So I finished up the diet a couple days ago, but I've been busy with midterms and assignments so I didn't get a chance to post my "after" picture. Either way, I went through 16 lbs in 30 days, and I've been back to the gym since haven't lost that much strength.
I still can't check my squats or my deadlifts because of my knee but I did get the go ahead from my physiotherapist to do empty bar, or lighter dumbell squats and deadlifts.
I now need to go and figure out how many plates I need to stack up to get an empty bar at the right level from the ground. A 45 lb plate is actually made at the perfect height to be broken from the ground to do deadlifts with, so I never had to do this before (I started with 1 plate on each side). The act of breaking the bar from an unmoving position (a "dead" position, thus the name) is extremely important for deadlifts too because it's the hardest part of the lift, so I'm not going to just lift it without putting the bar back down on something.
I always see people at the gym doing deadlifts where they don't put the bar back on the ground after each rep. This is wrong. Those are not deadlifts and they don't work your body the way deadlifts do. Don't be that guy!
Now to relax, get back to promoting this blog, checking things out at bb.com and going to the gym!
Saturday 28 May 2011
Sunday 22 May 2011
Little mad at monster
So for the last few days I've been really busy with my summer courses and I've needed to stay up late because I underestimated the time that was required to do one of my assignments. Usually I'd just pick up some smaller energy drinks or have some coffee, but because of this diet, I took another look around Walmart to see if anything matched up correctly. Lo and behold, I saw this stuff:
Monster's "LO-CARB" energy drink. Sounded great for a diet where you're trying to watch your carbs, right? So I bought a pack and over the last couple days I've had them. They REALLY gave me some energy, so I thought that it must just be a great product.
After drinking the last can, I took a look at the ingredients.
The number 2 non-medicinal ingredient listed was sucrose. As in sugar. As in a very simple carbohydrate with a glycemic index of 67-68. No wonder it was giving me so much energy, the "LO-CARB" version of this energy drink is full of carbs.
Probably set me back a couple of days. Tasted really bad too, not worth the price at all.
After drinking the last can, I took a look at the ingredients.
The number 2 non-medicinal ingredient listed was sucrose. As in sugar. As in a very simple carbohydrate with a glycemic index of 67-68. No wonder it was giving me so much energy, the "LO-CARB" version of this energy drink is full of carbs.
Probably set me back a couple of days. Tasted really bad too, not worth the price at all.
Thursday 19 May 2011
Day 25 - new pic
Getting pretty close to the end. Just wanted to give you guys a look at what the difference has been over the last 20 days.
Day 5:
and today:
I've managed to keep up most of the muscle. Went to the gym yesterday and was able to lift the same amount of weight, but for a couple fewer reps than when I started. This could be because my muscles just don't have as much energy in them because of the diet, so I'll have to retest after I finish, but everything looks good. Maybe NO-XPLODE really does help get those extra couple reps out.
Day 5:
and today:
I've managed to keep up most of the muscle. Went to the gym yesterday and was able to lift the same amount of weight, but for a couple fewer reps than when I started. This could be because my muscles just don't have as much energy in them because of the diet, so I'll have to retest after I finish, but everything looks good. Maybe NO-XPLODE really does help get those extra couple reps out.
Monday 16 May 2011
Day 22
Had a chance to weigh myself today - looking at 214 lbs - so a good 16 lbs in. I was hoping to have lost a bit more, but still, 16 in 22 days is pretty decent. I'm thinking I'll keep up the diet until the end of May at least, but we'll see how things are at the end of next week for that decision.
Sunday 15 May 2011
The kind of gym I need to find
I'd love to just find a gym like this, but I don't know if there's anything like that in my area.
Saturday 14 May 2011
Day 20
I cancelled my gym membership a couple of days ago because I'm tired of their "just use machines and you'll get jacked!" mentality and their soft rubber mats underneath their squat racks. I'm looking for a gym with bumper plates and some more serious lifting equipment.
I'd stick to my university gym, but the way their benchpress is set up, they're asking for people to get shoulder problems. It's because of the "J" hook that is being used on all of the benches. Instead of using a hook that's shaped like this (the proper way):
Part of the bench that holds the hooks -> ||___/ <- flat area before the small hook that keeps the bar in place when not being lifted
They use pegs that go directly into the bench stand, and so they end up looking more like this:
||/
With no flat area before the hook. What this unfortunately means is that you must be able to lift what you're benching entirely with your shoulders in order to bring the bar out in front of your chest, since the bar is always going to rest above your head and not your chest. With a correctly made hook, you should be able to slide the bar out using a small amount of momentum from the flat area, and just be able to push horizontally to get the bar into place.
I believe this is stopping me from progressing with bench press as fast as I should be able to. Even if it wasn't, I doubt I'm going to be able to lift that much more on just my shoulders, and so it would be safer to find a gym with correctly made hooks and the rest of the gym equipment I'm looking for.
I'd stick to my university gym, but the way their benchpress is set up, they're asking for people to get shoulder problems. It's because of the "J" hook that is being used on all of the benches. Instead of using a hook that's shaped like this (the proper way):
Part of the bench that holds the hooks -> ||___/ <- flat area before the small hook that keeps the bar in place when not being lifted
They use pegs that go directly into the bench stand, and so they end up looking more like this:
||/
With no flat area before the hook. What this unfortunately means is that you must be able to lift what you're benching entirely with your shoulders in order to bring the bar out in front of your chest, since the bar is always going to rest above your head and not your chest. With a correctly made hook, you should be able to slide the bar out using a small amount of momentum from the flat area, and just be able to push horizontally to get the bar into place.
I believe this is stopping me from progressing with bench press as fast as I should be able to. Even if it wasn't, I doubt I'm going to be able to lift that much more on just my shoulders, and so it would be safer to find a gym with correctly made hooks and the rest of the gym equipment I'm looking for.
Wednesday 11 May 2011
Day 17 - new pic
It's getting kinda harder to see the differences in the pictures recently, but I can tell that my pants are definitely getting looser and I'm starting to get some more muscle "tone" ("toning" the way many marketers advertise it doesn't really exist, it's really having less fat over a muscle). In a few more days we'll see what's up.
Yesterday I went back to the gym for the first time in a week and a half or so, and it felt great. I didn't lose too much from my gains for upper body. I didn't do any lower body stuff still because of the knee. Going again today, will check the rest of my upper body and maybe even do some cardio.
Monday 9 May 2011
Day 15 - new pic again
Finally have a new pic to put up. Looked back at my starting pictures - progress looks good! We'll see how these next 15 days go, then I'll decide if I'm going to continue cutting or if I should do bulking or whatever.
My knee is getting better, slowly. My physiotherapist said it was looking really good today compared to last Friday. At first she thought I may have torn my PCL, but it looks like there may have just been so much swelling that it was some of the swelling that was hanging down instead of my tendon. I'll know this Friday if I need to get an MRI or anything.
My knee is getting better, slowly. My physiotherapist said it was looking really good today compared to last Friday. At first she thought I may have torn my PCL, but it looks like there may have just been so much swelling that it was some of the swelling that was hanging down instead of my tendon. I'll know this Friday if I need to get an MRI or anything.
Sunday 8 May 2011
Happy Mother's Day!
Happy Mother's Day everybody! I'm probably going to have to eat more carbs than I should today, but remember: family comes before dieting. I'm supposed to meet my mom for dinner, but I have a really bad migraine from a lack of sleep (my housemates decided to stay up all night and make a lot of noise). Taking some advil - I hope it goes away soon.
Thursday 5 May 2011
Wednesday 4 May 2011
Day 10 - new pic
Have my physio appointment for tomorrow. My knee doesn't feel that bad - just stiff and swollen. It's nothing compared to right after I tore it.
Gonna go have some food - ground beef with a little yellow onion, and mushrooms. Keep those carbs and their GI low.
Gonna go have some food - ground beef with a little yellow onion, and mushrooms. Keep those carbs and their GI low.
Tuesday 3 May 2011
Day 9 - new pic
Monday 2 May 2011
Day 8 - new pic
Continuing the diet, I've gotten some comments about what I'm eating and I'd like to clarify.
I don't JUST eat meat, cheese and eggs - these foods just fit in with the diet perfectly. Several years ago when I first started trying out diets like this, the first one that I'd tried was the Atkins diet. In the diet book I'd found, they recommended that for the first while, you eat a maximum of 3 cups of lettuce, or 2 cups lettuce and 1 cup broccoli a day. The other thing they said was that you can eat 20 grams of carbs per day.
I'm not going to quite that extreme on this diet. I know that the Atkins idea was that you shouldn't get huge dumps of sugar into your body because that's what causes people to get fat. I found out that the GI diet follows a similar idea, and that they've taken a closer look at how foods affect your blood sugar levels.
Mixing the two ideas, I try to have between 1 and 3 cups of low glycemic index vegetables a day, along with the meat, cheese and eggs. Other foods that I find work on this diet: mushrooms, onions, tomatoes (in moderation, GI is 15) and zucchinis (also in moderation with GI of 15).
I don't JUST eat meat, cheese and eggs - these foods just fit in with the diet perfectly. Several years ago when I first started trying out diets like this, the first one that I'd tried was the Atkins diet. In the diet book I'd found, they recommended that for the first while, you eat a maximum of 3 cups of lettuce, or 2 cups lettuce and 1 cup broccoli a day. The other thing they said was that you can eat 20 grams of carbs per day.
I'm not going to quite that extreme on this diet. I know that the Atkins idea was that you shouldn't get huge dumps of sugar into your body because that's what causes people to get fat. I found out that the GI diet follows a similar idea, and that they've taken a closer look at how foods affect your blood sugar levels.
Mixing the two ideas, I try to have between 1 and 3 cups of low glycemic index vegetables a day, along with the meat, cheese and eggs. Other foods that I find work on this diet: mushrooms, onions, tomatoes (in moderation, GI is 15) and zucchinis (also in moderation with GI of 15).
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