My Body Transformation Part 2: Days 1-8

For Part 1 of this series, click here.

After the first 8 days I’ve made a few small adjustments to the original plan, but nothing major.  Overall I’m pleased with the progress and I think I will be happy with the end result.

Day 1

The first day got off to an interesting start – at about 11:45 in the morning, I got a phone call from my wife that she and my two boys had been in a car accident, and that they had totaled out their car.  Fortunately they were all ok with nobody seriously hurt,  but most of my day was spent helping with the aftermath.  My scheduled workout obviously was postponed, but I still managed to stay on-point with supplements and diet.

Day 2

The low-carb stuff hadn’t been bothering me yet, I actually felt pretty energetic as I was still using coffee and high doses of omega-3 fats throughout the day to keep energy levels up.  My leg workout was very productive and each set actually improved on the week prior, with very little muscle soreness the following day.  I also cut out all of the usual carbs postworkout so my shake was just 40g whey protein, 15g glutamine, and 1tbsp Primal Greens (powdered greens, a “superfood”).

That evening I did have a cheat meal of Domino’s pizza, as Christine’s family was in town to do some wedding coordinating for her sister.  The intent was to have 1 cheat meal every 5-7 days, so I just planned to go at least another 5 days until the next cheat.  I also supplemented the cheat with the supplements outlined in this article to keep insulin levels from getting out of control.

Day 3

Trained a few clients Saturday morning and then did an upper body workout, and made some progress from the week prior.  I didn’t notice any negative effects from the cheat meal the night before but the extent of my food intake that day was limited to steak, chicken, several sticks of Ostrim, and various nuts and dark veggies.

Day 4

Probably the hardest day so far, since Sunday is usually spent at home with the family so there’s not much of  a schedule, which can make it more challenging to stay on task if I don’t plan ahead.  It wasn’t too bad though, since we just don’t keep any crap foods in the house so there’s no easy access.  Meal frequency was lower than usual at 4 total meals but meal composition was perfect.

Day 5

By this point I was starting to get used to using healthy fats for energy and was feeling great.  I usually need coffee by about 8-9am to make it through the second rush of clients for the morning, but did just fine on water.  And even though the bulk of my workout was 10 sets of front squats, I wasn’t completely trashed by the end.

Day 6

Upper body workout, no dietary deviations.  Smooth sailing.

Day 7

Wednesday was an off day from training and was also a scheduled day for a cheat meal.  Had Christine check my suprailiac (love handle) pinch and it was down from a 15.8 to an 11 (this site is impacted by short-term carb intake).

After work Christine, the boys and I went to Whole Foods to stock up on meat and fish, and got turkey burgers, bison burgers, scallops, swordfish, shrimp skewers, mahi mahi, and a few other things I’m probably forgetting.  After that it was straight to Chipotle for my cheat meal – a burrito bowl with rice, black  beans, shredded pork (double meat), corn salsa and lettuce, plus a side of chips and tomato salsa.  Still “clean” – the idea is to still avoid inflammatory/allergic things like gluten and dairy.  It was just high carb.  (Side note – unless you’re at least under 15% for a male or 20% for a female, you don’t get a cheat meal for the first 14 days on this protocol).

Day 8

Got my measurements and progress pictures taken and am pleased with the results. Some notable results include:

Weight – 164.5 to 159.8 (down 4.7lbs)
Lean Body Mass – 138.5 to 138.5 (no change)
Bodyfat % – 15.8 to 13.3 (down 1.5%)

Observations

One thing that I would change if I were to do this over again would be to eliminate all cheat meals for the entire initial 14 day period.  I won’t be having a cheat meal of any kind until day 15.  Why?  Because it impacts fat storage around the sides very quickly – the afternoon before my cheat on Wednesday my side pinch was 11.0mm, and the following day it was up to 12.8mm.  Still down from 15.8mm where it started, but I wasn’t dying for a cheat meal when I had it, and ended up probably taking 1-2 days of progress away.

Look for Part 3 around Saturday or Sunday.