*******

Weight this morning: 186.6, which is lower than when I ended my cut. Going to up calories to ~2700 and see what happens.

Going to eat at this place tonight; I've only been there once, but it was fantastic. I'll pour a little out of the buttermilk bread pudding with white chocolate sauce and cocoa nibs for loco before I destroy it.

started = ended?

Whatever do you mean?

186.6 is lower than when you ENDED your cut, right? Didn't you cut like 30-40 lbs or something?

EDIT: Whoa. What is going on...

EDIT 2: Touche.

EDIT 3: But seriously, that's sick. doingitright.jpg

Lol thanks. I trust ifcalc's estimation of my maintenance calories (~2900), but I figured working my way up to it in a bit more controlled manner would be less of a shock to the ol system. Seems to be working out so far.

grilled octopus, foie gras, lamb loin, duck breast...

homer.jpg

Yeah, this place is ridiculously elite and only like a 3 minute drive from my house. It's not cheap, and most of the waiters are skinny jean wearing hipster douches, but the food is so amazing it's worth it (we had a soft shell crab appetizer last time that was ridiculous). Sweet booze menu too, iirc; lots of high end liquor, only some of which I'd heard of, which was a bit surprising.

Agree with this. I did the same thing. I read a bunch of Lyle articles prior to ending my cut and concluded it was better to slowly re-up back to maintenance due to the hormonal imbalances from cutting.

Seems to be working so far.

I did some more ab wheel last night, and tried to hold the extended position for a few beats during each rep. Really focusing on trying to keep my glutes and abs flexed at all times, and I think I'm getting the hang of it.

Resto actually looks prettay good (for IN), enjoy.

Make sure to keep your arms flexed as well. You'll feel it mostly in your core, but this is really an entire body exercise. Imagine you're doing a stiff plank. You need to maintain your balance with stiffness from your hands to your toes. The stiffness in your arms will give you the stability to stay up as you roll out into the plank position, and then as you escape out of the hole and roll back up.

Can I nit it up a bit? Foye grass is super overrated. It's nice as a pate with a bread. But of that list of food, it's the bottom of the list for me.

Saw is continually astonished that most people need more than 1800 cals a day.

I plan to.

I definitely do this as well; I noticed dem veinz coming out during the exercise. Going to try to work up to doing either these or planks 4-5 days a week I think (probably will give it a rest before upper body days).

Agree, it's not my favorite by any means, but it's tasty every once in a while.

lol

To each their own. Some foie gras I've had have been among my favorite meals, others not so much. All of the foodses I mentioned are at or near the top of my list, though duck breast and lamb have a special place in my heart.

I meant I'd give the ab stuff a rest before lower body days, obv; too late to edit.

And I'll trip report the meal tonight; starting to get excited. Just had Greek for lunch and got some saganaki and a gyro for the first time in 9 months; not cutting is fun!

I remember reading long ago that it was counterproductive to overexercise your abs. Is that broscience?

Maybe, it'd be nice if the resident researchers popped in here and confirmed.

I'd guess doing a ton of ab work the night before or the day of squatting or DL might lead to performance issues if you squat nonjellydick weights, but that's not based on anything other than a guess.

Om nom nom nom nom nom

Enjoy your bulk, bro.

Probable tl;dr trip report below:

Pretty good dinner tonight; went out with the wifeacore and our neighbor (cool 40ish chick) and split the following:

First course: Charcuterie/cheese platter with chorizo, delaware fireball, port reyes toma, and red rock. The fireball was kind of a spicy salami, and was quite tasty paired with both of the cheeses; the red rock was explained to me as a combination cheddar/blue cheese, and was better than I expected. It was served with homemade bread, caper berries, and some fantastic homemade pickles.

Second course: Panzella; melon, watermelon, and canteloupe salad; Indiana tomato plate. I was most looking forward to the panzella, and it was probably the weakest dish of the three; I know the idea of panzella is to find a use for older bread, but I prefer it with bread that's a little fresher/softer and with a bit more of a soft roast. That said, the peaches was a nice touch that was better than I expected it to be. The melon salad was really quite well done, and the tomato salad was possibly the best dish of the night; the salty parmesan reggiano really tied it together.

Small/medium plates: Octopus; lobster salad. The octopus was another amazing dish; large pieces of obviously fresh octopus that were perfectly complemented with the olive and fennel. The lobster with the corn flan and pickled watermelon sounded weird, but worked somehow.

Large plate: Duck breast, which was done asian style with some nice vegetables, hoisin sauce and rice.

Dessert: Buttermilk bread pudding with white chocolate sauce, cocoa nibs, and vanilla ice cream. This was the best bread pudding I've ever had; loco needs to come here.

We paired the starters with a nice California chardonnay and the duck with a Spanish red; all in all it was fantastic. If any of you are ever stop off in Indy on your way to hell, be sure to stop on by -- you won't be disappointed.

That bread pudding is fake bro. You guys ain't quite in the South. So just like there is no fresh Octopus in Indiana there is no great bread pudding either. ACME. New Orleans. Great bread pudding. Jackson Mississippi also and Memphis. Indiana? No!!! But I will try it one day and let you know. All bread pudding at least 7/10 in my book.

Eh, I'm not a local Indiana hick bro, I've actually eaten good food. I will grant you that this bread pudding was probably slightly more deconstructed than you would like, but it was still fantastic. There's a spare bedroom for you any time you want to come hang out and try it.

If loco comes to Indy I'm there.

Weight this morning: 190.0; boythatescalatedquickly.gif. No big whoop, this weekend shouldn't be too bad foodwise so I think I'll be fine. The gym's open on Monday, so no issues starting the new program then. Feeling a touch under the weather, so I took it a bit easier today.

8/30
Squat 5x185, 5x195, 5x205, 5x215
RDL 5x165, 5x185, 5x215
GMs 10x45, 10x75, 10x95
Pullups 6x+20, 6x+25, 4x+30
Hammer Machine Row 3x12x120
Widegrip Pulldown 2x15x85
Hypers 3x15x+45
Standing Cable Crunch 15x30, 15x40, 15x50, 15x55
Pallofs 3x12x35

Forgot my belt, but the squats were still ok; form was decent through 205, and then might have broken down a bit in the last set -- just happy to get through these, honestly. I think I'm kind of getting the hang of the standing cable crunch, might keep it in the lower body days, might not, we'll see.