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.

Week 10 is here

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

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.

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 :)