Going through the old stuff

Memories, memories, memories... In times of strict dieting it's nice to be reminded of what's ahead and what could be accomplished with a lot of hard work. Today, I went through some old pictures, taken with my mobile cam prior to hitting my "end date", which was 25:th of Juli 2011. As many of you have seen, I had some great pictures taken that day, with a much more professional cam (see here). So, here's a bunch of not so professional looking pictures taken at the gym 7 days before I stopped cutting. Enjoy!

Side chest

One more side chest

Triceps pose

Front pose

Crab

Back double biceps

Back lat spread

Looking at the pictures brings back a lot of memories. Adding to that, they also remind me of how much harder I need to get in order to get to where I used to be. Hopefully, this time, I can do it with a bit more finesse and avoid getting the "all too skinny look".

Cheat Day Four

As you might have just read, I took away a few calories from the diet today (see here). This change will be - as I explained in one of my previous entries - accompanied by cheat day number four. I personally see the day before going even lower on the calorie intake as a good opportunity to stuff myself with some awesomely delicious items. Which brings me to today's dietary deviation of doom: A bag of candy!

Some of my favorite candy - soon to be devoured!

Just as when I had the pizza a few weeks ago, there's no real nutritional information to get hold of. That is, unless I'd look up the nutritional information for each and every piece of candy in my bag, weigh it, and then sum up all the calories - which is more than I'm willing to do. Instead, I'm assuming chocolate candy contains about 550 calories per 100 grams, and gummy candy about 360 calories per 100 grams. Through that assumption, I'm doing a rough estimate and setting my bag-of-candy weight limit at 250 grams (8.8 oz). This should - according to my awesome calculations - put me roughly at my 1000 calories limit.

In the usual manner, I tend to have a general idea about as to why I've chosen this particular day as my cheat day. I've already given one good reason further up in this entry, but, adding to that, I'm also taking my girlfriend to the movies tonight. We'll be watching Avengers in 3D. Now, if that's not a reason to stuff my face with calorie rich treats, I don't know what is. Oh, and the fact that this was quad day too doesn't really hurt either.

Training Day Forty Eight

I'm making a lot of entries today, and there is good reason for this as well. Today is not only quad day, but it's also removing-calories-from-my-diet-day. And as if that wasn't enough, it's also cheat day number four. Three awesome things in one day - that must surely mean something extraordinary? And even if it doesn't, here's today's leg-busting workout!

Today's possibly extraordinary quad workout:
- 5x8 Leg press
- 3x12 Squat machine
- 4x12 Leg extensions

Quad pic taken at home prior to my workout.

I did a detour to the mall to get my bag of dietary cheat items prior to hitting the gym. I do believe this really helped me in pushing myself. All I could think of during the workout was sitting at the movies, with my girlfriend on one side and my bag of treats on the other. The visual reward of that was worth every second of pain.

My current diet: Update Two

It's time for yet another change in my diet. Today I'm taking away all the raisins and sunflower seeds from my evening meal (meal 6). This means I'm 56 calories shorter each day. Reason to this is that I've plateaued on the scale for a week or so, and that's usually my queue to cut away a few calories from the diet. I am, however, only removing a small amount due to the fact that my weight has only beens stable for a short period of time. In combination with this, I will have my cheat day tonight after my leg workout (will post all about that later). Seems like a good idea to put the cheat day just prior to removing a few calories.

NOTE: Since most of you who visit my website are from Sweden, each item is clickable and will direct you to the Swedish Wikipedia site - which will explain that particular item.

MY STATS:
Age: 29
Length: 184 cm (6' ½")
Morning weight: 82,0 kg (180,7 lbs)

MY DIETARY PLAN: APRIL 14 - 2012

MEAL 1	GRAMS (OZ)	PROTEIN	FAT	CARBOHYDRATES	CALORIES
Toast	35 (1,2)	3,85	1,5	14	91
Peanut butter (Organic)	50 (1,7)	12,8	24,45	8	281,5
Egg	100 (3,5)	12,3	9,7	0	136
Cottage cheese	100 (3,5)	12	4	2,2	92
Frozen Strawberries	65 (2,3)	0,52	0,26	4,2	24,5
Skip Omega 3	2 Tabs	0	2	0	20
Skip Mega-Pak	1 Bag	0	0	0	0
TOTAL:		41,47	41,91	28,4	645

MEAL 2	GRAMS (OZ)	PROTEIN	FAT	CARBOHYDRATES	CALORIES
Cutlet	200 (7)	43,2	3,4	0	206
Egg	100 (3,5)	12,3	9,7	0	136
Cottage cheese	100 (3,5)	12	4	2,2	92
Broccoli	200 (7)	6	0	4	40
Margarine	8 (0,28)	0	6,4	0	57
Sriracha Sauce	40 (1,4)	0	0	4	20
TOTAL:		73,5	23,5	10,2	551

PRE-WO	GRAMS (OZ)	PROTEIN	FAT	CARBOHYDRATES	CALORIES
MRI Black Powder	20 (0,7)	0	0	11	45
Skip BCAA No Limit	10 (0,35)	0	0	0	7,7
TOTAL:		0	0	11	52,7

POST-WO	GRAMS (OZ)	PROTEIN	FAT	CARBOHYDRATES	CALORIES
Skip Big Whey	30 (1)	24	1,9	2,6	117
Skip Kreatin 100%	5 (0,17)	0	0	0	0
TOTAL:		24	1,9	2,6	117

MEAL 3	GRAMS (OZ)	PROTEIN	FAT	CARBOHYDRATES	CALORIES
Cutlet	200 (7)	43,2	3,4	0	206
Egg	100 (3,5)	12,3	9,7	0	136
Cottage cheese	100 (3,5)	12	4	2,2	92
Broccoli	200 (7)	6	0	4	40
Margarine	8 (0,28)	0	6,4	0	57
Sriracha Sauce	40 (1,4)	0	0	4	20
TOTAL:		73,5	23,5	10,2	551

MEAL 4	GRAMS (OZ)	PROTEIN	FAT	CARBOHYDRATES	CALORIES
Skip Big Whey	30 (1)	24	1,9	2,6	117
TOTAL:		24	1,9	2,6	117

MEAL 5	GRAMS (OZ)	PROTEIN	FAT	CARBOHYDRATES	CALORIES
Quark	100 (3,5)	12,2	0,3	3,9	67
Cottage cheese	100 (3,5)	12	4	2,2	92
FUN Light Strawberry	- (-)	0	0	0,1	0,8
TOTAL:		24,2	4,3	6,2	159,8

MEAL 6	GRAMS (OZ)	PROTEIN	FAT	CARBOHYDRATES	CALORIES
Quark	100 (3,5)	12,2	0,3	3,9	67
Skip Magnesium	1 Tab	0	0	0	0
Skip Zink	1 Tab	0	0	0	0
TOTAL:		12,2	0,3	3,9	67

SUM		PROTEIN	FAT	CARBOHYDRATES	CALORIES
TOTAL:		273	97	73	2260

||PROTEIN|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| 62%

||FAT||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| 22%
| CARBS|||||||||||| 16%

Training Day Forty Seven

It's the second day since my stomach had a disastrous night and I was forced to go back to my medication. Things are looking bright and I'm not feeling any tension in my abdomen today. I am, however, currently holding back on caffeine, carbonated and acidic beverages in order to give my stomach some space to recover. In any case, today's workout was delts and calves, and here's the entire program!

Today's post-stomach-recovery workout:
- 5x8 Seated calf raises
- 5x8 Standing calf raises (Smith machine)
- 3x20 Standing calf raises (Only bodyweight)
- 5x8 1x5 Seated shoulder press machine
- 4x8 Dumbbell lateral delt raise
- 4x8 Rear delt reverse fly machine

Pic of me posing at the gym.

This workout was pretty inconsistent. The first sets on each muscle group were pretty sloppy in the sense that I couldn't target the muscle properly. However, the further I got towards the end of each muscle, the more thorough I could be. Calves suffered the most from this issue, but the delts were pretty solid.

Training Day Forty Six

It's been two days off from the gym today due to various circumstances. Firstly, the night before this one I had some issues with my stomach and couldn't sleep through the entire night. I've had these issues before and I used to take medication for it. But, since I was feeling great for an extensive period of time, I stopped taking my medication. However, as I just said, two nights ago it came back to haunt me yet again - probably due to a combination of a lot of stress and a lot of caffeine. Secondly, yesterday, I had to spend the entire day at the emergency unit at the hospital due to my girlfriend having issues with her stomach. Needless to say, I've had more important things - other than training - to think about lately.

Today's post-rest triceps and hamstrings workout:
- 5x8 Horizontal leg curl
- 3x12 Seated leg curl
- 5x8 Triceps cable pushdowns (V-bar)
- 1x10 1x8 1x6 Dips
- 1x8 Standing one arm dumbbell triceps extension

Triceps pic taken at work prior to my workout.

Things might sound really bad, but there is some good to be found in all the bad. I've actually been pretty tired and having a bit of pain in my muscles lately - especially my deltoids. So, if we are to view this from a positive perspective, this was a good time for some much needed rest. I woke today, rested and ready to do some good damage to my muscles, which is a good indication that I'm back on track. Today's workout was a result of that, and, even though I was still rather tired in my hamstrings the triceps got a good pounding.

Training Day Forty Five

Warm summer weather, ice-cold beverages, a nice tan, a walk on the beach. Sounds lovely? How about a laptop, some hardcore studying and a back workout? Because while the sun is baking those who are out enjoying the warm weather, I'm stuck inside with my computer. Then again, I am a nerd of sort, so I'm not really complaining.

Today's back, trapz and forearms workout:
- 5x8 Barbell bent over row
- 3x8 Dumbbell bent over row
- 3x12 Seated cable row (wide grip)
- 4x12 Dumbbell shrugs
- 4x20 Standing behind back supinated barbell wrist curls (10 sec rest between sets)
- 4x12 Barbell reverse curl

Back pic taken with the mobile cam after my workout

Some find motivation to work out in a warm sunny weather, others find a reason not to. I personally enjoy a warm day at the gym, and have no trouble motivating myself to work harder in the heat. Today was no different, although, I did feel the energy supply drain pretty quickly. The trapz workout wasn't that thorough, however, the back workout was.