Serge Storms: Training Log

Oh god yes! Give any little cutey a violin and my heart just melts… bonus points if they can play it :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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lol, there’s very little danger of that so I wouldn’t worry

185.5 this morning.

Creatine gainz?

I forgot to mention that I’ve also added creatine back into the daily mix.

But the bump in weight this morning is from some digestion issues from last night, I think. We had ground chicken quesadillas. I ate about half a pound of ground chicken. Not sure I can isolate exactly what the major contributor was. Large amounts of certain animal proteins will sometimes bloat and gas the shit out of me. But I also rarely eat cheese, so it could have been that. And I had a ton of fiber throughout the day. Probably a combination of all of it, but I could tell last night that I’d still be a bit heavy this morning.

Interesting thing, though, is that I’m not sure it is a systemic water flux issue, or really just isolated to the GI system. I can usually tell by looking at my ankles. If I can see the tendons and attachments and bones, I know it’s not systemic water. If it’s not so hi-res, especially on the outside-facing surface of ankle and calf, I just can’t see the same degree of anatomy-class thinness between skin and bone. Today I can see it.

Anyway, arms and shoulders today. I have gradually improved my arm flexibility so that I can do ultra-supinated-grip DB curls. It creates an unmatched peak contraction, and it also occludes some blood flow just from the extreme bending. Crazy softball (16", Chicago-style Clincher softball, of course) biceps with sick split down the middle.

Delt work was more recovery-style.

Upper traps worked via high cable face pulls with arms nearly fully extended. Lots of angle variations from that starting point.

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There’s something fun about trying to achieve isomacro-ness (33/33/33) by simply tweaking my existing staples.

Breakfast today:

Old fashioned oats 40g (microwave 1 minute)
Protein powder 28g (6g less than my standard amount)
Angry Mills peanut spread 36g (19g more than my usual amount)

440 calories
Isomacronuclear Breakfast Bomb

182.5

Wednesday 2700 cal

115 g F
170g C
170g P

Flame free confess:

I went for a jog today.

182.5

Wednesday - 2100 C
Zone macros for the day, closer to 33/33/33 for the week.

Super busy day yesterday, so food intake was extremely simple:

Breakfast - 1 hard boiled egg on two slices of Healthy Life toast (35 calories/slice), with 1 tbsp of butter. 1 scoop of protein powder in 8 oz. of skim milk.

From 11-6, I had 3 Think Thin protein bars.

Got home and had a big chicken breast, a bowl of oatmeal with a serving of Angry Mills peanut glory, and a stiff cocktail. Not altogether at once, but in that order.

Done.

Shirt off guns out on a heavily travelled public street?

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Last time I did that, I ended up getting pulled into a bar called Manhole, but that’s a story for another time.

This yog was quite the opposite. Alone. In the pre-dawn darkness. Cloaked in black. Wearing my tummy toner cream and neoprene belly blaster belt under my three layers of clothes.

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185.0 today.

Thursday: 2900 calories
33/33/33

Training - Back focus - 45 minute session.

I did the full 24-site SKULPT analysis today.

Last time I did the full measurement instead of just the 3-site was June 24th.

June 24 - 190lbs - 11.2% BF
Sept 22 - 185lbs - 8.9% BF

Doing the math, it looks like LBM stayed about exactly the same.

Not claiming to be at a true 8.9% right now, but I do think the SKULPT does a decent job of providing directional guidance. It might be a few points high with it’s overall BF calculation though.

I like to look at the relative measurements to see where the fat is:

Lowest Areas: Upper back, triceps, calves, abs

Highest: Glutes, Shoulders, Lower Back

When I look at previous full-body scans, I see a cool trend regarding abs. When I first got the device and I was early in this fat-loss phase, the reading on my abs was always higher than the “total” calculation. In other words, my abs were relatively fat related to other areas.

Over time, the ab reading started to decrease more than other places. And now, my fat reading for abs is by far the lowest of all measurements.

So what I always think of as an area with a lot of “stubborn” fat might not be so stubborn after all.

What hasn’t changed is that my glutes still hold, by far, the most fat. In fact, if I were to take my glute reading down to what my ab reading is, my ass would fit in the palm of a child’s hand. Please don’t spend even a moment trying to visualize that…it’s just wrong.

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Saturday 183.5 lbs

Friday - 3100 calories - Dinner at a “Tap House”, where I had three porters and five street tacos.

Friday training - two mini-sessions: an outdoor gymnastics sesh in the morning, and a decent bike ride in the afternoon.

Saturday AM - Shoulders and back and such.

Saturday 3500 calories

Trying to prove that man can, indeed, live on street tacos and beer alone.

White Sox game last night with the family.

Been busy and somewhat losing interest in maintaining my log, but I’m still kicking ass.

IMG_5669

Halfway to a year of perfect logging.

Either I’m on to something, or I have an eating disorder, depending on which listicle you read.

But wouldn’t it be more like an eating “order” instead of “dis” order?

Weighing 182-185.

Shifting focus to traps and shoulders again, as it is shirt season for the next 6 months.

Oh, and then there is the three-day prep I’ll be doing for the Yogi pose-down.

Otherwise, just keep doin’ what I’m doin’.

Quick update on calories and macros and stuff:

Average calories last 3 months: 2600
Average calories last month: 2800

Weight staying stable at around 184.5 for the past month or so.

So, in conclusion: Calories UP. Weight SAME. This is good.

This means that if I want to dial it in at any point, I don’t need to get crazy with deficits or activity. I can just nudge calories down to about 2300 for about two weeks and I’d be leaner than ever. This is a good zone.

One thing that has helped me lately is the elimination of days when I just go nuts and consume 4,500 or more calories. The highest I’ve gone lately is 3200, and those are usually just because I ate on-point all day but had a more normal-ish dinner.

Another mindset tweak that has been working: When I’m tracking to be way UNDER for a certain macro or overall calories, I do NOT use it as an excuse to throw down a bunch of late-night snacks, even if they are of the “clean” variety. Instead, I just roll with the deficit. Those days help offset some of the higher days, and they just help reinforce a good mindset and strong habits.

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pretty sure they used your picture to advertise that Jade Teta article about stubborn fat, you’ll be pleased to hear

Finally got some down time on a long flight with Wi-Fi, so maybe I’ll ramble my way through a TLDR post.

I’ve been thinking about goals and motivation and stuff. I think about that stuff a lot.

Right now, I’m in a groove. This is the time to hone my habits, sharpen my skills, and bullet-proof myself against the inevitable bumps in the road that tend to derail me from my goal of living as aligned as possible to my core values.

The one ingredient I’m lacking right now is any kind of strong impetus to change the way I look. I am about as close to satisfied as I’ve ever been. Sure, I’d like to slap a little clay onto those lateral deltoids and maybe etch a few lines a bit deeper, but those things are beyond icing on the cake. Those are like upgrading the sprinkles that get sprinkled on the icing on the cake.

What I really want to do is just get mentally stronger. I want to turn this “groove” into a deeper sense of confidence. I want to feel like I can grab control of my eating behaviors at will, but I can also let go of control at times without fear of getting completely derailed. Because for me, this entire thing is pretty much all about self-control. Of the many areas where self-control can be practiced and strengthened, what a person allows into their body seems to be a pretty important one.

I think self-control over your diet can be tricky and deceiving. You can certainly spend a bunch of energy and effort to create conditions that minimize your chances for losing self-control. I think those types of things help out more during the early stages of the journey. What I would consider an even more impressive level of self-control would be to get to a point where you could invest minimal time and effort into tinkering with external conditions, and just be able to adapt to things on-the-fly.

These long work trips are a good example. I could approach these in a number of ways, and still achieve the objective of “hitting my macros” and staying within my calorie limits.

I could eat nothing but supplements and bars throughout the day, and then leave space for as normal a dinner as possible, including a few drinks.

I could cut down on a macro for the week and go ultra low-carb or ultra low-fat, and eat a mix of what the meeting planners have ordered from the hotel and supplements.

I could have packed an extra suitcase with Tupperware containers full of chicken and rice. It would have easily gotten me through the two or three full days.

Or…

I can stick to the eating patterns that generally work for me, but use the foods that are already being provided on the mostly pre-selected breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus.

The problem with this last option is that it requires the most self-control of all of them. Because restaurant-provided food combinations are always the most hyper-palatable. And at meetings, they are almost always served in an all-you-can-eat buffet style.

The skill required here is portion control. Ugh. I said it. While I’m at it, I might as well throw in “moderation”. Ugh. I hate moderation.

Trying to fight through a day where you’re constantly forcing yourself to stop after a tiny portion of super tasty food is like playing with matches around an open gas container and just hoping it doesn’t ignite. At least that’s what it feels like for me. Will I ever develop a level of self-control where I can coast through that type of day and just nibble my way to staying on-target with calories and macros? Well, I’ve been learning and practicing and improving for over twenty years, and I still haven’t figured that one out. But I am getting closer. I used to start a meeting out with protein shakes and Tupperware. I’d be rinsing out my shaker bottle in the hotel sink and drying it with face towels.

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Time to learn a new skill?

The self control thing is an interesting topic. I did the “2017 T-ransformation” here and lost a good amount of flab, ended up looking pretty damn good for me… The “problem” for me is the laser like focus I have to have for months on end to land there, and how quickly it evaporates once I stop the large amounts of cardio.

I generally am pretty good, and most of the year I am happy with the way I look, so I have accepted that if I dont want to make this my life I just have to hit the fat loss supercharger every once in a while, and accept being a littttle bit softer than I like some times. Having a baby last year made the commitment to looking good a little less important as I needed to increase my daddy/husband time around the house.

But yeah, some times I like to have a freakin’ taco when they show up to the break room at work, im willing to make10 months year a little less rigid/restricted if it means I have to hyper-focus for 8-12 weeks

I have been thinking about picking up a new skill. Good call.

I was out of town for a full week. Phoenix, Vegas, Denver.

Managed my nutrition and workouts pretty well. 185 lbs. I think I only missed two workouts.

Back to the low-fat lifestyle this week.

I think I might focus on improving the quality of my carbs. I tend to get sugary. I could probably stand to get a little starchier. I believe this shift would cause some trickle-down effects and ultimately lead to better body composition.