A Brief Update

First blog in a while. Mainly because I have been busy, tired, ill or all 3 at the same time!

Not much time to write a massive update so it will be brief. Weight-wise I got down to 213lb at 10% bodyfat. Last weekend, after 8 weeks of intense training, hard dieting and all the other things life throws at you I needed a bit of a break. Instead of skiploading for a period of hours I simply started on Friday night when I got in from work and then went all day Saturday finishing with a steak and rib combo at Harvester for good measure. I didn't even skipload in the truest sense either - If I wanted it I basically ate it; a mental break from dieting and skiploading if you like (because even skiploading is a structured way of eating and forms part of the diet).

I'd been fighting off a bit of a bug all week long and I had hoped that the extra calories and break would help recouperation but unfortunately I woke up on the Sunday morning feeling completely rotten. I binned off training and got to be one with the sofa. Unfortunately when you feel really rotten you also dont want to eat healthy stuff like oats, chicken, eggs etc, so yup you guessed it - diet on Sunday was pretty shocking - infact it was worse than the Saturday because apart from eating alot of cheerios the rest of my calories for the day came from chocolate by way of a tub of heroes and a few bars of dairy milk. Over the course of the weekend I piled on 16lb!! It got worse still because I continued to feel ill all the way through until Wednesday afternoon.

Now I never planned to drop all the water weight as my load was extended, but I hoped to be within 3lb. Unfortunately I just wasn't dropping water weight, and a combination of being bloated, feeling crappy and not seeing water dropping off really got to me mentally. Thursday and Friday I dropped a total of 10lb so I actually ended the week just 1.5lb over the week before - a bit of a result. Thank god. Next diet break will be Christmas week.

I have to admit I went to a bit of a dark place last week where I just thought about going back into a bulk and how nice it would be to eat 3500kcals a day again rather than 2000ish (both figures exclusive of pre/post workout shakes).

Anyway - I had been faced with the prospect of not skiploading this week and set myself a strict weight target with hours worth of loading attached to each weight to determine how long I could load or if at all. Fortunately the 7lb water drop on Friday night allowed me a 9 hour load (just 1 hour down from normal). I ate very much within the limits of skiploading protocols yesterday which consisted of:

Meal 1 - 6 large pancakes and real maple syrup/chocolate sauce. 2 bowls of coco pops mixed with protein shake, 3 bowls of cheerios, 2 slices of toasted malt loaf

Meal 2 - 1/3 tub mango sorbet, bag of jelly babies, J20, 200g cake icing.

Meal 3 - 1/2 white baguette with extra light philly, 150g chicken, 2 packs low fat crisps, toffee pecan swirl, 3 cookies, 1/3 tub mango sorbet

Meal 4 - 3 bowls of rice krispies

Meal 5 - buffett of garlic bread, pizza, mozerella sticks, brie and cranberry parcels, mini beef wellingtons, low fat oven chips, 1/3 tub mango sorbet, few chocolates.

All that was good for 10lb - about usual.

Another week starts in the morning so training this week is:

Monday - Back & Cardio

Tuesday - Cardio & Abs

Wednesday - Shoulders, Tri's, Cardio

Thursday - Legs

Friday - Cardio & Abs