Happy Anniversary to my AMAZING Wife!

Today is my and Leigh's 8th anniversary. Every year I give Leigh some kind of sweet card and tell her I love her...but this year, after contemplating Proverbs 31, I wanted to do something a little different. Proverbs 31:30-31 says, "...a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Honor her for all that her hands have done, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate."

Therefore, it's time to go public and heap some praise upon my amazing wife by letting everyone else know how incredible she is. I hope you'll read this entire post and maybe gain just a little more appreciation for what a wonderful person Leigh Abele is. I've also thrown some of my favorite photos of her into this blog at random...because everyone loves pictures!

There is not a doubt in my mind that God put the right woman into my life. She is every bit the wife of noble character that the Bible describes in Proverbs 31. She is worth far more than rubies (v10), I have full confidence in her and she lacks nothing of value (v11), she has been good to me everyday (v12), she is a hard worker and she helps provide for our family (v13-15), she is prudent with her finances (v16), she is generous and has a giving heart (v20), there are a lot of great women out there...but Leigh is the best...sorry other ladies (v29), she fears the Lord and is a Godly woman (v30).

On our 8th Anniversary, I thought of 8 specific reasons I love my wife. She is:

1. Patient - Leigh may not be patient all of the time. But lets be honest, this woman has to put up with me, so you KNOW she's got some patience. (In fact, as I type this, she keeps asking me to come sit with her while she watches the Voice and I keep on putting her off because I'm working on this blog post.) So I love that my wife doesn't throw things at me when I don't come running the second she calls :) 

   

   Leigh, literally moments after giving birth...wow. October 2010.

2. Supportive - Leigh has been incredibly supportive of just about everything I've done or tried to do. You ladies don't know how important that is to a man...you really don't. There is something incredibly powerful and motivating knowing that there is a woman who loves, believes in and trusts in you. From my career, my side businesses, even going from a 240lb guy who never exercised to the personal trainer I am now...even when I want to head off to the gym with the guys almost every Saturday morning, Leigh has been supportive every step of the way. 

   

   Leigh's 30th Birthday in Antigua. February 2013

3. Selfless - Leigh has the heart of a giver...and her selfless spirit has been a positive influence to me over the years. I admire that she'll go completely out of her way for someone else, and even though at times I feel like I have to reign some of that in, I am incredibly proud that I am married to a woman who truly does put others first.

   

   After our first Tough Mudder in Georgia. March 2011.

4. Submissive - If you are one of those ladies out there who feel like the word "submissive" is a bad word...then you don't understand Biblical submission. God knew what he was doing when He told wives that they should be submissive to their husbands...and He knew what He was doing when He told husbands to love their wives. Leigh willingly follows my lead in our marriage...and I appreciate so much that I've got a wife who isn't keeping score, or is always trying to split every last thing right down the middle. It is so much easier to put your wife up on a pedestal when she isn't demanding to be put up on a pedestal :)

   

   After the RAGNAR Relay in Nashville. November 2012.

5. Hard working - Leigh has the best work ethic of anyone I know...period. This woman cares so much about doing things the right way, and she works her tail off both at work and at home. Even if it means staying up all night and working 75 hours in a week, while at the same time taking care of me and Kelsey...she'll do it. I'm so blessed to have a diligent, hard working spouse who puts so much effort into her work.

   

   DJ Leigh working hard on the turntables! April 2012.

6. Godly woman - My wife loves the Lord, and she is a BIG encouragement to me. I love that she makes her relationship with the Lord a priority, and that Kelsey sees mommy reading her Bible almost every morning. Having a spouse that helps to provide a spiritual and moral compass is a tremendous blessing to me. Simply put, Leigh makes me want to be a better Christian, husband, and father. 

   

   Notice I put this one right behind Godly woman. I hope that means she will have mercy on me for re-posting this photo from 2010 when she was pregnant with Kelsey. Hahaha...I'm going to get in trouble :)

7. Easy to look at - This one is pretty obvious...the woman is hot stuff. Yay for me!

   

   B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L. Sometime in 2005.

8. Intelligent - Even though Leigh knows when we disagree I'm usually right (...love you honey), she is a pretty smart cookie! It is nice to have a woman to stimulate the intellectual aspects of the relationship...and not just be a pretty thing to look at. Contrary to popular belief...guys actually do want to have a woman that they can talk to. You ladies just have to know when us guys have used up all of our words for the day :) Leigh is pretty good at figuring that out...just one more reason I love her! 

   

   Destin. October 2009.

Oh yes there are so many more reasons why I love Leigh...she is the mother of my child, and the one on the way. She is funny, caring, gives good back rubs, etc, etc, etc. I could go on and on and go way past 8...but then that would defeat the purpose of having 8 items for our 8th Anniversary now wouldn't it?

Leigh. I love you so much. God has blessed me far beyond what I deserve, and I am so great-full that He saw fit for you to be my wife. Proverbs 18:22 says "He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the Lord." I don't think the Lord will be upset with me if I say that I have found something GREAT.

Thank you for everything you are to me!
Love, your blessed husband

- Matt

How does my Calorie Cycling Plan Look?

I’ve had a boot camper ask me to post my typical calorie cycling plan, including my workouts and my food. I certainly don’t mind sharing, but there are a few important things to keep in mind when looking at my plan.

1. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK! My plan below is not a formula that fits everyone. Based upon your goals and your schedule, your plan may look completely different. You don't have to do or eat exactly what I do or eat. Additionally, I enjoy food and eat fairly liberally.
2. I am not trying to lose weight, therefore, I don’t have a daily calorie deficit and I can eat a whole lot more than someone who is trying to lose weight. My calories typically end up being neutral for the week. If YOU want to lose weight, you need to build that calorie deficit into your plan.
3. I also do Intermittent Fasting. That means every day from 8pm at night, until 12pm the next day (16 hours) I don’t eat anything. When I workout in the morning, I do consume BCAAs pre and post workout, but they are 0 calorie/carb and don’t break my fast. Therefore, when you don’t see me eating breakfast you’ll know why. If you are interested in Intermittent Fasting, go back through some of the earlier posts on my blog. That is when I was first experimenting with it and wrote more about it. For the record…I LOVE IT and it is one of the most effective body composition strategies I am aware of.
4. My goals are strictly body composition, i.e. reduce body fat and increase muscle. My training and nutrition regiment are not geared towards performance training (i.e. sports conditioning, endurance running, etc). I also don’t mind gaining a little weight, if it is the right kind of weight. So if you have performance training goals, you need a different approach.
5. I don’t do cardiovascular (cardio) exercise except for Boot Camp. That isn’t because cardio is a bad thing…but outside of Boot Camp I just personally don’t like doing it. I am not a runner…but I will run very sparingly from time to time if we have a 5k or a Tough Mudder or something that I need to train for. I’d much rather lift weights for my exercise. Once I figured out that I could get and stay lean without having to spend hours on a treadmill I dropped it from my routine. Do I think you should do that? Not necessarily. It depends upon your goals, and your interests. If you have a performance goal and/or you enjoy running…then keep doing it! There are also numerous health benefits of doing regular cardio exercise.

Hopefully the items above will help put my personal plan into context and won’t add to any confusion. My purpose in sharing this is to give you an example of how the major tenants of a calorie cycling plan might look in real application versus theory. For any nutrition approach to work for you long term, it needs to be sustainable, and you need to understand the "why" behind the strategy. Hopefully, looking at my plan and understanding my goals will be helpful.

Sunday

On Sunday, I do a heavy chest and triceps strength training workout. I typically hit the gym right after church, and then eat immediately after the workout. Here is what a typical Sunday looks like for me:

• 10:30am – Begin workout
• 12:00pm – End workout. Immediately drink a Protein & Oats shake with milk.
• 12:15pm – Eat lunch. I love breakfast foods, so I’ll probably make a stack of pancakes with butter and syrup, a ham egg (4 eggs 2 egg whites) and cheese omelet covered in salsa, and possibly some bacon if we have any. I’ll drink 2 8 oz glasses of orange-pineapple juice, and depending upon whether I’m full or not, I might add a bowl of cereal. I try to eat as much as possible for this meal. If I can fit in more food I will. Calories are my friend in this first meal. I also take my fish oil and multivitamin with this first meal. I do that everyday in my first meal, but I won't retype that for every day listed below.
• 3:00pm – Afternoon snack. I’ll typically drink a Muscle Milk and eat an apple. I become a scavenger for my snack time, so anything else that sounds good I’ll add in here like some trail mix, or some crackers and peanut butter. If we are out and about on a Sunday afternoon, I might swing by Tropical Smoothie to add some more carbs to my snack (smoothies are mostly fast absorbing carbs contained in fruit (sugar - fructose). The best time to eat this kind of carb is immediately after a workout.
• 6:30pm – Dinner. We might have spaghetti made with ground turkey meat, we might do some grilled chicken and vegetables, or some pork tenderloin and veggies...who knows.
• 7:45pm - Dessert/Protein shake. Confession. I have a sweet tooth...especially at night. If we have any tasty treats in the house, I eat them. The best way to keep me from eating something like ice cream, brownies, cookies, etc. is to just not buy them. Sometimes that is easier said than done. However, I just found some DELICIOUS Orange Creamcicle Protein, so I'll be using that to kill my sweet tooth instead of something less productive for my goals.

Monday

On Monday, I do a back and biceps strength training workout first thing in the morning. Obviously, I can't eat until 12pm so I'll take 10g BCAA's (Branched Chain Amino Acids) after my workout, and every 2 hours until I break my fast.

• 5:00am – Begin workout
• 6:15am – End workout.
• 7:00am - 10g BCAA's
• 9:00am - 10g BCAA's
• 11:00am - 10g BCAA's
• 12:00pm – Eat lunch. I will usually bring a sandwich from home. Here lately I've been doing sliced deli meat turkey with provolone cheese, light olive oil mayo, and spinach/lettuce on sourdough bread. I eat a bag of potato chips, and I'll have a protein & oats shake with milk. I might also have some trail mix to add into the meal.
• 3:30pm – Afternoon snack. I’ll typically drink a Muscle Milk and eat an apple. If I'm particularly hungry that day, I'll also add a bowl or cereal like Honey Nut Cheerios. 
• 6:30pm – Dinner. Same as Sunday.
• 7:45pm - Dessert/Protein shake. Same as Sunday.

Tuesday

Oh the dreaded low calorie, low carbohydrate day! Tuesday is a rest day for me. I do no exercise, and I try to limit my calories to about 1,200, and go as low as I can on carbs. Although I get to sleep in a little longer because I don't have to get up and hit the gym or be at Boot Camp early...I always have less energy on a low carb low calorie day. The trade off of burning lots of fat, and loading up more calories on the other days are worth it though.

• 12:00pm – Eat lunch. I will usually bring a large container of lettuce and spinach, and then pick up about 18 grilled nuggets at Chick-fil-a. I cut up the nuggets and then use a packet of Chick-fil-a sauce as my dressing. The meal fills me up, but is still low calorie, and the only meaningful carbs come from the Chick-fil-a sauce (about 6g carbs).
• 3:30pm – Muscle milk.
• 6:30pm – Dinner. Typically for dinner I'll do either a grilled chicken salad with a little bit of ranch dressing, or I'll have a large ham, egg and cheese omelet with salsa. Sometimes we'll have some other low carb options, but these two meals are my go-to meals for dinner.

Wednesday

Wednesday is very similar to Monday, except I workout with the Gray Camp in the morning from 5:30am to 6:30am. Afterwards, I lift weights from 6:30am until about 7:15am. After that, I pretty much follow the same BCAA protocol and eating regiment as I do on Mondays. I know...sounds boring right?

Thursday

Thursday is basically a carbon copy of Tuesday (low calorie/low carb) except I get up early to run Boot Camp. Thursdays seem to be even more difficult to adhere to the low calorie / low carb setup. Partly because I've been awake for longer, and partly because I'm expending at least some energy demonstrating Boot Camp exercises. Therefore, when it comes to dinner time, I really have to keep my mind right so that I don't totally blow the eating plan for the day...which has happened more than once :)

Friday

Friday is very similar to Wednesday, minus the Boot Camp workout because I'm leading it instead. Also, depending on how good of a workout I got in, I might add on an extra little 30 minute workout at lunchtime (12pm) If that is the case, I typically break my fast at about 12:45pm. Also, Friday night is usually date night for Leigh and I...whether we go out or just rent a movie. So...chances are I'm ordering pizza or something like that :)

Saturday

Saturday is my favorite day of all! I workout HEAVY legs on Saturdays. In the past I always avoided leg workouts, but I've learned to love them! They are the largest muscle group in your body, and therefore you burn the most calories, and have the potential to utilize more calories for positive growth after a leg workout. That is why I also eat more calories on a Saturday than any day of the week. Some people may consider what I do with my food on Saturday a cheat day...and that might be accurate. I eat pretty much whatever I want, and lots of it. My goal is to see if I can get up to 4,000 calories in. That doesn't happen much unless I have some seriously calorie dense foods - primarily only happens if I go out to eat for lunch and dinner.

• 10:00am – Begin workout
• 12:00pm – End workout. Immediately drink a Protein & Oats shake with milk.
• 12:15pm – Eat lunch. Often times me and some workout partners will go to IHop, or Mugshots, or somewhere to get a lot of high calorie food. The goal is to get as much carbs and protein in as possible. It is GLORIOUS!
• 3:00pm – Afternoon snack. As much as I can eat. If what I'm eating doesn't have much protein, I'll add in a muscle milk or protein shake.
• 6:30pm – Dinner. Could be anything from a nice lean piece of grilled chicken with some veggies and brown rice, to a double cheeseburger with bacon and fries.
• 7:45pm - Dessert/Protein shake.

Conclusion

So that is it...my workout and eating plan. I have to say that I have found a place of freedom in my diet where I can maintain the look that I want without obsessing over food. I used to do that...and it's not fun. Now, I get to eat basically what I want. That isn't to say I can get away with eating pizza and brownies 7 days a week...but if I want pizza and brownies on a Friday night...I do it, and I don't worry about getting fat. I still have to make good choices and I still have to trade off some uncomfortable low carb/calorie days. However, I am really enjoying where I'm at with my nutritional plan and I feel good about maintaining this strategy for quite a while.

Scripture for the day

I Corinthians 10:23 (NIV) “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive."

I was thinking about this verse in the context of our behavior as believers. Yes, there are certain things that that Bible does not directly specify as sin. In areas such as those, believers should use their conscience before God as led by the Holy Spirit within them. This may result in one believer being convicted about a behavior or action that another believer might not be convicted about. This is an area that we have freedom in Christ...in other words, not all believers will be in agreement and we can choose before God how we should behave. However, the verse above should cause us to carefully examine such a circumstance. While we have freedom in Christ...is our action/behavior beneficial or constructive? Do our actions point others to Christ? Enhance our testimony as an obedient believer? Or give God glory? Or do our actions damage our testimony? Result in hypocrisy? Or cause other believers to stumble?