Day 36

Nutrition: 100%

Training: 95% (still restricted by the machines / weights available)

Meditation: 100%

Yesterday was really good… nutrition and meditation at 100%… although I did find it somewhat hard to maintain the nutrition. I was getting to a point where I was thinking – why can’t I just have fries with my chicken? Fortunately I didn’t give in to the temptation… phew. So all is good

The weekend was great… but I feel the benefits of it are disappearing already :s And that’s fast. Lots is happening at work around HSBC… and it looks as though my holiday in April will be pushed a little bit – making negotiations around taking it a lot harder. I’ll be taking a holiday – I’m going to put my foot down around that, because damn do I need one after all this stuff going on – but it’ll be harder to negotiate and fit in now :s We’ll see what happens

Otherwise all is good… I’m going to have to keep a keen eye on my behaviour this week though

Day 35

Back in the routine already this morning. I felt nice and refreshed when I woke up this morning. Sure, I didn’t wanna get up, but when’s that new??? The workout was good… pushed in some areas, wasn’t able to meet others (the upright rows – for some reason couldn’t match what I did last week?!).

Looking forward to this week… partially because it’s my last ‘normal’ week for about two weeks… well, it’s my last normal week at Residences on Bloor Boo. So I might as well appreciate it and get the most out of it!

Days 33 & 34

Nutrition this weekend wasn’t great. The local grocery store didn’t have the small size of the lemon meringue, so I *HAD* to buy the large one. Of course the place was to freeze half of it. That didn’t happen. Although there’s 1/6 of the pie still sitting up at the cabin. Damn.

Outside of that, Sat’s nutrition was good… protein shake, large omelet and brown rice with 2x chicken breasts.

Today (Sun) was worse… good in the morning – omelet with meringue, but then dinner was garlic bread, pasta with 2x chicken and a tiny one bite brownie. Since then it’s been water all the way.

So we’ll see what impact that has on my bodyfat come the end of the week. I’m hoping that I’ll be as good with nutrition during the week as I was last week. I can’t see any issues arising that’d prevent that. So here’s hoping I’ll be in the 16.x% of bodyfat! That’d be awesome. Only once before been there. Then maybe 2-3 weeks and I’ll be in 15.x%! That’d be amazing… a huge treat for moving into the loft… but we’ll see how that experience corresponds with continuing losing fat… stress causes fat loss right

Activity wise, Sat was a quiet day… I almost slept through the whole day, but I really needed it. I woke up at about 1.30am Sun morning and I didn’t have a nightmare, but it was like the ‘Avatar’ of dreams… it had about 5 different scenarios with so much happening. It caught me off guard. I think my body really needed that rest, and it got it

Today went snowboarding for 3-3.5 hours, which was awesome… productive. I felt good. Next weekend is the long weekend, so going up for 3 days – God knows how that’ll impact the nutrition But we’ll see. Looking forward immensely to the downtime!!!

Bring on the week…

Week 5 Results

So this is a bit of a surprise:

• Weight: 168lbs to 166.1lbs = -1.9lbs
• Bodyfat:  29.3lbs to 28.2lbs = -1.1lbs
• Muscle change = -0.8lbs
• Bodyfat: 17.4% to 17.0% = -0.4%

So – let’s work through the logic. I’ve increased my calorie intake by about 500-1000 cals per day. I lost 2lbs of weight. Hmmm. Confused much?

I am.

I think the whole carb approach explains this… the fact that I’ve cut carbs right down, and particularly removed them from the evening meal.

What this is telling me, is that I certainly haven’t reached maintenance yet! Not by a long shot. Which means my metabolism is running HIGH! It’s just destroying all the fat in my system.

I’m not quite at my all time low body fat level of 16.8% / 27.7lbs, but I’m 0.2% off it, or 0.5lbs, so that’s not much.

Reiterating what I said earlier today, I feel like I’ve grown… and I certainly feel strength gains from this week! So I’m quite surprised that muscle’s gone down… but the feel good factor is really engaging me. What’s going to be interesting is how much food I’m now going to have to eat to support this body of mine. Argh. I didn’t quite anticipate this big a change, but hey – this is the first week of this change… the body’s adapting. Next week may be entirely different!

On that note… looking towards the next few weeks, things are going to get a bit insane… 3 weeks from now I’m moving into the loft. Next week will be as good as the week just gone. Minus the ZMAs, so potentially even better The following week has a long weekend and my PDI early on Tues morning, so I’m going to have to cram my training together somehow :s (depending on whether I’m going out of town that weekend or not – we’ll see). Nutrition should also be good.

The following week is going to be the tough one – that’s the one when I move into the new place :s I can’t anticipate how that’s going to go down. All I know is that the weekend will be quite intense and I’ll have quite the workout from moving all the furniture around! We’ll see how that pans out

What I’m trying to say is that I have another two weeks to really focus and get the best out of this plan… then I’ll be off base for a short while moving… and then back on track for a few more weeks at the new gym, before I (fingers crossed) am away on holiday and then phase 4 starts. Right now things are insane… so much going on… it’s like a jigsaw where all the pieces aren’t quite fitting :s But it’ll work. Gym and nutrition is my base… it’s a form of stability that I’m very appreciative of right now. Phew.

Day 32

Nutrition: 85% (had a couple of slivers of my friends chocolate bread pudding last night – it was SO good… emphasis on the slivers. Not much)

Training: 90%

Meditation: 100%

Things are going well… I’m actually quite excited for the weigh in today, because I really feel a tightness (a good tightness) all over the body right now, which demonstrates to me, that things have worked this week. I also notice more definition on the arms (sadly not on the abs LOL). So I’m looking forward to seeing how my body’s changed in the past week. I will also not be surprised (but will be sad) if I have put on more fat. I’ve definitely grown this week, but don’t want to grow negatively. I’d love to be somewhere in that 16.x% range, but know that I’m on maintenance now, rather than loss, so will that happen? I’m guessing unlikely.

Today’s workout was outstanding… I love this kind of workout. I really, really, really do. I am having so much fun working out right now… it’s great!!!

And I heard back from Jason – the trainer dude at Extreme Fitness – so going to touch base with him today to firm up a consultation date, which’d be awesome Fingers crossed!

Simple Supplements

Given this whole Animal Cuts / ZMA thing… I’ve been thinking about supplements a bit the last few days. And I think I should stop going crazy trying supplements. Especially supplements that play around with hormones – they really don’t work for me.

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

Day 31

Nutrition: 100%

Training: 95% (very good abs workout – didn’t get form quite right on a few exercises)

Meditation: 100%

Yesterday was a really good day. Today’s workout was fantastic. I really felt the burn… although I can’t say that I was able to put 100% effort into it I ran out of weights to enable me to do the whole 10, 8, 6 scenario, so I did what I could, and where I was topping out on weights, I maintained the 3×12 scenario. So it’s all good.

Today marks the third DAY that I’m off the ZMAs… it’s been two evenings off. And I can already sense a greater clarity, openness, freedom in the mind. I can’t believe the ZMAs caused that!

Although – the good thing about this experience is that I now have a better understanding of what testosterone does to my system! I’m wondering if there’s a connection between ZMA and the Animal Cuts – that they both increase levels of testosterone in the body, which would have the same effect of fogginess in the mind? I’ve just done a Google for Animal Cuts + Testosterone, but I can’t seem to find anything relevant. It’s an insight, but one that I don’t really care to confirm through trial and error

Altogether, I have to admit that I’m very happy on this current workout and plan. The food’s awesome, the workouts really stretch me, but they’re no longer as intense in fat burning – ie. low rest, high reps. I LOVE the lower reps, higher rest options. I just think it’s awesome. And being able to eat pasta again, is fantastic.

But – we’ll see what this weeks results reveal. Apart from Sat’s bad binge (wine and brownies), and Sun’s lack of food, this week has been excellent nutritionally. This’ll provide a good base to see how the body responds… whether there’ll be any fat loss / muscle gain, or just maintenance, or just the loss of all the good stuff and gaining and bad!!!

Day 30

Nutrition: 100%

Training: 80% (a legs day and had insufficient weight available to push as hard as I’d've liked)

Meditation: 33% (watched Lost last night at a friends – that went till 11pm, so by the time I got home, it was really late)

Today was a good day training. It was abs day. I pushed pretty hard… and I can feel the burn!

On a sidenote – and this is something I mentioned yesterday as a change I want to make… I removed the ZMAs for the diet, and replaced it with a caesin and whey shake. I was looking at the label for the ZMAs today, and what they do is boost the body’s testosterone levels… and I think that’s what’s been throwing me off – with the mental fogginess.

I’ve always found that I struggle when my testosterone levels are boosted too high. I get more aggressive, assertive, less clear. I get a bit more defensive and trigger happy. And now is very much the wrong time for that all to be happening, given the anxiety over the gym. The increased testosterone is magnifying the anxiety and attention focussed on the gym. Which is a very bad thing.

I feel satisfied now that I know what’s happening – that I’m not feeling foggy because of greater focus on the gym, but because my hormones are artificially out of whack, and that’s impacting on everyday things.

I’ve removed ZMAs from the diet, and hope to see me get back into balance in a few days… potentially by the weekend, potentially for early next week, because I know it always takes some time for the body to detox itself from it.

On an extremely positive note – I’m learning that I have this acute awareness of my body’s equilibrium. I know exactly when it’s off balance… whether that’s mental or physical. More so mental than physical. I think everything knows when they’re physically less than optimal. But then – I would also add in the fact that understanding nutrition better and better has helped me to know how to cultivate a good internal chemistry that just feels amazing… I know keenly sense when I’ve eaten bad – and can sense the sugar rushes, highs, etc… far more acutely than I’ve ever been able to before.

I’m not saying that this awareness is immediate… it takes time for me to realize I’m off-kilter. Like with the ZMAs: I knew that something was wrong… but couldn’t put my finger on it… then the mind made the appropriate connections and it popped top of mind, and then I acted on it. But from a high level, I’m extremely grateful to be developing this sense of equilibrium, and bringing it more actively into every situation I’m in. Day to day. This is good. And a very unexpected side-effect of the training!

Making A Change

I’ve been feeling that my mind’s more and more muddy recently. It doesn’t have that clarity it used to – and I don’t like it. It’s that kind of muddyness that I had while I was on the Animal Cuts.

The only thing I can honestly think of that would create this state are the ZMAs… so I just decided that I’m going to remove them from the mix, and replace it with a caesin and why shake right before bed.

It’ll take a few days for the ZMAs to leave my system, but I’m hoping that I’ll be able to return to the clarity of mind – mindfulness, as I’m kinda sorta struggling right now :s Interesting.

Day 29

I think I’m going to make a change to my daily journal on here… I’m going to start with a review of the nutrition and the training… see how ‘good’ it was… for example – nutrition. I have 7 meals a day right now… if I miss a meal, that equates to about 15%. Going by the Precision Nutrition plan, I should be 90% good, over the course of a week.

When it comes to training, I’ll document effort. In percentage just like nutrition. Until I move into the big gym, the training may be less than optimal – for example, today I was training my legs and wasn’t able to to the whole 10, 8, 6 thing because there were insufficient weights to enable me to do it So I did my best, but maintained the 12, 12, 12 structure, which is less than optimal. Does that mean I didn’t put in max effort – no… but it does mean that I could’ve worked differently and harder if I had the equipment that’d enable me to do so.

So here we go:

NUTRITION: 100%

TRAINING: 90%

MEDITATION: 60%
Meditation is awkward right now… my mind’s overtaken with thoughts of the loft, and it struggles to remain clear / mindful. Although, being this way reinforces the need to do meditation!

Yesterday was a good day both for nutrition and training. I expect today and tomorrow to follow the same structure. Thurs will be more interesting because I’m eating out… but then Friday should be back on track. We’ll see how it goes

I’m not sure whether I mentioned this yesterday or not, but strength wise, I’m definitely as strong – or stronger – than I was during my previous gain cycle. I find that surprising, but OK. For example – today I extended 140lbs on the leg extension. Don’t think I’ve ever done that before. And I could’ve pushed it further and harder to be honest.