My Fun-Filled EvoMuse Adventures

[MidwestBeast]

Okay, so I'm just posting during commercial of the Mad Men finale, but I wanted to get this up. I'll update this first post soon with more details, but this is going to be my log as I do what I do. I'll use products from companies other than EvoMuse, but there's gonna be a ton of EvoMuse stuff (particularly in the fat burning department).

Giddy on up.

(now back to Mad Men lol)



Edit: May 26

Okay, so the time is finally upon us! I'll start updating in new posts, but just wanted to get some general info tossed up here in Post #1 and I'll continue to edit this as needed (and will mark those edits so they're easy to see).

If you don't know me or much about me, you can look back through my threads over the years and see that I've had a pretty messed up / unique medical journey. Short version is at the very least I have a small microadenoma (pituitary tumor). Beyond that I've dealt with tertiary hypothyroidism, have Hashimoto's (autoimmune thyroid problems), have managed to gain weight while following the hCG diet and PR'ing on deadlifts during that same time lol, etc. I won't get into all of it, but suffice it to say, I'm not a standard joe when it comes to how things work. There are pros and cons to this.

Anyway, I recently cut down from 270 to 230 and am currently jumping between about 232-236 (as has been the case for more than the past month). My wife and I are going to California at the end of August to see some friends and that gives me about 3 months to shred up even more. So for at least the next 4 weeks, but more likely the next 8 weeks, I'll be running this log as a natty, OTC supplement run to hopefully tighten up and shred a bit more but at the very least, do damage control and not fall further away from where I've made it to.

I definitely suffer from body/muscle dysmorphia issues in addition to everything else mentioned and that can be hard to deal with at times. For example, just Sunday morning I woke up at 239.0 lbs. first thing in the morning (hadn't seen the scale that high in nearly 2 months). I spent 3 hours push-mowing our horrible mountain of a yard (seriously, it's miserable) and then went to church to host basketball for 2 hours. The next morning I stepped in at 233.2 lbs (and we even had friends into town and grilled out for dinner where I took in a pound of ground beef and a brat for dinner and still hadn't even gone to the bathroom yet that morning). Those weight fluctuations can be hard for me to mentally deal with, but I confront them and work through them.

SO! lol, without further ado, let's delve into things.

I'm planning on nearly the entire EvoMuse lineup in addition to some other goodies. I just started yesterday and still haven't gotten everything lined out yet. I'll spend some time tonight looking over my supplements and lay out a more detailed plan for what I'm doing. Currently the only changes I've made are going back to applying both my Abliderate and Eviscerate and starting back up on Epitome. But there will be more fun to be had, don't you worry!

I'll edit this post again tomorrow most likely and lay out the supplement plan and my nutritional intake as it comes along, too.

Edit: June 3

Training:

Monday: Chest
Tuesday: Back
Wednesday: Basketball
Thursday: Arms
Friday: Legs
Saturday: Delts/Traps
Sunday: Basketball

Week A: Max-OT training (e.g. 3-4 lifts per muscle group with 2-3 sets of 4-6 repetitions)
Week B: High Intensity training (e.g. 3-4 lifts per muscle group with 4 sets of 12-15 repetitions with no more than 60 seconds rest between anything)
Week C: High volume training (e.g. 3-4 lifts per muscle group with 3-4 sets of 25 repetitions or 6-7 sets of 15 repetitions)

Protocol: A/B/A/C/repeat

My heavy sessions are done every other week (twice a month) and then high intensity and high volume are each done once a month. The heavy sessions keep my strength up while the intensity/circuit training help with endurance and fat loss and the volume sessions focus on hypertrophy, along with stamina.


Supplementation:

Average day:

8:30 AM -- Epitome / 1g Raspberry Ketones / 137mcg levothyroxine / 500mg agmatine
9:00 AM -- BCAAs / begin sipping something with caffeine over the course of 2-3 hours (currently Alphamine, but also use Diablo, FXT, etc.)
12:30 PM -- Epitome
3:45 PM -- 1 scoop Pump Juice Extreme / 6g citrulline malate / MyoSynergy
4:15 PM -- 1 scoop Compete / 5g taurine (intra-workout)
5:45 PM -- 2-3 scoops Nectar (+ 50g dextrose all times except high intensity week)
6:30 PM -- apply Absolutely Abliderated / Eviscerate Smolder
7:30 PM -- Gut Health / Medivin / Green Coffee Bean Extract
10:30 PM -- STRAFE / 2 scoops Purple Psyko / 1g Raspberry Ketones / 200mg NaRALA / Garcinia Cambogia (5.5g HCA)


Pre-basketball:

1 hour out -- CardioTryx
15 minutes out -- Bronkaid / Pump Juice Extreme
during -- Compete + 5g taurine (usually 2 or 3 times mixed up and sipped during)

As needed for meals:

DEFUSE
Slintensity
NaRALA
Metformin (prescribed)


Added once I have them:

BRITE
Virile Mane
Vanillean
Abliderate AMMO
Lipomorph
Nerve Restore

*and obviously others as dsade releases them

 

[Geoforce]

Subbed!

 

[vujade]

oh yeeh.. let the shredding begin

 

[puccah8808]

Ooooh, I'm in!

 

[cubsfan815]

Subbed

 

[jgntyce]

Can't go wrong with Evomuse products! In!

 

[PharmAnalyst]

Should be interesting

 

[MidwestBeast]

Thanks for joining in, everyone.

I'll be periodically updating the first post (and I'll make notations and dates, so you can follow them more easily) as I lay things out a bit more. I'll get you a rundown of my training protocol, supplementation guide, etc.

But it's gonna get pretty crazy in here. A lot of the EvoMuse line are staple products for me as is (e.g. CardioTryx, Slintensity, etc.), so there is gonna be a LOT in the mix (but not all EvoMuse).

I should be ready to go all in around the start of next week.

Whenever the newest version of BRITE is available, I'll have it coming my way so I can have that be a part of this in addition to everything else.

In the meantime, I'm just wrapping up some other things and chilling around the 230-235 mark.

 

[love2liftkat]

In!!

 

[schizm]

:lurking:

:ntome:

 

[MidwestBeast]

Sunday, May 24 -- weight: 239.0 lbs.

Monday, May 25 -- weight: 233.2 lbs.

Day 1

Tuesday, May 26 -- weight: 236.8 lbs.

Hit my HIT chest session yesterday and have back on tap in just a few minutes when I leave the office. Wednesday will be basketball.

When I update the supplement layout in the OP, I'll also lay out my training schedule/split.

 

[MidwestBeast]

Day 2

Wednesday, May 27 -- weight: 235.6 lbs.

Got my HIT back session knocked out in 36 minutes (after warm-up/stretch time). So on my summer work hours, that put me home by like 5:30, which was awesome. My HVT week sessions usually last closer to 1.5 hours and when I got off an hour later, it would put me home at 7:30 a lot of times -- just didn't leave me feeling like I had much time to do anything else.

Anyway, as long as there are enough people, tonight will be basketball. The place we play Wednesdays doesn't have AC and it's supposed to be 87 here today, so it's gonna be rough. The surface temp of your skin gets to be miserable in there. Talk about drenched in sweat.

So far I still don't have my full supplementation set up for this. I'll be ordering/restocking a few things over the weekend and add those in as I get them. Right now it's pretty much just Epitome and then Abliderate and Eviscerate both applied post-shower in the evening; no real other adjustments yet.

Looking forward to adding BRITE and some other goodies into the mix soon.

 

[MidwestBeast]

Wow, played just about 2.5 hours of full court bball tonight (only sat one game following an L, so out about 15 minutes of that 2.5). No AC in there, but we lucked out that storms rolled in and we got the temp down into the high 60s instead. Still, was a sweatbox in there. I was drenched and even in a compression tank and climalite shorts, everything was super heavy lol.

Even with my protein in me after and chugging tons of water I was still 233.4 post shower once I got home.

I mixed up 1 scoop of Compete + 5g taurine twice, drank an extra full shaker of water and was still cramping up in my calves in the final game.

Dosed CardioTryx 1 hour out and took 1 Bronkaid cap + 1 scoop PJE + 6g cit mal about 25 minutes before playing.

Diet today was:

- 1 scoop AminoLinx at 9 AM
- 1 MetRX protein bar (32g pro/400 cal) at 1:30
- 2 scoops Select at 3:30
- 2 scoops Nectar at 8
- 2 chicken breasts + 4 slices reduced fat PJ cheese + some ranch (buffalo sauce was expired) all diced up in a bowl at 9:30

 

[MidwestBeast]

Terrible quality, but you can at least see some of the depth down the center of my abs. Worst area is still love handles/lower back on the sides.

 

[MidwestBeast]

Day 3

Thursday, May 28 -- Weight: 230.6 lbs.


Yep, 5 pound swing courtesy of depleting glycogen and just sweating like a mad man lol.

Back to my heavy week starting today. This afternoon will be arms.

 

[Geoforce]

Terrible quality, but you can at least see some of the depth down the center of my abs. Worst area is still love handles/lower back on the sides.

Oh man I don't know if you noticed this but your wife blacked out your face with a sharpie!

 

[MidwestBeast]

Oh man I don't know if you noticed this but your wife blacked out your face with a sharpie!

I was born this way...way to be a jerk!

 

[Geoforce]

I was born this way...way to be a jerk!

I thought maybe she thought it was an improvement

 

[love2liftkat]

Great work Midwest! Abs are looking great!!! I didn't know you had hashimotos! I have it as well among some other issues! Good to see you're pushing through and progressing as well as you are!

 

[dsade]

Slacking off....but here I am.

 

[MidwestBeast]

Great work Midwest! Abs are looking great!!! I didn't know you had hashimotos! I have it as well among some other issues! Good to see you're pushing through and progressing as well as you are!

Thanks so much, Kat!


And obviously glad to have you in here, Matt!

You, not so much, Geoforce ... lol

 

[MidwestBeast]

Day 4

Friday, May 29 -- Weight: 234.4 lbs.

Carbed up and got my glycogen stores filled back up, so no surprise to see the scale swing from a low cal/hardcore cardio day to a moderate cal/moderate carb/heavy lifting session day.

Didn't make much progress on arms, but kept everything where it was the previous time and made a slight increase on solo cable reverse curls with the rings on triceps. Most of my numbers are still holding pretty steady to what I was lifting when I was 270, so I can live with the lack of gains when I'm holding on nearly 40 pounds later. Still hoping to see some advances, though.

Heavy leg session will be on tap for this afternoon. Hoping it goes smoothly, as I've got this ridiculous boil on the inner part of my left hamstring. I got the same thing on my lower lat last year or the year before and it was a total pain. This thing is pretty gnarly right now, so hopefully I can push through it without causing any problems.

Total protein intake yesterday was well over 300g. I was at 174g, I believe, after my post shake and then for dinner I had 2 good sized chicken breasts diced up. One I put into a jalapeno tortilla wrap with a couple slices reduced fat PJ cheese and a little bit of ranch. The other I dumped into a thing of bbq shredded chicken I already had. So if conservatively each breast was half a pound, I took in 170g protein for that meal lol. It may have been more (I didn't weigh the chicken breasts, but they were part of a 5 pound rack that I put down over the course of about 3 days for my dinners).

 

[MidwestBeast]

Day 5

Saturday, May 30 -- Weight: 238.4 lbs.

Not sure about that 4 pound jump lol. Hit my heavy delts and traps session and was pretty pleased. Hung out around the same weight on most of my delt work, but added a few working sets at lower weights at the end just to hold out the contractions. Also generally do rear delt work on the cable machine and decided to do seated, bent-over rear delt DB lat raises instead. Worked from the 30's all the way up to either 65's or 70's before stopping. My 3 working sets on shrugs were 615x6, 620x6, and 625x6 -- a new PR for me. Worked down to 270x35, then 180x35 and 90x35 (with those last 2 being underhand grip). Got a really nice trap stretch going.

With my new eating window (1:30-9:30 instead of the 12-8 that I followed for a long time), this was actually my first fasted training session in years. Really happy with how well it went.

Day 6

Sunday, May 31 -- Weight: 237.4 lbs.

Same as the day before -- basketball is at 2, so this was done fasted for the first time in as long as I can remember. Dosed my CardioTryx at 1 PM, then downed a scoop of Anabolic Competition for my aminos around 1:10, and started working on a scoop of Pump Juice Extreme with my 1 cap of Bronkaid from 1:20-1:30 on the drive in. I sat 2 games over the course of 2.5-2.75 hours of getting to play. We play at the church and my friend who normally is in charge is letting his knee recover for about 6 weeks, so I've been running it. Normally, once we get 16 people, he switches it up to 2 half court games simultaneously. We started off playing full on inevitably ended up with 16. I asked for input, but made an executive decision to have the team that was sitting had 1 sub and then that way you were only sitting one game max. We ended up with 2 more showing up so we had 3 teams each with a sub. I think some people weren't that happy about it, but I think most enjoyed actually getting to run full court, because it's just so much different than half (and people usually bail early when we do that, which leaves us without enough to field even teams, too).

Anyway, got a good fasted sprint session in there and had a whey isolate shake for my first meal around 4:30. Went home and had a couple wraps with some chicken about 6 and then grilled up some burgers and brats for the wife and I. I ended up going to shower and clean up while she ate and then I ate my dinner around 8:30ish (two 1/4 pound burger patties and 3 brats with no buns -- 106g protein). Had 2 scoops select with some 1% milk for my final feeding to get protein to at least 250 (possibly a bit higher). I always try to go lower carb on my cardio only days.

Day 7

Monday, June 1 -- Weight: 236.8 lbs.

I usually see a bigger drop in weight following a basketball day like that, so I'm not sure what's going on. That said, I still look leaner and muscles feel super dense and full right now, so I'm not freaking out. I still want the scale to move down lol, but visually things are good. My muscles haven't felt this hard/full in a while, which is interesting post-basketball day.

Heavy chest session in store for this afternoon.

 

[MidwestBeast]

Day 8

Tuesday, June 2 -- Weight: 240.6 lbs.

So yeah, not sure what's going on with the weight lol. Definitely not taking in that many excess cals. Only thing I've been doing is trying my best to keep protein up closer to 300g as that's an area I'll struggle with (I legitimately just don't enjoy eating all that much, which is why the IF window system really helps me out).

Anyway, chest session went well. Working sets on bench press were only 275x6, 285x6, 290x6 followed by 225x12, 185x20, 135x25. Hammer Strength incline press was 270x6, 320x4, 290x6, and I can't remember without looking at my notebook what the 2 burnout sets looked like but I believe it was 140x20 and 90x30. Decline Hammer Strength was pretty similar to the former and I finished with the Free Motion seated cable fly machine, but I put a bosu ball against the seat to push my further forward to get more depth on the flys.

Had a really solid chest pump and stretch.

Today is heavy back session, so it'll be highlighted by deads and lat pulldowns.

Only thing I can really say is I don't seem to be seeing any fat spillage and muscles are still feeling very full and dense. That said, I don't think that accounts for that big of a swing in weight and it obviously isn't muscle gain in that amount of time. So I'll be keeping an eye on things. Really hoping that I don't climb over that 240 mark; don't have any desire to. Wednesday will be basketball and a good chance to bring me down a few pounds again, but hopefully today things will go down a bit, too.

 

[MidwestBeast]

Day 9

Wednesday, June 3 -- Weight: 241.8 lbs.

Again, no clue how my body has somehow decided to turn this into a bulk lol. Basketball tonight and low carbs today should hopefully flush that down and we'll see what's what. All I can say is I still have visible ab definition where I've had it and muscles still feel full and dense, so that part is good.

 

[love2liftkat]

My body did that too! When I first started cutting in January, I gained 8 lbs...I have lost 5 of that but that's it! So puzzling how our bodies respond!

 

[MidwestBeast]

Edited OP to include my training split and my typical supplementation regimen.

 

[MidwestBeast]

2288 cals today (53g fiber calculated in, so actually closer to 2076). 340g protein. Only carbs coming from quest bars.

Hit a quick heavy back session (405 for 3 working sets of deadlifts) and then 30 min later played almost 2 hours of ball.

And FYI, this is the first time I've cracked 240 since March 25.

 

[MidwestBeast]

FYI slammed about 2/3 a bottle of Portal and feeling very chill right now. Got home and saw the cat had thrown up and just didn't want to stress over that. Needless to say I'm not stressed over anything lol

 

[liftingamber12]

Very late...but here. I have a brain tumor that attaches to my pituitary. A lot of my hormone levels are affected by it. It's actually an optic glioma, but attaches to my pituitary as well. It messes with my temperature a lot (estrogen levels).

 

[dsade]

FYI slammed about 2/3 a bottle of Portal and feeling very chill right now. Got home and saw the cat had thrown up and just didn't want to stress over that. Needless to say I'm not stressed over anything lol

Don't drink the last 1/3 of the bottle...otherwise that kitty present might start looking like taco bell.

 

[MidwestBeast]

Very late...but here. I have a brain tumor that attaches to my pituitary. A lot of my hormone levels are affected by it. It's actually an optic glioma, but attaches to my pituitary as well. It messes with my temperature a lot (estrogen levels).

That really sucks -- I'm sorry you have to deal with it. I honestly don't know the full extent of what mine does. I just know it's there and it's been a part of the problems I listed out and there very well may be more. Doctors really didn't/couldn't do much about all of it and people don't seem to consider hormone imbalances and weight gain problematic. Unless I'm rolling around on the floor screaming, they don't care about it. Definitely sucks.

 

[MidwestBeast]

Don't drink the last 1/3 of the bottle...otherwise that kitty present might start looking like taco bell.

There was no way I was touching the last of that last night. I'd have rather drank Jack and I HATED it the one time I drank it lol. But yeah, I ended up feeling inhibited for about an hour, took a shower (I slammed it right after I got home from deadlifting and then playing basketball, so all I had in my system was whey isolate), came downstairs and ate my dinner (which was a pack of roast beef and some reduced fat pepper jack cheese slices (no carbs) lol. And the next thing I know my wife is waking me up when she gets home at 11:30 from work. Yowza.

 

[MidwestBeast]

Day 10

Thursday, June 4 -- Weight: 236.6 lbs.

So all of my work last night and the low cals and carbs squeezed that 5 pounds back out. We'll see what happens today.

Only hit 405x5 for 2 and 405x4 on my deadlifts (not too impressive at my weight) and then finished with some wide lat pulldowns on the Free Motion machine (love the stretch I get from it). Added a 10 to the stack and did 210x8 for 4, then 160x12 and 120x15 to finish.

Drank 40g isolate, changed, headed over to the church and took my CTryx about 20 min after the whey and 45 minutes before we started playing, and got in just under 2 hours straight of basketball. I was beat.

 

[dsade]

That's a lot of Basketball.

 

[MidwestBeast]

That's a lot of Basketball.

I get 2 hours in on Sundays and Wednesdays -- I love it.

Worst part (or best, depending on how you qualify things) is that with my size I'm a total in-between on the court. I'm pretty much right at 6', so there are tons of guys taller than me or guys who weigh about the same or more, but are significantly larger (wider/fatter). It's a toss-up whether I bang around underneath with them or on the perimeter with guards. Most guards are too small/quick, though I'm pretty quick for my size. So I rotate around a lot. But needless to say, dealing with a dude I'm giving up height and weight to underneath on the block is not fun post-deadlifting lol. I knew I was done when about 10 minutes before the last game was over my hamstring cramped up when I was going for a steal. Usually my calves may near the end, but the hammy did solely from the DL work and there wasn't going to be anymore left in me after that one.

 

[liftingamber12]

That really sucks -- I'm sorry you have to deal with it. I honestly don't know the full extent of what mine does. I just know it's there and it's been a part of the problems I listed out and there very well may be more. Doctors really didn't/couldn't do much about all of it and people don't seem to consider hormone imbalances and weight gain problematic. Unless I'm rolling around on the floor screaming, they don't care about it. Definitely sucks.

It's just a part of my life. I honestly don't know any different. I was diagnosed at 4.5, went through 18 months of chemo to shrink it (because it's inoperable), and it's been dormant ever since. It did some damage first though. I'm blind in my right eye & have the edocrine issues. Hormones play such a huge role in everything. Mood, energy, weight gain/loss, sleep, body temp...I deal with it all.

I'm sorry you have to deal with it too.

 

[MidwestBeast]

It's just a part of my life. I honestly don't know any different. I was diagnosed at 4.5, went through 18 months of chemo to shrink it (because it's inoperable), and it's been dormant ever since. It did some damage first though. I'm blind in my right eye & have the edocrine issues. Hormones play such a huge role in everything. Mood, energy, weight gain/loss, sleep, body temp...I deal with it all.

I'm sorry you have to deal with it too.

Wow. Hearing what you've experienced and had to deal with from it doesn't even put mine in the same ballpark. That's awful.

On my end I just take it day by day now and enjoy the good days/times when I have them and trudge through the bad times when they come up. Only thing you can do.

 

[love2liftkat]

Wow!! You both are inspiring!! Hate that you've had to experience that!

 

[liftingamber12]

Wow. Hearing what you've experienced and had to deal with from it doesn't even put mine in the same ballpark. That's awful.

On my end I just take it day by day now and enjoy the good days/times when I have them and trudge through the bad times when they come up. Only thing you can do.

I look at it as...it's made me stronger!! My main issue now is the strain on my left eye is taking it's toll....so my vision in that eye is declining.

That's all we can do! Relish in the good days, and push through the best we can on bad days!!

Do you see any specialists...Endocrinologist?

 

[dsade]

Man, I got this ingrown toenail right now....

 

[liftingamber12]

Man, I got this ingrown toenail right now....

Awwww...you poor thing!! I have some pliers...I'll handle that for you!!

 

[dsade]

Awwww...you poor thing!! I have some pliers...I'll handle that for you!!

If I'm good can I have some Cheddar Bunnies?

 

[MidwestBeast]

If I'm good can I have some Cheddar Bunnies?

I'm glad I'm subbed to her thread otherwise I'd be so confused right now lol.

 

[dsade]

I'm glad I'm subbed to her thread otherwise I'd be so confused right now lol.

it's all about the inside jokes.

 

[liftingamber12]

If I'm good can I have some Cheddar Bunnies?

Of course!!!

 

[MidwestBeast]

Day 11

Friday, June 5 -- Weight: 239.8 lbs.

Had an awesome high volume arm session yesterday. Numbers and or reps went up on everything and the pump was unreal. Even got some compliments.

High volume legs on tap for today.

Still hitting over 300g/day on protein. I don't know how the pros do it. I seriously hate eating this much LOL.

 

[liftingamber12]

I don't see how anyone eats that much. I struggle to get my bare minimum requirements & they are pretty low. When hubby is on a bulk cycle & eats 4500+ cals a day, I feel like I'm going to puke watching him eat all day long.

 

[puccah8808]

You look amazing.

 

[MidwestBeast]

I don't see how anyone eats that much. I struggle to get my bare minimum requirements & they are pretty low. When hubby is on a bulk cycle & eats 4500+ cals a day, I feel like I'm going to puke watching him eat all day long.

Yeah, only way I could clear 4k cals would be eating junk lol.

I'm trying to get 300+ grams protein while keeping total cals around 3k