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Fitness & Health

21st May 2014

JOE gets ripped in eight weeks: Week 3

JOE's resident videographer and Photoshop genius Peter Cooney wants to get ripped in eight weeks. With a lot of help from Raw Condition Gym, here's how his third week went...

JOE

JOE’s resident videographer and Photoshop genius Peter Cooney wants to get ripped in eight weeks. With a lot of help from Raw Condition Gym, here’s how his third week is going.

You can check out Week 1 here and Week 2 here.

The phone rings. I fear the worst. I answer with trepidation.

“What if my diet is about to change… for the worse?” I think to myself.

“What’s the craic?” I say. “I’ve good news and bad” comes the excited reply. I urge Adrian on, “go on”.

“Well, we have to stay on this diet for most of the next week… but we’re allowed have a cheat meal.”

At this, a huge smile enveloped my face. Well my mouth, but you get the idea. I imagine it’s like being granted parole or something like that, only not as extreme and probably nothing like that at all actually. Tears of joy were building up behind my peepers and my mind started leafing through takeaway menu after takeaway menu.

So, I got back from my parents’ house and settled myself onto the sofa. I turn to my fiancée and ask “what will we get?” She replies excitedly “pizza?”.

What was she thinking? The correct answer was Indian of course, I was merely being polite. So straight away I get onto Just Eat and click on New Maharajah, Clontarf Road. Click, click, click, the food was on its way.

I paced around the house for the next 40 minutes, excitement levels akin to ones felt by a Gunner on FA Cup Final day (last Saturday was very exciting, wasn’t it?).

I see a car pull up. I casually pretend not to be waiting at the door, which in my house is a ridiculous thing to be doing, as it’s a stained glass door and he could see me standing there, so I’m sure he was wondering as to why I waited for him to ring the bell.

I plated up the food and I must say a Lamb Jalfrezi had never tasted nicer. As much as I love Turkey and Broccoli, this Jalfrezi just pips it.

curry

As you can tell, the cheat meal was a pretty monumental moment in the last week for me, but the week beyond that went pretty well and I’m progressing along just nicely. My body seems to be taking to the diet and continuing the knock the lbs out of the weight loss ball park.

The biggest challenge was the Saturday afternoon. As it was the FA Cup Final, there was only one place to be, The Mercantile. It was probably one of the greatest atmospheres I have ever experienced in a pub, so not drinking was very tough, but I did it. I left The Mercantile a very happy Gunner indeed and continued to stay out for the evening. I felt like I lifted a cup of my own… not really, but it was nice not waking up in bits.

arsenal

The diet really has become routine now and I don’t really think twice about it, it’s just part of my day really. I prep everything the night before, pack it into lunchboxes and I’m set for the next day, so I can’t deviate from the plan.

The workout will be changed up towards the end of the week, but I’ve noticed my strength and endurance improving on the current programme. At the start I was struggling to complete all sets of the routine (as outlined last week), but now I’m pretty much able to complete them all, so it’s progressing on all fronts, which is great.

The next week should see some positive changes, I hope, and fresher pictures of myself shall be included. With a bit of luck I’ll be able to have a quantifiable breakdown of my progress as well as some new photos to see how I’m shaping up.

Also a major thanks to Courtneys for giving me a dig out with my meaty needs. When you’re eating nearly a kilo of meat a day, the cost begins to stack up and these guys have helped me out massively. You can check out all of their deals by clicking here.

So that’s me for this week, I’m now off the beast it to the max…

Peter (you can, and probably should, follow me on Twitter here).

LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge