Monday, March 31, 2008

For Quick Reference

Found this up on Pharyngula today. It was just too perfect to ignore. The ridiculousness of 'teach the controversy' is obvious when illustrated with a simple substitution.

4 Weeks

I can't say that I really feel like posting today, and I'm not sure why. There is quite a bit to talk about, but I'm going to make it short.

On Friday I finally got down to doing some number crunching on the diet. I probably should have done that weeks ago. Any way now is the time where I need to keep close watch on my carb intake so I started counting. The good news is my intuitive seat-of-the-pants method had me eating about 150 grams of total carbohydrates a day based on the numbers from nutritiondata.com. Which seems to be a wonderful resource for calorie counting and such. The bad news is that might be a little low for everyday at this stage. I'm going to be doubling my carbs a few times a week (like on legs day) to keep the metabolism running fast.

I weighed in at a comfortable 160 lbs. today. I'm no longer worried about making the 154 lb. light weight class. Now I just have to worry about being in good shape. I still have a little squishy around the waste. I am stressed about the individual posing routine. I don't know why that has popped up all of a sudden. It isn't likely to influence my scores, but it does involve being a little bit creative. That part always gets me concerned. I need to spend more time on my posing overall. I'm sure that will help the anxiety. Oh yes, I've also managed to narrow my choices of music to 2 selections which I have edited to 60 seconds and burned 2 copies of. That part of the planning is finished at least.

With that here are the 4 week photos that turned out.

Monday, March 24, 2008

5 Weeks

The days keep dragging by, but slowly I'm making progress. Last week was kind of tough. My weight fluctuated up and down every even though I was eating good and working my ass off on the treadmill. I was starting to get a little stressed about it. Then the weekend came and Lori made me take off my shirt and pose for our guests again. The general consensus was that I did look leaner than a few weeks ago. That helped a little. Then today at the gym I ask my bodybuilder friend to check my conditioning. He says I'm on track so I guess I can de-stress a little bit. The last bit of good news was the scale finally told me what I wanted to hear. I've been about 162 for consecutive days, so I call that progress.

On the diet front, I've dropped my evening carb. Only been doing that for a few days, but it has been fine so far. Sundays have been consistently hard on me. I don't know why but I'm always hungry. I was wishing I had about 3 weeks to go instead of five this weekend. I've been fantasizing about bowls of raisin bran and pancakes with maple syrup.

In other news I sent off my application last week, and the tickets I'd ordered showed up today. I guess that means I'm committed. My goal for this week is to get my posing music selected and CDs burned.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

6 Weeks

One more no cheat weekend down, though I must confess to half a glass of beer. It was a tough one because we went out to eat Friday and the service was slow. I was starving by the time everyone else's appetizer nachos came out, but I had to wait for my chicken salad. The rest of the weekend was pretty easy after that.

I'm one the home stretch now, but it will be the hardest part because I know I can't eat anything bad. I also have to start planning to cut out my carbs and sodium. I really don't think I can eat enough chicken to have that be my only depletion protein, so I'm going to have to have some eggs too. They have higher sodium that I should be eating, but I hope I can get around that by being really clean with my other foods.

I've been trying to keep my cardio workout over 1 hour every day, but it is hard to find that much time and lift and eat too. My weight loss has been sort of slowing down. 163 today. I need to drop more than that. At least my definition seems to be improving. I'd never be able to keep this up if I didn't see some progress.

I feel like the posing is getting better too. Still need to work on my timing and endurance. I guess that is it. I have some of this weeks photos as well. We tried shooting from a lower angle hoping that it would make my legs look a little better.

Sunday, March 9, 2008

7 Weeks

Not much interesting this week in the gym. I maybe loosing a little bit of strength. I was struggling on the incline bench presses today. I was kind of worried all week because I wasn't loosing any weight, but today I was 164. Sunday is always low for me though. I go earlier in the day and I think I drink less water. I'm upping my cardio time to be safe.

I survived my first no-cheat weekend. That was kind of tough. When it comes carb drop time I may need to curtain my social schedule. It is the worst watching everyone else eat the treats.

Beyond that I'm just getting tips on my posing and practicing that when I can. Lori made me de-shirt and pose for some friends on Friday. They were at least polite enough to say I looked okay. The feed back I get from Brad at the gym is less inspiring, but more constructive. Posing does not come naturally to me. And it sure is tougher than it looks. I need lots of practice.

Monday, March 3, 2008

8 Weeks Photos

Finally, here are some more photos. I've just had a hard time getting a photographer to be available at the same time that there is enough light.

A small update: I forgot to weigh myself yesterday, so I was posting out of date information. Today my weight was 167 which I think is pretty accurate.

Based on these pictures I need more work posing my back. I'm hoping that it is just the camera angle that makes my legs so small. I know they are my weakest link, but they don't look very good. They need some more tanning too.

What do you think of the new posing trunks?

Sunday, March 2, 2008

8 Weeks

I just can't seem to have perfect training week. I got the back strain rehabbed nicely, and was feeling good when I had a tanning accident. I don't know if this is typical, but the stand up beds at my gym seem to be much hotter than the regular beds. I've been tanning for just over a week now, and I thought I'd try the stand up because it is supposed to help even the tan out. I'd been doing ten minutes a session and thought that would be safe. Nope. I'm still a bit pink on the hips, but not enough to slow me down. I really dislike having to tan and I think I was trying to rush to get it over with. I guess I'll just have to slow down and pace myself.

I had a big cheat day this weekend and went out to Mexican food. Sadly, I think that is my last major cheat. I'll allow myself some smaller indulgences from time to time, but no more all out gorging.

I haven't had much weight loss this week. I'm still hovering between 168 and 169, but I'm definitely not lean enough. I'm starting to get the abs to poke through the belly fat a little which is encouraging. The arms still look really soft and there is more belly fat to get off too.

On the up side I'm feeling good about my posing practice. I don't have the endurance for all the mandatories at once yet, but my technique is improving. I'm even narrowing my list of songs to pose to. I'm thinking it will be something by Joe Satriani, but I'm going to go through my Steve Vai collection too.