I will be tracking my progress here as I begin taking INDIGO 3G.

I will start off my log by giving everyone a little bit of background information. If you don't want to read a bunch of stuff about my life, skip down a couple posts.

As of right now, it looks like I cannot upload pictures. As soon as this feature is enabled, I will put up some photos.

First I am 35 years old, I currently weigh 205 lbs and am 70 inches tall. I have struggled with my weight and bodyfat since I was a little kid, always being "chunky". Here is my story as it pertains to lifting weights. I am by no means an expert, and as you can see, I made quite a few mistakes along the way. I probably did more things wrong than I did right. It has been a long, bumpy road, but hopefully now I am on the right track.

I first started lifting weights in high school but didn't really make a whole lot of progress, partly due to the fact I didn't know what I was doing, but mostly because I had no goals other than a vague desire to get stronger and look better. I was more concerned with playing sports, and lifting weights was a way to improve my performance. I got moderately stronger, but didn't really improve my looks all that much.

I joined the Navy after college and lifting weights became non-existent for a couple years. I started lifting again seriously (or at least serious enough to produce some visible results) in early 2001. I ended up getting relatively skinny, and for the first time in my life I looked good (compared to my past). I was about 185 lbs and what I would estimate to be around 13-16% bodyfat (I don't have any pictures from that era). I got that way by lifting weights consistently, and eating a whole lot of chicken breasts and tuna. At the time I didn't really have any concept of what carbs did to my body or why I should limit them. That was about the time of the peak of the Atkins Diet craze, so I did see a lot of buzz regarding the notion that by eliminating carbs and going into this thing called "ketosis", a person could shed bodyfat quickly. I don't really attribute my weight loss to an Atkins diet as I ate white rice, fruit, and some bread, but more to restricting my overall calories, giving up junk food, and working out consistently. For the first time in my life I had visible abs

Around the beginning of 2002, I went on a 5 month underway, got complacent, stopped working out, and reverted a bit to my former self. I then spent the next several of years working out sporadically, never really making much progress, and slowly getting fatter and fatter. From 2003-2008 I maintained my weight around 200 lbs and what I can approximate to be about 18-25% bodyfat. I was really into playing hockey (hence the screen name) and focused more on that then what I looked like. Every once in a while I would look at myself in the mirror, get mildly disgusted, and go lift some weights and jog for a couple months. I didn't modify my diet too much, partly because of ignorance, and partly because I was in denial on how I looked. I can say that at the time, I honestly thought that I didn't look that bad.

In 2009 I went on a 6 month deployment to the Eastern Pacific and Indian Ocean. Before I left, I was pretty out of shape; 215 lbs and probably around 25-30% bodyfat. I made a resolution that I was going to come back home looking better than I ever had before. I did cardio, including HIIT in a fasted state 5-6 days a week (which looking back on it now, probably was counter-productive to building muscle), and lifted weights 5-6 days a week. This was also when I discovered the website "T-Nation". I lurked around the site daily but due to the very low bandwidth onboard the ship, it was impractical to create an account and participate in the forums. I did get a lot from the archives, and the daily articles. For the first time, I had a focused plan, and some direction. When I returned home, I weighed 190 lbs and was around 12% bodyfat. I lost over 7 inches off my waist, and my pants size went from being stuffed into a 38 to a having room in a size 32. I looked better than I ever had before.

Then, just as had happened several times before, I got complacent. I still worked out consistently and made decent strength gains but ditched the early morning cardio and my diet started to suck. It is very easy to stick to a restricted diet while out to sea, away from restaurants, fast food, and a cupboard full of junk. So even though I was gaining some muscle, it was getting smoothed out by fat. I slowly started eating more and more and my abs completely went away.

Then towards the end of 2009 I was deployed for another 6 months. I was in a place where there was no gym and very limited workout areas, no access to T-Nation, and I began to eat whatever was available. This again started the slide for me to look like my former self. I came back in April of 2010 weighing 210 lbs. But this time I at least knew I was out of shape and immediately got back on a program. I got it in my head that I wanted to gain more muscle so my program focused more on getting stronger. I lowered the reps and raised the weight. I set the short-term goal of bench pressing 300 lbs, squatting 315 lbs, and deadlifting 400lbs. I got my diet in check, and finally started to come to terms with what carbs did to my body. I cut out all processed carbs, ate a lot of meat, nuts, yogurt, cheese, and protein shakes.

By August 2010, I had dropped to 195, and thought I looked better, which I did, but looking back at the pictures now, they don't look too good, not as lean as I was in early 2009. My weight stayed pretty much the same as I lost some more body fat and gained a little bit of muscle. I was getting stronger, and in October I came to the conclusion that I wanted to put on even more muscle and went on a quest to "bulk up" over the winter with the expectation that I would have more muscle and would shed the weight starting in the spring. I went to a 5x5 heavy program, and pretty much gave myself a license to eat whatever I wanted. I probably was forcing myself to eat 3500-4500 calories a day. It started out somewhat of a "clean bulk", but as time went on, those bad carbs started sneaking their way back into my diet. Every time I ate those chips, cookies, donuts, or ice cream I rationalized it as part of the plan to bulk up. This turned out to be a disaster. What made it harder for me to realize what a mistake I was making was the fact that I started to get much, much stronger (for me anyways). I reached all my weightlifting goals and then some. My PRs at the time were as follows:
Bench: 315 x 2
Squat: 335 x 2
Deadlift: 425 x 1
Power Clean 185 x 3
I felt strong and I didn"t take the time to critically look at myself in the mirror and see what I was doing to my body.

After the holiday food frenzy and a couple more months of "dirty bulking", I tipped the scales at over 220 lbs by the end of February. I always had it in the back of my head that once spring hit I would drop some weight, but what really shocked me was one day I looked in the mirror and was disgusted by what I saw. I had become fat. I was now a fat guy who could lift a moderate amount of weight. It was time to do something drastic, really quickly.

V-Diet:
I ordered my V-Diet package and started February 28th, 2011. My stats were as follows:
Height: 70 in
Weight: 223 lbs
Neck: 16 in
Shoulders: 48 in
Chest: Upper: 43 in
Waist: at Navel: 41 in
Waist: at Largest: 41 in
Waist: at Smallest: 39 in
Hips: at Largest: 45 in
Upper Arm: 17 in
Upper Leg: 28 in
Calf: at largest: 16 in
Ankle: 9.5 in
Suprailiac skinfold: 16 mm

I was determined to break the cycle I had been on for the last 10 years, and was now fully convinced that if I was going to achieve the look that I always wanted, I needed to get serious and put forth some effort, no more excuses, no more half-assing it. I thought the V Diet was going to be hard but I had no idea. It was one of the hardest things I ever did. Going from over 4500 calories a day to 1600-1900 a day was quite a shock to my fat body. I switched my workouts to the advanced V-Diet workout, even though I looked at it and thought the workouts were "too easy" (I couldn't have been more wrong). I stuck to the diet 100%, never strayed, and made some pretty dramatic progress. When it was done 4 weeks later I still didn"t really look all that great, but I had made progress.

I then moved into the transition phase and continued to make progress. At the end of those 2 weeks my stats were:
Height: 70 in
Weight: 208 lbs
Neck: 16.5 in
Shoulders: 48 in
Chest: Upper: 43 in
Waist: at Navel: 36.5 in
Waist: at Largest: 36.5 in
Waist: at Smallest: 36 in
Hips: at Largest: 43 in
Upper Arm: 16.5 in
Upper Leg: 27 in
Calf: at largest: 16 in
Ankle: 9.5 in
Suprailiac skinfold: 10 mm

So I had made a serious dent in my bodyfat but was nowhere near my goal. I continued with the MD shakes during the day, and sticking to 1 or 2 HSM a day (mostly). I then started to add Pulse Fasts and Pulse Feasts once or twice a week. The weight loss slowed, but I continued to make progress. The V-Diet reprogrammed my body and got rid of a lot of the cravings that really derailed me in the past. I limit my carbs and cycle from days where I have none to "high carb" days, but mostly trying to keep the carbs coming from quality sources. I have all but completely cut out sugar and processed food. I'll still eat some bread or pasta every once in a while, but I don't do it regularly and when I do, I only do a small amount. I can say that the best part of the V Diet is that I have become more "body aware". I now know what different types of food do to me, and I now eat with a purpose, not because of habits or cravings.

Now to get down to where I am at currently.

My stats before I start INDIGO are as follows:

Height: 70 in
Weight: 205 lbs
Neck: 15 in
Shoulders: 49 in
Chest: Upper: 44 in
Waist: at Navel: 35 in
Waist: at Largest: 35 in
Waist: at Smallest: 33.5 in
Hips: at Largest: 41 in
Upper Arm: 16 in
Upper Leg: 26.5 in
Calf: at largest: 15.5 in
Ankle: 9.5 in
Suprailiac skinfold: 8 mm

My current workout plan is as follows:
I workout 5 days a week, on a 4 day split. Since coming off the V-Diet workout program, I have upped my sets and reps focusing on lifting lighter weights more explosively. For my main lifts I will do 6-8 sets of 8, for the auxiliary exercises I'll do 3-5 sets of 8-10. The general philosophy is to try and achieve "the perfect rep" according to the I, Bodybuilder program and really limit my rest periods. I have also started to incorporate some of the exercises featured in the IBB program with lighter weights and more reps. I stick to the main lifts every workout and cycle through the auxiliary lifts based on how I feel, or what I want to work on. Below is a sample of what I might do during a week:
Day 1 - Back/Biceps
Deadlifts
Weighted pull ups followed by bodyweight pull ups
Bent over Rows
Preacher Curls
Lat Pulldowns
Seated Rows
Dumbell Curls

Day 2 - Shoulders
Power Cleans
Push Press / Military Press
Arnold Press
Lateral Raises
Face Pulls
Shrugs

Day 3 - Legs
Squats
Romanian DL
Leg Press
Calf Raises
Bulgarian Split Squats
Glute Ham Raises

Day 4 - Chest/Triceps
Bench Press
Incline DB Press
Narrow grip press from pins
Weighted Dips followed by bodyweight dips
Skull Crushers
Flyes
Cable Tricep exercise

Day 5 - Back / Biceps (and the cycle repeats)
Rack Pulls
Pull Ups
Bent over rows
Standing Curls
Hammer Curls
Lat Pulls
Rows

Nutrition:
Here are the supplements (Pre INDIGO) I currently take in some fashion:
Low Carb Metobolic Drive
Flameout
Superfood
L-Leucine
Surge Recovery
Anaconda
MAG-10
Power Drive
ZMA
Creatine
Alpha GPC
Spike shooter
HOT-ROX
Resversorol
Multi-Vitamin

A typical (non Pulse Fast) weekday looks like this:

0430 - Wake up - 2 capsules HOT-ROX Extreme
0500 - 2 scoops MD, 1 scoop L-Leucine, 1 tablespoon of milled flax seed, 1 heaping scoop of Superfood, 1 cap of Flameout, Multi-Vitamin
0515 - 2 cups of black coffee on the drive to work
0800 - 2 scoops MD, 1 scoop L-Leucine, 1 cap Flameout
0900 - 1 capful Alpha GPC
1030 - (Start workout) 1 scoop Anaconda, 1 scoop Surge Recovery
1200 - (Stop workout) 1 scoop Anaconda, 1 scoop Surge Recovery
1300 - 2 caps HOT-ROX Extreme
1430 - 2 scoops MD, 1 scoop L-Leucine, 1 cap Flameout
1700 - Handful of peanuts, walnuts or almonds when I get home from work
1730 - HSM Dinner - 1 cap Flameout, Large serving of meat (16 oz steak, or 2 chicken breasts, etc), Salad or vegetables, some small amount of carbs (brown rice, or potatoes, on occasion a small serving of whole wheat pasta or bread)
2030 - ZMA
2100 - 1 scoop MD, 2 scoops of Casein protein, 1 scoop L-Leucine, 1 heaping scoop of Superfood, 1 tablespoon of Creatine Monohydrate, 1 teaspoon milled flax seed, 1 cap Flameout
2115 - Go to Bed

In addition to water, I also drink green / black tea through the day, as well as a couple diet sodas (try to limit these to 3 a day). I have also recently started drinking a Spike shooter when I need an energy boost. I probably do this 3-4 times a week.

On the weekend I pretty much do the same thing as above with the exception of an extra meal mid-morning. Usually eggs and a breakfast meat, maybe a small portion of fruit.


I will be modifying my diet to increase my daily carb intake while taking INDIGO. I'll post more on that later.

Goals: My current goal is pretty simple (but not easy). I want to get lean and look impressive. I want to have the type of physique that people look at and know that I seriously workout. I'm not all that concerned with an actual body fat percentage, although my definition of "impressive" would have me in the single digits. By my guestimation I think a weight of 180-185 lbs would be about right for my current muscle mass. While I have a halfway decent amount of muscle, it is currently covered up with a layer of fat. I am generally smooth all over, but my body tends to store an extra amount around my waist and on my thighs. I want to get rid of all that.

OK, Looks like the picture upload functionality has returned. Here is a picture of me at my worst; The day before I started the V-Diet, 2/25/11.

Here is me 4 weeks later, 3/23/11. Like I said before, still not good, but starting to make progress.

Here is my picture taken yesterday, 5/20/11.

This will be my Pre-INDIGO picture.

Here is a little bit of "supplement porn" for all of you Biotest fans.

I store all my stuff in an unused freezer in my basement. The only thing it is missing is my yellow pelican case and some FINiBARs, both of which should be here on Monday.

So in the spirit of upping my carbs to above 100g peri-workout using the components of the Anaconda Protocol as a guideline. Here is my plan, let me know what you think:

T -60 minutes: Take 1 cap Alpha GPC, 4 caps INDIGO
T -10: Eat 1 FiniBar (41g carbs), Mix workout drink: 1200 ml water, 2 scoops Anaconda, 1 scoop MAG-10, 2 scoops SWF (64 g carbs)
T -0: Start workout
T +10: Drink 1/3 of workout drink
T +45: Drink 1/3 of workout drink
T + 1:15: End workout, Drink last 1/3 of workout drink

This will bring my peri workout carbs to 105 g. My old plan had me drinking 44 g total (22 prior, 22 after) so this new plan will have quite a bit more.

I'm still a little bit unclear on what I need to do with my carb intake the rest of the day. If you reference my current nutrition, I don't typically eat 100 g of carbs the entire day, so this is quite an increase for me. As a starting point I am thinking of adding 25 g of carbs, probably from oatmeal, in the morning, and 25 grams of carbs at dinner. This will bring up my daily carbs to about 160 g. Below is what I am thinking:

0430 - Wake up - 4 capsules INDIGO, 2 capsules HOT-ROX Extreme
0530 - 2 scoops MD, 1 scoop L-Leucine, 1 tablespoon of milled flax seed, 1 cap of Flameout , Carb goal - 25 g
0515 - 2 cups of black coffee on the drive to work
0930 - Start Peri-Workout Protocol
1200 - Stop Peri-Workout Protocol
1330 - 2 caps HOT-ROX Extreme
1430 - 2 scoops MD, 1 scoop L-Leucine, 1 cap Flameout
1630 - 4 caps INDIGO
1730 - HSM Dinner - 1 cap Flameout, Large serving of meat (16 oz steak, or 2 chicken breasts, etc), Salad or vegetables, Carb goal - 25 g
2030 - ZMA
2100 - 1 scoop MD, 2 scoops of Casein protein, 1 scoop L-Leucine, 1 tablespoon of Creatine Monohydrate, 1 teaspoon milled flax seed, 1 cap Flameout
2115 - Go to Bed

Please give me some feedback, especially on the carb intake for the rest of the day.

Awesome dude! Really excited for you.

After reading all this it seems like you really understand periworkout nutrition and the carb increases around that time seem perfect. I think you'll experience significant success - whether it takes a week or two, seems like you're dedicated and have the necessary intellectual capacities to use I3G to your advantage and make some serious strides.

Your split seems very reasonable and thought out too, actually might try something similar in a few weeks and see how my body handles it.

i want that fridge

It's Sunday morning. I just finished my last pulse fast for awhile. No more while taking INDIGO. As usual I feel energized. This is the best part of the pulse fast, the morning after when you stop the fast and eat some solid food.
I had 4 hardboiled eggs, 2 pieces of bacon, and my normal morning shake.

how much of your income is spent of Biotest supps vs actual whole foods haha. it seems like a perfect split if you can fill up that freezer like that

hockey - your progress has been nice.

I think adding in some oatmeal at breakfast then a sweet potato at dinner would be fine. It's what I'm doing.

I finish working out at about 9pm, then have my dinner around 9:30 so I'll have carry over from the I3G. Breakfast is usually around 7:30 so I3G at 6:30. Then I'll have lunch probably at noon, so I3G at 11.

Gotta post so I can follow my fellow Indigo-3G logger. Great progress so far, and good luck with your goals! I'm jealous of the fridge haha.

Good progress on the V-Diet man... keep it up!