Grog Swiftbear

So Friday I just did cardio, ended up with 45 minutes on the elliptical. Was a decent workout, really at this point cardio is just a chance for me to catch up on some of my audiobooks. Saturday I had multiple meetings so skipped working out all together, that's ok though, need at least 1 day to rest. Yesterday I was back. Started with some volleyball, intramurals with my unit and we kicked ass. Then off to the gym for some lifting. Overhead press day! Someone wanted me to try a supplement called Loco, supposed to give an extra push during the workout. Not sure if it worked, I really didn't feel that much different but I did get a really good workout in. Overhead press - 55lbs 1 x 8 / 85lbs 1 x 5 / 115lbs 2x2 (this was actually much more difficult that I though it would be, especially standing) Barbell bent over rows - 55lbs x 8 / 80lbs x 8 / 115lbs x 6 Pullups - 3 sets of 8 although I took 120lbs of my weight I'll try to reduce it by 1 plate every week Dumbell shoulder press - 45lbs 2 x 8 / 50lbs x 6 Wide grip lat pulldown - 140lbs 2 x 8 / 150lbs x 8 Plank - 3 sets of 1 minute My shoulders were pretty burnt after this but it felt good. Food was meh. Slept in so I skipped breakfast and they scheduled the volleyball for 12 so I didn't get a chance to go eat before. Lunch - Protein shake, couple tbsp. of peanut butter and a Bumblebee Chicken Salad with Crackers. After the volleyball game I had a Ensure and then a protein bar after lifting Dinner - Salsbury steak, cubed potatoes, mixed vegetables, tomato/onion/green pepper salad w/tuna I also had a Twix as a snack.

Today was Deadlift day. Still learning how to do the deadlift but I think I did pretty good. After a quick warm-up I got into it. Deadlift - 85lbs - 2 sets x 8 reps Deadlift - 105lbs - 1 set x 8 reps Deadlift - 175lbs - 2 sets x 4 reps Deadlift - 195lbs - 1 set x 2 reps Barbell rack pulls - 185 - 2 sets x 8 reps Kettlebell one arm swings - 35lbs - 2 sets x 8 reps per arm Seated leg curl - 90lbs - 1 set of 8 and another 8 rep set at 100lbs Farmer's carry - 70lb kettlebells for 30 seconds - 2 sets It was a pretty decent workout. Breakfast - 2 boiled eggs, V8 juice, coffee, oatmeal w/brown sugar and raisins, cup of milk, pineapple and watermelon Lunch - Broccoli salad, roasted chicken breast, cheeseburger (half a bun), V8 juice Dinner - 2 chicken breasts, steamed broccoli, beef enchilada's and brown rice Plus 1 scoop of whey protein as a pre-workout.

No lifting yesterday, just did 40 minutes on the elliptical at level 15. Still finding it difficult to increase my protein intake. Carbs and fat are easy, good quality protein is a bit harder. Breakfast - 1 cup milk, coffee, 2 boiled eggs, oatmeal w/brown sugar and raisins, 2 cans of V8 and a pork sausage patty Lunch - 2 chicken fajitas, refried beans, Mexican rice, and 2 V8's Dinner - Roasted chicken breast (boneless/skinless), sweet potatoes (pretty sure they're canned), 8 buffalo wings and 2 cans of V8 Snacks - A cup of tuna (good protein to calorie ratio but hard to eat, basically had wash every bite down with water), oatmeal raisin cookie and a small banana split I know I need to cut out the sugars but with most of the dining facility food here tasting like crap it's hard. I need something that is pleasurable to the palette.

Well it's been a couple days since I posted. I won't go into all the details of the past few days. I slipped a little on my diet but not too poorly. The USO here sponsored a 5urviveK run. It wasn't too bad, basically they give you a couple pieces of caution tape that you tuck into your shorts and those are your "lives" that the zombies try to take. The zombies that were around the course were much faster than zombies aught to be and I ended up having to sprint at least a quarter of the 5K so after a while I was just dead. They got my lives and I ended up finishing near the back since I was really not preparing for a 5K sprint. Then of course they ran out of the t-shirts when I finished so that was a bunch of BS. Didn't feel it so much yesterday, but this morning, WOW. That DOMS is a kicker. So I decided to start my strength training yesterday, splitting cardio and lifting into separate days now. Started with a 10 minute warm-up on the elliptical Barbell bench press - 90lbs - 1 set of 15/ 135lbs 1 set of 8 / 165 lbs 1 set of 4 / 185 lbs 2 sets of 2 This is my first time really doing a bench press in a long time. Previously I would train by bringing my arms to a 90 degree angle, level with the ground, which is apparently wrong. I need to start training bringing the bar to my chest for the 1000lb challenge which means I'll have to drop the weight more for a while. Barbell incline press - 135lbs - 3 sets of 8 (last set was only 7) Cable cross overs - 40lbs - 1 set of 8 / 50 lbs 1 set of 8 and 1 of 7 Dumbbell bench press - 50 lbs - 2 sets of 8 Following a program I found on bodybuilding.com. Not sure if I'm doing it completely right but I'll adjust as I go along. Always learning, then applying. No more underpants collecting. I will always use the underpants I get! http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/build-strength-for-maximum-muscle-gains.html Over calories yesterday but I'm not too concerned. I've been under the last week or so. Breakfast - 2 boiled eggs, 1 baked chicken breast, 1 biscuit w/country gravy, 1 cup 1% milk, coffee, pineapple chunks, watermelon chunks Lunch - Baked chicken quarter, cup of fried rice, tomato/cucumber/onion/green pepper salad, 1 chocolate chip cookie Dinner - 6 meatballs, half a baked chicken quarter, tomato/cucumber/onion/green pepper salad, peas & mushrooms, a couple potato wedges and some vanilla ice cream Pre-workout protein shake. Overall I was around 2600 calories with 162g of protein and 118g of carbs. I need to try and increase my protein and carbs while decreasing calories.

Yesterday was pretty awesome! The pre-workout protein seems to be helping my lifting but it does work a number on my guts. Might have to find a different type of protein, whey seems to be the most recommended but the milk isolates seem to cause a lactose intolerance in a lot of people. I'm not usually lactose intolerant but perhaps we don't produce enough lactase to break down that much. The severe gas with protein seems to be a fairly common problem though. And don't let anyone tell you that adults aren't supposed to drink milk because it's pure crap! It all depends on your genetics, 90% of people of north European descent has the gene that allows them to digest milk just fine. Other ethic backgrounds are a crap shoot. Of course, since there are more "other" than there are northern European descendants in the world the "adults can't drink milk" myth was propagated. But it's not the whole story. Anyways, today's BATTLE LOG!!! Leg Day...ugh 10 minute warm-up on the elliptical level 13 Dumbbell squat - 60 lbs each - 3 sets of 6 Barbell clean deadlift - 135lbs - 3 sets of 6 Kettlebell standing calf raise - 50 lbs each - 1 set of 8 - 70lbs each - 2 sets of 8 Prisoner squat - 3 sets of 20 Weighted decline crunch - 20 lbs - 1 set of 18 and 1 set of 10 Plank - 3 sets at 45 seconds finished off with the 25 minutes on the elliptical doing the Around The World program at leave 13. This was the first time I had ever done deadlifts, I'll need to keep working on my form but I think I can build it up. Nutrition log. Breakfast - 1% milk, 2 boiled eggs, V8, coffee, 2 pancakes w/strawberry topping Lunch - brown rice, sweet & sour chicken, 2 pieces of lumpia and steamed broccoli Dinner - steak, small baked potato, 2 cans of V8, tomato/onion/cucumber salad, fruit salad Snack - 1 scoop of protein powder Well that's about it. It was a rather good day all in all. Still not able to get to sleep easily and averaging around 5-6 hours a night. Not good enough. Day off tomorrow though so perhaps I can sleep in. Probably not, have to get up early to call the family. Time zones suck.

Yesterday was back day. Again had trouble getting into the cardio but I managed some. Warmed up with 10 minutes on the rowing machine. Wide grip lat pulldown - 145 lbs - 6 reps x 3 Cable seated row - first set of 6 at 125 the second two at 140 Pullups - assisted - 3 sets of 6 (still can't do a pull up without assist yet. Soon though.) Back hyper extensions - first set of 8 with no weight, second 2 sets with 10lbs hanging leg raise - 3 sets of 6 The back on the rowing machine for 11 minutes and elliptical for 20. Food wasn't too bad. Breakfast - coffee w/milk and brown sugar, oatmeal w/brown sugar and raisins, V8, 2 boiled eggs, pineapple and grapes Lunch - Vegetable mix (broccoli, cauliflower and carrots), baked chicken parmesean, 1 half breadstick, oven baked potato wedges Dinner - Yankee pot roast, steamed potatoes, steamed carrots and a small serving of vanilla ice cream. I started taking a protein supplement before my workout which I think did help a lot with the workout but man the side effects can be brutal.

I've been having some difficulty sleeping lately, only getting 6 or so hours a night for the last few nights. Can't seem to wind down. I work 12-hour shifts and it's not particularly stressful given the location. Then again, it is still technical a war zone and there was another IDF (indirect fire) attack last night. It happened before I went to workout though so I was rather late in the gym. Because of that I didn't finish the cardio portion of my workout. 10 minutes on the elliptical to warm up Standing dumbbell press - 40 lbs - 3 sets of 6 sitting dumbbell shoulder press - 40 lbs - 3 sets of 6 Barbell curl - 75lbs - 1 set of 6 - 80 lbs - 1 set of 6 and 1 set of 4 (That extra 5lbs made a huge different. Then again, we don't actually have 1.5lb weights so I had to get one of the weights from the Nautilus machines and kind of balance it on the bar while I lifted so it kept threatening to fall off. I might stick with 75 and just go up to 85 in another couple weeks. Dumbell standing tricept extension - 65 lbs - 3 sets of 6 And that was about it. The fitness center here has a 1000lb challenge that they do every quarter. I'm going to watch it this quarter and see how it's done then I'm going to try and do it next quarter. Free t-shirt if I can manage it. The manager over there says it's standard meet rules, not sure what that is but I'll figure it out. Bench press/deadlift/squat all totaling 1000lbs. It lines up with the other goals I set for the deployment, just bit more weight. I think I can do it though. All while training my 5K speeds as well. Ok, food yesterday wasn't horrible. I did notice last night that my weight is finally down. I arrived at 244 lbs (can't really tell since I'm 6'4" but I am heavy), anyways I actually gained 2 lbs over the last 2 weeks and it was irritating me since I know I've been working my ass off and eating much better than I was. Well yesterday I was back down to 242ish so I'm feeling a little better. Hopefully it's a continuing trend at least until I reach the appropriate muscle/weight density that I want. Anyways here's the food log. Breakfast - Ensure Plus (someone gave me a box, they're ok), oatmeal, brown sugar and raisins, V8, 1% milk, coffee (I started using the MyFitnessPal app and noticed that the creamer in my coffee was killing me. I was getting a large cup of coffee with 4 of the little French Vanilla cups at a cost of 140 cals!! Today I switched to brown sugar and used half my normal milk in the coffee. Only about 40 cals in sugar and I was getting the cals from milk anyways.) Lunch - Kind of bad here, I had 3 fried mozzarella sticks, steak ranchero, a small baked potato, steamed broccoli and onion/tomato/cucumber salad. Dinner - Roasted Turkey Breast, mashed potatoes, poultry gravy, onion/tomato/cucumber salad and I tried some cole slaw (vinegar not dressing) and it wasn't that great so I only had a couple bites. Topped it off with a cup of vanilla ice cream. I need to cut out the ice cream and only have it once a week, it's just so good, and FREE! Anyways, there's my log for today. See ya'll tomorrow.

I got a pretty good set from Amazon. Can't beat the quality for the price. I also have a TRX set that someone gave me years ago but I didn't want to bring it with my on this deployment. Honestly, I couldn't be happier. They do pretty much the same exact thing as the TRX but for less than a fifth of the price. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B014RNC8CI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I weigh around 240lbs and they support me very well. @Anim07734 Not everyone always has access to rings, or a pull up bar. When you're in the middle of Afghanistan it's a lot easier to just attach the suspension trainer to something and get your workout done. Aside from that it's light and I can bring it with me wherever I go. When I am back home I prefer to go hiking or trail running rather than be stuck in a gym so I can attach it to a tree and still get a decent strength workout in. If you're cinches are slipping then most likely buckles aren't strapped properly. As I said, I weight 240 and I've never had an issue with it slipping on either suspension trainer I own.

An exciting day yesterday. I just ordered a cheap guitar for the deployment so I have something to learn on and it arrived. Had to sand down the saddle and adjust the truss rod, ordered a bone saddle and string pins also. The plastic saddle it came with is garbage, it'll never be high quality but I can still make it sound pretty good. We'll see how much it increases the sound quality once they get in. It takes forever for stuff to get delivered out here. Anyways, on to the battle! Started with a 10 minute warm up on the elliptical. I pushed myself a bit and got my heart rate up and ready for a good workout. I was debating skipping the lifting portion, my workouts have been taking a long time. Two hour workouts suck but it's only for six weeks then I'll adjust. In the end I just went with the plan although I skipped abs. Dumbell squat - 35lbs - 12 reps (Not sure why this is in my chest day, should probably move it to my leg day) Dumbell Bench Press - 60 lbs - 3 sets of 6 (I increased by 5lbs per arm today and it felt pretty good. At least I know I'm getting stronger even if I'm not losing any weight) Dumbell incline bench press - 55 lbs - 3 sets of 6 (again another increase of 5 lbs, feeling good about that) Dumbell fly - 25 lbs 1 set of 6 and then 30 lbs 2 sets of six (after I finished the first set I felt like I could increase the weight. 30 lbs did feel like a lot as my arms went down but I was able to lift them back up so good to go I think) I ended with a run, Day 4 of C25K. My intervals were 3.5mph(walk) and 6mph(run), Started at a walk for 5 minutes then ran for 90 seconds and walked for 2 minutes, repeated this for 20 minutes. During the last 30 seconds of my run the warning siren went off as some terrorist launched a rocket at the base. Had to jump off the treadmill and lay flat on the ground until they called the all clear. Damned terrorists, screwing up my workout. Going from feeling like my heart is about to burst on my last interval to laying flat is probably not good but I didn't die. Probably better than taking shrapnel though. Had to stay down for around 30 minutes until they called the all clear. Luckily I only had 30 seconds left on my run so it wasn't all that bad.

Yesterday was pretty good. Started out a bit tired but managed to get a good workout in. Started with 10 minutes on the elliptical to warm up. I was doing 15 but I think I get a pretty good warm-up after only 10 if I push it a little harder. Bodyweight lunges - 3 sets of 20 Box Jumps - 1 set of 20 and 2 sets of 10 (this was my first time doing box jumps, normally I would do jump squats but the box does add something. It wore me out good.) Bodyweight Standing Calf Raise - 3 sets of 20 Prisoner Squat - 2 sets of 20 Hanging leg raise - 1 set of 12 Back on the elliptical for 25 minutes. Tried a different elliptical, more of a strider. It seems like a much more intensive workout than the regular elliptical so I'll use that from now on instead. Sweated my ass off yesterday. Nutrition Log Breakfast - Oatmeal w/brown sugar and raisins, 2 boiled eggs, pineapple chunks and honeydew chunks, V8 and coffee Lunch - grilled chicken breast, mixed veggies, and I can't remember the rest. Usually I take a picture of my food since there's no internet in the dining facility to log it but I forgot yesterday. Dinner - Fried shrimp, collard greens, mashed potatoes, V8 and a cookie. Well there's all that. Decent day. Trying to eat clean is hard but I'm slowly getting there. Baby steps.

So yesterday was Sunday and it was my first full day off since I arrived in country. After two weeks of 12-hour shifts it was a very welcome relief. Needless to say, I didn't do anything. I walked about 30 minutes up to the store and back for some supplies but that was about it. Video chatted with my kids. It was good to see them again. I could call them every week when I was in the states, over here it's much harder since they're a 12.5 hour difference in time. Where's the extra half hour come from? I have no idea, Afghanistan is weird that way. Anyways, I didn't log my food yesterday either but it wasn't a bad day. Had a Mr. Goodbar which was probably not great but oh well. Back on the plan today.

So Saturday wasn't bad I suppose. I've been really tired lately for some reason. I'm managing 7-8 hours of sleep a night, sometimes a little less but I've been pretty consistent around 7-8 hours. Still tired, I'm hoping it will get better as I start to get in shape again. I'm only two weeks into the deployment and I have 5.5 months to go so I'm sure things will start to level out soon. I think I've finally acclimated, I just have to remember to stay hydrated. It's a bit annoying though since I have to go outside, down the stairs and across the street to get to the restroom and I've been having to go a lot more since I started drinking more water. Anyways, on to the report... 10 minute warmup on the elliptical level 13 dumbbell bench press - 55lbs - 3 sets of 6 (might up to 60 this week) dumbbell incline press - 50 lbs - 3 sets of 6 (also up another 5lbs) dumbbell fly - 25 lbs - 3 sets of 6 (not sure about upping this one yet, it was still rather difficult around the third set) dumbbell incline fly - 25 lbs - 3 sets of 6 (same as the previous) decline twist situps - 15 Was supposed to get back on the elliptical for 30 minutes but I just didn't have it in me. I was just so fatigued after this. Nutrition: Nutrition is not necessarily difficult, but it is at the same time. The part I have the most difficulty with is vegetables. Most of the cooked vegetables are overcooked and taste awful. There are a lot of raw veggies but the leafy greens like spinach and kale have to be cooked to release the nutrients and remove the linoleic acid. There's a reason human evolution skyrocketed after we discovered cooking. Anyways, here's Saturday's food... breakfast - 1 cup 1% milk, coffee, 2 boiled eggs, small can of V8, 1/2 cup oatmeal, 3tsp brown sugar, 2 oz raisins, 2 turkey sausage links lunch vegetable curry, V8, 6 Swedish meatballs, na'an bread Dinner - I forgot to log dinner, it wasn't great but not horrible either. I stayed within my calorie allowance for the day if just barely.

Was tired yesterday. Supposed to be leg day but only managed to finish my run and a set of Farmer's carry's. Day 3 on the C25K app, 60 seconds run (6.5mph), 90 second walk (3.5 mpg) for 20 minutes plus a 5 minute warm-up and cool down. Farmer's Carry - 3 sets, 70lb kettlebells for 22 seconds. Food wasn't bad though. Breakfast - 3/4 cup oatmeal w/raisins and 3 tsp brown sugar, 2 boiled eggs, 1/2 cup cut pineapple, 1/2 cup cut honeydew melon, small can of V8, 1 cup 1% milk and coffee Lunch - Baked chicken wing quarter, tomato/onion/cucumber salad, brussel sprouts, potato salad, small can of V8 and a water Dinner - 8oz sirloin steak, 4 chicken wings, steamed broccoli, macaroni and cheese and 1/2 cup of chocolate ice cream

Was feeling much better yesterday so I did nearly all of the workout I had planned. Warmed up on the rowing machine for 15-minutes. Wide grip lat pulldown - 140 lbs 3 sets of 6 reps Cable seated row - 125 lbs 3 sets of 6 reps Back extensions - no weight 3 sets of 10 assisted pull-ups - 2 sets of 6 cable wood chops - 22.5 lbs 3 sets of 10 Then back on the rowing machine for 20 minutes. Food wise I did pretty good most of the day. Breakfast - V8, coffee w/French vanilla creamer, 1 boiled egg, 2 slices French toast, strawberries, half a cup of pineapple and half a cup of watermellon Lunch - Afghani Rice, Afghani Chicken, Afghani bread, tomato cucumber and onion salad, V8 and a nectarine Dinner - 2 Tacos, half a cup of chili, broccoli salad, half a cup of vanilla ice cream Ok, maybe not the best food selections but I did pretty good and still remained under my calorie requirement for the day.

Thanks ajoylucid! Sandavia - The best advice I can give for learning an instrument is to just start. For years I kept "wanting" to learn and I'd pick it up once in a while and try to learn on my own but once I finally decided that I really want to learn, I went out and found a teacher. I didn't really know how to get started learning, I knew the chords and a scale or two but I really didn't know where to go from there. Having a clear path provided by a teacher has helped immensely. I like having the assignments which are really like mini-quests. Every week I have a few things that I'm supposed to practice and work on so every week I'm completing all the sub-quests that will lead me to my eventual final quest of being able to play just about any song I want and play it well.