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Why the title, "Intuitive Fitness?"

This blog post applies to anyone who is still reading my blogs, I will be creating my own website and I believe I will be slapping this name to it, "Intuitive Fitness."

To justify my title is simply because I feel, from my perspective, this is most applicable to our life-styles in health and fitness. It ties strongly to our bodies psychological and physiological aspects.

"Intuition"

My theory: Most methods, principles, and practices we espoused to in our life are usually based on intuition.

Intuition - "knowledge or belief obtained neither by reason nor by perception"

Intuition -  "The reliability of one's intuition depends greatly on past knowledge and occurrences in a specific area" - Some random Wikipedia quote. (I like it)

My logic and reasoning may be so simple and even laughable, but begs for some form of contemplation.

• You eat what is palatable for you. 
• Palatable - agreeable or satisfying to the taste
•  You eat to be satiated for you.
• Satiation - to satisfy a appetite or desire; to satisfy to excess
• You eat to live for you.
• All food is energy and it comes in multiple forms. 
  

So basically you simply eat and act based off of your intuition with a mixture of rationale in some cases, meaning; your trying to lose weight, your trying to be healthy, your trying to gain muscle, or your trying to prepare for a athletic event.
   
Why Intuitive Fitness?

A Hypothetical Example: Me

Before I begin this example, think about intuition and how it applies to you. If intuition is making decisions based on experience with a lack of rationale; you may begin to understand the why, what, where, and when you employ specific lifestyles, methods, and/or practices. Sometimes we just have never thought of why we do things.

James Christensen (me) has a dire need for ice creams and extreme tastes that pleasure his mouth. Sounds gross doesn't it? He wants to fulfill his palatable and satiation needs. He also really has a need to feel satiated. Often times, more than others, he has a huge appetite.

A close friend proposes the idea that he employs a vegan diet because James wants to feel and eat healthier. While at the same time, James want's to employ some weight training and aerobic activity because he want's to "tone up" and lose fat. His friend told him he cannot have any processed foods, must be low-sodium, and no animal products to be a vegan. He also shouldn't be eating any ice-cream or candy.

(Understand his friend is a little extreme)

James begins his new found diet and because he is passionate about change he adheres to this dietary method to the best of his ability. Because he cannot have ice-cream or other things he craves he will eventually run into psychological and physiological obstacles. He also was losing strength and his exercises sucked. He would eventually fail his diet and turn to his vices (ice cream and reeses) and binge for his palatbility and satiation needs simply because the vegan diet is not for him and he was not reaching his goals.

Does this mean the vegan diet is a failed practice or method to maintain a healthy life-style? Absolutely not. This is not a vegan bashing blog post; I just simply used an example of something
I (James Christensen) could not and would not do.

Problem is James was probably doing this diet and not adhering to fundamentals of the bodies needs. He was probably limiting sodium to a low level so is energy sucked. He was lacking essential micro-nutrients such as: iron or calcium. He did not have a high intake of protein to maintain or gain muscle. In conclusion he was not being a smart vegan.

Here's the point thou. He can make the vegan diet work if he would just do these things:

• Consume foods with the essential micro/macro nutrients he was in need of.
• Supplementation - he may just have to if he's going to maintain a well-rounded diet.
• Adhere to energy balance based on his goals. 
• It's easy to under-eat if all you eat it veggies and fruit. He needs to be sure he gets more caloric-dense foods in such as nuts and soy.

Most of our life-styles or behaviors (whatever you want to call it) we revert back to because of our intuition.

You can almost draw a parallel of intuition to instinct. James Christensen goes after ice-cream because it is his instinctive comfort food. He knows it will always be satiating and palatable to the taste. He does not need to rationalize that any further. It makes him happy! This is a problem and he needs a plan to control it. He needs a plan so he can know when that ice cream is appropriate for his goals.

Everything I just described are all factors and/or variables that people face in their pursuit of their goals in fitness/nutrition. They need to learn the ability to intuitively eat along with their goals.

What is intuitive eating? The ability to eat what you want and need that will be conducive to your aesthetic/fitness goals. It is a ability that one day through consistent practice you can become a master at. I believe men/woman like: Martin Berkhan, JC Deen, Roger Law, Alan Aragon, Lyle Mcdonald, Leigh Peele, and many others have mastered this ability or are still perfecting it.

Don't you at one point in time want to eat what you want and exercise how you want so it will be conducive to your goals? This is what I am about to share and promote with those I respect and learned from; it's possible. It is possible to make fitness compliment your life and not be your life.

Why Intuitive Fitness?
  
No true behavior change can take place without consulting the needs and wants of a individual. You must get deep and discover what they want. You must create the goals in mind. You must feed that intuition that's a part of their character.

Soon enough you can employ the practices and methods that are conducive to their goals and wants. Be it Cross Fit, South Beach Diet, Ketogenic Diet, Lean Gains, Paleo, Fast-Food diet, etc. Whatever you want to call it.

A template for a healthy lifestyle (mentally, physically, emotionally) only works when it aligns with that person's needs and wants. 


All diets/exercises work as long as the fundamentals are obeyed in the context of the individuals goals. Find what you want and perform intuitively.




 

Fat-Loss Is More Than a Physical Change

I had a friend who texted me when they slipped on goals and how guilty they felt; my heart went out to her! I knew exactly how they felt and I just know the cycle and the thoughts and I wanted to help in every way I could. These are some thoughts I compiled for her; and I posted this to my blog with some modifications but, I think these are good things to hear:

I was thinking about her while walking on the treadmill and getting into situations where life comes and goes: if festivities are bound to happen and or you have insane cravings

TIP #1

Create a buffer or eat to defend against overfeeding

• Humans are wired funny; we find our favorite treat and we take a few bites and it is so yummy, pleasing, makes you feel happy. EVEN IF WE ARE FULL we will be sure to stuff down that food regardless if we ate enough food that day.
• Suggestions: Eat lighter throughout the day leading to the festivity. Just a salad, lean meats, plenty of fibrous veggies. Before the festivity; DON'T neglect food volume, meaning eat plenty of veggies with some fat for taste and a piece of protein. SAVE THE CAKES, LIQUID TREATS for the end, you will not eat as much!
  

TIP #2

In addition, dieting doesn't help; your body hates it.

• Your body possesses hormones that will cause you to crave sweets or things of that nature because it knows your trying to withhold food intake or it's sending warning signals that your beginning to use your own stores (BODY FAT). There's obviously many reasons why the body does what it does but in the context of what I speak of (dieting) this applies. This is why the cake won't stand a chance. Body will conquer mind because it means SURVIVAL.
• When you starve, deprive, or whatever you want to call it; hormones shoot up and down to regulate the bodies systems.
• Your body is constantly trying to balance itself.
• http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/calorie-partitioning-part-2.html
• Lyle McDonald gives a great table of reference of what happens in the body during Over-feeding and Under-feeding
• For example: Why do we get sick? You get sick because your body turned on it's defense systems to fight the imbalance and you feel the need to rest for recovery. Your body, believe it or not does the same with dieting. Things down regulate to keep it alive and if it didn't, we would die. Understand you won't die from dieting or something horrible will happen; it just can suck sometimes.
• Dieting fights and HITS the psychological part of our human nature more than we can comprehend; I promise. 

What's the answer against all these barriers for that ultimate goal?

Is it just simply; tough it out and go big or go home? Self-Mastery/temperance over the body?

Three Simple Steps

1. The W's

• Why? When? How? Who? What? Where?
• This applies to everything. Who will be giving you food? Where will the best food be (parties, outings, etc.)? What is causing me to overeat? Why am I doing this? Why do I care about my appearance? Why do I allow others to shoot me down or judge me for my goals? How will I stay firm to my goals and remove the fear? When is the time I will exercise that is most conducive to making it work? When is the next festivity or obstacle? Plan, Plan, PLAN!
• Your changing the appearance of your body; it just doesn't happen, takes work.

2. Resolve Conflicts

•  If your in the middle of a crisis (i.e. death in family, Stress, finances, etc) your wondering what you should do. I guess we should put a hold on all of these goals, right? Let me ask a you a question; why would you stop pursuing your goals? You knew life would continue and this would be hard, why stop now? Why would we halt on doing something that is changing or benefiting us? If anything these practices are keeping you sane, healthy, and reducing stress.
• We eat A LOT of food during the times when we get stressed or depressed. Why do we do that? I don't have a super physiological answer but more so a answer from anecdotal experience. When our body goes into a "stressful" state; it's preparing for something. Fear, sadness, or anxiety get's the body into a "flight or fight" response. What happens when we get into this "survival mode?" The body screams eat more food! It's preparing for something so it want's all the energy it can get so it can get ready for the season of starvation or situation to survive. The body without your say is constantly FIGHTING TO LIVE! 
  
• Food suppresses these feelings we have psychologically for a short time period . I know life comes and goes; we get upset or de-motivated; than we all of sudden decide to destroy our value! Why? Stop hating yourself for the mishaps in not being a perfect soul in dieting/fitness. Get over it and Get busy! Go release that tension and stress!
• Sitting around and over-consuming on food is KILLING YOU. I know this may sound harsh but seriously it's the worst thing you can do; regardless of weight loss/muscle gaining goals. Just MOVE, EAT NUTRITIOUS FOODS, SCREAM/VENT. Keeping it all inside is just deteriorating you, literally.
• Sure, you may have to fly somewhere or got other things to do; that's fine. Also it's fine to self reflect and take a look at things in a bigger light/picture. There is also no reason why you can't self reflect while lifting, running/walking, and creating a meal to uplift your spirits and not hate yourself. Keep your value fresh and renewed. Your body can be the cure for heart break, depression, anger, etc.
• One last thing; an example of my own. I'd rather not get super personal but my mind/heart is screaming out of passion to help anyone and everyone with these paradigms or fears. My mother died when I was 15 due to suicide. Most heart-breaking thing ever. I had to make a choice; I could of wallowed in self-pity for the rest of my life OR I could choose to conquer life and become what my mother wanted me to become. It was a Decision. You have the control. You give it up when you just sit and eat yourself into a hole of depression. Don't do it. See a professional or consult a family member, stop trying to be a super human.
• I talk like this because I HAVE BEEN THERE and so have many others I have encountered in my life. We need to utilize the preventative abilities we possess against Psychological/Physiological/Spiritual Sicknesses. We do this through action, temperance, and education.
  

3. True Practices must be in place

• Deficit
• Life has been proven to be prolonged when we are in a deficit or have consumed less food than what we need. It cleans the system and keeps the body from excess storage. A deficit must be in place for weight loss to occur.
  
• Rehabilitation/Recovery
• Resting/Stretching/Mobilization all improve your ability to function and to prevent future movement issues and help prevent the body from hurting itself. Get your sleep. Stretch properly. Mobilize many different movements of the body -> I use a foam roller to smooth (massage) out my muscles from being over-intensified from heavy weights. Treat your body to the recovery and movement it needs. We sit too much and don't give our body full-range of motion.
  
• Activity
• Again, we sit to much and don't jump around enough and get that body circulating. Your body stiffens up and things start to slowly get messed up. For instance we have heard or possess these problems. "I have a bad back." "I can't move like that it hurts this." "I was doing this and this occured." many, many issues. I will say some are genetic, accidental, and etc. OF COURSE life happens. I do know; these things can be fixed or improved by simply getting active and just move to get things done!
  
• Macro/Micro Nutrient Timing
• Probably the most important true practices to adhere to. 
• Protein needs (depending on goals) should be met daily to maintain lean-body-mass and to benefit you in so many ways and to keep you satiated.
• Cycling periods of Over and Under-feeding is vital and should become your life-style.
• There is a time and place to over-feed and under-feed. Stop gorging yourself; there is no need for it all the time.
• A treat is a treat -> TREAT IT LIKE A TREAT
• Why are you hungry all the time? Because your lacking proper nutrient consumption/timing
• There is a time to refeed with a large load of carbohydrates. This can be due to glycogen depletion, prolonged dieting, leptin needs to be reset.
• Additionally you may just need a diet-break; stop dieting and eat normal (Maintenance) for a week or two.
• You need to supply ample amount of protein and carbohydrates pre-workout so we can yield the results we want. Than eat good post-workout meals to refill/rebuild your body.
• We need goals to regulate how much we consume and when. (FAT LOSS/MUSCLE BUILDING/MUSCLE RETENTION/ENDURANCE)
• Combine the right foods together: Plenty of Veggies, large amount of protein; and a piece of fruit so you DON'T GET SO HUNGRY
• If you just eat a donut and some milk, no wonder why you eat 5 more donuts, it is not filling and neither does it possess all the nutrients you need!
• Better yet; EAT THAT DONUT with some fruit/veggies/and some protein!
• It's not the DONUT that is bad; it's the 5-6 DONUTS that are bad!

Food is Energy!

http://byuhealth100.blogspot.com/2011/05/food-is-energy.html
-> This is a blog for my "Intro to Public Health" class.

          We had to use stickers that said, "This is Public Health" and label it to something that's public health to us. I wanted to do a picture of me lifting and have the sticker somewhere but I didn't think it would deliver as strong as a message as this picture (notice the Lucky Charms and Panda Express Sauce). Anyways this link will take you to my post. Quite controversial to many people who are all about "healthy eating." Why do you suppose I put it that way? Because healthy eating all depends on context.

           The conversations I have day to day with health are very.....minimal. I really wish I could talk about it more than I do. I am a huge proponent of "good health" and again you may ask me, what is this "good health" that you speak of.

          I set my status on Facebook the other day to this:

Good health is: "A state of complete physical, mental, and    social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity"

         Without throwing out my own say as to what "good health" was, I used this definition (I thought it was very through). Pretty lofty health goal I would say. 

          Context was a word I mentioned earlier. People in this world have been gifted with preferences, appetites, opinions, you name it! We all advocate something that makes us feel great or secure. Once we have our "ah-ha" moments and discover new things to advocate or love; we want everyone to enjoy it also! We are interesting creatures who digest and regurgitate information repeatedly by what we say, do, and even by appearance. One individual is a vegan, another is a meat-lover. Another advocates to eat only foods that can be gathered or hunted for; another believes and loves food delivery. Some of us just do these things or a mixture because we just don't think about it when in fact others obsess about it.

          Hypothetical situation: you order a "meaty" pizza. Good friend comes over and they begins to tell you how their doctor has advised them to quit eating greasy/fatty foods because their cholesterol levels are too high and so is their blood pressure. Door bell rings; you go and retrieve that hot-n-ready meat loaded pizza and it's warm to the touch and smells as if it were baked fresh. You sit down and sink your teeth into the soft doughy pizza and allow the hot melted cheese on your tongue in combination with the salty meat excite your taste buds (are you grossed out or are you hungry now?). Your friend than exclaims, "You should really consider what your eating too; that's really fatty..." Now things just got awkward and the context of this situation needs to be taken into consideration...

          A little science for everyone; did you know your body loves fats and needs fats? Did you know that fats are what makes up part of the cells of your body? Did you know both saturated/unsaturated fats are good for you? Did you know having body fat keeps you warm? Did you know that fats provide energy? Did you know that fat simply makes you happy? 

          Can you see that all these questions I just imposed weren't to make you think I'm treating you like a fool or to even correct you? These statements are actually intended for you to question them and to think logically for just one second. Your right, these answers or "facts" I gave you all deserve....what? Let's say it together people, CONTEXT. A person with "bad cholesterol" or "high-blood pressure" may not need that pizza. Why is that? Perhaps they sit around all day and they have no idea how to cut back on their caloric value so what do they do? They wipe out all fast-food options than in their mind they slap a label on fast-foods which reads, "UNHEALTHY.... BAD FOR HEART....EVIL...FATTY...GROSS." Now this person has created an alienation from fast-food within their minds because they have proposed a hypothesis: "Fast-food is causing me to have bad-health and by removing it completely from my life, I will be healthy again." I have no idea what or how they contrived the thought but it worked out to something like this. 

          Now this person loses weight, resets all things that were amiss with their body, become more active, and WALLA; "I'm not fat and unhealthy anymore!" Than for some reason the hypothesis becomes validated true in their minds in which they jump to believing a law has been discovered and MUST be adhered to: Fast-food makes you fat and it should be done away with. That simple huh?

         Context people. Your no longer "fat" or "unhealthy" you "over-zealous" McDonald's hater because you began to incorporate more whole foods into your diet which in fact brings more satiety and less calorie consumption. As you advanced on your adventure to prove fast-food is "evil" you became super-active and passionate over daily activity and you even began to count calories! In combination with all these "great things" you even began taking a daily-vitamin and incorporated EFA's and other great micro/macro nutrients that your body needed. Now that you have arrived at your goal; you strictly shop for only "organic foods" and NEVER EVER touch fast-food. You are a advocate of whole-foods and do everything in your power to stop this "fast-food epidemic" simply because a hypothesis without context was validated "true" in your mind. Well done by the way, now look at all your friends, family, and acquaintances behind you that you just steam rolled over.

   -->Notice my emphasis with quotation marks in this last paragraph? I use these quotation marks to prove my point of "Context." Forget if it wasn't "grammatically correct" it's my blog and I make my own laws! I defy proper grammar in my blog. This is my Contextual World.

         So what's my point??? The point is this: Must I say more?

• Just because you discover something great and wonderful for you it may not be for everyone. Sorry to break it to ya. Do share your passion thou with kindness, tactfulness, and not like some fanatic preaching the only way to enter the Halls of Valhalla is by some magical fat-free cake!

•  Calorie Tracking, Over-feeding/Under-feeding, Weight Training, Endurance Training, Incline/Decline, WHATEVER -> all has Context

•  All food be it; fast, slow, hot, cold, spicy, clean, dirty, etc. will in fact be converted into some form of energy in your body or can cause some form of double-dragon.

  

  Context of Lighting on my status: I look ok....

  
  
  

   

  

  Context of Lighting in this picture: I look even better

              

 

           

Final Results and Recommendations by a Doctor

         The cutting phase of Lean-gains is about finished. I learned some very valuable lessons applicable to life whilst practicing Lean-gains.
  
         Expecting huge results to losing body fat rapidly with a low body fat % is stupid regardless of what you'd expect from all your "good" work. You know counting everything, good activity, and healthy foods. The loss of the body fat was at times linear for me. It stalled when I acted retarded withI dropping calories too low. Even with a high deficit of -3000 (per week, which probably was more, due to my active lifestyle) yielded little loss in fat and did hurt my strength. Why is it when a expert advises to go against a desire to slow down we just blatantly ignore it? It's a matter of getting caught up with the NOW results and no patience. I realized that and repented immediately.

          In addition to being impatient and throwing professional/experienced advise to the side, my father who is a MD in internal Medicine; he is also another I ignored/questioned for a lot of my life on the subject of fat loss. Some interesting corrections that he pointed out to me my past pursuit of losing weight while in High-school and before I found Leangains.com. Understand my father was a internist which in fact means he's one of the smarter guys in medicine (they were the ones who diagnosed issues and forwarded people to specialist). Also,  my father and his values/habits outside the home showed he cared more for the people/sciences than he did for money. He's super knowledgeable and credible MD. The guy is a mechanical freak, he will understand the nuts and bolts of everything and won't deny the evidence.

Understand everything I claim or say has it's context people. I advocate Martin's ways because I want the results of looking great for myself and to have a lifestyle to live by. I'm no athlete. I'm just doing it a way that works for me; so while reading this consider the context.

These are conversations and experiences with my father regarding to weight control and fat loss.

• Every time I went running with the pursuit of losing fat my dad always yelled at me and said, "Trust me if you want the best workout for fat loss, just walk on a incline for 45 min!" I would reply, "No you have to run!" Than he would reply, "Yea, you need to stop listening to damn fads and realize I'm a doctor and I study this!"

• I ignored him because that seemed like non-sense and not what MensHealth.com said. HAHA! Boy was I wrong. Just ignorant and prideful. Go here for what why you shouldn't run while in a deficit or trying to cut fat and maintain muscle. This additionally will help.

• My dad never ate breakfast, he would drink his caffeinated diet coke and head to work and only eat lunch and dinner. In fact he said this concerning obesity in America, "Seriously, America just eats to much. If people want to lose weight, just eat less meals or in other words, skip breakfast. The caloric intake of the day would be so much less."

• I always thought this was odd when I read up on stupid material, truth is I did the same thing (and was thin) when I didn't read crap online. Eventually I started to read some online stuff or just listen to others "here-say" and eat breakfast. It isn't bad, it's just the fact that I never accounted what I ate in the morning. I just ate food and didn't count anything, hence why it was a negative in a process of losing/maintaining weight for me.

• I always saw my dad eat plenty of meat and salads with them. The man truly ate Lean-gains style and has remained thin. Additionally he raised all his kids on skim-milk, diet coke, and a slap on a hand for desiring fried foods from restaurants (I'm talking fried chicken and other unnecessary foods). Understand he was just instilling practices to be aware of what we were eating; not so much that full fat milk is bad and you can never ever eat fried foods. I think he was definitely advocating chew your calories, not drink them.

• In addition to his habits, he always went on walks and encouraged me to go with him when I was little. It was so funny because he would do it often. While living in Las Vegas, he would strap on his 45. then go walk for a few miles. Probably the coolest thing ever that I witnessed as a kid; additionally his every now and than cinnamon toast crunch/cookie crisp with diet coke cereal!

        Now I'm a freaking fanatic of the Lean-gains legion. Funny thing is it's something in a way, but not completely, what my dad followed who is a traditional/professional medical doctor. People will often say and even Doctors "oh, do this and that." Truth is my father followed the facts of science and applied simple principles for weight control. When analyzing his life I realized he's always advocated nothing fancy for fat loss but just kept it simple like Martin Berkhan (No Martin, your not my daddy). Well that's enough said, because it just got weird. Lean-gains for life.

Current Condition:

Current Status: 145-146 lbs
Body Fat %: 8-9
Goal weight for Leangains phase: 154-155 lbs

*I tried to make sure I tweaked no color of these pictures. I also made sure I did not flex, this is trying to be relaxed.

This is what Martin had to say:

" 8-9% is about right. Serratus/obliques are tells from the side pics, they'd show better at 7%. You say you're not flexing (?), but those abs looks flexed. Unflexed stomach at low bf% looks like a turtle shell. Well done either way."

I'm thinking just a tiny bit more cutting for the lower back fat and also for the lower abdomen.

To those people that hate IF so bad or disagree with it entirely, have some food for thought; No matter the method and as long as true principles in regards to diet/weight training are adhered too, just appreciate the end result, you can't deny it. We all have the same goal if it's pertaining to feeling good about ourselves/gaining strength in the process. It's shocking that I had a goal for my life and the more resistance I received was from people rather than the weights in the gym. If you have a goal whether by Leangains protocol, Cyclic Ketogenic Diet, or just mixed dieting, awesome. Just understand basic rules and don't try to employ fancy methods. Better yet, do what you want.

Rest Day Meal: 1302 kcal, 73g of fat, 23g of Carb, 142g of Protein

7% fat ground beef, 300 g of Brocolli, grilled red pepper sauce, 100 g of mushrooms, a cup of part-skim mozzarella. (topped off after with some chili sauce) Feeling full and energized!

Why... oh why, I do this.

 *Skip to Paragraph (5) to see why I favor Martin Berkhan's approach and how it fits perfectly with my life.

(1) Let's cut to the chase, growing up I was the little fat boy. By the time I hit high school, I was the skinny guy. I remember once a man said to me, "Your tough but not big enough." I liked that quote, at the same time I resented it. I was skinny but always carried a slight gut, always bothered me. It was just a matter of insecurity with my body.

(2) Lifting weights always intrigued me, I never understood why I got nowhere with it as far as results. I worked out but I never could get the results I wanted, ever. I remember seeing others who had the results I wanted and assumed, "Well they are just genetically more advanced than me." Sadly, I didn't know that nutrition had such a huge part to play. I give you this preface because look, I loooovveeeee food. I can just eat so much, yet I was fat and small in stature. No wonder why the gut was always there. No one ever educated me. I never educated myself. But once you do, it's a whole world of confusion when stepping into dieting/weight-training.

My Transformation

(3) When I returned from a two-year mission serving for my church, I weighed 165 lbs. This weight fluctuated but for the most part was gained in my last 6 month stay in a suburban area. I had many great families I visited and who fed me ALOT. I'm talking, all you can eat brownies, ice cream, enchiladas, it was heaven.

Yea, I was a round boy.

I knew I was way too fat. In the beginning of my College Career, my brothers introduced me to somebody who is now a close-friend of mine, Rory Hanson. I gotta get you some pictures of his weight change. Way drastic and awesome, the man truly represents re-composition at it's best. We started to workout: 5 times a week. We alternated body-parts worked everyday, it was set, and we always had a rule of usually 4 x 10 reps of 5-8 workouts. It was grueling but I stuck with it. Additionally, we ran for like 35-45 min. Nutritionally, I just ate whole foods and only ate out on the weekends. Whole foods meaning, rice, fruits, veggies, lean meats, dairy products. Just a rounded diet. Worked great, it was easy, just working out was challenging.

(4) In due time, I became fairly skinny. I got down to 155lb over the course of 6 months. I hovered since there from May 2009 - September 2010. The belly was still there, but for once I had muscles that kicked in when we started the Ketogenic Diet. The diet before didn't match up, specifically because of low protein intakes (too put it simply) and many others factors. I shot up in strength and felt a big progression. I did a Ketogenic Diet for about 4-5 months in 2010. It was grueling too because you felt wasted (from depleting glycogen) every week but the refeeds on the weekends were like heaven in the mouth. We would just binge on Five Guys, Chillies, than end nights with huge ice-cream shakes, just boys being boys. This was a CKD diet (Cyclic Ketogenic Diet). It was great, but again, I wasn't seeing results like I wanted. I lost fat and gained mass but It was slow. Most of all was this lifestyle was very hard for me to live by; going to the gym for a hour too two hours a day I could do, but in long run I didn't want that. I did it all because I just believed at this point that "working this hard is how you get results." I ate 6 times a day, kept protein high, made everything at home. I was strict and obedient to this diet and I would go out socially with friends only Saturday nights to eat out. I will just say that doing the diet right brings results, just in the end it wasn't for me and I wanted to try something different.

(5) During the beginnings of the Keto diet, I ran into a blog called, "Lean-Gains." I read into it and didn't understand any of it, but I book-marked it because I was curious. I returned to it occasionally when I understood at this point what Martin was talking about. In short, by Christmas I studied Martin's site like a fiend and wanted to understand every nitty-gritty detail. I was just tired of being in the dark with body-building/nutrition, tired of worrying about food, just tired of not achieving the results I wanted. After treating his site like a class, I put it to the test and I immediately was converted within weeks. The rules were less constraining, I feel I could relax more and enjoy the journey of working out and dieting. My favorite thing of all was Martin's ultimate tear down of fads and untruths of diet myths and how he backed everything up with science. This was just so revealing that I became a immediate follower. (I don't worship him, just he's the man). He really educated me and helped me understand that there are fundamentals to all diets that had to be included, but simply in the end I just discovered he has a "life-style" that I like and wanted for myself.

(6) So now, I overfeed on the days I lift and I underfeed on the days I don't. My cardio has been walking and I only go to the gym 3 days a week. The days of eating are still controlled but it makes life easier to focus on specific foods on the alternate days. I know how to go to any social event and make it easy for me to choose my foods appropriately. In summary, I still eat like a fat kid but now I'm not a fat kid.

                                               Lean-Gains (Fat-loss)                                                              

    January 2011 (155lbs)

February 2011 (152lbs)

                                                    

    Weight of 147lbs (9.5% - 10% Body-Fat) I think.... (March 2011)

MySpace pic 2

MySpace pic 1

MySpace pic 3 (Cholo Face)

This is including meals of:

Whole-Wheat/Lean Burgers

Protein Fluff (working on the perfection of this)

Reese Peanut Butter Puffs

Chicken Fingers/Sweet Potatoes/Spicy Honey Mustard

Brats/Cottage Cheese/Veggies

These were some of my post-workout meals and some rest day meals. I always maintain a high protein diet, control my calories (depending on the day), and cycle carbs and fats. Lots of veggies, fruits, fiber, and dairy. I also take a daily multi-vitamin and some omega-3's. I mostly eat whole foods, I keep treats to the minimum or try too, usually a treat with every post-workout meal.

 I still have work to do to get where I want to weigh. The results thou are truly significant. I think the biggest is my strength now considering I've lost 8 pounds and do fasted training (with a BCAA's supplement)

• Bench Press - I've maintained my 185lbs x 8 (Top Set)
• Squats - 295lbs x 5 to 355 x 5 (Top Set)
• Weighted Chins - 205 x 5 to 212 x 5 (55 weight belt to 65 on weight belt)
• Dead Lifts - 285lbs x 4 to 325 x 4
• Lat Pull Downs - 150 x 5 to 190 x 5 (5x5 - starting strength principles)
• Weighted Dips - 50 x 8 to 70 x 8

Now understand, all of this had it's time and place. There is a protocol and rules to adhere to. I measured all of these meals and matched them up together. If your interested in understanding this approach in more detail, go to Leangains.com and give the creator the attention he deserves. I personally would love to thank Martin Berkhan for having great character and being so charitable to people like me by providing the information that he has compiled together. I hope to soon donate to his work because he does an excellent job of explaining proper training, dieting, and most of all helping people mentally with body-building as a whole. I've adopted this life-style to make it part of my life but not MY LIFE. Make sense? I'm doing this so I can live a well balanced life in everything I do (school, work, family) and do it the smart way, not the hard way. Sure there is more than one way to diet/weight-train but I do this because it works for me, FIND what works for you.