So it's 2:15 pm and I have 100 calories left in my 'Consumption Bank'.  I've never been very good with banking ... I may need to take out a loan and pay it back tomorrow :P  I honestly don't know how I can stay under my allowable calories.  I guess I have to hit the gym tonight to earn the right to eat dinner.

Speaking of the gym, I went last night and used their body mass machine.  It had me at something like 176 pounds and 11.2% body fat.  That made me feel much better since the scale in the fitting room had me at 180 pounds and my scale at home has me at 26.4% body fat.  I have to admit that I'm curious which body fat percentage measurement is closer to being accurate.  26% is considered obese while 11% is pretty 'normal'.  In the end, it doesn't really matter.  For purposes of the competition, I'm sticking with the scale in my room.  As of yesterday I am pretty much back at the starting point even though last week I was on my way towards my goal.  That was kind of demotivating ... all that effort disappears so quickly once you ease up!

Demotivating or not, I'm going to give this competition a real shot.  I think I mentioned the competition briefly in my profile if I haven't talked about it in previous blog posts.  Anyway, I'm not just aiming for the competition's end date ... I'm just hoping that if I have real results by then that I would have forced myself to learn enough about nutrition, exercise, and my body to be able to maintain a healthier lifestyle in general.

We recently extended the deadline of our competition, and I think along with the competition reset, I am going to reset my plan too because I seem to have plateaued with my last set of methods.  This competition is a lot of trial and error for me.  I'm not the type to over-research ... I'm moreso the type to hear about something, debate if it makes logical sense to me, and then pick certain methods to try.  I think I might start logging some of the different techniques I'm trying so I can refer back to them later.

 Steps I've taken or plan to take:

• Picked up a Men's Health book about 6 pack abs ... yeah I have a bunch of mags already that all say the same thing ... but this has several programs combined into one easy-to-reference place.  Plus the pictures are kind of motivating for me too ... something to aspire to.
• I think I will try calorie-counting a bit better and may also start reducing my protein drink and protein bar intake because even though it's protein, it's still a lot of calories.
• I was previously having protein shakes for breakfast.  I *think* I am going to try getting up earlier and eating full breakfasts.  The idea is to eat like a King in the morning, eat like a Prince at lunch, and eat like a pauper at dinner ... in other words, if I want to cheat (ie. have McDonald's) I'll choose the morning to do it so I have the whole day to use the calories ... same goes for when I come home and someone cooked something tasty but fatty ... I'll save it for the morning.  And I think I'm going to grocery shop for myself more often so that I have healthy choices available to me for lunch and dinner.  I'll probably save the protein bars and shakes for post weight-training workouts so it will hopefully curb my hunger pangs for dinner-time.
• I'm trying to do an hour of cardio instead of 30 minutes on cardio days.
• I am going to incorporate more rest days and try to make a workout and rest plan that will probably involve more multi-joint workouts instead of isolating specific muscle groups.
• I plan to drink more water and get more sleep.
• I will be playing basketball twice a week and dodgeball once a week.

Umm ... I think that's it for now.  I think 'sleeping more' will be the hardest part.  I've never been one to sleep early.  If I start posting blogs at 3am, you'll know how well I'm sticking to my plans.