Awesome man! Your doing it right. Track what your doing. Make adjustments, and stay the course! Keep it up buddy.
Nice work. Trying to do same sort of thing with my diet - only a week in and hoping to drop about 10# over next couple months.
Do you have coworkers?
I have an office that is well isolated from anyone else and all the guys who work for me go eat in their break room, I don’t microwave anything, and I take my empty tins directly out to the dumpster after I finish eating. I’m not going to be ‘that guy’.
I saw that you ate sardines today and just imagined the smell when you opened the can lol!
Been there, done that. They really only smell if you leave the open can out. But eat them quick and yeah, right in the dumpster.
2/6/19 Food for the day -
Breakfast: Shake = 1 cup whole milk, 1 large egg, 1 scoop quick oats, 1 scoop protein powder. 1 banana.
Lunch: 6 oz. of flank steak. 6 Ritz crackers with cheddar cheese. 1/2 cup fried plantain chips. Small handful of nuts.
Dinner: 9 oz. of flank steak. Small serving of blackened sweet potato, yellow bell pepper and onion. Small serving of lime cilantro rice with sausage, onions and peppers. 12 oz glass of whole milk.
Bedtime: 1 scoop (30g) protein powder in water with creatine.
So, I went to work today, but we had an ice storm coming in hard, and we had no work that was urgent to finish tonight, so I got to send all non-essential maintenance personnel home, which was all of us including me. I had a quick lunch before heading for work, just a small piece of leftover steak and a couple of other things that were in the kitchen. I didn’t get my normal salad + tuna lunch, and wife wasn’t feeling well so she just ate a TV dinner, so I did leftovers, finished off the steak and a couple of other things that were still in the fridge from the last week or so. Plenty of protein today, but not as many veggies as usual.
Thanks, and 10# over a couple of months should be totally doable for you.
What’s with the whole milk? Is there something in it you’re wanting in terms of nutrition or is it just something you like to drink?
I use unsweetened vanilla almond milk and it’s only 30 cals per cup. The sweetened version is 60-100 calories (can’t remember). I cash drink the sweetened stuff but I just use milk for oatmeal and my shakes.
If I see whole milk and the goal of weight loss together then I see opportunity! But if it’s something you really like and want to cut elsewhere then go right ahead. Just sharing my unsolicited two cents.
That’s a valid question. The main thing is that I just really like whole milk. 2 percent or skim milk taste like water, and the almond and soy alternatives taste nasty IMO, and have very little real nutritional value except the vitamins they add to them, vs. milk which is as close as you get to a whole food. I mostly drink water, and save milk as part of my main meals.
Plus, it’s an easily adjustable variable for tuning my diet. 8 oz of whole milk has 8g protein, 12g carbs, 8g fat, and 150 calories, which makes it easy to tell exactly what I’m changing when I cut some out. But yeah, mostly I just really like it. It’s not totally off the table to cut it out completely if I need to, but so far I’m making good progress while leaving it in and moderating it.
2/7/19 Morning weigh-in 194.0#. A big drop this morning, but I slept really well so didn’t wake up and drink any water through the night, and woke up feeling fairly dehydrated.
2/7/19 5/3/1 full body giant sets cycle 1 day 8 Deadlift primary/Bench secondary - Weight 196.5#.
Warmup: Barbell complex x3 with chinups 1/1/1
Main giant set:
Deadlift:
5x45# +2 power cleans
3x95# + 2 power cleans
3x135# + 2 power cleans
3x185#
3x225#
Work sets:
3x265#
3x295#
Switched to mixed grip
3x335#
Joker:
3x365#
Bench:
10x45#
5x65#
3x95#
3x115#
3X135#
Work sets:
3x155#
3x175#
3x195#
3x195#
Chinups: 2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10
Accessory giant set:
Front squat: 5x155#, 5x175#, 4x195#
25# weighted Dips: 10/10/10
Barbell rows 155#: 10/10/10
Conditioning: 20 minutes elliptical, aerobic program at lvl 7, 220 calories burned, and max heart rate of 170 during the high speed parts of the program. Still managing to increase the amount of work done every time I do this.
Entire session took 1:20. Adding the joker set definitely stretches it out, and a deadlift joker set takes more out of me than bench did. On top of that, I increased weight on everything in the accessory giant set. I could only get 4 reps of front squat at 195#, fourth rep barely came out of the hole, elbows started dropping, and I knew a 5th rep wasn’t going to come up.
Food for today -
Breakfast: Shake = 1 cup whole milk, 1 large egg, 1 scoop quick oats, 1 scoop protein powder. 1 grapefruit.
Lunch: small dish of lime cilantro rice with sausage, peppers and onions. 5 Ritz crackers with cheddar cheese. Small handful of mixed nuts.
Dinner (1.5 hours before workout): ~14 oz rare ribeye steak. Small serving of cheesy mashed potatoes. 1/2 of large salad = baby spinach, cucumber, carrot, orange bell pepper, broccoli, radish, mushroom, onion, olives, olive oil and vinegar.
Snack (1 hour post workout): 4 oz of flank steak. 1/2 of large salad = baby spinach, cucumber, carrot, orange bell pepper, broccoli, radish, mushroom, onion, olives, olive oil and vinegar. 1 mandarin orange.
Edit: Went ahead and did the 30g protein shake when I got home. I felt like I needed it.
Didn’t drink any milk at all tonight, because I got all the protein and fat I needed with the steak, and then some. Also going to skip the protein shake before I go to bed (nixed this). This was the second day this week where I broke out of my caloric deficit, we’ll see how that affects my weight loss. At least today was a heavy training day, so I’m putting the protein to good use right away. I expect the result of my weigh-in tomorrow morning will depend greatly on whether that steak is still sitting on my stomach after I get up.
Milk is so good, I’ve always been drinking skimmed so I’m used to it. Keep it, it’s good.
I’ve found that steak and all meat from cows sits a long time in my digestive system. It takes several days to get rid of, weight wise.
Good workout Steve, 4 reps with 195 front squat is awesome.
I didn’t have any milk last night because of all the steak calories, but I’m definitely not taking it out entirely.
Pretty happy about the front squats, I’ve only ever done 195 when I was doing sets of 3. I’m sure I could get more if I wasn’t doing it as part of an accessory giant set after doing another main lift giant set, but you sacrifice max weights for training density with a program like this, so I’m good with it.
2/8/19 Morning weigh-in 193.8#. I was surprised to see another drop, even a small one, after as much as I ate last night, and I still haven’t eliminated the aftermath of it either. I had to work late last night, though, didn’t get home until almost 5 am, after going in at 4 yesterday afternoon. I was exhausted, but still didn’t sleep well, with animals and kids waking me up. Once all the action stopped, about 9:30, I slept like the dead for about 3 hours, woke up feeling dehydrated but rested. I’m looking forward to getting back onto my regular schedule tonight.
I almost forgot, it’s been another week of weighing in with my bathroom scale, so I have some math to do:
First 6 days’ average: 196.0#
Last 7 days:
196.2#
195.2#
197.6#
195.4#
194.8#
194.0#
193.8#
7 day average: 195.2#, so average is down 0.8# from last week. If I take out the one anomalous reading from my salt feast on Sunday, the average is 194.9#, down 1.1# for the week. I’m at basically exactly the weight loss rate I’m shooting for, right now!
2/8/19 Food for the day -
Breakfast: Shake = 1 cup whole milk, 1 large egg, 1 scoop quick oats, 1 scoop protein powder. 1 mandarin orange.
Lunch: 1 mandarin orange. 3 dates. 3 soft boiled eggs. 1 cup of full fat Greek yogurt with large handful of mixed nuts.
Dinner: Fajitas = 3 corn tortillas with beef, chicken, chorizo, peppers, onions, tomatoes, guacamole, sour cream and pico de gallo. small serving of refried beans and Mexican rice.
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.
I felt last night’s training all day. Insufficient sleep definitely didn’t help. Hopefully I’ll be able to get a good night’s sleep tonight, and wake up rejuvenated tomorrow morning. I didn’t do anything today but stretch and relax.
1lb a week is solid. I love how detailed you keep everything. Hard to fail when your on top of it like that!
Yeah, I know myself and I know what it takes to keep myself accountable, and I love to eat, so it’s easy for me to go overboard if I don’t stay on it. The training part comes a lot more easily to me than the diet.
2/9/19 Morning weigh-in 194.6#. A little bit of a bump back up, but well within what’s to be expected.
2/9/18 5/3/1 full body giant sets cycle 1 day 9press primary/squat secondary - Weight 196.2#
Warmup: barbell complex x3 with chin-ups 1/1/1
Giant set 1:
Press:
10x45#
5x65#
5x95#
work sets:
5x115#
3x135#
6x150#
Chin-ups 2/3/4/5/6/7
Squat:
10x45#
5x95#
5x135#
5x185#
Work sets:
5x225#
3x245#
1x275#
Accessory giant set:
1 arm DB press:
10x60#
10x60#
10x60#
Krok rows:
10x70#
10x70#
10x70#
Zercher squats:
5x155#
5x175#
5x195#
Conditioning: 1 mile = 14 laps = 28 sprints of run the straights, walk the curves on indoor track at rec center.
I’m pretty tapped out right now, my body didn’t want to do conditioning today, but pushed through it. Food now.
That’s my favorite conditioning at my gym but I don’t do that much volume! It’s 6 laps to a mile and I struggle to do more than 4 laps. The straightaways are about 80-90 meters and the curve is about 40-50 meters.
Old Fashioned followed by creatine. I don’t think I could pull that off well. But I like your style. How did 275 feel on the squat?
Well, the straights on this indoor track are only about 40m, whatever the length of a baskeball court is, and when I use the term ‘sprint’ I’m being very generous with myself at this stage…
The creatine was a bit later. It’s Saturday night, so another Old Fashioned is on the menu for tonight.
275 was fine, my actual maxxes are way more than my training maxxes right now, I just did one rep because squat was my secondary lift of the day. In 2 workouts it’ll be my primary and I’ll probably do 5 reps. I’m supposed to keep my AMRAP sets down to 10/8/5 reps for 5/3/1 weeks, I actually overshot on press today because I always need more work on press, it’s my slowest lift to progress at, and I still have my eye on getting a consistent 200# log press by the end of the year. I’ll totally shift my training around after the t-ransformation 2019 challenge is over to strength bias over conditioning, but I want to at least be progressing in that direction.