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Chest day. Pushed it on the pec dec to 180lbs! for a short ROM for 8! Booyah! I feel positively beastly now! And I snuck out this morning for the usual 22+ mile/though it was 2 1/2 hours instead of just under 2 hours, bike ride on the trail! It was a nice 30 degree F with no wind. My toes did freeze on the way back, and my front part was alittle cold -didn't want to wear a bra. . . so they girls were very cold during the ride. It was just one of those mornings that putting on all those layers of clothes was a chore. Can't wait for the weather to get warm again, and I can just put on the damn helmet and go bike! and minimal amount of clothes too . . . biking naked would be a safety issue I think.

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Eating my big bowl of spirulina colored cream of buckwheat this morning. Fruit of choice with it is honeycrisp apple and a thick slice of pineapple all cut up. A few slivers of almond, protein powder, and wheat germ oil to make meal #2. Meal #1 was at 6 AM which was rice milk heated up, chai flavored protein powder, and a small 2 oz glass of half carrot juice and half acai berry juice. After meal #1, I proceeded to the gym and got on the elliptical and did only 30 minutes for the 5K island trail path on the screen, at level 4 and 6 (kept it low due to legs are going to be worked out tomorrow, and the quads are just now feeling not sore). Delts are the agenda for today. I seem to have just skipped over biceps/triceps this week (they get a work out just from doing chest and back anyways).

 

Decided that I do not like this belly from all the cake and cookies I have been allowing myself to eat in large amounts (like 1/2 a bag of cookies, and 1/4 of the 9 by 13 pan of vegan sheet cake that I make myself). Reigning it in. . . I shall feel better about myself if I do that. Maybe I will increase my sweet potato/yam portion? Nada to increasing the brown rice though. . . . haahaahaa.

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Jogged on the trail today as it was way above 20 degrees F (28), and hardly any wind (just enough to lightly blow in my face on the way back home). I went 5 miles today instead of only 3, and I could feel it in my new shoes (I haven't gone over 3 miles in the new Saucony's with GoreTex - and my feet actually got hot and sweaty in these waterproof minimalist shoes).

 

Took an extra day off yesterday. I was suppose to do Legs, but the outer quads were still talking to me as I did my morning single squat ( ), but why did I do a jog on Leg day? Just felt like it. . . so far my Legs just feel used, and hopefully will withstand the abuse I will do to them today: Power Squat, Leg Ext, Leg Curl, Ab/Ad-ductor, and maybe Bosu ball squats for stability endurance. 300lbs is my PB on the Power Squat. . maybe I can do that again today. . .

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No new PBs on the Leg day. I was able to do what I did the last time, except the 230lbs on the Power/Sumo Squats was a no go - my lower back was not strong enough and I tweeked it on the 180lbs set - probably while trying to hook the bar - lost focus for a second to look up over my right shoulder and rotate the bar for the hooks to grab the rack. Still, I was very sore the next day. The Leg extensions at 305lbs for 10 reps probably did it.

 

Next day was Back. And it was awesome with a new PB of a 210lbs lat pulldown (I should really film myself trying to get into the seat and get my knees under the bar to hold me down, very comical IMO). Should start to try to do chin-ups, though I do not like the hand position for our machines and on the Star Trac pullup station - I like to use the wide bar for the pulldowns.

 

Today was Chest, I did several PBs, but the most memorable was 180lbs on the Chest Press with a 45 degree incline (on the Smith Press Rack) for 8 short ROM reps. Yeah!

 

Eating alot still. My weight has ballooned way up to over 150lbs. . scared to weigh myself. Baggy clothes again. I am just going to keep going with this for the month of December, and start to diet down as a New Years Goal for a show in March here in Michigan. I hope I can do it this year. Have to stay focused. . . have not yet gotten down to a physique competition low bodyfat while being a vegan.

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10 days of grey skies, and I am having a hard time being my cheery self. My Legs were fine this morning, so I headed out for a morning cardio jog just to get the endorphin rush to help me feel up for the day. Did I mention before how I feel like an elephant on a rampage while I am jogging? Hahaha. I sure do feel the extra pounds, and with my muscle mass sore most of the time now, I can feel every jiggle of the muscles with the tendons trying to keep it attached to the bone. Hahaha. See endorphins! Luv them!

 

Today is Chest day. Wonder if I will do something different in the exercise routine, like I have this past week for Legs and Back. Legs I did deep regular squats with barbell on my shoulders, and sticking my butt so far back to go down to where my knees are just below parallel (could feel it in my glutes on the way up), but the weight was not near my 230 on my sumo squats. And Back was using the wide bar pull downs, and bodyweight pull-ups with a resistance band to help me at least do 15 reps for 5 sets - with a slight pause of isometric contraction at the top. Trying to increase my wingspan is my goal. Reading up on all the routines people have used to help them. So I am playing with all these different exercises that are using muscles that I have not developed to help the prime agonist move massive amount of weights. Hopefully they will develop in the next couple of months, but by then it will be time to shred the bodyfat. . whether the muscle mass stays is up to how well I manipulate my diet.

 

Thinking of doing my own 3 month transformation starting on January (which will end with a show in March). I have many ideas, but no follow thru, and definitely no results. . usually.

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The weather is agreeing with me so far! I went for another jog even though it was just 20 degrees F, but with no wind, and a faint glint of sunshine caught my eye as I jogged. Did not feel like an elephant trying to run today, but I still can feel the extra weight jiggling with every push off of the leading foot going back.

 

Chest doesn't really hurt today. So either I am recovering very well and judging the correct amount of muscle tearing in order to not over do it, OR I am not pushing it enough. Now, the Back is still sore in places where the new exercises used different stabilizing muscles (the high traps by the scapula is still sore when I use them), and the deep glute muscles from the deep squats are still chirping abit (though not on the jog for some reason-don't use the deep glutes for moving the legs forward and backward? and no bending of the knee or waist so deep as to engage those muscles? my guess).

 

Today is Delts. I am going to push the weights to a set of heavier weights than last time, and then I plan to do descending sets to make them burn. I remember that my delts like to grow when I do high volume reps with little rest time between the sets. It doesn't make a very pleasant evening afterwards though. The last time I did that, I put Ziplock bags of ice on both delts at night while watching TV, just to make the inflammation go down so I could sleep.

 

Well the endorphins are still flying high, so I am off to play on this wondrous day.

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I had a wondrous day. I did only 3 exercises really for delts: Military Press on the Smith Rack, Cable Flyes on the dual cable towers, and rear delts with the reverse Pec Dec Machine and High Cable Pullback (the cables are not sliding smoothly so I could only go 2 pins down (30lbs) for a rep of 8 before my delts could go no more, and that made me frustrated, so I went to the pec dec and did an amazing 120 lbs for 8 reps on my heaviest set).

All the descending sets, especially on the Military Press, I did the 21's, but for me it would be the 30's because I like to go to 10 and not 7: so 10 reps full ROM, 10 reps at the low end of the ROM, and then finished it off with a struggling 10 reps at the top, and if I had any ATP in my muscles I let it be used up by lowering it all the way down slowly to the starting low part - my delts were screaming and yeah I am not ashamed to run away from the machine after the bar clicks in and curse a word or two cause it hurts SO BAD! hahahaha.

 

Fast forward the next day. It is Leg day today thank goodness. My whole upper body is one sore mess. The only thing rewarding is that I can feel my muscles - every single fiber I think! I think I really need to get a shirt that says I muscles! So true. And yeah, I am flexing here and there as I type this in. . . hahaha.

 

Dang. It is Leg Day, but the sunrise this morning is gorgeous, and it is 27 degree F outside. . . not suppose to go out on the trail, but it would do my mental status so much good. I think my usual 3 miles with a casual gait (that is why I say I go jogging all the time and not running) wouldn't hurt . . well it might. But it is winter, and pretty soon we will get snow here in the southeast part of Michigan and I won't be able to go jogging anymore (I am shuddering thinking of the ellipticals - and no treadmills - and I hear we are getting a real StairMaster stepper soon - great for when I am beginning my comp mode - those things kick my glutes literally!).

 

Bring on the endorphins. . . the Lipo6 is already starting to work (I do not do coffee - too many biochemicals to keep track of - I like my caffeine to be synthetic and anhydrously pure).

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Day off. My hardest day to get thru mentally. I like it when I wake up, do cardio to get things going, and then head to the gym in the afternoon to push some weights around.

 

The sun is shining, and above 20 degrees F, and the trail is calling to me to come out and jog! But my Legs would not build up the muscle mass as it is sore from yesterday's workout - though I could do it, I just wouldn't recover and build optimally. Now, during the summer I would take nice long walk or even a casual bike ride, but that is hard at 25 degrees F. Just the cold factor would keep me from recovering optimally - it would divert energy to keeping me warm and not focus on the tissue damage.

 

And next on the agenda is Back again, but my outer lats are still sore when I flex them, so they also are not ready. . . need to just rest today. So hard to do sometimes. Maybe a massage? but then again I still have inflammation and I wonder if a massage would just exacerbate it?

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After yesterday's Rest day, I hit the trails this morning at a balmy 37 degrees with a slight mist, and decided to keep on going onto the asphalt part of the trail into town to do the 5 mile loop, and I did it within an hour (59.37 minutes). And I was even able to sprint at the end (while looking at my iPhone's stopwatch) to make it under 60 minutes! Did I feel like an elephant running? No, more like a rhino with an attitude!

 

Back and Biceps are on the agenda for today. I flexed my back this morning during the pre-jog stretch poses, and it felt fine. I guess a day off really works wonders for me! I did not even put a heating pad on it like I usually do to help the recovery process faster. I did sleep alot. . and ate alot. . .

 

I finally tried to make vegan rice crispy treats and fairly succeeded! I liked them. I had no recipe, but just knew I had to melt EB butter first, then add in some dandy marshmallows (which took a while to melt!), and then throw in the puffed brown rice cereal and mix good. I greased up my hands and made a big pancake shaped rice crispy treat on parchment paper, stuck it in the freezer for fast cool down, and then cut it like little pizza slices. Yummy. It could have used more EB butter I think - for a more creamy texture on the tongue and the marshmallow fluff may not stick to the bottom of the pan so much.

 

And as I eat my spirulina cream of rice this morning, maybe I could add spirulina (just a touch) to turn the marshmallow fluff green, and some rehydrated goji berries for the red color, and I could have a healthy decorated Holiday crispy treat! I do not know if there is enough sugar in the marshmallow fluff to mask the spirulina taste. . . maybe if I do just a pinch - otherwise they would all have to be eaten by me! and I have only a week left of off season indulgence.

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Today was a balmy 43 degrees F with more than a slight mist. Past a puddle and saw all the little circles the rain was making. . very pretty. Even though it was warmer, I had on all my clothes, so the rain did not soak me, and even though I was overheating in some parts of my body, the rain on my face and head (took my hoodie down) kept me feeling fine thruout the jog. Only went 3 miles today though - I was feeling just a wee bit twinge in my right arch and I wasn't feeling my caffeine rush this morning. Plus today is Chest day and I want to push the weight really heavy, and will need alot of energy to do just that.

Yesterday's PB on the neutral grip lat pulldown went from 210lbs for 10 short ROM reps to 225lbs for 8 short ROM reps. I can feel it in my lats just under my armpits today. Grow baby grow! I want an awesome wingspan.

I am excited to begin my transformation to competition image. I am not liking this elephant stage for growth, but it is the only way I know to grow my muscle mass fully. . . plus enjoy vegan junkfood! like cakes and cookies and other things made with cane sugar. plus not tally up macros. . which is what I will be doing next week for months. . that is the least favorite to do when transforming. So tedious, and I am not yet a master of getting my body under 140lbs yet. This year is the year I will do it!

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Went to bed late last night, with the thought of starting to get ready for my transformation to comp body. It was a day off yesterday as I did not want to be rude and sneak off to the Anytime Fitness gym that was near the town I was going to - though truth be told, I probably could have, but I did not want to be all sweaty and stinky in the car for the 3 hour drive back home with my family rolling down the windows and heat cranked up. Hahahaha.

 

So today first on the agenda was to do my 5 mile trail jog, and the weather was nice enough to be 32 degree F, little bit of frost on the asphalt part of the trail (slippery in places, so my time was 2 minutes over the 1 hour usual time), and the sun kept shining in my eyes at times (and it is now looking to be a partly sunny day here in south east Michigan! Yeah! Sorry skiers! though the ski places are open around here as they can make the snow with their machines). It was awesome as usual - even saw many of my buddies out on the trail!

 

I am not going to keep track of what and how much I eat yet. Going to spend the last few days before I total commit to it, by just cleaning up my eating. No more wheat, so no more pasta and no more bread. Like for breakfast today I did a rice milk protein enriched latte (warm the rice milk, and used the Chai Vanilla flavored Raw Protein powder, with a sprinkle of cinnamon), and a little bowl of fresh veggies (peapods, celery) and fruit (one pineapple slice and one small Gala apple). I will do a rice and stirfry with mock chicken strips for lunch, and then head out for my workout, which I will double up bodyparts now: Delts with Legs today, and not go heavy but go for medium weight with 12-15 rep/many sets for this week (basically going for volume with some intensity).

 

So with the endorphins and caffeine (Lipo6) flowing thru my bloodstream right now, and soon the sugar from my fruit, will keep me motivate to keep to today's agenda!

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Jogged in the rain this morning on the 3 mile loop of the trail. Still had alot of energy to push the weights with my Legs today. Pushed out 10 short ROM reps on the Sumo Squat/Power Squat. My legs and glutes can handle the weight, but I have to be so careful with my lower back-keep my core tight and not let it go during the movement of the exercise. Otherwise I will be saying, again, somehow I tweaked my lower back and now it hurts. . right now it is sore, but that is because I did drop sets after doing the 320lbs heavy set. I also did Leg Extensions with drop sets, and on the last set of 25 reps with only 30lbs on the machine, I could actually feel my muscle go hard under my skin. I was done after that. So only 2 exercises today, but I trashed the muscle with each drop set I did after I worked up to my heaviest set.

Yesterday I weighed in at 161.2, and after cutting out wheat, I was 160.6 today - water weight.

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the computer says 14 degrees F, my home thermometer says 12 degrees F. No wind, and there is sunshine trickling in thru the horizontal clouds. . . mmmmmmm. Trail jog this morning? Going to try. If only I had a balacava, then my nose wouldn't get so cold. . hahahaha, still a hat with a hoodie with it pulled tight and tied in a bow, so only my eyes and nose are visible. . .

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So I went on a trail jog that 14 degree F morning, and spent the rest of the day napping, taking hot showers, and all around not feeling good - so no working out. So, lesson learned. No jogging on the trail if under 20 degrees F, with no wind blowing - otherwise I will be spending the day trying to recoup the damage.

 

VeganBeast has already committed to losing bodyfat but keeping muscle mass. I cut out all wheat (1 slice of sprouted wheat bread yesterday because I ran out of rice, and needed some carbs fast for my weightlifting workout), and I went from 161.2 on Sunday, to an official 157.0 today on the scale. So 4 lbs of water weight so far. Given that, now with the cutting of calories and upping the cardio, and even upping the cardio aspect of weightlifting with supersets and dropsets, this is where the real bodyfat weight comes off.

 

-Do you ever know what to do when somebody starts a diet and they say "Wow! I have lost 4 lbs already!" They are so excited. I know it is easy for me to lose 2lbs after a BM and doing an hour of cardio in the morning, and I do not get excited because I know what it is I lost in weight. And then how do you start a conversation about nutrient dense foods, exercising correctly, sleeping soundly for recovery, and all in all a way of living, to a normal person you meet? Let alone the look on their face when you say you do all of this plant-based (I try not to say a negative comment with the words "no animals and no animal products"). -

 

Yesterday I did supersets of Delts with Legs, and I did 5 sets of either a weight that was in the 12-15 rep range, or in the 25 to 25+ rep range (Legs and shoulders on the last light weight of a drop set was till failure, and if it was getting to be close to 50 reps, I would slow it down or speed it up till failure came faster ).

 

Today I did not go out for a trail jog as it was windy and 18 degrees F (if there was no wind and the sun was out, then I would have been tempted to go), so I headed to the gym and did the Elliptical for 30 minutes at level 4 (Legs still need to recover from yesterday, so I kept it light but still controllable), and 30 minutes on a spin bike with the resistance pretty low - I like to do this as it keeps the legs moving and thus utilizing bodyfat for fuel, but I like how I have to sit up by using my core muscles. So I do mini isometric contractions while maybe twisting for the obliques to work out also. Again to remind myself that I can not do abs with weights because my ab muscles hypertrophy fairly easily and I will look like a tree trunk. Just want a nice small flat chiseled six pack (and the veins that look like a tree growing across my rectus abdominis!)

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Last night I had the metabolic thing going where you wake up all geared up and no where to go. I got up, drank some water, let out some water, and got back into bed. My mind was all in sleep mode, but the body was wanting to get up and do cardio, or lift weights, or even yoga. I did a few stretching poses while lying on my back, but then I puffed up my pillow and told myself to go to sleep, and I did!

 

Fast forward to morning, and now the aches have settled in, and my mind said stretching poses, and my body complained. . argh! Wish they would be in sync ALL the time!

 

Off for a trail jog again this morning (28 degrees F and no wind), and this time I did the 3 mile loop twice. The question of the morning in my thoughts was: why do I like to run on the frozen gravelly part of the path and not the asphalt? The gravelly part is just as hard as the asphalt since it is frozen, but it still has the crunch of the top layer of stones, while there is nothing on the asphalt but a solid thud as my shoe hits it. How can a little bit of stones cushion my shoe as it thuds on the gravel? Plus on mile 5+, my right foot started to hurt - right under the ball part- so maybe the little frozen ruts from footprints and bicycle tires are affecting my foot (thought it would be my ankle, but maybe at this stage it is the bottom of my feet as the ruts are only centimeters thick). OR it is just the length of time of jogging, as the ball of my right foot usually hurts on mile 4+ when I do the 5 mile loop that has the asphalt at the last 2 miles. Whatever, I had to stop and walk for 10 minutes, and then I finished up the jog without hurt feet (so the pain goes away after a couple of minutes of backing off from the jogging).

 

Yesterday at the gym was Back and Biceps, doing it in the 5 sets of 25 reps at a weight that is usually my warm up weight. My body is not use to muscular endurance. I cursed as I finished up my 3rd set of assisted pull-ups (I added yoga blocks to the knee pad, so that I could go an extra 3 inches at the top to almost put my elbows right into the side of my waist and squeeze the lats hard), and cried thru the next 2 sets. Thank goodness I had a break from my lats as I was supersetting with dumbbell hammer curls. I would pick a back exercise and superset it with a bicep exercise. I did 4 pairs of those. It was over an hour workout session. I tried not to rest in between too much, but I am use to 5 minute rests between heavy sets. . . I will get faster I hope.

 

The next day my muscle bellies are not sore, but all of my joints and ligaments/tendons are very sore.

 

Today's agenda is Chest with Triceps, and then I will have finished up my whole body in just 3 days. I haven't decided to have a rest day (feels funny to rest when my muscles are not sore, but my ligaments are. . .), but I will decide that tomorrow.

 

Weight still going down: 155.4 lbs. today.

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Trail jog yesterday in the morning as the snow was beginning to fly down. Yes, I felt like a snowman by the time I got back in little over half an hour - 3 mile short jog.

 

Luckily it was a forced day off (after 3 days of lifting with heavy volume, the trainer in me said to back off and recover - and get ready to do another 3 days of lifting with heavy volume and hopefully less rest time in between) as the weather turned into sleet and ice.

 

Today I headed to the gym to do 30 minutes on the elliptical and 30 minutes fast walking on the treadmill at 3.5 to 4.0 mph - due to the weather still being nasty for trail jogging.

 

Weigh-in was 155.2 lbs. So a loss of just over 6 lbs this week. My goal was 154.0, and maybe I would have made it if I had a morning BM, but it was a no go this morning. . .

 

Goal for next Sunday's weigh-in is 150.

 

Agenda for the gym this afternoon is once again Delts and Legs. Legs are feeling not sore today - even after this morning's cardio session. Front top pecs and parts of the trap are still sore, so Delts may be hindered by those as they are important in stabilizing many Delt exercises.

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Delts were not hindered, and they did the 5 sets of 25 reps just fine. And I did Legs pretty easily too - or so I thought because at night they were talking to me as I went to bed. . . mmmm. . I guess doing high volume does some damage to the muscle fibers (building the slow twitch fibers instead of the fast twitch, or red vs. white muscle fibers probably).

 

Morning cardio was at the gym, as it was 3 degrees F outside. Did the 5K on the elliptical at level 4 (due to doing legs yesterday, otherwise I would put it up to 6 or 8 ) but did not make it at the 30 minute mark (went for 34 minutes instead - I am more of a marked distance type of person than just 30 minutes and that is all the time I will do). Hopped on the treadmill and did another 30 minutes of walking fast at 3.5 mph (swished my arms and worked my core at the same time as walking - and maybe did a couple of dance moves as I was listening to the top EDM songs of 2014).

 

Weigh-in after morning cardio was 154.8 lbs - so still going down at least - even with my new secret weapon of keeping muscle mass while dieting (the 3AM protein powder with straight hot water drink). I could feel the effect of restriction on food calories and added cardio today - evident by the not making the 5K mark in 30 minutes.

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So far a whole week of morning cardio at the gym. I did sleep in late one day, and was tempted to skip it, but it was a usual winter day that was so cold and grey including even howling wind, that I knew I was going to feel trapped in the house and feel miserable, so I was late getting there by 9 AM, and had to do the dreaded stepper as all the revolutionites were on the treadmills and ellipticals, and the trainer was screaming from the spin bike room indicating he was well into his class.

 

I finished my week of 5 sets of 25 reps supersets between 2 bodyparts at a workout session. Muscle endurance is not my favorite. Today was just Delts and I blasted them up to a heavy weight (120 lbs for the Smith Rack Military Press with the barbell), but I used all 10lbs plates and then did a drop descending weight set after doing the heaviest set for 6 to 8 reps. I was crying and cursing as the single 10lbs on each side (20lbs plus the weight of the barbell) were burning past rep 10! I had to use my breath to get to 20, and then single push up with a pause at the body (one breath to curse with) and making faces to push it up for the last 5 reps. Sheesh.

 

Anyways, I got to do my heavy set which I love to push myself to the limit with, and then I did the drop sets to strip the bodyfat off. . hopefully. I prefer to do just morning cardio to jump start my metabolism and get my blood moving thru out the day, measure and be smart about what I put into my body for fuel, and then lift heavy, all the while I magically get ripped as my bodyfat goes down, down, down.

 

Gave in twice this week so far: 2 pieces of sprouted wheat bread toast with EB butterytaste spread, and a small glass of OJ to wash it down. Gained 2 lbs the next weigh-in, and took me 2 days to work it off. . .ARgh. . working on the will power thing. Bought a bag of romaine with carrot shreds, red cabbage, and radicchio salad to just eat out of the bag. Also straight up popped popcorn with just salt and no oil or EB. . . and big glass of water to help me get thru the night time ( 8 o'clock time really- ate meal #5/dinner at 6, waiting for the 9/10 last protein shake before bed). I am also limiting my amount of sugar pea pods to half or third of a bag at a time, though one day I did polish a whole bag as I was waiting for the rice to get down for dinner. . I used it as my veggie for the meal, I just had the Gardein beefless burger (with two dill pickle sandwich slicers) and the brown rice.

 

So tired to night. It has been a great week, though I still have one more day to keep working to my Sunday goal of 150, which may be modified to 152 - and will be happy with just a 2 lbs loss for the week. Hiccups now? Yeah. . .

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Sunday weigh in: 153.4 lbs. Did not reach my goal of 150, that was then modified to even 152, but overall an (almost) 2 lbs loss for the week (155.2 last sunday). It is also the lowest I have been since beginning my quest for lower bodyfat (which can translate into weight loss, and at this stage probably, but later on it could muscle mass loss).

 

It was nice enough this morning to go out trail jogging! And whoever plowed a 4 ft path on the part of the trail that is 1 mile in length - thank you! I just did 2 loops for a total of 4 miles this morning (as I did Legs yesterday, but not really hard, and they were just a little sore in weird places - I put on a heating pad this morning to warm the sore muscles up and I was good to go - I also have stretch polar fleece compression tights so I was warm and it helped the muscles to be used but not abused - I also put on my bike shorts (being 18 degrees, just below my sanctioned 20 degree mark for jogging outside) and my thighs were not red when I got back home (an hour later)).

 

Today's agenda was Back and Biceps. I pushed it on the Back, but did the light weight with many reps/5 sets of 25 for the Biceps. I also used the very wide wide bar for the lat pulldowns and concentrated on squeezing my tiny lats right under my underarm. Trying to increase my wingspan, but now that I am restricting my calories I will be surprised if that is possible.

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Wow a whole week has gone by and I haven't posted. Ooops. I guess when I have to go to the gym to do morning cardio (repeat of elliptical for 30 minutes/treadmill walk for 30 minutes) and then just going thru the motions of using my muscles just to maintain, posting my workouts gets pretty boring and I am not much excited about it. Losing the bodyfat is not going as fast as I would like it to - the hunger pains (well really just wanting to eat something fat laden or fried lately) should mean a loss of bodyfat. This is actual bodyfat that I am losing now, and not the easy water weight, so I have to be patient and keep on track. I am obsessing over the smell of my sweat to make sure it doesn't smell like ammonia (using protein as an energy source has ammonia as a by-product that the body gets rid of really fast thru the skin as it is toxic). 2 oz of carrot juice with 2 oz of acai berry juice in the morning before I go out for an hour plus long cardio (low bpm) I hope this helps to switch to using my bodyfat instead of my protein in my muscles to fuel my cardio workout. Thought I smelled a hint of it today as I did 6 miles on my snowy trail run (over an hour long), but it could just be my imagination running away with my obsession.

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Morning jog outside once again (went yesterday morning for 6 miles, while today only 5 miles)! and now it is going to be even warmer tomorrow. . . but I had Delts and Legs on the agenda for the gym and I did up to a heavy weight set, and just a few drop sets. . which still made my muscles scream "No I won't do it!", while the mind kept saying, "21, 22, 23, come on 2 more, 24, come on just one more - and lets make it a full rep!" Now it is over 32 (0 degrees C), and I am going to want to jog on the trail tomorrow. . . I will have to see how my legs are feeling in the morning.

 

Diet kept in check yesterday and today. . .so far. It is getting easier and easier to not want to eat pasta or bread. I am still eating an apple or frozen blueberries in my cream of rice/buckwheat for breakfast, as my only fruit . . well plus the carrot juice and acai berry juice (combined 4 oz a day - 2 oz in the morning before morning cardio, and 2 oz in my workout water drink). Now if the weight scale will go down - which it has so far after my binge of bread on Wednesday (3 days ago). I also noted that after I binge, the lady in the gym's office always seems to notice as I puff way up and look really full and muscular she says. Bread does seem to make me hold water. When my bodyfat gets low and I look dehydrated, I want to experiment with bread and see if it holds the water in the muscle, or spills over into everywhere else making me look flat/fat.

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Nothing interesting in the Back and Bicep routine I did yesterday at the gym, nor the elliptical morning cardio.

 

I have been keeping my diet in check and still no weight loss. I can't believe I have already reached a plateau on the third week? Has my body adjusted so much so that it is now able to do all my exercising on such a low amount of calories? And really I have been cycling my calories as I seem to binge at least once a week.

 

I am frustrated over the non weight loss fact, but my abs are getting harder and flatter, so that keeps me happy. I can not believe that working out with medium weights and high volume low weight drop sets are increasing my muscle mass. . . . cause that would be crazy Good!

 

I really should get body calipers to measure my bodyfat, and then know for sure that it is going down. Right now it is all just observation in the mirror . . . which for a competitive bodybuilder that is all that is really important. . it isn't what the scale says, it is what the mirror says. LOL.

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Morning jog on the snow covered icy plowed last week path of the trail - these past two days, yeah! no gym elliptical/treadmill morning cardio. Looked like a snowman running towards the end of the hour it takes for me to do 2 loops (4 miles). The snow on the ice was thick, so as long as I did not push off hard with my foot I did not slip - kind of did a marching jog though, which to me is alot more work because my stride is so short.

 

Chest and Triceps yesterday were not happening really. I went thru my warmup weight set, my middle weight set, and did my heavy set for my first 2 superset exercises, but then I got to talking to people (yep, the jaw muscle was getting a workout yesterday - getting caught up with people's stories of their holidays, and even meeting a new person here and there). I tried to do a failure set (which to me is drop the weight and go till failure for 4 sets right in a row - going for the burn, but this time the burn was just not there - just no muscle action - like whatever creatine or ATP was gone and I just pushed it 2 inches and it would stop. No burn.) but I would stop to talk and someone would take over my machine or weight set up/bench.

 

Delts and Legs today. Going to start out with Leg curls to work my hamstrings first really hard - the quads have been worked alot, and we have a new step mill at the gym that I did yesterday for my 10 minute warmup before I lift weights, and it killed my quads/glutes on minute 7. . so today I will let the quads take a quiet minimal workout.

 

Forgot to weigh myself before I had my first meal. . weigh the same as yesterday with the meal in me. I don't curse at the scale anymore. . . . I just say "Meh. . . . " in my head now, along with whatever!!!! I am still working it just the same.

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  • 2 months later...

The snow is off the trail and with a new pair of shoes I am not going to let a little cold weather stand in my way of jogging this morning. Besides it will be above 20 degrees F by the time I get done - I plan to do a 10 miler today, so 2 hours of jogging (my morning cardio).

I did a half marathon last weekend. It was called The Blarney Stone and it was in Pottersville, MI (south of Lansing - our state capital, and where Michigan State University is located (East Lansing). I ran the whole way (though at times slowly), and it began in a park, went thru some of the subdivisions, back to the park, then across a cornfield and out into the back country dirt roads, with a couple of detours thru the town parks. And it was cold enough that the ground was not muddy, but the sun shone all the time with no wind at all. Lovely in my opinion.

Today's agenda is just Delts. They still are sore in certain places from doing them the last time - plus a hard mattress that is not forgiving when I lay on my side, but will go forward to work all those delt muscles that did recover from last time.

Well, the outside is calling me (the birds are all back, especially the robins and the cranes!). Off I go!

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