By: Jonas Talkington

So. An interesting week. Not as hard as I thought it was going to be, in some ways, harder in others. First, let me start off by saying I did almost NO cardio. That’s right, on my off days I didn’t do more than 20 minutes, and on my workout days, not even a second (barring walking up the stairs!).

The reason? I was so sore all week that considering doing cardio made me break out in a nervous sweat.

I worked out 3 times this week. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. On Sunday, I worked out hard, because I was excited. I also found out that I am slightly stronger than I expected. Yippee! I did 3 sets of 8 on everything, the whole week.

Sunday: I was bad, I don’t remember exactly. I was on my own and did Cable Fly’s, Bicep Curls, Deadlifts, Lunges, Shoulder Raises, Tricep Pushdowns and Machine Shoulder Raises. I also did 20 mins on the treadmill, which I think is for the last time, since it killed my ankles.

Monday: Was dying, didn’t do anything

Tuesday: 21 minutes on the bike and I was done.

Wednesday: Cable Fly’s 65lbs, Pull ups (could only do one),Tricep Pushdowns 80lbs, DB curls 35lbs, Free Standing Military Press 110lbs (wooo!), Step Ups, Bear Crawls and a Plank (1.05 minutes). After that I was pretty smoked.

Thursday: Again with the not being able to walk up the stairs.

Friday: Pull ups (2 this time!), Pushups (3×10), One Armed Sitting
Rows 140lbs, Saxon Bends (15 per side with 30 lbs weight), Ball Squats, Crunches (3×15), Straight Bar Bicep Curls 65lbs, Lat. Raises 17lbs per arm.

Saturday: Getting used to it, but sore.

Sunday: Rest day with Galya

For the whole of this week, I tried to drink at least 4 liters of water a day ( I know, I should be drinking double that. Still getting used to it) and to eat four meals a day. I have the breakfast and dinner thing down, the middle ones still bug me sometimes, though. Galya and I have come up with a compromise though. I am taking a can of tuna, or some beefsticks (not like the ones from the gas station ) and cheese, or something similar, and just snacking on it rather than having a whole meal taken with me. Its easy and fits into my schedule.

On the flip side of things, weight that I lost this week: 0lbs. Weight that I gained? 0lbs. I maintained, and I am not sad about it whatsoever. People keep telling me that I am looking much better (even after so short a time!) and I am still getting into the swing of things. I even have a couple of veins out on my forearms. Amazing, to me. It did show me, however, that the cardio is just as important as the working out, and this coming week I will most definitely include it even if I hate it or I feel I am too sore to do it.

Saturday, Galya surprised me with something I forgot. Every 14 days, she and I are going to do refeeds. It was great. I had pizza and ice-cream, chips and ranch dip, and two Arizona Herbal Teas. And, to be honest, while it was wonderful and great, I feel a little guilty about it. Nevertheless, knowing myself as I do, that will be the one thing that keeps me to my diet, simply because I LOVE food, and knowing I have a treat coming up every two weeks will keep me in line and not give me any incentive to cheat. If I lose 10% of my progress to the refeeds…. Well, so what. Better than losing the other 90% because I began to hate what I am doing and had no incentive. The only person I have to beat is…. Me. So, I am happy with the results this week. Next week, I will endeavor to do everything as right as I can. I hope get more results like I did this week and last.

Week 2, here I come.