Dieting has begun!! (insert ominous music)

Well Guys it's that time of the year!

My off season is officially over and it's time to get back down to a better level of body fat while keeping what I have gained strength and power wise over the last year and a bit. While it really has been fun focusing on strength for a good while, other aspects of my training have suffered (such as BJJ). However I am a big fan of having just one goal and pursuing that.

So what were my goals in the off season?

Regular readers of my ramblings will know that the past year had only 2 goals,

1. Get stronger (2x bw squat, 2.5x bw Deadlift and 1.5x bw weight over head press).
2. Improve my metabolism.

I am very happy with what I achieved as I surpassed the squat and deadlift goals but fell short on the over head press. I managed to get 1000 cals above my last highest intake at a leaner body fat percentage so I am very happy with that. Body fat wise I ended slightly above what I wanted (abs only very first thing) as I was chasing the over head press in the last few months and eating like a mad man to support it. While this means more work now, I can't say that I would do it any different as I really wanted to hit that number!

Here is a few random things I learned this past year,

• Strength dramatically improved aspects of my BJJ.
• Jumping, ab work and explosive kettlebells do wonders for my guard passing.
• If I don't foam roll, stretch every session and of lots of shoulder mobility, I'm going to ache and suck.
• I can't eat potatoes but cereal is fine.
• Red meat is a godsend in my diet.
• I'm better off leaving peanut butter out of my plan as I can't put the jar down.

Now it's diet time!!

So what will the diet look like?

Well firstly its going to start slow with the reduction of about 100 cals for the first week and two easy cardio sessions of 20 mins. My weeks training looks like this,

• 4 days lifting (still using 5/3/1 just with more volume).
• 3-4 days BJJ
• 2x cardio.

I will increase the cardio as needed but the rest will pretty much stay the same through out the diet (part from the last few weeks).

Nutrition wise things will change about every week. Some weeks I will take things out, other weeks I will swap things around based on the results I see (this is where the magic is in any nutrition plan, the adjustments). If people want to see an exact breakdown of what I'm doing, just let me know and I'll pop it up!

The goal is to get into a leaner shape than I did last year before I started my off season (pics on my Instagram - mikeunorthodox) for my wedding and a promo photo shoot this summer. However I still want to maintain the strength that I have gained. I will still be testing my maxes every 6 months or so with 5/3/1 Joker sets every 2 cycles, so that I can see where I'm at in that department.

I'm going to update this blog every week with what I adjust and when so that people can start to see behind the curtain a bit (also to see how much I have to suffer to get really lean).

Stay healthy,

Mike

PS if you want a hand with your summer diet then feel free to use either the FREE Q&A on the  website or check out a full nutrition plan.