no more supplements… yet weight increase? you go figure!

been a while since the last post I apologise but I have been a busy bee .(I know I know, aren’t we all)

so hell, I started having stomach probs about 3 months ago maybe? issues with the latter part of my digestive tract (if you think this is TMI, well go read the daily telegraph then for all I care!) which I suspect affected nutrients absorbtion, resulting in a state of tiredness. to this day I am unsure what caused this, but suspect it’s a combination of stress due to having to live w a remarkably difficult housemate for a bit, and probably some food intolerance of sorts.
the interesting part is how I amended my diet in an attempt to sort things out.
first I stopped having chillies altogether as my voiding process had become like shitting fire! then I quit eggs for a couple of weeks, but that really didn’t help and made having breakfast a dull experience.
most crucially I think, the difficult housemate left, I started drinking a ton of water… and I quit protein shakes.

initially I was concerned about the immediate calorie deficit I would face from not taking my min 1 shake a day @ ~ 400 cals.
but lo and behold, as my stomach was on the mend, so was my buffness!

my stomach has been better for the past 3 weeks now, not a single shake ingested yet i have put on 2kg. not much I know but quite incredible for being me.
sure I eat a lot more regular food, but the type of meals has also changed.
I reduced the amount of carbs quite a fair bit. I still eat a lot of bread and the occasional rice or potato and sweet potato things, but my meals consist atm mostly of salads w meat, and a lot of saturated and unsaturated fats. I haven’t had pasta in quite some time. I haven’t been having dairy stuff too regularly either.
(of course I have a burger and fries once a week 😀 gotta take care of these macros)
the idea came while watching the documentary “Cereal Killers” which I highly recommend watching. but more about that movie in a future blog post.

here’s a sample of a lunch meal I would have:

yes this time there is feta in there, but also ground flaxseeds, a nice amount of bacon and croutons fried in the bacon lard. olive oil and lemon juice too. all in all a very fat/protein dominated meal (oh w fibre too)

I find it remarkable that my health has got so much better since I stopped w the shakes and that am progressing with the fitness pretty well.

a pic I took last night:

and one from the other day:

I am slightly less ripped but that is prob due to water intake. yet again, maybe so is the weight increase who knows.
then again, and I almost forgot to mention it, I quit cycling altogether and ride my motorbike to work.
this means I don’t do very much cardio from a training perspective. HIIT is all I do, mostly on core days and/or using Tabata stuff.
not cycling involves -11 miles a day of intense sweating + cardio, which prob contributed to this weight increase.

like I always said, CARDIO IS BAD FOR YOU! 😀

(DISCLAIMER: I am thriving to put on lean mass, those who need to lose weight might want to do some cardio at some point and watch their food intake differently.)

this is all a big experiment and I can’t wait to see what results I get from the combined diet/workouts.

more reports soon!