Bokkes, Bokkes!

No I have not changed my allegiance from Australia to South Africa, I am simply watching a movie. The movie? Invictis, the Clint Eastwood directed movie around the intertwined story of Nelson Mandela and the Springboks (Bokkes) run to winning the 95' Rugby World Cup.

Aside from the big scale messages Clint delivers with a punch such as dealing with racism and the rebirth of South Africa, I want to touch on one particular scene that I feel relevant to where I find myself now. It involves a meeting for tea with Nelson Mandela and the Springbok captain played by Matt Damon where they touch on leadership and how leaders must inspire. One was, to lead by example, something that I try to instill in myself and with a personal training business in the pipes and my desire to inspire others in various capacities, it is something that I need to reinforce within myself. No Excuses, if I want to lead I need to be able to portray the characteristics myself first and foremost.

When touching upon inspiration, Mandela spoke of how a trip to the Barcelona Olympics where he was greeted with people singing the South African national anthem inspired him to do better, become a better person. He also spoke of the power of a poem in inspiring him to not break under the strain of prison. Just words he said but they gave him the power to stand when all he wanted to do was lie. Such is the power of moments and external stimuli, it can turn moments of weakness into periods of power. Whilst I believe that all the inspiration, belief and drive can be derived from within our own minds I also believe that we need the right external stimuli to bring out that mental power behind our drive. I have a collection of YouTube videos on my phone I watch several times a day along with people and quotes with me to stimulate my drive to keep going.

Despite drifting away from my drive forward recently, funnily enough it was today that my Grandma picked up this movie for me, a day where I started with the belief of a million but followed through with no strength. It is one for mento galvanize. To practice what I preach. To rise to that higher state of mind to capture my dreams. I need to become the leader, to set the example and to remember to use my collection of motivational stimuli to keep the drive alive. Let's Get It, Alpha and Out!

Headaches, Lethargy, Frustration

Almost a case of deja vu last night. After rebounding extremely well last week I decide (or more accurately relented) to a half day of carbing up. Thinking my last exam was the next day I conceded to help my study which required more cramming than actual proper study. As always though the controlled carb up soon gave way to open slather on shit food - chocolate, minties, jatz. With the hit food came the lethargy and with that came the return of the screen. I resisted from the TV for most of the day but was unable to resist the DVD player on my laptop. Eventually even my resistance to TV passed away as a movie I wanted to watch was on (2012 - end of the world based on the Mayan calender saying the world will end Dec 21st 2012, a day before my 23rd birthday). Some snoozing during the day along with the ads on TV kept me awake and with that inability to drift off came the frustration. I lay there tossing and turning in the black sludge of my mind.

However unlike last week I woke up on the rebound determined for the carb up 1/2 day not to become a 2 or 3 day binge. This attitude was helped by finding out I miscalculated the date of my exam, giving me an extra day to cram (I hadn't done a shred of study). Nonetheless it took some going to get out of the house relenting to bed-ridden lethargy until midday. But a bike ride and awesome arm and shoulder gym session later and I am back on track to perfection. Before jumping on the bike I had my mid-morning snack of 2 eggs and some salt and pepper (usually I have some salad but I have ran out until shopping tomorrow). As I ate the somewhat inattractive meal I reflected upon the migraine-level headache, the inquentionable thirst and depression of the previous day's carb binge. Compared to that this meal - simple, small and relatively bland, there was a world of difference. Upon finishing it I was energised, not hungry but not full and light. I felt alive and able to take on anything again! Quite a different perspective to the mindset of requiring carbs for energy. Whilst I appreciate the need for a carb up I think I need to approach it as just another cutting day simply with different foods. The complexity and structure of a normal cutting day seems to be easier and more fulfilling for me without any major side effects. So that'll be the plan I will plan out and pre-cook the carb-up half day for this week.

Let's Get It, Alpha and Out!

Another Killa in St Lucia

Today was chest and back weights today, arguably my favorite training session. But even before I stepped up to the gym I was behind the eight ball. My slow 7.5km jog late last night along with the calorie deficit (despite slamming a shake before bed) backfired on me last night and I was unable to get even a wink of sleep. Jumping on the bus in after no sleep was the easy bit. Trying to fire me up for a decent crack at the weights was the hard part. Sanity seemed to prevail and I decided to hit YouTube up for some inspiration. Recently I have been following documentaries and videos of pro body builder, Kai Greene. He has quite a powerful backstory. His father left him young and his mother was not fit to raise him so he grew up alone in foster care or on the mean streets of Brooklyn. Many of his generation turned to drugs, either selling or buying, but Kai sunk his pain into the weights. That pain drove him to now become one of the best bodybuilders in the world. One particular video catalogued his life in the lead up to the 2008 Arnold Classic. Recently dropped by his sponsor he lived in a small, cosy rundown apartment block. He would travel for hours by train to get to his old school dungeon gym and he had to budget meticulously to afford the large amount of food required to sustain a 280 pound muscle bound pro. Without the sponsorship and luxuries his rivals were enjoying he was building a champion physique which he would take further a year later at the Arnold and furthermore he was happy content in those squalid and trying conditions. Suddenly a lack of sleep seemed like a minor problem in the grand scheme.

After watching the clip a couple of times I was able to front up to the gym an hour earlier than I planned for. Some jack3d in me and the renewed vigor I have uncovered thanks to dropsets and I was away. For all intensive purposes it was a very good session considering. I dropped the weights and really focused on getting the proper and full contraction, checking my ego in at the door sonto speak. During sets with the weight focusing me I was able to crank out the reps ok but in between sets the lack of sleep would hit me to the point where I was spent and had to force to start the next set by telling myself just to start the set, realizing that once I started I'd be fine. Then to top off the session, capatilizing on my increased mental grit I went and did 10min cardio.

What a difference three days make. Since the unstudied exam debacle on Monday I have had three days of prime perfection- perfect diet, intense perfect training and solid study. Some lunch and a quick nap and I was back studying with some classmates then home for another snooze, dinner and probably a low impact walk before hitting the books again. Nothing beats working hard against the odds. Alpha and Out!

Lethargy: The Good Kind

If there is such a thing. I'm talking about the kind of lethargy following a big weights or cardio session. I'm talking about the kind of physical and mental tiredness I'm currently feeling that not even a nap or food relieves. Despite the poor timing, in the middle of exams, it is quite a satisfactory feeling.

The cause behind this lethargy was my first weight session using dropsets for leg weights. It is a different kind of workout to yesterday's shoulders and arms dropsetting, the heavier weights and higher reps really took it's toll tonight. It sent me home for a quick nap instead of the study I had planned however as a compromise I snoozed while watching a lecture I missed so everybody wins. Time to smash some dinner and put the head down for some night time study. Alpha and Out!

Looks Like I Got My Swagger Back

What a difference 12 hours makes, not even a day. The intense stimulus of showing up to a exam not having opened a book, the disappointment, the frustration and the darkness of that situation has definitely helped me turn things around. That negative energy I have funnelled into positivity and productivity. After 4 deep hours of sleep I was up and pumping. I cleaned up my room, prepared my meals for the day, packed my bag, had breakfast and shaved and showered all before 6 am in the morning. Before midday I've had a massive gym session, got ontop of my finances and churned out 2 solid hours of study.

Regarding the gym I have sought out long and hard for the "pump". The intense, ballooning of the muscles as blood rushes in to nourish and support the muscle s being worked. Whilst I have always trained with as heavy weights, highest reps possible it has always been elusive to me. I mean I obviously got some pump but nothing serious and it didn't last very long at all. However today I had my first massive pump while training shoulders and arms. My arms were like balloons, large and powerful. Trust me it is quite a good feeling, particularly when tensing in the mirror and bearing witness to your arms massive and vascularised. The difference today that gave me such a pump. I changed my standard 3 sets of the same weight for drop sets. Drops sets involves starting the heaviest weight that you can still lift, you do reps to exhaustion then lower the weight and do more reps to exhaustion and then repeat this ower and ehaust process for 3-4 sets. After looking for the pump and an indication of increasing intensity at the gym for weeks now I finally have stumbled across my golden ticket. Lets Keep It Going, Alpha and Out!

Enough is Enough

It is time to cut the crap, re-evaluate where I'm at and introduce some good old grit and determination. I threw away another subject tonight despite having my first Sunday off in months to study. Instead of studying or even exercising my butt was parked firmly on the coach watching TV. This has been a recurring pattern the past two weeks and despite a small mid week rally it has severely hindered my progress for Stereosonic as we have now broken through the final month.

My thoughts on the bike ride into the exam tonight was trying to figure out where and what this incredible breakdown, of my study and temporary lapse in exercise and nutrition, has occured. I believe it to be a combination of things. First and foremost I believe it is my mental capacity. The steps forward I have taken have required a big leap in mental strength and belief. My plateau's do not seem to manifest themselves physically, they are 90% or more mental for me. I believe it is this mental plateau that has caused the chinks in my mental dam to finger out into cracks leading to a complete failure of the dam. The disintegration was not a wall of water but a wall of television, useless carbs and intense procrastination becoming almost unbearable to even begin the task.

But enough is enough! It is time for me to fight back. To grab a hold of the plateau and spring my mind to a higher state and drag my body and it's transformation with it. Immediately after scampering out of the exam early shamefully, I have been on a mission to begin laying the foundations for such a leap. The following is what I am going to do to light that fire once more;

- I will go straight keto for a week until after my final exam next Monday
- I have already gone shopping and done the required cooking for this
- I have established a no screen rule for my bedroom bar my iPhone
- I will go cold turkey on all TV even replays on the Internet
- I will take my training to another level, trying to lift the intensity for each session
- I will create a daily to do list to gauge the productivity of the day
- I will aim to have 2 training sessions a day and 3 stretching sessions to ensure I do not breakdown
- Finally I will put a three tier approach to my focus priorities 1 being hitting my diet marks, 2 is my exercise marks and the third tier is my study for these last two exams. Everything else must be sacrificed until the end of exams.

I've laid down the plans now is the hard part. It is time to summon that grit and determination and stick to it. Something I have been notoriously poor at in the past but that ends tonight! It is Time to Evolve to a Higher State of Mind! Alpha and Out!

Slow Around Corners

Continuing with my car racing theme I am taking it slower today after a massive day yesterday or in driving terms, slowing into the corners. Yesterday was nonstop from 7am to 11pm when I got home. Beginning well with a solid 6 hrs sleep after a long weekend of work I jumped onto the bike and cycled into the gym. Another excellent training session on legs. However I did not get the pump, an indicator of training intensity in my case, I was looking for. I think I might work in some supersets or body weight exercises in between exercises to increase the intensity of legs. Some train and bus rides took up the afternoon, however in-between was a very productive meeting in brainstorming out the personal training business I am embarking upon with a good mate. Note the date, this is the beginning of something BIG!

Procrastination plagued my afternoon coupled with the effects of keto coming on strong. Whilst not entirely unproductive in the motivational and training stakes (mainly watching body builder Kai Greene in his lead up doco to the 2009 Olympia) but the intended study definitely suffered.

To cap off the big day jumped on the bike to Oztag. I was still suffering quite badly from the lack of carbs and whilst physically I was fine, my mind was crying out for energy. A strong first half from the team was run down by persistent attack by the other team to end in a 4-4 draw. I seemed to have sharpened up mentally upon the bike trip home as it was not the slugfest I had expected.

I decided last night that it was in my best interest to have a sleep in this morning to ensure I was sharp for the rest of the assignments due. 10 hours later I awoke, refreshed but still low on study motivation. So my morning was filled up with a long breakfast reading the paper and then extensive planning to make up for the late start to the assignments. Now planning is done it's time to put into action the study, training and dieting plans and accelerate out of the corner!, Let's Get It, Alpha and Out!

The Final Pit Stop

Inspired by the Gold Coast Car racing weekend I have decided to frame the past week as the final pit stop before racing towards the podium. This week has involved no training, 2 days of free for all dieting and general inactivity. Struck down initially by a cold and then kept in bed because of the daunting Uni study and assignment load. For four days I was practically bed-ridden only getting up on the Monday for Oztag and then just for food and showering. With the bed came the TV. With the TV came the snacking. With the snacking came the free-for-all feeding.

Sounds bad huh? No, realistically it was what needed to happen. I had been training and dieting hard for months and then the added pressure of massive assignment deadlines resulting in less than 5 hours of sleep a night. Something had to give. Just like the car in the final stages of a race I was running on empty and needed a pit stop to refuel, rethink and re-invigorize.

The thinking time of the soft cage of my bed allowed me to rethink my approach towards the final 6 weeks before my goal date for Stereosonic music festival. I had been enjoying success using the cyclic keto diet however with time ever against me I will for the next two weeks go straight keto except for one hour on each Saturday. After those 2 weeks I will reassess what I need to focus on for the final lap. Training wise I am going to increase both my intensity and volume moving to two sessions a day when I can fit them in. In the weights room I am going to return to split training rather than the more full body sessions I had teamed with the keto-ing. I think this just fits in better with my motivation, that I am at the gym most days and have a specific focus for each session. However I am still going to have one intense full-body session at the end of the week to just add that little extra to my results. Pumping out an intense session of super-setting and drop setting is very satisfying and a good end to the week.

Ok refueled, refocused and ready to take this to another level, LetsGetIt, Alpha and Out!

Barking Cold

It appears the assignment induced sleep deprivation has caught up with me today with my throat sore, voice hoarse and mucus sticky. Several nights of 4-5 hrs sleep along with changing weather temperatures and conditions could have only led to the same conclusion. I am a master at pushing myself but am now facing the consequences of overstepping the fine line line of overworking. Now enough of that moping, to ensure my progress and the impending December 4 deadline are not affected too much diet and recovery will be critical. I am still going to train hard this week as planned as I feel that it stimulates me to bring up the flem and it's what I need to do. The crucial bit will be away from the gym. I think I will need to be bed ridden as much as possible or at least warm and comfortable wherever I am to make sure this cold is extremely temporary and doesn't linger as I cant let it derail my progress.

Speaking of progress I am continuing to climb to the summit of perfection. Last week apart from Monday blow out and missed touch and the lack of sleep was perfect. My results on the scales whilst not as spectacular were still very solid losing under 2kgs but 1% body fat indicates that whilst it slowed it is still very much targeting the fat stores. My plan this week was to ramp up my training volume with 2 a day sessions however with my cold I might reconsider and just focus on really perfecting my diet and training with high intensity. Up and at em with plenty of recovery sounds to be the ticket, Alpha and Out!

Bang!Bang!

Monday night suffered a double shot to my progress. Firstly my arvo nap went to long, I slept through my alarm and missed oztag and the associated cycling. This means I will need to make up for it's omission throughout the week. However this can be easily accomplished due to the extra day of ketoing to fit in with a family gathering.

The second shot was the first major blow out while on the keto diet. I was stretching out my meals to work in with oztag but it obviously didn't go to plan resulting in a large gap between arvo snack and dinner. Combine this with the intense pressure weighing heavily on my mind and boom, presto Blow Out! However this was a blow out with a difference. Whilst I relented to pressure and caved into extra food I was still wrong enough to target protein and fat foods emphasizing the need to stay in ketosis. I am happy with that portion of my response. Soon I will be strong enough to resist altogether which is good timing as I plan to up the anti in the near future as Stereosonic looms. Keto Let's Go, Alpha and Out!

Carb Up Pump

Veins popping, arms inflating like balloons. No I was not in the middle of a big arms session, I was in the middle of my weekly cook up. The joys of the carb up I guess as the glycogen was racing to the muscle to be stored dragging along water with it. The one and a half days of carbing up was quite enjoyable, a welcome relief from a successful but ultimately draining first week. I still need to tweak the carbs as I didn't seem to gain any weight over it suggesting more carbs next week. Overall a good problem to have.

I have made some tweaks to the keto meals throughout the week. The majority of which centralize around the avocado meal. I had immense difficulty slamming down the avocado slop the whole week. So to make it more edible I took out the cheese and mayo and added chorizo sausage in it's place. Furthermore I focused more on the layering of the ingredients using salad to try and split the avocado up to avoid masses of it on it's lonesome. I also used this in the tuna meals just to help ensure that was edible as possible. I am ketoing an extra day this week to fit in with some family commitments so this poses a twist and new challenge hopefully my body will continue to drop the fat. All looking good and confident I can make the Saturday deadline. Alpha and Out!

4.85kg and 2.2%

Despite losing over 20kg of body weight I had always struggled to drop the body fat percentage by any significant margin. However one week of ketoing and I dropped 2.2%!

The keto diet is working and now I am enjoying the start of the "carb up". I had a big Mac with medium chips and coke for dinner tonight but it left me unfulfilled. I think I might make myself a large pasta dish next week instead. Something extensively "carby" instead of the processed drivel from Maccas. Overall the diet has been enjoyable in fact it hasn't felt like a diet at all. The fat component really does numb your hunger. However the pangs usually perceived in the stomach seem to move towards the brain but these subsided as the week drew on. I largely stuck to the prescribed cal levels I had planned out apart from extras such as black coffee, zero softdrinks and sugarfree gum. The only extras were cheese and sausages as I figured the key was to keep in a state of ketosis rather than worry about the extra calories. The only real change I'm going to think about is the composition of the avocado meal. It became progressively more and more difficult with the meal today almost on the verge of throwing it up. I think it is the consistency of the meal, it's hard to explain but it is very gooey and fatty. The first couple of bites are fine with the salad but when the salad is gone the avocado is difficult.

The exercise side of things was average, mainly based on the Tuesday leg session where I was really low on energy and the weights I could lift were quite low. I think I also need to re-planthe full body workout on Friday afternoon. I think it would be better to have an intense session to wrap up the dieting week. This means more cardio, supersets and just a generally intensive session.

Finally away from the diet and exercise of things, mentally I am as strong as I have ever been and this is converting to increasing my self confidence. This sort of power I am enjoying at the moment is incredible so much i want to be able to guide others to feel this sort of control, power and positivity. Bring on the final A.L.P.H.A! Alpha and Out!

Drained

I was hit by the same feeling of depletion that I got from 3hrs of hard cycling, whilst doing leg weights this morning. The result I suspect of doing about 3 hours of cycling to and from location plus oztag last night, without replenishing muscle glycogen. The keto diet I'm on advises Monday and Tuesday half body splits to train the muscles for 5-6 sets. They advised this to reduce muscle glycogen, the energy stores of skeletal muscle, to an adequate level to ensure the fat loss is maximized whilst conserving the muscle. However I don't think they intended for a person to add on about 3hrs of cycling and 30-40 minutes of oztag. No matter though I think I just need to play with the timing of my protein shake and preworkout better. Currently I am having half a scoop of jack3d before I ride into gym and half while I'm working out in the gym. After this session I am thinking of sipping on my protein shake combined with the jack3d whilst working out just to provide substance and some food energy to the workout as it really affected the intensity I could train at.

Other than this morning the keto diet has been manageable and actually quite good. I have had no problems sticking to it as my hunger pangs are being suppressed by the increased fat intake. Compared to the normal diet where you percieve the pain of hunger to centre around your stomach the "pain" of a keto diet I have found is localized to the head/brain. This makes sense as compared with the rest of the body the brain requires glucose I.e. from carbs and doesn't adapted well to ketones. The timing of my meals (every 2-3hrs) has so far been working well as despite early starts and late finishes on both days I have been dieting so far ending with the ride home, I have had sufficient energy for all but literally the final minutes of the ride. The only straying from diet so far has been an extra sausage last night. I was extremely depleted and drained and the half shake I had planned simply wasn't enough to allow me to do some study. So along with a black coffee I ate a sausage. At about 100 calories and consisting mostly of fat and protein I was happy to take it on board without affecting ketosis. It's going to be interesting how the remainder of the week until the "carb up" goes, I'll keep you poste, Alpha and Out!

Keto! Let's Gooo!!

And here we are! Time to introduce my plan to take this journey to the next level and begin to reach the pinnacles. To take my muscular but still undefined phyisque and chisel out abs of stone, arms of power, legs like trees and pecs like dinner plates. With that in mind I am not looking for pure size, I never have been. I am looking for defined, proportional and functional muscles. The kind that Zyzz made famous, with a little personal tweak towards triathlons to set me up for my eventual return. To do this I am hitting the diet hard and working my training in around that.

But before I expand on this I'd like to update you all on my stats, where I've come from and where I intend to go. I measured my stats this morning to mark the start of the new phase of the Alpha journey. Currently I am sitting at about 85kg which is about 15-20kgs from my peak a mere 12 months ago. It doesn't feel like that much but when I check out the figures, damn I'm happy with that. Body fat percentage is not quite as amazing at 23-24% down from 30% but still an improvement. The next big gain is a loss of almost 20cm from my stomach from 110 down to 90, happy with that but still a bit to go. My chest has come down to 100 from 110 and the rest of my body has generally decreased by a couple of centimetres at least as I carve away the fat. Overall I am immensely proud of where I am at and exceptionally excited about where I am heading.

Now to my plan of attack. Based on the stats above, the one aspect I want to focus on is my body fat percentage, where I have only made moderate losses. It is time to home in on the excess cutaneous fat I am still carrying. To do that I am utilising a form of the ketogenic style of dieting made famous/infamous by the Atkins diet of the 70-80s. However as you know I am not a fan of desperate housewives dieting so this variant is honed to the athlete or body builder. The ketogenic diet is based on replicating the body's response to starvation by removing essentially all carbohydrates and basing the diet on protein and fat. Now this might go against all the mainstream fears of fat however its research is long and reliable as it is a therapeutic to treat epilepsy in children. Essentially the body changes from utilizing glucose for energy and moves to ketones and free fatty acids, essentially targeting adipose tissue to supply energy to live and train.

Now where my variation, the cyclical ketogenic diet (CKD), comes into play is a day and a half of "carb up" where carbs are consumed to refill muscle glycogen, the stored energy for muscle. This allows for a reduction in muscle loss from the dieting as well as ensuring adequate energy levels throughout the week to train properly. For people interested in trying it out I thoroughly recommend The Ketogenic Diet by Lyle MacDonald. He breaks down each macronutrient (protein, carbs,fat) as well as outlining training required to optimise fat loss while minimising muscle and performance loss. Once my calculations were done my stats came down to 2100 calories, 10g carbohydrate, 150g protein and 160g fat per day. To accommodate this into a diet I have based breakfast around eggs, mid-morning snack around avocado (healthy fats), lunch around tuna, mid-afternoon around almonds and dinner around beef mince. Extras include protein shakes, olive oil, full fat cheese, mayonnaise and some salad to provide the small amount of carbs as well as dietary fibre.

To optimize the diet my training is as follows;

Sunday - Long Cardio, either bike or run (exploiting the "carb-up" days of Friday arvo and Saturday)

Monday - Upper Body Weights

Tuesday - Lower Body Weights

Wednesday - Cardio in the Gym

Thursday - Sprint training

Friday - Full Body Weights

Saturday - OFF (for carb-up)

I will be hitting up twitter a lot with minute-minute experience as I try this diet as well as it will most likely be the focus of my posts for the next month or so as I tweak and refine things to perfect the plan and keep on track to a diced up physique. Ok, Lets Go, Alpha and Out!

Blogs Blown Away

I swear it was the Wellington windy weather that blew my blog posts away. Ok, you got me, I was too busy relaxing and checking out the sites to post you up and for that I am sorry. But nonetheless I had a good time in Wellington visiting my mum, attending the Rugby World Cup and checking the city out. It was good also to relax the diet back to maintenance levels and enjoy some R and R. I generally kept the diet to maintenance levels for the majority of the trip apart from 1 or 2 meals the food was healthy and portion controlled. The tourist lifestyle of walking everywhere also help along with the 2 runs I did along the coast of the harbour. And damn they were the most anaerobic runs I have ever done. I knew it was windy in Wellington but not that windy. Many times it almost tripped me over as the wind pushed my foot in the swing phase against my leg. I also often had to stop and brace myself to ensure that I wasn't picked up and dunked in the harbour. It was crazy.

I now return from my holiday preparing to take this journey to the next level. While this is not the final journey to the summit I have definitely reached the final Base Camp and am making a move towards the Summit camp. I will blog about the steps I am taking to drive this push to the next level tomorrow. Quite frankly I am excited about the possibilities. New Zealand was also where I began to realise how much transforming I have down in the past month and a bit. This blog has been going for almost 2 years to little to know available and most of the weight and transforming has come in a little under 2 months. I still have about 2 months till my deadline and I am excited about what I will be looking like on that day. Lets Get It, Alpha and Out!

Showers, Caffiene, Carbs

It is funny what your body craves when the cortisol is pumping, the mend frustrated and the sleep rare and distant. A last minute assignment before an international flight had me stressing out. And all I could think about was how it affected my training and diet. I made it perfect till yesterday despite the obstacles but at the crunch point I had to miss my training, chest and back days potentially my favorite, to maintain some sleep. I jumped into the assignment and to keep me going my body it was craving masses of carbs, Caffiene and weirdly enough I was compelled to shower repeatedly. Having said that i managed to return my diet to some normality by the time I finished the assignment.

And now I am waiting for my plane to windy Welligton. It evaluation time. Time to see what's working, what I need to change and planning my diet and training to take it to the next level. Some exciting posts to come, Alpha and Out!

The Past and The Present

Damn what a day. Started with a sleep-in, thank God. I then churned out solid study until it was time to make it into Uni. Smashed through a lively ethics class before settling in to nut out this assignment. Luckily I managed to team up with a couple of other people working on the assignment. Man, that really does help just keep you focused and on task. Training/Stuyvesant partners are worth their weight in gold. With studiers by my side we churned out 3 hours of assignment work. Made a little head way but still nothing spectacular. Think that's a big day already, it's just getting warmed up.

By the time 8pm rolled around we were spent studying so we called it quits. Now Awkward wouldve been wringing his hands in delight at the possibility to go home but Alpha said none of that. Bang! Gym time Baby! I did a solid spinning for 40 mins on the bike including some "hill" sprints and followed this up with a strong arms and shoulders weights session. Now due to my hectic schedule before NZ I have not been able to go shopping or prepare meals for each day and as such while maintaining dietary levels my food consumption is all over the place so I ended up feeling low on energy towards the end of the session. Pre workout mix Jack3d only went so far, covering my cardio and about 1/3rd of my weights session. I don't think this is due to desensitization but rather the lack of food in the lead up to the session. This gave me a little window into the future month when I kick it to the next level and try my hand at the cyclic keto diet. It's google to be interesting and I will post it's details in the near future.

That's the present now for the past. Despite my lengthy day you couldn't wipe the smile off my face at the gym tonight. I'm sure my fellow gymers were freaked out by my chestshire cat like grin as I exerted myself. Why was my face sunny like space? In the mirror I could see myself in my new glory. The weight loss and training is really now starting to reap visible benefits and my thin but solid physique is quite simply thrilling me and inspiring me to take it further. I was thinking about this whole journey from the depths of darkness as Awkward to the present euphoria. Damn if I could bottle that shit and give the feeling to others the world would be a perfect place. I finally returned home at 11pm and low and behold waiting on my desk was my supplements particularly my protein powder, my saviour. Could this day have gone better? Let's start again at 4am to find out but first sleep, Alpha and Out!!!

Back On Track

A powerful return to form today starting at 5am for a long run. I had planned to go for a long ride on my bike however a mechanical issue (breaking a tire valve) hindered my start. In the old days I would've said That's It and gone back to bed but such is my resilience I changed into running gear and churned out a slow l, steady 7.5 km hilly run. A quick breakfast and day prep and I was on my bike (this time risking the broken valve) and into Uni. A quick bit of intense intervals on the treadmill followed by a solid abs session ended up being a decent gym sesh.

Then the going got tougher as I attempted to plough my way through an ominous impending assignment. This assignment has got me running around crazily in circles, I just can't seem to nut down a definate direction or starting point. Awkward would just fold and procrastinate his time away however Alpha sat back and ploughed away and continued to do so despite little forward progress.

A difficult study block clouded my head and fatigue was creeping in. Luckily I had to ride into work and enjoyed the "angry" ride. An angry ride is exercise usually following intense study or frustrating mental circles where you simply take your frustration out on your body and really push yourself hard to burn all that red mist of mental frustration away. I love it.

A massive shift at work for a Sunday has left me tired but very pleased with my return to pursuing perfection with vigour. Just 4 days to really put the foot down before a holiday. Let's Gooo Alpha and Out!

Needing an Excuse

Hitting my diet targets exceptionally in the past month has resulted in an early depletion of protein powder, a critical component of my diet. So critical in fact it's absence was a key factor in a blow out today. My mid morning snack of fruit and protein went from a pear and a cold sausage to a all out carb fest of biscuits, crackers and cheese. This was followed by the usual crash tackled sleep followed by thirst and a headache. I also missed Uni classes for the first time in a long period. Total meltdown.

Now again this will not destroy my week. I have powered through all my tough workouts, hit my diet perfectly till today and have been edging away at the bulk of Uni I have to study. But nonetheless sub consciously at least my perfection was grinding away and the convenient lack of protein powder was the perfect excuse for Awkward to attack. I honestly think that not being up and at em' early in the morning is a causal factor. Getting up early sets me on the right track from the get go and I generally can continue this positivity throughout the day. However I do need the sleep especially as from Tuesday - Thursday I am up very early to get to the gym. Perhaps I should sleep in a bit but get up and straight after some day prep I should be on my way into Uni straight away therefore getting my sleep and getting off earlyish for a positive day. Considering I am getting close to ramping up for exercise and dieting (which I will outline soon) I need to sort out these little kinks to facilitate my journey to a higher state. Let's Go Alpha and Out!

Saturday Blue's

Ain't talkin bout the blues of the brain

I'm talking bout the ones viewed from a plane

Cloudless purity

Not shrouded in insecurity

Damn! I'm powering through the serenity!

Yes not exactly the thoughts you had when you saw the blog title. The skies of Brisbane have been blown clean by strong winds and whilst difficult to deal with on the bike it has made for an excellent day. There is something spiritually lifting about fine weather. Being able to sit in the sun in comfort, spreading oneself across the grass and just soaking it in.

An early Saturday start to hit up the gym but damn I'm feeling great. Had a good session of a 25 minute tempo run, 20 minute slow walk on incline followed by a good ab workout. I am starting to definitely see my gains in the mirror and that is adding to my motivation incredibly. It is almost sky high at the moment and my mental space is strong enough to protect and support it. While I am now starting to get a bit tired it is more likely to be due to an exetensive assignment I am currently working on than actual "lack of sleep" tiredness. Continuing to hit my diet marks which is simply adding levels onto my motivation and improving my cognition as always. Damn life is good at the moment! Alpha and Out