May focus

Damn its been to long since I posted. Been busy working and lifting of course. My diet went back to being crappy though. LAZY ME! someone hire me a personal Sheff and a maid!

I want this months focus to mostly be in three areas.

First, weightlifting goals: bench, squat, deadlift and clean and press. I am making steady improvements both visually and in actual strength. I am hoping to keep the trend going through June. I have changed up how I split up my workouts. Now I am doing chest, triceps, front deltoids on one day. The next day I do back, biceps, rear and lateral deltoids and forearms. The final day I do just legs.

Second, CARDIO. My cardio sucks sooo bad. Working takes all the energy out of me so I don't want to run. I am thinking of swimming on the days I have doubles and then running the days I just work one shift.

Third, CORE. I have been hitting my upper body super hard but slacking on the abbs. I am going to break it up into thee days, upper, lower and obliques.

Got to stay motivated!

Consistency

It is amazing how much two weeks of undisciplined training can affect training.  Since I started working at olive garden my training has not been as regular as the month prior.  I can definitely tell I have lost some of the tightness in my muscles, and possiblily gained back some of the fat I lost.  There is no shortcut to being fit, just day by day, step by step.   It is consistency in training that makes it happen, always been a problem for me. I am going to have to work hard these next to weeks to make up for it.  I started running this week.  My cardio sucks, two miles was a bitch.  My calves are super sore too. 

Started working at Olive Garden

I just finished my training for the Olive Garden, waiting tables.  I have been chowing down all week on all kinds of super carb filled fatty food.  We had to try all the dishes during training.  It is going to be tough to stay on a low carb diet while working there.   Will power, will power, discipline! I can tell I have a little more belly fat back.   Carbs really do get stored as fat when not used. Time to hit the treadmill! They do have alot of good meat and vegi options, which is what I will have to get if I get an emplyee meal.  

The last week has been tough with workouts.  I have been getting up super early, which I am not good at.  My sleep schedual has been all thrown off as a result.

To make up for my lax past week I am going to get up around 9:00 tomarrow and head to the gym for some early moring cardio and abb work.  I am going to try out doing two workouts a day for the rest of the week.  When I work out with weights at a good intensity I have no energy left to work on my abbs, or cardio.  To reach alot of my goals, I am going to need to focus on my abbs like crazy.    

Photos of Progress

I took the first pics right before I started doing the low carb diet.  I did It for about a month because I wasn't very disciplined.  I had a few weekends of beer drinking and crappy food.  I was also working out at a pretty good intensity about 4 times a week.  I think using visual changes rather then a scale is a more effective tool to gauge progress.  I am gaining muscle as well as loosing fat, so my exact weight doesn't really matter to me.  I have clearly lost fat in my upper body, it feels good to see progress.  I am going to continue my research into diet to plan for the upcoming month.  I am thinking about keeping it a lower carb diet, not as strict though.  I have also found a good workout partner which will hopefully help motivate me further. 

Change of plans

Had a really great work out today, made me rethink some things though. I am going to switch my deadlift and squat goals. I lifted 185lbs 4 reps today for deadlift so 200 is going to be to easy. 300lbs is more of a challenge. I will make my squat goal 200 for now.

Nutrition and Sleep

Two things are clear after today's workout. If I ever want to make any significant progress towards these goals two things must be done. Number one. I need to get on a regular and healthy sleep schedule. And two I need to make my diet both healthy and regulated. Discipline is going to be the name of the game for awhile. Getting myself settled into a routine and sticking to it.

I started the south beach diet about three weeks ago in an attempt to lose a few pounds. The diet is split into three phases. I am still attempting to complete the first of these three, the low carb phase. It is only a two weeks, but I was weak and had about 5 days where I drank beer and ate poorly. So I started over. To any who are curious, it does work. I have already visibly lost weight. My only problem is I can't work out as hard as I usually would. I feel this could be due to the lack of carbs. But, it could be because I am convincing myself that, and not putting my mind to it.

Random side note, I need to get more sun. I felt like a vampire walking around the gym today! Tomorrow I am going to go tan for half an hour.

The Beginning

This blog is about reaching goals I have been kidding myself about for years. I just turned 24. For some reason, that made me think “I really need to do something with myself!”. I have practiced Japanese jujitsu off and on since I was thirteen. Being physical has been a large part of my life. However, up until now, I have not given it 100%. I would look at pictures of Arnold, Bruce Lee, Van Damme and think, “I wish I could be like them.” From now on I am going to do something about it! No more bull shit excuses, no more poor diet, no more half assed gym schedules no more being lazy all day. This blog is both motivation for me and opportunity for criticism and advice.

The basic Idea is simple, establish ten strength related goals and train hard to achieve them. When I have completed them, cross that one off and add another.
1) Bench my body weight, 195lbs 8 rep
2) Squat 300lbs
3) Clean and press 135lbs 8 rep
4) Dead lift 200 lbs 8 rep
5) 20 dead hang pull ups (no swing)
6) Handstand push up (not on wall)
7) One arm push up
8) Hold L seat for 30 seconds
9) Hold plank for 30 seconds
10) Hold human flag 10 seconds