A Journey to Remember - Week 4

Fourth week in since I started this journey. I find it interesting how much I have learnt about my body. I’m still learning and finding things about my body that I find quite interesting in terms of bodybuilding (if you thought otherwise you’re sick…lol). However, week four wasn’t the greatest out of the other weeks.

The beginning of week 4 started out pretty well. I was able to train and somewhat stay in my macros. However, I started to feel sick and weak as the week progressed. At first I neglected the thought of becoming sick because in my mind I’ll just sweat it out while I’m working out - not quite. I did sweat during my workouts, but it wasn’t enough. It's as if my body knew that the Easter long weekend was approaching and that my body’s cue was to go on rest mode, which it did. I ended up catching the flu to a point where I started talking I would end up coughing up a lung until somewhat losing my voice. My temperature had gone up and down during the day and into the evening where it did affected my sleep and of course prevented me from working out for 4 days. Now you probably think that it isn’t so bad missing 4 days, which can be easily be made up once I’m fully rested. True, but it did have an affect my strength preventing me to workout effectively.

During the time I wasn’t feeling well all I could do was rest; eat and sleep, eat and sleep and taking flu medicine to help recover. It sucked. When I started to feel a bit better where I was able to workout again (which was yesterday March 28) I noticed how weak I became. Yesterday’s workout end up being a push day. The workouts usually consist of incline bench presses, flat bench presses, shoulder presses, etc. However, when I started to workout I wasn’t able to preform effectively as I did before catching the flu. An example would be the incline bench presses. Before I got sick I was able to bench 75lbs plus the bar, which would be 45lbs, making it a total of 120lbs. Yesterday I was only able to do a total of 105lbs.

THAT’S A 15LBS DIFFERENCE!!! ALL BECAUSE I GOT SICK!!

I wasn’t that surprised but it was still a shocker. I also noticed the amount of weight I had lost. From being 157lbs or 158lbs I went down to 154lbs. Again, all because I got sick. Regardless of the lack of strength and the amount of weight I lost I still put in the time and effort into working out and thrive to build back my strength and weight back up. Also, any time put into working out regardless of how you perform it will still count as a workout so keep it up, you can do it just be patient and persistent don't give up.

I think after being sick I learned from week four the importance of keeping healthy. Yes, I know, it is easier said than done only because I had failed to keep being healthy resulting me catching a cold. I lacked sleep, kept up with eating but not within my macro count as well as lacked working out due to having caught the flu. I believe that I did blog about rest and the importance of resting, which I do realize now how much I do lack a lot. I can make an excuse that school gets in the way because I have to study for tests or I have papers to finish the next day but, it doesn't resolve the fact that I still do not properly rest. It’s also obvious though that sometimes it is hard to avoid catching the flu especially when exposed to others who are just getting over the flu themselves. Hence why it is important to take care of yourselves by ensuring you eat properly, have plenty of rest as well as exercise from time to time and you’ll see the difference in the long run. Don't quote me saying that you won't get sick if you follow what I say because there is a chance of still catching a cold or flu. Just make sure you take care of yourselves so you can prevent possibilities of catching a cold or flu and you’ll see your strength and energy being maintained enabling you to get through your day, which we can do together along the way. Let’s do this!! Remember “Keep Fit and Have Fun!!” (quote from BodyBreak)

A Journey to Remember - Week 3

Week 3 went well. Despite having papers, a final and the lack of sleep during the week I would have to say it went alright. What I do want to blog about is about resting because I still have a fair bit of trouble making sure I have the right amount of sleep, especially now that I’m bodybuilding.

During the week it was some what difficult to have the right amount of rest. Although I did have papers and a final exam I should have made sure that I had enough sleep in order to properly function. I guess you can say that I have trouble making sure I rest up because of school. I know I should not make school an excuse to not sleep 6-8 hours an evening and unfortunately it happens. All the homework, assignments and studying for tests or finals. Regardless making sure you rest is highly recommended especially if you want to stay fit or just be healthy in general.

What I had found about resting and making sure I got 6-8 hours of sleep was that it provided more energy to get me through the day. It also made me feel well rested even after a long day of school, work, studying, working out, more studying and so on. It is very important that you get the right amount of sleep so you can feel well rested and have more energy for the next day. However, what I did not do was not sleep the recommended hours. I lacked sleep most days during the week where I found myself only sleeping 5 hours a night. It was bad. For myself, I found that when I have less sleep I become extremely tired, restless and lazy. I feel like I would want to stay in bed and sleep some more; I would not want to go to class or not do homework, etc. It was just plain out bad.

What I also found was I looked tired constantly. Mind you I still look tired now because I did not have much sleep. I ended having bags under my eyes, I haven’t shaved (looking like a caveman) and sometimes my eyes are dry and red. These results are not what I want for myself. I would rather sleep 6-8 hours so that I don’t look tired, I don’t get the bags under my eyes; not lazy or restless and just have healthy eyes. Having the lack of sleep also affected my workouts during the week. I remember during one of my push days I was bench pressing two plate (one on each side) of 35lbs and I wasn’t able to push through. What is even more embarrassing is that it was only a warm-up set. Although, I was still surprised that I was able to put in 5 days of gym time and got my workout sessions in, however I wasn’t able to push myself to my fullest extent. Nonetheless what counts is that I put in the time and was patient even if it was not the best workout.

I think what myself and everyone in general is to be able to put in time with whatever they need to do, whether it be more sleep, time with friends and family, work, school, studying, etc. make time to get some well deserved rest. What I do at times is I power nap if I wasn’t able to get 6-8 hours the night before. I know most aren’t able to power nap because of working during the day, however after work try taking a power nap for 10-15 minutes and you’ll feel a bit rejuvenated.


Being week 4 now what I’m going to be doing is that I need to sleep more than what I had done during last week. I need to have 6-8 hours of rest so that I’m able to workout better, be healthier as well as not look as tired as I am now. I encourage everyone to try getting some rest and well deserved sleep that you need so that you can feel rejuvenated and feel well rested and look fresh :)
By the way, I will be posting some progress pictures soon since it is going to be a month since I started this journey. I’m quite excited and nervous because I hardly took shirtless pictures before. So this would be a big step for me in showing my month progress.