Two weeks of ice!

Two weeks of bloody ice have put paid to the running I had planned. Of course I maintained the diet to a degree, although as the weeks have crept on it’s getting harder and harder to resist temptation, so
much so that I covet the cheat days! Weight still seems to be coming off and the wife’s noticing a big difference at the mid section, which is always good!

Not being able to get out means I had to substitute the running with some thing else and insanity does the trick nicely.

Today was the first time
I’ve managed out a run since the ice departed, (yes, it’s even more cold out here at the bottom of the hills!) and hit the ground with my anaerobic run. Didn’t go too badly considering, and I’ve only dropped 10s per mile from
The time I set two weeks ago. So, I imagine that will come down next week.

BJJ also going well, flexibility improving and that might have more to do with the insanity stretches at the end.
I’m in the mood for keeping insanity on the “programme” for just one session a week and the calorie burn and perceived work effort is phenomenal from it.

Regardless, I’m back running and back on programme!

Remember to keep it up any way you can even when nature throws some curve balls(and the council for not gritting and clearing!) at you and dig deeper!

Mens sana in corpore sano.

Phase 2 day one.

Well, day one started ok.

As stated breakfast was the eggs/bacon grapefruit juice and toast with PB/Nutella, then school/nursery run and back and straight out the door to do sprints. Sprints went OK came back downed the banana with the preworkout drink and had a massively excellent workout!!!!

Then it was time for recovery drinks, some food(14:30) some more food(17:30) and and nuts and protein due at 20:30 tonight.

The down side?

The hunger. It’s clawing away at me from the insides and I’m dying for 20:30 to come so I can demolish those nuts and that protein drink!

I think I’d be fine if I could just go to bed, but I’m nights and need to keep going until 07:00 this morning! I hope I can make it! I’ve got an amino drink and more protein to get through and I’ve browned off a serving of plain mince to have this morning at about 03:00. Just mince. Nothing else. Just to put something in there!

Oh results.

So. You may remember I posted my figures at the start? Well,
Here we go, 3 weeks in and we have:
Resting heart rate at 52!

Body fat is down 2%
Weight down 6lbs, about 2lb per week so far.
Muscle % is up 1% so far also.

Comparative photos show:

I’ve still a long way to go to get the results I want, ideally I’d like 10-12% BF and weight about 178lbs(81kilo).

As can be seen below, there is a difference in bodyshape, not much, but noticeable from the January pics.
If you strain your eyes, there’s even a 3 pack emerging from within the lard!

Early jan photos:

I can definitely say:

The next four weeks should be interesting, I might not even have to go to stage 3.

Mens Sana In Corpore Sano.

Phase 2 cutting carbs.

So here we are, I’m moving to phase 2 tomorrow as opposed to Wednesday as it makes no sense starting it mid week.

But what is phase 2?

Well, simply, now that I’ve rebuilt a nice base after my lay off, phase two consists of cutting merely cutting back the carbs to bew tween 120-170 per day, some of that of course will be negligible “post workout carbs” so, in reality if myfitnesspal says 170g of carbs, I’ll take 40g off as they will be my PWO carbs.

But why are they neglible? Well they’re negligible in that after an intense work out your body is craving fast acting sugars(carbs) and proteins. This 1/2 hour window (or an hour depending on who’s literature/research you buy into) means you can literally eat any fast acting carbs you want and they will be absorbed into the blood stream/muscles.
Of course, this doesn’t mean you can eat a slice of fish and a can of irn bru, well you could, but why? I’d suggest a fast acting glucose drink like lucozade(other brands ARE available) which would deliver the right amount of electrolytes, carbs etc and a fist sized piece of protein. Another option is the excellent PHD 2:1 recovery,
Which will deliver 25g protien(about a chicken breast) and 50g of carbs(a serving of rice) in a handy 500ml shake!

So, given that I’m now cutting the carbs by 50-70g a day, what will replace them? The answer:

Healthy fats.

Nice calorie dense healthy fats.
To reduce the effect of less carbs, I’ll use 2 teaspoons of either walnut oil or rapeseed oil on my vegetables. Fats like this are calorie dense, holding about 9 cals per g as opposed to protein/carbs which have 4cals per g.

Make sure you chose healthy fats, peanuts, walnuts, fish oils, sesame oil, walnut oil, rapeseed oil etc. You do to want to be using saturated fats like double cream( you know who you are!)
and the fat from your meats to make up the cals. Lack of carbs will no doubt increase appetite, but not hunger so I’ve invested in one of these:

Which is a one lt “bobble” water bottle. Simply, it filters the water as you drink it, even if you add slight flavouring to it like I do. I find filtered water like this, makes it “smoother” for some reason And makes me want to drink more. It’s oft recommended that being “hungry” isn’t actually hunger, but thirst, so it will be interesting to see if this staves off the hunger.

So now, on a running day food should look like thus:

0800 1x toast with 15g peanut butter/15g Nutella, 2x bacon/2x egg

0915 run

1000 juiced grapefruit (for energy prior to)

10.10 bodyweight workout

11.00 PHD 2:1 recovery

13:00 meat(fist sized) 2x 80g serving of veg 2tspn oil

16:00 25g nuts, protien shake.

18:00 meat(fist sized) 2x 80g serving of veg 2tspn oil

21:00 protein shake.

22:00 amino 1 drink before bed.

On a BJJ day should be this:

0800 1x toast with 15g peanut butter/15g Nutella, 2x bacon/2x egg, juiced grapefruit.

1100 banana for energy

13:00 PHD 2:1

14:00 meat(fist sized) 2x 80g serving of veg 2tspn oil

16:00 25g nuts, protien shake.

18:00 meat(fist sized) 2x 80g serving of veg 2tspn oil

21:00 protein shake.

22:00 amino 1 drink before bed.

These timings I can mess about with on early shifts, back shifts and night shifts but the same rules apply.

This weeks training will this:

Whilst starting nights tomorrow(26/1/15) for 4 nights, so it should be interesting.

Calorie wise, even by changing this I’m still going to be eating about 22-2300 cals a day, which according to my BMR calculations is still a deficit of about 500 cals a day, which should ati equate to a healthy 1lb a week weight loss or there abouts.
As can be seen fat is up(but to compensate as an energy source)
Cals remain about the same as before!

I still remain committed to having treats as I said before, here and there!

Let’s see how this next month pans out.

Mens Sana In Corpore Sano.

Apologies! Week3 days 2-5

So, here we are. My apologies again, I’ve been busy, sleeping, eating, training, resting, and repeat ad nauseam! Enjoyable as it is!!!!!

The benefits of making BJJ 4 times tho week have clearly paid off, I can feel a big improvement in the game. Assorted other training has went well too. Run times down again for both aerobic and anaerobic, sprints are a different story, but we can’t have too much improvement in a week of training or you’d think I was at it!

Sleeping also going well, as can be seen here,

Needless to say my resolve to be in bed by 22:30 failed, since my body even though drained, does like to play a surprise on my by waking itself up come bedtime.

Bodyweight training I’ve changed slightly, on the 17-1 I’m now using a very light barbell(25k) for bent over rows in conjunction with the pressups.

Anyway, next Wednesday is officially the 28th and the end of stage 1. Ill post a progress pic, and BP/body fat measurements etc. So Thursday will be the official start of stage 2 which I’ll explain on Thursday as opposed to the Friday!

Until then.

Mens Sana in corpore sano.

Week3. Tired. Hungry. Struggling on.

Bluergh!

That’s the backshift weekend been and gone, don’t think I managed to finish on time once. As I write this I’m hanging like a pound of mince, having been held on til 01:30 this morning, got home at 02:00 and was back up for court on my “rest day”(ho ho ho) at 06:30 to be in for 8, to do an eight til 4.

Needless to say, I got in went to court and had a pleasant surprise when I got sent away at 10:00 from court(he had already been last week, they just didn’t bother to tell the police this) and then a double surprise when I got a lift back to the office AND and I tell you a stand down from the office!!!!!!
Needless to say, I thought it’s half ten, if I can make it home in half an hour get changed then I CAN make the lunch time BJJ session. Of which I did.

Result.

After that it was home to refuel, rest(as best you can with weans running about and demanding the world!) and refuel again!

Since I made BJJ today, I’ve had to reschedule my fitness timetable so it now looks like this for the rest of the week:

So, should be a busy and very sore week. Can’t wait.

Obviously when training at such intensity,
A) don’t do it too often or you’ll over train.
B) eat properly
C) hydrate frequently and pee clear!
D) rest properly.
I’m aiming to be in bed by 22:30 each night this week to be up for 08:00 refreshed and ready!!!

Til Wednesday:
word ta ya mutha.

Mens Sana in corpore sano.

Week2 days 4/5 and snow. Again.

Wind was absolutely howling at 09:00 on Thursday morning, so there was definitely no way on gods green earth I was running in gale force winds. So I elected to take a rest day and read up on rest days! Article here:

http://breakingmuscle.com/mobility-recovery/7-essential-elements-of-rest-and-recovery

Having had a extra rest day,
I was stuck with doing Thursdays run with Fridays workout! Bah.

Needless to say Friday was yet again snowing, but, needs must and off I went. The 5 miles went really well considering the weather and I was nearly 3mins down from the previous weeks time, for only 1BPM more. AD excellent result.

After that it was down to insanity strength workout, which I had to struggle through to be honest, but it’s was completed!

After that I was totally and utterly burst. And no amount of refuelling seemed to fill me up!

Weight does seem to be dropping though, although I won’t post the details until week4.

Anyway till next time:

Mens Sana in corpore sano.

Week 2 days 2/3 still snowing

Well, day 2 kicked off with more BJJ at the advanced class. Nothing too strenuous, probably only got into the fat burning zone ref cardio since it was all technique.

Day three

09:00. It was snowing. Still.
I started off at anaerobic pace, the I started to reconsider. It was crispy. It was slidey. By halfway I was thinking about walking til I had that familiar runners belly feeling!
What a motivator! I kept running and ran til I made the toilet!

After that it was the body weight workout, following the same format as before, except this time using a kettle bell for pressups/snatches and I made it a 17-1.

Body was jigged after that and I have to admit I collapsed on the couch about 19:00 for an hour, which I hate doing. My back does feel heavy though
& I’m glad I’m only doing 5miles tomorrow morning at a slow pace and that’s it for the day.

Definitely starting to feel better, sleeps better too. Can see my shoulders coming back, which I expected to come back before anything else really. Large, square,awkward shoulders are a familial trait in the men!

Anyway. No tips today. I’m literally burst.

I’m so burst in going to shorten my tag line to:

MSICS.

Week2/day 1 no sleep and training.

Bluergh!

Held on til 08:05 after nights, not home til 9. Left with decision about going to bed or going to training at 11.00. Training won. I don’t really have the right to moan whilst I’m sitting here at 21:00 with eyes like dugs baws.

Still it was an easy training day at BJJ.

That’s about as much as I’ve got energy for! But I done it and that’s the main thing. Keep on jumpin’ as the Lisa Marie experience would say!

Mens Sana In Corpore Sano.

Days 6/7 and snow running

Night shift. Pah.

Nothing is more draining than night shift. It throws your eating out of sync. It’s screws up your sleeping, it’s easy I see how people on permanent nights can lose any motivation.

Anyway, as per last post. The foul weather prevented me from
Running on Friday. As such, I had resolved to get up on Saturday, to do it .
Well, Sat came and I crawled in to bed at 07:30 just about 24hrs after I left it.
Set the alarm for 13:30 and woke up to snow. Snow showers. Snow on the hills. Made a note in my training dairy.
It simply said:

Bugger.

Anyway, pride got the better of me.
I put on my gear, gloves and hat. And off I went.

Didn’t go too bad actually. The 5miles went ok. Still a but off where I was from the last time I ran it, but that’s the point of doing this. To get it back.

Anyway that ended the first week. Phys completed. Eating done.
All not too bad.

Most of Saturday though I spent wondering about body types, mainly because I had been reading this https://lipstickandloathing.wordpress.com/

from my work colleague. Pear shapes, apple shapes, bean poles and so on. So many female body types. But, like male body types, no matter how much you diet and exercise, you’ll never change your genetics. Are you a female with an hourglass figure? Hate those hips? Doesn’t matter, diet and exercise all you want. You’ll just be a thinner hourglass shape!

Us blokes are the same. Take Chuck Liddell, light heavyweight UFC fighter:

Now, if you pay attention to his physique you’ll see that he isn’t as “cut” as you’d imagine a professional athlete to be. Classic endomorph I’d say. But I defy anyone to say that before those pictures where taken, that he wasn’t training like a demon and eating the proper and correct foods. Of course the idea that human body types are genetically pre-set is nothing new. Plato mentions it in The Republic, which was written many years before Christ would have cured obesity by wagging his finger, and 19th-century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche referred to the idea many years before William Sheldon popularised three broad ‘categories’ of body in the 1940s.

Even in Mesomorphs and ectomorphs there are differences in physique:

Best thing to take away about body shapes is, nothing’s going to really change it. Men’s fitness mags and the like are just as bad as any female mag with the portrayal of the body perfect. You know the type of mag article I mean. “You too can have Hugh Jackmans body”.

The reality is, no you can’t. He gets 3-4months off before shooting to train. He doesn’t have to work. He doesn’t have a wife and kids demanding his time. He has a personal trainer. He has a bank account to pay for all the sups and food he needs and well as a dietician no doubt to work out his macronutrients to the letter.
He has a chef no doubt doing his prep for him.
And of course, there is the massive motivator of 30 million to be in shape.
See below for Jake Gyllenhalls body transformation and the effort it took.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/active/11265503/How-to-get-a-boxers-body-like-Jake-Gyllenhaal.html

On the subject of male 6 packs, another thing you need to ask yourself is this:
Do I really want to be so “cut” all the time? Do I really want to deny myself any food pleasures and all its associated cuts, no booze, very few carbs, no “odd” biscuit etc?

Staying at that level of shape is un-obtainable and in necessary for the majority of us. Fitness models/full time PTIs , yes. Professional athletes yes.
And of course actors being paid vast amounts of money!

In a nutshell, do what you can. Be fit. Enjoy a beer. Enjoy a chocolate.
Dong get too hung up on chiseling out a six pack, you’re either genetically predisposed to it or you’re not.

Mens sana in corpore sano.

Day 5 and luminous pee!

My word. It’s bright neon yellow!

It’s all down to the vitB12 right enough and the amount I’m getting in my pre-workout drink, multi Vit and veg/fruit is just the body getting rid of the excess and is nothing to worry about.
So if your urine looks like it belongs on an eighties movie shop sign don’t worry. S’all good!

Interesting facts about riboflavin or vitb12 and vitamins in general:

Riboflavin is needed for numerous functions within the body. Specifically, it can help with the proper development, and function, of our skin, the lining or our digestive tract, and the production of blood cells.
Common foods that contain riboflavin are: milk, nuts, dairy products, eggs, lean meats and leafy vegetables like spinach. Fortified (meaning riboflavin was added to it) foods are commonplace, including breads and cereals.
The term “vitamin” was first put forth by Cashmir Funk, a Polish scientist in 1912. It comes from the Latin word “vita” meaning “life”, combined with “amine” after certain compounds such as thiamine which he was able to isolate from rice husks. He worked with Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins who discovered that parts of food were essential in human health. Working together, they formed theories revolving around the lack of certain vitamins causing disease processes and making people sick.
Riboflavin, and its efficacy, can be destroyed by exposure to light. This is why you should limit this vitamin’s exposure to light and you shouldn’t store it in glass containers.
According to a Nielsen study in 2009, 40% of the world’s population use vitamin supplements. The countries with this highest percentage of their population using vitamin supplements are the Philippines and Thailand (66%). The US comes in at 56%, with 40% using vitamins daily. The US also has the highest volume of vitamin consumption. The two countries with the lowest vitamin use are France (17%) and Spain (13%).
There are 8 total B vitamins. They are: B1-thiamine, B2-riboflavin, B3-niacin, B5-pantothenic acid, B6-Pyridoxal, Pyridoxine, or Pyridoxamine, B7-biotin, B9-folic acid, and B12-cobalamin or in supplement form cyanocobalamin.

NOW:

Today’s training and diet.

Today was meant to be a nice slow 5mile plod and at the aerobic zone, 5miles is manageable for anyone then an hour at BJJ. However. The shitty storm weather here put paid to that run, I’m not one for excuses, but common sense has to prevail. I run along a disused railway line, covered by a canopy of trees. Bad idea in storm weather. Or I could run the road, again, not a great idea with the weather possibly blowing me into the roadway. I normally want to have Sat/Sun off, evidently, Sat this week will need to be the 5 miler when I wake up from Nightshift tomorrow afternoon.

Anyway:

I was up at 07:30 with the kids and I’ve noticed I’ve been struggling at night with hunger pangs, most likely to two things.
Training and;
Not eating enough most likely.

So, I’ve changed it up this morning.
They say, breakfast like a king, lunch like a lord, dine like a pauper.

I say:
Fuck. That. Shit. No way am I going without dinner!

Breakie this morning was a Juiced grapefruit(great fat burner), 1 slice of whole meal toast, with two egg (another fat burner) omelette, half a tin of beans(one portion of the 5 day, carbs and protein in one!!!) and two slices of bacon on it. Oh, and a mug shot of Ready brek.

11am was handful of nuts and my protein shot.

11:55 preworkout.
13:00 post workout
14:30 lunch, consisting of 2 chopped beef sausages, rice and mixed steamed veg pack!
17:30 was this delightful sight:

Mmmm, mmmm.
Korma and chips!!!!

You may remember at the start I said I wasn’t going to deny myself treats and will not be doing so! That’s the point of the experiment!

That’s me now till 22:00 when I’ll have my amino acids. According to my fitness pal I’m at 2,500 cals for the day, which is still, 200 under(up to midnight) of what my BMR target is for my height, weight and activity level.

The bummer of nightshift, kids and a wife who’s shift pattern is before yours (is she’s backshift when I’m nights) means I do a 24 hr day on the first night shift. So, I won’t be counting the cals that I consume after 00:00-07:00, given that the BMR calculation takes account of you sleeping for 7-8 hrs and not being active for the full 24 otherwise the cal count would be sky high!

Saying that, I’ve only got a banana, apple homemade soup and a can of monster(trust me come 0300, I will need it) to get through! Which isn’t much cal wise.

May struggle tonight as BJJ on the Friday is what we call “black eye Friday”, no instruction, just sparring. 5 min rounds, after that straight to the next partner. It’s highly anaerobic and draining…….I was defiantly sweating and panting come the end!

Note, I’ve decided to go to the Drs in the last week of this for a full health MOT, to get BP, pulse, cholesterol, liver function test, full blood count etc
The results of which I will publish.

That’s us til Sunday.

Til then see ya on the flip side.

Men’s sana in corpore sano.