Daily News Archives
May 2009
05/31/2009 - Pre-cut measurements and predictions.
05/30/2009 - Saturday plans.
05/29/2009 - Free weekend ahead.
05/28/2009 - Getting ready for Monday.
05/27/2009 - Old school.
05/26/2009 - Struggling a bit; Stress.
05/25/2009 - I'm back; status update.
05/24/2009 - No update - out of town/vacation.
05/23/2009 - No update - out of town/vacation.
05/22/2009 - No update - out of town/vacation.
05/21/2009 - No update - out of town/vacation.
05/20/2009 - No update - out of town/vacation.
05/19/2009 - No update - out of town/vacation.
05/18/2009 - No update - out of town/vacation.
05/17/2009 - No update - out of town/vacation.
05/16/2009 - No update - out of town/vacation.
05/15/2009 - General Tso's evil chicken; AtLarge sale; Gone for a week.
05/14/2009 - Good HIIT workout; June "100 Challenge" open for entry.
05/13/2009 - Broccoli talk; HIIT on sore legs.
05/12/2009 - Detailed photo tour of my 2009 cutting diet.
05/11/2009 - Food tour delay; Midnight pages; Leg day!
05/10/2009 - Sunday progress report.
05/09/2009 - I need a new computer; Cheat meal last night.
05/08/2009 - Delts workout today; Poker game tonight.
05/07/2009 - Pizza cravings last night; Rant against SEARS.
05/06/2009 - Great workout yesterday; Another lunch meeting?
05/05/2009 - New workout time?; Out of town later this month.
05/04/2009 - Leg day; I love breakfast.
05/03/2009 - Sunday stats.
05/02/2009 - A little off-topic for today: garden pictures.
05/01/2009 - Good workouts this week; May 2009 TSM!
May 31, 2009
In anticipation of my 100% strict cutting diet that starts tomorrow (no cheat meals, no alcohol and no missed workouts--period), I've taken a fresh set of tape measurements, a 7-point body fat caliper reading and my scale weight. I've been have a "free" weekend, so these numbers are slightly inflated due to water weight.
My scale weight this morning is 213.8 pounds. I actually wish it were higher because after taking my body fat reading (below), it's obvious that my slacking has cost me some muscle.
My body fat reading this morning is 14.7% (as measured by the Fat Track PRO Digital Body Fat Calipers).
That means I'm presently made up of 31.43 pounds of fat, and 182.37 pounds of lean mass. My body fat goal is 8%, so I need to lose around 45% of my current fat stores.
So, with 31.43 pounds of fat I need to lose around 14 pounds to hit my goal. Of course I'll lose some lean mass along the way (just for starters at least 5 pounds of my current
lean mass is water bloat from this weekend's junk food frenzy),
so my actual scale weight loss should be somewhere around 20-23 pounds. I think I'll reach my goal of 8% body fat in just 10-12 weeks. In other words, my six pack will be looking pretty
tight just in time for the end of summer. 
My tape measurements (as measured by the MyoTape) can be found on the stats page.
OK, I've got more yard work to do this morning (there's always something to do out there), and this afternoon I'm going to relax and get mentally prepared for the upcoming week. Have a great Sunday, and I'll see you tomorrow!
May 30, 2009
This weekend is my last chance to indulge before I get 100% strict with my cutting diet and training. Once this weekend is over I will not deviate from my cutting diet until I reach my goal of 8% body fat. Tomorrow morning I'll take complete measurements and a body fat reading.
It looks like it's going to be a beautiful day, so I am going to head outside with Lisa and work in the yard before it gets too hot. I think later today I'm going to watch a movie and make some popcorn. I also need to run over to the hardware store to purchase a padlock and chain for the popcorn machine. Yeah, the popcorn is that good.
One cool thing that's really going to help on this cut is that Lisa has committed to eating 100% healthy with me, and also will not be drinking any alcohol. Lisa doesn't need to lose any fat (she says she does, but she's retarded), but it will be very nice to not have extra dietary temptations dangled in front of me!
Enjoy your Saturday!
May 29, 2009
I'm getting very excited about Monday! I've decided to start my cut over, and will take a fresh set of measurements on Sunday as my starting stats. I debated if I should start over (basically resetting the starting stats and the weight chart), or if I should just continue the current cut. I ultimately decided that my current cut has not really been much of a cut, and that psychologically I would benefit most from a clean start.
I'm giving myself a "free" weekend--no training and no restrictions on what I eat. I figure this is going to be my last chance to indulge for the next several months, so I might as well take advantage of it.
Happy Friday everyone!
May 28, 2009
After I posted yesterday's update, I felt better than I've felt in weeks. I know I'm making the right move here, and there's no longer any doubt in my mind that extreme commitment to my cutting program is exactly what I need right now. My vacation time has been approved, and while I plan to relax and have fun next week my #1 priority each day will be 100% commitment to my diet and training. By the end of next week I'm going to be firmly back on track, building speed and gaining momentum.
I'm going to be on vacation next week and will have a lot of spare time, so there will be strong temptations to go off my diet and to drink. I seem to be craving a serious challenge right now, and it's almost like I've done everything I can to make the challenge as difficult as possible. I seem to thrive when the pressure is on, so I suspect that subconsciously I set things up this way on purpose.
I have a lot of work to do before my vacation, so I'm going to get cracking on it. Have a great day!
May 27, 2009
I took yesterday off from work and did some thinking about what it is I need to do to get myself out of this funk that I've been in. The lack of structure (comparatively speaking) that I've been "enjoying" lately has been a real mixed bag for me. On a superficial level I've enjoyed the freedom that the changes I made have brought me, but yesterday when I dug a little deeper I came to the realization that this is not the right time for those changes. In fact, I'm pretty sure the changes I made are a big part of the problem. Why? Because right now the situation at work is uncertain, unpredictable and chaotic. What I feel I need right now is structure, order and self-discipline in the other areas of my life to sort of balance things out.
I've decided to take next week off from work. This will only be a vacation from my job: I'm going to use the time off to get focused and re-commit to my training and cutting diet. Normally when I'm on vacation I take a break from the daily updates to this site, but this time I'm not going to do that. There will be no more cheat meals, no more alcohol, no more missed workouts and no more screwing around. Starting on Monday I'm going back to what I do best: 100% dedication with no excuses.
When this cut is over I'll re-visit the more relaxed approach, but right now it's time for some old school Stone.
May 26, 2009
I'm having the worst time staying motivated lately. It's bugging the heck out of me. Most of my workouts feel forced, and sticking to my cutting diet has been a constant struggle. Most of the time I really look forward to working out, but over the years I guess I've been through a couple of patches like this before. I think the trick to getting back to my usual ways is to keep powering through and start building momentum. The hard part, of course, is getting the ball rolling again.
I'm pretty sure the root of the problem is stress. I've worked very hard my entire life to get to where I am, and the very real prospect of losing my job in this horrible economy is pretty scary. I know I need to do a better job of handling the stress; after all, it's not like I can control what happens! Probably the worst thing I could do right now is to allow the stress I'm feeling to diminish my health.
I don't mean to sound like I'm complaining, but I do try to make this journal a true reflection of my ups, downs, triumphs and struggles. Right now I happen to be struggling a bit, but I'm going to get through this and emerge tougher than ever!
May 25, 2009
My life has been very hectic lately, and last week was especially crazy. Despite being out of town for part of the week and having a very unusual schedule, I was able to eat very clean all week long. I did miss two workouts, however. I did not eat any "cheat" meals or junk food all last week, but last night we had company over and I ordered pizza for everyone. Actually I'd planned to grill lean burgers last night, but the rain was coming down in buckets and my planned cookout had to be canceled. Anyway, I didn't make any significant cutting progress over the past week, but with everything that was going on I consider it a victory that I didn't lose any ground.
I am struggling with moderation. While one part of me is really enjoying the more laid back approach I've recently adopted, another side of me is growing increasingly restless because my progress has been agonizingly slow. I knew that making the change from my usual "all or nothing" attack to a more casual approach was going to present new challenges and carry a learning curve, but the adjustment has been even more difficult than I thought it would be. I'm going to give it another week or two, but if I'm still feeling displeased with my progress then I'm going back to my old ways--at least until this cut is over.
My vacation time at work resets in just two months, but I've only used 5 of my 19 vacation days (plus I have 2 unused personal days) for the year. The vacation and personal days don't roll over, so I'll probably be taking several weeks off over the next couple of months. While the time off will be more than welcome, remaining on my cutting diet and resisting the temptation to slack off while on holiday is going to be a real challenge.
I'm going to wrap this up and get some breakfast going. See you tomorrow
May 16, 2009 - May 24, 2009
No update - out of town/vacation.
May 15, 2009
So I decided to have my weekly "cheat" meal last night. I was craving General Tso's Chicken, and so that's what I had. Ugh. The food was
awesome, but every time I eat junk food like that I sleep horribly. Sure enough, all night long I felt hot and restless, and my thirst was absolutely unquenchable.
Overnight I drank 1.4 liters of water, and when I got up this morning I drank another 700ml bottle of water in less than 10 minutes.
Of course now I look and feel like a water balloon, and I'm groggy and tired. Every time this happens I swear that I'll never order General Tso's Chicken again,
but I always do. Damn you General Tso! Damn you and your magical chicken! 
On a more positive note, I had a very solid back and biceps workout yesterday afternoon! Even though I'm feeling a bit tired this morning, I expect that once I get in the gym and get moving I'll be fine for today's delts and triceps training.
I just received word that AtLarge Nutrition is running a 10% off sale through May 20th! Details are immediately below this update.
OK, as I mentioned earlier this week, I'm going to be out of town for few days, and when I get back I'll be taking a few days off. My normal daily updates will resume on Monday, May 25th. See you soon...
|
AtLarge Nutrition - 10% Off Sale! We are pleased to announce that for the next 6 days (now through Wednesday, May 20th, 2009) you can save 10% on your order! That discount also applies to shipping charges. Further, the already generous multi-unit discounts are still in effect, so this is your chance to stock up and enjoy a saving! To receive your discount, simply place your order as normal and when you get to the payment information page, you will see a box labeled "Discount Coupon". Simply enter the following coupon code to receive your 10% discount: maysale Your discount will then be clearly shown on the Confirmation page. Don't delay, get your order in today! |
May 14, 2009
My legs were KILLING me when I climbed aboard the recumbent bike yesterday for my HIIT cardio workout. I started slowly and after about 5 minutes the
soreness was much less noticeable. I rode for another 5 minutes at a slightly higher speed, and then I started my actual HIIT workout. While
I was riding my legs didn't really hurt too much, but when I finished and stepped off the bike my legs buckled and I literally fell down!
It's not like I couldn't stand, I was just caught off guard by how wobbly my legs were.
I think my legs are so sore this week because Monday's workout was quite good; I made some pretty significant jumps in the amount of weight I used.
Today is my back and biceps workout. I'm glad today's back workout doesn't call for deadlifts or anything that requires the use of my legs, because I'm not sure I would be able to pull it off.
I've opened the June "100 Challenge" for entry. Details are immediately below this update...
Registration for the June 2009 "100 Challenge" is now underway! Your Official Challenge post must be made by 7:00 AM (EDT) on June 1, 2009 if you plan to participate--NO EXCEPTIONS! To participate, you must be a member of the forum. If you are not a member, simply create a free account. It can take up to 24 hours for your account to be activated, so don't wait until the last minute to register! For all the details, official rules and sample entry data, just head over to the June 2009 "100 Challenge" thread on the forum. If you are ready to work hard and want to challenge yourself in a fun and competitive environment, then please take part!
May 13, 2009
Yesterday's photo tour of my cutting diet sparked a discussion on broccoli in my journal. I can tolerate frozen broccoli, but it's really not that good compared to fresh. I've always used frozen broccoli just because it's easy to prepare, but lately I've grown so sick of it that I have to force it down. Next week I'm going to start using fresh broccoli, which I really enjoy a lot.
I had a fantastic leg workout on Monday, but now my legs are so sore that I can barely walk. Today I don't train with weights, but I do have a HIIT cardio workout to get done. I'm not looking forward to the HIIT workout on these aching wheels of mine. I think I'm going to do like 7-10 minutes of low intensity cardio before I start my interval training. When my legs are sore a brief warmup before getting to the meat of the cardio session always seems to help.
Enjoy your day - thanks for stopping by!
May 12, 2009
I'm feeling very good about how my workouts have gone lately. Despite being in a caloric deficit, my strength is increasing each week and I have plenty of energy in the gym. Even though I've been able to add weight to most of my exercises on a consistent basis, I'm still nowhere near as strong as I was at the end of my bulk. One day at time...
So this morning I've got a photographic tour of my 2009 cut meals. These pictures represent what I've been eating lately on a typical day. I'll also talk a bit about how I prepare each meal. I hope you enjoy it!
MEAL #1, 8:00 AM: 16 Oz egg whites, 6 Oz roasted red potatoes, 1 Tbsp natural peanut butter
I add fresh cilantro, garlic, cumin, salt and fresh ground pepper to the egg whites and then cook them in a non-stick pan.
The roasted red potatoes are washed and then cut into bite-sized chunks. I hit the potatoes with a blast of olive oil flavored Pam, add some salt and pepper and then cook them for about 25 minutes in a convection toaster oven at 425 degrees (F).
The peanut butter is Smucker's brand, and only contains peanuts and salt (be careful, many "natural" peanut butters contain sugar and other stuff).
By the way, I hate stirring the natural peanut butter up, but I've discovered a little trick that makes it much easier: I use a heavy-duty steak knife instead of a spoon! I use the knife to repeatedly stab down to the bottom of the jar; this gets the oil down into the peanut butter and helps to soften it up. I finish up by using the knife to stir the softened peanut butter. This procedure works quite well!
MEAL #2, 10:30 AM: 7 Oz boneless grilled chicken breast, 6 Oz. sweet potato, 2 Cups salad greens w/ 1/2 Tbsp olive oil (not pictured)
I ran out of salad greens, so you'll have to pretend that they are in the picture. 
I pierce the sweet potato with a fork a few times, and then cook it in my convection toaster oven at 400 degrees for about 50 minutes, turning once halfway through.
I like my chicken breasts pretty plain, so I just give them a quick spray with Pam (this helps give them a nice golden brown color and locks the juices in) and add salt and pepper. I cook them on a medium grill for about 20 minutes, 10 minutes per side. To save time I always prepare 4 breasts at a time, and then store the remaining 3 breasts in a large zip lock baggie.
MEAL #3, 1:00 PM: 8 Oz grilled shrimp, 1.5 Cups (cooked) brown rice, 1 Cup broccoli
I sometimes marinate the shrimp in a couple tablespoons of fat-free Italian dressing for about 30 minutes prior to grilling. They are quite good when prepared that way! I grill the shrimp over medium heat (on skewers) for a few minutes per side (don't overcook!) I usually prepare 16 Oz of shrimp at a time, and then have the remaining 8 Oz the next day (cold).
I like Uncle Ben's brown rice because it tastes great and cooks very quickly. I prepare the rice in a regular 3 quart saucepan:
I stir 2 cups of rice into 4 cups of water, bring to a boil, reduce heat to 2.4 (of course stoves vary, so
don't bank on that number for your stove), cover, cook for exactly 20 minutes, turn the heat off and then let the rice sit (covered) for 10 minutes.
This technique makes 100% perfect rice every single time. As you can see from the picture, I like a lot of fresh ground pepper on my rice.
The broccoli is Bird's Eye frozen broccoli, which is my favorite brand.
MEAL #4 (post-workout), 3:30 PM: 60g AtLarge Nitrean, 70g waxy maize
Simple post-workout meal: 2 scoops of Nitrean and 70g of waxy maize blended with 15 Oz water and 7 ice cubes.
MEAL #5, 5:00 PM: 6 Oz grilled 96% lean ground beef, 8 Oz roasted red potatoes
I'll either have eye of round steak or very lean ground beef for this meal. The ground beef patties are very simple to prepare: I add salt and pepper, and then cook them for about 5 minutes per side over a medium grill. I then add lots more fresh ground pepper, because that's just how I do.
The red potatoes are, of course, cooked just like I described in meal #1.
MEAL #6, 7:30 PM: 60g AtLarge Nitrean, 2 Tbsp natural peanut butter
This is a perfect pre-bed meal. It's also very easy to prepare, and after a long day that's important because the last thing I feel like doing is cooking yet again. I just add the Nitrean and peanut butter to 12 Oz of water, toss in 5 ice cubes and blend. Awesome.
Well, I hope you liked the tour! Now it's time for me to go enjoy meal #1. Have a great day!
May 11, 2009
Last night I downloaded all the meal photographs from my camera, but one of the pictures didn't come out at all. I'd planned to post the photographic tour of my 2009 cut this morning, but I'm going to have to re-take the picture of meal #5 today and post the tour tomorrow morning. Sorry about that!
The were some network issues over this past weekend (at work, not JSF). I wound up having to work a few hours, but the worst part was
all the pages in the middle of the night. I've briefly mentioned that the situation with my company is sort of tenuous right now. I
swear, if I wind up losing my job I would love to get away from computers altogether. I've been working with
computers all my life, and sometimes I just hate it. Of course I've probably said that a thousand times.
I'm not a big fan of Mondays, but one bright spot is that Monday is LEG DAY! After my leg workout I always feel great, and the rest of the day just seems to fly by. This is yet another reason why I am enjoying my new earlier workout time.
I'd better stop procrastinating and get to work. I've got a lot on my plate today and I don't want to have to work late. Train hard!
May 10, 2009
It's Sunday, and time for my weekly cutting progress report...
My scale weight this morning is 209 pounds, which is actually a 2 pound gain from last week's weight of 207 pounds. This gain is water weight from the Chinese food "cheat" meal I had on Friday night, and not something I'm concerned with. My overall weight loss is 8.2 pounds (even with the cheat meal bloat).
My body fat reading this morning is 13.5% (as measured by the Fat Track PRO Digital Body Fat Calipers). That's a slight drop from last week's reading of 13.6%, and down from my initial body fat reading of 14.6%.
I've lost another quarter inch from my waist this week, while all other measurements remain the same. After five weeks of cutting I'm down 1.25 inches at my waist, one inch at my hips and a 1/4 inch at my thighs.
All my stats, past and present, can always be found on the stats page. My complete 2009 cutting diet is here, and my training program is here. If you are interested in obtaining a diet and training program customized just for you and your goals, please contact Mastover.
I'd like to my mom and all of you other wonderful moms out there a very Happy Mother's Day!
It's a beautiful morning, and I think I'm going to go for a walk before it gets too hot. I'll be back tomorrow with a detailed photographic tour of my 2009 cutting diet. See you then!
May 9, 2009
Sigh. I desperately need a new computer. My main machine is a creaky old 2.4 GHz Pentium 4 with a paltry 1 GB of RAM. It's so slow that I can barely visit complex sites such as Facebook and my local newspaper's web site. It's always such a pain migrating to a new machine, but I don't think I can put it off much longer.
I had a "cheat" meal last night. Funny, I was craving pizza all last week but then last night I had a sneak attack craving for Chinese food. Normally I order General Tso's Chicken, but I was in the mood for something a bit less heavy, so I had pork fried rice. It's become my mission in life to eat lots of pork and to hug and shake hands with everyone I meet until the swine flu hysteria dies down.
I've been taking pictures of my cutting meals, and should have a photographic tour of my cutting diet ready for Monday morning's update!
I'm going to get out in the yard before it gets too hot and get some work done. Back tomorrow with my weekly stats and progress report. Have an awesome Saturday!
May 8, 2009
Last week seemed to drag on forever, but this week really flew by for some reason! I can't believe it's already Friday.
Today is my delts and triceps workout (complete 2009 cut training information here), and I'm really looking forward to it. I am going to try to train at my new earlier time (around 12:45 PM) again today. That time has been working out quite well for me. Today should be a fun workout because I love training my delts, and a big part of the reason why is because they look and feel great with a good pump. I wish my delts looked as good as they do when they are pumped all the time!
I think I'm going to go sit at a neighborhood poker game tonight, and maybe have a couple drinks with the guys while we play.
I've been pretty successful playing online Hold 'Em (interesting side note: I
hit a Royal Flush
the other day - the odds of that are 1 in 649,740!), but I've not sat in a live game in like 20 years. I need to get some live experience under my belt
before I fly to Vegas and win the WSOP main event this summer.
Enjoy your day - see you tomorrow!
May 7, 2009
We wound up not having that lunch meeting yesterday, so it was business as usual for my diet and training.
I was craving pizza something terrible last night, and it took a lot of willpower not to order one. Even though I'm striving to obtain symmetry between my fitness life and the rest of my life, giving in to every craving by wrapping it up in a pretty "I'm being balanced" package would be really dumb. I'll savor the notion that I can have a pizza this weekend if I want.
I normally try to keep this blog pretty positive, and I rarely use it as a bully pulpit - especially when it comes to matters that have nothing to do with fitness. This morning, however, I'm going to complain a bit...
Sears sucks. I will never give so much as another dime of my money to Sears under any circumstances. All of the appliances in my new home were purchased at Sears (this was not my choice, it was a deal between Sears and the builder of my home). Over the past year or so I've had to deal with Sears' unbelievable horrible customer service department quite a few times. Every single time I've contacted them it's been an absolute nightmare. This latest incident has been about the same as every other incident. It would take me hours to detail everything that's happened, but the bottom line is Sears is finally coming to fix my dishwasher (which is under extended warranty) this morning after over a month of phone calls (many of which were mysteriously dropped after incredibly long hold times), broken promises, missed service dates, back ordered parts, unintelligible customer service reps, inaccurate information and outright lies (or just total ineptitude). At one point about three weeks into the process I was completely frustrated, and said to a customer service manager, "Sears is the worst company I've ever dealt with. You guys suck so bad it's almost incomprehensible." She replied, "I know." Anyway, if this rant can save even one person the frustration I've gone through, then I'm glad I posted it. I can't say this strongly enough: Don't ever buy from Sears.
May 6, 2009
Yesterday I had another excellent, high energy workout. I'm really liking the new workout time that I've been experimenting with this week, and so I've decided that I'm going to start working out around 12:45 PM as much as I can. This new workout time works out well on several levels, one of which is that everyone I work with is usually on lunch break at that time, so there's less chance that someone will try to get hold of me while I'm in the gym. Another benefit is that I seem to have more energy at the earlier time.
I might have another lunch meeting today. If so, I'm not going to take any special foods or bring a cooler: I will do as I did for last week's meeting and simply pick something relatively healthy from the menu. There may be a point later in my cut (as I dip into the single digit body fat percentages) where I'll need to be very strict strict, but I don't anticipate that phase lasting more than a few weeks. That kind of strictness, applied now, would certainly get me to my goal a little quicker, but at this point I can definitely keep making progress without it.
Today is a cardio only day, and if we have that meeting I may go ahead and do it this morning after meal #1. I really don't want to shower for the meeting, then come home and do my HIIT cardio and then have to shower again!
Well, I'm off to work now. See you tomorrow!
May 5, 2009
I was really itching to lift yesterday, so I decided to bump my workout time forward a bit. I hit the weights around 12:45 PM instead of my usual 2:45 time. I had a fantastic leg workout--probably my best workout so far on this cut! I had to switch my meals around to accommodate the new workout time, but of course I still ate the same foods. I really liked working out at the new time. I think today I'm going to do the same thing, and may make the workout time change permanant.
I'm going to be out of town from May 17 - May 21. When I get back I think I'm going to take a couple of vacation days, so I won't be updating the main site during that week.
After yesterday's update I was reminded that I promised to do a photographic tour of my cutting meals (here is my 2008 bulking diet photo tour. I will see about getting that done sometime this week (time permitting).
I'd better get breakfast started and get to work. Thanks for stopping by!
May 4, 2009
After skipping last Monday's leg workout, I owe myself an extra brutal training session this afternoon. I'm feeling highly motivated to lift today, so I'm expecting a very solid performance in the gym (and in the backyard!) Here in Central Florida we're now reaching temperatures in the 90s by mid-afternoon, so the backyard portion of my leg workout is not going to be quite as much fun as it was when it was 10 or 15 degrees cooler. Still, I really love training outdoors. I can totally see the appeal of places like Muscle Beach.
You know, you'd think I'd be sick of egg whites and roasted red potatoes by now, but I still look forward to this breakfast more than any other meal of the day. I jazz the egg whites up in different ways to keep things interesting. Lately I've been in a tex-mex mood, and so I toss in some fresh cilantro, garlic and cumin. It's so good! I still make the roasted red potatoes the same way: preheat toaster oven to 425 degrees, chop the potatoes into bite-sized pieces, give them a quick blast with olive oil flavored Pam, add some salt and pepper and bake for about 25 minutes. So good!
(I took that photo when I was bulking. Right now I'm eating more egg whites, less potatoes and no bread).
Well, I've got quite a day ahead of me so I'd better get going. Have a good Monday!
May 3, 2009
Week #4 of my 2009 cut is behind me. Let's see how I'm doing...
My scale weight this morning is 207 pounds-- a 4 pound drop from last week's weight of 211 pounds. Last week I was pretty bloated with water from a "cheat" meal, so the 4 pound drop is not nearly as drastic as it sounds.
My body fat reading this morning is 13.6% (as measured by the Fat Track PRO Digital Body Fat Calipers). That's a bit of a drop from last week's reading of 13.8%, and down from my initial reading of 14.6%.
I've lost another quarter inch from my waist and hips. So, after four weeks I'm down one full inch off my waist, one full inch from my hips and a 1/4 inch from my thighs.
All my stats, past and present, can always be found on the stats page. My complete 2009 cutting diet is here, and my training program is here. If you are interested in obtaining a diet and training program customized just for you and your goals, please contact Mastover.
I made pretty good progress this week, and I didn't feel compelled to be perfect (and I wasn't!)
Enjoy your Sunday!
May 2, 2009
It's finally Saturday! After my hectic work week I really thought I was going to wake up this morning wanting to just bum around; surprisingly, however, I'm in the mood to do some projects around the house. I think the incredible weather we've been enjoying lately is responsible. It's way too nice outside to sit around the house doing nothing!
Speaking of the nice weather, yesterday I posted some pictures of my gardens in my photo journal. My plants, flowers and palms were hit hard by the unusually harsh winter we had here in Central Florida, so for the past few months I've been giving everything lots of TLC and now things are recovering nicely. By mid-summer everything should look fantastic again.
No workout today, but I'll be sure to get plenty of exercise working in the yard and around the house. I'll be back tomorrow with my weekly stats. Have a wonderful day!
May 1, 2009
It's finally Friday! Man, what a week this has been. I'm so ready to kick back and take a couple days off from everything. The end of the work day can't get here soon enough. The first of the month is always a very busy day for me, however, so I have a lot to accomplish before I can wrap up the work week.
With the obvious exception of the workout I skipped on Monday, I've had some pretty darn good training sessions this week. There's no getting around it: I really lost a lot of strength and size during the month I took off after Turtle's death. After how hard I worked during my four month bulk, I have to admit that the size and strength that I've lost is a little upsetting. That said, I'm really starting to become more comfortable with my recent realization that being huge and/or completely shredded is losing its appeal. Still, there's always that competitive side of me, scratching and clawing for attention. Right now I feel like I'm standing on a high wire, flailing my arms around in an effort to keep my balance and not fall. I'm sure that in time I'll find my step.
Be sure to check out the May 2009 Transformation Spotlight of the Month! Phoenix's story is just incredible. He's overcome so much in his life, and I'm really proud of him. The link is just below this update...
Time for me to get back to work. I hope you have a fantastic Friday!
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