My routine and diet were reasonable, I would make a few tweaks if I did it again. As for having a break, the last seven days I have doubled my calorie intake, probably put on a little fat, but only gained 3lbs and looking a bit fuller now, although, you are right I could do with some lean muscle now.
I did it a bit like this, although it varied slightly.
You'll probably note I didn't train legs, that because they are the biggest bit of my body and remained the same throughout, my calves are pretty good, for example wearing clothes which fit my waist now, when I take down my jeans, they get stuck at my calves. This allowed me to keep the cardio good with no legs soreness, but on reflection I would have trained them lightly throughout.
The whole routine was done in my home built gym, reasonable equipment but far more limited than a proper gym of course.
Cardio For the first couple of months, to increase fitness ready for some HIIT, I did steady state cardio on stationary bike, 45 mins a time for a minimum of 3 days per week first thing in the morning before breakfast BUT after a half scoop protein shake. This sometimes went up to 5 days.
For the rest of the time I did either 45 mins steady state on the bike or 25 mins HIIT on a spin bike (as I don't have a treadmill, only the stationary and spin). This was a minimum of 5 days per week, mostly first thing in the morning, on a really busy day it was before bed. Occasionally if I had loads of energy,
I would add a 20 mins HIIT session after working nights before bed as a second session when I had done one on waking.
Training I trained 3 days per week, any three days in the 7, but never 3 consecutive. Mostly working in 8-10 rep range. If I felt particularly spent, I would go to 10-15 using slightly lighter weight.
Day 1 - Back and Bi's
Day 2 - Chest - on its own as I felt it was the most lagging
Day 3 - Shoulders and Tri's
Food I did 5 low carb days, 2 high carb days. On high carb days I just added extra sweet potatoes/brown toast/brown rice to whatever meals I fancied. Sad as it sounds, I bought 'small' loaves of brown bread (i.e. Warburtons Half loaf), because 2 slices has the same carbs/cals as a single slice of larger loaf bread. The only purpose of 2 slices is to hold the food in!
I struggled at first with the willpower to eat completely clean, but came up with a logic that worked for me, a bit caveman style -
Food is for survival and growth - taste is for making sure what you eat will not kill you!
Fluids - I drink loads of tea and coffee all day, I just can't help myself - the kettle never goes cold at work or at home. During training I'll get through about half a litre of water too.
Wake
half scoop protein shake
Cardio
Breakfast
Small bowl of porridge with apple/berries/raisins
half scoop protein shake and 4 egg whites, 1 yolk scrambled or omlette
Mid Morning Protein Shake
Apple
Lunch
Chicken (usually with a sprinkle or two from a fajita mix packet) or mackerel
Huge Salad with Jalepenos
Plenty of Olive oil and white wine vinegar dressing - homemade
Mid afternoon Protein shake or two tins of mackerel (curried is good!)
Dinner
Non training day - usually fatty fish - mackerel etc
Training days - Chicken
Brocolli and loads of other veg
Post Training 60g Protein Shake with creatine
40g Dextrose powder
Sometimes I had a casein shake or cottage cheese before bed, but generally not. I should have been stricter with before bed.
Occasionally my training would be after breakfast or before dinner due to work, but the meals stayed about the same, just moved the post-training. Dinner of course became mid evening.
Supplements
For 3 of the six months (not consecutive) I used Pyrolean by Sci-MX at 6 caps a day (not 9)
Fish oil caps - 1 in the morning, 1 or 2 before bed
Vit C - 1g in morning, 1g midday, 1g before bed (not consistently)
Mutlivitamin, 1 in morning, sometimes 1 before bed also.
Creatine Gluconate - 2.5g before training, 2.5g mixed in post workout shake
AAKG - 3-5g 40 mins prior to training with the creatine above
I think that is about it.
<message edited by biggernleaner on 10 April 2009 10:42>