Thursday 5/17 - Cardio (and some diet thoughts)

• Ran 5.6 miles in 50:30 (9:00 pace), c/d 15:00.  

Decent run, but legs felt dead early on.  No carbs this am might have contributed to that, so forget what I wrote yesterday about adding carbs and maintaining that for a while.  Guess I decided to give another cut down a shot.  Completely restricted carbs today.  I read Lyle McDonald's Rapid Fat Loss Handbook.  It's interesting, as are most of his articles on his site.  I also ordered The Ultimate Diet 2.0 and it should be here in a couple of days.  Both of these books are pretty hard core.

For example, Lyle writes about The Ultimate Diet 2.0: "Please note: the UD2 is an advanced diet for advanced dieters and is only for those seeking very low levels of body fat.  A male should be at 12-15% body fat or lower and females at 21-24% body fat or lower prior to considering the UD2."

I need to get my body fat checked, but it's in the mid teens I think.  I can see veins in on the side of my belly and abs are really showing, for example, but still have a few stubborn spots and want to get leaner.  This is becoming quite difficult because I'm also trying to add muscle mass.  Generally, this is a losing equation (trying to add muscle in a caloric deficit).  This is easy at higher body fat levels, but as you get lower, it gets much harder and I think I'm starting to reach that point, as I've written about in a previous post.

Anyway, my current plan (which can, and will, surely change some) is to eat moderately higher complex carbs on lifting days and then restrict on cardio days.  For example, today I didn't have my normal oatmeal, berries, apple, etc..  The only carbs I had were in my salad (spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms).  No olive oil (fat), not even carrots or peas which are slightly higher in carbs.  My normal routine of having almonds with me throughout the day was also cut out.  An apple and grapes at night and grazing on almonds has become a habit that I'm trying to curb.

While restricting carbs, I'm keeping protein pretty high to hopefully prevent catabolism and preserve Lean Body Mass (LBM) that I've worked so hard to gain.  We'll see how this plan goes for a period of time and will adjust based on recommendations in UD2 once I get it as I know it dedicates significant portions of the book to this very thing.  It may also mean adjusting my workouts.  I'm sure I'll write about it, but that's enough for tonight :)

Here's today's protein: (NOTE: I've been including the protein breakdown for most days, but I haven't really been noting carbs, nor do I plan to at this point.  But I wanted to point out that the last several days (almost a week) I introduced more carbs back into my diet after getting below 170#'s.  With those carbs came added water and "fuller" muscles.  That was nice, but I do want to get real lean and stabilize there before "bulking".  I'll probably never do a true "bulk", but do carb cycling (kind of as I am starting now).  Now that's really it for the night.

Protein:
6:15AM Whey shake & creating 30g
7AM ran 5.6 miles in 50:30, c/d 15:00, 65 mins
8:15AM 1/2 cup cottage cheese 15g
8:45 Chicken & brussel sprouts 30g
12:30PM 4.5oz steak & salad 35g
3:15PM 4oz steak 30g
6:30PM Muscle Milk 20g
8:30 Salad w/tuna & cottage cheese 40g
10:45PM Casein shake 30g
Total: 230g