TheVelocityDiet.com

Changes This Week

There has been some changes I’ve noticed this week, actually there have been small changes all along the way but they haven’t been anywhere as drastic as last time so they’re hard to pick. Veins that come and go with hydration and carbs and exertion are a big one.

Forearms are definitely more veiny and on the bottom I can start to see the main vein running up and down but then sometimes can see a few other auxiliary ones. It’s just way more vascular in general and I’ve mainly noticed that become far more permanent this week.

Main vein on the bicep is visible most of the time but now also sometimes there is some veins that go across the biceps. Easily visible when exerting myself but also sometimes at rest.

Definition top and bottom of the top two abs, and pelvic bone definition visible.

Vein on the right shoulder has been slowly creeping across my chest.

Striations on my shoulders.

Veins where my thighs meet my abdomen.

I can feel like a crease in my face when I smile, it’s kind of weird actually I’ve never felt my face when it’s moved.

Triceps are showing horseshoe shape with the small tip near the elbow.

Back is much more defined and I can see traps and lat seperation and some erector seperation at rest.

Tear drop on thighs at rest as well as hamstring/quad seperation at rest. Also thighs have stopped becoming a lump and the smaller muscles on the inside between quads and hamstrings are seperated and visible.

That’s about it. It’s going to be small changes from now on but it’s nice to notice something new from time to time and realise it’s all because of the day to day grind.

V-Diet 2 : Day 18

I may as well stop saying how easy this is now.

I went shopping tonight wearing 82cm waist jeans and they fit perfectly. I mean not tight, not loose, perfect to the point of weirdness, it felt weird. Anyway when I bought these jeans about 18 months ago I honestly thought it was a pipe dream. Now I’m 8-9% lower body fat, about the same weight and they fit wickedly.

I made a protein cake for after the diet where I replaced the wholemeal flour with almond meal but it totally flopped. It’s still nice and will be great to eat anyway but I still need to play with the recipe. It has a lot of Splenda in it, but I don’t think it needs that much and I could probably add more protein powder and replace the gluten from the flour with arrowroot or xanthum gum.

Weights were great this morning, I had lots of energy and my pre-walk/weights coffee is a lot better now. I was grinding beans from the local grocery and they were bad so I bought some pre-ground from the local coffee place near work. They are definitely one of the top three coffee places in Perth and while they seperate themselves from the bunch through their milk frothing and texturing abilities the coffee itself is very very good. I’m getting into the texturing myself even though I can’t really use milk at the moment. Soon though!

I feel like the increased sleep and reduced activity overall is really benefiting me and even though I didn’t listen to the reccomendations of the diet and reduce it to weights and walking, I can see why they suggest doing that. I still do a lot more than is recommended but if you are finding it hard to get by day to day then rest is what you need.

I got some Chia seeds to try as a replacement or addition to the flax in my shakes and I have to say they’re pretty great! They don’t have a hard cellulose coating so you don’t need to grind them or buy meal, they just expand a bit when in water and feel a little like small crunchy semolina balls when they’ve soaked a while. Nutritionally they’re better than flax and they have no discernable taste. I’d definitely reccomend them as an addition to flax (maybe 1/2 and 1/2 or something) as I’m not sure about the insoluble and soluble fibre amounts though overall chia is richer in fibre by weight.

No hunger to speak of, no cravings really. All the chocolate and ice cream and everything awesome was on special yesterday (big specials actually) but I wasn’t all that fussed. Instead I was more pleased about wearing my 82cm waist jeans and having them fit perfectly.

So everything is going very smoothly. I have one weights session until day 21. I have a walk setup with a friend on Saturday morning and then I will probably have a leisurely walk or run on Sunday morning and then Sunday night is a big night with friends. It’s a public holiday here and there is a dance event. After that it’s week 4 and I’m looking forward to the home stretch.

V-Diet 2 : Day 17

I haven’t fallen off the wagon, I just got lazy filling in my log.

Thing are just so easy now I forget I’m even doing it. Things that used to be hard like when I had some down time at home just sitting around trying not to eat anything aren’t hard anymore. I drink some water, go for a walk, prep shakes for the day after, read a book, look up stuff on the net; whatever. Week three really is the solid turning point and I remember it was the same last time. It’s where you start to gain all the other benefits of the diet.

I’m actually not craving anything at the moment like I remember last time. I remember craving veges and healthy solid food but not so much this time. I’ve cooked a couple of protein cakes these past few days but I’ve just had a nibble to make sure they were worth keeping. 800 calories for the entire cake is hard to argue with!

Today anyway was my day off, I did my 90 minute walk in the morning and other than that I mainly rested. I watched a movie when I got home, didn’t ride my bike because it was raining like crazy and didn’t run for the same reason. I went to bed early and got some rest.

The increased rest and reduced exercise has really paid off in energy. Like, really, really paid off! I was taking 500-800mg of caffeine a day in coffee and tablet form but the last few days I’ve just been having coffee for taste so my caffeine intake has been about two coffees worth.

So it’s half way through week three meaning one and a half weeks to go and I’m feeling really good and wondering where the time went! I’m really looking forward to this weekend it is going to be a lot of fun with my closest friends.

V-Diet 2 : Day 16

Today was a boring one again.

Weights were great this morning and I felt like I had a bit more energy in the walk before hand and in the weights session. I’m really concentrating on my back lately and I think it’s paying off. Legs and back, legs and back. After that I think I’ll move onto shoulders and whatever else.

BJJ tonight was great too, I think last weeks shit session was just due to the big weekend and the chemicals still doing their work. This week was clean and I had heaps of energy and rolled really well. Last week I felt completely beat at this point in time but right now I’m energetic and ready to go.

Again I almost forgot shakes today and I need to keep remembering to have them, there is no hunger drive anymore though so I set a timer on my computer again.

I’ve substituted in some steel cut oats for rolled oats in my post workout meal and that was delicious. I’ve got some triticale to try and I want to grab some chia seeds too that might replace the flax. I tried flax meal from the shops for the first time but I far prefer my ground flax seeds. I chucked the meal in the bin!

So at the end of the day I will watch some TV or a movie and just relax until it’s time to hit the sack. Up early tomorrow for my long walk as it’s my ‘rest day’.

This weekend will be a big weekend again, a really big one, so I want to go into it completely cool with myself and feeling good. I really, really hope to hit the 80’s this week but as long as I’m closer I’ll be happy.

V-Diet 2 : Measurements 3

It’s the end of week two and so we are at our third set of measurements. I have to say given last weeks weight I was absolutely expecting to crack the 80’s but it wasn’t to be… I actually put on weight this week! I mean in all honesty the last two weigh ins have coincided some influencing factors. The first week I had some stuff on Saturday morning that I found out later causes my mate to drop around 3kg and that takes him about a week to put back on. This week I had 1.5 hours sleep after having to do an emergency pickup and drop off which included about two hours of driving and two hours afterwards of chit-chat and then another 30 minutes of driving. So both weigh ins while indicative of general forward progress aren’t good representations of the current state of things.

Todays weigh in though is why I alway say that people should have multiple ways to measure progress! Although I put on 1.5kg which is mostly water I lost fat and dropped body fat percentage. This lines up with my observation of increased leanness and feeling better. When I saw the weight I was wondering what the hell was going on, but the calipers tell the true story.

So I still maintain I will get into the 80’s, it might not be next week but it will I think be done by the end of the four week period.

Measurements :

Weight : 92.3kg (+1.5, -6.2kg)
Waist : 86.0cm (-1.0cm, -7.5cm)
Hips : 101.0cm (0.0cm, -4.0cm)
Chest : 100.0cm (0.0cm, -4.0cm)
Thighs : 61.0cm (-0.5cm, -3.0cm)
Calves : 41.0cm (0.0cm, -1.5cm)
Shoulders : 121.0cm (-1.0cm, -1.0cm)
BF% : 10.0% (-1.3%, -2.9%)

V-Diet 2 : Day 14

So after the horrendous night of picking up and dropping off people in all hours of the morning I then woke up around 7ish and weighed and measured myself and went running as I normally do on Sunday.

The weigh in was disappointing but I did lose noticeable body fat which went along with my observations this week, just I put on weight due to last weeks weigh in being flawed due to things I’d had on the Friday night slash Saturday morning.

The run was really, really easy and I was still energetic afterwards, which is surprising given the lack of sleep at that stage.

Breakfast was at the usual place and I had a coffee and a pot of tea just like normal and that was pretty easy. The other guys actually finished their meals before I’d finished my tea so they had to sit and watch me drink tea.

I had my HSM today which consisted of 300g of Kangaroo, 200g of sweet potato, cauliflower, broccoli and zucchini. It was all delicious and very filling. I was stuffed full and the best part it was mainly fibrous veges. That meal had 21g of fibre about as much as I usually get all day! I can’t wait to be eating veges every day.

After that I went and had coffee with a friend and I had coffee. She had spaghetti and I never even gave it a second thought really, I just had a couple of coffees and we chatted for the afternoon.

I got home from this and it was time for the dinner shake and to catch up on some movie watching until I was falling asleep.

Which is happening at the moment. I’m functioning on 1.5 hours sleep right now and I want to fix that.

So I’m still going really easy, a bit disappointed by the weigh in but feel good that I lost body fat anyway. I am just really tired but that’s lack of sleep and I think I’m into the grindy part of things where I just keep plugging away slowly changing as you go. Hopefully I’ll be in the 80’s next week.

V-Diet 2 : Day 13

I got home this morning at about 5am and decided to stay up until I was completely exhausted rather than going to bed a bit hyper. I had a cup of tea (black) and a shake then hit the sack around 6:30am.

I woke up at about 8:30, 10, 11:30 and then decided to stay in bed and read a bit. It was good that it was overcast and rainy so there wasn’t any real reason to go outside or enjoy the day. I didn’t feel bad or anything it just made it easier to sleep and finish my book. Freakonomics was the book and I’d reccomend it to anyone, it was a very easy read and very interesting!

Anyway I remember the weekends always used to bother me because I’d get worried I’d be sitting around doing nothing and therefore lapse into old behaviours but it was never a problem. It seems the worry isn’t warranted again this time either.

This morning on the way home from the club I was definitely a little sad and underwhelmed with life but I just grit my teeth and worked through it. I think it’s just coming down from the high of being around so many people, wicked music and good fun and then you’re surrounded by nothing and it’s quiet and your life feels quite lame. The thought did go through my mind to grab some ice cream and drown my sorrows but I fought this and ended up just having my shake in the car on the way home and then drinking a stack of water. This fixed everything and given I hadn’t eaten in 6 hours and had been dancing a fair chunk of that time it may well have just been hunger and dehydration.

I concentrated today on getting a stack of water into me and keeping my shakes on schedule and I think I did a good job of it.

Given the activity yesterday with it being leg day and dancing for a fair chunk of time my legs are pretty destroyed today. I’m hoping that just resting will put me in a good position for a decent run tomorrow. I did want to do a half marathon in about 4 weeks but that’s probalby not going to happen. However by that time I’ll have been on reasonably normal food for a week and be able to train a bit so it may well be on the cards. At least for the next two weeks it’s not possible to train effectively I’d just be doing more harm than good.

I’m going to waste some time this afternoon by going to the shops and having a walk around. I think I have everything I need for my HSM tomorrow but I will double check.

Looking forward to weighing in tomorrow. I’m feeling leaner and the shirt I wore last night was a bit tight last weekend but fit well this week!

While I was at the shops I got some squash and a sweet potato for the HSM tomorrow and I was looking for some chilli and wholegrain mustard. I found some Sambal chilli paste and wow is it hot! However opposite this stuff was all the chocolates and stuff and I found myself looking at the two for the price of one special for the big blocks of chocolate and thinking that I should by some but not use it until after the diet. Then I thought if I want some after the diet I’ll just buy some, I don’t need two and I don’t actually want chocolate anyway. It’s just habits coming back to haunt me. I also had a good, hard look at the sugar free lollies but decided they’re still empty calories I don’t need or want. In reality I had no craving for this stuff anyway. Just habits that are being broken.

So I’ll be going out again tonight, it’s a friend’s birthday and so we’re going to go to karaoke. The start of it is an all you can eat and drink banquet for $38, given that I don’t really like crappy asian food normally (I do like good asian food though!) or booze at the moment I didn’t see much point to being there for that but I will be joining them for the karaoke portion. Without the drinking though it may be very difficult to handle. It might end up being a very early night!

I ended up getting home about 11:30 then changing for bed and deciding to stay up a bit until I was tired, then I got a message asking if I was awake and could I do a favour for a friend… pick her up from a hotel about 30mins drive from me and drop he home. So I did, I ended up talking to her fiance for a while and getting home around 6am on Sunday and getting to bed.

V-Diet 2 : Day 12

Weights this morning were great actually, I felt full of energy and I think the extra sleep and removal of some activity has really helped. I didn’t have very much caffeine at all today (one coffee) and I was alert and happy all day. The ride to work this morning was a bit gruelling with a headwind the entire time, but I think I held up surprisingly well considering it was leg day!

I increased weight on pretty much everything and am really concentrating on form and working until I’m down to the 4-5 rep per set range. Before I would squeeze out another set but I don’t see the point at the moment when I’m trying to maintain energy. I’m just putting more effort and better form into the sets I do do.

I wasn’t hungry at all today though my stomach did rumble for a bit when I missed my lunch shake by almost an hour. I didn’t expect to be out anywhere near as long as I was and as such I had to watch my mates eat while I drank water. I was so dehydrated it wasn’t funny too and my mouth tasted like shit. I bought a Coke Zero and a bottle of water for the bus ride home!

After having two shakes in fairly quick succession (about 2 hours apart rather than the usual 3) I felt pretty good and took the train home. It’s time for the dinner shake now and I’m not at all hungry, I probably would have forgotten without the alarm set on my computer!

I got some new teas yesterday, some Chai and some Blackcurrent infused tea. They’re both really nice though I know the chai will be better with milk!

I’m going out again tonight but will try to take it easy and just have something to keep my energy levels up. So tomorrow I think I will be sleeping in but I will still be aiming to get my shakes in as per a usual non-workout day. I may go for a walk in the afternoon but I’m not sure.

So I’m feeling good, definitely into the smooth part of the V-Diet and can’t wait for the photos and weigh in on Sunday.

V-Diet 2 : Day 11

Today was pretty easy, it just flew by and actually at lunch time I was shocked I had so many shakes left to go. I am very tired though and I missed BJJ again. Instead I went to the shops to get some gloves, some slippers and a beanie. They didn’t end up having any wicked slippers so I’ll check out the shops tomorrow.

I’ve noticed more vascularity coming through on my forearms, upper arms and shoulders which is good because what I did have pretty much went away when I started the diet due to the lack of carbs. I reckon it’ll be great when I start adding the carbs again, also it’s only almost half way through the diet run too so I’m looking forward to seeing the changes to come.

So not much new to report really, things are just going pretty smoothly. I am really looking forward to the weigh in on Sunday as I feel much leaner already.

V-Diet 2 : Day 9

Ouch, I feel so tired and foggy. BJJ smashed me from start to finish I just wasn’t there for the entire class and I got smashed during the rolling partially due to my mind being screwed and partly due to me being physically dead tired. I don’t know whether to attribute it to the diet, the skipped meal, the lack of sleep on the weekend or what, I guess we’ll know by Thursday at the next session.

I missed a shake around lunch time and could feel the one I had before BJJ sloshing around in my stomach when I was rolling so that wouldn’t have helped!

Other than that everything is very routine now and I’m full all the time. The stomach rumbling has gone away and has been replaced by coldness.

I am cold pretty much all day now and have to wear jeans, t-shirt and jacket while my friends are in shorts and a t-shirt and I’m still cold. It’s really pretty bad at the moment I had knee high thick socks on too but my extremities are still cold and so that makes me feel pretty cold and shit. Drinking a fair bit of hot green tea seems to help a bit though.

Weights were fine this morning I increased weight on a few things and chin ups have become surprisingly easy! I just went to do a few on Monday night and knocked out seven (7) without any problems where as my previous best was about five to six (5-6) and before this V-Diet run it was about four (4) so that’s pretty cool!

I went to lunch with my friends today to celebrate a friends birthday and the food was pretty good, nice salads and great steak sandwiches. I had a Coke Zero and missed my shake by an hour but in all honesty it was pretty easy, the thing that bothered me the most was the cold. The thing I wanted the most was the spinach and chick pea salad but minus the oil they had on it. There were lots of chips, lots a aoli and so on and that I could have definitely given a miss to.

I think I definitely need to get some more sleep and will be trying to do that tonight. It seems like either being super tired, or the removal of the Cytolean has gotten rid of the crazy thing of getting up in the middle of the night ready to go.

Last night I wore a pair of jeans I bought two years ago and since added weight to myself. I had definitely gotten to the point of thinking they would never fit but couldn’t throw them out as they were $100 jeans. They fit, and well. They’re loose in the waist but tight in the thighs. I kinda like that though, I have big legs. I have a same brand pair of jeans in a size smaller that almost fit in the waist so I think I’ll have two awesome new pairs of jeans to wear by the end of this cycle.

Anyway, things are going very smoothly and liking the results.