Slackjaw's TT#15 Contest Entry

[Mark Rogers]

Hi Gang:

I'm entering the contest today, Saturday 22 September.

I'm a 39 year old, 5'8" 162 pound male. I'll be using the 6-month Bodyweight Manual; I've been working on it, but I'm still in Phase 1. I had my bodyfat measured with the Bod Pod on the 13th, 9 days ago. My weight was the same; I was at 21.9% bodyfat. I've been a vegan for about a year and a half. I'll be following a diet similar to the one detailed in my workout journal, except I've cut the calories to about 1600. I may bump that up now and then if I seem to be losing too much. I've actually already lost 46 pounds; in March 2011 I weighed 208 pounds. I am heading in to the final stretch of my weight loss journey, and I thought this contest would be a great way to keep my motivation up.

My goals are to reach 149 pounds, stick with my diet, not miss a day of the manual, and to walk my dog for at least 40 minutes per day.

Good luck to everyone!

Mark

[galaxy]

Hi there

Well done on your weight loss journey so far, that's fab.

You have some great goals, I would love the dog walking but don't have a dog!

Looking forward to sharing your journey,

Cheers for now Katie

[Mark Rogers]

Thanks for stopping by, Katie. I've got the sweetest little border collie mix. She gets very restless if she doesn't get her walk. I'm also a big fan of the Dog Whisperer, and he suggests a 40 minute walk every day, so that's what I do. It's good for us both. Actually every other day she wears a backpack with a water bottle on each side for some extra exercise. I call it her Dogulence Training.

Yesterday I did Phase 1 Workout A of the 6-Month Bodyweight Manual. I'm not going to list the exercises each day, but I will on the first time through:

1) Prisoner Squat - 15 reps
2) Jumping Jacks - 40 reps
3) Plank - 45 sec hold
4) Stability Ball Leg Curl - 15 reps
5) Pushups - 12 reps
6) Side Plank - 20 sec hold per side
7) Sumo Squat - 15 reps
8) Beginner of Regular Inverted Row - 8 reps (I did some of each)

As usual, you run through that with no rest, then rest a minute, then 2 more times through. It may not look like much, but it was murderous for me. Of course, I felt great afterward.

I got my walk in with my dog, 40+ minutes.

Today for intervals, since my new exercise bike doesn't come until tomorrow, I did 2 rounds of TT Bodyweight Cardio 3 Workout A:

1) Prisoner Squats - 15 reps
2) Pull-up - 3 reps (I can't do even one, so I did "let downs" for about 5 sec a piece)
3) Elevated Pushup - 6 reps per side
4) Diagonal Lunge - 10 reps per side
5) Jumping Jacks - 30 reps
6) Vertical Jumps - 6 reps
7) Spiderman Climb - 10 reps per side
8) Side to Side Jump - 8 reps per side
9) Spiderman or Regular Pushup - 12 total reps (I did spiderman on round 1, regular round 2)
10) Inverted Row - 10 reps
11) Shuttle Sprint - 20 secs (I skipped this on round 2 due to some slight knee pain and being totally wiped anyway)

The 2 rounds took me about 22 minutes, with several short breaks in round 2. This workout was intense. I followed it up with my 40+ minute dog walk. Later this afternoon I'll do the shapeshifter 1 hour yoga routine.

Here is what I eat just about every day; according to my calculations it's just under 1600 calories:

Breakfast ~ 7:30 AM: 1 cups steel cut oats with cinnamon, coffee with stevia extract, water, and a blender drink. More on that drink below.

After workout ~ 11:00 AM: 1 cup unsweetened hempmilk (or some other type of milk, like almond or coconut, I alternate for variety), a bowl with 1/2 cup brown rice, 1/2 cup quinoa, 1/2 cup lentils, 1/2 cup some other bean, some curry powder, 2 Tbsp tamari, some apple cider vinegar.

Early Afternoon: Two cups of chopped raw veggies: carrot, cucumber, celery, cherry tomatoes, bell peppers. Also, one piece of fruit (I pick 7 different fruits, one for each day of the week, for variety). Yesterday I was tired of munching on all those veggies, so I put everything including fruit in the blender with a cup of water. It didn't taste so great (I didn't expect it to and I didn't care), but it went down pretty fast and I sure felt healthy for drinking it. I'll do that again today.

Dinner ~ 4:00 PM--7:00 PM: My stir fry: 1/2 cup quinoa, 1/2 cup kimchee, some seaweed, 1/3 package tempeh, 2 Tbsp tamari, some hot sauce, several cloves of garlic, a big hunk of ginger (sliced), 3--5 cups of veggies: Some combination of kale, broccoli, bokchoy, nappa cabbage, spinach.

Also, I drink lots of water and various amounts of coffee. I've quit coffee before and I'll probably quit it again some time.

As for the blender drinks, I alternate between two. Each recipe makes enough for 2 days:

Blender Drink 1: Frozen Banana, 1/2 cup frozen blueberries, 2 cups water, 2 tsp rooibos (red tea), 1 tbsp matcha green tea, 1 tbsp hemp protein, 1 tbsp ground flax seed, 1 tbsp oil (mixture of pumpkin seed oil, flax seed oil, hemp seed oil)

Blender Drink 2: Trade the blueberries for an orange, the rooibos for 2 tbsp pumpkin seeds and 1/4 tsp ground cloves.

The down side is that while each day has quite a bit of variety, I eat it every day so I don't get much variety from day to day. Also, the protein is so low that a bodybuilder wouldn't be able to look me in the eye. Luckily, I'm not a body builder, but when I'm not trying to lose weight any more, the first thing I will do is up the protein with more beans/rice/quinoa and maybe a protein shake.

I bought the book "7 Habits of Highly Effective People"; I'll be reading it for awhile. It'll be slow since I'm really into Stephen King's Dark Tower series right now.

Mark

[RobB]

Why quit drinking coffee. Supposed to be good for you in moderation!

[RobB]

Dogulence Training.........gee, dont give Craig any ideas! There goes the neighborhood!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL

[galaxy]

Dogulence Trainign - am loving it!!

Rob you beat me to it, am sure Craig will have plenty of doggie workouts up his sleeve for Bally!

[RobB]

Originally Posted by galaxy

Dogulence Trainign - am loving it!!

Rob you beat me to it, am sure Craig will have plenty of doggie workouts up his sleeve for Bally!

Probably more, than for US !!!!!!!!!!!!

[TomHK]

Good luck Mark. Will be interested to follow your journal since I fancy having a go at the bodyweight manual myself, maybe after this transformation over the Christmas period since I already have a plan for the next 12 weeks.

Also interested to see your nutrition. While not a vegetarian or vegan myself I do like to prepare quite a few vegan meals which I find eating in this way give me lots of energy - stuff like a power smoothie in the morning with vegan protein and other ingredients. I also love to eat lentils and beans, quinoa and hemp seeds so base a lot of meals around these options.

Anyway good luck to you this week!

[Mark Rogers]

Thanks for stopping by Morgan, Rob, and Katie.

I did my yoga last night. I'm sore today in the hip/leg area. Not sure if it was the yoga or Crazy 8 300 workout. Nothing major, but I'm debating taking today as my rest day instead of what I have planned as Friday. (I only get one since I do intervals on the off day rather than with the turbulence.) I may also just put it off until later today and see how I feel.

Rob, as for quitting coffee, I don't have a real good reason. I've heard some talk about the stimulants overworking your adrenals or something like that. Anyway I don't feel like drinking coffee is any major problem; maybe no problem at all. One thing is for sure: I do feel the effects; in fact that's why I drink it. For me, it's not a drink, it's a drug.

Here's a good song that keeps me motivated; I've been playing it in the mornings lately:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jsw_...eature=related

Back a few hours later to report that I did Workout B and the 45 minute dog walk. Here is workout B:

1) Step-Ups - 12 reps per side
2) Siff Squat - 20 reps
3) Off-set Pushups - 8 reps per side
4) Split Squat with Front Foot Elevated - 10 reps per side
5) Plank with Elbows on Ball - 20 second hold
6) Reverse Lunge - 10 reps per side
7) Assisted or Regular Chinups - 8 reps (I did 5/5/4 regular and finished out the sets with let-downs)
8) Stick-Ups - 12 reps
9) Bird Dog - 5 reps per side (I do a 5 sec hold with each rep)

Mark

[Mark Rogers]

Today I did intervals on my new Schwinn Airdyne AD4 exercise bike; so far I'm very happy with it. After that, a dog walk. Later, yoga.

Small note: I forgot to mention on my diet that I sprinkle a fair bit of nutritional yeast on my stir fry.

Mark