Thank goodness the holidays are almost over

Today's Weigh-In: 217.2 lbs.

5-day average: 217.7 lbs.

Okay, so this past week did not go so well. Lots of candy, fudge, and chips. Very little exercise. I got 2 workouts in last week, on Monday and Tuesday, but all the Christmas stuff prevented me from going later in the week.

Thankfully that's all over. I ate great yesterday and did a good Olympic lifting workout. My muscles felt amazing afterward. They just crave activity now. Also, I find that when I eat crap food I get really stiff in my muscles and joints, and my flexibility (which is usually decent) goes to hell. If I eat right and take my fish oil (10 caps a day, now) I don't have any issues. Just something I noticed.

The year is coming to an end, and I'm glad. I know it's cliche but the new year does provide a fresh start, at least mentally, and that's what a lot of us need right now. A fresh start, and a kick in the pants.

Better than expected

Today's Weigh-In: 218.2 lbs.

5-Day Average: 217.4 lbs.

After all the fuss I made yesterday, it looks like my back is starting to get better quicker than I expected. I guess it was just the muscles getting used to my spine being straight again. It's a little sore today, but nowhere near the level of pain I was in yesterday. I went for a short run to test it out, and also did some squats, push-ups, and stretches to see how it felt. It felt pretty good, so I'm really happy that I won't be out of commission much longer. My lower back fatigued pretty quickly during my run, but that's most likely due to the fact that I haven't been running much in the past few weeks and I did heavy deadlifts twice this week.

I have a Christmas dinner to attend tonight, but I'm going to stick to mainly meat and vegetables. I really want to get under 215 within the next 2 weeks.

Screwed up back

Ugh. Just when I start to get some motivation behind me something bad happens. Somehow I screwed up my upper back. It wasn't from lifting, because it was bothering me on Monday during the day (and I hadn't worked out since Saturday). I was sitting at my desk, and my neck felt tight, so I moved it around to try to crack it and loosen it up. What happened instead was it locked up, and I couldn't turn my head to the left. I figured "okay, that sucks, but it'll go away." Well the neck pain did go away, but I could feel my upper back and left arm getting really tight and sore. I've had issues in the past where my back being out of alignment has caused pain down my left arm, so I pretty much knew nothing was actually wrong with my arm (but it hurt like a son of a gun). I went to the chiropractor yesterday, and he re-aligned my spine. This has caused the pain in my arm to disappear, and my neck feels fine as well. But my upper back is crazy sore today, and I can feel that it's the muscles and not the spine. So I'm thinking that it's caused by my spine being so out of alignment for so long that the muscles sort of got used to the bad configuration. But it's got me sidelined from exercise, because I really can't do much of anything without excruciating pain. Right now I'm rocking NSAIDs, and when I get home I'm going to use my foam roller and jacuzzi to help loosen it up. I'll probably go back to the chiro early next week for a follow-up, but I'm hoping it doesn't last that long.

I guess there's a lesson in this: if you don't take all aspects of exercise recovery seriously you can jack yourself up. I'm usually pretty good about my recovery, but I know I should be visiting the chiropractor every few weeks at least, and I haven't been. Lesson learned.

New PRs and a change of direction

I know, I know, it's been a long time since I posted a blog entry on here. Looking back at my last post, it was right before my last Crossfit Total. I ended up getting 870 (325 back squat, 170 shoulder press, and 375 deadlift) which surpassed my goal. Yesterday I did the Total again, and this time got a score of 905 (335 back squat, 170 press, 400 deadlift(!)). I finally reached one of my oldest goals, which was a 400 pound deadlift. I went for 405 as well but it just didn't go up. I just looked back at my first CFT score (from this post) which was 670. It feels great to know objectively how much stronger I am now than I was then.

Now for some bad news. I pretty much weigh the same as I did in January 2008, when I did my first Total. This morning I weighed in at 217.4 lbs., the highest I've been in a while. 2 months ago I weighed in at 207, so I've gained 10 pounds since then. It's time for me to buckle down and start using this blog (once again) as a resource to help me along on my journey.

I'm going to be changing the format of my blog posts a little bit, to reflect the changes that have occurred both mentally and physically since I've started this quest. Most of the posts on here are focused solely on weight, and, while that is important, I've come to believe that things such as athletic performance, quality of rest, and quality of food are just as important to me. Let's face it, I could have 6 pack abs and be completely unhealthy, but that's not what I want. I want to be strong, powerful, quick, agile. I want to have good indicators on all my bloodwork. So what if I never get "ripped." This is really about so much more than that. So my posts will reflect that mentality, with a focus on performance and food quality as a means toward health and fitness, and not just some arbitrary number on the scale.

That being said, I do need to lose some fat. My body fat percentage is higher than I would like, and it's hindering me in some aspects of my athleticism (mainly bodyweight stuff). There are only 2 weeks left in the year, so I'm not going to go for some drastic cut to meet an arbitrary deadline right now, but I want to be consistently under 215 by the new year. That's easily doable, and it gives me that bit of momentum that I'll need to see this through. I'll try to post a couple of times a week as well, to keep myself on track.