Day 76: Week 11 Weigh-in

Well, I think this is the first since I’ve started Body For Life that I’ve been mad at my weigh-in. I’ve worked really hard the last week and still lost 2 pounds!

Needless to say, my wife had no sympathy when I complained about losing 2 pounds in a week (sorry Allison!). I’m really trying hard to gain weight now (muscle weight). I’m definitely looking better in my pictures and have been still increasing my weights at the gym (I did 12 reps of 250 pounds on the leg press for the first time this week). I really want to put on more muscle weight, though.

For the first 6 weeks or so I was pretty good at tracking my calories. Then I got used to eating the Body For Life style and became pretty good at it. I stopped my calorie tracking and just ensured I still at 6 meals. I didn’t feel the need to continue to track my calories. Around week 8 I started increasing the amount I ate at each meal in an effort to gain muscle weight. I gained 3 pounds of the next few weeks, but this last week dropped 2 more down. I think I’m going to start tracking my calories again so I can ensure that I’m eating enough. I’ve heard how body builders have to eat a lot, but man. I feel like I’m already eating a lot with 6 meals a day! I guess I’m not eating enough at each meal. Some websites say you need to eat 3000 calories a day to bulk up. I’m not sure what my magic number is, but I know it’s more than what I’m eating now. Body For Life doesn’t set a number or tell you how much you should eat. Perusing through the Body For Life stories on their website, you’ll notice the stories are sorted by different categories. Some do it to lose weight, some to tone muscle, and some to gain muscle. I really don’t have much fat left on my body, and I really would like to gain muscle now. Now, for this week’s pictures:


I’ll leave you with a sneak preview of some hot pictures of me that will be on my wife’s blog, House of Hepworths tomorrow.

Day 48: Week 7 Weigh-in

Week 7 is here, and another weigh-in showed 2 more pounds off of the scale. I’m down to 157 now – that’s a total of 13 pounds in 7 weeks; just under 2 pounds per week. Healthy, maintainable weight loss is 1-2 pounds per week.


I know I’m continuing to burn fat and not muscle because I am able to increase the weights at the gym. My awesome wife Allison, who usually takes my pictures, was out of town this weekend at a blogging conference in Tennessee with our camera. I had my 7 year old daughter take my pictures from my iPhone, so sorry if they’re a little, er, not quite up to par. From the front…



Now, from the back…



This morning was the first soccer game for my son’s team. It was in the 40s when we left the house at 7:15 AM to make it to his 8:00 game. I wore a fitted undershirt beneath my regular shirt to help deal with the chilly morning. When I put it on, could actually start to see the definition of my pectoral muscles.



Please excuse the Zhu Zhu Pets stuff in the background. One of the quickest instant successes and fade into nothingness from our kid’s round of toys. Seriously, don’t waste your money on them. Instead, buy GeoTrax. Our kids have played with GeoTrax for over 7 years now and still play with them today. They are ridiculously sturdy. Sometimes I wonder who has more fun building the complex train tracks – me or the kids. Here’s an example of one that I built with Travis years ago:



GeoTrax are seriously the best investment we ever made in children’s toys. It gets them away from the TV, forces them to use their brain, allows them to use be creative. In addition, they are extremely durable and well made. I guess I ended on a tangent this time. Signing out…

Day 43: Protein after Workout

After working out with weights, you are supposed to consume protein within 30 minutes in order to ensure that your muscles can grow to their full potential. The more muscle you have, the more fat you burn. I have been trying to eat protein as soon as possible after a workout, but I’ll be honest – sometimes it isn’t within 30 minutes. The gym is only 5 minutes away from my home, but by the time I walk out to my car, head home, sometimes stop at the grocery store, get a call from work, then cook some egg whites or make a protein shake when I get home, it has sometimes not been within 30 minutes of my workout.

The other day as I was leaving the gym, I saw a guy getting his stuff out of a locker and he had a protein bar in his locker. Why haven’t I ever thought of that? Bring a protein bar to the gym – then you can immediately consume protein right after your workout! When doing weights 3 times a week, I’m going to try for the next little while to bring a protein bar to the gym so I can consume protein immediately after doing weights (for me Mon, Wed, Fri). We’ll see if it makes a difference in my muscle gain.

Our printer finally died in our office and it was time to get a new printer. I left the gym today and went straight to Fry’s Electronics to pickup the printer that I had ordered online for in-store pickup. Btw, I will never buy another “brother” brand printer again! Horrible driver, not very compatible with Mac and Linux, and just all around gave us problems. I went back to my bread and butter – Samsung Laser Printers. I’m not a fan of ink jet printers. I prefer a solid basic black and white laser printer. If I really need something in color (which is like never), I can print it at Kinkos, or if it is a photo use one of the many sites online or upload it to Costco or Walgreens. My laser printer toner will last for several thousand pages compared to several hundred for an ink jet. It’s much more economical and looks way better. I generally buy a very basic laser printer, and have had really good success with the basic Samsung Laser Printer. It was only $69.99 at Fry’s! You really can’t beat that, especially considering it was $95 at Newegg, which is usually the cheapest place online for computer stuff. Our last Samsung that we had before the brother lasted us for years. Oh, and I saw a sign at Fry’s today that said they match internet prices…hmmm. Good to know when I need something tech related in a pinch, but don’t want to pay local store prices.

Oops – got on another techy tangent. My bad. I have a tendancy to do that sometimes….back to my blog post – so I went to Fry’s to pickup the printer, and ate my protein bar while driving in my car on the way there to ensure that I got the protein in my system immediately following my intense lower body workout.

Rocky Road Brownie

Btw, this brand of protein bars is quite yummy, and on par with the Body For Life recommended EAS brand of protein bars in regards to protein/carb balance. Not all protein bars are necessarily good for you. I’ll probably do a blog post soon about that my new discovery of these protein bars.

Day 37: Second Interval Increase

Thanks to everyone who stopped by from my lovely wife Allison’s blog today. I picked up a few readers and am excited to have you with me as I go through this journey. Thanks for your support!

Today was my 2nd increase in the intervals for my running routine since I started Body For Life a little over 5 weeks ago. As I mentioned 2 weeks ago when I made my first increase, my eventual goal is to get to four reps of 5 — 6.5 — 8 — 9.5 on the treadmill. My first increase two weeks ago was by .1 to 5 — 6.1 — 7.2 — 8.3. It was a little difficult at first, but after two weeks of that I was ready for an increase today. I increased .1 again and did 5 — 6.2 — 7.4 — 8.6. I went from 2.17 miles to 2.22 miles – an increase in .1 miles total from the beginning (I started at 2.12 for the 21 minute plan).

increased intervals
It was a challenge, but I can tell my heart is getting stronger. I’ll probably do this for two weeks, then increase again by .1. If I keep this pace up, I’ll reach my goal by the 10th week.

And now, for a totally random picture – I saw this at Academy while getting soccer equipment for my son’s soccer team:

wow

I was so excited to see that Academy now carries chicken poop! I went back and forth on whether I needed some more right now, but when I saw that it is from free range chickens, I was sold!

Welcome HoH Readers!

Ben Runs LifeIf you’re stopping by from my amazing wife Allison’s blog, House of Hepworths, then welcome! Actually, I guess you’re welcome here no matter where you’re coming from. Today is Valentine’s day and I’m guest blogging on HoH – you can read the post here. I wrote a very special Valentine’s Day post dedicated to my tender, oozing blossom, Roz Allison.

So…about me – I’m currently in the middle of the Body For Life program. Seriously, go check out the before and after pictures on their website if you haven’t before. It will, as Allison would say, srsly motivate you. I’m doing weekly weigh-in and photo postings on Saturdays. During the week I share tips and tricks about healthy eating and exercise sprinkled with tidbits of how you can use technology to stay healthy. Thanks for stopping by! Here are a few links to get you started:

I’ll leave you with some photos showing my progress through the first 4 weeks (click to enlarge):

Weekly Progress

Weekly Progress

That is just after 4 weeks – you just wait until I’m done with Body For Life! See ya on the other side, brother.