The best dinner ever.

After going the whole day without carbs (and sometimes 3 days), anything resembling a carb just seems so glorious. Case in point: meal #6 on workout days. To the regular person, cottage cheese and oatmeal with splenda seems bland, if not unpalatable as a dinner or bedtime snack. But this right here is a slice of HEAVEN. Now don't get me wrong, protein is awesome, I live on steak/chicken/tuna/cottage cheese all week long, but things just taste so much better and are so much more attractive when restrictions are put on them. Words can't describe how much oatmeal is such a treat after an intense workout. Imagine if I actually ate something sugary/unhealthy for me..I'd probably faint from the overload of tastiness. Carb cycling--not for the strong willed nor faint of heart, yet it works wonders :)

10 weeks out

Man are these weeks flying by. September's almost here, and I'm about to turn 24. Everytime I turn around it's another week in the books, and as soon as I blink the weekend's gone and Monday's already here. I'm officially on a mad scramble to cut as much fat and drop as much weight as possible, while still maintaining my muscle and strength. I weighed in at 136.2lbs this morning, and I really need to start breaking 135 and get closer to 115 so I can avoid crash dieting at the last minute. The calories are getting cut, the cheats got dropped (breaks my heart :'[ ), and the cardio will probably get upped. I've gone two whole days with zero carbs, and it's not fun, but I don't really notice it (although I really wish I could have milk and cereal for breakfast). Excuse my sweatiness, I snapped these pics right after my run.

So I finally broke open my first bottle of instantized BCAA powder, and wow, I must say, this is probably the MOST DISGUSTING supplement I've ever taken. Just 5 grams of this stuff can ruin the taste of a 40 gram protein shake. And the aftertaste is atrocious. My first time taking it, I was very close to spitting it out. No worries, though, I found a way to combat most of the taste: 4 splenda packets. It covers up the majority of the flavor, but I still have slight hints of the aftertaste, but overall it's bearable.

This weekend my gym was closed for maintenance, so I did a couple of runs down to Rittenhouse Square. It's a nice switch up from the elliptical, save the downtown crowds and craptastic Philadelphia streets/sidewalks laden with potholes (not very ankle friendly), but it was therapeutic to go on a long jog and work on my tan at the same time. I should run outdoors more often.

I'm not really looking forward to this week. My calories are down to approximately 1475 calories a day, a huge jump from the 2,000 I was eating when I was bulking. I just hope I don't die on my lifts this week.

Now that I'm not cheating, I'd like to drop to sub-135lbs this week, or go as low as I can. I'm thinking of getting another skinfold test to see where I'm at in terms of body fat. Maybe next month. Now that I'm eating less, that also means less food I have to buy at costco :( but maybe I'll just save all that extra money for snowboarding :D

Speaking of food, I found a huge sale on chicken breast at $1.49/lb. That's the cheapest I've ever seen chicken breast, so you know I'm stocking up like it's all the rage. I bought about ten pounds yesterday (about 4kg for my friends using metric units), and I'll probably buy another 15 pounds before the week ends.

That's it for now, I have to go lock myself up and study for exams/write my statement of purpose/research schools. Enjoy the rest of the weekend :]

11 weeks out

Finally, some half decent pics to post. Boy do I look so lean in the mornings. Woke up with some stiffness/soreness in my back, so I decided to pop some ibuprofen and deal with the pain. No sissies here, we train through the pain :)

Today's an offday for me, so all I did was some cardio before my awesome breakfast of spinach and tuna. Yup, no carbs on offdays, making my diet partially ketogenic. Trying to cut as much fat as I can, as fast as I can, since there's less than 3 months left. Boy does time zip by.

I'm starting to hate Tuesdays more than Mondays.

Yes, you heard it, Tuesdays suck. More than Mondays. Probably because chest days are becoming much more bearable while Tuesdays are getting more and more onerous. Today while doing bent-over rows, I unbraced and relaxed my back for a second in the middle of a set, and all of a sudden I feel this huge shooting pain in my lower back. It's still there now, and it's a bit painful to bend over--I have to use my legs if I want to carry anything and avoid putting any stress on my lower back. My lower back is pretty sturdy, and this is the first lower back injury (if I could even categorize it as that) I've ever had. Hopefully an early bedtime and lots of rest will mitigate the pain. My gains aren't as huge on back days (going up very very slowly on romanian deadlifts), but I'm still plugging and chugging along. I seem to have gotten intoxicated with my newbie gains and am getting a little sad my strength isn't exploding like it once was. But gains nonetheless are always something to be glad about :)

Apologies for the crap pictures, I was in a rush and couldn't find anyone this week to take my weekly shots. Will take some better shots tomorrow and post for sure. But for now, check out the difference in my abs when I'm relaxed (top) and flexed (bottom). Super dramatic, huh? Contracting makes my waist look severely smaller :)

Thursday is going to be a tiny milestone for me--I'm going to finish my first bottle of supplements! I will officially have ripped through my first bottle of BCAAs and switch from capsules to powder form. Now I won't feel like a druggie, as I won't be popping 15 pills on workout days.

As for diet and cardio, my calories are slowly getting shaved every week, and my cardio's going up. I'm at 45 minutes every morning (it's slowly becoming mind numbing) and I was able to hit 134.9lbs last Sunday (lowest I've been since high school) but I slightly gained it all back after a ridiculous binge (sorry I couldn't help myself, but the king size reese's pieces, twix and apple pie were all tempting me :[ ) . So no more cheats for me, except for maybe cereal and skim milk, if my trainer is so forgiving (I hope).

Overall, I do have to say, I feel great about myself. I love the way I look (except my belly), and I'm super excited to put on more muscle and cut fat. I'm not gonna lie, bodybuilding has completely domesticated me--I can cook some juicy, tender chicken breast, perfected my steak preparation skills, and life is much more ordered, now that I have a set bedtime, workout schedule, and live in little tupperware bowls. I'm hoping these lifts will give me a ridiculously strong core come winter, in time for snowboarding, so I can switch from shredding my body to shredding some delicious east coast powder :)

Alright, my back is really killing me, so now it's time for bed. Until next time, take care :)

12 weeks out

Sorry for the crap lighting, I had these pictures taken in the women's locker room at my gym. Today I weighed in at 137.7lbs, and the weight is slowly coming off. Slowly but surely. It seems that my body isn't very tolerant to carbs; my weight has been bouncing around earlier in the week, but slashing my carbs seems to be working. Now if I could only break 136lbs, then I'd be on a roll..

I'm about 3 months away from competition, and a little nervous that the weight is not coming off as quickly as I'd like it to be. Other than that, I can't complain about anything else (other than biceps, they need some work--bombed my bicep curls last week, but went up on hammer curls and preacher curls). I kind of wish I looked more muscular when I'm not flexing, but that's another goal I can set for myself post-competition--trying to lean bulk. My legs and lower back are getting very strong, my lines are getting deeper (definition in my quads is reaching my hip bone), and it all puts a smile on my face :)

I am not looking forward to tomorrow--Mondays are chest days, which makes me cringe. I'm a bit overwhelmed at the moment, projects at work are picking up, I'm taking my GREs next saturday the 15th (wish me luck!!), so I'm trying to cram like a madwoman, and trying to keep stress levels down (I notice I tend to get mad/frustrated really easily, and my easygoing demeanor is slowly fading), while trying to save up/plan for some awesome shredding this season.

Went to Costco and Walmart this weekend, and dropped about $200 this month on food which included: 6lbs of almonds, 4.5lbs of top round, 4lbs of tilapia, 18 tubs of cottage cheese, 6 pints of egg whites, 7.5 dozen large eggs, four 66.5oz cans of tuna, spices and tupperware. My buddies and I finally made it a tradition to do our monthly grocery shopping at Costco, as it saves us tons of money and we love buying in bulk. I'm sure this stuff is going to last me more than a month, but better to have plenty than to run out and not have enough :)

I have some pics of my cheats from this weekend and last weekend, and I'll post those later. Heading off to cram for GREs/plan my future..take care :)

13 weeks out

This week's profile shots come to you courtesy from Ocean City, New Jersey. Couple of friends and I decided to pack up the car and head to the beach before summer ends. I tried to work on my tan so I could avoid slathering myself in spray-on tan when competition rolls around, but to no avail, my sunblock was too strong (60+ SPF) and I didn't get one bit of color :( It was good times though, I grew up 15 minutes away from a beach back home in California, so a beach trip every summer is very necessary. I was actually really exhausted afterwards, even though I only played in the water for 30 minutes and laid out in the sun for about 3 hours. iPod + sun = bliss.

This week marks my first official week of cutting, but it wasn't until the weekend that I saw my weight drop. I weighed in at 138.2 this morning before my cheat meal, and I need to cut more fat as much as I can. Forgive the puffiness in the picture, I know my abs look terrible, but I just finished my fourth meal after taking this picture. My calories have been cut down by about 100 and I'm doing 30-40 minutes of cardio every morning. Hopefully some diet revisions/eating more spinach/drinking more water/sleeping more will do the trick. Mmmm sleep..so delicious.

This morning sounded like a monsoon came over Philly. I woke up at 9am to prep food and an hour later, the skies were ridiculously dark and we had an insane downpour for the next few hours, which I decided to sleep through :) I was still able to get my cardio in, albeit in the afternoon.

Next week I'm going food and protein shopping seriously this time (yay Costco!!) so I'm very excited about that. Now it's time for me to get to bed at a reasonable hour. Thank you all for your encouraging comments, it gives me more motivation to train and I really appreciate it. Take care :)

Cutting sucks.

I just had a diet revision this week, and I had my carbs slashed from 105 grams 90 grams (it doesn't sound like much, but this slight difference removes carbs from one of my meals) on workout days and from 70 grams to 30 grams on offdays..and I am STARVING. Having carbs only in the morning and after a workout is really, really horrible. I'm trying to find ways to satiate my carb cravings (consuming a TON of hazlenut coffee, taking naps, trying not to think about it) because I've never felt this hungry before. Blah.