And so it begins....

This blog is primarily meant for tracking my bodybuilding progress.  The reason I will be blogging my progress is so that I can have a record of how I am feeling (mentally and physically) so I can gauge how I am doing aside from my mass and measurements.

The first phase of my bodybuilding will be under the direction of Shelby Starnes (http://troponinnutrition.com/shelby.htm).  Shelby is an awesome nutritionist and coach.  Following his guidance I have dropped over 35# in twelve weeks.  Including a week I took off of dieting and exercising to attend DragonCon.

I have not chronicled my progress on fat loss, primarily because I had not thought to do it.  In summation:  yes, I was hungry a lot.  Yes, I was grumpy and on edge rather often.  Such things happen when dieting extensively.  But losing over 35# and 6" off of my waist was worth it.

This Saturday marks the end of this round of the diet.  I will be going in for hydrostatic body composition testing (aka - dunk under water, measure bodyfat).  The next week will be an "off" week.  No diet (yay restaurants!), no serious lifting/exercise routine.  Just eating when hungry, lifting when bored, and lots of wood chopping (I need to build up the wood pile for fires).

Note:  Final progress will be noted this weekend, at the end of the diet phase.  I will be taking progress pictures at that point.  Possibly posting them as well.

Based upon my state this Saturday, I will either be continuing to diet a bit more or or engaging Shelby for a muscle gaining program.  Which option I take depends upon my bodyfat levels and what Shelby deems appropriate.  Usually his requirement is for a client to have visible abs before embarking on a mass gaining cycle.  I am not quite there yet, but if I am much below 10% bodyfat I am going to see if I can convince him to let me start anyways, with the note that I apparently do not have sufficient muscle at this point to have abs without dropping to extremely low bodyfat percentages.  But if he says "no", then it will be back to dieting for me.

Plan for phase 1 of bodybuilding (once it begins):
1.  Train under Shelby for 12 weeks.
2.  If all goes well, continue with his guidelines for an additional 12-16 weeks.
3.  If I stagnate or start having problems, re-engage Shelby for additional coaching.
4.  At the beginning of July or so, halt mass gaining and go on a 6-8 week fat loss cycle.  Goal:  be shredded for DragonCon (beginning of September)

My end goal/pipe dream is to have a physique comparable to the Golden Era bodybuilders (Arnold era).  My ideal physique would be something like Serge Nubret.

Small waist, super-hero look, not overly bulked.  Modern bodybuilders are very thick and much more muscular, but I do not like the look as much.  In the above photo, Serge (at 6' tall) is only about 215#.  So I have hopes that I can come close to how he looks.  As opposed to some of the modern pros who are about 300# or more at under 6'.

Anyhow, initial rambling is over.  Only two more days on this part of the diet.  Hooray!