Overall, I know I broke away from my diet but no damage done but then again not a lot of progress either.  Still not going to beat myself up too much over it, two long haul flights (~13 hours) in 4 days can be stressful.  Did a surprising job of keeping away from carbs for the most part.  Staying positive.

Back on the shakes as of this morning with the fresh batch of metabolic drive that I bought in October.  WAY better feeling.  No nausea at all which is a huge relief because if I was allergic that would have really sucked. 

AM – two hot rox.  got to work and two scoops protein.  4 flameout, 3 vitamin D, 3 liver cleansing. 

Noon – two scoops of protein

2pm – walk to subway station and back ~ 30 min

430pm – two scoops of protein

2 liters of green tea.

Night time shake with two scoops of protein, 4 flameout and 3 zma.

Skipped my workout, met up with a buddy Dennis and gave him some things for the concussion he got during a football game.

took some time off because I went back to NY for 3 days to attend Omay’s wedding.  definitely broke

Saturday Oct 20- am went to the office and had a shake there for breakfast.  4 flameout, 3 vitamin d and 3 liver pills.  meetings followed by shake for lunch. 

Sunday – am – none.  shake when I got home after church.  not feeling so hot.  stayed in and worked on aacf talk.  dropped off book at church and used that as my nepa walk.

Monday – gym.  don’t remember the rest of this day. 

Tues – am and noon shake.  flight to nyc.  did my nepa walk in the airport.  got a bunch of water in the lounge.  had the codfish, the dumplings for snack and skipped breakfast.  ate two eggs and 3 cheese strings. 

Wed – am, nepa walk on the brooklyn bridge.  4 flameout, 3 vitamin d.  veggie omelette with 2 egg whites, 1 whole egg, turkey and reduced fat mozzarella.  chicken shwarma platter for lunch and snack consisted of shwarma, hummus, Mediterranean salad (cucumbers, tomato and lemon) and pita bread. 

Thurs – veggie omelette with 2 egg whites, 1 whole egg, turkey and reduced fat mozzarella.  chicken shwarma platter for lunch and snack consisted of shwarma, hummus, Mediterranean salad (cucumbers, tomato and lemon) and 1/4 pita bread. dinner at otaisho – asparagus, some tuna/avocado salad, chicken

Friday – skipped breakfast, skirt steak with spinach salad.  two bites of mac and cheese.  cup of green tea at coffee foundry.  two pcs of string cheese.  two pcs of filet on toast (small), fig salad, 2/3 salmon with spinach. 

Saturday – cha siu bao (bad but so tasty), one cheurng fun with shrimp, two shrimp dumplings (not tasty at all).  mozzarella salad and cod fish with string beans on plane. 

Sunday – landed.  water, dinner at dozo – few pcs of squid, two salmon sushi, sukiyaki veggies and beef, salad, 4 pcs of bite size steak, bottle of mineral water.  4 flameout, 4 vitamins, 3 zma, 3 z12 before bed.  slept like a baby.

AM – woke up later around 630 but went for a walk anyway.  Took two hotrox instead and was originally going to do one block (20 min) but felt good so did my normal 2 for about 40 min of walking.  Note to self, you can move even if you wake up late.  Something is better than nothing.

Morning – two scoops of banana protein.  I’m testing it out to see and the nausea is back.  Feels like this one is expired as well.  4 flameout, 3 vitamin d, 3 liver detox. 

PM – Chocolate shake – two scoops of protein.  sat with the team while they ate their spaghetti lunch.  was tempted to eat just the sauce which was chock full of ground beef and veggies but knew I was going to go out that night with coworkers.

Afternoon – C

Dinner – its amazing what happens when you commit to something for a brief period of time and can hold onto that hope.  so i’m pretty hungry by the start of dinner but i know I can’t have any carbs.  need to hold out till the appetizer and main course.  in the past I would have minimum eaten 2-3 slices of bread with butter.  minimum.  instead I held out for my buffalo mozzarella with tomato and arugula appetizer.  I shared with my wife.  another helpful thing to know for next time… i can share things and cut the calories in half.  i ordered the “beef stew” but it was really a massive piece of fatty beef.  i had a bite but gave the rest to my wife and ate her cod fish instead.  carefully and mindfully ate the vegetables. 

Downed 4 multi vitamins, 4 fish oil (even with the fish I ate) and 3 zma. 

Woke up at 6, was actually semi up already before.  Hotrox and brisk 40min walk.  No music this time since I needed to think and pray for my talk with AACF next Wednesday.

Already thinking of recipes and menu’s for transition.  Realized we have some sort of pot in the kitchen that isn’t a slow cooker but behaves as one sort of.  My wife tells me you heat something up to boiling, put the lid over it and then put this in the pot.  It apparently keeps the temperature hot but not boiling for quite a bit (at least overnight).  Beef stew.  Chili.  Yum.

AM – two scoops protein.  4 flameout.  3 vitamin D.  3 liver cleansing.

I’m taking the liver detoxifier and regernator pills by NOW because I got diagnosed with fatty liver.  Now I’ve never even heard of this condition before coming to China but apparently it’s a condition that many westerners in China get diagnosed with.  It’s not a serious condition but it can lead to more serious issues with your liver that are irreversible.  I strongly suspect that it’s the pork that I was consuming(it is much more available in China than in the States) and I’ve since cut it down. 

Lunch – two scoops protein

PM Snack – two scoops protein

Evening workout – one scoop surge recovery.  Deadlift 225# for 8/5/5/5/5/4/4, Bench press DB 45# 10/9/9/8/4 should have been decline but they don’t have a decline bench there so I just went flat bench, lat pull downs @115 8/6/6/5/4/3 then 100 for 5/3.  My back is weak.  Hand walkouts 10/4/10/8/8.  in 41:09.  I was going to do deadlifts at 275# but opted to go with 225# instead.  Good thing because doing it at 225# had me gassed.  I’m not sure how much of it is because I’m on a low carb diet and how much of it is I’m simply out of shape but I know it’s both.  By the time I got to that 2nd set of walkouts I wanted to quit.  Then I just decided I’d take the rest I needed and at least finish and felt much better.  There’s a lesson there somewhere.  You might not be able to finish quite as strongly as you thought you might or as easily as you visualized it to be but it is important to finish. 

I probably should have gone with 1/5 scoops of the surge like yesterday. 

Dinner – Just took about 2 scoops of protein, 4 fishoil, 4 multi vitamin, 3 zma. 

Had about 1.5 liters of green tea. 

Deciding to countdown the days till I transition. 

Did not wake up early enough for Nepa walk.  Took hotrox and had the cab stop 15 min from the office so we could walk a little bit.  did another 20 min walk in the PM. 

Morning – Two scoops protein, one scoop leucine, 4 flameout, 3 vitamin d, 3 liver cleansing. 

Lunch- two scoop protein.

PM – two scoops protein

Dinner – none

Workout – 1.5 scoops surge recovery during workout which felt MUCH better than monday’s workout.  Reverse lunge steps with 35# dumbbells for 10/10/10/8/2,  bentover rows at 115# for 10/7/7/6/5/5, push press at 115# 10/8/7/5/ and did the last 6/4 with 95#.  Barbell curl just the bar for 10/10/8/6/6, reverse crunch 10/10/10/10 in 33:44. 

Night – two scoops protein, 4 flameout, 3zma, 4 multi vitamins.

Green tea – two liters

So the velocity diet is something that a supplement company called Biotest came up with to sell their supplements (in essence).  I know this and accept it.  Why?  Because it works, it’s simple, it’s sound and because I’ve done it before and know I can do it.  The principles of the diet are based on something called a protein sparing modified fast (PSMF).  Lyle Mcdonald has a book called Rapid Fat Loss that describes what I’m doing much better than I can but in essence it’s a diet that keeps protein and workouts in it so that your body will keep more lean body mass (LBM).  This is sound because muscle is the basis of your metabolism and when you transition off your diet and keep most of your muscle then your metabolism won’t be so wrecked as it is with many other crash diets (which is what leads to yo yo dieting).  Another reason why this is sound is because you are giving your body a reason to keep muscle (thru protein and workouts) you are essentially forcing it to find energy from your own fat stores.  Lyle McDonald points this out as the difference between weight loss and fat loss.  Simple works because while I do poorly when I’m giving a lot of choice I seem to do better when a program says do this and only this.  My only focus then is on doing that one thing… not trying to decide a bunch of things.

A few major bonus of the velocity diet as I outlined in my Sunday experience is that after a whole week of eating shakes you start to crave solid food.  This is when you start to train your body to eat all the things that are good for you but you don’t eat (like veggies).  The other thing it does is it helps you eat slowly because you don’t want to scarf down your only meal of the week.  Trust me, you’ll really want to savor it.  Eating slowly is one of those things that improved satiety and digestion.  In a world where there’s a lot of conflicting information, this is one of those things that is universally thought of as a good thing. 

Now a limitation (and a major one at that) of the velocity diet is that it doesn’t do such a good job of teaching you how to eat after the diet is over.  That’s where my experience with precision nutrition comes in with it’s simple program principles of sensible eating (eat veggies with every meal, avoid carbs except around workouts, plan your cheat days, cook your own meals, etc).  I’ve tried both programs but unfortunately I ended the vdiet with no real plan or experience with Precision Nutrition and I tried Precision Nutrition without the self control I learned from the velocity diet.  I know I might eat my words later on but I’m planning on being successful this time around.  After the 4 week strict phase there is a two week transition and I’m targeting basically breakfast and lunch as the two meals to focus on making PN compliant.  My thinking is that if I can get those two meals set up right, any mistakes I make with dinner could be covered by my workouts and if I eat right during the day then most likely I will continue that momentum into the evening. 

This diet isn’t for everyone but I’m not doing this as a template for every person, I’m doing this for me.  I know my limitations and when my self control exhibits itself most clearly. 

Wednesday Oct 10- Woke up at 6, got 45 min of walking in with the wifey, bought some toilet paper.  Then took one hot rox before heading to work.  Since I knew warm water with flax seeds would probably make me gag, I decided to just go with two scoops of protein, one 5gm scoop of leucine and tried to scrap out 2 scoops of superfood but it had kind of solidified.  I tried my best and shot it down.  Also took 3 tablets of vitamin D, 3 liver cleansing pills and two flameout fish oil pills.  Filled up two liter bottle with green tea.  Lunchtime I took the same with the flax seeds and I don’t know what it is with milled flax seeds but they just make me gag.  Afternoon shake ok.  PM Shake warm water… skipped the flax.  Suspect that the refrigerator doesn’t work.  Make the evening shake to drink on the way home.  Realized that I don’t have natural peanut butter but don’t care because the evening shake was making me nauseous… I take 4 fish oil, 3zma’s, 3z12′s before knocking out at around 9ish. 

Thursday Oct 11 – Woke up at 545am (jetlag).  Took a hotrox and did a quick walk 40 min walk.  Got to the office and confirmed that the refrigerator is busted.  Used chilled water from wine cooler.  No flax seeds.  I’m going to skip them.  I also like to freeze them after I open the package but since the fridge was busted I’m afraid they’re now spoiled or at the very least a big shady.  At night since I cant count on the superfood, I’m taking multivitamin before bed.

Friday – I don’t remember much of this day for some reason…. I’m sure I had 3-4 shakes throughout tho. 

Saturday – Woke up, hotrox and 40 min walk around the block.  Drink a morning shake and was feeling pretty meh.  Was really debating whether I should go to the football game.  I really don’t want to but they say they need me and I don’t want to bail on them.  Decide to commit but maybe show up a bit later, need to conserve my energy.  Drink a shake, start dressing and feeling nauseous again.  Take a bathroom break and feel better.  Start it up on the football field and it’s clear that the diet and lack of conditioning is messing me up a bit.  Simple pulls are making my heart race… sometime in the middle of the 2nd quarter I allowed a defender thru and he and another lineman took out our qb who had to limp off.  Took our my frustration on the next play and drove the lineman about 7 yards back but in the process tweaked my back.  Decided to call it a day since we were way up and these guys weren’t going to catch up to us.  Had to take care of some work issues so didn’t take my final shake until around 9ish.  Ate some natural peanut butter from a spoon to hold off the hunger pangs.  Took two scoops protein, 4 flameout and 4 multi vitamins before bed.  Knocked out. 

Sunday – Woke up later around 830.  Skipped walk, made shake brought it with me to work meeting.  Sipping it in the cab made me nauseous.  After work meeting finished up the shake but not feeling so hot.  Rested up, got a massage and went to church.  Healthy solid meal at Roosevelt Prime that wifey booked for my bday.  Was very hungry but determined to savor everything.  Ordered the side of seasonal vegetables to start and let me tell you, broccoli has not tasted so good in so long.  It was crunchy and seasoned just right.  But most importantly I was able to chew.  I closed my eyes while I was eating it… half in jest and half because seriously tasted that good.  This is what happens when you drink your meals for 5 days, solid food becomes a novelty.  Had very small tastings of my wife’s foie gras.  Tasty but I like it better when its seared.  Shared a medium rare porterhouse between myself and the wife and yum.  However they said it was aged and when they showed it to me, it was not aged.  Way too red to have been aged 28 days.  Didn’t matter, it tasted wonderful to me.  However would not recommend it since it seemed overpriced and would have been just ok if I was normal.  Have really been thinking about my nausea…. am I allergic?  I shouldn’t be but it would really suck to be allergic now.  Realized that the tub of protein I’ve been using at home as been expired for 18 months.  Look it up on google and apparently casein can go bad (I did not think powder could go bad).  Ugh… may need to go off the diet if all the protein I counted on has expired.  My wife pointed out the expiration dates a while ago but I ignored her.  Whoops! 

Monday – Back on the shakes.  Have two tubs with no expiration dates and gave it a try.  Morning shake with two flameout, 3 vitamin D, 3 liver cleansing pills.  Sat down and no nausea.  Success!  Get home and prepare to hit the gym and realize that there’s no cold water for my workout shake.  Put one bottle in the fridge to chill it and will drink it when I come back.  Front squats @185# for 5/5/4/3/3 and quickly learned that while I’m strong in the back squat it doesn’t mean anything when front squatting, pulldowns @140# 5/5/4/3/3 (chin up grip) was ok but still feel like I was recovering from the front squats, dumbbell bench press @55# (coudln’t find the 60#) 5/5/5/5 pc of cake but winded.  Stumbled home (damn those front squats!) and get on my ab roller (forgot it at home) and did 5/5/5/5.  Wiped!  A combination of being on no carb for 5 previous days plus strength work with little conditioning has revealed itself in my piss poor shape.  Mope around a little bit feeling a little light headed… drink one scoop of surge recovery with chilled water and instantly feel better.  Probably due to the water lowering my core body temp since I don’t think i could have digested it that fast.  Resolve to chill water and bring the shake to the next workout. 

Tues – Shake with two scoops, 1 scoop leucine, 4 flameout, 3 vitamin D, 3 liver cleansing.  Legs, lats, abs are a bit tight but feel ok overall but know that it will feel worse later on and maybe on Wednesday.  Shake with two scoops protein and 1 scoop leucine for lunch.  Two scoop shake for afternoon snack.  Have a bday dinner at night and make the mistake of not making a shake to take with me.  Was fumbling around with my phone since it went dark all of a sudden.  Am starving in the cab and take the time to let the hunger roll over me, calm down but then it comes back.  Decide that I will order some veggies to hold me over until I get home but find out that the bday girl has already preordered.  Make a deal with the wife to eat some vegetables during dinner with the caveat that she will pick our the portions for me.  I chew slowly and drink tea to take off the edge and overall I feel ok.  Take 4 flameout, 3zma, 6 bcaa’s with one scoop protein before bed. 

So the whole goal for 2013 is to be a starting caliber defensive lineman. I currently play offensive line because I’m not athletic nor conditioned enough.

Now in order to do that I need to be in better shape.  Get stronger. Be quicker.

And that is the end goal of this 3 month cycle.  Gain quality muscle mass and get stronger.  Done right muscle gain without gaining a large amount of fat will boost my relative strength and make me quicker.  Put me in position to compete. 

It’s quite a few things but I’ve read enough (and know myself well enough) that I know I can’t do all of those things at once.  I’ve tried and I’ve failed spectacularly.  As Scripture says “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.”  So I need to stay razor focused.  First on the velocity diet.  Then the Mass made simple program.  

I should be finishing up everything right around that first week of New Years when people are busy starting their New Year’s resolutions. 

A few months ago I bought a book called Mass Made Simple by Dan John.  In one part of the book he wrote this:

One person in a hundred will have the courage to listen to my best piece of advice to prep for a mass-building program: Lean out first. My buddy in college who decided to enter an amateur bodybuilding contest lived for a month on nothing but lettuce and dope. Yes, you read that right, and no, don’t try it. For his last workouts, his friends had to literally pull him off the floor to do anything. The loads on the bar were far, far below his normal training numbers. But under the lights he looked marvelous.  A funny thing happened the weeks and months after the contest—the guy exploded. It was like he was being inflated. He gained size, in all the right places, seemingly every day. I know there’s a scientific explanation for this, but I don’t care. I found the same thing happened to me after the Velocity Diet. A week later, I lifted in an open Olympic lifting meet and everyone swore I had put on 10 pounds of muscle when I was actually two pounds lighter. If you have the courage to lean out, try it!

At first I was like…. nah, that’s not me.  Then I thought about what he said and the challenge in it.  The courage to lean out and then go on a mass building program.  So here I am… documenting my first day and a half on the velocity diet for the next six weeks followed by another 6 weeks on mass made simple.  12 weeks… just a short time in a life but hopefully the start of learning something about myself and pushing limits I didn’t think could be pushed. 

I’m documenting this for a couple of reasons.  One is I plan on posting this to my facebook and making it public.  It’s one of the things that Dan John writes about in his book… putting public pressure on to help reach a goal.  I guess that’s where you the reader comes in… if I stop writing then you’ll know I failed.  I made up some excuse or another and gave up.  But that brings me up to reason number two which is that I don’t want to fail.  I want to inspire people to push themselves.  I’ve been on countless diets, run a couple of marathons, gotten stronger but I’m really a chubby guy with low self control and a bag full of excuses.  I’ve read a lot of things and “know” a lot but I haven’t acted on them.  I don’t think I’m that different than a lot of people who want to make themselves feel and look better but find the task daunting.  So here goes….