*** The 2010 Gym Rats Thread ***

What?! Green veggies rock! Kale, broccoli, spinach, rocket, et al. are absolutely delicious! Other green veggies are also great, like mange tout, sugar snap peas, peas, courgettes, cucumber (though technically a fruit).

Don't buy frozen, and steam them for best flavour and to get the best nutrition out of them. Green leafy veggies can be eaten raw. I get through 2 big packs of spinach a week easily. I also love beetroot and sweetcorn, but there are a plethora of fruits and veg out there - I don't believe there's stuff around that people don't like.

Chris, your diet needs a lot of work dude. You need a better breakfast, and a more balance but varied diet. Diet is 80% of the effort required to live a healthier lifestyle - everything else comes hand in hand after that (fat loss, muscle gain etc...).

Keep away from sugary drinks and fizzy drinks. The initial weight loss is always faster owing to the change in lifestyle, 8lbs in a month is a lot to lose, so I'd aim at keeping it at that rate. You need to increase the antioxidants in your body (i.e. increase fruit and veg), keep your meat intake to lean meats, reduce simple carbs (even a wholemeal baguette isn't ideal - unless you take most of the soft part out). By not eating enough your body will actually hold onto fat more as well. Ensure you're getting a decent amount of oily fish in, sardines, mackrell etc... for the fish oils are hugely beneficial.

However, you should be proud. You're doing osmething about your lifestyle, you're changing your life around and that can only be praised. Just keep it up, you're on the right track. :)
 
Mackerel is gorgeous (IMO). Love the smoked stuff. It's full of good fats and oils and protein. :)

Carbs fill you up short term, but protein will actually (should) make you feel fuller for longer.

2000 cals would be a good minimum but I don't know what your RMR or BMR is so it's hard to tell.

Salads can a bit boring for lunch, but you can make them more interesting, by doing it yourself.

Red onions
Spinach
Lettuce
Tomatoes
Cucumber
Cress
Boiled eggs (2 or 3)
Tinned Tuna
Roasted Pine kernels
Olive oil, salt and pepper

Just an example. It doesn't have to contain all of that, but it's bloody healthy, and delicious! You get protein from the eggs and tuna, you get the ruffage and anti o's from the tomatoes and green leafy veg. Good fats from the olive oil and pine kernels, and little carbs. You will undoubtedly feel hungry after a couple of hours - so bring in some sensible snacks, like hummous and some wholemeal pitta or carrots/celery.

Make some cous cous or bulgar wheat to add to your salad if you want a bit of carbs. Or bring in some egg noodles. Or make some wild/long grain rice and throw it in with the salad if you want.

There's so much variety that can be done. I spend a little time in the evenings making healthy snacks for the day, but happy to pay the local cafe for some good wholesome food (I'm not on the same plan as you!). It does require time - and you've started to do a good job, you're making the first steps, that's the hardest part - the rest should be relatively straight forward, but still needs effort. :)
 
Agreed 100%. Though there are still some carbs out there which aren't bad - but minimising carbs is definitely the way to go, however, it's hard as hell, but once you've got used to it it's not bad.
 
Problem with high fat diets are though they are not very alkaline as they rely heavily on animal proteins, which is fine, as you can't beat a steak. However it's best to balance over all. I don't think a particular "type" of diet is any worse than any other, you have to forge it around your lifestyle and your training goals. I get about 250g of carbs a day and it's ideally suited for me, I train regularly and hard, it's nice to have the energy and glycogen available more readily. It's not for everyone of course. :) Furthermore carbs post work out are IME and IMO absolutely vital, as it creates a bigger insulin spike, which in turn speeds up the uptake of glucose and amino acids to the muscle cells - therefore promoting glycogen and more importantly protein synthesis, and rather crucially blunts the production of cortisol, as this suppresses protein synthesis and causes catabolism. Therefore muscle tissue growth is more efficient and glycogen refuelling is faster. Heck, higher levels of test and other anabolic hormones can be but a good thing right? I want to ensure I get all the nutrition to my cells ASAP.

So whilst the facts of high fat diets is absolutely spot on and isn't going to cause bad cholesterol and can even reduce triglycerides in your body, I'd still advocate a well balanced diet with low gi carbs.
 
Benny06 said:
Have you tried doing tuck planche press ups? On stands hammer grip style. They really isolate the triceps. Unfortunatley I don't have the power yet to get a full rep out. I get a bit of movement and can hold it but just can't quite get there.
Click to expand...

Not tried - but not something I'd do after 30+kg dips or 100kg CGBP! :p
 
I'm going to have to start mass preparing more food when I do agvt - the hunger that it gives me is mad - I'm still contemplating carb cycling during the training, I need to sit and work out the implications. I need high levels of insulin, I need saturated fats (boosts testosterone), I need to lower cortisol (only post work out evidently), and need to speed up recovery. My notebook is full of options, comparisons and I'm going round in circles slightly! LOL! I love this sometimes, but sometimes I hate it.
 
Yeah it's a bit dear, but is so so much better for you IMO and it's much more alkaline and much less stress to digest than the bloaty lactose based whey. V.glad I've changed. :)


Benny, there's lots of reasons for insulin levels (highly anabolic), cortisol levels (highly catabolic), and optimising GH and test levels in your body. So whilst I'm not planning on experimenting with diet whilst on AGVT, I'm trying to modify it in such a way as to boost, GH, Test and Insulin when I need them, and minimise negative hormones hanging around too long. I've almost got it sussed, but it just need a bit of a fine tuning. I'll be cycling with EEAs, BCAAs, OKG and Creatine and probably fiddling with the superstack somehow - with lots of antioxidants (green veg, vit c etc...).

I'm just going to try to optimise my body's natural cycles to coincide with the strain and toughness of agvt. Last time I put on over 12lbs (but that was a lot of water weight, and excessive cortisol and insulin resistance) of which I'd say only about 4-5lbs was actual lean tissue. However I've learnt a LOT since then, and whilst I've put on weight since, I've leaned down to 96kg at the moment (I'll take pre-post pics of course) ready for the onslaught. Including water weight I'm likely to hit a similar weight, but if I keep my body cycle in check i reckon I'll have more lean tissue. As a result.

Well if my workings and machinations are correct at any rate! :D
 
PRoblem with creatine is people take it incorrectly. It's the oldest and most used supp - it's often called "nature's steroid". Whilst not quite right in it's description, used properly it should help. It won't add 3-4lbs of muscle by using it alone, but it should aid your body's ability to exercise, thus creating more hormone releases and if your nutrition is up to scratch, more growth.
 
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