I have officially gone from fat, untrained slob boy to at least trained and looking like I pick heavy things up and put them down. I should have taken pics before I started and then again now to show the contrast because I can make a hell of a transformation in a short amount of time. Problem is, I admit that I just do NOT want to take pics of myself when I look terrible - even if it will make for an awesome contrast, I just cannot bring myself to do it.
Now, I am not back into prep condition, but I have done not one minute of cardio and have relied on my diet 100% to get back into shape in 4 weeks and I am pleased with the results. I am roughly 217-218 before I load on Sundays and my waist has dropped considerably. When I get fat I get pregnant looking. I gain more intra-abdominal fat than I do subq fat - though I still gain an appreciable amount of subq fat, too. I end up with what I refer to as the typical, old guy fat bod - rounded out belly sticking out further than my flabby tits (read: sideboob) and coupled with subq fat in my lower back, it looks incredibly unappealing and makes me look even older - and I HATE looking older.
If I had my way - and I have considered it - I would just focus on getting my waist as small as I possibly can with no regard for how much muscle I am carrying. I hate having a wide and thick waist more than I hate being smaller and less muscular. I think it is an age thing because there is nothing more unappealing to me than and older bodybuilder that is kinda big but has a thick, nasty midsection. It reeks of old age while a small, tapered waist is indicative of being younger. Why have a bunch of muscle if you look old because of your thick waist?
I do plan to hit some cardio soon. I always want to be in pretty good shape when I go on vacation around the holidays every year because we take a family cruise. I am still vain enough that the thought of walking around in the sun on a ship in less than good condition is not something I am excited about. I don't need to be ripped but I need to look good. Hey, we all have our shit.
We have about 11 or 12 weeks before the cruise and I look pretty good around 208-210 so I only really need to drop about another 8-10 pounds and considering I have only been back at it for 4 weeks with no cardio and have dropped a bunch of body fat, I anticipate getting another 8-10 off isn't going to be that difficult. I might have to add in some cardio as it gets closer but I admit that I am going to do as little as possible to get the job done. I plan to compete in 2018 and I will have plenty of cardio while prepping so I would prefer to do as little as possible now.
What I really like after being back for 4 weeks now is the feeling of being full again and actually getting a great pump in the gym and not feeling incredibly depleted all the time from all of the cardio. Today I trained legs and even before I started my work sets, the warm ups alone had my legs swollen like I had pumped them with an air hose. That is a great feeling that I don't typically get when I an dieting hard.
Skiploads are weak. I haven't been terribly hungry since being back these last 4 weeks probably due to not doing any cardio. The diet is almost exactly the same so it would have to be the cardio. I started the first 2 weeks with only 1 or 2 moderate meals for loading and having progressed to only about 6 hours of loading last weekend. For me, that is quite small considering my loads are typically quite epic in that they are all day and tons of food. Even in 6 hours I am getting nowhere near the massive amount of food I would typically load with. I am also on a BBQ kick right now where one of my load meals is brisket, ribs or elk sausage with sides like BBQ baked beans, potato salad, corn bread and coleslaw. Another might be a gourmet burger and fries. My foods aren't carb heavy as I just don't feel as depleted by the weekend so I don't have a need for a huge amount of carbs.
I am at a point now where I will start doing more training pics and videos, again. I held off because no one wants to see a fat, white, hairy guy using small weights in the gym. 🙂 More importantly, I have my tan again. It's the little things, sometimes.