Lift, Eat, Sleep, Repeat

A brief update on all things me… Training continues to go well. Intensity and volume is up and generally sweating like a pig. There will no doubt come a time when I have to dial it back but at the moment I’m loving the additional volume. I’m really focusing on what it is I am striving to achieve now when I’m in the gym and how the movement relates to each particular muscle to enforce that mind/muscle connection. It’s easy to talk about stretching and squeezing and how form is king and the weight moved is simply a by-product of the contraction of the muscles but it is definitely an entirely different thing to go and do it. I am definitely starting to sense a shift in my mentality and training from that of a recreational weightlifter to that of a bodybuilder. I would also say that the changes are already noticeable in my physique, even this early on. 

I ended up losing 3lb last week, and another inch off my waist. I think my waist has already shrunk further this week and body fat now at the 13% level. Skipload on Saturday was pretty intense. 6 hours between 9-3. I managed to ram down A LOT of food. Day started with a 2.5 hour fast and then meals were as follows: 

Fasted State – Intra workout swell drink at half dosing

Meal 1 – 2 giant bowls of frosties (probably 150g frosties in each), bowl of coco pops, toasted cinnamon and raisen bagel with honey and jam, 3 large pancakes with real maple syrup, 4 alpen light bars, 2 large spoons of neat strawberry jam from the jar, 2 scoops of whey.

Meal 2 – 2 alpen light bars, nutrigrain elevenses bar, bag of jelly babies, 2 large white choc chip pancakes, 2 tootsie rolls

Meal 3 – Small pizza express pizza, 10 mozerella sticks dipped in bbq sauce, chip baguette with bbq sauce, tub of raspberry sorbet, 5 weight watchers cake slices, a cookie 

Meal 4 – 1/3 tub of ben and jerries frozen yoghurt, 1 large pancake, 3 weight watchers cakes

Meal 5 – 200g chicken breast with 3 slices ham

Meal 6 – 200g egg whites mixed with 1 scoop of whey and 4g BCAA. Spoon of peanut butter. 

That equated to a 4.5lb water weight gain. Despite hammering back as much food as I could handle, I have base-lined today, which is a day early. This means the load extends up to 8 hours on Saturday 9 -5 and that meal 5 becomes another carb orientated meal. 

I’ve been using my intra-workout drink and so far with great success. It definitely seems to be doing the job so I am pleased. So far I’ve only been taking at 1/2 -2/3 dosing to build up a tolerance to high amounts of glutamine but will start to run at the full 30g dosing as of tomorrow and for the remainder of my training this week.

I went over to Milton Keynes on Saturday to pick up my vitamins from Nutri Centre, among other things and they happened to have Optimum Nutrition Casein 1.8kg tubs at half price!! I love this stuff and Optimum Nutritions flavouring is second to none but its definitely a luxury item at full cost with bulk powder casein generally tasting like dust and ruining anything you add it to. Of course I couldn't help but pick some of this stuff up and have been mixing with my normal whey wherever I consume whey to create a tapered release protein that delivers amino acids to my body over a much longer period. Its helped to keep me feeling fuller between meals, and I can't help but feel my muscles appear fuller and harder courtesy of the drip feeding of aminos. I'll definitely be investing in a few more tubs!!