Pro-Protein

Just a quick update, I'm still building muscle, still losing some inches around the waist, and still losing fat. I'm starting to see results faster just because I have less fat to hide the muscle. I still have quite a little cushion of fat though, so I'm slowly burning through it.

I still weigh 204lbs. I have been doing a fantastic job of replacing my fat with muscle at a good rate. I have been cutting back a little one how much I eat to try and burn through some of that reserve fat for summer.

Which brings me to my topic today. Protein. And why not? Of course you probably know protein is the building blocks of muscle. You probably also know that your body doesn't store protein, which means you won't fat from eating a lot of it. What your body doesn't use, you just filter out.

I want to lose some fat now, and still have food for my muscles, so I've really switched to protein rich foods and less carbs and fats. I did say less, I'm still eating some fats. And I'm still eating some carbs. Just less:)

It does make a difference, but I've found myself getting hungry more often. I just replace a meal or snack with a protein shake or protein food as the snack, and I'm good. It's working so far, and I'm seeing my body change, showing more of the muscle I have.

Some Encouragement: Someone I hadn't seen in about 6 months came by my work. He came up to me and told me he couldn't believe how much weight I'd lost. He seemed a bit confused when I told him I actually hadn't lost a lot of weight, just transferred it to more useful muscle.

I can't wait until I find someone who hasn't seen me for an entire year...

All work and no play... again

It's been a little over a month since I've posted something, so I figured I might as well put an update out there.
I'm still 200lbs. I haven't lost any weight. I have, however, lost another pants size, and now my abs are just starting to show. I'm burning through fat pretty quickly. I'm gaining a lot of muscle and it's been a lot of fun. I'm getting some muscle built up so when I do my cut, I'll be able to burn through more fat quicker with more muscle.

For the last month I had fallen into some sort of routine. Not exactly a bad thing but I could tell I needed to shake it up. So I set aside a couple of days every other week to just go in and do a full body workout. This means pull-ups, sit ups, push ups, squats, dead lifts, cleaves, pretty much everything. I wanted to focus on a workout that engaged as many muscles at once as I could get. A push up, followed by a jump up to the bar with a pull up, leg lift, kind of like playing on a jungle gym. The point is, it was fun, and it was a workout!

What I found really fun is finding out just how many more pull ups I could do, or push ups. Using all the muscles in my body helped tie them together I think. I thought of some of the strong man competitions, and how many muscles they use all at once. Burning a lot of energy in a very short amount of time. Like a top fuel dragster. It makes me want to go home and build a course like that. After doing 20 minutes of full body workout moves, I was tired. I'd used up some energy for sure. And after that I did 30 minutes of bike. Man, talk about  burning through fat.

I just had this thought of people reading these going "well duh!" But hey you can't get away from that. I don't know everything, and I always like to learn what works for me. And this really is working for me.

My advise for this blog, set yourself a play date. Do something that isn't part of your normal routine. Pull your car by a strap! Flip over a tractor tire. Lift a big chunk of concrete. Use the muscles and have fun doing it.

Health: Riding the Wave

First, let me update you on how I'm doing. I've been working out since I first started this blog. I'm 200lbs, I can run 3 miles non-stop in under half an hour, I can finally bench my weight, and I'm looking a lot better. My pants are fitting much better if not a little loose. My shirts are fitting more tight in the shoulders and arms, but not in the waist. I'm still going for being fit for cardio, but to loose fat faster I've been building muscle a little more than I originally planned.

Now that I have built up some muscle, I will cut back on weights. I will still do them, but not as heavy. And I'll be doing much more cardio, endurance, and fat burning. This has a little to do with my workout partner pulling a muscle in his chest because he was doing something a little wrong.

So, at this point, I'm riding the wave. Let me explain what this means to me. Waves can be created by a sudden movement. I would call the first week of working out as a sudden change or movement. If you do it right, a wave of fitness starts. You start to feel better, you start to eat right, you start to change your life toward feeling better and eating right, and before you know it, you are riding the wave.

Waves don't last forever, and they die down into ripples. That's when you create a new wave. Mix it up and try something totally different that you could never had done before you started working out. This puts you to the next level of starting another wave.

Finding something you like doing that requires this level of body fitness keeps you going. Once you've gone there, you can hold onto that level, and choose when you want to step it up. Most people I know who start getting fit then join a soccer league or something like that, continue with fitness because they enjoy where they are so much. If you just work out and continue to do the same things you always did, in my experience, you tend to fall back into old habits.

So, get fit, start eating right and get healthy, then find something to do that keeps you going at that fitness level.

Happy Mother's day, and I'll write something else soon.

Diets, an Excuse to Fail

I had a birthday party to go to Monday, so I wasn't able to work out. Of course it was a youngsters birthday party, so lots of junk food and snacks. It's pretty easy to eat wrong.

So, everyone says "You can cheat once in a while, and it's a good thing." I say... cheating is never good. But why give yourself that option. And I'm not talking about not going to a birthday party or being around that food. I'm taking about even thinking of it as cheating. Cheating eludes to doing something wrong. You are a big boy/girl, you can eat what you want.

I understand sticking to a (dreaded word) Diet.... DUH DUH DUUUUUUUH!!! or how ever you spell that sound usually heard in a horror flick. First though, I'll tell you what I think a diet is. It's what you eat. If you eat, that's your diet. If you eat a type of food, you are choosing a life style. Just how I like to look at it.

And here's why I like to look at it this way. If you "Cheat" on a "Diet" you feel "Guilty". If you feel "... ok enough quotes... If you feel guilty, you tend to just say "F" this it's too hard.

Hey if guilt works for you, fine. But it doesn't work for me. And honestly I don't think it works as well for others like they think it does. Eating right is all about feeling better. Yes, if you're healthy you feel better usually right? So why put up this rule that could make you feel bad, when you don't have to?

I don't like diets as people think of the word. Giving yourself a chance to fail is not a great start to being more healthy. They also are temporary by nature. So when you go off your diet, you go back to what... eating unhealthy? Eating too much?

I pick my meals, I keep my health in mind, and it seems to work great... without the guilt!

And the Muscle said, "I'm confused!"

One thing a busy gym will do is make you think creatively when trying to work a muscle group. But even if the gym is not busy, I rarely ever work a muscle the same way more than a couple times in a row. Some people call it muscle confusion, but I call it not being bored.

Muscles are cool. They allow you to lift things, and if they can't help you lift something as many times as you want them to, they get torn down, and they repair bigger. Duh, right? Well if you don't tear down a muscle it will not get bigger. Not only that but you won't burn as many calories at rest because your muscles aren't repairing.

I'm just keeping it simple... anyway, plateauing a muscle means it's used to what you are doing. It's used to how you do it. It's really good at that exact movement, speed and angle. Change the speed, movement or angle, and BAM! Muscle confusion. Change where you have the most resistance in the movement and you will also feel the difference. Change the angle of grip, pause as you reach the top, hold the movement in the middle, only do half the movement, then do the other half later...

Ok so as you can see, there are a lot of ways to change your workout. Do it so you don't get bored. Do it so you can continue to grow stronger. Do it so you have fun, look better, what ever. Just have fun with it.

That's all for now, so have fun. Be safe. Ask a trainer.

All the Right Moves

At the gym last night I remembered something I was taught while training with a guy. A lift done right once is better than an entire set of lifts done wrong. The first thing I ever learned in a lifting class was form. Our teacher made us lift 5 lbs until we got it right. You could see the faces of some of the students. "Really? 5lbs? I could do that all day." Well it turns out they couldn't.

I still laugh when I remember being sore the next day from lifting 5 lbs. Later on in life a guy I lifted with just wasn't impressed with my curls. I was lifting a lot of weight, but I was throwing them up. Bad habit I picked up. I just wanted to do a lot of weight. He made me take 20lbs off, and do it right. And I couldn't even get a set of 8 knocked out.

Flash forward to my fat rear getting back into the gym. Old memories come back. Old moves are remembered. Old lessons renewed. Best feeling ever. Forget how much I used to lift. That was then, this is now. That's a whole other blog though. As I'm lifting, and trying to get my work out partner to back off the weight and lift correctly, I see the guy at the weight stack. He's got 60lbs in each hand and he's doing curls, sort of. It was a whole body movement, swinging, dipping, rotation of the waist and hips... he was getting a workout, but he wasn't isolating his biceps by any means.

I can tell he's not much into accepting tips. And at this point I'm in no physical shape to be trying to tell someone how to lift. You kind of need to be able to prove you know what you're talking about. It's like a fat guy trying to tell you how to lose weight... you get the idea.

It is tough, seeing someone you see as smaller than you lifting more weight. I've found that it's fun being a little older and wiser, while still having the youth to repair fast and go hard. So, I guess the lesson I'd like to make available is this; You are only cheating yourself by not lifting right.

Slow, controlled and precise movements are better for me I've learned. I'd be willing to wager that it's a good thing for others to pick up on as well. So what if you aren't lifting as much weight. If you just want to see how much iron you can move around, then by all means, go for it. I go to the gym to look better and feel better. 


Not to mention lifting weights wrong can really hurt you!


My advise? Why thank you for asking! Most gyms will give you a couple of free session with a trainer. I always take them. Even though I went to college, I can still learn something new.


That's it for now.

Fat loss, and weight loss.

Ok, I got a bit busy, and I haven't blogged in a little while. Sorry about that. Once again I'd like to assure ... myself, and whoever might be reading these horribly boring blogs, that I am still working out, almost every day. My pants are fitting way loose, and I've found another latch in my belt I've never reached before.

But, my weight hasn't gone down a lot. This could frustrate some people, and if I didn't know better, it would tick the heck out of me. So, I figured I'd blog about it.

This is my take on it, my opinion. When someone tells me something about diet or exercise, the first thing I ask is in what context they feel this fits. Just think about it, if you are lifting and trying to build muscle, not every diet will work, right? Or someone tells you what to eat, but you aren't lifting at all you are trying to "loose weight". I'm all about keeping things really simple, and later working out the details and getting complicated. Lets do some goals people have, and I'll give my take on what is needed.

"I want to loose weight." Ok cool. Get naked. You'll loose 2, maybe 3 lbs. Or, stand on the scale slightly more toward the top or bottom. If having the numbers on the scale go down will make you happy, cool. Here is my humble plan for you. Eat less. Move more. Want more details? Eat less carbs, get your heart rate up more. Use more calories than you eat in a day and you will loose fat, and fat is the weight you want to loose. Other than this, different strokes work for different folks.

"I want to have more energy." Now we are getting somewhere. You get more energy by using more energy and eating right. Eating right for me is eating less, eating veggies and fruits, whole grains, taking good vitamins and supplements. Also doing cardio and doing intervals, reaching your peak and expanding your wind is a great way I get more energy. Now instead of looking at your weight, you are just doing it to feel good. Guess what, you'll probably loose FAT and inches.

"I want to look good again." Now this is getting deep. This is more what I want. Build muscle, loose fat, but don't look at the scale unless you are using it to make sure you are eating enough. I'm loosing fat and building muscle at the same time, so I'm not loosing a bunch of weight. I will probably in a while, but that's not my goal. I want to loose FAT. If I weigh 200lbs, but it's all muscle, I'll look awesome! Oh, remember, the more muscle you have, the more potential calories you can burn.

"I want to be healthy."  So this to me, is the most important statement. And it can really mean a lot of different things, but it's the most important. Even getting all big and muscle bound can actually be unhealthy. I want to be healthy, and honestly, that's the way to be. You'll feel better, you will look better, and you'll feel more confident. You might even loose weight...

I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm tired of everyone saying they want to loose weight, when they really mean they want to loose fat. I'm really tired of people thinking they will be happy once they "loose weight". Ok this blog is way too long now, so I'll talk later. I'm going to the gym now.