Day 1 of the athletic physique program

Hey guys,

I am due to embark on Bryan Kavanagh's athletic physique development program to see if I can get in the best shape of my life in the next 90 days or so.

The program itself is based around clean eating, regular heavy resistance training, high intensity intervals, and metabolic workout "finishers".

So why am I doing this?

Basically I have always kept myself fit by playing football and training specifically towards this. This has meant my aerobic fitness has been fine, I have been able to manage my weight (as my genetics tend to suggest I should struggle with this), but I have never needed an athletic physique.

For the past few months I have been gradually increasing the amount of weight training sessions I have been performing but with no real consistency, more so just because I enjoy it than to for any specific goal.

Now though I have decided to step this up a level, so after meeting Bryan at the Fitness Entrepreneur Bootcamp in Nottingham in April I have decided to take up his offer of trialing his program.

The program took Bryan's initial trialist Ian from generally fit to fitness model competition silver medalist in less than 90 days, and whilst I'm not expecting the same (I'm certainly not intending to compete) I am hoping to see a significant transformation and a more lean athletic physique :)

What are my goals?

my main aim is to get my body fat percentage below 10%, my lowest this yr has been around 13%, highest about 18% and it currently sits around 14% so this will be a great change.

By achieving this body fat percentage it would be awesome to see some abdominal definition, and I would also like to significantly increase my upper body musculature to the point there is a noticable difference between day 1 and day 90 :)

So here we go this is my Day 1 picture and my analysis and I will follow this up every two weeks throughout the program so keep checking back for progress reports.


So currently
Weight 77kg,
Body fat 14%
Lean Mass 66.2kg
Fat Mass 10.78kg

Professional looking picture huh :) you can be guaranteed there will be no photoshopping here (even if it would save my embarressment haha)

Anyhew, this is going to be a big challenge with some gruelling sessions, training 5 times a week minimum, and I will have to make some sacrifices such as avoiding alcohol throughout the world cup and friends/cousins weddings so I would ask that you provide me as much support as possible leaving me comments either here or on facebook to keep me motivated :)

Thanks,

Nathan

P.S. To check out the program for yourself you can see it here: 

http://www.tiny9.com/u/athletic_physique

Dukan or Du-can't? a new way of dieting...

In france there has been a new diet revolution that has been branded the "cure" for modern obesity epidemics.

A bold statement to make but it would seem that over 5 million people in France are raving over the simplicity and longevity of the diet where it seems in the long term you can eat as you please as long as you stick to one golden rule:

PROTEIN THURSDAYS:

Even resteraunts are jumping on the bandwagon serving proetein only meals on a thursday with the simple premise being that consuming only protein keeps hunger at bay as it takes a longer time to be digested than other foods and is lower in calories than many of the fats and carbohydrates.

There is more to the diet in the initial breaking in stages but it seems in the longterm this simple idea is helping people to lose weight and keep it off.

There is likely to be a huge launch of the diet in the UK, most likely with expensive support systems, in coming months but you can get started or find out more through the Dukan diet book,



let me know your thoughts, revolution or new fad?

Nathan,

www.nathanlee-pt.com

Quinoa good way to eat healthily :)

Black Bean Quinoa Salad

1cup quinoa, rinsed
2 cups water
¼ cup chopped cilantro
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp flaxseed oil
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 cup black beans
2 cups chopped celery
¼ cup pumpkin seeds
sea salt and pepper, to taste

Quinoa Preparation:
Rinse quinoa well. Take 2 minutes to swish grains around the pot with your fingers and strain water down sink. Repeat at least once more.
In small pot, combine rinsed quinoa with water. Bring to boil, lower heat to minimum, cover pot and simmer for 20 minutes.
Let cool.
Combine cooled quinoa with rest of ingredients except salt, pepper and seeds.
Let sit one hour.
Finish it off with seasonings and seeds before serving/eating at room temperature. (Although it’s good chilled, too.)

enjoy :)

www.nathanlee-pt.com

soups you sir....

Chicken with Oregano & Basil Soup

Makes 6 servings, approx. cook time is 1 hour, 20 minutes.


Ingredients:

1 small, whole organic chicken
2 litres water and broth from roasted chicken
7 cloves garlic
4 cups each carrots and celery
3 cups thickly chopped onions
½ cup cooked brown rice
1 tbsp. dried oregano
1 tbsp. dried basil
1 tbsp. olive oil (to roast the chicken)
sea salt and pepper

Cooking instructions:

Roast Chicken : Heat oven to 190ºc. Check for bags inside the chest cavity. Rinse and pat dry, place in roasting pan. Stuff chicken’s chest with 1 cup chopped onion and 3 garlic cloves. Massage olive oil into skin, sprinkle some of your oregano, basil, sea salt and freshly ground pepper on greased chicken. Pour filtered water in bottom of pan, about an inch high.

Cook for 30 minutes, take off cover, cook for another 10 minutes. Set aside and let cool.

Debone chicken, separating the white and dark meat from the rest. you can freeze these chicken scraps and use it to make chicken broth with later.

Soup : Throw chicken meat, broth from roasted chicken and everything else on the ingredient list together in a pot. Bring to boil and simmer for 20 minutes.

enjoy :)

www.nathanlee-pt.com

wheat free bread recipe

Hi guys,

heres a wheat free bread recipe from my good friend Laura:

I tried this new recipe for spelt bread today and it turned out really well. You might try a slice of this toasted & topped with mashed banana and sprinkled with seeds for breakfast!

Three minute spelt bread:
With spelt there is no need to leave the dough to rise. This really takes three minutes to prepare.

* 500g spelt flour (Use whole organic spelt - I used Doves farm spelt, you can get it from Holland and Barrat but I've also seen it in sainsburys)
* 10g fast-acting dried yeast
* ½ tsp sea salt
* 50g sunflower seeds
* 50g sesame seeds
* 50g linseeds - (I used pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds as thats what I had most of)
* 500ml warm water

Preheat the oven to 200C/gas mark6. Combine all the ingredients, adding the water last. Mix well and turn the dough into a greased loaf tin. Put straight into the oven and bake for an hour. Remove the loaf, turn it out of the tin and then return it to the oven without the tin for a further 5-10 minutes. (I found I didn't need to return it to the over without the tin as it was cooked through but maybe this depends on your oven?)

thanks Laura, everyone else... enjoy :)

www.nathanlee-pt.com

Hey guys,

Here's a healthy energy boosting breakfast smoothie for you to try:

1 Banana
1 cup berries
1 tbsp flaxseed (ground)
1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup natural yogurt
Water/rice milk/oat milk to get desired consistency

enjoy :)

www.nathanlee-pt.com