A little bit of body fat added this month. I have finally invested in some new weighing scales and I’m very please to have been able to maintain my weight without having to keep checking it.
It’s time now to calm down on the weight I’m lifting and start to up the reps by a couple. I’ll do a full update January 1st 2015…
First thoughts;
This week I have been looking at myself in the mirror for the first time in a while and I took a few pics to compare with some older pictures.
Trying to pose my back better…
Body fat
Pic on the left is when I was at my peak cut in May. Pic on the right is now. I am clearly holding a bit more body fat now, but for the extra strength I have compared to when I cut, my daily attitude, focus and general well-being is incredibly better than then.
My diet is simple now and I do not do any cardio specific exercise. I eat what I feel like eating and this is determined on how my body feels at that moment in time. I won’t use the word bulking for what I’m doing, as I have done that many times in the past and just got fatter and fatter without gaining any strength. This time I am listening to my body and It seems to work well.
The word bulking is another way for me to say it’s time to relax, eat junk and palm on a ton of excess body fat and to be lazy with food. I’m not saying bulking is bad, but for me personally, a sensible diet is much more rewarding! If I had an extra 1000 calories a day I don’t think I would of gained much extra muscle anyway. I have always tried it before so that’s why I am confident to speak like this.
Legs
My legs have always been my most hated part of my body. The majority of my fat was held around my upper legs, stomach and bottom. This is something I know psychologically and now my mind has been programmed to push beyond my limits to improve them . I’m not saying that I have great legs, I’m simply saying that I’m slowly improving at my own rate.
I’m looking forward to progressing in all areas, but I’m mainly looking forward to cutting my body fat as far as I possibly can for May. Before then though, I would love to hit a 400kg leg press just for the hell of it. Dropping my body fat seems to be the rewarding part and I hope that I have a much better head start this time and a better understanding of how to eat a bit better to help my cut.
Skin fold
Bits this month
Future Goals
Ok, I am looking forward to competing next year in any show. I’m doing what I have to do to be what will hopefully be my best and that’s what it’s all about. I am planning on giving it 100% to my knowledge and I have been planning it for a long time as I wanted to compete before the end of my 30th year.
Travelling, with FIBO a couple of weeks before the competition and BodyPower the week after the competition, we have a lot going on. I really do enjoy the expos and so it is going to be hard staying focused on competing. Nutrition is going to be very hard!
Whatever happens, I can always do my own pictures at home again like I did this year and compete in a natural show in July. I just want to compete in May as that’s my goal.
22/10/14
My strength has gone up over the weeks and this is great, but I’m not feeling like my mind is in the game. It’s difficult to explain what I mean. It’s a similar feeling to when I cut and was low on carbs/fats…
My diet has been consistently good’ish’ for quite sometime now and I think that is the problem. I listen to my body and I respond to how it feels and feed it accordingly. I don’t do cheat days as I just don’t feel that I need them at the moment. However, I think it is very important for me to have a a few days of eating much more general food. I have added some seeded baps, burgers, hash browns to my diet in hope for a noticeable increase with my head in the gym.
I’m not having a spontaneous pig out for the hell of it. I’m quite sure I need to do this for my body. I have no cravings or anything other signs that I have to have some different foods in my diet, but this is something I need to do and monitor to see what happens.
I had a burger, hash browns, waffles and so on last night and only increased my calories by 450 from what I normally have and my macros were around right too. I think I am around a good body fat to allow myself to pig out a bit. I don’t see the point in having a one off cheat meal and so I’m having 2 days of eating different foods to my standard diet.
These are also the days that are after back day and before quad day. I will monitor how my mind to muscle connection is tomorrow in the gym and go from there. It will also be good to see how my body looks after a good fill up with different foods.
I try to keep a standard decent diet that I have tailored for myself over a few years of trial and error. The reason I’m blogging this is so that I have to think about what I’m doing for my improvements, rather than just pigging out because someone said I have got to have a cheat meal.
Some people wait to the weekend for a cheat meal and that’s what I will do when I cut if I desperately need to, otherwise I do it when I feel my body is asking me for it. I also know the difference between NEEDING something and being lazy or bored.
24/10/14
Update…
After a good 48 hours of pigging out on burgers, waffles etc I hit the gym. The question I need to ask myself is, did it make a difference and was it worth while? My answer is probably yes, but I don’t want to be eating mass amounts of white baps and other junk that doesn’t agree with me personally.
The more important question is, what do I want from the sport? the answer is difficult, but the first and most important thing to consider is the amount of fat I carry daily. Until I have competed on stage and got a base for myself to beat the following year, I really don’t see why I can’t just enjoy the journey relatively lean.
I’m sure I could put on much more size if I ate like a pig for 10 months, but I want to stay lean as I’ve had enough of carrying excess fat.
As I am natural, I believe that I have to work off everything that I put in my body with no help from enhancements which help you to burn body fat. I need to enjoy my journey and this is how I chose to do it at the moment.
Clean diet, train the best I can to the knowledge I have whilst enjoying it and monitor how my body reacts to what I do.
Final note…
Pigging out when I NEED to is the way I need to do it. I will work with my body and adjust my diet accordingly. I could quite easily get addicted to this type of food and that’s what I’m most afraid of. I have control over myself now though and I won’t let myself go the other way…
I have tidied up my diet and consume around 2500 calories a day from good foods rather than junk. I’m eating 6-7 meals per day and I seem to be improving in the gym. My diet is boring, but it seems to be working well for me. I am still monitoring everything I eat and lift, I just keep it private for now as I find it easier for myself.
I am roughly at the body fat I had when I was at around my 7th-9th week of cutting. I am not cutting at the moment, I am getting a very good base line of how my body reacts to taking in the correct amount of calories rather than piling on tons of excess fat that I was doing a few weeks back.
Skin Fold
My strength is incredibly different to the last time I had this body fat. For example my hack squat was 20kg for 8 reps. Now it is 100kg for 12 reps. Iso row was 40kg and now I’m doing 80kg with the same form and 105kg with less strict form. H/S chest press was 60kg for 8 and now I can do 120kg for 6.
What happens if my strength drops massively?
I can afford to put on body fat if need be, but I enjoy living every day with my body like this. I have plenty of room and supplements to add in my diet if need be.
Why do I want to stay lean?
Because I’m sick of carrying excess fat and thinking I’m ripped. At 18% body fat I thought I was ripped in the past.
Positives
Negatives
I still haven’t weighed myself yet, at a guess I would say that I’m around 11 Stone 12 pounds/ 70.5kg. As I have no real baseline apart from what I did in May, I can only keep pushing myself to better where I was then. I believe that 4 weeks of strict diet and I could be back down below 10% body fat without much of a problem
Am I doing it right?
Am I doing what right? I’m enjoying what I’m doing inside and outside the gym. The rest is just a bonus!
What supplements have I been on this month?
Next week I will get back on my Creagen. I have just been of it for a month as I like to do 6 weeks on and 4 off. I will also get back on my DYnamino for my intra workout.
Sizes in cm
My plan is to be my very best as a natural bodybuilder and if I’m not able to eat clean and be dedicated then I simply won’t step up my game to the next level. I will stay natural until I have a good solid foundation and understanding of myself before I look into steroids.
Pic on the left May 2014 / pic on right last week
My body is telling me that I am doing it right. I am quite lean and also at my strongest point. Mentally I feel good and I have my brain focused on my everyday goal. I just want to enjoy the sport and everything that comes with it.
I want to compete next May as a first timer natural. I will treat is as a competition and do my very best for what level I’m at and obviously I will continue to better myself for the year after that too. This will just be a start point if I go ahead with it. I had a very basic attempt at cutting and posing this year in my house and I would like to improve in every single way from where I was this year and do it on stage.
My weighing scales have been demolished by the kids and so I have decided that I am going to wait till my 4 month check-in on the first Saturday of October to check my weight. In the mean time I will do what I feel is right to build strength and to eat well, whilst maintaining my body fat. (I want to maintain my body fat, not my overall weight)
Diet
I’ve got in the habit of eating decent throughout the day and pigging out at night. This is not causing me to gain any unwanted excess fat or making me feel bad in anyway. I have monitored what I eat up to bed time and it’s usually around 1000 calories from chocolate peanuts etc. I know that I can eat these of the evening and it will not cause me any issues at all. I feel stronger, more energised, happy and so on.
So why do I want to give up my snacks at night? the answer is simply down to self discipline! I have some in the house along with other junk and I refuse to eat them to just make sure I can control my cravings. I found it extremely difficult to not snack on junk last night, but I did it. Just like I will for the next few nights.
Health and HIT 