Back from St. Lucia

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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.