Kaizen - Shazriki's log to continuous improvement

[Shazriki]

Background
The year is 2007, summer. I am recovering from a night out visiting some friends in a nearby, looking at some of the pictures we took. There was apparently some fooling around by the pool the previous night, so naturally there are pictures of us running around by the pool half-naked. I see some of me running around, my arms are flabby, my gut is huge. I ask myself "could it really be that bad?" and walk upstairs to consult the scales. 105kg. This was after my first year at university, and almost 8 months of borderline alcoholism (student style, not mental dependence).I decide to do something about this, and am in the gym intermittently for the next two months in the lead up to my second year at uni. Results are lacking to say the least, maybe a kilo is lost.

My second year at uni is a special time, something seemingly magical happens. I start doing karate three times a week, and weight training at least 4 times a week. My strength goes up, my fat goes down, I'm healthier (and people say so); and all this without having to pay any attention to my nutrition (though less alcohol is consumed compared to the previous year). I reach around 86kg.

Third year of university, workload increases, am forced to live off campus in a house miles away, gym access limited, karate attendance plummets, housemates more into weed than oxygen. All the ingredients present for disaster, and sure enough 3rd year is completed with no bodily improvement. Quite the opposite, much of the muscle that was worked hard to build was "converted" to fat, the result being an increase of around 6.5kg over the course of the year.

Fourth year of university, as part of my course I go to switzerland to do an internship. New possibilities, a much more comfortable lifestyle. I take the opportunity and get back on the fitness track. Fast forward to now and I have lost more or less all of the fat I put on in 3rd year at uni, and regained (or actually improved) on the amount of muscle I had by the end of my 2nd year. I am determined to harness this momentum and let it drive me to a body I never thought it possible to attain.

Scope

Stage 1: My current weight is 84kg, I will be losing fat to reach around 80kg, which will take me to between 10-12% bodyfat.

Stage 2: Here I will use Leangains to bulk to (in the longterm) around 90kg. This may result in another log, as reach 90kg is a long way away, but I'm convinced my body has the potential to reach it with bf% staying low.

Strategy

I will use intermittent fasting (leangains) for my cut. Because of my work schedule and when I'm able to go to the gym, I find that breaking the fast at noon works best, followed by a large snack before the gym and then the postworkout meal (which is always the largest). On rest days, I still take in three meals, the only difference being that the snack will be something composed of slow digesting protein as opposed to complex carbs.

My exercise routine will be as follows:

Monday - Back - Deadlifts, Weighted chins, Seated row, Preacher curl, hammer curl

Wednesday - Chest - Bench press, incline bench, Machine flys, Weighted dips, Shoulder press (machine)

Friday - Legs/Abs - Front squats (smith rack), Leg curl, Cable crunches, Leg raises, Incline side bends

Cardio is performed sporadically on rest days, but normally I will do at least one 9K run during the week, and around 40mins LISS on the weekends.

Measurables
I will use a scale with a BIA function to give weekly weight updates on mondays. Due to the nature of BIA I will give weight updates in the mornings as soon as I get up, and bf% updates when I get home after my workout. (NB: I know estimates of bf% from BIA are useful baselines but I feel I get a more representative estimate when I'm more hydrated towards the end of the day as opposed to when I wake up dry.)

Nutrition
Approximately 2200 cals daily, with protein to reach a minimum of 180g, and fat not to be below 60g. Fat will be higher on rest days with carbs kept to a minimum. On workout days I will be more liberal with carbs especially post workout.

Supplementation
Protein powder - lots of it
Creatine mono - gets mention here because I will start using it after I'm finished cutting, though I don't see the value in it for now
One-a-day multivitamin
Fish oil
Calcium

Extras
Once in a while if I cook something especially awesome that I want to share with you guys, I'll post a pic of it.


Please keep up with me guys, I'm sure this will be a success! First update will come tomorrow.

[Shazriki]

Here is a picture of the fry up I had to break my fast for today. Below is an example of a rest meal (high fat, lower carb, high protein)



Tasty.

[Shazriki]

Macros for the day:

P/C/F: 218/87/107

Total: 2181 cals

Dinner was two burger patties with some boiled broccoli and cottage cheese. Followed by some frozen protein pudding (admittedly, a bit too frozen, but was kinda like ice cream):



Will be posting tomorrow with this log's first weigh in. Now to mong out in front of the tv before hitting the sack. Night folks.

[Shazriki]

14 February 2011

Good evening everyone, this is the first progress post of the log (no, it's not just food porn). Well let's start with the stats for the first weight in:

Weight: 84kg
BF%: 15.7

I should note that I've been cutting for about 3 weeks now, but only got around to creating the log in the last couple of days. My weight has stayed fairly constant in the last week (weighing in at 84.1kg last monday), but my fat has gone done (measured as 16.3% last week). Let's hear it for noob gains!

Back day at the gym today. Using Reverse Pyramid Training (RPT) for my main compound lifts, which in this case are the deadlift and chin up. For most of my other exercises I use the starting strength progression schemes, so 3x5 at a given weight and if I can do this, increase weight for next workout. As the general format for this log I will only post my top sets in each day's training session, as these are the ones that are truly indicative of strength gains/loss on the cut. Also, for weighted chins I always post the total weight, which is my weight as weighed in the gym + whatever added weight. I'm usually a few kilos heavier in the gym due to clothes and food/water consumed throughout the day (I weigh myself in underwear at home).

Deadlift: 130kg x 5
Weighted chins: 109.5kg x 4
Seated row: 90kg x 5
Preacher curl: 38kg x 5 x 3
Hammer curl: 12kg x 8

NB: I do 3 sets of hammer curls at the end of my workout with very little rest between sets just for a bit of a bicep pump

Aaand all of the above were PRs except for the seated row and hammer curl

Nutrition for today was 223P/214C/53F totalling up to 2210 calories. Some will say the fat is low, but I always go low fat on workout days to make way for extra carbs especially around the workout.

All in all, a good day. And just because I feel like it, here's a song:



Night folks.

[Shazriki]

15 February 2011

A rest day today. Nothing special to report other than that I deliberately went high protein high fat low carb throughout the day leading up to dinner because it was my housemates birthday. Queue the customary wining and dining hence I needed a buffer.

Thanks to the modesty of Swiss restaurant portions I think I was still within limits, even with dessert

Workout day tomorrow, it's chest time!

[Shazriki]

16 February 2011

Chest day today. I went a bit lighter than I usually do because I've been reading through my recently acquired copy of Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training by Rippetoe (no introduction needed I'm guessing). I've read through both the squat and bench press sections and it's been an eye opener, I can now no longer accept poor form in any of my exercises. To the weights:

Bench press: 70kg x 6
Incline bench press: 50kg x 6
Fly machine: 86kg x 10 (NB these in no way compare to dumbell flys, hence the weight)
Weighted dips: 94kg x 5
Shoulder press: 70kg x 5

Food wise today was nothing special. Just had my usual tuna salad sandwich for lunch and some pre-WO proats. Post-WO I had myself a large stirfry and some proats with chopped banana, meant to put in 50g of PB in them but it slipped my mind, so actually came in lower than I wanted to today...

212P/218C/47F

Good amount of carbs to fix up my chest though, which I suppose is good seeing as it's easily the weakest part of my body.

Have a day trip to another one of my company's facilities tomorrow, so depending on what food is on offer there I may do a whole-day fast and just eat when I get home. Tbh, I may do that anyway just to see what throwing down 2200 cals in one sitting will feel like. Amazing, I imagine.

[Shazriki]

17 February 2011

Today was an interesting day. As I mentioned yesterday I had to travel a bit today for a meeting. Going into this morning I promised myself that I would only eat lunch if it was a good offering, i.e. good variety of foods, stuff that I could use to more or less estimate my macros, otherwise it was going to be a day long fast. Sure enough "lunch" consisted of mini-sandwiches that were more bread than filling, a fruit salad and carrot cake. In other words diametrically opposed to what I wanted to be eating today (as per leangains rest days are high fat, high protein and low carb, I aim for <100g CHO if possible).

So it was a day long fast, and damn was it easy. By the time I got home, I'd been running on empty for 22 hours, so here are a couple of pictures of what I threw down to make up for it all:

"Cut friendly" pizza, eventually folded over to make a calzone and served with lettuce


Followed by burgers with dairy explosion:


That's two burger patties with a slice of cheese and fried egg on top, served with cottage cheese, Peri Peri sauce and ketchup, with some cucumber

For dessert I had cottage cheese mixed with peanut butter and some chocolate milk protein, sprinked with cinnamon, cocoa powder and chopped banana. This was quite simply legendary, so I got too excited and forgot to take a pic...

All in all today's take: 209P/99C/111F for 2236 cals.

Tomorrow is leg and abs in the gym, and I'll probably close the session with a 20 min cycle. Then a carb up for dinner, cereal and oatmeal

Night folks.

[Shazriki]

18 February 2011

Leg day at the gym today. As with chest day went a bit lighter than I usually do to nail form. Hey - just because I'm forced to do front squats on a smith rack is no excuse to not execute the squats as best I can. I know I went deep enough today, since my top set of squats felt like hell. The numbers:

Front squats: 80kg x 5
Leg curl: 75kg x 8
Cable crunch: 50kg x 15
Hanging leg raises: 4kg DB between legs x 15
45 degree side bends: 14kg x 15

For the squats I will use 80kg as the baseline and aim to progress about 3kg a week in my top set. I'm confident that even on this cut I'll be able to build up to the mid-90s before I simply maintain till the end of the cut.

Post-WO eats today were very tasty. Had myself a cereal and oatmeal refeed:

100g Choco Shreddies, 100g Fitness Fruits, milk and vanilla yoghurt with cinnamon:


Follow by some pretty epic proats: oats, some chocolate smooth protein, chopped banana and natty PB with cocoa powder and cinnamon sprinkled on top:


This (including what I had pre-WO) totalled to:

209P/397C/51F = 2877 cals

It was challenging to get all that carby stuff down in one sitting, but I consider it important training, as refeeds like this will become more frequent the leaner I become and certainly when I start bulking!

[Shazriki]

19 February 2011

Went for a morning run today, 7k in 45 mins. Was deliberately taking it slow to reduce the impact and to get more time on my feet in that "ideal fat burning" heart rate. Personally I believe that good old fashioned endurance training is at least as good as LISS but it does wear you out more, that's for sure.

Had myself a cheat meal for dinner tonight, pizza with shrimp and ham and about 3/4 of a tub of Chunky Monkey. Felt really good, considering how well I've been eating the past 2 months. I'll be right back on it tomorrow. Anyway not sure on macros but I can safely say that protein was met and that carbs were higher than they should be, but no matter that's what cheat meals are for!

Gonna go for a real light morning jog tomorrow, barely 30 mins probably and just relax for the rest of the day. Probably do some reading and play (read: learn to play) some guitar.

Night all.

[Shazriki]

20 February 2011

Crap, forgot to update for yesterday (Sunday). Today was a typical lazy Sunday with the exception of a slow 5k (in around 31 mins) in the rain. I don't know why I bothered, but motivation was high despite the weather, so I just went out and did it.

Had some ingredients that needed using and I figured that since I went for a run I might as well have a bit more than I usually do, so macros for the day:

267P/145C/91F = 2466 cals

I'll post today's (monday) weigh-in later today along with the BIA fat reading. Just as a sneak preview this morning actually came in heavier than last week, but this weekend I had a carb-up on friday (ate at maintenance) and had a cheat on saturday with the pizza and ice cream (controlled though). So I doubt much of the weight if any is fat, but the numbers are the numbers.

[Shazriki]

[B]21 February 2011, weigh in[/B

Weight: 85ish (forgot to write down in honesty, but not down from last week...)
Fat: 16.4%

So I'm going to chalk the above reading up to water retention from my carb load on friday and cheat meal on saturday. Tbh I only went to maintenance on the carb load, and my cheat was probably only 3-400 cals over maintenance, so I don't know where all the weight came from, considering that mid week last week I weighed in at 83.5kg. I'll probably post another weigh in on wednesday or thursday, by then should be getting a realistic picture of how much damage I did over the weekend (if any). It's funny though, since during my workout today I noticed some serious vascularity on my arms (more than usual), which would suggest that I'm dropping the fat there.

Regardless, I'm committed to this cut until mid-april, so plenty of time to progress.


Another back day today. Today the weighted chins were really hard, I only managed to get 3 good reps out of my top set. I wonder if maybe I've hit the maintenance weight of that exercise and that the noob gains have dried out for this one. Or it could just be a slow, week I did improve in my other exercises after all. Deadlifts made it 135kg, I really wonder how long I'll be able to progress with these, as far as I can tell my body is very well suited to the exercise. We'll see. Weights below:

Deadlift: 135kg x 5
Weighed chins (at BW = 87.8kg): 109.5 x 3 (and a half...)
Seated row: 92.5kg x 5
Preacher curl: 40kg x 5
Hammer curl: 12kg x 10

Man, talking about weight is more satisfying in pounds. Saying that next week I'm going to deadlift over 300lbs sounds much cooler than saying I'm going to hit 138kgs. Hehe.

Macros for today:

189P/253C/54F = 2270 cals

Tomorrow I'm going to make an effort to go very low carb and get lots of fats in. We're talking avocados, cottage cheese and peanut butter. Might treat myself to a nice salmon steak or something. I'll keep you posted.

[Shazriki]

22 February 2011

So last night after I posted my log entry I was dropping water like crazy. Woke up this morning looking leanest I have in a few days, and the scale indicated as much as well. I'll be doing another weigh in tomorrow, just to see if any difference has been made on either measuerment.

Today was a pretty standard day at the office (in every sense of the phrase). Did my 9 to 5, came home, played some guitar, watched some TV. And then I made an Elvis sandwich for dinner:



Which was amazing. Not quite as filling as I'd hoped it would be, could certainly have been much fuller off the calories, considering, but hey, it tasted great. Followed up with a hearty bowl of blended cottage cheese with PB, some choc casein and almonds. High fat days are cool

194P/96C/118F = 2215 cals

[Shazriki]

23 February 2011

Weighed in again this morning, and was pleased with the results: 83.5kg. Down from last week, all systems go Looking leaner too, so I'm confident it isn't muscle, even though the BIA reading I had earlier today was actually UP from last week, at around 17% (damn fluctuations).

Had another chest day today, and I'm asking anyone who reads this to pay a bit of attention to the below routine and add any criticisms to it. My chest is the weakest part of my body and I'm never sure if I'm getting anywhere with it, or if the routine I use at any given point in time is optimal. As usual I'll post the top weights from the workout below. Where I use the SS progressions scheme I'll list whether or not I hit the 3x5 required to progress (weight x no. of reps x no. of sets).

Bench press: 70kg x 5 x 3

Incline bench: 50kg x 5

Machine flys: 86kg x 10

Weighted dips (@BW = 87.2kg): 92.2kg x 5 x 2, final set of 4, damn it!

Machine shoulder press: 70kg x 5 x 3

It's pretty annoying, I was heavier before christmas than I am now, doing dips for reps with a 10kg plate dangling between my legs, and now I can scarcely get the 5x3 out required for SS progression. And I don't even feel like I've lost that much strength in my body overall. I guess this is what happens when you simultaneously start a new strength routine on a cut..

Anyway, macros for today:

229P/224C/46F = 2243 cals

Had myself an amazing stirfry followed by some cereal in yoghurt. feelsgoodman

[Shazriki]

24 February 2011

Today I woke up to find it snowing like hell outside. So that was running out then.. No matter I prefer to control my results through diet rather than exercises, though I do toss the odd run in here and there.

I felt really strange throughout the day after lunch. I broke the fast with one of my usual tuna salad mixture (tuna, mayo, ajvar, some chopped cucumber and spices). This was a high fat, high protein meal with trace karbs. I felt pretty lethargic and heavy throughout the day, I guess this is what happens to people trying to enter ketosis. Could I be going too low on carbs on rest days? This hasn't happened before so I'm not sure.

Other than that not much to report today, other than this epicness below, my first attempt at protein sludge (served with Choco shreddies, SF maple syrup and raspberries):



Total macros for the day:

201P/86C/122F = 2238 cals

It's truly amazing how easy it is to avoid/include certain macronutrients in your diet with you know the basics of nutrition. 3 months ago I would have been bewildered by the prospect of having to micromanage my diet to this level (cycling my macros depending on the day). Now... it's just a breeze 8)

[Shazriki]

25 February 2011

Busy day at the office today, had a couple of visitors that needed to measure an installation, so had to delay my lunch by an hour. Easy thanks to IF. Decided that my protein stores were getting depleted so I sent out for some using the bb.com store, here's the damage below:

DS Lean Xtreme 90 tabs
XF UP Cinnamon Roll
XF UP Chocolate PB
GN MyoFusion Banana
WF SF Chocolate syrup

And apparently all this entitled me to free tshirt. I love free ****. I had the owner of my gym do caliper reading on me today, because my housemate had hers done a couple of days ago so I though "what the hell." Turns out my current BF is 16.3%, which actually I'm pretty happy with. I've decided that this cut will expire in exactly 4 weeks. Why 4 weeks? Well I just got off the phone with my father and we decided it would be a good idea for me to fly out to Spain to surprise my mother on her birthday. I figure it's a good opportunity to take a week off training (I'll have been in the gym for over 12 weeks non-stop) and make the turnaround into bulk season.

I now sort of feel like an idiot for order than jar of lean xtreme given that by the time it arrives I'll only have about 2.5 weeks to use it (enough to see results?). Regardless, with or without it by the end of march I SHOULD be sub-15%bf which will be perfect to start my bulk.

Gym today was pretty good, managed to add another rep to my front squat, while retaining good form. Changed up my ab routine a bit, decided to up the weight on the cable crunches and go for fewer reps, to shift more into the strength building rep range. Also dropped leg raises for heavy crunches on the crunch machine.

Front squat: 80kg x 6
Leg curl machine: 75kg x 8
Cable crunch: 55kg x 8
Crunch machine: 65kg x 8
Incline side bends: 16kg x 15

Ramping up the intensity on the abs should have me feeling the pain tomorrow Speaking of tomorrow, pretty excited, will be going skiing for the day just across the French border (Linga - Portes du Soleil). There's been fresh snow falling all week and sunny weather is forecast, should be awesome.

Nutrition for the day:

224P/246C/43F = 2272 cals

Really loving protein sludge, it's serious stuff.

Night folks, take care.

[Shazriki]

26 February 2011

Great day today, if a bit tiring. Went to Linga in the Portes du Soleil ski area of France (not far from where I live in Switzerland). Weather was a bit iffy at first, but was able to snap this during a sunny spell:



A solid day of skiing: hit the slopes at around 9.30, and had my last run at 16.30. Not sure how much that is in terms of actual exercise, but it certainly gave my legs a good blasting. My quads aren't laughing after their treatment yesterday. Tomorrow is going to be a true sit on my ass day. Gonna catch up with some guitar and "How I Met Your Mother." Chilled.

Nutrition:
207P/113C/115F = 2303 cals

[Shazriki]

27 February 2011

As advertised, today was an absolute chill out day. You need these from time to time. Ended up watching a director's cut of Troy, 3+ hours, felt like a marathon.

Nutrition:
190P/175C/89F = 2203 kcal

A note on nutrition, I decided to go higher on carbs than I usually do on rest days. Feels better and allows more variety/creativity than my previous borderline-keto. I think I'll stick with a more relaxed view of carbs on rest days and see how it benefits me.

[Shazriki]

28 February 2011 Weigh in

Weighed in at a tidy 83.4kg, so a 0.1kg decrease, it's probably a bit more than that but we'll see later in the week. Curiously, after my gym session the BIA reading was 16.3%, which is exactly what calipers put me at last friday. Seems that at times the BIA reading does fluctuate around the true value. Anyway, weight dropping, strength retaining, all's good.

Back day at the gym today went well, energy was up from last week's workout, I think incorporating more carbs in my rest day meals works nicely. I was finally able to do the 4 reps with +49.5lbs dangling between my legs. Also broke the 300lbs mark on the deadlift today (138kg or 303.6lbs). All in all, pretty decent:

Deadlift: 138kg x 5
W-chin @BW = 87kg: +22.5kg x 4
Seated row: 92.5kg x 5
Preacher curl: 43kg x 4 (bit off more than I could chew here, will go down to 41kg next week and progress from there)
Hammer curl: 12kg x 10

Nutrition:
Went about 50 cals higher than usual simply because I had to get through some variety pack cereals. Had a cereal bowl with frosties, honey pops, chocos and smacks mixed together with some jello pudding and chocolate yoghurt. Was pretty decadent.

200P/239C/69F = 2314 kcal

Gonna try and go for a run tomorrow at lunch time, even if the weather isn't the best. I haven't gone for one in a while and want to at least maintain the endurance I've built up over the last 6 months.

[Shazriki]

1 March 2011

Welcome to March, the last month of my first cut! Today was a rest day of course, so nothing much to report. Went for a 6.4k run at lunch which burned off around 550 kcal. Didn't go overboard with eating today since I wanted to create an extra large deficit for a mini-refeed I'm having tomorrow.

However, check these out:



Thai green curry. I will probably be eating things like this a lot more, the inclusion of coconut milk makes it MUCH easier to hit the high fat macro that I aim for on off days, and once you reduce it with some spices it becomes amazingly thick and tasty.



Strawberry protein fluff rice cakes with peanut butter. Pretty amazing, and then of course the entire bowl of protein fluff comes in at a measly 230 kcal but is ridiculously filling, so I polished that off on the side.

Nutrition for the day:
185P/110C/107F

[Shazriki]

2 March 2011

I'd just like to start by announcing that I will be ending the fat loss portion of this log at the end of March. I don't think I really have an adequate base to cut down to 10%bf and look anything but anorexic. This cut will officially end Wednesday the 30th of March. At this point I may have the mods move this to the nutrition forum, or may just create a new thread there. Reflecting on what I've accomplished in the last 1.5 months, this cut has been a great experience for me. Through it I've taught myself effective strategies that seemingly trivialize the concept of fat loss. It's not difficult, it just takes time.

Another chest day. Using the starting strength progression scheme for the bench presses was a good idea, as it has allowed me to establish a baseline strength level for these exercises. (Last week I managed to get 70kgx5x3, so I increased this week to 72.5kg). Unfortunately I missed the last rep of the last set, so I'll stick at that weight and try for it next week.

Bench press: 72.5kgx5x2, 4x1
Incline bench press: 50kgx5x3
Fly machine: 86kgx10
Weighted dips (BW = 85.8kg): 92.05kgx5x3 FINALLY got the 5x3 in, felt stronger this week for some reason
Shoulder press machine: 72.5kgx5x2, 4x1

I feel some real progress was made today, and I'm hoping that this will be converted to an increase in strength since I did an appxoimate maintenance refeed today, it was awesome. On to nutrition.

Nutrition:

Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the epic proats I made to start the refeed with, but they contained honey PB, 80% pure cocoa chocolate, banana, chocolate PP... you get the idea.

What I did get a picture of, however, was the bowl of cereal sludge I had afterwards. Featuring fruit loops, choco shreddies (chex), and cookie crisp, slathered with SF syrup:



I got half way through and was genuinely afraid of not being able to finish it. Clearly I have some practice to do for my bulk.

Final macros:
188P/357C/56F = 2653 kcal (feelsgoodman.jpg come at me leptin)

[Shazriki]

3 March 2011

Day off from the gym today, so not much to add I'm afraid. I bought some nutella which I'll use in some post workout proats tomorrow so keep your eyes peeled, I'm sure it's going to be wild.

Actually the main developments today were in the office, where I finally feel as if my head is getting back into work mode. You see, as an intern it's kind of difficult to land a project of any significance at a office mainly staffed by Masters and PhDs. But I finally got something that I'll be able to put my name on and looking forward to getting on with it. We'll see how it goes.

Nutrition:

Now this has already gone up on the latest MEN thread, but I was really happy with today's tortilla pizza. Came out really spicy due to the inclusion of red chillis and tabasco:



Really hit the spot and I think it's a versatile dish. Depending on how you manipulate your macros for the day it's perfectly suitable for leangains post-workout meals or, in this case, rest day meals. That's 77P/44C/21F per pizza, by the way.

So yea, leg day tomorrow. Will be looking up my front squat by a few kgs. Already have that pre-squat dread building up, but I know it'll feel amazing when I get around to it

[Dexter3000]

Holy sh!t those pics look good! ... gotta get more creative in my meals as well.

Keep it up!

[Shazriki]

Thanks man. I really owe the creativity of my meals to tracking macros. If I hadn't been doing this I would constantly be paranoid that everything I eat is insanely unhealthy. Probably would have resulted in some inadvertent PSMF with me eating like 10g of fat a day :P

[Shazriki]

I'd just like to highlight a couple of changes to the way I update the log:

1) I'll now be doing daily weigh ins when I get up, rather than weekly.
2) Going to drop the BIA readings, since those numbers are wildly inaccurate as I've discovered, I'd much rather go by what's in the mirror and my performance in the gym as indicators of progress.
3) I'll now list ALL of my sets for each exercise, rather than just the top set. I think it's important to show my progress in all sets, since the top set isn't always the whole story..
4) All weights listed will now be lbs, since that seems to be the bb.com standard.

That's it. Update to come later tonight.

[Shazriki]

4 March 2011

Killed myself during legs today. Tried to up the weight to 181.5 on front squats and only made it to 4 reps. Went for 5 and failed, good thing I was doing them on a smith machine otherwise I would have had to dump the bar. 181.5 is a PR but I think I'll go back down to 176 and try and get to 7 reps next week. Or should I just man up and stay at 181.5? We'll see.

Front squats: 181.5 x 4, 165 x 6, 154 x 7
Leg curl: 165 x 9, 154 x 11, 143 x 11
Cable crunch: 121 x 9 x 2, 121 x 8
Crunch machine: 143 x 10 x 3
DB incline Side bends: 44 x 11 x 3

I've decided to go lower rep higher weight on the ab exercises, as I really want to strengthen these guys up, and especially for them to pop when the bulk starts.

The Eats

In true IIFYM style I had a very simple meal of seasoned baked turkey breast with some broccoli and tabasco:



Followed by the best proats I have ever made. I'm staring to really get the consistency right these days. For reference, that's nutella, banana, chocolate milk protein, m&ms and SF syrup as mix-ins.



I love putting these plates of food in front of my housemates and watch them look on in horror as they ponder how the hell I can be losing weight while eating this stuff.

Macros:
222P/244C/51F = 2280 cals

Planning on going for a run tomorrow morning, and HOPING that my bb.com package will have arrived, got an email earlier today saying that the package had been delivered, so I assume the mailman will have a present for me in the morning. Here's hoping! Night folks.

[ian0789]

Nice eats duder =)

[Dexter3000]

You inspired me to check out what kind of cereal stuff I can put in my CC and get it in my macro goals.

I'm now having chocho puffs in my post-wo CC and its delicious, thanks

[Shazriki]

Nice eats duder =)

Thanks man! I hope to add more creations (especially once the bulk gets started)... pancakes and protein muffins are high on my list of things to try.

You inspired me to check out what kind of cereal stuff I can put in my CC and get it in my macro goals.

I'm now having chocho puffs in my post-wo CC and its delicious, thanks

Haha get involved my man. If you have a mixer blender you can add a bit of protein powder and PB to some CC and make extra thick sludge which goes amazingly with cereal and frozen berries. Also, just try making some traditional sludge and add a bit of cream cheese to it for consistency, also heroic for cereal bowls.

[Dexter3000]

Thanks man! I hope to add more creations (especially once the bulk gets started)... pancakes and protein muffins are high on my list of things to try.



Haha get involved my man. If you have a mixer blender you can add a bit of protein powder and PB to some CC and make extra thick sludge which goes amazingly with cereal and frozen berries. Also, just try making some traditional sludge and add a bit of cream cheese to it for consistency, also heroic for cereal bowls.

Will try all kinds of things the next week. Sneak preview of one of my favorites is in my log..

[ErickStevens]

You inspired me to check out what kind of cereal stuff I can put in my CC and get it in my macro goals.

I'm now having chocho puffs in my post-wo CC and its delicious, thanks

This is what I call a chain reaction.

IIFYM is slowly taking over the world...