Well did my weight check first thing Monday morning and I was up to 198.6, I was very shocked to see my weight this high already, but at the same time really pleased.

I’m well on my way to reaching my highest weight plateau ever of 112, this is the most I ever weighed and it was four years ago in college. It wasn’t a good weight for me then, bc it required me to lose a lot of my definition. I expect this time around to be much better, bc I’m putting on the weight with really clean food choices.

That leads me to the next issue my appetite is starting to die down a bit and I’m feeling much fuller after every meal. This is because it takes a lot more food volume to reach the calorie totals that I need to put on size when the food choices are kept so clean. However I’m gonna keep trying my best to keep the food selections clean, but as my weight goes up so will my caloric needs and I may have to sacrifice some of the clean food choices in order to actually be able to consume all the food.

This is a prime example of why I tell people that have a hard time not over eating to just attempt to eat the same amount of calories with all clean food choices. Most people do not realize how much food it would take for them to eat over their maintenance caloric levels if they utilize clean food choices.

So what are clean food choices? Well the staples in my diet have always been; eggs, egg beaters, oatmeal, chicken, lean ground beef, yams, brown rice, green beans or broccoli(basically any green vegetables). There are a bunch of other choices you could use in your diet, but these have always been my go to food selections.

If your like me and have a fast metabolism and really find it hard to put on any weight, bc you just can’t eat as much food as you need to(or you get full to easy) try this trick. Always try to finish your entire meal 20minutes after the first bite. It takes around 300minutes for your stomach to signal your brain and tell it your full.

If your the opposite of me and find yourself over eating often try eating slower or consume a medium size salad before you begin your meal. The volume of lettuce will fill you up quicker with out adding a lot of extra calories.

Well these are just a few of my personal nutrition tips and tricks hope you are able to utilize them to help you in your quest to reach your fitness goal.

If you have any questions please leave a comment bellow or e-mail me at courtneydukes@time2transform.com and I will do my best to pass on my knowledge.

I will still try to post workout updates, but just realize that I’m only taking the Cellucor M5 at this time. My workouts are going to be a lot different in the next few weeks, bc I will be doing traveling and working on other projects.

I have also decided to add some new training styles to my current workout program, so you will notice in my workout logs that they will look a lot different and muscle groups will be worked on different days than usual. I’m really trying to keep my body guessing and from adapting to my training style. This should be a fun and challenging change of pace and I look forward to seeing the results that come from it.

I expect that there will be a lot of exerscises that I will be listing that most of yo uwill not recognize or understand how to preform them, so please ask for explination if you don’t knwo what somethign is and I can post details and examples to clear things up.

Thanks again for following my page and for all the comments and messages I have received stating how I’m motivating you and your getting a lot out of the information I share.

So to start things off here are a few more pictures from back in 99 where It all began. If you have been following me on bodyspace then you have definitely seen the famous before picture where I look like a starving Ethiopian Kid. I have had a lot of people question whether or not that is actually me, I really can’t do much more to prove that it is, but this might help. 3 more pictures (original photo scans) and the original picture from back in 99 enjoy and keep working hard, you will get there!

Do you think that what is working for them now is the exact same things that worked for them in the past when they were first starting? or when they were intermediate? No of course not they had to try many different things to find out what actually worked. So why would you expect that you can just start using their present day routine with little or no experience and expect to achieve similar results?

You need to see behind the scenes and find out what routines they did in the beginning, what diet changes they have made, and while were at it why not see some pictures of the actual progress they made along the way. If you expect to achieve results over night your going to be very disappointed. So seeing a realistic picture time line of the changes that took place over time(no matter how insignificant they may appear) will help keep you on the right track to making continued progress.

Well your wishes are about to be granted. I have found a bunch of my old training logs, diet logs, progress pictures, measurements/statistics, and even some old videos of me working out at home when I was much smaller. This info goes back to 99 when I first began and continues all the way to present time. So you will really be able to have a detailed look at the journey that got me to where I am TODAY. Hopefully this insight well help you reach your fitness goals and dreams as well. Now were talking about over 10yrs worth of info, so there is bound to be some gaps here and there. It may not be an absolute complete day by day journey for the past 1o years, but it should definitely provide a lot of information and display how my routines and training style has changed throughout the years.

There is a ton of info for me to post, so this will be an ongoing series on my blog and will  last for a very very long time, so sit back and enjoy the journey as I show you how I actually went from a skinny no nothing very weak to a really proud and strong physique.

Please remember I’m here to help you out so PLEASE ask questions, leave comments, provide suggestions, basically INTERACT and lets make this a great experience for everyone that comes to the page.

When I was growing up the only meals I can ever remember eating(excluding snacks) were the core Three; Breakfast,Lunch, and Dinner. That was the norm you eat three times a day and maybe a few snacks in between. Nobody ever questioned it or really thought about changing it. Well what our parents didn’t know is that this is not the most efficient means to take in our daily nutrients.

When you really sit back and start thinking about it, it makes a lot of sense. For example if you have five tasks to complete for the day and you decide to sit down and do them all at once? in an hour? how efficiently do you think you will complete each task? You may rush through them, make mistakes,skip important steps or even have to redo them. Now if you had those same five tasks and decided to do them one at a time through out? the entire day you could spend more time on each one, ensuring that they were completed properly and with the highest level of quality possible. So why would you force your body to try and handle the breaking? down and digestion of large quantities of food all at once,when a much better and efficient method would be to give it several small quantities of food spread through out the entire day. Its easier for our bodies to properly utilize all the nutrients if we give it smaller meals to digest.

Not only are several smaller meals more efficient for your body, but it also triggers your body to store less of the nutrients as fat. Protein, fat and carbohydrates are the sources where your body goes for energy. When its not getting fresh supplies of these nutrients it It will attempt to hold on to as much extra nutrients(as fat) as possible to ensure the body can continue to function properly when no more energy sources are available. The body has this built in survival mechanism that causes it to store nutrients as fat when its not sure if more food will be provided for break down.? So when you go long periods through out the day without eating you are essentially sending the signal to your body that it could be on the verge of starving.? When you eat more often typically every 2-3 hours you reassure your body that it will constantly have a fresh incoming source of nutrients for it to use? and there is really no need for much of it to be stored as fat. Therefore this will allow your body to break down and use the food that you digest more completely and efficiently and the end result is your bodies metabolism will be naturally elevated. Your metabolism is what determines how many calories your body is able to burn each day. So having it elevated will help you stay leaner even without a lot of extra cardio.

If you are still only eating three times a day and your not getting the kind of results you have been looking for maybe its time you make a change. You don’t have to eat seven to eight meals like I do , but you should definitely try adding? a few more into your meal plan and see how it works out.