Something I found very special. What do you think?

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered; 

Forgive them anyway. 

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;

Be kind anyway. 

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and true enemies;

Succeed anyway. 

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;

Be honest and frank anyway. 

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;

Build anyway. 

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway. 

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; 

Do good anyway. 

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;

GIVE THE WORLD THE BEST YOU’VE GOT ANYWAY!

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God;

It was never between you and them, anyway.

The eating continues....

 My cabbage and grated carrots are stirfried in coconut oil.
Served with oven grilled chicken breast.

 This was AMAAAAZING!
Lean beef mince on a bed of spinach.

 A maize tortilla stuffed with lean beef mince!

 This was my last cheat meal before the big diet started!
Gluten free pasta, with feta and bacon. Loads of rocket in there too!

 This is now officially diet oats! lol
As is.....

 Which makes this diet eggs.... no yellows! sob sob...

This is what my lunch looks like. Daily.
Veggies is just steamed.
Chicken was quite good.
I grilled strips in coconut oil. added pepper and loads of garlic.
Simmer in soy sauce! Yum!

More on ABS training....

I get quite a few question on abs training.  I do not train my abs very much, but the times I do train them, I go hard. I will assign abs once or twice a week. 


I like to do the following exercises;


Hanging leg raises.  lots of them!


Captains chair leg raises (with a medicine ball between my upper legs. Pull up the ball quite high, while doing a crunch from the top also. Works like a bomb!

Hip Raises on a elevated bench. 

Bicycle for obliques

Decline Oblique crunch with medicine ball (really love these!)

Flat bench leg pull-in's, for those lower abs!

And of course loads of  Plank, since I have a problematic lower back.

These aren't all I do, its just some of my favourites!

I might do these twice a week!

Level HARDCORE diet. lol.....

So , i am reaching that time of the year again. Starting of the new season.

This is so exciting, working hard to bring the best physique you can to stage. I have been putting in a lot of work in the off season to improve as much as I can.  This makes me very curios to see what the results will be after I leaned out a bit.

As of yesterday , I am 12 weeks out from my first show of the year.  This means the diet are being cleaned up.  I already have quite bad cravings, but still handling it.

My meal breakdown will look like this for the next 6 weeks.

Meal 1
4 egg whites
40g oats

Meal 2
Shake

Meal 3
100g protein
100g veggies
100g carb

Meal 4
Shake

Meal 5
100g protein
200g veggies

I work on a 1500 calorie restricted diet right now.  I eat a bit less than that actually.

My protein at this stage mainly comes from chicken and fish.  Carbs from brown rice, yam and rye bread. I also try to stick to the less starchy veggies.

Without inspiration the best powers of the mind remain dormant. There is a fuel in us which needs to be ignited with sparks.
Johann Gottfried Von Herde

Changes to back training.

Day 4 of new program. Back training (modified)

Reason I am changing this, is because i want to focus on putting more definition in , rather than working of the width. I just put on muscle too easy, so you will notice I am dropping the weight a lot, and adding more reps to the sets. 

THIS ONE BURNS GOOD!   

Lats
1. V-bar pull downs
     15kg
     4 sets of 20


2.  Straight arm cable pull downs
     15kg
     4 sets of 20


3.  Cable rows close grip
     15kg
     4 sets of 15


4.  Close grip front lateral pull downs
     15kg
     4 sets of 20


Mid-back


6.  One arm dumbbell rows
     6kg
     4 sets of 12


7.  Reverse grip bent over rows
     Bar(10kg) + 5kg
     4 sets of 15


Low back


8.  Back extensions
     4 Sets of 15

Take calculated risks. 
That is quite different from being rash.
George S. Patton

New Recipes! I can feel the leanness creeping up...

AND ITS AMAZING!!!!

 Oats with berries and cinnamon

 Breakfast idea!
Poached egg
Rye toast
Organic sugarfree mustard
and a slice of chicken
On a bed of rocket
YUM

Protein smoothie with cranberries and lots of cinnamon!
(made with water, not milk. I never use milk for my shakes)

 Tuna quiche with oven grilled veggies
Recipe for the tuna:
2 cans of tuna
2 tablespoons of oatflour
2 tablespoons of oatmilk
2 eggs + 2 eggwhites
Season to taste.
Mix well, and pour mixture into a round baking tray.
Bakes 15-20mins

 More oatmeal!

 Poached egg and left over grilled veggies for breakfast, on rye toast

 CHEATMEAL ALERT!!!!! YUMMYNESS!

 Prawn and calamari meal. 
I only steamed them for 10minutes. 
Flavour to taste. No fats added in cooking

 More oatmeal! with blueberries

 Oven grilled chicken breast with fresh peas and quinoa;
Placed cubes of chiken in a deep oven pan with baby mushrooms.
I poured some low sodium mushroom soup over it and let it bake for about 20mins.

 One of my favourite meals. 
avo and spinach omelette;


3 whites + one whole egg.
Make a light omelette. add the baby spinach and avo.
I sprinkled paprika on top. love the taste!

 Oven grilled tilapia with tomatoes. 
Lay the tilapia fillets on a tray. spice them, and lay slices of tomato over.
Bake for 20-25 mins.
I served with broccoli and sprouted rye bread.

Salmon and stirfry(grilled with coconut oil) with a small red potato
Stirfry:
melt about a tablespoon of coconut oil.
add shredded cabbage and carrots and whole cloves of garlic. let it simmer for about 10min. I like my veggies cruncy.
Salmon;
Marinated in soy sauce, lemon juice, and added spices to taste!

Calamari and prawn dinner

This is how its done... and see the high protein value!


Protein: 34g
Carbs: 19g
Fat: 3g

Steam fresh calamari rings and prawns for 10minutes (it makes its own water)
Add garlic, spring onions, pepper, lemon juice, salt to flavour. and of course paprika! This is by far one of my favourite seasonings....

I love using fresh herbs and garlic.
Better health advantages!

The rest is easy. This is young spinach leaves. Its fresh, with half a tomato.  Since its evening, I just had 60g of brown rice. I trained legs tonight , so I am allowed this carb treat. hahahaha

Bon app!

What have I been eating....

Warm black bean and chicken salad 
Greens
Cooked blackbeans
sliced chicken breast
sundried tomatoes
fresh chopped chillies









Steamed Tilapia with grilled zucchini and mushrooms
Slice mushrooms and zucchini and ovengrill.
Steam Tilapia in non stick pan ....

Chicken breast, Basmati rice and mustard green beans 

This is straight forward.

To make the beans, i cooked a quater of a onion with the beans. When it is done, i add a teaspoon of sugarfree, organic mustard. 

Add a handful of mushrooms and let it steam for a while.

Smoked Mackerel with stirfry
Chop and stirfry Kale, zucchini, onion, mushrooms.
Add the mackerel and let it steam for a while.
When its done, add a tablespoon of Greek yogurt.
This is really a nice dish.

 

 Salmon and Green beans
I used my left over mustard green beans for this. I just added some steamed Salmon.

Tomato eggs
 Great breakfast option
I used a sugarfree pasta sauce. Tomato and basil flavour.
Heat the sauce, make holes to add the eggs. And put the lid on to steam.
I add some fresh chillies too.

Day 4 of new program. Back training

Lats


1.  Pull ups
     36kg
     Wide and close grip -  8-6-4-4


2.  V-bar pull downs
     25kg
     4 sets of 15


3.  Straight arm cable pull downs
     30kg
     4 sets of 15


4.  Cable rows wide grip
     25kg
     4 sets of 12


5.  Wide grip lateral pull downs
     25kg
     4 sets of 12


Mid-back


6.  One arm dumbbell rows
     6kg
     4 sets of 12


7.  Reverse grip bent over rows
     Bar(10kg) + 10kg
     4 sets of 15


Low back


8.  Back extensions
     4 Sets of 15


A champion needs a motivation above and beyond winning.
Pat Riley

Day 3 New program. Hamstrings, Calves and triceps

Hamstrings

1.  Good Mornings
     Bar of 10kg
     4 sets of 25  (really watch your form to do this correct!)

2.  Romanian deadlift
     Bar(10kg) + 15kg
     4 sets of 15 (watch correct form!)

3.  Stiff leg deadlifts
     Bar(10kg) + 10 kg
     4 sets of 15

Calves

4.  Standing calf raises with dumbbell
     10kg dumbbell
      4 sets of 12 on each calf


5.  Calf raises on leg press machine
     18kg
     3 sets of 15 with toes pointed together, outward and inward.

Triceps

6.  Tricep dips machine. 
     50kg
     4 sets of 15

7.  Overhead  cable rope extensions.
     15kg
     4 sets of 15

8.  Tricep push downs with cable rope
     15kg
     4 sets of 15

9.  Overhead dumbbell extension
     3kg
     4 sets of 15 each tricep

Day 2 of the new program. Biceps and Shoulders

Lighter with more reps is the name of this game. Do the movements very controlled.


Biceps:


1.  Barbell curls
     Bar (10kg) + 5kg
     4 sets of 12


2.  Dumbbell curls Alternate
     2x6kg
     4 sets of 24


3.  Preachers chair curls
     4kg
     3 sets of 15 each arm


4.  Hammer curls Alternate
     4kg
     4 sets of  24


Shoulders


5.  Standing cable delt raises. Low pulley
     5kg
     4 sets of 12 each arm


6.  Bent over barbell delt rows (close)
     20kg
     3 Sets of 15


7. Bent over barbell delt rows (Wide)
     20kg
     3 Sets of 12


8.  Side lateral raises
     2x4kg
     4 sets of 12


9.  Machine shoulder press
     18kg
     4 sets of 12

Life is 10% of what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it.

Fav

John Maxwell

Glutes and Quads training. 8 weeks

Soooooo  I have a new program for the new year! I believe in mixing things up a bit. I am getting started on this program for the next 8 weeks, I am now grouping Glutes and Quads , and hamstrings with Calves.  Since I have shows coming up, I want to get in two leg sessions a week. 
This is how the first one goes. Took me just over and hour to complete.  Really focus on what you are doing and contract the muscles good. See them grow! Visualization is such a powerful tool! Never underestimate it!


Glutes 


1.  Barbell hip thrust
     Bar + 5kg ( i do this light, because of my lower back problem.  If you can go heavier, then do)
     3 Sets of 15
2.  One legged cable kickbacks
     10kg on low pulley
     30 Sets of 20 per leg
3.  Pull through
     20kg on low pulley
      4 sets of 15
4.  Glutes kickbacks machine
     15kg
     4 sets of 15 on each leg


Quads


5.  Barbell squat wide ( do not go to low, need to feel it in the quads, not glutes)
     Bar + 10kg
     3 sets of 20
6.  Barbell close squat (do not go to low, need to feel it in the quads, not glutes)
      Bar + 10kg
     3 sets of 20
7.  Split lunges
     No weight, this is your own choice, my quads grow to fast, so I prefer without! 
     3 sets of 20 per leg
8.  Cable hip adduction
     10kg on low pulley
     3 sets of 12 per leg
9.  Leg extensions
     5kg, I do them light, but very slow and contract the muscle very good
     4 sets of 15 per leg


" It takes practice to hear your true desires. Your passion will often come as a whisper or serendipitous event that reminds you of what's important and what makes you happy."
Eckhart Tolle