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.