"Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that."
-- said the White Queen to Alice in Through the Looking Glass
From Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
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Goal met! |
Is it your own art, ('cause I didn't realize you were a painter/artist), or something famous?
Hope that all is genki on your end, miss ya 'round the ole boards.
Mata o'tomodachi,
: )
M.
My diet is fairly consistent, oatmeal w/ cottage cheese for breakfast, snacks during the day of small yogurt, 1 or 2 string cheese, couple piece of fruit, pb sandwich w/ about 2tbsp PB and 2 slices light whole wheat bread, rather large lunch of lean mean beans whole grain like quinoa/brown rice/barley, dinner is similar to lunch, and I might also have a protein shake or bowl of cereal or some snack later. Weekends can hurt, where there is less snacking, less frequent breakfast, more frequent beer, and generally a couple burger/calzone type meals, and maybe ice cream or something similar one night. On the whole, not a bad diet, 2k-2.5k cal per day, around 40.30.30 (the 40 alternating between prot and carbs)...
I wouldn't mind the weight drop if the body fat went with it. I either need to ramp up the running, or see whether my wrist will bear the load of weight training again.
He's a big fan of Japanese live-action shows like the Kamen Rider series and super sentai, hence the pose. He does a very convincing fight sequence and, thanks to Kamen Rider Den-O, he does a pretty good breakdancing routine too. :-)
After a fierce struggle in which one doctor screamed "Spartaaaaa!" and clubbed the other with a knee-hammer, I was told that yes I had some ligament damage but no the pain was due to tendonitis after all.
They stuck a syringe in my wrist and did not volunteer it's contents until I asked (corticosteroid) and here I am one week later, pain free.
I go back in two weeks to watch the bloody doctor on doctor rematch, though my request for "more thongs and Jell-o" was politely refused.
And yes, I'm diggin' the new half-a-tar too!
: )
Hope it's not too bad, because current surgical procedures don't work very well for "high demand" wrists. Meaning, I can be pain-free if I agree to give up weight lifting. That would really suck.
But we shall see...
: )
M.
In the meantime, I've logged six solid weeks on the 5x5 plan (not counting a 1.5 week break in between) and I have not made any progress whatsoever with decreasing body fat below 14.5% and trimming inches off my waist (still a pudgy 35" -- 39" if I comlpetely relax). I've been keeping to a strict eating plan and have even snuck in two or three cardio sessions a week.
Sure, I'm a lot stronger now. My lifts have all gone up. I was looking for a little more than that though.
HEY! My question mark didn't work after CPing that little square!
?? K, it's back... ; )
One day I might invest in one of those scales, you know just to see it in jeans.
; )
Diggin' the new arm-a-tar Itada, I bet your Tanita scale is giggling with delight.
: )
M.
I did make an effort to keep my back angle the same today and had much less pain, so that was probably it. I did bail on my very last rep -- thank goodness for squat racks!
Have you thought about having someone shoot a video of your squats? I bet this would be the best way to tackle form issues, as opposed to checking yourself in the mirror and quite possible having to crane your neck enough to mess with the form itself in the process...
Anywhooooooooooo, just stopping by to send some nice vibes.
: )
M.
Squats: 225 lbs 5x5
Bench Press: 185 lbs 5x5
Deadlift: 270 lbs 1x5
Overhead Press: 110 lbs 5x5
Barbell Row: 135 lbs 5x5
I may need to work on form again, since the squats are starting to kill my hips and back.
I cant do the 5x5... so im sticking with what a book is telling me and what I knew orignally.
As in, when I do bicep curls insted of continuing to do 5 x 5, ill be doing 2 sets of 15 reps. Though I dont know if that is better or not. I know when I tried it for the first time the other week my muscles couldnt cope with it. It's as if.. if you were to carry big weight you can carry it only for a short time if you're doing 5x5, but with the longer reps then it allows you to carry weight for alot longer?
If I had squats, bench presses, deadlifts etc avaliable to me then I guess I could do thee stronglifts. I know it works, but I guess im not doing it to the full potential obviously, I dont have it at home all the equipment, and I can't go to the gym (cant really afford it).
C25K: Going into Week 7 with slight hip and lower back soreness.
Squats: 210 lbs 5x5
Bench Press: 175 lbs 5x5
Deadlift: 245 lbs 1x5
Overhead Press: 100 lbs 5x5
Barbell Row: 115 lbs 5x5
Today's scale reads 185 lbs and 14.8% body fat.
Just wingin' by to wish you a wonderful week.
(It's apperantly, "W-Day", in France ; ).
M.
You're doing similar to what I am, I'm trying to do the 5 x 5 but cant do squats, so i'm doing variations of dumbell exercises.
It would be a dream for me to reach 14.4% body fat :(
C25K: Going into Week 5 with no problems.
Squats: 180 lbs 5x5
Bench Press: 160 lbs 5x5
Deadlift: 195 lbs 1x5
Overhead Press: 85 lbs 5x5 (stalled once)
Barbell Row: 90 lbs 5x5
Still working up to my previous levels, but at least I've got a plan down.
Today's scale reads 184 lbs and 14.4% body fat.
Overall plan: Tom Venuto's Burn the Fat.
http://www.burnthefat.com/
Weight Lifting: Stronglifts 5x5
http://stronglifts.com/stronglifts-5x5-beginner-strength-training-program/
Cardio: Cool Runnings Couch to 5K http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml
My gym: Future Fitness
http://www.futurefitnesscenters.com/
Nutrition: Dr. Fuhrman's "Eat to Live"
Progress Tracking (apart from Traineo):
http://bodyspace.bodybuilding.com/Itadaki/
http://www.thedailyplate.com/diary/who/itadaki
There must be some secret in those books. I've been meaning to put my nose in a few, hehe.
1. Long Term Goals
8-10% body fat on non-competition periods.
30" waistline.
Compete in a 5k run four times a year.
Compete in natural body building competition once a year.
Maintain good to excellent measurements for cholesterol, blood pressure.
Become a vegetarian.
2. One Year Goals
Beat personal best of 12% body fat and maintain for a month.
32" waistline.
Learn to run outdoors.
Compete in at least on 5K run.
Find a mentor for dietary regime and stick with it (Ornish or Fuhrman).
3. Three Month Goals
Finish reading "Eat to Live".
Finish reading BFFM.
Complete C25K program again.
14% body fat and maintain.
Beat last year's cholesterol measurements.
34" waistline.
No more skipping breakfast. Lighter dinners. Plan to work in two healthy snacks. Nothing after 10pm. Stick to the off-limits food list.
4. Weekly Goals
60 minute weight training 5x a week!
30 minute cardio 4x a week!
Calculate baseline metabolic requirement.
Nothing after 10pm. Stick to the off-limits food list.
Body comp check-in on Sundays. Fat measurement, weight, body tape measures, photo.
Workout in the mornings from 7am to 8:30am. Evening workouts as last resort, except for cardio.
Big salad 4x a week. One cheat day allowed. No pasta in salad, and no creamy dressings.
5. Daily Goals
Beat personal bests in weight lifting. Keep increasing weights! Follow 2% to 5% increase rule.
Do a 5 min warmup walk and run 3 min at least -- don't give up cardio without a fight!
Get up at 6:45am for the workout!
Pre-workout shake, breakfast after workout.
Nothing after 10pm. Stick to the off-limits food list.
No more coffee! If I miss tea, then it's water or nothing.
Templates and Mentors:
A. Tom Venuto's "Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle" for the overall plan.
B. Joel Fuhrman's "Eat to Live" for more specifics on diet.
C. Max OT for weight training.
D. Cool Running Couch to 5k Program for cardio.
There's nothing to it,
But to do it.
I think it was Anthony Robbins that said something like: if you associate more pleasure with exercising (ie more energy, better health, better self image) than pain (ie soreness, the pain of effort, making time, expending energy), then you'll stick to it. You can even go the negative way and associate more pain with not exercising (health problems, lack of energy, embarrassment in swimsuit) than pleasure (good food, leisure - it's easy to do nothing, the lack of need for self-control) to create a strong affinity for exercise in your mind, and a strong emotional connection to healthy habits.
No matter how many times I kick-start my routine, I still hop on the scales at the end of the first week and expect to find I've magically transformed into Vin Diesel. Maybe if I shaved my head...
i love the new pic, lol.
i guess i'm the opposite of you as far as running goes. for me, the best time to run is when it's cold. i just put on shorts, a white tee, and a hoodie. if it gets too hot, i take my arms out and leave the hoodie hanging around my neck.
before i forget, here's the official Francis website:
http://web.mac.com/animeister
Steve and his wife, Pui, are in some of the pics too.
the neighborhood is nice, and you don't have to cross any highways to get to the nearest track (it's at the middle school jesse and i went to). i anticipate running much more often.
i'm a little worried that the frame is going to give way eventually. i hold it as wide as possible. i'm up to 3 now!!
Didn't want you to think I was makin' up words over here. ; )
Bon weekend,
M.
Must feel great to be back on the workout-horse again.
I know I'm feeling awesome after taking a month off of the daily workouts while travelling, (which still rendered a few sweat-sessions a week at least). There's nothing quite like a pristine sunshiney day makin' trails with the pooch in the park.
I wish you all the best with your goals and progress!
Minu
Goal 1: Back to MaxOT 5-day splits -- I find it too difficult to stick to structured progression routines for now. First goal is to consistently train in the morning for five consecutive days. I'm giving myself the rest of September 2007 to get there.
Goal 2: Integrate 30-minute running into my routine, twice a week. I give myself until end of October to get this down pat.
Goal 3: Get back to 12% body fat! End of November 2007.
Basically, I have nearly 3 months to undo the damage I've done in the last two months. Taking it slow, because I suspect I have patellar tendonitis -- that puts a damper on a lot of leg work and the running!
i've stopped looking at the scale. mostly because i have no idea where it is, hehe. i'm probably on the way down, weightwise. i've just been eating oatmeal in the mornings, and i've stopped stuffing my face. it's not any fun to gain weight that way, plus, my exercise hasn't warranted a huge amount of calories as of late. just one week of oatmeal in the mornings, and working out every day, and the six pack is starting to show again. it's nice, because that's such a coveted feature. i've had a headache the past two days, so didn't exercise. tonight i'll workout, headache or not.
what have you been up to?
As for me, I've been working out plenty, and sleeping better, but probably not getting the volume of sleep i should. That's all about getting to bed at a reasonable hour though, which isn't always easy!
i'm creeping steadily towards my goal. the weight i use on traineo is a "benefit of the doubt" measurement. on the higher end of my fluctuations, i'm closer to 165. as i work back into my routine, i think i'll be using a simple 2 day split, 5 days a week. eventually i'll throw running back into the mix. i've also been meaning to check out the 5x5 routine you're always mentioning.
take care and say hello to the family!
I don't know if I mentioned this yet, but Paul is flying in for a conference in Boston. He'll be there from August 20-23rd, then he's coming down here to VA and will stay till the 26th or 31st.
I'll be 15 minutes way from Mt Takao nature trails and Yakuoin temple. It's the monsoon season, but at least temperatures are 10F cooler than New Jersey right now.
In the other direction, I'll be 20 minutes from Showa Kinen National Park, or a few minutes by foot from the local park.
Not as glamorous as being in the touristy parts of Tokyo (I'm staying on the outskirts), but when you're an outsider everything is fascinating.
it's feeling a little better now, but still hurts. i was hoping to exercise this weekend, but i want it to go away. normally i think of injuries as a sign of overtraining, but i've only been off the weights for about 2 months. i think what i'm going to do is start wearing shoes when i workout.
I already stopped taking the pills...(that will save me some trouble)
and I am following the diet and working out.
:)
In other news, I finally called my doctor's office about the cardio stress 2D echo testing I had done a few weeks back. No signs of ischemic response to exercise in both EKG and ultrasound -- means I'm in the clear! Good exercise tolerance was another phrase on the report. What I wasn't sure of (since this was a brief phone conversation with a nurse) was whether I still had abnormally high blood pressure response to exercise.
Anyway, I'm getting a paper copy of the report in the mail in two or three days and I'll call back if that doesn't clear things up.
Otherwise, it looks like the diet/running changes may have gone a long way to clearing up my blood pressure and triglyceride problems! All this on a spotty running record, and only 50% adherence to Drs. Fuhrman / McDougall / Ornish diets. Imagine if I improve the consistency of my running workouts and improve my diet further!
Now I'd better not get hit by a flaming toilet seat from the Mir space station, or I'd be really bummed.
just wanted to let you know that I've launched a new weight loss website and weight loss forum on it. I want to start a community of like minded individuals.
I'd be glad to have you join and post some thoughts and an intro.
Actually no -- all my recent cholesterol and body fat improvements came about in just under 4 months. You can do the same.
The difference is that before, I was reliant entirely upon my gym trainer whom I spoke with every 4 months or so, and magazine articles (Men's Fitness). Once I started seriously going after information and acting on it, my improvements sped up incredibly fast.
I only started learning about nutrition and acting on it within the last 4 months. Prior to that, I started getting serious about cardio a year ago. Before that, I got serious about weight lifting two years ago. In every case, I've made breakthrough improvements getting bigger, stronger, leaner, and (internally) healthier every time.
I still have a lot of fine tuning to do, but my greatest enemy all this time was just a lack of knowledge-guided effort really.
you must be looking pretty good and toned. any new pics?
On top of the news two weeks ago that I've finally fallen under 200 mg/dl cholesterol (only LDL is above norm at 122) for the first time ever, I'm finally getting the positive results back that I need to keep me going.
I only wish I'd taken more before-after pics. I don't look too different -- maybe some additional definition, but barely noticeable. 16% to 13% isn't too big of a jump from a visual perspective (that's only about 5lbs of fat lost) but I feel great!
I'm going running again today (3rd time in a week, after more than a month's abstinence). My feet still hurt, but my lungs are heart are acting like I never stopped running. No problems whatsoever. Hope it stays that way!
all the best
Rob
Weight Loss
using the warmup that he outlined helped increase my max weight for curls and overhead tri extensions. it felt really good. i haven't worked out for more than a month.
i went running with mom's husband on sunday. we did around 3-4 miles on a mostly uphill path, and at a good pace. when we finished, i felt like i could do another 10-20 miles. it felt great. i'm sure glad it's nice and warm again.
i used this test to check my bodyfat %. someone posted it in one of the threads:
http://www.healthcentral.com/cholesterol/home-body-fat-test-2774-143.html
i don't know how accurate it is. i was tested 3 years ago using calipers and some charts and i came out at 4-5%. according to the BMI i was underweight, lol. but i was playing lacrosse, taking karate, and working out everyday (twice on tuesdays and thursdays!).
i really would like to gain some weight, but eating at night makes me restless. i get off work at 7. last night, i skipped dinner and worked out. i slept great! but i'd lose a lot of weight if i only ate breakfast and lunch everyday. i only had 1870 calories yesterday...
You know, I'm not so sure you absolutely have to eat 1 gram for every pound of body weight. I'm usually getting around 100-120 grams everyday, weigh 144, and I seem to be doing just fine. Though, I am doing much better with lifting and fitness in general, not to mention my overall feeling of well-being, since I started supplementing.
So perhaps a happy medium is the solution, and perhaps there is a little hype involved in the amount of protein recomended by bodybuilding sources.
maricel and I are here in the US now. we arrived on march 31st. she has a lot to adjust to (mainly the weather right now, hehe).
did you know stevie had a kid? Francis Bernardo was born on Feb 6, 2007 at 2.9 kgs!
i can snatch some pics if you'd like, just let me know.
how've you been?
Good luck dude. I'm cheering you on!
Well, it's been over two full months now, and I can't say I miss coffee all that much. I'm just as alert as ever, and I really enjoy green tea. No more whopping caffeine withdrawal slumps either!
On the other hand, my weight and body fat are holding steady. I can see more definition in my arms and legs though. I'm hoping my slow progression to vegetarianism will show more results in my blood tests, which won't be until May since I switched doctors and they generally don't schedule an appointment for you before the mortician does.
And would you like a ham?
My wife is Japanese and I love Japan! I have a few pictures up on Flickr. I always stay in Hachioji, but am only a few minutes from Showa Kinen National Park and Takao-san (a popular Buddhist temple and beautiful hiking trail).
My GI specialist says it's stress too, but I always thought I was laid back. My life is pretty stressful though, so I'm seriously looking into behavioral therapy and maybe some Zen techniques.
Well, it looks like this week may be a wash for me weight-wise. I'm shifting to a 3-day split to make room for cardio, but I injured myself yesterday in a very dumb way -- not warming up prior to a session with my trainer. Even if you're only doing a few reps for your trainer to spot your form, do warm-ups to avoid injury! That's me yelling at myself.
So I'm going to try hitting the treadmill all week while letting my upper body heal up, and I'll start weights back up next week. Lots of trainers actually demand you take a week off every two months to heal, especially when doing five-day splits as I was. So I'm not really cheating. No I'm not.
kidding