Increasing calories for the state championships

I felt a little weak in the gym yesterday. It's because I have been dieting since September 5th. I've made great progress on my weight loss, 42 pounds, while also making some of the biggest streangth gains I've ever made- thanks to my powerlifting coach Vernon Smith. But I'm going to hit pause on my weight loss temporarily. I have the USPA New Mexico state powerlifting championships on December 9th, in 13 days. So I'm going to reverse diet for a couple weeks to ensure a good meet.

I just learned about reverse dieting. I learned about it when I first got on Avatar Nutrition. Reverse dieting is pretty interesting. If you haven't heard about it I highly suggest reading up or listening to some YouTube videos about it. What I'm doing isn't actually reverse dieting. Reverse dieting is to repair a dieters matabolism. I'm only doing it to make sure I'm at my best for the upcoming powerlifting meet. After the meet I'll go back to dieting to get down to my dream weight of 110k powerlifting weight class. But until then I'm focusing on the meet. For the first time I'll be lifting in a division other than the super heavyweight. I'll be lifting in the 139k weight class, thanks to Avatar Nutrition.

Eat and sleep!

Last night I struggled getting through my weightlifting workout. Once I got home I was so exhausted I couldn't get off the couch. I finally mustered enough energy to eat and shower. Then I collapsed into bed. I slept for ten hours. Once I awoke I weighed in, increased my macros on MyFitnessPal,  and ate a big healthy meal. Now I feel like a million bucks!

All week my calories were really low. Probably to low. I gained two pounds this week. I weighed in at 319 with 31% body fat. I assume the weight gain is either my body freaking out from not having enough fuel, water retention, or muscle gains. I'm doing a ton of strength training right now. Weightlifting 3 times a week and 3-4 days a week of CrossFit. But even with that much strength training I'm assuming 2 pounds of muscle gains in one week is pretty much an impossibility. I increased my calories on Avatar Nutrition to only lose a moderate amount of weight instead of the extreme weight loss option. I guess my next weigh in on 11/7/17 will show me if I made the right choice.

no more yoyo dieting for me

I've never once said “I want to lose 30 pounds, keep it off briefly, then gain it all back, with some extra pounds for good measure." Last month I fell off the diet wagon and in three weeks I gained back almost all of the weight I'd lost over a three month period. So I've decided I'm not going to try and lose tons of weight anymore. It doesn't work for me. I'm going to try to get down to 299 pounds, eat for weightlifting performance, and maintain that weight. No more yoyo dieting for me. Besides, I make big and bald look danm sexy!

8 year old weightlifting

Today my 8 year old son started weightlifting at High Dessert Athletic Club. He did well and seemed to enjoy it. Coach Juaquin Chavez was wonderful with him.

Today was my first full day with my nutrition coach Barry Schroeder. It was wonderful eating for performance again. Although last time I got burned out pretty quick, I still have to say I missed it. This time i think eating for performance and weight loss will be easier. The program is a lot more flexible and easier to fit into my life.

My weight this morning was an all time high of 322.2.

Christmas and dieting

I did everything I needed to prepare to eat well on Christmas eve and Christmas. I made and logged all my food. I brought all my prepared food with me to my in-laws house. But once I saw all the amazing food I fell off the diet wagon somethin' horrible! This morning I was frustrated. I was close to giving upon dieting and just staying obese the rest of my life. For breakfast I ate exactly what I wasn't supposed to, cinnamon toast with butter. Eating like that is exactly what got me to 318 pounds. Then I went to the gym and set a lifetime personal best snatch of 100k! In the last 3 months I've put 12k onto my snatch. The most I'd put on in the same period before this was 5k. I realize the gains I've made is because the diet my sports nutrition coach put me on and that I almost gave up on. Talk about motivation! Once I got home I ate a healthy and moderate servings of baked sweet potato and chicken breast.

change of calories

My sports nutrition coach is making some changes to my diet. On workout days I used to eat 390 grams of carbohydrates. On non-workout days I'd eat 190 carbohydrates. Now things are changing a bit. I'm going to be eating 250 carbs 6 days a week. Once a week, the day of my choosing,  I'm scheduled to eat 410 carbs.

Today I had a really hard workout. 2 hours and 20 minutes of %60-%90 of max. I needed the fuel to get through a workout that intensive. Before training i had two cups of white rice mixed with 1/2 cup of skim milk,  coffee with 2 TBSP half n half. During the workout i drank 2 servings of Gatorade and a half scoop of whey protein. Post workout i drank a shake with 1 cup skim milk,  1 scoop protein, 1 banana, 2 TBSP peanut butter, BCA's, & glutamine. The rest of the day I only had 70 grams of carbohydrates left to eat. I had enough protein and fat to keep me from getting hungry, but eating only 70 carbs the rest of the day made me grumpy. I'm not sure if it was my bodies blood sugar levels dropping or what, but i turned into an a-hole the rest of the day. As long as I don't lose my strength and speed gains I'll be really happy continuing to lose weight,  get thinner, become faster, & feel better about myself. Today I keep trying to remind myself that my nutrition coach is the bomb, plus he's a serious weightlifter too. So I know he understands what it takes to lose weight without losing performance. But I'm like an old grumpy man. I freak out about changes. I'm trying really hard not to freak out,  because like i said, my nutrition coach has a life time of eating healthy and competing seriously in athletics to base his reasoning on. I've even seen it first hand the last month. I've lost 14 pounds while recovering faster and making greater gains than I ever have before. Both my weightlifting coach and nutrition coach are ALWAYS having to remind me, "trust the program Cody". So right now I'm doing my best to simply focus on trusting the program and ignoring my fears.

nutrition coaching day 2

I hired a nutrition coach.  Today marks my 2nd full day of being coached by him. Lot's of new things.

-This weekend i attended my father-in-laws 75th birthday party. There's no way i could have ate healthy and in moderation if i wasn't being held accountable by my nutrition coach.

-Planning out what I'm going to eat before i eat it and logging it makes a huge difference in the quality of food i end up eating. 

-higher quality foods are much much more filing

--I'm having a hard time eating as much as I'm supposed to, especially the 300g protein. 

- left on my own i eat WAY to much fatty foods

- once i log and eat my first meal eating healthy the rest of the day is easy but the first meal is the hardest for me. I love to eat crappy food in the morning, corned beef hash, burritos, grilled cheese sandwiches with green chile, etc. And after i eat one unhealthy meal i have a tendency to want to eat poorly the next meal,  then the next meal. It's the fat man's snow ball effect.