Breakfast

Breakfast today is a cinnamon mocha latte protein shake:

• 12 oz. double-brewed coffee
• 1.5 scoops chocolate whey protein
• a little milk
• a little half-n-half
• a shake of cinnamon

Blend it up in the Magic Bullet, not quite Starbucks quality (I had a no-sugar cinnamon dolce latte yesterday, it was really good, I wish the pumpkin spice lattes had less than 38 grams of sugar) but not too bad. I should buy some instant espresso and see how that works.

A TT workout Monday, intervals and some treadmill walking Tuesday, and some rest yesterday. I’m planning on another TT workout tonight and some more intervals or light treadmill tomorrow.  The XBox 360 hasn’t completely thwarted my gym routine yet, so small victory for me. However, I did buy the original Halo yesterday only to discover that I need the hard drive to play it, but considering that Halo is the flagship game of the XBox, I should probably play through the series. In the past year or so I’ve had big time feelings of guilt for being lazy in any fashion, so I’m definitely still in super-compensation mode for buying and playing this thing.

End-of-Week Happenings…

Turb Training part B workout Thursday night, very good. In fact, I felt so good after that I summoned the strength and fortitude to go to GameStop, trade in my Game Cube, and buy an XBox 360 and a copy of Madden 09. My heart was racing partly because of the workout and Spike Shooter and partly because I was sort of defying my fiance, but I bought it anyway. When I told her Friday night that I got it, she wasn’t even really mad and pretty much laughed at me. I definitely prefer that reaction to the alternative.

Tonight after the Patriots win I got my first chance to really get into and play, and it’s pretty good. I’m not used to the controls and on our tv in the kitchen it doesn’t look much different than the Cube, but I’m sure it will look awesome in HD. I also don’t think the wireless controller responds as well as the wired one, but maybe I’m just rusty.

This weekend was pretty busy, as we had dance lessons Friday night in Worcester (a tribulation but we’ll make it through), met with our priest in Whitinsville (never heard of that town before) and our DJ in Athol Saturday night, got fitted for my tux this morning and went to work on our playlist before watching football today. A lot to do, but we’re under a month now and it’s starting to feel very close.

I was low on calories and carbs all week, and I made up for it this weekend. Pizza Friday night, toast/homefries with breakfast Saturday morning, a little Chinese for lunch, chicken parm and pasta for dinner, more toast with breakfast this morning, and lasagna for a late lunch today. Yikes. Again in terms of calories I was probably okay, but I’m going to have to be better this week. I semi-enjoyed eating spinach-and-chicken salads this week at work so I’ll go to Shaw’s tomorrow morning and make another one of those. I have to have 2-3 good workouts plus intervals and walks this week.

Anyway, that’s about it lately. Great win by the Patriots today. No mistakes by Cassell and the defense played okay. I’d be happy if Lamont Jordan was the starting RB next week.

Quick Workout

My head was pounding earlier from a lack of caffeine during the day (at least I think that’s what it was, my coffee this morning was 75% decaf) so I didn’t go to the gym, but I did get a quick squat/pushup Tabata workout in along with a 45-minute walk around the neighborhood. Tabatas are 4-minute protocols consisting of 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest, completed 8 times. They are a really intense form of intervals and while these could have been harder, it’s still better than nothing and I raised my heart rate for a bit and got a sweat going. I’m going to dig deeper into Turbulence Training to get another good 10-15 minute bodyweight circuit going on nights when I can’t (or don’t want to) go to the gym.

Ate pretty well today, though not as many vegetables and I’ve been using pre-packaged frozen meatballs too much as a protein source. I need to start baking some more chicken. I’m also at that terrible point again when I realize I should count my calories for a while to see how much I’m really eating compared to what I think I am. I hate that point so much.

Early Day

A good workout last night. I did the same TT intermediate workout that I did last week (again, nothing else last week) plus 20 minutes of treadmill intervals and I felt good. Invigorated, not sick. Tonight I’ll just go and do some light cardio to stay active. I’d go for a walk but it’s pouring here right now and more storms are on the way.

My eating has been pretty good. I had a couple of cheat meals during the weekend (steak and potato at Outback, English muffin and homefries with my eggs and bacon at breakfast, and chicken parm/beer/chocolate cake at Jaylynn’s bridal shower), but I wasn’t too bad. My usual cheat meals involve chicken wings and fries, and at least I had some brocolli with the steak. I’m right back on the wagon this week. A great day of eating yesterday with much-increased vegetable intake.  TNT has been good so far minus those cheat meals. I do miss the sugary post-workout shakes I was having, but I’ll get back to those in a few weeks.

Work is getting very slow. A wave of discharges and no admits or referrals has left me with less than 3 hours of treatment a day. I hope some patients head my way soon, because I was bored to tears today. Granted I left a couple hours early, but still, it can’t be like this all the time.

I also might have found a loophole in buying an XBox: Jaylynn said I can’t buy one until we’re married so we have our wedding money, but if I charge it and pay it off when I get my statement after the wedding, that should satisfy her. She’s helping her sister move in to her new apartment this afternoon so when I call and ask hopefully she’ll be too distracted to say no. I’m sorry, I went to GameStop today to buy last year’s Madden and they didn’t even have that. I can’t take that anymore. With Brady gone for the year, I need to escape from reality.

Branch Chain Amino Acids Taste Terrible

No other workouts this week. I became bogged down with stuff, got home later at night than planned a couple of times, and was just hot and lazy yesterday (However I did go for a nice walk the other day). I’m not too upset, I’m supposed to take a week off between switching programs anyway, so at least I got to focus on food and get some rest.

The TNT Diet is going well so far. I’ve upped my vegetable intake via celery, spinach, and broccoli (though still not nearly enough to really be compliant), I’ve cut out basically all starchy carbs (though I did forget corn, I ate 1.5 ears of it last night. Whatever), and I’ve been keeping full with meat, cheese, and nuts. I feel good, though I started to drag a little yesterday. My mom brought home pizza for the family but she made me a steak instead, which was very good. I didn’t feel too left out and I didn’t sneak anything at night, either. Another challenge tonight if we go out to eat, plus lunch at Charter Oak Country Club tomorrow before Jaylynn’s bridal shower.

I stopped taking beta-alanine a couple weeks ago after deciding it wasn’t doing much for me other than making my skin tingle, so I bought some BCAAs, which are far more reputable. A lot of pre-made recovery drinks have BCAAs in them to stop muscle breakdown, so this is a way to improve while being cheaper. I’m having some in the morning, some with a shake during the day, and some right before bed. Unlike creatine, this stuff tastes pretty disgusting. Whatever, all I do is slam the shakes anyway.

Off to work on another Saturday then up to Berlin for the rest of the weekend. I keep telling myself the paycheck will be worth it.

Changing Gears

No blogs since Wednesday, but my week finished up pretty decent. I got another workout in Thursday for arms, which got me to 3 for the week. I ended up working 59 hours last week, and I realized on Monday when Brenda called me into work to do all the paperwork I had left on Friday that I had overextended myself for the week. Granted I made an entire paycheck’s worth in bonus money, but I’m going to take some time off before I do any more extra time like that (well except for this Saturday).  I’m still pretty drained.

Starting yesterday, I put the Physique Formula on hold for a while so I can concentrate on fat loss for the wedding. I’ve got 6 weeks to get as lean as I can, so I decided to use Turbulence Training and get back on the TNT Diet to get that ball rolling. Turbulence Training is regarded as a great program by the fitness community, and it focuses on hard, efficient workouts using basic exercises with short rest periods and interval training. Tonight I started with the intermediate program which consisted of dumbbell split squats supersetted with incline dumbbell press, hamstring curls on the ball supersetted with pushups, and Swiss ball abs supersetted with rear delt raises, followed by 15 minutes of incline treadmill intervals. Workouts like this always look so easy on paper, but I came close to vomiting on the drive home.

A great thing about Turbulence Training is it almost always has 3 workouts a week, and as much as I love doing Jimmy Smith’s workouts, I’ve had the hardest time getting 4 workouts in with my schedule. I just jump around too much. I definitely enjoy adding size with the PF and I can’t wait to go back to them, but with my limited time and fat loss goals taking priority over almost everything, it has to take a back seat for now.

The TNT Diet is going to be the biggest challenge to stick to. It’s a good diet and I agree with it’s principles, but to really set myself up for success I’m going to have to be strict for 4 weeks, preferably without a cheat meal. The first 4 weeks of this program really set up the body to gain muscle without gaining fat (something to do with how we control insulin, I don’t know), so after this initial period I can relax somewhat. I’ve stocked up on high-protein/low-carb foods like deli meats, eggs, string cheese, cottage cheese, and unsalted cashews, and I’ve prepared some vegetables I’ll actually eat (roasted brocolli spears…yum), so I’ve at least done the prep work. The good part about this diet is it contains foods that I actually enjoy and I can eat them until I feel full (I lost my 30-40 pounds last fall/winter on a variation of this diet). The major-league difficulty I’ve had and will have in the future is resisting ordering the pizza at a restaurant even though I could eat a delicious steak and still be on the plan. As usual, we’ll see.