Day 75 - Where did the time go?

Wow, I'm not quite sure where the time went, but the blog has taken a bit of a backseat to the rest of my life. Yesterday was a rest day, but I spent it running a lot of those Saturday errands, which included some Christmas shopping. Today was a fun day doing stuff with my girlfriend. Weekends are all about spending more time with her. Managed to get my first low carb day in and a HIIT session, but not sure how low carb it was exactly. Might have just been a low calorie day. Sunday's are a bit more off the map than I plan to be during the week.

Even though I missed a post yesterday (rest day), I did take pics, but I think I'll just post today's:

Day 75

Day 73 - Looking forward to that rest day

Not much to say today, at a little loss for words right now, just going to put up the daily pics I guess.

Day 73

Day 72 - Getting Ready for Carb Cycling!

Workout today was chest and triceps. Warmed up on the bike and then cooled down on the elliptical after the weights.

I'm going to make this a short one since it's getting late for me and one of my new goals is to try and get to bed earlier and get more quality sleep. My biological clock wakes me up at the same time every day pretty much, whether I go to bed at 2 or 3 in the morning, or at 11pm. The difference between the two is the quality of sleep and how I feel later in the day. When I wake up I'm generally refreshed, but I feel the effects by the evening if I didn't get enough the night before.

I spent some time today planning my attack for the final 4 weeks before I hit my milestone 1 deadline. I'm pretty sure I'm going to reach my goal before that, but there's no harm in me going for exceeding it! I plan on finally incorporating some moderate carb cycling into my program for 4 weeks. I don't think I'm particularly carb sensitive and have always thrived on high carb diets before given my previous high activity levels. Anyway, my plan is as follows:

Sunday - Low Carb w/ HIIT, abs
Monday - High Carb w/ weights, ss* cardio
Tuesday - Low Carb w/ weights, ss cardio
Wednesday - Low Carb w/ HIIT, abs
Thursday - High Carb w/ weights, ss cardio
Friday - Low Carb w/ weights, HIIT
Saturday - Free, Rest

*Steady State

The idea is that I'll be hitting the HIIT workouts at my low points, since the HIIT workouts are the ones that burn the most fat as long as I'm not drained. This is a more moderate carb cycling, but I really do thrive on carbs (currently 55-60% of my cals), so I think it would be tough for me to go more than 2 days on low carb and I'd probably end up binging real bad on whole packages of rice cakes, triscuits, and baked tostitos.

Wow, not so short anymore...

Ok, here's today's pics:

Day 72

Day 71 - Where'd my pillow go?

I feel sorry for my girlfriend. I've taken her pillow away. When we watch tv on the couch together, sometimes she lays her head in my lap. Well, before I had a nice little cushion for her, all that extra padding I had. Lately she's been joking with me and when she lays her head down she'll ask me, "Where'd my pillow go?". I guess my stomach is getting hard now because she's started putting a real pillow in my lap and then laying her head down. I feel sorry that I've taken her pillow away, but I'm proud that I've gotten rid of my pillow.

Ok, I'm being selfish now, I'm thinking about how funny it will be when I finally carve out that six pack and my stomach is all bumpy! Speaking of which, today was an ab day, so I guess that's what inspired me to write about that little anecdote. I tried a couple different ab exercises. I think I can stick with my girlfriend's ab workout one day of the week, and my ab workout the other. They're essentially the same exercises, but doing them slightly different. One exercise each for upper abs, lower abs, and obliques.

I also had to settle for a regular elliptical today for my HIIT. My ArcTrainer was taken again! I don't know why it's so popular now. Maybe everybody sees me using it and seeing how well I've progressed over the last couple months and they think it is some magical machine. Yeah, that's gotta be it...I think I still lift the least amount of weight out of any of the other guys at the gym, but at least I have better form than most of them. What's up with all the cheater's? Almost nobody does bicep curls with proper form. It's kind of funny when you watch the real big cheaters. It ends up showing in their physique. They end up with these big solid cores, but never build up their biceps. Anyway, I'm rambling now, I'll save the form discussion for another day.

Is it just me or does an ab workout make you extra hungry? My metabolism must be super stoked because I've already ate my 6 meals today, my last one I just finished an hour ago, and I've already got the hunger pangs. This is quite unusual for me as a lot of the time I have to almost force my 6th meal on myself. Either that or my supper didn't agree with me. I might be getting mixed signals, but it sure feels like hunger to me. I guess a bedtime snack of cottage cheese wouldn't hurt :D

Anyway, here are today's pics:

Day 71

Day 70 - Bananas are good

Yesterday, I didn't mention it, but I didn't have my regular post workout meal, which just consists of a simple protein shake and a banana. I like this post workout meal because it hits the basics of what a post workout routine should be, protein, simple carbs quick carbs, and low (almost zero) fat. It's also repeatable, and easy to carry. Well, yesterday I went without and had supper within about 30 min. of finishing my workout. Supper consisted of a basic meal as well, a nice lean top sirloin steak, squash, broccoli, and carrots. It was delicious, and healthy, but wasn't quite the same as my shake and banana on the walk home from the gym.

I mentioned yesterday that my quads were pretty sore from the bike, and I gave them a good workout as well. Today, they were unbelievably sore, and I think they might not have been as bad if I had remembered my banana. Not only did I miss out on those wonderful quick carbs replenishing my muscles, but I missed out on the potassium rich source of nature's candy. Most of us here in North America have no problem getting enough sodium in our diet, but what our muscles also need to fire properly is potassium. Without getting into too much chemistry/biology, these two ions, along with chlorine ions (sodium + chlorine ions = table salt, NaCl) need to be kept in a proper balance for our muscles to contract and fire properly. We sweat out a lot of sodium and potassium when we exercise, and this needs to be replenished. That's why this stuff is often found in sports drinks as well.

Anyway, I made sure I had my banana today. I worked out my lower back and shoulders today. My bent over rows felt really strong and the weights seemed a lot lighter than they did last week. I'm happy with that progress. My shoulders are struggling a bit though, but still coming along.

Well, my membership to the shredder forum that Lilla set up is now pending. I think it's a great idea. Can't wait to start posting there. Sure is nice having all these people along for support!

Today's Pics:

Day 70

Day 69 - Biking aftermath, weekly stats

Well, today I felt the aftermath of yesterday's HIIT bike workout, since today was my leg day for weights. My quads were definitely lacking a bit of energy, but I was able to squeeze out all my reps for my planned exercises. I was pretty sure my quads were going to lock up by the end of my last set on lunges though. Luckily I didn't end up on the gym floor. I had some extra time since I finished my planned workout before my girlfriend was done, so I snuck in a couple extra leg exercises on the pulley machine.

Today is also Monday, which also means it's time to post my weekly stats.

Week 10: 2007-11-12 to 2007-11-19
Weight: 137.59 (-0.93)
BF: 21.93 (-0.39)
Suprailiac: 11 mm (11.6%)
Jackson/Pollock chest/ab/thigh: 8/17/16 (11.87%)

and today's pics:

Day 69