Dreaming of the beach!

AI–Cat2/W12 (AT15-Complete)

The Adonis body transformation contest is officially over.  With a 2 week break a couple weeks back while my wife was in the hospital, I am almost finished with CAT 2 and will be moving directly into CAT 3.  The next 7 weeks will be more hit-n-miss for workouts but I will be working at getting 4 workouts in each week.  No reason to stop now that I am going!

I’m not going to post my typical pics this time around.  Rather, I would like to post my before/after pics following 12 weeks of work.  I am not yet at my goals so I will continue to post here – probably 3 or 4 times between now and mid January.

I also want to shout out to the guys on Adonis who had patience with me when I first started and also helped me keep my head in the game while my wife was in the hospital.  These guys rock and really make the Adonis program work!

Before/After

   

   

AI–Cat2/W12 (AT15/W12)

We are in the final week of the competition and I love the progress I have made so far.  However, I am not where I wanted to be!  lol

The last few weeks have been eventful, to say the least.  An unexpected source of stress came into my life and you can clearly see the effects on my weight and waist measurements.  You can also see what happened last week when the source of the stress was no longer around.  Quite a nice rebound!

This last week’s lesson?  Don’t under-estimate what stress can do to you!!!

Tracking Graph

 

New AGNRC

 

AI–Cat2/W11 (AT15/W11)

You may have noticed I missed a blog entry.  In fact, I missed most of 2 weeks working out and spent most of the time visiting the hospital where my wife spent 8 days fighting a nasty infection.  She’s on the mend and will be back to her Venus workouts probably next week while I return to my workouts this week.

I am hoping that the back sliding I am seeing in my stats will be arrested and continue to go back to positive progress.  I posted in the Adonis forums last week and so far no one has been able to give me an answer to my question:

OK. It's now been 14 days and I seem to have plateaued. My weight has been 212 +/- 1.5 pounds since Oct 17th. It is now the 31st. According to AGR, my intake should be 1599 calories w/no exercise and 1759 calories with 1/2 hr per day exercise. I've looked at MFP and I've been floating right around 1550 average for the last 14 days.

I just looked at my Fitbit charts and my % Body Fat has been steadily declining. It went from 27.4% down to 26.0%. In the first 7 weeks of Adonis I lost a lot of weight (18 lbs.?) but my % Body Fat went from 27.9% to 27.4%. I've lost more %BF in the last 14 days while my weight did not really budge.

Does anyone have any ideas what might be happening or can anyone explain it?
NOTE: BF% and weight are via a Fitbit Aria Scale. I weigh myself each morning but only use the weight taken on Sunday morning for AGR.

OK.  Let’s see what this week brings!  I am backing down from roughly 1500 calories/day to 1300 calories/day.  Metabolism activate!

Tracking Graph

 

New AGNRC

 

AI–Cat2/W10 (AT15/W9)

I’ve got 3 weeks left of CAT2 and 4 weeks left in the AT15 competition.  While my progress seemed stagnant this last week, I am chalking most of that up to too much salt in one of our bulk meals.  Salt = retained water in my eyes.  I’ll be continuing on this week and will find out how much the salt affected me! 

I also added 2 boosters to my workout for a couple of reasons.  (1) I needed to fill some time while my wife does her Venus workout and (2) I want to see growth in my shoulders and legs!

I also wanted to mention that I stopped wearing my heart rate monitor so I will no longer be posting heart rate information from Endomondo.

Tracking Graph

 

New AGNRC

 

AI–Cat2/W9 (AT15/W8)

This marks the 2/3 point into the AT-15 Transformation Contest.  Not only did my wife and I do weights and measures, we also took photos (not being posted here).

Tracking Graph

 

New AGNRC

 

Heart Rates for 4 workouts.

   

HR Zones for 4 workouts.

   

AI–Cat2/W8 (AT15/W7)

Seems I had my numbering off so I will reset my numbering with this post!  Yea, I can do that.

I am now 2/3 of the way through the CAT-2 workout regimen and doing very well.  The weight keeps dropping off at a steady pace; an average of 2 pounds each week.  Awesome!!

Tracking Graph

 

New AGNRC

 

Heart Rates for 4 workouts.

 

HR Zones for 4 workouts.

 

mfp_img

The Blues

In the beginning, when I was a seasoned Sergeant in the Marine Corps, I fit the Dress Blues I had purchased as a lowly Lance Corporal.  Everything was great!  I even got to wear them for my wedding before I finally had no obligation to serve.  As with everything else, as life goes on, little changes creep in.  Eat a little more pizza each month.  Drink more soda while at work.  Exercise less.  Gain 30 friggin pounds while out of town on contract for 3 months.

While I did remain more active than my friends, I did not care about my diet.  And in the ensuing months, nay years, I slowly crept up to 240 pounds.  And then, with a mere 10 months warning, my youngest daughter tells us she is getting married, will I please wear my Blues.  Well, I had started “working out” and figured I could lose the extra weight in 10 weeks months.  Right?  Nope.  Not knowing what I was doing in the gym I ended up losing maybe 10 pounds.  And I felt beat up to boot.

So, watching my bank accounts drain, I paid for another set of Blues and had them shipped to the house.  My wife, fortunately a seamstress, did a wonderful job of adding all the touches that make the Blues what they are.  The red blood stripe down the trouser legs, the rank insignia and the years in service “hash” marks.  And I felt GREAT wearing them.  That is until a few weeks later when all the pictures started coming in.  I had turned into that uncaring Marine who had let his body go looked more like a pork sausage stuffed into oversized Blues.  Wake up call!!  (Granted; no one probably thought that thought but me.)

10 November 2013 – My Daughter’s Wedding

   

08 October 2014 – Fitting of Blues for an event this weekend

A little over 7 weeks ago I found a program called Adonis.  While the marketing may be a bit cheesy, the program works.  Period.  I now find myself in a quandary.  I would really like to wear my Blues for a special event this Friday night.  So, my wife asked me to try them on so hopefully, if any alterations are needed, she will have time to do them.

Much to my surprise, my Wedding Blues are way too large for me!  And, my Blues from my time in service are almost fitting me now!  STFU!  These are pictures taken today of my (daughter’s wedding) Blues Blouse:

  

These are pictures of my (late 1980s) Blues Blouse:

  

As you can see in the last set of photos, my top button and “leather neck” collar are undone.  You can also see a pulling around the bottom three buttons – and this is un-sat!  I can get the top button and neck closed but it is quite uncomfortable.  I know, Blues are not meant to be comfortable.  But I do like to breathe over the long run.  But tell you what.  Come back in 6 weeks and let’s see if they fit completely.  I bet you they will.

Another week in the fitness journey.  Just 19 more pounds to go.

Semper Fi!