Some simple nutrition tips, plus Neil's special chilli con carne!

I have been thinking of posting some recipes for a bit and I thought I would do a quick post with a sort of sample menu for a normal (non-fasting, or non-cheat) day.

When you are eating for either the purpose of buring fat or increasing calories to build muscle, the basic principles still apply. Eat whole food (in otherwords UNPROCESSED), and avoid at ALL COSTS artificially hydrogenated (trans) fats, drinks such as fizzy pop, sugared tea/coffee, etc. I'm not going to get involved in the stupid argument about artificial sweeteners. For me that is what the filtering system in my body is for.

I find it is worth spending a little time in the kitchen preparing your food, even if you find it a bit of a chore at times, and there is nothing better than knowing that you have cooked a nice healthy meal, untampered by those who can interfere with your healthy lifestyle and sabotage your goals.

One thing I love is spicy food. The more chilli, cumin, coriander, etc the better!!! I especially love Indian food, but the only problem is that Indian restuarant food is usually cooked with large amounts of ghee (more saturated and possibly trans-fats) so it spoils the treat.

I made a nice chilli con carne and home made guacamole yesterday. I used lean minced beef from a local (national chain) hypermarket, half an onion, 3 cloves garlic, half of each of a red & green peper, whole cumin, whole coriander, chilli powder, 2 tins of kidney beans and a tin of tomatoes, plus a little salt to season the whole thing.

I don't use large (or even small) quantities oil to fry things these days, and I NEVER EVER use solid fats for frying either, (although I do use sprays for things like omeletes), so the beef is dry fried. of course the fat and water escapes during the frying which you use to cook the onion, garlic and peppers.

The whole thing makes use of those cheap, store cupboard ingredients, and makes an economic meal, especially if you have a large family.

Anyway I will give you a little sample. I tend to workout as soon as possible in the morning. I am usually in the gym for 7:30/8:00am.

So here goes the sample for today

Breakfast: Plain low fat yogurt with berries (fresh blueberries and raspberries and dried goji-berries) with 2 desert spoonfuls of oats and 2 of muesli. Aprox 350 kcals

Post Workout: Protein shake. (In this instance I am using 1/2 measure of Sci-MX strawberry lean-gro as a whole measure is just too much for me) 175 cals

Lunch: Home made chilli (recipe above) and guacamole + small banana + 6 dried apricots 600 cals

Afternoon snack: Muller light toffee + dozen almonds + 1 measure strawberry Maximuscle Promax shake 300 cals

Tea/Supper: 2 portions of salmon with al dente brocolli, sliced runner beans and raw cauliflower. 400 cals

Bedtime drink: Chocolate promax shake in 200ml skimmed milk. 200 cals

I think this is a great daily menu for fat loss (approx 2025 cals) for someone of my weight and activity level. For maintenance or muscle gain, feel free to increase the calories by adding healthy carbs such as brown rice or pasta and jacket potatoes.

Please post your comments on any recipe ideas you might have.

Neil

Too much flesh!!!!

Thought I'd do the post on here that I didn't get round to doing yesterday.

My weigh in results (see the transformation blog) showed no change yesterday so I did a bit of guilty cardio in the form of the body attack class at 9:30am. I wasn't the only bloke in there. I wasn't quite with it yesterday morning due to feeling guilty for not losing any fat, but went about the routine as hard as usual.

The only thing was one of the women who was standing in front of me had a backless fitness bra top and one of her mates, well, she looked like she was cold despite the fact that the air conditioning in the studio broke down ages ago and is still to be repaired!!!!! Please...I know us blokes get accused of posing in front of the mirrors and being all "LOOK AT ME!!!" when we're doing our weights. But do us a favour, and wear sensible but comfy clothing in the place. No wonder us blokes get accused of being pervs for even being in the same studio as you ladies!!! Just too much flesh for that time of morning, save it for bedtime for your husband please!!!

On a more exercise focused topic, I did the superset workout (as per my blog from the 9th) again first thing this morning. I got to use the big barbell for my deadlifts AT LAST! Again I did the routine as a tri-set and a quad-set. I think the barbell is half olympic weight which I understand to be 14kg and I added plates totalling 47.5kg. I used the snatch grip to change things up a little. I really enjoyed doing the deadlifts and was pleased to up the intensity at last. I am sure I can increase the weight, but I will do this gradually so I can assess where my failure point is. The burpees set and the end of the second circuit is a killer and makes you gasp for air after you've done it.

I was due for a massage today at 5:30pm so before that I went for a swim. I've been toying with the idea of using swimming for some interval training following a tip in the free-ebook report "Training And Nutrition Insider Secrets For A Lean Body" (click here to get a FREE copy) from Mike Geary, author of "The Truth About Six Pack Abs" and a blog posting from Joel Marion, author "Cheat Your Way Thin". So thats what I did. Our gym pool length is 20m so heres the workout.

10 lengths medium paced freestyle (200m) immediately followed by 6 sets of
2 lengths freestyle sprint with 3 lengths slow breastroke recovery (6X100m)

I did enjoy this workout, and given that I haven't done an intense swim for a long while (I used to be able to swim 1km in about 17 minutes at my best and that isnt that long ago!!!) I was quite pleased with the intensity of my sprints. Lets hope that it burns some fat.

Anyway feel free to download the FREE PDF "Training And Nutrition Insider Secrets For A Lean Body" by Mike Geary, by clicking this link. You could even consider buying his "Truth About Six Pack Abs" program by following the links in the PDF!

Enjoy your training and keep your food sensible. Back To Turbulence Training again tomorrow!

Neil

Making progress

Just a quick post on here as I have done a post on the transformation blog.

I'm really pleased as I burnt off 2lb fat this week, so it just shows that following the turbulence training program and doing 2 24 hour fasts per week will help you burn off your belly. I'm now really excited about the remaining 11 weeks, and doing my best not to be distracted by wine and beer.

For me the Eat Stop Eat book has made a difference to my eating pattern. I would never have considered fasting as legit a way to control calories, but it does go to show that it does make a difference.

For anyone considering fasting as a method of calorie control, I would certainly recommend that you do your research and get a copy of Eat Stop Eat before you take the plunge, as the author, Brad Pilon, addresses the principle concerns of most people, such as "Will I lose muscle?", "Won't I go into starvation mode?", etc, etc.

For me, it does seem to be a complementary part of my fat loss program, and is helping me control calories that I may have consumed without even realising.

Anyway I will close up this little blog and post more later this week.

Keep working hard and smart

Neil

What I've been up to this week.

Well we all know I've entered the 5th Turbulence Training Transformation Contest (TTTC). I've been working on that and the comments about that are on my other blog www.neilsturbulencetrainingtransformation.com (tinyurl.com/ngtttc). Please bookmark it, follow it and give me your support as it really will be very much appreciated.

I've not been bad but I've not been brilliant with the booze this week, as I had a couple of bottles of wine over the week, and a beer and bottle of wine tonight. About what I can handle I would say. I didnt find yesterday's TT very intense because it contained exercises I havent done so I had to work them fairly conservatively. That said, I am not doing my TT interval training on the eliptical now (they will be on the treadmill from now on). That will be a challenge because I am a really heavy-footed runner, and whenever I run, for some reason my rhomboids just ache for ages.

So as for my drink tonight which is my treat, I feel I have thoroughly deserved it.

I have done 2 24 hour fasts this week following the "Eat Stop Eat" principles. I've managed not to overeat as well. I'm hoping for some progress this week.

Leaving my TT workouts aside, on my TT rest days I did a cardio/abs from skinny vinny's site, rested on Thursday and was in for the body attack class starting at 5pm. Usually I do circuit training (starting at 4) but it is losing its appeal as now that my fitness has improved I find it is no longer intense enough.

I had been thinking about designing my own workout. I've seen a few of skinny vinny's vids on you tube and he is another documented trainer worthy of trust. I therefore felt that I could design my own workout based on some of his own advice so this is what I did to day:

UPPER BODY

HORIZONTAL PLANE

A BB Chest Press 3X8 @ 40kg
B BB RDL/Bent Over Row Combo 3X8 @ 40kg

VERITCAL PLANE

A BB Shoulder press 3X8 @30kg
B Pull ups 3Xmax (assisted bw - 19kg)

LEGS

A BB Deadlift 3X8 @40kg
B BB Squats 3X8 @40kg
C Burpees 3X12

CLEAN & PRESS

A BB C&P 3X6 @40kg

I then did an abs circuit of

A Plank On Ball 3X90s
B Hanging Knee raises 3X15
C Cable woodchop 3X12 (13.75kg)
D Cable crunch on ball 3X15 (11.25kg)

and then interval training on the cross trainer (Easy = level 13/2 Hard=level 17/25). 3min warm up, 5X 30s hard/30s easy, then 30s hard/90s cool down.

There was only one other person workin out when I had finished. thats dedication.

It took me about an hour and 20 mins to complete the workout, and I was dripping particularly with the resistance training. It wasnt the greatest amount of weight but the supersets were very intense and I found it hard with my grip which is one thing that is on my key improvement goals.

Since doing the TT workouts I've definitely improved in terms of my strength and i can see how much leaner my muscle tone is. my veins are developing on my biceps despite the fact i never do any isolation exercises from my own program or choice.

A funny thing I can relate to is those people who rest too much and dont work hard enough. Today there was a lad who must be in his late teens/early twenties. he hogged the smith machine and rested pretty much most of the time i was doing my supersets. what a waste. I could have done a quick yoga routine between that guy's sets

I may have not done the weight level I wanted but I still had a great workout, that will be more intense and better the next time I do it. I hope I am not too stiff tomorrow.

Enjoy your weekend.

Neil

Trying something different.

As we all know, Turbulence Training is my primary workout program, with my current routine 2k8 being a day on day off, day on day off, day on 2 days off. So what to do in my off days like today?

Well, as an affiliate of, and newsletter subscriber to, Vince Del Monte, I thought I'd give one of his mini programs a whirl. It's imaginitively titled "The 16 week Razor Sharp Abdominal Cardio Workouts".

It goes like this. He gives 6 abs circuits, and 11 cardio routines. I chose workout 1 which was double leg raises (on a ball), and a cable cruch on a ball 3-4 sets, both to failure. I had a real problem with doing the double leg raises on the ball so i moved onto a bench. I was fine with the cable crunch but it took a little bit of experimenting to find the right level of weight, which was 11kg. The only thing is that you do those circuits between 2 rounds of 20 minutes minimum on the treadmill. And they aren't steady state either. My workout was a ladder of 1 minute easy followed by one minute hard, 1 minute easy 2 minutes hard, 1 min easy 3 hard and repeat 2 to 3 times. Well I hate the treadmill and I was going pretty well given my lack of experience on it so rather than repeat I just reversed the process so did 2/1 then 1/1.

As you can conclude, I didn't particularly enjoy the treadmill although the abs work was nice as it was different to what I would normally do, which is usually a circuit of things like planks on ball, side planks, ball jacknifes, etc. That said I think if I do continue with some ab work I will start incorporating cable crunches into my circuits.

I have been thinking about starting my swimming back up, as its been a long long while since I did it seriously, so I've scheduled some swimming in on Thursday.

Another thing I have decided to do for a short period is to drop the circuit training class on Saturday afternoon. Two reasons for this and they are both important to me. 1 I can spend a little bit more time Lydia before I take her back to her mum's, and 2 I can stay at the gym a bit longer after the body attack class, and perhaps do some abs or a little bit of steady state to build up my endurance. And, it will mean I go back home later, and start my Saturday treat (nice bottle of wine) a lot later so that I'm not tempted to over-consume.

That moves me on to the nutritional side of things. I'm waiting to hear about Joel Marion's "Cheat Yourself Thin" affiliate program. As I mentioned, I am experimenting with intermittent fasting, having finished my second fast at lunchtime this afternoon. Virtually every exercise/nutrition system is totally against it (apart from TT) for some reason. So lets see how things pan out.

Final thought for tonight. The TT Transformation contest. I weighed myself yesterday 78.5kg 23.8% BF. I have now started a separate blog specifically for that. Please take a look. I did get my composition done at the gym, which said 19.8% BF. I just dont know. Anyway, I will be using my scales for the sake of consistency.

Will now close it at that, as it looks like Arsenal are going to lose to Man U in the Champions League Semi Final :-(. My best mate will be gloating. So will get an early night and some rest ready for tomorrow's TT workout and body attack.

Neil

Quick post on Saturday

Thought I'd just make a quick post before I take Lydi back to her mum's and I go to the gym to do circuits and body attack.

I'm feeling a bit fitter today and ready to go for it. I've also been sorting my eating plan and fasting schedule for next week when the contest starts.

I'm abandoning the Hardcore fat loss pdf for the time being, but it is still in my plans.

So this is the schedule for the next 12 weeks starting on Monday.

Weeks 1-4 2K8

Weeks 5-8 2K9

Weeks 9-12 Hardcore Fat Loss.

Somewhere within these 12 weeks I will be taking a week's holiday down in Somerset so I will take the dumbbells and the stability ball and see if I can do some sort of maintenance program, which I will look into a bit closer to the time. I expect I will be fairly active in any event as Lydi will probably want to go on some sort of day trip a couple of times in the week.

Anyway I'm signing off for now and going away to work on my pull ups and dips before circuits start.

'Til next time

Neil

My first experience of fasting, and Back in Training.

As mentioned on Wednesday my little daughter, Lydia, wasn't able to go to nursery because of a sickness bug. So Thursday was a stay at home day. That added to the fact that the TT hardcore fat loss program totally tires you, and my foot injury meant that I completely rested yesterday.

As you all well know, despite my fitness, I do enjoy wine more than I should (taking me away from what I want to achieve), and I have found Craig's ultimate nutrition plan really tough to follow. So I have therefore been forced to think outside the box. In Craig's, and other writers such as Mike Geary and Vince Delmonte, have discussed Brad Pilon's "Eat Stop Eat" e-book on intermitent fasting.

I had my doubts about whether fasting is for me, but in the interests of experimentation, and given that my discipline has wavered, I have decided that Brad's e-book is well worth investigating. I have really found what Brad has said to be particularly interesting. I have fasted from about 5:30pm yesterday to about the same time today. From then on I am eating "normally", which for me is pretty healthily in any event.

It wasn't as hard as I expected it to be, and I will go into a little something that might be of interest. I took Lydia to MacDonalds today as a little treat to cheer her up. Not long after we sat down with her "Happy Meal" and my bottle of Buxton Spring Water (only, no "food"), a rather obese couple sat down with their large maccy meals. It was interesting to watch this couple of slobs. Lydia ate about 2 1/2 chicken mcnuggets,about a dozen french fries and drank a very small amount of her chocolate shake in roughly 15 minutes. The male member of the "couple" wolfed his nuggets and fries chewing them about 5 or 6 times, then shovelling the next load into his mouth as fast as his "hunger" made him. He then went and ordered a mcflurry or whatever they call it. What's more astonishing is that they couldn't have even taken a total 5 minutes to consume all those calories. No wonder they were shockingly overweight, and I was very sad to see people choose to be in such a state.

This experience, however, makes me feel much better about my own little vice. But it also makes me feel more commited to eating healthily and to intermittent fasting. That way I can feel much less guilty about my passion for wine. A couple of days fasting for me would represent a caloric defit of about 5,500 calories (which would represent a 1.5 lb fat loss) so personally, it would be very worthwhile using the East Stop Eat lifestyle.

Another product that I have seen that is launching today is Joel Marion's "Cheat Yourself Thin". Joel is an advocate of using "Cheat Days" where if you are on a restricted diet, you eat massive calories of whatever you like, so that your body is fooled into thinking that food is in abundance after having calories restricted. I'm not going to dismiss Joel's system, as I'm sure it will work for many people and (despite being in pre-launch) already has many testamonials from people that he has helped with this system before publishing it. However, Brad Pilon explains this phenomenon in Eat Stop Eat, and is referred to as diet edema. I'm not going to claim I know anything about what they are talking about, but it seems that normal eating after some form of calorie restriction, whether total intermittent fasting, or a reduced calorie controlled diet, increases fat loss rates for many participants.

Moving back to resuming Turbulence Training today, I was unable to complete the week's TT hardcore fat loss program for the week as I do not have any equipment at home to do chin ups or dips. So I did a nice TT program from this year's "March Madness". Craig demonstrates it in the video below:


It was nice to workout at home, and in fact I worked out in the back yard (except for the stability ball part of the circuit). I don't have a kettlebell so I used my adjustable dumbbells. I started off at 10kg for the first circuit, moved up to 13kg for the second, and 16kg for the third and final circuit. I've done this routine before, last month (links on my facebook page!!!). All I can say is that I was completely whacked out, despite being used to doing circuit training on a regular basis at my gym.

Lydi goes back to her mum's tomorrow afternoon so I will be back to the gym afterwards to do circuits and body attack at 4pm. I'm looking forward to seeing what delights Sophie has in store for us after an interesting class last week. I've got a suspicion that it will be the strength supersets again.

The Transformation contest starts on Monday. I am launching a new blog specifically to cover my transformation progress, but I will still continue to write to this blog too.

Keep motivated, eat healthily, enjoy your life.

Neil