Tag Archives: Personal

Personal, Site News

Happy Easter and Explanations of Site Tweaks.

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First of all, I would like to wish all of my readers a happy Easter Sunday. If it’s pleasant, go outside and bask in the sunshine! If it’s miserable and hazy, well… get creative! I know I may not be doing anything today but home training my abs and trying to eat and water up here, save if friends invite me out to do anything. My body is seriously dying from needing more nutrition and sleep, so I may have to carefully watch my intake rather than nit-pick and calorie count. I will still keep tabs on calories, as that is a vital part to my success and would be great reference to me.

For the regular readers of my site, you all may have noticed 2 things… The first being the Snap site previews. Snap is a nice way for me to give you all a preview of the site I am talking about in my post. If it seems to make your loading slower, let me know and I’ll gladly remove it. I just thought it’d be good for the few times that you may want to mouse over no-safe-for-work material rather than view the full blown content. For those who like commenting, I have added Gravatar settings, so that if you have a Gravatar account, your universal avatar icon will show in my blog. Need a good example? Check out my post about returning to working out and Schpenke’s icon here. Gravatars are free so if you do feel that you want a way for people to associate with you, get signed up and you’ll see your results here and any other Gravatar enabled sites.

Stay safe and well everyone! I am about to do my gut-buster sets.

Fitness, Personal

Food Log – Late Snack 3/22/2008

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After passing out from exhaustion due to exerting my torn muscles around at work… I woke to do a soak in epsom salt and warm water. After a 1/2 hour soak, my body was already crying out for more fuel. I think I will have to listen to it to keep fueling my body… cause denying my body the fuel it needs to help the muscles grow is counter productive.

Rice Krispies cereal in silk soy milk (2oz serving) – 140 calories

Fun Sized Package of Teddy Grams – 60 calories

Fitness, Personal

Food Log – Dinner and Snack

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Family wanted me to sit and eat with them, so I had obliged. They had rice and fried tofu so I just had a bowl of rice and 2 pieces of fried tofu. Right now… I am just snacking on a banana and another cheese stick to mellow out and try to relax. Maybe it is time to amp up the caloric intake to help the repairing muscles. It would seem that it’s time to consider caloric burn deficits into the big picture.

Dinner
Small bowl of rice (8oz) and 2 pieces of fried tofu – 450 calories (most being carbs which is good!)

Snack
Banana – 120 calories
Monterey jack string cheese – 110 calories

Grand Total: 2,120 calories

Fitness, Personal

Food Log – 3/22/2008; Lamentations of Torn Muscle Healing

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Today was rather a blur from the fact that I had to work through the pains of my recovering muscle. I have eaten rather well so I have no regrets. I would take my bosses advice and buy the true 100% whole wheat bread for sandwiches, some swiss cheese, packs of light albacore tuna for making lunches. I also bought some cheese sticks to pack as snacks in the case I get hungry and just need a light boost. Breakfast, I did a stack of my chocolate flavored whey protein and Crea-Tech Extreme. Lunch was 2 tuna & swiss sandwiches and a cheese stick. So far I am good, but I may need to tweak my caloric count up to compensate for my muscles healing as eating too low may defeat my gains. If any of you out there read and have ideas, please feel free to advise me. I am thinking of making 1,750 – 2,000 my minimal due to the fact that 1,500 feels like I am running on fumes of food…

Breakfast
Whey protein and L-Glutamine in Silk Soy milk (16oz) – 400 calories, 36 grams of protein
Crea-Tech Extreme, 1/2 portion maintenance dose – 150 calories,  5 grams of creatine monohydrate

Lunch
Two whole wheat (100%), light tuna sandwiches with swiss cheese – 680 calories and 45.5 grams of protein
Monterey jack string cheese stick – 110 calories

Grand Total (before dinner) – 1,340 calories and 81.5 grams of protein

Fitness, Personal

Food Diary – 3/20/2008

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So today was interesting… but it definitely has me double checking my choices now. I brought my protein and L-Glutamine shake with me and basically consumed it when the cubical dynamics slowed down enough. During my “lunch” break, I felt a pang of hunger hit me and decided to get some of the baked and breaded chicken strips combo for a boost of energy. It wouldn’t be until the activity in the office slowed down enough that I could do some research into the “damage” the chicken strips basically caused. My boss, Rich, oversaw and basically said “Holy cow, dude! You’re seriously trying to slim and gain muscle?! I am impressed that you’re researching almost everything you eat!” He then just had an idea to pick up some bread, lean tuna and some deli style swiss cheese slices. From that he ended up just inviting me to make a sandwich with him and we talked seriously on diet. He had given me some great advice on what I need to do for nutritional sake. I just need to be more cautious with what I take in and watch out for trappings that could throw me over my projected caloric intake. Here’s the statistical information for those curious to my intake today.

Whey protein and L-Glutamine shake (16oz) – 400 calories, 36 grams of protein

Office Lunch
5 baked and breaded chicken strips – 500 calories (BAD!)
Sierra Mist (8oz) -100 calories

Quick Dinner
Whole, stone ground wheat bread, tuna, and swiss cheese sandwich – 340 calories

Grand Total: 1,340 calories

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Quick Gut-Buster Session

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This was more to make-up as an off day for not hitting up the gym… It’s a relatively short set, but I plan to build up more on it tonight after work. After this I will be making my 16oz dose of my protein and L-Glutamine shake to take now and during work. I may dose up on my Clif Builder Bar as a snack. If the pang of serious hunger hits, I may see about hitting the cafe close to the office for a sandwich or something. I will be data logging my eating today and hopefully I should be fine until I get home.

Blitz Set – 4 sets, no break
20 Crunches
20 Bicycle crunches
20 Cross crunches
20 Double-cross crunches

Fitness, Personal

Restful Sleep but a Cost…

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I had a more restful sleep, but that was due to me forgetting to set my alarm on my phone. I will probably allow my body to recover for today and just heal. I will probably be mixing up my protein shake and L-Glutamine dose and hopefully that may patch me up for the day. I still have time before work, so I may just hit the hay for about another hour or two, because I think my body needs a bit more rest to properly heal and develop the new muscular tissue. I will probably do a quick gut-buster session before heading into work and then do another on coming home. I can feel the burn, but the more amazing thing is finally seeing some development in my abs.

I will leave you all with two funny note until I arise again… Last night while compiling my nutritional information on the caloric count of my dinner, I figured I would send Braum’s a website e-mail inquiring if they had nutrition facts on their food. I got an e-mail this morning stating the following:

Dear Zero,

Thank you for your email requesting nutritional information on our food service items. As mandated by the Federal Government’s “Nutrition Labeling Education Act”, all packaged goods are federally required to have nutritional information on each package. This federal law gives everyone specific and accurate guidelines with which to follow.

Currently there are no federal regulations governing food service items, and therefore, no guidelines regarding how the nutritional information is provided, calculated, etc. Because of this, many national chains, who have volunteered their information, are facing legal challenges. Not having the resources of the large national restaurants, we have been reluctant to expose ourselves to the expenses in an unregulated environment. When official regulation and guidelines are available, we will be pleased to provide the information, just as we have on our packaged food products. Again, thank you for your concerns and we hope that you will continue to visit the Braum’s store near you.

Sincerely,
[Name Withheld]
Customer Service

In short, it comes off as “We have our prepacked goods (milk, cookies, ice cream, etc) labeled, but due to the fact we’re too small of a restaurant, we’re not required to have nutritional information about our foods.” A shame, but it leaves my caloric calculations at an unknown margin of error.

The second funny thing is that Trussville Mazda is shipping my parts in today, but here’s the catch… instead of my usual name, they somehow contort it to “Patrick”. It’s really funny, but well maybe not… I just need to contact my friend David in Allen and see when we can drop in the parts and etc.

Fitness, Personal

Midnight Gut-Buster Session

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Twitch, my friend has advised me today that maybe my intensity is not high enough considering the fact that the fat on my target zones is not reducing from exercise. He did agree that I must be doing something right if my weight is just stabilized at 154 lbs for the past 2 months of just home exercise. He had suggested that maybe the concept of “working out until failure” may be something to consider as it challenges the body to push harder and basically “raise the bar”. He inquired about my ab attack plan that I have been using and he felt that I could probably push a lot harder to seek the gains I want. So I have taken the advice and put it to practice tonight.

I took Twitch’s example and tweaked it to his suggestion. I would take the crunch, the bicycle crunch, and cross crunch; do all of them in a straight cycle for 2 sets of each; take a 2 minute break and do another set. So, if you want a more visual form:

  1. 20 reps of crunches
  2. 20 reps of bicycle crunches
  3. 20 reps of cross crunches
  4. 20 reps of crunches
  5. 20 reps of bicycle crunches
  6. 20 reps of cross crunches
  7. 2 minute break
  8. 20 reps of crunches
  9. 20 reps of bicycle crunches
  10. 20 reps of cross crunches
  11. 20 reps of crunches
  12. 20 reps of bicycle crunches
  13. 20 reps of cross crunches

A grand total of 240 crunches and my abs felt the wonderful burn. It was a burn that after the last cross crunch… I felt the pain of my abs going “Have mercy on us!” I won’t be doing the “working out to failure” routine too much as it is a tad rough. I may keep that principle on my “off-days” when I wake late or just feel more apt to doing cardio at the gym and double up on the gut-buster routine.

Unfortunately, I will have to delicately plan for the Easter holiday… The office has me doing “on-call” for Saturday from 10:30am – 6pm, but my gym is open from 8am – 7pm. Due to Easter Sunday, the gym is totally closed. I will probably make those 2 days my “failure” days and work hard on the abs to make up for the gym being closed.

Fitness, Personal

Food Log – Snack and Dinner for 3/19/2008

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Well, work was interesting as my appetite was hit or miss. My assistant manager was trying to get me laughing as well as my partner to have an appetite and rejoin them… just I couldn’t regain my sense of appetite. So I would take my second dose of protein and L-Glutamine to patch up my torn ab muscles. My partner would offer to buy me a drink to reamp me and get my snappy again so she picked up a Sugarfree RedBull energy drink and offer that to me.

“Lunch”: Soy milk protein shake with L-Glutamine, 8oz dose – 200 calories, 18 grams of protein

Reamp: Sugarfree RedBull – 10 calories

Later in the day, my buddy who was in town from spring break at his med school wanted me to come over to catch up and try to do some repairs on his parents computers. He offered to catch lunch for me taking time out of my day to assist. Ended up eating at Braum’s for my “cheat” due to loss of appetite earlier today, so I can say it’s fair to say I didn’t kill my intake restrictions. Braum’s unfortunately does not have any nutritional facts posted, so I am using approximate calculations from CalorieKing and rough estimates based on the McDonald’s posted nutritional facts.

Dinner – (Disclaimer: Some of these are ROUGH calculations, take them as you will – Zero)
Braum’s Jalapeno Chedder Jack Cheese Burger – 877 calories
Medium crinkle cut fries – 240 calories
Medium 16oz Coke – 150 calories

Total count is just a wee bit close, but it does show that even my “cheat” days can be a little fun while not veering off of my target goal of 1,500 – 1,700 calories per day. True, my caloric count isn’t as hardcore as some others, but it does keep me from getting bored and desiring foods that would wreck havoc on my work out.

Grand Total: 1,677 calories

Fitness, Personal

Workout Log and Food Log (Breakfast) 03/19/2008

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I had a horrid nightmare which killed my sleep to zero so I am running on basically nothing as far as restorative sleep goes. So not only did I lose sleep, but I also got up late to go train. I didn’t go to hard, just did some cardio to keep my heart toned up. I am wired from my sprint on the crossramp machine and my nightmare isn’t helping me focus. I know I should be feeling better, but the nightmare seemed too real. I’ll probably post a more personal entry about the nightmare if I even remember to focus on it. Let’s get on with my logging.

To one of my fans: Thank you for empowering me, I appreciate it like you could never believe.

Crossramp Machine

  • Duration: 15 Minutes + 5 minute cool down
  • Crossramp level 10
  • Resistance (workout/cool down) Level 6/5
  • Caloric burn: 205 Calories
  • Distance: 1.75 miles

Breakfast: Soy milk protein shake with L-Glutamine, 1/2 of a 16oz dose – 200 calories, 18 grams of protein.

I will be saving the other half of my dose for lunch at work as my nightmare has me so amped up that I have completely lost all appetite for today… Maybe I’ll get it back tonight… but I just don’t feel great at the moment.