Need More Input!

I have had a very boring week off work, and with a week off the gym as well I am just checking the web for stuff ALL day. But this has led to a few good things;

1. I started reading Eric Cresseys blog
2. From said blog I decided to download a few fitcast episodes(involving Cressey, Berrardi, Cosgrove and Waterbury)
3.Listening to these good old folks made me thirsty for more information

Now, from this last point you may be thinking that I invaded T-Nations archives or something....not the case. I actually went onto Amazon and ordered 3 new books (Maximum Strength, Built for Show and Get Big in a Hurry), and as if that wasn't enough I then decided I wanted to know why bosu balls are crap and bought Cresseys e-book on the subject.
I know for a fact that I won't be reading these all in a hurry because I am only half way through Practical Programming by Rippetoe (which I expect to finish by the end of the week), and I honestly won't have a load of time for reading when i'm at tech doing my PT course. But I now know that I have these books and they can be saved for my holiday in July, lol. I will, however, try to read the e-book as quick as I can so I tell my teacher why he is an idiot, and why other people in my class, who swear by gym ball exercises, are idiots.
With this time off work I have been getting an unbelieveable amount of sleep and have been doing absolutley nothing, which is good for letting my body fully recover. But on the other hand it means I am leaving less time to eat, and I have noticed that I am not eating as much. I might actually go to the gym just to weigh myself everyday.lol

Merry Xmas!

Merry Christmas! Even though I am a bit of a bah humbug I still feel the need to say this to everyone. Christmas is good for kids (and possibly the religious), but once you get to a certain age you just lose all interest and could very well start hating it. There is one thing I enjoy about christmas and that is time off work. My family don't get together because most of us are dysfunctional, so I have spent my past 6 christmas' with my girlfriend and her family (her mum makes an awesome dinner too). This works out well for me as I actually get to wake up to some pressies on xmas morning, becuase my parents just give me a bit of money and the ladyfriend always gets me some cool stuff. Anyways enough about xmas, it sucks, the end.

In the gym I had a week to test myself in the big 3 (squat, deadlift, bench), and I am coming along just nicely. Here's how I stand compared to before;

Squat - 130kg / 145kg
DL - 175kg / 185kg
Bench - 112.5kg / 120kg

My bench doesn't look as if it has improved that much, but taking into consideration that my old PB is when I used to touch and go on the bench and my new one was paused makes it better. The squat is the one I am most impressed with though, because it was only a month or so ago that I attempted 135kg and couldn't get back up (before putting on weight). The deadlift was pretty much expected though, I have came on leaps and bounds with this in the past few months, and it shows. I actually felt there may have been another 5kg in the tank, but I didn't want to push it. This is actually my xmas present to myself, lol. I am trying to take videos of my attempts now, although I only managed to get a 180kg deadlift (someone phoned me during my 185kg attempt....I was angry). The video is bad quality but I am still going to put it up at some point.
Weight was up to 12'6 yesterday, no doubt it will be back down to 12'3 or something by tomorrow though.

Food IS Fuel

Having been eating more for the past couple of weeks, I can definatley say that eating a bit more definatley leads to strength gains. Since the day I started eating more, 5 weeks ago now, I have not had a single gym session where I havn't had to add weight to an exercise. Don't get me wrong though, my increments are only 2.5kg for upper body stuff (bench, press, chins) and 5kg for legs (squat, deadlift). But after stalling out on gains for a while i'll take anything, lol.

My goal of 13 stone seems to be edging closer and closer, and without any fat gain! Even though the main extra on my diet is a litre of milk a day (the fat stuff), I am not adding any fat, or any noticeable fat anyways. That said, I can't see any improvements in muscle size anywhere either. I have added 9 pounds in the past few weeks (from 11'9 the day I started to 12'4 yesterday) and I have no idea where this weight is. I am not that upset at this, strength is my main goal at the minute and this is coming along very nicely, and the physique will come eventually (by 13 stone im gonna be buff! lol).
Taking pictures to document my "bulk" is a great idea. It will allow me to see the changes made during different stages and also to see where I put most of the weight on. Another great thing is that it lets me see my back (pictured), which for a pretty obvious reason I have never seen before. I now have to say that my back is my best feature, because it is alot more awesome than I imagined it to be, and because my front and legs are crap, lol.