Greg's Running Blog

Today I finally broke 100! No, I did not lose 100 lbs, luckily I don’t need to lose that much. But I broke the 100 kg (220.5 lbs) mark today. I have been hovering around 100 kg for the past week, I got as low as 100.1 on 11/30/2009 then again yesterday. And today I finally got under it. This morning I weighed in at 99.7 kg (219.8 lbs). I was pretty excited to see my weight in the double digits and out of the triples. Tonight it went up again over 100 but that is OK, it’s just water and food I had today. I really hope I will be able to keep it under 100 from now on. But if I see another 100+ number tomorrow morning I won’t get too discouraged. It’s only a number. And it’s only temporary. I know I will only do better.

Today was chest day again. The soreness from Monday is gone so I could hit the machines hard. I only did two exercises today but they totally drained me. As I have mentioned, I’m doing reduced reps with more weight. I forgot the check just how light my incline and decline presses have been and I went with what I felt was comfortable based on my regular bench press from Monday. I’m definitely working my muscles to failure on each set now, I’m sure I will feel the results later. The weird thing is that my triceps are probably that are holding me back, they are just really tired during bench presses. Apparently the closer the hand grips are the more your triceps has to work for elbow extension. I might try a wider grip for more shoulder flexion.

Incline Press

• 3×10 @ 100lbs

Decline Press

• 2×10 @ 90lbs
• 1×6 @ 90 lbs

Elliptical

• 30 minutes
• 144 avg heart rate
• 351 calories

Elliptical

• 60 minutes
• 127 avg heart rate
• 559 calories

I’m not sure if it’s possible to cut my calories any closer to my target. Well I guess it is theoretically possible to get 2 calories closer but that would be pretty tough. I wasn’t really planning on being this close it just sort of happened. I had one of my usual breakfasts, 4 oz non-fat plain yogurt, 2 slices of 100% whole wheat bread and 1 oz of double smoked bacon (not cooked, just cured by smoke and salt). Then I postponed my large apple until snack time so I cut out the energy bar that I usually get in the morning and replaced it with the gala apple.

Lunch was leftover halibut, veggies and half a cup of brown rice. My afternoon snack was a protein shake. For dinner I finally had some red meat. I don’t think I have had any red meat in 5 days now, the turkey binge lasted way too long. Since I saved myself a bit of calories in the morning I thought I would be able to sneak a piece of chocolate into my food for the day but that did not happen. Instead I ate two quarter pound burger patties with a cup of brown rice and some sated zucchini squash. Giving up the chocolate was worth it. I was so glad I finally ate some red meat, I really have missed the stuff.

My macros for the day turned out pretty good, I had low fat and pretty high protein for the day. I’m pretty pleased with today’s meals.

I ran out of Nature’s Best Low Carb Isopure, Dutch Chocolate so I had to make a decision. Do I buy more of this stuff or do I try something else? The Isopure wasn’t bad, it was actually the most decent stuff I have found so far. I have had some store brand protein, both vanilla and chocolate from the local grocery chain that was pretty bad, clumped terribly and the taste was not very good either. It was also loaded with too much carb and too little protein. I have also tasted a friend’s Vitamin Shoppe brand chocolate protein which was just way too sweet. But it wasn’t a good sweet it was that fake Splenda sweet that lingers in your mouth forever. So the Isopure was the best stuff I have tasted so far. The only thing that bothered me is that while my friend’s 7.5lbs tub tasted really good the 3lbs tub I bought had a bit saltier taste to it. It wasn’t a huge difference but it was noticeable.

This same friend who got me onto Isopure told me that a friend of his was raving about another protein powder that is just phenomenal and blows everything away. my friend hasn’t tried it himself but I figured I’d give it a shot. So I went to GNC and signed up for their Gold Card and got a tub of this stuff: GNC Pro Performance AMP Amplified Wheybolic Extreme 60. The name is ridiculous. It was clearly thought up by some moronic marketing idiots who were probably locked in a room with nothing to eat or dring other than this protein shake until they came up with a name so ridiculous that would blow the competition away. Mission accomplished. Regardless of the name the content seems to be decent. It contains 60 grams of protein per serving, but a serving is 3 scoops of the stuff and there is only 17 servings in a 3lbs tub. It’s marketing gimmick again. Isopure had 50 grams of protein per servings and a there were 21 servings per tub. So while Isopure sold you 1050 grams of protein, GNC is selling you 1020 grams of protein per tub.

I guess the real question is how did it taste? I can see how some think the AMP Wheybolic Extreme is the best thing since sliced bread. It is much more creamy and less chalky than the Isopure Low Carb stuff. It is also less salty which is a good thing in my opinion. It smells like cocoa powder when you open it up. It dissolves great, even better than Isopure and I thought Isopure was awesome to start with when I compared it to the other junk I have seen. The only negative I have found is that the AMP has a bit more Splenda taste to it than I would have liked, it leaves a bit of aftertaste in your mouth, nowhere near as bad as the Vitamin Shoppe stuff. The flavor has a bit of a nutty taste to it which I personally like. My friend also had a chance to taste it and he wasn’t overly impressed by it. We both agreed that it’s a pretty decent tasting protein mix but based on the fanfare and expectations it has fallen short of being the cat’s meow. I won’t be returning the stuff, It’s definitely likable. I’ll report on my final decision once I got to the bottom of this 3 lbs tub.

Tonight I was really really close to skip the evening cardio session. I had legs for strength training at lunch and I felt like I needed a break so bad. But once I got on the elliptical I was fine. Sure, my intensity was pretty low tonight but it was better than going straight to bed and doing nothing.

Elliptical

• 30 minutes
• 128 avg heart rate
• 283 calories

Elliptical

• 60 minutes
• 118 avg heart rate
• 483 calories

Today was seafood day. Unlike my days that used to be “see-food” days where if I saw food I ate it today was shrimp and halibut. Based on calories I could have afforded to have a small piece of chocolate tonight as well but I choose not to. I’m trying to stay 100% clean, at least until I get down to my target weight.

Unlike last time where I almost didn’t get the pictures done, tonight was probably the fastest I have ever gotten them completed. My kids were barely in bed and I already had the pictures taken and processed. This is how I like it! It leaves me more time to do other stuff in the evening. The scale hasn’t changed much in the past 4 days, I’m 1 lbs lighter than the last picture which is not much and doesn’t really show. I see a bit more definition in my upper arm on the back flexed shot but I can’t really see much else in terms of difference.

The numbers tell a bit different story. My neck has gone down half an inch and so did my chest. My hips and thigh have also shrunk a quarter of an inch each. It could be because of the weight drop or because of my new measuring tape that I just got this week. I purchased a MyoTape from Amazon. It has helped me to get more accurate measurements on my bicep, calf, chest and waist but it is not a single user friendly when it comes to neck measurement so I just had my wife take a reading as I was measuring my neck. Overall it’s a pretty decent product and you can’t beat the price, it’s probably as cheap as fitness products can get.

12/01/2009 Transformation Picture

The bad news is that I’m pretty sore today from yesterday’s chest exercise. The new 3×8 with more weight is definitely getting to my wimpy protein storage some would call muscles. The good news is that I’m sore in the muscles and I think my shoulder is fine. I was really worried about it yesterday but it seems to be genuine muscle pain so I’m pretty happy about that. Today I have tried the same routine for my back, skipped an exercise and I had a hard time nailing down the optimal weight for each exercise. I’m sure I’ll get better at it with practice. Let’s see just how sore I will get in my back by tomorrow.

Lat Pull

• 1×8 @ 130 lbs
• 1×8 @ 120 lbs
• 1×8 @ 110 lbs

Seated Low Row

• 1×10 @ 110 lbs
• 1×10 @ 120 lbs
• 1×10 @ 130 lbs

Chest Supported Row – Inner Grips

• 3×8 @ 100 lbs