IBelieveInMe_gy’s BodyBlog

Well..after a week of indulgence…lots of wine and food, its time to get accountable again, goals and how to get to those goals usually sets me on the right track

Goal 1: By the end of the Year, hit 100kg and fit into my size 40 Sean John Jeans

Goal 2: Build more muscle mass, Lift HEAVY for the next  6 weeks

Goal 3: get myself into a burning fat mode: eat healthy and clean, portion control

Goal 4: Keep fit for the Rugby Preseason training: 2 cardio units a week: 40min Long Slow Distance, 30min High Intensity

Goal 5: Get cut by doing the above, more muscle definition

A great month of consistent clean nutrition, consistent training, consistent cardio and ready for the next month. The gains are slwoly but surely coming through. More muscle mass, loss of body fat, the next stage starts in the month of June. Goals for the month of June:
- Eat Clean

- Cut down on alcohol and cheese
- Water all through the day

-  Lift HEAVY at the gym

- Up the cardio either in duration or intensity

After the next four weeks I have a whole rest week to look forward to : )  I hope to get to 102kg this month and get closer to the 100kg mark!! cosnsitency and discipline counts

ok…granted that I have been semi consistent in my rugby training but after the last few saturdays of playing some great rugby, I decided to start attending training on a more serious note only to discover that only 5 of my team mates in my grade showed up and that seems to be the norm. So what I hoped was going to be a regulat twice a week cardio (I find it easier to do cardio with ball in hand and actually playing the game, than running around the block for 30min). I’ll have to come up with a good cardio regime if I have any hope of reducing my body fat percentage. My nutrition has been really good this wee, now I have to contiue that commitment to my weights and cardio session.

been knocked out by the flu for the last 4 weeks,the weather in sydney is all over the place. Whats hurt most is not being able to do any excercise..no gym…no boot camp. Its been frustrating! As I’m on the road to recovery, I went to the gym last week and its amazing how much loss of strength affects me. I can barely lift the weights I used to and I’ve had to start creating a base for my next assault. Lighter weights and going to start building the temp up as the weeks go by. I will be going to boot camp once a week until I get some real strenght gains and I’m back to my normal self. What I have tried to keep consistence is my nutrition and as a result my weight hasn’t really changed to much. The first 4 weeks from today is the building phase.

its been 10 days since new years and new resolutions and I’m happy to say I’m on track! have discovered that moderation is the key, especially with nutrition. I sabotaged my efforts last year with cheating with my cheat foods and indulging in around 3-4 bottles of wine a weekend. Now that I look back there was no way I was going to get any where. for the last 10 days, I have eaten clean, worked hard at the gym and its amazing that I can already see changes in my body, subtle changes. I was starting to get a little rounded and my body fat definetly increased a tad, but I’ve already lost almost 2kg which is an encouraging sign.

Boot camp has began and I must say that its good to be feeling that ‘pain’ that sense of achivement, the muscle burn. The instructors are excellent at what they do and their knowledge knows no bounds. My feeling is I need to be true to myself or else it will all go to waste.

looking forward to the third week of the month…I must succeed!

First day back after the xmas break… clean eating day, 5 meals, excellent proportions of all nutrients, Chest, triceps and Abs and 45min walk for cardio… early days but it feels good to be back!

today was the second last session of boot camp and boy did we work. I’ve been doing bootcamp for the last 8 weeks (twice a week) and I am definetly much fitter that when I started. What’s dissapointing is that I have not used it to my advantage by hitting the gym in between, additional cardio sessions to help my body fat reduction along. I am determined this will change. Last night I hit the gym for the first time in almost 8 weeks and it felt damn good to be back! Tommorrow I hit the legs HARD, I know its going to hurt but if thats what it takes! I am alchol free for the next 4 weeks except for xmas eve and probably new years but even then I have to do everything in moderation, eat right and work hard at the gym!

ok..so whats been going on…I slackened thats what! either I was working hard at the gym and failing the nutriton test or I was slackening at the gym but nutirtionally sound. What have I learnt? you can’t fart arse and yo yo around your resolutions and expect results!

Today is week 1 of the come back. For the past 7 weeks I have done a boot camp fitness session twice a week, barely gone to the gym, been 50% on my nutrition and not really sure where I’m at. What happened to keeping progress of my weights, having a nutriton diary and being hell bent on improvement every single day? I guess I got a little slack.

We begin again today! no excuses!

When did it all start I asked myself, it seems just yesterday an ex girlfriend and I looked at each other and determined we were chubby and unfit and yet we weren’t bothered by it. We were happy within each other or were we? Who knows? Yet it irked me whenever she was always pointing out how good ‘hot’ other guys look, it inevitably pisses one off and it’s a strangle hold that you can’t seem to break from, that was my initial motivation which kept me on the straight and narrow of my body transformation. Well, leap forward a few years later and I am a better image of the overweight boy. I am relatively well muscled, relatively fit but what started as a simple ‘we must get fit’ becomes this consuming search for perfection, a continuing life style until it’s a very core part of your life when it once wasn’t. The ‘fat burning mind’ I call it: Wake up, reach for your vitamins, scoop of protein, make your eggs, add cinnamon to my oats, have a glass of water and the day has began, don’t forget, ‘must drink water’, no don’t eat that chocolate cake at morning tea. Damn! I missed my 3pm snack, it goes on and on. Thinking back to where it all started, I sometimes wonder if on the other side of the bridge she is working hard at it as I am, or how good she looks and if she saw me now she’d think I looked ok, I digress back to the discussion. This iterative process goes on and on, day by day, week by week, month by month, interspersed by days where that piece of chocolate makes you guilty, that big drinking night on the town and the hint of guilt expands, a missed gym session and you curse, and it goes on and on, this iterative process. Over the years I have learnt that this sort of obsession can lead to either being too vain and perhaps to single minded to the point where you are way too particular about the type of people you want around you, for instance ‘is that a hint of a tummy?’ as you look across the bar at an otherwise attractive girl, somehow the bar is raised and of course in rasing your standards, you must be at a body stage too where you can put your money where your mouth is. That said, I try not to be consumed by the little things, I try to have fun at the gym, listening to my favourite music while working with intensity and concentration, I try to enjoy different foods cooked differently even when I have a limitation of what I can work with. All in all from the different levels of emotion we go through trying to be fit, loose that 1kg, get those abs showing or even aiming to get to a higher level of fitness, we should never underestimate our partners and friends who stand by us, it can be a frustrating journey for them and it sometimes can be confrontational. Enter my lovely girlfriend who even though she does not need to put in the effort I do, will cook for me, will watch my nutrition even closer than I do, vets the fridge like she was guarding the nuclear arsenal, will push me to go to the gym when sometimes I just don’t feel like it, will read the labels before anything gets into the shopping basket and will lovingly take my progress photos and measurements, pointing out my improvements as I proceed with this journey. I tell myself how lucky I am every day because the support she gives me everyday translates to more than the perfect life she has given me, I feel motivated looking at her and wanting to be better for her, not from a vanity point of view for us to look good together, but better in every other way, be the best man I can. Having veered off the path before, I would not be achieving what I am now without her constant help, I know what the contrast to it can all be and it’s not at all pleasant. And when the accolades to come and there have been a few, I am not shy to say I could never have achieved my fitness to the level it has reached if it were not for her. Take sometime today to thank your partners and friends for their support people.

Been on a one week break where I’ve pretty much not done anything in terms of my training. I’ve tried not to think about it, just so I get back into it rejuvenated and fresh and ready for another 8 weeks  assault on my fitness. Its been great. Of course I’ve had to keep an eye on my nurtrition, eating healthy, as few cheats as I can  and less carbs than I’d normally have. Its been great. Tommorrow, Monday it all begins again and I’m looking forward to it, I know before the one week break, I felt lethargic, almost tired all the time and just not up in my strength as I would have liked to be. At the moment I am bursting to get back!

8 weeks to new goals. Start getting shredded, strict Nutrition and supplementation and continuing with the good habits. I’ll update my blog once a week with an overview of my progress. It does help when people start commenting on my physique, but its not a situation for complaceny…

main long term goal is to be cut up for Australian Summer, short 8 week goal is to keep reducing my body fat percentage and keep building muscle mass! I am determined as ever, its been a good year so far with my consitency, now to fine tune and refine the good habits!