Winning the Day

Posting pictures here is a chore.  lol.  Anyway...my Macros from yesterday are below.  That is an absolutely ideal day while in Deficit.

2082 Cal, 258 Protein, 77 Carb, 76 Fat.

Weighed in at an OH SO CLOSE 240.6 lbs this morning.  I'd REALLY like to have seen a 23# on that scale but so be it.  A drop of 0.4 lbs.

I got both my lunch and evening walks in (15,900 steps), along with the strength training I detailed yesterday.

Today was the dreaded Barbell Complex followed by my standard morning walk.  My back is torched, and I don't mean my low back.  The whole thing.  Pull ups, Romanian Deadlifts, Good Mornings, and especially Front Squats...ouch.

Still holding steady at 70 lbs for these until my Power Clean and my Press move far enough ahead to where they aren't limiting factors.

Today is Thursday, which means I'll be out at the bar enjoying some guy time.  That means beer, and probably some awesome food at The Burger Stand.  I'll try to stick to lighter beers, and I'll also work to alternate Diet Coke in between rounds.  If I can keep the damage to a pound or less I'll consider it a win.

Hump Day

Yesterday was a bit of a mess from a walking and diet perspective, but there was no harm done.

Per my normal Tuesday plan, I did barbell complexes in the morning, followed by walking throughout the day.  Life intruded however and I did not get in much beyond my morning walk and whatever natural accumulation I get from being downtown.  Still 14k steps though.

Food: 2708 cal (ouch), 229 Protein, 178g Carb (ouch!), 99 Fat.  Basically this turned out to be a "not on a diet" day.  The extra 700 calories are ENTIRELY attributable to some chocolate covered pretzels and red wine shared with my wife, so you know, my peace and happiness quotient was high at least.

Guess what though, I still dropped 1.5lbs and weighed in at 241.0 lbs.  That's three days in a row at over a pound lost.  There's a very real chance that I'll see 239 type number tomorrow or the next day.

I should have a much more regimented day today and get my two major walks in along with a sensible dinner.

Workout today was:

• Squat - (+5) 230 - 3x5 
• Bench - (+5) 180 - 3x5
• Chins - 3x15 (two bands)
• Power Clean - (+5) 55 - 5x3

(Format note: Exercise - (+ how much I added) Weight - Sets x Reps)

Performance Notes:

• Squat - Using belt on last warm up and all work sets. Getting heavy, feel strain in groin while maintaining "Knees Out".  As usual, getting my house in order and crisply addressing the weight helps immensely.  My third set is usually my best.
• Bench - Using wrist wraps on last warm up and all work sets. I've adjusted my position "up" or towards the bar to aid in lift off.  It's getting too heavy to mess around with 3-4" behind vertical anymore. 
• Chins - Super setting these in with the Bench sets.  Used wide strap and next smaller strap, which was too much.  I knew immediately that I'd be there all day if I did pyramids to failure as planned.  Opted for sets of 15 instead which was enough to burn me out by the last rep or two in each set.  I'll adjust down one strap width next time and try again.  My shoulder was a little iffy, so I'm happy to be cautious about withdrawing strap assistance.  I'm in no rush.
• Power Clean - very pleased with my progress on form.  I think any issues I'm having with inconsistency are related primarily to the weight being so low.  That should correct itself over time, and I have no inclination to accelerate by adding weight faster than 5 lbs per workout.

Busy Day - Abridged Post

Ok...Tuesday.  Complexes, Walking.  Check and Check

Diet yesterday: 2066 cal, 248 P, 101 C, 72 Fat.  Nearly perfect
Steps: 12k.  Senior Band Concert stuff last night prevented the evening walk
Weight 242.5lbs!!  That's a low water mark and down 1.5 from the prior day.  It's all new ground from here.

I wont get to walk for either of my large walks this afternoon because of a fire drill I have to run for a new job that will take up 100% of my time if I'm lucky.

That's ok though...it'll probably prevent me from getting much of a dinner either.

I'll be back tomorrow with another update...I cant believe I'm saying this, but I'm relieved it's Power Cleans and not Dead Lifts tomorrow.  lol.

I'm also starting my first session of Pull Ups which ought to blow, hard.  lol.  Gotta be done though.

Starting with A Bang!!

Wow...I'm fuckin' hungry.  lol.  I guess I settled in to that glorious 2700 calorie / 175-200g Carb diet over the last two weeks huh?

People who have never really worked their bodies while in deficit before (read: most people) have never been truly hungry.  I felt it almost constantly while doing Bike Across Kansas in 2012, and during the 6 months of long distance riding I did leading up to it.  It's completely different than that bitchy "dinner is late" feeling you get when you're off schedule.  I know it when I feel it.

Anyway...I'm actually encouraged that I'm hungry already.  I didnt expect to slough off the extra glycogen stores in my muscles for at least a couple of days.  I'll be tapping straight into what I call "Waist Butter" tomorrow I think.

Interesting article today in T-Nation (ignore the gym-bro branding, they're a decent source of information) about the order in which you eat your food.

In a nutshell, a recent study shows that eating your Protein and Fat first, starchy stuff second has all sorts of metabolic and body composition benefits for Type 2 Diabetics....and if they do better, you should too.  So eat your steak first...then your potato!

Interesting read:  https://www.t-nation.com/supplements/the-protein-preload

Weekend Update

I'm not going to run down every detail of the weekend.  Eating was ok..not enough food in general or protein specifically on Sunday.

I had a good workout on Saturday, and am encouraged by my progress on the Power Clean.  I'm still using "form practice" weight, but that's ok because I am muttering form ques on every rep.

Interestingly, I didnt set up properly or something (I'm not sure) on my last work set of Bench Press and if you'd have told me the bar was welded to the pins I'd have believed you.  Zero budge.  I actually lol'd.  I just sat back up and started over and cranked the set out thankfully, but I was like, "wow".

I didnt do any walking at all this weekend, but I was all over the damn place doing handyman stuff all weekend so I'm still pretty beat up.  Much of this work was tedious and detail oriented (trim, painting etc) and we had to juggle a 4 month old for a lot of the time also.  Silver lining there is grandpa's are allowed to nap with babies and I took full advantage.

Ok..Monday "Brass Tacks"

I'm starting this next two week Deficit Phase at 244.0 lbs, which is exactly one pound up from where I finished the last one.  Not. Too. Shabby.

I'd like to shed that pound, and 7 more along with it over the course of the next 14 days.  That seems fast, but keep in mind, I only lose for half the month, the other half I maintain.  7 lbs in a month is about .25 per day but I'm achieving this without being in caloric deficit 100% of the time.  Honestly I'd be thrilled to lose 10 or more pounds during a deficit.

Dietary Goals for the next 14 days are:

2000 calories, 235 Protein, 95 Carbs, 75 Fats.  This includes a step up to a full cup of whole milk as a supplement.

I'm going to dial back my Walking, simply because I wont be able to sustain the habit with my new job.  It's already hit or miss taking the 10am and 2pm walks every day with meetings etc.  I'll still do the morning walks on T, Th, and the Lunch and Evening walks every day.  Those make up the vast majority of my total mileage.

Anyway...better to see what impact that has and adjust to it now vs later.

Today's workout introduced the first sets of assistance work.  These are exercises designed to target weaker muscles that can tolerate the additional volume, in support of the main lifts.  Today was Dips, which will alternate on an ABA BAB schedule with Chins.

For both of these I'm following the Armstrong Pull Ups Template which is basically a fancy way of working yourself to failure with as much volume as possible, sometimes repeatedly.  Today was a pyramid pattern so I did 1 rep, rested, 2 reps, rested, 3 reps etc.

I was able to work up to 5 reps but failed when I attempted 6.  The program calls for one additional set to failure after the failed set too.  By then I was squeaking out 2 reps.  lol. Totals looked like this: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 3, 2.

The assistance work will be super-setted in with the upper body exercise of the day, today being the Press.  A typical Press session will contain 8 sets so there is plenty of room to work in sets of Dips in between.  I'm not going to lie though, this is strenuous stuff.  I'm working 3x5@90 lbs on the  Press and then dipping with my fat ass at 244 lbs.

I'll continue to follow Armstrong on the Pull Ups for the long term, but will switch to weighted sets on Dips in July at the start of my Hypertrophy Specific Training (HST)

So yeah, that torched my upper body and then I turned around and did Dead Lift Day.  I got it done, but it was through sheer force of will.  260 lbs at this point but my schedule is thinned by ABA rotation with Power Clean, and only up 5lbs at that.  This means I go up 15 lbs in two weeks instead of  30 lbs in ONE week that I was doing for the first 4 weeks. This will slow me down but at this point I need to.

Why arent I talking about Squats?  They're just routine for me.  I'm grinding everything at this point because the weight is relatively heavy, but as long as I maintain perfect form I complete the reps without too much slow down.

Issues creep in if my chest and upper back arent tight, if my concentration wavers, or if I dont sit back far enough and fully engage my hamstrings.  Miss those and the rep sucks big time, get them all right and it's not too tough.  I call that incentive to get it right.

That pretty much sets things up for the next two weeks.

Forgive my formatting.  Here's my data going back to "the before time".  The last column is the difference between then and "now" or the latest measurements. Also note the last column should be May 3rd.  Friday data is always skewed because of the drinking.

Bottom line here, I couldn't ask for better results frankly.  I'm doing everything I know to work my body intelligently, while eating in a way that should support my muscles yet still be in a caloric deficit every two week and losing fat.  These data support my methods pretty convincingly.

• Body Fat is down 19 lbs.  That's a big Biden deal, and it's having a measurable impact on my cardiovascular health in both my blood pressure and my heart rate variability.  I'll detail these in a separate post.
• Muscle Mass is down 1.9 lbs which is great.  Acceptable ratios are around 2:1 Fat:Muscle.  I'm at 10:1.  I'd rather not be down at all, but realistically this variance is "no change"
• My body water has been remarkably steady throughout.  This tells me that none of this is cheap glycogen depletion from lower carb eating.  
• Lastly, Lean Body Mass is steady, which means no real need to recalculate my diet, certainly not my protein which I will hold at 3g/kg LBM or about 220g per day

Assuming I hold steady, I'll be at a comfortable 20% body fat at 205lbs by Labor Day.

TGIF

Friday is a planned day of rest for me.  The idea of lifting or even going for a walk after my usual Thursday bad behavior is laughable.  Having said that, yesterday was about as good of a Thursday as I've seen, and the scale shows no ill effects.  My head is another matter.

• Weight - 243.9 up 0.3 (trivial)
• Steps - 13,813 
• Gym - Complexes
• Calories - 2706
• Protein - 192 (off goal)
• Carbs - 139 (light beer FTW)
• Fats - 78
• Sleep - No.  lol

Standard diet on deck for today, including the afternoon snack I didnt eat yesterday (hence the dip in protein)

I have a busy evening planned and a fair amount of handyman work on my plate this weekend so it will be a challenge to eat and exercise like I should.  I'll do what I can.