I've hit the wall.

First off, Sunday's meals:

4:45PM - 1/3 lb. 94/6 turkey, steamed broccoli and mushrooms in butter
7:00PM - 4 eggs + 1 chicken breast in coconut oil, steamed broccoli
9:15PM - 1/2 lb. 93/7 beef, raw spring mix + 1/2 an avocado

I had intended for this week to be a final heavy week before the first de-load, and I felt great warming up at the gym. I attempted 340 for my first set of squats, and to be completely honest I wasn't even close to getting it. Granted, we will all have strong days and weak days but I've been going extremely hard for 4 weeks and pushed it for 4-5 weeks before that. I also kept carbs at bay over the weekend, which definitely had some effect, but my gut feeling was, "this is no fluke." It's time to de-load now. Sometimes the most important thing is listening to your body, and mine finally told me to it was time to slow down. Since I was already at the gym, I wanted to give it one more go before the time off. After the miserable failure the workout looked like this:

• Low box squats
• 245 x 10
• 225 x 12
• 15-12-9-6-3 (minimize rest but untimed)
• GHD back extensions
• Deep leg press - machine + 3 plates each side
• Airdyne 60-50-40-30-20-10
• Forward pedals each leg
• Backward pedals each leg

Bummer.

I truly enjoy beating myself up at the gym, so it was frustrating to realize that I need some time off and I'm already excited to get after it again next week. With that said, I've never really taken time off "on purpose," i.e. pretty much every time I've been absent from the gym, I've also been a slob. I'm looking forward to treating my body properly - stretching, sleeping, and eating naturally. It's not going to be easy; I tend to eat shitty food out of boredom, which the gym helps with. But I'm ready for the challenge and I hope my performance coming away from this will reflect it.

Foodies from Monday:

7:00PM - 1/2lb. 99% FF turkey in coconut oil, steamed broccoli, 1/3 of a large can of pumpkin and 2 handfuls of frozen berries with some more coconut oil

8:30PM - 6 oz. grass-fed sirloin, raw spring mix, 3/4 of an avocado

10:00PM - 3 eggs + 5/4c. whites in olive oil, steamed Brussels sprouts and mixed greens

Grok would be proud of me.