Welcome to 2016!

Clearly time hasn't changed the fact that I still suck at blogging consistently.  Honestly it is still a pain in my ass to have to log out of one account to log into another account to blog.  I'll take time to figure out how to better handle that situation in the future, but for now - it just isn't a priority.

What have I been doing for my health?  Let's start with the nutrition as it is a shorter update.  Well, still sort of following ETP.  They say on my "training days" I should be eating almost 2800 calories.  On my "rest days" I should be eating about 2300 calories.  With ETP, it is all about hitting your calories then your macros and then you worry about timing.  I suppose this is common in things like the body building world as I compare my numbers of what I'm eating for macros to body builders and it is surprisingly quite similar.  The difference is, I don't have a body builder body.  lol 

For nutrition on my "rest days" I should be hitting 2350 calories.  175g of protein, 85g of fat and just over 200g of carbs.  Again - the primary target being - get your calories in.  Then if you have to just pick one of the macros to it, hit your protein.  In an ideal world you will get + or - 10g of the protein and carbs.  + or - 5g of the fat.  Regarding timing, well they say slow carbs before your workout to help you get energy and fast carbs after a workout.  On my training days the only thing that changes is I get more carbs.  Protein and fat stays the exact same. 

What has this forced me to do?  Something I said I couldn't ever see myself doing.  Measuring food.  Logging it into MyFitnessPal and pushing for some consistency.  I've logged for over 60days straight and that alone is an accomplishment.  It for the most part is pretty accurate.  I may have had some days around xmas where I just stopped logging halfway through the day.  Whatever.  Like anything in life, its not about perfection, its about consistency and trying to be better. 

Workouts - I had wavered a bit and finally decided I was going to go back to Body Beast.  My big fear was leg day... ugh, fucking leg day.  I reminded myself though that it was only 1 day of the week.  I could suck it up for one day per week.  Necessary evil.  Body Beast lasted 2 whole weeks then I got hurt.  The infamous neck/shoulder pinch so I couldn't turn my head.  Good times... good times. 

The injury pissed me off and caused me to re-evaluate what I was going for.  At the same time I was dealing with a completely swollen left quad.  I couldn't bend that leg very well, so it made stretching a struggle.  I took a week off to rest up my neck/shoulder and keep stretching it out.  Trying to work things out without dealing with another 6 weeks of physical therapy.  That's always fun.  It did work and for the most part I got past it on the right side. 

What did I decide on?  Well during my re-evaluation I started following Al Kavaldo who is all about body weight exercises.  Which led me over to start reading the book Convict Conditioning.  Which, no real surprise they have an app for that if you wanted to follow it and work at it.  The app is free, it illustrates how to do the exercises.  Also links to YouTube videos that show you how to do the exercises.  It gives you progressions on how to get to the next level.  The next level of the exercise.  Its pretty awesome actually. 

This is going to sound gay and girlie but the routine speaks to me.  Bottom line it is about training for functional movement.  Being more flexible.  Being stronger.  NOT getting hurt.  All things that I wanted but kind of have half been able to get there.  I've done various home workouts that have gotten me stronger, done one other one that got me flexible (Piyo) but none that did them both.  Almost always - I ended up with a hurting body, which is never the goal. 

Right now I'm re-learning.  I'm learning proper form from the ground up.  SLOW and controlled movements through each exercise and each progression.  Learning how to do various bridge exercises so that I'll be able to do a full bridge, should I be able to progress to the end here.  Or be able to do a one handed handstand, again, should I be able to progress through the end.  I have done a 2min wall headstand, for whatever that is worth.  Still learning, still progressing through it.  I do like it though.  It is a slow workout.  Zero cardio.  I don't sweat at all.  My muscles work though.  Boy do they work. 

OK - now time for me to fuel up so I can go get at it.