Mmm, more salad please

Day 1 went a tad awry but no big deal.  Banana and orange for breakfast, Salad Nicoise for lunch, pineapple chunks in the afternoon, half a bag of peanuts pregym, raw egg and milk, tropical pork and peppers (diced pork chop, pineapple, loads of peppers, stock, spices).  20 minutes HIIT training.  Standing military press (30kg x 8, 40kg x 5, 2 sets of 45kg x 5), straight legged deadlifts (warmed up, training on 45kg 3x 8 reps).  2-3 min rests between sets.  Overall opinion - well the nuts were overboard but I was starving by that point facing a gym session.  Both exercises could be bumped up in weight a tad.

Day 2, learned from mistake and took extra fruit.  2 bananas, 2 oranges, more salad Nicoise, rest of the nuts, dinner was chicken breast marinated in piri piri with corn on the cob, green beans, carrots and a little morrocon cous cous.  Really didn't need the nuts but hell my muscles need fuel from the weights training.

Not too unhappy with my progress so far.  My hunger is reducing, right now it's 4:15 and I'm fairly full on 2 bananas, 2 oranges and 1 apple.  Sleep also better, getting a little more and feeling much better for it.

Not training tonight as the Worcester Warriors play off is on and it's an important one.  Might even have an ale or two.  2 whole days without beer...jeez what stamina.  I'll limit it to two, I promise.

...

The road less travelled

Time is up.  No more messing around.  I have 2 months left to get in shape.  I have gotten fitter over the past months (despite my woeful lack of posting) however I have not lost any fat.  This is for one reason alone.  Diet.  It's time to do this properly.  It's time to go Spartan.

I have mentioned the Spartan Health Regime before.  It is good.  It is effective.  It is once again to be taken up by myself.  I have often taken it up temporarily with success, but laziness and conveniance have always broken me.  No more.  I have been through a family tragedy very recently and it has woken me up.  I do not always have tomorrow to get started.  If I want to do something I should not forever be putting it off for tomorrow.  And thus I will be taking up the SHR once again.

First of all a disclaimer to readers.  I will be doing my best to keep the details of Bova's SHR off the blog.  I have no interest in stripping Bova of the rightful rewards he deserves for all the effort he has put in over the years to produce this.  I will aim to keep what I reveal here to be what is already in the public domain, such as Bova's videos.

Now to the details.  I will be cleaning up my diet.  This drinking bit isn't Spartan but it is my personal exception...  I will only drink Friday evening through to Sunday.  I will limit what I drink.  I will not drink crap.  I will only drink what I want to drink and I will not give in to pressure (internal and external) to finish drinks if I no longer want them.  I will not drink sugary crap.  I will try drink real ale or wine instead of other stuff.  I will cut down on bread.  I will cut down on potatos.  I will cut down on pasta.  I will up my fruit and veg intake significantly.  I will not eat refined sugar.  I will not eat dodgy oily products (bye bye crisps).  I will aim for a nutriet rich diet.  And while I will not obsess over calories, I'll be aware not to overeat generally.  The only acceptable exceptions to these rules are celebrations and eating out with family.  Neither happen often so it won't kill me, whereas not eating and drinking on these occaisions has pretty good odds of doing so.  Rugby 7's at Twickers is coming up and I will be making fine friends with the Guinness family. 

Exercise - I will get up early in the morning for light bodyweight training during the week.  I will go to the gym 3 times per week, where I will run hard and train hard.  I will not succumb to crappy machine weights unless I have to; I will stick to compound movements on free weights unless I have to wait too long to get onto the equipment.

Lifestyle - Ahh here is often the harder change...I will try get a good nights sleep.

So that's the outline.  What have I done so far?

Well, I made a fresh salad Nicoise for lunch, I've had fruit for breakfast and snacks.  This past weekend I've made a bone broth for stock which I'll use for next weeks lunch.  Tonight I'm at the gym.  As soon as these cod liver oil tablets are used up I'll get the extra high strength seven seas stuff in a bottle.  It may be vile tasting but it is much more nutritionally dense.  I may look at making a liver based dish once a week for lunch if I can find a none disgusting way to take it.  I will also be having raw eggs with milk for my post training nutrition, with whole milk when the semi-skimmed stuff runs out (can't get raw milk locally unfortunately).

That's it for now.  I'll update tomorrow.

The Fyrdman