Week Nine, day 3

RTP GROUP SHRED DAY 4 err, no 3, umm oh no sorry it's DAY 6

Hey guys...I'm still around. Refuse to let some minor glitch make me quit. Absolutely not.

So here is day 6.

Thank you to all of you for your continued support. Don't give up on me I'm still here.

Week Nine, day 2

Firstly an apology. Every intention was to reply to and support everybody that is on the shred. I really do appreciate the support and do not want to be seen to be selfish or uncaring.

Broadband in South Africa SUX. From early am until late in the evening it is mindbogglingly difficult to keep a connection. So..here's a scenario. Access the comments, choose to publish, hit send. Drop the connection. Try again. ahhh, connected...write out comments for all the shredders (half an hour) and hit send. Wait 10 minutes for data to transfer. THEN THE CONNECTION GETS DROPPED AGAIN....Grrrrrrrr. Start again and repeat at least 3 times. By then I've missed 3 meals.

OK let's visit shredder blogs. Same story x 10. I mean, I can have two of my one on one clients come into the gym, train and walk out without me even knowing they have been (well not really, but you get my point.)

At the end of all this I GIVE UP. It takes me an hour and a half to do something that in the US should take no more than 15 minutes.

I am going to try and find somebody with a serious connection so that I can chat with all of you.

In the mean time - oh look, I've got an hour spare (ha ha) let me quickly post my day 5 pics.

Week nine, day 1

RTP GROUP SHRED DAY 4

Monday morning and first thing I'm thinking about is my day 4 shred pic...boy how life has changed. This has become a big focus for me but in a good way. It's brought everything into sharp focus as well. Am becoming more committed to doing other things in my life with focus as well.

However I will always remember " Progress not perfection, there is only one perfect person, and he does not live on this planet."

Group shredders, give it your best today. GO TEAM, have a great week.

EXTRA EXTRA EXTRA

Just coz it's sunday thought I'd drop in a pic of me taking

the man and woman of the year..... my precious little people to lunch. See ya, tomorrow.

Week 8, day 7

RTP GROUP SHRED DAY 3

Sunday - nice lazy day day today...ummm, actually not ...leap out of bed, throw on some threads, jumps into the wheels and head for the gym....why?

Coz it's photo day - that's it day 3.

Thought I had this thing covered but when it came to putting pic 3 where pic 2 used to be I started getting confused.... again. Well I'm just a simple lad, got it down eventually.

So pic done, I'm taking my kids to lunch.
THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU FOR YOUR AWESOME SUPPORT. IT REALLY HELPS KNOWING THAT THERE ARE PEOPLE ALL OVER THE PLANET SHOUTING FOR YOU...AS I AM FOR ALL OF YOU. KEEP GOING , 11 more days. I wonder how many of us will keep going. It certainly does keep you on the straight and narrow.

Have a fantastic sunday...see ya tomorrow.

Week eight, Day 6

RTP Group Shred - Day 2

Now to get these darn pics side by side. Step one take day 2 pic. Ok done, piece a cake compared with yesterday. Just made a few adjustments to the height of the camera and the angle etc. Shot the pic. Oooops, looks a little different. Hmmm..shows what happens if you don't mark everything properly.

Anyway..since I don't have time today to reset the whole thing again, I'm sure you get the picture LOL.

Don't know how I'm going to get this thing done tomorrow since I live 20 mins from the gym where these were taken, but I WILL make a plan.

Well done all of you in the group shred, and big up for the courage it takes to expose yourself, literally when you/we are not in the best shape. But guess what, before we know it we will be

Week eight, day 5

RTP - GROUP SHRED DAY ONE

Christy - this is especially for you. Here's how Dougal got his pic done in time.

No camera, no tripod, no person to take the pic, 3 hours to deadline. And I just know Adam is standing waiting with a big whip.

Hmmm....Oh I know, I've just got a new mobile with a pretty cool camera. OK, where the heck is the manual. Oh right, ok, self timer..now we are getting somewhere.

Find an empty room in the gym, lock the door and go to work with "Prestik" (a kind of maleable putty) Stick the prestik on the window of the solitary room, standing around in my underwear, feeling really foolish. If only you could see me now.

Stick the camera to the window, set the timer, press the shutter, step back and smile. Cliiick, great let's have a look.

Hmmm, great pic of the garden outside. I had the camera the wrong way round. Ok..again. Set it up, Click...

Superb pic of half of my size 10 feet. Ok, can't send that.

Fast forward one hour and here is the result. Not the best pic I've ever taken but it'll get better.

Now to edit the thing and get it onto this post.

Another hour - hey I'm a finess professional OK.

Anyway Adam, here is day 1.

Committment complete - now about tomorrow

Week eight, day 4

RTP GS DAY 1 TOMORROW



So Adam Waters group shred starts tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it. It seems that this blog has allowed me to be less cautious of committment. When one plans to do..well, anything it's a question of starting. That's it, just start.

So, that is exactly what I'm doing with this challenge. My thought process has been...can it help me get to my goal quicker..and the answer is a resounding YES.

So I got my head around it, made the committment - to Adam, and now I need to work out the logistics. Like, I live alone most of the time and stay at my girlfriends place a couple days a week. I do not have a tripod, do not have a digital camera and am not about to ask a passing person every day to take a shot of my semi nekkid torso...no sirree.

I'm still not comfortable undressed in front of strangers so going public will be a real stretch for me but I will do whatever it takes to get the "lean for Life" job done.

I WILL work out the details because I HAVE MADE THE COMMITTMENT and I will absolutely honour that committment

So check back tomorrow to see how I plan to get the pics done. Right now I don't even know.

Week eight, day 3

What a waste of time. In South Africa we do not have enough band width. Throughout business hours and into the evening it is seriously difficult to access and browse, never mind, make contributions to various forum, blogs etc.

So what can I learn from this since I've been sitting waiting for 15 minutes for everything to get into place so I can start writing. Well apart from the networks being seriously overloaded, I can learn one of the most important lessons of our time...Yup, you guessed it, PATIENCE.

Everything today is about immediate gratification...if I can't have it now, then stick it.

Well unfortunately that concept doesn't work with certain things...things like, fat loss and muscle building and...well that's plenty for now.

I mean, there is no way that you can force fat loss or build the muscle you are looking for. Your body will do it in it's own time and that, friends, is that.

Frustrating as it may be, learn the lesson quick or prepare to be continually freaked out.

Anyway slow fat loss is more permanent that fast fat loss.

Anything more than around 1kg per week is likely to be muscle and we guys do not want to lose muscle, it's hard enough to build in the first place.

Week Eight, day 2

Beautiful day in South Africa, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, it's summer and life is good.

Isn't it great how we are able to make any day beautiful depending on our state of mind.

For example, if I was bankrupt, and my car was being repo'd, and I had no job...the day wouldn't be looking that great.

My reality is different to yours...and I the way I see things is different to yours.

To get MY reality right I thank God every day for this beautiful planet he created and all the blessings he has given me, and I thank him for adversity in my life since it makes me stronger when I learn how to deal with it.

Since I created pure thought for myself today, I had a great ab session and fantastic cardio. Felt like I was floating on air.

Works for me

Week Eight, Day 1

Big Leg Day

Done and dusted...My training partner is ill today so I've just trained alone. It's quite difficult to adjust your mind to training without the rythm and timing of a partner. Luckily it was LARGE leg day so I knew that if I had to bail at the bottom of a squat I could dump it off my back...can't do that with bench. You'd just end up with a smashed sternum and a weak little voice shouting "Helllllllppppp, hellllllppppp" whilst feeling very embarassed. I've seen it before, it ain't pretty.

I've been more careful to eat more whole food today, sometimes I tend to take the easy way out with protein shakes if I'm back to back and under pressure.

Clients tend not to stress if you're chugging down a shake, kinda shows you walk the talk, but they probably wouldn't appreciate you not being able to spot them on a heavy dumbell bench press because you are smashing chicken breast, couscous and spinach into your face would they now...no, they wouldn't.

So good day at the office, am looking forward to cardio and abs tomorrow.

Out

Week Seven, day 7

My apologies for this, (since gloating is not a character trait I admire), especially to those who don't play, don't watch and actually could care not a jot about rugby.

BUT I AM A VERY PROUD SOUTH AFRICAN AND A RUGBY FANATIC

2007 Rugby World Cup.... World Champions - SOUTH AFRICA
IRB Player of the year - Brian Habana - SOUTH AFRICA
IRB Coach of the Year - Jake White - SOUTH AFRICA
IRB Rugby Team of the year - You guessed it SOUTH AFRICA

WE ARE THE WORLD CHAMPIONS

Week seven, day 6

World Cup FINAL Day

Cardio and abs went great today. 20 minutes on the mill with a maximum of 14kms per hour.
Went hard and felt good.

Right... moving right along ... everybody in the country is fully focussed on Rugby World Cup 2007. South Africa V England.

Including me ... so talk to you tomorrow.

Week Seven, day 5

I love that 5 x 5

Had the best workout ever. Just felt so strong and kept pumping myself up throughout the session.
Achieved my goal... Barbell Bench Press 5 x 5, no spot, 100kgs
Seated shoulder press 5 x 5, no spot 27 kgs, each hand
Close grip bench 5 x 5, no spot 80kgs
Bicep curls 5 x 5, 21kgs each hand
seated row (just about whole stack)
chins (3 plates)
Tricep push downs (just about the whole stack)

Left the gym feeling like Superman. What a feeling.

Ate well, drank lots, dougal out.

Week Seven, day 4

Discipline is a great tool to feel FANTASTIC about yourself.

What I mean is this. My back was a touch dodgy yesterday (my own fault) and I was contemplating giving my cardio a miss.....then I remembered you guys out there to whom I made a massive committment.

Looked out the window and it was a grey coldish day with rain bucketing down. The little voice said...you could hurt your back further..then what.

Well, suffice to say I ignored the voice, ran out into the bucketing rain and drove to the gym where soaking wet I sidled into the weight room and got stuck into my ab workout. A little gingerly at first, then moving into full range feeling no pain.

From abs to cardio where I got stuck into a full blown mind bending session.

I walked out of the gym feeling FANTASTIC, who cares if I got wet, I kept my committment to all of you...not foolishly, I was careful.... and, my back is 100%.

Tomorrow 5 x 5 sets - upper body whooo hooo, can't wait

My Goal for tomorrow

Bench 5 sets of 5 without a spot with 100kgs.

Affirmation

I get stronger every day by training with passion and eating regular healthy meals.

Week seven, day 3

Disapointing session today...

whilst doing oblique sit ups yesterday during my ab routine I gave my back a bit of a twinge. It was a bit painful this morning and I spoke to two of the physio's in the Health Centre where my gym is situated.

They recomended supine leg press, no pressure on the back, dumbell lunges, and leg extensions.

So I worked my way through the routine with trepidation and felt unfilled at the end. yuggghh.

What it made me realise however is the level of intensity I have been training with up to this point.

A normal training session like in the past is now obsolete and tame compared to what I'm doing now.

No worries, upper body on friday and by then the back will be cool.

It's 8.04 pm and I've been up since 4.30 am.....I'm whacked and I'm outta here.

Till the a.m...

Week seven, day 2

Funny how things change

6 weeks ago, I set a goal to be the international BFL age group champion. As time goes by it has become more important to me to set up and follow through the disciplines necessary to make what I'm doing now a lifestyle rather than a 12 week challenge.

Oh don't get me wrong I still want to achieve my goal but more than that I want to be in better and better shape, physically, mentally, intellectually, emotionally spiritually with each passing year, and that requires the discipline of balance and moderation.

With me it has always been all or nothing. Either overboard with exercise of some sort, or supreme grand master couch potato, but with an athletes mind.

Either party full on or don't bother to go.

Well slowly but surely that is changing....the more I blog the more I am able to think rationally about living my life with balance.

My committment is to spend time exercising each day with intensity and to be in the best shape I can be...FOREVER. Like Adam I see very little point in doing this for 12 weeks and then jumping back onto the couch with a cold one and a smug look, whilst watching ESPN.

I WILL have defined Abs by Christmas, but I will also enjoy myself. I will train less, spend more time with my family and spend more time watching the ocean. I will do different exercise. Ride my MTB, do a lot of surfing, run on the beach.

When the holiday is finished I will get back to work and training with renewed vigour and fresh goals and plans for the whole year.

My cardio today went well although I gave myself permission to back off a little. Still really tired from last nights upper body session.

My goals for tomorrow.
I will drink 3 litres of water
I will train with intensity focussing on each and every rep
I will eat 6 nutritionally balanced meals
I will have a positive day

My affirmations
I am getting leaner and more muscular every day
I love eating nutritious healthy food
I love to help people get their lives back through health and fitness
I LOVE MY LIFE

Week seven, day 1

Moment of truth

Suck it up dougal, you've got to do this sometime. Man this is hard. To show before pics when you don't have the afters is like exposing your soul for the planet to see.

So I'm grabbing courage in my hand like a sword as I stand and deliver.

Here are my pics on the day I started and at the half way point.
Starting weight 220 lbs - halfway 213 lbs.

My goal for tomorrow - to re look at my eating plan and tighten it up for the 6 weeks to come.

Later.

Week Six, day 7

FINE TUNING - 6 Weeks

This is where the rubber really meets the road.

I have really managed to slot into blogging every day and I'm really enjoying it..It has helped me focus on my own journey much more than I could have if there was no record. That accountability thing again.. This is thanks to Adam Waters.

Now that I'm doing that regularly I feel that I want to drill down and fine tune this Journey of mine even further and so I publicly committed to daily goal setting on my blog.

This will help me in that for the last six weeks of my 12 week journey I am forced to be even more focussed than ever before and will give me the best results I can possibly achieve.

I have also decided to write my affirmations publicly each day.

SO: Goals for day 1 of my six week "Fine Tuning plan"

1) I will drink 2 glasses of water as I awake. I will drink a further 2 ltrs during the day.
2) I will drink a 30gm protein shake, eat a cup of jungle oats, a FF flavoured yoghurt and a handful of almonds within 30 minutes of waking up
3) I will eat a protein/carb drink one hour pre training in the afternoon
4) I will train with intensity and focus and concentrate on each rep as I do it.
5) I will drink a protein shake pre bed.
6) I will do something today that will make someone else's life better.

Right that's it for Monday.

If you have any comments, constructive criticism, suggestions please let me know. It might look a little cumbersome but it is day 1 after all.

I have tended to focus on the things that are important to me personally.

AFFIRMATIONS

I am lean and muscular and getting more so each and every day.
I love eating healthy and nutritious food and do so regularly every day
I am so grateful for everything in my life and embrace adversity, it makes me stronger.

Week six, day 6

Cardio today was fun. I mixed up my HiiT in a way I havn't done before. I spent 5 minutes warming up...walk and jogged and then did a 4 minute sequence. 7-8-9-10 kms on the t/mill, I followed this with 5 x 2 minutes sets. Lowest at 7 and the highest running from 12,13,14,14...followed this with a 2 minutes cool down.

I felt it worked really well and I felt great afterwards.

I ate clean all day and had a chance to test myself in the "real world" last night. Went to a party ...a big bash. I made sure that I had eaten my last meal just before we left for the party and drank some water.

Arrived at the party and nursed one....that's right ONE, beer the whole night. When my next meal timing came around, I didn't need a reminder...I WAS HUNGRY. Checked out all the available food and heaped up a plate with...A chicken kebab, egg salad (no dressing) Couscous salad with avocado pear and a small baked potato. Really enjoyed the food, didn't feel over full at all and headed off home around 11ish for a solid nights sleep.

Pretty chuffed with my performance in the "real world".

Andrew well done last night mate ENGLAND nailed France. I hope we win our semi tonight and look forward to meeting you guys in the final next week.

See you later for goal setting.

EXTRA EXTRA

Adam Waters talked about my journey running frighteningly parallel to his.

Here's another example of how that is manifesting. Firstly Big Up to Adam for his range of clothing. Fantastic, I hope you do incredibly well with it.

I also have "T's" and caps which I use in my gym here in South Africa and it's amazing how collective consciousness works. I have no doubt about the power of same thinking on different continents.

Here is my clothing.

Week Six, day 5

I've just had an idea sparked by 217 day journey, to make me even more accountable. Thank you.

From Week seven, day 1, I'm going to log daily goals for eating, training, drinking and mental attitude. I think drilling down will really focus me on the second half of my 12 week challenge.

So, it's down on paper...well, so to speak, so please hold me accountable, and challenge me if you don't like what you see.

I'm going to call it "Fine tuning - 6 weeks"

Have just finished my leg session today which was really tough but I enjoyed it hugely.

I'm sucking down my meal replacement 42 gms protein, 3 gms fat, 23 gms carbs...good healthy food to replace everything I've lost through training. Tastes really good as well.

I train with glutamine and take creatine before training as well. Other suplements ...none, zip, nada.

Looking forward to cardio tomorrow with a good tough ab session thrown in.

Let you know how it goes.

Bye

Week six, day 4

Today I committed murder

Oh yes, I killed my cardio session. I went into the gym feeling great today.
I did things a little differently. I slowed down, and focussed on what I was doing. Took a little longer with my ab session...more attentive, more deliberate...and it hurt more, which is what I wanted.

Onto the mill....again took my time warming up which paid off since I was able to go a lot harder and finished very strong and motivated.

So, achieved my goals for today as far as eating and drinking as well.

Am looking forward to my 3 x 15 leg session.

I just want to say a public CONGRATULATIONS to Adam Waters. He fully deserves all the good things he's getting right now and he is clearly destined for greatness.

He's a really genuine guy with lots of integrity and a will to help others. I have a belief that you can never be happy unless you are doing something to give back and help others.

The Law of Reciprocity Rules.

I will be watching his rise to fame with great interest, after all, he is the reason I am here and making great progress. Good on you, mate.

Thank you Adam.

Week Six, day 3

Dougal's BACK

Thanks to all of you for your encouragement. Being accountable has its benefits.

Right now I'm battling to type. My arms and the rest of my upper body are destroyed. I'm completely wiped out...and I feel FANTASTIC.

It's that 3 x 15 x 30 secs rest absolutely brutal workout.

However the main thing is I feel fully motivated.

Starts with feeling good in your mind, then getting attitude for the session then acting out the attitude in the session and before you know it things are cool.

That's how life works, but it's great to have that knowledge and to know how to access it.

Right, hometime, another meal and a great night's sleep.

See ya tomorrow.

Week six, day 2

Thanks for the support

Thanks you, Andrew in particular, for your support. My cardio session did not go well. I did my abs and jumped on the treadmill. Did a longer warm up than usual and got going. Feeling a few niggles in my legs and some muscular pain from my leg session I went a lot easier than normal and jumped off the treadmill after 15 minutes.

Now, I don't know whether I was right to go easy...It felt like I should, or whether I was just demotivated. I actually don't want to analyse it too much because I am really looking forward to my upper body session tonight.

I have been eating clean for 5 weeks (saturday night excluded) and drinking plenty of water. I got straight back into clean eating monday am, and have eaten all my meals since then so I'm not going to get down on myself.

I think my attitude should be positive going forward and not negative looking backwards. "As a man thinketh in his heart so is he."

I think what contributed to a rather blah state of mind were a few business issues which happened all at the same time.

Nothing serious...as well as an extended guilt trip from Saturday as Andrew suggested.

So I move forward with enthusiasm for my training and indeed life knowing that I am absolutely on track to achieve my goal.

Thanks again, I appreciate everybody's support and thanks to all of you for visiting my blog.

Please keep coming.

Week six, day 1

Felt a bit flat training today. Took a while to get into it and then no problem. Perhaps it was because it was a heavy leg day and I'm getting to the point where I've really got to believe I can push the weight. Faith now comes into play.

Eating was cool, drinking water was cool, plenty of sleep. Cardio tomorrow and I'll see how I feel.

Got nothing else today

Later

Week five, day 7

Not feeling wonderful

Saturday night was a birthday celebration dinner for me. Went to a portuguese restaurant on the wrong side of town for dinner with family and friends. When the family left the friends got down to some serious partying. I mean 3.30am serious.

Ate prawns drank beer had a fantastic time and woke up sunday to regret it.

How do I feel emotionally about it?

Well - actually...no recriminations. I have good friends and I made the choice to party hard, so I can hardly cry into my soup can I now.
How much damage has it. I don't believe a huge amount so it's move on time.

My life has not stopped and my lifestyle has changed but since I am actually still alive I let go now and again. It's actually good for me because I'm a typical Type a personality - an extremist, so finding balance is a good thing. Except with me it's at either end of the scale.

Anyway, it's done....new day, clean food, lot's of water, hard training and by middle of the week it will be forgotten about.

I'm human.

Week five, day 6

Had to be at the gym at 7.30 to train clients. Got my own butt out of bed at 4.30am to do my own cardio and ab routine and blog. Got a full day today and wanted to get it all done early.

Am feeling more and more motivated every day. I feel and look better than I have for a very long time.

Everything starts in your own brain and you can choose how you want to live.

Create your own life and live rather than exist.

Pics coming soon.

Have a great weekend.

Week five, day 5

At the end of week five I take a look at my strength increases over the last 5 weeks. Most of them are 50% up on my starting weights and it serves to remind me that variety in your training is what will give you most growth, strength and speed gains.

My own program consists of 3 days of weight training weekly doing the same exercises but with different set and rep and rest ranges. In essence I'm doing strength training once every 2 weeks, size training, once every 2 weeks and endurance or density training once every 2 weeks. This means you can do this routine for longer (8 weeks) before changing, since there is no danger of adaption in this time frame considering the gap between same routines.

It's a phenominal concept and is really working for me. At 58 yrs old and at 97kgs, I'm doing 5 sets of 5 reps, bench press with 95kgs to my chest without a spotter. I'm pretty happy. Seated shoulder press with 25kgs each hand. Seated row, 3/4's of the stack and chins with very little assisted weight. My exercises are all compound. Bench press, Seated row, chins, shoulder press, close grip bench, standing row, squats, deadlift, lunges, step ups. They will always be the greatest exercises to do. Methods change, principles never do.

See ya tomorrow.

Week five, day 4

Run Forest Run

Remember Forest Gump. How he ran all over America. When I watch people in commercial gyms on the treadmill I often wonder if they have goals or if they just get on and run for an hour at the same pace every day without thinking about it.

Do they realise that doing the same thing every day doesn't help much. For a start the human body/mind is extremely sophisticated and adapts and becomes efficient very quickly, so once it understands the routine it doesn't have to adapt any more and then it is literally just routine.

You have to mix up your cardio training enough so as to make it inefficient for your body and difficult to adapt. Different forms of hi intensity cardio training over 20 minutes or so are best for accelerating metobolic rate over a period of time.

Forget about burning calories, heating up the metabolic furnace is what you want to do.

My own training is reaping rewards and I can feel that I'm burning fat every day.

My own affirmations - "I am getting leaner and stronger all the time and I love eating healthy nutritious food every day."

Week five, day 3

The one time when Negative, is really positive.

Did squats last nights emphasising the negative. In other words emphasising and over controlling the downward movement instead of letting gravity pull you down. Man are my legs sore today.

I focussed on negatives with all my exercises and I can feel that I really put in the effort.

I think that often times even though we are focussed on what we are doing, we don't drill down far enough, mentally to get the greatest benefit from the exercise. To illustrate let's look at the good old standard, the bench press.

You lie on the bench, grab the bar, take the strain and, if its a heavy set, get through it as quick as possible. What you should be doing is this.
1) Visulise your goal for the set before you get to the bench. Understand what you are trying to achieve.
2) Lie on the bench, close your eyes and calm your breathing down
3) Again visualise the goal for the set, and imagine that you are actually doing the first few reps. Feel the weight and how smooth your rhythm is.

When you've done a few reps, in your mind, take the strain, lift the bar off the rack and continue the set, for real.

You'll be amazed at how much more you can lift and also how rythmical the set was and how it went exactly according to plan.

Understand this, The mind cannot distinguish between a real and an imagined experience. Therefore the more you train in your mind, with a specific goal in mind, the more proficient the real action will be, because you've already done it...according to your sub conscious.

That's real focus.

Give a try at your next session and let me know how it goes.

Week five, day 2

My ab work is taking on a life of its own, which is cool. I am doing about 10 minutes of core stabilising and strengthening before I start pure abdominals and then into a mini boot camp ab routine which lasts another 15 minutes or so. It's going to be interesting to see how much development there has been when my abs start to show.

My cardio routine was really effective and I can feel that I'm getting fitter from session to sesssion. Hi intensity interval training is great for releasing endorphins and and seems to be doing that as lot for me. I feel like I'm getting high almost every session.

It's a beautiful day here in Johannesburg,I'm loving summer.

Rock on.

Week five, day 1

Say what?

Week five day 1, wow. It just struck me how quickly time goes by . Into week five for me almost doesn't seem possible. Has it been tough for me. NO. Why?

Well I guess that's down to the amazing Adam Waters. Not only has he found the secret but he has been generous enough to share it...for free...unusual these days.

It's a one step strategy. Become completely accountable to as many people as possible. It's that simple.

The more people you tell what you're doing, IN DETAIL, the more resposible you become for your own wellbeing. If you have integrity that is.

I mean, it's easy to tell someone, even on a blog, how great things are going if you're a liar. "Oh things are brilliant, I'm making gains and eating great" is easy to say if no-one can see you sticking black forest cake down your gullet every day.

However if you have integrity and lying is not part of who you are, it's a doddle.

All this leads to my admission that I had a piece of cheese cake last night...deliberately. How so? I hear you ask. Well it was my birthday and my friends at the gym bought me the cake. I am not a rude person so I had to figure out the best time to eat a slice.

Now I do not advocate this strategy normally but this was an exception. If there was one time when you could load up on high GI, simplex carbs this would be it.

So, following another mind numbing training session I chugged down my 40 gms of protein and downed a medium slice of cheese cake. I'm happy to report that it actually didn't do that much for me. I certainly didn't feel like smashing the rest of the cake into my face.

My world didn't collapse, I never fell through a crack in the pavement and the sky didn't fall on my head.

So, now you know that I ate a piece of cheese cake on a special occasion, honesty prevailed and I have moved on integrity intact. I really don't think it has had any effect on my nutrion whatsoever, and it's a new day.

Case closed.

PS
Training was fantastic and I had a great day.

Later

Week four, day 7

Sunday, overcast, beautiful day. Got my kids with me to day which is great. Free day to day, no brain work, no training, just chill.

Took the kids...mine and my girlfriends two = 2 adults 4 kids aged 12,10,8,6 to movies followed by lunch. Movies + popcorn and cold drinks + lunch at Spur fourways, basic sunday stuff right. Well R750,00 later I walk out of Spur shellshocked. Do that once a week and you're in for 3 grand a month. Lucky I'm self employed.

By the way I ate spare ribs, berry ice cream and a sprite zero....well it was my free day.

See ya monday