30DWW, Day 31

Yup, that's Day 31 of 30, and that's mainly because I wanted to round up this last week making the most of the program before I go back to regular lifting.

30DWW, Day 29

Maybe it's because this is the last week of 30DWW, but I actually had a good time at the gym this morning where I tried out another variation of pull-ups that had me trying to get my chest to touch the bar. I cut down the reps in half, and apparently that's all I could do per set. I still need to learn how to pause at the top and unlearn the dead hang at the bottom.

30DWW, Day 26

This fourth week of 30DWW had been hardest for me getting myself out of the house and into the gym and which I capped off yesterday by deciding to push Station #4 to this morning. I've been counting the days to when I can take a break from this, and I'm glad I only have less than a week to go.

I'm probably just feeling the effects of the weight loss which on average has been twice as quick as what I'm used to, and I'm also not used to keeping up this level of intensity for as long as I have been this month, but at least I've gotten to know what my body is capable of when I put my mind to it.

30DWW, Day 24

Just when I was able to complete 2 sets of Toe touches (the one where you're on your back), one of the trainers came over and gave me a 5lbs. plate to use, and damn if that little thing didn't cause some big aches halfway through the 3rd set. Guess I should to be thankful my abs didn't cramp up like they did on my very first day of 30DWW.

30DWW, Day 22

Boy, I really didn't feel like going to the gym this morning because of the weird weather we've been having over here. It couldn't decide whether it wanted to be hot or cool, and the air felt wet and sticky either way.

Also, I'm feeling a bit tired of doing 30DWW (of which I'm a doing a lot more of it than last year), but I can't say it hasn't been working. As of last Saturday, I weighed in at 170lbs., which broke my mid-2006 record of 172lbs. (Course now I've gone and jinxed myself. ) And judging by the reaction of my friends, the weight loss has been noticeable. Just last night a couple of them who hadn't seen me in a while were worried that I was getting "too thin". (And last year I was told I was getting "too big".)

I have to say compared to when I was over 200lbs. early last year,  being in the low 170s is a lot more manageable. For example last Saturday, I was able to almost do yoga position I had no chance in hell of doing before called the Bound Side Angle Pose where my the tips of my fingers touched behind my back. It'll be a while before my hands can hold each other, but for me, this is already a victory.

30DWW, Day 19

I had to cut my workout short this morning since first, I had to prepare for a presentation to give at work and second, I already set off some time for someone who asked me yesterday to show him the ropes of 30DWW.

30DWW, Day 17

Damn, not only was it hot in the gym this morning, it was humid. It was the kind of heat that drove me to temporarily switching my workouts to lunchtie when the gym's air conditioning was at full blast. I had hoped of even doing just one half the reps of another round of Station #4, but I just couldn't do it. This summer we've been having has turned out to be one hell of a scorcher.

30DWW, Day 15

I hit the halfway mark yesterday, and though I've been doing a better than I expected, I'm not quite where I ought to be. For one thing, I'm supposed to eventually do 6 to 8 sets of Station #4 and I can't even bring myself to finish 1. I'll try my best to do 2 tomorrow.

30DWW, Day 13

Due to circumstances out of my control, I couldn't go the gym until this Saturday, and thanks to some nutritional negligence, I lost 3 lbs. since last Wednesday. Weird.

30DWW, Day 10

Last night I had one heck of cheat meal at a restaurant that served cheese fondue and sausages, which I downed with a bottle of beer, and so I wasn't at all surprised to see when I weighed myself this morning that I gained back a pound of what I lost last week, which may, I realized recently, have a lot to do with the reduction of my protein and especially creatine intake since I haven't been doing any heavy lifting.

Next week I might make Station #1 a bit more challenging for me with Feet-elevated push-ups, but I'll be reducing the number of reps since I'm not out to see how many I can do in one sitting. (That's another program altogether.) So, instead of working on my endurance (it's not like I don't already have a couple of days dedicated to that... stupid burpees), I want to work on my strength, and I think Potak has the right idea.

30DWW, Day 7

Because tomorrow the gym would be opening at 8am and I didn't want to go during lunch when I'm sure there'd be more people around, I went to the gym this afternoon instead. For the most part things went okay until Station #3 that has the Pull-ups and Leg lifts where for some reason my pathetic grip™ came into play and I had to rest in between sets longer than usual to let my forearms relax.

Yesterday I did another round of YRG, and once again I concentrated on controlling my breathing that led to another sweat-inducing session which, along with the previous two days of 30DWW, resulted in a 174lbs. weigh-in... 3.5 lbs. lighter than last Wednesday's. That was a lot of water weight I lost in just 3 days, and so I'll have to make doubly sure I don't get myself dehydrated in the days to come.

30DWW, Day 5

Increased the reps in Station #1 again (not sure how much more my bare knuckles can take in the Push-ups), kept Station #2 the same (though I may change how I do Mountain climbers next time), survived Station #3 (almost... the last set I tried getting my tips of my shoes to touch the bar as many times as I could without cheating with momentum), and got wiped out by Station #4 (in the middle of the Body weight squats, which I switched to ass-to-ground rather than just parallel).

30DWW, Day 3

After taking it a bit easy in Day 1, I pushed myself a little harder this morning and, for the first time, managed the minimum 30-second sets in Station #2, but doing so took a lot out of me, so much so that halfway through Station #3, I was feeling kinda uneasy but not the point of puking like before whenever I overexerted myself.

I had hoped of finally doing 2 full rounds of Station #4, but that will have to wait for now. Still, I'm doing better than I did last year where I had to take a 3-day break after my first day of 30DWW, and here I am getting ready for my second Body Endurance day tomorrow. (Though I'm not looking forward to doing all those jump burpees again so soon.)

Height	5'3"	Mar 09
Weight	177.5 lbs.	-3 lbs.
Chest	42"	-0.25"
Neck	15.5"	no change
Upper Arms (unflexed)	14.75"/14.5"	no change/no change
Upper Arms (flexed)	15.5"/15.25"	no change/no change
Forearms	11.75"/11.5"	+0.125"/no change
Waist at navel	35"	-0.5"
Hips	41"	no change
Thighs	25"/25"	no change/no change
Calves	15.5"/15.5"	-0.375"/-0.375"

With the weight loss I had, I would've thought I'd gotten even a bit smaller, but looks like things have stabilized. I'm pretty I'll see bigger changes after I'm done with this program at the end of this month, and maybe going down to 165lbs./75kg isn't as unreachable as I thought.

I'll have to say that I haven't gotten as many people noticing my new size in the gym and even at work. I've been asked if I've gone on a diet or something, and I just tell them that I followed the last program I used closely (especially the cardio) and the pounds went away on their own (and so did a bit of my strength... ah well). This morning after my workout, I even had a guy ask me to do a double-bicep, which I half-embarrassedly obliged.