Journey To 185

3 days until my Turbulence Training transformation begins, a 12-week fatloss mission as part of the TT Transformation Contest. I don’t care about winning per se, but I want to follow through and complete the challenge under the mindful gaze of my fellow TTMembers.com members.

Today I went for a brief run around the local park. Being a fatty, I need to take a lot of walking breaks, and as such my runs tend to end up being 15-20 minute interval sessions!

See full stats and route at my Big Runner blog.

I have to congratulate my buddy Adam Waters on the success of his new RTP Transformation System, and especially the uptake following his announcement of the RTP Contest (prizes including flights to NYC to train with Adam and fatloss coach and natural bodybuilding legend Tom Venuto).

Here’s what’s great about the RTP system: it’s structured across 7 modules, with explanations of each part of the system with experiences drawn from Adam’s own live (3 years or so ago, Adam took control of his life and turned himself from a sushi-gorging couch potato into a ripped, real-time blogging legend). Check out the RTP Book site for photos and videos of same.

On top of the fatloss book itself, the system also comes with access to the support forum, or ShredderSphere. As of today there’s over 750 members (most of them actively participating!), and having such an active community supporting you in your fatloss efforts will only pay rewards (providing you dive in and take advantage of it!). It works for Craig Ballantyne’s Turbulence Training members site, and as I told Adam when I chatted with him about this prior to the public launch, an active community is a godsend in supporting people.

So if you’re looking for a structured workout and nutrition plan, with a solid foundation of community support, check RTP out.

Just a little update:

In a week’s time, on May 6, I will start the 5th Turbulence Training transformation contest, and I can’t wait! For the next week I will be doing light workouts (I just need to decide on the definite workout I’ll use for my initial 4 weeks), as well as eating cleanly. Following Skwigg’s entry on intuitive eating, I feel very much validated on giving up the obsessive strict 6-meals-a-day mindset and concentrating on eating properly when it’s ready for me to eat.

It’s just under 14 weeks until my 37th birthday (get those cards and presents ready;)) and I want to have lost between 2lbs and 1% bodyweight per week for the duration, however I would be happy(ish) with losing 0.5% a week at minimum (this would still be 22lbs over 14 weeks).

Also I’d like to fit comfortably into two shirts my wife bought me when we were on holiday; I’ll get some photos taken of them as they “fit” now and post them in the next few days.

As of this morning I am 265.6lbs.

Today I finally made it back to the gym after at least 6 weeks away (although I fear it may be more). With the Turbulence Training transformation contest starting in a week or so, I wanted to get back into the swing of pushing around heavy objects so I would be off to a flying start once the 12-week contest officially begins.

So, I went in and did the Turbulence Training “Hardcore Fatloss” workout A, followed by some brief ab work, and I have to admit to being so worn out I didn’t even do the interval training at the end. Almost 11 hours later and I am still sitting here exhausted.

This is what happens when you let yourself stray too far from the path! But it sure felt good to be back in the gym, pushing weights. And on a positive note, the gym has installed a proper squat rack while I’ve been gone, so no excuses not to get into barbell squatting now (they only had a smiths machine previously).

Win a trip to New York City to work out with Tom Venuto (Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle) and Adam Waters (RTP-Blog.com), and a bunch of other prizes including spending money, at the RTP Transformation System contest - www.rtpsystem.com

Check out the following video for info:

I need to give this a try one day.

Check this - a great workout from Craig Ballantyne’s Turbulence Training AAA Abs program.

A quick update: unfortunately, due to three factors I am going to delay the start of this mission for one week. These factors are:

• my right calf muscle still not feeling any better. I think one reason I am not recovering is due to:
• lack of sleep. Since Monday when we arrived home, I’ve managed 8 hours sleep or so across two nights, due to jet lag and noisy neighbours
• Also today, my lower back (lumbar region) is feeling very strained. Again I think this could be due to being exhausted.

So I am going to take the additional week to get back into a healthy sleep cycle, to get my weird aches and pains sorted, and then start the mission with gusto!

We landed back in London yesterday after 3 great weeks in Australia. It feels like we’ve been gone forever, but I know that feeling will end once I sit down at my work desk this morning
I put on 6lbs while away, which while disappointing is better than I did last year when I put on 14lbs during the same amount of time!

It’s now been about 9 weeks since I’ve done any training other than the odd workout, so I am looking forward to starting again tomorrow with RTP. I have a sore right calf at the moment, caused by what I don’t know. I was doing calf raises on the plane to stretch my legs, so perhaps that’s what it is from. So I will need to be careful once I begin working out again. If anything, I simply won’t do any calf work until next week.

Tomorrow marks my new nutrition plan, which will be vegetarian-esque (I will occasionally eat fish). I am not concerned about the loss of protein from meat, as I will make this up with legumes, beans, etc. “Protein guilt” is one thing I am trying to break myself out of, along with the whole “1.5g of protein per lb of bodyfat” idea (based on teachings from Brad Pilon’s ‘How Much Protein?’ book).

A “Day Zero” post with video, photos and stats will be posted tonight.

Soon (next Wednesday in fact) I will begin Mission 4 of my fat loss journey. This will be a 16-week mission as discussed previously.

I thought I would detail things a little further in what will be involved, what accountability methods I will follow, and what nutrition plans I will follow.

Accountability

I will be posting here on JourneyTo185.com exclusively every day. This will include an overview of my day’s training and nutrition.

In addition, I will also be posting to my new Twitter account with my meal and training details (so do please follow me if you’re a Tweeter!).

Weekly video update on my thoughts on the previous week. I will try to be brutally honest, and share my failings as well as gains.

Workouts

I will be following the RTP Transformation System for the first 12 weeks, followed by a Turbulence Training workout for the final four weeks (which one depends on what madness Craig Ballantyne comes out with in the next few months!).

For cardio, I will be going for park runs as training for my 10k race in May (the BUPA London 10,000 which I ran as my first ever 10k last year).

My workouts will generally be in the evening, which means that my nutrition will need to match this (more below). The reason I train at night is one that I’m sure many will understand: it’s simply when the gym is less busy. So I usually hit the gym between 8.30pm and 9pm.

Also, my workout week will begin on a Wednesday, so that the busiest gym days (Mondays and Tuesdays) are spent out of the gym: one doing cardio, and one resting.

Nutrition

I will not be following the RTP nutrition system, but will instead doing a mix of the techniques shared by Neil McTeggart in his Diet Plan book, and Brad Pilon’s Eat Stop Eat (which will be two 24-hour fasts a week).

Neil highlights a nutrition plan specifically for those folk who workout late at night:

BREAKFAST – PROTEIN / VEG / GOOD FATS

SNACK – PROTEIN SHAKE WITHOUT CARBS

LUNCH – PROTEIN / VEG / GOOD FATS

SNACK – LEFT OVER LUNCH

DINNER – PRE-WORKOUT MEAL

TRAIN LATE

SUPPER – POST-WORKOUT SHAKE

Extremely helpful for me, and not something I’ve seen elsewhere. My morning snack will probably be yoghurt with nuts for a mix of simple carbs and non-meat protein.