Day 23 - Twice the starter weights!

Day 23 started off right, if a little late, with the standard oatmeal/protein breakfast. I snuck out of a meeting to kill a protein bar, then lunch was brought in, and I made the best of a carnitas (deep-fried pork, probably the most unhealthy thing on earth) burrito by eating a small one with only rice and pico de gallo.
I did a really good weights workout. I officially doubled the weights I started with on the shoulder & lat press today. That milestone felt great!
And then I went out for a friend's birthday celebration, which is never a great thing, and we drank enough for me to need an extra workout one day this weekend. I don't think I'll make it, but I'm going to try to sneak one in.

Day 22 - first compliments!!

I think I got my official first compliments on the new me today. Two friends I haven't seen since I started said I looked great. I'm still not seeing a huge improvement in my pictures, but hey, maybe it's posture or something. I can't really say I feel a whole bunch different, but today I felt like crap all day because I didn't sleep.
Lack of sleep kills me. I stayed up until 3am, got up at 7:30. It threw off my eating, and I barely got a workout in. I'm finding in a workout program, sleep is a discipline like anything else, and anything less than 6 hours makes life very difficult.
Good breakfast, but had to do a 5 hour energy shot to stay alive this morning, which gave generally caffeine-free me a serious case of jitters, but, damn, it did help me get stuff done! Lunch was with friends at a Mexican restaurant. Non-New Mexicans have to understand, there's a difference between New Mexican and Mexican food. New Mexican is green and red chile, soapapillas, and rellenos. Mexican is more meat (usually cooked in lard and/or tons of fat) with a side of rice and refried beans, fajitas, or very cheese-heavy dishes that rely on chopped onion, tomato, and jalapenos for the spicy part. Neither is healthy, but with New Mexican you have to watch out because the best stuff is all deep-fried, and Mexican they love the delicious fatty meats.
I had Steak Ranchero, which fantastic and probably healthy except for the greasy (and very good) part.
Couldn't handle anything for a mid-afternoon meal - I was going to go home and crash, but I stuck it out, took a lukewarm Boost energy drink (9g protein, lots of vitamins & minerals) at 4pm, and took an hour nap until a friend's dinner party at 7pm. There I resisted home-made pizza, cheese & bacon-wrapped peppers, and homemade cake, along with basically unlimited beer & wine, and drank 4 glasses of water and ate fresh fruit & grilled meat. Excellent food, but still I ate less than I have on any other night. Again, blame it on the lack of sleep.
Left early to come home and do a cardio workout, something I am very proud of, but very unlike the me of only three weeks ago. Discipline, discipline, discipline - if I fall down on sleep, I make it up with a lack of party.

Day 21 - lots of food, lots of cardio

Woke up at 7am, wide awake, which is unusual for me. Even more unusual, I stayed up. Had a cup of hot black tea, and my oatmeal with a scoop of protein. I did some work, checked some email, then met up with friends for an 8:30 breakfast at my favorite New Mexican restaurant. Where they had gorgeous plates of huevos rancheros (eggs, green chile, refried beans on a tortilla smothered in cheese, for you gringos), I had yogurt with granola.
It was a little painful.
Fiber bar and a subway 6" for lunch, another protein bar at 2:30, and a hardcore 45min run on a pre-core machine at 5pm. I set the resistance at 5, which was pretty easy compared to the hardcore workout monsters around me, and had to convince myself not to stop at 15, 25, 35, and 40 minutes in, but I made it to 45 minutes. I play little games - just 20 minutes. Then, just five minutes more. Then, five minutes more and I'll be at 350 calories, etc. Until I pretty much fell off the machine at 45 minutes.
A well-deserved 15min in the hot tub, and a quick shower, and I went home to make myself a chicken salad, with just a little unhealthy dressing. My friend and I cooked dinner at 9:30 again, strip steak in fajitas, and a little tiny bit of wine, and the day's done.
Each day I'm learning a little bit more about how this process works. I'm going to try to start including those little bits of information, as I've always been a unashamed collector of useless information, and I suspect others might be too.
Today I learned that you're supposed to eat protein 30min to an hour after cardio, and immediately following weights, because cardio keeps your heart rate up for longer for a residual workout effect. Tidbit of the day for you, there. enjoy.

Day 20 - Obama thinks I'm fat??

Tip of the day: http://www.mypyramid.gov is a great resource to see what kind of diet works for your body type and activity level. It also told me I was too fat for my height. C'mon! 161 pounds is NOT fat for a 5'7" dude. Is it? Hope not. Way to shoot my self esteem, government.
I meant to get up and do cardio, but slept in instead, and regretted it all day. I really missed the workout - a very new and good experience for me. When I got to the gym for my workout with Cera, my trainer, I was pumped and ready to go.
I hadn't eaten for about 3 hours before the workout, and my energy level was fantastic, for about 30 minutes. Cera warned me we were doing a hardcore upper body, and I was ready to run, but after 30 minutes of bench presses, shoulders, chest stuff, pullups, I ran out of steam doing simple pushups.
I think this really emphasized to me the need for cardio to be ready to play with the workout. If I was in better cardio, I could have kept going, no doubt. After meeting twice a week for these first three weeks, now we're down to once a week. The challenge will be keeping my workouts of the same caliber now that I'm on my own six days a week.
I'm good though. I'm excited about my workouts, I miss them if I don't do them, and I think i'm starting to see some limited results in my arms, and maybe a slight tightening in the belly.

Day 19 - Off to a running start

Really a decent monday. I planned on getting up early, but instead I hit snooze for an hour and got up just in time for work. I had my oatmeal, protein, & yogurt, went to work, had a fiber bar at 10:30, lunch was an apple and a cup of Healthy Choices soup (40% of daily salt intake!). I heard if I keep up my 10 glasses of water a day, salt intake doesn't matter too much. I should check that.
Protein bar at 2:30, then to the gym by 5:30 for 10 minutes of running (just over a mile - my feet and back were killing me), and 30 minutes of interval biking, just over 8 miles. Nothing too impressive, but a good 40min of cardio and some abs afterwards.
I rewarded myself with full pound of t-bone, a big beautifully marbled piece of meat for dinner with corn on the cob, and a baked potato. Not a bad day, really. I'm happy.

Day 18 - beautiful sundays...

Probably one of the most relaxing days I've had in a very long time. Late night, but I got up feeling a little dehydrated & hungover, and made it to the gym by 10am. 45 minutes of weights, and I went up to try a yoga class out. It was packed! Full of beautiful women that were most likely far more flexible and waay less sweaty than me after a workout. So I wimped out. Couldn't do it.
Give me a couple more days - I haven't seen my flexibility improve much at all, really, even though I've been doing stretches and stuff. I've never been that flexible, so it may take a bit for me to get there, but I will.
So I went to the pool instead, did some stretches and a little swimming in the gorgeous summer weather, then sat in the hot tub, where I think the answer to life is, somewhere. It was incredibly relaxing, and I had some really good reflective time. Then a couple of hours with my family, and my adorable little nephew, some serious guitar time, and a little reading, and that's pretty much my idea of a weekend day.
I ate a lot today, even without much of a breakfast. I definitely have better workouts if I do it on an empty stomach, especially in the morning. Lunch at one, grilled chicken at 5, and pork chops at 8:30. Lots of protein today.

Day 17 - Slacker Saturday

Today wasn't really my proudest workout day. I woke up, still pretty sore. Extending arms, legs, anything, really didn't feel very good. I don't know what triggered it - almost had to be that running. Or the lack of sleep Thursday night.
Had an 8:30 pancake breakfast for work, so went to that and had 3 small pancakes with some bacon & a little bit of syrup, and a ton of OJ. Good OJ. Got home, took a nap, had some leftover grilled chix & veggies, and went shopping. Got some swordfish to grill, which was fantastic, and had a side salad that my roommate made with no dressing. Just salt and pepper, and it was really good! I'm going to have to get that recipe.
I only did stretching and a light ab workout. Really, I think a light ab workout is all I can do right now, because my stomach just isn't there yet. No cardio to speak of, for the first time in 17 days. Not good. I resisted drinking all day, which was good, and then had enough drinks for the whole weekend last night - captain & diet, vodka & OJ, or straight shots, so it wasn't terrible, but still, that's a lot of alcohol and a lot of sugar. Going to have to try to make up for that somehow this week.