Calorie Fluctuations, I will get it right!

336 days

until Saturday January 25 2014

a Saturday 11 months and 2 days from today

Workout today- Legs

2/23/13

I think another increase in my calories allowed is inevitable. Yesterday I spent the entire day watching the clock and forcing hunger away. At the end of  the day, I reached a level of hunger that was intolerable and I went over on my planned calories of 2000. A large part of this is due to not having access to the foods I would normally use to fix the problem. I am going to set my calorie requirement at 2200 and hopefully on some days I will be able to make extra ground when I am not as hungry. My estimated need with most counters is about 2550 to maintain. The reason again for the calorie counting is that it helps me to focus my nutrition on the types of foods I should be getting i.e. whole grain complex carbohydrates and lean proteins. Additionally, I am reducing my body fat to it's lowest percentage ever for definition. With no calories to spare, I avoid all types of cookies, cakes, and any other thing that reminds me how sweet things can be. Today is a new day and I will strive to budget my calories appropriately. I usually eat 250 calorie snacks when hungry. I may try a few larger 350 calorie meals and see if this changes the dynamic of it all.

Here's yesterdays workout. I'm quite sore in my upper body. Abs are no longer getting sore on abdominal day so I'm going to start mixing in more abs each day. Don't get me wrong, soreness is not necessary to build muscle but I use the residual soreness from the lactic acid to gauge my effort level. I believe the longer this program goes on, the less soreness will occur. That has already been the case. The first few workouts were very painful afterwards. Now I work hard and still function normally throughout the day. I gotta get to some leg work my friends. I am about to make some PROGRESS! 

Have a great workout! TODAY is our day!

Burn the Ships,

FEED THE WOLF!

Bradley

Goals- Here are a few short-term goals. I will re-post everyday and add dates to them as they are accomplished.

10 Consecutive Pull-ups (Up to 8 on 17 Feb)

1 month of Excellence in Training 

1 Month of Excellence in Diet

10 Good Handstand push-ups (At 3 against a wall 17 Feb)

1 behind the neck pull-up

1 muscle-up

Explosive Pull-up/ Toe Touch

Body Fat 10% (Scale says 13.9% Feb 19, Reliable?)

Human Flag

Pull-up with behind the back clap

Kuki Push-up

Body Fat 6%

One-arm pull up

One-arm leg raises on bar

If the Honeymoon is Over, Bring it.

344 days 

until Saturday January 25 2014

a Saturday 11 months and 10 days from today

Height: 6'1"

Weight: Did not weigh
Chest Day

2/15/13

I am feeling an incredible difference in my arms. The new strength is very motivating. It's very psychological in how I finish the day. I find myself smiling that "bet you wonder what I'm up to" smile. In all things it seems that I focus on the end product, the actual achievement yet the most profound part is the confidence I gained from getting up, getting focused, and making myself put in the work for something I want. In a You Tube video, I heard a speaker say, " If you quit, no day will ever be your day." So I dwell on that. When the reps are getting difficult I slack off a little and remember that all work is moving forward and I will not accept anything but progress. I feel like I am coming to an end of the honeymoon phase of this idea. The idea of a year long journey to be the best me I can. This honeymoon phase I see as the time where I think of nothing else and charge onto the battle field. I'm reaching the point where the new is wearing off and I welcome it. This is where the rubber meets the road. I am an adult, I know how this works. Excitement wears away a little and your left with a bunch of goals and new habits that need active policing to get them done. I know where I am and I know what happens in this spot. This is what I have to say- Bring it. I got up this morning when you wanted to sleep. I put on my workout clothes and directed my mind to my goals. I went outside and put in rep after rep in accordance with my plans. I won. I'll see you tomorrow if you dare, but I'm telling you you're wasting your time. I'll be up early, I'll be feeding the wolf, and I'll be putting in the work. You cannot stop what I've put into motion.

Valentine's Breakfast 

Ab workout on 2/14/2013 I just make names up for stuff I saw and want to do, the proper name is not important. The work is. 

I wrote a good bit of this blog on 2/14/13. I feel great today 2/15 and had another awesome workout this morning. In my career field, we sometimes have a short amount of time to rest before the next work cycle. Last night was very short. I am thankful the diet has assisted me in feeling good after 6.5 hours of sleep. I had to hit the floor this morning at 430 and get my chest workout done right away. It was truly a good workout and I feel charged up for the day. It's nice to be 9:10 am and know that I won already. I'm trying to keep moving all day and keep the fat burn going. Yesterday's n utrition was solid and I finished 350 below my goal of 1900. 

Decide where you will be and move in that direction. Sometimes I think people work hard initially and see little results and the motivation fails. Stick with it! It's about the direction. Picture the two extremes of this fitness goal. On one side, I can be overweight, unsightly, feel bad physically as well as mentally have a sense of failure and regret  and watch life pass me by. On the other extreme, I could have the strength and shape that a body should have, I could have all that satisfaction of working for it, I could feel great, be moving forward, and loving life and those in it. Take action to move in the direction you want to go. For me, I was tired of settling for mediocre physical shape. I don't want my body to look like someone spilled something, I want it to look like it was placed there for a reason! This is my body. It is the first thing anyone sees when making a judgement of me. From here on out, it will wear the proud banner of self-discipline.

Put in the work today! Glad your here with me. It will only be a few more weeks until the results start really stacking up and others will take notice that something special is taking place. My resolve is sound. I'm on fire!

Feed the Wolf!!!

Bradley

Should I train to muscle failure?

345 days 

until Saturday January 25 2014

a Saturday 11 months and 11 days from today

Height: 6'1"

Weight: Did not weigh
Core/Abs

2/14/13

I am the master of myself. It is 5:41 and I am alive. There is something I want and I want it bad. I'm an animal with tunnel vision. All I see is the goal. I'm moving forward. The crowd of the world and it's countless lazy and normal options bombard me at ever moment but I am strong. Very Strong because there is something I want. I am moving towards it. I cannot be stopped. Through the chaos and the laughing I never take my eyes off my goal. 

Nutrition- Yesterday's nutrition is puzzling. I usually burn off many calories while working out and this allows me to reach my goal without starving. Yesterday I woke at 3:00 am and did not go to sleep until after 11:00 pm. It was a 20 hour day and I did not workout because it was a recovery day. I do not feel like I ate more than necessary. I was consciously eating small amounts of good foods but still became hungry quite often. I was over my goal of 1820 by 644 calories. Honestly I'm not sure if I should scold myself or take it as normal on a super long recovery day.  I don't think I could have ate any less without being miserable so I'm going to chalk this up to learning and just know that I will probably need more calories on days that I don't workout. I will also need to plan for more calories when I am going to be awake and active for 20 hours. Lastly, if possible, I can mitigate these excess calories and increase progress if I am able to include any amount of light cardio on recovery days. 

Training to Muscle Failure- I previously wrote about my workouts and how I train to muscle failure at each workout. Well, in short, that's not cool. After more research it seems that your muscles will strengthen more in relation to total weight moved not whether or not you reach muscle failure. So if you are doing push ups and your sets look like this for example 12, 8, 5, 3 then you have only done 28 push ups. If you pace yourself by reducing the initial reps and do more sets i.e. 5,5,5,5,5,5,5 then you will in fact have moved more weight by doing 35 reps instead of 28. You do not need to reach muscle failure. (muscle failure is defined here as not being able to do another rep with EXCELLENT form.) Armed with this new information, I am planning to reduce my reps and add more sets to my workouts.

It's time to be about it. Great day, Our day.
FTW,
Bradley



Goals- Here are a few short-term goals. I will re-post everyday and add dates to them as they are accomplished.

10 Consecutive Pull-ups

1 month of Excellence in Training

1 Month of Excellence in Diet

10 Good Handstand push-ups

1 behind the neck pull-up

1 muscle-up

Explosive Pull-up/ Toe Touch

Body Fat 10%

Human Flag

Pull-up with behind the back clap

Kuki Push-up

Body Fat 6%

One-arm pull up

One-arm leg raises on bar