Breakfast was a bagel and grilled turkey sausage patty again (did I mention how much I love my George Foreman grill?)

Mid day snack was yogurt and frosted mini wheats.

Lunch was the same as yesterday…

Afternoon snacks of trail mix and raisins again.

For dinner I made chicken and shrimp primavera.  Super awesome!

For breakfast I had a bagel with cream cheese and a grilled turkey sausage patty.

I had a mid day snack of yogurt.

For lunch I had a grilled chicken breast, brown rice with raisins, grilled zucchini and yellow hominy.

My afternoon snacks consisted of a small handful of trail mix and a small handful of raisins.

Dinner was grilled shrimp, kidney beans, and mashed red potatoes.

All in all a delicious day for food photography.

I skipped breakfast because I was running late.  For lunch I had a Subway Footlong sandwhich with chicken breast, cheese, and all the veggies (on wheat).  I split it in 2 and ate them 2 hours apart.

For dinner I had grilled tilapia, grilled zucchini, brown rice with raisins, and yellow hominy.  I love my foreman grill!

My post workout meal was 1 slice of hamburger pizza.

Not bad for day one.  All the food was decent, and I was way below my caloric intake goal (I need to eat more).  Pizza is a great after workout meal by the way.

I’ve been getting very fitness conscious lately (as you can probably tell from the 6 pack experiment), and I came up with my next experiment.  In order to keep better track of what I’m eating, I’ve decided to photograph everything that I eat.  This may seem a little extreme, but if it goes in my mouth it will be on this site.  I will probably document in increments of 2 days.  Otherwise I’d be uploading pictures my whole life.

So sit back and watch what I eat every day.  I’m sure you’ll be entertained, and maybe even inspired!

While I loved this experiment, and the amount of discipline that it required, I am going to have to press pause for now.  I’m in the middle of a religious fast (it’s Ramadan for Muslims), and my lack of disciplined nutrition and the fact that I don’t eat or drink throughout the daylight, I just don’t have the energy to keep up the intensity of work that I usually put into the gym.  I’m losing almost a pound a day, and I imagine that it is muscle as well as fat, so I’m going to do my best just to try to maintain.  At the end of Ramadan (about 20 more days) I’ll get back on track and the six pack abs experiment will continue.  Until then, I bid you adue.

My meals consist of nothing but great, natural ingredients.

Meals are as follows:

Breakfast:

• 1 cup oatmeal (100% rolled oats, no sugar or any other ingredients), made with fat free milk, honey, and cinnamin
• 2 sunny side up or boiled eggs
• 2-4 strips turkey bacon

Lunch and Dinner:

• Grilled chicken breast or grilled lean burger patty (no bun or anything else)
• steamed veggies or beans
• baked sweet or red potato

Snacks:

• tablespoon of peanut butter
• fruit (peaches, pineapple, strawberries, mango, grapes)
• Whole wheat mac and cheese, made only with fat free milk (no butter)

This is what my life has become.  I have switched my fitness plan from a 5 day split, hitting each muscle group once a week, to a 3 day split, doing 3 full body workouts per week.  In between each work out I take a day of cardio only, and usually play basketball for about 2 hours.  This seems to be working well, and  I feel great.

I’ll keep you posted as things progress.  Still no visible abs, but when I flex the top 2 show.

Nutrition-wise I’ve been ok.  I’ll admit there was a cheeseburger here and there, but no sweets and I’ve maintained a healthy level of calories, with a low amount of fats (I made the burgers myself using 92% lean ground beef on a george foreman grill).  Starting today I plan to resume counting calories and hitting the gym harder.  Hopefully all will go well!

Yesterday was day 7 of my Six Pack Abdominals experiment.  Overall things went well, though as you can see I didn’t eat nearly what I was supposed to.  I’m aiming to eat about 2800 calories, and yesterday I was about 900 calories short… just a little, right?  If I keep up this fitness level, I really need to be reaching my caloric intake goal.

I also decided to start supplementing caffeine.  I am taking 200 mg first thing in the morning and about 15 minutes before my workout.  This will give me a little extra boost of energy, and should slightly increase my metabolic performance throughout the day.  I don’t drink coffee or soda, so I don’t see this being a problem.  I’m also still taking a multi-vitamin, 1000 mg of Vitamin C, and 30 grams of protein powder after each workout.  When I play basketball I also take 400 mg of Ibuprofen, because I get shin splints pretty bad, and the Ibuprofen at least masks it during play.

This morning I weighed 204.8.  Remember my goal is to be at 185 in 53 days.  We’ll see…