Post-Cheat Meal Food Coma

As I write this, I'm laying in bed half asleep after finishing my weekly cheat meal. That being said, I can't garauntee a coherent blog post...so there's your disclaimer.

Well, I'm officially at the 16 weeks out mark (when I normally would start my diet), and I'm feeling pretty good. I lost 4 pounds this week, which was exactly what we were going for. Right now I'm at 142.8 and am very much looking forward to breaking the 140 barrier. My workouts this week were good, particularly Tuesday's back workout with Mike and Kevin. Let me just say, that workout went even better than I thought it would, and I got a nice ego boost out of it, too. First of all, the training chemistry that Mike and Kevin have is rare. They just flow through their workout with great intensity and focus and always seemed to be right on the same page with one another. Though, it's funny because Mike is like a little speed racer practially running from one exercise to the other while Kevin just strolls on over at his own turtle pace. I felt very lucky to have the opportunity to train with those guys, and while I thought they would mop the floor with me, I was surprisingly able to hang with them. In fact, they actually said they were impressed with my strength. And when Mr. 202 Olympia and his trainer tell you they think you're strong, well, it makes a meathead like me feel good about all the work I do. They also helped correct my form and execution on some exercises, which will hopefully help me improve my back even more.

This morning, we hit a pre-cheat meal leg workout, which left me quite humbled. I always struggle with the fact that I run out of gas much faster on a contest diet. My strength usually maintains very well, but I want it all....strength and endurance...AND fat loss. I know, I'm so greedy. Thank god for my training partner, who always puts things into perspective though and reminded me that it's not my strength that's dropping off this early in the diet. Rather, it's the lack of carbs that leads me to fizzle out in the later part of the workout. I'm sure, if I went back and looked at my entries from last year's prep that I would see I wrote some of the exact same stuff that I'm writing now, so this is really nothing new to me. I just need to adjust my workouts accordingly, that's all.

For now, things are rolling along well in pretty much every aspect of my life. There's minimal stress, and I'm embracing the quiet instead of considering how "bored" I am. This is huge for me, since it's common knowledge that I'm a stressed out head case, which inevitably makes it twice as hard for me to lose fat when I'm dieting. And speaking of embracing the quiet, I'm about to do just that, as I slip into that fantastic cheat meal coma. Good night :)