My Quest for Strength and Healthy Living

Back from St. Lucia

2007-12-26T06:04:00.000-08:00

Back from my vacation to St. Lucia.

Here's my favorite carribean song of the trip. Listen to the song, but ignore the guy in this video :) It was the only good version of the song I could find on youtube.

Here are some pics from my trip:

My new house

2007-11-06T07:29:00.001-08:00

Well, I've spent the last 2 weekends building a new house in the trees for my son. I still have the roof to do, but it's at least use-able now, which is all my son cares about. Do you think I can add the extra 56 square feet as liveable space when I go to sell? :)

Friday Workout

2007-10-26T05:22:00.001-07:00

Okay, I need to analzye my form for all my lifts. The program for Friday calls for Squats, Bench press, Bent over rows, dips, EZ curls, and Tricep Extensions. With my marathon coming up and long runs on Saturday, I'm skipping squats for now.

Bench Press. I have to do sets of 5, 5, 5, 5, 3, and 8 reps. The 3 rep set is in preparations for a 5 rep set on Monday for a PR. I struggled with this one as you can see in the video. Without a spotter though, I fight with whether I should have good form or just get the weight up. I have safety bars, but I need to do the heavy weight if I want to grow. The weight is 235 (145% of my body weight). Goal is 300lbs by February.

Bent Over Rows. Same as bench...5,5,5,5,3,8. I show a 5 rep and the 3 rep PR. I struggle with the 3 rep, but it's due to weak forearms and wrist. I need to get some hooks or something. I have straps, but they unravel on me. This is 185lbs.

Dips. I just have to do 3 sets of 5-8 reps. These are fairly easy so I have to keep increasing the weight. Here I'm doing 52.5 lbs.

Curls. I thought I had perfect form for these until I saw the video. Next week I plan to do these with my back against the power rack. This is 75lbs and 3 sets of 5-8 reps.

Tricep Extensions. Again, 3 sets of 5-8 reps. I'm really not sure what my form should even look like for these. I guess I'm okay.

Week 4

2007-09-10T12:41:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update. I'm on week 4 of my 5x5 program. This is the last week of the "honeymoon" period. I'll be doing all my 5 rep maxes this week and then nothing but PRs every week after...I hope :)

I'm eating a lot, which is making me hungrier for some reason. For lunch, I had 2 chicken breasts, 2 servings of corn, and 2 servings of green beans and I'm hungry an hour later. This is twice what I normally would eat and I was never hungry before...weird.

Had a great free day yesterday. Don't get me wrong..I ate junk, but probably cut in half what I'd normally do. I hope to continue this trend. I didn't really crave much junk so I'm very happy with that. I've increased my fat intake during the week so maybe that was a big problem before. I always stayed around 15% Fat intake, but increased to 20% by adding almonds every day.

Trying to do pushups again in hopes of being able to enter the contest in TN. Only about 5 weeks left though so there's only a slim chance. Looking forward to TN too. Hope there's nice weather for golf so I can break out my clubs that I haven't used in 2 years.

I had a 17 mile run on Saturday and still on track for my November marathon. I could smell the ammonia coming off my body after my run though, which means muscle burning. That SUCKS! My Run for LIFE team on tracker had a great idea though. I'm going to try eating this new Accelerade Gel during my run, which is the only gel I know of that has protein in it. That will definitely help.

Congrats to the Steelers on their victory this weekend :)

Great Game!

2007-08-30T21:16:00.000-07:00

Okay...so my son and I walk from our hotel to the stadium about a mile away. It's very hot and humid out and I'm tired and sweating and he's tired too. We try to get in and they inspect my bag and tell me an umbrella can't be brought into the stadium. Well, I had to throw it in the trash...no way I'm forcing him to walk another mile back to the hotel :) We get some snacks and head to our seats and we hear a bunch of thunder and see lighting. They order everyone out of the seating areas to seek cover in the concession areas. This ends up delaying the game by about 30 minutes. Finally back in our seats, it starts raining pretty hard and of course I don't have an umbrella so I pulled out our jackets, which worked for the most part. The game starts in the rain and it eventually stops. We're both excited to watch and after the first few plays, the starters are yanked out and scrubs inserted in. The last 56 minutes of the game was a horrible NFL game, but an awesome high school football game :) It was field goal after field goal. The only TD was in the last minute of the game when Carolina's 3rd string QB threw an interception that the Steelers ran back for a TD. As the last seconds ticked off the clock, another sprinkle came...and then a lot of sprinkles....and then a downpour for our mile walk back to the hotel.

So, why was it a great game? My son said he had a great time. Really, that's all that mattered to me. I have such a good time doing the father/son things.

At the hotel before our long walk to the game.

Here we are in the front of the stadium panther statues

Before the game started

Tried getting some good cheerleader pictures

End of game...check his hair out after being rained on and very tired

My Protein Pancakes

2007-08-22T17:29:00.000-07:00

I made these before my vacation and took some on the road. They are absolutely delicious. I microwaved them so they were warm, but I'm sure they would be good cold too. I used buckwheat pancake mix...is that okay? The ingredients are whole grain buckwheat flour, whole wheat flour, leavening, dextrose, and salt. Sounds okay to me...stats are 1g fat, 290mg sodium, 28g carbs, 3g fiber, 1g sugar, and 5g protein.

Anyway, here is my recipe:

Buckwheat Protein Pancakes

1 Cup Buckwheat Pancake Mix (I used Hodgson Mill, All Natural Stone Ground)
3 Scoops Vanilla Protein Powder (I used Body Fortress)
2 Large Egg Whites
1 Cup Skim Milk
1 Tbsp Olive Oil

Preheat griddle. Place pancake mix and protein powder into mixing bowl; add milk and eggs, stir in olive oil. Mix just until blended. Cook on one side until bubbles form on the edges, then flip and cook on other side until golden brown.

Nutrional Stats for entire batch (I usually divide into 3 servings for ~300 calories)
Calories: 998
protein: 101 grams (41%)
carbs: 100 grams (40%)
fat: 22 grams (19%)

Enjoy!

Challenge 7 begins...sorta

2007-08-20T07:13:00.000-07:00

This is long....sorry.

I want this next challenge to end on the date of my marathon (11/11/07) so that means it has to start today. But, if you know me by now, you also know I like to take a week off from dieting (eating healthy) between challenges. So, the challenge will start today, but I'm enjoying free Duncan Donuts at work right now :) Hey, I'll be bulking the entire 12 weeks..it's okay, right?

There probably won't be anymore pics from me either since I'm probably the leanest I'll be for the next 12 weeks. I really want to increase muscle mass going forward and that means eating close to 3000 calories a day. With my marathon training, I know I'm in for some difficult muscle gains ahead. Speaking of the marathon, I'm also contemplating dropping out of it. I look at my latest pics and I'm very embarrassed at how little my legs are and I'll never get mass on my legs if I keep running long distances. I have to decide what I love more....running or muscle. I could possibly have the best of both if I do a half marathon instead.

Now, on with the program. I'll be doing Bill Starr's 5x5 program that hypertrophy does. It's suppose to give huge muscle gains and if you look, there are no direct arm workouts. I think my arms are very proportionate right now so I'm okay with that. This routine will build up my quads/hams/back/chest/shoulders. I had my first workout this morning and it really wasn't too bad. However, the first 4 weeks of the program is what some call the honeymoon period because you're not lifting your 5 rep max until week 4 and that's when the gains begin.

I haven't listed my meal plans in a long time so I thought I'd list what I'm doing. Still BFL all the way as I've yet to find a better eating plan. For the last 1.5 years, I've consumed 2 Myoplex lite shakes a day and that is going to change. I'm tired of drinking my meals so I've come up with several recipes that will replace the drinks. Here is what my days will look like. I'll actually do 7 meals a day on weight training days. And I'm also going to try to eat dinner with the family every night and eat what they eat so I can participate in their life too.

M/W/F
PreWorkout Meal - Banana, 2 scoops protein powder drink during workout followed by creatine during extra cardio at the end. Will also take BCAAs during workout.
M1 - Plain Oatmeal (splenda for flavoring some days), 1 scoop protein drink (I may add skim milk for extra calories)
M2 - Protein muffins/Protein pancakes/Protein ice cream
M3 - EFL Meal plus veggies
M4 - Protein muffins/Protein pancakes/Protein ice cream
M5 - Will eat what the family eats, but good portion sizes
M6 - EFL dessert (On Friday nights, I'll eat extra carbs for my Sat. Long run)

T/Th/Sat
PreRun - 1/2 scoop protein to help save muscle during my run. On Saturday long runs, I'll have Oatmeal before my run and also eat gel paks during my run.
M1 - Plain Oatmeal (splenda for flavoring some days), 1.5 scoop protein drink (I may add skim milk for extra calories)
M2 - Protein muffins/Protein pancakes/Protein ice cream
M3 - EFL Meal plus veggies
M4 - Protein muffins/Protein pancakes/Protein ice cream
M5 - Will eat what the family eats, but good portion sizes
M6 - EFL dessert

I provided recipes for my protein ice cream already. Here is my recipe for protein muffins. I got the idea from a recipe I saw on tracker, but the stats were way off so I adjusted it.

14 Egg Whites
2 Scoops Protein Powder
1½ Cups Uncooked Oatmeal
½ Cup Fat Free Cottage Cheese
4 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/3 Cup Water
1 tsp Baking Soda
½ Cup Splenda

In a blender, chop Oats and Baking Soda dry. Add in egg whites, vanilla, splenda, water, and whip until frothy. Add in Cottage Cheese and blend well scraping the sides. While blending, add in cocoa and protein powder. Mix well and pour into large muffin tin (12) that has been well sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Bake at 365 for about 18 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Per Muffin stats (3 or 4 is usually a serving for me):

Calories: 90
protein: 11 grams (48%)
carbs: 9 grams (38%)
fat: 1 grams (14%)

For my buckwheat protein pancakes, I'll provide that recipe later since I don't have it handy right now.

Week 10 is here

2007-07-30T08:55:00.000-07:00

Time is flying by. I have just one week before I go on my beach vacation. And only 3 weeks until the end of the Summer challenge. My free day was much better this week. I stuck to my schedule of only eating junk during 3 2-hour blocks on Sunday. I ate a lot of junk but it could have been much worse. My ankle is black and blue, but it doesn't hurt to walk or run on it. It seems to only hurt when I touch it...so I guess I'll stop touching it :)

I had a great workout this morning. I followed it up with 40 minutes of ab work and 60 minutes of extra cardio. I think the 7 meals on weight lifting days is going to help a lot with energy and lifting. BF is going down according to my caliper reading. I might treat the end of this week like the end of a challenge and take some Xpel and eat nothing but chicken and broccoli on Friday and take Ab Challenge pics on Saturday. I think this Saturday is the end of the Ab challenge.

I've been doing a lot of food experimentations lately as I try to wean myself off the Myoplex shakes. I want to find a good protein muffin recipe or protein bakie recipe next.

Apple Pie Filling Dessert

2007-07-25T12:02:00.000-07:00

Wendy (georgiagirl) posted a apple pie filling recipe on the Glamazons recipe post on Tracker. It looked and sounded really good. I plugged it into my nutrition software and it came out like this:

protein: 16 grams (23%)
carbs: 38 grams (60%)
fat: 9 grams (17%)

I wasn't happy with that so I modified it a little and increased to 2 servings and got:

1/4 cup sugar free pancake syrup
1 apple (I took the skin off but not sure if it matters)
1 cup Fat Free cottage cheese
1 Tbsp natural peanut butter
2 scoops vanilla protein powder (I used Body Fortress Vanilla from Walmart)
splenda to taste
cinnamon to taste

blend it all together and pour into 2 containers and freeze. Eat like ice cream...yummy.

Per serving stats:
Calories: 308
protein: 37 grams (48%)
carbs: 27 grams (35%)
fat: 6 grams (17%)

You could probably reduce protein powder to 1.5 scoops and get closer to 40/40/20 and reduce calories at the same time if needed.

Transformers - go see it.

2007-07-16T06:12:00.000-07:00

What an awesome movie. My 16 year old and 9 year old both said it was the best movie they've seen this year and I loved it as well. It's an action/comedy/romance/GM commercial rolled into one. The special effects were great and it was non stop action. GM must have invested heavily in this flick because they really focused on all the new GM vehicles, including the 2009 Camaro concept car, which is pretty slick looking. It made me miss my 1977 camaro...my first love :) It definitely made me hit GMs website too.

Oh, now for the reason of my blog. I had an okay workout this morning, followed by 40 minutes of extra cardio and ab work. With my new power rack, I'm still experimenting with the weights I should be using since I only had access to a Smith machine at my gym, so free weights are slightly different. It's awesome working out at home though...I don't have to worry about forgetting anything and can shower and change in the comfort of my home :)

Frickin free day. I went overboard yesterday and feel bad today. I will have to start limiting my free day eating with 5 weeks left...not to mention a week long vacation coming up in August where eating 100% won't happen :)

I have a big deck

2007-07-08T16:05:00.000-07:00

My deck is finally done. It took me 2 weekends to prime and paint all the railings. And my entire weeks vacation last week to replace the top boards. If a salesman tries to convince you to buy the invisible fasteners that you attach the boards to the joists from underneath the deck, run away...run away fast. I could of had the thing done in 2 days at the most, but the invisible fasteners took 5 times as long to do and was a pain sitting and crawling under the deck.

Here's the steps leading up to it...my best friend lays in wait for me :)

Here's the custom gate I made to keep the dog off the deck if we have friends over for a BBQ.

Here's the finished deck boards. They're the fake composite boards. Notice...no nails or screws showing.

Here's some shots from the back of the house

Here is what the fasteners look like from underneath. I had to do a billion rows of these fasteners.

Jon and Devan went camping

2007-06-17T16:06:00.000-07:00

I'm back from my camping trip with my son. We had an awesome time. We fished, hiked, played bocce ball, played catch (football, baseball), and a bunch of card cames and board games. Oh, we also cooked out on the camp fire, which was a lot of fun too. Here are a few pics. I'm going to put a couple videos up too when I figure out how to do it.

Saturday morning sunrise view from our tent.

Here we are at the campsite

Devan's first fish

Devan chilling by the water

Here's our tent

Father's Day Morning

Here are some videos. I know...boring. It's home video type stuff. Maybe Devan will appreciate when he's older :)

My first Tattoo

2007-06-02T20:10:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally did it. I've spent weeks and weeks trying to come up with something and in just a few days, I totally changed my mind and went with something a little different :) I changed the kanji from the "strength" symbol to the "strong/powerful" symbol. Why you ask? I think it's a little more artistic than the boring "strength" symbol :) And instead of the design I came up with in previous posts, I went with a tribal tat they had. Here it is:

It flows with my tricep quite nicely, which is what I was really hoping for.

It also goes with the bicep for an added bonus :)

Comments?

Steven Wright

2007-06-01T05:11:00.000-07:00

He has always been my favorite comedian since I was a teenager and he's coming to town. I'm taking the wife next week to see him live. I can't wait. He's not a well known comic, but I laugh my ass off when I see him. He tells these very obsure 1 liners that have to make you think. He never smiles or shows any emotions, which makes him all the more hilarious. Some of my favorite one liners are:

-For my birthday I got a humidifier and a de-humidifier...I put them in the same room and let them fight it out.
-How do you tell when you're out of invisible ink?
-What happens if you get scared half to death twice?
-Hard work pays off in the future. Laziness pays off now.
-If you think nobody cares about you, try missing a couple of payments.
-I spilled spot remover on my dog. Now he's gone.
-Officer, I know I was going faster than 55MPH, but I wasn't going to be on the road an hour.
-I was trying to daydream, but my mind kept wandering.
-I used to work in a fire hydrant factory. You couldn't park anywhere near the place.
-I went to the hardware store and bought some used paint. It was in the shape of a house. I also bought some batteries, but they weren't included.
-What's another word for Thesaurus?
-You can't have everything. Where would you put it?
-If you were going to shoot a mime, would you use a silencer?
-I bought a dog the other day...I named him Stay. It's fun to call him..."Come here, Stay! Come here, Stay!" He went insane. Now he just ignores me and keeps typing.
-Someone sent me a postcard picture of the earth. On the back it said, "Wish you were here."

More quotes here

Video clips here

Now What?

2007-05-21T07:50:00.000-07:00

It's always kind of a let down after completing a 12 week challenge. I worked so hard to get to the end, but always feel like I let myself down and could have done better. Could I have done better? I guess the answer is always YES. I could have eaten a grilled chicken instead of a Quiznos Sub. I could have increased the intensity during my extra cardio. Still though, it's those little slips that keep me sane I think. Sometimes your mind and body just need a break from the constant "abuse" you give it. Is abuse the right word? Sometimes I think it is, but it's that same abuse that progresses you forward. If I wasn't in pain after abusing myself, I wouldn't be in the shape I'm in now.

I'm taking a break from constant healthy eating this week. I'm not going overboard on junk food, but I'm not planning my meals either. I will partake in food found in the office (Dunkin Donuts this morning). I'll also hit some local restaurants and not look at the fat content. I will gain a few pounds this week. The good news is I know how to lose weight now and breaks like this are barely a blip on my road to the end.

I'm still hitting the weights hard though. I was just thinking yesterday that in the last 15 months, I've maybe missed a total of 3 workouts. I've probably had to reschedule a few workouts, but only skipped about 3. That's damn good if you ask me. I'll start a new challenge in a couple weeks and of course I already started the Ab challenge. All extra cardio is out the window for at least 6 weeks while I try to build mass. Then the last 6 weeks I'll try cutting and see how that goes.

Okay, that's enough thinking for the day. I'll leave you with my transformation for the last 15 months.

Challenge done

2007-05-20T11:40:00.000-07:00

Inaugural Post

2007-05-11T09:42:00.000-07:00

I'm really not a blogger, but thought I would give it a shot. For the last 15 months I've been working out and eating healthy by doing the Body For Life program. I've managed to lose over 50lbs and I'm now in the best shape of my life...even compared to when I was a teenager. I owe a lot of my success and motivation to all the members of the the Tracker web site. I've been a daily poster since May of 2006. Just recently though, I've been getting burned out trying to keep up with the site....hence the beginning of this blog. Instead of posting my daily workouts and food to that site, I figured I would just start keeping track here on my own. I can't rely on other people to keep me healthy the rest of my life so I need to learn to do this on my own. I'm sure I'll check in to the site a lot and continue to track my progress through pictures and measurements, but won't participate in the threads as much anymore. We'll see how it goes :-)

Adding a picture here for my profile: