Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Took a midday walk, didn't track it with MapMyRun or anything, but I covered approximately 3.75 miles which should be good for about 225 calories.

Relaxed for the rest of the afternoon, then went back out for a 5 mile walk, which burned 300 calories according to MapMyRun. Went home, changed into my running shoes, and went back out for a 15 minute run at about 7 mph followed by a 5 minute cool down, which combined burned roughly 240 calories.

All in all, I managed to burn just shy of 1300 calories through cardio alone today. Combine that with my BMR (with 1.2 sedentary multiplier) of 1733, and I don't feel so bad about getting into that jar of natural peanut butter

I've been experimenting with raw food over the past 2 days. I don't intend on switching to a raw diet; I just really enjoy experimenting in the kitchen. These lettuce wraps turned out great.
Diced tomato, onion, green pepper, cabbage, and avocado seasoned with garlic and pepper, tossed in a cashew cream dressing, then spooned on to spinach and strips of portobello and wrapped in a leaf of romaine.
The cashew sauce was the result of just throwing what ever I could find around the kitchen in to the blender with some cashews... it turned out amazingly well; almost tasted like alfredo. Glad I wrote down the recipe!

Pretty easy going morning cardio session today.
Met a friend at the gym and walked the treadmill for 45 minutes. Both of us had pretty much destroyed our legs over the past 2 days, so we spent a good 15 minutes or so stretching.

Treadmill said 200 calories burned.

Went for a 3 mile walk which took me to nearest Starbucks and then around the lake a few times. MapMyRun says 341 calories.

I'd planned on training back and biceps today, but my body is pretty much wrecked from the past 48 hours and some serious fatigue is setting in... I think I'll take it easy for the weekend and come back strong in the gym next week.

On a positive note, I think I'm managed to burn off all of the Vegas/binge/FatTuesdays/MargarittaVilleAllYouCanDrinkFor$25 bloat My weight has dropped from 174 lbs back to 160 lbs over the past 48 hours and I look only slightly softer than I did before I left...

The next getaway is scheduled for the Canada day long weekend; I'm heading to Penticton with some friends. So, I've got just shy of 6 weeks to get as lean as I possibly can for that; one of the guys in the group and I seem to have a standing competition for who can be the leanest when vacation season rolls around... he's beat me for the past couple of years, but I intend to win this time!

I think I'd like to pick up a set of body fat callipers, or go somewhere to have it properly tested. I would estimate that I'm sitting at around 10%, but I've been relying on the US Navy and YMCA formulas and since hitting 160lbs they've been spitting out estimates that seem way too low (6%ish). I think the math is being thrown off by the fact that I just naturally have a very narrow waist (one of the measurements on which they rely... right now I need a belt to hold up size 30 pants). Honestly, the number itself isn't that important, it would just help with planning; estimating fat free mass, how far I have to go to hit 6%, etc... Anyway, I figure I have about 8lbs to lose, so if I can maintain a caloric deficit through diet and exercise of roughly 680 per day, I should be at or near my goal by the long weekend.

Was feeling a bit restless after almost 2 rest days, so I went out last night for some evening cardio. No idea how many calories burned, but I was gone for about an hour or so, did some jogging, skipping, and a lot of stair sprints.

Boxing tonight, so it was an early morning training session today.

Back and Biceps

• Warm up - 5 minutes walk to the gym (left it at this; short on time)
• Deadlift - 185 x 5, 195 x 5, 205 x 5, 210 x 4 Really focused on form this morning, and returned the weight right to the floor on each rep
• Clean - 95 x 8, 110 x 7, 115 x 5 (failed on 5th)
• Wide grip pull ups - Bodyweight x 5, 5, 4
• Bent over rows - 125 x 8, 135 x 8, 135 x 8
• Preachers curls- 75 x 8, 75 x 5 failed on 6th, 75 x 7
• Lat pull down - 130 x 8, 140 x 8, 130 x 8
• Dumbbell curls - 35 x 8, 30 x 8, 30 x 8 (arms were getting pretty fatigued by this point)
• Hammer curls - 40 x 7, 35 x 8 superset with 21s - 20 lbs
• Farmer's carry Weight is per hand - 80 lbs for 47 steps, 65 lbs for 78 steps, 65 lbs for 62 steps, 45 lbs for 186 steps

Did weights again this morning instead of cardio... starting to like the early morning lifting sessions.

Chest, Triceps, and Shoulders

• Warm up - 5 minute jog to the gym
• Bench press - 185 x 5, 190 x 5, 150 x 6, 160 x 5, 160 x 6 In the first 2 sets, I was only bringing my upper arm to parallel with the floor, the next 3 were right to my chest. I've avoided that range of motion for a while now due to a shoulder injury years ago, but it felt fine this morning.
• Push press - 100 x 4, 85 x 7, 90 x 6 (failed at 7)
• Weighted Dips - 25 x 8, 30 x 7, 35 x 5 dropset to bodyweight for another 2 reps
• Skull crushers - 85 x 8, 90 x 8, 95 x 8
• Cable flys - 60 x 8, 70 x 8, 80 x 6 (failed at 7)
• Lateral flys - 25 x 10, 30 x 10, 35 x 7
• Overhead cable press - 120 x 10, 140 x 7, 130 x 6 (failed at 7)
• Pushups - all sets to failure 14, 8, 7

AM Cardio Session
Treadmill:

• Avg. speed: 4.0 mph
• Avg. grade: 4.5%
• Duration: 60 minutes
• Distance: 3.93 miles
• Calories: 456

Weighed in at 159.5 lbs this morning.

Yesterday's workout...

Back and Biceps

• Warm up - 5 minutes walk to the gym
• Deadlift - 205 x 5, 225 x 3 (failed at 4), 210 x 4, 200 x 5
• Clean - 115 x 4, 110 x 5, 110 x 5
• Wide grip pull ups - Bodyweight x 5, 5, 4
• Preachers curls- 75 x 9, 80 x 7, 85 x 7
• Lat pull down - 150 x 8, 140 x 7, 120 x 8 went with a much wider grip on the final set
• Dumbbell curls - 40 x 8, 45 x 7, 40 x 7
• Hammer curls - 35 x 8, 35 x 7 superset with 21s - 20 lbs

Chest, tris, and shoulders tonight.

5:30am Lifting session...

Chest, Triceps, and Shoulders

• Warm up - 5 minute jog to the gym
• Bench press Focused again on getting the bar right to my chest - 170 x 4 failed at 5, 160 x 7, 160 x 7 Felt so week for these sets! I don't think I warmed up enough...
• Push press - 85 x 8, 90 x 6 failed at 7, 95 x 7
• Weighted Dips - 35 x 8, 40 x 8, 40 x 6 dropset to bodyweight for another 2 reps
• Lateral flys - 35 x 8, 35 x 8, 30 x 10
• Cable flys - 80 x 10, 90 x 8, 100 x 6 failed at 7
• Overhead cable press - 140 x 8, 140 x 8, 130 x 6 failed at 7
• Pushups - 1 quick set to failure

Whoa, haven't updated in a little while.
It's been mostly just cardio and compound lifts over the past week... but, I haven't been recording the weights/reps...

This morning's workout:

• 20 minutes on the treadmill; 4.3mph at a 5% grade
• Full clean and press This is my new favourite movement
  • Focused on explosive but controlled movement, paying a lot of attention to proper form, returning the weight to the floor and briefly removing my hands from the bar after each rep.
  • 115 lbs x 4
  • 95 lbs x 6
  • 95 lbs x 6
  • 100 lbs x 6
  • 100 lbs x 5
• Deadlifts Was feeling fairly fatigued at this point, but thought I'd give it a shot...
  • 135 lbs x 8
  • 205 lbs x 3
  • ... and that was the end of that.
• Back on the treadmill for another 20 minutes; 4.0mph at a 4.5% grade

Boxing tonight!

Alright, it's time to get back on track. My training has been pretty slack (not quite as bad as the frequency of my journal updates would suggest, but bad nonetheless) and my diet has been awful; I've essentially made no progress since May... in fact, I've put on a couple pounds of fat around the midsection.

I'm going to take the next 2 weeks to get my routine back together and figure out my maintenance calories.
As far as weight training is concerned, I'm going back to basics and picking up the Starting Strength program.

The routine is/will be as follows:

• Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
  
  • AM - Weights (Starting Strength program)
  • PM - MMA/BJJ/submission wrestling
• Tuesday and Thursday
  
  • AM - 1 hour of cardio (usually roadwork/treadmill)
  • PM - Boxing
• Saturday
  
  • Whatever cross training/conditioning work I'm in the mood for... no weights, though
• Sunday
  
  • Full day of rest

Today was day 1 of Starting Strength, so the weights are pretty low as I try to find a good starting point.

Day 1 - Routine A

• Warm up - 5 minutes walk to the gym & 10 minutes on the bike
• Squats
  • Warm up sets: 3x5x45lbs, 2x5x60lbs, 1x3x70lbs, 1x2x90lbs
  • Working sets: 1x5x135lbs, 2x5x115lbs (should have been 135lbs for all 3 sets, but I'm not used to going all the way down to the floor and I was struggling)
• Military Press
  • Warm up sets: 3x5x45lbs, 2x5x55lbs, 1x3x70lbs, 1x2x80lbs
  • Working sets: 3x5x90lbs
• Deadlift
  • Warm up sets: 3x5x45lbs, 2x5x95lbs, 1x3x135lbs, 1x2x165lbs
  • Working sets: 1x5x205lbs

AM Cardio Session
It's a beautiful day today so I went for a brisk walk around the lake instead of hitting the treadmill.
4.5 miles in an hour for 228 calories (according to MapMyRun, but that seems low; the same walk on the treadmill tells me ~500 most calorie calculators put it at around 450)

Today was day 2 of Starting Strength. The gym was absolutely packed and I didn't manage to get bench press done, so that'll be bumped to Friday...

Day 2 - Routine B

• Warm up - 5 minutes walk to the gym
• Power Cleans
  • Warm up sets: 2x5x45lbs, 1x5x65lbs, 1x3x90lbs, 1x2x120lbs
  • Working sets: 1x5x135lbs (forgot that it's 5 sets of 3 reps for cleans, so did 5 reps. Weight felt light, so bumped it up), 1x3x145lbs (failed on rep 3, reduced weight for following sets), 3x3x135lbs
• Squats
  • Warm up sets: 3x5x45lbs, 1x3x65lbs, 1x2x90lbs
  • Working sets: 3x5x120lbs I've never squatted all the way to the floor before... it feels like a completely different exercise

Added a set of dumbbell curls at the end 1x8x40lbs.