Another Enemy - Bulgarian Split Squads

So here’s a little rundown of my pain threshold over the past week:

Monday – “Oooh!  I’m already a little sore!  Cool!”

Tuesday - Post workout – “Oh boy, I already feel it in my back and shoulders.  I’m gonna be sore later!”

Wednesday – “I’m feelin’ it now!”

Thursday – “Wow, it’s like every day, I’m starting to feel the musculature of a different part of my body – this is neat!”

Thursday Night, 3:00 AM – “HOLY S&$T I FEEL LIKE I GOT HIT BY A SEMI TRUCK!”

Friday AM - “GOOD LORD I THINK THE SEMI BACKED OVER ME”

Somehow managed to get through the Strength Training #1, despite barely being able to get out of bed.  As you can see from the schedule, I slept right through my alarm (thank God I work from home) due to the fact that I woke up about 5 times in the middle of the night.

Interestingly enough, once I was working out I started feeling less sore.  Though I did tweak one of my knees a bit, so I slapped some Icy-Hot on that bad boy and took an ibuprofen right away.

Strength Training was interesting.  This one took me less time, about 30-35 minutes.  I used the heaviest piece of equipment I had, a 35 lb Kettlebell.  Using this reloadable Kettlebell, however, is certainly different from picking up a 35 lb barbell or dumbbell.  It’s way more unwieldy, and the center of gravity is much different, so I can assume that it’s a bit more difficult to handle than bells or bars.

Overall, I’m pretty sore right now.  Hopefully this will be alleviated a bit next week, even though I’ll push myself hard the whole time.

The thing I’ve noticed that has been different is after a week of intense exercise and clean eating, I’m feeling really good about myself.  Even if I didn’t lose a fraction of a pound of fat – Hell, even if I gained 10 lbs of pure chub, I’m feeling great.  Last week, I waddled around feeling like crap the whole time for making some poor food choices.  I was very conscious of my boated belly.  I felt doughy.  I felt fat.  This week, I’m obviously much more aware of every muscle in my body than the extra inches of pudge.  I feel much more solid and compact.  It’s like the core of my body, all this strength, is slowly overwhelming the fatty bits.  I know it sounds a little too good to be true one week in, but for the intensity and focus I’m putting into this program I feel like it’s starting to pay off even this early!

AND, to boot, my skinny jeans feel a little loser already!  I don’t know if I can attribute this to the age of my jeans or the size of my waist, but I’m just going to be excited about it anyways!

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Food today was good.  Friday is always a little battle because it seems to be the one day I crave meat more than any other .  Dinner isn’t bad, but fitting something into lunch – other than eggs, which are kind of making me feel gross inside – is difficult.

I was planning on fasting today until dinner and having a couple of extra servings of BCAAs.  But considering that two more servings of BCAAs might make me want to jump out of my bedroom window or curl up in a ball and cry, I decided against it.  I was feeling a rumble inside of me telling me that not eating could cause a sugar binge, so I took a smarter route and skipped the extra BCAAs for a protein shake.  Hopefully the dairy in the whey won’t mess me up too much.  Had a very simple shake – just Whey, a touch of Almond Milk, tons of Ice, and an added TB of Xylitol Syrup (which made a big diff).  Oh, and some Coffee.  So good.  Very glad I did this.  I love eating all real, whole food, but a good quality Whey Protein is great in a pinch.

For dinner, I made some fish.  For the first time EVER.  I have just recently tried a couple bites of fish (upon moving to Annapolis) and I’ve always been skeptical about it.  All I’d ever had before was canned tuna and (also recently) Ahi Tuna.  I had my first bites of white fish at a local restaurant – heavily battered, of course .  Fish and chips is awesome.  My version was simply rolled in some almond meal, and some lemon and pesto was later added on top.  The pesto was great with the fish, but I wouldn’t say it was maximum deliciousness – unfortunately it was a piece of frozen fish (blasphemy, I know) that I was just trying to get rid of….and it kind of came out chewy .  I don’t think that’s the texture of good cod.  The good news is that I have an amazing fresh fish market within walking distance of my home, so I’ll be headed there next Friday!

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Daily Schedule

Daily Training

Final Phase Fat Loss – Strength Training #1

Daily Meals