[ZDrax]

Hi Internetz! It hath been too long - oh, I have missed thee! My momentous decision of which you, reader, are now a part of, occurred at 10:54am whereupon I, through mayhap circumspect means, decided to place said workout log on JP Fitness. In the past I kept logs at Bodyrecomposition.com (Lyle's board) and found myself too often involved in spurious online debate. Ph.D. candidacy and forum bro-downs do not mix.

Moving on .

I'll give the abbreviated version of my fitness history: was fat.

No, I'm serious, like, really fat.

Imagine not being able to wear pants for the entirety of your adolescent and teenage years.

That fat...

... and then I that starved myself skinny when I was 19. Literally starved. 600 cals, 8+ mile runs 7 days/week in addition to weight training (hah!) on a diet of all carbs. So basically two bowls of Special K and a granola bar.

Peak waist circumference occurred at 18 where I was pushing 42+". I can't ever recall it being much less than 38". I dropped from 200+lbs to 120lbs and a 28" waist. Yeah, way too skinny for a 5'7" male.

From there I discovered Men's Health, did a lot of stupid things like CKDs etc, met Alan Aragon (AlanAragon.com - All around bro, likes pizza) and have been on the path of progress ever since.

Being it's spring season soon to be summer, it's time to start peaking for the money months. I hover in the 8 - 9% body fat range but optimal performance, for me, happens somewhere between 6 - 8%. I've used Alan's formulas from his Girth Control book - it's scary how smart this guy is - and will be using, for the first part of this cycle, Fat Loss III from New Rules of Lifting. After hanging out on the Internet far too long, trying innumerable programs and approaches, I have to give huge nods to Alan Aragon, Alwyn Cosgrove, and Lyle McDonald.

If anyone read this is just getting started on their fitness journey, go out and buy Alan's Girth Control (alanaragon.com), Lyle's Guide to Flexible Dieting (bodyrecomposition.com), and Alwyn and Lou's New Rules of Lifting (are you kidding me?). You'll make exponential progress compared to everyone else gearing up for the summer months.

And thus we begin. I've been low balling the calories for sometime but, given the nature of my training program, I've upped the carbohydrate content. Totals are 2120kcal, 195gPRO, 200gCHO, 60gFAT. Even after all these years my body loves to be fat, hates to be lean, so progress is slow, incremental, but predictable. If performance starts suffering, or I feel like my stomach is eating itself, I'll incorporate some high carb days to the tune of an addition 100g of CHO. I've set it up where I get one of these bad boys a week, and will kick it up to two if necessary.

Training is 7 days/week, 4 lifting sessions, 3 HIIT sessions. I'll throw out the specifics in my next post. It's training time - yeah buddhe!