Day 12 Weigh-In: 290.2

After watching the movie, "Fat Head," yesterday I decided to experiment and cut back on carbs and not worry about how much fat I'm eating (I was limiting myself to about 25-30% of calories from fat). To my amazement, even after eating a top sirloin steak last night I woke up this morning weighing 2.4 pounds lighter than I did yesterday morning! I'm going to keep this up for a few days and see what happens.

Day 11 Weigh-In: 292.6

Well, I suppose I shouldn't expect the scale to register weight loss every day. A tiny gain of 0.4 lbs is nothing to worry about, and can easily be chalked up to water retention or a little extra food in the digestive system. No biggie. As the chart below illustrates, I'm still on track; I don't have to worry until the red line comes close to the green one.

Day Two, Week Four: Squats

Week four is a recovery week, and day two has me doing 5 sets of 8 squats at 60% of my one-rep max, followed up by two additional supplementary exercises.

Squat Day
Exercise	2/18 2011	2/25 2011	3/4 2011	3/11 2011
Squat	350x5	400x5	350x5	300x8
	350x5	400x5	400x5	300x8
	350x5	400x5	425x6*	300x8
	350x5			300x8
	350x5			300x8
Back Extensions	100x15		110x15	130x15
	110x12		120x12	130x10
	110x10		130x10	130x10
Incline Situps	0x11 (P)	0x15 (G)	0x13 (P)	0x14 (P)
	0x7 (P)	0x11 (G)	0x9 (P)	0x9 (P)
	0x2 (P)	0x4 (G)	0x8 (P)	0x8 (P)
* Number of reps until near failure (P) Incline used at the PRO Club (G) Incline used friend's Gold's Gym

Day 10 Weigh-In

Another encouraging morning! Weighed in this morning at 292.2, 4/5 of a pound down from yesterday morning.

Day 9 Weigh-In

It's day 9 of 115 (counting from March 1st) on the way to the YMCA Seattle Summer Classic, and after 5 frustrating mornings without any meaningful progress, this morning I weighed in at 293.0, a pound lighter than I did yesterday. FINALLY some progress! Of course, I won't expect this every day, but it was nice to see an encouraging number on the scale, and I'm still well on-track (red line) to meet my goal by June 25th (green line).

Day One, Week Four: Military Press

Week four is a recovery week, and day one has me doing 5 sets of 8 military presses at 60% of my one-rep max, followed by two supplemental exercises. Were I not being as careful with my calories and exercising as much as I am, I probably would make more progress on the supplemental exercises, but as it is I'm thankful that I'm not regressing. Again climbed 31+ flights of stairs after my workout.

Military Press Day
Exercise	2/16 2011	2/23 2011	3/2 2011	3/9 2011
Military Press	135x5	155x5	135x5	115x8
	135x5	155x5	155x5	115x8
	135x5	155x5	165x9*	115x8
	135x5			115x8
	135x5			115x8
16" Press	205x10	205x15	205x15	205x15
	205x10	225x12	225x10	225x11
	205x10	235x6	235x6	235x6
V-Bar Pulldown		180x15 (P)	180x15 (P)	180x15 (P)
		190x11 (P)	190x12 (P)	190x12 (P)
		195x8 (P)	195x9 (P)	195x9 (P)
* Number of reps until failure (P) Machine used at the PRO Club

Weight Loss Progress: Week One

A week ago today I began tracking my weight for the first time since my last competition in December, hoping to weigh in at under 242 on June 25th at the YMCA Seattle Summer Classic, one weight class lighter than the one I'm accustomed to competing in. It's been quite the roller coaster of a week. I was dismayed the first morning to see I had ballooned up to 300.2, and the morning after that I was further discouraged to see I was up to 301.4. The next morning I was thrilled to see I was down to 296.2, and was excited to see that I was down again to 294.4 the next morning. Since then, I've hovered near that weight with virtually no weight loss for 5 days, which has been incredibly frustrating.

Still, I'm 6 pounds lighter than I was a week ago today, about which I'm happy. And as long as I lose weight a little faster than I have the past 5 days, I'm on track to make weight. The graph below shows what steady weight loss would look like from here until the competition (green line), as well as my current progress (red line), and a mathematical prediction of future weight loss based on my current progress (blue line). I'll update this graph once a week, and as long as that red line stays under the green line, I'll not worry. Please keep me in your prayers.

Is This Thing On?

Comedians will sometimes ask after a joke which produces few laughs, "Is this thing on?" Well, this morning I'm asking myself the same question about my scale. Five days with no meaningful weight loss to report, despite faithfully counting my calories and hours of exercise, is becoming VERY frustrating.

Day Four, Week Three: Deadlifts

Day four of week three has me doing 1 set of 5 deadlifts at week one's weight, a set of 5 at week two's weight, followed by a final set of 5 until (near) failure at 85% of my one-rep max, all followed by two supplemental exercises. Can I just say, I HATE lunges!

Also, I followed it up by climbing 31+ flights of stairs when I arrived at my building from the gym.

Deadlift Day
Exercise	2/22 2011	3/1 2011	3/8 2011	Week Four
Deadlift	135x10	135x10	135x10
	225x8	225x8	225x8
	380x5	435x5	380x5
	380x5	435x5	435x5
	380x5	435x5	460x6**
	380x5
	380x5
Dumbbell Walking Lunge	35x10*	45x10*	55x10*
	35x10*	45x10*	55x10*
	35x10*	55x10*	55x10*
Kneeling Hamstring Curl	35x15†	45x15†	55x15†
	45x15†	55x15†	65x15†
	55x15†	65x15†	75x15†
* Weight per arm, and steps per leg † Weight per leg ** Reps until near failure

REALLY!?!

I'm finding myself perplexed. After 4 hours of grueling chainsawing and carrying heavy tree limbs both Saturday AND Sunday, the scale this morning registers a mere 1/5 of a pound, just like it the morning after Friday's weightlifting, stairclimbing, walking and Kinect Boxing. Frustrating >:(

Day Three, Week Three: Bench Press

Day three of week three has me doing 1 set of 5 bench presses at week one's weight, 1 set at week two's weight, followed by a final set at 85% of my one-rep max until (near) failure, all followed by two supplemental exercises. I felt very weak this morning, after spending the weekend exhausting myself sawing up the felled trees in my yard, so I'm thankful I was able to make any discernable progress.

Bench Press Day
Exercise	2/21 2011	2/28 2011	3/7 2011	Week Four
Bench Press	245x5	280x5	245x5
	245x5	280x5	280x5
	245x5	280x5	295x7†
	245x5
	245x5
Dumbbell Press	90x15*	90x15*	90x15*
	100x9*	100x12*	100x13*
	100x7*	100x7*	100x7*
Seated Row	165x15 (P)	175x15 (P)	175x15 (P)
	180x15 (P)	185x15 (P)	185x15 (P)
	195x9 (P)	195x9 (P)	195x10 (P)
* Weight per arm (P) Machine used at the PRO Club † Number of reps until near failure

Weekend Weight Loss Blues

Friday I lifted weights, climbed 31+ flights of stairs, took a 3.16 mile brisk walk, topped off the evening with some Kinect Boxing (which got me winded and sweating), all while maintaining a modest calorie deficit. Come Saturday morning, what did I have to show for it? The loss of just one fifth of a pound, weighing in at 294.2. Not the most of encouraging of mornings.

Saturday, disparaged, I overate somewhat in the first half of the day, but spent some 4 hours or so burning a lot of calories cutting up the felled trees in my yard, and ate VERY modestly in the second half of the day. Given the indiscretion I showed in the first half of the day, I suppose I should be happy that this morning I hadn't gained any weight. However, I figured that with how little change the scale had registered the day before, I would see at least some loss. Alas, not today.