Skinny to Strong

So I went to the gym with a co-worker who has not been doing workouts for a long time. We both used to workout together about 8 months ago. And then he stopped coming. I continued working out. After all this while he came to the gym and was pleasantly surprised with how much progress I made. He said "you really bulked up well and became very strong from the last time I remembered". He was the same guy who used to say I lift the "ladies weights". It is a great feeling coming from him. I still cannot compete with him in many exercises especially bench press and rows. Because I don't weigh as much as him and more weight - fat = more muscle and even after factoring out my relatively low body fat, I cannot match his muscle mass. I am equal to his strength when it comes to body weight exercises like pull-ups and dips. I still have to gain a ton of weight before I can make any big claims and gaining weight is the toughest thing for me. But for now, I am glad people...

As I mentioned in my last post, I got sick last weekend. I have allergies which means from time to time the runny nose and sneezing can take a toll on the immune system. The scenario gets even worse if an antihistamine is taken right after a heavy bout of exercise during a season of flu. The antihistamines suppress the immune system further, allowing viruses to attack the human body. This is the sequence of events that took place last week and is usually the sequence that leads to me getting sick often during flu seasons. Anyway long story short, I contracted this flu from a co-worker when I was at my weakest on Thursday evening last week. I did not feel too bad on Friday morning, but come nightfall I was totally exhausted and running a slight fever. Matters got even worse on Saturday. I was only fully recovered by Wednesday. However the damage is already done. I worked hard forcing myself to overeat a couple of weeks ago which gave me an impressive 1.4 lbs gain (body weight is 124.6...

I am feeling sick today. Perhaps some virus that I caught at work yesterday. I have runny nose and itchy, dry sore throat slight fever and headache. Have been making good progress so far. This is an unfortunate time to get sick. I know what happened when I got sick last time. I went down from 121.4 lbs to 117.8 lbs in just 5 days. Almost lost 4 lbs. This time I just hope I can at least keep my current weight. When I am healthy I have to force myself to eat a ton of food just to maintain my weight. But when I am sick it is hard to eat so much, so many times. Moreover digesting protein even in the form of milk, eggs or chicken is very hard on the stomach. And I know my body will ravage the muscle if I don't eat enough protein everyday. I will try to drink as much milk and eat eggs during this time. But I am not positive that I will be able to maintain my muscle and weight. Will do another post after I get well again along with the muscle and weight loss stats :(.

It has been a while since my last post. I got pretty busy at work fitting into a new role. But truth be told, I am just lazy :). Reality aside, I have been very strict with both my diet and exercise. Never missed a meal or workout in the last couple of months. Eating clean and often has become second nature to me. I have almost no craving for bad food. In the past month, I only had dessert just once. Given the amount of tasty free food we have at work (I routinely pass by 6 to 8 yummy desserts in a day), that is quite an achievement. I am still eating white rice several times a week, lots of fruits and a ton of milk everyday. Which may not be ideal for most people, but for ectomorphs like myself, it is not a problem at all. Yet I barely gain 0.5 lbs a week. I shake my head in disappointment. There were times when I ate as many as 10 meals, but routinely it is more like 6 to 8 meals. Other than eating some junk food, I am not sure how I can eat any more calories than that. Weight in...