My first journal!!!

[Matt Atkins]

Day #6
I weighed 190.3 at my weigh-in for the contest. The scale is way off (I don't know how much clothes and shoes weigh??) but it is 7 lbs. lighter than last week at the start of the contest on the same scale. I didn't lose 7 lbs., so I'm curious as to what happened. It looks great for me in the contest, but I know I didn't lose that much.

6:15am - Breakfast
4 egg whites
1 slice lean turkey breast
all natural salsa
1 piece of whole wheat toast


11am - Snack
1 rice cake
peanut butter


12:30pm - Lunch
2 slices of lean turkey breast
2 pieces of whole wheat bread

I made this at home with the intention of finding some mustard somewhere in the lunch room, but no luck. It was bland of course, but it was food and I was hungry. Friends from work ate at a new burger joint and boy did it smell good.

4pm - Snack
1 rice cake
peanut butter

7pm - Workout
25 minutes of HIIT on treadmill

My wife wasn't feeling good at the gym today so we left early. My intent was a leg workout today but will just settle for the cardio.

8pm - Snack/Dinner
PWO shake

The timing of my afternoon snack and workout was way off. I hadn't eaten since 4pm, and it was a small snack. I was very hungry going into the workout, but didn't want to eat before I went. The workout was short and I got a PWO shake from the gym. I wanted to get to sleep early so I could get some cardio in before work, so this was my last "meal" of the day. I fell asleep before 10pm.

[Link]

If you dont like the taste of lean turkey breast, and Im assuming your getting from the deli, I will sometimes get both cayenne turkey breat and extra lean turkey breast and toss a couple of each on, the cayenne is so good.

Also for your snacks how much pb are you having?

[Matt Atkins]

I'm not measuring it, but I give it a light spread on a little more than 3/4 of the rice cake. If I had to guess I'd say its a little less than a tablespoon. Should I be more precise?? What is the right amount?? Maybe switch out my afternoon snack to something else??

[Link]

Nah thats fine, you always need some fat in your diet, and since your cutting you dont want too much, but you still need it.

You should measure out your macros (i.e caloires, pro, fat, carb intake per day). Try out this http://www.calorieking.com/ or other such sites, to get a general idea of what your taking in, and from there you can get some suggestions.

[Matt Atkins]

Day #7

There is a late entry into the contest that is going to pose my most serious threat. The contest is comprised of 95% women, and 3 guys. I know one of the guys very well, and I don't think he will be serious enough for the full 15 weeks. It is fun having a friend so we can push each other, but I'm in it to win it. The other guy I also know fairly well, and he is probably about 50-60 lbs overweight. If he commits to losing weight, he will beat me by a mile, not matter how much I lose. This is why I'm so mad the contest started 6-8 weeks too late. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR... I'm thinking a weekly, anonymous delivery of fresh donuts is in order...

5:45am - Breakfast

4 egg whites
all natural salsa

I was off to the gym for my cardio, so I wanted to cut out the carbs from breakfast. No toast today. I had to choke down the eggs this morning, even with the salsa. I think I'm going to start switching off between the eggs and maybe some oatmeal.

6:15am - Cardio
30 minutes at level 9 on StairClimber
10 minutes of HIIT on treadmill

I completed the whole program at level 9 of the fat burning program this morning. This is an improvement. I climbed 133 flights of stairs and it said I burned 365 calories. I got on the treadmill for 10 minutes and felt very good. Could have kept going but I ran out of time.


10am - Morning snack
1 rice cake
peanut butter


12pm - Lunch
Chicken bowl from Chipotle
No rice
Black beans
Corn salsa


4pm - Snack
2 rice cakes
peanut butter


6:15pm - Pre-workout meal
2 slices of whole wheat toast
2 slices of lean turkey breast

8:30pm - Workout - Legs

Leg presses - 3 set to failure (10,8,6)
240 x 10
270 x 8
320 x 6

Leg extensions - 3 sets to failure (10,10,10)
125 x 10
125 x 10
125 x 10

Lying leg curls - 3 sets
50 x 10
60 x 10
60 x 10

Seated calf raises - 5 sets
25 x 10
50 x 10
50 x 10
60 x 8
75 x 6

9:30pm - Dinner
PWO shake

I found a new website to track my calorie intake (amongst other things) and I figured that I ate 1,633 calories today. I will do some research to see if that is enough. At first guess, I don't think it is. I'm really glad I found that website. It even has the shake that the gym makes in shake bar.

[Matt Atkins]

[ QUOTE ]

You should measure out your macros (i.e caloires, pro, fat, carb intake per day). Try out this http://www.calorieking.com/ or other such sites, to get a general idea of what your taking in, and from there you can get some suggestions.

[/ QUOTE ]

I found a REALLY good website for this. My friend that's in the contest with me tipped me off to it. It's www.thedailyplate.com. It has every food (including from restaurants) imaginable that you can choose, and it tracks EVERYTHING from amount of protein, carbs, sodium, cholesterol. You build your profile and input height, weight, goals for your diet, and tracks every single thing that you eat. It figures out how many calories you should be eating a day based on your stats and your goals. It even allows you to enter your workouts for the day and it figures out your net calories for the day. This will be a very important tool for my diet. Thanks for the tip!!

[Matt Atkins]

Day #8

I was so ridiculously busy at work today that my schedule got all messed up.

6am - Breakfast
4 egg whites
2 pieces of whole wheat toast
all natural salsa

12pm - Lunch
Club sandwich from Jimmy John's website

I found out later that this sandwich was over 800 calories... Toooo many!!! It was good, though.

4pm - Snack
2 rice cakes
peanut butter on both


My kids came back from Texas tonight after being gone for 4 days. Needless to say, no workout today. It also meant no dinner. Not a very good day all around. I was around 600 calories short of my daily goal of 2186 calories a day.

[Matt Atkins]

Day #9

Another super busy day at work.

6am - Breakfast
4 egg whites
2 pieces of whole wheat toast
all natural salsa

12pm - Lunch
Chicken burrito bowl from Chipotle

5pm - Snack
1 rice cake
peanut butter

6:30pm - Post-workout snack
1 slice of whole wheat bread
1 slice of lean turkey

8pm - Workout

Back, biceps, forearms

Pullups
3x12

Lat pulldowns
3 sets to failure
80 lbs - 1x10
90 lbs - 1x8
100 lbs - 1x6
Start at higher weight next time

One arm rows
40 lbs
1x10
45 lbs
1x10
50 lbs
1x10
Start at higher weight next time

Bent-over dumbbell laterals
20 lbs
3x10

Incline DB curls
3 sets of slow, controlled 15 reps
15 lbs
3x15

Barbell curls to failure (2 sets of this)
75 lbs
1x8
55 lbs
2 x failure
35 lbs
1 x failure
15 lbs
1 x failure

Barbell 21's
3 sets at 40 lbs

Barbell wrist curls
30 lbs
1x10
50 lbs
2x12
Start higher next time

Reverse barbell wrist curls
60lbs
3x10

9pm - Dinner
PWO shake

I am over 1000 calories short of my goal for today. I have no idea how... I will have to work on getting that up closer to where I'm supposed to be. Not being insanely busy at work will probably help. I'm also skipping dinner most nights and calling my PWO shake dinner. My workouts are always so late that it ends up like that.

[Matt Atkins]

Day #10

I think I'm coming down with a cold. 2 of my kids have been sick, with my oldest being diagnosed with mono. I didn't know that you couldn't get mono twice, so I'm in the clear for that. It just feels like a little congestion in my nasal passages and a bit of a cough. Nothing too severe. I don't work today, but I'm still dealing with a big problem at work so will be working from home with the kids today.

7:30am - Breakfast
4 egg whites
2 pieces of whole wheat toast
all natural salsa

10am - Morning snack
1 rice cake
peanut butter


12:30pm - Lunch
lean turkey breast sandwich

3:30pm - Afternoon snack
1 rice cake
peanut butter