Day 1 of Project Bad A$$ is now under my belt and I think I did well all in all. It was chest/back day and I was really motivated to lift heavy considering it was day 1. I cranked out some heavy reps and set a PR on barbell rows and chest flyes. I also managed to burn 657 calories in my hour and that was with a 5 minute warm up instead of my usual 10. Not a bad start if I say so myself.
Progress pictures were taken and I will post them to a Progress page shortly. My trainer measured me and I wrote my starting stats down in my log, ready to compare to next week. If you’re starting along with me, make sure that you weigh and measure each week to track your progress. If something doesn’t change in that week, then you need to either modify your diet or your workouts. Drum roll… my official starting weight is 138.4 lbs with shoes and clothes and 14.5% body fat. Phew, it’s hard post-contest to face reality again. Contest day I was 126.6 lbs and about 11% body fat.
I am aiming for 1700 calories daily right now since I’m trying to build muscle and not necessarily burn fat. Not that I’ll complain if a little fat goes up in smoke in this process. My goal macros are around 30% fat/40% protein/30% carbs. I came close today at 1684 calories/30% fat/37% protein/33% carbs. I track everything in an app on my phone so that there is no doubt. I also plan ahead for the week so that I’m not trying to figure out what works into my macros on the fly. Plan, plan, plan.
To mark the occasion, I tried a new recipe for dinner tonight and it was one of the best creations I’ve made in a long time! Oh how I’ve missed cooking during contest prep. I’m back at it and will share some recipes along the way. I tend to not use real recipes but I do weigh everything to track the calories. I pretty much just chopped one of each item and then weighed it before mixing. Play with it to suit your taste, more or less of anything you want. I put the weights in parenthesis so that you get an idea of amounts.
Grilled Salmon with Apple Pepper Salsa on a Bed of Fresh Spinach
- 1 chopped red onion (8 oz)
- 1 chopped sweet red pepper (4.3 oz)
- 1 chopped apple (3.8 oz)
- 1 chopped jalapeno (.2 oz)
- 2 Tbsp lime juice
Chop the apple and veggies into chunky, salsa sized pieces and toss with the lime juice in a bowl. Salt if you’d like. Let sit while you grill the salmon either on a grill or under the broiler. Place 4 oz of cooked salmon over 4 oz of fresh spinach. Top with about 1 cup of salsa. Enjoy! How’s that for about 290 calories. Yeah, buddy!
Let me know what you think of the recipe and if you try something different in your version. I’m always looking for new variations. Grilled chicken with pear pepper salsa might be good too. Ooooh! Or pomegranate pepper salsa. Endless combinations.
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