i can see the bloat in this picture and i’m not liking it. i am also running out of hats.

Let me start this off by saying I was in no mood to take my pictures this week. I actually stated it out loud to a couple of people. Someone’s response was “Isn’t this the time you really need this thing most?” Yeah, good point. But here’s a question: why can I see muscles while I’m working them, but not just when I stand there in these ridiculous pictures each week? Frustration sets in.

This last week felt pretty hectic. I was tired from a lot of running around I had to do, and because I would be out of town for a couple days, I crammed all four of my weight sessions in – four days straight. Stupid? Maybe. But I wanted to make sure I got them in, and knew if I didn’t the week or weekend would go by and I would regret it. I even bumped my normal Saturday CP session to Thursday. And though I don’t feel my new program is any sort of killer, I was still a little sore, it being my first week and all. My upper body was incredibly tired around mid-week. I did bump my numbers up across the board on my CP day though, which made me happy. I think I need to do more cardio. I’m definitely not getting any of that in these past couple weeks.

My eating wasn’t as on point as last week, but it still wasn’t BAD. I probably had more wine than I have in a while and than I should’ve. Not sure why, but I got word that my PB2 order is apparently out of stock and won’t ship until at least the end of March. THE END OF MARCH?! Have you not read how much I love peanut butter? Killing me.

As always, here’s hoping it’s a better week for everyone!

Tim:

Hey Everyone,

Ok, so today I am sitting here writing this feeling like I am totally out of gas. My body feels like it is just plain broken, which isn’t good because I can tell the reason. Until the last year or so when I started paying more attention to fitness, nutrition, etc., I never really noticed how clearly my body would tell me if I was not treating it right.

This week I only got into the gym twice, and to make up for the missed sessions I did 2 days worth of workouts in each session. Mistake # 1. I ate pretty well, not as much in a deficit as I would have liked, but healthier than before I started blogging. I did cave in to temptation a couple of times though, once when my fiancé made one of her famous casseroles, and the other when a piece of cheesecake was calling my name when out to eat with my folks. Mistake # 2. It was remarkable to me how my body felt so completely miserable after consuming the fats in the casserole and the sugar and other nasty-goodness in that cheesecake. It was plain as day. I started my nutrition for this week out right today, and will be staying on the course better this week after my experiences last week.

As far as motivation was concerned, my slacking in the gym wasn’t really anything to do with not wanting to work out, I was just so completely focused on getting several things done at work that I burned up the time I would have spent in the gym on getting other things done at work. I am thinking about switching back to morning workouts just to make sure I get them done, which I haven’t done since the first part of January. It’s hard to work out at beginning of shift for me because I feel like I am so much more focused and sharp mentally in the morning, and I feel like I lose some of that sharpness after my workout.

I am including a “flex” picture this week with my others for one reason. Part of why I have been doing all this was to increase my strength and to help “the guns” as they were called on the “What’s Up Kev” I listened to yesterday. Even though I haven’t been doing anything specifically to target my biceps, I have noticed definite growth (or definition at the very least) since January, and I want to track that as well in the photos. To me my arms as a whole have really improved, and I would like to see how much when this is over.

Keep up the hard work everyone.

Thanks for reading.

DW

Courtney:

I really should start writing these before I am desperate to go to bedon Monday nights. I survived this week with no weight gain and I call that a success. So as some background I currently work full time and am taking a full graduate course load. The last few weeks of the quarter are HELL for me. Usually I gain 5+ lbs, this time? I’ve lost a bit. Not a lot, not like I was before, but it’s still going down despite my stress levels being somewhere up around “shoot me”. I have a hard goal this month of losing 10lbs now that I’ll be done with my major school stuff on Wednesday. I’m meeting the boy’s mother the first weekend of April and am determined to meet this goal before then. I’m drawing up a food plan and have a really good workout from my trainer to keep me interested at the gym (that and a couple of really excellent audiobooks on my iPod).

Part of my strategy for this past week was to make a BIG pot of veggie soup on Monday and then have it for dinners most nights. This saved me
from my usual tactic of pizza. I managed to drag myself to the gym three times and had an AMAZING workout with my trainer. Unfortunately I’m starting to have some trouble with my rotator cuff in the shoulder where I had my AC joint surgery so I need to head back to my physical therapist and see what we can do about that before permanent damage happens. Good advice on the show this week to the swimmer, guys. I wish that someone had given me that kind of advice when I was his age and saved me the trouble of my shoulders being wrecked.

Oh, for grins I included a picture of wrecked Courtney. Once I’ve met my goal I’ll send an update with happy, rested, successful Courtney. She looks much happier.

Larry:

For me, this last week counted as my week four of my twelve week program. I must admit that when I signed up for this Accountability challenge, I thought I had my workout and nutrition, pretty well dialed in, guess what . . . NOT! Although I managed to lose over 50+ pounds over a six month period of time last year, after a couple month RE-FEED, putting back on some fat and some muscle, it has really taken me more than the last three weeks to finally feel comfortable with my weight & cardio routine, and my updated “meal plan”. This last week I was 100% compliant with my training, without injury or major strain, and my food finally felt right and my energy level has returned!

Nutrition:

The routine I have fallen into is three low calorie days followed by a higher calorie day, looks like 1700-1800 daily then a 2000 calorie day. The higher day is usually met by just having an additional carb serving with my dinner, a cup of rice, potato, or pasta. I have also incorporated a 24 hour fast day following my higher calorie day, and even with a weight workout during, does not seem to be a problem. Although losing weight and building muscle seems like a daunting task, this week I am finally beginning to see some results. I am actually feeling lighter and have begun to see some definition progress in shoulders and arms. My gut and love handles will likely be the last to improve, the photos don’t lie.

Fitness:

Nothing magical on my workout, still following the Tom Venuto TNB Workout, with dips and some of the shoulder work removed. Instead of chin-ups, I use resistance bands and my weights are not anything close to my high weight lifts of my youth. I tend to use higher rep sets with weights that still allow me to recover in a day or so. Perhaps the thing that messes me up more than anything is LUNGES, as my balance is very slowly improving and the strain on my thighs still leaves me with DOMS on a regular basis as I try to get my body lower on each workout. For cardio, I am lucky to have a treadmill in my home so I have been increasing the speed by 1/10 mph per week and hope to add back in HIIT within a couple of weeks. Hoping the nicer weather lets me jog outside soon.

Everybody hang in there!

Craig:

This week wasn’t that great. I lost 1lb and the only way that can happen is if of course I didn’t do everything I was supposed to. I sliced the bottom of my foot and ended up having to miss a training session and I indulged on some Chinese food as well. I did feel good during the rest of my training sessions and almost watched a guy kill himself. A guy came in and decided to start off squatting 275lb and I saw him pull a 1/16 rep with shaking kneeing and rack it. Then I saw him put MORE weight on the bar and I couldn’t help but wonder “wtf is going on!” Of course one of the trainers also saw what I did and went over and talked to him. Crisis averted. This post won’t be that long, but I do feel that I could do much better in the gym. I want to come out dying, not in a bad way, but knowing I put in everything I’ve got. I’m not fortunate enough to have an awesome training environment so it’s all on me to push myself.

By the way check out this pic of Eric Cressey deadlifting from this recent MH blog. http://rodale.typepad.com/.a/6a00e54f86af56883301310f4ef69d970c-pi If that doesn’t get you hyped up I dunno what does.