Fitness Safari

Ok, so here I was in my former tubby glory, hanging out with my dad in New Orleans in August of 2009. Now, dad loves me and was clearly blind to my chubbiness b/c he told me I had never looked better! LOL. Thanks, Dad! I love you, too! ........ I was getting down on myself the other day b/c my belly fat just doesn't seem to want to unpark itself from my abs. It's pissing me off and I find it quite frustrating. Well, a friend of mine suggested that I look back on older photos - from 2010 and beyond, to see just how much I really have changed. So I did. And guess what I learned? I have already completely transformed my body in many ways. I may not be sporting ripped abs - yet - but my face, chest and arms have leaned out tremendously! And, even though my belly is still there, it's nowhere near the proportion it was when this photo was taken. Here I am as of yesterday, April 28, 2011...It's not as full of a shot to compare, but it really does say it all. Who still doubts L...

When I created the Fierce. Fit. Fearless. FB group the other day, one of the rules I created was for members to please not post recipes or photos of food on the group's wall. Well, someone forgot about the rule and posted a picture of some kind of protein pudding or fluff attempt on the wall. I asked them to please refrain from doing so again and she was cool with that...but the incident got me thinking about WHY this rule is a good one. The majority of us in this group for female IFers or those women interested in learning more about IF, fast at least 14 hours a day - no food or anything with caloric content. Every other page I troll on FB or online in general has food porn everywhere. Feed the Animal, Paleo-whatever, Kenneth Yim - and, possibly the worst offender through no fault of his own, Martin's own wall where Cheesecake Mastery is a common discussion thread. We see food on FB, on TV, on billboards, hear about it on the radio - we can't escape food cues no matter wh...

HOW FIERCE ARE YOU? At the urging of a Twitter follower, @Jess_knows_best, I started a FB group - F ierce. Fit. Fearless. - for all of the female IFers out there - ESE, Leangains, other...it doesn't matter. Join us on the board and let's bounce our successes, failures and questions off of one another. ...Sorry, boys, this new FB group is for women only. if you have questions, take 'em to Martin's FB page/forum .

Woot! Woot! Let's hear it for broken records!!! First...as I mentioned in my last post, I would be introducing a new twist to my regimen. Call it an experiment of sorts, but I'm trying PSMF - Protein Sparing Modified Fasting. I would not recommend this approach to anyone as it requires very low calories and high protein...but I'm only trying it EOD every other day (rest days only) for a couple of weeks. If you're that interested in it, you can Google it yourself. I ended up doing two days in a row due to a misplaced rib head in my upper back probably due to my heavy standing military presses on Sunday... A quick trip to my chiropractor yesterday and I was better than ever and ready to hit the gym today. All told, I was down from 115.5 to 113.6 in just a couple of days, however, I do expect that number to creep up after a day of eating maintenance +20% (today)...Anyway, the gym! I found a lone bottle fo 5-hour energy and decided WTH and chugged it down on my way. A quick...

I stumbled upon this first pic when clearing out my BlackBerry. It was taken almost exactly a month ago - March 19th. So, naturally, I had to take another to compare (see below). No major changes, but I think I am starting to look a bit more firm in my troublesome belly area. I have a long road ahead to uncover those amazing abs that I can FEEL but just can't see yet...Well, I think I'm making progress. March 19, 2011 April 16, 2011

I tried my luck with breathing squats again. This time I cut waaay down to 75 lbs. These will take me some time to get accustomed to - and it's not even the legs that bothered me while I was doing them - it was my traps/shoulders. They just get sore and tired holding up the weight through 20 reps and all of the breathing in between. I'm still not exactly sure if I'm doing them correctly - am I supposed to be sucking air like I was just held under water for 3 minutes? 'Cause that's how I feel about 3/4 way through the 20. THOUGHT THIS PIC WOULD BE MORE INTERESTING THAN A PHOTO OF A SANDBAG. ENJOY! Even if I'm doing them wrong, they're still doing something b/c today my legs feel like sandbags. When I walk up my stairs I feel like I'm walking through mud. Definitely going to hit the gym for what a friend recently called "Geriatric Cardio" - LISS - low intensity, steady-state. I'll also get bundled up and take my dog for a good long walk to th...

Great workout tonight. Deadlift 175 x 5 (PR), 165 x 5, 155 x 5, 145 x 5. It was humid in the gym and I was having a helluva time holding the bar. Anyone have any gym-legal suggestions? Leg Extensions 160 X 7, 150 x 5, 140 x 6 (I think this machine is off, I can't possibly do that much weight...will try the other one at the gym next week and compare, but some guy was hogging it up tonight...) Weighted Chins Bodyweight +20 lbs x 4 (PR), 17.5 x 4, 15 x 4, BW x 4- complete chins - near dead hang to chin above the bar. I even have a 12-year old and a bunch of strangers who witnessed it. lol. I'll do another video next week when I try to hit 6. By the time I was done, I was DONE. My legs were trembling while I was doing chins...my abs were screaming when I was doing my chins...hell, they're still kind of irritated at me and I'm sitting on my butt in front of my computer right now. WOW. Feels so good. I really think now that I'm eating more protein and making better carb c...

Here is just a sampling of what I am sure will be a towering pile of fat clothes I will never again need in my life. Pictured here: 2 pair of jeans 1 pair cropped khakis 2 pair khaki sorts 1 pair camo cargo shorts 1 T-shirt 1 Columbia undershirt 1 pair gray slacks If you want to know why they're in the donation pile, check out the photos below. I've never been so happy to do spring cleaning. Only problem is I'm pretty thin on clothes that fit and I don't want to buy much yet as I'm nowhere near as lean as I'm hoping to get...ah, the trials and tribulations of Leangains . Damn you, Martin! :) ...

Wow! What a difference eating right makes regarding strength. I've been in and out of gyms for 20 years and never have I actually paid attention to the correlation between my performance in the gym and what I was shoving down my throat. I've been writing lately about how I felt like I had stalled - even taken a step backward in strength (bench)...well, I took an honest look at my habits outside of the gym and had to admit I had gotten lazy. I had stopped counting calories, I was drinking wine every night and was unsuccessfully fighting severe cravings for Oreos. I was also eating a paltry amount of protein each day. I was feeling tired, sluggish and my performance in the gym was going backwards. With all of these lapses, the one thing I have stuck with is the IF. In fact, not eating for 16 hours a day is quite easy for me now and probably the only reason I didn't gain all of my weight back in the past few weeks. Despite my crappy diet, my weight held pretty steady at around...

Let me just put this out there: breathing squats suck ass - and I mean that in the best possible way. They. Are. Hard. I tried them yesterday and loaded up the bar with what I thought I could do 10 reps of (110 lbs - HA!) and started my routine. Deep breath...hold...lower to at least parallel...release breath on way up...hold while taking 3-4 deep breaths...repeat. Holy Mother of God - it is so much harder than it looks. I could barely get through 4 before I thought I was going to pass out. Next set, I removed weight and tried again. Was met with similar result. Final set, removed nearly all the weight (down to 65 lbs at this point) and squeaked out 8. I was supposed to be able to do 20 - TWENTY. WTF? By number 8 on my last set, I was lightheaded and thought I would fall over. Hmmmm... Either I'm not doing something right, or I'm doing it exactly right with just way too much weight. Anyone out there have any experience with breathing squats? Am I supposed to feel like I'm...

Ok, so I went out today to forage for some food for my two pre-workout meals this afternoon (hitting the gym after work to try out some breathing squats for the first time) and this is what I found... Hmmmm...nope. Definitely no - and this one was easy to pass up for obvious reasons... Wow...sugar, fat and carbs as far as the eye can see...and there were a lot of snacks, too. ;) Feeling better...more of what I was looking for. Something that will give me energy, fill me up and not send me napping in a half hour. Finally! Victory is mine! And the winner is... Oh, and I had a protein shake, too. Chocolate Peanut Butter Trutein stolen from a colleague. Mixed it with unsweetened almond milk and YUMMO. Tastes like Peanut Butter pie - not lying. Don't worry, won't be finishing this off. Haven't worked out yet today, so I'll snack on this now and again in a few hours before I head to the gym. I'm thinking whole-wheat pasta with my famous clam sauce for dinner when I'm...