easin on in

today we took lil j to the pool. it was a little chilly, to me anyway, so it took me a while to work up the courage to just go all the way.

same kinda thing this evening with my vegan-ness.

first i went to work out a the litle gym here. i did bench, bicep curls and then something new - pull ups using a towel. see, that's the only way i can do them around here. anyway i had to mess around with the weights because i didnt know how much i could do anymore. i also warmed up on an eliptical machine - the first time i've ever used on. so im easin my way back into it.

and so i got back and served myself some vegan lasagna that included squash and mushrooms. but no cheese or meat. and it was a bust. it had something to do with the pasta's toughness but still i need to experiment more. im thinking tofu or soy cheese, or both. i need to do some research there. see, i'm excited about having to rethink my ingredients but i have a long way to go.

also i decided that tomorrow i'll try to eat six small meals instead of three biggies.

vegan bodybuilding? are you mental?

im gonna try it out again. this time without protein powders and lots of meat. ive experimented with a vegetarian diet before - lasted six months i think it was - and now im quite sure that vegan or nearly vegan diets are better for humans and this blue planet floating all alone in space.

on top of that i have to fit in my workouts with my new family life. i stay at home with my little girl while mom works, so working out then is out. after she gets home i have all the things to do i would have done if i didnt have a child. this makes time an issue though one i hope to resolve peacefully. mom has the same issue.

im also gonig to incorporate yoga poses into the workout schedule. ive decided its quite beneficial for my body and you guessed it my mind.

Back

yes, back. workin the back. again.

I've been wanting to work out again for a while now and i finally found time - on the weekends, in the morning.

my first workout was saturday afternoon. I took the weekend off from my reffing job and found the time to remember my routine after i studied my workout journal. i had to look up supine row and the difference between chin and pull ups.

in the gym i did four excercises - standing shoulder press and reclining curls; and bench and row. felt good. and today i'm sore, that good sore.

so, the plan is to work out sats and suns. we'll see what that does.

oh, and i ate anchovies after the workout - because a can had 20 games of protein. it was intense. i bought some pakcaged salmon at the store later because it has 21 grams...

Better, nicer, warmer

What have been doing this last month? Well, my workouts have not been as consistent as I'd like - I missed a few days - but they've been more invigorating than usual. Those new exercises, including the parkour, the chin and pull ups and the french press, have all produced results. The parkour helps me core, the ups my back, the french my tris.

I weighed myself at home just now. 195 lbs. I can't really trust it but can compare it to my last weigh in. Which is the same.

I've been wearing my sleeveless shirts more often. I got a new one from my mom and some more 3/4 pants - love em. I can really notice a difference in my body shape, and I like it. I do feel better about myself, actually. I don't know though if it's the pride in my accomplishment or if it's I feel "hotter." Feels like the former.

Just one more thing. I'm waiting for my pecks to have that cut look. Not even close now. I'm doing bench and incline for chest. Maybe there's something else...

Oh, and today I ran with Old Girl (Same) to City Park. I knew I'd seen one of those exercise stations you see along running paths before - with the stretching posts and instructions. I wanted a pull-up bar. We finally found it behind the Museum. Gosta.

Parkour, negatives and Eve Ensler

I used to tell myself that I knew the secret to looking good. I knew that it didn't matter what you looked like on the outside. I knew that the most beautiful people I knew were beautiful because of something within. And that's what I told myself. I knew the secret. I mostly thought of this when I got dressed for school. Didn't matter what I wore. Didn't matter that I didn't have the nicest clothes. It was all within. Didn't matter that I couldn't find an acceptable way to fix my hair. It was all within, and it had a name: confidence.

Good workout today. I had thought that I might have to ride my bike to the swing set, since my knee was acting funny. But it felt fine this morning and I started jogging. I felt slow, like dead weight. But not too slow. And I remembered something I hadn't remembered in a while.

Parkour. I didn't stop when a car was coming and I wanted to cross the street. I kept going and cut over when it was clear. I jumped off the curbs. I cleared the median. I jump on the jungle gym and ducked under the chain and went down the slide.

I did some reading online before I left about chin ups. I learned that a chin up is very similar to a pull up - chin ups are done with palms facing me, pull ups with palms out. Pull ups are harder but work the lats better. I learned that they're both hard, actually. Some tips to get started where to mix pull ups and chin ups, keep trying, and to do negatives. That means jumping up and slowing letting yourself down.

I did 7 chin ups, 3 pull ups, 5 more chin ups and then 7 pull up negatives. When I looked in the mirror before my shower it seemed my lats where bigger, giving me more of that "sting ray" look. That V.

A funny thing about the bicep curls: my left seems to be weaker than my right. Could be that I'm more tired after the run. Maybe I'll switch the bi's and tri's.

Oh, and I found a cd of Eve Ensler reading her play The Good Body. It's about her and other women spending their lives hating their bodies. I bought it on a whim from Goodwill. I want to listen to it again, it just finished, because it's related to what I'm doing here. Changing my body with the idea that it'll make me happier. I know this has been talked about forever, and I don't want to try to talk about something that I don't really understand, but thinking about it today as I listened to Eve, it reminded me of that theory I mentioned above. And it reminded of that word: confidence.

Back in the Saddle

Two days straight, Monday and Tuesday, I was in thy gym. I drank my protein and did my ab work. I did some new stuff, too. Inspired by the routines I mentioned in my last post, I added the French Press (a tricep excercise with dumbells, replacing the machine), a Dumbell Row (replacing the machine row) and Arnold-inspired chin-ups. I read that he did different kinds of chin ups, behind the back, using v-shaped bars. He could do 50.

I couldn't find a place to do the chin-ups in the apartment complex but I thought maybe I could use some of the playground equipment on Jeff Davis. So I jogged there. The first time I've jogged since soccer ended. Slow going (and now my right knee hurts again). The first jungle gym was no good. I jogged past Canal and found a swing set. There weas a construction crew working on a restaurant nearby, and I was a bit self conscious. This happens to me sometimes. When I'm doing something that might draw attention to myself. Like biking, or waiting for a bus. But I told myself I was in New Orleans, not Lake Charles, and they probably wouldn't give it a second thought.

I did 10 chin-ups. 5, then 3, then 2. I loved it, though. I felt weak and with that I felt the need to strengthen. I know the reps will only go up.

back in the saddle?

This week I worked out twice, doing the more-reps-less-weight thing. Next week I should be right on. I'll try this workout for now, but I found a few back ups from a Natural Bodybuilding website, NANBF.org.

a change of pace

I haven't worked out for three weeks now. I took that first week off because my elbow felt funny. Then I just couldn't get back into the gym. There are a few reasons: since we moved I started taking the bus, which takes a long time to get anywhere, so I had to wake up earlier, thus I lost my work out time; also, it's the end of the semester and I've had lots of work to do. I plan on starting up again next Monday.

It's strange to think that my protein shake jar and blender have taken a break, too. And my workout towel and journal.

I'm sure my new weight and photos will show little improevment, if any, from last month. But after my last post I started putting peanut butter in my smoothies and pecans in my pancakes. I like the change.

Also, I bought chocolate flavored protein powder. I was getting bored with the vanilla, even though broseph warned me that the chocolate was nasty. When I bought it from Walmart I was carrying it around and a guy pushing a cart and following his wife stopped me.

"Where'd you get that?" he said.
"Pharmacy area," I said.
"Yeah, I need some of that. What kind you got?"
"Chocolate."
"Yeah, that's right. The chocolate's the best."

When I get back in the gym I'm going to vary my weights and reps and maybe exercises, too.

Oh, and I bought a sleeveless shirt for the summer. I like the look of my arms, except that they're white as ghosts.

weight and diet

So, I think I have my correct weight.  189 lbs.  This week I worked out here at the apartment and then once at UNO.  It just worked out better time-wise.  So I was able to weigh myself as I once did.  So let's throw last month's crazy number out. (Also, I weighed myself at the HPC to compare - it read 195.5 lbs., 6.5 lbs. different, for future reference.)

I talked to my brother yesterday and got some ideas diet-wise.  He's using the Zone diet as a basis for his diet, and basically it's less breads and more fats and proteins, meaning peanut butter and olive oil, for example.  I added pecans to my pancake this morning and will add pb to my protein smoothies.

Plus, at UNO I kinda hurt my right elbow.  Felt like a nerve pinch, slight.  I took off the next day and the next and here we are.  I'll get back in the gym Monday, maybe changing up some of the exercises for less weight and more reps, since I'm getting bored.

Back on track

looks like I'm back on track.  It did my four workouts this week.  I still have to get back on track with the protein shakes, though, and the ab and back workouts.  I took off a few pounds for each exercise so I could get back into it without hurting meself.

Owie

I hurt myself yesterday. I blame it on my erratic workouts - I haven't begun a routine since we moved. It has to do with my new ride to school, the city bus. It takes quite a bit longer than driving (ten minutes by car, 60 minutes by bus) and I haven't timed my whole day effeciently yet. Frustrating.

So, yesterday I had some time at home to work out, so I wanted to start doing it right. I had noticed that I'd been forgetting to warm up for the sake of saving time, so this time I went all out. I ran up and down six flights of stairs and then did two ten-rep sets of squat thrusts - focusing on push ups at the same time.

When I went to incline press, I couldn't do the 50 lb dumbells, only did 8 reps, then I couldn't do 45 lbs, did 6 reps. I didn't notice my left shoulder was hurting until last night. This morning it hurt even more and I realized I must have hurt it a little at the workout and then aggrevated it later in the day when I walked to the grocery store and carried the groceries back home. It was a load.

So, I think I'll use this week or so to heal up, figure out my schedule, then get back into it. I'll also start up a journal, so I can record everything going on as I bulk up, not just the gym stuff I'm writing about here..

Now to finish up, two updates: we took new photos for March, which will be added to the slide show soon, and it looks like my monthly weigh in puts me around 196.5 lbs! That's what it says on the scale here in the athlete's gym, when I'm wearing jeans. I should add my weight to the slide show. I started at 176 or so in September - that's 20 lbs in 6 months. Dang, y'all.

Shrug it out

Chris, my know-it-all younger brother (what, am I writing a kid's book here?), took a look at my slideshow when he was in town and the first thing he said was, "You need to do some shrugs." He pointed to my traps in one of the photos.

So I'm doing shrugs now.

I'd hate to leave out, as I record all this, the exposure I get to pop culture while I'm working out. The music they push through the air is all pop. Pop, pop, pop. Maroon 5, Fergie, the song about tear drops on a guitar and the song where the guys sings "Stop and staaaaaaaaaaaaare." I'll admit that if it weren't for Gym Radio, I woudn't know any of these songs, they would have passed me right on by and dissappeared. And I wouldn't have cared. But now maybe, in some future game of Pop Culture Trivia, I'll get a random song question right.

Also, in the tradition of moderm gyms, there are a couple dozen television sets lining the gym walls. That's where I get my SportCenter fix. I actually don't mind that at all.

And today might have been my last day in the UNO gym. That's because we're moving, beginning tomorrow, and I'll start using the apartment complex's gym. To celebrate that fact, a capoeira group danced in the lobby on my way out. That is on my list of things to do, to join up with a group like that. It was a good show. I love new experiences. (Oh, it also just happened to be National Sports and Fitness Day.)

Rings: On the Life and Family of a Southern Fighter

Yesterday aften, as I killed time with a fellow English tutor, the subject off our professors' literary accomplishments arose. And I learned something very, very interesting. Seems Randy Bates, my Nonfiction Workshop professor, wrote a book about a time when he joined a gym to learn to box, and there he befriended a famous boxer. This is nonfiction and now I can't wait to get my hands on it, you can imagine my eyes widening as I realized that he has already done something quite simiar to what I am doing here: gym + writing = book.

Meanwhile, the new routine seems good enough. I do feel stronger now with each excercise. I just need a killer core/ab routine.

New plan of action

Alright, so I needed a change. I realized a while back that with my seven excercises I tend to burn out by the last two or three. So I switched up the order, but still burned out. So now I have decided to split them up.

Monday and Wednesday will be military press, bench and curl days, and hopefully I can figure out a nice ab routine. Tuesdays and Thursdays will be decline, lat pull, pecs and dips. The workouts will be more often but shorter and more effecient, I think. Then, when we move, when I'm ready I'll move to a six-day plan, throwing in Friday and Saturday, because the gym will be right there.

Today I started that routine. It felt good, felt strong. My adreneline was high afterwards for a bit but I feel I'm crashing now. Oh, well.