TheDarwinFish - Phase 2

thedarwinfish

thedarwinfish

New member
I've closed . I'd met my goal that I had in mind when I started it and I'd also strayed well off my path near the end. By stray I mean I was just lacking the diligence and dedication I had at the onset. Diet suffered slightly, but not tremendously.

So today I'm over 50 lbs lighter than I was at my heaviest and about 45 lbs lighter than when I began the above diary.

Now begins phase 2. What's phase 2? Hell if I know. I'm kind of in limbo about that right now. I estimate that I'm currently sitting at around 20% body fat ± 2%. That's according to my Tanita scale. Ideally, I would like to end up in the 12-15% range. That's the end goal. How to get there is where I'm waffling.

I've chosen to start with a daily intake of ~2800-3000 calories (usually closer to 2800). The macros break down (on average) around 25f/40c/35p.

I run at least 2 miles, 3 times per week and I go to the gym at least 2 times per week. I'm aiming for 3 but this is a pretty busy time at work and my wife's work schedule is a bit f'd so it will vary between two and three times.

I'm going to do this for a month and see where my weight and body fat end up. Being winter, I don't mind putting on a little bit (stress: little bit -- no more than 1-2%) of the fat that I've lost if it means I can put on some good solid muscle. Then come February I can work on shedding that.

I won't post every day's diet and shit. I will post them from time to time and make note of any big changes.

May as well post today's diet since I'm here:
Meal 1: Oatmeal w/ milk & brown sugar (I know)
Meal 2: Protein (whey), apple, almonds
Meal 3: PB&J (natural peanut butter, whole wheat bread)
Meal 4: apple, almonds
Meal 5: Protein (whey), apple, almonds
Meal 6: PB&J (as above)
Meal 7: Spicy black bean & vegetable soup & 0% yogurt
Meal 8: Protein (whey) & dextrose (post-workout)

Calories: 2826, 25f/50c/25p

Tonight is gym night so the dextrose in the post-workout drink bumps my carbs up considerably. Tonight's workout will be 5x5 (5 sets of 5 reps) of squats, bench and Pendlay rows. I'll post the details of the workout later when I have the numbers handy.
 
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Yay! I get to be your number two visitor! No worries about slacking a little bit. That's just being human. You caught yourself before any real damage was done and that's the important thing. Looking at your progress pics proves that you are a man with a plan. Good luck with your new goals. You had so much success with the first I have no doubt you'll ace this one as well.

:waving:
 
Wow! Way to go losing the 50lbs!

Phase 2! I like the sound of that. Fresh energy and motivation for a new year and a new journey.

Cute avatar :) I like your curls!
 
Hey good luck with phase 2. I totally understand the slacking off I have done that also. I somehow was lucky and that my weight did not change that much thank god. But more focused now after looking at pics around here. Hope you have a great week. Tina
 
Wowsa... thanks to everyone!!!! MJB, the curls are pretty tame in that photo. Sometimes they can get right out of hand. They can be cool to have but man can they be a pain in the ass, too.

Tonight's workout was actually pretty decent. The usual meatheads that are there weren't so I didn't have to wait for them to finish their curls in the squat rack before getting down to business. The workout went as follows:

Warmup: 3.5 minutes elliptical w/ 2 minutes stretching after

Squat (barbell)
60x8
110x5 (5 sets)

Bench (barbell)
60x10
100x5 (5 sets)

Pendlay Row (barbell)
50x8
80x5 (5 sets)

Dips (dip station)
BW (bodyweight) x 4
BW x 2
BW x 1

My hips hurt like hell during the squats. I'm wondering if it's from running on my off days. I'm also wondering if that's a bad idea as every workout has had me suffering from seemingly weaker squats due to that. It's not a joint pain, I don't think. It feels like an overworked muscle pain. Maybe this week I will stick to walking and see if that changes anything.

I guess I'm also going to post my stats weekly to show whatever changes are happening.

I started trying to get serious again back on the 12th of October. I weigh in every morning. I plop those numbers into my spreadsheet (I'm a spreadsheet nerd) and at the end of the week it calculates my average weight, body fat and lean mass. I will post those weekly averages as those are the numbers I use to track my progress or lack thereof.

Oct. 18, 2008 - 169.9 lbs, 20.5% bf, 135.1 lean
Oct. 25, 2008 - 171.1 lbs, 20.6% bf, 135.8 lean

Next update is November 1.

Thanks again to everyone who has already popped in! Very much appreciated!

I'm friggin' tired. Off to bed. Have a great day!
 
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Congratulations on the 50 lbs lost!! :hurray:

I'm with MJB, and am a sucker for curls :)

Mmmmh, spicy black bean soup! :drooling: Ok, you reminded me I have a can of black beans that need to go to good use. Might as well make mango salsa cilantro black bean burritos with avocado! :coolgleamA:

I like barbell squats but I know what you mean by the hip pain. Perhaps you might want to lay off weighted squats for a week and see how it is. And maybe try hip-opening stretches like laying in Frog Pose. Uh, it hurts and it sucks but it may help in the long run. I run and weight train, myself--sometimes it's hard to take a break! Hope it feels better soon :)
 
I had an ex who had some tight spiral curly hair. I loved it!!

If you ever need a hand, come on over and I'll comb out the tangles. LOL

That's a nice workout there! Keep up the good work. :)
 
On to the Phase 2, huh? If you work as hard as ya did for phase one you'll be in phenomenal shape. I'll be keepin an eye out for ya fish!
 
Thanks for checking in and the encouragement cybermama and bmac. Much appreciated!

Curvie Girlie said:
I like barbell squats but I know what you mean by the hip pain. Perhaps you might want to lay off weighted squats for a week and see how it is. And maybe try hip-opening stretches like laying in Frog Pose. Uh, it hurts and it sucks but it may help in the long run. I run and weight train, myself--sometimes it's hard to take a break! Hope it feels better soon :)
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Thanks. I will give that frog pose stretch idea. I will give that a shot next time out though I'm pleased to say today's squat went pretty well sans frog stretch.

MissJellyBelly said:
I had an ex who had some tight spiral curly hair. I loved it!!

If you ever need a hand, come on over and I'll comb out the tangles. LOL
Click to expand...

HAHAHA At the next Vegas trip! Though I must warn that combing them out results in a giant head o' hair. I can't do anything with my hair other than shower and pray it dries normally.

As noted, I hit the gym today... workout when as follows:

Warmup: 3.5 minutes elliptical w/ 5 minutes stretching after

Squat (barbell)
60x8
115x5 (5 sets)

Overhead press (barbell)
40x8
60x5 (5 sets)

Deadlift (barbell)
60x8
115x5 (2 sets)
115x8

Pullups (dip station)
BW x 2
BW x 1
BW x 1

The squat felt pretty sweet today. Hips felt a bit sore and tight in my warmup set but the full weight felt good and I feel like my form is good. I hope to keep that up.

Overhead press was f'n sweet. Last time I did it I did not complete the full 5 reps for each set and today I did. So that was an improvement.

Deadlift... what a whore this lift is. Form felt good, but wow, what a workout this is on its own. I only do three sets rather than the usual five. By the third set I'm literally light-headed. It's incredible and a great feeling, really. Like you really had to work for that last bit. Anyway, I still felt like there was gas in the tank on my last set so I kept going and squeezed out another 3 reps so that was sweeeeeeeet.

Time permitting I do either dips or pullups (depending which workout I'm on) and this time I managed to add another pullup rep. That's always exciting. I can't imagine the day will ever come when I can complete 3 sets of 10. However, when I first started this I couldn't imagine a day where I could complete even one rep so... things change.

Nothing better than a good workout. Tomorrow I'm helping a friend move so that should suck sufficiently. Oh well, the things we do in order to have people who 'owe us one' for when it's our turn to move, eh?

Oh, and pardon my french but, FUCK this snow! WTF!! Sorry... had to get that out.
 
Curvie Girlie said:
What is this "snow" thing that everyone is talking about??? :confused:

:p

Nice workout!
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It's just these little flakes of cold shit that come out of the sky and COMPLETELY ruin your day! You wouldn't understand... That reminds me, when my ex husband and I were in Cali once we were at that mall where the "hallways" are all outside... he asked them what they do when it snows! HA!!! :rolleyes: Dummy.

Hey Fish! Your workout looked great! Glad you're back up in here! :D
 
LOL Paula--it snows a lot in Cali, just not where I have ever lived. I like Tahoe but since I am broke, I don't take my fancy snowboard every March and go to my time share resort and go snowboard (like some of my friends). I have never snowboarded in my life :( Lots of people I know have screwed themselves up that way actually.

Everytime I hear people call him "Fish" I think of a newbie in prison! :eek:
 
Ack, I've been AWOL. Well, I helped a buddy move last week which was 10 workouts in one day. That was Thursday. Then I slacked off and ate like shit for the weekend. It's just the timing of commitments on Saturday that hurt me. I end up being far from home and hungry as all hell and no way of bringing anything with me. So I get something shitty on the way home.

I forgot my blender cups at home today so I've got all my protein mix here and no way to friggin' take it. Nothing pisses me off more than that... well, that's not true, but you catch my drift.

I'll be hitting the gym tonight. Back on track. Squats, bench press and Pendlay rows. I have such a love/hate relationship with squats (and deadlifts).
 
Hello Friend! Sorry for the drive by post here, but I have such a busy day today and can't stay long. I promise to make it up later. :)

Just wanted to say thank you for stopping by my thread and showing some love! I hope you had a great Halloween weekend.

Catch up with you soon! Hugs, MJ
 
thedarwinfish said:
I forgot my blender cups at home today so I've got all my protein mix here and no way to friggin' take it.

I have such a love/hate relationship with squats (and deadlifts).
Click to expand...

That sucks.

Yeah, I know what you mean--I haven't weight trained in weeks, and my body keeps packing on muscle from the vigorous Ashtanga Yoga 5 days a week, it's insane!!!!!! I need to post pics of me flexing......
 
Hey fish! How's it going?

Just wanted to stop by and make sure you're not still in that funk you mentioned the other day! :blush5: Hope things are going well.

Happy weekend!

Sara
 
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