Archives for July 2012

Adonis Index Program Works, You Just Have to Do It

July 16, 2012 by Allen Elliott

Today we have an interview with Gabriele Lazzari who placed 2nd in the Open Level 1 Category in the latest Adonis Index Contest. Check out his pictures:

What will be different today though, Gabriele doesn’t speak well in English so he has agreed to do a written interview.

Here it is:

What workouts or programs have you done in the past and how did you find Adonis Index?

I followed too many programs and advertised workouts. I was excited to try them all and I jumped many times from one training system to another within just a few weeks.

All the consistency I was able to insert in my schedule derived from random principles put in together. I wanted to experiment with all the things I found to be interesting. So, I followed all them as I encountered different ads on my fitness journey, but unconsciously i knew that the lack of perseverance was the main problem.

Another weakness I found I had was the desire to change the various workouts and programs.

Another problem was all the various subscriptions I had, my email box was flooded with them every day and that just left me confused.

After discovering the Adonis Index program I finally realized that i needed only one program and that I had to stick to it. The results I obtained from Adonis Index Lifestyle speak for themselves.

What did you think about the Adonis Index system when you first heard about it?

Once I heard about this kind of training philosophy, I was hooked. Something in me resonated, deeply. In the beginning I was fascinated by the concept of subconscious attraction.

Afterwards I fell in love with the whole lifestyle of the Adonis Index System.

What program did you use during the contest?

I used AI 3.0 Workouts with the Fibonacci Pyramids rage module. The workouts were very challenging, but let me say that especially the rage workout was insane!

When I was in doing them I was shocked at how much intensity I can handle. Both physically and mentally, it was very challenging to do them, but finally, when I returned to the AI 3.0 system (hypertrophy cycle) the normal routine suddenly became easier and I could progress faster. I bet it was due to the shock my muscles were introduced to during the rage phase.

I just didn’t allow them to adapt.

What do you do for dieting?

At first the conditioned habit of manipulating macronutrients was creeping up on me.

However, prior to that, I decided to trash this old approach and as preached in the Anything Goes Diet, I started controlling my daily calorie budget only. I stick to the advised range of protein by Brad Pilon from his book How Much Protein, plus the caloric indications from the Reverse Taper Diet.

So, I basically just limited calorie intake and maintained good protein intake.

I think that simplicity is the best way because it’s sustainable in the long term, that’s what I discovered anyway.

What were the specific challenges you faced during the contest?

The contest itself was a pretty big challenge.

The level of intensity in the various workouts’ phases was not easy to sustain, especially during Strength Endurance and Rage. The nutrition side is simple, but as I pointed out above the old patterns die hard.

The real challenge was of course mental. I faced many weaknesses that I thought were buried in the past. I suppose that is the main lesson you are waiting to hear: when you are in the fray you have to play. This body transformation involves an entire evolution of your being. In this transformation you will encounter your “different sides” at some point.

How did you prepare for the photos and what did you think when you saw them?

I decided to hire a professional photographer. I did some research on the Internet and I practiced posing every week for at least one hour prior to the photoshoot session.

When I saw the photos I was a little bit disappointed. I set the bar very high and I wanted to achieve more than was possible, I guess fitness media would be to blame. However, the response from friends, acquaintances and fellows of AT7 was incredibly positive and that made me realize just how much of a change I really made.

The professional images from the shoot compared to what I viewed in the mirror allowed me to view a better version of my body. Lighting is the key. But at the end I am satisfied, especially when I compare my conditioning to previous photos.

What advice would you give to other guys who want to get into the kind of shape you did?

I strongly recommend to calm yourself and focus your attention on the program. Set the daily problems aside and stick to the Adonis Lifestyle. Focus your concentration like a laser and you will succeed. Secondly, I would recommend comparing your results only to yourself and not others. Each man runs a different race.

I love the Adonis Lifestyle!

Here are a couple more pictures of Gabriele:

Here are Gabriele’s metrics:

Gabriele’s before and after measurements.

And here is Gabriele’s essay from the contest:

I want to be sincere and tell that, when I discovered this new way to approach body-building, I was a little bit skeptical. I tried so many hyped training programs that I lost the count.

In the beginning I considered Adonis Index Workout to be yet another overhyped product. But something in myself said to prove it, so I decided to dive into it.

I find that this training system is highly counterintuitive and, in the same time, full of wisdom.

I enjoyed myself following the contest plan and the…Continue reading here

Filed Under: Contest, Podcasts, Stories, Transformation Tagged With: adonis index, Adonis Index Contest, Adonis Index Transformation, Adonis Physique, john barban, Vaclav Gregor

How to Find Confidence

July 13, 2012 by Allen Elliott

Before we dive into how to find or build confidence, let’s talk about whether it’s even important, because why would you spend time on learning something that doesn’t even matter, right?

If you fake confidence, people and especially women will sense it and it will hurt your social status.

Why Is It so Important?

Well, if you are into developing yourself then you may have already heard that status means pretty much everything. It always did, but today it has more career influence than ever before.

It doesn’t really matter whether you want to attract more women or make a deal at a business meeting, you will need to have a confidence and good rapport with others, the more the better. Status is partially based on presentation (clothes, body language, grooming, level of fitness and confidence).

So, let’s approach this process from hindsight and begin connecting all the dots, confidence is pretty damn important. As a man you need to be in control (not controlling) and confident about yourself and what you do in life.

This will quickly translate into a higher ranking of social status.

Would You Rather Lack Insecurity or Be Confident?

I don’t know how I would answer this question myself a few years back, but today after training with Adonis Index for a little over two years I believe that the foundation for confidence is actually a lack of insecurity.

If you have noticed, the guys who are truly considered confident usually lack any insecurities at all. Or at least they naturally make it seem that way.

They respect themselves, they are smooth in conversation, cool all the time and no matter what they do (even if they are not good at a certain activity) they do everything in a confident way. I think it’s not a coincidence that these guys almost always have very high character, high social status and people love being around them.

These guys know how to present themselves and be confident, which gives them high social status.

Now by confidence I don’t mean arrogance, I think most people often confuse these two concepts.

Being confident and acting like a man with high self-esteem is not arrogance, it’s a sign of strength, both inner and outer or in other words – physical and mental strength.

By now everyone probably has at least a rough idea about what confidence is and the important role it plays in your life.

Additionally, I’m sure you’re dying to find out the secrets of how to obtain greater confidence.

Can You Buy Confidence?

In this age of instant gratification, everyone is looking for easy, quick fixes and most people are not interested in long term rock-solid solutions.

Confidence is one of those terms that is often times misused due to poor marketing tactics. Mostly marketers attempt to “sell” confidence by offering anxiety pills, pick up routines and so on.

Truth be told, confidence is a skill that every guy already has imprinted in his DNA, the only issue is that you have to do something very important in order to draw it out from within you.

…Wait for it…

…Here it comes…

…You have to actually endure some “pain”, go through some challenges and build or accomplish something for yourself (for example a good looking body) in order to find it in yourself .

From this milestone you will have developed the basics to present yourself in a confident way.

Unfortunately, there is no magic pill for confidence. If there was those who already possessed “confidence” would not be as valuable or rare.

Society places value on things that are hard to obtain and this applies to tangible items like gold, as well as intangible concepts/skills that require great effort and discipline, like building a killer looking body.

If you have read the main Adonis Index manual then by now you know that building your ideal Adonis body will also translate into having more confidence.

In a nutshell what Adonis Index does for you in reality is give you the body that stands out, draws attention and gives you increased social value or ‘higher’ status.

However, there are some points to mention that most people who are just starting out will not realize immediately.

There are common ‘growing pains’ such as: being unhappy with the way you look or feeling INSECURE about your body if you had to take your shirt off in a public setting.

However, there is another concept, that builds confidence like crazy. Although, it has tremendous impact on your growth it’s understandable that you could “miss out” because it originates from experience, more specifically the experience of challenging yourself and TRANSFORMING yourself – both your body and your whole life.

For example, consider the experience of going through a challenging workout and finishing it.

The AI workouts are tough, I mean let’s not sugarcoat it, the advanced modules like IXP or ATS are pretty difficult.

There aren’t many more challenging things you could do to train your body without risking injury.

Even the main modules like the main Adonis Index Workout plans 3.1 are pretty difficult too if you are a beginner.

Each workout is a challenge, each week is a challenge, each month is a challenge.

The consistent routine of working hard, building a better body, and seeing the amazing transformation you’ve made three months later give you not only a quick boost in confidence, it empowers you for life!

Confidence is a skill that you can learn and more importantly you can find in yourself simply by going through challenges and overcoming your fears and surpassing the expectations of the people around you.

… what better way is there than training with a structured plan that is designed to challenge you on regular basis?

But it’s not free.

The price is high.

It’s not a high financial price that is standing in your way though, getting in shape is pretty cheap.

And while we are strongly against the conventional living like a bodybuilder kind of lifestyle, it’s still a commitment for life.

It’s not for everyone, but the results are worth every drop of your sweat in the gym.

Now, the choice is yours to remain average or stretch out of your comfort zone.

…But before you make that decision, please realize that there is nothing worse than mediocrity, I believe that this is the biggest danger of today’s society, most people don’t aspire to improve upon there current situation.

…Just ask yourself, wouldn’t you finally want to be confident taking pictures of yourself? How about with your shirt off?

Being average (or even if you are like I was, below average) sucks, so take control of your life, countless others have done it, you can do it.

With dedication and intelligent effort you can start moving towards your goals.

Talk to you soon,

Vaclav Gregor

Filed Under: body image, Greg's Lessons, Transformation Tagged With: adonis index, build confidence, buy confidence, Confidence, social status

About the Adonis Physique You Should Aim for, with Kidafi Byer

July 9, 2012 by Allen Elliott

Today we have an interview with Kidafi Byer who placed 2nd in the Open Level 2 Category in the latest Adonis Index Contest. Check out his pictures:

Find the pose that shows your body the most.

Kadafi is no newbie to weight training or to the Adonis Index Lifestyle. He has been with us for a while now.

And this wasn’t his first Adonis Index contest either. From last contest he successfully maintained his fitness and even managed to gain a bit of lean muscle mass without putting any fat mass on, if anything he got more ripped!

And that was exactly the point – get in shape with one or two contests and use the next one to find out how to maintain your body and get even more ripped.

Decide, Plan, Act

When Kidafi saw Allen Elliott‘s winning pictures in one of the contest he knew he would be a worthy opponent and that it will be hard to beat him.

He decided to take his time to strategize, prepare and then put in as much effort as he could into building the Adonis physique for the contest.

This time he wasn’t fasting very often, just a few times in the last four weeks prior the contest.

Rather than fasting he used the Reverse Taper Diet principles and tapered his calories up towards the end of the contest.

In his diet he didn’t change anything, he ate pretty much exactly what he did last time, just a bit more since he wasn’t really cutting much.

And that’s what you can expect to happen. If you’ve been eating too much in the past and gained a bit of fat, then you need to start eating less. However, once you lose the fat and you get lean you can slowly increase your calorie intake closer to your maintenance.

At this point dieting becomes super hard and cutting is a really big challenge. Basically your body will have very little fat stored and it will force you to eat more calories more often.

This is why fasting at 8% bodyfat it’s almost impossible.

Have someone else take the pictures, so you can focus on posing.

Can You Take the Pictures Yourself or Do You Have to Pay for a Photographer?

For the photoshoot itself Kidafi recommends having someone else take the pictures.

You can either have a friend/spouse take it or pay for a professional photoshoot. A lot of our contestants like to schedule the professional photoshoot, because it helps you with accountability and also gives you a clear deadline to shoot for.

And since you are going to put a lot of effort into all this, you might as well capture it professionally and have the pictures for life. However, a professional shoot is not necessary to win a contest. We’ve had quite a few people take amazing pictures at home or on the beach. Kidafi’s pictures are great and he did them by himself!

Just realize that taking pictures is an art and there is a whole niche of photographers who specialize in fitness, so don’t be surprised when your pictures aren’t magazine cover quality when you take them yourself.

But why would you even take the pictures?

Well, even if you are not comfortable taking pictures right now, that will change once you get in shape.

It’s worth getting a real photoshoot to really see what you got.

Kidafi’s Approach for Building the Adonis Physique

This time around Kidafi didn’t care about his weight. His goals were to get a bit leaner, gain more muscle if possible and generally have more of a “fuller” look while remaining injury free.

He is not the biggest guy in the gym, he is not the heaviest, but he is ripped and he loves the look.

Apart from the fact that weight is irrelevant and doesn’t tell the whole story, if you weigh yourself on a daily basis it’s guaranteed to mess with your head. There simply aren’t any big changes you’re going to see day to day besides water fluctuations.

In his workout Kidafi shifted from lifting heavy to concentrating more on the lifting technique.

He gave himself permission to lift light and focused on the squeeze and tension of his muscle contractions instead of just lifting heavy weights up and down. The feeling after the workout was very satisfying, he gained more lean muscle mass and was injury-free the entire year.

Like most of us, Kidafi is a busy guy. He could just have just made excuses whenever he didn’t fell like working out or was short on time, but instead of making excuses he found a way to do the program. He split the workout in two. He did the first part of the workout focusing on optimizing the AI ratio in the morning and saved the second part for the afternoon and added a bit of volume there to keep the intensity.

And that was it, really.

For his diet, he just ate less than most people, made sure he followed the AI workouts and kept this going throughout the entire course of the contest.

There is no secret, no magic pill.

…Just hard work and dedication.

More tips from Kidafi:

The community is where it’s all happening, hang out there with same minded guys who will support your goals
You have to be mentally ready for the commitment
There is no magic, you need to put the effort in and go through the process and work your way up
Its easy to jump from program to program, but if you want to see the results you need to stick to it to the end
Consistency has always been the name of the game
It takes time, so don’t fall for overnight quick fixes
Don’t compare yourself to anyone else
It’s all a lifestyle
You have to want it for yourself, the motivation has to come from within you
The strength to endure the challenges and roadblocks has to originate inside you
It’s a commitment for life and no excuses are allowed
You have time to work out, find it
Everybody wishes to see changes after one workout, but that’s not the reality – accept it
You don’t have to live in the gym to look good, for most people 4-5 workout sessions a week is more than enough, just make sure they are worth it
You don’t have to do any traditional cardio, walking the dog is a calorie burning and healthy activity too
Don’t be the “fitness guy”, be the the guy who is in shape, but never talks about it
Hope to make small improvements every day
The goal is to look good, so make everything you do move in that direction
Listen to your body
Move forward, that’s the right direction

Links from the interview:

Reverse Taper Diet – Use the RTD to prevent yourself from rebounding. The RTD style is the best way to lose weight AND keep it off.
Kidafi’s previous interview – Consistency is the Key To Building Muscle and Staying Lean

Read Kidafi’s experience with Adonis Index in his own words:

This is now my third time participating in an Adonis contest and I must say I feel like a veteran around the whole Adonis system and philosophy. The experience this time has been very different as there were less reaction to what I was doing or what I looked like from the outside. It was more of a mental experience and growing experience as a person. At first…Continue Reading Here

Listen to the interview here, and please “like” it when you’re done:

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Filed Under: Contest, Podcasts, Stories, Transformation Tagged With: adonis index, Adonis Index Contest, Adonis Index Transformation, Adonis Physique, john barban, Vaclav Gregor

Take your Workout Seriously then go Live Your Life

July 6, 2012 by Allen Elliott

I take my workouts seriously, I always have and I always will. But I don’t label myself as a ‘workout guy’ or a ‘fitness guy’. I’m not ‘into fitness’ and I don’t really care what is going on in the ‘fitness industry’ because for the most part I think it’s all a load of crap.

Your workout shouldn’t be your only identity.

As far as I’m concerned there shouldn’t even be a ‘fitness industry’.

All there should be is you, and your workout that gets you to your personal goals. Unless you’re a pro athlete it’s likely that you’re personal goal is to maximize the look and shape of your body…and along with that comes a what most people would call ‘health’ and vigour and renewed energy and all of that stuff.

But lets be honest, we all want to have a kick ass body. Nobody would workout if it somehow made them healthier but also fatter and weaker. We just wouldn’t do it…we all really like the fact that working out builds a damn good looking body. And for good reason, a good looking body, is a healthy body, it attracts people, it exudes confidence and you can draw confidence from it.

There is simply nothing bad that comes from having a well built body.

The problem arises when you allow your workouts and thinking about your workouts to take over your life and become a bigger part of your identity than it should be.

There should be much more to what makes up your life than just your workouts and how you eat. Identifying yourself with your diet is an entirely separate issue that I find even more ridiculous than identifying yourself with your workout. But I digress.

For today we’ll only discuss the workout side of the equation.

Let’s say you workout constantly 6 times per week. And you put a solid 1.5 hours into each workout. For most people this is already more than they are currently doing and in fact, most people won’t even get to this level. But lets just say this is what you’re doing.

That averages out to less than an hour and a half per day for the entire week (and we would consider this very dedicated). Yet many people will wear this workout as their identity to carry with them throughout the rest of their day and week. It becomes who they think they are.

From the standpoint of hours per day this is likely one of the things you spend the least amount of time doing. Heck I know people who spend twice as much time as that per day commuting back and forth to work. But they don’t consider themselves a ‘commuter person’ and don’t wear it as an identity.

Most people will watch more than 1.5 hours of TV in a day, but they don’t wear that as their identity either.

There are many other things in your life that you spend far more time doing that you will choose not to associate with your identity, but they are in fact a bigger factor to what makes up who you are than your workout does.

The point is to realize that your workout is meant to be taken seriously but not as your identity.

Get to the gym, get the workout done, put your best effort in. Then once you leave the gym, leave all ideas of working out behind. Don’t read about working out, don’t discuss it with anyone, just go and live your life and do whatever else it is you like to do.

Working out is simply a tool to be used to get your body to a look and shape you like, it’s not a life to live in and of itself.

Once you get this sorted out you’ll be able to give your workout the maximum effort and intensity it deserves without it seeping into the rest of your life and controlling more of your thoughts than it should.

Your workouts are important, there’s no doubt about that, but they’re not your identity.

John

Filed Under: Sage Advice Tagged With: workout identity

Eliminate Inhibitors and Muscle Growth Will Be The Default State of Your Body

July 4, 2012 by Allen Elliott

Welcome to Season 2 of our UNCENSORED Podcasts!

What really is muscle growth? Do you think it has been studied and understood by scientists?

In the bodybuilding community, there is a strong belief that we don’t have any research on muscle growth and muscle building.

That’s not true.

There are a ton of papers on this subject, the results are just not what we would like them to be, that’s why it’s usually brushed under the table.

A New Way of Thinking about Muscle Growth

We’ve always been lead to believe that you need to “boost your muscle growth”, find ways to eat more protein, more calories, basically do everything you can to stimulate your muscles to grow even more.

The only issue with this approach is that you can’t do it, because it’s impossible without the use of drugs.

Today, Barban and Pilon will show you how the typical approach, as explained by others who focus on bro-science in this industry, is completely the opposite to how your body REALLY works.

To explain this in simple terms, let’s imagine your body works like a car and you are the driver. In this case, you would have one foot on the gas and the other one on the brake. However, in this case, you can’t press your foot further down on the gas pedal: you already are crashing the floor with it.

What you need to do is something else – you need to completely remove the other foot from the brake. Because once you get your other foot off the brake, the car starts going forward. To complete the analogy, your body starts growing.

So instead of trying to “force” your muscles to grow, you just need to remove the inhibitors that are preventing you from reaching your golden body shape.

The minute you are born, you start growing, but let’s take away juvenile muscle growth and even steroid induced growth from this to make things really simple.

Now, you may be saying, if this is true then why don’t I already have a 20 inch bicep, right?

Well, here’s how this works. Your body has a predefined way of growth, so if you are supposed to be 190 pounds at 6’1” it will try to get there by default and it will ALWAYS try getting there until you are 190 and 6’1”.

If your body isn’t where it should be yet, then it’s not because you haven’t done enough to boost the growth, yet it’s rather because you haven’t removed the things that are preventing your body from growing the way it wants.

Let me repeat: Your body wants to grow, however there are roadblocks called inhibitors that are preventing it from growing.

These inhibitors can be nutritional, environmental and even mental. There are also genetic inhibitors that keep the body from uncontrolled or unchecked growth, which like it or not is not something you would want. (ex: a tumor or cancer is an example of uncontrolled or unchecked growth)

So some inhibitors have to be there.

In essense, what you can do is find a way to remove some of them, so your body can reach it’s full potential.

In today’s UNCENSORED training, you will discover and learn:

Why removing inhibitors is a way to go to build more muscle
How many calories you need to eat to build 5 pounds of muscle a month
Some of the inhibitors that are preventing your body from growing
Why studies on rats are completely irrelevant when making a point about human body
Why ‘extra’ protein will not help you build muscle
The reason behind “How I gained 30 pounds with this workout” marketing stories and why they’re all likely true, and also to be expected
More insights from the Disinhibition theory of muscle growth that makes most fitness marketing seem outdated
Why running marathons might be detrimental to muscle growth

IMMERSION Clients May Login and Download Podcast Here

Not an Adonis Index IMMERSION client? Click here to find out more… and hear a weird story too

Filed Under: Muscle Building, Uncensored Podcasts S02 Tagged With: adonis index, Inhibitors, muscle growth, Uncensored Podcasts, Vaclav Gregor

Do Less Work to Stay Ripped: How to Approach Maintenance

July 2, 2012 by Allen Elliott

Today we have an interview with Andrew Tullio who placed 3rd in the Open Level 2 Category in the latest Adonis Index Contest. Check out his pictures:

Make sure you set up good lighting and background when taking the after pictures.

Andrew had to re-think everything. He had to figure out a new way to eat and what would be the best time to have each meal.

He was always used to have big meals. He was never a fan of working on eating smaller portions. However, when you eat three times a day, it might not be a such a good habit to have, because it’s very easy to eat too much food. Most people can get away with eating one big meal, some can even get away with two big meals, but almost no one can eat three large meals every day, and still be lean.

And this need to figure out a new way of eating is not the first time we’ve heard about it. It’s actually a recurring theme.

It’s great if you have figured out how to lose fat and you’ve got lean. However, if you also want to STAY lean, you have to figure out a whole new way to eat to maintain your new body. If you start overeating or get back to your old eating habits you will start gaining fat quickly and you will erase all your progress in a matter of weeks.

There are three basic ways of eating:

The one that gets you overweight
The one that makes you lose fat
The one that you need to learn to keep your new lean body

Since the old habit Andrew had wouldn’t help him lose weight and keep it off, he had to do some thinking.

At this point he only knew how to eat to gain weight and how to eat to lose weight, but nothing in between.

He had to figure out how to eat in a balanced way so he would stay lean all year round.

He tried a few things that mostly revolved around having multiple meals and just counting the calories. However, like he told us, it was just too much counting and he couldn’t enjoy the big meals he loved.

Then, he figured it out.

What really worked for him was having one big meal at the end of the day.

This way he would stay in a deficit, because there is only so many calories you can eat at one sitting. and he didn’t have to count calories, so it was a win-win.

Now Andrew doesn’t have to count anything, he doesn’t worry about maintenance or gaining weight. It’s all taken care of with one meal a day.

He can still eat big with just a small compromise on his part.

But is it really that big of a compromise?

Sometimes he might allow himself a snack, but usually he just eats a big dinner. Snacks are good, if you can keep the calories in check (think of fruit as a perfect low cal, but tasty snack). The issue with snacks is that most people snack on high calorie options and they don’t stop at just one.

Another issue is that the moment you start eating, your appetite goes up and you will want to eat more. FYI this is one of the reasons why eating breakfast is NOT a good idea.

This is Andrew’s overall progress. The first pictures are from his first Adonis Index contest.

Why One Meal a Day Works and What It Can Do for You?

Assuming you already understand the benefits of intermittent fasting, eating one meal a day has a bit more to it as well.

Not having to count calories
You can have snacks if you limit the frequency and the amount
You can enjoy the weekends a bit more
You can eat “normally” at some unexpected social eating event, because you are in a slight deficit
You can eat a really big meal every day!
You can finally focus on something different than food during your day – that’s the productivity cure you were looking for the whole time
You will have more energy during the day and you won’t feel tired as a result of eating every three hours

Andrew would have a big meal and small piece of chocolate with it almost every single day.

What other diet will allow you to have chocolate every day?

Not that many, right?

Obviously you have to choose the right foods, you can’t eat nothing but cake, but still it doesn’t have to be “clean” by the conventional fitness standards. You really can have chocolate or pizza if you want.

What you are basically doing is variety in one big chunk each day.

And how would such a meal look like?

You can be creative, but here is an example:

Salad + chicken + potatoes + slice of pizza + small piece of chocolate cake

Sounds good?

Well, you can easily make this under 2000 calories, which is perfect for most guys to maintain.

Just remember, you can have your cake, but everything is good only in moderation.

More tips from Andrew:

Learn a way to eat everyday without gaining or going overboard
You don’t have to count calories once you figure out a consistent pattern that works for you
Judge your progress by the mirror and photos, are you getting soft? Not seeing obliques anymore? If so then you need to eat a bit less (or add more exercise/cardio)
Myotape is also good for tracking progress and staying at maintenance
When you get into a good eating pattern, stay there don’t mess with it
At that point you will intuitively know when you go overboard
If you get on the scale too often, weight fluctuations due to water fluctuations will start messing with your head
Multiple ways to do it, find the way that works for you
Stick to one workout plan
Your workout plan should mix things up every once in a while to keep your mind in it and your muscles growing
The goal is not having to think about your body, fitness, diet, training, just doing a little work here and there and still looking awesome
Re-think and question everything