Alright guys, I have four weeks until my cruise. Here are my goals -

Gain at least 5 pounds (hopefully mostly muscle) - I'll be weighing in this afternoon at the gym.
Eat better - I often skip meals while at work - no excuses this month
Sleep more - this will require me to be more efficient in my posts for Nerd Fitness, as I often stay up too late writing them.

I could be traveling some during these next few weeks, but I want this challenge to be my motivation to exercise even when traveling.

-Steve

March 1st - First Morning. Woohoo!

Alright, measurements:
Body Fat percentage according to my caliper - 5-6%
Waist at belly button - 30.5 inches
Right Thigh circumference - 19.75 inches
Left arm (when extended) - 11 inches
Chest Circumference - 38 inches
Weight - will check at gym tonight.

Let's do this!

-S

Hey, can I borrow your calipers at next convenient opportunity?

Yeah, sure thing. Have a handy tape measure thingy too. You coming over to watch teh Vandy game tomorrow? You can borrow then.

-Steve

March 1

Workout
weight at start of workout (8:30pm) - 159 pounds - booooooo

6 minutes of warm up on rowing machine
Some quick leg stretches to get warmed up

I'll be listing all workouts like this:
number of sets x number of reps for that set x amount of weight.

SQUATS
2x5x45
1x5x70
1x3x110
1x2x145
2x3x185 (was supposed to do 3x5x185...just didn't have the strength to do it)
1x5x135

Just ran out of steam...taking a week off and not eating right, plus being kind of sick REALLY didn't help me here.

OVERHEAD PRESS
2x5x45
1x5x65
1x3x80
1x2x100
2x3x120 (same thing, ran out of steam so I couldn't do 3x5x120)
1x5x95

CLOSE GRIP CHIN UPS (60 sec rest between sets)
10 reps
9.5 reps
6 reps

OVERHEAD ROPE TRICEPS EXTENSION (60 sec rest between sets)
3x12x50

DUMBBELL BICEP CURLS (60 sec rest between sets)
1x12x20's
2x8x25's

10 minutes of stretching

DIET
Today I ate decently. Would have liked to get some more calories in there, but I'll take it

Breakfast was my BIG ASS SHAKE (1 cup of OJ, 1 scoop of 100% whey protein, 1.5 cups of oatmeal, 1 cup of frozen mixed berries, a handful of frozen spinach)

Snack was two PB sandwiches (natural organic PB on flaxseed bread) and a tall glass of whole milk

Lunch was a chicken quesadilla from Moes (just eating the parts of it with the chicken...and not eating the chips they give)

Muching on Almonds all day long

After workout, another BIG ASS SHAKE

and now time for bed, so i can get my 8-9 hours of sleep!

Day 1 = success.

-Steve

Hey man,
Where is a good place to buy some calipers on the cheap?

Hey Don,

The accu-measure is the kind that I use, and for how cheap it is, it's extremely accurate.

-S

I got my accumeasure's on ebay for $7, quite a discount compared to the $20 GNC wanted for them.

Yeah, I'll be there tonight.

DAY 2 - March 2nd

Didn't get as much sleep as I would have liked last night, but I got enough - about 7.5 hours. Would love to stay in the 8-9 range though.

Breakfast was a BAS (Big-Ass Shake, see Day 1)

Got stuck at the office due to a busy schedule (we launched a new event today [url]PerfectoAtSea.com[/url]), so the office ordered pizza. I had one slice of pizza, and the continued chomping away on almonds. I had two PB sandwiches (organic PB on flaxseed bread) with a glass of whole milk for a snack.

When I got home from work, I started cooking dinner, and got the laundry going, then started watching the Vandy-UF game (GO VANDY!).

Dinner was: 3 grilled chicken tenderloins, cooked in the oven with garlic powder and some pepper. One bag (two servings) of steamed brown rice, and a bunch of asparagus. This is my go-to meal, so expect to see this a lot on here.

I cooked two of everything by the way for this, so this will be my lunch tomorrow as well.

Because I'm trying to bulk up, I went with another big-ass shake tonight.

I'll probably spend 3 weeks in this bulk phase, and then cut back on the brown rice and oats and go more paleo for that last week to get cut.

I desperately want to watch Lost right now...but I'm going to go to bed to make sure I get enough sleep! Back to the gym tomorrow.

-Steve

You have more will power than I do. There was one season when Lost was on at 11PM my local time, so I had to stay up till midnight to watch it. It was hard, but I only missed it once. It's a little sad how obsessed with Lost I am

DAY 3

WORKOUT

Warm-up: Jumping Jacks, Burpees, Leg exercises to open up my hips, get me warmed up

Lunges - The third number is the weight of the dumbbells held in each hand as I did them. The middle number is reps, and that's per leg.
1x12x40s
1x10x45s
1x8x50s

Incline Dumbbell Press
1x12x60s
1x8x60s
1x8x60s

my arms and chest were still cooked from the overhead press from Monday, but I got through it okay

Power Cleans
1x8x45
1x8x65
1x8x75
2x8x95

Still perfecting my form on these.

Weight at the gym (weighed in at 7:00ish) - 162 pounds (+3 pounds since Monday)

Food today

Big ass shake for breakfast
2 PB sandwiches with Milk for Snack
Chicken, Brown Rice, and Asparagus for dinner
Half a bag of almonds throughout the day
Another big ass shake after my workout.

Just posted the NF post for tomorrow right now, so I'm definitely not getting enough sleep for tomorrow morning. Oh well, I have Friday off from work, so I'll sleep tomorrow night!

Day 3 = Success!

-Steve

Nice job Steve!

I like that we both overhead press more than we clean. That's not normal.

For me, the hardest part of cleans is whipping my wrists underneath the bar after the shrug. Well, that and not clocking myself in the chin or throat with the bar. How's your form coming along?

Also, doing lunges with two 50lb dumbbells is flipping sweet! Way to be a tank!

Yeah, I could definitely go more on the cleans...I just don't feel 100% confident in my form yet to do it. I'm getting there though; going to reread that chapter on Starting Strength again.

As for the dumbbells, yeah...I did feel like a baller doing 50 lbs there...but good lord my legs were wobbling by that 8th rep on the last set.

And I can't walk straight today. hahaha

-Steve

DAY 4 = success!

Alrighty!

Definitely not enough sleep last night, but that's to be expected on the night before an article goes live because I am the worst (or best) procrastinator out there, and I decided to completely change the direction of my article last night around 11.

Today, Big Ass Shake for breakfast
munching on almonds all day long
Lunch was chicken, brown rice, and an apple - with a tall glass of whole milk
dinner was a burger with cheddar cheese and two Stellas.
nothing after dinner, as I knew it wasn't the healthiest thing - but I'm glad I went. That was the first time in probably 6 months I've done something after work other than "go home and work on Nerd FItness or go to the gym," and it felt good to grab some food with friends.

No work tomorrow, and I'll be out of town for the weekend, but I'll still be updating my challenge when possible. Headed to the gym tomorrow morning!

-Steve

Hey All!

So I apologize for the lack of updates, I was up at a cabin in the woods this weekend without the chance to update.

However!

Friday, I still went to the gym, and tried to do the Nerd Fitness advanced bodyweight circuit, except that my body was so cooked from Monday and Wednesday's workout that I couldn't even get through all three circuits. That's okay though, I got through two, and then made sure I ate enough afterwards to build some muscle.

To make sure I ate enough good food up at the cabin, I brought a blender and all the necessary ingredients to make my big ass shakes while up there. Sure I got some funny looks, but I also got done what I needed to to get through this 28 day challenge.

Today hasn't been great food-wise, had a shake this morning and a little bit of food, I just have no appetite. Hopefully tonight will be better, and back at it tomorrow.

-Steve

Sorry for the no update yesterday, spent my afternoon and evening getting all caught up on my Nerd Fitness emails.

Sleep has been a problem lately, but I'm really working on it.

Yesterday's food included two big-ass shakes, a pb sandwich, and half of a chicken parm piadina from little azio. Not a great day of eating, but I had a pretty terrible monday so that was to be expected.

I did drag my butt to the gym though, and put up more weight than I have in the past...but at lesser reps. Had my angry music on too (like referenced in the article on NF from yesterday).

Weight = 159 (which was expected, didn't eat enough over the weekend and definitely didn't eat enough today).

Warmup = 6 minutes on the rowing machine

Squats
2x5x45
1x5x95
1x5x135
2x4x185
1x10x135

Bench Press
2x5x45
1x5x95
1x5x135
3x4x185

Weighted Chin Ups
1x5x(+30)
2x5x(+35)

Stretching.

Kind of a crappy day for me, but I needed to get through it, and I did.

Moving on to Tuesday!

-Steve

Tuesday!

Big ass shake for breakfast - I ran out of frozen strawberries, and I only had a handful of frozen mixed berries left, so my shake kind of sucked.
I had two PB sandwiches on Flaxseed bread with a big glass of milk for snack
And then a Chicken Quesadilla from Willys for lunch. (I know, not good for me...didn't get to cook lunch the day before).
Dinner was grilled chicken, brown rice, and asparagus with another big glass of milk.

Went to bed at 11:30 last night, but had to get up much earlier than normal to finish up some work for both NF and Sixthman, I'm headed to a concert tonight so I wanted to get my Thursday Post done early.

Got my ass out of bed at 7AM this morning and went to the gym...had a pretty bad session, very tired, it was raining out, my car is running out of gas, I was cold, my feet got wet in my Vibrams, but damnit I got through it.

6 Minutes on the Rowing Machine

Romanian Deadlifts
1x12x135
1x8x185
1x8x185

Overhead Press
1x12x65
1x10x75
1x8x80
1x6x85
1x12x65

Stretching

Had to leave early, because I had to be at work on time this morning. Big ass shake for breakfast...back on the muscle-building train.

-steve

That totally bites that you had a shitty start this morning. But your workout for today is done and out of the way-woohoo(Y)
I absolutely hate it if i'm wet and cold, and to top it off working out so early, i'm surprised you aren't using words with $#!! in them.
How often do you post on Nerd fitness? I hope it's not cutting into your personal time, we love what you do and appreciate it, but you come first in your life!
Also- my parents have this bizarre notion that if I eat almonds daily , I will get smarter.
I know it's a good source of protein, but about 10 almonds (unpeeled and soaked in water over night), are they too many calories and bad for weight loss? How many would you say count as a serving of protein?

Almonds are paleo super food!
My friends and I determined almonds : paleo :: soy : vegetarian

They're a decent source of protein, but also high in healthy fats.
According to MDA's post on Almonds, they have:
- 7.62 grams of protein per quarter cup serving, compared to just 5.5 grams for the average egg
- excellent source of manganese, potassium, copper and vitamin E
- hefty dose of heart healthy monounsaturated fats

They are quite caloric, but I'm actually in the unique position of trying to put on weight and build muscle, so I need to eat more calories than I burn every day to make that happen.

Yes, I know I'm lucky blah blah blah...well just remember that it's as hard for me to gain weight as it is for you to lose weight...we're both after the same thing, just coming at it from different angles

-Steve

Hey Steve.

What book are you referring to above??

Thanks!

Neil

Starting Strength, by Mark Rippetoe - pretty much the guy to learn from when it comes to barbell and strength training.

-Steve

Today has been a good day so far -

Big Ass Shake for Breakfast
Almonds and Milk for Snack
Milk and 2 PB Sandwiches for 2nd Snack
Chicken, Brown Rice, and Asparagus for Late Lunch
More almonds!

still not eating enough calories I think, but I'm getting there.

-Steve