Project Ripped

Upon waking my legs were still a bit sore from the run a couple of days ago but I thought I should proceed with the day regardless.

I spent 15 minutes on the cross trainer on the interval programme at level 3. My legs were a bit tired for the first few minutes but I felt fine by the end of the session.

I was really pleased to receive my Nike+ for the iPod in the post today. I thought I should try it out so went for another run this afternoon. I followed the same 2 mile route as I did the other day but I did lots of warming-up, pre-run stretching followed by some post-run stretching and a warm bath after the run.  The run itself was hard. I found myself unable to run as fast/hard as I did on the first run but I did get a little bit further until I had to stop for a walk. I had about 7 run and walk cycles and on the way back I got a stitch in my side. The feeling was different to the other day, I think because I found it difficult to run as fast I didn’t feel as bad when I was forced to stop from being out of breath. I did love the Nike+ and iPod combination though.

I uploaded the run to the Nike+ website and I see that my meagre distance is now listed on Lilla’s challenge.

I made some raw chocolate today. The cacao bean is meant to have many chemicals that enhance well being. I think that we have only to eat a small amount each day to enjoy the benefits. It doesn’t taste like the confectionary that we are all used to but rather it has a very rich taste. I will try a piece each evening to see if my mood is improved after a week.

I have had a look at my Bowflex book to see how I may modify the programme for the second 6 weeks but the book advocates a whole body workout the whole time. I am not sure if I want to do a whole workout or if I may split it over two days. The one thing I did find though was a before and after picture of someone that had similar fat around the waist as me. It said that fat around the waist was the last to go and that this person had fat until about week 13 when it started to disappear. There was a before and after photo 18 weeks apart and the person had managed to rid themselves of all the fat.

In the absence of a new programme I felt I should go and at least train my upper body this evening. I went to follow the same resistance programme on the Bowflex that I have been doing for the last 6 weeks minus the legs (they are tired!). I can’t understand why but I was a lot weaker than I was a week ago. I don’t know if it is the runs, my diet, the gap between my last workout and this one (6 days) or not warming up by training my legs first, but I had no energy this evening. I couldn’t shift the weight that I did last week. I need to sort out a new programme fast.

I can’t believe it (well I can but I don’t want to). I had an awful nights sleep last night due to the DOMS pain in my legs. When I woke up today the pain was still there. Yes, I have second day DOMS from the run.

I decided to go for a cycle first thing so I went out on my road bike and covered the Sulby Bridge, Andreas, Leodest Road, Jurby and The Cronk route (approx. 15 miles). I forgot to reset the cycle computer on the way out so I don’t have an accurate time. However, I estimate it to be under 55 minutes which is the quickest I have ever cycled this route. I wasn’t going particularly hard but I was in a little pain in the legs so perhaps that encouraged me to put more effort in to overcome the pain.

The rest of my day as a bit of a write-off as I just felt uncomfortable doing anything with such pain. I had thought about a bit of Bowflex but one more day away from the resistance training shouldn’t affect progress too much.

If the pain has gone tomorrow I will go for a run again in the evening. I will take a lot of warm-up precautions and be sure to wind-down with a walk followed by a warm bath. 

One positive from the day was I made some raw donut holes from Ani Phyo’s book. It is nice to be able to eat a desert knowing that it has no added sugar and more nutrients than most people’s main meals. The whole family enjoyed them which was a pleasant surprise.

Ouch!

First, an update on the run last night. I have never felt so alive and close to death at the same time. I picked a mile along an old disused railway track in the countryside to run down. I figured I could run a mile in one direction and the same back again.

As planned I chose to run and not jog. I didn’t sprint but had a pace faster than I had ever run before. After about 400 metres I could feel my lungs wanting to explode. I kept on going until I could run no more and then walked until my lungs stopped hurting. I would estimate I made this pattern of running and walking about 8 times. I suppose it is a bit like interval training but with the end goal of this being to turn the intervals into one big long run when I am fit enough. My legs also hurt and when I got home I could see my heart wanting to jump out of my chest. I guess that I am not a natural runner – but this is no excuse not to run.

I have never felt so alive. I was experiencing extreme physical sensations that I don’t get through my other exercises. I think it was pain and discomfort. I had no choice but to push my body to its physical limits as my body couldn’t cope with running continuously. These are sensations of exhaustion that I haven’t had since being a teenager.

Today I ache. My thighs and adductors hurt. This is DOMS at its best.

I will persevere with the running and will run 3 times per week until I can run the 2 miles continually. I guess my monthly mileage for the shredder challenge will be minimal but I will still participate.

I managed to do 15 minutes on the Concept 2 rowing machine this morning and covered 3170 metres but this was probably as much as I was going to be physically capable of today.

After lunch I was overcome with tiredness and went to bed. I could feel my legs ache and I slept for 2.5 hours. I don’t know if this was ‘overtraining’ showing its head. I was going to do some resistance exercise today but I think it is best to leave it until tomorrow. I will still do my abdominal training though and I am now on 16 reps per exercise for 6 exercises.

After my last week containing a couple of tough bicycle rides I thought how disappointed I would be if I didn’t lose any weight this week. After the weigh-in this morning I am pleased to say that I am absolutely delighted with my progress and had nothing to worry about.

This week my key statistics are:

• I am 5′ 6.5″ tall
• Weight: 12 st. 12.5 lbs. (180.5 lbs.) – 4 lbs. loss in the last week
• Body fat abdomen pinch reduction of 5mm (42mm down to 37mm)
• Body fat chest pinch reduction of 5mm (30mm down to 25mm)
• Body fat: 25.3%

My biggest surprise was the 4 lb. weight loss in this past week. I was a bit worried that I had been losing muscle and not fat but looking at the statistics it looks like I have actually put on some lean mass in this last week. I have been taking body fat pinches each week and using a formula to calculate my body fat percentage. I have to admit that there is probably a degree of inaccuracy in this process but it has been done consistently and the results should be comparable week on week.

So, here is a review of my first 6 weeks on Phase 1. Firstly I will take a look at my weight loss. About 4 days before starting Phase 1 I weighed in at 14 stone and 1 pound. By the time I had started Phase 1, and lost ‘fluid’ weight I was 13 stone and 11 pounds (193 lbs). Today I am 12 stone and 12.5 pounds (180.5 lbs). So in 6 weeks I have lost 12.5 lbs of weight. My biggest question was how much of this was fat?

On a weekly basis I calculated my body fat percentage. I started off at 34.9% and today I am 25.3%. So in 6 weeks I have reduced my body fat percentage by 11.4%.

Taking this figure I could then work out how much of my body is lean mass and how much is muscle. I started out with a lean mass of 125.6 lbs. and today I have a lean mass of 134.8 lbs. So in 6 weeks I have added 9.2 lbs. of lean mass (hopefully mostly muscle). I have been extremely pleased that this has increased each week.

Which leaves fat. How much fat have I lost in the last 6 weeks? Weighing ourselves can’t tell us how much fat we have lost because we weigh fat, muscle, bones, organs, etc. all together.  According to my calculations I started off with 67.3 lbs. of fat. Today I have 45.6 lbs. of fat. So in the last 6 weeks I have lost 21.7 lbs. of fat. This is the key figure that I have been interested in. I am delighted to have lost so much fat in such a short space of time. 

Right now I am feeling pretty good about myself. My resistance training is keeping, and increasing, my lean mass and my regular exercise combined with my predominantly raw food diet has helped my body to use fat for energy.

On the downside I am a little frustrated with my waist. Although it has reduced a little it is still only 1.5 inches less than it was 6 weeks ago. I knew that the fat around my waist will probably be the last to go and as I am still a far way off from that point then it is hanging around a bit longer. I can detect my legs being a lot leaner than they were and also my upper torso. The fat around my mid section is reducing and it feels different, and looser, than previous but the tape tells a different story.

Here are my progress photos.

In my side shot my torso is now so much thinner and less swollen than it was 6 weeks ago. I am really pleased with the side view as it shows that I have started to transform my physique. My belly now doesn’t overhang the shorts anywhere near what it did.

From the front there is also a clear reduction in the waist area. There is still a bulge at the sides, but the bulge appears to be reducing from the bottom upwards.

At the back the whole of my back area appears narrower than it was 6 weeks earlier. The creases, which I have come to hate, are now starting to fade. They are still there but are showing signs of diminishing.

Tonight I am going to go for a run. I haven’t run for a while and have never managed to get enough fitness to enjoy it in the past. I have been inspired to give it another go by joining a challenge set by Lilla. I have ordered a Nike+ sports kit for the iPod Nano and will use it to log my runs once it arrives. I don’t imagine that I will get that far tonight but I have to make a start. 

Only last year by entering the ‘end to end’ mountain bike challenge did I realise that I never cycled fast enough. Cycling by myself I was always content with the speed I was going and used to ride at below my capacity, therefore never getting any faster. Today I am a lot faster a cyclist because I know I have to push myself harder, but I also know that I can cope with a faster pace. I am going to see if I can apply the same principle to my running. I have never managed anything faster than a jog so tonight I am going to run fast. I may not get far but I think I am better running fast and walking (interval style) than just jogging along for ever (not that I can do that either).

The last thing to do this evening after the kids are in bed is to plan my next 6 weeks of resistance workouts. I will post more when I have finalised the plan.

Today brings me to the end of my first 6 weeks of being on Phase 1. In reflection I am amazed that I feel a lot healthier and fitter than I did at the beginning. Last night before bed I felt happy for the first time in months. Eating a predominantly raw diet I have found myself content and not hungry at all. I have not craved any of the ‘junk’ foods that I used to eat. Not a single bar of chocolate or packet of crisps have passed my lips and I don’t feel the need to ever eat them again (although I am looking forward to making some raw chocolate from cacoa nibs, maca, suma and agave nectar for the superfood benefits). I have lost a fair amount of body fat but still have a very, very long way to go to become ‘ripped’. After the weigh-in tomorrow I will post the statistical results of this period.

After waking I went on the cross trainer. I thought I would try something a bit more challenging today and I went on the hill programme at level 3. The hill programme is just like the interval programme but on the third, and final, interval it is two levels higher than the previous intervals. I enjoyed the challenge. My legs were a little tired for the first 3 or 4 minutes but after that I found that having a base level of 3 was absolutely fine.

I had no other exercise today and I managed to eat well. I had a sleep in the afternoon and on waking could feel that my muscles were being repaired during the sleep. As normal, I didn’t wake naturally but with the kids jumping on me.

I pulled out a yoga book today to see if I might try and add some in to the second half of phase 1. My flexibility is so bad that daily or weekly ‘yoga pose’ photos may encourage me to see some progress.

Looking at the photo my torso looks a bit swollen on my right (photo left). I am not sure if this is just the photo or if I have eaten something. I had some brazil nuts last night and although I love eating nuts I think that they don’t agree with me (often giving my blister type allergies on my chin).

My legs felt heavy and tired this morning. I went out for a cycle ride along my normal Ballacrye and The Cronk route and although I didn’t feel like I had the normal amount of energy I still managed to ride along OK. I put in a time of 17:45 minutes which is fine for a low energy ride.

I was away from home on some work for the bulk of the day so I had to plan what food to take out with me for lunch. I chose a banana, an apple, some goji berries and some cashew nuts. This raw snack meal worked out well.

For this first time in over a week I put my work shirt and trousers on. They fitted a lot looser than they have done for a long time. I felt very comfortable in my clothes and this is another sign of my fat loss progress. I have also noticed that the muscles in my upper torso are becoming more noticeable to me, perhaps not visually but, through the feelings I get in my chest and shoulders when moving my arms and when lifting and pushing things.

This evening was abdominal night and I completed 15 reps on each of the 6 exercises. The last 6 weeks have seen me complete more abdominal exercises with regularity than I ever have. There is something about abs that I never bought in to. I would have liked a ’6 pack’ but never had the determination to make my weak abs stronger. I think that the weakness is the major factor and that I never made any progress in the past. My abs are so weak that I think it is going to take a lot of work and time to make them strong to the point that I actually enjoy ab exercises.

Wow, I am nearly at the half way stage of Phase 1. In a few days I will have hit that first milestone and I am looking forward to revealing the stats of my progress.

I managed to go for a cycle this morning on the road bike. The soreness had gone from my knees and I quite enjoyed an easy paced and relatively flat (compared to the last two routes) ride. I followed a reasonably long established route of mine taking in Sulby Bridge, Andreas, Leodest Road, Jurby and The Cronk. The distance of this ride is 15 miles and I covered it today in 58:45 minutes. This is one of the fastest times I have posted on this route despite it being an ‘easy’ ride.

A couple of the raw meals I had today included a marinara sauce over courgette (zucchini) spaghetti and some vegetable nori rolls containing avocado, bell pepper, carrot and cucumber. I also made a pesto sauce to try over the courgette spaghetti. I had never been a big fan of herbs before but they really bring out a strong flavour in these healthy raw meals. I did find some of these strong flavours repeating on me a few hours later!

Since waking up today I have had sore shoulders and can’t work out why this is the case. I don’t know if it from sleeping funny last night or if it is a delayed reaction to the mountain bike ride. Coming down some of the bumpy stony paths was very demanding on the forearms and grip. Perhaps it put an extra load on my shoulders too. I am sure like everything else it will sort itself out within a couple of days.

We have also booked to go away for an 8 day holiday later in the month. I am concerned about my eating and exercise routines being affected but the family needs a holiday. I will be looking for tips to keep things on track while away.

To finish off the day I went on the Bowflex for my resistance exercises. On Day 1 I created a 6 week plan of resistance exercises. Today is the last session on the sheet. I have managed to stick to every exercise on every planned day for the past 6 weeks. Starting next week I will create a new workout plan. While the first workout has served me well it is now starting to become too much to fit in to each session as I have become stronger. A feel like a split workout may be better for the second 6 weeks but I will decide over the next few days.

For the first time the workout was extremely difficult. I didn’t make any progress today and in some lifts I didn’t match the last workout. I think that the longer duration cycle rides have taken something out of me. My hamstrings were weaker, and not surprisingly my shoulders were weaker also. After the third exercise I thought about calling it a day and I remembered my accountability. I had to push myself through it even if it was just to try and match my previous lifts. Now that I have finished I am glad I did.

Today is probably the latest I have slept in for a long time. Although the kids were milling around I didn’t get out of bed until 9:30 am. and it felt good. My muscles felt quite good following on from yesterday’s mountain bike ride and the only real casualty is my knees (and a few bruises from flying rocks). I have some mild pain in the knees but this has eased up as the day has gone on. The other, mildly embarrassing, thing that I have is very sensitive nipples which I imagine I got from riding in a wet shirt with a backpack. I have applied some camomile ointment and that seems to have done the job.

As soon I was out of bed I went for my 15 minutes of morning exercise on the cross trainer and I completed the interval programme at level 1.

I have been thinking about some more raw foods today and what I can add to my diet. I haven’t felt so good for at least a decade due to eating more raw foods and super foods. During this last week I have felt good in the hips and lower abdomen. I think that my intestines and bowel are working a lot more efficiently and I don’t have any swelling or adverse feeling below the waist. The simple experience of just walking around feels so much better.

Providing the weather is good tomorrow morning I think I will go for a relatively flat cycle for no more than an hour.

I don’t know if today was a landmark or a mistake. Following on from how surprised I was with my cycle on Sunday I thought I would try a bit of a cycling experiment. I thought I would try and ride the mountain bike route that I followed in last year’s End to End cycle challenge. This would give me a benchmark as to if I might finish the event this year (last year I made it half way in 4 hours).

I got out of bed around about 9:00 am. and after having a fruit smoothie and loading my bottles with water I set off on the cycle at 10:00 am. I followed my normal Ballacrye and The Cronk route to warm up the legs before assaulting the off-road mountain climb. So, 22 minutes into the cycle I came across Ballacob. Ballacob is a very steep climb that takes you up to the top of the first hill. It is so steep I found myself in the lowest gear on my mountain bike within a minute and travelling at 2.5 mph while being out of breath. Within 10 minutes the legs were burning and I tried to keep a steady rate of climb stuck in that low gear. Near the top the climb gets so steep and ‘loose’ that it is virtually unrideable. I got off and pushed for about 80 metres through the challenging bit. It took me about 30 minutes to get to the top of Ballacob.

At the top it levels out but it is still a climb on tough, rutted grass for 3 miles. After that I rode for another 15 or so miles off-road up climbs and down hills. Some climbs were gentle and others found me back down in that low gear at 2.5 mph. I am unsure if I am just unfit or if those climbs really are just tough. I am sure that if I follow this route a few times over the Summer my body and legs will adapt and I should find it easier.

The weather was mixed. I had bright sun, fog and mist, drizzle, heavy rain and cold driving winds. I haven’t seen the weather so changeable for a while but at times I found the riding tough having wet hands on the handlebars and riding on slippery slate rock tracks.

Once I got to the end of the trail I followed the road back  home. The ride took me 3:08 hours and I covered approx. 25 miles. Not a great average speed but a very tough and challenging ride. In the challenge last year I covered a similar distance and challenge and it took 4:00 hours exactly. So, I must be fitter or more able this year. I never trained for the challenge last year and it was a complete shock to the system.

For the rest of the day I found myself exhausted. My legs were extremely tired and I found myself wanting to sleep. Now that the evening is here I find myself a bit more relaxed and not thinking about my legs. Other than my early morning 15 minutes I don’t plan to do any more exercise tomorrow.

I still have my abdominal exercises to do this evening and I am now on 14 reps per exercise.

I don’t know if you can see it but I have started to get ‘tan marks’ on my arms from riding out in the sun today.

Upon waking this morning I felt fine. My calves were a bit sore from the cycle yesterday so I thought I would do “the hair of the dog” and go for a cycle for my early morning exercise. I took the road bike along the Ballacrye and The Cronk route in 17:30 minutes. I was going fairly easy yet my time seemed quite good.

I went shopping with my family during the day. Today was one of those rare days on the Isle of Man where it was hot. Although I like it hot, it was hot and humid and became a little sticky and uncomfortable. Living on an island we have high humidity all year round. A needed some more goji berries and some storage containers to put such things in.

When I got home I needed to fix the puncture on my mountain bike. I hadn’t got around to fixing it after I got the puncture on my way home from work last Friday and as I plan to go for a substantial off-road cycle tomorrow I thought I had better fix it. On taking the front wheel out the brake pad fell out. The ceramic pad had come away from the metal backing. It was kept in due to some raised bumps located in hollows but as soon as the brake disc was removed the gap was large enough out it popped. I used some epoxy resin to glue it together again before reassembly.

Today is resistance exercise day and for the next couple of weeks I am going to assume, based on the last week’s experience, that my cycling should not affect it. Due to a busy day I am not going to get going until at least 9:30 pm. This isn’t ideal but should help me sleep tonight.

Finally, thanks to all of the other people in the ‘real time physique transformation community’ for the kind words and support yesterday. Thanks also to Adam Waters for mentioning this site in his Shredder Sunday #24 roundup. Hopefully I will feature again closer to the end of Phase 1.