Day 16 of 112... DEDICATION...

16 days in, im feeling good... workouts are picking up, starting to get a little more intense everyday, which is a good thing... today was arms, biceps, triceps and forearms... i love working triceps, unfortunately i didnt get to put the time into them today that i would have liked, but still got a good workout... seated tricep presses are my favorite, 75 pound dumbbell over head, yea thats where i live...
i see all types of different people in and out of the gym, you have your die hard gym rats who would be at the gym during Armageddon (those are my kind of people). you have the rich ladies who are bored just trying to kill some time and get the body that will turn heads, cause thats their fix. theres the treadmill people who come in and hit the treadmill for an hour and walk or jog while reading a magazine, ill never understand how they do that but to each his own i guess. you have the people who are training for a profession, hobby or certain sport. you have the health conscious people who are just tryin to live healthier. you even have the guys who come into the gym with hair all gel'd up and work out in polo shirts and flip flops and spend more time flirting than doin work (these annoy me the most (insert jersey shore commercial). my point is you come across all different types of people, all joined together by the same thing for the same thing... to achieve a goal that can only be achieved by hard work and with cold steel...
you hit the gym hard a few times, and you get a sense of accomplishment that people dont understand until theyve put in some time and earned some blisters... bodybuilding isnt for the faint of will, its not just a sport, its a job, a 24/7 calling... every second of the day counts, you dont clock in and out, theres no half time, no innings, and no time outs... looks, i dont do this to look good, i do this because i love waking up and visualizing my goal and day by day watching myself get closer to that goal... i am the competition, i am my competition, the only person who can stop me is me... i go to the gym when im tired, and i lift when im so sore i can barely lift my arms, i do squats soaked in sweat with sweat in my eyes, i deadlift until my hands bleed and i bench press until the bar bruises my chest (true story)... yea i love this sport... bring on the next 96 days...
good night...

Day 15 of 112...

so its been a few days, let me recap...
friday i did arms, and saturday was shoulder day... and sunday i rested and did some yard work, yay...
ive tweaked my diet a little bit this week, and pulled some carbs from the daily routine... the bad thing is right now im burning so many calories im always starving, and im still eating like a horse, gotta love dieting... i guess burning all those calories isnt a bad thing, since the goal is to slim down a little bit...
i also changed my split this week from the split that i said i was gonna start to use, but i felt my front delts were being hit indirectly and directly too many days in a row, which can cause me to over train them and as a result they wont grow as id like them to... so the new split will look like this...

monday- chest, and abs... (focus on upper chest)
tuesday- arms (biceps, triceps, and forearms)
wednesday- legs...
thursday- chest, and abs... (focus on lower chest)
friday- back...
saturday- shoulders, and traps...
sunday- cardio or rest...

with my split like this ill be able to give my shoulders more rest before shoulder day, which will help them grow better, and lower my risk of injury... plus it will give me more time in the gym to focus on each bodypart, and more time for cardio, so its a win win...

so im 2 weeks in, with 14 weeks to go... the body fat is coming off pretty well, while the body weight is staying about the same... so id say im on track, since the first 4 weeks is mainly about building muscle... of course muscle is heavier than fat so as the body fat comes off and the muscle grows the body weight doesnt really change much...

today i cut carbs out of my dinner, and cut some back on a few other meals, tomorrow ill do the same and then wednesday ill put them back... then thursday and friday ill cut back again and over the weekend ill carb up... ive decided to go ahead and start carb cycling a little early to try and boost metabolism... we'll see how it works...
so its off to bed a little early tonight... see ya tomorrow.

Day 11 of 112... Chest day.

today was chest day, the second chest day of the week... i work chest twice a week because its been a trouble spot for me, when i lost all of my weight i lost a lot of size and strength in my chest... which ive mostly got back in the last year of bulking, but in order to keep the size while i diet down i want to keep hittin chest hard to maintain the size... so i go twice a week, first day not as intense as the second so i dont over train... and the goal for the chest is width just like back... im not so much worried about strength as i am size, so every set i do on the bench i aim for 6- 8 reps, even when i go heavy...
today i started with cardio warm up, then the pec deck flye machine for chest warm ups, 3 sets of 15 with a medium weight to start the blood flow and get the muscle ready for the bench press... i then moved to the flat bench, and did one warm up set of 10 reps with 135 lbs, then i went up to 215 for 2 more sets of 8 reps, then added 30 pounds for 2 more sets of 6... then pulled the 30 off for final set of 8 reps, keep in mind when guys bench 300 or more pounds they rarely go over 3 or 4 reps, sometimes not that many... then i moved on to the incline bench and did the same...after inclines i did 6 sets of incline dumbbell flyes, and topped the workout off with 6 sets of cable crossovers... for a total of 27 sets... not a bad day at the office, told ya old school, nothin special just blood and sweat... no tears, cause when you cry you get sympathy, when you sweat you get results... (dont even try to steal that lol)
friday im gonna do cardio and arms... im gonna put a little extra focus on forearms tomorrow, havent hit them hard for awhile...
ill go ahead and cut it short tonight, i have a job interview tomorrow after i leave the gym, need the sleep... wish me luck...

Day 10 of 112, plus workout split...

wednesday, day 10 of 112, 102 to go... well i guess technically 101... today was leg day, lovely leg day... we have a love hate relationship, i love leg day because of its importance, the amount of calories it burns or should i say consumes, and because of the sheer pain it causes... and i hate it for the same exact reasons... see leg day uses so much more energy because your legs are so much stronger than the rest of your body, so you have to push them so much harder to get results, plus you use more muscles, such as back and abs, calves everything... in turn you burn many more calories than any other day... when squatting, and leg pressing you use abdominal muscles, and help keep your midsection good and tight... when i lost all of my weight i owe a lot of the success to squats, i was doing legs twice a week and sometimes 3 times a week then... but i also didnt know the importance of rest and recovery then so i didnt build large leg muscles like id like, i just toned them and overworked them...

so anyway, on to the splits...

when im prepping i like to try my best to keep my workout split to the point that each body part thats worked gets a full days rest before its indirectly hit while working another body part... so ill be changing my split next week and it will look like this...

monday- chest and biceps (ill usually work forearms this day too)...
tuesday- back and triceps...
wednesday- legs...
thursday- chest and abs
friday- shoulders (including traps) and cardio...
saturday- cardio and rest or optional bodypart that may need work...
sunday- on sunday i may just do cardio, or i may rest depends on how i feel from the week...

monday, tuesday, and wednesday i dont do much cardio, i just crank up the intensity with supersets since im working 2 bodyparts, and ill do light cardio as a warm up... wednesday ill warm my legs up with 10- 15 minutes walking on a high incline usually around a 10 -12... the rest of the week usually 30-45 minutes of cardio which ill try to change it up as much as possible to keep me from getting bored since i dont enjoy cardio very much... 
i wont go too much into which exercises i do on these days because i try to change them every week... muscle confusion is the principle for that, your body is very smart and if it gets used to a certain routine it will stop responding to it after awhile... ill keep the core exercises the same such as bench press, incline bench press, squats, leg presses, lat pull downs, barbell curls, and so on... each week ill rotate between bench barbells and dumbbells, for instance if i start chest with flat bench press this week ill follow it with incline dumbbells, and next week ill start with incline barbell bench press and follow it with flat bench dumbbells and so on... ill do the same for legs, one week ill start with squats and the next ill start with leg presses...
for back i love to do partial deadlifts, these do wonders for the way your lats hang, they also work your forearms and traps a lot too...
when im cutting weight i dont do high reps and lower weight, i keep the reps in the 8-12 range depending on the body part, and i keep the weight as heavy as i can take it... heavy weight built the muscle, heavy weight will maintain the muscle... i dont believe in fad workouts, im old school... the difference between my cutting weight and gaining weight work outs is the tempo and the intensity...  a higher tempo with less rest will burn a lot of calories... if the diet is in check a ton of cardio isnt needed as bad... my favorite saying is "abs are made in the kitchen not the gym"...
thats basically it for my workout split, ill change my split every few weeks also, but normally this is the basics of it...

Day 9 of 112 + the weekend... plus some diet advice...

so saturday i did arms, and cardio... not a bad day, kind of bland, could have been better. had to rush cause i had family obligations that day so the workout suffered a little bit... sunday i did cardio with my wife, then rested the rest of the day... monday i did a medium chest day, and some abs and cardio... the reason i did a medium weight chest day is because i work chest twice a week, so one day i work it medium, then the other i hit it heavy and hard... today i worked back, and i hit back hard, because my goal for back is the wider the better, so i think of my back as a giant brick wall when im working it... heavy lat pull downs, heavy seated rows, barbell rows, dumbbell rows, cable pull downs, and machine pullovers to the total of 30- 35 sets... now im tired... today i want to  break down dieting a bit...
the hard part about dedicating yourself to a 16 week prep, is you have to schedule your life around your workouts and your diet, and not vice versa... see to the normal dieter small things like where your eating out, when your eating, or how long your in the gym doesnt matter as much. but to someone trying to grow and lose body fat at the same time, and prep for a lifestyle, its a huge deal... one missed meal, or one missed workout means a lot to a bodybuilder...
bodybuilder, thats what im working towards, thats my goal... so i count every calorie, every condiment, and every second im in the gym... every workout... right now my short term goal is to build muscle and burn fat, so for the fist 4 weeks of my 16 week diet ill eat just enough calories to build muscle, ill try to hit maintenance calories perfectly, or just a bit above... then 12 weeks out ill start carb cycling moderately, around 180- 200 grams of carbs a day  monday and tuesday, then wednesday ill drop carbs almost completely all except breakfast... thursday ill put them back moderately, friday ill drop them again... and saturday and sunday ill carb up to around 350-400 grams a day, to boost metabolism... and depending on how i feel i look ill cycle all the way to 4 weeks out... then at 4 weeks out if i feel the cycling is burning enough body fat ill keep cycling, and just boost up the cardio... but if i feel its not ill drop carbs to 150 grams a day monday through wednesday, thursday ill carb up to 300 grams, then friday and saturday back to 150 grams a day, and sunday ill carb up to 300- 350 grams... keep in mind during all this carb cycling im keeping my protein intake to around 350- 400 grams a day...
the reason for keeping the protein so high is because protein is the only macro-nutrient used to build muscle... if your not getting enough carbs or fat to burn for energy then your body is gonna burn muscle and body fat so to combat your body from burning muscle you eat plenty of protein to keep building muscle while your body burns body fat for energy while your cycling your carbs between high and low...

ill break down macro-nutrients and their purpose real quick..
protein is used to build muscle, if your muscles are in an anabolic state then the protein that your are eating is breaking down and building muscle, making the muscle stronger and making the muscle bigger... not every gram is gonna be used, some will be wasted and flushed away it sucks but its just how it works... thats why we eat so much more protein than the normal person, to build as much muscle as possible...
carbs and fat like i said before are used as the bodys energy source to push you through your day, or your workout... there are simple carbs which digest fast, pretty much too fast to be used as good energy so you dont want those most of the time, however they are good within 45 minutes to an hour post workout to shuttle the nutrients into your muscle as they are trying to heal... the bad thing is most of the day and or in most people these simple carbs will store as fat... carbs such as sugar, white potatoes or pasta and so on and so on... so for the most part you want to opt for the more COMPLEX carbs such as oatmeal, whole wheat, sweet potatoes, brown rice, and so on... these carbs are of much better quality, they break down much slower and are used for good ole sustained energy... and arent as quick to store as fat, if you are active these carbs will most likely be burned and will help your metabolism because it takes more energy to break them down...
fat on the other hand is far more touchy, you want some for energy, but you dont want alot because most people are fat sensitive and wont burn it as well, but its also a tricky situation cause if your carbs are low and your eating good fats like mono or polyunsaturated fats then you can get away with it, and even some saturated fats, because those fats in moderation will boost your testosterone production which will BUILD MORE MUSCLE AND BURN MORE FAT, and isnt that the goal after all... but im not gonna go too in depth and confuse you, which i probably already have so ill stray for a moment again...

see in the late 70's and 80's some genius decided that fat was the enemy, because after all fat is what we dont want to be... so they told everyone dont eat fat, eat carbs not fat... well what these people didnt explain to you is if your sedentary and your eating only carbs then your storing fat all day and your not building nothing... plus they told you to cut meals, so we ate 1 to 2 meals a day and starved all day, while our bodys were storing all these carbs around our midsections... sounds awesome huh, cause the less you eat the more fat you burn right... WRONG... the less you eat the more muscle you burn, and MUSCLE IS YOUR METABOLISM... so while your body is burning your precious muscle, its storing all the carbs your eating as fat, and did you know that if you dont eat you can still store fat to an extent... if your body doesnt get around 1200 calories a day then your body stores all that you have ate as fat, and also every 3 and a half to 4 hours your body starts to think your gonna starve it so it once again stores fat... so thats why we should eat smaller meals every 3 hours... cause the more you eat in moderation the faster your metabolism is gonna be... keep in mind i say moderation, your body needs a certain amount of calories a day to function properly and if you eat just under that number then your burning bodyfat for energy...
so thats partly the reason we have a country full of over weight people right now, because we were given the wrong information on how to lose weight...
so in short if you want to lose weight, you have to eat, its as simple as that... if you starve yourself you lose weight but youll lose the wrong kind of weight and you wont keep it off... and if you do your doing it the unhealthy way and sooner or later your body will let you know...
ok i think ive ranted enough for tonight... tomorrow ill break down my workout regimen and body part split...
thank you...

Day 5 of 112...

its friday, day 5... 107 left after this one... my mind feels good, if you get through the first week or 2 of dieting you can make through all 16. thats what a lot of people dont understand, this is almost all mental... your body may do the work, and your body may hurt, but if your mind doesnt control it all youll fall apart... the key is to stay focused on the goal...

today is shoulders... and its friday, most people are excited about friday because its the last day of the work week, but mine doesnt always end on friday... at the end of the workout if i decide i didnt get enough work done through out the week ill throw in another day and ill go saturday morning and work on a lagging bodypart... if i feel like i need the rest and feel like im too drained through the workout today then ill take saturday to rest... it all depends on how my body feels... in this sport you have to learn to listen to your body, if your body says rest, rest... if your body says work, then do work...

Day 4 of 112 pt2... Midnight...

Bodybuilding...
what do i love about the sport. its the only thing i know of thats 100%, you get what you put in. if you give 100% you get 100% if you give 50 you get 50... no favortism, no luck, genetics plays a big role, but if you want it bad enough you can even overcome that... you sacrifice your time, your money, your body, daily things, fun with your friends and family, my friends want to go out and drink, but i cant cause i have to eat 3 more times before bed, and make sure i get 8 hrs of sleep. my wife wants to go out to eat, but i have to make sure we eat somewhere that i can get a steak and a sweet potato, or steak and salad cooked with no butter of course... i put in 110% to the craft that i love and i get 110 back... day by day and week by week i watch my body change as i mold myself, as i do the one thing that i love, and the one thing that i control... i walk with a limp half the week because my legs are sore, most days im so tired and beat up and sore that i couldnt fight my way out of a wet paper bag, or fight off an attack by gnats, because im so sore from my workouts that im useless... because with out pain and sacrifice there is nothing else... what motivates me to keep going, i dont even know most days, but today my motivation is me, and the sense of pride i get when i hold the weight above my head and say you wont beat me, and you damn sure cant break me... Luck, whats that? destiny, thats a crock of shit, its all up to me... i hold the key to making my dreams come true, and without dreams there aint shit else...
good night...

Day 4 of 112...

today is day 4, chest day... might throw in some biceps too. breakfast was great as usual, the biggest meal of the day 2 eggs 5 egg whites, scrambled w/ 6 slices of lean ham, and a cup of oatmeal... bout to eat my pre workout... time to get my mind right for the workout. im taking my wife with me to the gym today, her first time goin to my gym... i like to keep the gym to myself so when im there im completely focused on the goal, i try not to talk to anyone when im there, because im on a mission, im a different person when im there... but it will be a nice break from the routine to take her with me... let me explain my workouts real quick, i dont believe in fad workouts, im old school... heavy iron and countless sets and reps to complete failure until youre so engorged with blood you cant lift anymore, heavy weights built the muscle, heavy weight will maintain it... no half steppin...


i sit here on my couch its noon, im listening to paycheck game spit felonies getting my mind focused... i slept in a little longer than i wanted today, got up at 10... my last week of sleeping in, next week i start the 6 am, 8:30 am workout schedule... so this weekend i gotta get my mind ready for that, ive been lazy for too long... while i get my head straight today i cant stop thinkin about my dad when i was younger and how he was always the picture of physical strength to me, i remember working with him in the yard or on the house thinking about how i couldnt wait to be as strong as him.... my mother is who i looked up to for mental strength, she worked her ass off all of our lives to give us the things we needed, she never gave up and never stopped. to this day she still works harder than anyone i know with countless health issues she still works like a horse, thats strength... when your dieting and working out your busting your ass in the gym when your body doesnt have enough fuel all the physical strength in the world doesnt mean shit, mental takes over and you push regardless of how tired you are.. thats when your at your strongest, thats when it all matters most, you dont give up, and you dont slow down, you have a job to do, and a purpose... thats where i live...

Day 3 of 112

today is day 3, and its leg day, numerous squats, leg presses, leg ext, hack squats, and not to mention deadlifts and hamstring work... leg day is my favorite day, it means i get to carb up a little bit pre workout so i dont go flat mid workout. so for breakfast i had 2 eggs, 5 egg whites all scrambled up with 6 slices of lean ham, and a cup of oatmeal, snack was a metrx big 100 colosal protein bar, and pre workout im bout to have a 40 gram protein shake with a banana (dont feel like tuna today)...
cant wait til the workouts over so i can eat my steak... im dragging a little bit today thanks to a stopped up nose and allergys, but oh well.
time to get going...