Six pack by summer

I got home from my mother’s last night at about 10:30. Watched the Sopranos then played tetris for a little bit. Next thin I know, it’s almost 1am.

My alarm for the gym went off at 6:30 and I just ignored it (I never ignore alarms!). So I missed the gym this morning. I’m going to do cardio after work today. In the mean time, my thighs are burning from my workout yesterday. I’m just under 175 this morning. Tomorrow is the day of truth!

I go to a very hoity-toity gym in Short Hills (I don’t live in short hills, but I’m close). I go only for convience, and I’m starting to really regret it.
It’s 79 a month and I just got a letter that the rates are going up may first. That means I’m paying almost 90 a month for the gym, that’s insane!
The other strike against it is this – yesterday I was supposed to do a leg workout. I did all the stuff I had to for the day, I was getting ready to go and I hoped on their website (www.candofitness.com), and they close at 6 on saturdays! that’s unbelieveable!
So, I’m looking for a new gym, and I’m hoping that they’ll let me go, since I signed a contract for 79 a month, not 89.

In other news, I did my cardio + leg workout today all at once (the gym closes at 5 today). Legs are tough, I ended up doing air squats x 10 instaed of weighted x 20. I really like the leg extension machine – hate the leg curls. And seated calf raises are the first thing I feel “good” at, at 90lbs (if that is a stupid small weight – don’t let me know!).

I had a shake from extremeblendz after the workout – instead of making my own sugar and protein concotion. Theirs are much better.

I’m 173 this morning. I can’t explain it, but as John thinks, it might have something to do with the sugar after lifting.
I’m going to get to a GNC today and see if they have dextrose, and if I do end up lifting tonight (If I get less sore throught the day!), I’ll try that in my PWO shake instead of sucrose.
But on a grander scale, am I doing the right things? It certainly looks good on paper, low carbs, low fat, high protein, lots of cardio, weights…

Ché just helped out, and reframed my thinking on my weight!

I’m eating another turkey burger with ketchup.

I am so tired today. The lifting is taking a lot out of me.
I really need some opinions on how important a “cheat” meal/day is, and if it is very important, the following points:

• how many calories (about)
• Hog wild, or just “enough” to cheat

• how often

  beyond that, I always feel so out of place in the lifting area. I don’t move big weights, I HATE the mirrors everywhere and everyone gets so close to one another.

  Although I’m complaining, I am in a much better mood then this time yesterday.

  Update – 8:25pm
  Here is what I ate today:
  after the gym, around 9am – chicken breast grilled with lemon pepper
  2 hours later, a protein shake with water and 3 teaspoons of natural peanut butter.
  for lunch it was more chicken, this time with garlic pepper.
  then mid-afternoon, another shake (with PB again).
  I’m about to eat a turkey burger with ketchup (no bun), and before bed I might have another shake.

Game theory is a branch of many maths and sciences that predicts / suggests actions to maximize player’s returns. Here is a good overview from wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_theory

I got the idea for this challange from Dateline where they had people lose 15lbs for have bikini pictures shown to the world. I realized that I couldn’t motivate myself enough to achive my goals, so I added external pressure with this site.
Here is a writeup on the Datline show:
http://www.ingenio.com/categories/categorylist_expand.asp?sid=5203909&gid=0&pmode=0&Category=0&TF=1

Now on to what I’m doing.
Cardio every morning for 45mins (some days more), first thing after waking, with caffeine.
I then go through my day eating lean protein (right now, mostly grilled chicken on my new george forman grill), and protein shakes (AllTheWhey protein with peanut butter and water).
Then, most days of the week, I’ll lift as well. My split is 4 days:
Back + Traps
Chest + Abs
Legs
Shoulders + Arms
on non-lifting days, I have one more lean protein meal, then a shake before bed. On lifting days, I have a Post Workout shake with Whey and Dextrose (sucrose for now). I think the shake is what brought my weight up this morning.

Last night was my first foray into lifting in quite some time. I’m really out of pratice and shape! I am feeling it today. The deadlifts weren’t done properly at first and my quads are giving me the most grief, along with my right lat.

I think I addressed all the questions. Let me know.

-UPDATE 10:54pm eastern-
It’s too late for me to be up – gotta get up at 6 for the gym.
I did my second day of lifting today – chest and abs, and I’m FRIED. Between sorness from yesterday and weakness in the gym, I really struggled.
I’m going to mull over the pictures question brought up in the comments, and I’ll have an answer soon.

Well, I did have the cake, and two pieces of pizza. And didn’t lift last night.
I’m not beating myself up too much (I did that last night) I’m just moving forward. I did 90 minutes on the elliptical this morning, made enough chicken (and brought it to work today), and am VERY focused!

The good thing about the transgression is that I see what I’m missing, and not missing it so much. The pizza was good, but not as good as a six pack will be, and the cake was… overly sweet (I never thought I’d EVER say that about anything).

Let’s do this!

I’m now two weeks into this challange, and I am really really happy with my progress… Just about 7lbs lost (3.5 a week average!), a totally new diet, not a day missed of cardio and today I start lifting after a birthday party!
My waist is going down, I started at 38.75”, so if I continue at this pace, I’ll be somewhere near 31” at the end!

I’m still sore from the few taekwondo forms I attempted the other day. I still have the “pop” in my moves, but not much power, and NO stamina.

My bf% is listed at 17.1 today, that was the same on the fat track II and the tanita scale, but just this morning, the FTII said 20+, I’d say it’s user error. I don’t know if either number is right, we’ll see what they say next week.

Without a DVD (my gym has a personal dvd player at EVERY cardio station, but no WiFi, go figure) or an audiobook, the 45m of cardio is really really boring. I started wearing my heart rate monitor again and realized that I was underworking a little bit (not much), so today I was at 145-150 the whole time.

Weird thing is, my weight went UP today, I’m not worried, just confused.

for some reason, I find it harder to eat correctly on the weekends. It probably has something to do with NOT sitting at a desk, noticing the time and eating when I should. Yesterday I woke up at 12:30, went to the gym, got back at 2:30 (I was watching the “tornament” I wrote about), and finally at my first food. Today it’s 12:41 and I haven’t eaten yet (then why am I posting?!). That throws my whole day off.
I’m gonna go eat now!

At my Gym there is a Tae Kwon Do school. I’m sure there are many such dojang/gyms around the country, so I apologize in advance if I offend anyone directly. I did taekwondo for 8 years, haven’t taken a formal class in exactly 10 (I moved to california in april of ‘96), and boy, has it changed!

I’m far from an old crumegedon, I do joke with my sister all the time about how it “used” to be in taekwondo (12 belts? in my day there were only 6, and we loved it), but the lack of effort put forth today was sad. Both the students and the instructors / judges are guilty, but it all comes from the top. These people are more worried about not leaving anyone out, and letting everyone feel like a winner that there are NO winners.

I think if you truly love something, if it truly drives you – being mediocre would not be acceptable. Think hard about something you love, are you good at it? Do you strive to be your best at it? If not – can you honestly say you love it?

I know I’m going to suceed with my goals, because they are my number 1 priority. I want nothing else in the world, it is my focus. I got to bed everynight thinking about it, and wake up with the same thought. THIS HAS TO HAPPEN. I hate the gym, I hate the food I’m eating, but It’s what I have to do to achive greatness (in my mind). That is why I can not fail!

Even if I end up paying the $1,000, even if genetically it takes me 2 years non-stop to get a 6-pack, I don’t care. This is my life right now. Extreme? yes. I don’t know if it’s just me, but this is how I need to be to make this happen.

This post is VERY scattered, and I will be editing it throughout the day – sorry to any of the feed readers out there.

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