Finally.. Before and After

Here are my before and after photos for those who haven't seen them yet. I remember opening the before photos last night for the first time in months and comparing them to the photos I took last night. I couldn't believe my eyes. I honestly didn't think I had made THAT much progress, which is why I suggest anyone embarking on a journey towards a better body take before pictures before you even start your program. 

The combination of diet and heavy heavy lifting are the main components at work here.  The heavy lifting kept my body in an anabolic state (muscle buidling) I don't believe in doing higher reps to "tone" when you are cutting down. Why would you change a routine that helped you build all of that muscle just because you are trying to lose fat? You wouldn't, keeping my muscles in that state helped me keep and even build muscle during this cut down period. As far as cardio goes towards the end I did 1 day a week of caridio if that. I would walk the dog here and there or the occasional hike.You really can diet your way down to this if you have the willpower.

Thanks to everyone who is following this Blog, I've spoken with a few of you one on one and you are all a great motivation to stay positive and keep digging and pushing forward.

This has been a very rewarding and amazing journey, but I'm not done yet. I'm still working towards my goal of hitting 10% bodyfat... as of this picture I'm at about 14%.

Resurrection

Wow, I had no idea keeping up with a blog would be so hard. Hard, or the more likely cause is me just being lazy and giving up on a project. Sorry guys for taking so long to get back into the swing of things. A lot has happened since March 1st.  Let's start with changes to my diet and the progress I've made.

When I got down to about 187 which was about mid-May I was reading a few articles on bodybuilding.com and one caught my eye, it was called the ab-etching diet. I did some more research and found this diet is actually a variation of a Keto (short for ketosis) diet that a few friends of mine have had great success with in the past. The basic premise is keeping your carbohydrates down to below 40 grams a day and increasing healthy fats to about 100 grams a day and keeping protein around 1-2 grams of protein per lb of bodyfat all while keeping caloric intake at normal levels, which for me is around 2400 a day while I'm dieting down.  The result being that your body switches from burning carbohydrates and glycogen for fuel to burning fat for fuel, which causes your body to burn from fat stores when it's out of food vs muscle stores. The only time I take in carbs is directly before a workout to provide the necessary energy for the level of intensity DC training requires. 20-50g of simple carbs. It's great for bodybuilders and I will tell you that I've gone from 187 to 173 in that time period all why maintaining and even building more muscle, which is very hard to do. This diet is working great for me so far and I've never cut down and seen this type of progress, and I'm not even doing any cardio anymore. In fact I'm afraid to because the weight is coming off pretty fast as it is. I'm ready to post after pics soon, maybe as soon as my next post. The other great thing about the diet is that it keeps your insilun levels very low so I never really have cravings or hunger pangs. I also have a more sustained energy throughout the day.

An example of a given day on this diet looks like this;

Breakfast: 3 eggs, egg whites, turkey bacon, onions bell peppers.
Mid-morning: 2 scoops whey protein with 2 ts of natural peanut butter.
Lunch: Lean protein source such as buffalo chicken breast, lean (96/4) burgers, chicken sausage...etc.
Pre-workout: Chocolate milk mixed with 2 scoops of whey.
Post-workout: 2 scoops of whey protein in water.
Dinner: 2 chicken breast fried in olive oil, smothered in guacamole.
Before Bed:  1 1/2 cups of cottage cheese and a handful of almonds.

The big concern with a diet like this is colesterol levels, I try to take in fat from good healthy sources and limit trans fats, and colesterol. I will be making an appointment soon with my doc to get my levels checked along with some bloodwork.

Progress: I'm at 173 right now, I can see all of my abs if I flex and can slightly see them at rest. I did a bodyfat test a week ago and I'm at 14% which seems a little high but I'll take it. My new goal is to hit 10-12% before the end of the summer. This would involve me losing another 6 lbs of fat roughly. I will keep this blog updated every 1-2 weeks with my progress and more fitness information.

Lifting stats: Bench Press: 355x6. Squat: 325x6. Deadlift: 375x6.


The Ab-Etching diet: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/hd-abs-the-ab-etching-diet.html
Keto diet information : http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/keto.htm

Changes and Progress

I know I haven't updated this blog in a while and I've worked out a plan to get better at that! Just a quick update on the progress I have been making.

First I've made a few changes since I started. The first change I made is I've decreased the cardio from every day of the week to days I'm not weight training. I made this change because I feel I was burning a bit too many calories each week which was cutting into muscle stores. Also my main goal out of all of this is to stay strong and continuously go up in my lifts, I feel that this is only possible if I give my entire mental approach and energy to my workout on my workout days vs splitting it between cardio and my workout. My workout also burns about 150-250 calories in an hour as it's pretty intense so this will take the place of the calories I would have burned by doing cardio alone. In other words I try t burn between 200-400 calories in any given day whether that be cardio or strength training, I make sure to get some kind of physical activity in EVERY day of the week.

The second change I made is I've started working my abs and obliques. I've always told people that for me bodybuilding is pure for the aesthetic, the look, the beach body. Moving big weights has it's advantages with the ego, but when it comes down to it I want to look great in the mirror. Now that I've finally brought down my body fat to a level where I can see my abs a bit more so it's time to blast them! I've been doing p90x2 and p90x ab ripper 2-3 times a week. So far my stomach has tightened up a bit and doesn't sag quite as much, I'm also starting to see the "V" lines that all the women seem to enjoy so much ;-). I know my fiance appreciates them.

Progress: I've gone down 2 belt notches and I've seen a drastic improvement in muscular definition due to the decreased bodyfat. I'm down to 191 lbs as of this morning and I'm at a steady rate of losing 1 - 2 lbs per week, which is right where I want to be.

Cheat days

For me personally cheat days are a waste. They provide an excuse to get out of the habit of eating healthy and eating for a purpose. Some people would argue that "I would go insane without a cheat day", I would say why not make it a cheat meal? or a cheat dessert? I will not dedicate an entire day every week to cheating, it just doesn't fall in line with my goals. I can't work as hard as I do through the week with my diet and training only to spend an entire day shoveling 4000+ calories into my body, and trust me once you've done this after eating so clean it only makes you feel ten times worse physically.

Super Bowl Sunday came up pretty quick and while my fiance and I got our chicken strips with garlic spicy sauce ready, I realized that even on a full cheat day we were planning ahead and not making excuses as to what we were going to eat. We did cheat a little, but I made it worth it. My step mom makes this pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting that I made sure to have a slice of. Outside of that one slice I kept it pretty clean, eating shrimp cocktail and munching on lean deli meats for the most part. The point is I try to keep my cheat meals to once a week and keep it moderate. Did I feel bad about that slice of cake? not at all, would I have felt bad about 4 slices of cake? absolutely.

The last thing about cheat meals is this, when you eat clean for long enough you begin to crave healthier foods. Your body is provided with the nutrients it needs and your cravings for fatty, salty, or calorie dense foods drop way down. I look at foods like pizza and donuts and think "I could have that, do I want it though?" not really. It took about a month of eating clean for that change to full take effect. When you do finally allow yourself to indulge once or twice a week, it's a reward and a treat. It does taste better than when it was a ritual to eat such foods.

Progress: Since eating clean my workouts have skyrocketed in energy and progress. I've lost a LOT of weight in my mid section and I'm almost two notches down on my belt. Visibly in the mirror I look leaner, stronger and just more fit. I was worried this morning because I felt that maybe I've gone down too much in weight to look this fit, (thinking I've sacrificed muscle). I got on the scale expecting 189-191 ish. To my surprise I was 195, the same weight as 2 weeks ago but significantly leaner. The protein rich diet is keeping my muscles from being sacrificed. What a boost for the day!

Daily diet

I know it's probably been said thousands of times to some of you guys, but diet is really 80% of the success you are going to see when on any type of fitness program. My diet is tailored to my specific goals, which currently are to maintain my current level of muscle while losing a steady amount of body fat each week, but not too much. It really is a balancing act, losing about 1-1.5 lbs per week for someone looking to shed a modest amount of fat is about right. Any more weight than that and you are dipping in to muscle stores. I shed about 5 lbs for the first 2 weeks when I started but that's mainly because my body was shocked back into a cardio and diet routine, the first 5 always come off pretty easily due to water retention and other factors.

Regarding complex carbohydrates, Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper. In other words I taper off my carbs as the day goes on. Here is an example of a daily diet for me;

Breakfast: Kashi Golean cereal, 1 cup of cottage cheese with blueberries and sugar free jelly.
Pre-lunch: 1 slice of ezekiel bread with peanut butter, 1 scoop of Shakeology , 1 scoop of whey protein.
Lunch: 2 chicken breast and brown rice with some lowfat cheese and salsa.
Pre-Dinner: 1 slice of ezekiel bread with peanut butter, 2 scoops of whey protein.
Dinner: 2 portions lean protein (lean steak, chicken, fish, turkey...etc.), a large amount of vegatables (asparagus, broccoli, green beans, carrots...etc)
Before Bed:  2 scoops of casein protein.

Notice the drop in carbs as the day goes on. Your body is not in need of carbs towards the end of the day, you're winding down and getting ready for bed. Your body is entering a less active state and eventually a sleep state, you will be burning through carbs at a much lower rate. This is why they are not needed in the evening especially to promote fat loss, if you do have carb heavy meals before bed your body just ends up storing those carbs as fat.  The protein intake almost always stays the same per meal (between 30-60grams of protein) as this is important to maintain muscle size while cutting, it also helps satiety.

Progress: Judging by the mirror I'm definitely losing more fat off my body. It's still steadily coming off and I can see the results. I've given myself a cheat day on Sunday, but when you kick ass all week at dieting and exercise I find myself not taking that cheat day or even a cheat meal. I just don't feel the craving for one thing, and for another I've worked hard and I don't care to set myself back even if it's just by a little.

Progress... It's coming along

Progress: Since my last post my progress is as follows.

Friday (1-6) - 5 am walk for 1.8 miles and DC Weight training in the afternoon. My diet was spot on. I even avoided some donuts at work, which is much easier when you have a plan. It's hard to have a donut when you know that it erases your morning cardio you worked so hard to get up and do!

Saturday  (1-7) - 8am walk for 1.9 miles. I was able to keep my diet in line Saturday surprisingly, this is usually where I start to fall off the clean eating wagon.

Sunday (1-8) - I thought about taking a walk but kept this as a rest day for myself. I stayed in line with my eating habits. I did allow myself one cheat meal and 2 mixed drinks. The cheat meal was chicken noodle soop with garlic bread, so nothing too horrible and still maintained a solid level of protein.

Monday (1-9) - 5am walk for 1.85 miles in 33 minutes, I'm getting faster. DC Weight training in the afternoon. I see my weight training benefiting from my cardio workouts in the morning. I feel more energetic and I'm able to catch my breath a lot quicker.

Weight: I checked the scale since I started I've lost 5 lbs, which was so easy because basically I was maintaining 205 lbs just by eating horribly. My body doesn't naturally want to be that weight, once I cut back and started exercising it started to come back down. The first 5 lbs are always the easiest, we'll see how hard it gets once I want to see some abs!

Next post will be a small post for progress and I will go over the supplements I take and why. I will try to keep it reasonably short.

Before pics and plan of attack

The Pics: I'm definitely overweight! I hold my weight pretty evenly throughout my body. When I gain, I gain everywhere and when I lose, I lose everywhere. My fatter areas are my butt, thighs, love handles and upper back near my shoulders and triceps.

The Plan of Attack: I will be fast walking about 3-6 times a week for about 30-60 minutes, this will target the fat burning zone and keep muscle loss at a minimum (vs jogging or high intensity cardio which will burn calories from all areas of the body). I will be weight training 3 days a week on the DC Program (more to come on that). The diet will consist of a 40/40/20 (carbs/protein/fat percentages of calories) split as best as I can stick to that. Dinners won't contain any carbohydrates outside of vegatables. I will dedicate a post to why I chose this diet later.

Progress: Yesterday I woke up at 5am and walked the dog for 40 minutes at a fast pace. In the afternoon I took a heaping scoop of Assault and weight trained DC Style (more on this in a future post). I ate 7 meals which are as follows;

Breakfast:      Kashi Golean Cereal and 1 cup cottage cheese

Pre-lunch:      1 slice Ezekiel bread with natural peanut butter, 2 scoops of whey / casein protein.

Lunch:           Beef Stew made with lean sirloin

Afternoon:     1 slice Ezekiel bread with natural peanut butter, 2 scoops of whey / casein protein.

Dinner:          Lean sirloin steak (10oz) and asparagus spears

After Dinner: 1 scoop casein protein

Today I woke up again at 5am and walked the dog at a fast pace for 40 minutes.