Official ending weight:

200lbs/91kg

Pics are coming

Home stretch

Well, only two weeks to go. Having another slowdown so far this month.

I like looking at myself in the mirror. I look good.

I'm going to keep at this. I want to work my back to improve my posture and strength and balance out the muscle mass.

December pics

204lbs(93kg) Woo hoo!

My pants size is officially 34 waist. I haven't been sticking to my routine as much as I'd like. I skip days here and there. When I do work out I do 15-20 curls on each arm at 20lbs(9kg), 15-20 of some form of push-ups (incline, decline, or regular), and 25-30 twisting sit-ups (bring right elbow to left side, alternate). I work out four or five times per week. I'm thinking I'll make a bigger push through December to bulk up my arms. I'm wanting to work on my back too.

Novbember pics (finally)

November weight was 209lbs/95kg.

Late update

November pics should be up sometime today, as with measurements.

Progress is fair. My belt is several inches tighter than when I started. My biceps are visibly bigger to me, and I can do more and more push-ups every week.

However, I have not been sticking to the routine. I'm not giving up, I just haven't been doing a set number of each exercise and I've been skipping days. Progress is only fair because of this and my loosening of my diet restrictions. Too much pizza, too much laziness and cheapness when it comes to food. Still drinking a lot of water and tea.

I think I'll start taking lunches to work. I shouldn't go for seven or eight hours without eating.

For November and December, I want to work harder on my biceps and find ways to work my legs. Biking will be rather restricted in the cold weather and I don't do well running. I may go to the community center once or twice per week to use their machines.

210 lbs (95.5 kg)!!!

Woo hoo!!!

October pics

October weight: 217

Results are not as dramatic as last month's. I've had a few setbacks, but I was surprised that the weight went down, even if it was only two pounds. I can see my biceps getting bigger and I've added sit-ups to the routine

Oh yeah

I'm looking better in my own eyes. I haven't weighed myself yet this month but I feel like I'm rocking this contest. My reps are up and I've added a couple exercises to the routine. My diet has changed a bit, as I take the girlfriend out to dinner twice per week.

I'm doing 30 inclined push-ups (Charles Atlas dips), 30 declined push-ups, 45 curls at 20lbs (9kg) per day. I started sit-ups yesterday so I'm not quite at the point of establishing a number, but I just did 4 sets of 10. Inclined push-ups are in sets of 10, declined in sets of 30, and curls in sets of 15.

I feel great. I feel muscular. My chest is tight and strong. My biceps feel like they're growing. My lower back hasn't hurt in quite a while.

Rice, baby spinach, applesauce, and cheese are great foods. I'm eating more than just those, of course, but they're a great addition to the diet. I'm staying away from junk. On Friday nights I don't drink more than one Mountain Dew, I limit myself on the pizza, and besides gum I don't eat much candy at all.

Cardio is one thing I'm lacking in. I just started a new job last week, so that will increase my daily calorie use. At least that helps a little. My brother has been getting into the exercise thing and has been borrowing my bike, but I haven't used it much in the past month. I'd love to be able to ride to work, but that would kill my legs at the moment.

I have a recommendation for curls: don't sit and hold your elbow against your thigh, stand up and rotate your wrist when bringing the weight up. It feels like it works the bicep a lot better.


Time to go make some more iced tea.

Changing gears?

This past week has been a bad one for my routine. A couple of days of nothing, a couple of days of reduced numbers. Picked it back up last night.

I think I can have the build I want without much more work. My chest is great, my arms will get bigger, and my abs won't be too much hassle. I'm thinking about adding more cardio to lose the flab.

Applesauce FTW.

This contest may be the best thing I've ever done for my overall health. And when it's over I'll be looking gooood. ;-)


EDIT: Oh, and my pants are looser. Woo-hoo!

September pics

Using a different camera platform, so there's less of an upward angle. One or two of the pics are a bit off-rotation though.


Front flexed


Front relaxed



Side relaxed


Side flexed


Biceps (no change, as I haven't hit the curls too hard)







I think the side flexed picture shows my progress the best.

Getting there

Still on

Pics and measurements for September should be coming within the week. I'm making progress. There's nothing dramatic, but my chest is tighter and I can see a difference. I may have to change my weight goal by the end of the contest due to my build but I'll wait at least another month before I do anything official. The ultimate goal of how I want to look isn't changing.

Today was a heavy workout day (I guess it makes up for yesterday). Thirty dips, thirty sit-ups, thirty curls at 20lbs (9kg) on each arm, and maybe some push-ups before i go to bed. Yeah, it's not really heavy, but it's a big jump from just doing the dips. Over the past few days I've been doing push-ups in addition to the dips to work the whole pectoral area rather than what feels like just one muscle. With any luck I'll keep on exercising more

Food is staying pretty much the same. Whole wheat bread, turkey, baby spinach, and mustard on sandwiches; salad with olive oil and apple cider vinegar; carrots, apples, and applesauce for snacks; lighter fare with fruits and veggies at restaurants. There's other stuff in there, but nothing too far one way or the other. The big thing is that I've eliminated most of the empty calories in my diet

Continuing

Well, the diet is going well. I'm sticking to it for the most part, including cutting back on Friday nights. Yesterday I picked up two apples, some turkey cold cuts, and 100% whole grain wheat bread. Now I have sandwiches for a few days. There's brown rice and whole wheat spaghetti in the pantry now. I find myself eating a lot of cheese now and it's very suprising how little meat I've had in the past few weeks.

Baby spinach goes well with everything.

I'm not back to 30 dips per day as I'd like to be yet. I realized I should be supplementing them with regular push-ups to develop my triceps and the chest muscles the dips miss. So maybe I'll work my way up to 50 dips and 75 push-ups per day by the end of the contest

Restarting

Well, I kind of let myself get off track for about a week I think. Going to Grandma's house over the weekend didn't help, as the word "moderation" doesn't quite exist there at mealtime. I allowed myself to stop doing the push-up dips for two days.

Today I'm restarting. I plan to do 30 dips today. I may start doing curls. I rode my bike up to Kmart to retrieve some breakfast. I picked up some bagged salad and spinach, a couple of apples, and some carrots. Breakfast today was a bowl of salad with spinach, banana peppers, and olive oil, one apple, three small carrots, and about 4oz. of cranberry juice mixed with about 12oz. of red tea. Not a bad combination.

I have been drinking a lot of water and I'm not drinking any non-diet pop. The only things I plan on drinking that have notable calorie counts are the cranberry juice cut with tea and Grandma's homemade grape juice (best I've ever had) cut with Vernor's.

I may post new pics sometime soon, but don't expect much of a change yet

Dieting

Here's a rundown of the diet for the past three days, according to what I remember:

July 17th
Bowl of Malt-O-Meal cereal, 120 cal/serving, probably 2 servings
Bowl of baked mac & cheese
Can of chicken & rice soup, 150 cal
Big plate of spaghetti & meat sauce
Glass of orange juice
Glass of apple juice

July 18th
Bowl of corn flakes, probably 2 servings
Bowl of spaghetti & meat sauce
Can of vegetable soup, 150 cal
1/2 glass of orange juice
1/2L of cranberry apple juice

July 19th
Bowl of Malt-O-Meal cereal, 120cal/serving, probably 2 servings
Perch sandwich with lettuce, tomato, red onion, and tartar sauce
Three small redskin potatoes
~1 cup rice
Turkey and American cheese sandwich on wheat bread
Two glasses Diet Coke

I think there was a bologna & cheese sandwich somewhere in there.
List does not include water

Pictars

Biceps



Front relaxed, then 2 flexing (slight upward angle, don't have much of a camera platform)


Side relaxed, then flexing