Furo's Comeback Log

I think we said the 1st of May as a deadline, but it’s really not a strict thing!

I own two 44lbers, two 62lbers and one 88lber. I got into doubles training for a while, but now I only ever use singles, so I’ve leant one 44lber and one 62lber to my brother. So I have one of each. My wife has a 22lber but she outgrew it pretty quickly so we don’t really use it.

I’m always keen for a kettlebell challenge! Cleans seem to mess up my neck a bit, but anything else would be awesome. Something a bit more conditioning-intense would suit my current goals very well.

Same here!! Sometime this summer let’s try to set something up. Maybe a challenge that revolves around Simple and Sinister since it’s a program we have both run and are familiar with? We don’t really have matching bells (I have 1-35, 2-55’s, and 1-80) but we can figure something out. Maybe something like most Swings (either 1 arm or 2 arm) in 5 minutes and Get Ups in 10-15 minutes? Say you wanted to use the 88 for swings and I use my 80 and you use the 44 for Get Ups and I use the 55? I think this would even out the weight part of the challenge.

T-Ransformation: Week 12 - Active Recovery/Pump

Band Pull-Aparts
Blue: 10x25
EMOM

Kettlebell Deadlifts
40kg: 5x15
EMOM

Band Curls
Blue: 4x25

My lower back and lats are absolutely toasted today, incredible DOMS. I wanted to get a bit of blood flowing so just did a light recovery day, but the kettlebell deadlifts gave me a major lower back pump.

Nutrition
12:30: 3 bananas, 2 large spoonfuls of peanut butter
15:00: 5 chicken satays, 1 veg pakora, 2 cheese things
17:00: 400g blueberries
19:30: turkey stir fry (500g turkey breast, veg, soy sauce)

I had 4 large black coffees throughout the day. The mid afternoon snack was for a colleague’s leaving party, and I’m pretty happy with the restraint I showed.

@jblues85: I’m definitely keen for that man!

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T-Ransformation: Week 12 - Summary

Bodyweight: 98.5kg

Training: Good - especially run and deadlifts

Nutrition: Poor

This was a very good week for deadlifting: I finally got 200kg for 3 reps and more importantly I managed 30 singles with 185kg in the challenge. The 5.2 mile run was also a highlight.

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T-Ransformation: Week 13 - Run

Run
2.2 miles
Time: 29:44

Pistol Squats
BW: 10x1

My sister was visiting and she’s a great runner, but unfortunately has an injury. So we went for a short run together and every few minutes we’d stop and I’d do a set of pistol squats. After this we spent most of the day walking around the city, which I worked out as 7 miles. My knees feel a little off now.

Nutrition
12:00: 165g dates
15:00: 2 rolls with avocado and ham, sugar-free red bull
19:00: 1 pint of cider, risotto starter, pork and vegetable main

This was an unusual day of eating. Our lunch plans failed so we just had rolls at 3pm. The pint of cider wasn’t a great choice, but I’m happy I didn’t join my sister and wife for waffles and nutella in the morning or pudding after the meal out! Not perfect nutrition, but I feel like I’m transitioning into this well.

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T-Ransformation: Week 13 - Rest

Nutrition
12:00: handful of pecans
14:30: 2 thick slices of bread with hummous and salami
15:00: (tiny) brownie
20:00: roast pork, parsnips, green beans

My sister and wife had a baking day and made bread and brownies lol. So again this wasn’t an optimal day of eating, but still much better than usual. 3 black coffees throughout the day. I am adjusting to feeling hungry most of the time, although I have felt a bit irritable at points.

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Maybe you should consider a few boiled eggs to go with the pecans.

A handful of nuts for my first meal after a 16 hour fast would be enough for me to go into Hulk-smash mode!

tweet

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T-Ransformation: Week 13 - Lower Body

Pistol Squats
BW: 20x1
EMOM

Kettlebell Swings
40kg: 10x10
EMOM

I didn’t feel like deadlifting or running today, so I just did a basic lower body home workout. The pistol squats were ok, but not particularly smooth. I think they’d have been a lot better if I’d warmed up properly - I’m very lazy about that.

Nutrition
13:00: 255g bacon, 400g blueberries
17:00: slice of lemon tart
18:00: 2 bananas
20:00: roast chicken and veg

This was a good day for food, apart from that slice of lemon tart lol. I also had a sugar-free Monster and half a sugar-free Relentless, which I want to cut out completely, but they shouldn’t affect my fatloss. Things are definitely heading in the right direction in terms of appetite and irritability. I’m actually pretty excited about this.

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I may have missed it somewhere, but are you using an Intermittent Fasting approach? Or do you just tend to eat your food between 1 and 8?

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Get back to the Simple and Sinister warm up!!! I’m sure Pavel would probably make you hit the deck for 50 push ups if he read this!! Haha! Still jealous of the Pistols!!

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Yes sir, I’ve done intermittent fasting for a good few years now. It definitely keeps my mind sharper in the mornings, and stops me falling asleep at work lol. I don’t think it’s made any appreciable difference to my physique or performance though. Just my alertness.

Haha I did actually do a couple of “prying” bodyweight squats before this session, but I definitely needed to do more. I think hip circles would’ve helped a lot too.

Mind going into your approach a bit more/linking your favourite articles?

Sure sure. I first got into it in August 2012 - I only know that because that’s when Dr Michael Mosley did a documentary on BBC about fasting and that’s what sparked my interest. I decided to give it a go and transitioned over about a week or two. Prior to fasting I basically lived my life in one big post-prandial dip lol - I’d have a carb-based breakfast, big lunch and big dinner and I always felt extremely sluggish.

Once I switched to fasting that completely changed and I had much more energy and focus - especially in the morning, but if I didn’t have a heavy lunch also in the afternoon. I was very surprised that it worked for me, because I’ve always been a big-eater and felt I needed a decent breakfast. Another thing that has surprised me is that if life gets in the way and I don’t get to eat until 3pm, I still feel just fine. It works fine on A&E shifts or extended ward rounds. The only times I get myself in trouble is if I stop fasting for a few days and then go back to it, the first day is sometimes a bit rough. But I’ve only stopped fasting a couple of times.

In terms of what I do, there’s not much to it. I basically just eat all my food between midday and 8pm or 9pm. You know me - I’m not much good at making sensible food choices so I won’t comment on what I usually eat lol.

I’m just getting ready for work now so have to rush, but I’ll get back to you on articles etc as soon as I can.

T-Ransformation: Week 13 - Run

Run
3.7 miles
Time: 42:33

This was miserable - I felt really light-headed and weak and I’m certain it’s because of my nutrition. I had to stop 3 times and ended up walking the final 0.3 miles (I was doing a 4 mile route). The good news is my calves seem completely fine these days.

Nutrition
12:30: 100g cashews, 2 bananas, 125g raspberries
16:30: Mars bar
18:30: oat and raisin cookie
19:30: bacon, black pudding, baked beans

I ate the Mars bar before my run because I thought I’d need the extra carbs, and to be honest I should have eaten more lol. That run was rough. Afterwards I had an oat and raisin cookie which made me feel more alive. Today’s nutrition would have been perfectly adequate for a rest day but it clearly wasn’t enough for a run, so I think I’m going to start carb cycling. I’ll stick with paleo on rest days or bodyweight days and I’ll add direct carbs on days that I run or deadlift. I had 2 black coffees and no sugar-free energy drinks today, and I think I felt better for it.

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I second your findings with IF.

Although 1pm is usually the latest I will wait before eating, and my first meal is usually bigger than what you eat. Only issue I have is that sometimes I can get a little grumpy in the morning, although coffee always helps. And maybe its because I am playing around with reducing my overall carb intake.

Have you ever considered playing around with macros a bit more. More protein and fat earlier in the eating window, and more carbs later around your workout?

Uncle Bird.

tweet

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I was going to highlight you as my number 1 intermittent fasting reference lol.

Yeah what I’ve been eating recently isn’t representative of what I normally eat. I’ve changed things up a lot in an effort to lose fat for the “T-Ransformation” challenge. I’m definitely going to experiment with macro-timing, I think I’ll try to focus carbs around my training sessions.

I can get a bit grumpy too, but for me it seems to be purely related to total calories/carbs rather than fasting itself. If I’m fasting and eating at maintenance for my current physique (I.e. fatter than strictly necessary) I never get hangry. That only seems to happen if I drop calories.

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T-Ransformation: Week 13 - Upper Body

One Arm Push-Ups
BW: 2,3,4,5,3
EMOM

Band Pull-Aparts
Blue: 8x25

Band Curls
Blue: 8x25

This was just a brief upper body session to keep things ticking over. I think I’ll rest tomorrow then deadlift on Friday. I really hurt my lower back this morning while yawning lol - it was as painful as it used to get, but rapidly cleared up and now I feel back to normal. My lower back is so much more resilient these days.

Nutrition
12:30: 100g almonds, 3 bananas
16:00: small flapjack
18:30: sausages, tomatoes
19:00: 250g raspberries
20:00: chocolate bar

Bodyweight: 97.0kg

Huge drop in bodyweight from 98.5kg to 97.0kg over the past 6 days. I quadruple checked both times, and moved the scale around etc. I wasn’t particularly bloated last time, nor dehydrated today, so I guess a fair amount of it must be genuine weight loss. I imagine progress will now slow done quite rapidly, but it would be nice to continue like this for a bit. I certainly look a little leaner in the mirror. I’m definitely the best I’ve ever looked at this weight, so things are on track to get pretty awesome (so long as my weak will doesn’t break haha).

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T-Ransformation: Week 13 - Rest

Nutrition
10:30: 220g dates
12:30: omelette (6 eggs, salami), 80g chocolate
16:30: 2 cinnamon buns, 300g blackberries
19:30: haggis starter, venison main, sorbet pudding

Today wasn’t fantastic to be honest. I was really hungry and grumpy in the morning so broke my fast early with some dates. The dates didn’t really improve anything so I had some chocolate with my lunch but I still felt pretty shit. The cinnamon buns were a dumb choice, but they finally made the difference and I felt a lot better. For dinner we went out with visiting friends. So overall this wasn’t a great day for food, but I’ll take the carb-up as an opportunity to hit a well-fuelled deadlift session tomorrow. I’ll be very interested to see what my morning weight is.

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T-Ransformation: Week 13 - Deadlifts

Deadlifts
130kg: 3
150kg: 1
160kg: 1 - belt on, mixed grip
180kg: 1
200kg: 1
220kg: F - so close!
180kg: 5 - straps on
160kg: 5

Kettlebell Swings
40kg: 3x20
E2MOM

This was a pretty good deadlift session in the end. I wanted to get 220kg with a mixed grip (I used straps last time) but unfortunately I failed just before lockout. I thankfully made the decision to drop down and do my usual 180kg set rather than keep pushing, because that’s never productive. I then thought I’d go for 160kg for 10, but honestly just didn’t want that badly enough and stopped after 5.

Nutrition
12:30: 50g almonds, one banana
13:30: 50g almonds, 300g blueberries
16:00: one banana
18:30: 670g beef meatballs, 450g parsnips, BBQ sauce

Bodyweight: 97.2kg

I haven’t had dinner yet, but I’ll edit this post if anything changes. I also had 2 black coffees and 2 zero-sugar Monsters, which isn’t fantastic. I felt I had enough energy thanks to yesterday’s carbs, so I kept today pretty strict. I think I’ll have some direct carbs with lunch tomorrow and then go for a run. Apart from the occasional moment when I’ve struggled to get the balance right I’m finding this nutritional approach surprisingly easy to stick to. My bodyweight is up very slightly, but that fits with what’s been going on. Hopefully by the end of next week I’ll be comfortably into the 96s.

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T-Ransformation: Week 13 - Summary

Bodyweight: 97.1kg

Training: A little lacklustre, but got it all done

Nutrition: Much better!

This has been a great week in terms of nutrition and weight loss. My current approach seems reasonably easy to stick to and also feels very healthy (minus the zero-sugar energy drinks, which I intend to cut down later). Training has been unremarkable: the deadlifts were pretty standard and the runs were a bit sluggish. Overall I’m very happy with this week!

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