Abdominal Reclamation Project; Week 1

Beach season is only a few months away, and this year as I prepare myself to soak up the vitamin-D offered by our friend the sun, I've decided to document the process in pictures. It's been two summers since I've had what some would call a chiseled 6-pack, with delineation all the way down to the lower ab region. My goal is to work towards that look again this year.

I haven't decided if this is to be a weekly or bi-weekly procedure; I'll figure out the best method along the way. At first, I do think pictures will be less frequent as changes won't be as noticeable until body fat down is brought down to 'acceptable' levels (i.e., acceptable for ME to take my shirt off compared to previous years). There will be no stepping on any scales, nor the taking of any further measurement or data collection (e.g., body composition testing). I'm simply using my abdominal appearance as a guide. The process will end around the last week of June.

These first pictures were taken on Sunday 4/15/12 after two weeks of cleaner eating. As seen below, some delineation is visible, but only in the upper abdominal region; this area always holds less body fat than the lower region.

Starting April 2nd, all junk was removed and will remain out of my diet except for special events. As unhappy as I am with my abdominal appearance (it's much worse in pictures than in mirror), it's actually down 1/2 inch since late-March, to which I can credit no more pizza, chili, beer, etc. My ideal appearance will probably require my belly button measurement to lie somewhere between 31 and 32" (33.5 currently).

Clearly, there is plenty to pinch. Eventually, there won't be.

My weekday meal plan will consist of the following through April:

• Raw Milk; up to a quart per day
• Raw Beef; up to a pound per day
• Raw Eggs; up to a dozen per day
• Raw Honey; approximately a tablespoon along with beef meals
• Raw Coconut Butter; approximately a tablespoon along with beef meals

For meals that are not raw, I'll stick with a mainly starch-less selection of foods. These will mainly occur on weekends:

• Bacon & Eggs (COOKED); eaten once or twice on weekends
• Cheeseburgers (COOKED); no buns eaten once or twice on weekends
• Other beef/poultry/pork
• Once per week include carbs in form of sweet potato along with cooked dinner (I need carbs to maintain muscular fullness, particularly when not ingesting large quantities of raw milk)

I'm not counting calories, I'm simply keeping food choices to those that won't negatively affect blood sugar. Eventually, depending on how things progress, I'll reduce the amount of food eaten. But I'd rather wait for that and see what I can accomplish based solely on the above guidelines.

Finally, regarding exercise application, I WILL NOT BE PERFORMING ANY CARDIO. If I happen to stumble upon some recreation with friends, then so be it; but it will not be for body fat loss. Resistance training workouts will continue as usual (3-4 sessions per week, each body part targeted once per week, no more than about 2 hours of exercise per week).