Actually, it is probably more like 12 or more because I am so sore I would rather fall down the stairs than try to walk down them. Sure, some of the weight loss is from my testosterone levels falling but I am clearly leaner than last week and just feel much better being back in the gym. Back in the gym? Yes, I admit that my head was turned around last week with the decision of not competing anymore so I took the week off and spent time with my wife doing absolutely nothing involved with the gym, at all.
Suffice to say that I am obviously ok with dropping some weight and getting leaner. I prefer to be leaner anyway and feel much better lighter. I will be wasting no time stripping the fat off and, conveniently, I have a cruise with our family to Grand Cayman late November that I will use as a sort of goal or deadline to get as lean as possible before I leave. How am I going to do that? Thanks for asking ...
I won't be using my typical approach to dieting by ramping down calories and ramping up cardio like I would for a show. I will also not be using fat burner supplements, either. I will continue to have very low testosterone levels for the next 3 weeks until I get bloodwork again that should give me the green light to then find a trt dose that will allow my blood levels to be in the high/normal range for testosterone yet keep my hematrocrit/hemoglobin/rbc numbers within range AND my blood pressure, as well. If that means I can get away with a 1199 blood level and have my blood and blood pressure in range, that is exactly what I will do. If my blood cannot handle that 1199 level then I will run it lower - hopefully in the 800-900 area. The point is that I will find a spot where my test numbers are as high as I can get without the fear of blood or blood pressure issues.
I am going to rely as much as possible on my diet and training to get lean than to rely on cardio. I am not against doing cardio, but I am against doing a lot of it or any more than I have to do. I do not like cardio because it sucks and is boring but even more importantly is it sucks up time that I could be doing something else. I know, I know, EVERYONE thinks they are sooo busy, but I have to run my kids everywhere from sports games and practices to work to dentist, ortho and doctor appointments and to and from their friends' houses on top of running my business and getting to the gym, myself. I have 4 kids - not that this qualifies me as busier than everyone else, but I'm damn busy.
If I need cardio I will do it but I won't do it until I need it AND when I do it it will be with my family as more of a "fun" thing than it will be getting on the home ellipticaI live at 7700ft with grades of over 12% on the roads in my neighborhood so I have options from lunging 3/4 mile (up 12% graded road) to pulling an old tire off of my truck up the same grade (tires are 35s), to going 5 minutes from my house to Red Rocks Amphitheater to lunge the bleachers. I am no longer competing so as important as my goals still are to me, I won't sit on a cardio machine for endless hours to get ripped when I can do it other ways and show others how to do it, as well.
Training is still the same in that I am still training as hard as I was and will continue to. I still want to progress and still be as big as I can be while being as lean as I can be. The only real change now is that I will remain MUCH leaner than I ever did before and maintain this year round. There is a possibility that I might loosen up SLIGHTLY over the winter months but damn sure not this winter. It is time to get lean.
I will start my Skiploads with higher fat intake and as I get leaner, the carbs will go up and the fat will go down (along with the load becoming longer, obviously). This is something that I have come to with a lot of clients this last year that has worked well. When body fat is higher, fat intake is higher and as the body leans down, the fat comes down and the carbs go up.
This current phase will be roughly 14 weeks before we go on vacation but while I am on vacation I may decide to drop even more weight when I come back, based on how well I progressed in those 14 weeks and where my condition is at that time. Again, I am not talking about being lean, I am talking about being damn near contest ready all of the time - just not as big due to trt dosing, of course. It's a game of health and longevity now, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't going to still try to hold as much size as possible.