I decided to start my journal after much procrastinating.. I'm on month 4 of my workout crusade, and have made good progress. In January (when I sort of started working out, I was benching 134. Now in Sept I'm up to 210. My 'goal' is to get a visible 6 pack. I've been stuck with a large 2 pack for the last few months, so there's a layer of fat still covering them up. Ludvig has been helping me tremendously, and has gotten my diet on track. I'm on week 2 of the plan, and am happy with it. I feel good about what I eat, instead of feeling guilty about crap. I KNOW I'm eating good. I'm hoping to sheed some of this bodyfat, so my abs can be visible by the new year. I realize there are other important goals besides a 6 pack, but the rest has to follow once you get there. Going to take a short nap (was up with the babies EARLY, and then go to the gym. Here's the first pict I took in January, and then the other day. Went from ribs to start of abs, but a ways to go yet! :bb: I'm open to anyone who wants to do a 'challenge', which would continue to help keep me motivated even more so.
http://webpages.charter.net/enderle/workout/jan_septfront.jpg

Hey escher, good luck and I am sure you will make it to your goals. I know many of us envy your muscle mass!

bah.. nothing to envy, but thanks though!

I've made some good progress since the last post.. Its been great to throw a couple more weights on the barbell when I bench, and find that its still easy at an increased weight. I FEEL stronger. Busy schedule this week, so I'm going to have to workout at home a few days instead of at home. I'd MUCH rather work out at the gym, as I can do my thing, and not be distracted. At home, with 2 babies, its VERY easy to get pulled away from working out. Priorities I guess! Had a 1st birthday party for the older one, and I got a few coments that I had gotten 'big' from the last time they saw me. Feels good to have your hard work recognized by people who havent seen you in a while. Had a peice of birthday cake, but I guess a little sugar wont kill me!
Target had weights on sale last night, so I got 100lbs for $40. On purchasing it, it comes with a 5 foot or whatever it is, and the largest increment of weight is 10lbs. I would have prefered 25lbs or larger weights, but it wasnt a bad price. I still am looking for a new bench. My bench is an alcheapo, and I doubt it is rated to bench 200+ lbs. When I do dips using it, the end of the bench flexes, which isnt the best. I bought it about 3 years ago, and didnt really start using it till this year. Going to do some shopping and buy it for my birthday present I think.

This pict is from last week (sept 27th). I notice that my pecs are starting to 'round out', and get some form. Not a lot, but something.

You've made some great progress !

Good luck. I'll be checkin' in on ya. ;)

Brian

Had a real early morning workout.. 4:30. Not as good as at the gym, but not much open at that time! Knew I couldnt get it in after work, so have no choice but make it the first thing! Pulled out my new weights that I just bought on sale. Nice not to have to keep moving weights from the dumbells to barbell, and actually have enough..
I just split out one of my relatively new medium shirts :( I liked that one too! Ahh well... I guess thats one of the downfalls of getting 'bigger.'

Also if anyone wants to do the 'challenge' with me, I'm game. Would be nice to have someone kick my motivation even higher!

Ahh what a shitty weekend! My diet this weekend took a dive. I ate what I usually do, but added on things like a slice of apple pie, a Krispie Kreme doughnut (or two), and a buffet. Guess it was my birthday so I can do it one weekend! Will have to hit things hard tomorrow to make up for it.

Well I survived the weekend, and am back on my 'plan'. Its been over a month on my refined diet & plan that Ludvig helped me out with, and I am still really happy with my progress. I spent 2 hours at the gym yeterday, and had an awesome workout! Smashed through my current benching limit of 225. I hadnt expected to get past that short term goal so quickly. It was very gratifying to put on 4x45 lb weights, and not struggle to lift it. For some reason I feared that much, as I expected I would be the guy who couldnt bench it, and would have it fall on my throat! :p But I did it! Next is my goal of hitting 295. *(might as well make it an even 300!) Seems like a lot to me, but its a goal! I'm very pleased, as 9 months ago I was only able to bench 135. Granted benching isnt everything, but its a good indicator for my goals of developing my upper body.

Physically I am seeing more definition in my shoulders, and now seeing the pictures, in my back as well. I have seemed to have lost some definition in my abdomen area, but I'm thinking that might be some water retention. Need to drink more water!! Going to stop the creatine for a few weeks. The pecs may have changed slightly, but nothing as much as from the start to the 27th of Sept.

I was always able to wear medium button shirts, but now I'm finding out that they arent fitting as well anymore. Split out a medium shirt the other day... Guess I have to switch to large!

Going to hit it hard for the next month, and then do a 8 week cut. Hoping to get my 6 pack (or ANY abs) by the new years, so I can hit my goal for this year (which was the infamous 6 pack). I'm pretty confident I'll make it! Here's where I'm at now.

Judging from where you are right now, a six pac is probably only 3 weeks away, from start to finish.

:tu:

Judging from where you are right now, a six pac is probably only 3 weeks away, from start to finish.

:tu:

Thanks.. that would only be too awesome. I've only been working on and off for this 6 pack for almost a decade! I've never been this close!

Hey escher, ludvig78 told me to speak with you and to get some info out of you about eating habits and workout programs. I am curently 20 yrs old. About 5' 10 and 155 lbs or so. I joined the gym this month and need some tips and or supplements to help me gain weight/ and build some muscle so if you can lend me a helping hand and I would greatlly appreciate it. thanks

2kmanic

Got a new weight bench over the weekend, and was finally able to use it good tonight. I dont have to have my hands practically touching anymore. The guy at the store said my old bench was rated at 135 lbs plus user. Nothing like going over the max rating by 100 lbs!
Its awesome that 210 is now my 'comfort' bench. Had a short workout, as I got sucked into cleaning the basement. Ahh well. Always tomorrow.

Today is abs & shoulders, and interval cardio. About to head to the gym and do some serious cardio work. I'm not sure how everyone else is, but if I dont work out, I almost feel depressed or agitated. Excercise is obviously my stress-relever! Time to get my butt of the computer, and go!

Since the 'challenge' was over, I decided to get back on track with this. I cant help but feel disapointed in myself the last few months. I think I was farther ahead in October. I may have leaned up a little bit from the challenge, but I'm not sure it was worth it, with the amount of mass I lost. Holidays and the craziness of them really threw me off since Thanksgiving.. I dont think I pigged out a lot, just my clean diet became quite 'dirty' and full of crap like chinese food! Its been one year since I embarked on getting the body that I've always wanted. I feel I should be farther along, as it HAS been a year, but I have to go forward. Granted the last year wasnt real consistent, but I was starting literally from scratch. http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showthread.php?t=11528
Now I have a good base to work off of, and continue on this year. I'm going to do a clean bulk once I get a plan together, and add some of the mass. This next year will be good, and by summer I'm very confident I will have a good beach body where I can strip off my shirt and not be embarassed!

I've started my bulk about a week ago, and started creatine as well. I've already made some great gains, for example I used to be completely stuck at 225 for benching and didnt dare go above without a spotter (Which I never have!). Within the last week I've been able to bench 240 safely. Not that benching is everything, but its a gain none the less! My gains have forced me to roll out some more $ and buy some more weights for the basement. I havent made it out to the gym in several weeks which is discouraging. Some events in my life (like the addition of another foster child, and the craziness of my wife totalling out our new minivan) have elminated my gym timeslot. I have however been getting up earlier in the morning to allow myself to workout in the basement. Gotta find a way to do it, even if I have to sacrifice some sleep!

Bulk is going slow.. upped a bunch of picts to the muscletank site. Hoping the journal there will post here.. doesnt seem to be working at the moment.

Awesome progress!

I managed to get about 7 hours of sleep last night which is about 3 more than i usually get! Feel great! Got a good workout in this morning! Did arms and pecs. Need to buy some more weights, as all I have left are the small plates of 3's. Guess thats a good thing.

Just saw your pics and... well... I mean...

:drool: You look DAMN GOOD boy!!!!!!!

:o oh sorry! I dind't mean to say it straight away like that...

Good work! Keep it up and you'll get to your goal sooner than you think!!!!

Had a REAL early start this morning. The neighbors decided to have a bonfire in their backyard at 2:30 in the morning, which put our dogs into a frenzy. The dogs woke up our one year olds, so I spent the next few hours trying to get them back to sleep. So it was a short 3 hours of sleep. Didnt pay to go back to bed around 4:30 so I worked on my shoulders. Worked them to complete failure, with heavy weights and couldnt even do another rep in the end.

Your shoulders are looking really good. You've made a lot of progress in the mass and definition of those delts...especially from the back. Keep up the good work. :tucool:

I was so excited today that I actually didnt have dr. apointments for the kids, no meetings or anything like that, and I could actually make it to the gym. Always seems to be something! I drove out to the gym, and realized that I didnt have my shoes in the bag. ARRRGH! Will have to do an early basement workout I guess tomorrow! Had 4 chicken breasts so far today. One of these days I think I'm going to sprout feathers and wings! Off back to school and get stuff ready for my class's art show Wednesday...

Basement workout this morning.. Hit my biceps and pecs. Shoulders tomorrow! Last night when I looked in the mirror was the first time I felt like I was getting 'big'. Otherwise I always feel scrawny, and dont think I look big or that I even look like I lift weights at all. This might be the first summer where I'm not embarased to be without a shirt on! No gym today.. kids have dr's apointments..

Thanks Mason, Shyapril & Chason for your kind comments! :D I hadnt even realized someone was looking at my riddiculous journal! You made my day!

Didnt get in the basement workout, but I am REALLY hoping to make it in to the gym after school. At this point no crisis have happend that would prevent it. *keeps fingers crossed*. I NEED to get a good workout in. The basement ones are fine, but I find myself being more distracted. Plus I dont have enough weights for everything, so it becomes a real pain to have to steal weights from the dumbell/barbell to do the excercise that I want. Also only have a standard bench set at home.. I would upgrade to an olympic, but I've put enough money to buy the weights I have. .... course if I make it back to the gym on a regular basis, I wont have to worry about it!! Also have been working on trying to eat MORE. Its hard to change your eating habits once you get into a healthy habit!

Made it to the gym last night and this morning. Wahoo! Was real great to have space to move around in and excercise. I broke past my benching limit with no problem, so that felt great. I'm hoping to get back in the gym routine if life allows it! Things seem to come up, but I should be happy I have an alternative in the basement.
Sort of funny, but at my wife's school I'm known as the 'beefcake', and for some reason people are afraid of me there because I'm supposedly 'big' and wont mess with my wife. Well I suppose I should get some work done in my class, as I'm starting to doze here sitting in my comfortable desk chair!

No workout today.. rest day. I had to watch the little ones all day, so while they sat there and watched TV, I did situps, and pushups. Of course they thought that looked like fun, so they were crawling all over me while I was trying to do them. Probably helped actually as it provided a bit of weight resistance. An extra 26 lbs on your back while trying to do pushups does make a small amount of difference.
My diet today was off. I started off real good with lots of eggs, and a big bowl of kashi cereal and then a few hours later a protein shake. Later somoene brought me a chocolate shake from the ice cream store down the street, and of course I had to take care of that! We were supposed to have hotdogs for supper, but after looking at the label I almost craped my pants. 25% of a days saturated fat in ONE hotdog? Lord.. and I planned on having about 4-5 of 'em. I always knew hotdogs were full of shit, but never that much. I declined the hotdogs, and made myself a huge lean ham sandwich on wheat bread. Much more satisfying anyway! Is late, and I dont think I will lift.. might just get a few bottles and get a little drunk.
Played a little with the morph program.. pretty cool!

These journal entries are pretty much worthless to the general population here, and are terribly unentertaning (if that is a word) so I appologize to those who have wasted their time and are preparing lawsuits to try and recover from their damages!
No workout again today :( Was a crazy day of watching kids. I guess I did get some sort of workout as I was moving couches and such that were extremely heavy. Was real interesting as one got stuck in our stairwell while trying to move it down! I stuck to the diet pretty good today, with only a few smirnoff raz's at the end of the day. Got a good nap in this evening so that will help me with my sleep deficincy. Looking foward to a week of excercise, and with plans at this point that I can make it into the gym if my meetings after school dont take too long. Going to resume taking the weight gainer stuff, even though I probably will gas out my classroom. I should probably be happy that none of my kindergartners smoke, else I'd run the risk of a methane explosion and then get lawsuits from parents as well. I guess a little gas is worth it if I can make my bulk a little more sucessful. Time to go back to bed, otherwise my 'catch up' nap will be worthless if I stay up later!

No workout today yet. I had planned on going to the gym after work today, so when I work up early this morning, I didnt do the basement regiment. Well as things go, I had to cart around my nephews and neice after school, so no workout today :mad2: I had a few minutes this afternoon, and started to take some 'update' picts, but then I stopped and decided to wait untill I have more of an update to show. Haha. Even as I sayh this I'll probably throw another set up in a few weeks anyway, as it helps motivate me. I'm looking forward to cutting, and am going to keep bulking till I hit a solid/stable 220. I thought I would really like bulking and stuffing my face, but I found that my body is fighting hard to adjust and keep me between cutting & bulking. I'm at 215 now, so only a few more pounds to go and I'll start to cut so I look decent when the time comes to be shirtless this summer. I have a feeling this will be the summer I finally get some abs. Last year I attempted, but I wasnt nearly so close as I am now. Unlike last year, I'm not going to obsess over it, but it just would be nice!
Just put a new video card in my machine, so I'm going to go play a few games that I couldnt play before. Course my processor is getting dated, but I'll probably wait to upgrade till Longhorn is released.

If things pan out today, I will get in my gym time. At this point there wont be any 'interuptions' of course I shouldnt say too much! Didnt have a lot of time to eat breakfast this morning, so I only had a huge bowl of Kashi's shredded wheat, and a bagel. Proably will have a protien shake in a bit to make up for the eggs I didnt get this morning. I feel lazy this morning, and its had for me to get off my butt and get some lesson planning for my students, of course I will have to do it though! Uggh.. time to pry myself up and get off this computer.

I almost didnt make it last night to the gym. I was on my way when my sister in law calls and she needs me to pick up her kid that got a detention. @#$@ I was NOT happy. :bite: I dont mind as much when my workouts get canceled due to something that is 'worth while', but something as stuiped as this was VERY irritating. I'm not sure how the rest of you are, but I REALLY enjoy working out, and I look forward to them. Finally my nephew staggers out of school, and wants to go to my house and look up some stuff for a project that he had waited till the last minute. Dont think so! Anyway, enough ranting! I did make it into the gym and had a somewhat decent workout, although it was cut short due to the detour. Worked my back this morning although it wasnt the most productive workout I've had, as I had only gotten 4 hours of sleep. Someone at school gave me 6 pounds of Planters peanuts, so I've been chowing down most of the morning. Lots of fat I guess, but very tasty! I
I've been kind of avoiding doing squats and deadlifts, as I dont have the equipment do do them at home, (or enough weights) and at the gym I'm nervous of killing my back as I dont know how to do them 100% correctly. It seems as though everything I read says that those lifts are the best as they work your whole body. Need to do 'em!
Still playing with my animation. Upped it to photobucket, but it got VERY tiny, so I have to find another way to do it. Proabably cutting down on the amount of frames would help a lot!

I almost didnt make it last night to the gym. I was on my way when my sister in law calls and she needs me to pick up her kid that got a detention. @#$@ I was NOT happy. :bite: I dont mind as much when my workouts get canceled due to something that is 'worth while', but something as stuiped as this was VERY irritating. I'm not sure how the rest of you are, but I REALLY enjoy working out, and I look forward to them. Finally my nephew staggers out of school, and wants to go to my house and look up some stuff for a project that he had waited till the last minute. Dont think so! Anyway, enough ranting! I did make it into the gym and had a somewhat decent workout, although it was cut short due to the detour. Worked my back this morning although it wasnt the most productive workout I've had, as I had only gotten 4 hours of sleep. Someone at school gave me 6 pounds of Planters peanuts, so I've been chowing down most of the morning. Lots of fat I guess, but very tasty!
I've been kind of avoiding doing squats and deadlifts, as I dont have the equipment do do them at home, (or enough weights) and at the gym I'm nervous of killing my back as I dont know how to do them 100% correctly. It seems as though everything I read says that those lifts are the best as they work your whole body. Need to do 'em!
Still playing with my animation. Upped it to photobucket, but it got VERY tiny, so I have to find another way to do it. Proabably cutting down on the amount of frames would help a lot!

No workout today. Just lots of eating, but I have completely kept it clean. I only got 4 hours of sleep last night, so I'm glad this weekend allowed a nap! My wife commented last night that I'm really getting 'big', especially in my traps. I think thats strange espeically since I really dont do excercises often that target them directly. A guy at a sports store asked if I did lots of shrugs, and I had to honestly reply 'no', I suppose that must be my 'genetic plus', but it would be nice if my arms were naturally big :dbell: Ahh well, gives me something to work on I guess! Just got a new Radeon 9800 pro card in for my wife's computer. Kids are asleep for the moment, so I might as well put it in!

Quick workout this morning.. overslept about 20 mintues which cut into my workout time. arrg.. Will try and make up those minutes tonight. Did a real heavy chest workout in that short time. I tried putting the dumbells real close together while doing bench presses. A bit more difficult.
Non related my computer keeps restarting. My processor fan is failing which is sending my system into meltdown. Great....... Checked the temp and I'm over 200 degrees F. Nice lil toaster I got going! Need to stop by a computer store today after an apt. Enough of the nonsenical rambling!

Splurged a bit this morning. A group of parents had brought in Panera bread bagles. I didnt the doughnuts, but had a bagel which was probably just as bad! Ahh well the extra calories wont kill me! I did however toss the cupcakes that were brought to my room for birthday treats!
Feeling kind of bummed today.:???: I feel like I should be 'farther' along (like I should be able to lift more), and of course I have no-one but myself to blame. I guess its just another reason to push myself a bit harder. What do the majority of you guys lift? Granted the bench isnt everything, but just curious to how much higher the rest of you are, and how far I have to go to catch up! I dont even know what is 'average' or a decent amount. At the moment I do 2 sets of 4x245. I havent maxed at all, as I dont have a spotter. Off to go eat lunch! :eat:

Feeling kind of bummed today.:???: I feel like I should be 'farther' along (like I should be able to lift more), and of course I have no-one but myself to blame. I guess its just another reason to push myself a bit harder. What do the majority of you guys lift? Granted the bench isnt everything, but just curious to how much higher the rest of you are, and how far I have to go to catch up! I dont even know what is 'average' or a decent amount. At the moment I do 2 sets of 4x245. I havent maxed at all, as I dont have a spotter. Off to go eat lunch! :eat:


Sounds like you're lifting plenty & you look like you've made a terrific improvement. Feel good about yourself - you're doing great man!

Oh ya, you deserved those bagels...

G :tucool:

Had a good start of a workout. I added 10lbs to my dumbells, and worked my triceps hard. I ended up having to quit early as the kids woke up at 5:15, but I had already put in a half an hour. I did a few new exercises, so at the end my arms were vibrating and kind of quivering. Felt good to know I had hit them hard! Had my usual oatmeal, protein shake, and toast. No eggs today, but the protein shake should make up for the missing protein. Still were a few bagles at school. I gave in and took one, but after taking a bite I decided it was no good. tossed it

No workout yet today. I realized this morning my oatmeal container was empty! :eekb: I had some low sugar instant oatmeal, which I know isnt as good, but each packet has only 4 grams of sugar. (I ended up eating 3 as they are so small!) After my workout last night, I had taken some megamass for recovery. Well the stuff made me so bloated and gasy my wife commented I looked 'pudgy' last night! haha. Not sure if I want to keep using that stuff. I was pretty toxic last night.. well here comes a class!

:mad2: No workout yet, and my gym workout I could do. I was so pumped that I was able to go to the gym today. Got to the gym opened up my bag, and NO shirt. Blaaha @#$@. I sat and pondered a way I could still workout, but my dress shirt would no way work, as its really constrictive in the shoulders, besides looking completely riddiculous! Then an idea struck me.. maybe i could buy a shirt at the gym. I got dressed, and walked out, and all shirts were pastel colors with huge flowers all over. ARRAGHGH. Guess the gym wasnt meant to be! Going to go attempt to workout a little in the basement, but we'll see if I get interupted. My nephew got suspended, and his mother isnt taking responsiblity for her kids so there are 4 kids here a the moment, not even counting our 2 which are at daycare.. :bite: Well i'm going to shut up and end my rampage, and go lift as long as I can.

Phew.. managed to barely squeeze a workout in. I think God didnt want me to workout today. The moment I sat down on the bench 4 times in a row I was intterupted either by a phone call, or doorbell, or something. It was uncanny. The moment I laid down and touched the bar..... I was about to go on a rampage! Finally I did a quick workout, and took some picts, as I had gotten intteruped again. Not a whole lot of change, but took 'em anyways! Lighting better for some reason. *shrugs*

:lol: I'm hoping today goes better than yesteday with my workout. I DID grab a shirt, so at least that problem might be resolved. I need to do some grocery shopping and get some oatmeal, yogurt, and a few other items. )A student gave me a bag full of hershey's kisses, and a few other chocolates, and here i find myself chowing down, even as I'm writing about buying healthy stuff! :whistle: ) I had started to lift this morning, and had my 60 lb dumbells on the floor, and I was too lazy to drop a few pounds off so I could work my shoulders. Well either I lifted it a little wrong, (most likely that) or it was just too much weight, my back gave me a sharp pain. Its not too bad now, just a little sore.
I've come to the conclusion that my bulk didnt quite go as I wanted it to, and I'm getting to the point of about being done. I have gained some weight, and strength (which is a +) but didnt really get too big. Next round I'll have to really bump up the caloric intake, as my body compensated pretty quick and kept me pretty balanced. I guess thats fine, as I dont want to be HUGE, and just want the model/beach body. My goal right now is to get my arms a little bigger, and get some abs in. This 2pack has to end!

Have a great weekend, and Happy Mother's day to any mother's here.

Uggh. what a long day. I was Mr. Mom all day with the kids, as the wife and motherin law were gone all day. Of course I still have to get done all my usual weekend 'chores', so the kids sat as long as they could in the running stroller as long as they could. Course once the hairpulling and biting started I was done. Ate real good today. Since I was by myself, I was able to eat when I wanted, and exactly what. Had about 2 cups of oatmeal, ton of eggs, and some ham. Had a mid morning apple & protein shake, and a chickenbreast/rice for lunch. For supper I had 2 chk breasts in eggnoodles in diced tomatoes. Threw some parmasan cheese in. (so it wasnt perfect) Its about 7, and I have one down, and the other to get to sleep. Then maybe I can take a shower. Thank god for Elmo videos, or I wouldnt be able to get anything done (like type here! haha). There is some low sugar icecream in the freezer.. thinking about it. Course I might just have some wine or a few beers later once everyone is in bed.

Uggh.. I'm actually glad the weekend is over, and I can get to my routine. This weekend was killer for my diet. Yesterday we went out for Mother's day brunch. Each person costed $25 a pop, so I ate like a complete PIG. I did my best to get my $25 worth! I was paying the bill for the other 7 people, so I proabably ate some of their share as well. There was everything. Shrimp, primerib, chicken, turkey, salmon, a gadzillion desserts, a chocolate fountain, and more. This wasnt the typical buffet. Even had champaign. Granted I would have been more than ok I felt sick afterwards, and slightly buzzed after having my 4th glass of champaign. Luckily the feeling passed and I played outside with the kids most of the afternoon. Had enough room a 5 hours later for a nice big peice of steak!
The girls woke up at 4am, so that killed my workout time today. Going to have to work hard to sneak it in tonight. MUST WORK OUT!!!

I thihk I gained a few pounds reading about the Mother's Day Brunch :spaz: Thank God my Mom lives in Michigan...so there was little temptation yesterday. Good luck with the work out and I'll talk to ya later...

I survived Monday, and manged to get a short basement workout in. I didnt lift too long, as '24' was on. (its an awesome show!) Overslept a bit this morning, but I'm "planning" on making it to the gym and hitting my arms hard! We'll see what life has in store today! Allergy season is kicking in, as I really notice my eyes are very irritated today. Had 2 cups of oatmeal this morning, and thats it :/ No time for anything else. I didnt even have time to cook my usual chicken breast concoction. Looks like I'll be digging into my lunch early today! Well I should brace and prepare quick before the 180 kids I will see today start mobbing my room!

MUST stay awake! Its only noon, and I'm dozing off as I was writing a letter home for a student. I think the lack of sleep is finally catching up with me! Going to have to get more sleep so it doesnt interfere with my workouts! (Oh yeah, and I suppose so I can stay awake for the rest of my day) I'm going to have to make it a goal to try and get a certain amount of hours a sleep a day. I suppose anything more than 5 a night would be nice.
Just got a bill from getting my wife's car fixed. $375. My wife had mentioned to me last week that the breaks were grinding a 'bit'. Well they were pretty bad. Isnt that how it works? Just when you think you might get ahead financially, you get a nice unexpected bill!

Nothing terribly noteworthy over the past few days.. I've been actually able to get into the gym, so I've been real excited about that. Worked my arms real hard Tuesday, and my chest yesterday... I know I've been doing it good, as they are a little sore! Today its shoulders and back. Rest of the family is heading to the southern end of the state for a graduation, so its just me and the 2 one year olds this weekend! Should be 'interesting'. Worst case I can always take them to the gym and workout while they are in daycare. Probably best case as well :D
Its taken a while, but I think I really got my diet down, and dont have to think about it anymore... just is a part of my daily routine. I'm thinking about getting this peice of fitness equipment that is in the next town over.. its a decent price, but not sure if its worth it. Any thoughts? http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=48848&item=7156048374&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

i say do the buy-it-now price. you're not going to find one cheaper i dont think. if you dont, i will.

are you cutting right now? or maintaining? bulking more?

Escher...

Give us a report on your new purchase. I just skipped over to Ebay to take a look and well...the sale was closed. Seems someone with a name very much like yours "bought-it-now"

I've eyed a few of those at Play it Again. So far I've not bitten.

Yeah.. I bought it yesterday. The guy was having a garage sale, and wanted to know if he should put it aside or not in case it didnt go on ebay. $60 was doable. I'll proabably pick it up on Sunday, although I am tempted to get it tonight, however I'd have to give up my workout time, so I doubt I'll be getting it tonight!

Whoarume- I'm going to continue on my plan for a 'little' while longer. Not sure if you would call it a bulk or not, although that IS my current goal. I'll start cutting when school is out after June 7th, and I have the opportunity to go outside and run, or go to the gym on a daily basis.

Thank god its Friday. They had 'crazy hair & clothes' day at school today, so the kids were really wound up.. compounding that with the 'end of the year' itch, its been a LONG week. After seeing 880 kids this week I'm ready for a break!

Hit my abs real hard and back today, and then decided to go tan for a bit to get some color to my pasty self. One thing that was sort of exciting was that after I worked out, and stretched a bit, I could actually see a 6 pack. Very faint, but there. Course i could be hallucinating too! Its a bit strange.. the 2 abs that I have are the middle 2.. the top and the bottom set are the ones that are faint. Hopefully the power tower I get will help me with that.. Well my 2 little ones are PISSED that I'm ignoring them. :mad2: :mad2: Time to feed 'em and get them off to bed! Have a great weekend!

I actually got in a Saturday workout.. Usually doesnt happen due to the craziness of weekends.. Since I was 'by myself" I was able to take the kids and put them in drop-in-care at the Y. I actually worked my legs in the first time in ages. I'm making it a goal to work them at least once a week, otherwise I have been ignoring them for the most part! After about an hour, I happend to be by one of the windows in the weight room which happens to be across the hallway facing the daycare room which also has a window. The little one saw me, and ran up to the window pressed her face against it, and started to howl. I couldnt hear her, but I knew my workout was done.
Diet this weekend has been so-so. Ate good stuff, but also probably had about 4 bowls of frosted mini wheats! :D At least it is gone now, and I cant binge on it anymore!

I got the powertower yesterday. I got it assembled last night around midnight, and really havent had a chance to use it yet. Does anyone have one of these? I know the basics for using it, (dips, pullups, etc) but am curious if there are any more 'advanced' moves you can do using it, especially excercises to target the abs, which is my weak area (not counting my legs of course)
I had a few pieces of a cream cheese desert tonight. (About 3 peices!! :D) Thats probably more sugar than I've had in months, if not total! I'll just pretend its good for the metabolism!
Only about 2 1/2 weeks left of school, and I am SO ready to be done. I am getting burnt out for the school year, as the kids have been 'done' already a month ago. Looking forward to being able to excercise at any time of the day 'in theory', and getting into a good schedule. No daycare this summer, but luckily I can plan use the YMCA's dropin care to get a break and work out.

I actually had seom time last night to use my new 'power tower'. I really like it! The small gym I go to doesnt have a dip station, so you have to use a bench. Its nice to be able to do upright dips, pullups, and hip/leg rasises all on the same thing. I was working on a computer next to it, and inbetween loading I did dips. Felt great! I might need to get a belt & some weights, or just strap on a backpack w/ weights to make it a bit more challenging.
I overslept a bit this morning, so I didnt have time to make my usual chicken breast slop. Will have to suffice with a protein shake & a school salad today :neutral: I worked on arms yesterday at the gym, and was using the curl bar. I had 2 of the 45lb plates on both sides, and was surprisingly able to do it. Looked cool and almost sick with my forearm veins popping out. Kids slept through the night last night... Thank god. I'm not sure I could do any more days this week with less than 3 hours a night of sleep!

Had a bit of a realization last night. Someone wanted me to help them with a fitness project, and I was honored to be asked. They wanted me to take a bunch of full body shots in different poses, which I took, but felt completely riddiculous doing. After seeing the picts, I was completely embarassed how I looked. Seeing myself in these poses that are meant for people with muscles, when I have nothing really was quite humbling. My legs are WAY disproportionatly small to my upper body. I see now I need to rethink my obsession with my upper body, and hit my legs as well. I NEED to do squats, and deadlifts, so I dont look like a freak with chicken legs and a bigger top. Granted it gives a LOT more to work towards.
I guess on the good side of things I got a few good comments at the gym last night, which was felt really strange.

haha.... I dont think so :oops:

Dont think there will be a workout today. I might actually skip going to the gym. Our school's union is providing a party at a bar/grill. Hard to turn down free food and drinks! :eat: The rest might be good anyways.. my arms and shoulders are kind of sore today, as I worked out hard.
I'm not sure how the rest of you are, but its seems as though the more I am progressing, the more 'into it' I am becoming. My wife doesnt seem overly supportive unfortuantly, and thinks I'm being somewhat obsessed over it, as I want to work out every day. She also thinks its 'creepy' I take progress pictures of myself... course the last set I took had my 'wheels' in too, so it was a bit creepy! I guess I am somewhat ellusvie about it, as I sort of 'hide' my pictures as she thinks its weird. Now if she knew I had my picts online for people to critique... feel kind of bad about that. :???:
Well 6 of my 9 classes are gone today for a field trip, so I have a great day.. Going to have to force myself off of my computer, and clean & organize my classroom.

Phew.. I actually did some squats (For the first time in 12 years), and some deadlifts for the first time. I never did deadlifts before as I didnt want to kill my back by doing it wrong. I'm not sure if I did it completely right, so I'll have to either observe a bit more, read up on it, or maybe just ask someone. I had ran out to the car afterwards to get something, and legs feel like lead! I'm not lifting too much, but I'm sure that will go up relatively quick, as my legs are 'newbies' to the weights.
No chicken breast in the house, so I had to choose between leftover Sesame chicken from the chinese place, or a light frozen dinner. I took the frozen dinner. Not sure if that was the best choice or not but thats what I'm eating. Both are bad.
Have a dumb wedding to go to this afternoon. Luckily the 2 little ones will probably our ticket out. The only saving grace might be free beer at the dinner. We'll see! :yuck:

Uggh.. back to work tomorrow. Weekend went way to fast with a wedding yesterday, and a LONG party today for birthdays, graduations, and a babyshower all in one party. Party was typical with all the terrible unhealthy food, and alcohol. ;) We were there so long, we ran out of diapers for the little ones, so I had to run to the local Walmart to get some more. Course I was 1 minute late! haha!
The back and quads are a bit sore today still from the deadlifts. I'm not sure I did them 100%, but my back hurt isnt like a pain "I did it wrong and pulled something" hurt. more of... "first time I ever did that" hurt.
Next week is my last full week of classes, then a partial week & a day. I'm definitely ready for a break, as I'm approaching burnout for the year. 880 faces a week will do that to ya! Then after that I have to readjust my schedule to watch the girls all day, go to the gym, and build the addition onto the house (deck and porch). Should keep me busy!

Nothing overly noteworthy... skipping a big workout today, although I did a ton of dips this morning and crunches, and some pullups on my new powertower. Quads are 'still' sore. I'm sure after I work them out more they'll get used to it, but my legs are like 'newbies' to weight training.
24 season finalle is on tonight, so I'll be getting the kids to bed early so I dont miss this one! :wig: I'm hoping they dont kill of the main character, as is somewhat rumored. Guess I'll find out! I have to go to a DUMB meeting after school now..

Down to the single digits for the amount of school days left. VERY excited about that. I have plans in my mind to bust my butt this summer, do lots of cardio, and make it to the gym daily. I have been making it to the gym about 4-5 days a week, so I'm happy about that! I'm still torn with what do do next.. cut or keep bulking? I want both sides of the coin, and its not easy to choose one over the other. Its like a broken record in my head... I want to keep adding mass to my arms and legs, but I want to get some definition for the summer. Last year I thought I would 'get my abs', but it really didnt happen. I might shoot for that, although in the end I have no clue. I think most of me wants to cut :???: We bought a stroller we can attatch our bikes, or that can be used to run behind.
Today is 'pecs' at the gym. (phew... keep dozing off while trying to get this entry in.... too quiet with no kids in my room... all of a sudden I have about 30 'I''s on screen.) I'll have to get up and do something... :wig:

I weighed myself at the gym last night, and I hit 220, so I've prett much put on about 14lbs back on since Jan when I ended my cut. I told myself when I hit that, I'd start cutting. At this point I'm going to keep up with my current diet, as I really havent been putting on too much BF from it. (maybe).. I hadnt been doing cardio at all since Jan, so I'm hoping that just doing some real heavy cardio along with my weight lifting might be enough. I want to get my midsection in place for once.... I hate to stop adding mass, as I want to do that, but I guess you cant do both! (well very easily anyway). Since I"ll have the days off very soon, I'll do lap swimming at the Y, and do lots of biking. My running I think will be limited, as shin splints always end up killing me. I usually push through the pain, but if there are other methods that work as well, why bother? I used to run track and cross country back in HS, but it was never this agonizing. Course I am about 30 lbs heavier now too! I'm going to have to pick up calilper or do something.. I'm curious what my bf% is now... Just guessing around 12%.
Off to work with me... just riding out the end of the year. haha.. having my kindergartners just go around the room with crayons and paper and make rubbings from different textures... no brainer! :prop:

Hey there E;

Great work man, hard to imagine you're still gaining. As far as your BF, I think you must be lower than whatever is giving you your read-outs for sure.

Anyways impressive transformation,

G

Well, its official. I am now cutting.. (even changed my little 'currently' status). I did about 8 minutes of all out sprinting at max speed on the treadmill, and then the thing just stopped, and let out a continous squealing beep. Killed it! That was a sign for me to stop running! So I went on the bike and did some HIIT. Bike is much better for my legs.. not as much pain. I did shoulders prior to running, and they burn now. I think the 'scarecrows' did them in. I'm thinking about a rest day tomorrow, but I'm sure I'll want to be back in the gym tomorrow.

...... Killed it!

:lol:


220 lbs....wow!

Good luck with your cut

phew.. was too tired yesterday to do a log update... so I'll do it at 3:30 in the morning instead! (kid woke me up)... Lets see... had a shitty diet yesterday. I caved in to the treats of a few kids yesterday.. One kid brought me a cream cheese desert, and wanted me to try it right then to see if I liked it. Wouldnt leave until I tasted it... It was so damn good i ate the whole thing. Later another kid brought me a bowl of icecream, and I ended up eating that too. One day of the diet down the crapper. Not the best way to start a cut, but I guess there's always today to make it better.
After work I decided to get some fake baking in, and get some color. I ended up falling asleep on the bed, and didnt wake up till someone was rapidly knocking/pounding on the door... 15 minutes after my bed had already gone off!! First time I've done that!! Good thing the bed shuts itself off, or I would be a bit crispy.
I did make it to the gym yesterday, and I did some squats. Amazing how it feels better NOT to put the bar on your spine! (in reference to vatechguy's journal). The whole time I made sure it was on my shoulderblades! haha. Did some squat lunges with dumbells as well as the machines. My legs felt like lead last night. I'm going to take off tomorrow, and lift again Sunday possibly.

Escher, this is a random question but how do you get your muscletank.net posted on each forum? I still can't figuare out how to paste mine and simply use hyperlinks but that's pretty unattractive.

Happy Memorial Day.. Spending the day outdoors working. Did a good abwork this morning. Who needs weights when you have 2 kids on crawling on you, while trying to do V'ups, and a dog licking you in the face? haha. I'm determined to get my abs this summer. Still havent gotten into cutting hardcore yet, but next week is my last day of school, so I'll be able to get my diet and schedule in check at that point. Lots of swimming, running, and biking planned!

Well I've been pretty productive so far today. Built a fence this morning. After I ate lunch I put the girls in the running stroller, and went for my first ouside run since Novemeber. I forced myself to keep running even though my mind was screaming for me to stop and walk. I ran the miles to Walgreens and picked up a few things, and ran back. It wasnt real easy to run with one or no arms to help pump. I was able to keep going for the most part, only slowing down a little to throw combo's (cheesy pretzels) at the girls to keep them quiet, or my water bottles to keep them happy. I only had to stop running completely once to retrieve a sippy cup the oldest had thrown out. (little shit!) I ended up running a total of 4 1/2 to 5 miles. Eventually I was getting to the point of having enough for one day, and the girls were fighting more and more. THIS is how I want my summer to be, (well maybe not the fighting) and I'm confident I'll be able to cut down and get some abs and maybe some vascularity. Next job this afternoon is to saw down a old pine tree in our yard. Chainsaws are always fun! :misch:

Here's a pict of the littlest one and the running stroller
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y166/escher007/Copyof100_1105Small.jpg

Nothing overly eventful. I had my workout at the gym cut short yesterday which was annoying. I had a choice to lift or do cardio. Well I naturally chose lifting, and worked the arms. I hopped on the bike at the end and did a fast 2 miles just to get heart going. Last night I had a pretty decent pec workout... I had both girls climbing my back, and I did as many pushups as I could. With 60 lbs of moving weight on the back, I could really feel it in my outer pecs. They were making me sweat! I guess thats one way to make sure you get excercise in even when you have to watch the kids. I have a feeling I'll be doing a lot of that this summer. The wife took a summer teaching position.. meanwhile I didnt line anything up as I wanted the summer off. SO, I have the kids for 6 hours every morning myself. I hope the kids like the drop in care at the gym!! haha
I'm going to pick up some calipers. Am curious what recommendations you guys might have. I considered a cheap digital one, but then I wont be using it daily or anthing like that. I dont want a caliper so cheap that you might pull out of a cereal box.
No gym workout today. I overslept a little this morning, so I just did a 15 minute workout with constant dips or pullups. Better than nothing I guess.

I realized today after I skipped my morning workout (as I was planning on going to the gym after work) that there will be no time to excercise, as we have a retirement party at 5. I'm not supposed to run today anyways, per dr's order. Have bronchitus.. :crazy: I'm not putting too much expectation this week and the first half of next, as we're finishing up the last week of school. A lot of my collegues are retiring, so there are a lot of parties, plus the end of the year is just crazy! Next week at this time I will be on vacation, and can go into the gym when I choose.
Took a pict of my biceps as I was being harrassed about.. I'm hoping they will look better after I cut. They look small, and there is no real definition. I know my arms are gettinger strong though as my 'normal' dumbell is 60lbs.. wouldnt be able to tell it from looking at it though.. (nice job Wh0 and vatech on yours though!)

Took a pict of my biceps as I was being harrassed about.. I'm hoping they will look better after I cut. They look small, and there is no real definition. I know my arms are gettinger strong though as my 'normal' dumbell is 60lbs.. wouldnt be able to tell it from looking at it though.. (nice job Wh0 and vatech on yours though!)

Esher man - you have BDD when it comes to your upper body - you have some decent size and shape to your arms.

I want your size and Wh0's willpower in cutting! I have high hopes though - after starting on creatine Friday I actually felt the 40s were a little light yesterday!!! 60's can't be too far away . . . .

Sorry about getting sick - getting sick is a serious pain in the arse.

ONE day left of students after today! I had a real crappy basement workout this morning. Its hard to make the decision of sleep vs. working out when you are deprived of both! I end up getting about 4 hours a night, but get up early to workout, as I really dont want to miss an opportunity to lift. I'm not sure if I am better off skipping a few workouts and getting an extra hour of sleep, or lose a little sleep and lift...
These next few days are going to be killer for my diet... I have a few retirement parties to go to. I know I'll have no problem making decent choices with the food, (well maybe I'll sample some deserts), but I know I'll be getting a LOT of calories from the alcohol. Hey.. I'm from Wisconsin originally... thats what we do, is drink beer! I can skip the cheese now, but when there is a party I enjoy a few cold ones! The party for my retiring principal on Monday night has 'free tap beer' as part of the posted agenda... I'll be running my butt off all next week I bet just to try and balance it out!!
As time goes on, I find myself becoming more and more interested in weightlifitng and fitness. A year ago, my only mindset was just to look good. I I however now it has become so integrated in my lifestyle, my attitude has changed somewhat.. I want to keep improving and learn more. Would I have been content to stop where I am a year ago? Most likely, as I had always had these attempts to 'get in shape' but never really made decent progress. Sites like these and the people on them have definitely changed my life, and have given me the energy and encouragment to continue and improve. Thanks!
Well enough rambling. Time for me to get back to work so I dont waste my only planning period of today.

Hey Dan

Did you get my PM ??


Brian

Had one retirement party last night. I must appear big to the old croud, as I had a few comments asking me how often I worked out, and where. Most people couldnt believe I was an art teacher... most guesed phy ed teacher. haha I guess the majorty of art teachers are skinny pale hippish weirdos. I guess I'm one of the raritys that dont breathe the stuff, as a lot of the crafty stuff really annoys me. You wont see me gah gahing at craft shows, or loving Martha Stewart. Its crap. I enjoyed it when she went to prison. ehh.. looks like I'm off topic... Well no real hangover today... had a lot to drink though, and I'm sure trippled my caloric, carb, and fat intake for the week! Going to have to do some major cardio when my vacation starts Wednesday. Just had some coffee and took a hour nap, and I feel fine. Going to go lift with Wh0 today, (And I havent forgotten). With 6 dogs and 3 kids in our house today (Babysitting extras), I NEED to get out!
I have about 4 loads of laundry to fold behind me, and a dozen to put away... The wife went garage saleing, and least took my newphew with... 2 kids 5 dogs.. 1 down.. 7 to go.

6 dogs???? You must live on a farm. ;)

no. its actually a zoo :)

(ughh.. lost a long post.. I'm sure they will both pop up later!) The last few days have NOT been good for my diet/excercise plan. Had too many parties. I didnt 'completely' lose control, but I know I was way high with fats, & sugars, and cals. I have my last class now, so I'm in the back of the room doing this! :whistle: I had my morning classes clean and organize my class for the most part, and took the afternoon class to the lab so the room doesnt get trashed. Its far from perfect, but 25 kids can accomplish things a little quicker than I can myself for the most part. Tomorrow it is just meetings, and I'm done for the school year. Then my cut can seriously start.
My plan for cardio is lap swimming, biking, and running. I'm going to have to do my running early in the morning, both for the heat, and I'm not sure the little ones will always be game for sitting in the running stroller. The girls should definitely plan on sitting 2 hours a day in the Y drop in childcare! My goal besides leaning up through cardio is to really get my lower body in line. I agree with what sox mentioned about legs being the teacher and upper body being the students. Well my students have been running rampant, and my legs are terrible. My legs are practially virgins to excercise, and I 'should' make quick gains in strength. I am praying there are no huge change in life plans this summer that will really interupt my 'plan'. I will get my abs & definition no matter what it takes. By the end of summer I will see a lean, mean Escher damnit![i]

Whaaaooo! I'm done with school for the year... :wig: I think I am more excited than the kids. It was a stressful year, so I'm really looking forward to some relaxing time (in theory).
I made it to the gym for the first time since Sat. Had a real good workout. Started working on arms, and then saw the police chase on TV that is going on in LA, so I did the bike for 20 minutes and watched it. I enjoyed watching the police trying to spin out the van! There were cheers in the gym when it happened! :D I kept my heartrate above 150 the whole time, and as soon as it hit 150, I got it back up to 180. Then let drop down, and kept repeating it. I was drenched in sweat :crazy:, but went back and did triceps and bi's. Good start to my vacation!
Came home and repoted some plants from my classroom. After being outside for another hour, it was time to get some AC! Boy.. I'm giddy... the kids will be in daycare for the remainder of the week, so the rest of the week is ALL MINE!! buhahaha. (until the wife finds some project that keeps me home!) Back to laundry.....

Been a few days since I updated the journal... Schools out, and the week with kids at daycare went way to fast. We had so many errands and stuff to get done, things I wanted to get done didnt happen. I did make to the gym pretty much every day. Wed I did squats, and worked my legs real good. They were pretty sore for a few days. Course it didnt help I did a lot of biking as well. Instead of picking up the kids from daycare in the car the one day, we biked out there and picked them up in the pullbehind bike stroller thing. Good 12 mi workout.

I weighed myself today, and I'm 221... :roll: One would have expected me to have lost weight with all the cardo ive been doing. I guess it comes down to BF loss that I want, not necessiarly weight. My weight usually fluctuates about 7lbs throughout the day. Did deadlifts today... I've made a big jump from 175 a few weeks ago, to 245 today. Just finished up a drawing of someone posing... was sort of commissed to do it after someone saw some of my old work and liked it.. Not great, but it'll do.
well I should take the kids outside and water the plants.. have been inside most of the day.

Uploaded a few new pictures... Still have this cursed 2 pack. Must have to cut some more fat to get the horizontal seperation in that massive glob i have there, to uncover at least 2 more abs. Not much change from last post, but at least its not in the wrong direction.

Heh.. a pretty uneventful day.. Did a 8 mile run this morning, went to the dr and got a tetanus shot, and then went shopping. haha..

Yesterday I gashed my leg open on a piece of rebar in our back yard (we're putting on a deck & 3 season porch). I didnt realize I was cut untill my father in law pointed to my leg and was like "holy shit". my whole calf was completely red. The cut was about 12 inches long... neaaat. So today I was 'convinced' by my wife (she made the appointment for me) that I needed to get a tetanus shot.
The run today was pretty good. I took the 16 mo with me on the running stroller. She was fine for the most part, but started to have a nervous breakdown about halfway through. I managed to keep her somewhat sane by giving her random stuff of mine. Not the easist thing to run with, as you only can use 1 or no arms, as one is needed to push it. I guess one arm will be bigger! :whistle:
I'm hoping to get to bed soon.. the 16 mo old woke up, and WILL NOT go to sleep. She always goes down around 6pm and sleeps 12 hours.. Well she woke up tonight around 10pm, and its midnight now. Wide awake... :wig: *Brings out elephant tranqs*

Hmm.. I must not know how to bulk or cut properly. I weighed myself in today at the gym, and I was 222 :mad2: Umm... dont you usually lose weight when you cut? Perhaps I should switch plans when I bulk & cut :D I'm sure there are a bunch of factors that are keeping my weight up... I really havent eased up on the weight lifting at all, and have been doing it just as intense, if not moreso. I've been working the legs, so perhaps the extra few pounds could be that? I could do mega cardio, but I dont want to lose all the mass I've gained in my bulk either. Whatever it is I guess I'm still moving forward and making progress. Might not be precisely what I want, but in the big picture, I guess thats ok. I'm still determined to drop my BF into the single digits however, and I'm pretty sure that'll happen.
Yesterday I had an awesome arm workout. Per advice of Ludvig, I did a bunch of giant sets, and supersets. Usually I use the 65lb dbs when I curl, but my arms got tired so fast, I was using 45-50 at the end. Felt great to have them completely exhausted.
Today was chest. It was a decent workout, although I wasnt doing the highest I've done, probably because my arms were still somewhat recovering. I didnt get a chance to do any cardio, as someone from the Y daycare came and got me to inform me my little one was having a nervous breakdown, and was sobbing hystericly. (No big surpise, as the last few days with her have been terrible!) So I grabbed my stuff, and had to quit for the day. The rest of the day was ok.. went to the park for a while with the older one, and then came home to work on replacing some wood trim on the door of our lawnmower shed. I'm going to have to completely rebuild the doors, as almost everything has some sort of rot to it. I have a ton of projects this summer, and I'm sure I'll be GLAD when school starts back up. Terrible to say I know!
If I can get the little turkey's to bed early tonight, my mother-in-law is going to watch the kids so the wife and I can go see Star Wars.. Might have to get out the kiddie valium! :wig: (thats oragel and tylenol.. really.....)

Happy Father's day to any fathers out there!!

I need to quit bitching about not having abs, and that I still have this belly fat. I'm taking in way too many carbs a day. Honestly I dont even know how many I take in, which is a huge part of the problem. I start my day with a cup and a half of oatmeal, and sometimes have a bagel too. No wonder why I still have this fat. I want to lose this, but yet I dont even know exactly the values of the food I'm taking in. I need to get a kick in the head and spend some time calculating out exactly my cal, protiein, carb, and fat intake. My workouts I think are going ok, but I know I throw in too much garbage into my diet throughout the week. Gotta stop doing this if I even want to be halfway serious about cutting. Its all in the diet, and it shows...

No gym yet today.. The kids are sick, and are acting like they are reinacting the exorcist. The day I was at the gym they had to come and get me the little one was in such hysterics. I've started a new approach to my diet. I had stayed away from bad stuff for the most part, and followed my plan but had added a lot here and there. Well that mindset has made my cut so far worthless. I downloaded the calorieking software, and have been keeping track of everything I consume so I can monitor my carb, protien, cal, and fat intake a bit better. I've overdone it with carbs, fats, and the like. I guess I dont have to be SUPER strict or anything, as I'm not at a deadline or in a competition or something. I just want results, and dont want to look back later, and be "duh... what did I do wrong?". This way I can adjust things if necessary when I see something out of control. I never watched carbs before, but I'm going to see if this works.

Phew.. hot 94 day. Gotta love the midwest.. Freezing winters, and hotter than hell summers. Our lawn looks like straw... all yellow and crunchy. My wife was late for an apointment, and took the van with the car seats not thinking I would be stranded with the girls. So no gym. I worked my abs real good while laying on the floor with the girls watching Sesame Street, and having them jump and bellyflop on my stomach while doing them was good resistance! My gut still hurts. I did brave the heat though this morning, and went for a run. I did a 4 mile run.. (I know thats a warmup for you Who) I ended up walking for probably a mile of it, as I was constantly breaking up fights between the girls. They are only a year and a half, and are already doing the 'you're on my side" thing. I might have to invest in some bulletproof glass to seperate them in the running stroller. Probably would have to put a kevlar material on both sides so they dont see each other. At the last mile they finally passed out which was a blessing.
I was so looking forward to the summer, but its sick to say I'm looking forward to getting back to work and getting in a schedule.. its way to flexible when you're on vacation! I have a high school 'get together' this weekend. Its not an official reunion, but probably as much as they'll be. I havent seen the majority of them since I graduated (and really havent cared really either). It should be interesting. I havent seen most of them for 9 years and I only knew most of them for 4, so I'm not sure what to expect. It was a good time, but only a short period of my life. I was in college longer than that, and in the workforce for almost that amount of time. On the invite it sounds like a 'kegger'. Part of me will want to be pretty strict and only have a few, as I'm living a healthier life. The other part thinks I should just let go.. I dont have to drive and my parents are watching the kids. *shrugs* Who knows... guess I'll play it by ear. If its lame, I'll only have a couple and leave.

Yep pretty damn hot day yesterday! 96 was the "official" high for us. Nothing like sweating without even moving.

I'm way behind on my updates.. I've been super busy with things at home. The class 'reunion' was a great time. Even though I hadnt talked to these people for 9 years, it was fun. I think the best of it was the typical response I got from everyone when they saw me. "Holy SHIT... you've gotten huge!" Haha.. I dont think myself as big, but it was cool to be bigger than the big jocks in high school. I want to get a lot bigger yet. I was told that I "was the only one who added weight in the right spot". There werent a lot of people there (only about 40) but it was a good time, and I drank waaay to much. :razz:
On the excercise front, I've only made it into the gym once this week so far. Monday I went to the Y, but the little one was having such a nervous breakdown, I felt guilty about letting her cry. I was able to get in a fast and furious workout though. I'm going to have to either get a chain, or a belt to do weighted pullups and dips. I had on a 45lb plate when doing vertical dips, and it wasnt too bad, much to my surprise. Yesterday no workout.. as our foster daughter's birth mom was coming to our house for a visit, my wife wanted to completely redo her room. So after court for our other one, I had to repaint all the walls and the ceiling, and put up a new ceiling fan. Was up to about midnight doing all that. Today we had to do some major cleaning for the afternoon visit. We'll see how tonight goes, but I'm hoping definitlely tomorrow the'll be some gym time.
At the moment I have my wife's cell phone cooking in the oven. I went swimming, and then realized I had her phone in my pocket. :eekb: Not good! I'm hoping the heat will draw the moisture out.. guess it wont be any more worse off. At least at the end of July we can do a tech upgrade and get new phones anyways, so I might be without my phone for the month. :/ On the good side, maybe this month our minutes wont go over!

I actually made it to the gym today, despite the little ones clutching my legs when I was about to drop them off a the Y day care. Luckily they calmed down fast, as I feel REAL guilty working out with them screaming in the next room over. I had a real good workout, doing a bunch of deadlifts, and curls. Everything was packed at first so I started with doing some bench presses. After taking a shower, I noticed in the mirror I could see the outline of a 6 pack. Nothing bulging like my 2 middle abs, but I could see the horizontal seperation when I lifted my arms. Sweet! All I have to do now is fill inside the dotted lines. :)

Well the last few days havent been so hot for the diet. My route has been all messed up, as I've been working on adding an addition onto the house. I guess I've been getting a workout that way lifting wood, and hammering. Just put up the trusses today, but had to quit due to rain. My diet has been crap, so I wouldnt be surprised if I have gone backwards a bit. I guess despite it all I have made better choices, but probably just not ideal for cutting. The other day we had ribs on the grill, and chicken breasts. I started to eat a rib, but I had a bad piece which was fine, so I ended up eating about 3 chk breasts. :whistle: The little one has surgery tomorrow for her ears and to remove adnoids, so I'm not sure what my gym, (or sleep) schedule will be. Will try and do what I can to squeeze it in.

Went for a nice run this morning. I've come to the point where I'm thinking of dropping the weights for a couple weeks, and doing just cardio. I find myself otherwise putting off the cardio and doing lifting instead. I'm still getting bigger, which isnt a bad thing, but I would like to get some real good definition in. I shouldnt complain, just want to hit my goals :)

Well the last few days havent been so hot for the diet. My route has been all messed up, as I've been working on adding an addition onto the house. I guess I've been getting a workout that way lifting wood, and hammering. Just put up the trusses today, but had to quit due to rain.

what kind of addition? three season porch? family room? love building here.

Well we added a deck and are adding the 3-4 season room ajoining to the deck. The trusses go over the whole thing, so the deck will be covered as well. Its kind of fun, but defintitely not my calling in life. :)

Well we added a deck and are adding the 3-4 season room ajoining to the deck. The trusses go over the whole thing, so the deck will be covered as well. Its kind of fun, but defintitely not my calling in life. :)

sounds cool. i remodeled and sold a house this past year (with friends), was a lot of hard work and learning. fun too.

pretty cool that you are tackling a project like that- especially if it isn't your calling in life.

you'll have to post pics of your work- progress photos for your real-life workout hammering and such.

as i recall from your earlier posts, you're a teacher? i used to teach back in the day. now do the whole office work thing, with manual labor as my side job (tiling/deck building), and a pinch of retail.

Yah.. it is kind of fun. I never thought of taking picts of myself working on it, but that would be cool just to have for memory's sake. I should have gotten some picts of me lifting the trusses onto the roof! :flex: haha. Really they are not as heavy as they look!

I still havent completely gotten my act together. My diet hasnt been clean... probably at around 70% instead of my usual 98% or so. Had a couple molasses cookies & pizza yesterday. Definitely cheating like a pig. I havent lifted or done any formal cardio either. :whistle: I did swim for a hour or so yesterday catching my neices and nephews off the slide, so I'm sure treading and catching kids for that period burned some cals. Feeling kind of fat today.. Any sign I had of abs before arent here. I'm working on the house today, so we'll see if there's any cardio later on tonight. We'll see. I'm going to install track lighting above my desk area probably in a bit.. Just taking a cool down from outside, as its hot again today. I'm going to have to drag myself out of bed earlier in the morning before the kids get up if I'm going to make this cardio stuff work. Its just been so hard to get up early when you're up throughout the night with the kids. Our older one's sleeping is still off from the surgery earlier in the week.
Might put the outlet boxes outside today in the new section as well. We'll see how things go.

took some picts today.. I guess I cant complain with the lack of change when my diet/excercise has been off. More of an incentive to do better I guess.

Wahoo! Actually made it out this morning before the monkeys woke up, and got in a 4 mile run. My endurance was shit, but I'm assuming *makes excuses* that its from the 3 1/2 hours of sleep the kids allowed me last night. After I got the one back to bed early in the morning, I was wide awake, and decided to go for a run. Surprisingly the kids were still asleep when I got back, which I did NOT expect.. I was expecting mass chaos. Took a cold shower when I got back, but am still sweating 15 mintues later. Must have really gotten my core temp up!
I'm going to setup a schedule today with the wife to try and make sure both of us get an opportunity to excercise daily. We'll see!

Been a while since I updated. Between the kids and the building project, there has been little to no time for formal excercise. After I get done, I'm so tired, I usually just crash. I have been giving my muslces a workout however. Putting on the 'sheeting' (wood for the roof) was a job to lift them up to the roof. I also carried up the 25 packs of shingles up the ladder onto the roof which gave me a real good workout. I think each pack weighs about 80lbs. Putting down the shingles themselves are pretty easy, although its just HOT up on the roof, and its almost impossible to put in a full day on the roof as it gets so hot you cant touch the shingles anymore. Definitely a morning job. I plan on going to the gym tomorrow, but we'll see if life allows me to go!
At the moment I guess I'm off the cut, and am more in the maintence. I havent met my goals yet, but its almost impossible to get in the cardio I need, and to cut my diet when I need the cals to get the work done. I havent lost any weight since I ended my bulk. Whether I have lost BF or not, that I dont know. I guess if anything I'll continue to cut, but on a scale from 0-100 (if 0 is max cut, and 100 is max bulk) I'll probably around a 40. It is what it is, and I cant keep beating myself up for not getting abs, losing weight or whatever. I'll get there, just will be on a slower timeline than I would like. Sadly once school starts back up I will have my daily routine back in place, and wont have the complete chaos of the summer, which I hate. Currently funds are nonexistant from the building project and stuff, and I'm out of protein and creatine. Will have to wait till I get my funds stable before I do that. Ahh well. Eggs are cheap. Have a great rest of the week guys..

Boy.. I just want to crawl into a hole and die. My gluttony for dinner is making me pay the price. I decided to splurge tonight, and stop off at Steak and Shake. I was going to get a nice healthy chicken sub, but the temptation to try their 'sippable sundaes' got the bets of me. So I ordered a full meal there.. Burger, fries, cottage cheese, and a huge shake. It was definitiely not worth it. I'm miserable right now, as I'm not used to eating that much fat and garbage at once anymore. :crazy:
On the postive note, I was able to get to the gym today for the first time in a few weeks. Had a real good arm workout, but had to make it shorter than I would have wanted as I had to pick up one of the kids. No house building today.
Also got a new cell phone. Its ok, and nothing too fancy. We had the opportunity to do a 'tech upgrade' for free. I had gone swimming with my wife's phone in my pocket last month, so it was good timing. Course now the cell phone bill will go back up now that she has a phone again!!
I also just got off the phone from Canon. I had bought a new multifunction printer from them earlier this year, which was top end. Well in the last few days the printer cant pull in a piece of paper straight. I called them up and they are sending me a replacement printer at no cost. Nice!

Getting back on track. Threw out the crappy food again that had made its way into the house, & went for a short 3 mi run this morning. I had almost threw in the towel for cutting, but I'm going to keep trying to lean up till fall where I'll switch to bulking. No $ for creatine or protien sups at the moment unfortunatly. Will have to wait till I get my next paycheck. I dont want to order some and end up being short this month because of it. Been a real crappy few months, and I want to try and get my finances back in order. Course this happens every summer when we lose a paycheck coming in every couple weeks. My wife is off with me during the summer, but doesnt get paid througout it like I do. Thank god in one month that'll be coming back.

Ughh.. am sick today. Not sure if its just major allergies, or if I have a cold. My nose is Niagra falls. ugh. Im going to have to switch to biking. My shins are starting to bother met again. Is biking even close to the cardio workout as running? Going to crawl in bed I think, and either fall asleep, or finish potter 6.

Almost 2am. Thought since I'm up (from the kid crying a bit ago) I might as well make myself useful and make a post. I've been really struggling the last while to keep my morale up and not get too depressed. Between the lack of $ right now, and the inability to do "what I want", I think I am ready now to return to work and resume my schedule. I absolutely hate it that my diet and workouts are sporatic and difficult to fit in.
On the postive side I was able to squeeze in a short workout this afternoon. Every time I was able to escape to put in a load of laundry, I did a few sets of either benching or curls, and then did 12 pullups each time. After about 6 loads of laundry throughout the day it was better than nothing. Doesnt look like I'll hit my goal of abs this summer, but hey! If I hit all my goals too soon, what will I have to work towards?! I plan to resume my cutting and do so till mid Nov, unless I hit my goal before then. Then do a winter bulk and put on some mass!
On the tech side, I've been playing with the new windows vista beta. Its pretty good actually, and just as stable for me as xp, with a bit more aestheics built in. The glass effects, fade in effects and everything is a lot less pixely. Although I'm not a huge Apple fan, it still isnt par with OSX in regards to 'looks'. Course the release of this version is a year away plus yet. Thanks vatech for your help with my network issues!

Yikes.. It looks like my journal updates have really been slacking. Course there's nothing really too noteworthy. My fitness quest has had the brakes really thrown on, and I dont see that changing till school starts back up, and more importantly the kids resume daycare. My wife started work earlier this week, so I'm doing it solo with the kids. School never looked so good! Once school resumes, I have an hour and half every day (in theory) that is open before I have to pick them up from daycare. I'm really anxious to get back into the gym and shed some of this fat I've put on this summer.
The exterior of the house is almost complete. just have to do some trimwork, and cut a few vents yet. Then stain the house. I have a sprayer, so it shouldnt be too bad. Then its off to focus on the interior. wiring, insulation, then drywall. Exciting stuff :D I have to work for Crayola this weekend at Wal-Mart, so I'll get some time out of the house :)

Boy.. this is the first day I am completely stir crazy. I had my gym bag and everything packed, and the wife informed me her car's exhaust system broke, and was dragging, so she had to take my car to work. So I'm stranded at home with the two 2yr olds. I'll go for a walk for sure later, but getting out of the house to the gym isnt going to happen today. My wife wasnt sure if anything fell off, so I'll have to walk down the route as far as she got and make sure. I didnt see anything hanging when I looked under before. I couldnt do too much looking, as the kids thought they needed to 'assist'. The rest of the week, grandma is watching the kids so I can work on wiring the addition, which is behind 'schedule' at the moment.
Next week is the big week of resuming school, workouts, and my diet, so I'm very excited about that! Whaoooo. Yay for daycare! :wig:

Was a good day today. No workout, but feeling good. I'm starting to feel the effects of the new treatment I'm on. I had been feeling pretty low the last few weeks, but I'm pumped and ready to go.
I woke up this morning early to workout... wouldnt you know it.. the moment I touched the doornob to go in the basement the little one started to cry. *sigh* I'm probably going to throw up a new pict soon so I can see how far I've backslid over the past month. It happend... just matters now how I go forward from here once I resume training.
I'm hoping to make it into my classrooom tonight after the kids go down so I can get a few things in order.
-Jesse you mentioned your interest in education? Its worth it. I love my job. I had worked for Crayola at Walmart last saturday, and I couldnt imagine that being my profession. Granted we need people in all positions, just not for me :)

I bit the bullet today, and put a pict up of me and my lack of progress this summer. I guess I have to be honest and post even when they arent better. Next set will have to be.
Today I have to work on wiring. Luckily my father in law who is an electrical engineer is there to direct me what to do :) Back to work!

I bit the bullet today, and put a pict up of me and my lack of progress this summer. I guess I have to be honest and post even when they arent better. Next set will have to be.
Today I have to work on wiring. Luckily my father in law who is an electrical engineer is there to direct me what to do :) Back to work!

Hey man, looked at your pics. It didn't look like you did any backsliding. Your ab region looks smaller to me, that's progress in my book. Cute kids btw. The addition looks great too.

Today is my last day of vacation (if you want to call it that!). I'm looking forward to returning to work, but at the same time I have a tremendous amount of work ahead to get my classroom ready for kids on Wednesday. I guess its more of things I 'want' to get done, rather than things that NEED to be done. I could start teaching tomorrow if I had to, but my room is just a bit stark as everything had to come off the walls and boards over the summer.
We also got another foster child over the weekend. Very short term though, as he's going back with his Dad on Wednesday. He's a great kid, so its a welcome change from the experience we had last time which was a nightmare. The kid gives me hope that this upcoming generation still has some people that have manners. Whomever raised him did a good job.
Have to go finish a few things with thie wiring on the addition for an inspection tomorrow. I just have to hope I dont wake up the napping kids.

Well kids will be arriving in my room in an hour. I am excited, and somewhat nervous at the same time. When you have hundreds of kids watching your every move, and looking up to you. I guess I have high expectations for myself as a teacher. This year will be VERY busy, as our enrollment has really increased, and I'm up to teaching 42 classes a week. At least this year our new principal at least scheduled in a 10 minute break so one can take a bathroom break if necessary. I have my room all ready, which is unusual.
The temporary foster kid is going to end up being longer term than we had expected and were told. The kid had came home after a counseling session, and told us that the agency said he needed to register for highschool in our town. "WHAAT"?!? Nice of the agency to put us in that position without even discussing it with us. We could be hardnosed and say 'no', but that would do nothing but hurt the kid. So he'll be with us probably untill Novemeber if things go good. He's a good kid, so I'm not ready to go off the deep end... yet.
I have my gym bag packed today, and I ready to go today after a LONG hiatus. Waahoo!

Well kids will be arriving in my room in an hour. I am excited, and somewhat nervous at the same time. When you have hundreds of kids watching your every move, and looking up to you. I guess I have high expectations for myself as a teacher. This year will be VERY busy, as our enrollment has really increased, and I'm up to teaching 42 classes a week. At least this year our new principal at least scheduled in a 10 minute break so one can take a bathroom break if necessary. I have my room all ready, which is unusual.
The temporary foster kid is going to end up being longer term than we had expected and were told. The kid had came home after a counseling session, and told us that the agency said he needed to register for highschool in our town. "WHAAT"?!? Nice of the agency to put us in that position without even discussing it with us. We could be hardnosed and say 'no', but that would do nothing but hurt the kid. So he'll be with us probably untill Novemeber if things go good. He's a good kid, so I'm not ready to go off the deep end... yet.
I have my gym bag packed today, and I ready to go today after a LONG hiatus. Waahoo!

Good luck with your first day back. I'm sure you're excited to get a routine going again.

All the props in the world goes to you and your family for the fostering you do. Takes a huge heart to do that!

Let us know how it goes.

Jesse

I survived day 1, and only had one kid sitting out, which is a 1st for me on the first day of school! haha. With all the extra kids we have this year, there can be NO MERCY!! Buahahaha.
I actually made into the gym yesterday and it was great to be back. I've really lost some strength since the last time I was there. i was down about 30-40 lbs on a lot of lifts. I used to max out the shoulder press machine, but now I struggled with it a few pins up. I'll get that back up soon! Well kids come in 3 mintues. Here we go again! Only 13 more times I have to have to go over the beginning of the year stuff, and then i can start to teach.

Being back in the gym feels great. Granted I've had to take a strength hit, but my morale is a lot higher now that I can get in there and lift! Now to force myself to do some cardio! I'm not always guaranteed to make it into the gym, so I hate to lose my opportunity to lift so cardio often gets pushed aside! I've gotten a few comments at work that I must have been lifting all summer. Funny thing is that I really I wasnt!
I'm not sure what the price of gas is in the rest of the country, but here in the midwest its really jumping. In Chicago I heard today it was over $3.40, and people were panicking and a lot of stations were out of gas. I put in $10 at 2.80 a gallon... so I put in a measly couple gallons. I'm either hoping gas will go down a little, or that that is enough gas to get me to Friday. I'm thinking not. Too broke at the moment to fill it up.
I read the papers today, and felt nauseated. I cant imagine how it would be down along the gulf coastline right now. I read that rescuers are just pushing the bodies aside so they can get to people that need to be rescued. So many people's lives destroyed. The thousands of people in the superdome need to be evacuated too.. cant imagine trying to move that many people. If our house wasnt full we'd probably bring up a displaced family to try and help out. I think things are going to get worse down there before they get better with the aftermath, and the biological hazards that will be present now. Makes you happy you have a home & clean water to drink.

Doh.. lost the gas 'stock market' game big time. I was hoping I would make it a few more days with the lower gas price and then fill up Friday.. WRONG! I saw on my way to the gym it was at $3.00 a gallon. CRAP! How is it for the rest of you guys? Didnt the gas price just go over $2 mark within the last year? I'm going to have to bike everywhere pretty darn soon. Course its kinda hard to haul a whole bunch of kids that way!
Our foster kid started football practice yesterday, so thats kind of exciting. I never thought I'd have a 'kid' in high school before I was 30!
On the house front, I got almost all the insulation done tonight. Its pretty easy, just is a bit itchy and irritating to the hands if you handle it without gloves!
Tommorow's goal is to remember to get the car's license plate sticker renewed. Another $80 I dont have.... *sigh*

This is such an embarrasment to our country. We are supposed to be the 'civilized' country with morals and ethics.. however when our lifestyle is reduced to what many countries are accustomed to, we resort to barbarianism. It makes me sick to hear about women being raped at the evacuation centers, people shooting at the rescuers, and just the absolute chaos. The police force down there is dwindling down as the officers turn in their badges, as its just not worth it. You dont see the "A" list people speaking out about this. Where are people like Oprah, or other very influential people? Cripes.. Jerry Lewis is worred about this disaster cutting into his muscular distrophy drive.. he told people to give half of what they donate to the hurricane relief.. Umm. Jerry, maybe put your little telethon on hold, and divert your resources to helping those people down there. Our country jumps at a drop of a hat to help any other country when they have a disaster, but now that its in our backyard, I feel I dont see the same response. Is it because its not as 'glamerous' to be helping your neighbor vs someone on a remote country? ARGGGhhh.. I should stop now. :mad2:

One of the little ones is sick today, so I took off to take her to the dr. I was feelin kind of crappy myself, so it worked out ok. Now thats she's taking a nap, I can get some drywalling done outside.
On the fitness front, I'm slowly working on getting back in my routine. I ordered some protien, which I had been without since June. I cant afford it really at the moment, but I'll figure it out. I've noticed my arms are a lot more vascular than I remember, especialy my forearms. It looks like I've been lifting, even though I'm cold, they pop out. Kinda cool, but the wife thinks its gross :D Hoping to hit the gym tomorrow. Might get a homeworkout in tonight, but we'll see!

I had an interesting experience tonight.. I went to the parent orientation at the local high school. I wasnt quite expecting to have a 'child' in highshool before I even turn 30. My wife and I got a few looks, as we are a LOT younger than any other paren there. The other day my wife was mistaken for a student there, and was told to get back to class! haha. She was beaming. Not too bad being 29 and being mistaken for a 18 yr old.
Other than that I'm taking lots of meds to try and shake this cold. I usually shake off a cold within 24-36 hours.. This one has lasted since Friday. I should be thankful I dont have the nausea like the rest of the house!

I had someone comment to me the other day that I looked like a 'tank' which I thought was funny, but they wondered why I didnt have abs? That comment sort of hit me.. why dont I? Well to honestly answer that question, I obviously am not being dedicated enough to stick to a diet enough to lean up. Granted I have a busy life, but that does not mean I have to eat the doughnut that lands on my desk. If I want abs, I need to do what it takes to get them. Am I lazy? perhaps... I NEED to hit this hardcore over the next few months, if I want to get them before I start my bulk. This has been my 'goal' since the start, and there's no real excuse why I havent achived it yet, except for lack of self discipline. Can I do it.. yeah I know I can. I just have to do it.. I have to find a way to make it work.. Next round of picts I post I'll have abs. *wonders if I'll ever post again!* lol

I've been eating clean all week, and have felt GREAT as a result. I've eaten a few cans of tuna already in the past few days, and its not bad at ALL.. I used to get nauseated with just the smell of it.. I guess I'm getting over it, and just eating it because i know its so good for you. My first cookie I got today from the kids I almost took a bite, and ate it.. homemade chocolate chip?!? hard to resist, but I managed to get it to the trashcan fast. By the end of the day a brownie, cupcake, and another cookie joined it in the bottom of the can. I'd have to say I'm pretty proud of myself. The kids must have a goal to make me throw on 20 lbs! This morning I ate my egg whites, and had my oatmeal, and felt awesome as I left the house. I hadnt felt that alert and energetic in a long time. I dropped the one 2 yr old off a the daycare, and then headed over to school. I got about half way, and all of a sudden realized I still had the other little one in the seat behind me. CRAP!! So much for a morning of clarity! hahaha So I took the other one to her daycare and dropped her off. She was just sitting so quiet in the seat, and I was anixous to get to school I had almost forgotten! Luckily I made it back to school on time! I'm losing my mind! We'll see how the rest of the night goes! hhaha. Hope to finish priming the walls on the addition and start to paint. Then all that is left is to wire up the outlets, and do the wood floors & cielings. Getting to the end, and the deadline is under 4 weeks. Off to the gym with me!

well I went through a scene from the movie Twister last night. On picking up one of the kids from daycare, I got hit with a huge and fast moving storm. It started with a downpour, but I knew it was bad when a limb snapped off a healthy tree, and I barely missed it. I stopped for a bit, and when I saw other trees around me bite the dust, I decided to get the hell out. I luckily moved on. Where I was parked, a large branch fell. *phew*. As I worked my way into town during all of this with practially 0 visablity I saw tree hit a house powerline, and knocked it into the house and started it on fire.. crazy...

I'm continuing to do pretty well with sticking with my diet. I did however have some 'special k' serial this morning instead of my usual oatmeal, but thats not too bad. I have made a promise/commitment to myself about cardio. I usually end up going to the gym, and just lifting weights. Granted I dont want to lose my mass I have, but I also have it a top priority to lean down a bit. I'm going to start out with the idea that I must do at least 30-40 minutes of cardio each gym session. If I dont do that, I'm going to do NO weightlifting at the gym, and do just cardio. If I want to weightlift, I'm going to have to do it in my basement in the early am. This needs to be done at least untill I hit Thanksgiving where I'm going to switch over to bulking. I have about 2 months left to hit my goal. I'm going to bust my butt to do what I can during these last few months. I wasted my opportunity this summer, but I'm still determined to hit my goal. There is still hope.

I'm continuing to do pretty well with sticking with my diet. I did however have some 'special k' serial this morning instead of my usual oatmeal, but thats not too bad. I have made a promise/commitment to myself about cardio. I usually end up going to the gym, and just lifting weights. Granted I dont want to lose my mass I have, but I also have it a top priority to lean down a bit. I'm going to start out with the idea that I must do at least 30-40 minutes of cardio each gym session. If I dont do that, I'm going to do NO weightlifting at the gym, and do just cardio. If I want to weightlift, I'm going to have to do it in my basement in the early am. This needs to be done at least untill I hit Thanksgiving where I'm going to switch over to bulking. I have about 2 months left to hit my goal. I'm going to bust my butt to do what I can during these last few months. I wasted my opportunity this summer, but I'm still determined to hit my goal. There is still hope.

Sounds like a good plan! Once you make it a routine that you don't waver from it'll be easy.

Sorry to hear about missing your goals over summer. From reading your journal it sounded like you had a hectic summer.

You look great now but will look awesome in two months. I'm looking forward to seeing your results.

Keep at it! :gl:

Jesse

Not to pat my own back, but I'm proud of myself. Excuses are no longer an option. I got to the gym today after school and realized my gym bag was removed from the van. Crap! In the past I would have went home pissed that I couldnt work out. Today I thought, "screw it... work out in your clothes". So I worked out today in the gym in a button down shirt, pants, and my casual/dress shoes. Wasnt the easiest to do all the excercises in pants, but I got it done. I was somewhat dissapointed that I wasnt going to be able to do my cardio, which I had resolved to do, but my current clothes were not going to let me do any type of running or anything of that sort. I was hot anyways, so I called it a day. After feeding the kids and myself, I thought about going for a run. Surprisingly, I actually acted on it, and did it. I put the kids in the running stroller, and ran for about 40 minutes at a good pace. At the point where the kids started tossing their sippy cups out the stroller, and were fighting/screaming I decided to call it a night. After a nice cold shower, and putting the kids to bed, I had some creatine, and some yougurt. Awesome. I'm liking this. Abs, here I come!

Hope everyone had a great weekend. My weekend was well.. intersting. Friday night we let our 15yr old have a bonfire outside. That wasnt too bad except for having to drive kids home till 12:30 in the morning. Saturday I was watching the kids all day, and had 2 small squares of pizza for lunch. Got pretty sick off of it, but I"m thinking I had the 24 hour bug, and it had nothing to do with the pizza. Although not eating the rest of the day did probably keep my caloric intake down. :D Yesterday we went up to Wisconsin to visit my grandmother who isnt doing very well. It was kind of sad to say goodbye when we had to leave as I think the next time will be at her funeral. The ride home was hell. The kids screamed for hours as we drove through torrential rains. one long ride. The only thing we could do to get them to relax was to hold them.. Although to drive they have to be in their seats. Today one kid had thrown up in the night, and the other had it coming out the other end. They seemed fine, with no temp or any indication that they were sick, so we sent them to daycare. The wife is picking up the one at daycare as she's sick now. Easier for her to take off as she doesnt have to get a sub to take over classes. Ahh the fun never ends.
I'm glad I got my early morning workout in, as I doubt gym time is an option if the kids are stick at home. I did a good ab & arms workout this morning. I'm working on doing more lower ab excercises to help strenghten them. My upper abs I think are relatively strong, but my lowercore needs work. All for now.. have to get some plans ready for my sub tomorrow....

Well thankfully the plauge is starting to pass around here. Our daycare was shut down yesterday because the teachers were all sick as well. Whee. I think every single sheet & blanket in our house has been washed a few times this last weekend/week.
I took a few picts of myself the other day for my reference, and I can tell I'm still leaning up. The vascularity in my arms is looking sweet, especially after I lift slightly. My arms have gottten bigger as well I'm pretty sure. I've been doing the 4:45 am workouts religously, as all my attempts to go to the gym have failed.
Plus time is running out on the addition. We'll be having our house guests from New Zeland in a few weeks at our house. I almost have the hardwood floor done, then next its to brick the fireplace, and put up the ceiling fan. Then all that is left is to decorate it. We are hiriing a few high school girls tonight to watch our 2 devils so we can get some work done around the house.

216 lbs! I weighed myself at the gym, and I've dropped down some in bodyweight, and this was including my skis on. (my size 15 shoes). It very well could fluctuate back up, but I hadnt seen it at 216 for a while. Always was stuck around 220. A step in the right direction at least!
I have about 2 boards left, and the floor is complete. The kids are finally asleep in their own beds, so Im not going to dare pound anymore on the floor. So thinking about going to bed, but I should get more done tonight. So much to do tomorrow. Sleep is so tempting. *nods off*
I worked my triceps real good today. Did dips with 90lbs on my legs. After a few sets my arms were shaking.

Guess I havent been doing so good with my regular updates. Progress has been going quite well. I've been still hitting the weights hard. Had a great workout at the gym after work. Feels great to max out the weights on the machines they have there :) I use freeweights anyways 90% of the time so it doesnt matter too much. I've been waking up at 4:45 in the morning to get in a 30 minute powerworkout in the basement. I may not be doing cardio per say, but I get my heartrate up there by really working it hard. Even have been doing squats!
I was looking at myself in the mirror the other day and realized that I'm losing mass from this cutting. Maybe it IS bodyfat that is going, but I seem smaller. I'm going to start making preperations to begin my fall/winter bulk I think sooner than I expected.
On the other end of my life, our 15 yr old foster kid is starting to slide backwards. We got his progress reports from school, and he is doing terribly. He shows no effort, and doesnt get his work in, despite that we frequently sit down with him at night to get it done. We've been getting a discipline notice almost every day from the school for something or other. Usually its being late, or not dressing for gym. I realize he has a lot going on, and is displaced which has a lot of psycological issues there. However, hes getting to the point where does whatever the hell he wants, despite the wife and I saying 'no'. Even quit football on Monday. The DCFS agency we work through has done nothing to get services for this kid, and that is insanely annoying. Despite leaving emails or voicemails for people nothing gets done. We work through the same agency for our girls, and our laywer is getting on top of them because they arent getting the adoption process going.. We have court in a few weeks, and the judge will be pissed if he finds out the agency has been dragging their heels. Ooops.. time to go get ready for work!

What is frustrating is that we DO Help him with his work, and it doesnt get turned in. What happens to it who knows. I also though it odd he failed the football written in PE when he was on the team. He is going to be moving back with his dad soon, but it would be good if we could send him off with at least passing grades.

What is frustrating is that we DO Help him with his work, and it doesnt get turned in. What happens to it who knows. I also though it odd he failed the football written in PE when he was on the team. He is going to be moving back with his dad soon, but it would be good if we could send him off with at least passing grades.

It's a great thing you're doing escher (what's your first name btw??). Not too many people would open up their home, money, and life to people like you and your wife do. :tucool:

I guess just keep trying and do your best to get those lines of communication as open as you can. Maybe get him to lift some iron with ya.

Its been a good week. Fitness wise, I've kept my diet in check pretty much except for a piece of bday cake, cupcake, and some chips & dip that someone had brought in for me. Couldnt be rude! Oh and I'm having a few Miller Lite's now. I've been pretty dilligent in getting up early at 4:45, and lifting early, and insuring I get a workout. Luckily this week I was able to get into the gym after work most days, so that was helpful. By the time today rolled around I was ok that I couldnt make it to the gym.
I think our 15yr old is sabotaging his stay here. There's a good chance he will be going this weekend to possibly stay with his dad, so he's acting up, probably so in his mind its 'our fault' he's leaving and not his.

Well today is my bday. Whee! Who would have guessed I turned 28? Sure dont feel like it! In fact I've never felt better in my life! Today I'm going to eat what I want. Definitly a cheat day. Course I probably wont WANT anything except my 'cleaner' foods. I'm sure I'll be eating some of the shaum tort my wife has promised to make me! Its going to be a busy day. I'm going to finish grouting the fireplace and go insane listening to my mother in law go nuts preparing for her New Zeland guests who are arriving Tuesday. Time to hit the sack and get some sleep!

Well today is my bday. Whee! Who would have guessed I turned 28? Sure dont feel like it! In fact I've never felt better in my life! Today I'm going to eat what I want. Definitly a cheat day. Course I probably wont WANT anything except my 'cleaner' foods. I'm sure I'll be eating some of the shaum tort my wife has promised to make me! Its going to be a busy day. I'm going to finish grouting the fireplace and go insane listening to my mother in law go nuts preparing for her New Zeland guests who are arriving Tuesday. Time to hit the sack and get some sleep!

Hehe...my mother was over today trying to shove this HUGE friggin' brownie down my throat! Must of been cuz I "forced" her to sit down and have a plate of chicken & rice...Bless the Lord my wife likes to cook!
yummmyyyy!!

Well today is my bday. Whee! Who would have guessed I turned 28? Sure dont feel like it! In fact I've never felt better in my life! Today I'm going to eat what I want. Definitly a cheat day. Course I probably wont WANT anything except my 'cleaner' foods. I'm sure I'll be eating some of the shaum tort my wife has promised to make me! Its going to be a busy day. I'm going to finish grouting the fireplace and go insane listening to my mother in law go nuts preparing for her New Zeland guests who are arriving Tuesday. Time to hit the sack and get some sleep!

Happy bday escher! Enjoy it!

wow.. its been a week already? Well I've unofficially began my bulk. We've been eating like pigs as we have guests from New Zeland with us for a while. I weighed myself yesterday and I'm up to 226, and all time high. I've started to make some strength gains and I've noticed an increase in mass as well. Its great to eat again! I wouldnt say this weekend was very clean at all, but I'm shocking my metabolism right? (sounds like a good excuse!!) Full week of school today, although I'm thinking of taking tomorrow off. Its been a real rough couple of weeks busting trying to get the addition done, cleaning, and everything else there has been no downtime. One of the kids is starting to get sick, so I'm sure my day of R&R will end up being a 'take care of sick kid' day. haha. I was able to sit down on the couch yesterday and do NOTHING for about an hour yesterday so that was great.
Well I should get some work done, clean my classroom up a bit, and work on a painting I need to complete by Friday.

I'm starting to notice that my 'bulk' is starting to take effect. I've been making strength gains, and I just FEEL bigger. :barbells: I worked out twice yesterday so I can really feel it today. I've lost my 'leanness' of my midsection, so I guess it was ok I didnt have ripped abs. My metabolism has also picked up as I'm a bit more hungry now. My diet is so so at the moment, but once our New Zeland guest leave I'm sure we wont be cooking the extravagant meals or eating and drinking like we have been.
In a real money crunch right now, so I'm hoping things stablize a bit so our checking accounts can stay postive. :cry: Seems like when it rains it pours, both ways. It'll all work out, its just reall annoying and sicknening when your in the lows.
I have major laundry to do tonight plus working on a painting. I'm sure the kids will be more than happy to let me do both!!

ok this is proably not terribly fitness related. I might be a bit more touchy this morning as I only got 4 hours of sleep. Just having daycare issues, and need to vent.
Our 2 yr old was having trouble at daycare. She was drug exposed before birth from her birth mother, and as a result has a few 'issues', like being especially strong, and having a sensory disorder where she cant feel things terribly well and doesnt know her own strength. Well our daycare provider has been practially targeting her, and now is doing a daily log of everything she does during the day, wether it is taking another kids toy, or pushing another child. So many of these things are normal 2 yr old things, but as a result of her disorder she just does it 'harder'. So the people in charge there think she is being malicious. I asked them if the other 2 yr olds are doing the same thing, and they said yes. I almost feel as though they are gathering information to kick her out, but are being careful about it as she's a ward of the state yet. The workers feel that the majority of things are normal 2 yr old things as well. Arrghh. I would hate to start looking for another daycare, but in the end we might have to consider that. I feel sick about it. She has good days, but we rarely hear about those. I know how it is being a teacher. The kids who often are 'naughty' you watch a bit more, which isnt quite fair. The other kids might be doing the same thing, but you ignore it a bit more as they 'havent done it before'. *sigh* I'm going to have to sit down with the administration there and see if I can remind them of her needs.
On the fitness note I'm enjoying how I feel, with my body hurting in a good way because I'm able to lift more, and that the muscle are growing. I worked out my legs real hard yesterday and they are like putty today. Nice. I had someone tell me that I should make sure I work my legs so I dont look like a flag with a huge top, and a little bottom. I saw their point, so I'm going to back off my upper body for a bit and concenterate on my lower a bit more.

Boy... I've been trerrible about keeping this updated.. probably because I only get a few minutes at my computer before someone starts crying! I uploaded a bunch of new photos. I'm 'just' starting to feel some change from bulking, and that I'm making some progress. I noticed the other day I noticed a slight hint of a split in my biceps, that I never noticed before so that will be sweet if I add enough mass and lean down to have that happen!
Better take off for now.. spent enough time uploading these picts... (oh ignore the face... sleep deprevation again!)

thanks.. I sound like a broken record with the sleep thing, but its hard to look awake and refreshed on only a few hours a night. :D I make do though.

your arms and shoulders look awesome! the vascularity is totally showing through... keep it up man!

I have to say that I have been completely shocked by the response everyone has given me with this last set of pictures. When I posted I really didnt think I had changed that much, but apparently everyone thinks so. Thanks for the boost in my morale.. Its greatly appreciated. I had been feeling really low, so this really helped.
Halloween was great fun. We took our 2 little ones out trick or treating, and they were loving it. It was cute to see them run up to a door and knock and try to say 'trick or treat', and then thank you. They got an obsene amount of candy. A few houses gave each of the girls 3-4 FULL size candybars. insane. They easily filled up a 4 gallon bowl. I'll probably take it to my classroom and pass it out for treats.
As for my next goals, I want to increase my arm size overall. (bi, tri, and forearms). I also need to work on my traps, and my legs need a LOT of work. I'm going to also work on my core strength, and lower abs espeicially. Hopefully during my bulk I can add strength and mass in those areas, and then when spring rolls around I can cut and be where I want! Never hurts to dream!

An interesting situation occured at my school yesterday. There was a kindergartner who was hitting another kid (which often occurs at that age), so the aide watching them told the girl that she was going to have to go to the office and sit during recess. Well the little girl threw a tantrum (which is also normal), and didnt want to go in. The aide was watching over 100 other kids, so she compromised and said this girl had to sit at a table in the room. The girl continued to throw a fit, so the aide asked someone to get some assistance from the office so she could either deal with the child, or watch the other kids in the room. Well our principal was out for the day, so the pricipal next door was called over. The child was still upset, and was under the table at this point. This principal comes in, and told the girl to stop it, and she didnt. So the princpal said she was going to call the cops. :eekb: Call the police she did. Before the district police officer arrived, The school social worker came in, and was able to easily get the child to come with her to her office. Now, as a parent, wouldnt you be furious if someone called the police on your child for having a tantrum?!?! I know I would be. I'm mad about it and its not even my child. Talk about complete overkill. The child never saw the police officer luckily, otherwise IMO the damage would have been bad. Not only would this principal have undermined all the authority in the school, but it sure wasnt going to send a good message to this poor kid about authority in general, and specifically the police.

:lol:

lol... been a while since i heard that one! Somtimes I feel like Ahnold, "sit dowwwn" with all the little buggers. Unfortunatly you cant pick 'em up anymore, as much as they sometimes need to be picked up and moved. :D

lol... been a while since i heard that one! Somtimes I feel like Ahnold, "sit dowwwn" with all the little buggers. Unfortunatly you cant pick 'em up anymore, as much as they sometimes need to be picked up and moved. :D

To those kids you're about as big as Ahnold! I would think if you use a deep toned voice they all should listen to you. I know I'd be inclined to listen. :nod: :bow:

Do people on a fitness quest ever meet their goal? I was thinking about that today, and where I am at now. My starting goal was to get enough mass to have the 'model' look. With exception of the anti-6pack I have, I realized I think I am already at that point. Am I at my 'goal'? No. I think it has shifted without me realizing it to more of the bodybuilder look. On seeing a few of the 'perfect bodies' in the gallery, I see myself more admiring someone like timberwolf than the models

haha... yep i hear ya, even though i'm no where near either.
when i first started, i considered swolecat and 1fastgtx "way too big".

now i want to have the same size someday.

Well after a few days of being forced to work off of a laptop the lower level's floor is dry enough to reassemble the desk and put the desktop computers back into comission. We had water come into the lower level of our house when the downspout from our roof dumped all the water along the edge of the house. Less than an year old carpet just saturated. I'm hoping it will completly dry so we dont get mold growth.
No gym today or tomrorow :mad2: I have parent/teacher conferences where I put in about a 13 hour day in at school. At least we have friday off. I'm hoping the gym has daycare so I can get a good solid workout in. I shouldnt be too upset about missing a day at the gym, but I truly look forward to it, and its a dissapointment when it cant happen. I got a small workout this morning in the basement so its something at least.

Whaoo! I'm starting to make some gains now in the gym after being stuck at a long plateau. I was was able to bench 265 today, which is the highest I have gone. Going to make it a goal to add at least 5lbs on a week, so maybe I can hit my goal of 300. Why 300? *shrugs* sounds like a good # to hit :) Not sure what I could do with a spotter, but have to play it safe. :)

No workout today.. feeling like crap. Not sure what I'm coming down with, but it almost feels like flu like symptoms. I'm just going to say its a bad cold so I dont give whatever it is making me sick any ideas. I HATE missing a workout, as I look forward to them, and really enjoy them. I guess I have to take care of my health or my lifting will be a waste anyway. Wife has a meeting tonight, so I'll be doing it solo with the kids, one of which is sick as well.
I need to get my bulking diet back on track.. I've been eating everything. I havent completely lost control, just not clean like it was when I was cutting.

Bird flu maybe??

Hope you feel better.
Maybe you have whatever your kid has?

haha... too funny. Thats me right now to a T

Feeling better today. Now just congested. However the little one was up all night throwing up, so I stayed home with her today. Going to take a nap shortly myself! I uploaded a new front picture, where it almost seems as though I've gotten smaller from my last picture. I'm sure partly because the lighting is different. I'll probably try to get my old camera working again so its consistent and replace it with that.

just a short note.. weighed myself today.. with shoes on I was 233. Took them off, and I was 231. Wow. I have never weighed so much in my life. I'm going to be a blimp by the time my bulk is over.

your avatar pic looks great- your bulk seems to be working out well for you. keep it up.

Ugh.. always something interesting happening at our house. I came home yesterday from the gym with kids, and there was smoke everywhere in the house. We were having supper guests over, so I figured that it might be the food in the oven, although it didnt smell like burnt food... My wife came in behind me, and told me the oven had been set to clean cycle, but the amount of soot everywhere didnt make sence. Everything was coated with black in the kitchen, including the walls. On further investagation into our living room, it got worse. The ceiling was black, especially in front of the TV. Apparently during the day, the TV had caught on fire, as half the tv was completly gone, and melted. We are so lucky we had a house to come home to. There was no structural damage, and even some of the christmas decorations on the TV were sitting as proudly as ever on the TV, although they were looking a 'bit' dirty. On the negative side, there was a LOT of smoke damage througout the whole house. In th
e bedrooms upstairs, even with the doors closed, smoke must have poured in, as the diapers in the girls rooms were even black. Our dogs luckily had gone outside the pet door, or I doubt they would have survived the smoke. Our little white shitzu looked like a our grey/black schnauzers. We went to a friends house to stay for the evening. Didnt want the girls and dogs to breathe that stuff in all night. Havent heard back from the home owners insurance yet, but I'm hoping they take care of everything. We are going to have to get professional cleaners in to get the bulk of the house. Trying to clean this up by ourselves seems overwhelming, as everything in the house will have to be completely cleaned. Carpets to celiing. Even things in the kitchen cabinets like bowls and cups are black. The smoke went through the air ducts in the house as well, so our furnace circulated it all around. Neat. This week will definitely be interesting. Again I'm amazed and grateful we have a house to come home to.. it definitely could have been a LOT worse.
Fitness wise, I'm sure my gym time is going to be nixed for a while to do house cleanup. I'll still sneak in my morning workouts in the basement of course! My weight was down a bit to 228, but thats ok. Long as I'm still gaining strength, thats all I care.

Holy crap man, I'm glad everyone is OK. I wonder what could have caused the TV to catch fire? Good luck, I hope the insurance company does their job.

That's crazy stuff - perhaps a heads-up on the Make & Model would be good to know for others who may have the same... :eek:

I'm surprised it wasn't one of us JSF addicts' computers that went up... :D

Glad you're all okay,

G

Boy.. if it was my computer I would be miserable.. luckily I have about 3 others in the house I could take over. haha

The TV was a Sanyo. I'll see if I can get the actual model and will post that here. Dont want to move the TV yet untill all the insurance people see it as is. Maybe I can tell them that I had a xbox360 on top of the TV too! :D
We have a restoration company here now, and a cleaning crew will be coming here tomorrow to take care of everything. It'll be a big job, thats for sure. I guess the nice thing is, that they dont want us to clean anything. I guess with this sort of damage you often make a bigger mess trying to clean it.

here's a pict.. doesnt look as bad for the amount of damage it did to our 3 level house. The tv btw is a Sanyo DS27880. Our insurance people have never seen a tv do this. http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y166/escher007/100_1921.jpg

man... how the hell did that happen?
id call that bad luck.

perhaps, but good luck that everything around didnt go up in flames. would suck to be homeless at this time of year!

here's a pict.. doesnt look as bad for the amount of damage it did to our 3 level house. The tv btw is a Sanyo DS27880. Our insurance people have never seen a tv do this. http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y166/escher007/100_1921.jpg


Crap - when I saw that, it looked just like the one we have down in our basement. I ran down & checked it out. It turns out our's is a little different, a 1994 Sanyo AVM2963U. Guess we'll have to get our Sister to check hers (another model) out now to. Thanks for the info. - scary how much of this stuff goes on & is unknown to the general public.


Hope your dogs are all better & cleaned up nicely...

Good luck,

D&G

P.S. Funny... should be interesting to see some G00gle SANYO ads start to pop up on here even though your T.V. almost destroyed your home... :doh:

The tv btw is a Sanyo DS27880. Our insurance people have never seen a tv do this.

Admit it Dan - you fell asleep with a joint on the tv again didn't you?

:lol: Just giving you a hard time - glad to hear the insurance guys aren't giving you the runaround like they like to do. :tu:


P.S. Funny... should be interesting to see some G00gle SANYO ads start to pop up on here even though your T.V. almost destroyed your home... :doh:

Nah - Thanks to Wh0areume we'll never see anything but the lance armstrong laptop ads for another 6 months.....

I'm glad the crew is coming tomrrow. Its pretty frustrating not being able to clean up everything so I can get back to normal life. I hate the idea especially the kitchen area is a horrendous mess. Dont like eating in filth. I've cleaned up enough so I can make a sandwich at least. Most of boxed food will have to be pitched as the smoke penetrated it (rice, oatmeal, flour, sugar, etc). I worked out today at the gym just to get out of the house and took a LONG shower there. Although I had cleaned our bathroom, i didnt want to get dirty just exiting it. I'm going to have the crew focus on the kitchen, and the girls room as a priority tommorow. The fun never slows down at the Escher household.

things are going a bit better.. we have a restoration crew starting in today, to hit the kitchen, and the kids room. I am beyond the point, of "we could have lost everything" to starting to be depressed of the filth we are living in at the moment. Granted it will be cleaned up, its just disgusting to touch anything and get black. I hate even being at the house right now. I dont mind a mess, but I hate filth. At least at the end we will have a clean house for xmas :D

Things are slowly starting to get in shape. We have 2 rooms done in the house.. 8 to go. I've been having a hard time trying to not feel depressed. I dont even want to be at home. Missed my gym workout today, so I'm sure thats not helping matters either. Had to go to eat at my sister-in-laws early, so I had miss it. Going to try and get a night basement workout in, but history has shown that they usually dont happen. I'm hoping my computer will be returned soon after they are cleaned.. It is nice to be able to eat and cook now in the kitchen now that it is cleaned.
I had someone tell me a few months ago that I should consider as a goal to compete. A year ago I would have said 'no way', but I've been getting so into the bodybuilding mind, and have been enjoying every minute of it. Perhaps it is a possibility in a few years to do so.

Do people on a fitness quest ever meet their goal? I was thinking about that today, and where I am at now. My starting goal was to get enough mass to have the 'model' look. With exception of the anti-6pack I have, I realized I think I am already at that point. Am I at my 'goal'? No. I think it has shifted without me realizing it to more of the bodybuilder look. On seeing a few of the 'perfect bodies' in the gallery, I see myself more admiring someone like timberwolf than the models
Interesting, I've heard this dilemma before - skipping your goals to achieve more than you initially expected to achieve. You could be a model though. I'm far from any goal but I hope to stick with the "model look" goal. I don't think I can manage to keep up with pursuing a body builder look nor I want it. Besides that, it's too much work. It's like a full time job. I just don't have the time.

What do you mean with you're an anti-6pack?

thanks.. what I meant by anti-6 pack is that I dont have my abs in yet, although I am still trying to get them in ;)
I guess I'm putting my goal a notch higher than my initial 'model' physique. I'm not saying I'm going to go profesional.. not at all. I'm a full time teacher, and I dont have the lifestyle necessary for that. Rather if I continue to work real hard, I might give a competition a shot, although I'm nowhere near that yet. Not even in the right league, but hey.. gotta keep your goals high!

And why you haven't target more your abs? Your chest, shoulders and arms look fantastic. I'm sure you can achieve any goal you want at this point. What kind of abs exercises are you doing?

I only had been working my abs once a week, but hadnt been hitting my lower abs hardly at all. I've been working on them now since my bulk started for the most part, so I'm hoping by the time my bulk, and then spring cut is done I should have some definition.

hey man... i missed reading your journal for a week or so, so when i started reading about having only two rooms and waiting for computers... i was like wtf?!? crazy thing with your tv! it sucks to live in chaos. i have a friend who is a surgeon- her sister came over to her house one night while they were gone and passed out on their bed with a cigarette- the mattress caught fire- and the same thing happened to their house too- black soot everywhere (her sister wasn't hurt, even though the fire dept. found here passed out on a burning mattress).

i hope they get your place cleaned up soon.

also read some posts about your build- whether to go model or bodybuilder... i say you are somewhere in the soap actor range now- haha.

good luck.

Thanks Fels :) I'll take the 'soap actor' thing as a compliment. haha Sometimes I swear our life is like a soap.. freakin insane. One thing after another! Well now the restoration crew had gone through 6 of the 10 rooms, so they are making good progress. Soon the painters will have to come in, and hopefully the carpet/furniture cleaners so we can start moving things back in to the rooms. We are debating wether or not to put christmas stuff back up in the other rooms. By the time the cleaning is completly done, it will be right before xmas.. Will have to see what kind of moods we are in! At least we have a tree up in the 'safe room' (the addition I built this summer) This might have to suffice for this year. http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y166/escher007/100_1919.jpg

Been a LONG while since I updated here. Just have been really busy with wrapping up school, then all the christmas stuff. With the fire and all, things were just chaotic. Things are all normal now at home thankfully.
As for the fitness front, I'm still bulking, but not as hardcore as I would like. With the fiancial strain, there havent been suppliments or as much food as I would have liked. Many of you know, but I had done a screening for GNC last week. I was recommened by someone to a GNC rep for sponsorship, so that was an experience trying out for it, especially with such short notice. I didnt get it, but it was good experience and fun as well. My plan right now is to bulk for 3 more weeks, and then start to cut down. Going to get ripped this summer!

Holy cow !! Was checking out some of your bulking pics on MT..

You're gonna start scaring the kids at work !

Great work. Can't wait to see some shredded pics :tu:

Was checking out some of your bulking pics on MT..
I did that and burst into tears. :cry:

Eschers pics are my ideal 'After' pics. :)

I did that and burst into tears. :cry:

Eschers pics are my ideal 'After' pics. :)


Haha.. thanks. :o I appreciate that!

No problem. Your pics are a great motivation for a lot of people I think. :)

Incredible progress on your bulk, especially in the biceps (which you'd said were bugging you at the beginning of your bulk). Inspirational, for sure. :claplow:

Hi Escher,

Your journal has been rather quiet. How is it all going? :D

Hey man.. thanks for thinking of me. haha. I guess things have been quiet as there really hasnt been much to talk about. I guess I'm in between bulking and cutting, and just kind of hanging out. I suppose I'd be leaning a bit more towards cutting, as I'm not stuffing my face as much now, although I have started to cut down my portions. I've done 'some' cardio, but not enough to make it count. Life has been keeping me busy and out of the gym. I cant make too many excuses as i could wake up early in the morning and workout like I used to.. just havent done that for about a month now. I'll get there.... ;)

Wow.. been a while since I updated my journal.. BAD Escher! At the moment I am resuming cutting. I was forced to take time off finally when my cold kept mutating into something worse. Just getting over bronchitus/walking pnemonia. I went back to the gym yesterday and did some lifting and some light cardio.. probably not quite ready for the gym physcially, but mentally I've been going crazy losing 'time' where I could be improving.
On the good side I am noticing some more visable signs that my abs are starting to come in. Now I just have to keep strengthening them and decreasing my BF% to get them to show up! I've never seen anything beyond my 2 pack, so its very reassuring its going to happen!

Wow.. been a while since I updated my journal.. BAD Escher!
:spank:
:whistle:

Don't make me kick your scrawny ass! :D

(Yeah right!) :p

Well its with some saddness that I will be signing off for a while. I've been sick the past few weeks, and am doin ok now. I'm going to probably not be on the computer and on the forums for a long while, and going to get other things in my life which have a higher priority that I have neglected. I'm not done with the challenge Abdominal Snowman ;) I'll get my abs in this year. You've all been a huge help, and I look forward to when I will have my life back on track, and will maybe return back here to you great people. Best of luck all with your journey.

:cry:

Good luck with the future Escher.

Escher, hope you are able to get things back in gear. Enjoyed your posts here and wish you the best of luck. Hang in there and hope you come back soon!

Escher, hope you are able to get things back in gear. Enjoyed your posts here and wish you the best of luck. Hang in there and hope you come back soon!

Ditto that!

Dan - The best of luck to you. Take the time to do the things you need - I did the same thing and it did wonders!!! Take care and looking forward to having you back !!!! - Sabin :gl:

Well after going through a ton of stuff phscially and mentally, I'm back. I feel like superman and ready to take on the world again. I'm very busy though so I have to make my computer time short. I have a new baby girl! She's the sibling of one of the girls we had been fostering, and is 6 weeks old. We just adopted the older two yesterday in fact!! 2 1/2 years to get it done. Phew!

I got my bodyfat tested today at the gym and I'm at 17% :cussing: Unbelievable. I doubt now if I ever was down to 10%, but this gives me new umph to work down to that goal! I'll get there! I'll update my picture tomorrow morning so you can all see fat Escher :D

Well after going through a ton of stuff phscially and mentally, I'm back. I feel like superman and ready to take on the world again. I'm very busy though so I have to make my computer time short. I have a new baby girl! She's the sibling of one of the girls we had been fostering, and is 6 weeks old. We just adopted the older two yesterday in fact!! 2 1/2 years to get it done. Phew!

I got my bodyfat tested today at the gym and I'm at 17% :cussing: Unbelievable. I doubt now if I ever was down to 10%, but this gives me new umph to work down to that goal! I'll get there! I'll update my picture tomorrow morning so you can all see fat Escher :D

Glad to see you back and congratulations on the new additions to your family. Children truly are a gift (and lots of work :) ). Enjoy them and take lots of pictures; as they get older not only you, but they will enjoy looking at them.

Dan - Welcome back!!!! This is also my first week back will get my BF results next week - I'm sure it's over 18%. Doing it with a trainer this time - Goal date is my 30th in October!!! Congrats on the family - AWESOME!!!

Talk soon - SB

:tu:

got some new picts up.. I can see I lost mass in my shoulders and arms. I just look kind of washed out, and not as 'full'. Gives me something to work on.. would hate to be bored!

Welcome back again Escher. You will do great. :bb:

Thanks.. I'm seriously questioning if i ever made it down to around 10% or not, but regardless if I WAS, I'm going to get down to that vicinity this time.

ESCHER! GREAT to see you back around!

We all have times where other things in life have to take priority, dont look at your slight weight gain as a bad thing, but an indicator that you took time to focus on other parts of life that were just as important. I mean, we all know that 18% bf is a pain, but we also know how to change that, which I am sure you will.

Congrats on the new little girl once again! I did not realize you and your wife were adopting!! That is such a great thing, my wife and I have always discussed that being a very likely option for us someday so I might touch base with you on that down the road.

Well, I will see you around...not sure whats happening with the cheat meal at this point...I still have the date on my calendar, but no word lately....maybe we can go ahead and revive that thread...

thanks.. It has taken us 2 1/2 year to adopt our first 2 girls. Now we'll be starting over probably with our 1 1/2 mo. old. Hope it doesnt take that long this time.
I actually LOST weight, which. I believe i gained fat, and lost muscle, but not enough to make my weight go up. I was 235 in December, and I'm 214 now. Go figure. :D

Thanks guys.. its great to be back. I actually went for a run with the girls in the running stroller, and put in about 2 1/2 miles. Not bad for a 1st night out. We'll see how my body handles it though! Felt great to be outdoors and knowing I'm heading back towards my goal.

I just found out that our doctor thinks our daughter might have cerebal palsy. I guess it hasnt been offically diganosed, but its still a real bummer. We will deal with whatever happens of course. I guess in someways this might make things easier, in that we wont have to drag this on for years. I doubt the mom will want to continue to fight for her if she has CP. Always something exciting at our house!

I am sorry to hear that your daughter might have CP. I really admire you guys for going thru the process needed to adopt your kids. It's a wonderful thing to do and you deserve a lot of praise for it.

Well summer is finally here, and school is out. Nows my chance to get back to the shape that I want to be in. Cardio has always been my achiles heel, and I hate doing it. I've committed myself to doing it however, and I've been hitting the pavement hardcore. In order to help alieviate the stress at home, I've been taking the kids out with the running stroller, and been running my 8 mile course. Granted its a bit more difficult to run without using my arms, it has probably been good for my legs. My goal is to hit 100 miles a month running this summer, which shouldnt be too hard to obtain if I run 3-4 times a week. Even the past few times I've done the course its gotten easier. Last night when I took the kids out, conditions were perfect, and I felt like I was just gliding along the trail instead of dragging myself along, waiting for a nearby car to hit me and put me out of my misery. What has been keeping me going is me invisioning myself with the physique I have always wanted... before I know it I've gone another mile. Very cool. going to be a great summer!!

Well summer is finally here, and school is out. Nows my chance to get back to the shape that I want to be in. Cardio has always been my achiles heel, and I hate doing it. I've committed myself to doing it however, and I've been hitting the pavement hardcore. In order to help alieviate the stress at home, I've been taking the kids out with the running stroller, and been running my 8 mile course. Granted its a bit more difficult to run without using my arms, it has probably been good for my legs. My goal is to hit 100 miles a month running this summer, which shouldnt be too hard to obtain if I run 3-4 times a week. Even the past few times I've done the course its gotten easier. Last night when I took the kids out, conditions were perfect, and I felt like I was just gliding along the trail instead of dragging myself along, waiting for a nearby car to hit me and put me out of my misery. What has been keeping me going is me invisioning myself with the physique I have always wanted... before I know it I've gone another mile. Very cool. going to be a great summer!!

Your an animal! I ran 3.5 miles on Sunday and was very glad when it was over...just getting ready for a 5k this weekend. You do 8 miles WITH a stroller!? Wow!

Hope all is well, glad you are enjoying your summer away from the school kids and with your own!

things are going great. My muscles are nice and sore from working them out hard. I can 'feel' them starting to grow again, which is very reassuring that I am getting back on track. I had planned on getting up early this morning and working out at the gym, but the kids woke up early as well, and put the kabosh on that. Looks like its going to be an indoor workout with an ab workout and pushups!

Been a while since I updated.. school back in session. I've decided to work towards competing in bodybuilding. Off a few years, but am going to work towards it. Got a ways to go, but its a nice long term goal. Also exciting, is that pumped, my arms finally broke the 17" mark and are 17.5 pumped and flexed. Whee!

Been a while since I updated.. school back in session. I've decided to work towards competing in bodybuilding. Off a few years, but am going to work towards it. Got a ways to go, but its a nice long term goal. Also exciting, is that pumped, my arms finally broke the 17" mark and are 17.5 pumped and flexed. Whee!

Hey! Was thinking about you yesterday! Glad things are going well, seems like just last week we were Im'ing about school being out for you, the Summer really flew! Sounds like you have some good goals lined out, let me know when you decide to do your first show, I am 45 minutes away and we could come cheer you on!:claphigh:

My company is opening up in the Rockford area, we are actually holding some Corporate Overviews, starting with one in Loves Park next week. It would be cool to have you to one of those sometime and show you what we have planned for your area!

Take care pardner.