Day 73+ Dentist Appointment

Today after work, I have a dentist appointment, so it's going to be a hit on the schedule again. This is probably the first missed day in about 2 to 3 weeks, which I feel pretty good about. In all honesty, I probably COULD have gone after the dentist... but I'm just going to use it as an excuse to take it easy today.

I've sorta been on a "reduce sugar" parade. A lot of people have been asking me how to lose weight, at work, yahoo! answers, at the gym, and friends back home. And my best answer for them is to reduce the amount of sugar + carbs you eat and increase your exercise. And for the most part this is true. It's a bit more complicated than that though... There are hundreds of workouts and diet plans, and not all of them are super effective for everyone. So I guess the idea would be - find one that works for your schedule/lifestyle and give it a try... if in 3 months you don't see results, attempt a new one (I say three months because if you're only putting in 2 weeks of effort then slacking off, no diet plan or exercise plan will work. You need a somewhat long commitment).

Speaking of sugar - I wanted to let people know about SODA, POP, COLA, COKE, PEPSI, SOFT-DRINK, whatever you call it. I want to explain what happens inside your body when you decide to drink one:

In The First 10 minutes: 10 teaspoons of sugar hit your system. (100% of your recommended daily intake.) You don’t immediately vomit from the overwhelming sweetness because phosphoric acid cuts the flavor allowing you to keep it down.
20 minutes: Your blood sugar spikes, causing an insulin burst. Your liver responds to this by turning any sugar it can get its hands on into fat. (There’s plenty of that at this particular moment)
40 minutes: Caffeine absorption is complete. Your pupils dilate, your blood pressure rises, as a response your livers dumps more sugar into your bloodstream. The adenosine receptors in your brain are now blocked preventing drowsiness.
45 minutes: Your body ups your dopamine production stimulating the pleasure centers of your brain. This is physically the same way heroin works, by the way.
>60 minutes: The phosphoric acid binds calcium, magnesium and zinc in your lower intestine, providing a further boost in metabolism. This is compounded by high doses of sugar and artificial sweeteners also increasing the urinary excretion of calcium.
>60 Minutes: The caffeine’s diuretic properties come into play. (It makes you have to pee.) It is now assured that you’ll evacuate the bonded calcium, magnesium and zinc that was headed to your bones as well as sodium, electrolyte and water.
>60 minutes: As the rave inside of you dies down you’ll start to have a sugar crash. You may become irritable and/or sluggish. You’ve also now, literally, pissed away all the water that was in the Coke. But not before infusing it with valuable nutrients your body could have used for things like even having the ability to hydrate your system or build strong bones and teeth.

Day 72+ Legs and Back

Well, I have to be honest. Yesterday's TND (Tuesday night dinner) was fantastic. Two of the people who are regular participants had what they called a "MEATGASM" feast. This meant basically all meat. The official menu actually read "Meat, Meat, Green Shit, More Meat" (there was an optional salad, which nobody ate). The only down side of this mean, which I covet so much, was the chocolate dessert. Normally I would pass on such a thing... but this was "sexual chocolate" and everyone was being wimps and wouldn't eat the phallic one. So I told them to man up, nobody did, so I ate it. Thankfully it wasn't well endowed. So my consumption was minimal, but I really should be setting an example for the people I workout with, and keep telling "Not to eat sugary foods" because nobody likes to be a hypocrite.

On another note, I think I might flip back to having eggs in the morning. I will still continue to eat powerbars in the afternoon, but lately I have been having a sensation that I want my 6pack to be more defined (or return, or however you want to phrase it). So starting soon, I think I'll start cooking eggs in the morning and waking up a bit earlier to do that.

Aside from that, I weighed in at 152lbs this morning, not too shabby after the Meatgasm... The best "____gasm" there is...

Legs and back should be a challenge trying to get us all doing the moves at the same time especially pullups.

Day 71+ Arms/Shoulders

I have been terrible with the posts, but I assure you I am doing more physical activity that even I can possibly imagine. There are now TWO people from work, who I am working out with / training at the gym. It's not exactly P90X every day... some days it's straight out of the book, others it's my own personal concoction and other days it's a hybrid.

Take yesterday for example. I worked out a 14 exercise circuit. 50 seconds of an ezercise, followed by 10sec to set up the next... takes approximately 14mins to cycle through one, and we did three! I was so tired at the end I thought I would pass out. I obviously adjusted the weights accordingly for my pupils, as they can't squat with 40lbs on their shoulders for 1 minute straight, nore do regular decline pushups... so all said and done, I had three very distinct difficulty levels. But doing it with them (unlike most trainners who stand around and watch) gives me a more solid idea of how much energy a workout takes.

Today is just a straight out of the book P90X workout. I always try to get in at least 2 or 3 per week. as to not lose touch with my awesome pullup numbers, which have actually dropped a bit. I was doing about 30-35 now I'm in the upper 20's, but most times I now add legs-up (for the abs).

Work has been really busy so my post count has gone way way down, and I havent updated my link-calendar in about 2 weeks. FOR SHAME FOR SHAME!

Okay I'm about to go hit the gym.

Day 66+ Crazy Mixed up Workout!

Sorry for missing two posts (Tuesday + Wednesday) I have been pretty busy at work, and I usually make posts first thing in the mornings. I still went to the gym, I still did P90X, and I still have been 100% back on track (except for the blood donation - but that's always thrown me off).

Today I have a friend working out with me, who isn't exactly PLYO-X ready, so to speak. So I plan on doing a crazy mixed up grab-bag style workout from all sorts of different P90X exercise videos. We'll see how it goes. I plan on making them rapid-fire style get you exhausted, sweating bullets, "can we please stop now!" style...I'm sure Tony would approve.

My kitchen is nearing completion, which is good because I have visitors coming this weekend. I hope everything will be in order by Friday when they arrive.

I really need to confess my love for Creatine Monohydrate. It's so easy to take every morning, it's tasteless, and I am almost 100% positive it's working. I just look more cut, slightly larger, and generally perform better at the gym while taking it. I also get this placebo effect that tells me "You already paid for the stuff, and you're taking it every day, you need to do extra good work at the gym and get your money out of it" which is a huge bonus also.

I haven't taken Jack3D in a while. Perhaps I'll get back onto that in a bit. I was worried about the caffeine and the creatine. Considering one is an anti-diuretic and the other is a diuretic - you figure their contributions might cancel eachother.

Day 63+ Apheresis

I won't be working out today, because this afternoon I will be donating platelets at the Red-Cross donation center. I am proud to say my kitchen rework is 90% complete, the only part that remains is painting the trim and putting it back up. Otherwise, it's OVER! (Personal victory).

I weighed in this morning about 2lbs heavier than normal 153.0lbs. I bet it had to do with the Buffalo Chop House dinner I had on Saturday night. That meal was a beast! 32oz steak + asparagus/holindaise sauce + button mushrooms + dessert. To be honest, it was absolutely fantastic. I wish I could eat that every night. But at the cost of gaining 2lbs a weekend, I think I'd have to pass.

No other major news for now.

Day 62+ Icecream vs Sorbet

***WARNING TO DIETERS***
-Post may induce cravings-



I figured I'd start today off with a quick comparison of Ice cream and Sorbet. I think most people believe that Sorbet is a healthy alternative to the fatty dessert, ice cream. Which it kind of is. But there's a lot more going on behind that icy dessert than what you thought.

For my own curiosity I looked up the calories of some common household ice creams. Vanilla, Strawberry, Neapolitan, and for fun Bear Claw. The calories in each of these ice creams for 1/2cup (ya I know, who eats only 1/2cup of this?) is 100, 110, 130, and 150. So it looks like the more "stuff" you throw into regular ice cream the higher calorie content with some exceptions (french vanilla is 140 cals). But where do these calories come from? Mostly, fat. 60-90 calories come from fat. 6-8g of it in fact, half of which is saturated fat. The rest comes from carbs/sugars, about 16-19g total carbs, of which about half are sugar. So there you have it, a diet-kryptonite for most of the U.S. population. Spelled out in simple English. Now, lets go take a look at his cousin, that most people consider "better" for them.

Sorbet...right off the bat, the most interesting factoid is 1/2 cup of sorbet is across the board 130 calories. It doesn't matter which flavor, which color, or whose freezer it came from (arguably the colder it is the less calories it has FYI - perhaps I'll explain this in another post, why it's important to always drink COLD water). But RIGHT OFF THE BAT, the biggest difference is the fat content. 1.5g of total fat. Less than 15 calories from fat. Wow, those of you who are trying to cut back on fat - congratulations. However, cutting back the fat is generally NOT the problem. Especially when you're trying to lose weight. You'd want to be watching your CARBOHYDRATES. And here is where sorbet turns ugly. Sorbet has about 25-28g of carbohydrates, and typically over 23g of sugar. Nearly 90% of the carbs consumed are simple sugars. That's going to give your pancreas a heart attack (that is, if your pancreas had a heart). A sugar rush like that... well it's like going home and eating 5 teaspoons of sugar straight up, and in just 1/2 a cup! Like ice cream, who eats just 1/2 cup of sorbet? Even 1 rounded scoop is closer to 1-cup than 1/2 cup.

And lastly, the final big difference (especially for those P90Xers) ice cream typically has about 2-5g or protein, where as sorbet has 1g. It's not a factor you should really pay attention to, because frankly, I don't think people on a diet should be eating Sorbet or Ice cream. They are just too unhealthy in general. But for any of you who have been making the substitute, you're not doing yourself any good by eating sorbet over ice cream, they are equally bad, but for different reasons.

Day 61+ Chest/Back

Pulling out all the stops... finally looks like I'll be putting in a full week of exercising! Something I haven't done in a while! It feels good. I feel good. Everything seems to be in order. Nothing major to report except that yesterday's numbers were significantly less than a few weeks ago (recalling I've missed some days/weeks in the recent past). My blog seems to be a bit scatter brained. There isn't much focus or goal here. I've read some REALLY good blogs from some other P90Xers and Fitness Folks, and I'm very impressed by their linearity! How they can migrate from one topic to the other - where as I write typically about whatever comes to my mind the second I'm writing it. Perhaps it's more genuine? But I'm sure it makes reading multiple posts in a row a nightmare!

I've got a few people at the gym working out with me now. Mostly co-workers who go to the gym with me. I won't name names, but I don't think one of them is cut out for the routines. I tried to show them how to do pushups and I don't think this person has ever done a pushup in their life! It was so abysmal I was shocked. In short, it was more of a rocking motion from front/back on hands+knees. Not good. I tried to explain the importance of bending at the elbow and lowering your whole body to the floor... it just didn't happen. It's okay though, I know everyone has their own level of fitness and capabilities. So perhaps over time they'll start piecing it together... I won't throw in the towel on anyone who's actively trying to get healthy (or in shape). In fact I probably won't let them give up!! (and everyone who knows me in the real world will absolutely agree to that).

I've finished my "loading" phase of creatine. Which means next week (and the following 2 after that) I'll reduce the intake to just a single 5g scoop every day instead of two. I really think, of all the items I've taken the creatine is the most effective, and I've only used it for a month and a half now (and two of those weeks I was off). It's also very in-expensive. $20 gets you a container that easily lasts 3-4 months. I'm not even 1/3rd the way through mine yet.

Okay time to work! I weighed in last night at 151lbs (which means I probably weighed less than 150lbs this morning), but I didn't check.

Day 60+ 2/3rds the way there

66.6%

The final phase!

The big cheese!

Naw, it's just another day. But it reminds me I should take day 60 photos and post them on the site, I know everyone just loves to see me in my poster-boy pose. Haha. Okay enough pumping mysef up, I'll actually talk about something I have failed to really mention.

What happened to Plyo and Yoga? For the people who read my blog regularly, you've probably noticed that I haven't had (for example) Day 55 PlyoX or Day 57 YogaX as any titles. And I've done that in such a way to help bulk up. I gott way too skinny on P90X, and I was pretty normal sized to begin with. So eliminated Plyo and Yoga have given me the opportunity to substitute additional weight lifting/body weight workouts (mainly chest/back, legs/back, back/bicep, C/S/T, and arms/shoulders). I have noticed a slight increase in bulk and I'm still doing the diet, just not in seperate phases. I'm just watching the protein/carb ratio and sticking with what I would call phase 2 diet.

Speaking of diet, I have been reading www.fitbomb.com 's blog and I'm intriqued by the PALEOLITHIC diet "eating like a caveman" nuts, berries, dried fruits, meats, eggs, veggies and basically no carbs. I'm 85% there already with my decreased carb intake, but I'd have to give up some of my packaged food items like powerbars and yogurt. I'm tempted to give it a try and see how I do... I won't write a big long post like the guy at fitbomb did (which was awesome by the way, I highly suggest everyone reads it)... but I might give it a shot either for this last phase of when my 2nd round is over.

Arms/Shoulders today! Weighed in at 150lbs.

Day 59+ Chest and Back

Yesterday, I left work early. The night before, I drank a coffee way too late and I tossed and turned all night, only to discover my alarm clock going off and I was still awake. Needless to say, I took a well needed half day to rest up and regain some focus for both work and fitness. So today, I'm doing Monday's workout (chest and back). It also happens that I have two wrappers for the powerbar products I was discussing earlier. Perhaps they are of some interest to some of my readers? I'll put them side by side.

................Original Powerbar..........Harvest Bar
Calories.................240....................250
Calories f/Fat............40....................45
Total Fat.................4g....................5g
Cholesterol...............0g....................0g
Sodium...............200mg....................140mg
Potassium..........105mg....................200mg
Total Carb............44g....................42g
Fiber....................1g....................5g
Sugar....................26g....................20g
Protein..................9g....................11g
Vit A....................0%....................0%
Vit C....................70%....................60%
Calcium.................25%....................20%
Iron........................25%....................20%
Thiamin..................15%....................20%
Riboflavin...............10%....................10%
Vit B6....................25%....................20%

But keep in mind, the one on the right is way tastier.

Day 58+ Back and Bicep

Seems like a repeat title from yesterday. I ended up doing chest/shoulders/tris yesterday because I wanted to give my back a break, since I did legs and back the day before. So TODAY I will be doing back and biceps - my favorite workout.

Going to do more work on the kitchen this weekend. Hopefully we can get some primer up. It's going to be a bit of a challenge with the kitten running around. He already tries to eat just about everything smaller than him, lets hope he doesn't have an affinity for latex paints. I'm sure he does.

I've pretty much kicked my coffee problem at work. I think it was just a matter of getting it through my head that I didn't need it. Plus I reminded myself that for every coffee I drink, need to drink 2 more glasses of water to recoupe the dihurettic effects of the caffeine. That, and I know the water is filling my muscles and I'm TRYING to get bigger and if the water is being wisked away, that just means more work for me in the long run. So I'm trying to hold back on the coffee - it seems to be working. Eventually I'll crack down and have another. But I've been doing great all week!

Day 57+ Back and Biceps

Yesterday's leg workout was quite nice. I actually did it with a co-worker. Something tells me he'll be sore today. What is it with me not taking it easy on the rookies and then they're not interested in working out with me ever again? Perhaps I just get TOO into it.

I weighed myself this morning, after I fed the cat and myself (we ate different food, trust me). 151lbs. Right about where I thought I should be. Since being off the chemicals, I've lost a bit of weight. Partially because I was being so wishy-washy with the working out. But hopefully I can put some bulk back. Day 30 pics I think I weighed close to 155lbs, so gonna be hard to gain 3-4lbs in a couple days, especially muscle.

Without having too many posts about powerbars, I had a question about the sugar content. I believe the carb content of powerbars are 21g of sugar ~ 14% or 15% of one's daily sugar intake. I'm not sure if that constitutes high or not, but a yogurt is typically in the 18%-20% range, and I'm sure an apple is also in that 15-20% range too. Plus powerbars have 9 or 10g of protein, which is fantastic. Some of the Harvest bars have 12g, but I won't go into that until I do a more detailed post on their differences.

No I am not being sponsored by Nestle or do I have an affiliation with them. But it sure does seem that way doesn't it!? Maybe I should. I wonder if I'm photogenic enough to be their "poster child" Dreams of grandeur. In the mean-time, I'll keep plugging away at my 8-5job. I hope everyone is doing well in their own fitness world!

Day 56+ Back in the saddle

So I've been off and on for the past couple of weeks. Bachelor party, new kitten, starcraft 2, taking down wallpaper in the kitchen, you name it - I have an excuse for it. I've been getting to the gym hap-hazardly every so often, but there's no turning back today. I packed my lunch with the extra punch I need to get in a meaningful workout and my gym bag is all ready to go. The only thing I need to do it show up, and the rest will fall into place. Sounds easy enough, right? *Right* says my inner self.

Food update. Because I have been trying to bulk up, I think I told everyone I was eating a 2nd powerbar a day. Yeah... bad move. Original powerbars are not, by any means, a good tasting product compared to what's on the market, they do have more optimal nutritional benefits for my build - more protein. And if you have tastebuds, I highly suggest you look into another product and pay the extra $0.59 per bar for something more flavorful. Luna (for the ladies), Cliff Bars, etc all should do the trick. However, I'm a cheap sonofabitch so I stuck with the $1.00 powerbars, and TWO-A-DAY are killing me, even the better tasting ones are starting to no longer appeal to me. Thankfully the other day I saw a different product for sale that was $1.00/bar. It's a HARVEST POWERBAR. And they are REALLY GOOD! I would put them even above other energy bars on the market. I would have never even tried it had they not been on sale, but I stocked up on 20 of them. So I will eat a regular powerbar in the morning and a harvest one before my workout. Plus I can feel good that nestle is still getting my money, since powerbar was purchased by Nestle back in 1996 or something for 375million dollars. (when will I come up with a product that will sell for 375mil?). And the best part, is the harvest powerbar has basically the same nutritional facts, so still high protein, lower carbs, low fat.

Okay I need to work now but, it's a happy day!

Day 55+ Weekend's over

Happy day after Labor Day everyone. I'm a bit surprised that I am as cheerful as I am considering I spent the early part of my weekend completely plastered and the latter half recovering. Plus, my kitten left a present on my comforter while I was gone and it's Tuesday and I'm back in the office. HOORAY *while shaking head*

I had a good time at the bachelor party, the most memorable part was the part I can remember - my arrival. The rest is sorta a half-hazy, half exhausted, half piecewise mesh of stories people were telling me. For example: "OH MY GOD CARL, do you remember drawing on Jim's passed-out face last night?" "Uh... no..." "You did it right after you were passing around the Jack Daniels and everyone was taking hits, you took like 4! You're a champ!"

So basically the only stories I know were the ones that people told me after the fact. Supposedly there are pictures and videos. We'll see how that goes. I do know that the rafting was fun! We got matched up with a bus of kids from Ithica College - I think it was all the RA's but we really didn't talk to them since we had our own boat (Get on the boat...the bachelor boat. Get on the bachelor boat). We got the oldest most experienced raft-guide. He was hilarious. He let us do crazy stuff like wrestle, swim, horseplay, he even went to get us beer when we finished, what a guy!

Overall a pretty smashin' weekend. Definitely not something I could do every weekend, but once a year or twice a year, definitely worth it.

UNFORTUNATELY FOR ME... not going to be able to hit the gym today. I need to help the bride+groom bring items to their reception hall for setup and then going out for dinner afterwords, leaving me without sufficient time for the gym. I'll be there tomorrow though with bells on.

Day 54+: Bachelor Party

It's a Friday before a long weekend. Aside from the office being completely empty and for those that show up, they'll probably participate in a lot of chit-chat, it means I get to forget all about fitness for a few days. It's sad, I know. I've been so good in the past to stay on track, but long weekends are killer, especially when you go away for the weekend for a friend's bachelor party. I expect there will be hordes of drinking and pizza. And besides the occasional outdoor activity, I doubt I'm going to be "exercising"

However, Labor Day is also the last good weekend of summer... well at least it is up here in NY. Plus, kids go back to school, parks and librarys go back to regular operating hours, and I've already noticed it's a lot darker in the morning! Oh well, I'm an all-season kinda guy, so once fall sets in, I'll be glad it did.

I hope everyone is enjoying the little exercise/fitness cartoons I have been adding. I think they are very clever and cute. This one really doesn't pertain to anything I can really relate to, since I don't own a recliner... but I can see where he's going with it ;-)

I weighed in at 151lbs this morning, actually LESS than where I thought I would come in. I have been spending a lot of time on Yahoo!answers giving people fitness advice and guidance. I actually got top contributor again.

Day 53+: Back and Biceps

I like this cartoon. It says a lot about "quick-fixes" and "miracle fat-loss" I think it's all rubbish. You wanna lose weight? You wanna be healthy? Put down the twinky and pick up a dumbbell. It's that simple. Speaking of twinkies... turns out they don't last forever and actually have a shelf-life of 25 days! I've been duped! You're trying to tell me there's actual food in there? All this time I thought it was some chemical by-product that resembled a pastry. But hostess does produce 500million of them every year, so they might as well be infinite.

Okay, that was random. My apologies.

Coming up on Day 60. Only a week away. I don't feel this phase 2+ has been my best (by any means). Took a lot of days off, slacked a lot with the diet and coffee (mainly coffee).

Going to a bachelor party this weekend, speaking of which, since when did bachelor parties start lasting 2 and 3 days? From my understanding it was a drunken night of men doing stupid stuff often times with hired female entertainment. If by the end of the night, if you were sober enough to drive home, that was the end of it. Otherwise wake up in the morning, shower, have some scrambled eggs, shower again, drive home feeling like you want to vomit, and then sleep until 4pm. But seems like everyone I know has been doing these Go to Vegas bachelor parties or spend the weekend at my cottage/summer home deals.

Okay, that's enough complaining for 1 day. I am back on the creatine monohydrate. I haven't re-started taken the hulk drink yet. I want to kick my coffee habit first.

Day 52:C/S/T

I still haven't kicked the work-coffee habit that spawned a few weeks ago. Ever since I've been having a coffee or two a day in the office. It's not killing me, but I feel it's not right. I don't put any sugar/milk in it... it's just that I'm trying to be habitual about drinking water and the coffee just ruins that whole aura - even if it's not doing any "harm" persay. Don't worry, it makes sense in my head. And what's really perplexing, I don't even ENJOY the coffee here at work, it's absolutely horrid.

The joys of making sesnse!

Update on my friend Jake, who has failed at blogging, yet again... Has gotten back on the bandwagon with two recruits to P90X. Turns out with all the moves he's been going through, work and home, he's put fitness on the side-lines. Well, I guess his new building has a big open gym in it and they're asking for suggestions and some of his co-workers are getting "wall-to-wall" chin-up bars specifically for P90X. Should spark some interest back into his fitness program. Weither or not he'll be back to the blog world, I have no idea.