Psychoholic's "I ain't wearin no grass skirt!" log - Team Norton!

[Psychoholic]

Let's try this for the 5th time.

Super short introduction - currently around 275-280, unknown bodyfat. Here are some pics from walking around the Arnold (I'm probably 15 lbs fatter now)

http://gallery.me.com/psychoholic/100190/P1020295/web.jpg?ver=12680576280001
http://gallery.me.com/psychoholic/100190/P1020485/web.jpg?ver=12680579370001
http://gallery.me.com/psychoholic/100190/P1020482/web.jpg?ver=12680579460001
http://gallery.me.com/psychoholic/100190/P1020488/web.jpg?ver=12680580180001

My various attempts to cut so far have been fruitless and have fallen victim to the same damned thing every time - me. I don't mind doing the work and I don't mind dieting or cardio or lifting, it's I don't seem to like making myself accountable for the things I do when it comes to diet (which is abnormal considering how I am with the rest of my life), so I have enlisted the help of the mighty Dr. Layne Norton to help me and for me to be accountable to. I'm not going to let him down.

Stay tuned here for daily updates.

[Psychoholic]

Forgot to mention the grass skirt thing.

I have a friend who is about the same build as me (probably 15 lbs lighter, but 3 inches shorter) and we wanted to make a little wager. Here are the details:

"The bet is that both myself and <friend - name removed> (loser) will enter and compete in a natural bodybuilding show around the beginning of April 2011. Since most federations don't post their dates until a few months out, we'll have to decide on a contest around December/January.

I suspect that most have the same rules around what is allowed and what isn't.

http://www.snbf.com/rules.html

The 'wager' is that the loser or the one that doesn't enter (loser by default) has to cut the winner's grass wearing a grass skirt while being videoed. I would imagine that a pair of shorts, socks and shoes are acceptable underneath. Loser is defined as both parties enter the contest (probably in the same weight/height class) and does not accrue as many points or place as high as the other. In the event that they are of different classes, then the number of points will be compared. In the event of a tie - we will request that the judges of the event judge the 2 side by side and rule. If this is not possible, then an impartial panel must be found.

If both parties back out of the deal, then they BOTH have to cut the other's grass in the aforementioned skirt.

I am going to military volunteer <other friend> to be the neutral party for this since he holds us both in the same level of regard (and would get the biggest kick out of us having to do stupid ****) and can make sure the contest moves forward appropriately.

Reply to this email with agreement to officially kick off this contest, and may the best bodybuilder (me) win."

[co1e_train]

Awesome man! A log will help keep you accountable. Glad to see you take charge man. Dr. Norton will get you to where you want to be. Have full faith!


-the train

[bucsfan]

In for this. Good luck man.

[Psychoholic]

Mornin BB.com peeps.

I took starting pics this morning and weighed myself - I was not a happy camper with the pictures. Granted taking pics 10 minutes after waking up and with zero pump is not exactly how one should feel good when thinking bodybuilding, but it works and it can be consistent. Funny that my arms are 18.5" unpumped and 19.25" when pumped. =)

I need to knock out 2 or 3 days of HIIT each week and a few lower intensity days too. I decided that I would do the HIIT in the pool since it is pretty much the biggest ass kicker for cardio I've ever done. Managed 6 good laps of a strong breast stroke to get warmed up, rested for about a minute then had 6 full tilt laps (25m) of freestyle, roughly a minute of rest in between each one. Good stuff!

If you're interested in seeing my food each day, I'll be logging with this:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/psychoholic

[Psychoholic]

I have to say that of phrases that motivate a brother, walking in the door and rendering your wife speechless with how awesome your shoulders look is definitely up there. Such terms as 'holy ****!' and 'wow, your shoulders look amazing... I mean... wow!'.

Felt pretty good today, right up until I stood up on the rear delt flye machine and crowned my f'n head. I developed a righteous headache about 10 seconds later and decided that shrugs could get skipped.

Seated military press - 25@bar,12@95,12@135,9@155

Front db raise: 10@25,10@30,10@35,10@30

Leaning side lay raises: 10@30,10@30,10@35,10@35

Rear delt fly: 30@75, 10@130,10@130,10@130

Smith shrugs: 20&225 (pull and hold)

[Psychoholic]

As luck would have it - I got sick as hell the last 2 days. Not like puking, but my energy has been completely not there, fever, sore throat. I have pretty much played God of War 3 from my couch all day and rested.

On a cool note, these came today!

http://www.heavygrips.com/en/p16909260.html

I'm very excited about them. I think my biceps are awesome, but my forearms only measuring 14.5" just ain't gonna cut it.

[Psychoholic]

Still feel like ass, but had an AWESOME leg workout.

Vsquat (machine weighs 54, so add 54 to all of these): 12@90, 12@180, 7@360, 7@450, 1@470, dropped 470.

Stiff leg deadlift: 10@135, 7@225, 4@315, 4@315 (hands were slipping),

Seated leg ext: 12@210, 12@210, 12@250 (very hard), 10@270 (failure),

Lying leg curl: 12@110,10@155, 10@155, 10&155

Single leg calf ext: 5 x 20@270,

[Psychoholic]

Couple of phrases that help get me hyped:

"You may beat me, but it won't be because you outworked me"

"You aren't here to work out, you are here to train"

"You working hard? He's working harder!"

"You don't want to step on stage with bird legs do you?"

[Psychoholic]

Scale said 271 this morning - mighty happy about that. My lung capacity still isn't full there yet, but I do feel a little better. Not 100%, but I'll live.

Did some HIIT in the pool this morning - 5 laps of breast stroke to get the heart going then 25m swims at full tilt, as hard as I could possibly swim with a minute of heaving rest at the end of each lap - managed 4 and thought I might die. Got done, went to the car and my body was shaking! I would consider that a damn fine workout.

[Psychoholic]

Howdy BB.com folk.

Did pretty pitifully over the holiday and my subsequent birthday, but felt I got it out of my system. I feel hyper motivated and ready to tear up the world.

Did some crazy shoulders today. Started with standing arnold presses and supersetted with incline front raises. Minute or less of rest between sets.

From there added leaning side raises and lying side raises in a superset.

Did one arm heavy rear raises supersetted with bench rear raises.

Front shrugs supersetted with shoulder bombs.

Finally ended with hanging leg raises supersetted with db oblique crunches on the hyperextension bench. I was pretty well ruined after.

Food has been awesome today - should be right on target for my metrics if I can sneak in another meal somewhere.

[Psychoholic]

Weight: 276

Feel pretty good this morning - went and did HIIT in the pool this morning, got a few more laps than last time, but it's still an ass kicker. I was working on my breathing a bit more this time too, so hopefully I can get that figured out so I don't come out of the water sounding like the next plunge will be my last.

Here's to another great day!

[bucsfan]

Weight: 276

Feel pretty good this morning - went and did HIIT in the pool this morning, got a few more laps than last time, but it's still an ass kicker. I was working on my breathing a bit more this time too, so hopefully I can get that figured out so I don't come out of the water sounding like the next plunge will be my last.

Here's to another great day!

HIIT in the pool sounds rough! I did my HIIT this morning on a arc trainer and it kicked my tail. Keep up the good work man.

[Psychoholic]

HIIT in a pool is no joke - I highly recommend it.

Had a simply bodacious back workout with Alex (http://bodyspace.bodybuilding.com/P1Gorilla/) today (my training partner). I would like to add that this is without gloves or straps.

Started out with the neutral bar cable rows - 10@65, 10@255, 10@300, 10@300, 10@275
Reverse grip iso lat pulldown machine - 10@180, 5@230, 10@180, 10@180, 6@230
db rows - 8@125 right hand, 1@125 left hand (NO grip strength left), 4 x 10@100.

A few months ago I was trying to deadlift 405 (which I can pull 6 or 7 times usually) without straps and I simply could not hold the bar - this bugged me. If I want to ever compete in powerlifting I'm going to need better grip. This is why I've got my HeavyGrips and why I quit using straps.

I feel obliterated right now.

[Psychoholic]

Slept really good last night - got up this morning and the wife noticed that I'm losing weight already (probably just leveling out from the poor food of the other day - but it's nice to hear). Went slightly over my macros for carbs yesterday, so we'll have to adjust today to make them closer to where they need to be.

Did not get up and do cardio this morning, had to finish up a few things for my boss before my day-o-meetings begin.

[Psychoholic]

I feel great this week and my workouts have definitely reflected it. Didn't do anything crazy heavy, just felt really good and my form was spot on. My chest has so much pump to it that it hurts to try and reach across my own body!

Supersetted incline smith press with incline db flyes - don't remember the weights, but they didn't move mountains. I am trying a more narrow grip and putting my elbows more forward to relieve some of the tension from my shoulders and focus on my chest.

Then we laid the bench 'almost' flat, meaning that we put about 2 clicks up on angle and did that for incline and flyes again - 5 sets of 10. I was sweating buckets by the end of the workout.

My food has been good today so far and looks like I should be within metrics for the day again today.

[Psychoholic]

Yesterday's metrics were spot on! Probably need to resort my food so that I'm not running out of food by the end of the day and I need to pair my carb/protein combos better - but for now I'm gathering what makes up a good day and I can sort it later.

Got home last night and did 20 minutes on the elliptical with a heart rate of around 160 and I was SPENT! Had to get some spreadsheets done this morning so I didn't work out, but about to go KILL arms.

As an aside - my lats are f'n wrecked from our back day the other day.

[Psychoholic]

Bad-ass arm workout!

Superset hammer db curls and ez curl wide grip curls: 10@25/12@40, 10@45/10@70, 9@50/10@70, 8@45/10@70, 10@45/10@70

Superset on arm overhead extension/ez curl overhead extension: 12@25/10@50, 10@35/10@70, 10@35/10@70, 10@35/10@70, 10@35/10@70

Superset spider curls/reverse grip db curls: 10@35/10@30, 10@35/10@35, 10@30/10@35, 9@25/10@30

Seated dip machine: 20@230 - figured that the machine wasn't going to cut it today so I did bodyweight dips - 3 x 10 x bodyweight (~275).

I managed to get the trainers at the gym to let me borrow the huge rope and the weighted sled - put 4 plates on the sled to warm up and did 50 foot pulls with it.

http://gallery.me.com/psychoholic/100061/Sled/web.jpg?ver=12787723270001

Put 5 plates on it and did about 6 full length pulls - that was awesome!!

Well, off to see the in-laws.

[Psychoholic]

Today was brought to you by the letters HFS. Holy F'n S**t! Saw Layne post on his facebook once that he was going to go do car pushes for cardio and I thought that sounded like an awesome time. So me and my Sunday morning harem (every Sunday my wife Nikki and I go work out with some friends of ours and their husbands rarely go - so it's just me and 3 women that I call my harem) decided it would be an awesome day to push my corolla around the parking lot of a local park.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvB5doFo14o

Here is my wife doing it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bx7UYjDpCM

I seriously thought I was going to puke afterwards. Its been 3 hours and I'm still hot and feel completely drained. Totally doing this again next week sometime!

Time to go grill 10 lbs of chicken for the week.

[Psychoholic]

My friend backed out of the challenge in favor of a boxing match - I'll give him that one. I made a statement to my wife telling her about him backing out and I guess the bet was off and she basically told me that I'm going to compete and I'm going to place or I'm going to have to wear a grass skirt and coconut bra!!! So I'm not just competing against another fat guy, I'm now going to have to beat other bodybuilders.

Did laps in the pool yesterday but I don't consider it good cardio since I was focused more on technique and breathing than actual cardio work.

Yesterday was legs and it was offensively painful as is evident by my decreased motion today. Started off with leg extensions, did 3 sets of 40 reps (2 warm up first) where I went to 210 for 10, 150 for 10, 90 for 10 and 210 for upper range partials. Sweet jesus!

Then came leg press - loaded up 3 plates and did a set of 20, a set of 30, 36 reps with 2 plates and 32 with 2 plates.

Went to the vsquat and did 2 sets of 20 at 200 backwards (facing the pad), finished off with the hip abduction and adduction machines for 3 sets of 20 each at max weight. Hobbled out of the gym and went home.

[Psychoholic]

What a day, what a day. Pretty much started working at around 6:30 this morning and didn't stop till about 7:30 tonight. Didn't get to work out at all and I'm a little miffed about that - oh well, tomorrow we'll kill it on shoulders.

Ready to add another dimension to my cardio regime? Mountain biking!

http://gallery.me.com/psychoholic/100061/photo-201/web.jpg?ver=12790519450001

My insane workout partner Alex knew I was in the market for a bike and he offered me this one as a loaner for a bit! Add this to the running, car pushes, elliptical, swimming and now biking and you've got a pretty good way to make sure I get 5 days of hard cardio in each week without being bored.

Gonna eat some cottage cheese and head to bed.

[Psychoholic]

And for any of you bike geeks out there - it's a 2000-2001 GT XCR-1000 with Shimano XTR rear, XT front, diore crank, fox vanilla float r rear shock, xmo xc o2 front forks and a bunch of other good parts. I'm excited as hell to just ride around my neighborhood for cardio this morning!

[NaturalLoco]

just found this log

your in good hands; he knows his stuff! subba dub dubbed

[Psychoholic]

Shoulder destruction!

Seated side laterals: 20@10 warm up.

12@15,20,25,15,10 straight!
12@10,15,20,15,10 ugh!!

Seated db ohp: 20@40, 20@40, 16@40

Partial side lat: 30@30 standing, 30&30 seated, 30@25 standing

Rope pulldowns: 30@85, 20@110, 15@110

Various shrugs.

I'm also happy to say I was down 3 lbs this morning.

[Psychoholic]

Back:

neutral grip wide pulldown 12@85, 12@180, 10@240, 10@240, 10@240

Reverse grip smith rows: 10@90, 10@180, 10@180, 8@180

Hammer front pulldown: 10@100 each, 12 front grip/12 underhand grip at 60, 10@100

Mid width neutral grip cable rows: 12@200, 8@260, 10@260, 9@260

Quick set of hammer curls with the 50's and called it a day.

Might go out and ride the bike here in a bit.

[Psychoholic]

"What do you want to eat for lunch?"
"STEAK!"
"Sounds good"

Man I do love Texas Roadhouse. Felt weird to get the 8 oz sirloin instead of the 16, some sauteed onions/mushrooms and a sweet potato with the butter and cinnamon on the side. Didn't realize how calorically high the rolls were until after I ate 2 of them (227 calories each!), but the food was AWESOME. There is something just perfect about a really good steak.

[Psychoholic]

I am digging the new bb.com' iPhone app!

About to head out and do car pushes.

Got to want it to win it!!

[Psychoholic]

Good oogly moogly! That was f'n tough.

Did 3 x 1/4 mile up hill (albeit slight - maybe 10-15 feet total incline over 1/4 mile) car pushes. This was twice the distance of last week's pushes.

For entertainments sake I did the last set with 4 adults and 2 kids in the car.

I'm going to go die now...

[Psychoholic]

Went mountain biking this morning - and got LOST!

http://runkeeper.com/user/Psychoholic/activity/13060517

Had a blast, was sweating buckets and legs were on FIRE but had a blast.

[Psychoholic]

This is the story I posted on my facebook page - thought I'd share it here too.

Went to Harbins this morning to hit the trails - try and get in a 30 minute ride and just have some fun. Went around trail MB1 which was pretty short and lots of fun, covered that in 15ish minutes or so, grabbed my water and thought 'I'll go hit the next loop - should be fun'.

Apparently I made a wrong turn and ended up on the hiking trail and equestrian trails (which have NO maps) - long story made short - I got LOSSSSSST! Wasn't sure I was going the right direction at all, didn't know which way to go to get back and kept having this nagging feeling that I was almost back to the paved path so I kept on going. I did have to walk a few points (legs were on fire) but still was having a blast. So my 30 minute ride took an hour and 10 minutes.

I finally made my way to the paved path and saw a walker - imagine this scene if you will - me, sweaty as hell, kinda muddy, looking particularly deranged come flying out of the woods onto the trail, panting with a happy gusto.

"Excuse me ma'am <pant, pant>- do you know where I am?"

She looked scared.

"How about this <pant>, do you know which trail I'm on?"
"I've only walked the one"
"Do you know where the playground is?"
She points, I thank her and ride to the hill.

I do have to wonder why I waited so long to get a bike, this was AWESOME.

http://runkeeper.com/user/Psychoholic/activity/13060517

[Psychoholic]

Took yesterday as an off day - was in meetings for 90% of the day and just didn't have time really. Been 16 days without a cheat meal and I'm not even craving one. I love the way that Layne has my diet setup, just giving me the macros and telling me when to do them I can pretty much eat whatever as long as it's in my metrics.

Scale said 271 this morning, so I was definitely happy about that and I went swimming. Again, I'm trying to work on my technique so I don't come up gasping for air like I'm drowning

[Psychoholic]

Went and did shoulders yesterday - looked impressive. Tried some new hand angles and really just blasted every head completely. Rope pulldowns and upright tricep rope rows really kill the rear delts!

Today - had a pretty bodacious chest workout, didn't write it down - didn't feel real strong, but felt motivated so I killed it.

After we got home I decided (despite the 100+ degrees outside) that I would go mountain biking with one of my best friends. Had a BLASSSSSST! Was sweating my balls off before I even got the bike off the car, but the trails were shady so it wasn't terrible. He's been just as long off the bike as I am, so we killed it where we could and just enjoyed it everywhere else.

http://runkeeper.com/user/Psychoholic/activity/13358439

It was over 5 miles of offroad, but had to stop a few times and take calls from work (had major issues that needed either his or my attention) so the times aren't completely accurate and I forgot to start Runkeeper a few times.

OH and most important - the scale went down another 2 or 3 lbs (my home scale isn't accurate for ****, but I use it as a general measure and it was 3 lbs lighter than when the gym scale was at 271).

[Psychoholic]

Saw this posted the other day and laughed:

Real men of geniussssss. We salute you Mr. Overachieving Bodybuilder Guy (MR. OVERACHIEVING BODYBUILDER GUY). With your muscles strong and the size of a 100 lbs tire, you have to buy two plane tickets just to fly. And we admire your ability to overlook the Wii telling you that you are obese, although during the off season you probably are (ATE TOO MUCH FRIED CHICKEN!). You suit up in a thick layer of iodine colored paint and wear a speedo a color only Elton John could appreciate (YEAH Better hide your Rocket Man!). So here's to you Mr. Overachieving BodyBuilder Guy. May all the chicks swoon in your presence, just hope the floor holds you up (MR. OVERACHIEVING BODYBUILDER GUY..................).

[Psychoholic]

I know I didn't eat enough yesterday, but it was fun, so no worries.

My normal Sunday crew and I decided that today we were going to go hiking. We maintained the same pace the entire way, a very exact 4 mph and my GPS on my phone wasn't being terribly accurate but we figured it was right at 8 miles in 2 hours. Definitely glad I took my gallon jug of water! I needed it.

You might be a bodybuilder if...

This week's protein.

http://gallery.me.com/psychoholic/100061/IMG_2011/web.jpg?ver=12800919420001

[Psychoholic]

Another crazy week at work - my stress levels were through the roof and I damned sure didn't work out enough or eat enough. So far I've had what amounted to a single cheat meal in the past 25 days - and even it wasn't that bad (this huge piece of grilled tuna, side of broccoli and sweet potatoes). I don't think I've even had a sweet tea in a month and it's definitely showing.

Took progress pics this morning and I can see a huge improvement that 12 lbs can have.

Went mountain biking this morning with my wife and some friends, had a great time. That is such good exercise and you don't even think that you are essentially doing HIIT while doing these crazy switchbacks and hard ascents, but it's 'PEDALPEDALPEDALPEDALPEDALCLIMBJUMP.... coast.... PEDALPEDALPEDALCLIMB.. coast... switchback...coast... jump.... OH SH******!' for about an hour plus every time. I bought a Camelbak (2L) and drank all of it and still never had to pee.

I'm on vacation this week, and I plan to make it a super active vacation with lots of biking, swimming, running, hiking, and TONS of lifting (and a few rounds of golf thrown in for good measure). Hopefully come in around 265-263 by next Saturday.

[Psychoholic]

I am officially on VACATION!

This hopefully will be the single most active vacation I've ever had with lots of biking, running, swimming, golf, lifting, welding, and video gaming!

And despite the stigma that it might have, I also plan on enjoying quite a few of the fine stogies in my humidor. =)

[Psychoholic]

Alas vacation is over.

Didn't quite get as much done as I wanted to - only played golf once, only got to lift twice but did go and do some hellacious mountain biking twice, so that was pretty awesome.

Didn't eat great this weekend, but not 'terrible' either - so it shouldn't be too terribly bad to fix.

I'm back at it though, and happily back in my daily routine. I went swimming this morning, knocked out about 14 laps (with breaks in between) and was pretty much roasting when I got out of the pool. I'm still getting my technique down, but it's getting better every time I go out. Tomorrow I'll probably go running.

I'm also quite happy to be able to go lift every day this week. Since I was out last week I have a ton of vendors that want to take me to lunch, so I'll have to make sure I get down to the gym despite the somewhat busy dance card.

[Psychoholic]

So the last week or so has been the epic example of suck. Got a call last Friday from my mom that my stepdad was dying - so rushed home to be there. He passed away Sunday morning.

There was a ton of horrible food and drinking that followed for the week after. My mom is holding up well and is ready to start on the rest of her life and fitness is going to be a huge part of it. We went to the gym today and we had a good back day together and got her a membership at the local gym. We also went grocery shopping and helped her pick out healthy foods, gave all the basics (she understands all of this, this was only a refresher course) and outlined a general nutrition setup. I think she'll do fantastic. She is going to join our crew getting ready for a contest in the spring.

[Psychoholic]

Today was shoulder day - my fave!

did seated side laterals, seated rear laterals, standing db over head press, rope upright rows and finished off with some shrugs. Shoulders feel great and look awesome.

Weight at the gym was 272 fully dressed and with my phone in my pocket - so probably around 268 right now again. Maybe all the horrible food didn't actually tear me up too bad, but man I am ready to get back to grinding this out every day. We went hiking this past Sunday for 8 miles, so I'm sure that helped get me back in the swing of things.

[MoEcho]

Hello.

Just read through your journal. I must say, I am excited to see where this journey takes you!

Good luck! I'm subbed!!

Cheers, Heidi

[Psychoholic]

Welcome to the thread!

First week back and work, that was a little tough. Had one of the best chest days I can recall - I'm so sore right now that I have a hard time lifting my arms to type. Was also pleased that I was able to bench 275 4 times with my back being as sore as it was. Leg day was equally awesome (Friday) - got 315 3 times and a bunch at 225 and 275, then a bunch of stiff leg deadlifts. Food is still a problem for me, I never seem to be able to stick to my diet for very long - I made it almost the entire month of July without a single cheat meal, but this month has been horrible! I think I need to recalibrate, reread my meal breakdown from Layne and map out my days better.

Tomorrow is car pushes! We are doing shorter stints, but we are going to keep track of how many and how long it takes us, so that should be fun.

[Psychoholic]

Did mad crazy car pushes this morning! Set a new 'team' best of 37 seconds to cover the .04 miles up hill. Might not seem like much, but the next closest anybody got to me was 1:06 and 1:17. I was KILLIN it this morning.

Mighty motivating too, we took my mom out there - who has decided to get fit with us, and she got in on the hardcore training and did the car pushes. All around, total badass workout.

[Psychoholic]

Yesterday did arms and abs - nothing really ground breaking, just nice and slow and contracted.

This morning, did 1.63 miles in 18:56 running - I'm trying to get into the sub-30 minute 5k range, so I'm trying to add a little speed every time I go run. Still being around 270 lbs doesn't make it very easy!

Hopefully today will be another great food day and good workout day - I've got 7 hours of meetings scheduled, so I'm going to have to be creative with my eats all day.

[MoEcho]

***... how do you stay awake for 7 hours of meetings? :confused:

I'm snoring after 1! lol

Good job on the running. I'm working on that myself too :)

[Psychoholic]

Not 7 hours straight of the same meeting! It's more like 10 meetings of 30-1 hour increments, with a workout thrown in the middle.

Today was shoulder day - it was epic! Did almost all cable work and my shoulders felt like they were going to fall off. Had my workout partner take a rear shot:

http://bodyspace.bodybuilding.com/photos/view-user-photo/6387802

As my wife put it, I have no neck. =)

[Psychoholic]

knocked out 25 minutes on the elliptical at a 140-150 bpm heart rate. Got a hellacious sweat going!

Gonna be a good day

[NaturalLoco]

any update pics? :)

[Psychoholic]

No real updated pics other than the one of my back a few posts up. I'll try and get some soon.

I don't know why I haven't been able to get my head into the full on contest prep mode I need to be in - I'm way the hell behind schedule and I don't have any issue putting in the work, it's the damned food that gets me every time! This morning we did car pushes and ran a hard mile before hand (at ~270 lbs, a mile at any reasonable clip is hard), was about to puke up my dinner from the night before but managed to get through it. My workouts are intense, my cardio is hard and consistent - just cannot for the life of me seem to figure out why I won't stick with it.

[Psychoholic]

Went mountain biking for almost 3 hours today with one of my friends - we did 9.65 miles in 2:35 and just KILLED it. My runkeeper app says I burned over 1400 calories and I believe it. I am so annihilated right now it's not even funny.

This is going to be the week - I am going to destroy all that come before me, I am going to work out harder than I ever have, do harder cardio than I normally do, eat PERFECTLY according to my plan and I'm going to see the number 265 on the scale by the end of the week. The following week, I'm going to do it again, and then hit 262 or lower and I"m going to keep doing this until I am contest ready!

[Psychoholic]

Scale said 268 this morning - swam 10 laps in the pool (technique is MUCH improved).

Gonna be the best week ever for fitness.

[Psychoholic]

I'm really excited about my next meal!

Tex Mex Meatloaf (adapted from Betty Crocker):

3 lbs 93% lean ground beef
2 cans of Tomatoes and Jalapeno's Diced
1/2 cup egg beaters
1/2 cup oatmeal (thrown in a blender, made into crumbs)
2 huge tablespoons of minced garlic
Some cayenne pepper
Tabasco
black pepper
cumin

I made 2 with these quantities - shaped 2 9 x 5 loaves and baked in the oven at 375 uncovered for a little over an hour. Cut into 4-5 oz slices, makes 12 slices. 200 calories, 6 carbs, 9 fat, 24 protein.

[MoEcho]

.....This is going to be the week - I am going to destroy all that come before me, I am going to work out harder than I ever have, do harder cardio than I normally do, eat PERFECTLY according to my plan and I'm going to see the number 265 on the scale by the end of the week. The following week, I'm going to do it again, and then hit 262 or lower and I"m going to keep doing this until I am contest ready!

^^ I will hold you to that. :)

[Psychoholic]

If anybody is interested - my daily food journal:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/psychoholic

And my runkeeper logs:

http://runkeeper.com/user/Psychoholic/profile

[Psychoholic]

Killed it on arms today - did some giant sets (walked the rack on bicep curls, starting with 55's in increments of 10#s, did straight bar cable press downs for 4 sets starting with the entire rack, then 75, then 62.5, then 50, then 35, wide grip cable curls - 4 sets at 65 [squeeeeeeezed at the top], dip machine with 280 [had to hold a medicine ball with my feet to keep me on the seat] for 4 sets of 10, narrow grip curls 3 sets of 20 with 70 lbs). I ended up working from home today, so instead of legs I did arms. Legs are tomorrow!

Haven't decided if I want to swim or go run in the morning or go mountain biking - we'll see how I feel when I wake up.

[Psychoholic]

Went swimming this morning again, felt awesome! Probably 16 laps (4 of which were breast stroke to get warmed up) - which is about a 1/4 mile.

[Psychoholic]

Woke up with a terrible headache yesterday that just wouldn't go away. I got into heavy leg press and thought my head was going to explode so I cut it short. Headache persisted all damned day!!

Feel much better today, just went and did some crazy shoulder action:

Standing side lateral: 20@15 (w/u), 2 x 10 x (15,20,25,20,15,10) (that is 3 giant sets of walking the rack up and back for a total of 60 reps each set)

Standing db ohp: 15@35, 12@40, 12@35

Partial side: 3x 10 side,10 front, 10 in between@30, (another giant set of 30 reps per)

Rear lat raises: 2x20@20

Rear delt machine: 3x 15 @85

Ran out of time for shrugs - might throw them in on back day.

My neck has disappeared into my shoulders again - I don't think it's coming back... =)

[Psychoholic]

Went running yesterday: http://runkeeper.com/user/Psychoholic/activity/16375499

Swam 14 good laps this morning in the pool, weighed in at 264.5!!!!! My wedding ring was slipping off my finger, which I thought was kind of neat.

Did back today at the gym - 2 back exercises only, but I am RUINED.

Deadlifts:
10@135
10@225
10@315
8@315
8@315
7@315
12@225

3 x 150 lat pulldown supersetted with 3 x 150 rope crunches

[MoEcho]

That runkeeper app is cool! Ima hafta try that :)

[Psychoholic]

Runkeeper has dramatically changed the way I do cardio work! I hate treadmills with a passion, so I go out and actually run (even during the winter last year - I have pictures of ice in my mustache) or mountain bike and get to keep accurate track of what we've been doing. Check out my profile on that site and you'll see the stuff we've done.

[Psychoholic]

Busted out a quick 20 minutes on the mountain bike this morning. Did some trails (GPS didn't look like it worked right, so it's not even remotely accurate) - had to pit and tighten up the crank, then took it around the paved path for a quick mile to make sure everything was back in working order.

My back is so sore from yesterday!!!

[Psychoholic]

Today was good - had an awesome chest workout despite the soreness in my back.

Flat bench: 10 (with pause at chest) 135
10 @ 185
10 @ 225
3 @ 275
6 @ 225
4 @225
8 @ 185
8 @ 185

Incline flyes: 4 x 10 @ 40
supersetted with holding the db's together and pressing them from my chest.

Added some rope cable crunches with 150 lbs.

[Psychoholic]

Been watching the IFPA KC Pro webcast (glad they did this) and I am motivated! I need to see more of this type stuff to see where I need to be.

[Psychoholic]

Watching that IFPA Pro really motivated me - went down to the basement gym (we have a pretty damned well equipped gym in our basement) and killed it on legs. We do need to put up some mirrors so I can watch my form when doing squats and box squats (you have to really have faith that the bench is behind you when you go to sit down). Massive amounts of leg extensions and really had some great calf work in there (seated and standing).

[Psychoholic]

Went to the SNBF Atlanta Championships this weekend and all I can say is WOW! I'm so inspired right now, it's impressive.

Scale is holding steady at 265 this morning, and I went swimming.

[Psychoholic]

Having some issues sticking to food still - been having discussions about accountability and really the only answer I can come up with is I need to quit relying on others or even thinking that I'm accountable to anybody else as this is never the case. If I want it, I need to do it on my own. I'm still debating on if I should stick with Layne or just fly solo...

This week's goal is to run 12 miles over the course of 4 days. So every morning this week I will run 3 miles - so far so good, ran 3 yesterday (in 35:15), ran 3 this morning (36:17). Food was solid yesterday, did shoulders, was awesome.

It's kind of a long though process about the accountability thing and I'm thinking about turning it into an article, so I need to finish flushing out the details before I do.

[str8flexed]

Whatever your decision I'll support you Chris, but realize that at the end of the day, motivation has to be intrinsic. No one is going to put the fork in your mouth or take it out for that matter. No matter how much someone stays on your butt or stays off of it, it's not going to change the fact that you have to find the will from inside to do it. I know you can, it's just a matter of you believing it :)

[Flynn]

Whatever your decision I'll support you Chris, but realize that at the end of the day, motivation has to be intrinsic. No one is going to put the fork in your mouth or take it out for that matter. No matter how much someone stays on your butt or stays off of it, it's not going to change the fact that you have to find the will from inside to do it. I know you can, it's just a matter of you believing it :)

Very good advice!!! I can now take it that I will never receive another threat of kicking my a$$ :).

[Psychoholic]

All of the discussions about accountability and my own reflective view of "quitcher bitchin!" about why I can't do whatever has altered my attitude tremendously. Growing up I never had anybody tell me I couldn't do something (I have friends who swear they were told they were never going to amount to anything - the irony is some of them were right) so I never really learned the thought. With a renewed vigor I press onwards towards greatness.

Ran another 3 miles this morning - this makes 3 days in a row towards my goal of 12 miles in 4 days.

http://runkeeper.com/user/Psychoholic/activity/18300154

Food was pretty much spot on again yesterday and when the compulsion to eat something not on my diet hit (usually the 5 pm slump) I just kept on trucking with the idea of "I'm not going to hurt anybody but me by doing that" and didn't.

One of my vendors is taking me to a high end steak house tonight, so I will definitely be partaking in one of the most flavorful New York strip steaks you've ever had:

http://www.kevinrathbunsteak.com/menuforkevinrathbunsteak.htm

[Psychoholic]

And I am going to stick with Layne.

I feel like I'm going to be in the groove now, so I'm going to need adjustments on a fairly regular basis - so let's do this!

[Psychoholic]

Consistency - that is why you come here for the Psychoholic Show! 2 weeks since an update, sheesh.

I've been having lots of fun lately with my workouts and my cardio - the other day (yesterday) I decided to go run a mile and see how well I could do it in - 8:46!! When you weigh 265 lbs, that is a mass of movement let me tell you. Not sure I could have run another foot afterwards.

My training partner and I have taken up the Dorian Yates blood and guts training that was outlined on the main bb.com site and it's f'n awesome! I love lifting heavy and it definitely motivated him to have good workouts too. I'm about to go kill it on chest here in a second as soon as I finish up with my ATT guy fixing my account.

[Psychoholic]

Some workout updates from this week:

monday - Shoulders/tris: db overhead press - 12@40, 8@80, 7@90
seated side laterals - 12@20, 6@40 (with some partials after)
low pulley side lateral - 10@20
rear lateral: 12@40, 12@45
skull crushers: 12@70, 10@100
tricep pressdown: 12@40, 10@85

tuesday - back:
barbell pullover (ez): 12@55, 12@75, 10@125!
narrow grip pulldown: 12@120, 12@225
one arm cable row: 12@80, 12@120
wide cable row: 12@120, 12@200
deadlift: 12@135, 7@315 (SHOT!)

wednesday - Chest:
10 minutes on the elliptical at 7 mph, heart rate around 130-135
decline bench: 12@135, 10@225, 7@275 (new pr - could have probably gone another one or 2 but I didn't know the guy spotting me)
incline db press: 12@65, 10@85
Flat db flye: 12@35, 10@55
concentration curls: 10@35, 6@55
straight bar curl: 6 @135 (suuuuuuper slow negative)

[Psychoholic]

Went swimming this morning - hell of a good workout.

Today was back day:

5 minutes on the elliptical for warm up
wide grip lat pulldown - 12 @ 150, 14 @ 200
ezbb pullover: 10 @ 75, 6 @ 125
narrow grip rows: 10 @ 170, 12 @ 245 (stack + a 45 lb plate)
deadlifts: 12 @135, 12 @ 315