TheVelocityDiet.com

Optimum Nutrition Protein Pancakes

These little snacks are so simple and easy and they aren’t that bad actually. For me they make a great alternative to a shake sometimes if I’m looking for something a little slower digesting than whey. I can only comment on the use of Optimum Nutrition Whey here as different powders have different consistencies.

Protein Pancake

Combine 4 egg whites (or 2Tbsp of egg white powder reconsistuted) and 0.5 to 1 scoop of whey.

Whisk for a minute.

Fry in pan on medium heat for a minute.

Flip in half and pull from pan it’ll cook the rest of the way through depending on how deep or thing the pancake was. Mine are thin.

Pour some vanilla essence over it.

Eat.

They’re also great with some carby topping as you don’t need much. A teaspoon of honey or maple syrup or warmed peanut butter goes a long way!

Enjoy

Vascularity Changes

This week I noticed that there are more veins coming out on my shoulders and arms, also in my upper thighs veins are starting to become visible. These are all just while in a normal state, not while pumped after exercise or a workout. To be honest with the reduced carbs I’m not sure workouts actually make a huge difference to vascularity like they used to. I do notice though after a carby meal that veins will become fuller.

So the big ones I noticed this week is a vein on my left shoulder that is like my right shoulder has had for a while. It’s quite noticeable now though it might take another week to be there all the time. My right shoulder has begun to have veins running across the top of my chest and also some more on the side of the shoulder running down the arms.

I’ve also noticed crossing veins on the bicep from time to time rather than just the big one running down the length of the arm. Also veins on my forearm are plainly visible now which was surprising to me, also the smaller ones on the underneath of my forearm are beginning to be more visible more of the time.

Veins on my upper thigh are quite easily visible now though they’ll take longer to truly come in.

Upper abs are still around the same point, I don’t think I’ll notice much difference until I hit single figure body fat. I’m pretty sure I’ve read a couple of times the main differences are 16%, 12% and 9%. I probably have two to three weeks to go to see a major difference again as definitely there were changes at around 16% and 12% last week.

So most of the changes at the moment aren’t really muscular and definition but vascularity as they have less fat between them and the skin.

I’m still on track without launching into another V-Diet run as I’m only 3kg off my goal and I have four weeks to get there. I’m really hoping by next week I’ll have hit the low 92’s and that will put me in real spitting distance of the win.

Abs

Today in the mirror while stretching my arms up to do something I caught some definite stomach definition. Top two abs are peeking through as they say. Yes! I’m on track too my current body fat percentage is about 12% which is about right for seeing what I’m seeing.

So I said I’d see what I wanted to do at 12% and what I want to do is keep losing body fat and maintaining muscle mass which is what I’m doing at the moment. I’m dropping very low amounts of muscle each week for about a kilo or more of fat and I’m happy to continue doing this until I’m at 10% which should be well within the time frame I set.

Measurements

I did expect a drop this week as I’d been super strict with my eating, increased protein, reduced carbs and fats slightly and the gain due to creatine and carb increases I thought would have settled by now. I’m happy this proved to be right and I had drops in the important areas and I noticed changes in the mirror.

I’ve changed my weights to more of an overall volume setup. Previously I was doing most exercises for maximum weight to failure but now I’m doing 4×10-12 for most exercises except bodyweight exercises like dips and chin ups. This seems to be paying off and my body is feeling a bit punished. My chest especially was sore for a couple of days afterwards.

Anyway I’m definitely noticing changes week to week now and although in the grind I know I can reach my goal.

I saw noticeable changes in my chest and legs, this has shown in chest measurements but not in my legs. Also my waist hasn’t reduced so I think that my measurements last week were a bit of cheating for ego’s sake. However also these measurements were taken after only a few hours sleep after a night of dancing so everything could still be a bit pumped. Next week will be a better indication.

As always the drop in BF% and the changes in the mirror are the best indications of forward progress.

Measurements

Weight : 93.1kg (-1.5kg)

BF % : 11.9% (-1.1%)

Waist : 88.0cm (0.0cm)

Hips : 100.5cm (-1.0cm)

Chest : 100.0cm (0.0cm)

Thighs : 62.25cm (-0.25cm)

Arms : 33.25cm (0.0cm)

Recent Noticeable Changes

After the boozy and shit food weekend last weekend it took three to four days to get back to where I was before, though I was still probably losing body fat it’s surprising how much that extra retained water can change how you look. On Monday my biceps were just lumps but by Friday I could see the definition between the short and long head again. Veins came back that had gone away a little and so on.

My eating and exercise this week was very strict. No daily treat not even a jelly bean and I had milk in my tea only once or twice. I missed one BJJ session due to time constraints but this was replaced by a bit of dancing and an unplanned walk on Wednesday after work. All in all it’s been a really solid week.

This week the most noticeable change for me have been in the chest, thighs and stomach. From side on I am starting to get definition in the stomach and it’s beginning to noticeably draw inwards from my chest to my stomach and a bit of a seperation down the middle is beginning. This has happened a couple of times probalby due to not eating a big meal or whatever so the potential is there to be permanent at some time. Thighs are definitely becoming more defined though there is a long way to go there but they’re coming along in a noticeable way week to week. My chest has become noticeably better in the last week and this might have to do with increased workload.

So over this week I think the main changes have been thighs and chest and it’s good to still be able to see noticeable changes (if only to me) from week to week rather than having to wait a month. I’m fairly positive about stepping on the scales tomorrow and doing the measurements and depending on where I sit tomorrow I will see if my goal of 90kg by my birthday is reasonable or not.

I’ve Hurt My Back

Yesterday doing deadlifts when I was finishing my second set I went to set the weight down and as I got the bar near my knees my back cracked and gave way, the weights went smashing to the ground. I’d had a sore back from the previous week and I think my back gave up the ghost.

I continued to do the rest of the routine but it was really week.

I did weights today, it was just arms so not much lower back was involved and it was only a little weak when picking up weights from the ground, not really sore. I can feel myself taking it easy on the lower back and protecting it but I haven’t had to use any pain killers or anti inflammatories today so hopefully it will heal quickly.

It was really annoying as I love back day. Hurting my back on my favourite exercise meant I hven’t bee able to deadlift or squat properly and so I was quite annoyed at the end of the workout.

Hopefully I’m good to squat come Friday and good for deadlifts next Monday!

A bit of a set back, but nothing massive.

I’m hoping that the weight gain due to carbs and creatine will settle this week too and maybe there is another drop in BF% and weight.

A Weekend of Boozing

I hate drinking, I hate alcohol. I used to love it, but I guess I’m like those born again christians that get way more into it than any christian that grew up in the church. I don’t hate that people drink nor do I judge anyone for doing it, but for me personally alcohol just doesn’t do anything I like.

First of all I don’t have any more fun when I’m drunk, nor do I talk any more deeply or do anything that much different to when I’m sober and having fun. So the social lubricant aspect isn’t something I really require these days. It’s why I used to drink though.

Mostly though, it makes me weak and I hate that. The next day I feel like shit, I eat shit, I don’t exercise and unlike other things with similar detractions the following few days I don’t get any benefit from it while I’m drinking.

I jumped on the scale this morning to see what the impact was of a night of solid drinking and the following day of eating crap (lots of crap carbs) and doing no exercise. It was 4.5kg over the weigh in on Saturday!

Now I’m not stupid and think that I’ve actually put on 4.5kg of fat, most if not all of that will be retained water and I can definitely see the softness everywhere, but still I don’t want that.

So I have decided that I am not going to drink unless I want to from now on, there will be no situation where I will drink if I don’t want to. Previously I said that I’d drink only when it was socially responsible so an engagement party or bucks night and so on, however now I’m not going to do that. I’m not saying no alcohol will ever pass by my lips, that’s definitely not true, but it will be me that makes the decision on whether that happens and it won’t be based on anyone’s desires but my own.

So hopefully with strict diet and exercise this week I’ll drop another kilo based on my Saturday weight and not this morning’s weight.

Measurements

This week saw very little change. I was still not expecting to make huge losses this week as the addition of carbs and creatine would have still been catching up with me. I lost a little bit of weight but that hasn’t shown up as massive measurement changes or body fat changes.

I think this week was definitely a grind week. I also can’t forget that I hurt my back this week as well as two days are going to be missing from the measurements. These two days are low calorie days with reasonable amounts of activity normally so they could make a noticeable change. Hurting my back meant I missed out on BJJ and was generally far less active for two to three days and I didn’t ride to and from work. It also meant weights weren’t as intense. In general this week wasn’t a good week to take any results from. It’s a bit annoying as I was wanting this week to be a real demonstration of what the additional 250 calories a day was doing.

I was thinking though that my body has been running virtually on fumes for the last six to eight weeks. I’ve been eating very strictly, very cleanly and at below maintenance calories (a lot below!) for that entire time. I think it’s time to give the body a shock and show it a couple of days of reasonable calories and see what happens.

A lot of guys that are very lean talk about re-feed days where they’re eating below maintenance for a few days or a week then they’ll eat quite a bit more for a day then back to below maintenance. This is generally guys that are quite lean looking to get leaner. Many that I’ve seen are in the 6% - 10% range which is a pretty special and rare place to be. I’m going to do some reading on this and see if it would suit me.

So now the measurements. Small changes everywhere and where I noticed them too. I think a bit of concentration and less laziness on the arms has started to pay off and I did notice better definition in the thighs and some more definition in the waist.

Measurements

Weight : 94.6kg (-0.5kg)

BF % : 13.0% (-0.3%)

Waist : 88.0cm (-0.5cm)

Hips : 101.5cm (-0.5cm)

Chest : 100.0cm (-0.5cm)

Arms : 33.25cm (+0.25cm)

Thighs : 62.25 (-0.5cm)

I Don’t Want to Drink, but I Have To

It’s my best mate’s bucks party tomorrow. I’m going to have to drink otherwise I don’t think he will truly be happy. However in the last three months I have had no urge to drink whatsoever, and in fact I think I’ve been turned off by drinking. I am not looking forward to drinking tomorrow or how shit I will feel the day after.

I’ll see how I go. Maybe a couple of drinks will be enough and I’ll be fine. This will be the first drinking I’ve done since the office christmas party three months ago and hopefully if I keep it to a minimum I can be drunk but not do away with a week’s worth of hard work and wake up feeling completely shit the next day.

I’ll be doing measurements and weigh-in on Saturday morning to remove the temporary water weight and shittiness from the measurements.

Peanut Butter and Balsamic Vinegar

It’s a weird combo but I’m loving it as a topping to my frittatas and on bread with meat. Give it a try.

Heat up the peanut butter to a saucy consistency. 1Tbsp takes about 25 seconds in the microwave. Then add the balsamic and stir, then put it on whatever you want. It won’t say very liquid but it is very tasty.