So before Christmas me and my boyfriend bought Mark Cole's M10 8-week physique program - we stocked up on all the naughty food and ate EVERYTHING, indulging as much as possible during Christmas knowing that, hit January, we would begin our journey to physique on meat and rice. In fact we ordered a pizza the night before... a pizza that I have not stopped thinking about since enrolling onto this program...or about how I could buy a couple of them and turn them into this...
Mark is hoping to compete this year and I would love to - this program for me is a test - to see if I am capable and to get me in a good position if ever I ended up trying to compete.
Our shopping list is limited to meat (chicken, turkey and steak), eggs, brown rice, basmati rice, sweet potatoes and green veggies. THAT IS IT. No nut butters (my favourite thing in the world...) I worked out I will have eaten approximately 168 plates of rice by the time this is over. I reckon, by the end, if I get a wounded - I would bleed rice!
We are well into week 3 now and I thought it was about time I write a check-in.
Before this program we both ate very low carb - the only time we would eat carbs would be after the gym in a shake and in a follow up meal - occasionally we would have some before bed. Our diet was basically paleo, although we would sometimes have dairy such as, cottage cheese or greek yoghurt, and we would eat beans and lentils too. We basically ate wholesome and nutrient dense food - rather than dieting or restricting - we would always try and opt for a better version.
The first week was tough! I've never eaten so many carbs. In 3 meals I was waffling down around 600g of rice. I constantly felt full. Did I also mention I am a sauce fiend, more specifically Nandos, in fact, any hot sauce! It goes on everything! One of the rules of this program is NO SAUCE. I found everything bland and dry. I was drinking SO much water.
The first week of the program was brutal - we had gone from spending 1 hour in the gym (sometimes a little over) 6 times a week, to nearly two hours of really intense training every day. The exercises are all ones I do regularly or have done before but, what makes his program hard is the tempo work - with every movement there is a tempo - you'd be surprised how much harder exercises are doing them slowly and holding pauses - I've almost gone back to squatting weight I did when I first started lifting.
In the second week I started getting used to eating the amount of carbs recommended, though I was getting tired from long workout's and cutting out a the drastic amount of fat from my diet which I used to consume.
Now, on week three we have began cutting carbs and fats - just as I got used to eating that amount I am decreasing it which is leaving me feeling hungry after each meal. It's tough. And there's still more cutting to do. At the start I think I was too full to crave other foods but now I am craving EVERYTHING! It's funny how the things I am craving the most aren't stereotypical 'bad' foods like pizza, chips, chocolate rather, the healthy additions I used to occasionally eat, like nut butter, yoghurt, some blended fruit in my protein shake, a big-ass bowl of oats... OK, and I do want a pizza, a cake, some doughnuts, some cookies, a curry...
Yet, except the mass amount of rice and bland food I feel like I am leaning out already. My top abs are showing much more and my middle abs are starting to come out too - and this is just after two weeks with no fat burners etc or cardio - so I am really hopeful of the end result.
There is a scheduled cheat day at the end of week 5 - the thought of it is getting me through this! I imagine it's going to look a little like this...
