Respawn

This past year, I’ve spent some time regrouping on my fitness journey. After two years of a journey that took me from morbidly obese to stronger than I’ve ever been, I began trying new things in my workout regimen.

I also started diversifying my diet more, which means my diet has become looser. It doesn’t mean that I went completely off the rails with my nutrition, but I have definitely been more flexible about eating treats and other things that I considered completely off limits when I started down my “hardcore” journey beginning in May 2016.

Unfortunately, this may have been a little looser than it should have been. As I always strive to look towards the positive now, unlike old Benjamin, I think about the muscle that I’ve put on. I’ve definitely put some muscle mass on over the last year. I have also backtracked on my body fat levels, with them jumping at least five points.

So far in 2018, I my bodyweight has increased 19.5 pounds. This is higher when you consider it is from my low weight of around 225 pounds. Some of this muscle, and some is fat.

That is where we are now. So what’s next? I’ve decided it’s time to “respawn” and get back to the basics and core principles of my goals. Functional warmups, lifts, metabolic work, and core work. More importantly, a commitment to reach my body composition goals once and for all in 2019. My goals by 42 I outlined can only be achieved through hard work, commitment, and dedication to doing exactly what I need to do to get there.

Beginning this week, I will be in nutrition lockdown. I’ve already sat down and planned everything out for the next six days.

The key thing when planning the macros is that I’ve kept them in ranges.

• +/- 10 points for Carbs & protein
• +/- 5 points for Fat

Each day, I’ve set up my meal plan so that my macros are on point based on the goals that I’ve set. This week I am on 2700 calories with a mix of them coming 35% from carbs, 35% from protein, and 30% from fat.

When it comes to macros, the key is to find what works for you. While there is a lot of science around what macros work (such as for me, where a slightly lower carb content can be helpful) a lot of macro setting is trial and error. Each day checking in, and pulling levers week to week to ensure you keep moving towards your goals.

To help ensure I always stay on point, I am getting into the habit of printing out my meal plan each day and posting it on the fridge. This way, I don’t have to pull up my phone and question what I am eating next; everything will be set and ready to go.

I’ve completed a meal prep session today which ensures that the food I need is ready to go for the rest of the week.

Primary meals are all prepped. Other meals are easily put together and my snacks can put together on the fly pretty quickly.

The calories I’ve set for this initial week is 100 calories lower than my maintenance level I determined.

All of this is set in place to ensure I can begin to change the trajectory on my body composition and begin to bring my body fat levels down. I want to do this while maintaining as much lean muscle as possible. This means I must slowly drag my body fat down to ensure I don’t cause catabolism to myself.

If I am going to remain committed to my long term goals of Bigger, Stronger, Leaner, Better. By bringing my body fat down, I can expose more of the muscle I’ve built up over the last year, and make my body more anabolic. More than that, it will improve my overall body movement with my poorly placed mass getting out of the way. Leaning down means a lower body weight which will be easier to move for bodyweight exercise so I can begin gaining weight in the way I want to pack on weight.

This is the beginning of a long year coming to achieve my fitness goals. I’m committed to this process; there is no backing away now.