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60 Day Transformation Log (14% to 9% body fat).

Matty01

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Hey guys,

I posted another log in here, but I was not diligent about keeping it. That is going to change with this.

I started a 60 day transformation today. It's going to be my last big fat loss push to go from 14% to 9% body fat.

Here's the numbers:


Current Waist Measurement: 82 cm (32.3 inches)

Goal Waist Measurement: 76 cm (29.9 inches)



Current Weight: 68.2 kg (150 pounds)

Goal Weight: 62.7 kg (137 pounds)




The way I’m going about this is as follows:

  1. Use flexible dieting, but ensure that the first meal of the day is “clean” (in order to build that up as a habit.
  2. Keep protein at least 100 grams/day
  3. Shoot for 2300-2500 calories/day
  4. Do intermittent fasting in the mornings
  5. Two 24-hour fasts per week
  6. Lift heavy 4 times per week.

I’ll be including both my food log as well as my training log in this forum.


DAY #1

Workout
Rest day.

Food Log


Dinner (9:00pm)


Canned Chicken (90 calories, 25 g/protein)
150 grams pasta (575 calories, 20 g/protein)
Pasta Sauce (100 calories)
Peppers and Onions (about 50 calories)
Olive Oil (100 calories)


Dessert (9:30pm)


Pancakes (400 calories, 12 g/protein)
1 Tbsp Butter (100 calories)
2 Tbsp Maple Syrup (100 calories)

Total For The Day- 1515 Calories, 57 Grams/Protein
 

Matty01

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All in all, this wasn't a bad day. I got off to a rough start by having chocolate for breakfast! Now, if you now me and my intermittent fasting ways, you know that NO breakfast is a good breakfast, so this was especially bad.
Fortunately, I was able to rectify it later in the day, and still hit my daily calories all right. I do need to eat a bit more protein, so I'll be working on that.
Workout

Chest Workout
Bench Press: 3 sets of 5 reps (65kg, 65kg, 62.5kg)
Incline Bench: 3 sets of 5 reps (45kg all sets)

Food Log

Morning (11:00am)
Chocolate (700 calories)
Lunch (Noonish)
About 100 grams of Yogurt (100 calories)
Late Afternoon
Canned Chicken (90 Calories, 25 grams/protein)
Mixed Veggies (100 calories)
1 Egg (80 Calories, 7 grams/protein)
Salad Dressing (50 Calories)
Chocolate (100 Calories)
Dinner
Canned Chicken (90 Calories, 25 grams/protein
Kimchi Pancake (700 calories, 9 grams/protein)
Dessert
Pancake (400 calories, 5 grams/protein)
1 Tbsp Butter (100 calories)
2 Tbsp Maple Syrup (100 calories)

Total For The Day- 2,610 Calories, 71 Grams/Protein


 

Matty01

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Day 3 is officially down, and, on pretty well all levels, I would consider it a success. My diet was SUPER on point, and, as a bonus, I actually got MORE protein in than I was intending.

I was able to diligently follow my morning intermittent fasting system, consuming only coffee and water until around 1:30pm. At that point, I broke the fast with a super healthy lunch (chicken salad with hard boiled eggs), had some pasta later in the afternoon, and hit a pull workout in the evening (I actually finished the entire workout today, unlike yesterday).

All in all, still feeling pretty good. I was a little bit hangry early in the day, but I know that's just the first week adjustment period, and things will get easier by week 2.


Workout


Pull Workout

Weighted Chin-ups: (22.5 KG + 68 KG Bodyweight) 4 reps, (20 KG + 68 KG Bodyweight) 5 reps, 4 reps, 4 reps (3 minutes rest)

Pullups (Bodyweight): 5 reps, 5 reps, 4 reps, 4 reps, 4 reps (3 minutes rest)

EZ Bar Curls (30 KG) 6 reps, 6 reps, 5 reps, 5 reps, 5 reps (2 minutes rest)

Captains Chair Leg Raises: 5 sets of 6 reps (1 minute rest)


Food Log


Lunch (1:30pm)

200 Grams Canned Chicken (180 Calories, 50 Grams/Protein)
Mixed Veggies (50 Calories)
2 Egg (160 Calories, 14 Grams/Protein)
Salad Dressing (50 Calories)
Chocolate (100 Calories)

Afternoon (4:30pm)

150 Grams Pasta (575 Calories, 18 Grams/Protein)
Pasta Sauce (50 Calories)

Dinner (8:30pm)

Kimchi Pancake (700 Calories, 9 Grams/Protein)
100 Grams Canned Chicken (90 Calories/ 25 Grams/Protein)

Dessert (9:00pm)

Pancake (400 Calories, 5 Grams/Protein)
1 Tbsp Butter (100 calories)
2 Tbsp Maple Syrup (100 calories)


Total For The Day- 2,555 Calories, 121 Grams/Protein
 

Matty01

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Day 4 is down and it...was...bad. Well, it started out ok, but then it got pretty terrible.
Let me recap. I'm in Seoul this weekend. Unfortunately for me, that means travelling almost 8 hours by a combination of ferry and bus off my little island.
It's a pretty rough trip (but absolutely worth it). One of the issues is that during these weekends that I leave, my diet kinda goes to ****. I usually accept that, and kinda just consider it the cost of getting back to civilization and maintaining my sanity.
I did my fasting in the morning, and then broke the fast, tragically, with cookies. That probably wasn't the smartest thing to break my fast with. I mean, I know I didn't have access to quality food, but I did have some time in between buses, and I could have popped into a Korean restaurant and had...you know, some ACTUAL food.
When I finally arrived in Seoul, I ended up going into McDonalds and getting two chicken snack wraps. Again, not the best...but at least it was semi-real food, as opposed to just a pile of processed sugar.
For dessert, I had two Reese's bars...this is where the real problems began.
Later that night, I went into my friends restaurant to have some chicken and catch up with him. I figured the least I could do at this point was get some protein into me, even if it wasn't exactly "lean" protein.
Well, long story short, I ended up drinking some soju.
I left relatively early to go crash, as I was pretty tired. I started walking back, and as I passed convenience store after convenience store...I started thinking about those Reese's peanut butter bars.
I think I've mentioned this before, but I LOVE Reese's products. And apparently, convenience stores in Seoul have recently started selling them.
Needless to say, since my will power was already drained from the soju and just being super tired in general, I hit a breaking point. I ended up having FOUR MORE BARS!! That's literally an extra 1000 calories. That's horrible.
In light of this, I've decided to make a few adjustments to my strategy. Number 1, I'm more than likely going to give up social drinking for the rest of the challenge. Number 2, all Reese's products have officially made my banned list for the rest of the day.
I'm all for eating foods you like, even when dieting, but at the end of the day, we all have certain foods which, if left to our own devices, we'll not only eat, but we won't stop eating. I think if you're going to diet successfully, it's important to get those foods out of the diet.
So (at least until the challenge is over), no more Reese's ANYTHING.
Here's the numbers for the day.

Workout

Rest Day
Food Log

Afternoon
Cookies (500 Calories)
Evening
McDonald's Spicy Chicken Snack Wrap (600 Calories, 20 Grams/Protein)
Reese's Chocolate (500 Calories)
6 Chicken Skewers (900 Calories, 40 Grams/Protein) WILD GUESS!!

Half Bottle Of Soju (270 Calories)
Reese's Chocolate (1000 Calories)

Total For The Day- 3,770 Calories, 60 Grams/Protein
 

Matty01

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Got a little bit backlogged, but I have been keeping a log everyday, so here they are:

Sunday, February 5

I spent the day in Seoul today. I was quite busy, so food quality today was low as well (I definitely didn't hit my protein requirements).

However, given how demoralizing yesterday was, I was determined that, even though my food quality was going to be terrible and I wasn't going to hit my protein for the day, the least I could do was come out under on my calories.


Lessons Learned From This Trip


I take these little weekend trips into the city quite often. It helps me maintain my sanity. During my last 60 day challenge, I basically didn't give a **** what my diet looked like on these trips.

I mean, I didn't give a **** what my diet looked like on normal days either, but at least on those days I was hyper diligent about keeping my calories under control.

When I was travelling during the weekends, I honestly couldn't be bothered.

That's not gonna cut it anymore. This weekend made me realize that, if I don't get it together and KEEP it together for the rest of the challenge...I'm not gonna hit my goal.

It's as simple as that.

Yes, it is tough to eat properly on these weekend trips. No, quality food is not easy to find. But it's not impossible.

I could have found a grocery store and bought some vegetables.

I could have said no to the soju.

I could have brought some protein supplements with me.

But I didn't. And it cost me.

Fortunately, my next weekend trip will be in 3 weeks, which is a while. I spent a lot of money on vacation, so I need to watch my spending for the next few months.

But you can bet that the next trip I take, there's going to be some planning involved.


Workout


Rest Day


Food Log


Brownie: 600 Calories
Taco Bell: 800 Calories, 27 Grams/Protein
Fried Chicken: 500 Calories 15 Grams/Protein
Coke: 100 Calories
Chocolate: 200 Calories


TOTAL FOR THE DAY: 2200 Calories, 42 Grams/Protein
 

Matty01

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Monday, February 6

8:00am. Monday morning. I arrive on my tiny little island, exhausted, with my bags...and a brownie in my hands.

Let me explain. The last fairy going from the mainland to the island I live on is at 6:00pm. The first fairy is at 7:30am. That leaves me with two choices coming back.

First choice- leave Seoul around 10:00am Sunday to make it back in time for the last ferry.

Second choice- leave Seoul around 11:00pm Sunday, deal with the horrendous overnight trip, and make it back in time for the first ferry.

There's absolutely no way I'm missing the opportunity to spend an extra day off south bumblefuck island, so I almost always go with the second choice.

While this option affords me an extra day in Seoul, it does screw with my diet quite a bit. Usually on these overnight excursions I sleep a grand total of 1 hour.

The buses aren't exactly comfortable, and most bus drivers in Korea drive like assholes, so it's enough to keep me awake most of the night...which usually means I get really hungry at like 2 in the morning.

About halfway through the journey, I change buses. This is usually when I get food. Tragically, at 2:00am the only things open at the bus terminal are convenience stores and KFC...I decided to go with KFC.

I got to the dock around 7:00am and, being exhausted and pretty will power depleted, got a coffee and some brownies at the convenience store to kick off the day.

Awesome, right?

I got into work at about 9:00am, and drank coffee (A LOT of coffee) for the rest of the morning. At noon, I had lunch. I made a pretty decent chicken salad with lots of broccoli. That INSTANTLY made me feel better.


After fighting to make it through the rest of the day, I got home around 5:00pm, went to a Korean restaurant for dinner, had some Dukkboki and a muffin for dessert, and then crashed around 7:00pm, sleeping for a much needed 12 hours of rest.

I went over on my calories today (not shocking), but fortunately my calories on Sunday were lower than planned, so it kinda evened out. Protein was around 75 grams, which is short of what I'm shooting for, but not unforgivably bad either.
Tomorrow I'll be doing a 24 hour fasting day, and hopefully, getting back on track.


Workout


Rest day


Food Log


KFC (800 calories, 25 grams/protein)
Brownie (600 calories)
Chicken (180 calories, 50 grams/protein)
Veggies (50 calories)
Mayo Dressing (200 calories)
Dukkboki (700 calories)
Chocolate Muffin (300 calories)


Total For The Day: 2830 Calories, 75 Gram/Protein
 

Matty01

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Tuesday, February 7

Today was a full 24 hour fasting day (plus a shoulder workout workout). It's the first time I've tried working out past 20 hours into a fast.

All in all, I thought it went well. I wasn't as strong as I was during my last shoulder workout...but then again, my last shoulder workout was in December, and it's now February. So I suspect that's what's going on.

The day was a success on pretty much every single level. I stuck with my fasting during the day, drank all the water I was suppose to, completed my workout and had the dinner that I was planning on having without cheating.

All in all, I consider that a win. I had a full 12 hours of sleep the night before, so I was feeling well rested and ready to kick ass. It's amazing how much more willpower you have when you're not completely exhausted.

A quick note on the food log- you'll notice that I only hit 43 grams of protein even though my goal is to shoot for 100 grams/day. The reason is that this is a 24 hour fast, so on these days I don't really worry about making up for the protein from lunch.


Workout


Weighted Dips (30 kg + 68 kg bodyweight): 5 sets of 5

Front Shoulder Raises: 12 reps, 6 reps, 5 reps, 5 reps (10 second rest between sets)

Side Lateral Raises: 10 reps, 5 reps, 4 reps, 3 reps (10 second rest between sets)


Food Log


Intermittent fasting until 8:00pm
Pasta (575 calories, 18 grams/protein)
Veggies (50 calories)
Pasta sauce (100 calories)
Olive oil (100 calories)
Chicken (100 calories, 25 grams/protein)
Pancake (400)
1 Tbsp Butter (100 calories)
2 Tbsp Maple Syrup (100 calories)


Total For The Day: 1,525 Calories, 43 Grams/Protein
 

Matty01

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Wednesday, February 8

Today marks the first week on the 60 Day Transformation, and as such, this post is going to be an official update.
Original Weight: 68.2 kg (150 pounds)
Current Waist: 67.6 kg (148.72 pounds)
Original Waist: 82 cm (32.3 inches)
Current Waist: 81.7 cm (32.16 inches)
Here's a link to the video I did on the update.
So the fact that the scale is inching down is a good thing. I did lose a bit off my waist, but not as much as I would have liked. There also appears to be mismatch between waist measurement and scale weight; i.e. I should have lost more off my waist given the amount of weight dropped.
That said, from my experience on the last 60 day challenge, these mismatches do seem to happen sometimes, and ultimately, they even out in the end. So for the time being I'm not going to worry about it (I will be keeping an eye on it though).
Grade For The Week

I'm going to start giving myself a grade during each of these updates for how I felt I did during the week, both in terms of workouts and dietary adherence- basically the exact same way you'd get a letter grade in school on your report card.
My grade this week:
C-
The weekend, from a dietary perspective, was pretty catastrophic, and is most of the reason I'm ranking myself so low. The reason why I didn't go ahead and give myself a D is because I'm giving myself credit for recovering fairly quickly, and didn't go COMPLETELY off the rails on the weekend. I also pushed one of my workouts back by a day, so that cost me some points (at least in my mind).
Workout

Leg Press (110 kg): 5 sets of 8 reps
Bulgarian Split Squat (bodyweight ): 1 set of 6 reps, 2 sets of 10 reps.

Food Log

Yogurt (200 grams): 140 calories, 13g/protein
Canned Chicken (200 grams): 200 calories, 50 g/protein
Veggies: 50 calories
Salad Dressing (2 Tbsp): 200 calories
Potatoes (300 grams): 250 calories, 6 g/protein
Chocolate: 100 calories

Kimichijeon (100 grams): 400 calories, 9 g/protein
Cooking Oil (3 Tbsp): 300 calories
Pancake (100 grams): 400 calories, 5g/protein
1 Egg: 80 calories, 6 g/protein
Canned Chicken: 100 calories, 25 g/protein
Butter (1Tbsp): 100 calories
Maple Syrup (2 Tbsp): 100 calories

Total For The Day: 2,420 Calories, 114 Grams/Protein
 
Last edited:

Matty01

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Thursday, February 9

Today was an interesting day for me, as it marked the first day in the transformation that I would have to deal with the dreaded "hanger".
Let me explain. There's a difference between "hunger" and "hanger". Hunger is simply a physiological response to being without food. It happens both over the long-term when you're trying to lose weight (i.e. being in a calorie deficit) and during the normal course of your day when you haven't eaten for a while.
Hunger is cool. I can deal with hunger. Hunger is a part of life. As a matter of fact, I've come to enjoy hunger, especially after periods of time when I've been binging hard.
Hunger can be a positive thing. It can fuel creativity and focus. It can also, when you do finally eat, make your food taste that much better.
Hanger is different. Hanger is that gnawing, gripping feeling you get deep in your bones. Hanger is that kind of hunger that ***** with your emotions and makes you hate life. Hanger is the feeling that makes you want to knock a motherfucker out just because he looked at you funny.
Hanger sucks...but it is part of dieting.
Fortunately, if you're dieting correctly, hanger is infrequent (if you're feeling it all the time, you're doing something wrong). During my last 60 day challenge, I would get little pangs of hanger, but they would usually subside after a couple of hours.
Sometimes though, the hanger sticks around. It stays with you for days and days. I've noticed this most commonly during the initial few weeks of a diet.
It started late yesterday afternoon. I started feeling myself getting extremely irritable. I figured it would go away, so I tried to ignore it.
Unfortunately, when I woke up this morning, the hanger was still there. And as the hours wore on, it got worse and worse. Normal irritants at work that I can usually just ignore and tune out just got unbearable. I almost lost my **** on a coworker because they tried to offer me food (don't worry, I kept it together...barely).
By lunchtime, I knew I had to do something.
Fortunately, I've got enough experience dieting to know how to deal with hanger when it crops up. There are two options- ignore it, or launch a pre-emptive strike.
In my experience, trying to ignore it is disastrous. After a few days, it just becomes unbearable, and eventually, I would always break.
And it would be BAD. I'm talking 4000-5000 thousand extra calories taken down in a day, which would then lead to falling off the wagon for the next few days, and having to start from square -4.
What I did instead was pretty simple. I had some chocolate.
I went to the convenience store, got about 600 calories worth of M&M's and Hershey's, and ate it. Then I had my normal lunch.
And after that I was all good.
The way I look at it, it's a very small short term loss to prevent a long-term catastrophe. 600 extra calories, when broken down over a 60 day period, is nothing. It's a small price to pay to keep the machine running and not crash the ship all together.
Anyway, that's how I handle hanger.
The rest of the day was pretty good. I hit a pull workout at the gym, and added in some direct ab work at the end (captain's chair raises and weighted cable crunches). With the exception of some ab training back when I was doing Muay Thai, I've put absolutely zero emphasis on direct ab training since I was a teenager.
Ever since I figured out that "spot-reducing" was bullshit, I basically figured that, since I was too fat to see may abs anyway, why bother?
Well, now that I'm 13% body fat and closing in on my goal, pretty soon, I will be able to see my abs, and if I don't start working them now, it's gonna be pretty lacklustre once I get to my goal.

Workout

Weighted Chin-ups (15 kg + 67.7 kg bodyweight) (3 minutes rest): 5 sets of 5 (4 on the last set)
Wide Grip Pull-ups (67.7 kg bodyweight) (2 minute rest) : 5 sets of 5 (4 on the last set)
Captain's Chair Raises (1 minute rest): 5 sets of 5
Weighted Cable Crunch (1 minute rest): 3 sets of 8

Food Log

Yogurt (200 grams): 140 calories, 13g/protein
Canned Chicken (200 grams): 200 calories, 50 g/protein
Veggies: 50 calories
Salad Dressing (2 Tbsp): 200 calories
Potatoes (300 grams): 250 calories, 6 g/protein
Chocolate: 600 calories, 6g/protein


Kimichijeon (100 grams): 400 calories, 9 g/protein
Cooking Oil (3 Tbsp): 300 calories
Pancake (100 grams): 400 calories, 5g/protein
Butter (1Tbsp): 100 calories
Maple Syrup (2 Tbsp): 100 calories
Chocolate: 200 calories 4g/protein

Total For The Day: 2,940 Calories, 93 Grams/Protein
 

Matty01

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Friday, February 10

Today was a 24 hour fast...well, kinda. I had my last meal around 9:30pm last night, and ended up breaking the fast with some canned chicken and broccoli at 7:30pm tonight, so it was more like a 22 hour fast. No big deal.
For my main meal, I had "kimchijeon" (aka- "the kimchi pancake"). I make a simplified version of it that doesn't require a whole lot of time and effort. I also make it with far less oil than you'd find in any of the kimchijeon you'd find in restaurants or food stalls.
I think this is the third or fourth night in a row that I've had this. Which begs the question- "Matt, do you seriously just eat the same **** everyday?"
If you've seen my food logs, you'd be forgiven for thinking that. The answer is "yeah...kinda".
Back in 2011, I read The Four Hour Body by Tim Ferris. I have mixed feelings about Tim Ferris. On the one hand, he's undeniably smart when it comes to certain things. On the other hand, he's undeniably full of **** when it comes to other things. And I certainly think he's culpable for the whole "hacker" mentality that people use to justify not putting in the hard work to accomplish something worthwhile.
Looking back on it and knowing what I know now, a lot of that Four Hour Body book is bullshit. That said, I did take away a few key lessons, and one of them was the idea of default meals.
The idea is that you have a couple different meals that you know and like, and that you've figured out the macros for. Basically throughout your diet, you just cycle through those. It frees up mental energy that could be spend throughout your day making other, more important, decisions, and makes being on the diet more automatic.
For me personally, I've found this to be extremely effective. And no, I don't get tired of eating these meals. I started making green curry when I lived in Japan, ate it probably 5 nights a week for a year and a half, and to this day I'm not sick of it.
So yeah, that's my approach to meal planning ;)
Tomorrow I'll be back in the gym for a chest workout, and next week I'll be tinkering around with a 5 day training split.

Workout

Rest day.
Food Log

Kimichijeon (100 grams): 400 calories, 9 g/protein
Cooking Oil (3 Tbsp): 300 calories
Pancake (100 grams): 400 calories, 5g/protein
Canned Chicken: 100 calories, 25 g/protein
Broccoli: 50 calories
Butter (1Tbsp): 100 calories
Maple Syrup (2 Tbsp): 100 calories

Total For The Day: 1,450 Calories, 39 Grams/Protein
 

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Saturday, February 11

Today was a normal day of eating, however, as you can see by the food logs, I did go over on my calories. I was having a chocolate craving in the afternoon, and had far more M&M's than I'd planned...but they were the peanut kind of M&M's, which have more protein than you'd usually find in chocolate...trying to look on the bright side ;)
Other than that, it wasn't too bad. It wasn't an all out binge day, that's for sure. We'll see at the weigh-in if I can still get away with having days like these, or if I need to tighten **** up.
Today's workout was a chest workout. This time I actually got through the whole thing from beginning to end. My strength isn't quite up to where it was in December, but it certainly was better than my last chest workout.

Workout

Bench Press (3 minutes rest): 65 kg (5 reps), 65 kg (5 reps), 65 kg (4 reps), 62.5 kg (5 reps), 62.5 kg (5 reps)
Incline Bench Press (smith machine)(3 minutes rest): 45 kg (5 reps), 45 kg (6 reps), 45 kg (6 reps), 45 kg (5 reps), 45 kg (4 reps)
One armed pushup (assisted): 7 reps (left arm), 6 reps (right arm). Rest 1 minutes. 5 reps both arms.

Food Log

M&M's: 800 Calories, 16 g/protein
Latte: 200 calories
Canned Chicken: 200 calories, 50 g/protein
Salad Dressing: 200 calories
Sweet Potatoes: 250 calories, 4 g/protein
Vegetables: 50 calories


Canned Chicken: 100 calories, 25 g/protein
Rice: 300 calories
Coconut Milk: 250
Green Curry Paste: n/a
Vegetables: 50 calories
Pancake: 400 calories, 9 g/protein
1 Tbsp Butter: 100 calories
2 Tbsp Maple Syrups: 100 calories

Total For The Day: 3,000 calories, 104 g/protein
 

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Sunday, February 12

Today was a rest day for the most part. It's also a day that I went over on my calories (again), but not tragically over. So that's good.
I had two specific cravings that I wanted to take care of this weekend. The first was pizza. Now, on my little island, there's two ways to get your pizza fix. The first is to go to the one restaurant that actually sells pizza.
If you've never been to Korea, you should know that 9/10 pizza's you have here won't quite taste the same as actual pizza. Some of them get pretty damn close, but there's almost always something just a little "off" about it.
This particular restaurant doesn't do a bad job. On a scale of 1/10 of "realness", I'd give it a 7.
Unfortunately, the owners have likely realized that they've cornered the pizza market, and therefore can justify charging an astronomical fortune for it (I'm exaggerating, but still, it's a lot for a pizza that's ok at best).
Since I'm on a tight budget the next few months, I decided to go with the next best thing- convenience store pizza. This is the kind that's microwaveable and is sold by the slice in a package.
This is quite a bit cheaper- but also quite a bit shittier. On the same 1/10 scale, I'd give it a 4. That said- pizza's pizza.
There's also the fact that, when I first moved here back in August and was still trying to get my bearings, I ate a lot of it to tide me over. So I've developed somewhat of an acquired taste for it.
I had two slices for dinner, and it certainly hit the spot and took care of the craving. It also packed a surprising amount of protein- 26 grams per slice (they were big slices).
Remember, just because a food isn't conventionally thought of as a "high protein food", like chicken or steak, doesn't mean it doesn't have protein in it. In this case, the protein came from the bread and processed cheese in the pizza. Just because it's not protein from a quality food source doesn't mean it somehow doesn't count.
The other craving I had was for M&M's. I took down quite a few bags this weekend. Far more than I'd planned. I'm definitely going to have to keep my eye on that, and if it keeps becoming an issue, it might make my "banned for the duration of this transformation" list like the Reese's Peanut Butter products.
The last few days on the island were marked by some absolutely ****** weather. All the ferries to and from the mainland were cancelled on Friday. Today was great though- the wind stopped and it finally warmed up to a liveable temperature. At this stage of the game, spring's only a month or so away and I can't ******* wait.
I took the opportunity to get some "long duration low intensity cardio" in. In normal person speak- I went for a walk.
I'm not a big cardio fan. I'm of the opinion that, unless it's done A LOT and with a TON of intensity, for fat loss purposes, you're pretty much spinning your wheels with it.
That said, the one form of "cardio" I absolutely love is walking. I do a shitload of walking. A lot of people wonder how a guy like me who's 5'6 can eat what seems like an impossible amount of calories and still lose fat. I'm not totally sure, but I strongly suspect that this is one of the reasons.
During the day, I'm constantly getting up from my desk and and moving around. On days that I'm bored at work, I go and basically do laps around the school. And, whenever possible, I get outside and go for a long walk.
There are literally days were I'll go for a walk in the afternoon that lasts 2 or 3 hours. That's part of the reason I hate winter so much- it cuts into my walking time.
The number one reason I enjoy it so much is the mental clarity it provides.
If something's bothering me in my life, the first thing I do is go for a long walk.
If I have a problem I'm ruminating on and I need to solve- walk.
If I'm working on something creative and lack inspiration- walk.
There are two times in particular I love walking- on a sunny afternoon (gotta get that Vitamin D), and sunset. When I lived in Japan, that was absolutely one of my favourite things to do- long walks at sunset through the old Japanese neighbourhoods.
It may sound weird, but that's one of my main motivators for keeping fit. Yes, I want the shredded abs that come with it. But I also want to be functional well into my old age. One of the greatest fears I have is growing old, losing my health, and not being able to walk anymore.
Anyway, I've waxed fairly poetically about the joys of walking, but from a health standpoint, it's one of the best things you can do. It also has the potential to burn a lot of extra calories as well.

Workout

Rest Day
Food Log

M&M's: 800 calories, 16 grams/protein
Canned Chicken: 200 calories, 50g/protein
Veggies: 50 calories
Salad Dressing: 200 calories
Sweet Potatoes: 250 calories, 4 g/protein


2 Slices Pizza: 1100 calories. 52 g/protein
Chocolate Pastry: 400 calories

Total For The Day- 3,000 calories, 122 g/protein
 

Matty01

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Monday, February 13

Today started off fairly well, although I did wake up with some pretty intense hunger in the middle of the night. I tried to fight it off, but it was pretty overwhelming, so I opted to deal with it by eating protein and fat (canned chicken with a bit of mayo). That did the trick, and I got back to sleep pretty quick.
I kicked the morning off my usual intermittent fasting. Around 12:30pm or so, I broke the fast with a bit of chocolate and hit the gym to blast my shoulders. I had my first real meal of the day around 2:30pm- chicken and sweet potatoes.
After that I went back to work, had a bit more chocolate, and once work was over went for a bit of a hike up the mountain by my house (I use the term "mountain losely"...it only takes about 20 minutes or so to climb, but it's still decent exercise).
Dinner was green curry with broccoli, peppers and rice, and dessert was a piece of french toast with some butter and syrup.
Although I've been waking up a lot recently in the middle of the night, I've been having a really easy time falling asleep. The reason (I suspect) is my workouts. I've REALLY been grinding it out recently. And for good reason.
Back when I was getting started in fitness, I was 14 years old and the year was 2000. The message back then in the fitness world was this- a great physique came from hours in the gym.
If you read any fitness magazine from that era, they would all have you do the same thing- 6 or 7 days per week in the gym, for hours and hours at a time. High rep, high pump, no rest between sets, and tons of cardio (often mixed in with your weight training).
I would later come to realize that this approach was flawed because a.) unless you're on massive amounts of gear, that much time spent in the gym is going to prevent you from approaching your training with intensity, and b.) it put the onus of fat loss on your performance in the gym, and not where it should be- your diet.
Thanks to the spread of blogging and social media, over the last 10 years or so (and especially the last 5 years), there's been a noticeable shift away from this mentality towards a more minimalistic approach. Now a lot of the training advice we hear is to keep it simple- stick with big, compound lifts, go heavy, and let your diet do the work of losing fat.
Oh, and you don't have to hit the gym every day. A few days a week will do.
I agree with most of that, not just because it's scientifically sound, but because it's yielded me a lot of results. I can tell you exactly how I went from 5'6 and 200 pounds to under 150 pounds, and it sure as hell wasn't flopping around on a treadmill. It was fixing my diet and eating less.
HOWEVER...I think this advice, like most things, gets bastardized. More specifically, it gets used to justify laziness- especially that last part about spending less time in the gym.
The last few years have been good to me. I've made huge strides in building a sustainable diet, and gotten to a level of leanness that, while I'm not totally satisfied with yet, is something I never would have thought possible when I was a chubby 17 year old.
My past few years in the gym have been another story. The problem, for me, is two fold.
Number 1- consistency. Yes, in the grand scheme of things, I've been consistent. I rarely went more than a few weeks without working out (which is more than I can say for the majority of guys).
But on a week to week basis, I haven't been consistent. I've taken a lot of days off. I've skipped a lot of workouts when I didn't feel like it. I've let things get in the way. Basically, I haven't made training the priority I should have.
But most of all, I wasn't consistent because of...
Number 2- laziness. This really started around 2014 when ******** my back up, and had to phase out squats. Shortly after that, I had to stop deadlifting- and that's where the real problems started.
I simply stopped putting in the hard work. Any exercise I didn't want to do that particular day, I would find any excuse not to do.
Didn't feel like overhead pressing? "Ahhh, well, my shoulders are kinda sore, so better skip it".
Weighted chin-ups bumming me out? "You know what, I got a chin-bar at home, I can do it then". Rarely happened.
And guess what? This would often apply to entire workouts. If I didn't feel like going that day, I just wouldn't ******* go.
But the really messed up part was that I used all of this information I'd been getting over the last few years to justify my laziness. The problem isn't so much with the people promoting 2-3 days per week in the gym (necessarily). The problem was me using it as an excuse for not busting ******.
And I don't for a second think I'm alone in this.
Well, as I've gotten leaner and leaner, I'm starting to realize how much of a mistake that was. I thought I had way more muscle than I actually did. I thought that all I had to do was get the fat off and I'd look like Brad Pitt in Troy.
Not exactly.
Make no mistake- I'm extremely proud of how far I've come. The fact that I'm 13% body fat and under 150 pounds is something I would have killed for, even a few years ago.
But I also realize that, although I may very well get to that coveted single-digit body fat in the next 6 weeks, I'm still a ways off from my ultimate goal. Once I get down as lean as I want, it's gonna take probably a good 8 months of busting ****** in the gym to gain the muscle.
So, with that said, no more excuses. No more skipping workouts. No more skipping exercises that I don't want to do.
Time to do the work.
Vlog Link Here
 

Matty01

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Tuesday, February 14

Today is one of my 24 hour fasting days.
To be honest, I'm never really sure what to write on these days. It's now gotten to point where I've readjusted to doing 24 hour fasts, and as such, most fasting days are pretty much the same.
The one thing I have found interesting (and useful) on these long fasting days is what happens towards the end. I fast from around 9:00pm until 9:00pm the next day. Usually by the 21st hour or so I'm pretty damn hungry.
But something else happens- I usually get energetic. It's not necessarily the kind of energetic where I have the burning desire to go to the gym and smash the weights. It's more the kind where I want to get out and take a walk- which is exactly what I did.
The days are starting to get longer here in South Korea, so after work I went out for a longish walk. I talked about my love for walking a few posts ago, but I really do think it's one of the best forms of "cardio" you can do.
Plus, I don't know the exact science it, but I suspect that doing that kind of low-intensity long-duration movement towards the end of a fast has some extra fat burning potential as well. It's probably not huge, but it is an added bonus.
You may have noticed that there was no food log yesterday. I'll explain in detail why tomorrow, but basically, I've ditched my calories/protein log in favour of a more simplified "photo" log of everything eat. I'll still be totalling up my protein though.

Workout

Rest day.
Food Log

In the interest of not cluttering this thread up with pictures of food, I'll just include the link to the blog post (all the pics are included in there): http://averagetoabs.com/60-day-transformation-2017/day-14/
 

Matty01

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Wednesday, February 15

Today is day 15, which means it's time to do the official weigh-in and waist measurement.
Original Weight: 68.2 kg (150 pounds)
Current Waist: 67.5 kg (148.5 pounds)


Original Waist: 82 cm (32.3 inches)
Current Waist: 81 cm (31.9 inches)
So you may have noticed something interesting happened. My weight basically stayed the same, but my waist measurement went down.
So what happened?
It could be a few things. It could be the fact that I took January off from the gym and have only been back into it the first week or so. I don't know the biology behind it, but I do know that a lot of people report an increase in scale weight when they first start lifting weights (or start lifting weights again after a long break).
It could also be my waist measurement playing catch-up from last week. During the last weigh in, I lost about a pound and a half, but only lost about 0.3 cm on my waist...which doesn't really add up. So the fact that the waist measurement went down this week means that things are looking a bit more normal (i.e. my weight loss matches up with my waist measurement decrease).
Either way, not too bad. I was definitely hoping to lose the weight faster, so we'll see if I can speed that up a little bit for the next weigh-in.

Progress Pics





Workout

I hit a solid back workout today. I used 5x5 for both weighted chin-ups as well as unweighted, wide-grip pull-ups. I also experimented with 2 heavy sets of t-bar rows. The reason I say experimented is that I'm very cautious when it comes to any kind of pulling exercise and how that will affect my lower back.
Weighted Chinups (15 kg (33 pounds) + 67.5 kg (148.5 pounds) bodyweight: 5 sets of 5 reps (3 minutes rest between sets).
Wide Grip Pullups (67.5 kg (148.5 pounds) bodyweight): 5, 5, 5, 6, 6 reps
T-Bar Rows (35 kg (77 pounds): 2 sets of 5 reps

Why I Stopped Doing The Food Log

In a lot of ways I thought the food log was quite helpful. It definitely helped keep me accountable, and it really made me think twice about eating something I would be embarrassed to include in there (like 4 Reese's Peanut Butter bars in one sitting).
The reason I stopped doing it is because, on the whole, it was actually causing more problems for me than it was solving.
Doing those daily food logs was a lot of work. It wasn't work in terms of time or energy, but in terms of mental effort. Every time I sat down to eat (or even if the thought of eating crossed my mind), I'd sit there and go "if I eat x, will I have enough room for y?" "Does this have less calories, or does this?"
The fact that I was tracking not only my meals but every single calorie in them meant that this kind of mental computing really got down to some crazy minutia.
"If I use a tablespoon of oil to cook these vegetables, will I still have room for the tablespoon of butter on my dessert?"
"Should I eat this thing that I really want, or should I have this because it's 50 calories less?"
Over the last few years I've been fascinated by the subject of willpower. As it turns out, willpower is kinda like a battery. You have a certain amount of it at the beginning of the day, and as that day progresses, the battery starts to drain.
One of the big things that drains it is decision making. Psychologists refer to this as "decision fatigue", and it's been noted that the quality of your decisions get worse and worse the more of them you have to make throughout the day.
And these don't even have to be big decisions- they can be small ones.
Now, I know obviously there's going to be some level of decision making anyway when you're choosing what to eat on any given day (one of the reasons I try to eat a series of default meals). But the fact that I was spending the whole day choosing my food down to the exact calorie exacerbated it.
The result- I ended up overeating, especially in the evening.
One of the other weird ways this effected me was in terms of satiation. For example- the bakery on my island sells this absolutely amazing chocolate roll (think of a big wagon wheel, but with real whip cream and raspberry in the middle). It's about 400 calories or so.
There were a few days when I had a pretty serious craving for them. Like, literally thinking about it for a few hours. When I broke down, instead of just going and eating the delicious chocolate roll and being done with it, I instead opted to have a small chocolate bar on the rationale that it was only 200 calories instead of 400, and it would fit my macros better.
Which makes logical sense. But here's the thing- that little chocolate bar DIDN'T hit the spot. Not remotely.
So what did I do? Went back and had another one. I figured that would do it. After all, two 200 calorie chocolate bars are the same as one 400 calories chocolate roll, right?
But it didn't work. I didn't want those two little chocolate bars. I wanted that MOTHERFUCKING CHOCOLATE ROLL.
And in the end, that's what I did. I went out and I ate the chocolate roll. Not only was it amazing, but as soon as I ate it, there were no more cravings. Which begs the question of why I didn't save myself 400 calories and just eat the ******* roll to begin with.
The other counterproductive effect this had on me is that all this mental energy I was exerting meant that I was CONSTANTLY thinking about food. It was always on my mind- the exact OPPOSITE of what you want when you're trying to eat less.
And it was making me more anxious. If I happened to go a little bit higher during the afternoon, I would stress out over it for the rest of the day. Everyone has triggers when it comes to eating, and one of mine is anxiety.
A lot of you can probably relate to this. Think back to when you were in university and you had final exams. Or at work when you had a project with a looming deadline. Your diet probably wasn't exactly on point.
I started looking into, and as it turns out, I'm not the only person who's noticed a problem. One of the really big issues (on top of all the psychological issues) is that counting calories is notoriously difficult. Even in studies where people are specifically instructed to count up all there calories, even they have trouble reporting them accurately.
Take packaged food for example. A lot of people don't know this, but legally speaking, when food manufacturers include calories on there packages, they're allowed a certain amount of leeway. Those numbers aren't entirely accurate.
Oftentimes the weight isn't entirely accurate either. A chocolate bar that says 80 grams on the package may very well be closer to 100. All of these things skew your numbers
Looking back on the last 60 Day Challenge, I think one of the reasons that I was successful is that I was able to strike a balance between being aware of my food intake without being to obsessive over it.
Yes, I did a lot of things wrong. The quality of my meals was poor. I wasn't eating enough protein. My gym game was a joke.
But the one thing I did right, and the reason I was successful, is that I nailed my calorie intake. But I didn't do it by keeping a meticulous, detailed log of everything I put in my mouth. Rather, I kinda just kept a running total in my head.
Come to think of it, that's really what I did the last 3 years, and it's worked out pretty well for me.

The Plan Going Forward

Now, with all that said, I'm not just going to stop documenting my diet. Instead, what I'm going to do is keep a photo log (i.e. I'm gonna take a picture of everything I eat and include it in my daily posts).
By doing it this way, I keep the part about tracking that I like (accountability and awareness of what I eat) and get rid of the parts I don't (neuroticism and decision-fatigue).
In fact, I think doing it this way will make me even more accountable- it's one thing to write down "chocolate cake- 1000 calories". It's quite a bit more embarrassing to include a picture of that massive chocolate cake in all it's glory.
The one thing I will keep tracking, however, is my protein intake for the day.
In the interest of not cluttering up this thread with pictures of food, I'll add a link to the daily blog post (all pics are in there towards the end of the post).
 

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