5 Weeks Of Preparation

[Sam Suska]

Hi,

I would like some tips or suggestions that will help me reach my 5-week goal of looking my best for a photo shoot. I am not really a model, I'm a pro boxer with a mustache that has an old-school look that a boxing equipment company happens to like. I did a shoot for them a month and a half ago, and they liked it, and used my pics, but they are willing to do more if I can tighten up my midsection, and maybe lose 10-15 lbs. I want you to know that my health and happiness is most important, so I am not willing to do anything crazy. But I will discipline myself for the next 5 weeks in the quest to look my best. I think I can do it with the following approach. Importantly, this approach suits me well. But, I am willing to tweak it, add/subtract some things. Therefore, I would like you to check it out, and maybe let me know what you think, and would do or not do. Thanks. At the bottom I'll include pictures of myself.

The Goal:
To look my best on June 10th, and enjoy my preparation for it. I really enjoy making and eating these foods, working out hard but not too long, and sleeping on a good schedule. That said, I am not all that strict about my lifestyle; I drink regularly, and I under-sleep very often, and I eat restaurant food (french fries, and some bread and other much less than ideal stuff) a few times a week, and I eat ice cream most days.

At this point I live a good life in the sense that I am very active, I really enjoy my social life/relationships, and I am making serious progress in my life's purpose. My health and physicality is good, but not good enough; personally I would like to enhance my libido, but I am really more concerned about my modeling chance next month.

Food:

Breakfast: 2 cups of fat-free yogurt with 20g of whey protein, 20g of collagen protein and 55% dark chocolate chips

Brunch: 4 eggs with low-fat cheese and 1/2 liter of orange juice

Lunch: 1 large potato with low-fat cheese, coconut oil and oysters

Dinner: fish or meat with 1/2 liter of orange juice, and probably some vegetables, and maybe something else. maybe bone broth, or liver.

Last meal: 2 cups of fat-free yogurt with 20g of whey protein, 20g of collagen protein and 55% dark chocolate chips

• I drink a gallon or so of coffee many days. Sometimes I take caffeine supplement in the morning, and aim for 1,000mg that day.
• I drink very little water.

Supplements:

• Aspirin- 1300mg 3 times per day
• Vitamin B1- 200mg once or twice per day in the mornings
• Niacinamide- 1000mg twice per day
• Vitamin B6- with dinner and last meal
• Zinc- with dinner
• Tyrosine- 1,000mg with breakfast or brunch
• Taurine- 1,000mg twice a day in the mornings
• Glycine- 1,000mg twice a day
• Tocovit- apply on skin once a day
• Kuinone (Vitamin K2)- 5 drops twice a day
• 5a- DHP- 15 drops in the morning
• Androsterone- 5 drops twice a day
• Tyronene- 1 drop with every meal
• Gonadin- maybe 15 drops once a day (never used before)

Workouts:

• Resistance training is the foundation. 2 workouts that I alternate- aim to do each twice per week. About 30-40 minutes each time. Both workouts are full body, and they complement each other in terms of performing all of the major movements (pressing, pulling, squatting, deadlifting, lunges, explosive/power moves, as well as sit ups and core stabilization stuff)
  
• All-out effort interval conditioning, never longer than 6 minutes- aim to do 5 times each week.
• Boxing workout- aim to do a minimum of 45 minutes at least twice each week.

Sleep:
My job includes some overnight work which throws off my sleeping habits; I typically work for 24 hours straight every fourth day. I aim to get 7 hours of sleep on days that I don't work, and 5-6 hours on days that I work, or in the morning following my work shift.

Activity Level:
Most days I walk more than 3 miles with my dog, usually 5. I get out in the sun for at least a half hour on sunny days, I practice Qigong a few times a week, and I meditate once a week.

Here is me right now:

This is me from 6 weeks ago at my photo shoot:

Thanks a lot if you made it this far.

 

[meatbag]

5 weeks is tough. How far off are you from your next fight? What's your age, height and weight ( and waist measurement, can roughly determine bodyfat%)? I'd estimate you're upper teens maybe 20% but I'm not sure.

To lose 2 lbs of pure fat a week and maintain muscle mass you might need to drop a lot of the conditioning work; just do the lifting, walking, and the boxing training (but take it easy and just focus on technique work) and laser focus on macros. I'd look into something like Martin Berkhans Leangains, without the fasting. Basically keep the Reverse Pyramid style workouts, cycle calories (Not using his macro guidelines). So primarily your minimizing catabolic activity (conditioning and excessive lifting) and focusing hardcore on food intake. If you only have 5 weeks your gonna have to count macros IMO; ex: 120g Protein, 30g Fat, Rest Carbs Lifting Days and 120g Protein , 60g Fat, Rest carbs on nonlifting days but 30%less calories. The approach is all about minimizing the variables so you can understand what is happening, it's extremely effective but it takes time to lose fat safely. There are other methods of course but they are opposed to good health-mentally and physically.

Assuming you need to lose 2 lbs of fat a week for 5 weeks and just as an example lets say you weigh 180 lbs well that would be a maintenance of 17733 calories a week, or 2533 calories a day. To lose 2 lbs a week you're looking at 10741 calories a week, or about 1500 calories a day. Again just throwing out that you'd need to be eating a lot less calories to achieve 2lbs of fat loss a week, your BMR is probably higher but hard to say without your weight, etc.

 

[Sam Suska]

5 weeks is tough. How far off are you from your next fight? What's your age, height and weight ( and waist measurement, can roughly determine bodyfat%)? I'd estimate you're upper teens maybe 20% but I'm not sure.

To lose 2 lbs of pure fat a week and maintain muscle mass you might need to drop a lot of the conditioning work; just do the lifting, walking, and the boxing training (but take it easy and just focus on technique work) and laser focus on macros. I'd look into something like Martin Berkhans Leangains, without the fasting. Basically keep the Reverse Pyramid style workouts, cycle calories (Not using his macro guidelines). So primarily your minimizing catabolic activity (conditioning and excessive lifting) and focusing hardcore on food intake. If you only have 5 weeks your gonna have to count macros IMO; ex: 120g Protein, 30g Fat, Rest Carbs Lifting Days and 120g Protein , 60g Fat, Rest carbs on nonlifting days but 30%less calories. The approach is all about minimizing the variables so you can understand what is happening, it's extremely effective but it takes time to lose fat safely. There are other methods of course but they are opposed to good health-mentally and physically.

Assuming you need to lose 2 lbs of fat a week for 5 weeks and just as an example lets say you weigh 180 lbs well that would be a maintenance of 17733 calories a week, or 2533 calories a day. To lose 2 lbs a week you're looking at 10741 calories a week, or about 1500 calories a day. Again just throwing out that you'd need to be eating a lot less calories to achieve 2lbs of fat loss a week, your BMR is probably higher but hard to say without your weight, etc.

Meatbag, thanks for the insight- sorry it took so long to get back to you. I took your advice, looked more into the Leangains approach, and cycled the calories. I did not cut that much weight, but I got much tighter. Thankfully, my shoot is pushed back to end of July, so I am able to keep this going, and bring in some of Haidut's supplements.

 

[Richiebogie]

I like the old style look.

Here's a picture of an old Australian travelling troup of boxers the audience were invited to fight for a reward...

The men's physiques were less developed back then than today!

(Jimmy Sharman's son directed The Rocky Horror Picture Show!)

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ag5OEwQfIZA/U99y6_TbRHI/AAAAAAAAFgY/I-1V3nv3xYY/s1600/Stockmans+Hall+of+Fame+%40Longreach+Qld+2014+%2862%29.JPG

 

[Richiebogie]

Be careful not to overdose on coffee/caffeine and aspirin.

2 gallons of coffee seems a little extreme. If your liver is sluggish then caffeine could quickly build up.

 

[chispas]

If you're truly old school, you would just skip a lot. Probably at 4am after drinking a few egg yolks.