What I Accomplished This Year

I must say 2012 was quite a prolific year for me, and no, it wasn't because I thought the world was going to end.  It all began on December 31, 2011/January 1, 2012, when I decided that instead of making resolutions for the new year, I would SET GOALS instead.  The first one was easy:  NO CAKE OR ICE CREAM UNLESS IT'S A SPECIAL OCCASION!!!  One year later, I've stayed true to it!

An even bigger goal was to pursue a secondary career in the fitness industry.  I love the gym; I love working out; I love living a healthy lifestyle, so it made sense to try and turn that into a job.  I started trying to find ways to make it happen.  In June, I became a Schwinn-certified cycling instructor, and in August, I received a personal trainer certification.  Those are just the first two of many certs I hope to attain (I'm setting new goals for 2013!).

I also wanted to start a blog on health/fitness/nutrition issues and before I ever began, I spent months brainstorming and trying to figure out how to make my blog stand out from all the others floating around in cyberspace.  After years of hitting plateaus and going back-and-forth in the body size department, I became frustrated over my inability (it seemed) to gain and maintain "good weight."  I decided to try and pack on muscle and document it over the course of a year.  That's when Kurt 3.0 was born!!  (Don't you just love him? :)

I also created the "Kurt 3.0" Facebook page, so that when I slacked on the blog (which I have), there would be enough posting on the "K3.0" page and my other Facebook page to keep everyone up to date on where I was, what I was doing, how it was going, etc.  The blog posts may have dwindled, but my dedication has not, which anyone who knows me in my personal life will attest to.

In November, I took things a step further and started the Body Beast program from Beachbody and was so blown away and inspired by the workouts and the results that I became a Beachbody Independent Coach later that month.   

Beachbody is a phenomenal company that has taken the world by storm.  There are more than 20 great workout programs to choose from, and I would love for some of my friends to choose one and let me coach them through it!  Maybe that can be one of my goals for 2013??

My Beachbody workout of choice at the present time is Body Beast, a mass-building program that comes straight from a bodybuilding professional who shuns the "steroid approach" and other performance-enhancing drugs, when it comes to gaining size and muscle mass.

Here is a look at what I've accomplished in the four months since "Kurt 3.0" kicked off in early September.  I've gained five-and-a-half pounds in skeletal muscle mass.  THREE of those pounds were gained after I started Body Beast on November 6th.  I can tell by the way my clothes fit that I've gained size (in a good way).  I've also raised my basal (resting) metabolic rate by 100 calories.

That's what I've managed to do as 2012 draws to a close.  I take care of myself first, so that I can take care of others later.  That said, I hope I can do something to help someone in 2013!

Happy New Year, everybody!! :)

                                            August 2012

                                              September 2012

                                       September/October 2012

                                    October 14, 2012

                                                     December 2012

...it's THE BEAST!!

Remember that line in "Poltergeist" where Tangina tells the Freeling family what's responsible for all the chaos in their house?  She talks about the force that's holding little Carol Anne captive in another plane of consciousness and explains what it is, ending it all cryptically with, "To us, it is The Beast!!" 

Flash forward thirty years later, and it could very well be Sagi Kalev busting out of that bedroom closet, scolding those pot-smoking hippie parents and telling them to get with the program and do some "Body Beast" to get into shape and get their household back in order! 

In fact, in 1982, everyone in the Freeling family probably would have benefitted from some Kalev tough love, including the older teenage daughter who ate Lays potato chips while in bed.

All joking aside, after months of making up my own workouts and following some of Muscle Pharm's (which I still highly recommend and plan to use again, by the way) on its Facebook page, I decided to order "Body Beast" from Beachbody.  They're the company responsible for "P90X" and "Insanity."  You may have seen the infomercials featuring Tony Horton and Shaun T, respectively. 

Yes, this post will also be part commercial... sorry!

As far as "Body Beast" goes, I had seen the demo videos, and that it was the newest Beachbody program.  Since it was devoted to gaining muscle mass, and not losing weight, it especially caught my attention.  After weeks of mulling it over, I finally ordered it.  Part of the program involves downloading worksheets for the workouts.  I decided to watch the DVDs at home and take the worksheets to the gym and do the workouts there.

Nearly three weeks later, all I can say is WOW.  The workouts are tough, but I enjoy them.  Check out the demo videos in the link up above, and you will see.

I can also feel my body changing in a good way.  I've put on a little too much "bad weight" with the bulking, but I've started to add in more cardio--and slightly cut the calories--to try and keep the muscle but lose the fat.  My body fat percentage went from 8.7% in September to 10.2% as of last week, so I freaked out and got a little paranoid.  I won't get too worried though, unless it actually goes to 11- and 12%.  That's another blog post though.

I also have other Beachbody plans that I will talk about in later posts.  I'm also about to start using Shakeology, which is on the way in the mail.  I've read a lot about it and its health benefits, so I can't wait to get started.

Bulking and ABS! (Not talking about "automatic braking systems")

Everyone has a six pack, sometimes it's just a little deeper in there than it should be.  You can also do 2,000 stomach crunches a day, but unless you eat right, you're never going to see those abs.

The big misconception about crunches and other ab exercises is that those are what make a six pack prominent.  FALSE!  They only make your core stronger.  Losing the belly fat through your diet and performing cardio (running, jogging, walking, biking, stairclimbing, etc.)  is the rest.  As far as your core goes, that's everything all the way around the middle, not just your abdominal muscles.  There are other things to do besides situps to strenghten that entire area of your body.

Tomorrow's "Manic Monday" on "Good Morning Arklamiss" focuses on abs!  I keep it simple, especially for the first timers who are watching.  I plan to revisit some segment topics in later weeks and introduce more advanced moves for viewers who are following along from week to week.

Signs of my abs come and go lately, since I've been "bulking" and trying to gain weight.  I've been doing the InBody 230 body composition analysis once a month since September.  I posted a picture of the two print-outs below.  I started out at 8.7% body fat, and for the past two months I've held steady at 9.2%.  My goal is to stay under 10% until I stop the bulking and start the "cutting" phase.  My weight has gone up two-and-a-half pounds since last month, and some of that is skeletal muscle mass, which I'm happy about.

I've been bulking almost a month and only plan to do it for another two to four weeks (giving myself six to eight weeks total at that phase) before moving to "cutting." 

I'm pretty much doing this whole thing alone and only asking for advice and help here and there.  I think I need to step it up and start being a little less hesitant when it comes to seeking outside help.

Have a great week, and remember to do something good for yourself! :)

The one on the left was carried around in my gym bag.  Pardon the wrinkles!  Left one is September; the right one is from October.

No, these aren't mine (yet), but I can dream!

"Manic Monday!" (Without The Bangles)

My apologies for not posting anything for the past two weeks.  It has a been a crazy and busy month with a lot of things going on, and while I've been slacking with the blog posts, I promise I haven't done the same in other areas of my life!

The "Manic Monday" workout/exercise segment kicks off tomorrow (10/29) during the 6 A.M. hour on "Good Morning Arklamiss" on KNOE 8 in northeast Louisiana.  For my "non-Arklamiss" friends, I will make sure the segments are also available on YouTube.  I'm hoping to get more creative with the segments in the future and incorporate/demonstrate things that people can do if they're too busy to go to the gym,  or don't even have a gym membership but want to exercise at home.  I'm starting with the basics and trying to keep it easier for beginners.  Later on, I'll add in more advanced options for anyone who may be following along and needs to move on to that "extra challenge."

I"ve also been sticking to six days a week at the gym.  I'm getting a little aggravated with a lack of results.  A friend assures me that stuff is happening, but perhaps it is things I can't directly see.  I'm trying to get bigger, but I feel like I'm staying the same size.  I'm also paranoid that the weight gainer I'm taking will make me gain too much fat weight rather than the kind of mass I am trying to put on.

I ordered "Body Beast" from Beachbody, so I will be watching the DVD's at home and adding that into my workout routine at the gym as well.

Anyway, if you are in northeast Louisiana, be sure to tune in to "Manic Monday" tomorrow morning around 6:15ish!  Many, MANY thanks to my favorite hangout spot and part-time workplace the Monroe Athletic Club for letting April Dovorany and me use the facilities for taping!

Have a good week -- and remember to do something good for yourself!

Don't forget to like the Kurt 3.0 page on Facebook!  

  

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall (Am I Making Any Weight Gains at All?)

Anyone who stares at themselves in the mirror daily as much as I have, especially in the past month, isn't going to see much of a change.  If you're constantly gawking at or critiquing yourself day in and day out, you will have the same image stuck in your head.  In order to find out if all the working out is working, you have to arrange a meeting or a "bump in" with someone you haven't seen in a month or two.  Then you parade or walk slowly past them, hoping they will say, "Oh my gosh, you look great!  Have you been working out?"

I tried this about a week ago with someone who hadn't seen me in several weeks.  The only thing I got from the person in question was that I look "more defined."  I was fishing for "bigger," but "defined" isn't necessarily an insult either.

So in order to gain size, I've been eating a ton of protein (something I've already been doing a long time before a month ago, but I'm way more conscientious about it now), eating it from the right sources (lean meats, fish, raw almonds, some lowfat milk, protein powder) and doing my best to stay away from bad places.  My occasional Friday night "cheat" after work at the Taco Bell drive-thru has been done away with.  I've cut back on the cardio some, and I've added a weight gainer into my list of supplements.  I'm drinking a serving size of Weider Mega Mass 2000 with some 1% milk once a day, hoping that will help.  I am also doing extra abs, running a little harder (but fewer times a week) and carefully watching my diet out of paranoia that the weight gainer will make me pack on fat instead of muscle! 

Oh, and yes, I've also been working out with the weights like a muthamutha, too.  I really need to gain the right kind of weight. 

If anyone has any suggestions about weight gainer powder that is better than Mega Mass 2000, please feel free to let me know.  The "MM 2K" got mostly good reviews online out of my research on that and a few others, so I went with the Mega Mass.

Don't forget to "like" the Kurt 3.0 page on Facebook!  Have a great week, and do something good for yourself!! :)

Is Technology Making Us Fat?

I love how far technology has come along.  I am always on my iPhone texting away, constantly checking Facebook or Twitter, and I even played Angry Birds and Words with Friends until I got sick of both and had to finally stop.  My mom and brother often talk about how technology is/can be bad, and I argue with them and say "No, it is not!"

This morning I woke up and since "CBS News Sunday Morning" was three-quarters over, I turned it to the History Channel.  A show called "'80's Tech" was on, and havng grown up in the '80s, I was immediately glued to the TV.  They talked about the evolution of the PC, and also video games, along with showing old clips of arcades and Pac Man and Donkey Kong and the like.

I remembered Ataris and video arcades being popular at the same time when I was elementary school-age.  I never really thought about which one was there before the other.  According to the program, home video game consoles like the Atari became popular for people who didn't feel like going out to the arcades all the time.  So apparently there were arcades and then there was the Atari.  People a bit older than me who remember Pong (which came from Atari, Inc. in the 1970s) might dispute that though.

Then I started thinking about lethargy, and the fact that many people now stay inside all day, glued to their computers or their video games or their cell phones and never really do much else.  I wondered if maybe there was a connection between the growth of video game technology and accessibility and obesity rates, especially childhood obesity rates.

I searched around online (yes, I am biting the hand that's feeding this post) to see if there was a clear-cut timeline showing when the obesity epidemic began in the U.S.  The closest thing I could find was one article saying maybe the late 1980s/early 1990s was when it all started to take off.  Just when more video games and better, enhanced imaging and way better gaming consoles started flooding the market. 

There is also that matter of the internet taking off like wildfire in the mid-1990s.  I can still hear that dial-up "log on" sound in my head sometimes, even though most people younger than 20 probably remember dial-up the same way I vaguely recall 8-track tapes.

The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests that parents not let their children's total entertainment media time exceed two hours every day, but do most parents take this advice?

I also have to wonder whether our adult habits of staying on Facebook and our cell phones all hours of the day and night contribute to the problem.  Can you credibly tell your kid to turn off the TV and go play outside, if you're pausing in the middle of your text message to look up and do it?  That reminds me, does it burn more calories to write a letter or send a text to someone?  You don't have to move as much, and you won't have to get up and go walk around the house looking for paper and writing utensils.   

That being said, I LOVE technology.  I can't remember a life before texting and social networking.  I'm that person who will carry a text conversation for two hours instead of just simply calling someone.  I still haven't used facetime yet on my iPhone 4S (No, I don't have the 5 yet!).  Who wants to be the first to have facetime?  And what would I do without having google there everytime I have a question?

I'm not going to say technology is evil and the scourge of the Earth.  Maybe it's like food, and we need to better control our portions.

I will try to have a gym post later in the week -- and get back to posting about my workouts more.  I posted my latest workout pics from today on the Kurt 3.0  Facebook page. Be sure to "like" my page if you have not! :)

Have a great week, and do something good for yourself!!

 

Rest Days and Haters

I keep a log on my calendar on my phone of my workout days, what I do while I'm at the gym, etc.  It was something I never really started doing until the first part of the year.  Before that, I always kind of kept up with it all in my head.  Keeping a record of it all has helped me be more consistent and not overwork one part of my body and go one or two weeks neglecting some other area.

There was one month this summer where I went to the gym every day but only about two days.  It is hard for me to take a rest day.  I feel sometimes like I'm being lazy, or maybe even like I'm going to miss out on something if I don't get any exercise.  For example, I considered yesterday a "rest day," even though I ran a 5k.  I didn't do any weights or anything, so I said to myself, "Oh, I'll go home after this 5k and take a nap.  I won't go to the gym, so it will be a rest day." 

Even though I performed physical activity (3.1 miles in only 23 minutes and some change, I might add), I rationalized it as a "rest day" because I only ran for less than a half-hour and didn't pump iron for two hours. 

Out of curiosity, I decided to look back on my calendar and see how many "rest days" I've taken.  I didn't feel like going all the way back to January, so I only counted backwards from September 30 to May 1.  I have only taken twenty rest days since May 1.  Three of those were for a surgery I had in June, and even though I was recuperating, I remember being to the point of climbing the walls by the time that third day rolled around.  Oh, and yesterday is disputable, since I counted that to be among the twenty, and there is the matter of that 5k race.

No, no, not addictive behavior at all...

Rest days are important, and our bodies have to recover -- even though some of us feel useless when we take a day off.  We all hate that useless feeling.  Oh, and that reminds me of my next point.  Haters! 

I've had a couple of detractors lately who don't think I know who they are, but yes, I know who they are even though they don't realize that I know, and when I'm around them I just smile and pretend like I really don't know even though I KNOW quite well! 

If they try to read that and absorb it then they will be really confused, so anyway...

I won't hate on her, but I am just not a Rihanna fan.  However, she does say it best in that "Cheers (Drink To That)" song of hers.  People are gonna talk whether you're doin' bad or good! 

So the bottom line is, do your thing and don't worry so damned much about what other people say or think.  It's very difficult not to do so, I agree, but all you have to do is work harder and prove them wrong!  Oh, and chances are it's insecurity on their part that makes them judge you!

Don't forget to "like" the Kurt 3.0 page on facebook!  https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Kurt-30/229954267130220?fref=ts

Remember... Do something good for yourself today! :)