Day 97 - Nordic Track

The day started off with a mini-milestone. I went to the local sports equipment store and picked up a new hockey goalie stick. It was a great feeling to be able to pick out a stick, feel it in my hands, take my stance and try it out. It was also a weird feeling to realize that I had been out of the game so long that my preferred model had been discontinued.

We got nailed with another snowstorm here, so most people were hibernating inside. I had planned to take another rest day, as I think I might have been over-doing the cardio lately. Well, it turns out that I had a movie to return tonight and the roads weren't in any condition to drive in. So, what to do? Most people would probably just pay the late fee and take it in when the roads were cleared. But there are few things that can match my love for freshly fallen snow. My gf bundled up in our scarves and toques and headed out to face the Great White Blizzard.

Walking through knee deep snow turns out to be pretty good exercise. All that snow can get heavy and add a lot of resistance! It was an eerie feeling, as the outside is always so quiet when it's snowing and there were very few cars on the road, and almost no other people walking about. We took some time out of our trek to make some snow angels, make big snow piles to jump in, and jump as high as we could and land in the soft snow.

By the time we had returned the movie and made it back to our apartment, we were wiped! We had wet boots, rosy cheeks, and runny noses. It's great to be a kid in Canada...Oh, I'm not 10 anymore? Ooops.

Well, tomorrow I'll be back in the gym, back on the regular, more traditional exercise program, working even harder.

Get your game face on!
Raiden

Ok, so my other image editing program isn't behaving right now, so I'll post how I was before:

Day 97

Day 96 - Christmas Fever

Today was my scheduled rest day, and my gf and I braved the madness that is the shopping mall at this time of year. We managed to complete a HIIT version of present shopping. We were focused with a well thought out plan. Before I arrived at the mall, I had visualized the targets that I needed to hit, and visualized myself completing these targets. Each target was attacked in a short burst of high intensity, resting, then attacking the next. Agility training involved ducking and weaving around other unsuspecting customers.

After we finished our shopping workout, we retired and put up some Christmas lights and watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. We're really getting into the spirit of things. Christmas is actually close enough that it doesn't feel like a commercial cop-out to start doing the traditional activities.

I am wondering though if I should have given my relatives a heads up on my current progress. I suspect I'll be receiving a lot of clothing a size too big.

Get your game face on!
Raiden

Day 95 - Odd Hours

I'm kind of at a loss for words today, which doesn't happen to me very often. Usually I have some idea of something elaborate that I want to write about. Not today I guess.

The only interesting thing regarding fitness today for me is that the my gym at the university doubles as an exam writing area, so the hours lately have been sporadic, as they don't want people banging weights while they write. So that meant today I had to do some extra planning and sneak off a bit early to get in my workout.

It was another great strength session on the StrongLifts program. Upped all my weights and am now doing weighted pull-ups. I didn't quite hit the prescribed 5x5 on those as I tapped out with 3 reps on the last set, but I'm sure I'll get it next time.

Tomorrow is a rest day, but I'll probably be pretty busy anyway. Well, now I'm off to relax for the rest of the evening with the gf.

Get your game face on!
Raiden

Day 94 - Entering the ShredderSphere

Today marks the first day of daily accountability through the ShredderSphere on Adam Waters' Real Time Physique Blog.

My current mission began back on Sept. 10. I've been blogging and posting pictures (almost) daily since Day 52 after I had seen the camaraderie grow among the original Shredder Council. I upped the ante so to say, to include public accountability as part of my mission and have also enjoyed the benefits of the camaraderie from other original Shredder Council members.

Although today is Day 1 of the ShredderSphere accountability phase, I will stay true to my original plans and goals for my current mission, which will end on Dec. 26 when I make my return to the ice for the first time in over 3 years and play in a charity hockey game with many of my old teammates from High School. I reached my fat loss goals early, and am currently following StrongLifts 5x5 strength training program w/ 2-3 additional cardio sessions per week, with strength gains (with some muscle mass) and cardiovascular fitness as my primary goals to be in peak condition for my hockey game.

After this, I will be taking a short break to rest after what will then be over a hundred days (107 to be exact!) of hard training and enjoy the rest of the holiday season with friends and family.

I will then begin a new mission shortly after the new year that will coincide with the remainder of the ShredderSphere timeline. I'll outline those goals more when the time comes, but in short, it will be more strength training, followed by an intense 4-5 week cutting period to trim my body fat even more using a similar self devised program that I followed for my original fat loss stage. The difference will be the inclusion of more compound lifts as well as working on technique for the power lifts, such as the power clean, clean & jerk, and snatches.

So for me, daily accountability trudges on. For others, it starts now. But whether you've already been practicing daily accountability, just starting, or restarting looking for that extra push, we're all in this together. Shred on!

Get your game face on!
Raiden

P.S. I also thought it would be nice to commemorate this occasion by celebrating with a bit of graphic work w/ my pics since I was doing some image work at "work" work today for a paper I'm writing and it got me in the mood to do some more. I've included a "ShredderSphere" comparison front pic to follow my progress over the next 100 days, but I want to keep my Mission 1 comparison pics because, well, I'm just so damn proud of them so far, and as I mentioned, my mission 1 isn't over yet.

Day 93 - CrossFit

As I think more and more about my ultimate goals, the more I think about my "dream" body. Others may have a picture in their mind, or have pasted their head onto their dream body to help them visualize. Ultimately, I want to be fit, strong, and healthy. I am an athlete, but an athlete that no longer has a competitive sport to compete in. What does it mean to be an athlete? What does it mean to be athletic?

The more I think about it, the clearer the picture is for me. I want to model my "dream" body on the athletes that exhibit the greatest strength in all aspects of fitness, which includes cardiovascular and respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy. The best examples I can think of that cover this category are Boxers, Wrestlers, and mixed martial artists. Now, I'm not a violent person, but I like that each of these sports requires someone to compete in a specific weight class.

As a shorter and smaller person, I've always had to rely on other aspects of my athletic ability to compete against those bigger and stronger than me. My strong points in athletic fitness were always, well, everything but strength and power. But that was absolute strength and power. When you compete in weight classe, strength to weight ratio and power to weight ratio are what matters. So, my "dream" body is to maximize my abilites in all aspects of fitness, while remaining in my "weight" class, whatever that may naturally fall in, which I'm guessing is somewhere between 135-145 lbs.

I guess what I'm trying to say, is that I'm not just looking for big muscles and low body fat. I'm looking for everything else. Yesterday I stumbled upon CrossFit, which is a strength and conditioning program that combines different exercises into workouts that develop all aspects of fitness. It takes the idea of cross-training to the extreme. If you haven't heard of it before, you should definitely check it out and watch some of the workout videos. Everyday they post a Workout of the Day (WOD) and CrossFit athletes performing them. Now, I've only watched a few, but you'll soon realize that these are killer workouts. Watch these people with excellent physiques become totally wiped and struggle to complete these exercises as they tire.

This program is used by firefighters, police officers, SWAT, and military. I like to think of it as the training Jason Bourne got.

I think this is exactly what I need. A lot of the WODs look like obstacle courses, which I used to just love as a kid. Run, jump, climb, throw, lift, as fast as you can and try and put in the best time.

Well, it turns out that there's a CrossFit club in my current city. I really want to join, but I don't know if I'll do it right away, as it would be an extra cost and I'd have to drive to it. I can't really justify that now since my gym membership is essentially free (student at Uni) and it's a short walk away. It's also at a specific time each day, so there's no flexibility. Eventually it's something I would like to do though. It just looks awesome! You do something different everyday, so it's exciting and you wouldn't have to worry about boredom setting in. It is possible to just follow the workouts on your own, but they use a lot of equipment that my gym doesn't have.

They also use a lot of squats, deadlifts, presses, power cleans, clean and jerks for the weight lifting portions. I think I'll have to work on my form first before I fully engage. But this is certainly exciting stuff!

Cheers,
Raiden

ShredderSphere daily accountability starts tomorrow, so
Get your game face on!

Day 93

Day 92 - Raiden's Chocolate Granola Bars

I mentioned yesterday that I spent some time Sunday making my power/protein granola bars. This time they turned out better than the batch before as I made a few changes. I think that the recipe might be ready for sharing.

Granola:
4 cups oats
1/2 cup wheat bran
1/4 cup flax seed
1/4 cup almonds (chopped)
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup natural honey (heated)
1/2 cup applesauce (unsweetened)

Batter:
8 scoops chocolate protein powder
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup wheat bran
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup cranberries (dried)
3/4 cup egg whites (approx 5)
1 tbsp natural peanut butter (heated)

1. Mix dry ingredients for granola in a large bowl.
2. Mix heated honey and applesauce together
3. Drizzle honey and applesauce mixture over dry granola mixture and mix well to evenly coat
4. Spread granola mixture on a cookie tray lined with parchment paper (or waxed paper)
5. Bake at 325F for 30 min or more (until nice and toasty), mixing and stirring around at intervals of 10 min. to prevent outside portions from burning

While granola is baking:
6. In a separate mixing bowl, add water to protein powder and wheat bran mixture until it's close to a cake batter mixture consistency (hand stir with wooden spoon)
7. Add egg whites, cranberries, and raisins and mix well
8. Slowly add heated peanut butter and mix well.

9. Once granola is nice and toasty, mix it with the protein "batter" to coat the granola.
10. Lighty spread this mixture into either a 8x13 pan (thick bars) or two 9x9in pans (thinner) lined with parchment paper (or waxed paper). Spread it just so it reaches the edges of the pans and DON'T press it, just make it so it has a general uniform height. There needs to be spaces in the mixture to get a nice even texture
11. Bake at 325 for another 25-30 min.
12. Let stand to cool and then remove from pans
13. Cut into bars of desired size
14. Store in airtight container and enjoy!

According to fitday, the total batch is approx:
3746 calories, 31/51/18 protein/carbs/fat 287g protein, 564g carbs, 73g fat

I cut mine into 12 bars which yields 312 cal/bar, 23.9g protein, 47g carbs (7.8g fiber), 6g fat, <1g saturated

15 bars would give you 250 cals/bar, 16 would give you 234 cals/bar.

The protein content will of course depend on your protein powder (fitday uses 25g/ scoop). The carbs are split about 50/50 complex (oats, bran, and nuts)/simple (applesauce, honey, raisins, cranberries).

Some changes you can make to this are fairly simple.

Up the protein with an extra scoop of protein powder and egg whites.
Lower the fat: drop the peanut butter (I didn't find it added much taste)
Raise the fat: add 1/4 cup of walnuts or pecans
Lower the sugar: swap out some applesauce for the honey
Chewier and more complex carbs: more oats

Anyway, if you do make them, let me know and if you have any suggestions for improving them, let me know as well! I like the taste, but that's me. I'd like to know what others think.

Today's pics:

Day 92

Day 91 - The True Confessions of Raiden Matsuo

Yesterday I made a short but to the point post. I had done wrong over the weekend and the guilt was getting to me. The accountability factor of having to report back to this blog did help control it however.

It was kind of one of those deals where a cheat meal turned into a cheat day, which turned into a cheat weekend. It all started with the work Christmas party, which was a buffet style dinner. Luckily though, as a result of eating smaller, more frequent meals, I'm unable to overeat as much as I used to be able to in one sitting. But then there was the beer, and then there was the desert table, and then there was the drunken late night ordering of pizza, and then there was the hangover breakfast, and then there was the samosas for lunch (which is my normal cheat meal), and then there was the beer at the matinee music gig that I caught, and then there was the leftover pizza from the night before.

My body basically had a conniption from all the garbage I was suddenly feeding it. I felt awful by the end of this trek. I was back to my senses by Sunday, but there was definitely some damage done. Oh, and what do I see? A couple of comments from Sammy and Adam advising caution when trying to put on some muscle to not overeat, and to continue eating good clean foods. Oh, the guilt was really setting in there.

But, as I look back, it may not have been as bad as I've made it out to be. As I said, I only managed one plate at the buffet, and a good third of it was filled with salad and grilled tomatoes and peppers. I filled up mostly on the meat, which was a seafood mixture of mussels, clams, and fish (seafood is always good lean protein) and half of a chicken breast, and I had just a bit of pasta and potatoe salad. Ok, well, I won't talk about the beer and the cake, but I did get some watermelon in to slow me down from the cake. The pizza we ordered was topped with chicken, ham, mushroom, peppers, and onion, so I managed to stay away from the sausage, ground beef and bacon. My hangover breakfaast was half of a waffle covered in lots of good fruit (and whipped cream) with a side of ham and some baked beans. So not great, but not terrible.

I did miss my workout yesterday, but once again, I really needed the rest, especially after I spent most of the day on my feet doing chores as well as making up another batch of my protein fortified granola bars. I was exhausted by the end of the day.

Today was much better as the order of the work week definitely makes it easier for me to stick to my planned nutrition. I was back in the gym today and got in a good workout and banged out some great sets. I left the gym completely exhausted. The difference between the strength building exercises and all the isolation exercises I was doing before is dramatic. Before, when I was just focusing on 2 or 3 body parts per workout, that body part would get tired, but I'd still have plenty of energy left, or at least that's what it seemed like. Doing whole body compound strength exercises leaves me just wiped, but I still feel good. It's more like the feeling after playing a game of hockey or doing some rock climbing.

Well, before I ramble on too much longer, here are my weekly measurement stats:
Week 13: 2007-12-03 to 2007-12-10
Weight: 134.99 (-0.28, -18.4 total)
BF: 20.96 (-0.07, -5.6 total)
Suprailiac: 10 mm (11.6%)
Jackson/Pollock chest/ab/thigh: 8/14/12 (9.74%)

Not much changes this week, but the PhysicsDiet data is still playing catch up. I expect to see it go up next week. Even with my weekend binge though, the fat levels stayed the same as far as the pinches go. So, I guess the answer to my transformer hard-gainer in disguise question was that the buffet meal (and subsequent binge) didn't do a whole lot for either muscle or fat, but it did make me feel like crap. My stomach is starting to feel not quite as tight as it was a couple weeks ago. Although, some of my pinches felt like I could have recorded them as the next notch down, but it wasn't quite enough for me to record them as being different from last weeks numbers.

Well, here's today's pics:

Day 91