An Example Dinner

I thought I'd share with you a representative dinner that I'm eating on the program.  First, though, let's examine my food intake for the day.  Breakfast this morning was half a bagel thin with fat-free cream cheese and jalapeno.  (Note:  Capsaicin is a natural appetite suppressant.  That's not why I use them, I love jalapeno, but that is a nice side benefit)  With that I had 3 turkey sausage links.

Morning break allowed me time for a protein bar.

Lunch was a turkey sandwich on a whole wheat sandwich thin with a slice of provolone, pickles (calorie/fat/etc. free...just full of sodium), and more jalapeno slices.  With that I had a protein shake.

Afternoon break was another protein bar.

Dinner tonight was this:

What you see there is a pork chop seasoned with Old Bay and cooked in olive oil.  Accompanying that is broccoli with a touch of margarine (love those steam-in-the-microwave) bags, and fat-free cream cheese.  I had a second serving of broccoli, but that was it.  The drink is the aldi's version of Crystal Light.

So let's look at the ingredients:

Broccoli brings a ton of nutrients and fiber to the party.  The pork is a lean meat, with a high protein content.  Fat-free cream cheese is pretty much straight protein, with a share of carbohydrates too.  A very well-rounded and tasty meal.  I enjoyed it, the boys enjoyed it, the dog enjoyed the boys' leftovers.

And just for Steph, I close this blog entry with a motivational image:

Rambling Blues #17

So, I'm one workout into the final week of the Push phase of the Chalean Extreme program.  I don't really know how I feel about it.

First off...I've really upped the weights week-to-week.  At least 5 pound increments on every one (except the v-press curls), but usually 10 pounds per week on most.  My strength and endurance have increased immensely.  Just, to me, staggeringly so.

On the other hand, I haven't lost as much weight in this phase as I thought.  Since beginning the program, I've lost about 30 pounds.  I really expected the Push Phase to have been where I really saw the weight coming off.  Since starting the Push phase, I've lost about 10 pounds.  I expected a bit more.  I'm not really disappointed, but a little surprised, for sure.

My eating has improved IMMENSELY.  I'm eating better foods, and less of them.  I still have, about once a week, a meal where I go off the reservation, but it's never as much as before.  For instance, this past Sunday was Conrad's birthday.  I told him he could have whatever he wanted for dinner.  He chose chinese takeout.  I thought about what to get, and decided that I would get one of the chicken dinners, and just eat what I felt like and throw the rest away.

I ate 6 bites.  I just couldn't eat any more.  I had eaten a turkey sandwich for lunch and had a sliver of cake and a little ice cream earlier, but trust me when I say a sliver.  It was tiny.  And it was enough.

So, that's going well, I can say.

It's time to start thinking about what more I can do.  There's a 5k on May 12th that I'd like to do.  That means I need to get running in addition to the workouts.  I'm actually really excited for it.  I just need the weather to start cooperating.  I'm hoping to start this Saturday, actually.  Using the couch to 5k program.  On that program, you run 3 days a week.  If I start on Saturday, then the first two runs of the week will be on rest days.  That leaves the last run of the week on the heavy cardio day of the program.  Maybe I'm over-thinking it. I'm not sure, but I'm starting one way or another soon.  I've trained for a 5k before, and was more than ready to do it, but other members of my family prevented me from being able to do the one that I had trained for, and I was extremely upset about it.  I will train and complete this one, and hopefully it's just a stepping stone to future ones.

Also, I need to think about the next workout program.  I'm contemplating p90x as the next one, with the p90x2 yoga thrown in.  I'm not sure yet.  I also don't really know how long a buffer I should put in between the end of this one and starting a new one.  I'm sure I should give my body somewhat of a recovery time, but what?

Anyway, things to think about.

Ok, this blog post sucked.  Boring.  So here's a nice picture of jiggly boobs.

Chewbacca is My Hero

It's long...but worth it.  Just like me.

I Told You It Was Coming...

Yeah, it was supposed to be yesterday, but I was busy.  I DON'T ANSWER TO YOU!  Had a fun time picking up the boys with my mother, sister and her kids.  We all took turns throwing an axe at my three year old standing on the top of the stairs.

It was a foam axe.  He was laughing hysterically.

Anyway, I brought them back to central new york and dropped them off with their mother.  I came back home alone.  Which sucks.  But that's part of my life now, right?

So, yeah, I'm under 300 now.  Was again this morning, so it wasn't just a fluke.  It feels good.  It should probably feel better.  I don't know.

Phase 2, which I'm 3 weeks through now, is called the Push Circuit.  In this phase of the Chalean Extreme program you are lifting heavy weights.  Heavy weight, low rep is the name of the game for this circuit.  I'm using weights that I never expected to be lifting for things like this.  When lifting weights like this, your muscles muscles fail.  That's the entire point.  You want exertion to failure.  In the three weeks that I've done this circuit, I've at least gone up 5 pounds every week on most exercises.  Some I've gone up as much as 15 pounds week to week.

So I want to make this a slightly educational post.  I want to talk about what happens when your muscles fail, and what DOMS really is.

First, muscle failure.  Training to failure is, quite simply, repeating an exercise until your muscles no longer have the capacity to complete any further repetitions.  In most weight-training regimens, you want to stop when you can no longer complete a repetition WITH GOOD FORM.  Once you reach the spot where your form is no longer effective, i.e. your arms/legs are shaking, you are compensating by changing your posture, etc, it's time to stop.

So why train to failure?  The science behind muscle failure is rooted in fibers.  The strength of your muscles is in these fibers.  They are classified into three types.  I, IIA, and IIB, determined by their explosive power versus endurance.  These fibers are, in a sense, fired in order.  If you do not train to a certain point, only Type I fibers will ever be engaged.  A moderate workout will cause the Type IIA fibers to be utilized, taking over when Type I fibers are fully exhausted.  Training to failure, however, will ensure that Type IIB fibers are fired as well, coming through when Type IIA is spent.  If you do not train to complete failure, only Type I fibers will be broken down and rebuilt stronger.  Training to failure is the way to make sure all three types are improved.

Now, let's learn about DOMS.  DOMS is 'Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness'.  It is that phenomenon where your muscles are sore in the days following exercise, NOT during or immediately after exercise.  DOMS is a normal thing to feel, and is part of the 'muscle confusion' platform that so many recent workout programs are based on.  DOMS is the signal to you that your muscles are adapting to the new exertions.  This will lead to greater stamina and strength as the muscles recover and build, a process called hypertrophy.

Hypertrophy is the increase in volume of an organ or tissue do to enlargement of it's cells.  That is to say, that when you are strength training, you are actually not 'gaining' muscle cells.  You are actually enlarging and improving the already existing cells.

Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness used to be considered caused by lactic acid buildup.  However, it is now known that lactic acid is expelled from the muscle within an hour of the exercise.  So this cannot be the cause.  As for the actual cause, I'll let wikipedia explain:

"Delayed onset muscle soreness was first described in 1902 by Theodore Hough,^[4] who concluded that this kind of soreness is "fundamentally the result of ruptures within the muscle".^[1] This is still considered broadly valid, although the soreness does not appear to involve the rupture of whole muscle fibers.^[2]What has been observed to accompany soreness are ultrastructural disruptions of myofilaments, especially at the Z-disc, as well as damage to the muscle's connective tissue. That tissue damage may relate most directly to soreness, as it may increase the mechanical sensitivity of the muscle nociceptors, or pain receptors, and cause pain with stretching and palpation.^[1] The delayed onset of the soreness may occur because the inflammatory response process that sensitizes the nociceptors takes some time.^[1] However, the relationship between damage, inflammation and soreness is not yet completely understood.<sup>[2]"


I hope you found this information helpful or informative.  I'm going to sign off for tonight.  Time to watch some of the NBA All-Star Weekend festivities.</sup>

YEAAAHHH BITCHES!

299 this morning.

There's a real blog coming later...but I took today off, got up early, did my workout, and am soon leaving to go get my boys!

This Title Sucks, But I Couldn't Think of a Good One.

Burn Intervals and Ab Burner last night.  Both of these are getting much easier for me now.  Especially the Ab Burner.  I still take some reps off and cut some exercises a couple seconds short in the Burn Intervals, but I can power through all the Ab Burner now with no breaks.  It's a killer feeling.

I want to take a second to talk about my left arm.  Back before I even started the workout, I'd been feeling some pain in my left arm, up high almost in the shoulder.  My pinky and ring finger on that hand would feel numb from time to time as well.

Now, there's a couple exercises in particular that really aggravated that pain.  The V-Press Bicep Curls and the Standing Overhead Press.  The Press I could just grunt my way through, but the pain in the Curls was agonizing.  Every time I cut that exercise short, completing at most 4 reps.

Sunday's workout, Push Circuit 1, features a set of these curls.  I was determined that the pain was just something I could overcome.  I had researched this on the intertubes quite a bit, and most of the results pointed to a slipped or bulging disk in my neck that was pushing against the nerve for that arm.  My neck didn't ever hurt me, so I decided that it was probably more because I was being a giant vagina about it.  (Was that offensive?  I'm sorry.  Go watch The Notebook, it'll make you feel better)

So I dialed up the weight (17.5 lbs), and started doing the exercise.  You curl halfway up, then open your arms up wide, and lift straight out with both arms.  It looks like you're trying to do the YMCA if you're an idiot and thought a 'W' was actually an 'M'.

The pain came right away, and it was acute.  Agonizing, even.  But I decided I could push through it.  Four reps became five, then six.  On the seventh, something strange happened.

It felt like something in my upper arm let go.  Like a water balloon bursting.  My entire arm went numb, including my hand.  It was all I could do to concentrate on not dropping the weight.  I stopped for about 20 seconds, letting the numbness start to subside, and moved on to the next exercise.  After a few, the numbness went away, and my arm felt AMAZING.  I talked to a good friend of mine, a licensed massage therapist whom I trust.  I shared with her what had happened, and asked if I could just have had a very large persistent knot in that muscle.

She said it was possible.  Improbable, but possible.  A knot is a buildup of lactic acid that occurs when muscle fiber is broken down through exertion.  The lactic acid will collect in one spot, forming the knot.  For it to have occurred like that, in that place, with that persistence was unlikely, but plausible.

Monday, being a rest day, didn't offer me a chance to test that arm.  Tuesday's workout is a heavy legs/lower body day, so again, not much chance to test it.  The Burn Intervals workout, though...it has the V-Press Bicep Curls, and a couple different types of Overhead Presses.  I would find out last night, if that pain would be gone.

When I got to the Curls, I went with light weights (7.5), as you do with all the weight exercises in that workout.  In Burn Intervals, you go light weight - high rep in the weight portions (for muscle endurance), then crazy intense cardio.  You alternate that for 47 minutes.  With the light weights, I was able to do the Curls with no problem.  It was sore, but not the same.  This was muscle fatigue sore, probably because I had been favoring it for so long.  This wasn't 'my tricep feels like it's about to explode out of my body' pain.  Just sore.

The Overhead Presses were the same.

I'm still of no good mind of what happened.  But I'm happy that I don't need to think about that so much anymore.

301 on the scale this morning.  I should be under 300 by March.  That will be a day long remembered.  By me.  Not anyone else.  That would be creepy as shit.

More About Eating - What I've Learned

Eating used to be an event for me.

What I mean to say is, I used to think about eating.  Often.  Dinner was something that was planned for, anticipated, reveled in.  Lunches, breakfasts, snacks, all these were elaborate affairs.  Looking back on it now, I can see that a large part of my life was spent planning, anticipating, and eating food.

I still plan dinners.  Lunches and snacks as well.  But I plan them differently.  I don't think of them as affairs.  I no longer see them as events.  Not as much anyway.  I still look at dinner as a nice time to connect with the family, learn about everyone's day.  But that is now the primary goal.  Not something to do in between bites of food.

Not that I'm saying food can't be an event.  A dinner party, holidays, sure.  But not daily.  And especially not multiple times a day.  It's just wrong.

I'm starting to see food much more as maintenance.  Fuel for the body.  Not anything more.

Another Note about Eating

One of the tenets of most eating programs that I've seen is that you really need to eat well in the mornings.  I learned this well yesterday.

Yesterday, I slept through my alarm (set at 5:30) for about 2 hours.  I woke up at 7:30 and needed to shower and shave and get to work by 8 am.

My normal breakfast of a bagel thin with fat-free cream cheese and 2 or 3 turkey sausage links wasn't going to happen.  I grabbed a protein bar and called it good.

At morning break, I grabbed another protein bar.  I wasn't feeling particularly hungry, but did so anyway.  Lunch was my normal turkey sandwich and protein shake, along with a few baked potato chips.  At afternoon break, I wasn't hungry at all, so I didn't heed my own better thoughts and skipped the protein bar again.

My daughter, home from school this week for winter break, had made me a wonderful spinach salad with some leftover steak cut up on the top and it was waiting for me when I got home.  I ate it while on the webcam with the boys, visiting their grandparents up north for the week.

After I finished it, I was still starving.  Just...really hungry.

I grabbed one of the whole wheat bagel thins, threw some fat-free cheese and a couple slices of turkey pepperoni on it, and tossed it in the toaster oven for a bit.

At this point, I was probably still within my normal eating budget for the day, perhaps a little on the upper end of it, but okay.  Unfortunately, I was still hungry.

I had a handful of doritos at this point.

I wasn't boredom eating, or anything else.  I was just hungry.  I couldn't get enough.  I should have done something else.  Even though yesterday was a rest day, I could have gone for a walk, or hopped on the exercise bike, or did anything else.  But I ate.

I haven't been hungry like this at night in so long.  It had to be the crappy breakfast.  Lesson learned.

My Head on Things #6

The auto-destructing Starship Enterprise

Stretch All The Things

No, this isn't a post about masturbation.

Not that I couldn't write extensively on the subject.  I could.

Friday's workouts on the Chalean Extreme program are cardio and a yoga-based workout.  The cardio workout is exactly that.  28 minutes of super-intense plyometric type exercises.  There is a one minute break in the middle, and when you hit that, you're sweating.  Profusely.  Then you've got another 6 exercises to go and the cooldown.  It's an exhausting workout.

The second workout for the day is a yoga/stretching workout.  You move through several demanding yoga poses.  They're difficult to do and harder to hold.  Which you need to do.

But, here's the rub.  It makes you feel amazing afterwards.  Seriously.  I actually skipped that portion last week as I ran out of time before I had to be somewhere, and regarded it lightly anyway.  That was a mistake.  Being in week 2 of the Push Circuit, my muscles were very sore by the end of the week.  The yoga and stretching regimen in last night's session almost completely dissolved all that pain.  I feel absolutely amazing after doing it.  I really do.  Almost all the aches and pains are gone.

I will not skip this again.  Especially if I keep pushing the weights as far as I have.  Many exercises had the weights increased by ten or more pounds this week, and I was sore.  That's all gone now.  Mostly, anyway.

Today is the last CCYO basketball game of the season, and then my parents are picking up the boys for the winter break.  They're going to spend the week up north.

Regards,

Jason

(p.s.:  On the original supposed subject, the Japanese Cherry Blossom lotion from Bath and Body Works is delightful for that, and if you close your eyes and go left-handed, it's almost like you're in an Asian massage parlor or something.  Not that I'd actually know what that's like, but I can imagine.)

RTFM!

I haven't posted a 'real' blog entry in a few days.  I haven't really felt very much like anything.

Valentine's Day was very hard.  I had always tried to do something at least a little special for it.  For Amy.  This year it was just another day.  Another day that I would be abandoned and alone.  I didn't even contact her.  I knew that she would not contact me.  I worked very hard at putting on a good front for the day, but I was absolutely miserable, and know that I failed at times.  I spent the entire day looking forward to basketball practice and working out that night.  Just so I didn't fall into the abyss.

Luckily, basketball practice went very well.  We had an extremely good time, the kids played hard, and we all had fun.  Our last basketball practice of the season is tonight, the last game this weekend.  I'm just going to grab a sheet pizza and some bottled water for the kids, and let the kids have a pizza/basketball party.  It'll be fun.  I'm hoping to get some run in with the kids too, maybe get some parents to join in and play.  I haven't had the chance to play basketball in quite some time.

I'll be sad to see the season over, but it's time.

Tuesday's workout was awesome, as well.  I was able to crank up the level of the weights considerably over last week, and will be able to next week.  That lingering pain in my left arm has become slightly worse though.  Certain exercises are borderline undoable, like the V-press bicep curls.  Very, very painful.

Last night's workout, the cardio one, was a bit of a fail for me.  I learned something about my body yesterday, actually.  Wednesday is normally 'eff-it Wednesday', and previously the crew and I had hit chinese buffet for lunch.  Last week several of us were quite sick after buffet, so this week we decided to walk to wegman's for lunch.  It was invigorating, really.  The walk felt amazing.  I ordered a turkey whole wheat wrap, ate half, scavenged the meat, cheese, and pickles from the other half and was happy.  I was so full, that I skipped the protein bar afternoon snack.

I didn't know that I would be harming the cardio workout by doing that.

Amy picked up the kids around 5:20.  I stood and watched her leave again with my family, and headed inside.  Around 5:45 or so, I fired up the cardio workout and got to work.  It's a 47 minute workout with alternating sets of light-weight-high-rep and plyometric type exercises.  I've had problems with this in the past, but wasn't expecting any last night.

Once I was about 20 minutes into the workout, my energy was gone.  I was exhausted.  Each exercise was a total struggle.  I just had no reserve to go to with it.  I made it through, taking a few more reps off than normal.  I also made it through the ab workout, another 12 minutes, afterwards.

Once the ab workout was done, I lay on the floor for a minute or so, and stood up.  I almost passed out when I did.  Once I had my wits about me, I went into the kitchen, made a protein shake, and started cooking my dinner.  A marinated top round steak with carrots and broccoli and a handful of baked potato chips.  The protein shake took away the fuzziness, and while the steak was cooking I realized what had happened.

I skipped the snack.

All these workout programs have very regimented eating plans, and each one of them pretty much says 'Never skip a snack/meal'.  I learned that last night.  So today, even if I'm not hungry at afternoon snack time, I'm eating that protein bar.

Push Circuit 3 tonight after basketball practice.  Or maybe before so Conrad can work out with me.  He enjoyed that last week, as did I.  I might also make an appointment with the doctor about that arm.  Maybe it's a pinched nerve or something.  Maybe a muscle relaxant would work.  I don't want to have to rest for any length of time.

The scale had me at 305 this morning.  I'd hate to lose or even pause progress.

Until next time,
Jason

For All My Skyrim Nerds

drooooool....

My Head on Things #5

Me and the Shats.

Motivational Montage of the Week

Ok, this isn't really a montage, but if Shat has the stones to do this, then I can eat right and workout...

Let's Give this a Try

So, Steph has posted quite a few slow-cooker recipes.  I thought I'd take a little inspiration from her and try one of my own.  It's cooking right now, and after dinner I'll critique in the comments...

This started with a package of seasoned brown rice I found at Sauder's, an Amish or Mennonite store in Seneca Falls.  I'm not sure which it is.  I go there for lunch meat, as it's quite a bit cheaper, and then find goofball stuff like this all the time.  This brown rice, from the ingredient list, seemed to be very similar to a dirty rice or Cajun type seasoned rice.

So...in order, into the slow-cooker:

1 Package Sauder's Seasoned Brown Rice (about 2 cups).
1 Package Turkey Kielbasa that I had sliced and fried quickly in a couple teaspoons of olive oil
2 Cups Water
2 Packets Aldi's Taco Seasoning
1 Can Diced Tomatoes with Chilis (only lightly drained...I retained some of the liquid)
1 Can Great Northern Beans
2 Tablespoons Chopped Garlic
1/2 Cup Diced Peppers and Onions (from Wegman's, pre-diced)
1 Jalapeno, cut into half rings, seeds/ribs removed.
1.5 - 2 Cups Fat Free Chicken Broth (I eyeballed this...I didn't think I had enough liquid for the rice, so I poured until it looked good)

Threw that all into the slow-cooker and set it on 'Auto'.  We'll see how it comes out tonight.  Probably going to serve it with some whole-grain tortilla chips and some sour cream for the kids.  I'll just eat it straight.  Maybe some cheese, depending on how the consistency works out.  I'm hoping the rice absorbs most of the liquid.  If I used too much, it's soup!  Either way, I think it'll come out fine.

__________________________

Update:  Holy crap, this was awesome.  Really came out well, had a very spanish-rice consistency to it.  Nicely spicy (I added cholula) and had a killer texture to it.  Even the kids all enjoyed it.

__________________________

Update again:  for shits and giggles, I threw that into the sparkpeople recipe calculator and figured it for 8 servings (there's probably actually 10...but oh well), and here's the result.

Nutrition Facts User Entered Recipe
8 Servings
Amount Per Serving
Calories		220.3
Total Fat		6.7 g
	Saturated Fat	2.3 g
	Polyunsaturated Fat	0.3 g
	Monounsaturated Fat	1.0 g
Cholesterol		36.3 mg
Sodium		1,281.9 mg
Potassium		304.4 mg
Total Carbohydrate		26.0 g
	Dietary Fiber	3.8 g
	Sugars	3.4 g
Protein		12.9 g

Vitamin A	7.2 %
Vitamin B-12	1.0 %
Vitamin B-6	7.8 %
Vitamin C	20.0 %
Vitamin D	0.0 %
Vitamin E	1.4 %
Calcium	4.2 %
Copper	7.6 %
Folate	9.6 %
Iron	10.2 %
Magnesium	10.0 %
Manganese	32.9 %
Niacin	6.0 %
Pantothenic Acid	2.8 %
Phosphorus	10.4 %
Riboflavin	2.5 %
Selenium	10.1 %
Thiamin	7.5 %
Zinc	4.3 %

*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.

Not a Whole Lot about Anything

I kept a pretty low profile this weekend.  Nothing really earth-shattering to share.  I'll just toss out some random tidbits.

• V-Press Bicep Curls are REALLY painful in my left arm, but I need to power through them.
• I'm not sure Rajon Rondo is the type of guy to build a team around once Pierce/Allen/Garnett are gone.  But here's how I would do it.  First, athletes that can finish at the rim.  Rondo looks best when running the break with options, we saw that a few times with JaJuan Johnson and Chris Wilcox.  Secondly, I'd make sure that I always had a 38% or better 3pt shooter on the floor with him at all times for kickouts.  Third, I'd try to reign in the gambling he does on defense.
• Playing Magic: The Gathering (a card game that's a little like Dungeons and Dragons) with Conrad is some of the most fun I have daily.  He's getting pretty handy at it.
• Same thing with the Nazi Zombies modes on Call of Duty.  He's better at those than me, although I still completely own him in Free-For-All modes.
• Evidently, my Facebook friends constitute the majority of the Dream Theater fans in the world.  All 15 of them.  Sure, I may agree that considering Foo Fighters in the 'metal' categories is a stretch, but you didn't REALLY expect Dream Theater to win, did you?  (Note:  I enjoy both of these bands, although I'm definitely more of a Foo Fighters fan than Dream Theater)
• There have been some REALLY bad movies made lately.  Thank goodness for the TNT/TBS weekend rotations of Road House, Rocky IV, The Jerk, and Shawshank Redemption.
• Next time I'm having sex, I wish I could pay Morgan Freeman to narrate it.  For posterity.
• Christopher Walken would be good for this too.

I had some trouble keeping with the 'eating correctly' portion of my plan this past week, although it wasn't a complete wash.  I'm redoubling my efforts this week to correct that.  And to finish the Death Star on time.

Posture and Partners

Have I said that I LOVE the Push Phase so far?

Last night was Push Circuit 3, and was heavy arms/shoulders stuff.  My normal routine in picking the weights to use is to use whatever she's using at first.  Then adjust off of that in subsequent weeks.

I'm going to have to adjust majorly for next week's Push Circuit 3.  The weights I was using weren't even close to sufficient for failure in 8 reps.  In a few, I'm going to have to go as much as 15 pounds heavier, I think.

What I really want to talk about today is Posture and Partners.

I finally figured out posture last night.  Last night had quite a few bent-over style row exercises.  These normally destroy my back.  Even when I'm concentrating very hard on keeping my back straight, its still destroyed by the end of a set.  Trust me, my back is straight, because I'm usually concentrating on her boobs on the TV while I'm doing it.

In many of the exercises, she emphasizes that your posture will probably be different than most people's.  Everyone has different lengths to their legs, torso, back, etc., and what works for one person, isn't necessarily going to be the next person's ideal form.

I had always just copied what Boobarella was doing.  But with all the rows, I was really feeling pain in my back.  I had to do something to mitigate it.  In the set that was just straight bent over rows, the worst for me, she had her feet together, as if up against a plane.  I was copying that.  But the dude in the background had his right foot back about 4-5 inches.  I decided to try that.

Holy shitsnacks.  All the difference in the world.  The back pain spontaneously disappeared.  I wouldn't have been surprised if a rainbow of bacon and gold started shooting from my ass, I was so happy.

(You didn't think I wasn't going to do a pic of that, did you?)

I started adjusting slightly on all the following exercises, and I found that slight adjustments make all the difference in the world.  It was amazing.

Secondly, a quick note about working out with a partner.  Conrad stays with me until after basketball practices on Thursday nights.  Yesterday, I decided to do my workout before practice so I could watch the Celtics-Lakers game after practice.  (Note to Celtics post players:  BOX OUT FOR REBOUNDS.  DAMMIT).

I asked Conrad if he wanted to join in, do the same exercises just without weight.  He was all for it.  We did the workout together, and it was a riot.  He was on top of the exercises, and loved dialing the weight for me on the selectech dumbbells.

It really accented and improved my workout, I think.  So whenever he's home with me, I think he'll workout with me.  Very cool.

Wednesdays Suck

So, a little background is in order here.

Amy gets the kids Wednesday nights through Friday morning.  Then, every other weekend, she gets them for the weekend as well.  So every Wednesday, I get to watch my family drive away for as much as 5 days.  It hurts.  It also puts me in a shit-ass mood for a couple days, minimum.

This coming weekend is Amy's weekend with the kids.  She got to the house around 5:15 to pick them up.  I walked them out, helped them into her car, told them all I loved them.  All I got from Amy was "Talk to you later" as she was pulling away.

I stood in the road watching them leave.  I kept standing there for another 5 minutes or so, in the middle of the street.  Trying not to feel the way I knew was coming.  Trying to prepare myself mentally for what has become the hardest workout of the week.  The workout I failed on last week.  Trying to not think about everything I have lost.

The neighbor's horn broke me from my solitude.  I was still in the middle of the street.  Time to go in and fire up the workout.

I made it through the Burn Intervals and the Ab Burner with little trouble, even with my stomach slightly upset from 'eff-it Wednesday's lunch at the buffet.  But I was in a sour mood.  I couldn't get out of my head.

I thought to myself, "Well, this is 'eff-it Wednesday, right?'".  I went to Suzy's (local bar) and ordered a cheeseburger and fries.  I hadn't had a meal like this in over a month.  I sat there, eating, talking with a friend, and still felt like crap.

I still do.  But 'eff-it Wednesday' has to go.  Emotionally, I'm in a horrible mood, but physically, I feel like crap right now.  My stomach is rolling from the food yesterday.  I was going to skip breakfast this morning, I felt so bad, but knew that was setting myself up for failure, so I had breakfast anyway.  (Bagel Thin with margarine, 2 turkey sausage links, water)

I hope this gets better.  I hope I get used to watching my family drive away.  I hope I can prevent myself from using food to not feel abandoned, for companionship, or for whatever it is I'm feeling.

I need to get out of that street.

Push Circuit 2, and a Little Bit About What I'm Eating

So, yesterday, here's what I ate:

Breakfast:  Half one of the Thomas's Bagel Thins with margarine.  Two Lite Sausage Links, and a clementine.
Morning Snack:  Actually skipped this, wasn't feeling hungry at all.
Lunch:  Protein Shake, Turkey Sandwich on Arnold Whole Grain Sandwich Thin with provolone cheese and dill pickle slices.
Afternoon Snack:  Life Choice Protein Bar.
Dinner:  Teriyaki Chicken Breast with Bell Peppers and Brown Rice.  Probably had 2 servings of the chicken and peppers and one of the Brown Rice.

Throughout the day I had a couple Diet Mountain Dews, Coffee (with creamer and sweetener), and Water.

So that's pretty much in a nutshell my daily intake.  Although there are certain days, like 'Eff It Wednesday' where lunch is NOT the turkey sandwich and protein shake (although I usually end up having that for dinner on those days), and instead hit chinese with the crew (Steph, Drew, Hoyt and The Cobra).

Let's talk about Push Circuit 2 now.  Push Circuit 2, like Push Circuit 1, really seems made for me.  Heavy weights, targeted exercises, 6-8 reps to failure.  Lots of shoulder/back in this workout, at least that's what's sore for me today.  I'm not going to get into the individual exercises, save for one.

Single Leg Dead Lift.

Sounds pretty normal, but here's the kicker.  To perform the 'Single Leg' portion of this, you have to be ON A SINGLE LEG.

Which means, you pivot at the waist, and bring your other leg up behind you, lowering on the one leg while bent over with the weights in your hands.

Holy shitsnacks.

There was a person in the workout modifying this one by just putting the lifted leg back some, but I wanted to do it for real.  It was hard.  Really hard.  Keeping your balance REALLY engages your hamstring and ass muscles.  Also, being a complete d-bag, when she said 'you might want to go a little lighter, even though this is lower body' and selected 15 pound weights, I said "Eff you, Boobs, I'm going heavy" and went with 25 pounds.

Did I say holy shitsnacks already?  Well screw you, I'm saying it again.  Holy shitsnacks.

Combining that balance with the heavy weights targeted the exercise to my ass and hamstring muscles like nothing before.  I did eight on each leg.

I thought I was going to puke.  On the last rep on the left leg, my final rep, I stood up kind of quick and was immediately light-headed.  I actually had to pause the workout for about ten seconds and sit down.

Lesson being:  Make sure your breathing is solid.

I feel awesome today, though.  Push Circuits so far add a bunch of the Extreme versions of the exercise, a set after almost every one.  They hurt like hell while you're doing them, but once you're finished, you feel freaking amazing.

Burn Intervals and Ab Burner workouts tonight, the one I failed on completely last week.  Not today.

Have a good day.

Jason

Ok, I'm Probably Going to Hell for This...

But it's cracking me up.

Push Circuit 1

Just going to throw this out there...

Push Circuit 1 was made for me.  Where the Burn Circuit exercises were multi-zoned, targeting multiple areas at the same time, Push Circuit 1 really maximized and concentrated the exercises into specific muscle groups, and with large weights.  Plus many more 'Extreme' versions, where you do the hyper-exaggerated verion, for example...push-ups.  Normally it's a 2-count down and a 2-count up.  The last set in Push Circuit 1 was 8 of these.  I could do 4 regular and 4 on my knees.  Ten seconds after you finish that, you do 3 more, this time an 8-count down and an 8-count up.  I did one on my toes, and 2 on my knees.  They're killers, but effective.  My chest and arms today are sore.

It was freaking awesome.  I felt so amazing, exhausted and strong after.  I'm really looking forward to the other Push Circuits.  I've seen some results in the Burn Circuits, and I think that in this phase, I'm going to see the changes much quicker.  I'm really excited for it.

Anyway, as an example...yesterday was the Super Bowl, and honestly, for the whole weekend, I didn't really pay much attention to the eating plan.  I made sure to maximize the protein as much as I could, but didn't concern myself with calories.  I ate quite a bit.

I weighed myself tonight, back on the eating plan with today being a rest day.  Night time is usually when I'm heaviest during the day, I can normally count on a weight 3-4 pounds heavier than first thing the morning, my normal weigh-in time.

I was at 310 tonight.  I expected 315.  Kick ass.

Mike recently posted his eating plan for the next couple days, it's a good read.  I might be able to glean some hints off of there.  I think I might write up tomorrow what I ate during the day.

Push Circuit 2 tomorrow, plus basketball practice.  I'm stoked.

G'night.

Jason

Burn Phase Done...and this week's Montage

Friday I finished the final workout of the Burn Phase.  It's time for a little review.

Today, I am at 310 pounds.  In July I was 370.  I'm three pants sizes down (46-40) and can comfortably wear many 2XL shirts, where before I was pushing 4XL.

I feel physically better.  Much better.  I'm walking taller, my daily aches and pains are less.  I'm doing very well.

Just to recap, friday's workout was another cardio one, followed by yoga.  I was pretty nervous about a cardio workout after wednesday's utter failure.  I vacillated somewhat, pushing it back a little, but finally got underway.

I killed it.  I really did.  I pushed harder in that cardio workout than I had in any others, by a wide margin.  It felt fucking great.

Today I start the Push Phase of the workouts.  Where the Burn Phase has you reaching muscle failure in 10-12 reps on each exercise, this one requires muscle failure in 6-8.  I'm looking forward to it.

Time to do some house cleaning, but first, this week's Montage:

Watch Red Tank Top Guy (not the chick in the white...)

I have no idea who this singer is, or the music...but that dude in the tank top kills me.  Watch it with the sound off and it's funnier.

My Head On Things #4

A Unicorn

Back In The Flow

Man, I was nervous for tonight's workout.  After yesterday's failure, I was apprehensive of further letting myself down.  I actually pushed off the workout later than I normally would.

Well, I just finished it, and it was fantastic.  Really.  I feel freaking amazing right now.  Maybe yesterday was just my body telling me it needed a day off.  Working out 5 days a week is kind of a big change.

Failure, you can go to hell.

Goodbye Burn Circuits...we had fun.  Cardio and yoga tomorrow, rest day Saturday, then Push Circuits start Sunday.  I'll weigh in Saturday and give a rundown on how the first phase worked out for me.

That's all for tonight.  I'm wrecked.

Life Choice Protein Bar Review

So, as part of this 'diet' plan, protein is an important factor.  Protein bars are encouraged as good sources of natural protein, to supplement high protein foods such as turkey, pork, spinach, beans, etc...

There's two problems here, though.  Most protein bars are stupidly expensive.  Also, they taste terrible.  Like eating dusty chocolate wood shavings.  I've been experimenting with different brands, and the ones that I've found that have tasted better have usually been really high-calorie along with the protein, or really high-carbohydrate.  Both of which are kind of defeating the purpose.  Carbohydrates aren't forbidden by any means, but when you're trying to get protein and the carbohydrate count is higher, it's kind of a fool's errand.

A friend of mine at work, we'll call him Gollum (Ed. note:  you didn't think I was going to call you anything else did you?  Also, I've got something for you at the end of this...), keeps a supply of snacks in a drawer near his desk.  He and Queen Bootsy Ramen (Ed. note 2:  I'm changing the names to protect your identity, Kara) will hit this drawer for snacks throughout the day.  I work closely with them as they are the software support side to the modules that I program primarily.  I've been offered snacks from their drawer.  And sometimes, pre-New Temporarily Fat Jason's Hero's Journey, I would hit the stash for a bag of pretzels or something.  Recently, I asked if they had any protein bars in the drawer.  Gollum confirmed the lack of them, but said he'd get some on his way to Mount Doom.

So this Tuesday, there were protein bars in the drawer, and I snagged one.

http://www.lifechoicefoods.com/products/best-protein-bars

Gollum had gotten a box of these at WalMart, 5 bars in the box for $3.68.  So, one hurdle was cleared, these guys were BY FAR the cheapest ones I had ever seen.

The second hurdle was too.  These things were good.  Very good.  Kind of like a peanut butter coated Pay Day bar.  The texture was very nice, and the peanut butter was flavorful without the slightly grassy whey protein taste.  It was good enough that the next day on lunch, while at WalMart, I snagged a box of those and a box of the chocolate ones to add to the snack drawer.

The chocolate ones were very good as well.  They were a bit softer in consistency, and if I had to pick one over the other, I'd pick the peanut butter ones first.  But still, they are easily the 2nd best protein bar I've had so far, right behind their peanut butter brothers.  Also at 210/190 (peanut butter)/(chocolate) calories, 21g of protein and 16g of carbohydrate, they fit in the diet very nicely.

On the 'Old Fat Jason Face Scale of Respectability', they get 4 and 1/2 Fat Jason Faces out of 5.

Frustration and Failure

Last night was rough.

After our team basketball pictures and dinner with the family it was time to do the Burn Intervals and Ab Burner workouts.

I've banged these out with no problem the last 3 weeks.

Last night was different.  I couldn't get the energy up.  The way the intervals work, it's 1-2 minutes of intense cardio, usually a plyometric type thing, then 2-3 minutes of high-rep low-weight weightlifting.

I couldn't do it last night.  Every time I got into a cardio interval, I felt nauseated.  Serious impending vomit nauseous.  I was cutting the cardio bits off early, and eventually skipping them altogether.

I decided that instead of half-assing it, I would wake up early and do it this morning.

So I went to bed early, got up, and went back to the workout.

It was the same thing.

I wish I knew what was going on.  I just didn't have it.  I wanted to, tried to, push through it.  But the energy just wasn't there.  I had to stop.  I only ended up doing about 2/3 of the workout.

I feel like a complete failure.

But...here's the rub.

After breakfast (turkey sausage and one of the bagel thins with a little cream cheese), I headed up to get in the shower.  Before stepping in, I hopped on the scale (or as Conrad called it last night, the weigher).  I was just under 310.

Under 310.

And I've been really hungry lately.  Extremely hungry.  I even had a handful of potato chips last night I was so hungry.  First potato chips I've had in over a month.

Under 310.

That's a big number for me.  Back in June-July, I was 370.

Under 310.  With my breakfast in my gut.  And I hadn't even taken my morning crap yet.

That means I had lost about 5-6 pounds since Saturday.

Tonight is Burn Circuit 3, after basketball practice.  I'm really excited for it.  I hope my body doesn't lack the energy again.  I might try to eat a more filling meal before practice, maybe that will help the energy.  Last night I only had one service of brown rice, and this beef pepper and onion stir-fry that I had made.  Maybe it just wasn't enough to keep me going through the exercises.  I hope that's it.  I don't want to feel this failure again.

Subway 6" Turkey on Whole Wheat Review

So, I was out for errands today at lunch, which meant I wouldn't be able to do my normal turkey sandwich and protein shake for lunch.  I had to go to Wal-Mart for shorts for Conrad and some protein bars (I'll probably review those in the future).  This Wal-Mart has a Subway built-in.

I went to check it out.  I decided on a 6" Turkey on Wheat with provolone, lettuce, tomato, onion, jalapeno and pickle.  I also had them toast it, just like I do my turkey sandwich at home.

Back at work, I dug in.  The experience, as a whole, was poor.  Really poor.  The bread was tasteless, as was the turkey and cheese.  The texture was somewhere between old sponge and cardboard.  The jalapeno had some nice kick to them, but the pickles and onions were hardly noticeable.

I won't get it again.

On the "Old Fat Jason Face Scale of Respectability", it gets 1 Fat Jason Face out of 5.

Damn Hipsters and their Little Dogs...