Those of you who know me personally may wonder WTF is the talking about? I’m not that thick to begin with.
Well, first off, I was bulking up on purpose in the beginning of the year. Put on about 14lb from my homeostatic 180lb to 194lb in less than 2 months while only adding on 4lb of fat in the process. Not, it wasn’t water weight,m because I was eating a bunch of carbs and I was eating and lifting to grow! I had started the process on January 10, 2011.
March 10, 2011, I got injured at work by doing something stupid (there are no accidents, only bad judgment, for this kind of stuff), i.e. lifted 2 125lb dumbbells that were wedged between the rack and the mirror at Gold’s Gym, where I no longer work, because some douchebag decided to not dispose of his weights properly. Pulled a muscle around T1, which then escalated to tension in the cervical spine.
SO, WHY THE NEED TO LOSE WEIGHT?
First off, not being able to lift heavy for a while, my caloric burn/resting metabolic rate would drop tremendously and I would only pack fat eating the way I was. Second, I am a trainer, I can’t look like shit. I don’t have to look amazing so long as I can perform and stay lean. Third, I started working for an exercise video project and I needed to do something safe, for myself but mostly the users, with moves I can sign off on proudly without delivering “yet another weight loss video”. For that, I’d need to lose weight myself (camera adds weight) and since it is getting more difficult (age) to lose fat, I needed something that I know would work for many people. I wanted to look shredded, like I never had before.
THE PROCESS
I decided to of course not take the journey alone and combine my knowledge and have it checked by another trainer friend of mine who specializes more in nutrition now, Jay Chavez. I’ll have him post a guest blog and you can contact him for your food needs. Good man.
So, the process was to water load, which in my case was to drink 1.5 gallons of water per day, to flush it out of my system. Concurrently, Jay suggested I take Bone Up, by Jarrows, to avoid depleting too much of my minerals,like calcium, potassium and magnesium. I also was taking green tea extract (decaf), garlic extract, alpha lipoic acid (antioxidant helping in recovery) and policosanol before bed. And, since at that point I’d recovered from my injury, I started to push a little harder doing the workouts I designed for others, I also was working on a personal goal of mine by following Kenneth Jay’s Perfecting The Press routine, which revolves solely around the kettlebell military press. With the hard work and all, baby cause sleep deprivation, workout design and testing, plus work, I was feeling pretty beat up. So, to help, I found an herbal product that allegedly promotes HGH production, called Vital HGH. Placebo? Dunno, but I feel like it helped me recover better and continue to push.
THE FINAL TOUCH
2 days prior to filming, I had to stop all liquid intake (besides just enough to take my supplements and what lies naturally in veggies) to start pulling water away from the skin and get that shrink-wrapped look. I took a water pill, OTC, called H20 Lean, by MRM. Didn’t feel like it was doing the job, so Jay suggested I take a hot bath and keep warm clothes on to keep the sweating process active, to evacuate even more water through the pores. I did that and did an amazing stretching session that also promoted my sweating process. Overnight, I lost an extra 5lb!
THE NUMBERS
I started March 10, 2011 at about 193-194lb. May 1, 185-187lb. On June 2, I was around 182lb. June 4, 180lb, June 5, 175lb! I really count my May 1 date, as it was closest to my homeostatic weight (the weight gained before wasn’t going to last as I hadn’t carried it on my body long enough).
THE DIET
Since I eat TNT/Paleo “light”/Wildfitness style anyway, not much changed other than my timing. I wasn’t eating for growth anymore. Carbs close to nothing, but if I needed any for fuel and to spare my muscles from breaking down too much, I’d eat low glycemic carbs, at least 2-3 hours pre-workout, nothing for at least an hour post, and never at night. The rest was lean protein, fresh organic veggies (little to no fruit) and water. Someone eating more carbs to begin with may get faster results, but will take more time to psychologically adjust, whereas for me, it was no big deal.
2 WEEKS LATER
Went back to my 183lb range, +/- 3lb. Eating with more flexibility and “entitlement” (wine, beer, ice cream on occasion, as well as bread here and there a couple of times per week), water consumption back to normal. Performance in training still good (progressing as a matter of fact) and no noticeable loss of leanness, rather slight mass gain. It’s as if my body adapted and is still burning fat like crazy! It’s not that warm for June, and I feel like it’s way warmer than it is! Resting metabolic rate through the roof!