Category Archives: Update

Day 5: Setback! Aiyee!!

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Day 5 - sept 5

  • Weight: 122.2 lbs.
  • No workout today
  • Total inches: 114.4
  • Protein: 116 g (on target)

I’m close to my starting weight and size. Panic!

Not really, but the trouble with tracking numbers is becoming lost in the data. Five days in, and it’s going in the opposite direction.

Having crunched millions of pieces of data over the years, I know how important it can be to look at both the big and the little picture simultaneously. Five days isn’t enough to judge anything on.

(Part of it can be attributed to user error. Each day, I can’t seem to measure each thigh properly, because I can’t get the measuring tape around my leg in the same exact location every time. Arms, belly and hips? No problem. Thighs? Like measuring a wet cat.)

day 5 chart

Target weight: Days 1-5

Do I eat more? No. Do I work out more? No.

I kinda wish I could ignore the numbers for the next 25 days, but I know they’re keeping me on track, even if each day isn’t perfect. I’ve read friends’ diet blogs, and I know from their years of daily blogging that they have triumphs and setbacks. But in the end, they lost hundreds of pounds because they kept at it.

I’m not panicking. I’m enjoying the ride, wherever it takes me.

Day 4: On the fly

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day 4

  • Weight: 123.4 lbs.
  • Workout B: 53 minutes
  • Total inches: 116.6
  • Protein: 117 g (1 g over target)

I am not a gym rat.

When you’re a nerd in school, you find ways to get out of PE. Climb the rope? Have rubber balls hurled at your head? No thanks. (Though I did dig the square dancing.)

So given the choice between signing up for an expensive gym membership or getting the most basic equipment at home, I took the latter. (I think I could’ve gotten away with doing a free 30-day trial membership, but what would I do if I didn’t bulk up fast enough in that period?)

I’m now the proud owner of a dumbbell set, barbell, plates and a workout bench for just under $130. I also built a T-handle from pipes ($19) as a decent kettlebell substitute.

Even with my careful shopping, I hit a couple of potential setbacks with today’s Workout B.

“The 4-Hour Body” [Amazon | iTunes aff. links] has great workout suggestions if you’re using a fully equipped gym. Otherwise, you might spend some time looking for alternate routines.

The first exercise is the slight incline bench press. Since I don’t have a power rack or a spotter, the safest alternative was using dumbbells instead of barbells.

Video: Incline Dumbbell Bench Press

YouTube has so many videos demonstrating the proper way to do each routine. This made it a little easier in doing the exercise with different equipment or method.

The second exercise is the barbell squat. Again, without a squat rack, I didn’t want to take chances injuring myself using the barbell. Fortunately, the dumbbell squat provides similar benefits.

The third (optional) exercise is the kettlebell swing, and author Tim Ferriss gives a great homemade substitute to pricy kettlebells. In the book (and this video), he explains how to make a T-handle (or T-bar).

Video: How to make a T-handle as a kettlebell substitute

And the last exercise (also optional) is 3 minutes on a stationary bike to alleviate any leg soreness. I do have a mountain bike, but the tires are flat and the frame in general needs a tune-up.

So I did bicycle exercises on my back. Take that, neglected mountain bike.

The home gym is working out nicely, thanks to some improvised solutions. That makes me a home rat.

Day 3: The bare minimum

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Day 3

  • Weight: 123.4 lbs.
  • No workout today
  • Total inches: 115.0
  • Protein: 122 g (6 g over target)

All the prep work, all the blog posts, all the metrics may seem like overkill. But simplicity is the actual guiding principle for Project Bulk. I work out nine times. I eat x number of grams of protein a day.

I exercise, I eat. That’s it.

I could roll in some cardio or yoga. Or count calories. But I want to make it so stupidly simple that even I can do it.

First thing I do when I wake up is hop on the scale, measure my arms and legs and waist and thighs, and record them in the spreadsheet. I then take my photo with my camera already on the tripod. This new morning ritual takes about 5 minutes.

The only three things left to do for the day are:

  • Eat;
  • Work out (but only if it’s a workout day, of which I have nine scheduled for September);
  • Write a blog post.

I don’t sweat the eating or the cooking. I tend to cook big batches and eat leftovers throughout the week.

The workouts are new, so they require more focus and preparation. But I anticipate them getting simpler over time.

And I can write posts in my sleep (and have occasionally done so).

I want to be as lazy as possible during this process. I mean, look at my hair: It’s a mess. It’s bedhead. No primping allowed — I must get the photo before the day gets going.

Finally, a way to use my inherent laziness to my advantage.

Day 2: Learning to stuff my face

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day 2

  • Weight: 122.6 lbs.
  • No workout today
  • Total inches: 112.4
  • Protein: 119 g (3 g over target)

Having done small fitness routines before, I expect a little soreness the day after. But I was lucky today: no aches, just tired. Luckily, it’s a holiday weekend.

Having changed my eating habits radically 5 years ago, I eat small portions of real food daily. My worst habits are eating “bachelor dinners” (popcorn! cereal!) and drinking diet sodas throughout the day.

My new challenge is counting protein grams, something I’ve never done before. I’ve never dieted, so I haven’t endured the mind-numbing task of looking at labels and recording calories and other nutritional data.

The milkshake makes it easier in some ways: 75 calories for drinking about 4 cups in one sitting (though I could easily save some for later in the day). I had planned on going to a friend’s cookout down the street, and he was serving hot dogs and hamburgers.

I searched on Google for the protein content of each, and then estimated if I ate four hot dogs or one hot dog and two hamburgers, I’d be set. That’s more than I usually eat, especially at a party, but this is my “job” now.

The first hot dog was easy, starving from earlier today. And then I had two bratwursts on buns in a row. The third brat was slower, but manageable. (No danger of winning any extreme eating contests here.)

I know that if I stay on target with workouts, then my only other real task is to eat enough protein to build muscles. I like to eat, so the only dull part is looking up numbers and recording them on my spreadsheet.

It’s bodybuilding for accountants.

Day 1: The first workout, the first milkshake disaster

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day 1 - front

  • Weight: 121.8 lbs.
  • Workout A: 60 min.
  • Total inches: 113.6
  • Protein: 120 g (4 g over target)

I didn’t think I’d be this excited, but I am rarin’ to go.

Day 1 is about starting my workout routine and the mildly annoying habit of weighing food for estimating protein.

It started with the recommended milkshake for breakfast (milk, protein powder, almond butter, brown sugar, ice). (Already a challenge since Asians are generally lactose intolerant.) But I forgot a quirk about my food processor (and many of similar design: It don’t do too well with excess liquid.

As soon as I poured the third cup of milk into the mixing bowl, it started leaking rapidly on the counter. Yikes.

I processed what I could save, mopped up the spilt milk and put out the call for a real blender to borrow.

I’ve made a homemade milkshake before (the same way I’m afraid) and it again came out more liquid with chunks than legitimate shake. It will, sadly, not bring the boys to the yard.

But it did the three things expected: Took care of breakfast, triggered my lactose defenses and knocked out 75 grams of protein.

Dinner, by the way, was a delicious barbecue chicken breast (made in the slow cooker) on baked potato, with sautéed okra.

The eating came easy. The workout was a new beast.

The first one for Workout A, as warned in “The 4-Hour Body” [Amazon | iTunes aff. links], takes longer because you have to determine your starting weights for lifting. I tried out a low weight on the barbell for the Yates rows, then repeated with higher weights until reaching “failure.”

I repeated the process for the overhead press. I know Workout B in 3 days will have the same incremental build. And I forgot to record today’s session on video, but I’ll try for the next one.

I’m energized, I’m excited, and I’m embracing this experiment 100 percent.

Because 110 percent is mathematically impossible.

Day 1 - side

Day 0: Getting ready for the 30-day experiment

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BodPod

Checking my body fat percentage in the BodPod.

I have nothing to lose and 10 pounds to gain.

I’ve spent the last 2 weeks, right up until today getting ready for Project Bulk, my 30-day experiment in putting on 10 pounds (or so) of muscle on my upper body.

The preparation has been fairly methodical, lots of writing down lists in Google Docs, and re-reading chapters in “The 4-Hour Body” [Amazon | iTunes aff. links]. And shopping!

I hunted for the cheapest options in workout equipment and protein powder. Having ordered them last weekend, they arrived at my doorstep in a few days. No lugging 45- and 109-pound boxes (not that I could even lift the 109-pound box) to my car and then to home.

Yesterday morning, I determined my body fat level: 23.5 percent. For a man my age, that’s average to poor. Ideal is anywhere from 5 percent to 15 percent, according to the body composition chart.

Today, I put together a weight bench which sits in a corner of my bedroom (which I cleared out yesterday). I’m getting a workout just putting everything in place.

I also made my big grocery run today. I’ve obsessed over how to count protein grams and menu planning, a huge disruption in my efficient grocery restocking routine.

But I’m looking forward to the surprises and the challenges that begin tomorrow.