Three Months of Progress

The next 3 months went pretty much according to plan. The only snafu happened when I went to Florida for a week during Christmas. I was able to get a few workouts in during the week but not as much as I would have liked. Nutrition was mediocre as well. One evening I ended up eating way too much Jamaican food and spent the better part of the night puking up my insides. But as soon as I was home I got back on track.

The workouts were a basic 4 day split:
Monday- chest/triceps
Tuesday- legs
Thursday- shoulders/calves
Friday- back/biceps

Abs 3x per week
Interval training 2x per week for 20 min

I would do about 3 exercises per body part working biggest to smallest. 3-4 sets per exercise with the rep ranges varying on each exercise and switching every week.
That's it! Very basic. The key is consistency over time and having a proper diet to support the workouts.
Most people don't make progress because
1) Their workouts are random (not planned and recorded)
2) They are inconsistent
3) Their nutrition is not precise

The First Week of Dieting

There was a pretty sharp learning curve at the beginning. I went from eating whatever I wanted whenever I wanted to having specific nutrient numbers to hit and a somewhat more limited selection of foods to chose from.
To start I was aiming at 192g protein, 247g carbs (3 servings starch), and 48g fat for each day every day. There were no weekends off, all days were to look the same. Everything I ate had to be weighed, measured and recorded in a food journal. I quickly realized that it was better to keep things simple. Calculating and recording the nutritional content of 5 oz of baked chicken, cup of veggies and a tablespoon of balsamic dressing was much easier than trying to figure out what a restaurant was putting in their dishes.
This is what a typical day of eating looked like.

11/5/08

7am:1C oatmeal

3/4C berries

1 whole egg

4 egg whites

9:15am: 6oz grilled chicken

1 apple

11:30am 4oz chicken

1C brown rice

2C broccoli

1:30pm 2 scoops protein shake

1 Banana

5:00pm 1 can tuna

2C lettuce

2 tbs olive oil

1C strawberries

8:00pm (post workout)

1 scoop protien shake

1 banana

1 apple

10:20pm 2oz steak

1 tortilla

fish oil
(I was a little over on fruit for the day)

I was very disciplined through the first week knowing that I would get a glorious "cheat meal" on Friday night. Finally the week ended and my girlfriend and I (who was also training at the time) headed to Upper Crust in Boston to split a large pizza (I can't recall the toppings, but it was undoubtedly greasy and delicious). If we were smart we would have stopped with the pizza. But we had been good for a whole week, it was time to do some damage! Not yet having our fill of refined carbs, we headed to Legal Seafood for dinner rolls with butter (oh how I miss those) and some dessert.
Upon ingesting several rolls we each ordered a dessert. I ordered some kind of super rich layered chocolate cake. It was about halfway through this that I started to realize the mistake I was digesting. I began to feel full and bloated and sick to my stomach from the carb and sugar overload. We paid the tab, took the rest of the dessert to go (no way I was gonna waste that precious chocolate) and headed back to my apartment where we spent the rest of the night in the fetal position on the couch.
Lesson learned: once you start eating clean be careful with the cheat meals. Your purified system can't process junk like it use to.

First Year Training Progress

(10/08 - 10/09) My first year of training for fitness modeling went very well. Starting out I was in very good cardiovascular shape and had a solid build. I had been lifting regularly for the past 2 years but my programing was mediocre and my diet was not consistent. So in October '08 I decided to begin training for a fitness modeling or bodybuilding competition. I didn't have a particular show in mind, I just wanted to start training and see where it went.
Even though I work as a personal trainer, I didn't have much experience in the fitness modeling /bodybuilding world. So I got some expert help putting together my workouts and diet.
End of October I hit the ground running.