This is a guest post by a former client and great friend of mine, Joe Stuchinsky. We both love the movie Fight Club, as you might notice with the lovely writing style. Read on and enjoy.
The First Rule…
THE FIRST RULE OF LOOKING GOOD NAKED IS…
Never go more than 3 hours without protein.
THE SECOND RULE OF LOOKING GOOD NAKED IS…
You NEVER go more than 3 hours without protein.
Well, at least that’s what the protein manufacturers and mainstream fitness media would have you believe. I believed it. We all know about these ‘rules’ of fitness, sent down by the big-shots at corporate wherever. You hear them spoken in the gym and see them plastered all over the net. It’s hard to avoid. At least it was for me.
My meals; perfectly portioned and interspersed every 3 hours. Every day, in and out, cooking, eating and prepping all the damn food to lug into work the next day. Calories and macronutrient values constantly floating around in my head, occupying my thoughts, taking away time that should be devoted to other areas of life. I was engrossed in this stuff and it began to consume my life, but I kept forging onward. I was polishing brass on the titanic.
Why? I was just following the ‘rules’, doing what (I thought) I had to do, in order to achieve the body of my dreams. Well if you don’t know already, the rules are BULLSHIT and you’d be doing yourself a favor if you’d never even heard them at all.
I know this, because JC knows this. Well… actually, because he set me free.
Wait. Back up. Let me start over…
Like so many others, I had become a slave to mainstream fitness and the ideals that go along with it. I spent way too much time scouring the net, looking for the latest supplement or the ultimate training routine. One day, on a small bodybuilding forum I discovered someone whose ideals countered the ones I thought were gospel. I would eventually find out that this person runs his own site, complete with a plethora of free information that flew in the face of the fitness commandments. It all started with a single email.
…and this is how I met JC Deen.
Only after disaster can we be resurrected.
Before long, the single email I sent had evolved into a mile-long string of replies between JC and myself. Turns out he and I had a lot in common and would probably be good friends outside of the E-world, but that’s another story. After laying all my neurotic eating & macro-counting habits on the table, JC offered the solution; Just Let Go. I had to rid myself of the obsession over the numbers and the incorrect notions that eating every 2-3 hours was an absolute in the journey to a good physique. JC helped me do what I couldn’t seem to accomplish on my own, which was resetting my focus onto the big picture, instead of the small details.
We removed the meal plans and obsessive counting and substituted in rough guidelines for my daily protein and calorie intake. JC assured me that as long as his two guidelines fell into place, everything else would do the same. I distinctly remember the feeling of ‘freedom’ that I experienced within the first days of implementing his plan and how much better I felt throughout the day, not having to worry about packing a ton of meals or eating on a schedule. The liberator had realigned my perceptions.
Now that I had lost everything, I was free to do anything.
After we had sorted through my diet issues, JC and I got right into working toward a fat-loss goal of mine. He introduced me to Intermittent Fasting as a dieting tactic, which even further cleared my mind of all the meal timing/frequency dogma. He set my calorie/protein guidelines and I got to work. Overall this approach was extremely flexible, much more so than anything I had tried in the past. Despite the ease of the diet, I was getting great results in both fat loss and strength gain/maintenance.
To keep things brief; In 3 months my weight was down 17lbs, deadlifts went from 315×5 up to an all time high of 370×4 & 405×1, squats increased from 225×3 to 275×3, as well as 30lbs added to my chin-up strength. I was extremely pleased with my progress in all areas.
Finally, I was getting results as well as recognition for my hard work. People were noticing and asking questions about my diet and training protocols. They wanted to know how they could get results like me. These occurrences made me look back on what I had accomplished and made me realize how far I had come. JCs insight allowed me to recognize what was holding me back, then eliminate it from my daily life.
All the ways you wish you could be, that’s me.
After getting my head straight, every aspect of nutrition/dieting became easier. Not to mention the fact that every aspect of life became easier without diet thoughts in the back of my mind. I no longer waste precious time worrying about macro-counting and food preparation. I spend my time doing much more important things, such as enjoying delicious meals home-cooked by my beautiful girlfriend while drinking our home-brewed beer. The bottom line is that I make my diet work for me, my schedule and my current goals. I’m a much happier (and better looking) person because of it.
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Thanks to Joe for sharing his experience.
Awesome article and amazing progress! I do believe that you have to reach the deep end of complexity to realize how simple everything is. Eat less to lose fat. Lift heavy and heavier to “build” muscle. Enjoy life to be happy.
yea, it’s funny how much we have to go through in order to see the simplicity sometimes.
Good honest post JC! Nothing tells the truth like before and after shots.
One positive that comes from the economic downturn – expensive supplements tend to get cut from the shopping list first! Then hopefully more people realise that they don’t need synthesised protein everyday.
Go with the good feeling of life I say.
Good to see you around here again, Luke.
I just hope people will see that you can reach your goals without being neurotic about it.
What? Lies… fucking photoshop yo!
1st rule of the internet is that every blog post should have a minimum of one troll comment. Your blog is lacking JC… i had to.
But in all seriousness, that’s awesome stuff Joe. Is your gf giving your some extra loving for the washboard abs? She better be. Specially now that you have time to devote to her instead of dwelling in counting calories.
Cheers.
bwahaha. thanks for trolling, FJ!
Congratulation on your success. You obviously worked hard. JC is one of the nice guys in the fitness industry. Put both of you together and you have a success story.
I did have a question. Two guidelines? Is this info private or did I miss something? If I missed it sorry, my reading comprehension sucks late at night and early morning. Oddly enough those are the only times I have a chance to read.
Hit macros (let go of the neuroses)
Focus on the workouts and busting azz
Great results man. I’m dong IF leangains style, and loving it.
Calorie counting is definitely necessary when trying to reach a certain level of leanness.
Please share this plan
wouldn’t be fair to paying clients, or would it?
Awesome job on the changes you have made, its funny how simple it really can be.
it is funny how simple it can be – however, we all make it much tougher than it needs to be.
Hey JC or Joe,
May I know roughly how the training was like during this time?
I’m guessing reverse pyramid training?
But more importantly, congratulations on this fantastic transformation. There really isn’t a magic pill to looking better.
Just eat less to get ripped and lift heavy shit to gain muscle.
Training changed periodically depending on what was going on and how he felt. But much of it was very intense with quite a few days in between sessions. No BS fluff and pump work.
JC’s also opened my eyes to how easy the fitness lifestyle can be, and i look forward to cosulting with him in the near future! great article!
Home beer? That sounds awesome. Is it a lot of hard work? I only recall the simpsons episode of them doing it.
I think the biggest problem most of bodybuilders enthusiastic will face is worry to much about details and forget the big picture as you stated. As long as some basic concepts didn’t changed and there isn’t much new things to show, people start to looking for the small secret that will unleash the beast..
Grok – some of us actually enjoy counting calories. I’m doing Leangains and shoot for a certain deficit on rest days and a maintenance on workout days. Also, Leangains calls for varying fat and carb intake on rest and workout days.
Of course Leangains isn’t the only way to IF but he’s had some amazing results with his clients.
Good job letting go man. We’re all guilty, but counting calories for anything more than curiosity is lame.
that’s a matter of opinion. However, when it becomes neurotic, it’s time for a change.
Counting calories for specific body composition changes isn’t lame (IMHO). Without exaggeration, it can be life changing. For skinny guys that are convinced they have to be eating at regular intervals to fat people that can finally see fat loss results despite ‘hardly eating anything’ or ‘eating healthy’.
However, I’m also of the belief that once you get the hang of things, you ballpark things and there is no need to count exactly, unless you are preparing for a physique competition, photoshoot or similar.
For all his blanket statements, I feel Chris Shugart has said it best: “Keep a food log… in the beginning. Or if you never have. Learn from it. But the final goal is to auto-regulate. More good food. Less math.”
very well said, Nick.