Starts now!

Alright it is now time to buckle down even harder than before. Bulk phase has officially finished (thank gawd!)

The idea of bulking was excruciating for me. I was constantly eating, eating, eating...chicken here chicken there chicken in my breakfast....I may as well have bought a chicken farm...gahh!!! how on earth was I supposed to lose weight with all this food? Getting my head around eating for muscle growth was mind boggling and did at times cause anxiety not knowing if what I was doing was the "right" thing to be doing (so much "bro science")...despite the array of emotions I do feel as though I put on a decent amount of lean muscle mass.

Forgot to take a before picture =S

As you can see in the picture above, the bulk is there but no definition or leanness in the body - 'Hopefully' this next phase, which is the fat burning phase, also known as body re-composition, will induce the fat storages! Be GONNEEEEE!!!!!! FOREVER!!!!!!!!!......


The next 3 months is going to be tough! Whilst I was on the bulk phase I was constantly nourishing my body I rarely ever had sweet cravings or any sort of cravings. (mind you although I was eating endlessly I always found myself to be hungry?? LOL). I'll have to see how I cope with the reduced intake. Diet wise - I have removed most of the fat (increased fish oil intake to compensate) and reduced the carbs where necessary. I'll be eating plenty of fresh produce and including 1 cheat/week, however, I have now limited my cheat meals by excluding sweet treats!!(possibly the exception of my birthday cake).....oh doom!!! justkeepswimmingjustkeepswimming...! Focus!

Training - I will still be smashing out the weights (to preserve as much lean mass as possible, may even increase) but I have also incorporate more cardio.

So looking at cardio 5-6 days a week weights 4 days a week.....I may need to adjust if I am feeling too fatigued...trial and error .....

Tomorrow marks day 1 of 90.....Lets do this...and smash that stubborn fat away!!!

Launch the HULK!

OH~ how corny was that title..=S

But yes, I've officially begun BULK phase....(oh gosh)

If you've read my previous posts, I briefly explained how I was trying to get up to my maintenance calories

Maintenance calories - CHECKED!                  "CHEERING"

Now moving on, bulk phase will consist of - 

• Focus will be shifted from cardio to weight sessions. I will be doing 5 weight sessions with 2 cardio workouts. This will be a massive challenge as I am a cardio freak! Thinking about only doing 2 sessions a week is already burning me.
• Build more lean mass (47kgs is still a good amount that I have already but we'll see how much more I can build)
• Clean eating with 1 cheat meal/week
• Macro-nutrients will be: 

P - 170g

C - 150g

F - 50g

SF - 21g (atm the diet I've planned only consists of 10g, but lower the better for this)

Calories - 1700-1900

After speaking with a couple of people and recommendations from the results of my DEXA dietary requirements, I came to a decision that it'd be better for me to continue bulking for the next 4-6 weeks. The reasons behind this is because: 

1. More lean mass = more energy burn
2. So that my body is able to stabilise a bit longer on a higher calorie intake. If I was to reduce my calories already (only been about 4 weeks since I reached 1200cals and only 1 week since I reached 1600cals). I don't think it'll be much of a shock factor to my body...My measurements haven't gone up since increasing my cals which is a good sign, but I guess I'll have to experiment with this new phase. 

All this food is quite overwhelming, no joke! I am eating 24/7(I'm surprised no-one judges me at work LOL)

But i'm going to push through, KICK SOME BUTT and get this block over and done with!!! If this strategy fails and I gain a hideous amount of weight *shrieks* I'm going to go into hiding forever!! I kid I kid....All about trial and error and I guess if it does fail it's a 4 week loss out of whole life span! RIGHT?!?! =S

Anyway, I'm leaving here with a snapshot of a meal I had on saturday, post hill Sprint session (SESSION OF DEATH)

Grilled Snapper and Spinach salad drizzled with balsamic vinegar

Testing it out...

I find it so strange that I find it extremely challenging to hit my calorie/macronutrient targets as many people who 'diet' struggle to eat within their maintenance calorie limits and find themselves overeating which leads to them being overweight.

For the last 3 years I have been consuming between 400-800 calories a day and one of the reasons for me being overweight is because and I am sure you are familiar with this concept, "starvation mode" YUP! my body is STORING everything and I mean EVERYTHING!!!!!!! arggghhhhh......(punch me now).

With a terrible combination of overexercising and under eating how could my body possibly want release anything! (geez how did I not know this? DUH!!)

I have been recommended to intake 1600 cals a day! HOLY GEEBNUTS!!! is this a TRUCKLOAD of food or what!!!! I found it really hard to transition from 800 cals to 1600 both mentally (this is still a battle for me) and physically to digest the large amounts of food.

After consulting with my PT we decided to take it slowly and increase it every couple of weeks.

We've been increasing it slowly since the beginning of Jan and I am currently sitting on about 1200 a day. Hopefully within a couple of weeks or so I'll be at 1600 to maximisie the extra fuel to build some lean mass and burn the FATTT!! AHOO!

This is an example of my eating and training schedule -
I weigh all my food (I'm freak like that, Judging?) to suit all my macro nutrients.

Diet - About 1200Cals
Macro's
P - 180g
C - 80g
F - 20g

Breakfast - 745am

4 egg white omelette +50g of chicken breast with spinach and broccoli with either 1/2 cup of cooked brown rice or 1 cup of cooked oats
2 x Fish Oil

Snack - 1045am

Whey Protein pancake with natural yoghurt

or

Small piece of fruit with nuts

Lunch - 145pm

Sweet potato spinach salad with protein(tuna, chicken, prawns etc)
1 x Fish Oil

Snack - 5pm

Whey Protein Shake with small handful of raw almonds
1 x L-Carnitine (Pre Workout)

Dinner - 730-8pm

Protein (chicken, red meat, shellfish etc) and Veggies

Note: At the moment I am incorporating protein powders because it is quick and easy and also because I struggle to eat all the portions. Once I get that all sorted I'll be off the shakes . If you are not a supplement kind of person you could easily substitute it with whole food protein based snacks.

I also only it organic natural foods and I most definitely have 1 cheat meal or 4 small snack cheats throughout the week

Training

Monday
445am - Cardio

530pm - Chest and Back

Tuesday

530pm - Legs (Back Physio)

Wednesday 
445am - Cardio

530pm - Shoulders and arms

Thursday 

530pm - Legs and back (Back Physio)

Friday

530pm - Chest, Shoulders and Triceps

Saturday

8am - Legs

Afternoon - Cardio

Sunday

I try and use this as a rest day but most of the time I get too restless so I workout, but it's only light.

It's been a week since I added in the morning workouts and I can tell yah now it takes alot of fudgin WILL power to get up!!! I think I snooze at least 5 times! But I'm ready to kick butt right, left, centre, all directions you can think of baby!!

I'll see how I go with this.....eeekkkk