60 Day Transformation Log (14% to 9% body fat).

[Matty01]

Thursday, February 16

Today was just one of those days where I felt like I had everything under control. Now that I've let go of the whole meticulous calorie counting thing, I feel much more relaxed, which paradoxically led to better food choices.
I fasted straight through the morning and early afternoon. Around 2:00pm or so, I had a massive chocolate craving, so I took care of it with a trip to the bakery, and then sat down to a quality lunch of green curry with broccoli and rice. I snacked on chicken later in the afternoon, hit a chest workout in the evening, then followed it up with some vegetable pasta and french toast for dessert.
My focus for the day was destroying my chest workout. I have a love/hate relationship with the bench press. On the one hand, I enjoy doing it and I'm definitely more well-built for bench pressing than I am for pulling (those short and stocky genes).
On the other hand, I have a bad history of my bench numbers getting stuck. I always go through a cycle where I start off well, get my numbers up, and then plateau right when I start benching my bodyweight. This usually leads to me getting frustrated, taking some time off from benching, and then getting back into it- all to get stuck in the same cycle.
In hindsight, probably the biggest hinderance to me in the past has simply been lack of consistency. I'm sure had I just stuck with it and grinded it out I would have broken through my plateau by now- which is exactly what I planned on doing.
I also feel like one of the reasons this might be happening is weak triceps. The only other thing I really do for triceps besides the bench is weighted dips. Which is why I've added an "arms" day as part of my new 5 day-split. The plan is to add in some close-grip bench press on a different day and see if that helps at all.
Fortunately, as far as chest workouts go, this was a good one. Last workout I had to drop the weight on my bench from 65 kg (143 pounds) to 62.5 kg (137.5 pounds) on my 4th set. This time, I kept 65 kg on the bar for all 5 sets. Hopefully in the next week or so I can take my bench up to 67.5 kg (148.5)
Workout
Bench Press (65 kg (143 pounds): 5 reps, 5 reps, 5 reps, 4 reps, 4 reps (3 minutes rest between sets
Incline Bench Press: 3 reps (50 kg), 5 reps (45 kg), 5 reps (45 kg), 5 reps (45 kg), 5 reps (45 kg) (3 minutes rest between sets)
Ab Cycle (weighted cable crunch followed by captain's chair bent leg raises (rest 1 minute between cycles): Set #1- 12 reps, 20 reps/ Set #2- 12 reps, 20 reps/ Set #3- 12 reps, 16 reps
Assisted One Arm Pushups (1 minute rest between sets): 10 reps (left arm), 10 reps (right arm)/ 10 reps (left arm), 8 reps (right arm)
Click here for the food log

 

[Matty01]

Friday, February 17

Another 24 hour fasting day. I've been doing these now for a few weeks, and they keep getting easier and easier.
As far as how my actual day went, I was extremely productive. I got a lot of work done, and was really able to zone-in and focus. That's another huge benefit of intermittent fasting- if you do it correctly, you'll find your ability to concentrate and get **** done will greatly improve.
So what do I mean by "do it correctly". I'm not talking about doing fasting correctly, because really there's not much to "doing it correctly" besides not eating (and drink lots of water). I'm talking about the approach you take to whatever you're working on.
My experience with fasting and work has been this- you need to get busy and STAY busy. Whatever it is you want to get done, start working on it early in the fast before you start getting hungry.
This applies both to my 24 hour fasting days, as well as my "normal days" when I'm fasting in the morning. Don't wait, because if you do, you'll be much less likely to actually sit down and do the work.
Momentum is a powerful thing. If you build enough of it early, it will carry you right up until the end.
Today was a great example. I woke up, went to work, and taught my morning classes. As soon as my students were gone at noon, I immediately cracked into what I was working on, and stopped only to go for little walks to refresh myself (and to get more coffee).
I pretty much worked straight through until the end of the day, finishing off my fast with a long walk at sunset before having some dinner.
The other benefit this will have (apart from improving your work life), is it will distract you from the fact that you're not eating. Yes, there is some hunger involved in fasting, but that's not usually the hard part. The hard part is thinking about food. When you stay busy, you get those thoughts out of your mind.
So, that's my daily tip for intermittent fasting- get busy and stay busy.
Workout
Rest Day
Click here for the food log

 

[Matty01]

Saturday, February 18

Plus's and minus's for the day.
Minus- I ate too much chocolate. Not just today, but all week really. May have to add in an extra day of fasting to make up for it (three 24 hour fasts per week is something I really try to avoid, but you gotta do what you gotta do).
Plus- today is "arm" day.
Like almost everyone I know, when I first got started working out, I used the infamous "bro-split". The bro-split, in case you don't know, is when you work one muscle group each day of the week and hammer it with different isolation exercises.
I did that probably for the first 10 years or so in the gym and with very little to show for it. Now, to be fair, I lacked consistency and work-ethic, so it was mostly me just flopping around in the gym, but still.
Starting around 2009, I began moving away from that model of training, and by 2011 I discovered 5x5 and fully abandoned the idea in favour of more compound movements.
Last week, I read the book Muscle For Life by Mike Matthews (an awesome book which I will do a review on at some point). Over the last week or so, I've been trying out my version of a 5 day-split from the book that seems, on the surface, to bear some resemblance to the bro-split that I long ago banished from my gym life.
Mike recommends an approach that calls for breaking your weekly workout up as follows- chest day, back day, leg day, shoulder day, "upper body day" (mainly arms).
The difference between Mike's recommendation and the bro-split lies in the exercise choices and approach to training. While the latter calls for doing a lot of isolation exercises for that particular muscle with high reps and a lot of sets, Mike would have you choose more compound movements that target that muscle group, but also work a lot of others in the process.
So for example, if you're working chest, Mike would have you focus on the bench press and incline bench, two exercises which really blast your chest, but also work a lot of other associated muscles (parts of the shoulder, triceps, etc.). He also recommends hitting them up hard and heavy, and keeping your reps in the 4-6 rep range (which I already do for almost all my lifts).
Today's workout was "upper body". I started out with some higher rep incline bench to warm-up, then went straight into close-grip bench press to hit my triceps, and standing curls for my biceps.
Unfortunately, for whatever reason, when I did the bicep curls, my rotator cuffs were killing me afterwards...which is really weird, because curls don't involve the shoulders. Next workout I'll try preachers curls to really isolate the bicep and see if that fixes the problem.
Thank god tomorrow's a leg day (never thought I'd say that
Workout
Incline Bench Press (1 minute rest between sets): 35 kg (10 reps), 37.5 kg (10 reps), 37.5 kg (10 reps)
Close-grip Bench Press (3 minutes rest between sets): 35 kg (5, 5, 6, 4, 4 reps)
Standing EZ Bar Curls (3 minutes rest between sets): 34 kg (5 sets of 5 reps)
Food Log
Full food log in the blog post