A Journey to Remember - Day 4 & 5

Day 4 was a week when I decided to hire Brian as my coach and build muscle to compete in the MABBA Fall Classics as well as it was rest day. It’s surreal that I made the decision to bodybuild and compete in a competition. It’s as if I’m still dreaming and I’m still deciding whether or not to do this, however I am doing it and going through with my decision. It was nice to have a rest day after training pretty hard the three days. Rest days are nice, but I do still have to work harder in order to build more muscle and bulk up a lot if I want to be where I want to be. I know it sounds harsh and I should not be so hard on myself, however I think the reason as to why I am so hard on myself is because I don’t want to give up and it’s a way of motivating myself to keep going and to push through.

Day 5, hypertrophy push was interesting when I was working out on this day. Usually I don’t have a problem with working out, but for some reason I was not able to do well in my opinion. The workout plan called it to be all push, which consisted of incline and flat dumbbell presses, chest crossovers, etc. However, there was one workout that I had to do, which was the rope face pulls. I didn’t question the fact that it was on a push day, maybe it’s because the following day was a pull day. Regardless I still did the workout. When I was doing the rope face pulls I did notice that I’m stronger on my pulls rather than my pushes. This was really interesting and very odd. I’m not sure if it is just me, but I always thought I was stronger on pushing rather than pulling and I was wrong. To give an idea of what I mean on my bench press I can bench two plates (one of each side) of 30lbs plus the bars, which is 45lbs making it a total of 105lbs. With the rope face pulls I was able to pull 110lbs. Mind you rope face pulls consist of using a cable machine. Regardless of the machine my pulls are a bit stronger than my pushes, even if it is just a difference of 5lbs from the example. Nevertheless I’m still improving and plus its only been 5 days since I started.

So far in my journey I have noticed a few things. One is the amount of food I have to consume in order to reach my daily macro goal. Second my push exercises need far more work than my pull exercises. Third, I have a long way to go. Although these seem very minor, they are big changes that I have to make in comparison to what I was use to during the summer and into fall and winter. I am continuing to learn as I go into my second week making those tweaks in my workouts. Going into my second week what I’ll do is I’ll push myself to workout hard on both push and pull days but I’ll workout harder on my push days. Also I’m a little confused as to what hypertrophy days are. I guess I need to do more research.

But I do have a question. Do you find that your push exercises (i.e. pushups, triceps, etc.) are weaker than you pull exercises? Also what motivates you in situations? It doesn’t have to be working out but in other scenarios such as assignments, work, goals you want to reach. 

Let me know write a comment. I’ll appreciate all submissions and reply to each one.

A Journey to Remember - Day 3

Day three was progress day. Although I just started a couple of days ago (literally the past Monday) I feel like I made some progress when I started. As you may know that I started training to become a physique bodybuilder and compete at the MABBA Fall Classic’s. If I were to compare myself from last week until now I would have to say I made a slight difference in just a couple of days. You may be thinking, how can there be a difference when you literally started

THREE DAYS AGO?!

Well that’s a very good question because I asked myself the exact same question. For a couple of months now I have been consistently working out and making healthier choices to stay fit, and eat right. I’ve jogged, rollerbladed and weight lifted; cut artificial sugars, desserts, candies, and ate a lot of fruits, vegetables, and various proteins. So I was fairly familiar on what I had to do when I began training. Despite knowing what to do there is always room for improvement on top of what I had already know. I honestly thought to myself that I knew what to do when I was working out and making sure I was making the correct food choices yet I surprised myself in when starting training.

When I started the prep plan the past Monday I never knew how to monitor my macro intake. I always counted my calories just like everyone else would. Checking the nutritional facts on the product and seeing how many calories there were. Brian, my coach, told me not to count my calories but my macros. It was definitely an adjustment to what I was use to and I am continuing to learn how to count my macros. Fortunately, I have an app that is able to keep track of my macros (and calories if I wanted to count them) to make sure I meet my daily macro goals. I use the app called MyFitnessPal. The app is super convenient that I’m able to decide whether the food I’m about to eat or think about eating fits in my macros (wow I never thought I would actually say that, “fit in my macros”). I have used the app for a while even before training. I did look at the macros to see if I was doing well, but for the most part I checked out my calories more than macros.

I thought I knew what to do when it came to working out. I guess you can say that I was being conceited thinking I knew what to do however, I don’t and did not. I’ll admit that I need a lot of improvement on my workouts and pushing myself to “go hard or go home”. Nonetheless everything counts. Even if I don’t push myself as hard one day then I’ll go hard another time because slow progress it better than no progress at all. Since I started training I tried my best to push myself to go hard. I would not go hard to a point where I’m compromising my form, I would go hard where I know I am capable of lifting the weight as well as not compromising my form or push myself to lift heavy weights with good form. Again the quote comes to mind, “train like there is always a competition”which I do train as if there is always a competition and that competition is with myself. I find this quote motivating, for myself, because let’s face it we are our own worse critic, and we make tonnes of excuses to put something off. However, for myself, I will continue to push hard each training day and make my macro goals as if “there is always a competition”.

I think, regardless of me just having started my training and showing a slight difference in my physique shows that every little bit counts. I was actually messaging a good friend of mine, Kylie, who lives out in Toronto and was telling me about how she did not put in a really good workout. I told her to not think that it wasn’t a really good workout because every bit counts, which is true. No matter how heavy, or how much time you put into something a little bit comes a long way. It is encouraging to see people who are motivating and passionate about what they’re doing, not just in working out, but also work, school or life in general. I do hope that more people can be encouraged and inspired to continue to push through even if it is one small step at a time.

(If you're looking for progress pics I won't be putting them up just yet until there is a significant difference. I do apologize for not posting a few. I will post some next progress day so please keep coming back for updates on my journey.)

A Journey to Remember

Every journey always has a beginning. Whether the beginning starts off good, bad or even mediocre it’s still consists as a starting point. For myself, I decided to start a journey that will really push my body to do things I have not done before as well as provide a stepping stone to a goal I want to continually achieve.

Through the past years I always had no problems with my body. I thought to myself that if I was healthy and being active from time to time I would be fine in the future. I would eat anything and everything if I was not full, had room in my stomach or if I was just plain hungry. My family did not really say much because obviously they thought I was fine the way I was, which was true I was fine the way I was until I notice how big I was in pictures and videos. I continued to see the results and affects of eating large amounts of food from parties, restaurants, outings, and more to a point that I needed to make a change for myself. After realizing my body weight and size I started to actually workout.

Working out was not the greatest experience, especially when I was close to 200lbs. I started out doing the ‘normal’ routines (sit-ups, pushups, more sit-ups, more pushups). After a while I became lazy doing the routines or I would ‘forget’ to do them and end up not doing them at all. I was definitely a work in progress. I eventually stopped doing the ‘normal’ routines and stopped working out, until I saw a program that caught my interest - INSANITY. That program was probably one of the best programs I have ever done. I’ve completed a month and I saw a slight difference from what I was before. I would be drench in sweat at the end of each workout session even though it wasn’t a significant amount of weight lost but it was a start. I continued doing the workout sessions from the Insanity program but digressed a bit at a time to a point where I stopped doing the program falling back a step.

Even though I was falling back a step or more I was still determined to continue to working out and to slim down and get fit. In the summer of 2014 I decided to take up rollerblading. Obviously living in Winnipeg rollerblading would not be the best type of cardio throughout the year only because Winnipeg has two months of summer,  and the rest of the year would be winter (not literally but it feels like it is). However, throughout the summer I would rollerblade whenever I was able to and weather permitting. That year I decided to be ambitious and rollerblade from the University of Manitoba, which is south of the city, all the way home, which is northwest of the city. All I took with me was a small bag for my water bottle, money for a one way bus ride ($2.50), my shoes and of course my cell phone. I carried my rollerblades when I was on the bus. Once I got to the university I prepped myself then started to head home. It took me an hour and 35 minutes from the university to home travelling a total of 20km. Having accomplished rollerblading from the university to home was fulfilling. The achievement of having travelled 20km provided a desire to continue working out and to workout hard.

The following year I went to the YMCA facility to workout there. I took up swimming as part of my cardio as well as jogging/running. During my middle-school and high-school years I enjoyed running, specifically sprinting the 50m and 100m dash. However, after graduating I wasn’t able to maintain that momentum of constantly running. Nevertheless I was able to pick it up again at the gym but wanted to see if I could do long distance running instead. I started out doing 30 minute runs on the treadmill then started doing some short runs around my neighbourhood. Eventually I started running farther into other neighbourhoods that are 5-10 minutes drive away from home. The farthest I’ve gone was 8 or 9km, which was pretty far and another achievement I had accomplished. It may not be the farthest for some but it was far for me. By the end of the summer my family and friends started to noticed that I had lost a lot of weight. I didn’t feel like I did because all I saw was a “fat man” trying to lose weight. I realized that I had lost weight when I was wearing my clothes. All of my clothes were becoming loose and baggy to a point that I actually needed to buy new clothes in order to fit. I currently now wear smalls and have a 30-31inch waist coming from wearing mediums/larges and having a 33-34 inch waist.



My journey in living a healthier lifestyle was a struggle and it continues to be a struggle only because of the amount of food that are easily available for me to consume. However, I disciplined myself to making the right food choices as well as treating myself from time to time. I initially cut out all artificial sugars from my diet. Meaning I restricted myself from eating cookies, cakes, drinking sodas, candy, chocolates, etc.; this was difficult because I’m a big fan of sweets. During that time I consumed more fruits and vegetables in order to satisfy my craving for sweets as well as drinking a lot of water. Plus I had whey isolate (protein) that also satisfied my craving for sweets.


After struggling to workout, making incorrect food choices to continuing to workout and eat right I’ve made the choice of entering the Manitoba Amateur Bodybuilding Association (MABBA) Fall Classics Competition. In other words I’m entering and prepping to be in a bodybuilding competition in mens physique. I have made this decision not purely because I want to be fit and look hot but more to be an inspiration to others out there (friends, family, coworkers, etc.)  who struggle or are struggling to make a difference in their lives (although it is a plus to be fit and look hot :P). Personally it is a difficult process mentally, emotionally and of course physically. The initial start is always the most difficult, but once you continue to push through and dedicate yourself in making a change you will see results and changes that you will be able to call achievements. There is a post at the gym I workout in that says, “Slow progress is better than no progress”. I believe in this because I lived through it. The times where I started and fell back and started up again were still steps to achieving a healthier lifestyle. So I encourage you, if you are wanting to workout and live a healthier lifestyle make that first step, make some goals and achieve them. It won’t be easy but it will be worth it in the long run.

I hope that you enjoyed reading my blog. I will be sharing my journey leading up to competition day and showing my progress along the way. As well I will be blogging my food, my workouts, and overall thoughts as my body changes. Check frequently for updates and future blogs. I hope to post a blog everyday or at least every second day.

Thank you for reading my blog and joining me on my continuing journey which I will remember.

(Left: In the Philippines close to 200lbs. Right: me currently)