As for progress, my shoulders are lacking and I really need to hammer those suckers to get some nice growth. My abs are slowly fading away because my diet is not as clean as I would hope it would be but eating a lot of clean food is hard!

College starts in 2.5 months and it’s a little nerve racking/exciting. I get to live on my own, do things the way I want to do it . I’ll see how it goes.

This is the super big secret to weight loss…… Are you ready for it? Burning more calories then what you take in! It doesn’t matter if you go zero carbs, if you are ingesting more calories then you are burning then you will not lose weight. No matter how hard you try, there is no way around it. If you dont exercise, you eat less than your Basal Metabolic Rate. If you do exercise then you eat a little more so your body doesn’t go catabolic (Using muscle as energy). It’s proportional, the more you exercise, the more you can eat.

2. Exercise

This is your tool to raising your metabolism and burning those excess calories. Any exercise will do if you are trying to lose weight. You have to keep the exercise intense though, not a brisk walk in the park because that will not cut it. Try sprinting or weight training, hey maybe even a combination of both! Don’t have a gym membership or weights? Then use your body weight to do exercises like push ups and sit ups.

3. Don’t Eat Processed Foods

Processed foods are a major reason as to by America is fat. The nutrients are stolen from the wholesome food and made into a commercially canned product. Don’t eat thing like canned soup or microwave dinners. Those suckers are filled with preservatives and they contain hardly any nutritional benefit. Stick to the outer edge of your super market and buy fresh foods like vegetables and meat. It is best to cook all of your meals, but if you really have no time then try to eat something small to curb your hunger until you can.

photo credit: uhtofu

Just say no!

4. Learn To Read Labels

Read read read! Those labels were put there for a reason. Don’t judge the product by the slim model on the front of the box saying that she lost 25 lbs in one week by eating the product. It doesn’t matter if it’s zero grams of fat, read the damn box. Stay away from sugars, saturated fats, sodium and a large ingredient list. Try to find the product with the highest amount of protein, moderate carbs, and fiber. If it does have carbs, then try to make it whole grain/wheat. If the product is high in fiber then the carbs are generally higher quality and better for you.

5. Set Goals and STRIVE for Them!

One of the most important things that a person trying to lose weight fails to do is set goals. A lot of people just start off without planning or setting goals and that is only setting them up to fail. People feel better when they accomplish goals and complete tasks, so why not set one and accomplish it? The extra boost of confidence that you get from reaching the goal will only push you harder in the right direction. Momentum will build and you will be speeding through and reaching levels that you never would of imagined possible. Believe me and try it. Set a goal like losing five pounds in two weeks or to only have fast food once a month. It doesn’t matter what the goal is because you will set the bar higher and higher each time.

photo credit: jepoirrier

photo credit: 0595

As for mothers day today, I’m eating lobster and lots of it! Seafood is packed with tons of essential vitamins and Omega 3 fatty acids to prevent heart disease. There is no proven data that shows that seafood prevents the build up of plaque in the arteries but seafood a couple of times a week will benefit your health immensely in the long run.

Loaded with protein and has a minuscule amount of fat, lobster is a perfect protein source.

]]> http://www.summershred.com/miscellaneous/mothers-day/feed/ http://www.summershred.com/miscellaneous/math-and-shoulders/ http://www.summershred.com/miscellaneous/math-and-shoulders/#comments Fri, 09 May 2008 00:21:29 +0000 admin http://www.summershred.com/?p=62 All of the work in AP Calculus class this year was put to the test today. Today was the day of my AP Calculus BC test, and man am I relieved that I’m done. It was a lot easier then the piles of practice tests that I had (I didn’t do 90% of them). It would suck if I get a 3 because Michigan doesn’t accept 3’s and they won’t convert the BC score to AB. O well, I am pretty confident that I did well. Tomorrow is AP English Literature (eh) . Tomorrow is going to be 10x worst then today because I am bad at poems, Shakespeare and analyzing literature. I can’t wait for the four hours of torture.

Enough with that. I haven’t hit the gym in 3 days and man was today a rush. I felt amazing and hyped up to hit the weights. I had my headphones blaring and I hit my shoulders and traps hard. My vascularity looks like its actually been going up despite the weight I’m putting on. I remember a while ago when I almost had a heart attack when I saw a tiny vein popping out of my shoulder. Now I got them running down both arms. This new pyramiding workout scheme feels great after running the same workouts for half a year.

Shoulders and Traps

• Dumbbell Press 1×15, 1×10, 1×8, 1×10, 1×15
• Dumbbell Shrugs 1×20, 1×15, 1×12, 1×15, 1×20
• Smith Machine Shoulder Press 1×15, 1×12, 1×10, 1×8, 1xFailure, 1xFailure
• Barbell Shrugs Supersetted with Lateral Raises 3×15 of each
• Deltoid Flys 1×15, 1×12, 1×10, 1×8, 1×12, 1×15, 1×20

I came home and went to the gym to have a nice chest workout. Man, I felt so sluggish and tired. my whole body ached for some reason, I haven’t lifted in a week either. It felt like slow torture. I’m also starting a new lifting routine. I’ve never used it before but a lot of people seem to recommend it. It’s called pyramiding. You go from high reps to low reps and back to high reps. I used around six sets per exercise. It looked a little something like this

Incline Bench

1×15, 1×10, 1×8, 1×6, 1×8, 1×15

Dumbbell Press

1×15, 1×10, 1×8, 1×6, 1×8, 1×15

Hammer Bench

1×15, 1×10, 1×8, 1×4, 1×8, 1×15

Cable Cross

1×15, 1×10, 1×8, 1×10, 1×15

It wasn’t too bad, besides the fact that I dragged my ass around the gym.

Later that night I hung out with my friend and his girlfriend. We played some video games and went out to eat. We didn’t go anywhere healthy either. It’s probably the best example of unhealthy. Buffalo Wild Wings. O yeahhh. I’ve never been there before but I’ve heard that it’s amazing. I got the Parmasan Garlic and Caribbean jerk boneless wings. The Parmasan Garlic was on the salty side and the Caribbean jerk was pretty good. A nice little cheat. It seems like I’m always cheating : O . The atmosphere was amazing. It was a very modern looking restaurant. Flat screen tv’s everywhere with nice tall ceilings. They only had sports on though, and I’m not a very big sports fan. It was very nice overall though.

They had a large list of sauces for your wings. From what I heard, Blazin isn’t even worth trying because it will hurt so bad.

• Sweet BBQ
• Teriyaki
• Mild
• Parmesan Garlic
• Medium
• Honey BBQ
• Spicy Garlic
• Asian Zing
• Caribbean Jerk
• Hot BBQ
• Hot
• Mango Habanero
• Wild
• Blazin

Buffalo Wild Wings

Overall – 7

• Pretty good restaurant. A great place to hang with friends and have a good time.

Taste - 8

• Pretty good. The Parmasan Garlic is a bit too salty.

Health Conscious – 4

• Not very many options for the health conscious. They have some wraps here and there, but they were not very health conscious either.

Atmosphere – 10

• The ceilings are high. Flat screen tv’s are everywhere. The air was clean and cool. An overall great atmosphere.

Time to hit the gym for a nice back day today. I still feel a little sluggish, but a lot better. See you guys later

photo credit: Vee Dub

this is not me lol.

I’ll be out of the gym for the rest of this week because I need rest for a track invitational coming up this Friday. Our three man discus team holds the record at that invitational and we hope to raise the bar higher this year. I hope to throw 140+ this track meet (yes alex, 140+). My school’s record is 147 and I hope to break that this year. As long as someone else doesn’t break it first. Man I want to hit the gym real bad.

It was a cool experience, but I don’t think I’ll attend any more amateur MMA fights anytime soon. If UFC is coming to town then count me in!

On a side note, I really need to start cleaning up my diet. This “I’m gaining weight so I can eat anything” excuse really needs to go. I’m going to get fat and you guys are going to see it. I’ll have some pictures up within the next couple of days with a neat little 3d thing if it goes well. Doing zero cardio is not too good for the waist line and heart. I am absolutely gassed when we do conditioning at track practice.

Procrastination is horrible and I really need to get some stuff done, so I’ll see you guys later.

My diet today was not the best. I had very little protein with my meals and ate what ever I had. Breakfast was pretty good, but then it went downhill from there. I arrived at the testing site and tested for two hours before having a little break. I had two peanut butter and jelly’s with some trail mix. It may not seem too bad, but I’m a little stricter then the average person. When I have little protein in my meal, it’s a bad meal; especially when it’s primarily composed of carbs and fat. Here comes the downhill part. My teacher asked people for three dollars if they wanted pizza and…… I caved. I haven’t had pizza in a long time so I decided to have some. After the four hour exam, the feast was on! Twenty six boxes of pizza, how could you not pig out? I had around eight slices of cheese pizza with garlic crust (mmmm). At about 170 calories per slice, I ate around 1360 calories in one sitting! I haven’t done that it a long while.

I mean I am trying to put on weight right? That’s what I tell myself to not feel as bad when I eat badly J . A little cheat every now and then isn’t too bad on a cut also because it both relieves you psychologically and jump starts your metabolism. When you are in a caloric deficit, your body naturally slows down and you go into a little slump. Your metabolism will slow down and you are going to lose fat slower. A cheat meal high in calories will restart that metabolism and bring you back up emotionally. Don’t cheat if you don’t need it. The best thing though would be a refeed, which has the same concept as a cheat but is cleaner. You basically up your calories for a day with “clean” foods like yams, oatmeal and other carbs.