Day 90

So this is the beginning of my life without PCP, and while it is a little daunting not having my meals laid out to the gram, not knowing exactly what exercises to do each day, I know that what I learned in the last 90 days are going to help me continue to live healthy and stay in shape for a long time to come.   A couple posts ago I put up some thoughts on PCP and I think unlike previous posts, today I am just going to leave it to a few words.

First, to the guys on Team Orange Crush,  I thought at least one of us wouldn't make it, or a few would slack off, or that the results wouldn't be what we all were looking for, but I was wrong on all counts and it's been great getting in shape with you, the blogs, the support, it all worked, and we all look great and couldn't have done it alone, so thanks for everything.

Next to Patrick, thank you!  This program is life changing, and that is as true a statement as it may be  cliche,  but my life is not the same as it was 90 days ago, I know how to eat well and eat healthy, I know how to exercise efficiently, and I know that these are things that will forever shape the course of my life going forward.  It's an amazing program you have designed and despite my occasional whining (Boiled eggs are still gross) was a pleasure doing this with you.

To those thinking about doing PCP, go back and read people's blogs, it isn't easy, at times it is down right hard, and shouldn't be done on a whim.  Don't read the last few days of posts by people are start thinking, "jeez, sounds like a cult, what a bunch of weirdos".   That sort of thinking means you should probably redirect your browser to www.peopleofwalmart.com, look for your friends, grab another bag of Cheetos and rewatch My Name is Earl for the 30th time.   Ok, that is a bit harsh, but understand, if you do this, it IS your life for the next 90 days, and it will consume you to an extent, not in a bad way, but be prepared to jump in 110% or you won't make it thru.    Bottom line though,if you give it your all, you will come away a different person, literally and figuratively.


And to my abs...

   We've worked pretty hard the last 3 months, and sure it's a bit scary coming out into the world from behind that visceral fat for the first time in over a decade, but get the hell out here already, what are you WAITING for!?   One way or the other, you're coming out, so I suggest you make it easy on yourself and just do it all ready, cause I will v-sit your ass all day long if I have, but we WILL be bouncing quarters off you by spring dammit!!  14.5% body fat or bust...

Lastly...I'll be jumping rope tomorrow, and the next day, and the next, and the next......



Before -                                                                                            After
76.2 KG, 32.5in waist                                                                     69.9KG, 30in waist























Back - So Gross                                                                Back - Not so Gross

















In Full Color

And one of the many pairs of pants that will be donated to a bigger man than I...w/ obligatory retarded pose.

Day 85...some observations

Here we are with 5 days to go and I just have a few observations that I want to blog about

Workouts:  The first set has gotten easy, the last set, super hard.   When we started I struggled thru all the sets, but could generally do all prescribed reps with reasonable form.  Somewhere around the middle all the sets were tough, and I whimpered across the finish line with atrocious form if I even made it to the finish line.  Now the first set of any exercise...it's a breeze, some times the 2nd set is just as easy, I start wondering if I should do more than the max, then the 3rd and 4th sets start to wear me down while the 5th and 6th sets are killers.   I think this means my muscles are 1) stronger and 2) getting worn the hell out...both of which are awesome. 

Food:  I can see how I am going to sustain this for the rest of my life, I can use honey over sugar any time now, I love the fruit snacks, I don't even mind a glass of milk with a raw egg in the morning and evening. I don't miss big carbo overloads, I don't miss sweets or even deep fried animal parts.  Sure I miss booze and I'll be drinking that again, and I won't be counting every gram, and I will be eating out again, but I see now how this is sustainable with just a little bit on conscious effort, and that is awesome

Body Temp:  I'm cold...often.  It's winter of course, but I used to be sweating under all the blankets at night even in the dead of winter, now I am freezing if I don't cover up.  My extremities in particular get cold easy, and they take a while to warm up....have you looked at your fingers closely?  Mine are a lot thinner than when we started, and I think the loss of body fat is definitely playing a part in my body being cold more often than not...and that is not so awesome on the cold thing, but awesome on the body fat being down side

Health:  5 days left so I don't want to jinx anything, but I have been pretty energized the last 90 days, I am sleeping better, I've stopped snoring, headaches I used to get 1-2x a week, I don't get any more, that awful pain in my upper back right below my neck from sitting and staring at a computer 10hrs a day is gone, it hasn't bothered me in almost 2 months now, I didn't get sick even when those around me were battling colds.  I don't think I have had three months of such consistent good health in a long long time, and that is awesome    Going to get a yearly physical on Day 91 and see what the internal parts are doing, very curious to see what my cholesterol looks like. 

Metabolism:  This is my suspicion and not based in anything factual, but I am hungry about every 90-120mins after I feel full.  Sometimes the meals are too much, I trim the carbs, or maybe force down a couple bites which I won't do when we are done, but trying to stick to it 100% until the end.  But even when that last bite feels like a rock going down, within a short period of time I want something to eat...so I have to chalk that up to my metabolism working a lot faster than it used to.

Body:   The abs are a sort of 4 pack now with the right flex and light, not exactly what I want but certainly better than it has been since I turned 25, my shoulders and upper body is lean and fit, it is hard to miss the definition in my back now, the difference between day 1 and day 85 is most noticeable there.    My legs are an area I never worked out, call it vanity, or that I thought I got enough of a workout with some exercise bike work to warm up and walking a lot, but the jump rope and leg exercises have shown me that even a dude with skinny legs can get them in a good shape and add a lot of muscle, it's my least favorite area to work on, but one that I intend to keep improving when this ends.

All of you on PCP with me: we are almost all done and everyone is still here, and everyone looks great, and the blogs worked, the support system worked, the program worked, and while most of you are still have faces only a mother could love, it matters less now cause your bodies look awesome.

Patrick:  In a word....Awesome.

The Gym....

Since I have been going to a gym near the office to do my workouts at lunch, the homework assignment from Patrick was pretty simple.  In fact long before he asked us to blog about what we see at the gym, I have been noticing more and more the stark contrast in training styles, the people who really seem to know what they are doing versus the ones who are winging it, or seem to think that just going to the gym, regardless of what you do there, is going to get you into better shape.    I definitely get a lot of looks at the gym when I exercise, I think that is more a factor of me being the only person there who jumps rope, uses resistance bands, and doesn't use any of the machines than anything else.   No one has come up and asked me what training program I am on, but I probably don't look terribly approachable when I am grunting thru my reps. 

I don't want to be too critical of the people at the gym but what I notice a lot of is people taking long breaks between reps, or doing some sort of circuit training but each exercise focuses on a different muscle group and by the time they get back to the same group it has been 5-7mins.  The guys that do a set then walk around for a couple minutes, looking at themselves in the mirror, talking to people.  Then there is the guy who just does one set of each exercise, maxes out and moves on.   There are the speed walkers on the treadmill who then do a dozen situps or so when finished and that is that.   There are the people who never work out their legs, you see them focus solely on upper body and even then it is mostly upper upper body, ie chest and biceps.   There is the person who doesn't seem to know what the hell they are doing, curls with their elbows flying away from their sides, I am just waiting for them to throw their back out.  Then there are the guys who are just spazes, am sure you know the type.   There is the yoga crew, the stretchers who then do a bit of time on the treadmill, there is the guy who does spastic pull ups, I am not sure what muscle group he is trying to work there.   Then there are the couple guys and girls who are in shape, they are obviously on a training program or have learned how to do things properly, they work efficiently, they actually take a lot of notes, or check their notes, they do some similar exercises as PCPers, V-sits, Planks, Kung-fu sit ups, they do a couple different exercises for each muscle group and multiple sets.   Finally there are the roid users, well, maybe they aren't REALLY using roids, but they might very well someday.  They do only free weights, no cardio, they are big, but have a belly in some cases, they grunt and pant and make the most noise, they have end of summer tans in the winter, they wear muscle tees and flex too much and like to wear spandex shorts which frankly should not be allowed.  

You can really see the people wasting their time vs those who are getting some benefit, I have seen the same people there each and every lunch time for the last 3m, and in at LEAST 60% of the cases, they haven't changed a bit in 3 months of working out 4-5x a week.   I thought about posting a flyer for PCP the other day...

One week to go...

Indulgence

As per my plan I opted to go for the indulgence when the mood hit me, which was last night...after a long day at the office, I just couldn't be bothered to go home and cook a meal, so I hit the burrito place I used to go to twice a week before this all started, and then to really throw a load of crap into my system I grabbed some fries from McDonald's.  Now I didn't go completely nuts since I had the fries unsalted and didn't use any ketchup, I also opted out of rice and sour cream in the burrito and asked them to go light on the cheese.   In the end, I will admit that the food was a bit of a let down, it tasted fine, I can't even say that it tasted how I remember it, cause it didn't, it just tasted ok, I didn't sit there eating it and thinking, "wow, THIS is what I have been missing!"  In fact the smell of the fries was far more alluring than actually eating them.  What was however NOT a letdown...the convenience, and not having to cook a meal for once.   Being able to just come home, sit down and relax and have a meal ready for me was the real indulgence in all of this.   I swear if I am ever filthy rich, I am going to have a personal chef before I get any other unnecessary toys...outside of a fur-lined sink of course.  

Workouts are tough, and I am still really annoyed at the lack of definition in the abs, I am working on getting the new 4 egg per day allotment in, which is a real killer for me, but I am trying.   I actually am very happy to drink the eggs raw with a little milk when that option is available, far better than boiled in my opinion.    I can see the muscles in my shoulders, back, arms, even legs are getting defined, but the abs, I have like a semi two pack up at the top, but the middle two are barely noticeable, and the lower two seem to be hidden still under a layer of visceral fat that just won't go away.   According to the overpriced scale I still haven't learned to use properly, my body fat is about 16.5%-17% depending on the day, down from the 21% or so when I started, but nowhere near the sub 15% that was my goal.   I am starting to put back on a little weight, which I assume is muscle mass, after bottoming around 69.7KG about 2 weeks ago, I am close to 71KG now.   Would just like to see those abs a bit more and not sure what I can do but stay the course for now, am sore pretty much regularly around the midriff and have been trying to do all exercises to failure or the max reps/sets of each.    I know this is being a bit picky and the Day 1 vs Day 72 photos show the obvious progress I have made in less than 3 months and that's awesome, but I still want just a bit more before this is all over.   With 12 days to go, want to push hard over the finish line and bounce some quarters off my six pack when it's done.

Less than 2 weeks to go...

Home stretch, yesterday I nearly bested the pull ups, doing 5 sets of 8 before failing at 6 on the final set, before this is over, I am going to get thru 6 sets of 8.  Kung fu sit ups are tough on the shoulders more than anything, I have trouble by the last two sets because of the pain from hanging, but can usually manage to finish them all.   I am trying to go to failure in all exercises now, some days it means adding more in the final set, other days it happens before I get to the final set.  Jump rope is testing my ADD, I get bored with the longer sets more than I get tired by them, same reason I have always hated running, sheer boredom, I don't feel that runners high, so every minute is just annoying and I can't wait to finish.  I think the jumprope length is about the most I can stomach, but certainly a maintainable level.  I've tried to do some tricks, but realized quickly that 1) I don't know any and 2) I am not that coordinated.  So I went with seeing how many jumps I can do in a minute, record so far is 177, I am gonna try for 200 by the end of this thing.   I can really feel the full body work out when I go for speed, have to tense the upper body to get the speed up, it's tough, probably makes the 6-7min set a bit tougher than if I just went at a steady pace the whole time, when I am done, my pecks and arms are sometimes sore.  Maybe I need to relax...

Food is good, getting to actually be a bit much at times, but I have been finding a few restaurants that are able to do PCP friendly dinners, Yakitori seems the best, just grilled meat and veg, wasabi and Ume, nothing else.  I will not miss the endless prep of making all my meals all the time, but I have found that you can have some pretty good stuff that is very PCP friendly and that certainly a healthy balance of homemade meals and eating out is doable in perpetuity.   

Indulgence this week, though I am trying to think long and hard about what I really want to eat or drink and nothing, NOTHING, is coming to me.  I don't crave anything when I think about it...I do however crave things when I see them, so maybe for this indulgence I am not going to plan anything, and some time in the next few days I'll see if the mood strikes me and just go with it.  I would like to wait until next Tuesday night, get a burrito and some McDonald's fries, a beer and watch the Patriots play the Jets in Monday Night Football, but that would be day 84 and past the deadline for indulgences, and if the Pats don't win, would ruin the meal for me anyway. 

Day 77...wow. 

PCPizza

Made pizza last night.  Whole wheat crust, no salt, homemade sauce with PCP approved spices, grilled chicken, veggies, one was asparagus, broccoli, mushrooms, onions, and basil, the other was cilantro, bell peppers, mushrooms, onions, and red chili peppers with a bit of lime after baked.   All in all was pretty good, put a tiny bit of cheese on it, but just enough to taste.  The dough was pretty good, a bit heavy vs white flour I guess, still would recommend it if you have time, takes about 15-20mins to cut the stuff and make the dough, then about 25mins to cook in the oven....looks like this...

Day 72, Happy Thanksgiving

After lunch today I will have eaten the exact same thing 7 times in a row now.  Brown rice, grilled vegetables, and grilled chicken.  I marinated the chicken in the yogurt mix again and threw in a couple habaneros, damn spicy.   I am not sure what this says, either I am getting less creative or lazy, or just tired, I don't even really think about the taste, I just eat it at each meal and go on with the day.   Am not really craving anything to be honest, not saying this to complain, just stating what has been going on with my diet.  What has NOT been going on with my diet is all the eggs.  I have taken to milk and a raw egg white when I first wake up eating breakfast (no milk) about 90mins later.  Then I have fruit, no egg for the AM snack.  I am choking down an egg white in boiled form after the workouts, but can't bring myself to eat another in the afternoon snack.  So am getting 2 out of the 3 required eggs...and trying to have a tiny bit more protein to make up the difference, I just can not get anymore down.  Actually like the milk and raw egg best, don't even taste it, but not doable at the office.   Hope that the egg white I miss isn't killing my muscle growth.   Has anyone got a substitute?  

Workouts are going all right, I get to failure pretty quick on some exercises, while others I add a few reps at the end.  Plank is now my most hated exercise, I haven't completely conquered pull ups but I can do a lot more than when we started.  Shoulders are still the most difficult area for me to do all the reps, I reach failure pretty quick, whereas biceps seem to be the region I have to add reps to get to failure (though today I upped the resistance band and it wore me out).   Workouts still take less than 50mins with the jump rope, and if there are no legs on a given day and my jump rope goes smooth, I can usually get done in about 40-45mins.  I don't think I am waiting as long as I should between sets and wonder if this is a bad thing.  I definitely don't wait much at all between exercises.  I almost challenge myself to get it done as quickly as possible. 

I really need some new clothes, I cut 2" off my belt the other day and it is still big on me, and my pants are starting to look retarded, which isn't what you want when you already look retarded regardless of your clothes being ill fitted or not.  And what the hell is with the lack of tapered sweaters and stuff in this country, my shoulders vs mid riff ratio doesn't work if stuff is cut straight down now, the shoulders fit and then it looks ridiculous around my stomach area, two sizes too big.   Looks like a post PCP shopping spree is in order, but will probably wait till early 2011 just to see how my PCP body holds up in the end.

After tomorrow, less than 2 1/2 weeks to go.