Why...

[SmokeNB]

I was going to put this in motivation but I figured I would try here instead.

My question is...why do some days feel so differently than others? I have just started a new program (4 day split) and there are some days I feel awesome, and others I feel like I haven't been working out.

For example, this past Sunday was an off day and I felt awesome. I actually looked toned and you could see definition. I really felt I was getting somewhere.

Now take yesterday and today...I feel awful. I feel like I've gained 10 lbs of fat and when I look in the mirror it seems like nothing has changed.

My workouts have been consistent and actually going well...

So...is this just me? And how do I get past it?

[dbx]

1. You're human
2. Mood changes
3. Diet
4. Rest
5. Diet
6. You're human
7. Diet
8. Stress
9. Diet
10. Diet

[SmokeNB]

11. you're whining

Wow...really not the response I expected here.

Thanks so much for the motivation.

[Baldiewonkanobi]

How brave are you?

List everything, I mean everything, you ate and drank the past 48 hours.

I will give you an honest evaluation based on 58 years of weight training, education MS Nutrition, and training Bodybuilding competitors/law enforcement/firefighters.

Baldie

[C5VetteLS1]

How brave are you?

List everything, I mean everything, you ate and drank the past 48 hours.

I will give you an honest evaluation based on 58 years of weight training, education MS Nutrition, and training Bodybuilding competitors/law enforcement/firefighters.

Baldie

Now that's a very generous offer!

[sluge]

Wow...really not the response I expected here.

Thanks so much for the motivation.

NOT SURE WHAT TYPE OF RESPONSE YOU WERE LOOKING FOR.

are you looking for sympathy?
are you looking for help?
are you looking for a kick in the arse?

I.M.O i would say keep doing what your doing. Meaning keep going on with your workouts, make sure your eating good clean foods and no junk. Get enough sleep, maybe even take a week off. Also listen to "baldie". I have been through this same thing, 2 weeks ago as a matter of fact. I just lifted my way out of it, made a few adjustments to the diet. I'm good now.

[Tifflex]

1. You're human
2. Mood changes
3. Diet
4. Rest
5. Diet
6. You're human
7. Diet
8. Stress
9. Diet
10. Diet

QFT!


The off days make the good ones sweeter.

[Ctrainer]

Wow...really not the response I expected here.

Thanks so much for the motivation.

Don't mind him..that's just oceanside being his lovable self...

I track everything I eat online and if I am having an off day..I look at my diet from the day before and usually find the answer...or I blame the kids..either one..

[crupiea]

Too much thinking involved here.

Try not to over analyze things. You wont see day to day changes.

You will benefit in the long run if your diet and routine is in order.

[LyingSac]

Water retention....meat head.....carbs,sodium,and the like....dial in the diet and keep hammerin....sac

[snoack]

Are you looking for advice? Post your diet and routine, some of these guys know what they're taliking about and can give you some tips.

Are you looking for motivation? Go look in the mirror, there you will find the only person who can provide you with that.

Are you looking for sympathy? If so...you're in the wrong place.

[...Kennedy]

How brave are you?

List everything, I mean everything, you ate and drank the past 48 hours.

I will give you an honest evaluation based on 58 years of weight training, education MS Nutrition, and training Bodybuilding competitors/law enforcement/firefighters.

Baldie

OP if you are smart you will jump on this offer in a New York Minute...

[SmokeNB]

Hi,

Thanks...I'm not looking for sympathy. My question was do you have off days? Days when you wonder why you even bother...

But after reading here and doing reading some other places, it seems my diet is the biggest factor followed by a close second with sleep. (2 daughters...3 1/2 and 1 1/2...should make sense now).

So...what I ate in the last 48 hours:

Day 1 (2 days ago)
Supper - Hamburger Helper (I know, I know..but my wife was at work)
Snack - Almonds

Day 2 (yesterday)
Breakfast - 2 eggs, 2 pieces lean ham, 2 whole wheat toast
Snack - Whey shake and cherries
Lunch - Egg salad sandwich (with light mayo and onion)
Snack - Whey Shake
Supper - Baked chicken and potato
Snack - Yogurt cottage cheese

Day 3 (today)
Breakfast - 2 eggs, 2 toast
Snack - Whey shake
Lunch - Lean Cuisine chicken thing (it was in the freezer)
Snack - Whey shake
Supper - Chicken and whole wheat pasta, green beans, corn (chicken had some white sauce on it...I didn't put much on because I didn't really like it...alfredo?)
Snack - Almonds and cherries

Throw in a lot of water and coffee in the morning and there you have it. I don't count calories or track exactly what I eat.

I'm doing a 4 day split which I am quite happy with but I think I am sabotaging myself with what I eat.

[ntrllftr]

You NEED protein in the morning. 2 eggs will NOT cut it.
Your lunch should be more like your dinner.
I prepare my meals a couple days in advance.

Make these changes and you will be starting in the right path.

You will NOT make as good of gains with your current diet!

Now get to it!
.

[SmokeNB]

Thanks...I've been doing a lot of reading today.

And thinking back to the weekend, we had pizza one night and I felt like **** the next day. It seems so obvious now I feel stupid for starting this thread.

And I will be dialing up my protein...thanks for the advice from everyone.

[Bando]

For example, this past Sunday was an off day and I felt awesome. I actually looked toned and you could see definition. I really felt I was getting somewhere.

Now take yesterday and today...I feel awful. I feel like I've gained 10 lbs of fat and when I look in the mirror it seems like nothing has changed.

I think the way you feel can often change your perception of what you see in the mirror, not the other way around. If I'm having a great day for whatever reason, I see a lean swollen guy in the mirror, bad days it's more like a chubby bloated 42 year old nobody. Same body, different perspective.

[Fifty+]

Hi,

Thanks...I'm not looking for sympathy. My question was do you have off days? Days when you wonder why you even bother...

But after reading here and doing reading some other places, it seems my diet is the biggest factor followed by a close second with sleep. (2 daughters...3 1/2 and 1 1/2...should make sense now).

So...what I ate in the last 48 hours:

Day 1 (2 days ago)
Supper - Hamburger Helper (I know, I know..but my wife was at work)
Snack - Almonds

Day 2 (yesterday)
Breakfast - 2 eggs, 2 pieces lean ham, 2 whole wheat toast
Snack - Whey shake and cherries
Lunch - Egg salad sandwich (with light mayo and onion)
Snack - Whey Shake
Supper - Baked chicken and potato
Snack - Yogurt cottage cheese

Day 3 (today)
Breakfast - 2 eggs, 2 toast
Snack - Whey shake
Lunch - Lean Cuisine chicken thing (it was in the freezer)
Snack - Whey shake
Supper - Chicken and whole wheat pasta, green beans, corn (chicken had some white sauce on it...I didn't put much on because I didn't really like it...alfredo?)
Snack - Almonds and cherries

Throw in a lot of water and coffee in the morning and there you have it. I don't count calories or track exactly what I eat.

I'm doing a 4 day split which I am quite happy with but I think I am sabotaging myself with what I eat.

Now that you have a direction to follow, I offer a suggestion. Maintain a daily diary of food, workouts, extra physical activities (mowing the lawn, running with the dogs etc.) and note any unusual thoughts of emotional or physical change. Maintain it for 3-4 weeks to see where you've been. As you modify your eating habits and continue on with the new 4 dy split, you'll have a written map with a lot of information you never realized would amount to much. Then you use that to move on..

[Nikonguy]

I love hamburger helper but it makes me a tad bit "gassy"...







I just thought I'd share that !

Stop putting protein powder in it.

[runswithscissor]

I went from a 6 day routine where it was upper body, lower body & cardio, repeat 3 times and take Sunday off to a 3 day split with day 4 off and for the first two weeks it kicked my arse.

Must be something to that whole DOMS thing that I never experienced when I was working out 6 days a week.

Funny thing is that now after about two weeks of this split, things are getting? back to normal but I have noticed my legs hurt a lot more.

I have not reduced my time in the gym much (not at all upper body, about 1/2 an hour on legs/cardio). So it is two hours a day, 3 days a week with a day off and repeating it. I don't think I will make it 90 days on this until I change up to maybe a 4 day or 5 day split, but I think everytime I change it up, I am going to feel it.

My gains are too good now on a 3 day routine to ever go back to a 2 day split. If you haven't been at it for at least two weeks give it time.

Did I want to go today? Nope, my right leg still hurts. Did I go...you bet your bupkiss I did. Why? Because I hit it at 5:15, warmed up until 5:30, left the gym at 7:30 and have a great attitude. Am I sore? Not really but I will be more sore tomorrow morning.

Short of a death in the family, I cannot imagine anything that would keep me from going, if I was unemployed again, cable and internet goes before anything else. My gym (A 'Y') would even let me exchange some volunteer work to be able to continue to work out so if I could not find work, I'd mop floors and clean toilets before I'd not have the chance to workout.

Stay as positive as you can and stay away from all those "Kraft Dinners" you Canadians seem to be fond of! That being said, I have lived most of my life "up north" and when there is snow by Decemeber (Al...paging Al Gore...global warming is calling...) people tend to slow down, eat more and hibernate. Live in the tropics for a couple of years, or even one whole winter and then try to go back to the whole hibernation thing. It ain't pretty.

Like I've seen it posted many times already on here, no white flour, processed foods, fast foods, chips, dips, high fructose corn syrup, and even when hockey night in Canada is back on (thank god for satellite...I watch...), NO BEER!

Also, if you have had bad food habits for years and have packed on some serious marbling, so if you were on the menu you'd make a helluva nice ribeye...don't expect to lose it in 30 or 60 or 90 days or even a year for that matter if you want to work out and lose fat, slow is the only way to go.

Guess what I can see? If I stand in front of the mirror I see one thing, if I happen to stretch just right, I actually see the last three ribs (homer simpson...mmmmm....ribs....) on my pasty arse sorry body. Do I want to see them? Not really, but at least I don't see the whole darn rib, just where it rounds around from the front to the back.

Last time I saw 'em? Unemployed, homeless and eating nothing but white rice for 3 months about 2 years back. Before that? Hmm....I think I was about 10...

Here is a short term trick, if you go out to eat, cut all of the portions in half, eat half and take the rest home. Portions are oversized and full of garbage you don't need. Now that half you took home, after a couple of days, throw it out.

The 1 gram minimum of protein per pound of body weight is the only way I have been able to gain muscle while losing fat.

Don't buy into the biggest loser, Jenny Craig, the cabbage soup diet or any of that other garbage. Once you start to gain muscle, you will notice that you are better at burning fat. I haven't been able to find an antiperspirant that works 100% anymore and I didn't used to have that problem. I don't remember not wanting to sleep with just a sheet and no blankets.

Plus, think of all those clothes you haven't been able to wear but held onto. I had a mantra of the suit they forced me to marry in will be the suit they force me to be buried in.

Guess what. It don't fit. The waist fits just fine, but the legs hardly go in the pants and I could rip the suitcoat. It doesn't button, not because of my belly, because of my chest.

If your SO isn't into it, that is fine, just make sure they don't bring you down. There are many ways to have this happen, from eating habits, to "hey honey, let's watch TV when you want to maybe go out for a walk or bowl or rollerblade or do anything other than "watch TV", to who are you trying to look good for and on and on and on and on...

I see two types of people in the gym. The haves and the have nots. The haves come in, work out, sweat, maybe even sometimes get light headed or puke. The have nots, on the other hand, take cell phone calls, gossip, laugh and point (my spongebob boxers and a too small shirt gave some fatties some comic relief today).

I see the same "haves" week after week month after month, the same days, the same times. The have nots? They change faces because they always give up.

Don't give up. That's what 'life' wants you to do.