Day 278: Back To Full Strength!

G'day,

My forced layoff due to a mild 'flu that I contracted last Friday on Day 275 is now over!

As a precaution I took today off from training as well just give my body a full four-day rest and recovery period.

In hindsight, my body definitely needed a rest anyway because I hadn't taken more than 2 days off since I started Mission 3 back on Day 230.

The lack of rest combined with the travel I have done in the last 2 weeks - eating and training "on the go" in Seoul, Brisbane, Gold Coast & the Aussie Outback - probably contributed to running down my immune system and leaving me vulnerable to the flu.

The good news is that because my immune system is quite strong now due to my current health condition I was able to prevent the flu from running me completely into the ground like it has so many times before.

This "4 day flu" is my first bout of illness since I started my current journey on November 8, 2006. Actually, I had not been sick since mid-2005.

Although I have put my body under a great deal of stress through hard exercise over this time I have similtaneously energized my body through proper nutrition and rest.

This proves to me that our bodies are remarkably resilient and will respond positively when given the correct stimulii in the correct doses.

In a nutshell, a well-thought regime of eating clean and shredding hard will improve your level of fitness, your body compostion, your immune system and your overall health when it is administered in a precise, calculated way.

The notion that training 6 days a week and eating 6 times a day is "too extreme" or somehow unhealthy I believe is totally false.

However, you may be surprised at the amount of people who want to challenge you on your "radical" training and nutrition methods...even after you have achieved success in transforming your physique. This still happens to me quite often when people ask me about my training routine and nutrition plan.

The thing people seem to struggle with the most is nutrition concept of eating 6 clean meals a day. They simply can't fathom how eating more is actually beneficial to losing fat/weight.

Even though you explain the logic behind this approach it can still fail to register with them because of all their repeated exposure to all "starvation based diets" that are promoted in the mainstream media.

Anyway, I've gone off on a bit of a tangent here, but the bottom line is to research, implement and test different/alternative training and nutrition plans that are congruent with your physique goals.

And most importantly, when you hit on the "right formula" go massive!

Peace,
Adam Waters, NESTA-CPT

P.S. Below are Day 278 pics for August 13, 2007: Mission 3 Phase 1 - Day 48 of 60.

P.S.S. There has been one slight downside to this 4-day layoff. My M3 Phase 1 goal of a Six-pack in 60 Days - by Day 290 - is probably out of reach now.

The 3,500 calories I would have burned in the last 4 days (had I stuck to my original plan) will have to be added on to my current M3 timeline.

However, I have not thrown in the towel, I will still do everything humanly possible to get that sixer in the shortest time possible...just may take a little longer that I planned.