The Official Peter Gunz Workout Journal

[peter_midnight]

I’ve always liked to keep journals, but there’s never been enough time for me to keep up with them. So I figured that at the minimum a weekly journal of my workouts would suffice for now. It is amazing what can happen within a week’s time. This journal will take you inside the mind of a person branded as ordinary, determined to achieve extraordinary results. You will read about what types of foods I eat, how often I workout, my pitfalls, trials and tribulations doing both and my thoughts and feelings towards these things.


My first experience with weights began on a trip to the YMCA sometime before 1995. I do not remember the exact date, but I do know it was before this date because the person that took me to the weight room was my older brother’s best friend, Pooh (that passed away in ’96 I believe). Pooh would always come over and rough my younger brother and I up from time to time and sometimes him and my brother would lift the small amount of weight they had in his room. Eventually, Pooh started working at the Y (as it is known here) and one day took my younger brother and I to wrestle around on the mats. We used to always wrestle at home and figured that with mats we could do things twice as hard to each other. Boy, were we wrong. We ended up tiring rather fast and needed to take a breather. Both Marty (my bro) and I were wondering when we were going to go lift weights. We weren’t allowed in the weight room at the time, but we knew Pooh wouldn’t let us leave without hittin’ the weights and gettin’ our swoll on.


We eventually got bored of wrestling and waited for Pooh to come back. That’s when we both asked him to show us the weights. He took us downstairs to a set they had in the locker room and left us alone. I remember an old man doing a lat pull, but that was all. I remember both Marty and I trying out the different weights and having fun, even though we could not lift much at all (we were both in elementary school). We just kept lifting even though our muscles were starting to tire and even get sore. Eventually, a black man named Barry showed up and told us we were too young to lift weights and kicked us out of the room. When Pooh found us, we told him what happened and he took us to the rowing cardio machines and told us to wait there while we rowed. The machine had a screen like a video game so I was determined to finish before Marty did. Unfortunately, there was no finish line, but I do remember going farther as he left early to do something else (I don’t remember what). Pooh came back around the 45 min mark and we both felt great and walked home (30 min walk). I remember being sore the next day and not wanting to go back. And I wouldn’t until I was 16.


My “real” weightlifting started in junior high School or as they call it these days, middle school (What is a middle school anyway? Is elementary beginning school?) . In PE every so often we would go to the weight room and lift weights. Albeit, the weights were primitive weights compared to the high school and local gyms in the area at the time. They had the old bench press machine where you laid down like a bench press, but the machine itself looked more like you should shoulder press the weight. The old school lifters that know what I’m talking about can imagine the contraption I speak of. If you can’t, there is a similar machine being used by an old man in Rocky III. Once again, after one day of lifting these weights I found myself very sore and tired. I didn’t like the feeling the machines gave me. Reflecting back on it, it may have been due to how weak I was compared to the others around me. I was a pretty skinny kid and didn’t get outside much. Pretending to be a strong street fighter was enough for me growing up. I enjoyed watching Rocky more than being Rocky at the time. So I did my weights then, but never really got stronger as we went maybe once every two months. I was able to run though, ironically (sprint). It must have been those 100-yard dashes I used to do trying to escape my mom’s whoopins that made me fast. That and the Rottweiler up the street that used to chase AND bite everyone foolish enough to walk past it during the day OR night. I hated that damn dog. I remember being one of the few non-black (Not really, my mother is black, but you wouldn’t know it by the color of my skin) guys chosen to run the 100-yard dash. I think I finished 5th or something, but whatever. Eventually, the roles reversed and I ended up loving lifting and hating running.


In high school I decided to play football. For one reason or another I never ended up on the team (grades, arguments with coaches, etc), but I loved the conditioning program. Not the football part, but the weight room part we did Monday, Wednesday and Fridays. Push Press (don’t see those anymore), deadlifts, squats and bench presses were all we did and my group did them in that order. I remember starting out so weak. I could barely push up 50 lbs on the EZ curl bar on the push press, lift 135 deadlifting, squat 135 and bench press 95 lbs. That last one the bench press was the most embarrassing of all. It seemed like everyone could bench more than I could. It wasn’t completely true, but those that couldn’t, never benched and never let anyone know they couldn’t do even 95 lbs anyway. So as it was, I benched the least amount of weight on record. I hated doing it myself and would find reasons to avoid it. I preferred squatting and deadlifting. With my low center of gravity and naturally strong legs, I could out squat and deadlift most guys in my grade (9th/10th). So I stuck to squatting getting up to a 365 lbs max when I weighed 129 lbs. The coach didn’t believe that I did it, so he had me do it twice. The second time was easier than the first, but it was the time I truly felt proud of myself and inspired to try harder.


I never tried as hard bench pressing. I remember giving it my all and eventually working my way up to doing 135 for reps. It was a HUGE accomplishment for me. Everyone that was anyone on the team could at least do that and the day I did that, I felt great. Finally, I had arrived. This was ridiculous, because most power comes from one’s legs and my legs were developing faster than anyone else’s, but no one ever cared about how much you squat. The big question is, “How much can you bench?” So I felt glad and after the first year of conditioning, I felt like I had come a long way. My gains continued during the summer, but it was to no avail. Unfortunately, due to a teacher conflict I was not able to join the team, so I quit lifting and waited for the next semester, losing my gains as well.


Before spring ball started (as we called conditioning), I realized that I had lost my strength over the 6 months I stopped lifting. So I had a plan to regain my strength. I was an avid morning talk show viewer at the time. I decided that during commercial breaks I would do 5 push-ups and rest in between segments. For the next hour, I would do the same thing with sit-ups. The next week, I would move up to 10 and so on. I did this for the 4-week break we had. I resorted to this, because despite my friend’s promise to lift weights together at his house everyday during the week (during the break), he quit within the second week, leaving me high and dry. So I came up with my own plan, with the tools I possessed. I worked my way up to doing about 250 pushups and sit-ups a day at 50 per break (5 breaks during the show). I had no clue how strong it made me and still felt inadequate when spring ball had arrived. So as usual, I did my push press, squat, and deadlift with only a little strength being lost (although I had a hard time walking down stairs afterwards). Then the time came for me to bench and a lot of people were looking. When I started that winter, I could barely do 135 once. It is what made me determined to lift everyday. So once staring it down, I decided if I couldn’t do it, so what. At least I tried. I told everyone there, I couldn’t do it, but they had me try anyway. So psyching myself up, I went down and took it off the rack. Amazingly, it was light coming off and I ended up pressing it about 10 times! I was ecstatic to say the least. I had conquered the dreaded 45 plates. I was pretty thrilled. I even went up in weight to 149 lbs. (bodyweight). Everything was running smooth until I got into an argument with one of the coaches and decided that I had enough with football. I didn’t like being on a team anyway. Depending on people and politicking really got on my nerves. Not that I was the best or even close, but it seemed like you couldn’t get a chance if you didn’t have the right look or schmoozing skills. So I decided to just wait things out until I turned 16. Then I could go to the Y and concentrate on getting stronger.


The first thing I did before getting a membership was to ask a friend of mine what he did to get so big. He told me all he did was bench and curl. So that’s all I did, 5 days a week. I didn’t mind and my hair was beginning to grow out. I had what I called the Clark Kent look because I had this one curl that would not go back no matter how hard I tried, like Clark when he was Superman (I might have the old pic of my membership card to scan later). One day, my friends from school came and asked me what I did to work out. I told them bench and curl like my friend. They asked me how often, because they had seen me doing the same thing 3 days in a row. I said everyday of the week. One of them in particular started yelling (although in a friendly voice), “WHAT?!!!! YOU CAN’T BENCH EVERYDAY!!!” I don’t remember the rest of what he said exactly, but basically he said I wouldn't get stronger and probably hurting my muscle more than helping it by doing the same thing that often. So I decided to try a different approach. It seemed like the right idea and they were much stronger than I was. So I decided I would work those parts 3 days a week. I ended up squatting, push pressing and everything else I did in football until I met some lifters that showed me some different exercises (and by show, I mean I watched them and emulated them while keeping my own workout). This took about a year and by this point, I had devised my infamous 2-3 hour workout. I would get to the Y around 6 pm and be done around 9 pm pumping iron in between. I would also go Saturday afternoons for these sessions. I was never really tired though. I was too focused on my goal of getting stronger. Did I have a number? No. But I knew what I wanted to look like and how I needed to get there, lift heavier. And that’s what I did until summer came along.

[peter_midnight]

I had grown, but didn’t really notice anything until after the first month of summer. It wasn’t until I went to my brother’s house in Oxnard that I started to learn individual principles of bodybuilding. When I first got there, I was doing my same 6-day a week workout. I took him with me to lift one day and he had enough after the first body part. Apparently, the forest fire crew didn’t prep him for my workout. But he was cool enough to give me a ride every day (I had no license), so I didn’t care either way. I just needed to lift. Then I got sick. A nasty flu virus was passing around and all of us in the house caught it. I couldn’t lift for a week and it killed me everyday I was out of the gym. I would watch wrestling on TV and think that my chance to look like the guys on TV was fading with everyday I missed. But miss I did and laid down everyday while throwing up in between meals. While there, I had a chance to do some reading and ran across a wrestler by the name of Lance Storm’s website. I read his workout section and it talked about not lifting too much. I wrote him an email and asked if my routine was too much. He said yes and felt I was overdoing it. I admired his physique and followed his advice cutting down my training to 5 days a week and 90 minutes at the most. Something amazing had happened. I grew, not just a bit either. I mean a WHOLE LOT (Like 3 inches on my arm lot)!!! I even got stretch marks on my chest. People think I have these because I put on weight after my car accident, but the truth is that these marks have been here since the summer of 2000. I used to wear them with pride. I couldn't believe this one principle alone had made a difference after a YEAR of lifting. When I came back to my hometown, everyone thought I had taken steroids. I was asked about this at least 10 times before the end of the year. But I couldn’t even afford steroids, let alone know what or how to use them. I guess my acne problem kind of gave the impression as someone brought it up, but no my friend that is just genetics.


Something else that affected me, but I didn’t really piece it together at the time was nutrition. While not great, I strived to eat as much as I could. My mom knew meat was important so she made lots of it whenever we could afford it. The rest of the time was canned stuff she would bring home (mostly spaghetti). When I got to my brother’s house, we had steak and potatoes 3 days a week. If not that, my brother’s famous spaghetti with what had to be 3 lbs of meat. I remember when eating leftovers we used to joke about how the only leftover was the other lbs of meat. After seeing my gains, he was convinced that his dish would put muscles on you guaranteed. Seriously, it was a lot of meat. When I left his place for a week to stay with his friend in Northridge, we must have eaten even more food (mostly chicken) and my body only got bigger. So when you combine all of that with the fact that I was a lean guy to begin with, I looked huge even though I was only 175 lbs (I had grown to this much by the time I left his place).


Everything was going real well, except my shirts didn’t fit and my joints hurt on occasion. But whatever, I didn’t care. Until one day, I woke up and couldn’t move my left shoulder. I mean my neck down to my shoulder hurt every time I lifted it above my head. It was brutal and the doctor had me wear a sling for a month (I’m left handed so it got me out of school work). I’m sure it had to do with a tendon injury I never had checked out after playing football at the park one day. It was the last game I played and I couldn’t believe it was the one I got seriously hurt in. Eventually, I ended up with a clicking sound and a tightening in my left shoulder. My doctor told me that it was a tendon issue and there was nothing I could do except to be careful. Of course, he may have said more if I had insurance, but we didn’t. So I waited out my injury and went back to lifting until I had another stupid injury arm wrestling. This time my wrist was hurt and it took me a few months to lift with no wrist pain. Luckily, the rest wasn’t hurting my body too bad, but my mind could not take the injuries, nor the progress being set back.


Once I got my wrist back and able to do light lifting, I decided that I needed to gain some power, fast. My routines were getting stale and I wasn’t growing. My friend had been doing this power-lifting workout where you do sets of 5, 3, and then 1 rep max. But only the compound exercises, so no biceps, triceps or other small training. Just the big lifts (deadlift, squat, powerclean, and bench press). I gained tons of strength on this routine and FAST! I must have increased my bench from a max of 225 to a 275 max in 2 months or so. My squat went from 400 to somewhere around 550-600 (I don’t remember) and my deadlift was around the 400 lbs mark. When you get stronger, you grow, bottom-line. But I grew fast and my chest got humongous. The problem was, so did my stomach. Because I ignored everything else and just ate until my weight got around 185 or so. I think the most I ever got while on that program was 190 lbs. But injury would strike again after my left shoulder took a beating from all of that weight on the squat rack.


So once again, I took a hiatus, although I was rather depressed this time. I had gotten really strong, but what was the point if the weight itself was hurting me? Leg pressing hurt my knee so that was out. What could I do? I took a long rest. During this time, I finally decided to buy a book that a friend of mine recommended to me before, The Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding by Arnold Schwarzenegger. I have written about this before (http://petergunzreviews.blogspot.com...ybuilding.html). I bought it at my local Borders. I remember reading it over a weekend. It was about 900 pages and to finish reading the entire thing over the weekend, I had to sacrifice a little bit of sleep. The sacrifice was worth it in every way. Once I began reading, I couldn’t stop. It was like I could hear Arnold’s voice in the pages. His recommendations, his tips on goals and motivation, everything spoke to me. It was as if I was sitting in a room and he was lecturing to me, one on one. This book truly changed my life. It changed my whole perspective on things and gave me the motivation I needed to get back into the gym. It turned me from a person that hated vegetables to a person that realized that eating properly was worth any cost (even the cost of bad taste!). It also let me know that I was not alone. Bodybuilders have little to no social life. This is because they have to live a strict lifestyle. At the time, I preferred being at the gym on a Friday night over any party anyway. There were always 2 things that stayed in my mind even to this day from reading that book. The first one is that “if you don’t do the work, you don’t get the results” (P.81). I also felt weird telling people I had to eat a certain way, but I’ll never forget the passage on page 82 regarding scheduling training that really changed my life:


Sometimes it’s hard to keep on a schedule because people around you, sometimes with good intentions and sometimes not, seem to do everything they can to dissuade you from attaining your goals. For example, how supportive of your training ambitions are your family, friends, or spouse? Negative vibes from the people in your life can be difficult to handle. It takes extra effort to retain your confidence and stick to your routine when those close to you don’t accept your chosen goals. ‘Why can’t you come out for beer and pizza?’ they may ask. And the answer that you are on a diet and have to get up early may not meet with a positive reception. You can end up being called egotistic or self-centered by not those who don’t realize that they are the ones being self-centered by not appreciating how important training is to you and what it costs to pursue this kind of effort. And I am sure I am not the only one who has had his girlfriend complain about his getting up at five o’clock in the morning to go to the gym.
Your diet regimen can create problems, too. Eating with friends is a very pleasant social ritual, but one you will have to forgo much of the time. When somebody who should know you are in training keeps offering you food that is not on your diet, you know they don’t understand or, worse, don’t have your best interests at heart.


This passage was probably the most influential on me thus far and it’s a shame that I have forgotten its principles from time to time. Up until that point I never thought about what people thought about me, but that was mainly because I never cared about most people’s opinions. However, eventually I met people with an opinion I DID care about. And their comments about whatnot, and me always working out while never cruel and in jest sometimes made me think about what I was doing. Suddenly, missing a workout here or there wasn’t a big deal. But Arnold reassured me that it WAS a big deal and that I can’t expect results if I don’t do the work. He also told me that if someone thought what I was doing was selfish, THEY were in fact being selfish by not being supportive of my cause. Imagine if he wouldn’t have made the sacrifices he has made. He would be some guy in Austria most likely. Instead he’s a mega star. From that moment on, I decided to trust that I was doing the right thing and immediately went back to the gym as soon as I could and do his recommended workouts. They were about 3 hours and very satisfying. I was making progress and my physique was starting to mirror Arnold’s when he was my size (you can find them in his book). I was not huge or anything, but the mold was getting put together.


Arnold’s workouts were getting me through the week and I was finally feeling good about working out again. However, I still wasn’t back to the size I was when I left my brother’s house in 2000. Once again, something would change my path. THIS time it was Marty. The person I hadn’t really talked about working out with much since we went to the Y those many years ago. It had been a while since I had seen him and he showed up bigger than when I left my older brother’s place in 2000. He told me about this book he read and gave it to me to read. The book was called The Ultimate Muscle Mass Training Program written by Bob Myhal. I read it all within a day (it’s a short read). It emphasized nutrition and supplements more than anything else. So off I went to buy me some Met-rx Meal Replacement Powders (MRPs), some protein powder and lots of skinless boneless chicken breasts. I remember when my mom saw how much chicken I bought and wondered what I was going to do with it. She was nice enough to cook it all, but didn’t quite get why I bought only that and thought it was kind of expensive. I didn’t care, I knew I was eating poorly for sometime now and it was time to change my eating habits. I remember gulping down those nasty mixed berry flavored shakes. One day my mom saw me drinking one and said it was going to kill me. She hated it whenever I drank the powders, but was glad that I started drinking more plain water. I began calorie counting my meals and loving it. I ate bland food with a smile on my face, knowing that I was on a diet that would get me huge. I worked out smarter, not harder with shorter, yet intense workouts based on science like the book said. In the end, I felt more bloated than anything and I think I put on more water weight than any real muscle. Once again, I was a little frustrated and took a break. This break went a lot longer than usual, however.

[peter_midnight]

My bodyweight had gone back down to 160 lbs or so. Nothing really to brag about, but at least I didn’t get fat. My social life was doing fine, but lifting was the farthest thing from my mind. I ended up going to Japan for a while and I gained about 40 plus pounds. For the first time in my life, I was truly fat. And not muscularly fat either. After being thoroughly disgusted with the way I looked, I decided to alternate between jogging in the morning and doing jump rope. I also cut sweets out of my diet and began eating a better breakfast. In about the same amount of time it took me to gain the weight, I had lost it. Although it wasn’t noticeable at first, I had gone from 200 lbs back to 160 in time for my flight back home. I began eating fish at the time as well, which I feel contributed to it a lot. So now I was a proponent of cardio, having seen its effects for the first time.


Having come back to the states after quite a layoff, the first thing I did was go back to the gym. This time, I tried a workout that was more like a hybrid of the two books I had read. I was so lean that someone that hadn’t seen me in years commented that I looked like a model. If only I was able to keep up the lean body. Due to some bad circumstances, I was living in less than optimal conditions that put the weight back on me again. I wasn’t as bad as I was in Japan, but I still didn’t like it. I worked out as hard as I could, but I was no longer the 13% body fat I was before going on the powerlifting workout. I needed to make a change.


My circumstances had changed and I was able to improve my conditions and started to lean up. However, I was still in a sort of limbo. My new plan just wasn’t yielding the results I desired. So I went online and tried to gather new information to create a new battle plan.


In 2001, I was completely anti-steroid and anti-supplement, but it seemed like no one agreed with me. So it was hard finding reliable sources of information regarding lifting. I didn’t have the Internet in my home, so I would hop on whenever I was at a friend’s house. One day, we searched building a body without supplements and came across a website that promoted what I was looking for. It was one of those shady looking sites, that you see everywhere these days, but was new at the time. The one with a novel’s worth of reading on the front page and really poorly put together photos promoting a product with a 90-day money back guarantee. Even though I was glad to find a site that believes in the same philosophy that I did, I couldn’t quite trust the guy and his 100 testimonials. But for whatever reason, he seemed more credible in 2007. It must have been the fact that he was still online after all these years. So I gambled my $200 plus shipping and received a 100-page book that had everything I could ever look for all in one place. How many sets, reps, exact times to eat, sleep, workout, do cardio, a section on steroids and supplements, EVERYTHING!!! And if there was something that wouldn’t be covered, I could send the guy an email and get a response. It was great!!! I felt like I was back in the game. I read the book in about 2 hours and made plans to go to the gym. I was making great progress and people were noticing big time. Then, BAM my first serious injury occurred.


I was on my way to the gym when someone in front of me made a sudden stop while going 40 miles per hour. The result, I couldn’t brake in time and I ended up smashing right behind them. My airbag went off and my radiator was in the street. Somehow I made it home and had no pain, until about 12 hours later. Then, my neck started KILLING ME!!! I went to the hospital, but because I had no health insurance and my car insurance was liability only, they did the bare minimum to get me out of there. They said it would probably take up to 2 weeks to heal. One year later I was still in pain. During the time, I went to a doctor that wanted an MRI done and I got one eventually, but nothing showed up on any x-ray. Still, I was in major pain and not getting any better. Pain shot down my arm and I would scream at night while lying down. Finally, around the year mark my brother recommended a chiropractor to me. He helped me out quite a bit. After 3 months of therapy, my pain level was low enough to go back and restart my training. The day I was cleared, I headed home via an unusual route. I don’t know why I chose to go that way, but I did. It was one of the worst decisions of my life.


Before I could get back into the gym, I met with the front grill of a ’98 Ford Explorer at one of the busiest intersections in Southern California. Apparently, someone told the woman that my lane was clear and gave her the go ahead to turn. I wish someone had told me she was turning. During the 3 seconds I had to react, I wondered if I would be alive after the crash. Once again, the airbag went off, but this time the pain came almost immediately. Luckily this time I had better car insurance and better health insurance so I was able to receive better treatment. I was more frustrated than depressed this time, and my chiropractor was very welcoming of my enthusiasm. This time, my knees, glutes, hamstrings, wrists, elbows, basically everything INCLUDING my neck hurt. It took a little longer than last time, but I was able to get back into the gym. However, this time running was difficult. I pulled my hamstring using the elliptical machine and my wrists are sensitive to certain lifts. My shoulders hurt when I lay a certain way at night and I have to be extra careful lifting weights.


With the help of my chiropractor, I have been able to lift more weight for reps than I ever have in the past. You wouldn’t know it looking at me, because my body fat is higher than before thanks to the fat that I put on from my two car accidents. This journal is my journey back to the gym and the road to getting back to where I was and to reaching new heights that I have never been to before. I was once asked to compete at the teen level, but at the time I had no interest. My goal is to get back to that level of fitness and then to decide what to do from there. Whether or not I compete will be decided at that point. Now you know where I begin and where my journey is going. I have a feeling that many people go through some of the things that I do, but have little to know forum to discuss it or they go to websites where the person giving the advice has better means to overcome the obstacles than they do. I’m a student that is doing this and not a professional bodybuilder nor am I qualified to give any medical advice. However, at least here you’ll get an HONEST POINT OF VIEW and that is what is missing on the Internet.

[peter_midnight]

Last Weeks Results:

Weight: 190.4 lbs down from 194 lbs

Waist: 34 ½ Inches down from 35 ¼ inches

Caliper Reading: 12 MM down from 14 MM

Bodyfat%: 14.6% down from 16.4%


Last week I wrote my intro to this blog and explained where I would be going with it. Now I would like to set up the basic outline or structure of the blog as many of you may be bored with certain parts of it. For the most part this is a journal, so many things will repeat such as my feelings during a workout, how the week went, struggles, etc. However, there will be a second part to EVERY journal, which I will call the commentary section. It will deal with the issues of the first part, whatever they may be such as dieting, dealing with gym members, erroneous workout info, etc. So if you find the workout section to be a little monotonous or boring, please skip down to the commentary before clicking away from the page.

So this week I worked out for 5 days of weight training and 6 days of double shots (meaning 2 sessions) of 30 minutes of cardio. My weight sessions were light, as I prefer to give my muscles a break after going heavy for so long. I did just enough to get a pump, but no more and I left feeling good.

What I really enjoy about low volume weeks is that it is the perfect time to experiment with new exercise methods. I did this with two exercises in particular, the preacher curl and the assisted chin-up machine.

The preacher bench at my gym is unstable and causes shoulder problems thanks to that so I decided to do my own form of preacher curls using dumbbells using my legs as a bench. Even though the sets were light, they were INTENSE! I felt a pump that preacher curls have not given me in a long time and that felt good. Even though feeling a pump has no effect on results, it was nice to feel one in my biceps and seeing the vein in my left arm finally come out and play. It was like seeing a long lost friend. Another positive that came out of using the dumbbells was less stress on my wrist. So until I switch gyms, this will be a GREAT substitute for now.

The assisted chin-up machine started messing with my shoulder a few days ago, so I decided to go back to the lat pulldown. So far it is working good. My only problem with the lat pulldown machine is that I use my biceps quite a bit when pulling down the weight, which I do NOT want to do. Since this was a light week, I decided to work on form and try to isolate my lats. I felt a huge difference when working on this. For one, it was not hard to get to failure even with a lightweight. Also, I could feel which muscles were working and was quite surprised just how much the upper back is involved in this movement. The lat pulldown can cause shoulder damage, but I am convinced that if one does not try to pull more than they are capable of while paying attention to form, they can achieve great results with this movement.

I probably spent a little under an hour lifting weights this week, which was actually LESS than the amount of cardio time I spent splitting it into two 30-minute sessions. I also cut down on my green tea intake seeing as this was a light week and I really did not need the extra energy. One thing I did notice was that I was tired in the mid-afternoon and needed a nap badly. I’m not sure if this was due to the cycling of the tea or my sleeping patterns this week. I’ll be upping the dosage next week, so I’ll get closer to an answer for sure. Also, I was able to eat flawlessly with no “cheat” meals or foods for this week hitting my numbers within a reasonable margin of error. I have noticed more cuts in my back and shoulder area, but won’t know for sure what the progress is until tomorrow when I measure. It was a good week with little pain and fine eating. I even found a better deal on egg whites at Costco than I did at Walmart. My only worry is that the Costco egg whites have xanthan gum and guar gum as part of their ingredients. The egg whites I usually buy made by Papetti foods is made from 100% whites, while the Kirkland brand is 99%. I’m going to have to do some research and see if this is to be of any concern. I do feel that the 99% part is to be of some concern and will most likely switch back because of it (1% is worth paying an extra cent per gram of protein).

COMMENTARY

This week I was feeling kind of bored with dieting and feeling left out of the “normal” crowd with my refusing to eat the “normal” foods that people eat. So I turned to one of my heroes Jack Lalanne on YouTube this week. His story and high energy was what I needed to make it through the week without succumbing to temptation. Do not be confused, I do not eat to the extreme that Jack does. I will eat during holidays, weddings, birthdays and other special occasions normal foods and desserts. But I would like to have his willpower to not eat as bad during the rest of the year and that takes INCREDIBLE willpower. It also takes dedication. Jack has not had refined sugar, white flour, preservative laden food since he was 15 years old and he is 96 today. THAT IS ONE HELL OF A STREAK! He is proof that his system works as he still works out 2 hours a day, everyday at his age. He probably has more endurance and stamina than a man in his 30s.

Watching some of the old Jack Lalanne TV shows from his site and YouTube got me to think of places like bodybuilding.com, the fitness expos and the fitness crowd in general. These are usually the only people that GET what I’m trying to do and encourage me along the way. I can talk to them about things that people in the casual gym crowd just don’t get or understand like carb cycling and eating boneless skinless chicken breasts. It helped me to remember that I am not the only person doing this and even if I was, who cares? Truth is truth and great people stand up for it no matter who’s against them. I hope Jack lives to be 150 years old like he’s shooting for. As he says, he can’t afford to die. It would ruin his image. I set a goal to live to 100 a few months ago and I’d like to seriously start working toward that. My grandmother is in her 90s and she ate mostly raw vegetables for as long as I have known her. Outliving the past generation seems to be a worthwhile goal so whenever she passes from this world, breaking her record would seem like a good short term goal (unless she breaks 100 of course).

I’m glad Jack was there when I needed him. I agree with the YouTube comments that this man was 3 generations ahead of his time, the ORIGINAL personal trainer and BLOWS Arnold Schwarzenegger and Chuck Norris away in amazing feats and pure awesomeness. Arnold wrote in his book that Jack would never be as strong as a competitive bodybuilder in a one-rep max, but could probably beat any of them in endurance training. Well, I’ve never seen any bodybuilder tow a boat, let alone on his 70th birthday towing 70 of them with 70 people while shackled in the ocean. Most bodybuilders don’t even make it to 70. And unlike Arnold in recent times, Jack has NEVER been out of shape (then again he’s never been governor either) even in his 90s. So I submit that Jack would beat the bodybuilders in a one-rep max if he put his mind to it. If anyone reading this is struggling with their diet, my advice is to remember Jack’s famous phrases of “If man makes it, don’t eat it.” Or “If it tastes good, spit it out!”

[peter_midnight]

Last Weeks Results:

Weight: 187.2 lbs down from 190.4 lbs

Waist: 34 Inches down from 34 1/2 inches

Caliper Reading: 14 MM Same

Body fat%: 14.6% Same

Lat Pull Downs: 70 Increased from 60

Shrugs: 275 Increased from 270

Deadlift: 220 Increased from 215

Close Grip Bench Press: Increased from 205 to 210

Squat: Increased from 265 to 270

Leg Press Increased from 275 to 285

Calf Raise Increased from 195 to 210

Dumbbell Preacher Curls increased from 30 to 35

Ab crunches using a dumbbell increased from 45 to 65 lb dumbbells 50 times per set.

TRAINING

Many of you may be wondering why I have included more numbers this week than in the past. Well it seems that the popular journals have their weight numbers listed, so if that’s what the people want, here you go. At the moment I’m trying to lose fat, so the weight numbers are irrelevant to me. I suppose one thing they do account for is the change in lean body mass. Regardless of how low body fat is, if the amount of weight a person works with increases, they get stronger and their muscles get bigger (unless there is a lack of proper nutrition).

I don’t have a high volume of sets this week, but the weight is heavy. I can usually get about 7 reps or so out of it. Actually, I didn’t feel much as far as the lifting went. I got in and out pretty fast on all 5 days. I probably took about 70 minutes or so to finish. One thing I changed in my routine is the amount of cardio I do on leg days. I went from 2 sessions to none. I feel this was the right call even at the expense of having to go in on my off day for a cardio session. The reason I find this to be a good thing is overuse of the joints. My knees can only take so much and have been increasingly tighter on leg days. At the advice of Kevin Levrone of levronereport.com, I decided to not to do cardio on leg days. The result so far is that I have more strength in my legs and they are not tight at all on leg days. After my car accident I have had to be careful and very selective not only in leg exercises, but forms of cardio as well. Not doing cardio on leg days even after the first day has helped to preserve my knees. I’m glad I made this decision.

DIET

On the diet side of things, I was right about my Costco egg whites theory and will switch back to the 100% egg whites when I have a chance. For now, I suppose 99% wont KILL me, but I really am trying my best to stay with natural foods. I was able to find a brand of bread that only contained ingredients that I could pronounce and have knowledge of what they are. No more high fructose corn syrup (I know what it is and it’s bad!), soy lecithin, this oil and that oil. Nope, just honey, 100% stone ground whole wheat, raisin juice and yeast. I know all of these ingredients and what they are. The bread is a little stiff, but it tastes great and has tons of fiber. I had to buy bread, because my night meal is only supposed to have around 20 carbs, which is too low to measure for brown rice. I could measure, but it would be more hassle than it’s worth. Before this was not a problem as I ate organic hempseeds and avoided carbs altogether, but this time I switched my diet around at the advice of a friend and said have begun using the seeds for a whole meal plus a source of protein. This is a significant increase in fat intake, but if I play around with the numbers and have no carbs with the meal (other than vegetables) it works fine. I’ve even noticed that I get hungry faster than I did before! Also, I found a Salsa called Jack’s Special Salsa at Costco that goes GREAT with chicken and has no preservatives. Check it out at your local Costco. Another thing I decided on is to stop with the whey protein and ZMA that I am currently taking. Apparently, whey has MSG, which can be a problem, and ZMA is just certain vitamins in a certain combination. I have noticed that I get a better night’s rest with them, but feel that they are a waste of money. Still, it’s always good to have first hand experience with a product so I can tell someone else my experience with it. So my plan is to finish off both products and never touch them again.

A tip that might make things easier for those of you on a high protein diet is to cook 3-4 days worth of meat weighing it out and storing it for later. It may take a while, but the reward of only having to pick up a container already filled with protein and only having to add carbs that are quick to prepare is WELL WORTH IT!!! Also, I found a Salsa called Jack’s Special Salsa at Costco that goes GREAT with chicken and has no preservatives. Check it out at your local Costco.

COMMENTARY

Something that has been on my mind all week has been couples at the gym. I don’t mind seeing couples at the gym, some people need a partner to train with and it is a great time for bonding. However, do us a favor and keep the KISSING AT HOME!!! I never thought this would be an issue, but it seems that the gyms need to put this up on the wall with the other rules of the gym (like no loud grunting). I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw it not once, but twice. Seriously, this is not a place of play and especially not that kind of play. We’re here to work and stay focused. I can’t stay focused when I look around and see couples making out in the middle of the weight room. This is supposed to be a place to use rage and violence productively. Since when is kissing part of the equation? WHEN? This is just another reason why I hate commercial gyms, but due to distance issues will have to do until another gym pops up nearby that wont tolerate this kind of crap! I wish there were a hardcore gym close by so I wouldn’t have to deal with this kind of stuff, but such is life. Not only do I object to this horrific behavior for selfish reasons, but think of the guy participating in it. One has to give 100% intensity and focus in their workouts or they might as well stay home. How can a man concentrate when his blood is flowing to a muscle that ISN’T doing a barbell curl? HOW? The answer is he can’t. So there is no call for this on any level. It benefits no one and takes away from the gym experience and RESULTS! Gym owners please make this a rule from now on. NO KISSING IN THE WEIGHT ROOM.

[peter_midnight]

Due to travel constraints I was unable to write a complete journal entry this week. However, my stats have been updated and unless a more viable alternative comes to my attention, this will be how future blogs will be posted should I be on the road. Thank you


Last Weeks Results:

Goal: 179 lbs

Weight: 185.6 lbs down from 187.2 lbs

Waist: 33 Inches down from 34 inches

Goal: 9 MM

Caliper Reading: 12 MM Same

Goal: 10.6%

Body fat%: 14.6% Same

Lat Pull Downs: 90 Increased from 70

Leg Press Increased from 285 to 295

Calf Raise Increased from 210 to 220

Dumbbell Preacher Curls increased from 35 to 40

[peter_midnight]

No entry this week, still moving and traveling, but here are the stats for this week:

No time for a full entry as I'm still moving/traveling. But here are my stats for this week:

Weight: 177.6 lbs Down

Waist: 32 In Down

Body Fat: 12.7%

[peter_midnight]

Finally settled in, but scheduling conflicts have made it impossible to write a commentary this week. The numbers are below. Note: This is my last week cutting. Due to study commitments, I need to consume more carbs to keep my brain active.

Weight: 177.4 lbs Down

Waist 31 1/2 Down

Calipers: 10 MM/ 12.7% BF

Right Bicep: 15 3/16 Inch

Left Bicep: 14 3/8 Inch

Chest: 39 Inch

New goals: 17 inch biceps

46 Inch Chest (I had this size chest in high school)

Maintain waist size and body fat percentage.

[peter_midnight]

This Week’s Results:

Goal: 187.4 lbs

Weight: 177.4lbs Same

Waist: 31 Inches down from 31 1/2 inches

Goal: 9 MM

Caliper Reading: 9.6 MM down from 10

Goal: 10.6%

Body fat%: 10.6% down from 12.7%

Goal: 46 Inches

Chest: 39 7/8 up from 39 (7/8 inch gain)

Goal: 17 Inches

Right Bicep: 15 ¼ up from 15 3/16

Left Bicep: 14 ¾ up from 14 3/8

Deadlift Increased from 210 to 215

Hack Squat Increased from 35 to 45

Leg Press Increased from 300 to 325

Hamstring Curls increased from 110 to 115

Calf Raises increased from 220 to 230

Dumbbell Curls increased from 40 to 45

Standing Curls increased from 55 to 65

Wrist Curls increased from 45 to 50

Bench Press increased from 210 to 220

Incline Press increased from 180 to 185

Shoulder Press increased from 120 to 130

Lateral Raises increased from 25 to 30


This week brought about changes to my program. The biggest one being that I am no longer training for fat loss. The good news is that even though I made the switch, I was able to reach my fat loss goal of 177 lbs at 10% body fat and I am thrilled to say the least. The reason for the change mainly has to do with school. I will study from here on, which means optimizing the use of my brain, which ultimately means bringing my carbs back up to normal levels. For the last two weeks I could not figure out why I was so tired when I was studying and then it hit me, “You’re low on sugar which is food for the brain that’s why!” I thought to myself. After which I immediately decided that while I could use to lose a little more body fat, it is time to concentrate what brought me to my new location in the first place, SCHOOL! So with that I have new goals.

The new goals have switched from an emphasis in fat loss to an emphasis in muscle gain. However, let me make this clear, it is possible to achieve both. Most bodybuilders have a problem doing both, because the competitive season makes it so that they have to be in competition mode for many months out of the year. This makes gorging inevitable during the offseason. However, I being a non-competitive bodybuilder, have the luxury of cutting my “cut” at any time. In turn, I can allow myself to “cheat” more often than they can. From what I can tell, the competitive bodybuilders only worry about protein uptake and eat pretty much whatever they want in terms of carbs and fats in the offseason (although they aren’t known for eating junk, just foods that one would normally avoid to get as lean as possible for competition, like steak). The protein maintenance guarantees muscle maintenance and the extra calories go towards new gains and added leverage in lifting weights with some extra fat that they pack on. The reason I bring this to your attention is so you can see why my goal is to still stay relatively lean and make gains. I am not a competitive bodybuilder and therefore, do not have a seasonal diet. In my own case, I get to a relatively muscular point and then try to lean out to see if I like how I look and maintain or go for more muscle and try again. Either way, fat will come, but it comes less when I know I can switch up the program at any time. The pros have to stay on for a certain amount of time and get off at a certain time, which makes huge fluctuations in weight a norm in the sport.

Now back to the goals.

As I wrote, I am switching from fat loss to muscle gain. Unfortunately, I don’t have time to take pictures of what I look like right now, but when I do take some you will see me at about a month since making the switch. My abdominal muscles are barely beginning to show and some new veins have popped up. I lost quite a bit of size during the cut and from what I can tell it was mostly fat. Right now, some parts look bigger, but it is obvious that they are much more muscular and less of a powerlifter look with muscle and fat on their bodies. The measurements I take are of course rough estimates since I do not have professional fat testing machines, but needless to say that as long as I can stay within a 2% range of body fat for the next year, the gains that I can make should be off the charts! Earlier this year my arm was 16 ½ inches, so I set a goal of hitting 17 inches. Granted, this will be more muscular since I was at a higher percentage of body fat, but just imagine how much more impressive it’ll LOOK! My chest goal is one that will complete this journey of getting back to once reached levels. In high school, I had a 46 inch chest measurement for my prom suit at 175 lbs. Granted, I am heavier than that now and have a smaller chest, but I feel that if I can get my strength on the bench press up to 300 lbs by the end of the year, I should be able to get to that size. Especially, when you consider that earlier this year I measured in with a 43-inch chest. I think 3 inches above the year high should be a worthy AND achievable goal for the year. Since it is well known that the most muscle one can put on in a year is 10 lbs, I have made this my goal. If I can achieve it, I can get a gage for what is really possible as a goal in size is concerned and make better goals next year, but for now this will have to do. As they say, shoot for the moon and settle for the stars.

COMMENTARY
While on the subject of goals for this journal, I’d like to share a thought I had while out this week. Personally, I don’t mind waking up early and going to the gym. It is a sacrifice as I miss out on a lot of fun that happens at night. However, when I do occasionally let loose I do not feel happy about the consequences. Mind you, I don’t do anything stupid, but late night partying usually results in loss of sleep, sleep rhythm disruptions, eating late, eating BAD FOODS LATE and so on. I then think about what I could have done instead of this and usually the reward sounds more appealing than the cheap fun I had the night before. If you are having trouble with this same problem, I suggest you do the same thing. I know, it sucks to have to make sacrifices to have such a boring life, but I feel that if one is not in the ideal body, then “fun” should be put off anyway. It’ll be faster to achieve the body and then more fun can be experienced. Moreover, I actually enjoy the way I live. I go out and do my thing, but I do not overdo it, which is what I’m seeing people do here at the university. Then again, I just heard someone say that they didn’t even consider life after college, so clearly short-term perspective is rampant here.

Another thing I wanted to mention is the importance of goals and proper goal setting for weight lifting. I have rarely if ever, met a person that did not know where they were going when traveling (unless they were a drifter). Yet, many people have no clue where they are going at the gym. Oh sure, they have a vague idea, tone up a bit, lose a few inches there, but many people do not have concrete written out plans of action on how they will achieve their fitness goals. HOW CAN ANYONE DO THIS??? It makes no sense whatsoever to say I’m going to go to the gym everyday and lose weight. It is a good start, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions. What people need is a better start. So, I urge you to get out the old measuring tape and scale and figure out where you are. Hopefully, you have some fat calipers too, if not, BUY SOME! After, you measure yourself; figure out where you are going. Then, keep progress, take pictures and have a journey. I mean it. If you don’t want to pull out the scale or measuring tape, this is all the more reason to do so. It can be a wakeup call.

That’s all for now, next week I’ll be back to the regular style of posting. Also, pictures of the transformation will be up as well so check back.

[peter_midnight]

This Week’s Results:

Goal: 187.4 lbs

Weight: 175.8 lbs Down from 177.4 lbs

Waist: 30 ¾ Inches down from 31 inches

Goal: 9 MM

Caliper Reading: 10 MM Up from 9.6 MM

Goal: 10.6%

Body fat%: 12.7% up from 10.6%

Goal: 46 Inches

Chest: 39 7/16 down from 39 7/8

Goal: 17 Inches

Right Bicep: 15 ¼ same from last week

Left Bicep: 14 ¾ up from 14 3/4

ANALYSIS OF NUMBERS

Despite going back to a “bulking” cycle (my program prefers to call it muscle building phase), I lost weight and size on my chest. This is confusing because I actually put on a tiny bit of body fat according to the measurements. I’m pretty sure that the scale is accurate, so the loss of weight is valid. Whether it is fat or muscle or a little of both may be a bit harder to gauge. The reason being that while body fat may be up, waist size and chest size are in fact down. Waist size decrease can decrease from either a lack of abdominal stimulation or fat loss so this is hard to gauge. My guess is that considering that chest size is down and since it is possible to lose abdominal muscle size, I may have gained some fat last week. I’m not sure how this is possible given that I ate completely clean. I did have some days where when eating rice, a good portion of it became stuck to the bowl and that might have affected the dietary intake. But even then, considering that I stopped cutting, the fat number should have gone up, not down. Hopefully, more consistent numbers will show up next week.

TRAINING

Training wasn’t too bad this week. I was able to get in all 5 days this week. I decided to only do 3 days of cardio on weight training days and then do the other 2 days of cardio on my days off. I feel it has allowed me to push harder in the gym on the days when I don’t do cardio first thing in the morning. On the days when I do no weight training, I usually eat less, so cardio has allowed me to actually burn more during these days. I felt that this might be why I dropped some weight even though I am eating more than I have been. Rest times went down, but I still felt like I had room to squeeze in a bit more intensity, so I will be increasing that next week. Also, I changed my abdominal workout and felt sore for about 3 days. It has been a while since I have felt THAT sore in the abs and may promote growth. It’s too early to tell right now. Also, my chest got super sore this week. I decided to use my cell phone as a stopwatch to time breaks in between sets as I was observing someone else in the gym doing the same thing and feel that it has greatly improved my workout.

DIET
Once again I was able to stay strict with egg whites in the morning and a mixture of meat and other protein sources throughout the day. There may have been one incident where I ate a meal at an interval over 4 hours, but I’m not sure.

I went over the program that I’m following and decided to add more sugar to my diet. One of the foods I like to consume prunes in the morning. I am switching prunes to concentrate on a purer form of simple carbohydrate. In other words, a prune while probably one of the better forms of simple carbs does contain some complex carbs (not much). I have found some more dense sources of simple carbs (Nonfat yogurt, honey, dried cranberries, etc) and decided to incorporate those into my diet. As many of you may know, it is believed that it is best to use simple carbs pre and post workout. So, I decided to use the purest forms that I possibly could (that are healthy). Yogurt could probably be used entirely, except for one problem. The last time I consumed a large quantity of yogurt (about 8 cups in two meals), I experienced gastrointestinal problems and felt weird in my chest. So I quit dairy altogether for about 8 months. I think now, if I have just two servings per day, I’ll be fine and since the carbs in yogurt is all sugar, it would be perfect to consume with the pre-workout and post workout meals. As an added bonus, I’ll get some protein out of it, cutting down on my consumption of egg whites (which I consider sort of a plus since I eat so many in a day). The honey is just to feel less full while still eating the right amount of carbs. Fruit is ideal because it assures that get adequate amounts of fiber in my diet, but it can reek havoc on my stomach during a workout, while the honey gives me the same energy (maybe even more since it doesn’t have to be digested) with less of a full feeling while I’m lifting weights.


COMMENTARY

One of my new roommates observed how dedicated I was to eating clean and made a comment about how he wished he had the dedication that I have to weigh my food and eat clean foods everyday. Well, what he probably does not realize is that it is just as hard for me as it would be for him to do this. People seem to think that I enjoy eating things like rice, chicken, broccoli and egg whites (among others) on a daily basis. The truth is that I don’t like it either and sometimes, especially at night, I’d rather just eat “normal food” i.e. junk food like everybody else. I have found ways to make my foods a little tastier than they would be normally prepared, but the fact is that chicken breast tastes like chicken breast, no matter how one dresses it up. The only thing that keeps me going is my progress and how I look in the mirror. Seeing the changes in my physique and the satisfaction that comes with it, fuel me to continue on. The interesting part about all of this is that when asked, I don’t tell people what to eat, I tell them to hit certain numbers in terms of carbs, proteins and fats. But no matter what I say, they just assume that they have to eat, what I eat in order to reach their fitness goals. This is not the case. HOWEVER, I eventually reached this point, because 1) I like simplicity, 2) I have little time to prepare grand meals and 3) I have found that for the most part, this is the most effective way to consume the most protein, with the least amount of fat, for the lowest price, without experimenting with chemicals both legal and illegal. One could consume red meat or any other meat as their primary source of protein. However, they may consume more fat than they can handle given their individual metabolism. Therefore, I eat the way I do not as choice, but as a necessary step, since my goals have not been realized. Someone that does not have the goal that I have, will probably do fine eating different forms of protein daily to reach their goals, because the little fat that other lean sources contain probably wont add up to much. So while I am flattered to be admired for my discipline and dedication, don’t be fooled. I hate doing this as much as anyone else.

[peter_midnight]

This Week’s Results:

Goal: 187.4 lbs

Weight: 181.4 lbs Up from 175.8 lbs

Waist: 31 1/8 Inches Up from 31 inches

Goal: 9 MM

Caliper Reading: 9.6 MM Up from 10 MM

Goal: 10.6%

Body fat%: 10.6% down from 12.7%

Goal: 46 Inches

Chest: 40 ¾ Up from 39 7/16

Goal: 17 Inches

Right Bicep: 15 ½ Up from 15 ¼

Left Bicep: 15 Up from 14 ¾

Lat Pull increase of 110 from 100

Deadlift went up to 220 from 215

Hack Squats went up to 75 from 65

Calf Raises went up to 260 from 250

Preacher curls went up to 95 from 90

Standing curls went up to 75 from 70

Military press is up from 135 to 140

ANALYSIS OF NUMBERS

Last week, I was having trouble getting a clear analysis of the numbers and it looks like this week is much clearer. While my weight went up tremendously (5.6 pounds), it is clear that this gain for the most part was pure muscle. Here’s the breakdown: Weight and waist size are up, yet caliper readings are down from a week ago. This is an indication of muscle gain. I wont go so far as to say there was fat loss, because human error is always a possibility, but it is clear that I’m headed in the right direction. With a 5-pound gain, one would think that surely there would be fat gain involved, but let’s take a closer look. This week is the most intense of my workout as well as next week and as such all numbers went up including waist. Yet, the waist could easily be growing due to an increased abdominal stimulation and I would venture to say that this is the case. Why? Mainly because my abs has been sore on a consistent basis after workouts for the last 2 weeks and as we all know, soreness usually precedes growth (although not a guarantee). It appears that even though I had a cheat meal this week, it didn’t affect me much if at all and calorie wise, I can stay where I’m at for now.

TRAINING

This week and next week will be my heavy weeks so I expect more soreness this week. What has been a big surprise is the soreness level I have been experiencing, especially in the abs. I think the big factor is that I am pushing for true failure. Before I went to failure, but it seems to me that I am using mental and physical energy to fail beyond what I am normally capable of, which is resulting in an increase in strength, growth and soreness. I did have to switch up the exercise order twice this week as the machines or stations that I normally use were occupied, so even though I got everything in, the order was different which may have affected my goals.

DIET
With the exception of my Christmas cheat meal (one pound of See’s chocolate) I was able to stay on course with my diet. I find it interesting to see that the chocolate had little to no effect on fat levels, which is great because it was my fear. Other changes included organic nonfat milk and Honey to the diet. I did use Yogurt last week, but when I ran out, I felt that milk was a better option. Something interesting to note is that while both are dairy, they have their own health benefits unique to each other. Milk’s main benefit is the minerals contained within it. To obtain the same amount of minerals in other foods, one would have to eat lots of dark green leafy vegetables, calcium, magnesium and phosphorus. Zinc is another big mineral in milk that can aid in sleep, which is probably why people are advised to drink a glass of milk before sleeping if they have trouble going to sleep (this is why ZMA is popular, because of the zinc that aids in sleep). The vitamins with the exception of vitamin D can be found elsewhere, but the minerals are a little harder to find. Yogurt on the other hand has two big aces that make it worth eating, those being digestion and bacteria. Yogurt is a great food for those with lactose intolerance as it contains less per serving than milk. I myself for years not liking the taste of milk and being somewhat intolerant to it preferred using yogurt to milk. What really makes yogurt more appealing than milk is the probiotic content. Probiotics being good bacteria are hard to find in palatable sources, but even plain yogurt can taste good with some fruit in it, making it the meal of choice. Moreover, we need probiotics to aid in digestion and other bodily functions in the stomach. Most people I know that do not consume yogurt and are health conscious have to take in a probiotic supplement to accommodate for this. So, I may decide to switch back and forth between the two forms of dairy, as too much dairy can wreak havoc on the stomach (as I experienced earlier this year with yogurt). The best part about both foods is the protein. Casein protein is slow to digest making it an ideal appetite suppressant. I have noticed a decrease in hunger during training sessions immediately upon the switch, which helped curb overeating when I got home to eat a post workout meal. So far, I like the diet switch and apparently the numbers above show that it was a good move.

COMMENTARY

Typically this is where I rant, but I feel no need to rant this week. However, I did find interesting how my body reacted to the higher intensity workouts. Mainly, it wanted to sleep more than usual. I find this interesting because bodybuilders often recommend 10 hours of sleep for maximum growth. I found myself hitting this number often, but only because my body would be sleepy either 2-hours before I usually sleep or during the day, I would take what normally would be a 15-minute nap and extend it to 2-hours, no matter how long my alarm went off. This also may have played a huge roll in my big gains this week and as such, I would pass on to the reader that it is imperative to listen to the body in order to achieve maximum results. If it does not want to rest, don’t, if it does, DO!