A couple of months ago, I had a hard time convincing myself to go to the gym. It was on my agenda for that day, but I just wasn't in the mood. So to convince myself to go, I made an agreement with myself that I would go, but I wouldn't push myself too hard. I figured that some workout is better than no workout. So in the middle of giving myself a relatively light workout of my arms, David's trainer, Victor Muñoz comes up behind me and says "Now I'm going to show you everything you're doing wrong." He gave me a lot of correction on my form and put the weight up much higher. As soon as I finished that set, he barked out more exercises for me and kept me going until my arms were putty. So my hopes of having a light workout were completely inverted. At first, I grumbled about my thwarted plans of taking it easy. But at the end of the workout, my attitude changed to "If I'm going to be there, I might as well give it my all." And eventually, I started Victor on a regular basis.
One of his first set of instructions was to fix my diet. You can't train a bad diet away. I visibly and uncontrollably cringed when I heard that he wanted to put me on a diet. I like food. I don't want to eat steamed broccoli and chicken breasts for 5 meals a day. I took his notes for a diet, but I was secretly ready to rebel. Well, going back to the notion of "what's the point of doing something if you're only going to do it half-assed," I've decided to take this seriously.
Victor's notion is that you follow the diet to the letter for four weeks. If you deviate within those four weeks, the clock starts over. At the end of four weeks, you can start adding cheat meals once a week. Eventually, you eat very well during the week and you loosen up on the weekends, so it's tolerable for the long term. And...this was the big motivator...he said if I really follow it, I'll have visible abs by the end of the summer. (Granted, I'm not going to be lifting up my shirt to show everyone, but it would be nice to not be carrying around extra weight.) Victor has been training people for a long time, so when he lays down these time lines, it feels a lot more doable. I see the end goal and it doesn't seem so bad.
This is confirmed by the fact that I have been seeing real results from the workouts with Victor. Even without starting the diet, I've been losing weight and putting on muscle. So I sort of trust that if I just follow what he says and try not to think about it too much, I'll be really happy with the results.
I had recently read this article about Jerry Seinfeld's "Don't Break the Chain":http://lifehacker.com/281626/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-secret?tag=softwaremotivation productivity advice. I've printed up calendars and am ready to mark off each day that I follow Victor's diet. Victor said that I'll probably have a couple of false starts, but once I get enough days into it, I'll want to stick with it to get the full four weeks.
So without further ado, here is the diet that Victor gave me. (FYI - this is not the same diet he gives everyone.)
General Notes:
- Drinks 1.5 gallons of water every day
- Take BCAA (branch chain amino acids) before and after every workout
- If you can get Isoflex for protein shakes, that would be best - but any low carb whey protein powder is okay
- When hungry, have 6-10 almonds or cashews
- Two glasses of alcohol per week are allowed
Daily Menu:
- First thing upon waking, drink 24 oz of water
- Breakfast: Protein shake with 60 grams of protein 500 mg of vitamin C
- Morning Snack (taken 2.5 hours after breakfast) 3 oz turkey or bison 6 oz salad
- Post Workout (two hours later) ** Protein shake with 60 grams protein
- Lunch (two hours later) 8 oz chicken, turkey, or bison (or fish at 10 oz) 1/2 cup brown rice or 1/2 sweet potato Salad or vegetables 6 strawberries or 2 kiwi or 5 prunes
- Afternoon Snack (three hours later) Greek yogurt Green apple
- Dinner (2.5 hours later) 8 oz chicken, turkey, or bison (or fish at 10 oz) 1/2 cup brown rice or 1/2 sweet potato Salad or vegetables 6 strawberries or 2 kiwi or 5 prunes
- Pre-Bed Snack 3 oz turkey or bison Salad ** Maybe hot chocolate with skim milk
For more information about, Victor, check out his website: "Pro-Edge Fitness Training":http://www.pro-edge.net/.
