Day 8 and the start of my second week of Nick Mitchell’s 12 Week Body Plan.

Day: 8
Date: 19/05/2013
Workout Day: 9
Weight (lb): 167.4 (4.4 lb loss)
Body Fat %: 15.5 (1.1% loss)
Health: Fine

The morning started with another hour of fiddly photography to capture my progress after the first week. I’ve got this down to a pretty fine art now with the settings and lighting and all that, and having reviewed the shots I’m not seeing much progress. Unfortunately the camera does lie. But in the mirror I can see some kind of a difference, and I’m sure the photos will reflect that in several week’s time.

The weigh-in has me back on track. I’m still surprised by the slowness in weight loss. I expected a bigger drop from water loss in the first week, so I have to assume that some muscle mass and/or bone density has increased.

It was a bit of a rushed morning, with a trip to the supermarket followed by the gym and then off to a BBQ for lunch. The supermarket was the usual experience of a trolley half filled with vegetables, and half filled with meat. This is my life now.

I then headed into the gym, took 3 x thermogenics and despite the caffeine boost felt extremely tired after only a few sets. My mistake was missing breakfast which left me feeling tired and progressively nauseous as the tablets kicked in. So I’m now in the middle of a series of sets wondering how to shake this feeling. Should I eat protein or fat? Drink something or have a load of BCAAs? I knew that protein based food wouldn’t achieve anything other than giving me something to eject when the training got hard, and fatty food wouldn’t provide energy for 5-6 hours. Fortunately I remembered that coconut milk would provide me with an immediate boost of energy from the MCT content. So I drank 50ml of coconut milk and within 10 minutes felt completely normal again. Coconuts are magic, period.

The training itself was brutal. I know the first microcycle had been tough but this felt like another level up. The premise behind the second microcycle is hypertrophy through increased volume and reduced rest periods. It feels completely unnatural to finish a set, panting and feeling weak, and then immediately start another equally difficult set. But again there is no choice here. Compliance is everything, so just get on and do it. And somehow the hour does go, the sets are all complete and you wonder how you survived another session. I did swap a few exercises again, with the band pull changing to a one-arm dumbell row, and the face pull changing to a bent-over lateral raise. I know these aren’t perfect replacements, but they provide a similar level of intensity and growth factor so I’m happy with what I chose.

A BBQ of beef and veg followed that, and now I look forward to more increases in difficulty as the week progresses. I know I can meet the challenges that this microcycle will bring, but I don’t know how. Call it blind faith or just confidence in the programme and my determination to succeed, but I am certain that whatever this plan brings at me I will absolutely smash it.