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Three Months of Weight Loss Almost Over

For the last three months I’ve been doing the Transformation Challenge from Bodybuilding.com and my end date is officially up in two days, April 22, 2011. I didn’t get ripped like the two people in the photo above, but I did see some great progress.

This Friday I’ll be taking my final weigh-in, “after” photos and body measurements for the program and I can’t wait. When I started this program, I put it in my head that I was going to stick with it and work harder than I ever had before.

It was hard, but I did it.

I ate the exact same thing every day during the whole program. I’m no stranger to eating the same meals over and over. I’ve been doing it for years, but I’ve always changed it up every couple of weeks. It really wasn’t that difficult. I like knowing exactly what to buy at the store without a shopping list and knowing what to cook without recipes.

I’ll go into more detail about my nutrition plan when I write my essay for the contest, which I’ll link to here on the site as well.

I think I’ve done quite well for this challenge. I’ve accomplished my goals originally set out when I started the program, so I couldn’t be happier. I’ve actually lost more weight than I wanted to, but I really wanted to stick to the program until the end so I kept going.

I’m super-excited because I plan on bulking up starting next week with a new routine. I’ll also be changing my nutrition plan, but not by much. I’ll just make a few modifications and bump up the calories.

I should have my results from the Transformation Challenge posted sometime this weekend, so check back soon.

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Fitness Articles of the Week #3

Before every weekend I publish a recap of the best health and fitness articles I’ve read over the past week.

Enjoy!

Hurry Up & Grow: 11 Tips For Super-Efficient Workouts

There are some great tips here for getting a good workout in a shorter amount of time. I really like the tip from Heather Rininger about doing 5 minutes of cardio between sets. That would be a killer workout.

Some Long Lasting Fatloss Exercise Myths – Taken Apart!

It’s always good to see articles like this spreading. There is so much bad advice floating around and it’s so hard to separate the facts from the old advice that has been dispelled in the last 5+ years.

Should I Weigh Myself Everyday?

Interesting post with pro’s and con’s to weighing yourself every day. Personally, I like weighing myself daily and marking it down on my workout sheets because I can compare my weight one week to the previous week and see how my weight has changed and if it has had any effect on how much I lifted that day. I do think I’ll be changing to once-a-week weigh-in’s soon though.

The Best Bodyweight Strength Exercises on Earth

These are some great bodyweight exercises to add to your arsenal. I’m mostly adding this one to my list because I want to start doing Handstand Push-Ups.

Carrot Cake Smoothie

This just sounds way too delicious not to mention.

Body Building Grandma Ernestine Shepherd Bench Presses, Runs Marathons At 73

This is amazing. I can only hope I’m in half as good of shape as she is when I’m 73.

Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

I’ll tell you right off the bat that this article is long. It’s six pages long, but it’s absolutely worth the read. This is what anyone who isn’t already a bodybuilder needs to know. Set aside some time and get through this one.

How Your Appetite Affects Your Decisions

Dieting is a big part of many of our lives, but if you’re not eating enough, it could be affecting the decisions you make.

Fitballin’

A whole new use for a fitball at the beach. If you have a gymnastic bone in your body, you’ll love this. I, on the other hand, would break my neck.

How to Make Perfectly Boiled Eggs

Hard-boiled eggs are really easy to make, but I’ve always had a hard time making them perfect. Perfect to me means that the shell comes right off. I suck at that part. Lifehacker linked to the post at the bottom of the article as well as to posts on making perfect fried eggs, scrambled eggs and poached eggs.

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How to Start a Workout Routine and Nutrition Plan

image courtesy of cumi&ciki

The girlfriend of a close friend of mine is always trying new fad diets and workout routines with no success. She has almost zero motivation but she wants to be thin. I can tell you the exact reason for her problems too.

She doesn’t track anything other than her weight.

If I were to give her advice, I’d tell her to write down her body circumference measurements, weight, body fat %, and body water percentage. Then she should set a goal for herself based on improving several of those things.

If you’re in the same boat, which all of us are in the beginning, these are the steps you need to follow.

After taking your measurements, you need to design a workout routine and a meal plan. This isn’t easy. You need to learn about how different types of exercises can help you burn fat and target multiple muscles (compound exercises as composed to isolation exercises. Compound exercises target multiple muscles and are great for anyone trying to build muscle and losing fat. Isolation is usually better left for those who are body building or if you have a problem area you really want to work on.

Then you need to learn about nutrition and how many calories you should be eating per day. Not only that but how much fat is contained in the food you’re eating, as well as carbohydrates, sodium, sugar, and protein. I track this stuff in an Excel spreadsheet. It takes some time to set all of this up, but preparation is key if you want to succeed.

My go-to source for routines and nutrition plans have always been bodybuilding.com. There are tons of success stories on the site too, with complete nutrition plans and routines. You can emulate these to start with.

Plan ahead and don’t stress yourself out trying to put everything together at the last minute. As a matter of fact, I plan on updating my routine and nutrition plan over the next two weeks so that I can transition smoothly.

Track your progress the entire time and you’ll push yourself to meet your goals. Now let’s see if I can get my friends girlfriend on the right track. She’s kinda stubborn so we’ll see 😉

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Fitness Articles of the Week #2

image courtesy of EraPhernalia Vintage

Here are a few articles I found interesting over the past week. Looks like most of it is nutrition related this time around. Lots of good stuff to read over the weekend!

How To Setup a Minimalist Home Gym

If you can’t make it to the gym and don’t have room in your home to set up big workout machines, it’s great to have a few small things on hand to squeeze out a quick workout. While you won’t become a huge bodybuilder with this minimalist gym, you can still build muscle and burn fat in the comfort of your home.

The Other Side Of The Paleo Coin: My Wife’s Perspective On Going Paleo

A very interesting take on the popular Paleo Diet. A coworker of mine just sent me some info about the Paleo diet so this perspective has come at the perfect time, in case I decide to try it out.

Ten of The Best Fat Burning Foods

Not only are the foods in this list healthy, but they also promote fat burning. It’s a win/win!

P90X Extreme Newsletter: Vegetarianism and Garlic Issue

My fiance is vegan so this issue of the P90X newsletter will be very useful. This issue includes a guide to vegetarianism, the pros and cons of becoming a vegetarian and two great recipes – Spinach Salad with Quinoa, Garbanzo Beans, and Paprika Dressing and another recipe for Brown Rice Italiano.

Bike Nutrition: What to Eat Preride

Are you a muffin person or a bagel person? Find out which one is better for you pre-ride and why. I love muffins and bagels, even completely plain. I guess I just like bread in general.

Genetically Modified Cows Produce ‘Human’ Breast Milk

It seems Chinese scientists have found a way to implant genes into cows which allow them to produce milk that closely resembles that of human breast milk. First of all, do people not even care about the unnatural things they do to these poor animals? Second, would you actually consider giving your newborn baby this genetically modified milk? I sure as heck wouldn’t.

5 Meal Ideas to Stay Fuller

When you’re trying to lose weight, it’s important to keep your calorie deficit low, but that’s hard to do when you’re constantly hungry. Food cravings lead to cheating on your diet, so try eating foods that keep you full longer.

Get a How to on the Leg Press

Excellent and quick article on using the best form on the leg press to prevent knee and lower back injuries.

AMC Theaters Raises the Curtain on AMC Smart MovieSnacks

This is awesome! When me and my fiance go to the movies, which is usually about once a month, we never order anything from the theatre because it’s all so unhealthy. The press release states that ALL AMC theatres will now have the deal for only $7. Now I can’t wait to go see another movie!

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Fitness Articles of the Week #1

I read a lot of fitness and health related articles every day and I thought I’d start sharing the ones I find most interesting on my blog. Here are some of my favorites from last week. I’ll try to get these posts out on Friday from now on so that you have time to read them over the weekend. Enjoy!

3 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Lift Wearing Gloves

Great article about why you should stop wearing gloves at the gym. I wear gloves at all times when I’m lifting weights. Maybe I’ll take a week off and see how it feels.

Shakeology 3-Day Cleanse: Everything You Need To Know

A cleanse sounds very interesting, but I always hear conflicting studies about them. This Shakeology cleanse claims to help you lose weight, cleanse the colon and flush out toxins, all while keeping you full. I’m not sure I completely believe it, but it’s interesting and might be worth a shot.

Crossfit Workout of the Day: Balboa

I’m a huge fan of the Workout of the Day (WOD) provided by various Crossfit gyms around the world. I can’t afford a Crossfit membership, so I do them at Bally’s or at home. This one is called the Balboa.

9 Ways To Ruin Your Sleeves

Guys want massive arms. Tony Horton calls them glamour muscles. Check out this great article from Bodybuilding.com on building huge guns.

Kettlebell Circuit to Burn Fat

Kettlebell workouts seem to be all the rage lately and for good reason. They work. Check out this awesome kettleball circuit routine.

Kettlebell Training During Pregnancy

Another awesome kettlebell article about training during pregnancy. Looks like it’s a good idea!

Desk Fitness: A Series of 11 Simple Stretches

I like this one because it’s simple and something I need to include in my day. I sit at a computer for more than 8 hours a day. I should have put together a routine like this for myself a long time ago.

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How to Increase Your Grip Strength During Deadlifts

Friday morning I was doing deadlifts and I was really struggling with my grip. I never realized how weak my grip was until now, so I decided to do a little research over the weekend for some self-help advice. Turns out, I didn’t have to do any research because the perfect article came to me in my RSS reader.

7 Ways to Build Massive Grip Strength for Deadlifts

There are some awesome tips here. Some key take-aways I got from it are:

  • Grip the bar as hard as you can (white knuckling)
  • Use mixed-grip (one hand facing in, one facing out) only on heavy working sets
  • Hold the weight for 5-10 seconds after finishing reps
  • Using straps all the time will leave your grip weak

I never thought about holding the weight at the top of the deadlift to build more grip strength, but it makes a lot of sense. I also use mixed-grip and/or straps for almost all deadlift sets, no matter how light the weight is, so I’ll be stopping that right away.

Deadlifts have always been one of my weaknesses so I think it’s finally time I start working on it.

Different Deadlift Positions

Kyran of fitnesssecret.com also reached out to me with some tips that I wanted to share.

When deadlifting there are a couple of different positions where your hands can be placed on the bar.

First, the regular deadlift position with your hands just outside of your knees.

Second, the sumo deadlift position. In this setup, your feet are a little wider and you grip the bar inside of your knees with your hands about a foot apart. The mixed-grip works well to increase grip strength.

Third, the snatch grip deadlift position. This requires your hands to be a lot wider and you should usually aim to have your index fingers on the guide rings of the barbell.

Some of these deadlift variations are easier to grip the bar and require less grip strength. Depending on which variation you are working on, you may need to put more or less attention on building your grip strength.

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Starting My Ninth Week of the Transformation Challenge

I just put up another status update over at bodybuilding.com about my progress over the last week if you’d like to read it. Basically, I’m doing pretty good. I didn’t really lose any weight this past week, but I also haven’t taken any body measurements, so it’s really hard for me to determine if I’ve put on muscle instead. I really need to buy one of those one-handed tape measures so I can track that better.

Another great benchmark is that I’ve finally hit 16% bodyfat, which was my original goal when starting the challenge. I hope to come somewhere near 9% before the end of the year. It’s been tough so far just to get to 16 so we’ll see how that goes.

Well, I’m off to Boulder to try some vegan food at VG Burgers with my vegan fiance. 😀

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Tracking My Progress in Dropping Fat and Building Muscle

Back in January I entered a Bodybuilding.com contest called the Transformation Challenge. There’s really no chance of me winning because I don’t want to make as drastic changes to my body like many of the other contestants, but I entered because it would help me to hold myself accountable.

With everyone being able to see my progress, I have to see progress every week so it makes me try that much harder. I’ve been seeing great progress so far too.

My original goal is to drop to 16% body fat. I’m around 17-18% right now, so I’m not too far away. Then I hope to get to 9%.

Anyway, I’ve been making weekly progress updates on a “Bodyblog” I set up on the bodybuilding.com website and thought it could be useful to some of you. You should sign up too and start tracking your progress.

You might find my latest post interesting. It’s titled “Fell Off The Wagon But Still Seeing Progress.” Add me as a friend if you sign up for an account. 😀

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Finally Getting to Ride My Bike to Work Again

I lifted weights yesterday so today is my cardio day. I had originally planned to go to the gym and do 45 minutes on the stationary bike, but when I let the dogs out to go pee at about 5am, I realized that the weather was pretty good. It was about 50 degrees, so I said screw the gym.

I packed my backpack with clothes so that I could take a shower and change when I got to work and I also stuffed in my laptop and my lunch. It ended up being pretty heavy. So heavy that it was really starting to hurt my back, so I stopped twice on my ride for a couple of minutes each time to give my lower back a break. Before the spring season I’m going to buy one of those bike racks that go above the rear wheel and some saddle bags to sit on it so that I have don’t have to deal with that again.

It took me way longer than usual. Before winter I was getting to work (about 12.5 miles) in about 30-40 minutes at around 18-22 mph average. Today it took me about an hour and I was averaging around 12-14 mph.

Anyway, it was a great ride. Such a nice, warm morning and the South Platte River trail was beautiful. 😀

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Most of the World is Fat – See the BMI World Map

Did you read my post a couple days ago about what body mass index is and how to calculate your own BMI? Basically, your BMI number can tell you if you’re underweight, normal, overweight or obese.

I came across this interesting visualization of BMI by country and wanted to share it. I’m not surprised to see that the U.S. is in the overweight category, but It’s interesting to see that most of the world is also generally overweight. A large portion of Asia and Africa are considered normal and Egypt and Kuwait are generally obese.

If you want to see more detailed information check out the interactive map.