And every pore Sylvester Stallone possessed was gloriously glistening on our new TV. A TV I had to purchase, because the little computer monitor of a boob tube we had was now incompatible with most Blu-Ray players.. which also broke and had to be replaced. F**king technology.
This is good fitspo, right? I mean, dude's like a 67-year old BAMF powerhouse..
ANYWAY!....
I'm not sure who's actually reading this, or if anyone is following this regularly, but for my sake and the sake of this blog, I am finally going to update. I've been thinking of updating all week (and weekend) but, with a lack of my own internet connection, as well as my always-busy life, I simply didn't get to. I really don't plan to, and will not, abandon this thing. It helps me focus on my goals and keep track of things nice and neatly. Plus, I get to write. If I talked to someone about all this, their head might explode. I'm afraid I've already talked a few people's heads off with all my obsession with exercising and proper exercise nutrition.
So this February I'm experimenting with John Kiefer's Carb Back Loading. It's been a hell - and heaven - of a ride. I've made some significantly good gains at the gym. I've gloriously... moaned (ugh, hate that word now, thanks a lot, Vagina Monologues...)... after a rigorous iron-slamming weight training session and being able to stuff my face silly with white rice, tiramisu cakes, FRENCH FRIES, Rocky Road frozen yogurt, Mariano's macadamia nut & white chocolate butter cookies (the Devil, I tell ye!).. hell, I can't even name all the sugar-laden, high-glycemic, insulin-spiking, delectable CARBS I've been eating after training sessions.
It's not all sunshine and dandelions, though. The first half of each day is spent curbing my appetite, which coffee helps with. People are constantly trying to tempt me with food during the day. It's not like they stopped doing that when I was eating clean, but it's difficult when someone is literally dangling cream cheese shortbread cookies in your face. Or the smell of fresh white rice wafts over to my cubicle. Or I accompany my sister to the Filipino store during our hour-long break and there's fried rice and lumpia (eggrolls) and ube cake everywhere...
On a good note, I've found that Kiefer's AM Accelerator formula - which consists of coffee, heavy whipping cream or coconut oil (which cost me an arm and a few toes at the nearby GNC.. damn them), and vanilla whey protein - is actually pretty flavorful in the morning. It also helps keep my stomach from growling like crazy. While a tad oily, I really don't mind my coffee smelling like coconut and vanilla. I am, after all, a pina colada & macaroon fiend. But no one knows that.
I'm also reading up great reviews on coconut oil itself. How 3 tablespoons or so of daily consumption fuels the body in so many good ways - one being weight loss. I'm not afraid of fat anymore. I take fish oil supplements daily, put good spoonfuls of coconut oil in my coffees and protein shakes, eat fatty fish and meats. During one all-ultra-low-carb day (before back-loading actually began) I made oven-baked fried chicken lathered in mayonnaise, a good rub, butter, and grated parmesan cheese as the breading, and put it atop a leafy bed of sliced cucumbers, spinach, and lettuce. I was definitely not bitching about the lack of carbs that evening. I've tried eating a can of tuna mixed with melted pepper jack cheese, meats with avocado, broccoli and veggies cooked in butter... the list goes on.
I love butter, and I love full-flavored meats. I've come to love all the variety of nutritious veggies I can eat in heaping amounts daily. Yet after all this, I still love carbs, and I highly doubt carbs and I are going to have a fallout or a break-up anytime soon, which makes this carb back-loading all the more awesome, difficult, and crazy...
Let me just begin that when I was strictly eating clean, I knew every meal I was going to have for the day. I simply had them lined up in the fridge, and only had to eat a meal when it came time to do so. And I had carbs in every meal - slow-burning, filling, whole carbs. Brown rice, sweet potatoes, 100% whole wheat, etc. I didn't always like sweet potato. I came to love these foods. This system is great for those who want to stay on track and have predictability and consistency.
Nowadays, each day is an exercise in patience, discipline, and control.. even more so than just sticking to a clean eating regimen. I must prolong FAT burning in the morning by avoiding carbs during insulin-sensitive mornings, simultaneously accelerating the fat loss and curbing my appetite with caffeine, prevent muscle proteolysis from occurring by consuming whey with the fat-burning morning beverage, get my dose of MCTs (medium-chain triglycerides) for thermogenesis and numerous other health benefits, graze throughout the day pre-training with extremely low-to-no carb, high-protein, moderate fat foods. Sometimes I don't even eat all day, then have some filling cottage cheese and whey right before training, TRAIN LIKE A MOTHER-, then slam all my daily required calories post-training. I'm not at a deficit, I'm definitely not starving myself - so while I'm not calorie counting, I have my personal macros in mind and must meet them if I want my body to grow and strengthen accordingly. Let's just say you don't get strong in the gym and meet your daily protein/carb/fat macros by eating a stick of gum and a sliver of a grain of rice every day... NO.
It's really tough. After a night's binge (and many food babies later) of carbs and miscellaneous foods, I fall asleep... HARD. Crash is more than the appropriate word for those instances. I guess they were right when they said you get a good night's sleep during carb back-loading. I get so lethargic, that if I were to doze off on the couch, I will get stuck there. SO ridiculous.
I'm still trying to get the correct amount of sleep, since with all the things I have to do during the day, I don't get to sleep on time, but the quality of every individual hour of sleep has drastically improved. (I still gotta keep those stupid, anxiety-inducing dreams at bay though...)
I look so little! Little girl body!! Yeesh!!!
So far, carb back loading has made me stronger, more solid, a complete couch brick, and a happy fat kid all at once.
There are days I freak out because I carb back load on an off-day (no training), or I train super hard to the point of soreness and nausea, and I hold back on the carb intake for the day, fearing that I will get bloated or produce unneccessary fat again. When I do that, I actually get really inflamed, swollen, and stay sore much longer. That's when I started back loading on off days, to see if eating carbs would help me not feel like such a sore, fat pimple, ready to burst. I had a piece of chocolate one night right before bed, then the next day, I back loaded even though I didn't lift. So far, my stomach remains tighter than it used to be, my new upper body muscles are solidifying, and I'm not looking excessively bloated. Or feeling like an edema victim.
I have about two more weeks until February is over, and will weigh the outcomes of carb back loading for a month. I will start incorporating HIIT cardio soon, as well as supersets and drop-sets in my training sessions. I really want to shed this excess body fat already. In the near, near future, maybe I'll crank out some more progress pictures - I'm still really timid about posting such pictures, but for the sake of accountability, I will.
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