Breakfast: Shake = 1 cup whole milk, 1 scoop quick oats, 1 scoop protein powder. 1 banana. 2 hard boiled eggs.
Lunch (right before training): 1 fajita = 1 corn tortilla with beef, chicken, chorizo, peppers, onions, tomatoes, guacamole, sour cream and pico de gallo. 12 oz glass of whole milk.
Post-workout snack: small handful of mixed nuts. small handful of plantain chips. 3 dates.
Dinner: 10 oz rare ribeye steak (split 16 oz steak with wife). grilled caulifower. large salad = spring mix, tomatoes, onions, dried cranberries, almond slivers, ginger dressing.
Digestif: 1 Old Fashioned = bourbon, angostura bitters, orange zest, 1 tsp simple syrup, cherry, over ice.
Bedtime: 1 scoop (30g) protein powder in water with creatine.
Might have gone overboard on food today, but it was a training day so I think I’m good.
hahaha made me laugh right away Steve… That could be me
I said it before I’ll say it again I really like the way you’re doing your giat sets. (secretly I’ve been putting it down on a piece of paper, If I do it it’ll be 531 the Steve way)
I’m glad you’re enjoying the pain I’m inflicting on myself! I’m definitely enjoying doing these ‘2 main lifts’ giant sets, but I’m still in my first full cycle, so the jury is out on their effectiveness. I think they’re working really well for what I’m using them for, which is to recover previously-acquired strength while improving conditioning, but it remains to be seen how good they’ll be for building new strength. I’m riding this program through the end of the t-ransformation2019 challenge at least, and then I’ll reassess.
2/10/19 Morning weigh-in 194.4#. Back on track, but it looks like maybe the 193.8# a few days ago was as much of an anomaly as the 197.6# was last week.
This next week will be challenging, since I’m taking the last half of the week off to go down to Texas and take my stepson to tour the Texas A&M campus. Not sure when or if I’ll be able to get a good workout in, and I’m sure my eating won’t be as easy to manage when I’m eating out and/or eating big meals with family.
I may hit the gym back to back days on Monday and Tuesday, preload my training a little, and then try to get a couple of runs in while I’m in Texas.
Breakfast: Shake = 1 cup whole milk, 1 scoop quick oats, 1 scoop protein powder. 1 hard boiled egg. 1 mandarin orange. 1/2 apple (split with wife).
Snack: Small handful of mixed nuts. Small handful of plantain chips.
Lunch: Open-faced sandwiches on mini-croissants. 3x chicken salad = diced chicken breast, onion, celery, pecans, dried cranberries, chia seeds and full fat unsweetened Greek yogurt. 12 oz glass of whole milk.
Dinner: Chicken salad = diced chicken breast, onion, celery, pecans, dried cranberries, chia seeds and full fat unsweetened Greek yogurt. Small salad = spring mix, tomatoes, onions, pickled garlic, green olives, ginger dressing. 1 mini-croissant with butter.
Bedtime: 1 scoop (30g) protein powder in water with creatine.
I probably came in light on total food today. The densest thing I ate was the croissants, and they were pretty small, 100 cal, 5 g fat and 12 g carbs each, and I had a total of 4 of those between lunch and dinner.
2/11/19 Morning weigh-in 195.6#. Aaaand I’m back up again. I know there can be a lot of variation day to day and I need to look at the long term, but still annoying to see that much of an increase. It wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t already know this week was going to be messed up diet-wise. Oh well, stay the course and all that… I may have to tighten up my weekend eating, I’ll look at that after this week’s Texas trip.
I’ve been there Steve, I’ve tracked a long time, plugged it to an App.
Now after several years I can see a pattern and I don’t care that much as long as I know what I’m doing. And you do that, the weight will come down nice and easy.
If you really want to be aggressive take two weeks where you’re sure you are 500 cal under maintenance every day, eating clean. Not eating between dinner and breakfast. You’ll be hungry but you’ll lose weight.
Have a great trip with your stepson, I hope you’ll find something good for him. Don’t worry to much about what you eat, try to cut sugar as much as possible so diet coke and water. But hey you’re not going on a BB stage in a week.
I didn’t add up all of your food but just a quick glance at your lunch from Sunday reveals some sneaky calories. 3 croissants and 12 ounces of milk is 525 calories. I imagine the chicken salad came in at 300 or more calories putting you over 800 calories for lunch.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing. It just depends on how fast you want to cut. I need to stay around 2400 cals/day if I want to lose two pounds per week at 230 lbs. You thought you came in light on food for Sunday but that looks to be just about right (or even high) for me right now… And I’m 30 lbs heavier.
Again, this all depends on how tight you want to be on your diet and how fast you want to see results. I’m impatient so I’m pushing myself. I could lose 1 pound per week and reach my goal for the challenge but I want to get there faster.
Actually, I’m pretty fortunate. One perk of being tall is just being bigger and able to eat more. My wife makes vegan pancakes and they’re delicious! I get to eat them weekly and they still fit into my caloric budget.
I’ve actually considered downloading an app, but I don’t think I’m to that point, yet. And yeah, I’m just going to eat as smart as I can this weekend, but still have fun with the family. I don’t do soda at all, I pretty much drink water, black coffee, unsweetened tea or whole milk, mostly water. Oh, and alcohol…
This is me, in spades! I can work my ass off in the gym, and eat like I’m on a mission to gain weight and strength, but this ‘cutting’ thing is foreign territory…
They were delicious, but I’m giving them a miss in the future. Honestly, looking back at what I’ve eaten recently, I think the 2 ribeye steaks I ate last week probably did more damage than the croissants. That, and I probably need to stop snacking on handfuls of mixed nuts. I’m only hitting them about once a day, but they have an insidious amount of fat and calories. Unfortunately, I bought a giant tub of them over Christmas, and it’s sitting there staring at me all day when I’m off work. It’s much easier staying on-course with my diet when I’m at work.
My wife doesn’t do vegan, but I can see vegan pancakes being good. She is an amazing cook, but fortunately she’s working on losing weight with me, and is mostly cooking accordingly (the croissants were her idea yesterday, though. I wanted to get pita bread). She started at 124 and her target is 108 (She’s not looking to be stick-thin, she’s only 5’0"), and she’s down to 119 this morning, so she’s right there with me pace-wise.
Deadlift:
5x45# +2 power cleans
5x95# + 2 power cleans
5x135# + 2 power cleans
5x185#
5x225#
Work sets:
5x275#
Switched to mixed grip
3x315#
1x355#
Accessory giant set:
Front squat: 5x155#, 5x155#, 5x155#
25# weighted Dips: 10/10/10
Barbell rows 155#: 10/10/10
Conditioning: Farmer’s carries -
120# per arm x 50ft x2
170# per arm x 50ft x2
I went lighter on front squats today because I was a dumbass. After I finished my benching I set the 155# loaded barbell down on the pins, set the rack to my front squat height, and then casually hang power cleaned the 155# bar up, forgetting for the moment that I am in no way strong enough to ‘casually’ hang power clean 155#, and caught it awkwardly, sort of tweaking my left wrist. I was okay front squatting 155#, but I could tell that going heavier wasn’t a good idea.
I was running short on time this afternoon so I decided to break out the new farmer’s handles that I haven’t used yet. A lot quicker than a 20 minute elliptical session, and it was good to remind my body what walking with heavy weights feels like.
No worries man. I’ve been eating on track and I bounced back from 272 and today I’m 280 again. I’m thinking it’s just the body holding fluid for muscle repair. I’m guessing in a few days I’ll be sub 270
Breakfast: Shake = 1 cup whole milk, 1 large egg, 1 scoop quick oats, 1 1/2 scoop protein powder.
Lunch: Large salad = baby spinach, cucumber, carrot, orange bell pepper, broccoli, radish, mushroom, onion, olive oil and vinegar. 1 can of tuna with copious amounts of Frank’s Red Hot sauce.
Snack before training: 1 apple.
Dinner: 6 bone-in hot buffalo wings from Pizza Hut = 600 calories, 45g protein, 27g fat, 30g carbs.
Bedtime: 1 scoop (30g) protein powder in water with creatine.
Going to bed early. Didn’t get enough sleep last night with the schedule shift to getting up at 5 AM, I’m out of gas.
You could be right, but I still overate through the weekend. Going to cut back a bit and see what that does. I’ll save the binge eating for when I start working to build strength again.
How hard are you running these – If all out, whether you’re feeling fast now or not, that is a lot of volume. I don’t like to have athletes do more than 400m of volume at all out speed. Can go way high (3,000m +) if it is tempo work (60-80%).
