And on the 8th day, God gave us deadlifts.

Well, I've delayed posting about it here long enough, no wasted time, here ya go.

Last week I got my test results back from my 90 day A1C. 6.3. Technically, I'm no longer diabetic. I did it two ways. By eating right, Basically Atkins. It works for me, if you can stick with it, it'll work for you.

And secondly, by doing this:

Deadlift Video









Now, I'm not going to tell you that you have to lift like I do. You don't. What you need to do though is to work to make your muscles more active, and increasing the size of them is one way to do that. Freshly worked muscles crave nutrients and it's a great way to get rid of some blood glucose.



285lbs today, I took a few days off the diet to reset. 



Eat steak, lift, lose weight, be happy.

90 day check up.

I won't have the official lab results for a few days, but my doc did a double take today when he walked in and instead of his normal friendly greeting, I was met with a "wow".

Official weight, 287. Right at about 25lbs lost this year, so far. 78 pounds from my highest ever. I'm still having constant sugars in the 120 range, with nothing higher than 130.  Atkins is great for sugar stabilization. I'll have my A1C next week.
Resting pulse when I started, 100.
Resting pulse today. 69

Med free BP when I started, (I'm prescribed Lisinopril, but it makes me sick) 164/112
Med free BP today. 142/84.

Resting resp rate when I started, 20.
Resting resp rate now, 13.


So far all I've done is lift and eat right. I've had a lot of body composition changes, but not the loss I'd expect. Despite averaging over a pound a week, I want more. And I'll get it. Easily. I'm going to incorporate HIIT with a weighted sled into a workout day every week if I can.

HIIT is High Intensity Interval Training. It can be done merely by sprinting, with a sledge hammer and a tire, a sled, etc. Basically, you give an all out max effort for 30-40 seconds, then rest for 10-20, and do it again. Repeat until you feel like throwing up. If outside, repeat until you throw up.

You didn't get diabetic and fat without working to shovel in some food, work to burn it out.

How bad do you want it?

Busier than I care to be. But finally, an update.

The good, the bad, the ugly.

The good, sugars are running perfect according to the meter. I go back to the doc for new labs Monday.
My previous belief that I'd broken my plateau was apparently wrong.  I have broken it now though. obviously a good thing. Down to 290. 
My wife has joined me in low carbing and she's starting to lose as well. I can't say enough how proud I am of her.
I may have already touched on this, but in the final work week of 5/3/1 for the first cycle, I hit new PRs in bench, dead lift, and squat. 155, 455, and 355 respectively.  The 455 deadlift was the last lift I did and it hurt. I went too big, too soon. I locked it out, but I felt it for a week. I'll slow down a bit on that front. I took most of the deload week off.

Yesterday I started cycle 2. Got way deeper into ketosis, and today I feel better than I have in a damned long time. Life is good.
I matched my bench PR of 155 and it was much easier than last time.  I tried and failed at 175. You win some, you lose some, but you lift some more, you get your weight, and you move on.

The bad. Hurting my shoulder and back. The shoulder is an old injury, and it was just aggravated, but badly. Thanks to rest, aleve, and massage, it's back to it's normal, regular, dull ache. My back was something else all together and may have been a kidney stone. I had all the right symptoms, and day before yesterday, all the pain just disappeared like someone flipped a switch. Odd, but I know how to take yes for an answer!

The ugly. That damn plateau.
A month at 295lbs. Give or take a pound or two each way. It sucked. How did I break it? Well, who knows, but this is what I did and it broke.
At the end of the week off, I hit the gym for limited reps and weight of all 4 lifts that I do. Very limited. Nothing over 60% of my actual 1 rep max for any work out. Really closer to 50 on everything. That night, I took my wife out to dinner at Applebees, which is of course, absolute junk for anyone trying to eat clean. I didn't go nuts, but I for sure had too many carbs.
The next morning I started an extreme diet consisting of Chicken breast, water, green leaf lettuce, onions, Romano cheese, and Caesar dressing.  (1gram carb per tblspn).  I ate them as lettuce wraps, and it's literally the only thing I ate for 4 days. And damn it's good. After 4 days I added some eggs, a few almonds now and then, some small pieces of cheese, etc.

Basically, I reset my metabolism. And according to the little stick, I'm deeper into Ketosis than I have been in a long damn time.  Now, according to some people ketosis is ketosis and levels be damned. Maybe it's true. I don't know. What I do know is that if I'm deep into it and I have a little too much creamer in my coffee, I don't go out of ketosis. If I'm barely in, I do.

Staying in keto, good.
Not being in keto, bad.


More numbers. Tight schedule this week, so I did squats and benches yesterday.
Squat,
warm up
BARx10
95x5
135x5
185x5
Work sets
205x5
235x5
275x5

Yeah, you're supposed to do more than 5. But, I just wasn't feeling right. I was wobbly and didn't feel stable. One thing I've been taught and try to listen to, if your body says no, accept it. So I did the required work and walked away. Today my shoulder and back feel good, so I figure it was a good choice.

Bench
warm up
BARx5x2
65x5
75x5
Work
95x5
105x5
115x8
Joker
135x1
155x1
And the miss at 175.

I felt good at the 155 and REALLY thought I had the 175 in me. But I didn't. My mind wasn't right, and frankly, I'm just not strong enough. I brought it down smooth enough, but 3 inches into the lift, I pushed it right into a brick wall. I'll try again in the next cycle. On the 5/3/1 week of this cycle, if I'm feeling it, I'll go for 165. One step at a time, right?


I've been neglecting accessory work, and that will change soon. I don't know why, but I have a mental thing about a 175 bench. I'll feel like much less of a wuss once I hit it. 

Sorry for the delay, but at some point the benefit of getting healthy has to be living life. That's what I'm doing. And thanks to getting into better health, life is better.

End of week 2 on 5/3/1

Life ain't bad, as predicted, I did well at the end of week 4 on deads.  240x5, 285x5, and 315x10, 5 over the required work set.

This week, I've squatted, pressed, and benched. In week 2, the weights step up and the reps drop. Instead of 5, you do 3 reps, again with as many as possible on the 3rd. OHP,  was 65x3, 75x3, 85x8.

I squatted the day before and did 205x3, 225x3, and 255x5. 

Benching this morning, I did 75x3, 85x3, and 95x20.  Those are the required work sets, but I had more in me, and I'm not a fan at all of leaving anything in the tank. so I did 115x3 and 135x2. 

This of course, means that I REALLY underestimated my bench press, or I've grown it really fast. I'm going with option A.

All these workouts are done AFTER a warm up, and stretching, especially with the deadlift and squat. I want to stress this because you can seriously screw yourself up for life if you don't do it right.  Proper form and checking your ego at the door are mandatory. Here's the deal. Today I walked into a gym with a bunch of muscled up guys that warm up with bigger weights than I max out at. And I promptly took all the weights off the bar and pressed it ten times, very slowly. Then I added ten pounds and did it again. Everyone can see, and it doesn't matter. I'm a big dude, I look like I should be able to do more. It doesn't matter, my ego was out in the parking lot. No worries though, I found it when I left.

Sugars, damned good. 10X more often than not. A few 90s, pretty much nothing over 130, and that's with me testing after I eat, not hours later, just a bit after. I must be doing something right.

Thoughts on 5/3/1 at the end of week one, and it's inventor, Jim Wendler

I'll dead lift in the morning, but that's by far my best lift of the 4, so I'm pretty comfortable giving my impressions.

Obviously, I can't talk about the effectiveness of the strength building aspects of it. What I can talk about is the mental effect.

The concept behind 5/3/1 is a progression of weight and reps to build strength. It's not a body building program, it's not designed to give you huge arms to land chicks, or anything like that.  The program has one goal in mind. To make you stronger. Simple enough.

Without going into too much detail, each week has a certain percentage of your maxes that you're supposed to lift, for a certain amount of reps, except the last set, you go balls out.

 On the military press, I hit the assigned 5 plus 7 more on the last set.(80)
On squats, I hit the assigned 5, plus 5 more on the last set.(245)
On bench, the same. But I screwed up on the bench. Basically, my brain totally malfunctioned, and instead of lifting 65x5, 75x5, and 85x5, I lifted 65x5, 95x5, and 115x10.

Now here's where I really enjoy the mental effect.  It's damned confidence inspiring to be able to exceed goals set by a guy that's squatted 1,000 lbs in competition.  Jim Wendler is a no BS kind of guy. If he wants to say something, he says it. His books reflect this. His specific method has been out for awhile and it's obvious that it works.  Call me a believer.  And with damned good reason.

I plan on sticking to his program pretty strictly, and that being my work outs. It's more than just the 4 lifts, he does suggest conditioning training as well as accessory lifts, and I'll be doing those as well.

I don't want to turn this into a place to pimp a plan, but there are a lot worse ways to spend ten bucks.

Now, why am I sticking to it? Simple.  Deciding to get in shape without a plan is called crossfit, and crossfit sucks. It's a damn good way to get hurt, and it has a lot of wasted effort that doesn't benefit you.  The reason crossfit doesn't have slow, deliberate (strict) movements is because they're harder (and safer).  It's an ego boost to claim you can do ten pull ups, but they're not pull ups, they're swinging like a damn monkey and I personally know people that claim that they can do 15+ pull ups that can't do a single deadhang pull up.  Is it better than nothing, probably. But so is a Jane Fonda vhs tape.

More numbers:
Any attempt to take meds when my sugar breaks 150 results in bad hypoglycemia. So I guess I'm no longer med free by choice. I'm med free because I have to be, the lowest dose is now dangerous.   This is between a combination of eating pretty clean, without too many carbs, most of those coming from lifting supplements. My numbers are still averaging in the low 100s, usually right around 110.  Morning sugars are a tad higher, and they stay up until I eat.

Weight loss is still halted, but no gains. I'm not staying in ketosis, pretty much due to coffee creamer and protein shakes. I've stopped with the protein shakes, and I'm about to work my way off the coffee. Mostly because black coffee is nasty.  And I need to dump the creamer and artificial sweeteners.

 I'm where I want to be numbers wise, except weight.  Part of my body's reluctance to drop fat is possibly the way I'm lifting. I still get comments from people talking about my weight loss, including my wife who sees me 4 to 5 days a week.  If I'm still visibly shrinking in her perspective, then maybe I am. She knows better than me for sure. I see me every day, her gaps in seeing me due to my work give her a stronger perspective.

So life is still good, I'm still apparently progressing.  That's the name of the game.

It's been a bit, I haven't had much to say. But here's a lot.

2 big things.

About a week and a half ago, I took a home kit A1C test. They're made by Bayer, and are fairly good, they tend to run a bit high in my experience. 

The numbers, 90 days. A1C is supposed to be a 90 day average of your Blood Glucose. 7.0 is target for diabetics, 4.0 to 5.6 is non diabetic. 5.6 to 6 is diabetic.

On 1/15 my A1C was 12.8.  Obviously way too damned high. At the 6 week mark, half way to hitting the 90 days, it was 8.7. A drop of just over 4 points. Theoretically, continuing that pace, I'd be non diabetic at around 4.6.   Realistically, I'm probably headed towards a 6, as towards the end of the 90 days the drop will slow.  So, that's a win.

Also, I go through test strips like it's going out of style. I should log it better, but I can still put together trends and gain knowledge.  I've been med free for a bit, I don't think I have much choice in it anymore. If I take meds, I get hypoglycemic. Bad juju in both my lines of work.

Morning sugars are still higher than what the 'book' says the should be, 70 - 94 iirc.  I'm usually in the 110 range.   What else is happening is that even when I eat or drink something that spikes my sugar, like too much coffee creamer, 2 hours later, I'm back to normal, 120 to 140.  I'm still eating very low carb. As I type this, I'm eating a ceasar salad, veal with no breading and a mushroom and onion saute over julienne cut Zucchini.  I don't even like Zucchini, but a little olive oil and salt and it's good to go, a tad tart, but good.   Not zero carb by any means, but certainly pretty low.


Lifting wise, I've started the Wendler 5/3/1 program.  It's explained at the link, but basically, it's a program around tried and true principles of gaining strength.  Not necessarily getting big and ripped, but getting stronger. I think everyone can agree that getting stronger is a good thing. Honestly, if you're reading this, and you don't want to improve yourself, I don't know what the hell to think. That's what this entire blog is about. I'm not saying that you need to get in a gym and lift heavy. But I am saying that if you don't get off your ass and fix yourself, stop wasting your time reading this.

Now, for a little inspiration in case you're worried about weakness in the gym.  One, you don't need to be.  Even guys like Arnold had a time in their lives when they couldn't bench press the bar.  And I guarantee you that guys like Arnold and Ronnie Coleman and Jay Cutler wouldn't make fun of you for not being able to lift something. They may make fun of you for NOT TRYING, but they, like the vast majority of people in a gym either A, don't give a damn about you, or B, will be encouraging.  I have a fair amount of background in dead lifting, so I'm not new to it, and do well enough that I occasionally get people asking me for advice.  I'm now repping over 400lbs, which is by no means phenomenal, but it's way more than most people will ever think about doing.  I had to lift 20 first. Then I had to lift 30.

I'm squatting over my body weight. Between these two things, one would think I'm pretty strong.  Wrong.

I HURT bench pressing 115 lbs. The bar wobbles and sways and I'm damn near pissing myself trying to do it. Someone that squats over 300lbs should be benching at least 240.  My military press is even worse.   It's so bad that doing the 5/3/1 program, there are a few sets where the bare bar is heavier than I'm supposed to lift for that set.   Honestly, it's humiliating.  It makes me feel like a little weak girl. But, I go do it. I lift it, and I hurt. And here and there I hurt a little less. And then I add another rep.

Never once has anyone in my gym said ANYTHING negative to me about my two highly deficient lifts. Why? Because I'm in there busting my ass to improve myself. In the gym or out, I bust my ass to improve myself, every single day. Anything less is just plain communism!

conflicting goals that don't.

I'm writing this on my phone,  so forgive any typos.
Also, I've slacked writing,  sorry.

I'm coming off a plateau,  weight wise.  Psychologically,  plateaus suck. You step on the scale and you've gained a pound or two,  or just not lost.  It can make you want to quit,  but if you've done right,  plateaus aren't bad things.  Here's why:

I experienced more of a body composition change during the past two weeks than and period of pure weight loss I've ever had. So while  my weight has gone up and back down  5 pounds, I've lost fat and added some muscle.  My pants are falling off,  shirts are hanging a bit more freely.  And I have a little more loose skin in the belly. I'm 33, it's not going to tighten up instantly.  But it will.

Now,  the conflicting goals.

My primary goal here is physical activity in order to burn more glucose out. This,  seemingly,  requires very regular physical activity.

I'm also trying to cut fat and build muscle.  I'm not trying to be Arnold,  but I'm working on a 1200 lb three lift combo by the end of the year.  That's a damned lofty goal, and one made more difficult by not having insulin spikes due to my diet.  Insulin has good anabolic properties.

Now,  why do these goals conflict?  Because to lift big,  you need recovery.  Recovery is rest.  Rest is the lack of activity.

Here's how they don't:  On Friday,  I did deadlifts. Previously, I'd failed at 405. Friday,  I pulled 415 lbs. Good growth,  and I did it after a week of recovery from that lift.

Last night,  I squatted. I upped my high weight set to 245lbs. I repped it 5 times and had more in me,  but my shoulder was too tight,  so I finished out with weighted calf raises,  leg presses, etc. Again,  about a week of rest between sessions.

 Today,  I did a mix of chest,  back,  and arms.  No huge progress,  but I'm upping my reps on the previous weight,  so it's still progress.

I could divide today up into three days easily.  That gives me 5 different gym days a week.   Which makes the 2 goals not conflict.  That's a win.

An aside on my goals for lifting.  My rough,  and damned ambitious goals are simple.

Bench max,  1 rep max: body weight.
Squat 1rm: 2x body weight.
Dead 1rm: 2.5x body weight.

At a goal weight,  of 240lbs, that's a bench of 240, a squat of 480 and a dead lift of 600

That would be 1320 lbs,  and I'll need it as weak as my bench is lol.

Right now,  I'm benching 115, squatting 245, and deadlifting 415, for a total  775. Can I add over 400lbs to my lifts in ten months,  while cutting 50 lbs of body weight?   Watch me.