The Fitness Ninja

I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth.  It’s just that the motivation to blog (as so many bloggers know) falls off when life gets busy.  I was on vacation last week and so I didn’t write anything down then.  I have kept up with Chalene Extreme and am now in the second phase of the program; her ‘PUSH’ section.  Overall, I’m enjoying it if only for the eye candy the instructors provide (but damn that Skippy guy is annoying as shit, constantly yelling stuff in the background) and the fact that it’s a bit easier than P90x or Insanity.  I also like the fact that Chalene pushes you to pick weights where the failure should kick in at 6-8 reps; it’s nice to get the sets done fairly quickly (although not too quick as she’s always reminding you lift and lower everything SUPER SLOW).  So, in terms of weights, I try to do the bulk of the work in this phase with 30-40 pound dumbbells (more so the latter than the former).  I’ve also kicked up my grease-the-groove system again and have upped the dip belt from 20 to 35 pounds.  Man, that is killer.  I find myself totally struggling for the fifth rep on any pull up set I do then I pair these 5 reps with 20-30 push ups of different varieties.  Over the course of the day the numbers built up.  Also, still running home from work and enjoying it.

Hmmmm… what else.  Much to my shame I also haven’t been keeping up with my SparkPeople calorie tracking.  When the blogging stopped so did the tracking.  I got lazy I admit it.  Interestingly though, I did follow through on my weigh in on the morning of the 20^th before the family reunion and I clocked in at 137.  Not bad.  I lost a pound since the last weigh in.  I’m happy with this weight range and will fight to maintain it.

In other news, we’ve taken my son Eli to some more specialists.  Since he’s been deaf in his left ear all this time he’s kinda favoured tilting his head to the left so that his right ear is the one exposed to the world.  Well, this had developed a small imbalance in his neck muscle development and so we’ve taken him to a physical therapist whose shown us how to do special exercises to help him strengthen the other side (I believe the medical term she gave it was torticollis).  Small steps.  We’ll get this fixed and straightened out.  At least this is something in our power to fix.  But man does he hate it when we force him to twist his neck in different directions.  It hurts because he’s not used to it.  It breaks my heart to do it but it must be done.

Here’s your first hard lesson, kid.  Life is sometimes about pain, how much you can take and still keep on going.

He’s also getting an MRI to get something else checked out.  The pediatrician we have is very good so we’re thankful to God for that.  The last doctor we had for him was an idiot (she prescribed 2 medications that weren’t meant for babies!).

As for me, I have my own appointments with the doctor / hospital.  I’m not going into the details right now but suffice it to say it’s a preventative measure.  It’s strange… I’ve busted my butt over the past year and a half to get my body in the best shape it’s ever been.  I’m actually quite proud of the journey I’ve made in terms of weight loss / fitness and damned if I’m going to let a medical / genetic condition get in the way.  Gotta fight for the gains I’ve made…. And, more importantly, protect them as best I can.

Alright folks! Sorry for being so out of the loop lately.  Keep fighting the good fight and I hope everyone’s making the progress they want to make in their fitness / good living goals.

Things at work and at home have been kind of a whirlwind these past few days and that’s why I haven’t been blogging as regularly.  To be honest, entries will probably trail off a bit more in the coming week and a half as I finally have some summer vacation booked off! WOOOT!  I plan to hang out with the family during that time and just do some local touristy stuff in Toronto (even though I’ve been living in Southern Ontario almost my whole life) so that will probably keep me away from the computer for a bit.  I’m looking forward to it as I haven’t really had an extended break from work yet this year and it will be nice to take Eli to the zoo and museum and Center Island (a park in Toronto).  He may not be old enough to appreciate everything he sees but the change of pace from lying on a blanket or sitting in his exersaucer in my living room must be nice for him!

As for the workouts… yep! I’m still on task and kicking them out.  I’m just now in “grind” mode doing the routines day in and day out.  Still focusing on form as usual.  What I can’t stand (never COULD stand…no pun intended) are all these balance poses while lifting weights during CExtreme.  I just find myself falling all over the place during these kinds of exercises.  Also, I still struggle with Ab Burner which I’ve been doing 3 times a week.  I find my core just seizes and cramps up during some of the crunches (especially when you are asked to “chop” your legs during the crunch … OW, OW, OW!).

Today was a rest day but, of course, rather than resting I’ve opted on focusing on pull ups / chin ups and various push ups throughout the day.  Right now I’m at about 50 weighted reps on the bar and about 150 push ups.  Hope to get to at least 70 / 300 by the end of the evening.  Let’s see if my resolve holds up.

Nutrition wise, things are … ok.  I messed up a few days in a row snacking on rice cakes late at night while watching The Wire box set my wife got me for Father’s Day this year (greatest TV series evar).  They’re only 60 calories per cake (actually it’s more of a large flat wheel) but when you eat 4-5 of them in a sitting, that shit adds up!  Ah well, nothing to do but to be more conscious of the snacking and hopefully do better today.

This stuff is like HEROIN! Sooo addictive!

As a progress marker, I plan to weigh myself on the 20^th before a big family reunion on my wife’s side.  Hopefully, by then I’ve trimmed down back to the mid 130s again (I had floated up to 142 a month or so ago then got back to 138.5 during the last weigh in).

Alrighty, peace out! Hope everyone is meeting their fitness and nutrition goals so far this hot, humid, sticky summer!

PS Check out some of the new blogs I’ve added to the blogroll… some more people on the same fitness journey!

Almost didn’t do the workout today.  Didn’t sleep too well last night for whatever reason (tummy was doing barrel rolls) so today felt like I was walking through mud the entire time.  When I got home, I spent about an hour looking after the baby as my wife packed for their trip to the lake.  It’s Canada Day tomorrow so that means a day off (what’s weird is this year Canada Day falls on a Thursday but Friday is still a regular work day) and my wife decided to head off along with her sister to their trailer in cottage country.  So… I GET 2 WHOLE DAYS OFF TO MYSELF?

Ah… what to do with all this freedom?!?!?!

I know… I need to clean the frikkin’ house.  Seriously.  I can finally get some needed chores done out of the way.  Man, being a grown-up really sucks sometimes.

Where was I? Oh yeah… well, I felt so drained I decided to take an hour nap.  Once that was done, onto more snuggling with the baby before he leaves.  7 o’clock rolled around and they took off.  I puttered and cleaned up some minor messes around the home then decided to clamp down and get Burn Circuit 3 outta the way.

It was ONLY 32 MIN.!!! Man, I love these short workouts.  Although, I have to admit I think Chalene has an imbalanced obsession with shoulders.  Seemed like the entire routine today was shoulders.  Lotta flies and presses in that half hour. Got a decent sweat on as I put my dumbells back up to 30s for a number of the exercises.  12 reps be damned.  I’m happy with 8 super hard reps… try to push to 10 when I can.  What drives me nuts is when there is a balance component to any of the exercises as I’m not the most co-ordinated lifter (despite having months of Yoga X under myb belt you’d think my sense of equililbrium would be better… IT’S NOT!) and I find myself toppling over now and again and having to re-do the rep.

On a side note, I wish she had named the dvds akin to the P90x titling system so you know exactly what parts of the body the routine is supposed to target.  I’ll just have to pay attention and write it down next time.

On another side note, I’m seriously considering starting my grease the groove program again while doing Chalene as I do not want to lax on pull up work.  However, I think that in addition to the weighted pull ups (gotta move that dip belt up into the 25 pound zone [up from 20]) I will pair every 5 reps on the bar with 10 push ups of some sort or another.  Gotta make a chart so I can track all this.

Calories for today: 1810… could have been a lot lower but I decided to treat myself to half a cup of delicious frozen yogurt (mocca flavour) and 1/3 a cup of granola.  MMMMMMM… that shit is the bomb.

This is a new song I’ve added to my running list.  Peace!

Well, today was kind of strange as the wife and I took Eli to Mt. Sinai hospital.  We got up super early (like 4:50) to get ready and feed Eli.  He wasn’t allowed to 2 hours prior to the test and we knew that if we didn’t feed him that he would go absolutely nuts.  Everything went well except the tonne of traffic we had to face due to the downpour on the way there.  Thankfully, there were no incidents with protestors or police in Toronto (there were a lot of them in Queen’s Park which we could see from the hospital).

The test took 2 hours and at the end of it we had a better understanding of my son and his deafness.

He has nerve damage in his left ear which has resulted in moderate to severe deafness.  He’s actually not totally deaf in that ear but it takes a pretty loud sound in order to get through to him via that channel.  Interestingly, the nurse who was helping us said our son had better hearing than her as she had *complete* deafness in one of her ears.  She said the condition did not slow her down in any way.  The doctor also tending to us was also partially deaf and you would have never known it unless they told you.  Their speech was impeccable and they functioned like anyone else.

This gives me a great deal of comfort as I thought Eli would be totally deaf on that side.  The doctor said to help alleviate matters we could opt for a hearing aid but she noted that most people with one good ear often don’t get hearing aids as they can function perfectly fine without them.

God has blessed us.

After the appointment, the family and I went back to Yorkdale mall to eat and window shop.  My nutrition today was absolute garbage as I waited out the appointment at a Tim Horton’s coffee shop.  As a result, I had half a box of Timbits, a large oatmeal cookie, a small chocolate milk, a glass of juice and a muffin.  UGH! I haven’t snacked that much in a coffee shop in ages.  To make matters worse, once we got to the mall, to celebrate the “good” news we ate out at Pickle Barrel.  I had a veggie burger along with a green salad and balsamic vinagrette.  Good choices huh?

Well I caved in for dessert and split with the wife a large Skor sundae! It was made with frozen vanilla yogurt and whip cream along with chocolate sauce. OMG…soooo good.  But sooooo bad for you.

I promise I’ll get back to eating well tomorrow.

Dinner was light: yogurt with half cup of granola and strawberries.  Dessert was 3 small boxes of raisins.

The kicker is… I didn’t work out today either.  I just did yard work for 2 hours or so.  It was strenuous… but not as balls out exhausting as any of the workouts with Tony or Shaun.

Tomorrow… tomorrow.  I promise I’ll take better care of myself tomorrow!

PS I’ve become addicted to Catan! This is the greatest game since Street Fighter or World of Warcraft.

Well, today was the first “free” day I’ve had since finishing the P90x / Insanity hybrid program.  So… to celebrate I did my favourite workout: Core Synergistics.  Got a good sweat on but skipped the cool down stretches.  Took some update pictures of me at 139 after the hybrid.  To be completely honest, I’m disappointed in how little my gains were.  I think the past three months have been more about maintenance than anything else (although, I do notice it’s a bit easier to lift the 30 lb dumbells / 20 lb dip belt now more than it was a the start which means I have gotten a bit stronger).

My goals were to hopefully get a bit bigger and more defined.  I would have prefered the latter more than the former.  In reality I got very little of either one.  To make matters worse, I KNOW WHY the gains are so little: it’s because of my lack of discipline with regards to my nutrition.  You cannot exercise your way to a 6-pack.  The abs are built in the kitchen.  This probably sounds all shallow and such because there is more to exercise and nutrition than looking good.  I know this.  But the vain side of me wants that end result in addition to being fit / healthy.

Hahaha…  the character Lester Burnham from American Beauty said it best when asked what he wanted from learning how to exercise: “I just want to look good naked.”

So here they are:

C’est la vie.  The good thing about fitness is that it’s a life long journey.  Although everything I’ve done is in 3 month blocks (with the exception of classic Insanity), I don’t plan on stopping my workouts just because this hybrid program is done.  And really, that’s the next goal — figuring out where to go from here.  I’ve said it before in previous posts but I really have to think long and hard about what my options are next as I’m getting bored with P90x / Insanity.  And boredom is a big reason why some people stumble in their fitness so I have to be extra vigilant in fighting it off.

I also hope to get a quick mini review up of the hybrid I just did some time this week so keep an eye out for that.

Oh…. one more thing.  This is a picture of Eli at his baptism this past week.  That little boy is my world.

So close.  Really, I think because of my energy level I feel like I’m done with this hybrid.  Just one more day…. today could have been my last day actually but I had to take a rest day on Wednesday as my legs felt pretty damn beat up from the run on Tuesday night.  It’s strange as I feel great from the run and immediately afterwards too but it’s always the day after when I feel the soreness… not neccesarily in my legs but in my feet.  The skin down there always feels tingly.  Maybe I just need to toughen it up?

Yesterday, though, I “came back with a vengeance” as Tony would say.  I knocked down Yoga X then ran to my mom’s house after work as both my wife and sister are working on the food for Eli’s baptism on Sunday.  It’s only 4.5km to her home so it was pretty easy overall and I didn’t feel any soreness.  Today, I gathered up the resolve to finally finish that one Modified Angie I missed about two weeks ago.  Seemed to take forever but it got done…. so all that’s left between me and victory (and a well deserved rest) is one last Core Cardio and Balance.  I am so looking forward to it.

Alright! Peace out!

BTW… my sister is an AWESOME baker.  The following are some of the cakes she’s made and sold.  I don’t even want to think about the calories in them as they are rich with her patented cream filling (so light and fluffy and fruity).

What a strange day.  It was a rest day.  No workouts scheduled.  Just wanted to recuperate and take it easy.  And I did… to a point.  Work was slow all morning and I only really had “busy work” to keep me occupied for most of the day.  Nothing heavy… so all in all, a pretty decent day at work.

But once 4:30 rolled around I decided to take a walk to the local barber in a plaza near my building.  It’s about 30 minutes away.  The weather was good so I figured it would be a good way to get some exercise.

On the way to the plaza, though, as I was strolling up the long driveway leading up to the stores, there were a bunch of young kids, probably Grade 6 (12 years old), about 8 of them hanging out on their bikes.  Figured no big deal.  It’s a Friday afternoon, 5:00, so they’re just bumming around with nothing to do.  Well, as I’m coming up one kid starts running his mouth off at me, swearing and yelling racial and other slurs (“Asian F*g” was one that stuck out.  Another started making fun of Muslims… I guess thinking I was Muslim… although I don’t know where he got that idea as I had nothing to indicate that).

At first I was shocked…

I haven’t been called any racial slurs in a long time.  A long time.  Not since high school.

Then I got angry.  I was going to go right past them to the barber but they just kept going on even as I was walking down the pathway.  So I figured… no way I can avoid this, and they look young, so I just went right up to them and said “What’s up? What the hell is going on here?”  The kid started going on about how I almost hit him with a car yesterday.  Told him I don’t own a car nor do I drive.  Then all his friends started jumping in with more slurs.  One of the kids he was with shouted something about “kicking ass”.

What it basically came down to was that he was trying to show how tough he was in front of all his friends.  I just stood my ground in front of this young boy and asked him what he wanted.  Was it a fight? Was it to prove how tough he was?  Was it an incident involving the police he wanted?  I stood my ground long enough to be able to tell he was uncomfortable, that he knew I was enraged and that his friends didn’t faze me.  He started to stammer and apologize.  His friends continued to act rowdy and like idiots.  They began to drift away from him slightly on their bikes making more jeering comments.

Interestingly, a truck rolled up with older teenagers in it and started yelling at these tweens too.  I couldn’t make any of it out as they just started to yell at each other.  The truck drove off after a few moments.

I walked away and continued on to the barber.  Kids just kept making comments.

Looking back on it now… I don’t know if I did the right thing.  Should I have just ignored them? Maybe.  They looked like they were bothering basically anyone who walked by and were zipping in and out in front of the cars.

I haven’t felt that mad in a long time.  Nervous too now that I look back on it.

I’m glad that it didn’t come to blows.  Glad Eli wasn’t around.

God I hope he grows up to be a good person… that he doesn’t have my temper or temperament.  That he’s always safe and healthy.

I’m tired and I have a Saturday early morning shift tomorrow to get to.

Have a restful night.

Today started out fine.  Knocked off Pure Cardio this afternoon along with ARX, so all I have left to do this week is Cardio Abs tomorrow.  My eating was also going pretty well as I had about 800 calories left for dinner.  I was holding as much in reserve for tonight as my nephew and his mom were coming over for a small birthday gathering… just burgers and some dessert and a few presents (interestingly, he’s also getting into weight training so my wife and I supplied him with a pair of 20 lbs. dumbbells, and his other aunt got him a pull up bar [I got him push up stands for this past Christmas]).

Well, my nutritional plans all went to shit once I got to work.  There was a fairly large basket of Hershey Miniature Chocolate Bars there (a mix of regular Hershey, Dark Chocolate, Mr. Goodbars, and Krackel) – seriously who leaves this stuff lying around?  Fine I thought.  I can hold off.  I had my low calorie granola bar (90 cal.) and thought I was good.  But then I was asked to work with a family that had lice (I only learned this part way through my shift) and as soon as I learned of it, I kinda freaked out! I started getting all itchy and scratching even though I was pretty sure I didn’t contract anything.

Exactly what you think it is.

So what did I do in response? That’s right… I ate a tonne of chocolate.  Like 15 pieces… this just brings home the fact that I can be one hella emotional / stress eater when the occasion arises.  It’s like I lose all sense of scale and just go nuts because … well, it feels good.

AARGH.  CHOCOLATE DOES NOT CURE LICE!!

I was so freaked out that right after work I went to a pharmacy to get some special medicated shampoo to use ‘just in case’.  If it were just me and the wife I don’t think I would have reacted this way to a lice scare but now that we have Eli and he already has a ton of problems with his Eczema and dry skin, I just didn’t want to chance bringing another hardship into his young life.  Upon getting home, I stripped in the front foyer (wife took all our clothes into the dryer and set it on the highest heat setting and just roasted it for 40 minutes) ran upstairs and started scrubbing with the medicated shampoo.  I have to keep up with it for several days just to make sure (and BOY does it sting if it gets into your eyes).

Calculating everything on SparkPeople today, I think I ended up with a calorie count of 2400… when my max allotted value should only be 1850.  Ugh.

Gotta hold on to the fact that tomorrow is a new day and I can start fresh.

Alright, peace out!

Oooh boy.  Still going strong.  I can see the end to this hybrid program so I don’t want to stop now… and boy on some days do I want to stop, feeling stretched so thin between the baby, work and just keeping things maintained around the home.  I can see now why so many people let exercise slide by once they have a family.  It just feels like too much to stay on top of.

But enough of my belly-aching.

In any case, I was able to stay on track all throughout last week.  I finished strong with the Angie on Wednesday and Plyometric Cardio Circuit along with ARX on Thursday.  I actually split my time during the Angie and multi-tasked between working out and cleaning all three bathrooms in the house.  I’m a champ! Hahaha!  (Don’t worry, though, I made sure to disinfect the handles of all the equipment I used too).  And yesterday, I finally had a true rest day doing nothing.  It was glorious as it feels like forever since I’ve had one that wasn’t forced on me due to sickness or something else.  Felt good.  All I focused on was eating right (which I did… then dutifully recorded it on SparkPeople).

Today, I knocked Chest, Shoulders and Triceps out of the way early in the morning along with Cardio Abs.  Feels good to do it in the morning so I don’t have to worry or think about it for the rest of the day.  Wish I had the gumption and discipline to ALWAYS do it in the morning.

In Eli news… we finally got the little guy to a pediatrician.  And boy, are we glad we did.  Apparently, the eczema medications given to him by our family doctor were the wrong ones as they weren’t meant for babies.  My wife was furious when she learned this.  Needless to say we are looking for a new family doctor.  The pediatrician also prescribed a new bathing / cream regimen for the baby along with scheduling an ultrasound in order to check up on a soft spot on top of Eli’s head.  On top of this, the city hospital called and arranged his final hearing test to determine the degree of his deafness in one ear and, hopefully, what can be done about it.  What sucks is that the appointment is in Toronto during the upcoming G20 summit.  UGH!! All those agitated protesters and police… there’s no way I’m letting my wife and son go down there alone so I’ve requested the day off from work to accompany them.  Hopefully, it’s a smooth trip.

What freaks me out is this thing that the Toronto Police have acquired:

Friggin’ sound cannon.  Capable of causing hearing loss in order to deter violent protestors.

…

I got to keep a positive outlook.  Things could be so much worse (they could be better too… but I take solace in the fact that we’re doing everything we can to help him).

Alright, peace out.

Ah nuts… due to not feeling well I took TWO rest days back to back in order to shake this cough / cold.  It seemed to have worked as I am now on the tail end of it and I can breathe a bit easier.  Bad news is I am now officially 2 days behind the hybrid program.  Hopefully I can double up on one of the days to get back on track AND I hope I am not too tired tonight when I get home after this 5 hour drive so I can do Chest, Triceps and Shoulders.

Overall, this vacation weekend was pretty decent.  Would have been much better had I not been sick but what can ya do?  It happens.  I didn’t do too much shopping as we’re trying to save money.  The wife got a nice dress and some earrings for the Baptism coming up in June so that made her happy.  She has pretty frugal tastes so that’s good (only came to $50 for the combo).

As for my eating… it wasn’t bad.  Because I was sick my appetite was lower than usual (hooray!) but I did splurge yesterday and we went to Cheesecake Factory for lunch. I had their house salad and portablella mushroom sandwich. OMG… so good.  I never thought I would love vegetarian fare but this sandwich beat the pants off any hamburger I’ve ever had.  It was eye opening.  I’m glad I’m trying more vegetarian fare.  For dessert last night, I also caved and split a slice of cheesecake with the wife.

Alrighty… lunch time… hope you have a great day!  Hope to be back later!