Monday

Monday I got to the slopes around 6:30.  I got my $16 ticket (found a coupon), and hit the slopes.  My board was VERY slippery.  I noticed a huge difference between it and my old board.  Unlike in Cataloochee, where the difference was minimal.  I think it’s because the snow in Utah is not as sticky as the snow in NC.  I also noticed that the condition of the Utah snow was starting to suck.  It was a bit icy.  (Way less icy than other places — but not the “perfect” Utah snow that I’ve come to enjoy.)  Looks like Utah has seasons too!  It was also snowing . . . HARD.  I was very glad that I brought goggles.  I also found out that my goggles don’t have much of a tint, so they work just fine at night.

I’ve started listening to music when I board alone.  I really enjoy it.  But, I have yet to find headphones that do not hurt when covered by a ski mask and my helmet.  I found some speakers mounted in earpieces made for my helmet for $20 on e-bay so I bought them.  Too bad I won’t get to use them till next season.

The runs were “ok”.  I kept doing things wrong when I got scared and froze up a bit.  I pretty much side slipped the moguls when I did them twice.  And, when I hit the little canyon run I was so proud of doing before (it’s like a little channel, 4′ wide, that has hills / jumps), I went too slow, and barely made it through.  Not a good night.  But, I up from 2:50 AM local, and vry tired . . so . . .   I left a little early, around 8:30.  And, I even broke for a snack around 7:30 . . all in all, not a terrible day of boarding, but nothing to write home about either.

Tuesday

I found half a testicle Tuesday night, and finally started boarding more “right”.  I got a late start again — didn’t get onto the slopes till 7:00.  But, I did a full two hours of boarding, non-stop.  Monday I kept sticking to an edge.  This is especially obvious on cat tracks with a drop off.  It really sucks to know that you could do it right, know that you are being silly and scared, and still not be able to go to the right edge.  Very strange.  Mind over matter, my ass.

I found that I tended to have good non-turn slides to the heel edge, but whenever I went toe edge, I would get almost horizontal.  So, I started working on it, and cleaned it up quite a bit.  (i.e. when going mostly straight, but slowing by making small S turns (not really turning, but grinding that edge), I found that I would grind properly heel edge, but I would do a full grinding turn toe edge, and end up side slipping for a sec)

Anyway, I finally started to consciously work it out.  I noticed a couple of things that were contributing:

1. When toe edge, you’re looking up hill — it’s hard to see where you’re going.
2. I was obviously going too fast for my comfort . . . my unconscious mind wanted me to slow down.

I jumped once last night . . . w/o a ramp.  Did not feel very good, but at least I got to check that notch off a bit.  I need to start doing this more.  Brighton has a huge terrain park, but, it’s not like the noob park at Cataloochee.

I have also noticed that I’m burning muscle on my downhill quadriceps.  I think it’s from sticking to heel edge too much.  Or, it’s from starting to bend my knees more.  Or, it’s because I’m finally getting lots of speed.  Not sure which, but it’s full of suck.  I’ve noticed it happens more often when on a relatively flat area, where I need to stay on an edge, w/o grinding, to make it across the flat.  By the time I get to the end of the flat, my quad is on fire.

Wednesday / Thursday

Wednesday, I want to use my second print-at-home ticket ($25).  I’m hoping to get there a bit earlier, so that I have time to take things slow, work on my failings a bit more.  I want to get comfortable doing straight jumps.  I also want to start working on ollies & butters (I’ve never done either).  But, they both scare the crap out of me.  And, finally, I want to work more on using the “other” edge when on a cat track with a drop off.

Finally, on Thursday, I’m going to treat myself to a B-Day Boarding lesson.  They start at 6:00, so, I should be able to get in an hour (or two — not sure) lesson, and have plenty of time to practice afterward, as the season closes for me.  I’m going to see if they can help me start working on beginning tricks / jumps.  (Ollies / Butters / Jumps)

Weight Loss Tools

A friend of mine was recently asking me about a tracker, and I realized that I have tried many online trackers out there, with varying levels of success.  So, I thought I’d share my findings.

But, first a caveat.  I am a daily weigher.  I religiously weigh my self every day, and now, I measure my %BF on the scale every day too.  So, I need tools that will average out all the movement to allow me to see trends, not water weight.

Weight Trackers & Food Journals

Daily Burn – I love all the trackers on this site.  I have tried fitday, weight watchers, mymedifast, and several other sites, but, Daily Burn seems to pwn them all.  Plus, if you have an iPhone, you can track right from your phone.  They track measurements too, but, it is a bit of a pain to enter everything, so, I moved my measurements tracking over to a spreadsheet, since I only track those bi weekly anyway.  The food journaling is even better than the weight / measurement tracking.  And, if you eat packaged meals, you can scan the UPC code with your camera, and instantly add it without having to “type” in the name.  Epic Win!

Ticker Factory – If you are a forum lurker, you gotta have a ticker.  While I’m not completely happy with the choices at tickerfactory, it does work.  If you find a better one, let me know.  Right now, my ticker is a guy “surfing” down some slopes, because I couldn’t find a snowboarder.

WeightWatchers I only list this one in case you are actually doing weight watchers.  They have a very full food database, with lots of point values computed.  But, if you’re not watching “points”, then there are better sites out there.

SparkPeople – Lots of people love this site.  The food database is large.  There is nothing wrong with it, but, I personally don’t need all the emails and annoying reminders.  They annoyed me away.

Weight Trackers – Daily Weighing

Hacker’s Diet Online – I used this for QUITE a while.  It was created by the author of theHacker’s Diet, which is an awesome sanity check for anyone trying to lose weight.  And, while there is nothing wrong with the tracker, it only tracks weight.  When I wanted something to track %Bodyfat too, I replaced it.

Physics Diet Tracker – This tracker was based on the hacker’s diet tracker.  But, they have extra fields you can track, better graphs, and easier data entry, even from my phone.  And, they have a banner you can use for your signature that makes you look über cool.

Information / Advice

Shrinkgeek – The “Elitist Jerks” of weight loss, but without the attitude.  The authors are all in varying stages of weight loss, and they have a lot to share.  The forums are a bit new, but still insightful.

exrx.net – EVERYTHING you would ever need to know about exercise.  Trying to exercise the muscle on the back of your hand?  They probably have a movement to do it.

Hackers Diet – A great sanity check on why all diets work, and why all diets don’t.

Other Stuff

Garmin Connect – I use this site to share my runs (or, I will, once I start running again)

Motion X / TrailRunner – Great GPS iPhone apps to track runs / bikes / etc.  I like MotionX over TrailRunner, even though TrailRunner is easier to use.

I’ve been really quiet lately.  Stop cheering.  Been swamped at work, so I haven’t had time to blog, log my workouts, or change my status 30 times a day.  I know — you’ve missed it.

So, I did drop a lot of weight this (last) week.  6.6 lbs.  That is a lot for me especially coming off of a 2.5 lb gain.  In fact, I’m keeping track of weeks on Medifast, and, last week I lost more than the previous four weeks combined.  (Weeks 5-8 I lost 5.8 lbs).  And, that loss included some carb upsets.  We visited family, so I had to eat some carbs at a home cooked dinner.  To prepare for the day, I switched to BioTest Protein shakes, that are 1 carb each, for my other five meals.  So, instead of getting in 50g of carbs + my lean meal, I got in 5 grams of carbs, plus a non-lean meal.  Seemed to work.

My weight has been stable, hovering at 190 for 3 days now.  So, I’m hoping for a movement soon.  (He said movement)

Working out has been boring.  My bench has been getting hard, but everything else (other than body weight work) has been way too easy.  So, today, I added load.  And it rocked!  I can feel soreness starting everywhere.

Workout

• 5 mins cardio
• Stronglifts 5×5
  • Squat 5×5@95#  (Should have been 80, bumped it a bit)
  • Overhead Press 5×5 @65# (Should have been 60 — on track here)
  • Deadlift 1×5 @ 135# (Was at 120)
  • Chin ups 5xF: 17 (5/3/3/3/3)
  • Prone Bridge (Plank Hold):  3x45sec

I was pretty happy with the chin ups, though I expected more chin ups after my 3 pull up day on Friday.  I’m very happy with bumping the weight.  And, when I got to the gym, there was 115# on the bar, on the ground.  So I clean’ed it up to the squat rack.  My first clean I missed.  I didn’t get under the bar fast enough.  The second one was fine.  I’m excited about my clean increasing now.  The 115# was much harder than the 60# I did yesterday!

Todays Pain of the Day (PotD) includes a bit more bloggage.  My workout went fine, but, weight loss has stalled, and I’ve even started gaining a couple.  Now, there are several possible reasons for this — I have not been on my “A” game.  So, I thought this would be a good place to list the reasons I think I could be stalling, and what I can do to remedy it.

But, before we get into the “plateau” discussion, here’s today’s workout:

Workout Logs

Warmup:  5 mins on the treadmill.
Stronglifts 5×5: Squat: 65#, Bench: 145#, Power Clean: 55#, Bardips: 12/7/6
Cooldown: 5 mins on cardio machine.
Calories Burned: 384

Squats are still REALLY light.  But, I didn’t even have to think about form today.  Knees were wobble free.  The unload is really helping get my form right.  Bench is getting REALLY slow on the 4th and 5th sets.  I may have to start making sure I get enough rest.  Power clean is starting to get tiring . . which is good.  I can’t wait to see how my form behaves as it gets heavier.  For now, the form looks ok, but, since I can reverse curl the weight, it won’t really be a clean till it gets a bit heavier.  And, finally, the bar dips are still improving.  I did the same total number of reps as on Friday, but I managed to get 12 on the first set, versus 10 last week.  I did notice that the picture on the machine had the guy only going down till his arms were parallel to the floor.  I usually go down until my range of motion stops me.  I’m not sure which way is right.

Plateau Busting

I’m not sure if this is the start of a plateau, but, I want to be sure I don’t end up in the sam hell I was in last fall, so, I want to nip it in the bud, quickly.  First, I think it is best to recognize what I’ve been doing wrong, that could be contributing to the gain / lack of weight loss.  And, I won’t ignore things that could have been contributing that are not necessarily bad:

Problems / Symptoms

• I’ve been cheating on my diet, a little.  My protein portions have been getting progressively larger.  If I am at a steakhouse, and I feel like a strip, then I get it, and typically eat all of the 10 oz, instead of cutting it in half, and getting my 5.  I have also not been weighing protein at home.
• I have been substituting in meals . . adding a little protein here and there, playing with recipes.
• Last week, I had a bad cheat day.
• Last week, I also went snowboarding, where I had two redbull vodka’s (sugar free, but, the alcohol calories didn’t help)
• I started doing stronglifts 5×5.  I tried to up the weights a little, and add harder exercises to compensate for the fact that I’m not really a beginner.  But, it is still a MUCH easier workout than my previous one.
• I could be gaining muscle.  My %bf is slowly lowering, so, this little gain could be muscle related, but I really don’t think so.
• I started actually doing hard cardio yesterday.  We’ll see how that pans out doing running Tuesday & Thursday.

The Plan

• Follow diet plan religiously.  So, get more anal.  Weigh meats, and start logging food for a few days.
• Log exercise, including calories burned.  Compare numbers to my previous workout.  If they are less, supplement with cardio.

That’s actually about it, plan wise.  Start logging, and see if anything jumps off of the page.  Wish me luck!

I hate cardio.  Which means I need more.  My brother now has a resting HR of 42 due to all of his cardio.  I need to step it up!

Today’s workout:

10 mins treadmill – 5.0 MPH – many hills
20 mins stair climber – escalator style.  many floors climbed.

I burned about 350kcals, and my average HR was about 150.  (I can grab my watch for exact numbers, but I was somewhere around there.)  All in all, good session!

I made this quick little entry to track my weight loss progress images.  For logs, details, etc, check out my spreadsheets over on Google Docs.

Progress Images

This one was taken before the V-Diet 3.0.  It was after I had lost about 10 lbs from my start . . . maybe 20.

This picture was taken after Weight Watchers, at the start of my 4 month plateau:

This picture was taken after two months of Medifast.  Still need to work more on my chesticles.