On French Fries and Barbells

I just finished the fourth workout of this program, so I’m officially halfway through the first month.  What have I noticed so far?  One thing stands out above the rest:

I really want some friggin’ french fries.

Foods that I used to eat without batting an eye now mock me from restaurant menus and my own countertops.  It’s amazing how much more careful I have to be during the week.  But I think simplicity is the key: each meal, I only focus on carbs (beans, already cooked so I just have to warm them), protein, and some vegetable matter.  Protein is already my specialty when it comes to cooking, so I’m having fun coming up with a billion different ways to cook pork chops.  I went on a field trip to CostCo and stocked my fridge with all kinds of raw meaty goodies, so I won’t run out of stuff to cook for a while.

But still, sometimes I feel like that just doesn’t cut it.  Beans are great, but they don’t really give you that “full” feeling as much bread or other carbs do.  So, I find myself getting stricken by french-fry and pasta cravings, something that I’ve never had to deal with before.

The first week was fine because everything was new and novel, but I think from here on out will be the real test.  But no worries.  I can eat those carbs right after my workouts, and Saturday is still “anything goes” day.  I think that’s the only way to do it – you need one day to let loose.

As for the exercise, my gym-bro and I are seeing improved max weight on nearly every exercise every week.  But I still don’t feel like I’m working my muscles to a state of pure exhaustion.  I lift at my max every time, sure.  I lift at the point where I can do no more than 4 or 5 reps per set.  But even after a couple sets, I still don’t feel that deep fatigue in my muscle tissue that I expected.  A couple minutes go by, and they feel ready to go again.  Is it really possible to come to complete muscle exhaustion in less than 30 minutes at the gym?  Maybe for one or two muscle groups, sure, but the whole body?  So maybe I should just focus on one or two each time and rotate.  I’ll still do multi-joint workouts, but I’ll make sure that the focus areas are hit the hardest.

All in all, I think things are going well.  I’m going to keep pushing the envelope over the next two weeks, and I’m anxious to see where I’ll get to by then.

Note: I had been increasing in weight over the first couple of gym trips, but at weigh-in today I noticed that my weight was 1/2 lb lower than it had been at the beginning!  Now ideally, this means that the diet part has successfully lost me fat weight while gaining muscle, but I guess we’ll see in the end.  I’ve been eating a ton, so this one threw me for a loop!