The Velocity Diet – Week Two

We’re now two-and-a-half days into Week Three of the Velocity Diet, so I suppose I should post my update about Week Two. I’m not going to lie to you: Week Two was pretty rough. The workouts get much more gruesome and the desire to consume something other than protein shakes becomes brutal. But the change in my physique is tough to ignore. By the end of Week Two I had dropped below 190 lbs for the first time in years. (On Friday the scale read 189.2 lbs fully-clothed.)

The change in my physique is tough to ignore.

By the middle of Week Two there was a very clear decrease in the size of my “love handles” and the top half of my abs were starting to show. Almost all of the fat on my arms and legs had disappeared and the chubby neck — inherited from my father; thanks, dad! — had gotten noticeably less chubby.

vdietI’d say that the two most difficult things — aside, of course, from the constant consumption of protein shakes — were remembering to do the twice-daily NEPA and the change in the workout. The NEPA (non-exercise physical activity) isn’t hard because just walking for twenty minutes counts; it’s more that it’s a pain in the ass to remember to do it twice each day. I almost always get one long walk to Starbucks or to the bank during office hours, but then forcing myself to walk the dogs at night too is rough. By the end of the day I just don’t feel like dealing with it. I want to say, “F*$% it,” and sit on my butt and watch TV or read a book or just go to sleep. But I’m pretty sure that I did manage to NEPA twice at least four out of seven days in Week Two. And I played golf twice, so that’s gotta count for something.

The workouts became demonic. We didn’t change the weights much, but we had to switch from 30 and 45 seconds of rest during the sets to just 25 and 30 seconds. When you’re doing squats with 275 lbs, and you have to do 20 of them in one set, 25 seconds of rest feels like it’s not even enough time to blink. And the guy that designed the workouts — Chad Waterbury — is sadistic. Each session begins with an intense lower-body exercise. Monday’s routine starts with squats; Tuesday’s routine starts with step-ups; Friday’s routine starts with deadlifts. All three of those just torch your heart and lungs, so you’re doing the rest of the routines starved for oxygen and blood, making them exponentially more difficult.

Sunday’s VBurn was torture.

And Sunday’s VBurn was torture. It was epic. We managed to do the seven sets of ten reps of eight exercises in about ten minutes less than it took us in Week One. Progress is good, but again I was on the verge of vomiting halfway through the routine. Between each set I was pouring ice water on my head to lower my core body temp and just dying. At the end I decided that the VBurn is worse than running stadium bleachers. If you’ve ever done that — and I mean hard-core done that — you know that is saying something.

For my healthy solid meal (HSM) on Saturday I returned to Ruth’s Chris for another brontosaurus-sized bone-in New York steak. I also had two salads and close to my weight in broccoli and spinach.

And now I’m already dreaming of my third HSM.

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