Day 2, 3, 54 - New Week, New Routine

Today was the first day of the new week, and the first day of my new routine. Previously I was on a 3-day split for weights, which meant I was hitting each body part once a week. I was doing HIIT cardio on days that I did weights as well. In addition to that, I was playing Ultimate Disc (frisbee) for about an hour 3 times a week, which I counted towards my cardio (lots of running). So I essentially had cardio sessions 6x a week, and weights 3x. Since my primary goal is fat loss and muscle maitenance at the moment, I found it was working decent for me.

However, as of last week, frisbee season is over. It's now too dark to get a game in the evening, and the other league that I played in that had a lit field finished up as well. It's more of a summer sport since it's played outdoors, and once it gets cold out, the activity tends to wind down.

So, this means I have to re-tool my exercise program to make up for the lot cardio that I was getting from frisbee. I aslo think that it might be time to go for a 4-day split, 4x a week for weights, adding an extra exercise for the large muscle groups. I think the 4-day split might have to wait until next week, but this week my goal is to get to the gym for 3 additional cardio only sessions in addition to my regular 3x cardio/weights sessions.

Today I got in my first HIIT cardio only session in. I upped the level on the ArcTrainer for the first 10 minutes from my normal level 5. I wanted to do level 5 for the whole 30 min. session, but I wasn't quite feeling it and figured I didn't want to blow my legs out too much since that's my Monday workout. Baby steps, baby steps. Slowly adding a few more minutes at a higher level is a better plan.

Anyway, here are today's pics along with my catch up pics from Day 2 and 3

Day 2

Day 3

Day 54

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?

Day 52 - Workout

I've got a fair bit of back story to go, but I figured there's enough of it that it will all come out eventually. Until then, I'm going to amble on with my daily updates.

You may be wondering why the title of this post is Day 52 when clearly this is only the second post total of this blog. Well, I decided to embark on my fat loss journey when I first stumbled upon Adam Waters' "84 Days in 48 seconds" video on YouTube when I was searching for time lapse videos for ideas for my own time lapse video.



Well, I have yet to publish the short that I made, but maybe I'll put it up now that I'm going public. I was actually really looking for videos more like this one:



What surprised me the most about Adam's video was how much his "before" picture looked a lot like my then current physique. For the past few years, I think I had kidded myself into thinking I wasn't that much out shape. Well, Adam's before and after pics really showed just what was possible and how far I could go if I really consciously made an effort.

I mulled over it for a while until I finally made the decision to start my mission to "Return to Form" on September 11. I didn't mean to pick 9/11, its really just a strange and almost morbid coincidence. At first I didn't really think I needed or wanted to take my mission public. At first the only person who knew was my girlfriend, but that's because we live together and I tell her everything. We even went out and bought the scale together!

Anyway, I'm rambling...I have a tendency to do so. Back on topic...Day 52 is where I am at now. I'll get pics up soon, hopefully tomorrow.

Today's workout was my upper back, chest, and triceps day. For my HIIT I was back on the Arc Trainer for my 30 min. session. I think this might be the last week on level 5. Next week I'm going to push it up to level 6 on my non-leg workout days and see how it goes. Today was also the first time I tried taking my post-workout meal immediately after I finished. This took extra planning to take my shake and banana with me to the gym. The bottle I put my shake in has a piece that you can take out and freeze, so as I was holding it on the way home, my hands were getting pretty cold! It's been getting close to freezing temps here now, and it's only going to get colder!

Tomorrow, being Saturday, is my rest day, so I'm hoping I get time to put up some pics and tell the tale of my first speedbump that started to slow me down back in the Ol' Glory Days.