No more long hair! and quite a bit has gone on since I last posted on here.
Around June I got this weird infections in my knee that basically atrophied all the muscle I gained back in my right leg and most of the progress I was making towards my recovery. It sucked and threw me off along with not reaching my goal physique yet, but I got a new plan for that and I’m headed in the right direction.
Since then I moved back home to Pa and got a job at Titan Tactical where I train people and do nutrition coaching which has been a blast so far and I’m excited to keep working with more and more people.
Today was a great day where I was able to squat the same weight for more reps compared to a week before my surgery as well as those great hip thrust 😉
My knee is now feeling great again and I’m excited to keep pushing it hard and get back to my max squat and then more in the next few months.
My squat is no where near my max but I’ll be getting it back up soon along with all my other lifts. So a lot has changed but I wouldn’t want it any other way 💪🏻
When trying to lose weight, the goal is fat loss, not muscle loss.
When you skip meals and go extremely low calorie below 2,000 (men) 1,500 (female) you end up putting a lot of stress on the body and make it almost impossible to get enough micronutrients from your diet.
When done the body will do all it can to hold onto as much fat as possible, and will let go of muscle mass since it requires more energy to hold onto.
When you lose muscle mass, you lose your metabolism which makes it now almost impossible to keep losing weight while remaining healthy.
If you find yourself getting real low in calories and aren’t making anymore progress, your best bet is to go on a reverse diet, bump up your calories by 200-300 for 1-2 weeks, bump them up and 200-300 calories for another 1-2 weeks, and keep repeating for a couple more weeks until your calories are high again.
You will gain back a couple of pounds but now your metabolism is high and in the 3,000s which gives you a lot of room to lower your calories by a little bit to put you in a slight calorie deficit so you can be on your way to losing weight again without being so restrictive.
The most effective way to lose weight is by 1. Eating a healthy and balanced diet 2. Getting physical activity in 3. Tracking progress
To lose weight you need to create a calorie deficit which can be achieved by consuming fewer calories than you body burns.
Eating more whole foods, consuming less highly-processed foods, and getting physical activity in by walking more and doing some form of resistance training are great ways to get yourself in a calorie deficit.
Lastly one of the best ways to hold yourself accountable and to see just how far you have come after weeks and months pass by is by tracking some of your metrics:
Count your macros or make rules/nonnegotiables that you will follow on your diet
Write down your workouts and weights that you’re using
Track your daily steps
Weigh yourself and/or take a weekly picture
Work on doing these 3 things and you’ll be on your way to losing weight.
Sitting at a desk all day, being on your phone 24/7 facing down…
This is leading to a lot of rounded shoulders where soon everyone is going to look like Quasimodo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
You don’t want that so fix your posture now before it’s too late.
Foam rolling may feel good and loosen up your muscles, but if you are having to constantly foam roll before every workout to get loosened up, you may want to spend some time on the tight muscle and hold.
Use a foam roller and apply as much pressures where if it’s not enough, get a lacrosse ball or something that will dig into your tight muscles and you may need to hold anywhere from 2 up to 10 minutes.
The lacrosse ball does wonders with loosening up my calf muscles and right behind my shoulder blade.
It might hurt a little, but this may help to actually loosen up your muscles for the better.
*The faces I made rolling my hamstrings were real pain due to getting DOMS from being able to work out both my hamstrings for the first time since having surgery 🤣
🍺I love alcohol and how it makes me feel, but the pros do not out weight the cons in my opinion, so I hardly drink anymore due to:
❌ The negative effects it has on your sleep
❌The negative effects on how it makes you feel the day after
❌The negative effects it has on your brain health
❌The negative effects it has on your liver
❌The negative effects it has on weight loss
❌The negative effects it has on muscle growth
It really blows my mind how socially acceptable drinking is, like it’s not good for you at all but yet people drink it like water.
If you are drinking every day or every weekend, you do you, but consider taking a moment to think about pros vs cons of drinking and what your life is going to look like in 10, 20, 30 years down the road if you continue on the path you’re on.
This isn’t to say cut alcohol completely out of your life, but possibly tone it down a notch.
Food quality is very important don’t get me wrong, when you make a switch of eating more whole foods and less ultra-processed foods what happens is you end up eating less calories and thus you lose weight at first! That’s why “diets” work to begin with.
But over time you need to continue eating less calories than you are burning in a day, and what you burn in a day decreases after months of dieting.
And when you are eyeballing up foods and portions the amount of calories can vary dramatically from one apple, scoop of peanut butter, sweet potato, banana, steak, etc. to the next.
Where it doesn’t take but a few hundred extra calories a day to add up by the end of the week and keep you at maintenance levels and prevent you from losing more weight.
So it becomes more important than ever to start weighing out your food to keep the progress rolling and plus it also helps you stay accountable and avoid overeating because you’re tracking it all!
The cool thing is after you’re at a desirable weight, you have just spent months tracking food left and right, so now you can ditch the scale for tracking every little thing and be able to maintain your weight since you NOW know portion sizes and calories!
Imagine waking up in the morning and feeling lighter, more agile, and more vibrant. Imagine being able to effortlessly run up the stairs without feeling winded. Imagine being able to shop for clothes in any store without worrying about whether they will fit or not.
Losing 20 pounds can change your life. And you may even want to lose more but right now just focus on the first 20 pounds. How would that first 20 pounds lost feel?
With consistency and dedication, you’ll be on a path of living your life to the fullest and will not have any regrets.
Start with small changes, eat more high quality cuts of meat, fruits, vegetables, walk throughout the day, drink plenty of water.
It doesn’t take much to start, but if you want that extra support to ensure you’ll lose that first 20 pounds and then more, just send me a DM and we can get you on the perfect path.
Big Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps workout coming at you 💪🏻
Chest Press 4x10
Ez Curl Triceps Skull Crushers 4x8
Dumbbell Shoulder Press 4x8
Chest Cable Flys 4x10
Machine Side Lateral Raises 4x12-15
Tricep Rope Press Down 4x15-20
I recently switched up my workout routine since my old one, well was getting old!
The past few months my workouts have been modified due to my knee, but overall I have been staying consistent with hitting the gym on the days planned and getting decent workouts in where each week I’m slowly losing weight as I’m on my 3rd cut.
Just a matter of staying consistent and taking things one week at a time 💪🏻
✅DM me for 1-1 coaching or click the link in my bio for more information
Also I post most of my workouts and other clips on YouTube shorts where if you want to see more you head over there to check those out! Also linked in my bio 🙌🏻
Do you cheat on your significant other?
Do you cheat on exams to pass?
Well you might but how does it feel deep down inside knowing that you “cheated”?
Exactly, feelings of guilt, shame, regret, fraudulence, etc.
So what makes you think cheating on your diet is a good thing to do when these feelings are associated with the action?
I’m a sucker for ice cream and pancakes but never feel guilty when I eat them because I treat them as a part of my diet.
When you use the term “treat” instead of “cheat”, you can create a better relationship with food and be less likely to go from 0-100 on binging and getting off track, especially if your an all or nothing type of person aka strict diet and cheat days.
