Day 229: The Truth About The Last 95 Days

G'day,

Today is Day 229, it has been exactly 95 days since the end of Mission 2. I regret to say that somewhere along the way after Mission 2 I lost the essence of what this blog was all about.

In this post I will outline exactly what has transpired since M2, my successes and my failures.

Where I Have Succeeded

Even though my pre-M3 "muscle gain" training has been a success in terms gaining muscle (2.5 kg's added) it has come at the expense of increased fat levels. To be specific, below is a comparison of my raw body stats between now and the end of Mission 2.

Mission 2 Stats: Day 136
Bodyweight: 74 kg's
Bodyfat %: 6.5%
Fat Weight: 5.5 kg's
Lean Body Mass: 69.5 kg's

Pre-Mission 3 Stats: Day 229
Bodyweight: 80 kg's
Bodyfat %: 10.0%
Fat Weight: 8 kg's
Lean Body Mass: 72.0 kg's

As you can see I have added 2.5 kg's of muscle while also adding another 6 kg's of bodyfat to my frame. This is inevitable as a major part of gaining muscle requires that you increase calories to create a caloric surplus and reduce cardio to preserve muscle.

The truth About Why Mission 3 Was Delayed

While I am happy to have increased muscle in this pre-M3 training period I am not satisfied with the big increase in fat levels. In hindsight, I took too much time off from the end of Mission 2 (while my bodyfat levels were still low) before I started hard training again.

At the time I had valid reasons, like a relationship break-up, a legal threat on my skincare site and the general exhaustion factor of training and dieting full-time for 136 days straight. Added to this was the wrist injury I sustained on Day 169 which put me out of action for 21 days.

My Critical Error Of Judgement

As I mentioned above I now realize that I took too much time off before starting Mission 3. I should have started after I returned from Phuket but I instead decided to take additional time off to deal with those issues that came to a head on my return.

The single biggest error I made was to stop taking daily pictures of my progress on Day 146. This decision really hurt the real-time aspect of this blog and took the pressure off me to hold myself accountable during my "down time".

I believe I have also paid the price with my physique due to not continuing to take daily pictures. As I have blogged about many times before, taking daily pictures was the cornerstone of my early success as it made me push through the pain barrier each and every workout.

In a nutshell, the act of taking daily pictures was the major component of my accountability structure by using "positive pressure" to force myself to follow through every single day.

Conversely, I can see a direct correlation between my physique progress of the last 95 days and not taking daily pictures. I believe this has negatively affected my intensity in practicing my training and diet discipline.

Regaining My Confidence & Intensity

Upon reflection over the last few days I have come to the conclusion that right now I just need to "get back in the game" to re-discover the intensity of my M1 & M2 training and start holding myself accountable daily through progress pictures and real-time reports on my daily action plan.

Truth be told, I am not happy with my current fat levels. A major part of this is psychological, as I was overweight for so long. So when I start to creep back up to 10% bodyfat (like I have now) I get nervous! I feel like I am on a slippery slide in the wrong direction even though I am increasing my muscle mass.

Therefore, my thinking goes like this. Get back into top shape AND then immediately start Mission 3 while my confidence is high and my bodyfat is low.

This will give me the mental clarity I need psychologically to gain muscle mass without the danger of having of my bodyfat blow-out to 15 - 20% while on the caloric surplus that is required to gain mass.

In short, I want to return to the core of what this blog was all about in the beginning (way back on November 8, 2006). That being a real-time blog that documents my progress through daily pictures and training & diet reports, along with insights into my feelings, thoughts and struggles as I progress.

Getting "Back In The Game" Starts On Day 230

On Day 230, I will outline what exactly it is I have planned over the next 50 days and how this will affect Mission 3. I will also start posting daily pictures of myself again and hold myself accountable to my new real-time accountability structure I talked about yesterday.

See you tomorrow,

Peace,
AJ