The Journey

Yesterday, I deadlifted 225 8 times for the first time in my whole life.  I put every ounce of me into each one of those reps and let me tell you what, when I finally put down the weight I felt a new excitement in myself.  Right now I am actually more concerned with losing bodyfat, then anything else, but the gains are most definitely welcome.  I’ve just wondered though.  My weight has gone up from a low of 144.5 to 147.  I’m just trying to figure out if this is the good lean muscle mass or if this is fat weight.  I don’t want that shit coming back!!!!

I lift 5 days a week, but I’m at the gym 7 days a week.  On my off days I do abs and cardio.  Usually, I train for almost 2 hours on regular lifting days.  This means I need energy.  I found after the first 4 weeks of the Anabolic diet, my energy levels for lifting plummeted.  For me I can’t get enough fat in me to sustain such intensity in training.  I introduced a 1/2 cup of oatmeal 30-45 minutes before my workout combined with white flood 5-10 minutes before the workout and the results are amazing.  More power, more strength and endurance.  Just that small edition of 1/2 cup of oatmeal really did the trick.  I can train so hard again.  This is step 16 on the metabolic diet and I have realized what I need to keep the intensity high in training.  Today I felt like I didn’t want to leave the gym it was so amazing!!!

So I have been having really shitty workouts lately because I have such a lack of energy.  I am attributing this to the Anabolic Diet.  So I decided to try something to see if it really was that.  I at 1/2 cup of oatmeal around 515pm.  Lo and behold, at the 5:30 I felt like going to the gym AGAIN.  This time my workout was ridiculous.  I did shoulders again.  I usually don’t do that, but I had such a crappy workout this morning that I decided, "what could it hurt?"  My energy was amazing and everything.  I’m going to give the anabolic diet the benefit of the doubt and try having just 1/2 cup - 1 cup of oatmeal about 30 minutes before I workout along with my white flood, but still cut out carbs the rest of the day.  That will be the only time I eat carbohydrates.  Anyone else on any keto diets find the same type of lack of energy thing pre-workout?

So far so good.  Bodyfat drops are consistent, but I have started to slow down the weight loss on purpose because I was losing too much muscle.  We don’t want that!  I think I drank too much coffee today because I almost threw up when I was doing cardio.  That caused me to end my workout early.  suck.

So most of the week I was really tired because 1. calorie deficit 2. LOTS of cardio 3. Staying up too late last saturday night.  Nonetheless, I dropped about a pound of bodyfat.  By mirror judgement alone I can tell I am much closer to 10% bodyfat now.  I would say I’m right at a tiny bit less than 11%.  That’s fine with me because I am in no rush to lose more than 1-2 pounds a week.  I’ll be at my goal in no time.  A new food is now going to be introduced into my diet.  Each night I will have 1/2 cup to 1 cup of Cottage Cheese (w/splenda).  I have been researching casein protein and the shakes are just too expensive so I read that cottage cheese is the best food for casein.  So maybe I’ll get even better muscle building results.  I also ordered Glutamine powder and NOW Adam for my multivitamin needs.  I was just taking centrum crap before, but I have read that NOW Adam is just as good as animal pak and with less pills.  So I’ll add that too.

Before I list my diet and hope for some good advice I am making a disclaimer.  I am on the anabolic diet so please don’t tell me to add carbohydrates here or there.  There is plenty of time for that later when I bulk.

Please advise on my current meal plan:

8:30 AM - 2 Whole Eggs (hardboiled) with 3 strips bacon
10:30 - 8 Slices Pepperoni, 1 oz. Extra Sharp Cheddar
12:30 - 4 Oz. Cut of beef with 1 cup Broccoli/Cauliflower mix
2:30 - 6 Oz chicken Breast
4:30 - Can of Tuna in water low sodium
Workout
Optimum Nutrition - Protein shake 2 scoops
8:45 - 4 or 6 oz cut beef with 1 cup broccoli/cauliflower mix & 1 oz. extra sharp cheddar
10:30 - 1oz. Heart Healthy Nut mix (almonds, pistachios, peanuts)

Advice?  Again I am on the anabolic diet, so please don’t tell me about carbohydrates unless you are suggesting more veggies!

I am now 4 weeks into my cutting phase.  I have read numerous posts that say a cutting phase is 12 weeks.  That makes my approx. date/goal December 13th.  By the date I would like to be at 8% bodyfat or below.  I will continue the regimen and not stop until I am there.  Right now 11.5%

Ok, so I have been taking my measurements wrong.  I might invest in some calipers because that little omron fat thingy is off all the time.  Today I got up and peed and took a shower than took my weight.  It said 144lbs.  the scale also lists bodyfat and it said 11.5.  I do think this is more correct because judging by pictures I have seen at 10 & 12% bodyfat I am closer to 12 then 10.  So I’m pretty sure 11.5 is right and that I started MUCH higher than I thought.

Next week I will be changing back to the 4-day a week split because this 6day routine is now starting to wear on me.  With the introduction of 45-50 minutes of cardio everyday it seems that I can’t go as hard on the weights even with White Flood backing me up.  That tells me right there that I need a change in routine!!!  I’ve been on my current routine now for 4 weeks.  That sounds about right for a good switch up.  I’ll still keep the cardio just cut 3 days off the lifting so that I can really hit it hard in the gym when I go.

The beginning of this week has been a little bit of a train wreck.  Yesterday, was so shitty because I was tired from Saturday night when I went to bed at 5am and woke up sunday at 9am.  I was so tired yesterday.  Thank god for White Flood which powered me through my workout.  Today started out in a similar fashion, new energy and such, but I think I’m starting to get the protein/fats back in me from Sunday when I hardly had any and my body is slowly getting back the energy it lost.  I think if I go to bed at around 11pm tonight I will feel much better tomorrow.  I’m already feeling better than yesterday now, but I just need that extra day to recover from that really late night over the weekend.  Overall though, my progress on the Anabolic diet has seen me go from 13-14% bodyfat down to about 10-11% bodyfat in just 3 weeks.  Good results I’d say.  I’m going to continue the diet for another 6 weeks probably.  Then, I will move to carb cycling for a good lean mass gain.