I am in Michigan this week and as cool as it is to see family affer not being back home for 4 years, it isn't a vacation; we are here because my Mother-in-law is battling colorectal cancer and after an aggressive run of chemo and radiation, she has surgery this week to remove the mass. Not ideal during a prep phase but it isn't ideal for her, either, as I am certain she would prefer not to have to deal with it, either. Life happens and you deal.
I packed a week's worth of food, vitamins, protein powder, etc. and not only am on track with everything but figured this would be an ideal situation to film the rest of the TRTbodybuilding DVD prep training footage in the gym that Ihad trained in when I was in my teens. Totally old school environment and old school equipment. It will be a nice addition to the DVD.
The only major change I did make this week was to cut all cardio. I went from doing consistent cardio twice a day to no cardio for the week. The idea was simply that I felt my body had become accustom to the high volume of cardio and by taking it out for a week and putting it back in next week, it would be a nice shock to the system, metabolically, and I would start dropping body fat again. And this would allow more time for family, as well.
I have struggled with progress since this last fat burner run started and I really dont know why - I cant put my finger on it. I just seem to have thicker skin and less detail but struggle to think I have gained body fat. Logically, it seems I am still just holding more water than I should be unless metabolically something is different after this last fat burner catastrophe. My weight is up and I dont have that thin skin that I had 3 or 4 weeks ago.
The plan is simply to push through, stay the course and execute but I admit that I am perplexed. Still, if I do have some kind of metabolic issue, there isnt much I can do about it this close to a show, anyway, so J am just making the best of it and hoping that the situation is just that my body hasnt yet fully recovered from the fat burner problem.
I should also note that my fullness and vascularity is actually considerably better but fullness and vascularity is second right to getting leaner - I still have to get leaner and thats the bottom line. So, I can look freaky at times but ... I ... gotta ... get ... leaner.
When I get back home to Colorado this weekend I will have 4 and 6 weeks to the shows to be ready. That is still a considerable amount of time given my current condition as long as I am able to progress well again. I feel that the reintroduction of cardio should impact tht quite well and I have even lowered my Skipload time due to being so mich fuller than usual. This was not an easy decision because I dont think I have ever cut Skiploads as I have gotten closer to a show. Last Sunday I cut the load time and was just as full as weeks prior and possibly even more so. Again, logically, this smells of continued water issues.
I just hope I am right. If not, I could have a hard time showing up in the condition I and others expect from me.
But what do I do? Not much else to do than to trust the process and do the work and let it play out.