Thanks for the encouragement. My program wasn’t rocket science or anything, but I was very consistent.
Nutritionally, I kept the menu pretty simple, and to be totally honest, 90% of the time I ate the same thing day after day. My typical day was:
Breakfast: Egg Beater Omlette with fat free cheese & oatmeal.
Mid Morning: 3 scoops GROW shake
Lunch: Low fat cottage cheese, bananna, california blend veggies
Mid Afternoon: 3 scoops GROW shake
Dinner: Grilled chicken breast, baked sweet potato, steamed broccoli
Late Snack: 2 scoops LC GROW with Flax oil.
I did do one cheat day per month (the first sunday). Other than that, I stayed very disciplined and didn’t deviate from my nutrition plan. I know it sounds monotonous, but frankly, eating the same menu daily kept me from having to make food decisions and also kept me from cheating.
On the workout side, I did 3 days of cardio, 3 days of freeweights, and 1 rest day per week. I alternated cardio days with freeweight days and alternated between upper body and lower body on the freeweights. The cardio was 30 minutes of interval training on the treadmill. The freeweight exercises were two exercises totatlling six sets per body part, and were pretty basic movements. A couple of samples:
Upper Body Day:
Chest: Flat bar bench 3 sets of 10, Flyes 3 sets of 10
Shoulders : Side dumbell raises 3 sets of 10, Front raises 3 sets of 10
Triceps: Close grip press 3 sets of 10, cable pushdowns 3 sets of 10
Biceps: Preacher curls 3 sets of 10, concentration curls 3 sets of 10.
(My chiropractor has me off of back exercises for now)
Lower Body Day:
Quads: Squats 3 sets of 10, leg extensions 3 sets of 10
Hams: Lunges 3 sets of 10, leg curls 3 sets of 10
Calves: Standing calf raise 3 sets of 10, seated calf raise 3 sets of 10
Abs: Twist Crunches 3 sets of 10, rollup 3 sets of 10.
For variation, In February and April, I did pyramid supersets instead of the routine 3 x 10 stuff to keep the muscles guessing. I’ve got a set of powerblocks that makes that somewhat feasible, depending on the exercise.
Again, I think the results came primarily from my consistency rather than the particular content of my program. My brother & I have both been on cutting programs, and it gets a little competitive between us. I can honestly say I have not missed a workout since I started in January: Six days a week without fail. I get up at 5am daily to make it happen.
The one takeaway that I had was that I probably took it off too fast, and sacrificed some lean mass on the way down. I was working out first thing in the morning on an empty stomach, and in hindsight I should have been using some SURGE during or after my workouts, but I got stupid and was paranoid about the extra calories/sugar.
Thanks again for the encouragement.