The Waffles Say it All ;)

1. The waffle "competitors"

2. Their drastically differing stats. Note the composition of the fat. Kashi is primarily the "good" fats (polyunsaturated & monounsaturated) while Smuckers is, uh, not.

3. My new food scale! (and 4 oz. of chicken) I eyeballed last contest...I suspect eyeballs get bigger when one's diet gets tougher. I'll trust the scale for round 2.

4. My "support team." They took their duties very seriously last night: flavor selection for my last hurrah, aka the last gelato outing. We went with the toasted almond and the pineapple, aka the BEST flavors ;)

5. Me yesterday being silly and frosting my son's birthday cake. I've accumulated bigger triceps and biceps since Emerald, which is great, but I have much trimming to do, I'm at least 18% body fat right now, likely higher.

Day 1 Ironman Prep

Here we go again!

The waffles say it all.

But that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. My son is a super skinny guy who is hard to put fat on. I am beginning my 12 week lean out for my second figure competition. It is fully accurate to say we have precisely polar dietary needs. This makes for some funny looking grocery shopping. I can generally be spotted afoot in the store with a small Spider-man, Fireman, or regularly clothed boy in my cart and opposing food selections. I buy a combination of the most calorically dense foods for him and the least caloric highest protein ones for me.

This evening waffles for each of us were on the grocery list. I am only allowed a rare breed of waffle right now: a low carb high fiber waffle. I’ve heard Special K makes one, but I’ve never seen it. I did, however, track down the Kashi 7 Grain ones at Target of all places. The stats, I must say, are fantastic:

Serving Size: 2 waffles, yes 2!
(72 grams)

150 Calories
5 g Fat
25 g Carbohydrates
4 g Protein

Let’s have a comparison shall we?

For Charlie and his polar dietary needs I acquired a box of Smuckers Snack’n Waffles. The average frozen waffle is around 110 calories so I was pleased to find these fatty ones. The stats are:

Serving size: 1 waffle, only 1!
(57 grams)  smaller volume than Kashi too

220 calories
8 g Fat
32 g Carbohydrates
5 g Protein

If you divide those stats out on a per gram of food basis you find that my waffles have a mere 2.09 cals per gram while C’s have 3.86 cals per gram, nearly double. When you’re looking to cut body fat minimizing carbs is a major issue (while upping protein) and my waffles are only 35% comprised of carbs while C’s are 57% carb comprised.

Whatever your physique goal may be: muscle gain, fat loss, weight loss, or even weight gain you can make food work for you. You can find variations in the basics that meet your needs and goals.

The waffles say it all ;)

Today’s muscle group was back and that mostly boils down to trying to do my best to tease my lats into some legitimate wings. I was short on time so I just super set with minimal rest. I started with 4 sets of 12 reps each wide grip lat pulldowns s/s with 4 sets of 10-12 reps seated cable rows. That was followed up by 4 sets of 8-10 reps T-bar rows, loaded heavier than my usual, superset with 4 sets of cable straight bar pushdowns at 12 reps per set. My back is my weakness on stage so I am really focusing on quality over quantity here. That is a reasonable amount to do and call a back session, but I’m going 5-10 lbs lighter than I’m capable of to focus on improving my form. If you don’t have proper form you can wind up bearing some of the load unintentionally on other muscle groups and thus defeating your purpose.

Getting back to strict clean eating is hardest the first three days; I think any diet change takes about that long to not want to fight it. I feel like I’m off to a good start though. I’ve had 1,430 cals today disbursed across six meals: an English muffin turkey sausage egg white breakfast sandwich, ½ scoop of MyoFusion and ½ grapefruit, 4 oz. chicken with black olives cucumber & bell peppers, a 200 cal pack of raw almonds, 1 cup cheerios with ½ cup 1% milk, and another 4 oz. chicken with black olives, snap peas, and bell peppers. I don’t intend to keep my intake that low daily until the last month, but I’m doing it for the first three days to “break” myself of my munchity munch eat all I want off season habits.

My goal for my second show is very simple, to improve over my first. What does “improve” really mean?

To me it means that I will get on stage with real wings, leaner than last time, and more practiced at posing. I also aim to learn how to apply fake eyelashes myself before then ;)