Forgot to weigh in this AM. Still getting back into the routine of checking ASAP in the morning.
Wednesday’s food:
8:30 - 1 scoop Mag-10, half a Spike
10:00 - 5 eggs, 6 slices of bacon, half-handful of shredded cheese, spinach/kale mix. (Tried a “bacon and egg pan pie” new recipe thing. Forgot to reduce the portions and/or exhibit self-control. Felt like microwaved cat crap afterwards. Lesson learned.)
A) Safety bar squat ramp to 3RM, 1x5 cluster, 2x10-12
B1) Neutral-grip chins 8x3-5
B2) Medicine ball throw and chase* 8x5
*- Basically the “Bob Youngs conditioning test” I stole from EliteFTS forever ago: Throw medicine ball, jog to medicine ball, repeat for X time. Usually use different throws throughout (overhead soccer style, one-arm shotput, between leg granny-style freethrow, etc.) Just used a basic straight chest pass the entire time on this one.
On the bright side, I don’t think I’ve been this low this soon before. So that’s something.
On the down side, I’ve been like 45% sick all week long. No fever, aches, or stomach issues, just stuffy head and alternately stuffy-runny nose. I think I’d rather be deathly ill for 36 hours than kinda-sorta not feel good for 6 days.
Thursday’s food:
9:00 - 1 scoop Mag-10
10:30 - 3 eggs; bowl of Normandy veg, much sriracha; orange; coffee with stevia
3:30 - Homemade chicken soup (fresh chicken stock, roasted chicken meat, kale/spinach mix, so much garlic)
6:00 - Pasta with meat sauce (ground beef, tomato, so much garlic)
9:00 - Hot toddy (works better than Nyquil) - tea, rum, honey, lemon.
Had one good lifting session earlier in the week. Could’ve, maybe should’ve, pushed through feeling lousy to stay on track but couldn’t get it together.
Wrapped up the T-ransformation last Thursday, then went away for a long weekend vacation. Both were very welcomed and eagerly anticipated.
Ended at 191.7, just about 19 pounds down from where I started in January. The last two challenges, I dropped 15 pounds, so on the surface, that alone is a bit more progress than usual. Neat.
The shoulder tendonitis from the beginning of the year is something I never really had first-hand experience with. There have been little nagging injuries here and there (usually ankle or elbow stuff), but nothing major or as significant as that. It’s pretty much why I ended up winging the programming and not following a set routine.
It’s a ton better but still not 100% disappeared and might actually be “drifting” over to the other arm (but I’m going full ostrich-mode head in sand and not paying attention to that just yet). Not to play the cripple, but the best I could do was the best I could do, which ended up being not half-bad sticking with the basic template of “Move something heavy-ish somehow, then do some conditioning or bodybuilding stuff, plus the daily morning bike work”.
Diet-wise, reducing carbs on non-lifting days is clutch. Tightening up more on the weekends would’ve been a smarter idea too, but just didn’t happen. In all, I’m happier with where I’m at now compared to the other years. Probably going to coast for a bit and putz around just playing in the gym before sorting out some specific goals and direction.
That’s some pretty good change. Nineteen pounds down and I swear you look more muscular.
Also, none of my beeswax but pull your head out of the sand and maybe address that other shoulder a little. Dime of prevention is worth a dollar of cure, no?
Thanks, man. The trick now is to avoid hitting a 180 (degrees, not pounds) and undoing it all by blowing back up.
Ugh. But yeah, good looking out. Thanks.
I think it might actually be getting irritated lately by how I sleep more than anything. I’m usually an on-the-belly sleeper with my arms crossed under the pillows, similar to this:
But that’s the same thing I’ve always done, so either it’s not the source or the cumulative stress has reached its threshold. Like when a car’s odometer hits 60,0001 miles, everything falls apart… the body’s like that now. Yay.
Knew we were hitting a sushi place for dinner (taking out my wife’s friend and co-worker who’s retiring and moving away), so I added a finisher to earn it.
Basic sort of ladder setup. The plan was to use around 5 nose-only breaths as the only rest between each rep block, and a minute or so between sets. Towards the end, it turned into more like 8 (okay, 10+) mouth-wide-open desperation gasps.
I’m going to go ahead and guess it isn’t the sleeping position causing it, but it is irritating it. I get a similar thing when my bicep tendons flare up. When they calm down, the sleep position isn’t an issue any more.
Decided to shoot for staying under 200 until the August check-in. I don’t think I’ve aimed for that before, so let see how this goes.
Wednesday’s food:
9:00 - Bowl of weird chia flake cereal that we bought two boxes of because they were on sale then realized nobody like them so I -the billy goat - have to eat it, 2 scoops Metabolic Drive in water, sliced banana, cinnamon; coffee with stevia
Basically settled into a minimal-brain power-required routine. Full body, 3 days a week (groundbreaking). Every session is sets of 5, then sets of 10, then sets of 20. Ending with 5-10 minutes of putzing around for dessert.
Always a back exercise, chest or shoulder exercise, leg exercise - rotating the order session to session. So Bk-Ch/Sh-Legs, Ch/Sh-Legs-Bk, Legs-Bk-Ch/Sh. That way each part gets worked with each rep scheme by week’s end.
Might sound more complicated than it is, but it’s pretty quick to bang out a session that hits everything without leaving a major gap (that I can see).
