Quest for a six pack

With Mum and The Brother safely back the night previous they brought with them some take-away / fast food. I had some even though I wasn’t hungry.

The morning involved a pick-up at the station for a colleague as we were having a team meeting in town at (new) premises. We were gifted lunch by our Leader but thoughts of going to the gym after the afternoon business planning sessions were pushed to the back of my mind.

I didn’t spend any cash!

The Son was playing up again throughout the whole trip to Bradford. He’s better than I at expressing his feelings but I’m not good at coping with that. The Fiancee did well but I think it wore her out too. I’ve read somewhere that only The Son can control how he feels or should I say only we can control how we feel. We may be upset by other people but its up to us how we react.

Unplanned spending was £9.29 for flowers and chocolates. I had just enough diesel to get up there and back so delayed filling at the station until Monday.

Took my youngest brother to the Odeon – for him to see Quantum of Solace with another brother.

Lent my telly to The Fiancee. Told her not to rush to return it. The Son sees this as me pushing him away – the children like to play in my bedroom.

Weighed in at a svelte (for me these days) 212lbs. Must be water loss though so be interesting to see how much goes back on over the weekend. We had an early start so as to get The Son’s hair cut (£5) and for me to do my marriage course homework with The Fiancee. The Son was in a mood early doors as he wanted to play on his Xbox but had to be woken from his slumber leaving him no time before we were out the door. Mercifully there wasn’t a queue at Mr T’s so we were done there for 0920. I’d seen an offer for Gears of War 2 for the Xbox at Morrisons (£29.99) and I wanted to get some fireworks which were to have been gotten from The Chinese Fireworks place but at half-price (£24.50) they missed out on our business. I made The Son give me £20 for the game. The bonfire party was excellent – the lovely hosts said we needn’t have brought any fireworks years of parental training mean this is hard to do – turn up empty-handed. These expenses were again not planned. Got a stroppy bill from npower (former gas supplier) for £84.01 so paid that online. Now the debt snowball amounts have been set I paid the amount planned to Amex this month.  

Yesterday I as inspired by a lady blogger to really start journaling my battle towards debt freedom. It’s obviously possible to have a positive net worth and debt – in my case on credit cards. Anyway unplanned expenses were: £1.95 on lunch, £5 for a mobile phone top up for my son and £45 for two tickets for the “Witches of Eastwick”. My son usually gets £2.50 per week pocket money. He’ll forfeit that for the mobile phone credit.

Journey details

From Ringinglow Road, Cemetery, 21535, Ecclesall To Sheffield Station (Sheffield)

Departs at 14/07/2008, 05:19Arrives at14/07/2008, 05:44Duration of journey 25 mins

Mode(s) Bus

Walk (5m)

Leave 05:19
Ringinglow Road, Cemetery, 21535, Ecclesall
Arrive05:24
Ecclesall Road South, Gisbourne Road, Ecclesall

Bus (11m)

Leave 05:24
Ecclesall Road South, Gisbourne Road, Ecclesall
Service Number 81 Provider First South Yorkshire Ltd
Arrive05:35
Sheffield, Arundel Gate/Central Library A G 11, Sheffield Centre

Walk (9m)

Leave 05:35
Sheffield, Arundel Gate/Central Library A G 11, Sheffield Centre
Arrive05:44
Sheffield Station (Sheffield)

Yesterday I had to go to the office in Leeds so had to use the car. The trade-off was a couple of visits to the gym. One in the morning for spinning and then again in the afternoon for a workout followed by more spinning.

Food-wise I took some All-Bran to eat on the way from the gym for breakfast. Ate it ‘dry’ with water from a bottle. For lunch it was the feta salad made by the children followed by left-over roast pork from Sunday lunch. Supper was the most tasty as I had a small roast chicken – lots of protein.

Workout: 2 x 4 pull-ups; Dumbbell row 3 x 10 x 30kg each arm; one-arm seated row 3 x 10 x 20kg each arm; one-arm pull-downs 3 x 10 x 20kg each arm; seated preacher curl EZ-bar 3 x 10 x 20kg; standing dumbbell curl; 3 x 10 x 2 x 14kg; lat machine 3 x 10 x 60kg; cable bar curl 3 x 10 x 22.5 kg; barbell bent over row 3 x 10 x 40kg; standing dumbbell curl; 3 x 10 x 2 x 14kg;

I Need to Lose Less than 35 Total Pounds
Men
Plug body weight into this equation:
(10.2 x bodyweight + 879) x .50 = 1530
Now do it again with this equation:
(10.2 x bodyweight + 879) x .60 = 1836
Larger number is your calorie goal for lifting days; smaller number is for non-lifting days.

This is the fat burning meal plan I would follow to burn fat.

(This is almost identical to the meal plan I eat now to gain muscle and strength, except my lunch is higher in carbohydrates and calories and so is my after dinner snack…so to burn fat I’d just cut a few things out.)…

PS - To all those who have been asking about it, I promise to cover "Post-workout Nutrition" soon!

Here are the guidelines.
- 6 meals per day. If you can’t do that, combine a couple of meals to get down to 4 meals per day. Even most busy people can do 4 meals/snacks per day.
- Remove all sugar from diet.
- Have at least 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight (to a maximum of 250g per day)
- Have 3 servings of fruit per day (sticking to high-fiber fruits such as apples or grapefruit and high-antioxidant fruits such as berries)
- Drink at least 4 cups of Green Tea

Are you ready for my famous "gain muscle or lose fat" chart?

I know this is going to make a few people mad, but it’s the truth about whether a guy should lose fat or gain muscle. If he doesn’t stick to my recommendations, he won’t get the ripped abs and muscles he wants.

I often get scrawny guys asking me how to lose fat, when they have no muscle underneath the fat…they think they will look good if they "get ripped", but in reality, will look like they are starving. They should focus on gaining muscle instead.
This is a harsh lesson in reality, but too many guys are trying to lose weight when the focus should be on gaining muscle.
In fact, through my experience in working with athletes and dozens of men in the gym trying to lose fat and gain muscle, I’ve come up with a height-weight chart that determines whether or not you should lose weight.
Here’s the chart identifying the cut-off weight for muscle building, and the rule below.
5′6" - 140 pounds
5′7" - 145 pounds
5′8" - 150 pounds
5′9" - 155 pounds
5′10 - 160 pounds
And so on. For every inch taller, add 5 pounds. For every inch shorter, subtract 5 pounds.
For example, if you are 5′8", 150 pounds, you should NOT be focusing on losing weight. You need to gain muscle if you want to look good on the beach and have muscle. Focusing on weight loss would be the worst thing you could do. If you do, you’ll look like crap, and practically anorexic, to be blunt.

And even the numbers above are on the low, low end of acceptable. I’m really thinking about adding 10 more pounds to each (so that the baseline would be 5′8", 160 lbs).
So if you fall below these levels, you must focus on gaining muscle. This will improve the appearance of your body, and take you from a stick-figure to a lean, muscular physique with a better chance of seeing your abs.
And don’t worry, you’re not going to look huge. At 5′8", a guy would have to be at least 190 in order to be considered "jacked" or "huge".
And the best news of all? Because skinny guys are untrained, simply starting a muscle building program will give them maximum fat loss and muscle gain at the same time. They are going to get the best of both worlds.
Here’s how to do it…

If you are using a strength + cardio/intervals program (like Turbulence Training) to gain muscle and lose fat, cut the hard cardio and stick to the weight training workouts only.

Avoid the hard interval cardio for at least 4 weeks as you gain muscle, and eat extra calories right after your workout (as well as having a bigger breakfast than normal). These two changes will allow you to gain muscle and lose fat.

Sometimes you need to try to gain muscle before you try to lose weight,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS

Yes I signed up for a mini challenge ahead of the Summer 08 52 day challenge. Clean eating is going well if not consuming less calories than my body needs then at least they are ‘clean’ calories.

Went to York this morning. Booked the bike in for a service, gear-tightening and new fat rubber.

Chickened out of the gym as feeling tired from cricket last night.

Watched Lost Series 4 Episode 10. This is a better series than last with flash forwards, backwards and time travel.

Watched Grey’s Anatomy Series 4 Episodes 12 and 13 - great!