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.

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.

An unexpected night off…

This week could be monumental for bonus money. I’m picking up an ungodly amount of time available the rest of this week because of the need in the area right now, including the couple of hours I did tonight, a couple tomorrow, a couple Friday, a monster Saturday, and about 4 hours Sunday. Unfortunately this might limit what I can do at the gym. I didn’t get home until 8:30 tonight and I was beat. I nearly got myself to change and get going but of course right after I had a shake I bailed.  I did eat healthy today, so as long as I keep that up this week, the amount of money I can make in the next few days will be worth whatever I miss at the gym.

My ABSOLUTE favorite song right now is the leaked “Circulate” off of Young Jeezy’s The Recession. It has a real “Roc Boys” feel with the horns and everything. I can’t hold still when I put this song on. It’s a flat-out hit.

New Phase of PF and other stuff

Tonight started the next phase of the Physique Formula and the workout tonight was hard. Switched from incline chest exercises to flat and decline, the back exercises switched to pullup-focused instead of row-focused, and it was heavy on the triceps. Looking at it on paper I thought it would be much harder than it was, but I still felt like vomiting afterward. I got it done. Tomorrow is legs and as usual I am not looking forward to it. I can never get myself to do the final rep that really causes growth. Burning legs are so painful.

I’m getting even more calories immediately after lifting by almost doubling the amount of Gatorade powder in the shake. It’s getting incredibly sweet, but from all I’ve read about post-workout nutrition, it’s necessary. The strawberry protein and blue Gatorade is a pretty good flavor combo.

I simplified my gym playlist today and stuck with some good rap. Tonight I bumped:

• Lil Wayne “I’m Me” and “Best Rapper Alive”
• Young Jeezy “Put On” f. Kanye West
• 50 Cent “What Up Gangsta?”
• Eminem “Lose Yourself” and “Till I Collapse”

Definitely got me up for it tonight.

By the way, I started a Twitter account for some reason.  I know about 2 or 3 people who use it, so it’s not as practical as the Facebook status updates, but whatever (another BTW, if we aren’t Facebook friends, add me already). If there is a trend, I will be roughly 6 months late to the party.

TGIF

A long day at work. Donna’s last day so I run the yard again. I’m back with the full caseload and I had over 7 hours of evals/treatments today. I did not take a lunch or eat a damn thing all day until I grabbed a protein bar (again) on the way home. Not exactly great nutritional advice.

When I look the tiger in the eye, my diet is atrocious. I eat enough calories and protein to gain muscle, I’ve learned more about post-workout nutrition that I’ve seen some good gains there, but overall I do not eat very healthy when I’m trying to get bigger.  I rationalize almost anything including junk. I eat so few fruits and vegetables and so much of what I have is processed. Sure I’m not eating ring dings and drinking soda all day, but microwaving frozen meatballs for protein every night and drinking coffee and Lo-Carb Monster drinks isn’t much better. Ironically I found it easier to be compliant with a less-enjoyable restrictive low-carb diet than what I’m doing now. I got into a good routine of cottage cheese/spinach/almonds/turkey/ommelette in the fall and I had great success with that. Right now I’m just eating like shit and I haven’t been able to bring myself to buckle down. Mom brought home pizza Wednesday night and Jaylynn suggested The 99 last night when I/we could have chose better options.  I’ve bitched about this before but my insistence on eating these things more than I should is what will keep me from my goals.

Money hasn’t quite been hemhorraging lately (though it’s about to once some of the wedding/apartment stuff needs to be paid for) but it has bleeding slowly from my wallet the past couple of weeks. I keep stopping at the convenience store or coffee shop during these big travel days and paying 5 or 6 bucks repeatedly. I’m not going to go broke over two weeks of little purchases, but I was doing so well with not spending any money on the little stuff during the week. Hopefully being in a set schedule for a while will help plug that hole.  I really hope (there’s that word again) that once Jaylynn and I get married, move in, and don’t have to travel all the time that these little annoyances will go away or at least be cut down.

I’m not going to the gym tonight (not eating being the biggest excuse) but I am going to use this time to organize my work stuff. I am supposed to have 3 workouts left this week, but what I might do is divide up the fourth one and add it to the second and third.

In any case, I’m going to throw on some music and start sorting before I get any lazier.

Congratulations Dan & Karen Pflock!

The wedding yesterday was a great time. Congrats to two good friends.  Other than the rain, everything was beautiful. Some pictures:

I was worried about my toast, but it went over pretty well. I was able to relax and have a great time once it was out of the way, and I’m glad Dan liked it. Good luck guys.

Dance Machine

I’m sitting at Jaylynn’s kitchen table at 7 AM getting ready to drive to down to the Cape for work. I’ll probably be in around 9. I had to come up here last night so we could go to Worcester for dance lessons for the wedding. Though I shouldn’t admit it, I enjoy it so far. It’s a lot of fun and it makes her happy. We have a ton of work to do, so we set up 4 more lessons (we’ll probably need more) but we’re motivated to work hard and practice.

I think tonight is a shoulders/arms workout, but I’ll have to check my PF program. I don’t think there are any overhead presses in this workout if I remember correctly, so it should be interesting.

As I fill up my iCal with rapidly approaching events (2 weddings in two weekends, dance lessons, etc.), I’m not going to have much time for the gym. I think for the next few weeks all I can hope for is 3 workouts per week.

Chest + Rambling

Yesterday at work actually went pretty well. I did the new evals while giving the new therapist most of the treatments for the day, which left me by myself most of the time and I got a lot done. So while not perfect, the work week is off to a good start.

Chest last night was really good, too:

inclines:

• 135 x 12 x 2 (warm-up)
• 170 x 3 x 1 (easy)
• 195 x 3 (4 with spot) x 1

declines:

• 135 x 12 x 2 (warm-up)
• 185 x 6 x 1
• 215 x 2 x 1 (actually pretty hard, but I left a couple reps in the tank)
• 230 x 3 (4 with spot) x 1 (surprised I got that much)

flat dumbbells:

• 65s x F x 5

incline Hammer Strength machine:

• 135 x 12 x 1 (warm-up)
• 185 x 7 x 1
• 185 x 6 x 1
• 185 x 5 x 1

dips:

• bodyweight x F x 3

Numbers went up on the major stuff, though I still don’t know if I should be doing more volume, which is why I threw in some more incline stuff at the end. At this rate, in a month I should be done 215 for sets of 3 on incline and 245 for sets of 3 on decline. Not quite my old form of 245 on incline and 275 on decline, but it’s getting there.

Other News and Notes:

• I’ve been coughing my lungs out since Friday despite physically feeling better from the weekend. I don’t know what this is but it doesn’t feel like a regular cold. A lot of people at work have been sick. The cough is brutal.

• Jaylynn called in sick Sunday, so later on that day we saw Dark Knight. Definitely a very good (not sure I want to call it ‘great’) movie and Heath Ledger was awesome. The more time that passes from seeing it, the more amazing his performance was. All I can talk about right now is Batman and Batman villains. I sound like a child. “…and Batman did this and this and this, and he can do this and this, and he has the Batcycle which does this and this…” Molly and I have been hypothesizing and reading rumors about the next movie in the series and who could be the villain. The two I’ve read so far are Daniel Day Lewis as The Riddler (not happening) and Philip Seymour Hoffman as The Penguin (brilliant!). Despite that it’s all I want to talk about, I still think I’m in the camp of the movie almost living up to the hype.

• Some trailers I’m excited for: Watchmen and The Day The Earth Stood Still. Definitely in a sci-fi mode.

• I don’t think I’m going to go into work till 9:30 today when I have a patient scheduled. I just want to relax for a bit.

• Listening to so much Lil Wayne recently, both Carter II and Carter III. It took me a while to buy him as a great rapper, especially since my only real exposure to him since “Tha Block is Hot” and “Get Off The Corner” were his garbage verses on Kanye’s “Barry Bonds” and Jay-Z’s “Hello Brooklyn 2.0.” However in anticipation for my New Orleans trip I figured I’d get reacquainted with Lilweezyana, and man is he good. I still don’t quite get why Time is writing features about him and I don’t know how he sold 1.1 million albums in a week, but I’m now in the Pro-Weezy community.

• I’m about 50 pages away from finishing Jared Diamond’s Collapse, a book I’ve spent the better part of a month trying to get through. It’s about this close to reading a textbook, but it’s still pretty interesting. It makes me feel smart.

So that’s about it in my recent world. As you can see, nothing earth-shattering. Back and a little biceps tonight.