I’ll do that.
John Mullaney. (Doing that to remember)
1/11/25 Twenty minutes treadmill
1/12/25 BP
45/95/120/135/155x10/185x4/225, IncBPMachine 90x10x5, PD 85/85, TPDs 38/42/48, OHTEs 38/43/48/53, BBshrugs 115/125/135, dips 3
1/13/25 W1D4 - Squats
45/95/110/125/145x10/5, 165x5, LP 115/120/125, LC 85/90/95, AbdADD 120/125/130
Been thinking about food choices based on @T3hPwnisher 's log. When my daughter was born our pediatrician advised us to not give her fruit for the first year. Her explanation was that if we limited her to vegetables etc… she would not develop a preference for fruit. She would, of course, like fruit regardless of when it was introduced but wouldn’t hold out for it if she didn’t know it existed.
This failed miserably as my wife introduced her to fruit at three months.
I also reflected on my own food journey having been a fat kid. I theorize that I was a fat kid because there was a scarcity mentality in my home with two older brothers eating off my plate and groceries being rationed - gallons of milk were labeled with the day they could be consumed. When today’s gallon was gone, you were out of luck. My oldest brother would chug directly from the gallon in front of us, taunting us as we watched our milk disappear.
Ultimately, fat kids have to decide that whatever their food issues are, they are in control of what goes in their mouth. It’s too much to expect of young kids and sad that they are being handicapped by their parents.
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This was it for me. At age 14 I finally decided to take charge and restrict myself to 1/3 of what I was eating up until that point. It was STILL junk: just less of it. But the math became easy in turn: I WAS eating 6 slices of pizza, so now it was 2. I was eating 9 tacos, now it was 3. It worked.
But in turn, MUCH later in life, I learned just how much of a “no chance” I had. I was a low birthweight baby, most likely because my mother smoked while she was pregnant, most likely because the “knowledge” back then was, if you were a smoker, don’t try to quit while you’re pregnant, because that will stress the baby for you to go through withdraw while you’re pregnant. But not to worry: you can fatten up a low birthweight baby by putting cereal in their bottles!
I remember feeling so vexed when I found out about that. It was like “no wonder I was a fat kid: I had no chance from the get go!”, but then I also remembered thinking how I felt like such garbage as a kid, as though being fat was a moral failing of my own. That I was this glutton, no control, etc etc. Which, in turn, impacted my self-esteem in other areas, which correlated with all the bullying that came with being a fat kid.
All of which, were foundational in me being who I am…which I’m pleased with. So now we’re in the whole “Good, bad: we’ll see” spectrum, haha.
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1/14/25 W2D1 OHP
45/75/90/100/110x10/135x4/155x0/150x1, IncBPMa 80x10x5, RearDeltPD 60/65/70, TPDs 35/40/40, OHTE 33/38/43, FPs 35/40/40, Cable Laterals 9/11
207@18.3
1/15/25 - Cardio
20 minutes treadmill.
Having a crisis of faith in my program - kind of. It’s great having @robstein back prepping as I frequently “borrow” from others, and my current goal is strength and aesthetics. I struggle with getting as lean as I want to be. I got to 13% a few years ago and think I looked pretty good at 193 and 13%. I didn’t stay at 13% for long.
I have gained over fifteen pounds in the last three months and my BF has remained at 18%. I am getting close to the end of my “bulk” and so I have copied Rob and added cardio - 20 mins of treadmill three days a week. I wonder what the point is as this only burns 120 calories per session. While I am in California, I am riding my bike more than 25 miles per week, yet my body comp remains 18%.
I’ve been happy with the bulk - I have gotten bigger, BF has remained the same. My plan was to bulk to 210 or 20% BF, whichever came first, but I am rethinking that as it is clear that I can carry much more weight than 210, that cutting to 200@15% should be achievable, but I struggle to get as lean as I want - standard beach body.
- I use BF% only as a standard. I think my BIA is pretty close as the mirror tells me it is close.
In AA there is a saying - come for the support, stick around for the miracle. Obviously, consistency and patience is not a strong point for me.
So, I think I am going to continue the bulk as long as I stay at 18%. I have added squats back, and DL’s, and am on my third cycle of 531. Weights are increasing - recently hit 150 on OHP and 225 on bench (joker sets). Aiming to patiently increase my squat with a long term goal of three plates for both squats and DL’s. This time I will do it slowly with a focus on form and hypertrophy rather than ego lifting.
I guess I will keep doing the twenty minutes of LISS (treadmill) if only for the health benefits.
Just me puking on the page. didn’t solve anything, lol.
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Let’s go man! Happy to offer some insight for what it’s worth.
In the off season I do cardio every day strictly for health, a nice side benefit is that it helps keep me leaner because I really love to eat lol. Even when I went on a fairly aggressive gaining phase last year, I did cardio daily just eased up on intensity, gained very solid mass along with a little fat.
Regarding BF% - check out BodySpec if they’re in your area. I recently got my first DEXA scan with them it was $40 and took 5 minutes. I only did it to see where I’d be starting my prep, I think it would be neat to track it as I’ve never done that before. From an aesthetic perspective, I think knowing your BF% is irrelevant and I would strongly advise against shooting for a specific number either in gaining or losing. If you’re focused on looking a certain way, that’s all that matters. It’s also impossible to gain only muscle, inevitably you’re gonna gain some fat, even if you do it perfectly there will be some fat gain. 15lbs is quite an aggressive weight gain, so I strongly doubt you’ve gained 15 pounds of muscle in 3 months, there’s been water and fat mixed in there. If you really want to measure BF%, do the DEXA scan, everything else is highly unreliable but again I would urge you to forget BF and just focus on aesthetics.
As an example, I thought based on mirror and my experience I was around 12-13% BF, I was at 17.5% as of a little over a month ago. When I was stage conditioned, people would ask me BF and I really didn’t know, but all that matters is the look anyway. Beach body generally is gonna be about 10% if you want a clear 6 pack, but 10% is WAY leaner than most people think it is.
Just my .02, go as long as you want until you have gained more fat than you want, it’ll only take longer to cut down later, don’t rely as much on BF.
Off season = heart health. Cutting - a little extra deficit created in combination with nutrition. A 20min session by itself is minimal, but a few of those combined with a consistent deficit, it all comes together.
How do you cut fat when getting lean? I used to just go WAY too hard. Too much of a deficit, too much cardio, HIIT, none of which is sustainable or really very beneficial, I’m sure I lost some muscle in the process.
When I started working with Cliff in 2020 it was a NIGHT AND DAY difference to what I used to do, and I was really shocked how easy it was to get lean. I lost about 15lbs in 3 months by sticking to the macros, and even just did 2 cardio sessions per week at 15min each, with one re-feed (not cheat) day per week, AND 2 full off days per week.
Cardio is extremely taxing, so by creating as much deficit (but not too much) with nutrition, taking it slow and steady, making small adjustments over time and sprinkling in cardio as needed, I bet you’ll get there for sure.
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I was using % mainly as a reference because when I had mine tested, it was about 2% higher than my handheld, and the mirror “looks” the same. I only use it as a tool for tracking, not as the end product. What looks like 15% in the mirror to me is usually right around 15% on my monitor. I have a scale that measures BF and it is about 3% higher than my hand held. Again, based on my correlations, I want to look like what I look like when I am 15% on my monitors. I don’t really care if it is really 15%, that’s just what my monitor reads when I am happy with my look.
I have gained 15 pounds total, certainly not muscle. When I started, I was about 17.5% on the monitor, this morning I was 17.9%. However, I am more consistent with creatine now and expect that has added close to five pounds of water weight. Post workout (pumped) I look rounded and probably about 18% (look). Pre-workout, I am flat and look fluffier. FWIW, in your recent pics, I figured you were around 20%, which was encouraging to me. However, proportionally, you are carrying way more mass than I am (I’m 6’1"). This make me think I can definitely continue bulking for a while.
Herein lies the rub methinks. I focus on calories. I don’t track macros, just eat intuitively, which is no way to run a business and probably why I tend to maintain 18% look regardless of my weight. I also cut too quickly.
Appreciate the response. Has me thinking. Let the bulk continue, at least until June/220/20%, which ever comes first.
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Ahhhh gotcha! Yeah keep on growing man that sounds like a good plan!
I agree, tracking macros and taking a slower and steadier approach is good. It is astounding how much is really consumed. Kind of like if people really audited their spending, always spending more than they would guess. Even recently when I started tracking again last week to start, I realized how much I’m snacking, even on healthy stuff. Between meals I’d eat a handful of nuts here, half an apple there, etc. Probably was an extra 500-700 calories per day.
High protein, higher carbs, mid-lower fats works well for me with lots of veggies and clean foods to keep me full. Hunger is always gonna be part of a cut but it can be managed well for a long time, getting to a beach body really shouldn’t be too intense if you’re willing to take it slow. LMK when you’re ready man I’m happy to help!
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For clarification, I went back to your pics and think you are closer to 15% than 20% - probably somewhere in between - believe I was sloppy with my memory.
Good thing you don’t worry about BF% lol.
Little known fact. It was @robstein that introduced me to an actual serving size.
I think it was your first prep, and I was amazed that someone was eating an actual serving size.
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lol that’s awesome. I’ll never forget the first time I weighed an ounce of almonds, I was just shocked that such a small handful of almonds was a serving and about 200 cal. It would be easy to slam 1000 cal worth of almonds or trail mix in just a few minutes without even thinking about it. Same thing happened when I measured out an ounce of cheese, 2 tablespoons of coffee creamer… Come to think of it, anything I weigh on the food scale for the first time is pretty surprising!
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I had to give up cashews all together. Once I started measuring them I realized I was eating 7-10 servings in one sitting.
It was a clear case of “I’m eating better! Why am I getting fat?” 
Cuz 2000 cals of cashews will do that!
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1/16/25 W2D2 - DL
45/95/130/145/165x10/185x4/205x4
Cu’s, curls, shrugs, blah blah blah.
I’m going to go eat some trail mix.
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1/17/25 W2D3 - BP
45/95/130/145/165x10
Inc BP Ma 90x10x5, PD 85/85, OHTE ropes 33/33, Dips 3
Cut it short, flying to NY.
I love nuts, my family grew almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, chestnuts, maybe pistachios, and I had the same revelation. I stopped buying cashews because it’s impossible for me to eat an actual serving.
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I have been sitting on this for a while, thoughts on @EmilyQ 's son and his Theater Degree.
My undergraduate degree was in Speech Communication which required me to take classes in Broadcast Media, Speech, Speech Pathology, and Theater. I think it was a total of 60 credits with 36 credits in one discipline.
Most of my credits were in theater. I was in five main stage productions and I got three credits for each one. I also anchored the News on the campus tv station, and the sports.
While I strongly encouraged my kids to get degrees in hard science, I am a product of a liberal arts degree. My daughter started in Pre Vet and washed out, Chem and Calculus and undiagnosed ADHD got her out.
She has successfully migrated to Marketing and is fine.
My son has successfully navigated Chem and Calculus as a freshman and will end up with an Engineering degree, most likely.
My degree in Speech Communication, mainly Theater, is, was valuable. I tell people my degree is Theater and they ask me, snarkily, whether that has been helpful.
And, I can tell you that it has. In business, I act like I know what I am doing. Same in Management. I act like a teacher, like a golf pro. I act.
It was a great degree.
While I went on to get other degrees, the base degree of Speech Communication/Theater was great and I would not change it.
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1/23/25 W2D4 - SQ
Hicksville
45/95/130/145/165x10, LE/LC 85/90/95, BBShrugs 135/145/155/165, PreCurls 30/40, LF Curls 55/60/65, Abd/Add 125/130/135
Struggling with the time change, took a few days off.
Thought I would share an experience for the benefit of others. Got a physical yesterday, first time in a few years. Figured it would be good to find out where my test/estrogen levels were.
Dr. didn’t even test for them.
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