregnant. With the family stuff we were dealing with she didn't realize it untill a few weeks ago. We had the ultrasound last week and found out it's a boy :spaz: . This is kinda of a new beginning for us. We have two girls already the youngest being 11.
This is starting to run long. gotta go for now

Dave

4/6/04

Hello,
My post from yesterday didn't post for some reason. Just to recap, I'm restarting my program. I'm quitting smoking, and I have a new baby on the way.
I had a great UBWO today, hit a few 10's I think. Did well on nutrition, drank all my water and had one diet soda. so far so good, just gonna take one day at a time.

later

Dave

4/8/04

Just poppin in for a quick post on my birthday. I'm turning 37 today. :claphigh:
Anyway I had a great workout today. I did lower body and I'm going to feel it tomorrow. I also did a 20 min HIIT workout. I haven't been doing those since my heel started bothering me. It felt alright though, no pain. Hopefully this little heel thing is taking care of itself.
I have been following my nutrition plan, just can't seem to quit those diet drinks. Oh well their not adding any extra calories and I am drinking extra water. I made some very good turkey goulash for dinner tonight. Thats one of my favorite Recipes in Bill Phillips Eating for Life book. :eat:

Gotta go for now, got cardio planned for tomorrow

4/30/04

I havent been posting a lot lately because I just haven't had a whole lot to say. Workouts are going ok, not as consistent as I'd like but sometimes life gets in the way. Right now I'm tring to figure out how to fit everything in that I want to get done. I also need to sit back and reflect a little on the past 4 months and the changes or lack thereof in my physique. I plan on remotivating myself and getting back on track. One things for sure this site has been a huge help in keeping nutrition and fitness on my mind when it would have been easy to just forget all about it.

gotta go for now