BuckSpin - A Year Of Change

This is sad….

I’m looking at my breakfast:

1/4 cup steel cut oats with cinnamon & stevia
1 whole egg & 4 egg whites, scrambled
22oz black coffee

Man, I used to RULE breakfast. A HUGE breakfast. A healthy breakfast. Would need to get up at 4am to make it breakfast.

*sigh*

Perhaps I approached this with a bad attitude, but I woke up tired & hungry, much more so than typically. The day is not off to a good start. This is sleeping in late, mind you. I made extra coffee, but I’m not in the mood….

After getting the boys to school I needed to do some shopping. I’m running on fumes. My breakfast energy peaked & went well over an hour ago. The morning is dragging. I am looking forward to Chest & Tris primarily to get my hands on that Sweet Potato Pie Smoothie PWO shake. I need it.

Thank goodness I have that coffee left over. Another 22oz of caffeine pre work out. I NEVER do that. Now the shake.

I almost feel like a carb junkie, rolling my sleeve up, flicking my veins (see my Progress pics….they’re EASY to find), insert the straw, gotta get that fix….aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh *eyes roll back*

Now to focus. I have about 20 minutes until this hits. Stretch my shoulders. Have a great stretch. Day is looking brighter. Maybe its the caffienesweetpotatocarb80shairband delerium…

I am determined to have a good training session. I am NOT gonna let this lack of cals & carbs weaken me. Focus….hard….

And I do..

I had a great workout. Set a few PRs, otherwise held my ground. Emphasized form hard. I’m happy.

Of course the leu of a 2nd shake is icing (hhmmmmmm…icing) on the cake (hhhmmmmmm….cake).

The rest of the day goes alright. Hopefully this 1st day of my new cals & carbs will be the worst.

8 days down, 15 to go (1/3 of the way there)

From me and my family:

THANK YOU!

I am honored to have a number of service men & women as BB Friends. All of you inspire and motivate me beyond words. I never take for granted the opportunities your service and sacrifice have and continue to give us. You help to fuel my fire to RMFP.

1st time I’ve had the opportunity to "eat" (RE: no shakes) 2 days in a row. Its amazing how BIG 9oz of chicken, 6oz of broccoli & a 4oz wedge of sweet potato can look. Get to have that 2x today. All perspective I guess.

One thing I have noticed is that my sense of smell has increased. Food smells better and I can discern it over other aromas. Also, the sound of my boy’s cereal being poured slowly in a ceramic bowl might as well been the audio from "Debbie Does Dallas II" to me……….*long slow exhale*

NOTE - Not that me & 2 of my friends snuck into a drive-in in high school and saw DDDII projected about 50 feet tall and then had to call a tow truck because the car battery died. Not that that actually happened….*wink*

Was planning on doing my 2nd Ab/Core workout today, but even with the amazing leg massage (luv my wife) last night they STILL ache pretty badly. I am convinced its a perfect storm of a great new Leg Day and the inability to quickly restore any energy I had there, plus repair the helluva job I did destroying my quads & hams. So, I went for about an hour walk to just keep them loose & moving. Hopefully by tomorrow they will just "hurt".

Today is "Decision Day". I need to lose 200 calories and *sigh* 30g of carbs, all while keeping my protein at a 200g minimum. I have a hunch what is gonna go, but I’ll let my CalorieKing Nutrition and Exercise Manager (HIGHLY recommended, a steal at $45) dictate what goes.

The verdict:
- No more medium grapefruit for breakfast on training days (4x week). I’ll still be able to have one on the off-training days. But that will be in place of…
- No more apple on my off-training days….damn
- The milk in my PWO shakes is toast (hhmmmmmmm….toast)
- The additional whole egg I was really enjoying at breakfast? Gone. Now its 1 whole & 5 egg whites.
- About 15% of my almonds gotta go, and a tsp of cocoa powder in the evening meal

This brings my daily for the next week to:

Training Days:
1811 cals
152g carbs (30%)
229g protein (51%)
38g fat (less than 6g sat) (19%)

Note: between breakfast & my 2 shakes that is almost 900 calories, 110g of carbs and 97g of protein. Yup, after that last sip I get a whopping 40ish grams of carbs for the rest of the day, as well as divying 900 cals over 4 meals.

Non-Training Days:
1781 cals
149g carbs (29%)
221g protein (50%)
41g fat (less than 6g sat) (21%)

You may wonder how I know that? Well, one upside to this is that once I figured out both types of days I just Copy Day into each and my whole week is planned. I know everything I am going to eat, how much & when thru next Sunday.

I realized, as I enjoyed (I am diggin’ all this Fa-ge 0% Greek yogurt!) my morning snack that this would be the last apple I have for over 2 weeks. I picked the BIGGEST one I could find out of the Fruit drawer. This is a bummer in that I have championed fruit (practically a derogatory term on BB) every chance I get. Oh well…

I have noticed that my joints, specifically my lower ones (hips, knees, ankles, spine, etc) are tighter and crackin’/snappin’ more. My shoulders are not 100% normal but tighter and a lil’ sore in the AM. I’m also blinking more, I *blink* think….

Oh, weigh in! I weighed just a hair over 193 this AM. I have no doubt I’ll be there Monday. That is 7lbs in about 10 days.

The evenings are the worst, but not bad. I just get tired, hungry and look forward to each refeed.

I did do the week’s grocery shopping with one of my boys. I like grocery shopping. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was gonna be. Walked right past the in-store samples of various cheeses on crackers.

Tomorrow begins Week 2. I averaged last week about 1570 cals net, with 233g protein, 173g carbs & 44g fat (7g sat). It will be interesting to see how I do with the reduced intake AND its effect on my training. I am determined to NOT take steps backwards and get weaker. Its not an option. If anything this will really force me to focus even harder and will my body to not only match the previous WO but beat it. Bring it on…

One WEEK down….16 days to go

The good news: I get to eat (meaning no shakes) for 2 DAYS!

The bad news: The combination of my newest Leg Day + Deadlifting the day after + not a lot of cals & carbs = serious DOMS in the legs. Not just ache…pain.

One of the goals of a cut like this is to deplete any intra-muscular stores of fat. Some "collateral damage" as a result is the steady depletion of any glycogen stores the muscles have as well…..and then not having the fuel to restore them. I am sure both are well under well, but up until Friday evening I was mostly just tired later in the day. A brutal Leg Day has changed that. If I was coasting by on any energy stores I had in my muscle that supply was/has been significantly tapped into, and not replaced.

I was going to do my 2nd Ab/Core session today, but in that I have a scheduled down day on the weekend, and I’m also working today. I decided to make Saturday my down day & do Ab/Core then (Sunday) when I don’t have to work and, hopefully, my legs are functioning better.

While not demanded I usually do a lot of standing at work. There is some lifting, a decent amount of walking & *ow* bending, but a LOT of standing. Its not uncommon to go about 10 hours without sitting, and again that’s my choice. But I’m feeling it. I do get AYCD coffee (and goooooooooddd coffee at that) and I have access to a full commercial kitchen I can cook meals at/on/in. I love my job.

After an impromptu shopping trip I got home around 7ish, having left around 9am that morning. During that shopping trip I started to really feel "it". I just had, by my current standards, a good sized dinner not even an hour before….and I was hungry, tired & hurtin’. The hungry part is what threw me. Only one more meal (bedtime snack) for the day, and that was hours away.

Of course when you walk in a large supermarket you walk into the Produce. I see enough fresh fruit to feed battalions. Then past a potato display. Walk past the bulk bins of granolas. Oh, there is the Bakery *sniff*….Salad Bar….Rotisserie Chicken rack….in-store Sushi *drool*….

*long slow exhale*

I get what I came for (a few Fa-ge 0%s to get me by) and head home, about a 30+ minute drive. Only saving grace is listening to the Alabama-LSU game on AM.

Luckily Mrs. BuckSpin saves the day and gives me a long & DESPERATELY needed leg massage. Started out slow and by the end was really working my hams & quads like bread dough.

I won’t bore (or amuse you sadistic ones) with the sounds emanating from my mouth (or is soul more accurate?). But lets just say I’m glad we live veeeeerryyyyyy rurally….

I will say that it is amazing to watch what is happening physically. I’m seeing valleys and definitions and vascularity I have not seen before. With some favorable lighting I have an complete "money belt" (aka "the V"). That triangle "void" area at the top of the thigh divided by the Sartorius is (again with good lighting) visible (ChickenTuna has AMAZING ones).

The Superficial Epigastric veins are visible to the naked eye (there is your Google for today).

As far as abs, the valley between the abdominals & obliques is definitely deeper. There is more overall seperation, but still not what I would call a 6 pack. Plus, this pooch around the navel is just going to be a looooonnggggg battle.

I’m way past being able to the Cephalic (aka "the bicep vein") & Basilic veins. Those are pretty much 24/7 and even visible across my pecs. However, some of the cutaneous veins in my delts/shoulders are coming out, as well as more of the same in my calves. I guess I’m blessed with thin skin. I know a lot of male BBers who would kill for stuff like this. If I hold my breath and really amp up my blood pressure I can get a wee bit Gaspari-esque. The kids think its funny!

Tomorrow is my last day "living large" at 2000 cals & 180g of carbs. I’ll figure out my 2nd week and see what does & does not make the cut (bad bad joke….feeble "ha")

6 down, 17 to go…

This was definitely the most challenging and difficult of the days thus far for a variety of reasons:

- My oldest here was responsible for the "main course" for his Montessori school’s Lower Elementary class Friday lunch. Its a neat thing. Every Friday 3 students in the class make (and I mean MAKE) and bring lunch for their entire class. A main course/entree, a salad & bread, and a dessert. We had main course. I’ll set the stage. It seems that every Friday the course du jour has been "p’sghetti" and sauce. And the kids, to be frank, were getting a wee bit tired of pasta. So, Thursday night we made pizzas from scratch.

Now, for those of you who have never made or worked with fresh dough its a beautiful thing. Its alive, warm, smells amazing, and when its right it feels wonderful to kneed. Now amplify all of this with my carb depleted state, and you get the picture. If that dough was a woman guys have names for "doughs like that".

But my boys (his younger brother also attends at the Primary level) did a great job. They made one for themselves for dinner as a Beta test, and it came out great! So they (we) made 2 more large cheese ones. The boys did a great job spreading the sauce and sprinkling the top with shredded mozzarella. To save time we baked them that night & I would just put them in a slow oven and take them to school ("Its not delivery, its BuckSpin") warm just in time for the kids to set up. Yup, they set all the class tables with real china, flatware, etc. and then even serve the lunch AND clean up afterward. Not bad for a bunch of 7-9 year olds, huh?

Well, lets just say that long from now there will be epic songs rivaling those of Viking heraldry singing the tale and praises of this pizza. The kids LOVED it! My reward? Not what you think. No, I did not have a single taste. But hearing "Dad, you are the GREATEST Dad ever!" a few times from my boy was better than any pizza in any state of caloric or carb depletion.

To accommodate that delivery, I knew I would not have time to train Shoulders & Bis in between. So, I made the decision to postpone my training until Friday evening. I prepped all my food for the day and headed out to school for the 2nd reason Friday was different.

- I volunteer 2x a week at the school as an "Art Instructor". Its a labor of love. I really miss coaching/teaching and when this opportunity arose I jumped at the chance. On Tuesday I get to teach my oldest’ class, on Friday the Upper Elementary (10-12) PLUS an "after school" that is much more one on one.

As far as how this affected my cut it meant that for the first time I would be utilizing a training day nutrition plan BUT not with the benefit of the 2 shakes early in the day. I would be going on meals alone until later that evening.

Which brings me to Reason #3:

- OMG did good ol’ DOMS kick in from Thursday’s new Leg Day. I was HURTIN’. This was just not ache but pain. I definitely have a keeper in that workout. Amplifying those by the fact that I could really reload those muscles with some glycogen and even ask them to go for a day on my scheduled rations…well….let’s jump to Reason #4:

- Training at night. Typically I never do this, but on a rare occasion when I have to I do. This would be the last weight training session of the week and again some new order to the lifts as well as some new/revisited ones in leu of others:

Shoulders/Bi’s:
DB Deadlift
Standing DB Shrugs
Standing DB Hammer Curls
Standing 1/2 Arnold Overhead Press
DB Preacher Curls
Reverse Seated DB Flies
Gironda DB Drag Curls
Jackknife Pushups

I know you are thinking "Deadlift for shoulders?" Well, my logic was that these REALLY hit my traps hard and I would not only pre-exhaust those but get a great full body lift in 1st thing to get Ol’ Testy pumpin’. Which in logic sounds good. Which when your upper legs are racked with severe DOMS….not so good.

So I considered dropping them. Then I thought WWNBD (What Would Ninja Bill Do).

And did them.

Ow….

Pushing thru the pain of those last few reps in any lift is tough. Somehow squeezing out that hidden last one is excruciating. But to start cold in severe pain, that is something else. But I did them. I only got 50% of the reps from my last session, but I did them.

I’m not looking forward to Saturday morning….

Rest of the training went great. I uses one of my shakes as a pre-workout meal to get some energy in me and I did pretty well. I am making it a mission to do my damnedest to NOT lose strength or take steps backwards, carbs or no carbs. The Preacher Curls went really well. I typically do HIT with curls and just drop set with no rest. These had previously really &^%$#! up my bicep & elbow tendons/ligaments due to my "noobness". However, this time they went off really well. Its cool to make yourself nauseous just doing a isolated curl! My reward afterward was, for the 1st time, seeing a "peak" on the bicep head while doing a front double bicep pose. You know, more like a small rounded rectangle then just a smooth oval.

I then had to eat 3 times in 3 hours to hit my cals & macros. I survived..

The weekend will be a veritable AYCE buffet for me in that with no shakes I get to up a lot (yeah, a lot…keep saying that) more food.

Until Sunday night, when Week 2 starts and my cals & carbs will decrease by 10% to 1800 and 150/day respectively. The shakes aren’t budging at all, so this means….

5 down, 18 to go…

TGIF all…

Its been quite a week thus far. If you have been following me losing my "cutting" virginity I can say its not as bad as I thought it was going to be…..so far. The upcoming 2 weeks will steadily pull back on the cals & carbs even more. I’m already thinking what poor, unsuspecting aspect of my nutrition is going to be voted off Survivor:Torso      (hey, it at least sounds like a lil’ tropical island in the middle of nowhere). I can see it now:

"Grapefruit, the torso has spoken" (Grapefruit’s lil’ Tiki torch gets snuffed out by Jeff Protein)

All the remaining members of the Iwannacarb tribe head back to base camp for another week of grueling (ooohhhh, gruel *licks chops*)(ooohhhh, chops) challenges…

This sleeping in is working out GREAT! The days are much more manageble. I’m psyched for the weekend - 2 days of replacing those PWO shakes with FOOD!

Speaking of shakes, that is a great segue into this week’s Bad Hair Daze. I actually SAW these guys, er, girls, er, babes, er, ladies in concert in 1989 opening for Eddie Money in Pittsburgh. I’ll tell you this - while the idea may have been novel and I’m sure the record company execs saw a gimmick that would sell albums, these ladies could ROCK! They could hold their own (maybe a bad choice of phrasing there) with any band of dudes of their era. They had a few top 40 successes and were obviously the darlings of MTV, but this is probably their best known tune.

I’d like to think a number of the O35 ladies of BB were like this "back in the day". And watch at the 1:55 mark…a lil’ iron being moved! Gotta fit in that spandex somehow!

So kick back, have some carbs for me and sit on the "Edge Of A Broken Heart"     with Vixen     :

Well, 2 things:

1) Weighed in this AM. I’m down another pound since Sunday. Now at 194.
2) It is definitely noticeable.

Its amazing what a simple change in cals & macros has done. I’m down 6lbs in about a week or so, and its good weight loss. I’m feeling much "leaner" and tighter. Mrs. BuckSpin has noticed as well.

Its also rather sobering. Unlike a lot of people on BB I have no problems eating clean and not "cheating". I just don’t cheat….period. That said, the past few months I made it a focal point to not be so, what word is best….strict?….on what & when I eat. I’ve embraced good fats, enjoy fat free frozen yogurt & sorbet when out with my boys, grazed on organic granola, have come to be pretty good at making brown sticky rice for sushi, etc. However, when I checked my BF before starting all of this I was shocked to see it had gone UP over 3%!!! What the $#@!…

I guess I know now exactly what it is gonna take to look "like that". For those who do look "like that" much respect & props for what it obviously takes.

After an almost out of body experience on my last Back & Leg Day of the previous cycle I knew I had to make a change and split them into separate training sessions. This past Tuesday was my 1st Back Day, which went very well. However, as they say, “Leg Day is business”. So with some excitement and a lil’ fear I set up and did my first dedicated Leg Day Thursday.

Leg Day:  
Front Squat
Plie Squat
Alternating Forward Lunges w/ DBs
Zercher Squat
Hamstrings From Hell w/ Ankle Weights

The fact that I spent almost 5 minutes supine (aka "flat on my &^%$#! back") on the playroom floor afterward is a testament to it. Yowza…

This was the first time I have ever done Zercher Squats. When they say "…targets the upper thighs…" they are NOT exaggerating! Whhhooooooooo…..

I also had an epiphany. As I awoke at 4am Thursday it occurred to me that my current work schedule is for days I don’t train. Soooooooo, why am I making the day longer when my cals & macros are shorter?

So I went back to bed.

Mrs. BuckSpin got me up a few hours later & I had my breakfast around 7:30ish, a full 3 HOURS later than I would have. Took everyone where they needed to be, then hauled tail back home and trained Legs.

It worked out GREAT! I pushed a huge percentage of my daily nutrition waaaayyyyy back in the day. Heck, in the evening I was eating almost every 90 MINUTES to get everything in before bedtime! It was great! I got a lot more rest and made it a lot easier to get by on what I am ingesting!

This is gonna really help as the weeks progress and the cals & carbs diminish.

4 down, 19 to go…

First off, I’m not gonna detail every hour like the 1st post…

As far as nutrition, its going to be the same on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday, aka Training Days. Only change Tuesday were some green beans that were about to go funky instead of some broccoli.

Some interesting things about Tuesday:
- I had about the best night’s sleep I could remember in a long time.
- My shoulders don’t hurt…at all. Nada. Nothing. Zip. I’m stunned. Usually they ache some, but that goes away with the day and stretching.
- I still hit a tired wall in the mid-evening, but it wasn’t as bad as Monday.
- My 1st dedicated Back Day went great! I may even add a lift to these:

Back Day:
Wide Grip Pullups
Incline DB T Row
Bent Over 1 Arm DB Rows
Incline Mid-Back Shrugs
Cross Over Arc Band Pulldowns

The pullups are new, and loooonnngggggg overdue. Hopefully I’ll see some gains in my lats as a result.

Now Wednesday was almost like Christmas in that I had to make up the cals/carbs/protein from my 2 Sweet Potato Pie Smoothie PWO shakes I use while training. It was like find not one but two $20s in an old pair of pants. I’d like to say I had something special……but I ended up just upping my chicken 50% to 9oz, added 8oz of left over sweet potato (4ox each at lunch & dinner), increased the broccoli portion a hair and……had an apple with my morning snack. That apple tasted gooodddddddd!

Again, my shoulders felt great, just amazing. I’m almost afraid I’ll jinx it by saying something. I don’t really know why yet in that I am doing a few things differently following my off week, but its sooooo nice to wake up and feel…….normal.

Wednesday was an off day training, but that means its Ab/Core Day. I’m doing a new type of training for those. 7 different exercises done at a very high intensity for as many reps in good form as I can get in one minute, then thru again for 45 seconds. In 15-17 minutes my torso is fried, I’m breathing like a racehorse, dripping sweat and getting some cardio as well.

What I Did:

Prone Jacknives w/ Strength Ball
Bicycles
Ab Wheel Rollout
Dumbbell Double Crunches
Prone Knee To Elbow
Supine Scissors w/ Strength Ball
Cable Crunches w/ Resistance Band

I got 207 total reps in 16 minutes, or almost 13 reps/minute.

At the end of the day I did notice that, between last week & thus far, I am starting to see some very subtle changes. My face is slowly getting leaner, my torso is getting a lil’ more definition, I can see some increased vascularization at "my ends" (shoulders, calves, etc.)

Its working.

I feel pretty good, and I’m not as tired. I do feel tighter, leaner. My belt, which I usually had at the last notch, is now in need of a new one! Not bad for a week!

Tomorrow I weigh in mid-week and will do my 1st dedicated Leg Day, which should be, um, "fun"…yeah, fun….

Make that 17 out of the last 18:

Toldya

3:58am: Woke up
3:59am: Rolled over & got re-comfied…
4:00am: Alarm goes off. Doesn’t that tick you off when that happens?
4:00am & change: Turn off alarm clock radio. Fleetwood Mac’s "Over My Head" was playing. Not the greatest of omens on the 1st day of my cut and my 1st day back training in over a week….
4:05 - 4:25: prep & cook my breakfast, which doesn’t take nearly as long in that its practically all gone. I would later learn that my breakfast is only a medium grapefruit away from exactly what ShanBL eats….*sigh*. Steel cut oats aren’t ready in that everything else (all 2 things…yippee) took so short to prep. I put away all the clean dishes out of the dishwasher to kill time. Its amazing what age & time can do to define what is now a proper "warm up" for training. The act of beeeenndddiiinngggg over to get the stuff off of the bottom rack over & over will do nicely. *c-r-a-c-k-i-n-g sounds*

2 whole eggs
4 egg whites
1/4 c steel cut oats w/ cinnamon & stevia
1 medium grapefruit
22oz black coffee

4:30: 4:55: Took my time eating. I learned this early on. Breakfast is THE meal, and one morining it was gone in like 8 minutes. Never making that mistake again. I now eat it like a European art film.

Oats aren’t nearly like I have been eating, but they do remind me of oatmeal like when I younger, which is kinda cool. Check email, surf BB, read some blogs, etc.

5:00: 1st attempt at waking Mrs. BuckSpin
5:05: Prepped my Sweet Potato Pie Smoothie PWO Shakes
5:17: 2nd attempt at waking Mrs. BuckSpin
5:25: Did my shoulder stretch routine for the 1st time in over a week to various 80’s hair bands at a relatively quiet decibel level. T-I-G-H-T….
5:40something: 3rd attempt at ….oh, she’s awake
6:15 - 6:55: Trained Chest & Tris. 1st session of a new 6 week cycle. I moved some things around, added a new lift, shifted another to another session:

Chest & Tris (3 drop sets each):  
Supine DB Pullover
Supine 1DB Skullcrushers
Incline 1/4 Grip Press
Seated DB Tricep Press
Incline DB Flies
Supine 2DB Skullcrushers
Elevated Wide Grip Perfect Pushups
Reverse Dips

CRUSHED the session. Really focused on form hard, even stepping back in weigh a little on the Flies. Ask Mrs. BuckSpin (who is very good on the form) to watch/crit me on the DB Tricep Press ("Your lower arms didn’t move" ) and DB Flies ("You must be doing them right…your chest muscles were shaking" ). The Elevated Perfect Pushups (yeah, those things) are a killer at the end.

7:05: Stretch chest in doorway
7:06: Screaming like a lil’ girl from standing crucified in a doorway with my arms out PWO
8:05: Everyone in the van to take Mrs. BuckSpin to work (car is at shop…head gasket = $$$) and the boys to school. Both are about 15-20+ minutes away.
8:35: Dropped kids off in "Car Line" after Mrs. BuckSpin. Car Line is cool in that the school owner/director (its a Montesorri) has everyone just Conga line with mini-vans & F150s and he opens the door, unbuckles the student, gets their bag(s) and them onto class & Mom/Dad on their way.
8:45-9:00: Some quick shopping for organic dog food & Eggbeaters. It beats shopping for feminine hygiene products, which I quess I’m good at in that Mrs. BuckSpin said I do a better job than she does! She gets overwhelmed by everything & ends up standing there for 10 minutes and BUYS THE WRONG THING! Not sure how I should feel about this. Note to self - watch "Oprah" more or thumb thru "Oxygen" at the checkout.
9:05: 1st snack of the day in the supermarket parking lot. I have snacked everywhere & anywhere. Great way to embarrass teenage children.

1 Fa-ge 0% yogurt w/ stevia

9:35: Back home. Yawning a lot, which is odd/atypical. Maybe Fleetwood Mac was right….
9:45am - 2:55pm: In no particular order I find things to do to keep my *yawn* mind off the fact that I’m hungry. Laundry, rake leaves, use riding mower as leaf blower *grin*, fold laundry, surf BB, blog, etc. I have a rule about raking leaves. I will not rake a single leaf until every tree is barren. It never ceases to amaze me to see people raking, only to see them RERAKING their yard a week later. Its like painting a room a new color every weekend for a month. Besides, if you wait long enough your leaves blow over into their nice clean yard . We rake one day a year on "Fall Cleanup" and that is that.
10:55: Lunch

6oz chicken breast
1/3lb broccoli
7 almonds
2 walnuts

In case you are wondering, that nut count is how CalorieKing resolved hitting my cals & macros, so that’s that.

1:30ish: Notice my legs feel tired, which is not unusual except I didn’t work legs today. Fleetwood Mac refrain….
2:00: 2nd snack

1 Fa-ge 0% greek yogurt
7 almonds
2 walnuts

I definitely can feel when I have eaten, and also when I need to. Unfortunately, needing to and time to are not the same…

3:05: Leave to pick up boys & Mrs. BuckSpin. Decide on a whim to take Tucker, our 7 month old chocolate Lab, with me. This should be fun…
3:10: Tucker is eating every lil’ piece of dropped HempPlus granola he can root out….lucky bastard
3:25: Arrive at school with Tuck. This is all new to him. He’s scared but curious. Kids ask all kinds of questions. Tucker’s tail wagging picks up IMMEDIATELY when he sees/smells "his" kids.
3:45: Leave to get Mrs. BuckSpin. Tucker now has to sit in the front passenger bucket seat. Its hysterical.
3:55: Pick up Mrs. BuckSpin, who has to ride home with Tucker in HER lap. Did I mention he is a 7 month old chocolate Lab? Even My Before pics didn’t have a lap he could fit in!
4:25: Home. Hungry. Dinner. Later. $#@!…
5:05: Did some more yardwork. My riding leafblower runs out of gas at the far, downhill end of the yard. Lovely…
5:25: Back with a splash of gas. Leaves will wait one more day. Its not like anymore are gonna come down…
6:10: Dinner

See LUNCH *sigh*

6:30-*embarrased*: Took a "Hollywood Shower". You know, a loooonngggggg hot shower. Felt great.

The rest of the evening is a bit blurry. I’m tired, and my legs are now heavy as opposed to tired. I may have to rethink how I am distributing carbs. Training days are tough in that a LOT of my daily allotment is in those 2 shakes. Non-training days are gonna feel practically AYCEish. I did plan tomorrow’s training, a new 100% all Back day. After my last Leg/Back Day I need to split these up….badly. Plan is for 5 lifts max.

7:45: Last snack

3/4 c FF no salt cottage cheese
1 TBSP non-akaline cocoa powder
2 stevia packets
"The Nuts" (see ABOVE)

8:00 Mrs. BuckSpin suggest going to bed. Says I look tired. Damn Fleetwood Mac….
8:25: Head on pillow & o-u-t

1 down, 22 to go