Daily News Archives
December 2003
12/31/2003 - What a year it's been!
12/30/2003 - Shoulder update.
12/29/2003 - One more week off from work...
12/28/2003 - Pizza tonight, cardio this morning...
12/27/2003 - Very brief update.
12/26/2003 - B L O A T !!
12/25/2003 - Merry Christmas!
12/24/2003 - Still having fun. 
12/23/2003 - Having fun on vacation!
12/22/2003 - Vacation finally starts; Mom arrives today.
12/21/2003 - Slept in; What does home theater have to do with fitness? (nothing!)
12/20/2003 - Delayed start to my vacation.
12/19/2003 - Leg development; Weak areas; Obtaining the elusive "V" taper; Injuries.
12/18/2003 - Preparing for my vacation.
12/17/2003 - My blood work/cholesterol test results.
12/16/2003 - New pictures up: quads; First elliptical workout report.
12/15/2003 - New elliptical; Busy week coming up.
12/14/2003 - First 3 weeks of cutting comparison pictures.
12/13/2003 - Leg soreness; Cutting progress.
12/12/2003 - Excellent leg workout yesterday!
12/11/2003 - Shoulder bothering me again thanks to Tuesday's workout.
12/10/2003 - My first upper body weight workout in 5 weeks!
12/09/2003 - How to lose weight or gain muscle. 
12/08/2003 - Cutting discipline.
12/07/2003 - Did some light lifting yesterday, pain.
12/06/2003 - Has it been 11 months already?; Make the commitment!
12/05/2003 - Feeling good this morning.
12/04/2003 - Still fighting off a cold; Shoulder update.
12/03/2003 - Fighting off a cold.
12/02/2003 - Fat coming off; Never give up.
12/01/2003 - Shoulder is feeling great; Upper body workouts to resume on the 6th!
December 31, 2003
Wow, I can't believe 2003 is almost over! It seems like just yesterday I was sitting in this very chair drinking beer, eating junk food and looking down in disgust at my fat rolls. I can't imagine what my life would be like today if I had not made the commitment to change the way I eat and live. This past year has been one of the most amazing, positive years of my life. A year is such a short amount of time, yet so many drastic changes are possible. For me, I wanted to feel better about myself and I wanted to get my confidence back. I accomplished those goals by eating right and exercising. Everything else just kind of clicked into place once I did those two things. Healthy living is a great foundation for everything you do in life.
If you are having trouble getting started with your fitness program or staying motivated, then this next bit is for you. I know how hard it is to stick with something that you find unpleasant, especially when the results don't come all that quickly. Eating right and working out can be a real pain, especially these days when we are all so busy with a million other things. Of course everything I just said are nothing but a bunch of excuses. Those kinds of thoughts only do one thing: help you rationalize missing a workout or even dropping your fitness goals completely ("I'll start again when I have more time/am less stressed/work calms down..."). I don't need to tell you that you won't care about any of those excuses when you realize that yet another year has passed you by. You'll still feel miserable because you will not be satisfied with your health and/or personal appearance. All those excuses won't mean a thing when you are too embarrassed to be seen in a swimsuit, or even a pair of shorts. I've been there, I know. The time to make a change is right now. The sooner you start the sooner you will be feeling better. YOU REALLY CAN DO IT. Make a plan and go for it. Once you start, don't let yourself miss a workout for any reason. Plan your meals. Eat clean. Make health and fitness a priority in your life. After a few weeks you'll notice tangible, positive changes in how you look and feel. After a just few months, working out and eating right will be second nature. Before you know it, a whole year will have flown by and you'll wonder how you ever lived any other way. It's true. I did it, and you can do it, too. It's time to shelve the excuses once and for all and get started...
I hope you all have a safe and happy New Year's eve. See you in 2004!
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December 30, 2003
A quick update on my shoulder injury. It feels pretty good most of the time just doing normal activities, and I've been doing my morning 50 pushups pain-free for several weeks now. Whenever I lift something heavy with just my right arm (like this morning taking out the garbage), there is still some pain. I'm trying to be patient because I want this injury to heal completely, but I can't stop thinking about lifting. At least I know it's improving, that helps me deal with the waiting. Hopefully it won't be too much longer...
Ah... another day of vacation. Time to sign off for the day and go do something fun. See you tomorrow!
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December 29, 2003
My mom just left for her home in Houston a few minutes ago. We all had a great visit, and a wonderful Christmas holiday!
I still have one more week off from work, and I'm not sure what I'll be doing this week. One thing's for sure, it won't have anything to do with computers if I can help it. I'm really enjoying being away from computers. I think I need to change my vocation to something related to health and fitness!
I'm going to go workout now, see you tomorrow!
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December 28, 2003
I'm going to go ahead and do some cardio this morning since I'm still holding some water from Christmas. Also, my mom is leaving tomorrow morning, so tonight I'm going to have pizza and wine with her and Lisa. It will be my last cheat meal of the year.
Hope your weekend is going well, see you tomorrow!
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December 27, 2003
I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays -- I sure am. I'm especially enjoying being away from the computer. So off I go...
December 26, 2003
Yikes, yesterday was fun but this morning I'm holding about 6 pounds of excess water! I look and feel like a bloated tick. It will take a few days for me to get back to where I was... oh well!
My vacation is going great. It's been lots of fun hanging out with my family, eating a lot and not worrying about work. More of the same today (minus the junk food!)
See you tomorrow, have a good day.
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December 25, 2003
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! No rules for me today; just a hard leg workout followed by as much food and fun as I can handle in one day. Enjoy your day!
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December 24, 2003
I've got to hurry and get my workout in this morning because I need to get to the grocery store before it gets too crowded. After I get my grocery shopping done, we'll probably watch some movies and get some prep work done for tomorrow's big meal.
Have a good day, see you tomorrow!
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December 23, 2003
I'm having a great time so far on my vacation! Last night I had a bit
of a cheat meal--steamed crab, beer and ice cream.
It sure was good. Other than Christmas day, I won't be breaking my diet again for the remainder of my vacation.
I'm off to do anything but computers now. Have a great day!
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December 22, 2003
Ah... vacation.
My mom will be arriving later today and staying with us for a week. Network gods willing, I'm going to be spending most of my time away from my computers. I'll try to keep up with emails the best that I can, but I'm going to be pretty busy doing other things this week. Thanks for understanding.
I'm going to go work my abs and get my cardio in now. See you tomorrow!
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December 21, 2003
I slept in for an extra hour this morning and it sure felt good! Now I'm running behind and need to get to the store before it gets too crowded. I tried to go to the store yesterday after my haircut and I couldn't even find a parking place!
This has nothing to do with fitness or health, but I'm especially happy today because my Christmas present has arrived -- a new center speaker and new surround speakers for my home theater. The center speaker is an Axiom VP-150, and the surrounds are Axiom QS8s. Here's a picture of our home theater with the new center speaker. The speakers look and sound incredible. I'm a huge movie buff, so obviously I'm very pleased!
I'm off to brave the crowds now. Have a great day!
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December 20, 2003
Okay, vacation time at last!? Nope. That would be too easy for me, and no fun at all for the flighty network gods.
This morning I have two switches out in the field that have stopped passing traffic. Amazing timing. Oh well -- at
least I don't have to go change them out; I have field techs for minor issues like this. I still have to hang around here
and wait for them to get changed out, and then I'll have to jump in and reconfigure them and make sure everything is okay
again. I hate my pager. Hate it. HATE IT! *cough* Okay -- sorry about that...
Hopefully the issues this morning are an anomaly and not a sign of how the next 2 weeks will go. I've got lots to do today to prepare for my mom's visit so I'm going to get going now. Have a great day!
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December 19, 2003
Genetically speaking, I suppose that my legs are my strong point. Every week I throw more weight at them and
every week they come through for me. Over the
last 3 months I've added 60 pounds to my 1-rep max squat, and yesterday I did 3 sets of 6 using the same weight that
was my 1 rep max just 10 weeks ago. Even though I'm cutting, I've still been able to add more weight/reps to my squats, lunges, calf raises
and leg raises every week. My hams don't seem to be quite as robust--it usually takes me a few weeks of gradually
increasing my reps before I can move up in weight when doing lying leg curls.
Of course I have many weak areas: my traps, delts and lats are virtually non-existent. I have pretty wide hips, so the only way I'm going to get my "V" taper is to increase the width of my upper body. Once my shoulder heals I'm going to hit those three areas extremely hard.
My pecs, biceps and triceps seem to respond well to training, but I have not been able to work them in almost 2 months thanks to my shoulder injury. I can't wait to get back to my normal workouts again. I feel sorry for those of you who are injury-free and still can't get motivated to work out. You don't know how lucky you are. I'd give anything to be injury-free right now.
Time for me to get my workout in. Today it's cardio and abs. After that, one more tough day of work and I'm off for two whole weeks!
Have a great day, see you tomorrow!
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December 18, 2003
It's crunch time at work for the next 2 days as I prepare for my holiday vacation. I've got a huge list of things I need to accomplish before Friday afternoon, so I'm going to make this short so I can get cracking--but first I have a leg workout to complete! See you tomorrow...
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December 17, 2003
I got the test results from my blood work yesterday. Everything is a-ok, and I'm happy with my cholesterol levels. The last time I had it checked was two or three years ago and it was a very unhealthy 238 at that time (I have no idea what the HDL and LDL levels were because I didn't even know what those were back then). High cholesterol runs in my family, but 238 is not good and I'll bet my HDL was very low. So, my overall cholesterol was 238 two or three years ago, and it was certainly even higher than that last January because I was much heavier and in poor health overall compared to the last time I had it tested. This year my total cholesterol is 181, my LDL is 106 and my HDL is 57. So my LDL/HDL ratio is 1.86:1, which I am told is quite good. It'd better be: what else can I do?!
Just three more days and I'm off from work for two whole weeks. I know I keep bringing it up--can you tell I'm excited?
Time for me to go workout. Have a great day!
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December 16, 2003
As I'm frequently reminded by many of you, I've never posted any pictures of my quads. Sorry about that. I took a couple last night; 1 and 2. I've built a fair amount of muscle over the last few months, and now that I'm cutting it's starting to show through. I expect my legs will be considerably more cut and vascular when I'm back down to 8% body fat. Also, I have a little loose skin around my knees because my legs were once very fat. Hopefully the skin will shrink in time.
My first cardio workout on the elliptical was really intense! I'm glad I bought it because I think my body had pretty much adapted to the stair stepper after my bike broke down. Yesterday's workout really reinforced the notion that we should change our cardio exercises around to keep our body from adapting to what we are throwing at it.
Time for me to get going. See you tomorrow!
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December 15, 2003
My stationary bike gave up the ghost long ago, and now my stair climber is starting to screw up. With Christmas just around the corner, I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a cardio machine right now, so yesterday I went ahead and picked up a really cheap elliptical to tide me over for a while. Hopefully it will last at least 6 months to a year. The action is nice and smooth, so the only thing that I'm worried about is how long it can stand up to my brutal HIIT workouts. When this one dies, I'm going to spend a lot more money and get a really nice stationary bike or elliptical.
It's going to be a crazy week; I've got a lot of extra work to do because I'll be taking two weeks off from work at the end of the week (...and I can't wait!) I'd better get started on my workout now. See you tomorrow!
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December 14, 2003
I've been cutting for 3 weeks and have lost about 6 pounds of fat (this morning the scale is reading about 2 pounds higher than my real weight because I'm still holding some water from Friday night's cheat meal.) I've probably got another 3-4 weeks to go and then I can start a slow bulk like I did last summer. I won't add muscle as quickly as I did during my bulking phase, but I also won't add much (if any) fat.
Here are the obligatory comparison pictures. The first shot was taken 3 weeks ago, the second shot is from this morning:
Today my wife and I are going to be cleaning and getting the house ready for my mom, who arrives next Monday and will be staying with us for a week! I'm also taking 2 weeks off from work starting next Friday, so I've got lots to do in the next 5 or 6 days.
Have a great day, see you tomorrow!
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December 13, 2003
My legs are killing me this morning! I'm always considerably more sore two days after a workout compared to the day immediately following. I can't even tighten my leg muscles; whenever I try they just tremble a little bit and snap back. When I walk or try to sit down it takes forever. I look like a little old man who is suffering from arthritis.
I'm very pleased with how my cutting diet is going so far. It's not as extreme as my initial weight loss program because this time I don't have nearly as much fat to shed, and I also have to worry more about protecting my muscle this time around. I'm a little bloated in this morning's pictures (thanks to last night's cheat meal) but I'm beginning to see some nice cuts and increased vascularity in my arms and legs. My abs should really start to come in as I lose the last 5 or 6 pounds of fat. I wish I had a tan, but that will have to wait until the spring because I don't like fake tanning products and I refuse to pay money or take the time to lay in a tanning bed.
Time for me to go get my cardio in. I really want to lift this morning, but I've got to be patient a little while longer. I'm also doing my rotator cuff strengthening exercises every day, so hopefully those will help prevent future shoulder injuries.
Have a great day, see you tomorrow...
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December 12, 2003
I had another great leg workout yesterday, adding another 5 pounds to my maximum squat and 5 more pounds to all my working sets! I do lunges next-to-last, and I thought I was going to puke when I was doing my last set.
When doing lunges and one-legged calf raises I deviate from the MAX-OT program. I find that moderate weight combined high reps gives me the best results for those two exercises. So when I do lunges and one-legged calf raises, I focus more on increasing the number of reps I can do rather than increasing the amount of weight (although I do increase the weight when I can do 3 sets of 15 or 16). Again, it's all about finding what works best for YOU. Everyone is different and almost nothing is written in stone when it comes to training.
Time for me to go do my cardio. No abs today because they are still sore from Monday's workout! I knew I hit them hard, but man...
See you tomorrow!
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December 11, 2003
Yesterday afternoon my shoulder started hurting again. I guess the "test" workout on Tuesday was not such a great idea. It's not hurting anywhere nearly as bad as it was when I first injured it, but I think it's safe to say that the workout aggravated it somewhat. I guess I just need to continue to be patient so that it can heal completely. I hope it's not going to take much longer because Tuesday's workout certainly re-whet my appetite for upper body training!
At least I can still do full-on leg workouts, and that's exactly what I am going to go do now! Have a good day, I'll see you tomorrow...
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December 10, 2003
So yesterday morning I walked into my home gym, all ready to do my cardio workout. I was about to get on the stair climber when I glanced over at my dumbbells. The wheels started turning:
"Hmm, my shoulder feels pretty good this morning. Maybe I should give my normal back and bicep workout a shot. It has been five weeks since I've lifted... Okay, I'll just start light and won't go crazy. I'll take it slow and see how my shoulder feels..."
Of course the notion that I would go light lasted all the way up until the end of my first few warm up sets, after which I grabbed a pair of heavies and cranked out 3 sets of dumbbell rows at my normal heavy weight. I swear, sometimes I'm too gung-ho for my own good. Anyway, my shoulder felt pretty good while doing the rows. When I finished I looked in the mirror and my arms were all pumped up and my veins looked like they were going to jump out of my body and hurt someone. Man, up until that point I hadn't felt a good pump in my arms in over a month. It was a seriously happy moment.
After my rows I did a few sets of pull-ups: a little tingle of pain, but nothing major. Not wanting to overdo my first workout, I moved on to my biceps. First I did dumbbell curls. I felt great while doing the warm-up sets, but when I went to my normal heavy weights there was some pain, so I backed off a bit and did 3 sets with medium-heavy weights. After the dumbbell curls, I performed 3 sets of hammer curls, and also had to use lighter dumbbells than normal. After the hammer curls, I did a few sets of chin-ups and called it a workout.
About 30 minutes after my workout, my shoulder was feeling kind of heavy and there was some pain. I was
afraid that I may have overdone it, but later in the day it started feeling much better. This morning it feels
fine, and my biceps and back are sore as hell!
I may try doing my normal pecs/delts/triceps workout on Saturday, but I have to be really careful here. I don't want to set myself back. There's no question that my shoulder is still in the process of healing.
I need to go get my workout in now. I'm only doing cardio today because my abs are still sore from Monday (I bombed the hell out of them--did a few extra sets). See you tomorrow!
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December 9, 2003
If you are serious about your fatloss and/or weight training program, you owe it to yourself to start tracking your calories and macronutrient balance (if you are not already.) Doing so allows you to really get a feel for the way your body reacts to given amounts of food and different types of food. Once you have been doing it for a while and have a good sense of the way your body works, making dietary adjustments to suit your particular goals is almost mundane. For example, a few weeks ago I decided that I wanted to start cutting (losing fat). Using my meal planner, I simply adjusted my diet and stuck to it. As expected, the fat started coming off. Of course I've been doing this for a while now and knew how my body would react (experience helps), but the only way to gain experience is to jump in there and start! There's no magic involved--just a few simple concepts that will work for anyone:
- Get in tune with your body: Plan your meals, track your calories and macronutrient balance. Eat healthy and don't cheat.
- Log your workouts. Don't skip them.
- Stick with your plan for a few weeks. Carefully note how your body is responding to your meals and workouts. Are you gaining muscle? Gaining fat? Losing fat?
- After a few weeks, adjust your meals and workouts (if needed); repeat, or stay on course if things are going to plan.
It's not hard, you just have to be disciplined and willing to put some time into your fitness program. If you are serious about losing weight and/or gaining muscle, it has to become a priority in your life. All things considered it doesn't take THAT much time, especially considering the benefits. Besides, once you are in tune with how your body works, staying in shape and eating well simply becomes a way a life and is practically automatic.
The key is to get started and stay motivated. You should go to bed thinking about your goals, and wake up excited and ready to take the next step. Before you know it you will reach your goals and all your hard work and dedication will pay off. Half-hearted attempts will only waste your time and sap your willingness to try again. When you decide to do it, don't bother unless you are ready to go all the way!
It seems that I'm in cheerleader mode this week. I'm not sure why--I never sit down with any particular agenda when I type my daily updates; I generally type whatever comes to mind....
Okay, I need to get started on my workout. I'm off to do my cardio, see you tomorrow....
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December 8, 2003
Last night after dinner I got a major sweet tooth. Lisa didn't help much: I was watching a movie with her,
and she was sitting next to me eating nuts, snack crackers, peanut butter cups--you
name it. She does this almost every night, and she never, ever gains a pound!
Lisa's very ectomorphic and has always been thin
no matter what she eats. If your s/o is not on a fatloss diet with you sometimes it can be extra difficult, but you have to
stay strong! I withstood the temptation to stray from my cutting diet, and this morning I was rewarded by waking
up feeling lean and mean. In the two weeks since I started cutting I've lost 1/2" off my waist and hips,
and my pictures are noticeably better compared to two weeks ago. My abs are starting to come back, and I'm closing in on 9% body fat
(down from 11%). Once my shoulder is fully healed and I can lift again, I'm going to be on
cloud nine!
I've got to go get started on my workout: abs and cardio. See you tomorrow!
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December 7, 2003
I tried some very light lifting yesterday before my cardio and, unfortunately, my shoulder didn't feel too good. I think it may need still more time to recover before I can start lifting again. On a positive note, it doesn't hurt this morning, so the lifting didn't seem to aggravate it. Also, as I mentioned before, I've resumed doing my daily 50 pushups first thing in the morning. I've been doing them for almost two weeks now, and there's been no shoulder pain at all. I could not do a single pushup without a lot of pain for a long time after I injured my shoulder, so it does seem to be improving, albeit slowly.
Today's my day off and I've got a lot of pre-Christmas stuff to get done. I hope you enjoy your day. See you tomorrow!
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December 6, 2003
Today is the 11 month marker since I started my fitness program. This morning I was thinking about how different my life is compared to a year ago. Last year at this time I was probably at one of the lowest points of my life, both physically and mentally. This year I'm in the best shape of my life, my outlook on life is very positive and I feel like I can accomplish anything. The past year has flown by, and all the "work" I put into changing my lifestyle was well worth it. Actually the word "work" is not appropriate anymore; working out and eating right is just the way I live now.
If you are sitting there feeling miserable and are in the same boat I was in less than a year ago, then make the commitment today to change the way you eat and live. Start working out and develop sound nutritional habits. Before you know it what you are doing won't seem so difficult, and your whole life will improve in so many ways that you'll wonder why you waited so long to get started. It won't be easy, especially at first, but if you just get started and stick with it no matter what, you will never regret it. Do it!
Okay, time for me to get started on my cardio. Have a good day, I'll see you tomorrow!
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December 5, 2003
I think I shook that cold I felt coming on right off; I'm feeling a lot better this morning compared to yesterday. My shoulder is also feeling good, but I'm tempted to give it one more week before I start doing upper body weight training again. It took such a long time to heal, I'd hate to set myself back this close to a complete recovery. It's hard waiting this long, but after all these weeks I think I can wait one more.
Tonight is my cheat meal, but I'm going to skip the wine because I still have some mild cold symptoms. After cutting all week I'm really looking forward to having a few slices of pizza!
I'm going to go get my cardio in now. I hope you have a good day--see you this weekend!
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December 4, 2003
I started feeling pretty sick yesterday after my update and had to force myself to eat. I also had
to go into the office yesterday afternoon (of all days!), but I forgot my food... so I wound up missing my 3:30 snack.
As a result, my calories were very low yesterday, but I just could not eat any more. I'm feeling somewhat better this
morning--I think I just might manage to shake this cold off before it gets too bad. I hate to do it, but I'm going to use my
better judgment and skip my leg workout this morning so that my body can use all its resources to fight off
the cold. The last time I started feeling ill, I pushed through and did my leg workout anyway, and it turned
into full-blown flu that lasted a week. I don't want that to happen again! Falstaff was right: sometimes discretion is the better part
of valor.
My shoulder continues to feel much, much better. It still hurts slightly sometimes, so I may give it another week before I start lifting again. If it feels good Saturday morning, I may do a very light workout. I'll see how I feel and decide then.
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December 3, 2003
It seems that I've come down with a bit of a cold, so I slept in a bit later this morning and now I'm running behind. I'd better get going because it's going to be a busy day today. See you tomorrow!
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December 2, 2003
It feels great to be shedding the fat I gained while bulking. There is still a lot of work to be done, but I've already started to notice a slight difference in several areas. So far I've not lost any muscle or strength and have not felt hungry (once I got past the first couple of days). I figure it will take me another 5-6 weeks to get back down to 8% body fat.
It's been a tough couple of months for me. Not being able to do upper body weight training while putting on a few pounds of fat was pretty difficult for me to deal with mentally. Even though it was hard at times (especially posting my pictures here as I began to put on fat), I learned a lot from the experience. I'm glad I stuck it out and didn't give up. Don't ever give up no matter what happens; giving up is the one thing that will guarantee your failure. You may have to change your plan of attack, but the important thing is to keep fighting.
Enough rah-rah, time to workout. See you tomorrow...
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December 1, 2003
As I mentioned a couple of day ago, my shoulder has been feeling great ever since I went to the doctor and started taking the anti-inflammatory. I've been doing my morning pushups again for a few days now and there's been no pain at all. I'm going to be very careful with it this week, and Saturday morning I'm going to start my upper body workouts again. I will go pretty light at first, and I'll be substituting rotator cuff exercises for dips. I'm hopeful that in a few weeks I will be able to hit the really heavy weights again.
I'm running late this morning, so I better go get my workout in. See you tomorrow...
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