This is my workout schedule from now until the first week of January or so.

	Morning	Evening
Monday	Cardio	OFF - class downtown
Tuesday	Cardio, abs	Cleans, deadlifts, chins, curls
Wednesday	Cardio	OFF - class downtown
Thursday	Cardio, abs	Bench, military press, tris, laterals
Friday	Cardio	OFF
Saturday	Squats, leg curls, calf raises	OFF
Sunday	Swimming	OFF

Squats, cleans, deadlifts, and military presses are all, in general, 4 sets of 6, 4, 4, and 2 repetitions (after several warmup sets).

My diet and supplement schedule, for now, is:

Breakfast	After cardio in morning	Endurox, granola bar, grape seed extract (GSE), ginkgo biloba (GK)
Lunch	11:15 am	Normal food, 3 tablets of Wellness Formula (WF)
Afternoon Snack	2:30 pm	Zone Bar or peanut M&Ms
Dinner	5:30 pm	Normal food
Post-workout	9:45 pm	Endurox and/or protein shake
Before bed	10:30 pm	GSE, GB, calcium

I am trying to stay under 2,500 calories for the day. I am also trying to drink 120 oz. of water daily and avoid caffeine and carbonated beverages.

I finally found something coffee-ish I like to drink at Starbuck's. As some know, I don't drink any type of coffee. Have always hated it. The only foods I like which are coffee-flavored are the Jamocha Shake at Arby's and Jamocha ice cream from Baskin-Robbins. I had always avoided Starbucks because I always avoid coffee. This weekend, though, my wife suggested I try a frappuccino and to much delight, I found it's just a Jamocha Shake. Ha! I know someone at Starbucks Galactic Headquarters is freaking out being compared to a Jamocha Shake at that lowborn Arby's super-franchise wannabe, but that's what it tastes like to me. The frappuccino is slightly more coffee-tasting but not so much more so that I don't like it. It was really a tasty pick-me-up. Avoid the whipped cream topping, however - the Grande frappuccino is 260 calories already. In full disclosure, I actually had a Tall "Mint Mocha Chip" frappuccino. To be fair, a medium Arby's Jamocha Shake as 500 calories so a frappuccino is of marginally better nutritive value.

I finally got my physical taken care of. It was one of my New Year's Resolutions to get it done in the spring but better late than never I say. I'm a big proponent of early detection when it comes to various diseases and longterm problems. I like to go to the same doctor, if possible, and get a full set of diagnostics, a very comprehensive physical.

So I go to Executive Health Exams in downtown Chicago. This is the second time I've been there. The first time I went was in December 2001, several months before I got married. Now, in September 2004, I went again to see "what the damage was" in the last few years. In 2001, I was 29 years old, and this time around I was just shy of my 32nd birthday.

The exam includes a complete urinalysis and blood workup for all sorts of measurements. Hearing and vision testing, an electrocardiogram, bodyfat analysis, spirometry, glaucoma testing, and a lengthy consultation with the doctor are included. It's expensive - $1,250 per exam - but a small price to pay for peace of mind and a headstart in staying out of the hospital for more serious reasons.

The results take a couple of weeks to come back. I am happy to report that my triathlon training has paid off. I have almost identical results this year as I did in 2001, almost 3 years ago. Some of the key results are as follows:

Test	2004	2001
Blood Pressure	128/78	122/86
Triglycerides	118	77
Total Cholesterol	152	146
HDL Cholesterol	43	42
LDL Cholesterol	85	89
Resting Heart Rate	53	60

I am particularly happy with my resting heart rate. When you do a lot of cardio exercise, your heart gets stronger and more efficient. Consequently, a strong heart beats more slowly than a weaker heart because it is more efficient at pushing the blood around your body. My drop from 60 beats per minute in 2001 to 53 beats per minute reflects a much stronger heart. Yay!

The only real downside here is the increase in triglycerides. This is due mainly to me not yet achieving my other goal: losing my excess bodyfat. While my overall cholesterol is stable, I've got to get these triglycerides down before longterm effects begin to show up.

As for the relatively low cholesterol, I thank genetics and lots of cardio and weight training. The week before I went for my physical I had 3 Chipotles, several steaks, and all sorts of not-so-healthy food. For me to still have low cholesterol says a lot about the benefits of intense exercise.

Why am I sharing all of this? Mainly because I could care less if anyone else knows and so my family and friends can read it and know I'm not about to keel over from my crappy diet. I also post it because this weblog is turning into a sort of online diary / journal. If I want to look up these figures again, I just have to go online and there they are.

I've been working out a lot lately and pursuing my physical goals (loss of bodyfat and a 365 bench press) as fast as I can. If you look a couple of articles back you'll see that I just had my body composition tested. This is actually something I have been doing for a long time. When I was still at Illinois State, I used to go to the athletic department and pay them to do a dunk tank body composition test every once in awhile. I believe the technical term for this is hydrostatic weighing. I was curious to see how much I have changed since then so I searched and have now rounded up two printouts from my body composition tests at ISU.

Hydrostatic weighing is a tedious method of measuring bodyfat but is by far the most accurate method. The first part of the test consists of some spirometric measurements (spirometry). Essentially you breathe into this tube and exhale everything you have in your lungs. You do this about three times until you see stars and are ready to pass out. The purpose of this is to measure the capacity of your lungs and to calculate from that how much residual air is still in your lungs even after you think you have breathed everything out. Then you get into your swimming suit and get into the tank. It is basically a big person-sized vertical drum filled with lukewarm water. You sit in this little chair which is suspended from the ceiling. When the test starts, you breathe everything out again and the chair is lowered into the water. Your entire body is submerged. You have to hold your breath (you don't really have any air left so this is not very long) and try to keep from moving around. I think they figure out how much you weigh in the water and calculate the buoyancy from the residual air and then compare that to your weight outside of the tank and somehow come up with an accurate measurement of bodyfat.

Looking back to March 7th, 1994 (age 21) I was getting ready for a competition and wanted to know exactly how much bodyfat I had. I took the test and it came back with the following results:

Weight: 180.2 lbs.
Bodyfat Percentage: 8.795
Lean Body Mass: 164.351 lbs.
Weight of Bodyfat: 15.849 lbs.

Now I find this very interesting in comparison to my recent body composition test as my lean body mass has apparently increased by almost 6 lbs. in the last 10 years. In fact, on March 7th of this year, it will be 10 years to the day since the last test. This is what I looked like on Christmas, 3 months before my dunk tank test:

That is me at 183 lbs. and I lost 3 lbs. of bodyfat before my dunk tank test. Now, at 31 years of age, I have 6 lbs. more muscle than in the above picture. Rather than lose muscle and succomb to the aging process, I have done the opposite! Now I just need to get rid of my excess bodyfat (without losing the new muscle) and the world will once again be right.

Looking down the list of articles on my website you will find my resolutions for 2004. One of them says that I want to get my bodyweight down to 185. Well, I had a bit of a reality check tonight. I went to Bally's to workout and got my body composition tested. The results were quite surprising to me. The stats they needed to do the test were weight, height, and age. I'm 31, 5 feet 9 inches tall, and currently a whopping 225 lbs. The test is done with electical impedence and is known to be slightly inaccurate for muscular individuals but the percent error is not really material so I am okay with the results. The results were as follows:

Bodyfat Percentage: 24.6
Total Fat Weight: 55 lbs.

Yikes!!! I am walking around with the equivalent of almost 4 bowling balls worth of bodyfat. But then I noticed something. My bodyweight minus my fat weight is 170 lbs. I have 170 lbs. of lean body mass, including bones, muscle, and other stuff. Let's look at my goal weight of 185. If I get down to 10% bodyfat and weighed 185 lbs., my lean mass would be 166.5 lbs. (185 - 18.5 = 166.5). That means I would actually have to throw away almost 4 lbs. of muscle in order to get down to 185 lbs. There is *no way* I am going to do that. That's like sabotaging your own body.

So I now have to come up with a more reasonable goal for myself. I thought 185 sounded good but I have gained enough muscle mass over the last few years that its not realistic or even something I would want. If I aim for 195 lbs. with 10% bodyfat, that's 195 - 19.5 to get 175.5. That allows me to gain 5.5 lbs. of muscle. I like that much better.

So that leaves me with 30 lbs. of bodyfat to lose. At the rate of 1.5 lbs. per week, that is 15 weeks. Given that we are going on the second week of February, I should reach 195 lbs. by May 24th which is in plenty of time for triathlon season. Considering that I ran my triathlons last year at a weight of approximately 218, that's a significant improvement. Essentially that's the difference between running normally and running with a bowling ball in a backpack (and then some).

This press release from Iowa State University announces that creatine and HMB together greatly increase the gains in strength and muscle mass compared to strength training alone. I did some research and found the full study here. It appears that the two supplements in combination increase gains by almost 200% compared to strength training alone. A number of other supplements were tested also but only these two had any significant increase in gains.

The subjects in the study were given 3g of HMB per day. For creatine, the usual dosage included a loading dosage (10-25 g/day for 3-7 days) followed by a constant dose of 2-10.5 g/day. EAS products were used for the study and were donated for the study. EAS did not contribute any other funding. I am always suspicious of claims made by companies who manufacture supplements but this particular study was published in the Journal of Applied Physiology for peer review so I believe its legitimate. It is further noted in the study that neither substance caused any negative side effects.

When I was a youngster, my mother and grandmothers conspired to find novel ways for my brother and I to finish our meals. It was very common, given what a "picky" eater I am (or such is the rumor), that I would eat the items on my plate that I liked and would not touch the items I did not like. They devised the "Clean Plate Club" and it was met, by me, with immediate challenges. To be a member of the Clean Plate Club, you had to finish everything on your plate. Membership privileges included getting to leave the table before bed. Since I was very stubborn in addition to picky, I spent a lot of time looking at cold food as I was often at the table long after everyone else had finished.

However, these days the Clean Plate Club has become sort of a curse for me. Wherever I go, whatever I eat, I feel I need to "clean my plate." I feel guilty if I do not eat all of the food placed in front of me. I can understand the necessity of letting kids know that food is not something to be wasted. However, in these days of gigantic plates of food from restaurants like Bennigan's, TGI Fridays, and others, cleaning the plate is a fast way to a fat waist. I recently ate dinner at a restaurant in Northbrook called J. Alexander's. I actually eat there once or twice a month. I always get the same two menu items: Rattlesnake Pasta and a side of their Smashed Potatoes. Both of these dishes are "to die for." They are truly excellent. I love them. They make me happy. I digress.

Unfortunately, I should never eat them completely. The Rattlesnake Pasta comes in this huge dish. I am reminded of those Betty Crocker instant meals like "Tuna Helper" which I make at home sometimes. When you make this stuff at home, the whole package looks to me like one serving. It says on the box, "3-4 servings", but I eat the whole thing. Well, the Rattlesnake Pasta is the size of, like, TWO of the Tuna Helper packages. It's a boatload of food, enough for 2 families!!! And I eat the whole thing in one sitting...and then turn to the Smashed Potatoes. The Smashed Potatoes are delicious. They are almost as good as this recipe I have at home. But when you get this "side dish" it is about the size of two large baked potatoes. Huge. Really a lot of food. It's like an Atkins Diet nuclear weapon. Guaranteed to send you blood sugar to Saturn. Combine the potatoes and the pasta and I'm looking at a pair of dishes invented, it seems, with the sole purpose of sending me to the Big & Tall Men's store, or I should say Big & Wide Men's store.

Now the food by itself is not really the problem. The problem is the quantity of food given to a single person. I don't have any numbers to use for comparison but I'll bet you that restaurant meals in the before 1990 or so weren't this big. It's some sort of weird trend in the United States, to increase the size of the portions. I imagine that it has something to do with perceived value and all that. But it's a huge waste of food...because my #2 New Year's Resolution is: Never clean your plate. At home, I will only put the amount of food on my plate that I should eat. At restaurants, I will stop eating when I am full, which at J. Alexander's will be after about 10 bites. I'm not big on leftovers so that food will probably go to waste. Not my problem - stop bringing me so much food!!!!!!! Thoughts or comments, please share within.

Next week I will turn 31 and it will be almost 10 years since I won my last bodybuilding competition. I "retired" from the sport before I was 22 and have just worked out recreationally since then. I remember back then that people used to ask me what would happen to my muscles after I "stopped lifting weights". I now know the answer to that question somewhat.

One, you should never really stop lifting weights, that is, doing progressive resistance weight training. Working out your muscles with weight keeps them strong and helps strengthen your bones. There have been many articles published in recent years about the health benefits of weight training even in the elderly. Weight training is a lifelong fitness strategy.

However, if you do stop doing the weight training part of your fitness program, a couple of things do happen. One, you become weaker. The old saying "use it or lose it" is particular apt for weight training. When I was doing my heaviest lifting - around age 24 - I was able to deadlift 600 lbs, squat 575 (with quarter squats in the 700s), and bench almost 350. Having not done squats now for almost 2 years, I estimate that my one-rep max is around 405. I have no idea about my deadlift and my bench press, as of last night, is at 275. That is about it, though. My muscles, in general, have not atrophied much and they certainly have not "turned into fat" as a lot of people used to tell me they would.

I believe, however, that I am closer to my prime now than I was when I was 24. After reading an article last night about various retired Olympic medalists coming out of retirement, I am certainly inspired to push the workouts harder. My brother and I have decided to pursue new personal records in the bench press. We are both looking to hit 365 by the end of the year. I chose the bench press because it is an exercise which only minimally impacts my triathlon training. I can still run 20-30 miles per week and be unaffected by additional upper body weight training. We'll see how it goes.

I have discovered something truly remarkable. As anyone who knows me knows, I am a big Chipotle fan. My Chipotle of choice is a Chicken Fajita Burrito. Of course, this type of fare is not what one would usually consider "diet food". I think a Fajita Burrito weighs in around 2 lbs. At least it feels like 2 lbs. in your stomach once you've eaten the Fajita Burrito.

Last summer I emailed customer service at Chipotle via a questions form on the Chipotle website. I asked them for a nutritional breakdown of a typical Fajita Burrito. The reply I got stated that they did not have a nutritional breakdown for their products and did not have plans to have one done. I was less than chuffed to hear that but assumed that most people really didn't want to know what they are doing to their bodies when they eat a 2 pound burrito.

So I took it upon myself to figure it out. I am the proud owner of the fantastic program NutriBase, Clinical Edition. This is the version that dietitians use to figure out - to the nth detail - what their clients should eat, are eating, etc. I created a new "meal" in the system and added all of the ingredients of my Chipotle Chicken Fajita Burrito to the meal. Actually, I calculated the Burrito *Bowl* not the actual Burrito as I have given up the tortilla. For reference, I added the following ingredients in the listed amounts:

1 cup of grilled chicken breast, chopped
1.5 cups of white rice
1/2 cup of yellow corn, unsalted
1/2 cup of lettuce (negligible effect on the nutritional content)
3 tablespoons of sour cream
1/2 cup of queso chihuahua

The results were quite surprising. The nutritional breakdown is as follows:

Calories: ~910
Carbohydrates: ~95 grams
Protein: ~67 grams
Fat: ~19 grams

The shocking revelation is that these calories are in the 40-30-30 ration prescribed in The Zone Diet by Dr. Barry Sears. While the total overall caloric intake is about double the maximum for a given meal, the ratio is exactly right. Get a Chipotle Fajita Burrito Bowl for lunch, eat half and save half for dinner and you are good to go. Adding 1/2 cup of tomatoes (the way my wife likes her Chipotle) adds only about 20 calories to the entire meal. Adding the tortilla, however, adds a ton of carbs and pretty much ruins the Zone ratio.

Anyway, so the next time you have a craving for Chipotle and feel like you are going to blow your diet, don't beat yourself up. Chipotle serves great food and, in moderation, its quite healthy.

I am an ice cream junkie. I admit it. I am guilty. I love ice cream. But I have found that I love frozen custard even more.

For those of you not familiar with the Illinois and Wisconsin areas, there is a restaurant called Culver's, found more and more frequently here, that serves fantastic frozen custard. Frozen custard is a premium ice cream made with a little extra egg yolk to create a more velvety smooth texture. My passion for frozen custard began with a small family-owned store downstate called Jarling's Custard Cup but Culver's has taken frozen custard to a higher form. I have yet to have less-than-perfect custard experience there and when paired with a delicious ButterBurger, I am truly in heaven.