I am baaaaccckkkk!!!!! I had a great week of training and my diet was good. I dropped my weight down to 182 lbs. It was  rough last week with a cold but now I am back in full throttle. I did make some changes to my diet and to my training.

* My first change I made was cutting my cardio completely out for now. I made this change because I was losing weight at a very fast pace and my energy levels were very poor. I work on an assembly line building cars and the line moves at a rapid pace. Every 47-50 seconds a car rolls off our assembly line. That makes for a very fast job and for 8 hours you burn a lot of calories. So my decision to cut cardio worked out good for me this week and I still managed to  shed 1 1/2 lbs off. I will continue this until my weight starts to get stagnant. Then I will incorporate cardio back into my training. 

* My second change I made was my diet. On my weight training days I increased my carb intake slightly to give me the energy I need to train at an intense pace. For upper body workouts I took in between 260-300 grams split over 6 meals. For my squat workouts I took in between 300-330 grams split over 6 meals. I was tentative about this change because I thought I might slow down my weight loss but It actually did not and I was able to get some good workouts in. On my non training days I took in between 200-220 grams split over 6 meals. I also went against my belief in lower protein intake and increased my protein because I just was not feeling good. I had low energy levels and rapid weight loss. So I feel increasing my protein has also helped me this week. I will continue this plan until the weight loss subsides. Here is a breakdown of my intakes:

Monday- Upper Body 1 

• 260 grams carbs
• 240 grams protein
• 17 grams fat

Tuesday- Non Training Day

• 231 grams carbs
• 278 grams protein
• 26 grams fat

Wednesday- Lower Body 1 (squat workout)

• 333 grams carbs
• 268 grams protein
• 30 grams fat

Thursday- NonTraining Day

• 200 grams carbs
• 264 grams protein
• 23 grams fat

Friday- Upper Body 2

• 260 grams carbs
• 234 grams protein
• 25 grams fat

Saturday- Non Training Day

• 290 grams carbs ( I ate more carbs today because I dropped too much weight from Friday to Saturday)
• 230 grams protein
• 25 grams fat

* My third change was to my weight training. My weight training went very good this week. I changed back to 2 upper body workouts and 2 lower body workouts. I do 3 workouts per week so it ends up I do each workout every 9-10 days. Here is my breakdown:

Upper Body 1 

1. Bench Press
2. Bent Over Rows
3. One Arm Rows
4. Lat Pull Downs (underhand grip)
5. Behind the Neck Press
6. Barbell Shrugs
7. Lying Cable Tricep Press
8. Barbell Curls

Lower Body 1

1. Squats (wide stance)
2. Squats (narrow stance)
3. Lying Leg Curls
4. Standing Toe Press
5. Leg Lifts(for lower abs)
6. Oblique Crunches with cable pulley

Uper Body 2

1. Incline Bench Press
2. Seated Rows
3. Lat Pull Downs (wide grip)
4. Upright Rows
5. Rear Flys on the pec dec
6. Tricep Press Downs
7. Hammer Curls

Lower Body 2

1. Leg Extensions
2. Stiff Leg Deadlifts
3. Hyperextensions
4. Seated Toe Press
5. Decline Sit Ups (for abs)

All in all a great week of contest prep. I did not take any photos this week but I did add a video of some training highlights. Check it out here.

I will get to more of my recipes on the recipe page either today or tomorrow. I have been busy with other things but I will get more on there. Until my next blog!!