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Less than a week into my nutrition experiment I have basically come to the realization that TIMING is what it's all about if you want to cut fat.  Now, before I go into a few more details on this, I need to stress two major points: first, I am only speaking from 6 days experience.  Second, this is working for ME.  While I am convinced it would work for pretty much anyone to a certain extent, everyone must recognize and accept that what works for one person, may not work as well, or at all for another. 

So here's exactly what I've done:  I've upped my carb intake to 3/4 cubs oatmeal for my first meal and 1 cub sweet potatoes for my second (along with plenty of protein and good fats) and I decreased my overall caloric intake per day by only about 400-500 calories (I'm taking in about 2500 minimum a day now).  So, all in all, not TOO much has changed in my plan except one main thing: I am eating every 3 hours.  I set an alarm on my phone, and I eat within 20 minutes of it going off.  The result: I have gone from 213.8 lbs to 206.4 lbs in 6 days.  Word.  And to top it off, the numbers on all my lifts have gone up, and my energy levels have gotten a bit better.

Simple as that folks! 

I plan to keep this up for a while to see what happens, and after that, I will be adding a little more diversity and freedom to the plan while keeping daily macro-nutrients around the same level and sticking to the whole 3-hour thing.  While I got this plan from a friend, who got it from a friend, it is almost identical to Tim Ferriss's plan for cutting the last 5-10lbs of unwanted body fat, and meshes well with a whole slew of info I have gathered from my main resources such as T-Nation and The CrossFit Journal.  If you look around, there is an endlessly confusing amount of information out there on how to lose weight, but as most things, it really is a lot simpler than people think.  If you want to give it a try, start by simply attempting to get your meals in every three hours.  For most people that will be the toughest challenge, but if you are willing to come across as a little strange to your friends and coworkers, then set your alarms and challenge yourself a little.  A note on the reactions of people around you: I have tried to engage these people when I can and found out that all of them were actually more intrigued and even a little envious then weirded out.  So, think about that a little bit before you use other people as your excuse for not giving this a try.

Anyways, more on that in a couple weeks; for now, let's catch up on the lifts.  I took a solid rest day yesterday and then eventually got to my workout today.  I ended up training with a client of mine who came in to get some extra work, and training with another person, as always, helped out a ton!  I was supposed to do 5x3 deadlifts but did 5x5 (didn't even realize this until just ow by the way), and last week I got 5x3 at 365#.  Today O got 5x5 at 405# and felt strong.  The rest of the session was damn good, and then I headed out for a nice little 3-mile run at dusk.  Real nice!  Tomorrow is my last heavy day before a de-loading week, and then the month after that is set aside for some SERIOUS gains!  Can not wait!

Never Stop, GET FIT.

Josh Courage
 
 
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Well, my frustration hit a tipping point when I failed to put enough thought into my last post and wrote it directy into the blog page rather than Word.  Yep, as you can figure, the one time I do that in the last two months the whole damn thing gets lost.  Bummer.

So, now that that's lost, I'll postpone my next insightful post till tomorrow when I am a bit more chill towards writing.  This post will be a bit about my workouts this week.  Today I had some solid barbell work with power snatches and deadlifts.  I pulled up 160# with relative ease, then just got stuck with 185#.  I wanted so badly to just squat under it but I needed to struggle through the mechanics of this move and allow my legs to learn how to take control.  In the end, I missed 6 attempts despite getting the weight well over my head.  I finished with 5 smooth reps at 135#.  I then moved on to deadlifts and was able to get 425# for 3 pretty comfortably.  I am sure I would have broken my form unnecessarily if I went heavier.  I then stretched a little and prepared for my group coming in.

I opted out of a metcon in the evening as my energy levels were real low and I am planning on a fun day tomorrow.  Some gymnastics work in the morning for a solid 30 minutes along with some unilateral, core stabilization.  Then, after a baseball game in Half Moon Bay I will be at the track!

The rest of the week has me cleaning, jerking, front squatting and conditioning on Wednesday; swim workout on Thursday; snatch balance, max verticals and a super heavy metcon Friday.  Looking forward to it all!

Never Stop, GET FIT.

Josh Courage
 

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