TheFitCast- Fitness and Nutrition Podcast » Destination Abs

Destination Abs Finale

Kevin Larrabee — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 12:37:03 +0000

Finish Him!!!

Alright folks, time to finish thing thing off. The last few weeks I was lax with my diet. Psychologically I needed a break. I was dealing with a lot of real world stuff, but that is no excuse. After that vacation from dieting, I am ready for the home stretch. Leigh and I have it planned for 80 days. 80 Days until Abs. After those 80 days, this isn’t over, I still have muscle to build and bench/deadlift/squat numbers to increase.And no, that isn’t 80 straight days of being in a deficit. I am using guidelines from The Fat Loss Troubleshoot and Body by Eats (The two best diet and nutrition books I have found).

What We Have Learned About Kevin

This experience has been fantastic for me in terms of setting up diets and adjusting for all the variables, especially psychological ones. Leigh and I have learned that I am a all go or no go type of person. I already knew this in terms of life. I can’t do things at 50%. It is 0 or 100%. Like Yoda said, ” Do or do not. There is no try.”

So where does that leave us now? I am back to being in a nice deficit, and psychologically I am in the position I need to be to succeed. I am locked in. I even have motivational pictures with the goal picture that Leigh made a few months back. I have about 15-20 lbs to drop.

Now, let’s get this done. The time is now. Come along for the ride.

Destination Abs Redux: Day 59

Kevin Larrabee — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 12:59:21 +0000

Are we back? Yes, we’re back.

It has been a long time since I have done a Destination Abs update. Too long. Some have even e-mailed me to ask me what the hell was going on with this project Leigh and I set out on 9 or so months ago. Well, I took some time off from counting calories and worrying about every single calorie I consumed. It seemed like it was much needed, but after regressing a bit, and putting on some more muscle, Leigh and I think it is time to rev up the engines again for one more 16-20 week journey to reach our Destination.

January 13, 2009

Another long break in between posts. That is what happens when I am working on so much other stuff behind the scenes. Anyways… Now just a recap for those that missed it. I had a bit of a slip up over the holidays. I was suppose to have a 4-day refeed at about 5,000 kcals/day. I was probably up towards 6,500. And I went 5 days instead of 4. I really have not excuse. I could say that I am human, but I just got weak. Plan and simple. There is no doubt that Leigh’s info in The Fat Loss Trouble Shoot and Body By Eats works. It got me from this to this.What was the real issue? Getting out of my routine. Not going into work really messed me up.

You will eat better if you are going to be out in public or around your peers, especially in this industry. Period. So when that added accountability wasn’t there, the shit hit the fan.

I have been back on track for about two weeks (minus a little extra eating on Saturday with some family and friends while out). Feeling a lot better. I talked to Leigh and after the first phase of the Redux, we can to a few conclusions.

1. I personally can’t do four day refeeds. It was just too habit forming (sounds like a drug…) and too difficult to break.

2. I want one meal per week while doing this. Something that will fill me up. Something that will come on Saturday night after training. I am talking BBQ turkey tips with lots of vegetables. Mentally it gives me something to look forward to each week and will keep me sane and more importantly, sociable.

Being social is important if you are on a diet or are a regular at the half price wing night. I literally didn’t want to go out sometimes because I knew I wouldn’t get to eat with the rest of my friends. I would be ordering water after water or would be portioning a chicken Cesar salad without dressing.

Will this approach make the goal take longer to achieve? Yes. But for now until I am ready to go all out again, is what I will be doing.

Next week I am going to go into how the training has changed and where we go from here. Until then here is a video of some of the battling rope circuits I am doing:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Questions Anyone?

That wraps it up for this week’s blog, let me know if you guys have any questions in the comments section and I will do my best to answer them.

If you are liking what you see here and want to jump in as well check out Leigh’s book The Fat Loss Troubleshoot and her new book Body By Eats.

Destination Abs Redux: Day 32

Kevin Larrabee — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 19:59:22 +0000

Are we back? Yes, we’re back.

December 16, 2009

7 Days. 7 more days until I get to EAT. And I mean EAT. Of course I am eating now, but I want to feel full! You know, that satisfying feeling. Just got to hold on strong for one more week…

Things have been going well. Diet is still locked in and I am really seeing some progress (see the pictures). Seeing how far I have come since I took those first pictures February 21st, it is really amazing.

Again here is the recipe for the frozen vanilla greek yogurt that has kept me going:

1 Plain Chobani Greek Yogurt cup (see picture)
14g of 50% less salted almonds
1/2 scoop vanilla protein (metabolic Drive)
Cinnamon to taste

245 kcals, 31.5g Protein, 12g Carbs, 8g fat, 3g fiberI am not going to go too in depth with things this week, just a picture update. And here we go:

(From Day 1 back in February to Today)

(From Redux Day 1 to Day 32 with a massive three day refeed for Thanksgiving)

(Day 1 to Today. Wow. Now I have lats!)

Christmas Gift from Leigh!!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Questions Anyone?

That wraps it up for this week’s blog, let me know if you guys have any questions in the comments section and I will do my best to answer them.

If you are liking what you see here and want to jump in as well check out Leigh’s book The Fat Loss Troubleshoot and her new book Body By Eats.

Destination Abs Redux: Day 26

Kevin Larrabee — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:50:11 +0000

Are we back? Yes, we’re back.

December 10, 2009

Two weeks since the last update. Not much to write home about. At this point I am just getting locked into the diet and training. I have hit the point of routine. I don’t have to go to fitday.com every 3 hours to enter in what I am eating because I know exactly what I can eat in terms of calories for the day. Now, does that mean this is harder because I am eating the same things day in and day out? Or is it easier because I don’t have to think about it?

I really don’t know the answer. I guess I would lean to the side of it being easier, but I still wouldn’t mind being able to spice it up with a trip to the local roast beef joint we have here in Beverly and spend $20 on an epic 3,000 calorie meal. Damn, I shouldn’t have written that. Now I am hungry…

If you haven’t already, check out the hour and fifteen minute Q&A Leigh and I did on Episode 159 this week. Hopefully it will give some of you some more insight.

Now, for the pictures… (From Day 1 of Redux to Day 25 with some massive Thanksgiving eating)

(Day 1, Day 10, Day 25)

Questions Anyone?

That wraps it up for this week’s blog, let me know if you guys have any questions in the comments section and I will do my best to answer them.

If you are liking what you see here and want to jump in as well check out Leigh’s book The Fat Loss Troubleshoot and her new book Body By Eats.

Destination Abs Redux: Day 10

Kevin Larrabee — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 20:36:34 +0000

Are we back? Yes, we’re back.

If you want to do what I am doing you should check out the OPT program that is in The Fat Loss Troubleshoot.

10 Days down, still going strong. I know I am locked in when I get past the first Saturday, a day that I psychologically schedule my cheat DAY (cheat meals OK, cheat days…not so much). I survived thanks to some cans of diet orange soda and sugar free gum. My stomach and intestines did not like all that artificial sweetener…

The first week really is the hardest because your body gets used to things, especially the pleasure it gets from eating pizza, cookies, and ice cream. It takes some serious will power and control to get past that first brick wall. I recommend you have some seltzer, diet soda, and gum on hand to preemptively strike on the want for something sweet and calorie dense.

For training I put together a three day a week full body program with some extra bells and whistles for maximum fat-loss.

Now, without further ado, here are the pictures.

From Day 1 to now

Redux Day 1-Day 7

Questions Anyone?

That wraps it up for this week’s blog, let me know if you guys have any questions in the comments section and I will do my best to answer them.

If you are liking what you see here and want to jump in as well check out Leigh’s book The Fat Loss Troubleshoot and her new book Body By Eats.

Destionation Abs Redux: Day 3

Kevin Larrabee — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:14:27 +0000

Are we back? Yes, we’re back.

Previously on Destination Abs…

This is where we left off, or at least the last pictures that I posted on July 13th, 2009.

That was after 133 days.

Here is where I stand now:

Here is where we are trying to get (preferably more awake):

Still not too shabby, I got to eat a lot more for a few months, go on a vacation and not worry about what I ate, and not stress about where my friends and I were going out to and if they would have food options that fit the guidelines. But on the same end I found myself having “free days” on many Saturday and Sundays. Not a good thing. “Cheat meals,” are OK, “cheat days,” are just bad. I found that although it was great to be able to eat some more junk food week to week, I wanted to continue to build on the progress that we mad a few months back, and now was the time to do it.

Are You Setting Yourself Up For Failure?

I am sure some of you are asking that question because the most dangerous and treacherous time for someone in a fat loss phase is the 30-45 days from Thanksgiving to New Years Day. Pies, cookies, brownies, your grandma’s famous six-layer chocolate pudding cake, ect. It isn’t easy, but that is why I am bringing in some extra guns.

Neo: I need guns. Lots of guns.

I am getting some extra support and ACCOUNTABILITY (that is our word of the year folks) from Leigh at her site LeighPeele.com. I am going to be posting these blogs on her site as well as TheFitCast.com each week. Sometimes you just need that extra push so you don’t let people down, even if you don’t know them except for the e-mails you get every so often.

More on Accountability

Accountability is HUGE. we have discussed this in the past but I need to mention it again. I know how to get someone down to 6% body fat for a competition, I can get the average Jane or Joe the down to body fat % where they see abs for the first time. Trust me, I have done it before. But when it comes to training yourself, that is sometimes a different story. Walk into a fitness club or gym anywhere and you will see overweight out of shape trainers and coaches. Are they just stupid and don’t know what the hell they are doing? Most of the time that isn’t the case. They just don’t practice what they preach.

Questions Anyone?

That wraps it up for this week’s blog, let me know if you guys have any questions in the comments section and I will do my best to answer them.

If you are liking what you see here and want to jump in as well check out Leigh’s book The Fat Loss Troubleshoot and her new book Body By Eats.

Destination Abs Crossroad

Kevin Larrabee — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:48:10 +0000

By: Kevin Larrabee, CSCS

(I started this blog post on August 21st and I am finishing it now on September 17th, just keep that in mind)

Another few weeks have gone by and I am at a crossroads. The results so far with Leigh Peele and the Fat Loss Troubleshoot have been nothing short of fantastic. Today I am leaner and more muscular than I have ever been in my 23 years. So yeah, I am pretty happy. This all started in March. MARCH! That makes it almost six months that I have been “dieting” and training for this.

Think about that again.

Six Months.

Remember that when you want to get a six pack in a month or two.

Not only have I been able to shed body fat, I have put on a substantial amount of lean muscle. Most notably on my upper body on my arms, abs, back, and lats. In the pictures on this post I have day one and something like Day 160 (I lost count). During this program I did things that sucked:

Doing a full body workout on 1550 calories is hell
I went through dozens of cartons of egg whites
I spent 2-3 hours a week just walking on a treadmill. BORING!
I gave up diet soda (not by design, I just wanted to limit artificial sweeteners as much as possible.
Body part splits….

Back to those body part splits. Were they effective? Yes. Did I enjoy the workouts? No. I missed being able to visit the guys at Cressey Performance and do a upper body day with the guys, or a heavy GCB squat session with Brian St. Pierre constantly reminding me to keep my knees out.

The most important thing I learned in these six months is that I need some kind of accountability. Be it a check in, or some other motivational factor. Without something specific, and not just, “I want to be thinner” you are setting yourself up for failure. It needs to be specific.

(Now on September 17th)

Long time since starting this post. What took me so long? I don’t know. But here is another mini update.

I just got back from vacation and I ate everything in sight for four days. It was awesome. Nothing like eating tons of fruit, nuts, breads, pretzels, candy, ect. I came back without and noticeable damage. Keep in mind I was moving almost all day swimming in the ocean, or walking up and down the beach, or doing some full body workouts at the crappy weight room on the resort.

As of Monday I have begun the Upper/Lower/Full/Full setup for my programing. Wow, I haven’t TRAINED lower body hard in a while. Nothing like a wake up call of 5×3 trap bar deadlifts then 4×6 of front squat reverse lunges. I was SWEATING.

I am continuing to use Leigh Peele’s fantastic book The Fat Loss Troubleshoot and her OPT manual. I keep getting questions from clients and other trainers looking for a great nutrition resource and I never hesitate to tell them about the FLTS.

I will be posting pictures on Monday or Tuesday to give you guys an update, now I got to head to the weight room to BENCH!

Destination Abs: The Training Program

Kevin Larrabee — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 23:24:59 +0000

By: Kevin Larrabee, CSCS

Another two weeks down. This sh*t is getting easy folks. I could follow Leigh’s nutritional guidelines forever. I even had a couple beers on Friday and I am still looking leaner. Guys, this is cool. I feel like there is actually some light at the end of the tunnel and definitive abs will be visible by the end of summer. Hell yes. I know I am kind of incoherent right now, but it is because this has been a long ass journey, 149 days so far since we began.

In terms of training (as I promised last week) the workouts that I have designed have consisted of 4 main exercises with 2-3 accessory exercises at the end of the workout. Workouts last no more than 60 minutes (excluding warm-up). For example, on the back/bi day my training will look something like this:

A) Weighted Chin-Ups
B) Chest Supported Row
C) Lat Pull Down
D) Face Pulls
E) Reverse EZ bar Curls
F) Cable Hammer Curls

I have found T-nation’s, “Best of” series to be very helpful when needing to mix things up. This was the case especially on my arms/abs/refeed day. Here are the links to the articles:

Down the line Leigh and I will be discussing the training more and how it changed throughout the different phases of the program. If you have any questions feel free to ask them in the comments section and I will answer them.

Leigh Peele has put together the nutrition portion of this program and I have constructed the training program. If you haven’t read her book The Fat Loss Troubleshoot, you have no idea what you are missing. Leigh has a no bull shit approach when it comes to this stuff. If you are one of those dieters who has smothered the furnace that is your metabolism, Leigh’s book will do the trick to get that fire stoked.

Destination Abs: Day 134 (Picture Update)

Kevin Larrabee — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 12:00:58 +0000

By: Kevin Larrabee, CSCS

It has been a while since I have posted pictures for the Destination Abs project. After taking a few days completely off of training I hit it hard for three days with a refeed and on Monday I went back to the normal schedule of lifting. So just to recap, in this phase the goal is to continue to put on lean muscle while limiting fat gain. The process of doing this is pretty delicate but Leigh has been a great help locking in the calories.

I am still doing body part splits (chest/tris, back/bis, lower body) for my training and although I found the workouts dreadfully boring the first few weeks, I have used the rest time in between sets to do mobility work (what we call active recovery). Pandora on my iPhone has been a nice way to burn time in between sets as well (who thought you could lift to The Beatles and Paramore?). I will be talking more about my training next week including some of my favorite exercises that I have put into the program.

After seeing the pictures Leigh pointed out the increase in abdominal mass and “line” running from my chest through my abs.

Now here are the pictures:

Day 1, Day 52, Day 133

Destination Abs: Day 129 (Goals, Plans, and Lessons Learned)

Kevin Larrabee — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 12:05:21 +0000

By: Kevin Larrabee, CSCS

It has been 129 days since I started this with Leigh Peele. That is over 4 months! In that time I have made some major body composition changes but the best part of the experience came from what I learned. I learned that you can get incredibly fast results (I mean 3+ lbs a week) when your program nutrition and training correctly and see a drastic change in the mirror. That really is important, seeing the fat-loss reflecting back at you in the mirror, that alone will keep you motivated to see how much farther you can push yourself.

Another lesson was that you must have strict, well defined goals, and you need to stick with them, even if you want to go off course to “lift with the guys” or do sled pushes when you are at a 1500 calorie deficit. Stick to the plan, you will be able to do that again when your goals are reached.

If you want to get stronger, program for it for the next three months at least.

If you want to get bigger, guess what? Same thing, you may be doing bodypart splits or full body workouts.

If you want to lose fat, again, same thing. Hit at least a 500 calorie deficit and do three full body workouts a week and program cardio to correlate with your deficit (i.e. you can’t do 20 minutes of intervals on 1500 calories a day when you are 190 pounds).

I will be posting pictures this Monday or Tuesday, I am deloading this week and hitting it hard this Friday/Saturday/Sunday so they should look good.