WEEK 4 UPDATE:

Flying under the yellow caution flag this week.

  Ummm.... Okay. So I got this "great idea" at the end of last week to alter my routine a bit and concentrate on short, intense circuit workouts and evening out my deficits to a more consistent level to prep myself for the next phase of my summer. By day 5, I realized that I had made a huge boo-boo. I checked my measurements and found that my lbm had dropped off and all my caliper readings were higher after several days of this supposed "fat shredding" plan. I was hitting my macro counts, but there was no variety. I was working out, but the way they're arranged, as soon as I was fired up and ready to go, the workout was over.

The kicker for me was when I looked back at my workout playlist and realized that I was listening to Prince during my last weight session. PRINCE!!! Now I luvs me some Prince, but he's not exactly the most... masculine dude in the world. For someone who thrives on a workout soundtrack of heavy metal and hardcore old-school rap like me, that was about the equivalent of locking up the weights, throwing on the leg-warmers and spending the week working out to old 1970's Jane Fonda videos. It just doesn't work for me. I let my head get the better of my instincts, let myself get side-tracked, and paid the price. I'm not a cute little gazelle flitting around the meadows, sniffing flowers and eating grass. I'm a freaking ornery-ass bull who's snorting and pawing the ground waiting for the next challenger. So I damn sure need to be eating and training like one!!!!

To my teammates, I offer my apology. I waaay underperformed this week and I promise that at week 14, this will have been my least productive week. For the rest of this challenge, it's all Beast Mode, all the time...

So for a little BTF lesson from someone who should know better, let's see how this week got side-tracked, shall we? According to the deficit, I should have seen a fat drop of about 2.5 pounds, but instead lost barely 1.5. And lost a bit of LBM to boot.

2 things jump out and grab my attention: Short, high intensity, low volume workouts that were designed to burn fat rather than build muscle, and a lack of refeed anywhere in there all week. It's really that simple, I think. I reread something Tom wrote somewhere along the lines of, "when you're lifting, lift to build muscle. Worry about the burning fat part when you're doing cardio and setting your caloric deficits." I'm paraphrasing, but it's something like  that.

So two days ago I started my build phase a week and a half early. Lo and behold, the calipers started inching back in the right direction and some of the missing LBM decided to make a reappearance.I guess I'm just wired to burn when I build.

OK, rant over. I'm back on my original plan and will not be deviating from it unless something drastically happens with my feedback loop. Cheers!!