So here I am halfway through the 90 day challenge! At day 45, I’m happy with the way I feel for sure – I feel amazing. And yes I say that all the time so I should probably shut up about it haha, but for real, physically I feel better than I have in years. Since I moved to Asia for sure.
Previously the best shape I was in was 2013 when I was living at the US National Whitewater Center and training for hours every day on the water. But since the end of 2013 when I went to Indonesia to put on the Riverboarding World Championship, and then moved to Cambodia and got involved in the basketball league here, I’ve felt like Father Time had arrived and was having his way with me.
So when I talk now about feeling great, I’m incredibly grateful for that, and it’s very, very noticeable. Which is why I keep commenting on it.
How I look hasn’t changed a ton, but from where I started after many months of being vegan and then 2 months in Mexico, also eating vegan but not very healthy, or working out regularly, I’m moving the right direction at least.
My goal isn’t to get huge – I prefer natural and ripped over swole. I also want to be usefully muscular for all things athletic, whether that’s climbing, biking, swimming, or of course, playing basketball.
And if last week is any indication of progress, after having taken 2 weeks off from our expat basketball for the Cambodian holidays, we played a few nights ago and I shot the lights out from all over, along with being able to drive to the basket – I felt explosive, strong, and my shot was money for the first hour and a half at least.
Eventually my legs wore out (we’d held court – ie we kept winning – that entire time) and I started leaving shots short, which has always been my problem when I’m missing – short, though on target. But an hour and a half vs like the first 20 minutes, which is usually when my shot starts fading, I’m pretty stoked on the improvement!
The difference from only 2 weeks prior, to this week, was really impressive and seemed to be directly related to my physicality and how I was feeling overall. We’ll see if I regress to the mean this week and was only having a good shooting night, but I don’t believe that, because of how I felt in terms of strength, form, explosiveness, etc. I just felt a lot faster, stronger, and more athletic…like my younger self!
It might sound weird but when you’ve been playing through pain and feeling achy and sore and weak for like 4 straight years, unable to walk right for 2 days after a game, all these changes are REALLY notable for me.
So my goals for the second half of this 90 day challenge are:
- Drop my bodyfat considerably, I’d like to be sub 10% and I’m probably closer to 20% right now
- Add size to my chest, which I’ve never been able to do
- Improve muscular definition everywhere, while retaining maximum flexibility and pliability
- Increase my lower body explosiveness (quickness and vertical leap)
Even when I was 20 years old and benching 385lbs I was about the size I am right now, my chest as well. Which is weird because my brother has a massive chest, but I’ve never really been able to put on size, especially on my upper chest. But I’m going to put effort into focused workouts and see if I can make improvements there – still entirely Entovegan.
So the real question for the rest of this challenge is going to be what kind of gains are actually possible via entomophagy as my primary protein source, and what impact it has on my metabolism. Because while I’ve felt better overall in terms of health the past 7 months, I’m carrying more fat than I want to be, even still after the first 45 days.
Part of that will be determined by calories in / energy expended on a daily basis, and I’m going to need to be more calculating with my caloric intake (which I find to be a royal pain in the butt, but I’ll do it). I’m probably just eating a few hundred calories more each day than I actually need to be in order to burn that stubborn fat off, so fixing that should see the fat start melting off again.
What do you think, good start or nah? Send me a message and let me know your thoughts!
45 more days to go, seeing and feeling positive gains so I’m looking forward to making an even bigger, better leap forward now!
