a year with my nutrition coach

I've been on a roll with my nutrition. By no means have I been perfect. I don't hit my protein goals as often as I'm supposed to. But I've nailed my calorie goals almost every day for close to 2 months. I've been working with my nutrition coach for a year now. Most of that time I was either struggling or had given up entirely. I'm finally getting some traction and consistency. But looking back I realize I learned more from the times I was failing than I did from the times I was doing great. But regardless of how I've been doing, the one consistent was that Barry, my nutrition coach has been there. He's been an unwavering force in my fight to become healthier, a better weightlifter, and get down to the 105k weight class. Since working with Barry I've learned a lot about nutrition for athletics and I've learned even more about myself. I've always known I struggle with food. & that I use eating as a stress relief. Working with Barry has helped me find other ways to deal with stress (still learning, still in the process). But what's helped the most was learning how to find out what's important to me and how to accomplish those things that are really important to me. He sent me an email awhile back. It was after my 4th time falling off the diet wago. It helped me peel back many of the layers of who I am, what's important to me, and why. Some of the revelations were surprising. Some of my reasons were much more dark and selfish than I ever thought I could be. The email said:

"Find your "Why"?

A very important, but sometimes overlooked factor in success or struggle with making changes is WHY you are making the changes.  Finding a good "why" or not can sometimes make or break your ability to change.  If you are trying to make a change because a magazine says you should or because you think it might be a good idea, you may not truly be motivated to make the changes over the long term.

If you can find a reason to make changes that legitimately motivates you, drives you and is genuinely important to you, the chances of sticking to the changes are increased significantly.  

"Why's" are extremely personal, too.  What motivates one person, may not carry any significance to another.  This is why it is important for you to take a look into your own, personal motivations.  Your "why" for working on your nutrition may be to improve your health, to improve your performance, to fit into your favorite pair of jeans, to look good in a bathing suit or to set a positive example for you children.  As long as it is really important to you, it's a good "why", regardless of what anyone else may think.

A good exercise for digging deeper into your "why" is to go through an exercise called "The 5 Whys".  If you are in the ProCoach program, you've probably already completed this.  If not, what you do is start by asking yourself "Why am I doing....?"  Once you have that answer, you ask yourself "Why is that important?" and continue to ask yourself "Why is that important?" until you've asked yourself "why" a total of 5 times.  By the 5th answer, you should be getting a pretty deep look into what is truly important to you.  For example:

Why am I working with a nutrition coach? Because I want to lose 20# and compete at the highest level possible at my sport.

Why is that important? Because I want to push myself to be the best that I can be and see what I am capable of, all while living a healthy lifestyle.

Why is that important? Because I want to set a good example for my children so they know that if they work hard they can accomplish great things and so that they grow up with healthy eating habits.

Why is that important? Because my biggest responsibility in life is to raise my kids to be the best they can be.

Why is that important? Because they are the future, and I want them to have the skills in life to do whatever they want.

Find your "Why" and find your motivation."

I sent my weekly report to my nutrition coach on Sunday. He sent me back an awesome email. It said:

"I have to tell you, I'm really impressed this time around!  You're doing an awesome job, and each week you're sending me something that you did during the week that is a really big step in the right direction, like eating within your calories even while hitting a Chinese food buffet.  That's seriously awesome.  Numbers were really good again this week.

That said, this is going to be a little bit of a tough week, because we're going to take your calories down a bit to get the scale moving again.  I think there's going to be an adjustment period this week, so do the best you can and think about the goals when things get tough.  Really focus on getting the protein in, because that will help you feel full.  Drink lots of water, eat lots of veggies, because those things also make you feel full and veggies have minimal calories."

See, my nutrition coach is awesome. It looks like this week will be tough. Wish me luck. I'll keep you updated periodically as to my progress! 

Farewell to Ski weightlifting meet report

Today I lifted in the "Farewell to Ski" weightlifting meet. The meet was comimorated to the life of hall of fame weightlifter Norbert Schemanski who died earlier this year. It was held at High Dessert Athletic Club in Albuquerque New Mexico.

 I weighed in at 143.69k. Thanks to my nutrition coach Barry Schroeder.

My snatches have felt strong, fast, and I've had the best form of my life. Even on warm ups I felt unbelievable!
-My first lift was a 94k. Easy.
-My 2nd lift was a 98k. Easy. It also set a new NM masters 105k+ 40-44ag state record.
-My third attempt was a 101k. It felt so easy I felt I may have over pulled it. So I didn't finish my 2nd pull and I missed the lift. Even though I missed it I was still really happy. It felt so easy! I should have made that lift. Actually, I could have made a heavier lift. I've never missed a lift and been so happy! I'm sure I'm good for a 102-104k. That makes me happy.

Next up was the clean and jerks. I was cleaning great during warm ups. But my jerks were atrocious. I missed a practice 115k jerk. I barely made a 119k clean and jerk on my last practice attempt.
-My first clean and jerk of the tournament was 120k. I cleaned it super easy. I barely made the jerk. Coach asked me if I wanted to go for a 123 or a 125k C&J. I said 123k. He told the volunteers, "put on 125k".
-I cleaned it easy. I missed the jerk. I wasn't even close!! I had one more attempt of 125. The state record  is 122k.
-on my third attempt the weight landed to far forward. It rolled a little down my delts and my back arched forward. Somehow I was able to roll the weight back and straighten my back. At that point i was stuck sitting in the hole. But somehow I was able to stand up with it! Standing up after landing in such a bad position took a lot of effort. If I was going to make the jerk it was going to have to be because of great form, because i blew all my energy with the clean. All I kept thinking was keep my elbows high! Keep my elbows high! And after I dipped and threw the weight up as fast & explosive as i could, it was a good lift!!!! If it would have been 125.1 i wouldn't have been able ti do it. It was that close! That was the absolute most i could have jerked. It was a lifetime PR and a state record by 3k!

Overall I set 3 new state records of 98k/125k/223k. I missed qualifying for the masters national championships by 7k. But I don't mind at all. This was the best weightlifting meet of my life. Not only by the amount of weight lifted, and state records, b

ut also by how great I felt in the snatches, and how great my effort was in the clean and jerks.

no calorie adjustment this week

I sent my nutrition coach my weekly report. My calories were perfect all 7 days. My protein intake was great 6 out of 7 days. But I still didn't lose any weight. My #1  goal is to lose 2 pounds a week. In most situations a nutrition coaches would drop my calories. But my nutrition coach knows I'll be competing in a weightlifting meet this weekend. So he sent me an email telling me hes not lowering my calories to ensure a good weightlifting meet. How awesome is that? I have some really awesome people in my corner helping me to qualify for the master national weightlifting championships. If it's at all possible I will do it. Maybe not this year. But I will.

overtime and weightlifting training

My new job seems to be in a constant state of chaos and is short staffed. Which is baffling to me because the pay is pretty awesome. I can handle a lot of B.S. for a job that pays as well as this one. On most of my weekends my Captain will call and ask if I can work at least one of my days off. Sometimes both of them. The constant change of hours and shifts has made it difficult to get adjusted. But like I said the pay is great so I'll just keep my head down and do what I'm asked when I'm asked.

For the next 5 months my days off were supposed to be Tuesday and Wednesday. But my Captain has asked if I'd work every Wednesday until he's able to get us fully staffed- which hasn't happened as long as anyone can remember. So I'm just assuming I'll be working 6 days a week for the next 5 months- at least. He was nice enough to work around the 2 hour block I need with my coach on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. So between that and the pay I'm happy as I pig in slop. I'll leave the complaining and dissident to some of my fellow coworkers who have no idea how how lucky we really are. I've got a great paying job that is willing to work around weightlifting training. What more could a man ask for?

the masters national weightlifting championships and the American open series

Friday was my last big day of training before I tapered for the October 29th weightlifting meet. My snatches were great but my clean and jerks were absolute crap. I'm pretty sure I could only clean a 127k right now. And I couldn't jerk 125k to save my life. If I can't clean and jerk at least 130k there's no way I can qualify for the masters national weightlifting championships. I was really hoping to compete in the masters national weightlifting championships. But it might actually work out well. Coach Joaquin Chaves asked all of us to compete in the American open series as a team. At the American open series not only could I compete as an individual on a national meet but I'd also get to be part of a national team competition. My coach and team are awesome. That sounds like a blast to me.

post and shift bidding

Today I bid on the shift and post I'll be working the next 5 months. The bidding is based on senority amd I've only been working this job for 4 months. My only real goal was to stay off swing shift. My wife and kids are only home in the evennings so swings would have been horrible for my family life. All in all i think i lucked out. The good news is I'll be working during days and I'll be able to train with Joaquin Chavez of High Dessert Athletic Club 3 days a week. The bad news is I'll be off of work on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I think it'll take me awhile to get weekends off. But that's ok. I'll get there eventually. Until then I'll be happy as long as I can train at High Dessert Athletic Club.

The horrible post I blogged about a couple days ago was taken by a senior officer who wanted nights, weekends, and Holidays off.

lemonade out of crap

The duty station (post) I've been working the last week has been as bad as I thought it would be. Stressful. Dangerous. Talking to crazy people tests even the most patient of people. But the good news is I get to train with coach Joaquin Chavez 4 days a week. And being trained by Joaquin is worth working a stressful post. So as hard as it is to believe I'm going to try and bid for this full time. If I get it I'll be working that post for the next 5 months. That means 5 months of awesome weightlifting training. I could accomplish some great things in 5 months. I've followed my nutrition coach's advise for the last 40 straight days. I've gained a lot of strength recently. Chacho Taylor ages up into my division on January 1st. So I'll need to be at my best. 5 months of being coached by Joaquin Chavez and nutrition coach Barry Schroeder full time and I'll be a beast. As unbeatable as I could ever be. I'm thinking this horrible post is the best possible thing that could have happened to me and my weightlifting career.

crappy work positions and great weightlifting

After I retired from the penitentiary I got a job that's been really great. Until now. Starting tomorrow I'll be working in downtown Albuquerque in a high danger and high stress post. I'm dreading this new nightmare post, but there is an upside. I'll be getting off work at 4:30pm so I can start training 4 days a week with coach Joaquin Chavez of High Dessert Athletic Club. I can't say I'm happy about working this new post. But it's really perfect timing. The next weightlifting meet will be in 17 days & there's no one who can perfect my form in such a short period of time like Joaquin can.  If I'm even close to qualifying for the masters national weightlifting championships, Joaquin will make it happen.

I think weightlifting after working such a stressful job will help me keep my sanity. Thank God for weightlifting.

multiple weightlifting coaches

My nutrition coach is having me maintain my calories on training days. On non-training days I'll be dropping my calories from 3600 to 3200.

I've been thinking about how great my snatches were on Saturday morning. I have been utilizing two coaches. One, coach Vernon Smith, on Mondays has been helping me with snatches. And coach Joaquin Chavez on Fridays and Saturdays is working with me on both snatches and clean and jerks. Each one has been able to find and help correct different problems I have in my form. I'm looking forward to my next meet. I think I may do something spectacular with snatches. Although I'm guessing my jerks will be much less than than dazzling. Jerks have always been my achilles heel. It sucks I clean so much but can't jerk it. The clean is the hard part.

American barbell for weightlifting

When I can't train with Joaquin Chaves at High Dessert Athletic Club I train at Iron Soul in Albuquerque. It's mainly a powerlifting gym but they have drop plates for olympic style weightlifting too. They are open 24 hours a day, so there's never any reason to miss training. The only problem is Iron Soul only has one bar with olympic grips. So I went ahead and ordered my own bar. It's an American Barbell, black and chrome. It was on closeout pricing. Only $199. Now I won't have to wait around for people to finish thier workout to be able to use a weightlifting bar. I'll have my own! And it's my first step of building my own weightlifting gym in my garage! 

struggling with the jerk

This morning at High Dessert Athletic Club coach Joaquin Chavez had me build up to a 90k snatch. That's only 7k below the the state record, and it felt rediculously easy. After that I built up to %90 of my max clean and it also felt rediculously easy, but I pressed out the jerk everytime. It's absurd that I can clean so much, but can't jerk it. Jerks are supposed to be the easy part. My next weightlifting meet is on October 29th. I better get those jerks cleaned up or I can kiss the 2017 masters national weightlifting championships goodbye.

crime in Albuquerque and it's time to move!

When i retired from the prison i tried to convince my wife to move to Lubbock TX, anywhere in New Hampshire, or Savanna Gorrgia. She desperately wanted to move back to her home town of Albuquerque. Albuquerque is #3 in the nation in auto-thefts, #5 in violent crime, and the sexual assault and rape is %300 higher than the national average. But ultimately I put my wife's wants above my own, like husbands should do. A couple weeks ago my cherished 1996 Chevrolet Suburban was stolen from our driveway. Anyone who knows me knows I love my Suburban. I plan on driving it the rest of my life. I was just going to continue to repair it over and over again. A few days later I found it in an apartment complex. It had $1250 woth of damage to it. It was loaded up with a bunch of home invasion tools. The police said the thieves were probably going to use my vehicle in a few home break ins and then dump it or strip it for parts. Thankfully my wife has realized how dangerous this city is. She's ready to sell the house we bought just 5 short months ago and move. She hasn't decided where she wants to move yet. She said she'd like to see Savanna Georgia. She's never been to that part of the country. It's BEAUTIFUL there! I'm sure she'd move there in a heart beat if she saw it there. So I'm hoping like hell I'm able to qualify for the masters national weightlifting championships which is held in Savanna Georgia. And in the meantime I'm working on our house getting it prepped to sell. There's a lot we're needing to do. I've been working my butt off the last week.

 We're going to knock out this old fashion light box thingy and put recessed lighting in the kitchen, family room, dining room, and both bathrooms.

 As you can see there's no lights in the family room other than lamps. So recessed lighting is desperately needed. We're also going to remove all the carpet and linoleum and put down new tile in the whole house.

We're going to knock out this wall and put in a breakfast bar. We're also going to put in new  kitchen counters so that the breakfast bar and kitchen counters will match. After that I believe we can sell it for a profit so we can have a decent down payment on a new home in a safer city. The housing at all three of the places I'd like to move is significantly cheaper than here in Falujah- er- I mean Albuquerque New Mexico. Plus:

There's no income tax in Texas.

And there's no income tax or sales tax in New Hampshire. 

Savanna Georgia is just about the most beautiful place on earth. Plus they have beaches and an ocean there!

The only thing I'll miss here in Albuquerque is my coach Joaquin Chavez of High Dessert Athletic Club. I love that guy. I don't think I'll ever find another coach as fantastic as he is.

hand tears in weightlifting

I constantly see weightlifters sanding thier calluses to prevent their hands from tearing while weightlifting. I never do that. I was blessesd and got my Dad's bulletproof hands. After almost 4 years of weightlifting I've only had one rip. Last week i had my 2nd. I feel so special. Like I'm part of a member of a secret club or something.

2 weightlifting coaches

Because of my work schedule ive had to lift on my own 2 days a week. And since I despised weightlifting on my own I hired a coach, Vernon Smith, for those days- I'm still trained by Coach Joaquin Chaves on Fridays and Saturdays. I'm damn lucky. Coach Smith has been fantastic. And the longer we're working together the more he's understanding my lifting style and habits, and the more he's able to offer great lofting advice. I've made some fantastic gains with him so far.

Last night after my weightlifting training session I was supposed to start my first day of bench press. But I was out of energy and had no motivation. From the looks of things so far I won't be starting a bench program. So I'll be competing in November in the USPA New Mexico state powerlifting championships with a great squat, and deadlift,  but a horrible bench. But ya know, it's ok. Because there's no state records in the super heavyweight 40-44 age group. So all I have to do is successfully lift a single bench of any weight and it'll be a state record. Being an old fat guy in strength sports is awesome! I'm one of the few left who hasn't been debilitated by heart, knee, or back problems.

resuming bench press

I stopped training bench press after my last powerlifting meet in March so I could concentrate on fully on weightlifting. Now that I've decided to compete in the USPA New Mexico state powerlifting championships I need to start benching again. On Sunday I maxed out. My max is 275lbs. That's a pathetic bench. But I think that's pretty decent considering I haven't benched once in 6 months. So tonight I start training bench again. I have 6 weeks to put on as much strength as possible. I'll also be doing Pendley rows to keep the muscles balanced.

victory through attrition

The USPA, a powerlifting federation is having the New Mexico state championships here in Albuquerque on November 19th, 2016. I train strictly for weightlifting. But I've found weightlifting traning transfers well for powerlifting. I decided, just for fun, to look up the Super heavyweight 40-44 age group state records for the raw and classic raw divisions and there aren't any. All I have to do is show up and successfully lift a single squat, deadlift, and bench and technically I'll be the USPL state champion and state record holder. As I'm continuing this journey into strength athletics I've found there aren't many super heavyweight 40 or older left. They all have bad backs, knees, hearts, etc. I've won almost ever single weightlifting and powerlifting meet ive ever entered, simply because I'm usually the only one in my division. So far I've won 3 New Mexico state weightlifting championships, hold all the of the New Mexico weightlifting state records, won a New Mexico state NASA championship and hold 9 New Mexici state NASA powerlifting records. The owner of Iron Soul Gym tells me I'm earning victories through attrition. I think that's going to be my new motto, "victory through attrition."

I recently made peace with my weight. I'm happy with myself as I am. Well, last week my wife told me she wants me to lose 75 pounds. That she said that she doesn't like the way I look. That hurt. So I asked my sports nutrition coach Barry Schroeder if we could speed up my weight loss, even if it means sacraficing weightlifting performance.

a new protein supplament

On my days off of work I've been doing yard work. I'm taking %100 of the money and putting it in my kids college fund. While working on a ladies yard  a few weeks ago she came out and said she works for a company that makes protein supplaments and she gave me a bag full of samples and a shaker cup. The protein is called Garden of life. It's probably the best tasting protein I've ever tasted in my life. I've been taking it as a post workout supplament. I have no clue if it works or if it's a decent product for weightlifters, but it sure tastes good, and it was FREE!

https://www.gardenoflife.com/content/product/why-choose-raw-protein-and-greens/

I really didn't want to move to Albuquerque adter I retired from the prison. The crime here is unbelievable. Friday night someone stole my 1996 Chevrolet Suburban from my driveway. Thankfully I found it Sunday evening. It cost $850 to repair the damage the thieves caused.

I'm the newest employee at my new job. So consequently I'm always the first one to get called in for the worst duties and posts. My schedule has been chaotic. I'm constantly getting called by my Captain and told, "you need to report to duty at- fill in the blank- in two hours." Because of that I'm having to text or call my weightlifting coach and cancel my training with him and request him to text me a workout on short notice. I think it's starting to piss him off. I'm getting worried he's going to drop me as a client.

powerlifting and a great sports nutrition coach

This December is the Natural Athlete Strength Association Christmas powerlifting classic. Last year I competed in this event and set 9 state records and 4 national records. It was a really great event. I'm going to compete in this one again later this year. I looked up the state records and it looks like if i can drop into the 275-307lb weight class I'll be able to set 8 more state records. Plus my 9 year old wants to start training for powerlifting and go compete with me. He could already break 2 state records of his own in the youth under 100 pounds RAW powerlifting division and the youth under 100 pounds clean division. What a wonderful father/son weekend that would be. We'd both remember that fondly forever.

I rehired my sports nutrition coach. This is the 4th time in the last year I've worked with him. Everytime I start working with him again I get great speed, strength, and explosiveness gains. I should start being more consistent and dedicated to what he's having me do. If I did I know without a doubt I'd make my weightlifting goals. Speaking of that:

I sent my nutrition coach my weekly nutrition report. On one of the days I screwed up big time. I didn't hit any of my goals. Usually he'd send me an email telling me I needed to work on consistency, hit my daily goals, etc and that word have made me stop working the plan and quit. But this time he sent me an email saying "That's a great week." That got me really motivated to do better next week. And that's what made me realize why I struggle so much with online coaching of anykind. I'm hypersensitive. I think the old term for that is a sensitive Sally. And that's not good. Not everyone is willing or able to learn how an athlete responds to situations as quickly as my sports nutrition coach, Barry Schroeder. Most people would have given up on an athlete/client who is as willing to quit as I am when I get my feelings hurt. Not to mention that's piss poor people skills and horible life coping skills on my part. But anyway, he seems to have figured out how best to deal with his most tempermental pain in the ass client. I'm hoping he can get me down to 308lb by December so I can set more stare powerlifting records. Just call me a glory whore. A hypersensitive glory whore.

weightlifting coach talked me off the ledge

I listened to a pod cast by Mark Rippetoe a little over a month ago. He claimed the reason Americans are so poor at Olympic style weightlifting is that they don't do enough deadlifts. He said that American coaches are making a mistake by adopting the European model of weightlifting where they have thier athletes do tons of pulls but very few deadlifts. He was essentially saying anyone training like that isn't strong enough to lift the weights they are capable of. Since listening to that podcast I've been obsessing about doing more deadlifts. I've been contemplating sneaking more deadlifts into my training program. Vernon Smith, one of my two weightlifting coaches, talked me out of it. He said I shouldn't mess with coach Joaquin Chavez training programs. He said that my squat and weightlifting numbers show that I have more than enough strength. That it's my form that's holding me back from lifting more weight.

next weightlifting meet

My coach advised me the next weightlifting meet will be held on October 29th, 2016. That gives me another 6 weeks & 5 days to get my total up. I'm guessing I have 2 attempts to qualify for the masters national weightlifting championships. One in October, and time for one more before the cut off of February 1st of 2017. I'm so excited. I think I have a really good shot at qualifying. Coach Joaquin Chaves told me it may be a pretty good sized meet. It may be big enough to be held at the University of New Mexico weight room. If it's that big of a meet there's a chance my former coach, Shane Miller, will be there with his team. I'd really like to qualify with him present. He was the first one to take me under his weightlifting wing to coach me and guide me along. Accomplishing something like that with him there would be sentimental and the best way I could think of to say thanks to him.