The first time I did SGX, I started out pretty gung-ho, but was undone by an extended period of crunch hours at work and the disastrous introduction of catered buffet style dinners at the office every night. The dinners themselves weren’t bad, though loaded with salt, but the fact that really rich, tasty, FREE carrot cake was provided at least three times a week totally killed any hopes I had of actually losing scale weight while on the program. Candy, pasta, chocolate, cookies–no worries, no temptation. But carrot cake, well…I caved in more than I’d care to admit.

So there it is–the true secret to my upper body bulk in spring was mounds of catered carrot cake (and the FGX training program and PWO shakes and probably the LISS cardio vs. the BFL HIIT I was doing before.)

As I am happy with my current amount of muscle mass, I am going to keep my cheats down to one meal a week and keep all junk out of my apartment. For me, SGX’s emphasis on macronutrient combining and meal timing is rough enough that keeping certain foods around–even though they are on the authorized food list for BFL–would send me into a 10 pm carb raid if I knew I had Kashi Go Lean Crunch in the kitchen. :tongue:

So far things have been going well this week. My energy level is pretty good; I have yet to bonk out like I did the first time around in week 1 from the diet change, particularly on non-training days, and my brain seems to be functioning at normal capacity. As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve already dropped nearly 2 lbs of water weight bloat in just one day, and the removal of dairy from my diet has kept it from coming back. My arms feel harder with less excess flabbage in the tricep area, and my lower abs aren’t doing that annoying water retention pouf thing anymore. Reintroducing creatine in the form of the GNC Creastack creatine/l-glutamine stack doesn’t appear to be making me gain much water weight so far.

What I HAVE noticed is that I’m cold. The other people in my office are wearing pretty much the same thing I wear–snarky, humorous t-shirt with jeans–but they are perfection comfortable. I have to layer on a sweatshirt to keep from shivering, and my hands are still cold. While this could be partially due to the literal gallon of cold water I chug down before 7 pm, I’ve been drinking nearly that amount for months now and have only noticed the shivery jitters this week since I restarted SGX. It’s a bit disturbing to be truthful. I am taking two of the recommended supplements for the program at the moment, too, so those might play some part in the shivers.

Conversely, at night I am so warm that I have resorted to sleeping with just a sheet over me instead of my usual summerweight quilt. This is with the A/C dialed to 75 degrees Fahrenheit.

The things I do in the name of fitness research!

I think I will actually do my cardio in the morning tomorrow as recommended (I’ve been doing it during lunch or in the evenings this week) and see if that keeps my body temperature higher during the work day. The extra warmth might be the spur I need to get my butt into bed at a reasonable hour every night and back out of it when my alarm goes off at 6:30 am.

I’m off to do my first SGX leg workout this cycle. Be back with a report on the sets and my first ATW chocolate mint PWO dextrose shake in a bit!

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Nutrition: SGX Training Day Menu
(Details omitted by request of trainer)

Daily Supplements: multivitamin with iron, calcium 500 + D, 1 T. flaxseed oil or natural peanut butter, 1 t. GNC Creastack
Water: 16 cups minimum

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Workout:
12:00 PM SGX Leg workout
7:15 PM LISS Cardio - Walk (3.5 mph / 10% incline / 45 minutes)

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The Awful Truth:
1. Dug into some Fiber One after work, but kept the damage down to 1 cup, which is a whole lot of fiber (30 g), but not much in the way of absorbed carbs (20 g) or calories (128). God, I love that cereal.

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Brownie Points:
1. Suffered through cardio yesterday.
2. Didn’t spend any more money!

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Short-term Goals:
1. Make some fresh salad dressing.
2. Bulk cook chicken.
3. Make new shopping list for SGX menu.
4. Do the laundry.
5. Clean bathroom.
6. Make non-dairy, high fiber protein bars with new ATW protein powder, PB, and Fiber One.