Thanks for swinging through, Colin! Get ready to see some awesome gains!
Friday
Weight: 185 with no toilet time at all
I can’t say I understand whats going on here. I subbed out one of my shakes last night for a dinner when I went out - 15 grilled shrimp with a vegetable melody of broccoli and cauliflower.
I cant say that I’m happy, but I’m hitting the gym today, so I’m going to take out this frustration on the weights. I’ll chalk this weight gain up as a blip in the matrix because I’ve been sticking to the plan as usual and I’ll just hope to see some loss this weekend.
I’m going Bartl’s HIIT running a try tomorrow, and I just got my BCAA/Glutamine/Leuchine in the mail yesterday, but I’m going to be using Surge tomorrow anyway because its carb up day.
Meal 1 - 6 eggs, broccoli, 1tsp fish oil
Meal 2 - 4oz chicken breast, broccoli, 1tbsp EVOO
Meal 3 - 4oz chicekn breast, broccoli, 1tbsp EVOO
PreWorkout - 5g glutamine
5g creatine
5g BCAA
Half scoop of whey isolate (12-16g)
During Workout - 20 BCAA
10g of glutamine
Post Workout - 20 glutamine
10-15g glycine
10-15g leucine
2 scoop Grow
Meal 4 - 4oz chicken breast, 2oz almonds
Meal 5 - 4oz chicken breast, 1tsp fish oil, broccoli, 1oz almonds, 1tbsp EVOO
Meal 6 - 1 scoop low carb MD, 1 serving Superfood, 1tsp fish oil
Workout for the day:
Squat - 295 (3x5)
Bench Press - 200 (3x5)
Deadlift - 235 (1x5)
So, yesterday didn’t happen and neither will today. Ever since my breakfast of eggs I’ve been throwing up everything I eat as well as hitting #6 on this scale every hour or so:
Needless to say, i’ll never be ordering shrimp from a sports bar again, as I think thats what set all of this off! Interestingly enough though, despite all of this lameness my weight managed to go up to 185…not sure how, but it did.
Since today is carb up day, I’m going to go buy some oranges and eat those throughout the day and hopefully i’ll be able to keep them down. The gym is closed tomorrow, so hopefully I’ll feel well enough to resume training on Monday.
I guess the only good thing that came out of this weekend was the fact that I made it to the next round of Rock, Paper, Scissors in April, and if I win that then I’m headed out to Vegas for the championships!
Yes, I have no shame.
I’m feeling much better today, and will resume training tomorrow.
As far as my weight goes, it has jumped back up to 187 despite being sick and eating only oranges and beef yesterday (managed to keep everything down).
I’m beginning to get very, very frustrated at my inability to break this barrier after 2 months and some change of effort, and this weekend has been the straw that broke the camel’s back so to speak. For the sake of my own sanity I’m going to continue to train as usual, but I’ll only monitor my weight every 2 weeks. I’ll also continue to log what I eat every day, and at the end of the 2 weeks will see where it puts me and go from there.
I am by no means quitting, but I’ve also found myself becoming a slave to the numbers and haven’t been enjoying my life as much. This is supposed to enhance my life, not become a source of anguish. I’ll use this time wisely to bolster my resources, try to find out where I went wrong, and after I analyze my results in 2 weeks, come back with full Gusto (no pun intended, Gus =p)
Monday
Meal 1 - 2 scoop Low-Carb Metabolic Drive, 2tbsp flax meal
Meal 2 - 2 chicken thighs
Pre workout - 5g BCAA, 5g Creatine, 5g Glutamine, 1/2 scoop Grow! Whey
During workout - 20g BCAA, 10g Glutamine
Post workout - 10g BCAA, 15g Leucine, 15g Glycine, 10g Glutamine, 2 scoop Grow! Whey
Meal 3 - 2 chicken thighs
Meal 4 - 2 tbsp omega 3 peanut butter
Meal 5 - 4 eggs, broccoli, 1tbsp EVOO
Workout
Squat - 295 (3x5)
Bench - 195 (3x5)
Deadlift - 235 (1x5)
[quote]Sayjin wrote:
I’m beginning to get very, very frustrated at my inability to break this barrier after 2 months and some change of effort, and this weekend has been the straw that broke the camel’s back so to speak. For the sake of my own sanity I’m going to continue to train as usual, but I’ll only monitor my weight every 2 weeks. I’ll also continue to log what I eat every day, and at the end of the 2 weeks will see where it puts me and go from there.
[/quote]
I think that’s a good idea. Like you said you’re all about the numbers, but maybe looking at them every 2 weeks will be better for you in terms of the mental aspect of it. It’s like a fat person weighing themselves everyday, and getting frustrated because the scale is not moving as fast as they would like. I know you’ll make the necessary adjustments and keep rollin.
How is school going?
I’m using this time to pretty much make sure I’m caught up with my school work so I don’t have to play catch up later, since its almost time for finals and I have 2 big research papers to do.
You know whats scary? I think I just beasted on my accounting exam a few minutes ago. Ever since I’ve stopped looking at the scale and just focused on eating good food constantly my mood has gone way up and I’ve had better workouts in the gym, which I must also attribute to Thibs Low carb periworkout strategy. The mixture tastes like open butt, but its a small price to pay in the pursuit of greatness.
I’ll post a pic of the new haircut later…which I think accounted for 1lb of my body weight lol.
What about you, hows your life going?
Workout
Squat - 3x5 (300)
Military Press - 3x5 (125)
Pendlay Row - 3x5 (150)
Today was a great day in the gym. I squated like a beast (except on the last rep, but the point is that I made it out of the hole) and I’m anticipating when I finally hit the big 3 plates on each side.
The military press…how I have learned to enjoy it. After that mishap last week, the weight went up like Homer Simpson’s blood pressure, so I’m glad that I decided not to drop the weight any.
I went shopping yesterday and picked up some coconut oil to start cooking my shrimp in instead of olive oil. I was surprised at how cheap it was actually, since I figured it would be a lot more expensive ($7 for 32 servings). I also spied on some Omega 3 eggs that I’ll pick up with my next pay check. I work with a woman that sells 1 dozen eggs for $2, but I figure I can swing the extra $1 and invest those Omega 3 eggs.
Also, I’ve decided to abandon the AD and switch to Rob Faigan’s NHE plan. The two are very similar, with the only difference being instead of 1 or 2 full day carb ups ala AD, I’ll have a single high carb meal every 3rd and 4th day as my last meal of the day. While that still prevents me from using Surge for awhile, I should be ok using various amino acids and such to keep my glycogen levels up.
[quote]Sayjin wrote:
I’m using this time to pretty much make sure I’m caught up with my school work so I don’t have to play catch up later, since its almost time for finals and I have 2 big research papers to do.
You know whats scary? I think I just beasted on my accounting exam a few minutes ago. Ever since I’ve stopped looking at the scale and just focused on eating good food constantly my mood has gone way up and I’ve had better workouts in the gym, which I must also attribute to Thibs Low carb periworkout strategy. The mixture tastes like open butt, but its a small price to pay in the pursuit of greatness.
I’ll post a pic of the new haircut later…which I think accounted for 1lb of my body weight lol.
What about you, hows your life going?[/quote]
Tastes like open butt? I don’t know what that tastes like (nor do I want to know) but I’ll take your word for it.
Boo for the haircut, but do what you gotta do. Hey, if it means you lose a pound, then so be it, right? haha
All is good in the hood with me, school and work are good. It snowed 3 inches here today (yes, at the end of March) but should warm up this weekend. Just gonna work on homework and watch basketball all weekend.
Keep on being beastly!!!
[quote]tmoney1 wrote:
Tastes like open butt? I don’t know what that tastes like (nor do I want to know) but I’ll take your word for it.
[/quote]
I suppose I set myself up for that one. I have this theory that there is this ‘open butt’ taste in our collective consciousness, and we all without a doubt know when we run into it, but its different for all of us. For me? Chocolate = open butt, but for some it may be, heaven forbid, a ribeye steak. Who knows, for some people who live in some kind of bizzaro world, open butt may even taste like a steak to them, but like you, I don’t want to travel down that rabbit hole.
I’ll be watching the views of this thread from now on, since I imagine they’ll drop by at least 98% as a result of butt talk.
Thoughts
So this ‘just eat good and train’ mentality I’ve adopted this week has really been helpful as far as mood and general outlook on life is concerned. Hunger has been low, and I’ve experienced an increase in energy, which comes naturally with increased food take I imagine, and I’ve still managed to stay under 30g carbs a day.
Since I usually go to the grocery store several times a week I rarely put anything in the freezer, but this morning I checked it for the first time in awhile I realized I had a ton of food in there - several bags of frozen brocolli/green beans, 10lbs of ground beef, ground turkey, 2 bags of chicken breast among other meats.
I broke my wallet to take advantage of the Biotest sale and I’ve been living on the edge for a little bit because of it, but now that I’ve rebounded I’m going to cut back on any spending that I can aside from food and bills. I’m going to stop riding my car to campus (once this snow stops falling) unless I have to work until midnight that day, and I’ll also clean out my freezer entirely before I go grocery shopping again, which should be in a couple of weeks.
While I haven’'t experience much actual weight loss durnig this ‘clinic’ my strength is constantly going up, and I feel that with all this work I’ve had to experience some sort of positive body composition change, which is really whats its all about.
With this mass phase coming up, I sat down recently did some budgeting and realized that the key to my success will be the oils that I use in cooking/topping. If I stick to lean meats, omega 3 eggs, oils such as EVOO,Coconut and fish oil, I can easily bump up my calories through healthy fats. I also found that I can buy 10lbs of almonds or walnuts for about $50-$60, which is great considering I pay $8 for 1lb now.
Along with this increase food intake, I’m also going to experiment with more coditioning sessions during the week (such as hill sprints, etc). I’m not sure how this will affect my lower body recovery since they’ll essentially be getting pounded all week round, but the only way to find out what I’m capable of is to push it to the limit.
To my faithful readers,
Sorry about not posting yesterday’s workout yesterday, but I lost access to the internet by the time I finished working out.
Workout
Squat - 305 (3x5)
Bench - 200 (3x5)
Deadlift - 265 (1x5)
Pull ups (wide grip) - BW 1x8
Dips - BW - 1x12
1 arm barbell curs - Bar 1x8 (per arm)
35 Pushups - 1 set
Added some exercises for the hell of it at the end of the workout since I have 2 days of rest ahead of me.
I’m going to try and take you all along with me into the gym next week on Wednesday where when I plan to hit the big 315 for a set of 5 ATG. 305 this week was great until the last rep of the last set, so as long as this trend continues I think I’ll be able to hit that number.
Bench is steadily going up, but once I hit 210 I’ll slow it down to 2.5lbs per workout as to make sure I don’t stall too soon.
If accepted into the clinic, I hope I’m able to bring my deadlift numbers up, because this is my most challenging lift, and because of that its the one I want to make the most progress with. I read that a normal person without any injuries should be able to DL more than they’re able to squat, but this certainly isnt the case with me.
I’ve only been getting about 6 hours of sleep for the past couple of days, and I realize that I function my best on 10 hours of sleep, so tonight I’ll be catching major sleep to try and pay my sleep debt.
Its bike/outdoor sprint time soon! The snow is finally clearing up around here and its supposed to be 58 on Monday.
My carb meal is tonight, and I was going to have a whole box of pasta tonight, but I think I’ll having a good 5 servings of oatmeal, and then 1 serving of pasta instead a good 2 hours before I go to bed. Thats the plan and I’m sticking to it!
[quote]Sayjin wrote:
tmoney1 wrote:
Tastes like open butt? I don’t know what that tastes like (nor do I want to know) but I’ll take your word for it.
I suppose I set myself up for that one. I have this theory that there is this ‘open butt’ taste in our collective consciousness, and we all without a doubt know when we run into it, but its different for all of us. For me? Chocolate = open butt, but for some it may be, heaven forbid, a ribeye steak. Who knows, for some people who live in some kind of bizzaro world, open butt may even taste like a steak to them, but like you, I don’t want to travel down that rabbit hole.
I’ll be watching the views of this thread from now on, since I imagine they’ll drop by at least 98% as a result of butt talk.
[/quote]
WHAT??? Chocolate = open butt?? No way, chocolate is the bomb!!! So is ribeye steak!! Dang, now I’m hungry.
For me, cottage cheese = open butt. I don’t like it plain or mixed in a shake, it’s just not me. But for others, people eat if by the spoonful out of the tub. Different strokes for different folks.
I’m not concerned about the views, they’ll be consistent. There’s plenty of other threads that talk about way worse stuff than open butt.
[quote]tmoney1 wrote:
There’s plenty of other threads that talk about way worse stuff than open butt.[/quote]
And that my friend, is what frightens me the most.
I have something to tell you that might piss you off - I picked up 6lbs of freshly cut ribeye today for $24 =)
I sat down and tried to figure out when I was graduating tonight, and while I previously though I had another year left, now its looking like I actually graduate in December of this year…yikes. Will type more out on this subject later on as I’m pretty drained just thinking about it now.
A picture of the new haircut - by ‘new picture’ I mean more than a year old picture, but the haircut I have now is exactly the same.
I still have to meet with my academic advisor on Tuesday, but so far its looking like I’ll be graduating at the end of December. Still a little stunned because I thought I had another year to plan out my next move, but these are the facts so I’ll just have to adjust. I’m about to be shoved out of the birth canal that is college into the real world.
I’m not too worried about finding a job after I get out despite living in Michigan, but I’m going to start saving money now just so I have some kind of a cushion. The only thing I’m really worried about is handling the repayment of my loans since credit is everything these days, and I don’t want to screw mine up.
Right now though I’m just worrying senselessly which is getting me nowhere like a rocking chair, so I’m just going to focus on making sure everything is on the up and up so I’m not caught out there with my butt cheeks flapping in the wind once I graduate.
I was in the grocery store earlier today taking back some bottles for my boss, and I was looking at the people that worked there, and took note of how unhappy many of them looked.
I’m certainly not trying to knock anyone that works in a grocery store, but it makes me wonder: is this how they wanted their life to turn out, is this what they really want to do? I’m not talking about the 15-16 year old kids who are working there, but the men and women in their 30s and 40s just working stock.
I wonder what their dreams, goals and asperations are. Did they go after them and fail? Did they not pursue them and just settle, and if so why?
What I’m really getting at here is that I don’t want that to be me. I’ve been operating in this world as if I have forever and a day to get things done, but it really hit me that I only have so much time available to me, and I have to make the best of it.
I’m only 21 now, but before you know it I’ll be 30, then 40, then 50, and I don’t want to look back and wonder what could have been if I had only gone for it. Before, my inner drive was like an explosion - powerful, but unfocused and all over the place.
Now, I feel its like Jason in a horror movie - you can shoot him, stab him or whatever and he’ll just keep plodding forward. Perhaps Shugs might even call this the grind phase of life? Either way, as Jack LaLanne said, life is a battlefield, and I’m prepared to not become a P.O.W.
“Forget about winning and losing; forget about pride and pain. Let your opponent graze your skin and you smash into his flesh; let him smash into your flesh and you fracture his bones; let him fracture your bones and you take his life. Do not be concerned with escaping safely - lay your life before him.”
- Bruce Lee
“…if you always put limits on what you can do, physical or anything else, it’ll spread over into the rest of your life. It’ll spread into your work, into your morality, into your entire being. There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level.”
- Bruce Lee
I’m not looking forward to going to the gym tomorrow. With summer soon approaching, tons of people are now in the gym, and while most of them occupy the bench press and dumbbells, now a ton of them are using the squat rack to do arm curls in.
At first I thought this was just a little joke here at T-Nation, but apparently its not. I wouldn’t mind if 100% of my routine wasn’t spent in the squat rack (except for deadlifts). Hell, I even have to Bench in the squat rack because I can never get on the bench as there is often an actual line of people waiting to use it.
What I hate most is coming in prepped to go, having waiting 30min after my Pre-workout drink to hit the gym, then ending up having to wait 15min to actually even get started.
Rant over.
Since its going to be 54 here on Tuesday, and my carb up meal is also planned for Tuesday,I plan on doing a car pushing workout that night. Since its highly recommended that my carb meal be the last meal of the day, I figure I’ll adhere to both that and the fact that the best time to take carbs is PWO.
Car push for 20min
150-200g carb meal + 2 scoop MD
Wait 90min —> Take some ZMA —> Bed
2008 Ford Focus SE 4-door
Class: Small car
Weight: 2,659 lbs.
This should be fun!
[quote]Sayjin wrote:
A picture of the new haircut - by ‘new picture’ I mean more than a year old picture, but the haircut I have now is exactly the same.[/quote]
You kinda look like Cuba Gooding Jr. (I’m sure you’ve heard that before).
Hey congrats on finding out you graduate in December. That’s always a pleasant surprise, but better start busting your tail on finding a job.
Dang, good deal on the steaks. I went to Ruby Tuesday for my cheat meal and had a 12 ounce with baked potato and broccoli for 16.99. I usually go there and have my cheat meal there, I LOVE steak (not open butt to me).
Have fun with the car push. Is the car you’re pushing your car, or just some random person’s car? lol