In one of our most recent articles we gave you a simple guide to becoming a food prep Ninja. This week we’d like to introduce you to Denzil, one of our hugely successful Fat Loss Mastery Athletes. Denzil is pretty typical of the kind of people who work with us, extremely busy and often time poor, yet still managing to consistently nail both diet and training by adopting proven Propane principles. Denzil has incorporated meal prep and a little careful planning in order to successfully juggle a demanding career, run a marathon and compete in multiple Powerlifting meets. Oh, and chalk up PB after PB while getting lean in the process.
Take it away Denzil…
A Year with Propane Fitness
I’ve been working with Propane Fitness for over a year now. I started on my coaching journey with them last February and I’ve never looked back.
Having recently competed in my third Powerlifting competition, I’ve been reflecting on my achievements with the aim of setting myself some goals for the next few years. I thought writing an article would help me with this process and hopefully anyone who’s thinking about coaching with them or has already, will also find this useful.
I was a trainee working in Cardiff when I started with Propane – not your usual “wannabe powerlifter” job I’ll admit. The people in my office considered my extra-curricular activities to be eccentric to say the least!
Anyone who knows me will also tell you that I love food, in large quantities. VERY large quantities. In some circles, I’m known as “5 plate Denz”. So, trying to get shredded has always been particularly challenging for me!
Here are 3 lessons that I’ve learned this year alongside three recipes that I’ve enjoyed regularly along the way. I hope you find it informative, helpful and delicious!
Lesson 1 – have a plan and have a good breakfast
I also wanted to do my first powerlifting competition……seemingly contradictory goals
This required a plan, both for my training and my diet. I couldn’t be heavy and run a marathon, I couldn’t be weak and do a powerlifting competition. I had to get lean and strong.
Deadlift, my brother and I after our marathon, my girlfriend & I having some lifting fun, skwaaaaats!!
A key part of successfully dealing with the necessary huge volume of training is consuming the right food throughout the day to recover, repair and provide me with adequate fuel & energy. To this end I usually start the day with an omelette – see the end of the article for my 15-minute recipe!
I’ll admit, most people (myself included) would rather spend an extra 15 minutes in bed than get up to cook the omelette, so that’s where the food plan and prep comes in.
My number one piece of advice is plan out your meals, in bulk, in advance (and buy a LOT of storage containers). On a Sunday, I do my “macro cooking” making everything I’m going to eat for the working week. It only takes about 2 hours, you can do it with friends, your children, your partner or with a podcast (my choice? – The Propane Fitness Podcast) the rest of the week is then worry free.
Lesson 2 – Don’t panic if you deviate from the plan
Nobody is perfect and nobody is a robot. I would have gone bat s**t crazy if I hadn’t deviated from my plan at some point. I lost about 11.5kg over the first year with the Propane guys: I was 84.5kg on my first weigh-in and 73kg when I competed in my second powerlifting competition in December (71.5kg for my third in April this year). So that’s on average 1kg a month for the first year and a bit less after that. Some months I lost far more than that, other weeks/months, because of holidays, work or parties I didn’t.
sometimes it’s okay to deviate from the plan!
Long term, my weight was going down and I was heading towards my goal. I had to keep reminding myself this is a marathon (literally and figuratively) not a sprint. This isn’t a fad diet. I’m carving out a new lifestyle for myself, which I will be able to maintain indefinitely.
If I got invited out for drinks I’d go. If someone brought a birthday cake into the office I’d have a slice. If my girlfriend said “You’re not looking at the back of that food packet, we’re having fun tonight!” I’d say ok (most of the time!) because the vast majority of the time I was progressing.
I’d rather people marvel at how I (apparently) do everything they do and still looks great, rather than be that office guy on some crazy diet.
It took time to get into that mindset. Initially I’d “punish” myself for having fun by doing an extreme fast or doing extra intense cardio. But I learned the hard way this only led to fatigue and injury. A one-off slice of cake or a holiday can be undone, blips smoothed out over time by consistency.
I use lots of vegetables not only to get my vitamins and minerals, but also to bulk out my food. Volume is key to Satiety. This doesn’t mean bland veg, you can be inventive. See my easy to make lunch/snack recipe at the end of the article. It’s one I rely on a lot, it tastes great and is perfect for an office environment. I’ll call it simply my Kale and Goats’ Cheese soup.
Lesson 3 – Enjoy yourself!
If you’re going to make long term sustainable changes you really have to enjoy it. If you aren’t enjoying the process you’ll never stick with it.
Obviously, there are times when all you want is to grab a piece of chocolate cake, and you have to say no. There will be days when you don’t want to train. For me it was driving home in the dark and pouring rain, thinking I have to run 15 miles in this tonight, but I’d rather just Netflix and chill. Those are the days when you just put on some motivational music and dig in.
Ultimately though, most of the time you have to enjoy the process. If running isn’t your thing, do some other cardio, be it walking up a mountain, cycling through the park, rowing…just find something! If you don’t enjoy lifting weights, nobody is forcing you to do strength training (though why wouldn’t you enjoy lifting heavy stuff?!?) Find what you enjoy and it will sustain you through the tough times.
The final recipe at the end of this article is there for a bit of an indulgence, but one I regularly managed to fit into my days as away of keeping my motivation high. This is puff pastry pizza that I usually cook with my girlfriend. It’s a hit with family and friends and I love serving them up so people can tell me this can’t be on a “diet”. My response? If it fits your macros!
Results
If you’ve got this far into the article you may be wondering whether my love of food got in the way of my journey, or whether I hit my goals. I’ve put an unflattering progress pic below, showing where I was
My lifts actually increased throughout the year as well.
In particular, my squat has increased from 140kg to 160kg.
At my first comp in the summer, I had a total of 400kg, weighing in at 78kg (It was a week after Glastonbury).
By the second comp in December I’d got into the 74kg category with a 410kg total – a lower weight category with a higher total. For my third I stayed in the same category and hit a 442.5kg total
I also managed to finish the Brighton Marathon. Although powerlifting is the sport I enjoy the most, running the marathon is by far the thing I am most proud of. I would honestly recommend that everyone enter one. The feeling you get crossing the line is indescribable, to have thousands of people screaming at you while you are both ecstatically happy and in so much pain!! It’s simultaneously the very best and the very worst I have ever felt -not to be too clichéd, I learned so much about myself and what I can do. I’ve now entered a second marathon for April 2018 and my 3-year plan is to complete an Iron Man (2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bile, 26.2mile run in 17 hours)
I hope that my ramblings here have shown you don’t have to be too inventive to make some pretty delicious food that can still fit into a flexible diet. I also hope that I’ve shown that that you can combine weight training AND cardio!
Yes, I could have done this quicker, but this was due to my own inconsistencies, some months, particularly October/November I lost far more weight. During the summer, I enjoyed spending time in the sun with my girlfriend and put on weight again. What I have learned is that slipping up isn’t permanent. People didn’t enjoy being around me when I stressed about hitting my targets, and I myself stopped enjoying the process. Other people still thought I looked good even if I wasn’t where I wanted to be.
When I needed to I got serious again, I did. Knowing when to worry about it and when to let it go is important for your sanity as much as anything. An article that Jonny wrote a while ago summed it up: could I have made progress faster? Definitely. Would I have enjoyed myself as much? Definitely not!
my brother & I after the Brighton Marathon
Recipes!
Breakfast – High Protein Omelette
- Take a good non-stick frying pan with a couple of squirts of 1 calorie spray. Chop up 3 or 4 cherry tomatoes, a spring onion, a couple of cloves of garlic and a handful of mushrooms. Add these to the pan
- While they’re simmering away whisk 100g of cottage cheese together with 3 eggs and handful of spinach. Add a pinch of salt, pepper and a sprinkling of chives for a bit of flavour (I also like to add chillies).
- Once the veg becomes soft and juicy pour it into the eggs and mix together. Pour the mixture into the frying pan and keep on a medium heat for 3 or 4 minutes, you should see the edges firming up and the top of the mixture bubbling
- At this point place, it under the grill at a medium heat for another 3 or 4 minutes until the top has cooked through to the middle. Et Voila! A delicious, filling and nutritious breakfast to set you up for the day
Total prep time:
Lunch/Snack – Kale and Goats Cheese Soup
I divide the soup in half and split it over 2 days.
Macros
Half of the batch is 290 calories, 18g of protein, 48 grams of carbs and 6 grams of fat.
This half batch should get you 3 bowls, that’s right, 3!! So that’s a morning snack at about 11, my lunch and then an afternoon snack.
- Dice up an onion with some garlic and fry them in pan using the 1 calorie spray. Blend a tin of diced tomatoes and add these to the onions once they are brown and soft. Melt into this mix 250g of feta cheese,250g of goats’ cheese and a couple of handfuls of spinach. Add herbs de Provence, salt and pepper for seasoning.
- While all of that deliciousness is bubbling away dice 500g of lean beef or chicken and fry it until thoroughly cooked in a separate pan.
- Spread out a roll of puff pastry (1 pack is around 270g) on a baking try, pour over the tomato and feta sauce. Then put the chicken on top. Put it in the oven, gas mark 6, (around 200 degrees) for about 40 minutes until the pastry has puffed up around the edges and cooked.
Macros
A quarter of this pizza should work out at 822 calories, with 67g of protein, 42g of carbs and 41 grams of fat. I have it with a large salad, crispy lettuce, cucumber, olives, cherry tomatoes, lemon juice and balsamic vinegar.
Final piece of advice, put salad with EVERYTHING, it fills the plate up and psychologically that’s a good thing!!