About This Part

Starting off the new year right, for once.  After 2 months of terrible workouts and poor eating because of stressful school, 3 months of being more or less transient waiting for said school, and the tail end of a bad deployment, I'm finally stabilizing and getting into a routine that will result (hopefully, this time) in professional photography for cosplay and/or going around DragonCon shirtless again.

With the Post gym almost 20 minutes away, I've elected to sign into Planet Fitness.  Pros: Located 5 minutes away; now that I'm paying, I'll definitely use it; convenient hours during the work week (i.e. all 24 of them).  Cons: Lack of variety; mostly machines; the free weights are sorely lacking; teenagers; (I'd add douchey gym guys/ladies, but so far the adult clientele has been polite and friendly).   

It's alright though, cables are fun.  The only downfall of a pure machine workout is losing the stabilizer muscles that no one ever misses until they're gone.  But, after a long time of not working out so great, machines are a great way to build strength.  After the muscles return, transitioning to free weights is both safer and easier.  Just remember to stretch and take a day off every once in a while to prevent injury.  They happen - frequently - if you push yourself too hard (I should know, I've pulled things I didn't know were possible to pull)

The plan for now is alternating heavy weeks with low weight high rep weeks.  

As far as nutrition goes, one of the hardest challenges (for me) isn't eating healthy, it’s eating enough to fulfill a caloric goal.  Currently, my goal is about 3000 calories or better a day to gain 2.5 pounds of muscle a month.  Also, as I've noticed in the last two weeks of tracking my food, sodium is REALLY hard to avoid.  The weekends are generally my weak spot (...just don't say anything) because I never wake up early enough to start eating on time.  It does limit my terrible food intake, maybe?

However, tracking my meals gives me better insight on what changes need to be made.  

So, let's see how the next few months go.