We'll, currently we can't afford gym fee's right now. But, just cause you can't pay, doesn't mean you can't workout. I really want to put on some muscle, but I haven't had time to get together a plan yet. Still in the research phase.
So instead, I'm just going to do some trusted CrossFit workouts. I'll try to keep what I'm doing posted.
SWOD
3 x 8 - 85lb Front Squat
WOD
Fran @ 85lbs
Time: 10:50
I'm pretty happy with this, last time I did Fran, about 2 1/2 months ago, I was in the 11 minute range with 65lbs on the bar and assisted pull ups. I'm doing unassisted pull ups and a lot more weight. 10 more pounds to Rx.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Monday, February 7, 2011
More food now!
Seriously, more food.
So I'm back after a few months. After a standard holiday season with more sweets and less working out than previous months. It took about a month to get back on track and here I am.
Right now my goals are shifting. I did CF as one does CF for a while, got in the best shape of my life and have learned something new... I want more muscle. So alas, I now turn to body building.
So far so good. I'm going on this basic idea, less crap food (sorry holidays), whole grains only, 3100 or so calories a day and about 150+ grams of protein a day. In about a month and a half I've been able to go from 148lbs to 161lbs. Not bad, sure there is some excess fat, but I can deal with that later, as is the nature of putting on weight.
My days are looking about like this right now:
5:15am - Steel cut oats with flax and brown sugar, Protein shake with milk
7am - Post workout shake
12pm - Normal Lunch
3-4pm - Veggies, Fruit, nuts, hummus
5pm - Protein shake
7pm - Normal Dinner
9pm - Protien shake
Right now, Friday night through Saturday night are my cheats. I'm also doing 5 days a week (M-F) at CrossFit Cosa Mesa, that is helping a ton.
I have noticed considerable increases in both weight, muscle (I'm guessing 50% of the weight gain is muscle) and strength. My 1RM Press went up from 80 to 102lbs in this time frame.
After Feb, I am taking a month or two off of CrossFit to work on strict body building. My goal is to be about 175lbs around 10% body fat. As much as I love CrossFit, it's not really a 'bulk up' kinda program. I think it will be key to getting down to 10% BF, but I'm going to try something new for bulking up. Should be fun.
Wish me luck, I'll keep results posted!
So I'm back after a few months. After a standard holiday season with more sweets and less working out than previous months. It took about a month to get back on track and here I am.
Right now my goals are shifting. I did CF as one does CF for a while, got in the best shape of my life and have learned something new... I want more muscle. So alas, I now turn to body building.
So far so good. I'm going on this basic idea, less crap food (sorry holidays), whole grains only, 3100 or so calories a day and about 150+ grams of protein a day. In about a month and a half I've been able to go from 148lbs to 161lbs. Not bad, sure there is some excess fat, but I can deal with that later, as is the nature of putting on weight.
My days are looking about like this right now:
5:15am - Steel cut oats with flax and brown sugar, Protein shake with milk
7am - Post workout shake
12pm - Normal Lunch
3-4pm - Veggies, Fruit, nuts, hummus
5pm - Protein shake
7pm - Normal Dinner
9pm - Protien shake
Right now, Friday night through Saturday night are my cheats. I'm also doing 5 days a week (M-F) at CrossFit Cosa Mesa, that is helping a ton.
I have noticed considerable increases in both weight, muscle (I'm guessing 50% of the weight gain is muscle) and strength. My 1RM Press went up from 80 to 102lbs in this time frame.
After Feb, I am taking a month or two off of CrossFit to work on strict body building. My goal is to be about 175lbs around 10% body fat. As much as I love CrossFit, it's not really a 'bulk up' kinda program. I think it will be key to getting down to 10% BF, but I'm going to try something new for bulking up. Should be fun.
Wish me luck, I'll keep results posted!
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Blood work is still work
I'm happy to say after a year and a half, I've dropped my Triglycerides from a borderline high 180 down to a very healthy 109.
A vegetarian diet and increased physical activity are the factors that have enable me to intentionally lower this.
We all want to increase our PR's, but don't forget those aren't the only numbers that count!
Blood pressure - 118/70
Heart Rate - 68
Cholesterol - 156
HDL - 51
LDL - 83
Triglycerides - 109
Don't know your numbers? Get tested. It's great to know what's going on in your body and important to know what you should be working on. Prevention is your best force for sustainability.
A vegetarian diet and increased physical activity are the factors that have enable me to intentionally lower this.
We all want to increase our PR's, but don't forget those aren't the only numbers that count!
Blood pressure - 118/70
Heart Rate - 68
Cholesterol - 156
HDL - 51
LDL - 83
Triglycerides - 109
Don't know your numbers? Get tested. It's great to know what's going on in your body and important to know what you should be working on. Prevention is your best force for sustainability.
Friday, October 29, 2010
Where do you get your Protein?
How do you keep down your cholesterol?
It's all about being intentional in what you put into your body. If you never analyze what you are eating you are almost without doubt lacking some level of nutrition or getting way too much of something you shouldn't. I've known strong and weak vegans, healthy and unhealthy vegetarians, strong and weak meat eaters... It's not the diet you choose, it's how you choose to fill your diet that will give you health, and for those who enjoy sports... recovery/performance.
So back to the title. The 4 most common questions you hear as a vegetarian are:
1. Where do you get your Protein?
2. What about B12?
3. Where do you get your Iron?
4. Are you overly Effeminate?
Vegan sources of Complete Protein
- Amaranth
- Buckwheat
- Nutritional Yeast
- Quinoa
- Spirulina
- Hemp
- Soy Beans
- Chlorella
Vegetarian Sources of complete protein
- Eggs
- Milk
Vegan Sources of B12
- Chlorella
- Nutritional Yeast
Iron
- Chlorella
- Spirulina
- Spinich
- Flax
- Legumes
- Quinoa
Vegetarian Sources of Manliness
- Sports
- Cars
- My wife in a bikini
- Robots/Stereo equipment
Now, a bit in depth on Protein. Proteins are made up of Amino Acids, depending on who you talk to there are between 8 and 10 essential amino acids. Essential amino acids are what our bodies cannot produce and require for building muscle/sustaining strength.
Most health and fitness professionals subscribe to the idea that animal proteins as superior to vegetable proteins as they are closer in cell structure to what humans need for growth. Therefore there is less work the body has to do to break down the protein and reorganize it into muscle. I believe this is true, however, I don't believe that means animal proteins are superior. It just means if you want faster results animal proteins, in particular meat, will get you there. A combination of this along with the painfully obvious recognition of whole foods over processed foods is why Paleo gets awesome results so quickly.
However, FASTER is the key here. It's not that your body can't do the same thing with vegetable protein, it's just a longer process. In my experience the longer it takes me to get to a new level of fitness the more natural it is for my body to sustain that level of fitness. This, in my opinion is the strength of vegetable based proteins. Slow and steady, if you will.
Yes, if you are a vegetarian you have to be more intentional about getting all of your essential amino acids (Protein) than someone who eats meat (unless your goal is to get beat up a lot and be weak). But, as long as you're paying attention, it's easy to do.
It's all about being intentional in what you put into your body. If you never analyze what you are eating you are almost without doubt lacking some level of nutrition or getting way too much of something you shouldn't. I've known strong and weak vegans, healthy and unhealthy vegetarians, strong and weak meat eaters... It's not the diet you choose, it's how you choose to fill your diet that will give you health, and for those who enjoy sports... recovery/performance.
So back to the title. The 4 most common questions you hear as a vegetarian are:
1. Where do you get your Protein?
2. What about B12?
3. Where do you get your Iron?
4. Are you overly Effeminate?
Vegan sources of Complete Protein
- Amaranth
- Buckwheat
- Nutritional Yeast
- Quinoa
- Spirulina
- Hemp
- Soy Beans
- Chlorella
Vegetarian Sources of complete protein
- Eggs
- Milk
Vegan Sources of B12
- Chlorella
- Nutritional Yeast
Iron
- Chlorella
- Spirulina
- Spinich
- Flax
- Legumes
- Quinoa
Vegetarian Sources of Manliness
- Sports
- Cars
- My wife in a bikini
- Robots/Stereo equipment
Now, a bit in depth on Protein. Proteins are made up of Amino Acids, depending on who you talk to there are between 8 and 10 essential amino acids. Essential amino acids are what our bodies cannot produce and require for building muscle/sustaining strength.
Most health and fitness professionals subscribe to the idea that animal proteins as superior to vegetable proteins as they are closer in cell structure to what humans need for growth. Therefore there is less work the body has to do to break down the protein and reorganize it into muscle. I believe this is true, however, I don't believe that means animal proteins are superior. It just means if you want faster results animal proteins, in particular meat, will get you there. A combination of this along with the painfully obvious recognition of whole foods over processed foods is why Paleo gets awesome results so quickly.
However, FASTER is the key here. It's not that your body can't do the same thing with vegetable protein, it's just a longer process. In my experience the longer it takes me to get to a new level of fitness the more natural it is for my body to sustain that level of fitness. This, in my opinion is the strength of vegetable based proteins. Slow and steady, if you will.
Yes, if you are a vegetarian you have to be more intentional about getting all of your essential amino acids (Protein) than someone who eats meat (unless your goal is to get beat up a lot and be weak). But, as long as you're paying attention, it's easy to do.
Chlorella - ella - ella - ella - a - a - lovin' my - Chlorella - ella - ella - ella - oh - oh
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Suck it Thrive
We chose Thrive because, as far as I know, it's the only documented vegetarian based diet with sports performance in mind. What we ignored was that we already eat a pretty healthy, well balanced diet and are getting great results. We have stopped the Thrive diet. We got over the 'carb withdraws' that Thrive/Paleo talks about and got into the core of the diet that was easy enough. Here's my main complaint, not enough calories.
Both Jenni and I had a hard time getting in more than 1500 calories a day. Simply not enough to sustain at CrossFit or any solid form of working out. Hell, you can't even maintain weight @ 1500 calories a day. We both had extreme fatigue during the day and I can't help but worry about getting too thin on such a dainty diet.
We are back on our normal diet, which we have seen amazing results with. It's a basic Lacto Vegetarian diet, which basically means no meat/fish of any kind, however we eat all forms of dairy. I've done a million tweaks to this diet everything from super protein heavy, low carb to high fat, medium carb, low protein to a 33/33/33 split.
Honestly, I've found a lot more results from how I'm working out than how I change my diet. The only consistent thing I've found I need to watch out for, is when I go below around 1800 calories a day I start to lose muscle. Not cool.
In my opinion, for my body. Here is what I've found...
Eat well, cook food, stick with whole grain breads/pastas. Be wary of processed soy products and processed products in general, really anything that comes in a box. Eat lots of veggies, fruit, nuts. Eggs and milk are awesome. Use high quality vitamins, yes spend the money on good ones. Chlorella, Spirulina, Flax and Hemp are gifts from God and it's a shame meat eaters tend to ignore them. Don't eat too much taco bell or pizza. Eat as much as you can.
That's basically what we've found works best for us.
To end this one, here are a couple of before/after shots. These shots are after 11 weeks of CrossFit. My weight has remained at 148lbs, my bodyfat has dropped from 15% to 12.4%.
The last pictures are of me when I was 25. I ate poorly, I didn't work out, I ate meat, my cholesterol was high and I was well on my way to being fat and unhealthy... wait no, I was already there...
Both Jenni and I had a hard time getting in more than 1500 calories a day. Simply not enough to sustain at CrossFit or any solid form of working out. Hell, you can't even maintain weight @ 1500 calories a day. We both had extreme fatigue during the day and I can't help but worry about getting too thin on such a dainty diet.
We are back on our normal diet, which we have seen amazing results with. It's a basic Lacto Vegetarian diet, which basically means no meat/fish of any kind, however we eat all forms of dairy. I've done a million tweaks to this diet everything from super protein heavy, low carb to high fat, medium carb, low protein to a 33/33/33 split.
Honestly, I've found a lot more results from how I'm working out than how I change my diet. The only consistent thing I've found I need to watch out for, is when I go below around 1800 calories a day I start to lose muscle. Not cool.
In my opinion, for my body. Here is what I've found...
Eat well, cook food, stick with whole grain breads/pastas. Be wary of processed soy products and processed products in general, really anything that comes in a box. Eat lots of veggies, fruit, nuts. Eggs and milk are awesome. Use high quality vitamins, yes spend the money on good ones. Chlorella, Spirulina, Flax and Hemp are gifts from God and it's a shame meat eaters tend to ignore them. Don't eat too much taco bell or pizza. Eat as much as you can.
That's basically what we've found works best for us.
To end this one, here are a couple of before/after shots. These shots are after 11 weeks of CrossFit. My weight has remained at 148lbs, my bodyfat has dropped from 15% to 12.4%.
The last pictures are of me when I was 25. I ate poorly, I didn't work out, I ate meat, my cholesterol was high and I was well on my way to being fat and unhealthy... wait no, I was already there...
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Barbells for Boobs
Today we did our first Crossfit competition. It was a fund raiser for Breast Cancer. The workout was 'Grace' which is 30 x Clean & Jerks for time.
Jenni placed 2nd in the Womens Intermediate category. She did 65lbs in 3:22!
I didn't place, but did 95lbs in 4:38, a big step forward just 6 weeks ago I was at 85lbs in 6:06.
Good fun for a good cause, great job Jenni!
Jenni placed 2nd in the Womens Intermediate category. She did 65lbs in 3:22!
I didn't place, but did 95lbs in 4:38, a big step forward just 6 weeks ago I was at 85lbs in 6:06.
Good fun for a good cause, great job Jenni!
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Baseline
10/7/2010
Nate - 9:56 (jumping pull up)
Jenni - 10:24 (blue band pull up)
Rob - 8:30 Rx
I'm including Rob, as he is going to be doing the Thrive diet with us.
Please note, here are our original baseline scores.
7/28/2010
Nate - 12:03 (jumping pull up)
Jenni - 12:19 (jumping pull up)
Nate - 9:56 (jumping pull up)
Jenni - 10:24 (blue band pull up)
Rob - 8:30 Rx
I'm including Rob, as he is going to be doing the Thrive diet with us.
Please note, here are our original baseline scores.
7/28/2010
Nate - 12:03 (jumping pull up)
Jenni - 12:19 (jumping pull up)
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