Day 14 - Chillin and Grillin

Today was a great day and end to a good week. I woke up made everyone breakfast, then grilled out today. For breakfast, I wanted something different. So I made a paleo version of pumpkin pancakes. I had one and half of these and everyone enjoys these, so it's always a hit. They have a lot of protein and fat and not a lot of carbs. Perfect for a paleo diet. For lunch we grilled some natural bratwursts that were purchased at the farmer's market and some hamburgers.

For my activity today I did leg day here is what it looked like

Squats 3 x 10 at 135 lbs ( i keep this low weight because of my back)
One Leg Leg Extentions: 3 sets of 8 at 85 lbs each leg and 1 set of 6 at 95 lbs
Leg press 1 set of 10 at 495 lbs
Straight leg deadlift 80 lbs 3 set of 10
Lying leg curls 125 x 8 2 sets
Calves on the leg press machine 270 lbs set of 17, 15 and 12
Back extentions 2 sets of 10

 I went over my calories a little bit today but thats ok as I have been doing a lot of activity and I am getting stronger as the days go by. I am uninspired to write much else today, maybe i am just tired. Tomorrow is just a walk day so that'll be good. Also will be doing the weigh in and measurements.

Day 13 - Midterms...Wait....

Today was the mid challenge weigh in! I woke up this morning, and did some fasted cardio to try to shed any water weight I was holding from this weekend. I did my walk to the park and did my sprints. It was extra hot today to me, as I was in West Texas for 5 days and not used to the humidity. It felt like I imagine being stuck in some hot soup. I went 1.66 miles according to endomondo. I rushed the to gym so I could grab my weight..My weight is.....


Well I was informed by my competitor that we will do the weigh ins on Monday instead of today since he is out of town. So all of that for nothing lol.


My day of food was pretty much non existent. At the time of typing this at 10:23 pm, I had only had around 1200 calories. So I decided to go for some eggs and bacon for a late snack. This still didn't give me enough protein or calories, but I can't do a thing about that now.

Tomorrow is the dreaded leg day along with some relaxation and house cleaning with the family. 

Day 12 - Vacation Over

Well my vacation is officially over. I had a blast in Lubbock and was able to spend some quality time with my family and friends. I did manage to eat pretty dang well while I was there. The only thing that I ate that was REALLY bad was some chips. I managed to stay active and worked out in the gym twice, and did lots of walking.

Today on the road home, I ate about right for my calories for the day. Lots of meat, and hardly any carbs except for after my workout.

For workout today I did a back workout:

Lat Pulldowns: 110 lbs x 10, 130 lbs x 8, 150 lbs x 6
Seated cable rows: 150 lbs x 10, 170 lbs x 8 and 185 lbs x 6
1 arm dumbbell rows: 3 sets of 8 at 55 lbs each side
Standing Curls: 10 x 60 lbs 3 sets
Seated alternating dumbbell curls: 3 sets of 8 at 30 lbs each arm


I am definitely getting my strength back. I'll be adding extra exercises before I know it.

Tomorrow is the half way point weigh in, I hope I am on the right side of the scale!

Day 9 - Vacation Mode

So there is this thing that I call vacation mode. It always happens when I go to Lubbock, and it's where I stop caring about just about everything and just live life. Now I haven't done that completely but for dinner I had a few things that I shouldnt. I imagine tomorrow will be along the same lines being a holiday and having a bbq with my best friends and family here. Sometimes it is good to just let loose a little bit.  I still ate the bad things in moderation and didn't have anything crazy.

It's always good to have a home cooked breakfast from your mother. My mom made me 4 eggs and 4 pieces of bacon to follow the course. I even went to Zack Thomas's gym here in Lubbock and got in a workout.

Here is what it looked like

Bench Press Dumbbells 70s in each hand 2 sets of 10 and 1 set of 6 (tricep fatigue)
Machine Cable Flies 110 x 10, 125 x 8, 145 x 6
Decline Barbells 135 x 8 and 225 x 3
Crunches on an exercise ball at 2 sets of 20

Also had a walk with my wife around the old neighborhood where I grew up.

 
Tomorrow I will be walking a lot as we are going to a parade along with doing a bbq and other activities. Thursday I will go back to the gym, and Friday I hope to get in some sprints. I hope you all have a safe and happy July 4th. My next post will be on the 5th!

Day 8 - Road Trip!

So today I got to go home. I am originally from Lubbock, TX and no matter how cool Austin, TX is, a big piece of me will always be in good ole Lubbock, TX. When I come down we always do it up. Eating fast food called Taco Villa, eating at good restaurants and eating good deserts, and go out drinking.....wait.....DAMN I am on this challenge. I get to participate in none of that. This is going to be one of the hardest things that I have ever done. Especially with a holiday. I may not be 100% but I better be 90%. I plan on working out here, and eating the best I can.

The road trip was fine, the baby was good, the dogs were good, and the wife was good. My food was fine, except there really wasn't food. I had a pound of brisket that I ate when we got on the road and it spread out through several hours, but that was it. Nothing else on the road trip.

Dinner wasn't much better as it was 10pm and I couldn't find anything to eat. So what I did was get a burrito from that favorite place, Taco Villa, and ate the meat out of it. I had some left over rotisserie chicken, and that's it. My food log looks very weak and I know I didnt eat that much chicken to warrant 40 grams of protein but it was the closest I could find.

Activity was pretty non existent. I drove for 6 hours and got a small 15 minute walk within that. Tomorrow I am going to hit the gym and try to stay away from alll of the comforting temptations.

Day 7 - Whoopsy Daisy

Have you ever gotten that call from someone (in this case it was my wife) where someone is in need? Well let me tell you. I absolutely HATE moving furniture. I don't like moving my own, I especially don't like to move anyone elses, but if there is someone in need, I'll usually help. The person who I am doing this challenge against had come across some bad times. On his vacation, he had to drive home to find black mold in his apartment. So we had to help him move a few things out and throw a few things out. So that was my activity today. I felt bad for him because a lot of his personal stuff was ruined. I know I would be devastated, but you keep on moving.

Today's food...Well I got my....well crap. I ate WAY too many calories today. Maybe this is a good thing since I had been eating too little and feeling sluggish in the evenings, but this was crazy. All foods were "paleo-fied" but still it can creep up on you when you're using the paleo comfort food cookbook.

Breakfast was the pretty much the usual, Eggs, bacon and today some natural sausage that I tossed in for caloric sake. For lunch I had a double burger (NO BUN OF COURSE) and some guac, again for caloric purposes. Dinner we had a special birthday dinner for my Uncle (in law i guess) James. He is a celiac trooper, so we usually eat a lot of the same things. He made the paleo meatloaf with turkey this time, and we made a few side dishes. My wife made an amazing dessert of peach blueberry cobbler, that was delicious.

Here is how my calories shaked out today. Keep in mind the paleo meat loaf was with turkey, instead of ground beef, so it isn't that bad, but never hurts to over estimate.

To update a few things. Yesterday after I posted this, I ended up eating 2 eggs and an Applegate farms hot dog. Yes it's a hot dog, but they use grass fed beef and natural ingredients. It's a very good treat! So you can add 290 calories to yesterdays total.


Tomorrow I will be headed to Lubbock. I will do some walking but for the most part it is going to be my first rest day, I will enjoy driving. I will still post though!