Really not sure the best way to post my food for the day, so I am going to try a few different ways. Calories were a little high, as well as fat. PDF link to my diet is below:
Click here: July 7, 2009 Food Log
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Calories
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It has been awhile since I lifted upper body. This workout felt like a 100 meter dash repeated over and over again with each exercise. I was exhausted, but felt great when leaving the gym.
Format: Weight X Repetitions
Dumbbell Shoulder Press
35×12
45×10
45×10
Good Mornings
95×6
25×12
25×12
Standing Barbell Press
95×10
135×10
135×10
Overhead Pull downs
150×12
170×12
190×10
Machine Rows (Superset with Single Arm Pull downs)
130×10
130×10
130×10
Single Arm Pull downs
70×10
70×10
70×10
Side Shoulder Dumbbell Lifts
12×15
12×12
12×12
Dumbbell Kettle-style Lifts
20×6
Back Extension (Superset with Plate Rotations)
45×10
45×10
45×10
Plate Rotations
25×3
25×3
25×3
Between the knee surgeries and gaining back some of the weight from my initial weight loss, my legs are not back 100%. Not only does my knee still need to heal up but the quadriceps, hamstrings and calves are all weaker and less conditioned than they were seven months ago. In the past, I could do leg extensions with the whole weight rack at the gym for reps of 10. Now, I can’t even budge it one millimeter.
If I had to put a number on the overall condition of my legs, I would say they are about 60%. Some of that missing 40% is mental. I have no idea if my knee with recover back to what it once was and that uncertainty is not an easy mental hurdle to jump over. All I can do is push it daily with my rehab and continue with RICE treatment – Rest Ice Compress Elevation.
Today was such a beautiful July 4th day that I decided to shoot baskets at a local outdoor park. I haven’t shot a basketball outdoors in at least eight years, maybe more. As a kid, I played at outdoors parks all the time- day, night, weekend, rain, it did not matter. As I got older and could afford to join local gyms, I became spoiled by the air conditioned, perfectly manicured basketball courts provided by an indoor facility. So when I started to shoot around today under the blue sky and Florida sun, I felt great. After ten minutes, my knee was loose and the sweat was pouring down my face. After twenty minutes, my legs started to get tired and my shooting form was getting sloppy from the fatigue. After thirty minutes, I was done. I wanted to push my knee further, who wouldn’t? There was no pain and I was curious to see how my knee would handle a single leg jump or a strong pivot with more stress on my knee. I caught myself mid-thought and slowed myself down. There will be a time to test my knee out, but that time is not now when I am still out of shape and overweight.
When I was down to 292, I was able to lift weights, do a full plyometric workout AND then shoot around. Even at 292, my conditioning was stellar for my size. As much as I wanted to push myself today, I used some common sense and stopped when I was tired. Yes, it is a letdown to know that I am so far away from where I was just seven short months ago. It is easy to undermine my own efforts by being too hard on myself, so I try to remind myself each and every day that all these small steps will lead me down the path to my ultimate goal.
Here are some great quotes I found about taking small steps:
“It is better to take many small steps in the right direction than to make a great leap forward only to stumble backward.”
“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.”
“Have a bias toward action – let’s see something happen now. You can break that big plan into small steps and take the first step right away.”
Having read Lance Armstrong’s book It’s Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life
Lance’s new Nike commercial titled “Driven” is one of the most inspiring video clips I have ever seen. Check it out:
Here are some links to support his amazing fight against cancer.
Oakley and Lance Armstrong have raised $1,400,000 in support of the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Each pair of glasses you buy donates $20 to this worthy cause.
Nike and Lance Armstrong have raised more than $80,000,000 with a full line of clothing, shoes and high quality Nike equipment. I have a $50 Nike gift card I am going to use right now to buy some workout shoes.
Lance Armstrong’s Foundation contributes a stellar 78% of all donations to grants and programs that support cancer-related causes.
I initially planned to post what I ate every day when I started blogging again, but it slipped my mind. These are the two days I missed posting for June 29th and June 30th.
As far as my game plan, I want to focus on keeping calories at around 2500. This seems to be a happy medium for me. I have the satisfaction of eating enough so I don’t feel like I am depriving myself and the calories are low enough to have substantial weight loss while losing minimal muscle mass. In a perfect world, I would aim for a 40% carbohydrate, 40% protein and 20% fat macro nutrient breakdown. As I mentioned in a previous post about the 40-40-20, most people use it to cut fat (which is my goal) as opposed to building muscle. I ate more lunch meat than I normally would, but the smoked turkey deli meat is too good to pass up for the price and convenience. Two pieces of wheat bread, a little mustard, slap on some turkey and I am good to go.
My eating needs to be fine tuned so I have more energy throughout the day. I wake up at 7am for work and usually do not get to the gym until 10pm. I plan to go shopping tonight at Publix and load up on some quality food, especially for snacking purposes. I ordered Peeled Snacks Go-Mango-Man-Go, 1.40-Ounce Boxes (Pack of 10)
