I got a little burned out writing about Memorial Day weekend, but this should help me find new things to post about. I bought a few books a couple weeks ago: LL Cool J’s Platinum Workout Plan, TNT Diet, and Men’s Health Muscle Chow. I made a stuffed pepper using a recipe from Muscle Chow, and it was horrible so I haven’t opened the book since. It’s probably my fault how it turned out, but still it’s in my head. I was doing the LL Cool J plan at the beginning of the year, and then I hit a road block when I moved down to San Jose and had no gym. But I wanted to finish it, and I needed my own copy (I was reading Dan’s). I got the TNT Diet book because there were nutrition guidelines in the LL Cool J book, but no plan laid out.
The book encourages you to try out the plan for 12 weeks–84 days. And so that’s what I’m going to do. There are five plans (A-E). It’s basically a low-carbohydrate foundation, and the plans vary in carb-reload periods (0-48 hours) and pre/post-workout nutrition (protein/carb ratio). The first four weeks are all on Plan A, which is basically no carbs other than veggies (essentially what most people think of when they hear Atkins). After the first four weeks, you choose a plan depending on your goal or just stay on A (maximum fat loss). The gist of it is that you’ll empty your glucose “tank” in the first few weeks, preparing you for the other plans.
Low-carb diets have a bad rep. This probably has something to do with the people who didn’t actually read the Atkins book and went on “Atkins”, aka the all-the-steak-you-can-eat diet. And also there’s the idea that not eating bread and rice just doesn’t seem normal. That’s fair. There are other common concerns, but they’re addressed in the book with good arguments. But it’s all business and of course the authors can pick and choose what research to quote. Still, it’s far more legit than the opinion of some random guy on the street.
I’ll try to get my body statistics checked this week at the gym. And I’ll see if I can get my blood work done there. My favorite thing about the book by far is the emphasis on heart health. It goes without saying, but it’d be a shame to dedicate yourself and lose weight only to find out that you’re far less healthy than when you started.
On another note, the main difference I’ve read about between TNT and Atkins is the emphasis on resistance training and body composition (as opposed to weight loss). Take that with a grain of salt, because I haven’t read the Atkins book. I’ll try to follow the TNT plan as close as I can. However, I’m deviating from the 3-day-a-week circuit workouts to finish the LL Cool J plan, which also focuses on week-to-week variation (admittedly, it’s closer to a body part split than the circuits of the TNT plan). I’m currently on week 13. It goes to week 21 (actually week 22, but it’s a rest week, sorry for the book spoiler).
I thought about making a separate blog, but I can barely keep up with one so I’m posting here. I still might split it into a separate section on this site, though I’ll see how it goes for a few weeks. I also thought about posting pictures of my shirtless body every day so you can see my progress. But shirtless-pictures-of-me wasn’t exactly on the June edition of Top 10 Ways to Attract Readers. Without the “after” pictures, “before” pictures are just pictures of out of shape people. Still, it’s a possibility in the future (I can sense your excitement the same way you can hear a smile over the telephone).
Anyway, keeping yourself and having others keep you accountable is a good step toward maintaining a habit. Posting here will help me take care of both. Wish me luck!
