Day 122 - Feedings

Well, today is once again a muscle building rest day, so I didn't have much else to concentrate on other than my "feedings". I only managed 5.5 meals today rather than a full 6. I was just a little bit late with each of my first 4 meals which added up to me not having enough time fit the last 2 in without really stuffing myself. I decided against this as eating 2 regular meals only 1 hour apart is just like having a big feast since your body doesn't have enough time to digest the first one.

I'll have to work on my meal timings a bit more on my rest days since before I just had the 1 rest day and that was used as a "free" day where I wasn't so rigid with my meal times or plans.

Although I didn't quite get my 6 meals in, what I did eat was good quality clean food. I'm hoping it has me nice and fueled up for tomorrow's workout/strength test.

I'm excited to see how I do tomorrow!

So until then,
Get your game face on!

Cheers,
Raiden

M2 Day 4

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 90 - Guilty

I'm guilty. Full confession tomorrow and update to this post tomorrow. It's late, so I need sleep.

Addendum:

Day 90

Day 83 - An extra rest day

Well, I missed out on my scheduled workout today, but I think it might be for the best. I slept in unbelievably long for me today so I think my body was telling me to slow down. I spent most of the day doing stuff getting in the Christmas spirit with my gf, so the gym appointment got pushed out of the way. I'm kind of sad that I didn't quite push the whole way to the 84 day/12 week finish line, but I still plan on going hard until Christmas. I want to make a nice post for tomorrow, but honestly, I've got a lot of other stuff going on, so it'll be hard enough for me to just get in my gym time.

Anyway, until tomorrow! I gotta crash again. Body needs rest, good quality sleep!

P.S. Today's Pics

Day 83

Day 82 - I Love Rest Days

Man, do I ever love rest days. I needed this one so much more than the ones in the past. I did a lot of relaxing things, including trying to make my own power granola bars. They didn't turn out quite how I was expecting, but at the least, they are still edible and I've got enough to last me through the week at minimum. I'm going to have to play around with the recipe a bit. My girlfriend wasn't too fond of the texture, but said that the taste was ok. Anyway, once I get a good batch, I'll share the recipe with you all.

Today was mostly uneventful in the health department other than me overeating a bit at supper, feeling a bit guilty and then sneaking in a short wii workout. Hey, it's just playing video games, eh? So technically, I was still resting.

Pictures will go up for tomorrow. For now, I really need my sleep.

P.S. Today's Pics

Day 82

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 67 - Pics and stuff

Well, this post is actually for yesterday and yesterday's pics, which I didn't get up in time yesterday as it was my rest day and my gf and I spent last evening with some friends who had us over for dinner and a night of board games and socializing (yeah, we're a wild bunch now). Even though yesterday was my rest day and planned relaxed day for meals, I ended up eating clean just about all day anyway, except for a couple desserts at our friends place with a couple glasses of wine, but even that wasn't too bad. The meal they cooked for us was actually pretty good as it was a nice meal of roast beef with potatoes and carrots with some shrimp as well. The beef was pretty lean, and I snuck a few more shrimp than the others for the nice low fat protein. I limited myself to one tiny bite size of fudge, and a small brownie. To be honest, I don't really have that much of a sweet tooth, my biggest weaknesses are fatty salty fried foods and the like, which I have to confess, I was making up for from Friday.

I didn't mention it in my post Friday night, but that was probably my blowout. We went out with some friends for cheap apps and drinks at a place downtown, which turned into me preying on the classic wings and beer. It was only a couple beer and about a dozen wings, which is half of what I used to do, but it was still a lot for my stomach to take. It isn't used to getting stuffed anymore. I ended up feeling a large amount of abdominal pain. I guess my brain doesn't clue in to stop eating anytime I have beer with my food. Later though, after the pain subsided, I was back to munching on chips and dip with a couple glasses of wine. Baked Tostito chips and low fat dip mind you, but its still junk food.

So, this weekend was a little set back, but I think I managed a little better than I have in the past. I'm well refreshed now and ready for another weak of eating clean and shredding hard.

I also thought I would start posting my before pics everyday now, which will hopefully keep me motivated. I'll do another post tonight probably after I finish my day and workout.

Day 67

Day 60 - New Clothes!

Today was my rest day, but I didn't do much resting! Been busy the whole day, but no workout. Went down to the farmer's market again and was happy to find that there was still one stand selling fresh green and red peppers.

I did some more shopping downtown with my gf (she got new workout sneakers) and then we went uptown to the big mall where I went shopping for new clothes. I've dropped about 15 lbs since Day 0 and the new jeans I picked up today were size 28, down from the 32's that I've been wearing that were hanging off of me. I'm almost thinking I should post my fat pant picture soon.

Dont' have much time right now since I'm heading out with some friends, so I'll just post today's pics.

Day 60

Get your game face on!

Day 0, 1, 53 - Catch Up

Well, since I'm starting late with my blog, but I still took daily pictures since the start of my journey, I thought I would slowly play catch up by showing 2 pictures starting from Day 0 along with my current pics. To clarify my start date, I had mentioned it as 9/11. Well, Day 0 was actually Sept. 10, but I hadn't actually done anything except weighed myself with my new scale and took the starting pic. So Day 1 was the first day that I actually did anything, so I guess that's the start date?

Anyway, after buying a new digital scale along with BIA fat scale, my starting stats were:

Weight: 153.4 lbs
Body Fat: 26.6%
Total Fat: 40.8 lbs
Lean Mass: 112.6 lbs

Day 0

Day 1

Today, being my rest day and cheat meal day, consisted of walking downtown to our local farmer's market (which is on every Saturday) to pick up my weekly supply of farm fresh eggs and organic spinach. I was a little disappointed this week since it seems like the fresh veggies season is finally over for the year. The last little while I've been relying on the market for my supply of peppers and tomatoes, and I'm not sure how much longer I'll be able to get spinach. Anyway, my girlfriend and I picked up our regular treat, chicken and vegetable samosas. They're like the rock star of the farmer's market. People will line up and wait upwards of an hour just to get some. Today's line-up though, moved pretty quick and we were able to grab our 3 each, a small order compared to some people who get 2 dozen at a time.

Well, like a good book where you don't want to just skip to the end, I debated on whether or not to put up my current pics, but I really am proud at how far I've come so far. I'm not sure if the pictures tell the whole story though, but keep reading and it'll all come out in the end. Today I also thought, what the heck, I'm no body builder, but since I'm doing this whole blog thing maybe I'll add a pose shot!

Day 53

These were today's weigh in numbers:

Weight: 137.2 lbs
Body Fat: 21.9%
Total Fat: 30.0 lbs
Lean Mass: 107.2 lbs

But, I've been using PhysicsDiet to implement a smoothing exponential running average on my daily weigh in stats. Since it uses a running average, there's a bit of lag time before the average numbers hit your actual weight, especially if you're dropping weight fast. The good thing about it is that it shows your long term trend better and reduces the noise in the data from daily/hourly/by the minute fluctuations in your body such as water levels and how much bulk food is still in your stomach/intestines. So my PhysicsDiet numbers are actually:

Weight: 140.0 lbs
Body Fat: 22.9%
Total Fat: 32.0 lbs
Lean Mass: 108.0 lbs

So? What are my real stats anyway? Right now it's a moving target and I'm doing what I can to track my progress. As opposed to Mr. Adam Waters being a very visual person, given my Engineering background, I'm a very quantitative numbers person. I have since bought a Accu-Measure caliper because I believe that while the BIA scale gives me good precision (fine grain differences) and consistent numbers, I am suspect of its accuracy. Currently, my suprailiac pinch with the Accu-Measure is 12mm, which puts me in the range of 13.6% +- 1%. I also did a 3 point Jackson-Pollock using this site which spit out a number of 12.17%. I tend to think the fat pinches are more accurate, but the Accu-Measure only has a resolution of 2 mm, so it doesn't give me the fine grain that the scale does. Anyone out there want to take a guess at my BF based on my pics?