10 Weeks Out | A Rough Climb.



I started vlogging my journey to the stage, click to watch!

 I messed up this weekend. I am not very proud of it but it's the truth. I ended up eating a lot of carbs on Friday night, after coming home from hanging out with friends. I managed to keep my calories below maintenance on Saturday, but I ended up eating out again to catch up with my best friend, who has been out-of-town for over 2 weeks. Sunday, I kept it ultra-low carb, but ended up eating out again for all of my meals so I really couldn't track my caloric intake.

At least on Sunday I committed to going to the gym first thing in the morning - after my coffee, of course - to spend 30 minutes on the treadmill. In between that, I did my 6 HIIT cycles. That I am proud to say I did.
I can't let people sway me anymore into going off-track. So far, no one understands the importance of what I'm doing, and I'm not expecting them to. I didn't want to eat out on Saturday, nor did I want to eat our on Sunday either. I like feeling comfortable being able to track my caloric intake, because I know I will eat at maintenance or above levels if I leave it to my body to decide my satiety. I love my friends, but I cannot keep doing this.

I am 10 weeks out and luckily, I am seeing some positive changes. Little, slow, but progress nonetheless.


Training Tweaks

For one, I'm only going to aim for 1 actual rest day per week. I need to be doing some form of HIIT cardio at least 4-5x/week. NO STEADY STATE. A no-lifting day can easily be a cardio day.

I will train upper body twice a week and lower body twice or thrice a week. Higher training frequency helps muscles grow better than training a body part once a week. Two heavy days for each, and at least one day of super-setting and/or higher reps until failure for a good pump on each half of my body.

I'm trying out a cheap bottle of raspberry ketones to possibly aid with fat loss. It's only a supplement and it supposedly helps with lypolisis. We'll see. May purchase a thermogenic fat burner soon to help with increasing my body temperature. I know I may have to take water pills during the last few weeks of prep.


Nutrition Is Still #1

Training is a breeze compared to the 100% dedication I must commit to my nutrition:

I've stopped eating dairy. I love dairy products - cheese, milk, etc. I've even cut out cottage cheese, my favorite. The reason why is because I am moderately lactose intolerant, but the effects are most apparent with actual cow's milk more than it is with cheeses. My stomach gets upset and my body bloats for a day or two when I ingest anything dairy.

I have made a grocery list of foods that I eat on a regular basis, and I will be sticking with that list (with minor adjustments here and there) for the next 10 weeks. It is so much easier to track everything when you eat the same things all the time.

I will be adding more lean protein and cutting out certain fatty meats out of my contest diet, just so I can personally control my fat intake on a given day. I'm still eating bacon and sausages and whole eggs especially on ULC days. On a carb back-load day, I will be eating much less fat so I can appropriately fit in carbs into my macros post-workout, and so no excess of fat can slow down the much needed insulin spike in my body to the high-glycemic carbs.

I don't know if I've mentioned, but my carbs have gone from ~200g a day to now around 100-164g. I might have to cut out the banana (or just halve the serving) in my post-workout protein fluff just so my actual dinner/meals can be more fulfilling. Nothing wrong with getting more real food in the diet.

I've started drinking more coffee in the morning. I might have to start cutting out the Splenda soon, or at least just cutting back to 1 packet per day.

The cleaner and more whole foods I eat during this prep, the better off my body is. It won't be reacting with bloat or other unnecessary digestive issues to dairy or gluten or artificial sweeteners.

Still ingesting whey post-workout as it responds very quickly to my sore muscles. It is critical I preserve the muscle mass I've accumulated during this fat-loss phase.


The Levels Are Getting Harder

Things in life, as with prep, are continuing to increase in difficulty. They are in line with one another. It seems like this is the part with the steepest climb, and the higher I climb, the harder each step gets. Everything is trying to resist change.

Issues with debts, jobs, responsiblities, money, family and friends seem to be on the climb. I continue to hold my head up nonetheless. I will stay strong as I have no other choice - giving up in any area of life is not an option. And that is probably what I love about this whole challenge - that it helps me develop thick skin and strong mental and emotional skills that cannot be acquired by sitting around and not accepting/confronting change.

As the cliche goes, the only constant in life is change. And I am mutable, so I will just face whatever challenge I'm met with. Crying and falling and getting hurt is acceptable, but giving up is not.

Just gotta keep swimmin'.