My 2013 Training/Nutrition Update!

First off i want to apologize for not blogging for a long time. My last post was about the Body Beast and Asylum hybrid that i designed for mac performance while building lean muscle. I have had a lot of great feed back on that hybrid. Apparently people are loving all the variety it has and apparently there getting results :) Im very happy to hear all these success stories that are coming from people that are using my site as a guide for there fitness and lifestyle transformations! When i started this site way back when i had no idea that it was going to take off like it did! This blog post though i want to update you about my life and how i am changing things in 2013.

I want to talk first about a recap of 2012.
2012 was a very interesting year for me. Prior to that year i did not have a full time job and i was just training and following a strict nutrition plan while still going to school. because of all the time i had i was literally in the best shape as i have ever been in. i was able to get 8 hours at least of sleep every night. i was able to eat before my morning workout which allowed me to build better muscle and remain a lot leaner with a lot more ease. Also since i did not have a day job i had like no stress and therefore my cortisol levels stayed low and maintaining my fitness was a lot easier. well starting in January 2012 i started a full time job as a web manager for a local news paper company. working from 8am to 5pm so with that i had to have my workout before breakfast and i also went to only having about 6 hours a sleep a night. with this change in my life i automatically put on a bit more body fat even with working out and eating healthy because my cortisol levels went up and since i was not getting enough sleep. so since i could no longer eat 2400-2700 cals a day maintaining weight i had to drop them to about 2200-2000 cals. with this job it really destroyed the amazing physique i had built prior to 2012. If it wasn't for the money i would quit this job so i could get back to being in the best shape as possible like i used to be in. well after fighting this for a year now, i have determined that as long as i still have a job and as long as i can't get 8 hours of sleep a night and get a nice big breakfast to start the day like i used too. i have just come to accept that i won't be as ripped and strong as i was back in 2011. i spent the entire 2012 trying to get back to that level and i tried everything!!! so i have to live with it, and now im moving past it. whats in the past is history. In 2012 i did 2 rounds of P90X2, 2 90 day hybrids, 90 days of body beast, 30 Days of Asylum Vol 2 and then finished up the year with random body beast workouts with a little Asylum in the mix,

then ending the year and starting 2013 having a photo shoot, so for the shoot i did a 4 week cut to get super shredded. i had overindulged at christmas and put on 2-3% bodyfat so i had to cut some off for the photo shoot, i finished up my cut and had the photo shoot with around a 5% body fat level, after having the photo shoot i have a giant wake up call. while looking through the photos i noticed that i was smaller now than i was in high school! and that is not what i want. so after looking through the pictures i realized that i have to gain size in 2013 and there is no exceptions! in the past i have been worried about fat gain but i have come to realize that to put mass on you need to add a bit of fat. I weigh less now than i did in high school and it is beginning to really bother me. While Beachbody was a great thing for my health im thinking that it was not the best thing for my body as most of the programs are cardio based. I hate saying that tho because Beachbody changed my life for the better and i will always support them and there new products because they are just so well structured. the main thing im changing tho for 2013 is the ammount of time i am spending training. in the past i have done about 1 hour workouts almost daily with Sundays as my rest day but as i can see that is just not working for me anymore. I need to workout a lot less so my muscles can grow more! I have found that if i workout long i cannot train everyday as my muscles never recover. I am cutting my workout time in half this year! and i also am only going to be working out 5 days a week. Im keeping cardio to only one day a week and the rest is weightlifting/ recovery days. My workouts will still be at 5am since it is just convenient for me to get it done and out of the way before the day starts. I'm sure i could make more gains working out later in the day but i just dont have the motivation to workout after work so i will just keep it to the morning. I want to say- It was a successful year but going into 2013 i know things need to change to make it better in the long run. One thing that i really want to focus on thois year is finding what works for me instead of just going off what works for others. in the past i always sorta copied off what other successful people in the fitness industry do but not this year! This year i will do things the way they work for me and if they don't work i will trash the idea and move on to the next. THAT IS SOMETHING WE SHOULD ALL BE DOING

2013 is here. what am i changing?

First i want to discuss how my Workout split is changing.
in 2012 i trained 6 days a week with one day off every week. my split looked something like this;
mon- Upper body resistance/ abs 1:15
tues- cardio :60 (on average)
Wed- Upper body resistance/ abs 1:15
thurs- shoulders or yoga 1 hour
fri- legs 1 hour
sat- usually a heavy chest workout, or arm workout/ abs 1:30
sun- off

that was my split and i found that it was way to taxing on my body, so i have come up with this split;

mon- Upper body (chest or back)/calfs/abs 1 hour
tues- Cardio :45
wed- upper body (chest or back (whichever one i did not work on mon)/ traps/abs
thurs- off
fri- legs
sat- shoulders and arms/ abs (heavy) 1 hour
sun- off
i am only training 5 days a week now and im only training at maximum an hour, i want to try and keep it to 45 min tho. also my workouts will vary. sometimes i will do body beast, sometimes X2, sometimes Asylum, Sometimes P90X it just depends. i will plan no workouts i will just decide the night before on it depending if it is upper body day, cardio, or lower. I have one rule tho and that is i will hit every muscle group at least once a week. My primary program will remain Body Beast tho for the most part, i might switch out some exercises with others somedays it will just depend what i feel like doing. i could do the workouts without the DVD but i like using the DVDs so i can use them for the timing as the pacing in the video is fast and keeps me motivated.

Further Notes
- I am gonna change up my split every month, so instead of changing the workouts every week i will be doing the same split (changing up workouts/ exercises tho so i dont get bored) and that split will hit every muscle group once per week.

- The next thing i want to talk about is yoga. you might ask why you dont see any yoga? well the reason is because i no longer set a day to do yoga. I still do my yoga tho but i do less intense versions of it before bed almost nightly. I don't do any beachbody yoga routines anymore i just make up my own little 15-20 min sessions.< that is what i have found to work for me(notice a trend here? :)

- I will only be doing one cardio day a week as thats what i have really always done and it just works for me. the cardio routine will be either an insanity (first month only workout as the month 2 workouts are too long), an asylum or an asylum vol. 2 routine. the main thing is to keep cardio to only at max 45 min a week.

- My ab routines will vary like always, sometimes i might do my own circuit (get yours here) or somedays i might do a beachbody one, it will just depend what i am feeling on that day.

- My split is a 5 day weekly split with 2 days off. not too much to be said about that. Taking 2 days off now every week instead of just one.

Nutrition Changes

Alight now i want to discuss how my nutrition is being changed up for this year. I have learned a lot this last year with constant experimentation. I am starting this journey out this year by using the following numbers;
16-19 cals per pound of body weight around 2000-2400 for me.
Protein, Carbs, and Fat are NO LONGER WORKED OUT WITH PERCENTAGES.
the body does not care about percentages it cares about the grams pertaining to ones body weight. Percentages work for short term results but are not a good thing to follow for life, sadly i found that out the hard way... im not going to get into it here but if your interested- feel free to private message me. The following are my recommendations;
Protein= 1.5-2 grams per pound of body weight (for me this will be 200-240 grams)
Fat= .4-.5 grams per pound of body weight (for me will be around 50-60 grams)
Carbs= the remaining calories left to add. I will be carb cycling;
mon-high
tues-low
wed-high
thur-low
fri-high
sat-high (with cheat meal)
sun-low
my carbs will vary from 150 grams to 200 grams all the way to 250 grams depending on the day. If i have a re feed day (would be on a friday) carbs will be increased by 100% so around 400-500 grams. If i have a re feed then the saturday cheat meal will be cancelled out then sat and sun will then be low days. If a leptin re feed is not scheduled tho a cheat meal will be happening to reset leptin levels and give my mind and body a break. CHEAT MEALS ARE SUPER BENEFICIAL WHEN DONE PROPERLY.
So your probably wondering should everyone work there macros out like that? well the answer to that is yes and no. I will have a blog explain this in more detail but if you are lean then you can use my recommendations (8% or less) but if you are above 10% body fat then you will want to calculate the recommendations using your lean body mass instead of overall weight. Since i am around 5% i just use my total body weight tho. Also some people that have more active lifestyles will need more carbs and less protein so its just something that you have to play around with till you figure it out but please please please- STOP WORKING YOUR MACROS OUT BY PERCENTAGES! the body could care less of the percentage, it cares about the amount pertaining to body weight or LBM.

Alright i think i covered everything! I might of missed some details but they will get covered in my daily blogs that i am starting up again :D yep you heard me right i am back to daily blogs! they will be starting later this week or early next week depending when i am not busy. Here is the link to my 2013 Workout/ Nutrition journal you will notice it directs you to a whole new blog website. Well the blog in 2012 that i did was not the most organized so i feel this is a much better method! keep in mind tho i will still be posting new info on this site too tho because this is the home site, this other blog is just a workout/nutrition journal. SO STAY PLUGGED IN ON THIS SITE AS WELL. In the coming weeks this site is getting totally re-done i will be updating all the pages with my new diet, new workout split, new methods i use, new way to figure out your calories and macros, NEW EVERYTHING! I have came a long way since i introduced Beachbody into my life in 2009. I have been through the good, the bad, and the ugly. I have fined tuned everything even more since then and my knowledge is at its highest but theres also an endless list- so much more stuff to take in, learn, and apply to life. If you guys have stuff you want to see on the site or workout/nutrition journal let me know. Like always im here to help you! also if your interested i do sell custom meal plans to people and do all the math for them- check that out here! sorry about the plug there but i have to make money to survive :) alright thats is for now folks, keep plugging in daily and watch out for all the new stuff to come!

Peace, Fausey