Dirty Air

The air quality in Cambridge (MA) doesn't even compare to that in Pelham (NH). I had to go to Lowell for some issues with my rental properties and decided to visit my parents while I was there. It had been raining and drizzling since about 3pm today and by the time I arrived in Pelham around 8pm everything felt almost tropical. It was amazing. I took a deep breath with my windows down as I drove along road, with dark green trees in every direction. The air felt clean; more oxygenated; it felt healthy.

It's easy to compare the air quality because yesterday evening I went running around the area near my Cambridge apartment. I haven't been running in awhile, and it was obvious my lung capacity had decreased a lot because I needed to take deep breaths all the time. Half way through my run I stopped. What was I breathing in? Car exhaust, the trash sitting on the sidewalk, the smell of laundry coming from a vent, the strong perfume of the person I just passed. Ugh! It felt like I was running one step forward and taking my health two steps backwards!

I can't help but wonder how much of an effect living in the city has on a persons health. I spent the majority of the first 14 years of my life in a rural area with a lot more trees than houses, the following 10 years in a semi-rural area with more houses than trees, and the past 7 months in the city, where there are more dogs than there are trees! I thought of living in a more rural area and commuting to Boston, but would that be any better? I'd probably be getting even more exposure to unhealthy air since I'll be traveling the very routes where the dirty air starts!

In retrospect, a truly healthy life cannot be lived by working "where the crowd works", nor can it be lived if your goal is to simply make as much money as possible (as is my goal for the next 5 years... how much of an impact will those 5 years of living in the city have on my health!?). For many, it's not a matter of choice but a matter of necessity. I'm lucky to still have many of my options wide open.

We are what we consume.

Keeping things different

I got so sick of sitting down to use my computer. This actually works pretty good!

Repetitive Immobility is Killing Me!

I've been stuck in what feels like a rut, an endless loop of procrastination, confusion, and indecisiveness. If it sounds very much unlike me that's because it is. Perhaps it is so unfamiliar to me that I feel stuck and have a constant desire for change.

I crave the outdoors and yet I spend my days in the office, my evenings in a basement apartment with very little natural light and no ability to see the sky, and my weekends working inside on my rental properties or driving in the car. When I'm indoors I feel compelled to be sitting at my computer, whether for work or entertainment, because I refuse to hook up a television and although I have plenty of gym equipment, I've been finding it difficult to be motivated when I'm in a gloomy basement and the weather is beautiful outside.

I've been thinking seriously about finding a new apartment, one above ground and with plenty of windows, hoping that maybe that is what I need to satisfy my desire for natural light. But is that what I really need? I'm already 1 month behind on a house payment and I'm struggling to pay even the rent at my current apartment. Credit cards are already maxed with purchases from rental apartment repairs and the bills for everything else are slowly stacking up.

The constant repetitiveness of my daily routine of sitting in a chair, whether while work, at home, or while driving, is having an extreme negative effect on my posture and muscles. What amount of stretching and exercise can counter 12 hours of sitting in a chair if I plan to get 6 hours of sleep and spend 4 hours doing other daily activities? How can 2 hours of exercise and stretching counter 18 hours of near immobility?

I've been sitting outside on a public sidewalk bench typing this entire post on my Blackberry. I had to get outside, regardless of what I was going to do outside, I just needed to get out. I can think more clearly when I'm outside. Maybe I should start a time journal to keep track of exactly where all my time goes. Then after one month review the journal and look for patterns of wasted or ill spent time and change them.

I need to start, no... I'm going to start some type of daily, outdoor activity; preferably one physical enough to be called exercise. I'm also going to get back on my three day a week lifting routine.

Fighting

I was quite sick most of today. I woke up with a bad headache, which then turned into nausea, and lasted throughout the day. I took two Aleve in the morning, but that didn't help at all. I had planned on using my time off from work to finish working on the vacant Cumberland Rd property, but that didn't happen. I'm very stubborn so no matter how badly I feel like throwing up, no matter how good it will make me feel afterwards, I refuse to do it. I've probably puked once or twice in the past 15 years.

Headaches

If there is one pain that clearly signals something is wrong, it's a headache. I get them a lot. In fact, I've sort of learned to cope with having a headache during 70% of my waking hours. Maybe that's why I constantly look like I'm concentrating (which probably helps me come across as mean or unapproachable). Usually they're mild. But sometimes, such as right now, they're so bad I cannot sleep.

Headaches. I need to fix them.

And please don't suggest pills. Covering the symptom never fixes the problem -- it only delays it.

All-Zyme Double Strength by Rainbow Light

While I was working on computers at LifeAlive Tuesday night, I mentioned to Heidi (the owner) that I've had a lot of digestion trouble the past few months. She gave me a bottle of All-Zyme Double Strength; plant-source enzyme pills. She thought I might not be getting the right enzymes my body needs to properly digest and process food. So I took one pill before I went to bed and three more yesterday. I had no idea I would feel results after only 24 hours!

Yesterday was the first day in the past several months I've felt as good as I do now. I used to always get a stomach ache during the day, and when I tried to eat something in the late afternoon (when I was the most hungry) the stomach ache would only get worse. Today however, I was able to eat the same things I normally eat but without feeling like my stomach wasn't working.

My Apartment Home Gym

When I moved to Cambridge in back January, I decided to get a gym membership at the local Gold's Gym. It was $40 a month, no contract, and they were open 24 hours a day, five days a week. I figured that would be great, since I could go workout at 11pm or whenever I wanted.

As it turned out I started going there at 1am to avoid the crowds of people (yes, there were plenty of people there at 10pm and 11pm!), but parking was always an issue -- not parking at the gym, but parking near my apartment. If I had a parking spot a few hundred feet from my apartment, it was gone when I got back from the gym. That meant I had to park in the office parking lot and walk 1/2 a mile to my apartment. No big deal, but when it's -20 degrees outside with the wind, 1/2 mile is pretty tough.

Thanks to Sitha who bought me a weight bench for my birthday, I'm now able to do my entire workout from home! After I cleared the space I planned to use, I emptied the box of parts (78 parts to be exact) and discovered the user manual was missing! I know the male species love to put things together without directions, but 78 parts... I'll take directions! Luckily, I was able to find a PDF version of the manual online. It took me about an hour to put the entire thing together.

I already brought my rowing machine to the apartment, so I have almost everything I need. I mounted my pull up bar in the bedroom doorway and using the ab loops I can do an amazing range of pull ups and leg raises. Sure, I can't stretch my legs out all the way, but it still works! I also have the Intermediate set of Iron Woody Bands, which gives me the ability to do a huge variety of exercises, such as seated rows and cable crunches (below). The bands really make you think creatively! When I add the yoga ball and 10LB medicine ball into the mix, I've got more than I would take advantage of in a gym! I also managed to scavenge a bunch of interlocking floor mats from the old gym in the factory (the business is moving to a new, smaller office location) and created the perfect area to use the equipment.

So really, the only thing that's missing are some dumbbells. I've decided that I can do without them for the time being, since I really can't afford them. However once I have enough money I would like to get the Personal PowerBlock Set. The pair of them replaces 18 individual dumbbells -- a must for an apartment gym. I've already dedicated a large portion of my apartment to the gym, but I don't mind. If it was up to me, I would dedicate all my time to physical training and conditioning.

Vegan's get Plenty of Calories!

These are pictures from my FitDay account. I decided to start keeping track of everything I eat to see how I'm doing with calories and to see if my fat/carbs/protein ratios are good. I didn't realize I was eating so many calories!

As you can see by the Calories Burned picture, I'm consuming about the same number of calories as I burn on a daily basis, excluding any calories I burn from workouts. This explains a lot about why I haven't been burning as much fat as I thought I was -- I've been eating too much! The strange thing is that I've been feeling hungry non-stop, especially at night.

Those pictures are from yesterday. Today I've changed my diet to adjust the ratios and I'm aiming for around 2500 calories.

I also spent 20 minutes today, climbing a total of 948 steps (56 stories (14 stories x 4)) in my office building. It was an amazing workout! Anyone who uses work as an excuse for not being able to workout simply isn't creative and motivated enough! When I worked 3rd shift as a help desk analyst at Getronics a few years ago, I ran laps around the parking lot at 2:00am!

EDIT: I ended up eating more calories today than I did yesterday, however that is because in addition to spending 20 minutes doing the stair climbing I did 30 minutes of interval training at my parents house this evening, which burned 500 calories. So technically, I only consumed 2350 calories.

Time to Burn the Fat

I know I've been saying this for weeks, but tomorrow I'm going to start counting the calories I eat. I've already started using my rowing machine regularly, now I just need to increase the amount of time I use it for. I love running, but when I do too much of it I get shin splints or my knees start to ache. I also need to work on my unsightly calves -- they're probably the most undeveloped area of my body.

Appetite is controlled by your brain and its absolutely amazing how strong feelings of hunger can be. The past few weeks I've found myself constantly feeling hungry, even when I feel full and my stomach hurts. I'm not sure if its because of the change in my diet or if it's because I'm not doing enough intense physical exercise.

The maximum amount of fat a person can safely loose per week is 2 LBS; by burning ~500 calories per day. I aim to burn at least 1.5 LBS of fat per week, for the next 12 weeks (18 LBS of fat!)

Wow, that is so much easier said than done.

How to make drinking water a lot easier

Last year, I wrote a lengthly post about why its so necessary to drink more water. Drinking water isn't really a problem for me, its simply remembering to drink it.

I discovered that if you simply always have a bottle of water on your desk, or within reach of where you work, it will require nothing more than the thought "I could use some water" to grab your water bottle and drink some water (maybe even leave the cap off!). But if you have to get up and walk somewhere just to get some water, you're a lot less likely to do it.

I like to buy a single 1.5 liter Poland Spring bottle of water and simply make sure I refill it once during the day. That means I'll get at least 100oz of water per day. At the end of the week, I toss out the bottle and buy a new one (reusing the bottle too many times can eventually cause toxins in the plastic to release into the water).

A Healthy Week

Well this week has seen a couple of interesting changes. On Sunday, I went food shopping for this week and bought lots of fruits and veggies. And then on Monday, after discovering the Vegan Fitness Forums, I made the decision to go vegan -- which means no dairy, including whey protein. I already have a couple of tubs of soy, hemp, and rice protein so I've started using that to make protein shakes. Probably the easiest, and most tasty shake, that I make is done like this:

1 cup unsweetened soymilk
1 scoop of soy protein
1 banana
1 tbsp peanut butter
ice to taste

It's incredible! You don't taste the soy protein at all, but the whole thing contains over 35g of protein! And meat eaters wonder where we get our protein...

This week I was also given the additional task of being the QA Engineer for Aerva. It will be an excellent learning experience and it will help me gain a better understanding of the whole software development process.

I finished almost all of the fruits and veggies you saw in my fridge on Sunday, but I still have enough for this weekend. Usually I don't have easy access to a stove during the weekends and I end up eating at LifeAlive or snacking on nuts, but this weekend I'm going to make it a goal to finish everything left over from Sunday. I definitely bought too much food this week, but now that I have a good idea how much I'll need, I'm going to buy less for next week.

I also need to increase my protein intake, which I plan to do by consuming more soy protein shakes. I'm also going to buy wheat gluten, something I've never bought before, however I've learned it has the most amount of protein of all vegan foods.

My workouts have been going well, however I haven't been doing enough cardio. Starting next week, I'm going to get back on my HIIT workouts, two days a week. HIIT is extremely intense and I have had excellent results in the past using it. I actually wrote a post about it back in 2003. I'll probably start doing that same HIIT workout and then increase the intensity in two months.

Vegan Fitness Forum

I've been reading stuff on the Vegan Fitness forum lately. I found it somewhere in a post on the bodybuilding.com forums, which I also frequent. I'm learning a ton of stuff from the Vegan Fitness forums -- many of my questions related to bodybuilding on a vegan diet have been answered.

I bought two bags of raw seeds yesterday -- pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds. Both are inexpensive and have a high protein content. However they're both high in fat, which means even though they're good fats, they still contain a ton of calories. If I eat enough pumpkin seeds to consume 20g of protein, I would have also consumed 40g of fat -- 448 calories! That's almost 1/4 of my daily caloric intake!

I also listed a new item on eBay yesterday; a broken Toshiba laptop I bought from someone for $35. Similar broken Toshiba laptops have sold for $90+, so hopefully I can make a little money off it.

Fruits and Veggies for a Week

I went food shopping today, at Whole Foods. It's not the cheapest place to shop, but they certainly have good stuff. I always shop for the current week, nothing more. By the end of the week everything in my fridge should be gone (besides peanut butter, jam, flax oil, etc).

The rest of my diet includes whole wheat bread, tempeh, brown rice, beans, whole wheat pasta, whole grain cereal, assorted nuts, and soy milk. My fruits I eat raw, and I usually steam veggies in the microwave (1 inch of water on the bottom of a bowl, add washed veggies and microwave for 5 min). Although I've been avoiding all dairy for the past few months, I've recently introduced whey protein back into my diet to help with my muscle gains.

This week I'm also trying something new, soy yogurt. I've read the live cultures in yogurt are really good for your digestive system and since I've been having odd digestion issues, I'm going to see how that helps.

Pouring the foundation

This warm weather is a relief from the bitterly cold temperatures we've had the past few weeks. Walking between my apartment and the office was, for the first time since I've moved here, enjoyable. Last week I started going to the gym on a regular basis -- everyday, Monday through Friday. After watching 300, and reading the article in Men's Health about Gerard Butler's physical transformation for his role as Leonidas, King of Sparta, I'm even more determined to perfect my body.

A cluttered home creates an unorganized lifestyle. An unorganized, cluttered lifestyle creates an unhealthy mind and body. Therefore, a cluttered and unhealthy body will result in all of the above. As you may recall, one of my 2007 New Years resolutions was to "Develop and maintain a regular healthy diet and exercise program".

I have started mixing the concrete for that foundation; now it's time to start pouring.

Motivational Fitness & Health Advice

I found something I had written for a friend a few months ago (last October, actually) when he asked for fitness advice. I find my own advice, written at a time when I had a regular workout routine, motivating me to start my regular routine once again. There are many reasons (excuses) why I've let my routine slide, but I won't give myself the opportunity to mention them!

Whatever you do, stick with it. If you feel like program A is not working, then don't quit! Modify the program and keep going. Consistency will pay off, whether you're doing the right thing or not.

Eat more healthy. This is kind of obvious, but start with eliminating SODA and any other junk food. Watch the nutritional content labels for high saturated fat and sugar content. Eat more fruit's, nuts, and veggies.

DRINK A LOT OF WATER! If you're lucky enough to work close to a bathroom, drink water until you're pissing every 10 minutes; seriously. When your body changes and fat decreases, your body needs to get rid of all the toxins in your body. It does that by using WATER as a transport mechanism. If you don't have enough water, your body will simply become more toxic.

Don't kill yourself. Create a schedule that fits your lifestyle. For example, start small by dedicating 30 minutes every day to workouts. Then start doing it twice day (30 min morning, 30 min night) if possible, otherwise just increase your workout time. If you feel REALLY sore the day after working out, give yourself a day's rest and start again the following day. Your body does need time to adjust, so give it time. But at the same time, you should be trying to push your limits. Don't use the soreness as an excuse!

Started running again

I had a good workout tonight. I felt energized as ever, which I'm crediting to my high complex carbohydrate intake throughout the day (whole wheat pasta with my own sauce (fresh onion and mushroom)).

I also decided to start running again and ended todays workout with a 15 minute interval circuit:

15 Minute Interval Circuit

00:00 - 5 mph warm up
02:00 - 9 mph sprint
02:30 - 7 mph run
03:30 - 9 mph sprint
04:00 - 7 mph run
05:00 - 9 mph sprint
05:30 - 7 mph run
06:30 - 8 mph sprint (tired as hell!)
07:00 - 7 mph run
08:00 - 8 mph sprint
08:30 - 7 mph run
09:30 - 9 mph sprint
10:00 - 7 mph run
11:00 - 9 mph sprint
11:30 - 7 mph run
12:00 - 6 mph cool down
13:00 - 5 mph cool down
14:00 - 4 mph cool down
15:00 - end

It's really amazing how long 15 minutes seems when you're enduring such physical stress, and as much as I wanted to stop, I kept telling myself to overcome the pain. I'm glad I did, because I felt good afterwards.

There's a sense of accomplishment I feel after completing a tough workout. Even if I've had a very unproductive day, finishing it with a tough workout would make the entire day seem worth it. A tough workout is also an excellent stress releaser -- no matter how hard my day was, finishing it with a good workout makes me feel as if I could start the whole day over, and go through it all over again.

Bodybuilding on a Vegan Diet

It's been about six weeks since I last worked out regularly. I have no excuses. For the past two months I have been vegan (no meat, fish, poultry or dairy) with the exception of occasional dairy (cheese/whey). I feel a lot healthier without any dairy in my system, however the vegan diet has dramatically decreased my protein intake. I feel as though I've lost a ton of muscle mass in the past six weeks -- but after checking the scale, I believe it's mostly a psychological effect. I'm still 164.2lbs and 13.5% BF -- not at all much different than six weeks ago. Still, I feel physically weaker (again, could be psychological!).

I haven't done any research on vegan bodybuilding, but I know there are successful vegan bodybuilders out there, so it can be done. My brother has done considerable research on the topic and he says there isn't much scientific information available. I'm going to spend at least the next two months concentrating on my workouts and seeing what results I can obtain while on a vegan diet.

The workout routine I'm doing is the same routine I started back in June. It's designed to build muscle, while keeping your metabolism fired up by varying the exercises and hitting many different muscle groups in each workout. There are four parts to the routine which are completed in a single week, with the first half completed back to back (A and B), then a days rest, and then the second half back to back (C and D). I'm using the same weights as I was in June, however I will probably increase the weight over the next two months. To save you from having to view the old posts, I'll copy the workouts here:

Workout A

Workout B (Tuesday)
Squat, 3 sets, 6 reps, 100 LBS
Rear-delt Raise, 3 sets, 10 reps, 20 LBS
Romanian Deadlift, 4 sets, 8 reps, 100 LBS
Dumbbell Split Squat, 4 sets, 8 reps 35 LBS
Swiss Ball Jackknife, 3 sets, 10 reps
Bicycle Crunches, 3 sets, 50 reps
Swiss Ball Rollout, 3 sets, 10 reps

Workout C (Thursday)
Pullup, 4 sets, 8 reps
Neutral Grip Dumbbell Press, 4 sets, 8 reps, 45 LBS
Weighted Chinup, 3 sets, 5 reps, 16 LBS
Lateral Raise, 3 sets, 8 reps, 25 LBS
Bench Press, 3 sets, 6 reps, 160 LBS
Barbell Curl, 3 sets, 8 reps, 50 LBS
Decline Dumbbell Triceps Extention, 3 sets, 8. reps, 30 LBS 30 LBS
Incline Dumbbell Curl, 3 sets, 12 reps, 20 LBS

Workout D (Friday)
Deadlift, 3 sets, 6 reps, 140 LBS
Side Plank, 3 sets, 20 second hold
Front Squat, 4 sets, 8 reps, 60 LBS
Good Morning, 4 sets, 8 reps, 60 LBS
Overhead Squat, 3 sets, 5 reps, 30 LBS
Calf Raise, 3 sets, 10 reps, 35 LBS
Swiss Ball Curl Up, 3 sets, 15 reps

I'm reading a really good book right now called Pain Free, by Pete Egoscue. It contains exercises designed to get your body back into it's correct alignment and function. I'm starting to incorporate the exercises into my morning yoga routine. I'll write a review of the book once I've given the exercises some time.

Dizzy Spells – Viral Labyrinthitis?

A few weeks ago I experienced a sudden dizzy spell, which was so intense it nearly knocked me over. It happen two or three more times over a five minute period. I don't get dizzy very easily; things such as spinning around or riding a roller coaster don't make me dizzy at all, so this came as a huge surprise. Following the dizzy spell, I felt very nauseous and wanted to throw up. During the next few days I felt very sick, headaches, loss of appetite, more dizzy feelings (though none nearly as intense) and just overall sick. Then it went away and I figured that was the end of it.

Then today, while sitting at my computer working for Aerva, I became extremely dizzy. It felt as if the entire building was falling over on it's side. My hands slammed down on the table in attempt to brace myself. Then I felt sick to my stomach, and wanted to throw up. After a few minutes, I tried standing up but felt as if I was about to fall over. The dizzy feeling continued for another hour, however I didn't feel anymore extreme dizziness. During that hour I did some googling to try and figure out what the hell was causing this.

I finally came up with Viral Labyrinthitis (lab-uh-rin-thahy-tis), or VL for short. I came across this post on Rich's blog about his experience with VL. Hundreds of other people who also had VL started leaving comments on his post. The comments grew to the point where his post was being used as a sort of support forum for those with VL. He had to break up the comments into 7 different pages. Anyway, after reading about 50 comments from people who had many of the symptoms I have (some had the exact same symptoms), I think its possible I have VL. Of course I should go to a doctor to confirm because there are lots of other things that could also cause the extreme dizziness.

My first thought, when this first happen to me a few weeks ago, was that it was a low blood sugar issue. When someone's blood sugar levels get low enough, they can feel very dizzy, weak, and even faint. Generally your blood sugar levels get very low when you don't eat enough, or you don't consume enough sugar (in the bodybuilding world, sugar is generally bad, so obviously I avoid it. Go figure). I had not eaten much during the day, and I usually forget how fast time passes when I'm in the programming “zone”.

Around 3:00pm, I realized I had not eaten anything since 8:00 this morning, so I went to the local Whole Foods Market and bought an avocado sandwich, a natural protein shake, and a couple of energy bars. When I got back to the office, I ate the sandwich, drank half the protein shake, and ate half the energy bar. Then the dizzy spell happen and I instantly lost my appetite. I checked the nutritional content on what I had just eaten and added up the sugar: I had just consumed over 45g of sugar in a 3 minute time span.

Wait a second... If I had low blood sugar and I just consumed a bunch of sugar, that should be a good thing, right? Well actually, when you consume a lot of sugar and your blood sugar is really low, your body releases insulin to control the amount of sugar entering your blood. If your body over compensates and releases TOO much insulin (which could happen if you consume too much sugar in a short period of time), this can cause your body's blood sugar level to suddenly plummet (insulin helps restrict and control sugar levels), thereby causing the extreme effects of low blood sugar. This is probably what happen to me.

Being the way I am, I probably won't go to the doctor unless I continue to feel really dizzy or if any symptoms get worse. My yearly checkup is coming up, so I'll just mention it to my doc when I see him. As of this post, I still feel a little dizzy, but I'm able to eat and don't feel quite as sick to my stomach.

Ready to Indulge?

Do you feel guilty? You should! Are you too weak to stop yourself? Or do you just not care? Do you even know? Again, and again, you keep at it. Disgusting. Take a look at yourself already! Do you lack the common sense that would otherwise help you make the right choice? Maybe you have the common sense, but not the strength and will power to act upon it. It's not going to resolve itself you know; you need to do something about it. Sitting there, peering through those oval spectacles with your nose buried in a book. That book certainly isn't a magic wand, and it certainly isn't helping your problem! Oh, what's the matter? Not feeling good about yourself? Well you shouldn't feel good about yourself. I'll bet you get that feeling quite often. How unhappy that must make you all the time. Wait, if you have so much of that unhappy guilty feeling, then you ought to use it to your advantage and make it the driving force behind getting better. What? No time? Please. If you didn't watch any TV you could transform within a matter of months. Its a mental thing, really. The solution and all the answers are as close as your brain. Can you reach it? No, not your brain! The answer, the solution! Can you reach out and hold onto it for dear life? Come on, how bad do you want it? Oh, what's that? You don't want it? Never mind then. I'm sorry to be the one to inform you of this, but there's no hope for you...

...until you decide you really want it.

Delayed once again!

Two weeks ago, I took a week off from my workout regiment to let my body recover from a cold. Then last week, I was excited to be starting an entirely new routine. Unfortunately, I was unexpectedly busy on Monday, so I missed my workout. "No problem, I'll just do it on Tuesday." Tuesday came, I pulled a muscle in my back, but worked out anyway. There was a little pain and discomfort, but otherwise it was great. I need a day's rest in between workouts, so the next workout was on Thursday. But Thursday turned out to be extra busy as well, and then I went camping over the weekend. I did as much intensive mountain biking as possible over the weekend, and looked forward to starting my workouts fresh on Monday. Monday morning I woke up, sat down in the chair in front of my computer, as I do every morning, and suddenly felt a sharp pain above my right shoulder blade. Great. I couldn't even move my arms or neck in any direction without feeling extreme pain. So I went to my chiropractor, twice. He helped, but I was still unable to look over my shoulder. So once again, no workout. It's now Tuesday evening and my back feels better, but still sensitive. I have a craving to workout, but I'm giving my body time to rest.

I'm on a strictly vegan diet this week, which means no dairy and obviously, no meat. I'm also off coffee for the entire week (replaced with green tea). I've been coffee-free since Monday morning. The caffeine headaches have been kicking in, and combining those with the extreme ache in my neck and back, today was by far the hardest day physically. I've also had a weird allergic reaction the past few days, possibly caused by whatever moved in my back. Red, itchy eyes and a tingling nose. Oh and a pimple on my forehead that won't go away! OK, I think that's it.

I've been surprised at the amount of muscle mass I have retained, despite not working out for two weeks. I suppose it's due to the fact that I've been eating a good amount of calories, and with the right ratios of fat/carbs/protein. I've created a daily routine for workouts/yoga:

Monday - Sunday (7 days a week)

Morning

30 min Yoga

20 min aerobic (rowing, running, biking)

Evening

30 min Yoga

20 min aerobic (rowing, running, biking)

Monday, Wednesday, Friday (3 days a week)

Evening

60 min weight workout

I'll post updates on my progress. The yoga and aerobic part of this regiment I will start tomorrow, however the weight workouts will start Monday, September 4th. Please post any comments or suggestions on this routine. Any advice you have to offer would be much appreciated!