The rest of the workout was tough though. 4 sets of drop sets. I was struggling. But I think we pushed up weights from last week. Also – last week we were taking more time between sets. This time, we were tight. And it hurt.

Also – I’m learning that I need to be better with nutrition on Sat. I felt like my energy was running out in the middle of the workout. I need to swap around my nutrition – wake up is a Myoplex MRP, then just before the workout, have the smoothie. I think that’ll work.

Now on to results. I could barely detect an increase in bodyweight. I’m like – WTF?! How can I be eating as much as I am and not putting on weight?! Don’t get me wrong – I’m not complaining, I’m just even more intrigued by how the body works. I’ve had two people this week notice changes with my physique – primarily shoulders and back. Apparently the biggest changes are going to happen in week 4 of this routine. If that’s when the biggest changes are going to happen – wow. Like changes are rapid even now!

But – getting back to current results, I’m comfortably at 170lbs. This is good.

But it makes sense… natural… and the ruffage would be great to clear out the system.

I can’t just keep shrugging these things off. Sooner or later, I need to make a change. And better sooner rather than later.

So that’s why – grand unveiling – I’m going to work on creating a fruit or veg month. I say month, just because I don’t wanna go too crazy to start with – this isn’t going to be easy.

Each month I’m going to set a target of a fruit or a veg that by the end of that month I’ll’ve introduced into my diet. Banana’s go first. Then it’s broccoli. Then something else like avocado (apparently it’s got lots of really good fats).

I’m gonna give it my best shot. Starting in July with bananas. Hmmm.

It’s funny – this shouldn’t be a big thing. It shouldn’t have any fanfare. It should just be taken for granted – just eat a fricking banana. But it’s not – yet. Here’s hoping

And I was looking at my spend at Booster Juice. I go every morning after my workout and have a High Impact Acai plus Wheatgrass shot. That’s about $10-11 per morning. And that’s 4 times per week. Plus the occasional wheatgrass shots during the week – meaning another $6 approximately. Making $50 a week on Booster Juice alone.

So I was starting to wonder whether I could move from that to something that I could make myself… and I found this article on bodybuilding that talks about post workout nutrition. It presents an interesting concoction for post workout:

• 80 grams Maltodextrin (From Prolab’s Carb pro)
• 2 scoops whey protein
• 7 grams Creatine monohydrate powder
• 16 oz Cranberry Juice
• 200 mcg Chromium Picolinate
• 200 mcg ALA

The first four items in that list are easy… and I’ve already got some good substitutes (where applicable). I’ve got Waxy Maize for carbs, and got my whey protein and creatine. Cranberry juice is easy and cheap (and I remember Sascha – a cute project manager I work with, who’s built like a rugby player), saying that cranberry juice is perfect for post workout shakes. So sweet.

So that can form the base.

Then I’ve been investigating Chromium and ALA. They’re cheap. ALA’s about $10-15, and Chromium is about $5 or so. They work by increasing the body’s sensitivity to insulin, thereby increase the body’s uptake of nutrients, which is exactly what you want post workout.

I’m not sure whether these guys are necessary – I’ll do a bit more research on that.

But before I do that, I want to compare the costs of the carbs and protein concoction against my Booster Juice endeavour.

PS – one thing to mention in advance – since 90% of this post workout shake is bought in tubs, it’ll ‘come from another budget’ – yeah, I know that’s dangerous talk – but it won’t be a daily splurge, it’ll be monthly or bi-monthly.

So – costing:

• Waxy Maize – $40 (incl tax) for 25 servings (80g each). That’s $1.60 a shake.
• Protein Powder – TBC
• Creatine – got anyway
• Cranberry juice – $5. About $1 a shake I’d say.

So making my own (which’ll be better for me – albeit without all the fruit Booster throws in), will cost around $4.50 / $5 a shake. I’d only spend $5 on the juice a couple of times a week, but otherwise it’d end up saving me about $40 a week (that’s a total of $1,080 a year – yeah, it’s kinda crazy when you put it in that perspective).

I think I’ll be making a change!

I honestly don’t know what’s going on right now, but I can SO FEEL these exercises! I push harder, better and feel it more. Not necessarily intensely during the day… but definitely in the workout. It’s weird – it’s quite a different experience to working out in the apartment gym!

I’m wondering if it’s because of all the nutrition I’m doing? Potentially. I’m properly feeding the body, and I’m properly training it. Perhaps that’s helping with the breakdown and breakup of muscle? Maybe???

On a sidenote… some interesting nutritional things happened yesterday…

I had to go to a Client meeting during the afternoon… when I was returning from it, I was STARVING. It had been 4 hours since my last meal. And I was ravenous! I was salivating at any thought of food! So my body’s definitely adjusting to this whole plan… I like to look at it this way – week 1 was about getting used to this much food. Week 2 was about maintaining, adjusting and optimizing the plan. Week 3 (aka this week) is about continually being hungry while eating a shitload of food! Like WTF??? Love it

Building on that – here’s something I learnt from last week – steak is good, but don’t great. I’d prefer a leaner piece of meat, like chicken or turkey. Less fat, and therefore it means you don’t spike your blood sugar as much (and have the associated crash after).

Then – on more of a nutritional note – I met with my nutritionist last night, and learnt a lot of good things:

• Your body can only absorb 1-1.25g of creatine at any time. So the ‘suggested’ dose of 5g is a waste.
• Pasta – whether it’s white or wholegrain – digests slowly in the body. So you don’t always have to have wholegrain. But – where possible go for wholegrain as it’s more nutritious.
• Rice – basmati rice has a molecular structure (don’t I sound knowledgeable ) that makes it slow to digest in the body. That means it’s as good as wholegrain from a GI perspective. However, same applies as pasta – wholegrain is more nutritious.

So – overall, there were minor adjustments to my plan, but it looks as though I’m doing good. Given the benefits of the rice and pasta, I’m going to rarely have potatoes, as they’re a high GI food. I can easily focus on rice and pasta – I thought they were all as bad as each other, but not true! This so rocks…

Oh – one final note… I finally saw my trainer with his shirt off in the locker room today. Holy fucking shit. I definitely picked the right trainer. Not crazy buff, but amazing definition and muscular. WOW!!! I’m so lucky

Will do it for a few more days (I have two days of pasta remaining), and see if this continues, because last week this didn’t happen. I’m almost thinking it’s a fat crash (from all the cheese), but not sure. Good that I’m noticing it though.

As I’m moving forward with this nutrition plan, I’m realizing certain things about my body and the intake of this much food. Here’s what I’m learning:

• It’s a lot of food early in the morning. Let’s rephrase – a lot of liquid. The heavy shake with protein, flax, etc… is considerable. Followed by SuperPump, BCAAs and L-Glutamine. The past few days I’ve felt a bit sickly by the time I’ve gotten to the gym. I may want to try and evolve that and see if something works better (ie. remove the SuperPump until my body has acclimated to the amount of food I’m eating).
• I can’t – just CAN’T – eat a meal within 30-60 minutes of my shake in the morning. I’m SO full at that point… realistically I’ve had 64oz (if not a bit more) of liquid – half water and half heavy shakes. Yeah – so no room left in that stomach of mine.
• I start to have room about 1-2 hours after the Booster Juice. I’m looking at my nutrition diary (yes, I will try to remember to upload at the end of each week), and I seem to get my first meal in about an hour later. That works. It’s still hard work to force it down, but it’s OK (it helps to have something nicer to eat at that point – the chicken parmigiana today slipped down in no time … the salmon for lunch took a bit longer, but was better for me).
• Surprisingly I’m hungry by the time it gets to lunch / afternoon snack. Can you believe it? Although – today’s the first day that’s happened.
• I keep forgetting the pre-sleep shake. And also when I take it, it means I need to get up in the middle of the night.

So – sorry to force feed all of those insights, but in summary – I’m adjusting to this nutrition plan. It requires a lot of attention, but I’m slowly but surely subscribing to it. I like the routine.

Spoke with Adrian on Monday, and he suggested that I focus on a reasonable gain of 5lbs of muscle over the coming 11 weeks, with the potential for 6-7lbs.

I popped on the standard scale at the gym on Monday, and I was around 164lbs (the scale doesn’t have an incredible clear read out LOL). Sidenote: should speak to Adrian about making milestones / checkpoints where we can check bodyfat and measurements – rather than me doing it.

So I think the following goals come out of these conversations:

• Deadline: May 28, 2010
• Goal: put on 5lbs of lean mass, overall weight 170lbs
• Stretch goal: put on 7lbs of lean mass, overall weight 172lbs

To achieve this, I need to focus intently. On training and on nutrition. I’m already spending about $25 a day on food (that excludes all the supplements). And for training, I have my trainer… but some things will need to change:

Adrian mentioned that to really change and maintain a good physique, you need to train 5 days a week. I train with Adrian 2 days a week… here’s how I want to propose I spend the other days:

1. Monday – PT
2. Tuesday – individual weights workout
3. Wednesday – abs workout (lighter workout to give me recovery time for Thurs PT)
4. Thursday – PT
5. Friday – individual weights workout
6. Saturday (if in town) – abs workout (???)
7. Sunday – off (in preparation for another week of hell )

This gives me (hopefully) sufficient recovery in advance of the PT sessions, without overtraining. But that’s up to Adrian to let me know.

Nutritionally, it’ll be important to get frequent feedback on the plan, and adjust accordingly. Perhaps it’ll be good if I can throw my food diary at Adrian every Mon, so he can help me better focus it to meet my goals… this could be thrown in with the weekly checkins on weight, etc… That’ll be important.

Now that I’m at a proper gym, with potentially good support, I just want to make sure that it all works to my advantage. I get that some trainers aren’t that focussed – they want in on the session and then out. It’s getting their continued engagement that’s important… how can I do that… well, knowing me, why don’t I just ask him? Adrian: what do I need to do to get you fully invested in me? I am willing to dedicate a lot of effort to making changes, and put my money where my mouth is. Right now there’s not a lot of budget for training because I just bought a place, but I want your support, and would like to find a way to get your buy-in to that.

Seems like I’ve got a lot to speak to Adrian about tomorrow… time to reign this in so it suits me. And I’ve still gotta figure that out :s

Anyways – goals… +7lbs of muscle in 11 weeks. That’s about 0.6lbs of muscle a week. And a lack of fat (yeah – good luck with that).

So – the supplements that I’m very happy taking right now:

• Protein – whey and caesin
• BCAA
• Creatine
• Carb – waxy maize
• NO Supplement (motivation and dedication at the gym)
• Multivitamin
• Omega 3
• Greens+
• Meal Replacement Drink

The only one of these that I’m not taking right now is the NO supplement, and that’s primarily because I’m already drinking too much! When I move to Extreme Fitness, I’ll fit that in in the morning walk up to the gym.

One sidenote… I don’t want to exclude a fat burner from the mix, given that a half to one week stint on the burner can do wonders for my system. So I’m going to include it in SMALL DOSES:

• Fat Burner – Animal Cuts

And that’s it. Really. I don’t want to boost testosterone, I don’t want more Size On kind of solutions that taste uber sweet and are made of pure sugar… I don’t want to keep trying. I’m happy to keep things somewhat basic and go from there Because balance is vital here. That’s what I’ve got to remember… but this doesn’t mean there’s any negative to what I’ve been experiencing thus far

Click on for the plan…

Training Plan

Monday: Chest, Triceps

• Bench Press: 4 sets of 10 reps
• Seated Incline Dumbbell Press: 4 sets of 10 reps
• Dumbbell Press: 4 sets of 10 reps
• Dumbbell Flyes: 4 sets of 10 reps
• Cable Crossovers: 4 sets of 12 reps
• Close Hand Bench Press: 4 sets of 10 reps
• Dumbbell Triceps Extensions: 4 sets of 10 reps
• Cable Triceps Extensions: 4 sets of 12 reps
• Machine Pushdowns: 4 sets of 12 reps
• Dips: 3 sets to failure

Tuesday: Biceps, Back, And Calves

• Dumbbell Curls: 4 sets of 10 reps
• Hammer Curls: 3 sets of 20 reps
• Barbell Curls: 4 sets of 10 reps
• Close Grip Curls: 4 sets of 10 reps
• Deadlifts: 4 sets of 12, 10, 8, 6 reps
• Seated Row: 4 sets of 10 reps
• Lat Pulldowns: 4 sets of 10 reps
• Dumbbell Rows: 4 sets of 8 reps
• Smith Machine Calf Raise: 4 sets of 20 reps
• Seated Calve Raise Machine: 4 sets of 20 reps

Thursday: Delts, Traps, Forearms And Abs

• Dumbbell Raise: 4 sets of 12 reps
• Front Dumbbell Raise: 4 sets of 12 reps
• Dumbbell Shoulder Press: 4 sets of 8-12 reps
• Machine Shoulder Press: 4 sets of 10 reps
• Dumbbell Shrugs: 4 sets of 12 reps
• Single Arm Dumbbell Shrugs: 4 sets of 20 reps
• Barbell Shrugs: 4 sets of 10-14 reps
• Superset:

Barbell Forearm Raises: 4 sets of 20 reps
Palms-up Dumbbell Wrist Curls: 4 sets of 10 reps

• Machine Crunches: 3 sets of 25 reps
• Exercise Ball Crunches: 3 sets of 25 reps
• Leg Raises: 4 sets of 20 reps
• Oblique Crunches: 3 sets of 20 reps
• Decline Oblique Crunches: 3 sets of 25 reps

Friday: Legs And Abs

• Leg Extensions: 4 sets of 10-12 reps
• Leg Curls: 4 sets of 10-12 reps
• Squats: 4 sets of 8-12 reps
• Leg Press: 4 sets of 8-12 reps
• Machine Crunches: 3 sets of 25 reps
• Exercise Ball Crunches: 3 sets of 25 reps
• Leg Raises: 4 sets of 20 reps
• Oblique Crunches: 3 sets of 20 reps
• Decline Oblique Crunches: 3 sets of 25 reps

Saturday: Biceps, Abs, Traps

• Dumbbell Curls: 4 sets of 10 reps
• Hammer Curls: 3 sets of 20 reps
• Barbell Curls: 4 sets of 10 reps
• Close Grip Curls: 4 sets of 10 reps
• Machine Crunches: 3 sets of 25 reps
• Exercise Ball Crunches: 3 sets of 25 reps
• Leg Raises: 4 sets of 20 reps
• Oblique Crunches: 3 sets of 20 reps
• Decline Oblique Crunches: 3 sets of 25 reps
• Dumbbell Shrugs: 4 sets of 12 reps
• Single Arm Dumbbell Shrugs: 4 sets of 20 reps
• Barbell Shrugs: 4 sets of 10-14 reps

–

Nutrition Plan

Meal 1 – 9:00 AM

• 8 Egg Whites
• Bowl Of Oatmeal
• Apple

Meal 2 – 11:00 AM

• Whey Shake
• Chicken Tenders
• Apple Sauce
• Flax Seed

Meal 3 – 1:00 PM

• Tuna Sandwich
• Fruit

Meal 4 – 4:00 PM

• Whey Shake
• Turkey
• Fiber Bread
• Salad
• Italian Dressing

Meal 5 – At Gym/Right Before 5-6:30 PM

• Oatmeal
• Fruits
• Hour After Eating – 1 Scoop Of N.O. Black Powder

Meal 6 – After Gym

• Grilled Chicken Tenders
• Peanut Butter Sandwich
• Sweet Potato Or Brown Rice

Late Night Snack – Before Bed

• Whey Shake
• 2 Table Spoons Of Peanut Butter

I’ve learnt my lesson. When I want to splurge, I splurge in moderation, and with good stuff. Instead of a Domino’s pizza, a gourmet pizza (lower in fat), a tenderloin, a wild salmon, a rich pasta… something that has some some positive nutritional value for me.

Because as it stands, I’m expecting that this week nothing’s happened. I don’t feel right. I don’t feel like I’ve progressed, even though I know I have. Thank goodness I’ve had two weeks to lose that final 0.5% bf. This weekend and next week I’m going to be studiously following my nutrition plan to ensure that last 0.5% falls away. Because it has to. I need it to.