Well, I think I am gonna use this thread for myself... Mostly so I can post some pics, meal plans, workouts etc. and keep track of everything. Of course, if anyone wants to kick my a$$ in gear when I get lazy, I could probably use the motivation.

Well, today is not my first day trying to get in shape. Seems I've been *trying* to get in shape for years, but actually have been getting in worse shape because of laziness. Well, that stopped when I hit a size 36 jean about 3 months ago.

I started to clean up my diet and ride my bike everyday. Thanks to this site, I found out right away that riding my bike in the morning before I ate was a great way to burn fat. And it's helped a ton - I've gone from 36 jean to 33 and I am down from 208lbs to 186.5lbs as of this morning. Of course, I still have a long way to go. I think I am still at around 25-30% bodyfat.

So, today, I woke up and rode for 40 mins before breakfast. After work, I played squash for 1.5 hours with some friends and then I came home and did my first workout on my new home gym. I'll post pics of the gym tomorrow.

Today's workout was chest/shoulder/triceps day:

Chest: dumbbell bench press
Deltoids: barbell shoulder press
Trapezius upper: dumbbell shrug
Triceps: bench dips (weighted)

I also did a 5 min warmup on the bike and a 5 min cool down. Plus I stretched afterwards for about 5 mins.

Today I ate pretty good, although around 4 pm I was starving due to bad planning.

Breakfast
1 free range egg, 2 egg whites with 1 thin slice breakfast ham (ultra low fat stuff) chopped up and some onion, some red pepper, all scrambled together with some black russian rye bread eaten toasted and plain. And two cups of black coffee (blue mountain).

Lunch was at a restaurant, I had a 4 oz flame grilled salmon fillet and a spring salad (strange, its fall). Salad was tasty, had strawberries and some goat cheese - I avoided the glazed pecans though.

Snacked at 4:30, ate 3 sticks of turkey peperoni and a yogourt plus a slice of bread cuz I was starving.

Dinner was 6 oz of broiled salmon, a cup of cooked japanese rice, stir fry of vegetables (shanghai bok choy, snap peas, red pepper, onions, carrots), some korean cucumber salad and a little bit of leftover goma ae (spinach with sesame dressing).

Had a protein shake after working out, threw in a banana and half a cup of frozen blueberries plus a cup of 1% extra protein milk.

My fitday thing shows the following breakdown (I tried to be very exact, but I am sure it's a little off):

Calories Eaten Today
source grams cals
Total: 2100
Fat: 65 583
Carbs: 210 723
Fiber: 29 0
Protein: 178 710

I feel very.. weak today. Although I feel better then I have in a long time.

Oh man, I nearly skipped riding the bike this morning cuz I was a little sore and stiff... Then I stepped on the scale - 185lbs! hot damn! Boom, got my motivation back. Did my 40 mins today. Admittedly, it was at a slightly slower pace then normal - only averaged 76rpm compared to my usual 80rpm.

I'll post some pics of my gym in a bit... gotta go make breaky.

ok, pics time.

First, my home gym:

the gym is in my basement kitchen. The weight tree is where the stove USED to be. The stepping stool is where some counter used to be as well. I can't remove the last section of counter because it has a sink in it. Also, notice the kickass window coverings. Oh, and the extremely ghetto flourescent light bulbs in the 1970's style light fixture. :)

I got the flooring from Home Depot for $12 per 4'x4' square. I used 4 packs. The mirrors were on sale for $10 each. They came with a cheap white frame but I cut them out of the frame. So, for $60 I got two mirrors that are 3'x4' by simply putting 3 tall and slim mirrors together. One big mirror that was 3'x4' cost nearly $200!!! That woulda been $400 for both walls... craziness. I spent enough on the equipment already :)

I have a bit more flooring to lay down, and I am missing some hex dumb bells and the rack for them. But that comes at the end of the week. I also own a schwinn dx900 exercise bike. Which isnt the greatest and the seat hurts my groin, but for right now, its good enough. No pain, no gain, right? :)

Next, some pics of me. I am 5'8" and 185lbs as of today. These pics were taken yesterday. I am picking up some calipers to measure bodyfat today.

Well, today started out pretty good. I got sidetracked in the early evening at dinner with my business partner and his wife. I ate a bunch more then I should, and I ate outta my plan... but its all good, I am not gonna beat myself up over it.

Fitday says I ate:

Total: 2681
Fat: 139 1251 47%
Carbs: 185 678 26%
Fiber: 15 0 0%
Protein: 177 709 27%

Which is not tooo bad. But not great. I'll try and keep it a little cleaner tomorrow.

I did my 40 mins in the morning on the bike (see above) and I did my lower body workout. I don't really like this exercise - http://exrx.net/WeightExercises/Hamstrings/BBStrBackStrLegDeadlift.html - but that is probably because I am not doing it correctly. I'll keep it in rotation for a little bit. I also found I couldn't do my calves exercise as planned, because I simply had no strength left in them. All the other exercises seemed to utilise my calves to some degree...

Here was todays workout plan:

Quads: barbell full squat
Hams: barbell straight back straight leg deadlift
Quads/Hams: walking lunges
Calves:dumbbell single leg calf raise

Well, I need my sleep, I gotta get up early tomorrow and do my ride then I am playing squash at 10 am... I may skip the morning ride as it is already 1am and I think I could use my sleep. Yah, thats the plan. I also have an upper body workout to do tomorrow, plus I will be installing baseboard, trim and moulding in my living room so that should help burn a few calories. Saturday I'll get back on the bike.

Ok, today sucked for many reasons.

I got only half of the trim/baseboard done, had a ton of work to do, missed my upper body workout, and screwed up my evening food wise.

At least I played squash and ate on plan until dinner time. For dinner though, I ate about 3 ounces of a ribeye steak that was terrible, a couple french fries, two beer and a slice of cake. So that threw me outta wack (stupid bday parties).

Just got home, its midnight, I am still sore from my previous two workouts (and I did really light weights!) I am sleepy and NO WAY am I gonna do the upper body workout I missed. Tomorrow I'll ride the bike again and do my workout. I am estimating I am about 800cals over what I wanted to eat today... which sucks cuz thats like 2 days worth of riding. Oh well. I'l just have to plan better next time we go out. Live n learn.

yesterday went well, rode my bike in the morning, cooked an amazing turkey dinner for my future in laws. Managed to eat well despite the turkey dinner :)

Today sucked so far. I've been awake since 2:30am. Its now 9. I am going to get some errands done and go to sleep. I hope to catch 3-5 hours sleep, then I'll get up and do my workout. yay. what a crap day.

Scale says: 185lbs right now. Not bad... not good. Wonder how long it will take me to get below 180....

Oh, and I got my cheapy calipers. They tell me I am between 22-24% bodyfat. I've done the 3 spot test like 10x since I got them... I think I am gonna shoot for 15%.

Well, even after a long night of working and only a few hours sleep (I only got to sleep till 11:00am, so two hours) I still managed to do my workout today. Still working on form mostly, really really light weights. Also rode the bike for 10 mins and did my stretching.

Ate well today, lotsa leftover turkey and veggies.

I think I must get tons and tons of vitamin c. I eat about two bell peppers per day. At least. Probably one of my favorite veggies - next to broccolini, which is broccoli but not fully matured.

well, shower and an early night tonite.

did 40 mins this morning on the bike. Hopped on the scale and it weighed 185.5lbs. Oh well, my pants feel looser today and I feel good.

Ate very well today so far. About to go play squash for 2 hours with some friends and then come home, do some core exercises.

OK, no core exercises tonite. Too freaking tired and sore. Played for 2.5 hours with only 2 breaks. I was DRIPPING sweat. The very last game, we had a bet and I lost. I had to do 100 situps. oh man, I had to it in 8 sets...

Anyways, I feel pretty good. But, I DEFINITELY need to keep this intensity level, or even go harder. I am tired of being out of shape and feeling fat.

Maybe I'll start to watch my diet really closely... I'm not sure.

Time for sleep.

well, did my 40 mins on the bike this morning. Scale says 184.5lbs this morning. I guzzled about 2 litres of water when I got home last night from squash, plus I drank 1.5l of water while playing... wonder how much of that is in me still? Oh well, the scale dont really mean much anyways.

Funny thing during breaky this morning. I was eating my oatmeal when I was just re-reading the label on the oatmeal package. The directions to make 2 servings and the Nutritional Information label are different. To make one servings, it says to take 1/3 cup of dry oatmeal and add 2/3 cups of water. But that yielded 150g of oatmeal. The nutritional info tag says 35g is a single serving.... So either I am eating 5x what I should be, or they are talking dry weight. I'ma bit confused though, because 1/3 a cup dry weight is only like 20g...

Gotta luv stuff like that. I'm just gonna eat till I am full. Cant get fat on oatmeal, can I? :P

Hmm, well the rest of today went well I think. I got a ton of work done and I ate well turkey chilli lunch, cottage cheese and toast for second lunch, bbq chicken breast for dinner with tons of veggies stirfried in tom yum paste <strange, but tasty!>, choy sum in garlic and some thick soy sauce... just about to eat some yogurt before bed.

Did my chest/shoulders/triceps workout today. Using the dip station, I can do 3 sets of 5 dips. Not bad, considering 2 weeks ago I couldnt do 3 dips in a row.

Ok, sleepy time.

Had a crappy night for sleep, woke up several times during the night. Felt crummy in the morning, ate light and played squash instead of cycling on an empty stomach and then eating my normal breaky.

Gonna take some meat out of the freezer and throw it in the sink to defrost for dinner. Got my two meals to take with me to the office.

This morning the scale said 186.5 before I ate... bleh. I ate very well yesterday imo - aroun 1900 calories. I did make a conscious effort to drink more water but I doubt that accounts for 2lbs. I feel stronger and faster in just the past week or so, so I am not gonna sweat it too much, but it does suck to go up 2 lbs over 1 day! Oh well.

Bah, my scale is teh suk. I find that moving it from the lino to hardwood to concrete to tile all makes a difference. I got readings from 184 -186.5lbs this morning. Perhaps I need a better scale OR perhaps I should just toss the bugger and forget about it!

Anyways, just eating my breaky - two eggs, a little low fat cheese, some salsa and porridge with blueberries. I need to go grocery shopping soon. I think I will take off from work early today and do that.

Finished my 40 mins on the bike this morning...

Yesterday I made japanese curry. Turned out great. Made a bunch for the upcoming week and froze it. Yay, more lunch variety!

Had my leg workout yesterday. The romanian deadlifts really work for me - especially compared to the slsb deadlifts. My form must suck on the slsb ones. Oh well. Legs workout make me so freakin tired. And today I woke up STARVING. Was weird. Oh well. Anyways, my workout went pretty good. Still increasing the weights all the time, I am still trying to get the form down pat for each exercise.

My fiancee just told me last night we are going to a really nice sushi restaurant on sunday for dinner. Does sushi count as a cheat meal? Cuz I am gonna eat a ton of sushi :)

Oh yeah, I gotta play badminton this evening. I hope with all these sports/activities and working out all the time I am gonna boost my energy levels. I am pretty tired lately and am still having troubles sleeping.

Well, badminton really sucked. Courts were totally oversold. We sat out for over 35 mins before we finally just stood up and left. Got a grand total of maybe 15-20 mins of playing in for our $10. Never going back to that rec center. It's a shame, it used to be quite good. Oh well.

Gonna just relax and watch tv. I already rode my bike for 40 mins this morning and all my major muscle groups are still a bit stiff from the workouts I did this week.

Well, weekend went.. ok. I was sore in nearly every major muscle group on saturday, so I decided to take the weekend off and recuperate. Also, I think I gave in a bit to my inner laziness. Oh well.

Saturday went well in terms of food. We even went to a friends place for dinner and I still managed to keep everything in check. Mostly thanks to the broccoli and salad our friend made :)

Sunday... well, we were up late saturday and slept in a bit on sunday. Which was bad, because we had to check out some ceremony sites for our wedding. So we ended up eating at mcdicks for breaky and then we ate out for lunch. Luckily, we were home by 4pm and I managed to clean up the last few meals and save the day I think. Fat consumption was a bit high, but otherwise nothing to worry about.

This morning, monday oct 25 I weigh 185lbs. Wonder if I can really get past this? heh. Well, the good news is my size 33 jeans I just bought are falling off my waist (though still a bit tight around the thighs, thanks to my waist dropping 1.5" and my thighs staying at 25"!) and I need a new hole in my belt. So, I am probably losing a bit of fat and replacing it with some muscle.

I am amazed with how well my body is responding to lifting weights. I really enjoy it as well, I think it is addicting somehow. I'd lift more often, except for the soreness that comes 2 days after working out...

Anyways, this morning has started off well. Rode my bike for 45 mins and had my breaky. About to head into the office.

whew...

Had a great day. Just finished my postworkout/latenight snack. Ate perfectly today.

Did a good workout and felt great. I had a TON of energy after I was done and felt I could ride my bike for another 30 mins during my cooldown. I didnt though... only 15. I am feeling really good though. I think in another couple weeks I am going to change the workout routine already to give me more time in my homegym. I am really liking it that much. Maybe I can switch it from 1 day workout, 1 day rest to something like 2 days workout, 1 day rest. Or so. We'll see - I am sure with the people on this board I'll be able to figure something out :)

Anyways, shower and bed. Gotta get up early to do my 45 mins of riding in the morning!

well, put in 45 mins on the bike this morning. Ate breaky, prepped dinner (korean beef bulgogi!), went to the office.

Weighed in at 184 this morning.... scales suck :)

scales suck :)
That's why we're so heavy standing on them. It would be much better if they blew...

That's why we're so heavy standing on them. It would be much better if they blew...

hehehe, I think we could patent that idea!

well, end of day. I had a great workout in the evening.

I ate a litte too much today. 300 calories over... I made a too tasty dinner. :)

It was healthy food, so I am not too upset with myself.

Anyways, sleep time. Got to ride my bike and play squash in the morning.

ugh, got a cold. Didn't workout at all yesterday and not gonna today. the 27th went well. Just didnt make my journal entry because I was busy with work. On the 27th, I rode my bike and played squash in the morning again. Worked out in the evening and ate right on target.

Yesterday I started to get my cold and I had to go to the dentist and get a couple teeth drilled. The anaesthetic always gives me a headache. had an emergency in the morning to deal with (work) which prevented me from riding my bike.

Today, I have full on runny nose and a sinus headache. Even the back of my eyes hurt. Slept in an hour this morning. Would love to stay home in bed but I have tons of work to do (it's year end). So, off to work I go.

Yay me

Wow, I was a hermit all weekend battling this cold. NEOCITRAN IS MY FRIEND

I think I am almost over it, just gonna take today off work and make sure I am 100% before getting back in the saddle.

Ugh.

If this cold keeps up, I am gonna have massive abs and chest....

I swear, coughing is the toughest compound exercise out there.

I think I've torn a muscle in my neck, back, chest and abs from coughing.

Of course, I also cant sleep, because once my head goes horizontal with the earth, I get plugged up worse, so then I snore. If my snoring doesnt wake me up (which it mostly does), then my coughing wakes me up. I am gonna sleep on the couch tonite so my fiancee can get a full nights sleep. Poor girl.

cough cough. this sucks. nuf said.

YAY! Finally feeling better. Tomorrow I am gonna work out again for the first time in like... 10 days?! Craziness. I cant wait! Stupid ferkin cold.

Woo. So, 35 mins on the bike this morning. Had a lot more energy then I expected. Also, was pleasantly surprised by the scale this morning - 183.5lbs. So, my time off wasnt as bad as I thought. Although I think my fat grew at the expense of muscles. Oh well, I've always been able to put on muscle pretty easy.

Making breakfast and then time to head into the office and write everyone's cheques.

had a great workout yesterday and I ate surprisingly well :)

Halo2 was picked up last night. This means, very little work is being accomplished... I am not sure if I will work out tonite or not :)

hmmmm, past few days have been bad. Between doing the bare minimum for my work and spending as much time as possible on halo2... I havent been strictly following my plan...

I have been eating ok, but not great. A few snacks have slipped in (twizzlers left over from halloween!), I've drank a bunch more coffee then normal (still black though) and I've been up so late at night that I cant ride in the morning cuz I feel kinda crappy...

However, I have been eating 6 meals a day, I did workout tonite and after my workout and a whole day of eating, I only weighed 183 lbs. Pretty happy about that ;)

I am gonna get back on track tomorrow too. Ride the bike in the morning, workout in the evening. I am adding an extra 25 mins of stretching/core workout every day. This core performance book has some good stuff in it that I really like. After doing this stretching and such for only a short time, I feel a difference. I like it!

Woohoo! 182lbs :)

30 mins on the bike this morning. Still lacking a bit of sleep, so the ride was pretty tough to finish. I almost quit a few times...

Got it done though. And burned off enough calories that my breakfast doesnt even put it all back in. Hehehehe.... :)

oh god what a day :)

I bought two new cars today (2002 subaru wrx, black and a 2004 acura tsx, white). Also, drove with my fiancee to drop off her contract with her new employer (big accounting firm, pwc).

Ate out for lunch and dinner, didnt get to snack properly but did sneak a zone bar around 3 pm. had a mexican chicken salad for lunch, was tasty and pretty healthy I think. The chicken is baked and shredded, lotsa black beans, veggies, fresh handmade guacamole. Then sushi for dinner :)

Tomolo, workout!

WOOT!!! WOOOT!!!

180lbs this morning. No bike ride, I am beat. Gonna conserve my energy for a workout this afternoon.

Just wanted to share my happiness about the low weight this morning! Yah baby!

I think my fiancee paid off the scale so I dont walk around the house saying I am so fat :)

On the 14th I was only 179lbs - other then that, I took the day off :P

Yesterday I was back to 180lbs. Did 30 mins on the bike, worked out legs in the evening as well. Ate a little too much but I think its ok. I am usually quite tired on legs day but was fine yesterday.

Also hit one of those problems lifting weights yesterday - my grip is weaker then my legs. I am doing lunges EASILY with 50lb dumbells. But carrying them for the whole set is tough. Especially after lifting a heavy bar for deads and then finishing up with calf raises! My left forearm is actually really sore today. Perhaps time for some grip training...

Chest/shoulders/triceps day. Phew! Good workout. I had to buy some (4) new dumbbells today, cuz I was using my heaviest set for my bench last week. So, time for even heavier ones! Yay :)

I am gonna stop upping my weights on my exercises for a couple weeks. It seems my major muscles are outgrowing my stabilising muscles. I can easily lift some weights, but they wobble a bit and I don't like it. I figure if I keep things were I am at, I will strengthen the stabiliser muscles and then I can move on up. Would really hate to drop a dumbbell on my face or head. heh.

Back at 182 this morning... oh well. I am sure it'll come right off with some more riding and lifting :)

Otherwise... didnt ride my bike today. Bad me. Ate out twice yesterday - lunch and dinner. Ate too much at dinner and I had a drink with dinner! Probably around 1000 calories. I did get a snack in though, so the day wasnt all bad. But still was over where I want to be by about 600-800 calories for the day! Doh. Also ate out for dinner today! Aiyah! Evil me, going straight to hell. Or something. At least it was only sushi... we'll ignore the ika karage that made its way onto our table! :(

Gonna try for a full nights sleep now and then get a good ride/core workout/stretch (takes just over 1 hour to do) in the morning. Also going to try and clean up my diet for the next few days. I've been drawing up meal plans and buying groceries to match them. Really saving money on groceries, now I just gotta stick to the meal plans better! I probably stick to it only 90% of the time - eating out just *happens* somehow... Anyways it is better then before, when I didn't have ANY plan and so a lot more junk made its way into my diet.

well, 180lbs this morning again. Stupid scale :)

got a great sleep, but my legs were pretty sore this morning from my leg workout the other day. I was really having a tough time. I gave up after only 30 mins on the bike... oh well. I did my stretching and some core exercises though. Although I did kinda rush thru it a bit cuz I was STARVING this morning. Hard to do all this working out before eating - especially when I actually got 8 hours sleep. Usually, on about 6 hours sleep, I am not so hungry for a few hours when I wake up. Today, I woke up BECAUSE I was hungry. Interesting.

Some rambling thoughts...

I really want a lat pulldown/cable row attachment for my cage. I can think of a LOT of exercises I could do on it.

I really hate my genetics. I'd love to look like deafngari, jtchen or john stone. Muscular yet not bulky. But it aint gonna happen. I am gonna end up looking like a bodybuilder... I dont particularily like the idea (no offense intended to the bodybuilding crowd, but it's not my ideal shape)... Oh well.

Stupid scale :)
Dude, it's gonna be hard to work in artificial intelligence into our blowing scales...

You're complaining about looking like a bodybuilder? I've spent years trying to go from looking like deafngari, jtchen or john stone to looking somewhat like a bodybuilder and my shoulder problems have knocked me back down to looking like a skinny fat dude.... Depressing :D

Knubb - by the time we are done, our scale is gonna kick some serious butt!

JMR - Hehe, the grass is always greener... no matter what lawn you are in I suppose :)

179lbs this morning. Not bad I think... considering. Yesterday I didnt eat great. Breakfast was good, oatmeal and eggs. But lunch was almost non existant (bread and cheese). Had a shake after my workout that was chock full of calories (milk, yogout, blueberries, banana and some protein powder). Dinner was salad, corn, broccoli, 6-8oz of bbq flank steak, some fresh italian bread with olive oil and good balsamic vinegar... two glasses of wine and the some chocolate mousse cake with a couple cups of black coffee and later on some nacho chips and fresh salsa. Wow, run on sentence :)

Workout yesterday was pretty good. I seem to have switched my back day to mostly bodyweight exercises somehow. Pullups kick ass - especially love how just changing my grip changes the muscles used. I DO want a lat pull down/cable row attachment though. I think I may order it soon.

Todays breaky was french toast (leftover italian bread...) and black coffee. Gonna workout after a couple hours of tv watching (something I rarely do).

Did a caliper measurement today. After 5 samples of my belly fat, my average is 16mm (actually, 3 times in a row I got 16, the first measurement was 15 and the last was 17mm). Today feels pretty good overall :D

Oh man, yesterday sucked. Poor planning, lotsa work and had to drive my grandma to the doctors in the middle of the day. I ended up eatin out not once... not twice... but three times! At the third time, I had salty fish fried rice, pot stickers and gailan in oyster sauce... why? Cuz it was 10 pm, I was starving and it was on special... I also didnt ride my bike or workout yesterday.

This morning, I weighed 181lbs. Hopefully it drops off quickly :)

I didn't ride my bike this morning either, but I had time to take a walk around the neighbourhood for 1.5-2 hours (not sure of EXACT times, but it was in that area). The walk was great, thru some nice, mild hills and such. I enjoy being outside more then riding inside... but it was cold.

Anyways, today I feel I ate well.

Just finished my leg workout and I am TIRED. My grip, especially in my left hand, is REALLY hindering my workouts lately. Which is pretty sad, considering I basically JUST started working out. blah!

On a side note - I've noticed that I have not had any periods of feeling *down* lately. Even when work was hitting me from all angles and I was busy putting out fires and such, I was in a good mood. I wonder if it has to do with the new workout routine and eating healthy thing. And sleeping more. I used to have a big problem sleeping, but since I am attempting to kill myself with plates of iron, I am sleeping sooo much better.

Ok, time to figure out my menu for the rest of the week. Its shopping night :)

Ok... 182lbs this morning. havent been on track due mostly to work and poor planning the past bit.

I havent lifted since last wednesday because of work and such - I always say, ok, I'll do it tomorrow, but then tomorrow I am busy too. I hate it. Lifting is so rewarding mentally when I get to do it :-)

Anyways, I love how the extra time off helps my strength - even if I slightly reversed my weight loss.

I added 10lbs to my bench.. and shrugs, I am up to 60lb dumbbells for 12 reps... when I started in october it was like 20lbs hurt after 4 reps :-)

The best though, is my dips. In october I could barely do 1 full dip. Now, I did 3 sets of full dips, 11 reps, 7 reps and 5 reps. Bodyweight only, but I think soon I'll add some extra weight. When I get to 15, 12, 10 reps maybe!

I ate a lot better today. I also havent been drinking enough water the past week or so, because of late nights and poor sleep causing my caffeine requirements to rise - thus, coffee input has jumped to insane levels. Also had several poor meals - thin crust pizza with goat cheese one night, instant noodles 30 mins before sleeping one night, italian food another night, a buffet dinner and drinks for my fiancee's work function (I didnt eat too poorly at it, they had fish and chicken breast and raw broccoli), pho like 4 times in 5 days... I also ran out of porridge this morning and substituted kashi go lean sugar crap with plain fat free yogourt for breaky.

Man, that kashi go lean is PACKED with sugar. :( I'd prefer it if it was less sweet and had more fiber. It's definitely more interesting to eat then all bran or porridge but... I feel better with porridge or all bran for breaky. I think the kashi will become yogourt topping or perhaps a dry snack while I am at my pc. If you can't tell, I am not a big fan of sweet cereals :)

I did manage to hit costco and a farmers market today. Got my veggies and meat for the week... just need to hit save on for a few essentials such as eggs, egg whites, bread, porridge and cheese.

I want a dog. A shiba inu to be exact. But I have to wait until the wedding and honeymoon is done with I think. Not very fair to bring a puppy into the house and leave it when its only a few months old for a whole month!

hmm, I am bad at updating this thing :)

Well, lets see... since about the 20th of november I haven't rode my bike in the mornings. My strength and muscle gains have really gone up, but my weight is around the same area (178lbs currently). I guess, unintentionally I am bulking :)

Which... right now, I am pretty happy with.

I actually had someone ask me if I was on steroids the other day! ahahhaha - all because I am naturally blessed with decent biceps... Of course, I really still have a ways to go before I am in good shape, but right now I figure I am somewhere around 18% bf or so. My waist has really slimmed down. Its great :)

I feel great, still eating pretty decently (a few too many restaurant meals, but oh well). In January, I am going to mix in the early morning rides again and go for more fat loss. Right now, I am happy to build strength and muscle and enjoy my holiday season. If, come Jan 1 I am still under 180lbs, I will be ecstatic. because I KNOW I am gonna PIG OUT on xmas dinner and I also have so many parties to go to its insane.

well, I've finally made up my mind...

I am going to go for muscle gain over the next 12 weeks. Actually, I am going to start after the holidays.

Then, I am going to go straight into a fat loss diet (while attempting to hold on to all the muscle I've built up) for the last 10 weeks or so before my wedding comes up. Hopefully, with increased muscle mass, losing fat will be easier.

Today I am at 178lbs again. My body seems to like it here... and I am pretty happy about it honestly. But I know I can do better. But, holidays are also very big for me, so I am going to try and continue what I am doing now, until the new year.

Now, to set some firm goals.

well, I've finally made up my mind...

I am going to go for muscle gain over the next 12 weeks. Actually, I am going to start after the holidays.

Then, I am going to go straight into a fat loss diet (while attempting to hold on to all the muscle I've built up) for the last 10 weeks or so before my wedding comes up. Hopefully, with increased muscle mass, losing fat will be easier.

Today I am at 178lbs again. My body seems to like it here... and I am pretty happy about it honestly. But I know I can do better. But, holidays are also very big for me, so I am going to try and continue what I am doing now, until the new year.

Now, to set some firm goals.

I read this and laugh at myself :)

Man, I screw myself up sometimes.

Well, here is what happened. I worked out hard for... oh, a week or more maybe. Ate well, ate about 2500 calories per day (what a muscle gain diet! hahaha). On the 18th I had my last REAL workout. I also stopped eating well around then as well. The holidays were great and I would do it all over again in an eye blink.

My weight hasnt really changed much. I spent much of the past week getting my diet in order and getting a rythm back again. Today I weigh in at 182lbs again. I am sure, that just a few days ago, I was up around 186+lbs due to the booze and excessive eating over the holidays (I had a good dozen glasses of wine, 2 beers, glass of champagne, several excellent meals - not as many seconds as last year though - and a few parties with too many appetizers spread out).

Now, I realise going on a *bulking* diet at ~16% bf is ridiculous. I was tired of riding my bike every morning and wanted a change up. Well, after the time off I have had, I really want to drop down to about 10% bf. Once in that area, I will possibly try to add some muscle. But we'll see if I can even get there first, before I start nattering on about gaining muscle again. :)

January is going to be about measuring my food intake. January is going to be about riding my bike 4x a week in the mornings again. January is going to be about lifting weights 3x a week. January is about taking the habits I have already formed over the last year and tweaking them just a bit to make my fat loss goal come around quicker.

I feel confident, I feel healthy and I feel I NEED this.

I've already finished my morning ride. I've finished my breakfast of oatmeal and egg whites. I'm bbq'ing up my chicken breasts for my other meals as I type this. I'm ready.

Well, today wasnt such a hot day. It seems that the new year is not so good to me. I've had nothing but server troubles so far. Last night, 2:30 am, mail server dropped offline... fixed that up and back to bed by 3:15... wake up at 6:30 yay.

Today, work all day long, get home and start to work out. On my shoulder presses when I get paged - server down. Rush upstairs, check things out. Clients server just drops offline. Go to the noc in 10 mins, check things out. Dead hard drive. Bios detects the drive, but the boot summary screen doesnt display the drive. Cant mount it cuz it aint there. So no data for my client. And of course, its a good client too - a guy I honestly like. A guy who also hosts 5 dedicated servers with me. And a guy who pays for backups across 4 of those 5 servers... and you wanna know which one dies? No, not any of the 4! with backups available for a nice and quick rebuild... of course, its the one with NO FREAKING BACKUPS. And worse, I think the client just made a mistake. I think he MEANT to pay for backups on all his machines but just missed one. Best part of all is, this server hosted a couple of his forums. Bye bye databases... bye bye all post history. Jeez, can you tell how much this bothers me? I think it's time to send another reminder email to all my clients and let them know about our backup services yet again. Nothing worse then calling a client and telling them all data is gone because a hard drive kicked the bucket.

So yah, crappy.

But I came home, warmed up again, did the rest of my workout. Did some stretching, ate a snack. Gonna shower and try to get a real nights sleep (at least 7 hours I hope!).

I've been trying to eat really well lately, but I am gonna change things up a bit more over the next week and see how it goes. Lately I have been making foods like chicken and sweet potato curry, shrimp and spinach curry, lamb stew, etc. I am gonna go with more... simple foods. Although I am eating healthy right now, I dont feel I am going to lose fat on this diet. I am moving to simpler fare such as bbq'd turkey breast and steamed broccoli. Or steamed green beans. Or chicken and spinach salad. Egg whites and oatmeal. etc.

If my fats get too low, I'll increase my dosage of udo's and fish oil to compensate.

Well, bedtime for me. Man, things suck lately.

Well, to continue my incredible string of good luck...

Two days ago someone attempted to break into my house. Hmmm, I may have worded that wrong. Someone actually managed to break into my house, but they didn't take anything (that I know of) because I came home and scared them out. As I was parking my car in my new garage, I took an extra minute to move some cd's in my stereo.

As I walk out of my garage, I see this fairly well known local bum guy in my backyard. I am not too alarmed, as I usually leave him bottles/cans in a bag in front of my fence. I've asked him before to stay off my property though, cuz he scares my fiancee. So I told him again to get the hell off my property, when I have more bottles I'll put them out front again. He mumbles sorry and LIMPS off.

I think nothing of it, go inside my house, start cooking dinner. Fiancee comes home, starts to watch some tv. It's windy and snowing outside. Suddenly I hear a bag downstairs. Rush down, my basement door is wide open and hangin on by 1 hinge. Do a quick look around, no one nearby. WTH. I notice some stuff I had piled in front of the basement door has been moved out of the way. Some odd things too - I had been re-arranging the basement and moved my levels up against the basement door. My hedge trimmers too. They were moved across the room, neatly leaned up against my washing machine. STRANGE.

So, no one around, nothing missing. I board the door up and finish dinner. Next morning, I am sweeping my walkway (we have our first snow in like 3 years). My neighbour comes over and tells me my basement window bug screen has been torn off. I go look, sure enough, someone tore it off and tried to get in. PLus, I had some fishtank equip piled in front of the window, and the guy managed to knock it over. But didn't get in the window though, I had it blocked off with some wood.

So, I call the police and an officer arrives in minutes. So I describe the local bum, and tell her when I got home, show her the damaged door and the window he tried to get into. Tell her I saw him limping. There is a nice footprint against my door. She says, the guy is very well known to the police. I shouldnt worry though, he isnt very confrontational. (yah, but that doesnt mean he isnt coming back for my PC's, entertainment setup, power tools, etc.).

Also turns out this guy generated several complaints in the neighbourhood that night around the same time! Stupid thing is, he didnt manage to steal a god damned friggin thing! I hate how there is nothing we can do against the guy either. I mean, I didnt actually catch him in my house. He didnt steal anything either. So shitty.

My neighbourhood is pretty damned nice. This bum lives in a shitty government funded co-op housing thing though, and the rent is so cheap this guy can live on next to nothing. But the police figure he is on a bender right now and needs some cash for his fix.

Anyways, f^cker ain't getting no bottles from me anymore. Next time he is on my property, I am asking him to leave and if he doesnt immediately book it off my property, I am gonna knock him unconscious. My fiancee wants to sell the house now. So stupid situation.

Well, I did get my bike ride done on the morning of the 5th. Yesterday, I ate decently, except for the sushi I had for dinner (even then, it was sushi, only problem was too much rice but good protein source and even some good fiber thanks to goma ae). But, yesterday I caught a cold.

This morning I haven't rode my bike cuz my sinuses are plugged up. I think I'll just eat well and do some stretches. So ticked off. I guess the stress wore me down. Work has been a real pain lately, and the home reno's are taking forever, wedding is coming up, our honeymoon spot is in THAILAND, money is getting a bit tight, etc. Guess I have a few reasons for some stress :)

Well, hopefully by monday I will be healthy again and back to a regular workout.

Why does it seem I always catch a cold when I am trying to lose weight? its damned annoying.

So, I figured I would post a bit of a body composition update.

Weight 179
Age 27
Chest 41.75
Waist 33.5
Hips 40
Shoulders 20
Right Bicep 15
Neck 15.75
Right Calve 15.5
Upper Thigh 24.5
Skinfolds
Right Pec 10
Right Tricep 12
Right Bicep 5
Suprailiam 14
Lower Back 10
Subscapular 11
Abdomen 14
Right Calf 8
Thigh 10
% fat 14.18
Lbs of fat 25.38
LBM 153.62
+/- 0.05

Wow, just read thru my whole journal. I guess it sorta looks like I haven't made any real gains since october. In october I weighed very close to what I weigh now. BUT, since october I've changed my body fat from 22% to 14%. Although I am nearly the same weight.

177lbs this morning. been following my 3x a week routine and riding my bike 5 mornings a week quite well.

Had my cheat meal today - my fiancee's mom cooked laksa. I even had a small second helping! OMG. hehe.

Oh well, tomorrow, back down to 1800cals. Or, actually tomorrow is lifting day - 2200 cals. Should be good.

Woot! Cheat meal eaten and I still weighed 177 this morning.

Ate great all day, just finished my workout and feel awesome.

I think the more I try staying healthy, the easier its becoming. Although, I still long to eat out as often as I used to. But hey, life is all about compromises and trade-offs right? Better looking and healthier body or happier taste buds? hehe.

It's amazing how well my body adapts to diet changes.

Today I am 175lbs.

Just finished my 45 min bike ride. Off to work! This evening is a lifting day.

Grats on the Progress.
Jealous of the WRX.
-Allen