Preparing for battle

With several days left until my Modelfit journey begins again, I am feeling better about taking time off over the last several weeks. After taking a month off from bench pressing and placing a greater focus on bodyweight, my posture feels a thousand times better and prepared me to perform in next week's metabolic torture.

On Sunday, I will do my measurements and perform a bodyweight strength test to confirm whether my little experiment has added inches to my chest and numbers to my push up, inverted row, chin up and split squat.

In the meantime, my focus will be on creating a dietary log to consistently watch my calories and foods during this time. While my diet hasnt changed in years, several revelation for me recently have come from Ultra Prevention , a book about the approach to nutrition taken for visitors to the famous canyon ranch.

What this book has helped me realize is that while my diet may provide the adequate amount of protein, carbs and fiber, I have been deficiently low in fat for some time. While I have always gone by the logic that "you are what you eat" the reality is adding healthy fats to my diet will greatly improve my mood and digestive capacity.

A few other interesting tidbits I picked up from this book is that If you observe food of any kind in your stools (poop), your body is not efficiently digesting the foods you consume.

Often, this is due to a lack of "good" bacteria in the body which acts to breakdown these foods and release them to the bloodstream. In my case, I feel this could be the X-factor in both my mood and results in the gym.

By simply adding more fat and digestive enzymes to my diet, my body will immediatly become more efficient at processing what I consume which equates to improved mood, fewer spikes in blood sugar and even better sleep (which I desperately need)

I am excited to apply this knowledge to my experience and I hope it will make a difference if I am craving come next week.

In the meantime, my push up numbers were up again this week and I continue to gain strength in my lifts (see below)

Workout A- Upper Body-Saturday
A-1: Incline alternating DBP- 3 x 6-75lbs
A-2: Floor push ups- 3 x 25- 45lbs
B-1: Weighted chin up w/20lbs plate- 3x12
B-3: Military press- 3 x 12/105lbs

Workout B- Upper Body-Sunday
A-1: 1 leg barbell SLDL- 3 x 12-145lbslbs
A-2: Double leg hip lift- 3 x 20/75lbs
A-3: X-band walks- 3 x 20 steps down and back
B-1: Dumbbell split squat- 3x12/75lbs
B-2: Spiderman lunge- 3 x 12/35lbs