The Blog of Ron Blouch

Category: Exercise

  • 50 Years of Fat and Fit via Carbohydrate Addiction and Restriction

  • 2018 Year End Diet Pictures

  • 2018 Diet Year in Stars

  • Resolutions 2019

    Starting today, January 1, 2019, I resolve the following:

    To do a series of 8 pulsed water only fasts over the course of the year. Three three day fasts, two five day fasts, two seven day fasts, one ten day fast.

    To follow the fasts with a two week period of high-density, high-nutrient re-feeds.

    To make every bite of food that passes my lips the result of a conscious choice about what to eat.

    To begin the year continuing to remain plant free while watching the results I get and modifying if necessary.

    To remain dairy free.

    To enjoy alcohol sparingly.

    To enjoy off-diet foods occasionally in situations in which they are warranted.

    To do one to five sets of daily jumpsquats, two to four weekly kettlebell and pullup workouts, and one heavy lifting in the session in the gym per week.

    January – 3 day fast
    February – 3 day fast
    March – 3 day fast
    April – 5 day fast
    June – 5 day fast
    August – 7 day fast
    October – 7 day fast
    December – 10 day fast

  • Diet Progress Report

  • Four Months of Ketogenic Eating Complete

    Phase one has ended. I’ve successfully gone four months fully ketogenic.

    I have lost 17 pounds on the scale but my body looks completely different. I suspect I’ve lost 25 pounds of fat and put on 5 pounds of muscle from doing nothing but jumpsquats, eating properly, and providing daily adequate protein to allow growth.

    I’ve never suffered as much on a diet program as I did on this regimen with the exception of the 100 pound weight loss experience in 2002. I don’t think there was a day from January 1 through mid-October of that year that I was not in real and often intense discomfort. This program was similar although the sources and nature of the suffering changed in phases from start to finish.

    I still believe the protocol is healing my body, not harming it, but I do not yet know that is true. I’m proceeding through uncertainty while watching carefully.

    Today I begin to return carbohydrate to my body for two months before going fully ketogenic again for four months on July 1st.

  • Jumpsquats Upgrade to 40 Per Set

    After a setback in February due to a slip on some ice I’ve finally moved from 35 to 40 jumpsquats per set. The additional five repetitions take my body deeply into its reserves, driving my pulse and breathing to the max in the 30 seconds after the set ends while creating significant post workout fatigue and soreness.

  • Jumpsquats Upgrade to 35 Per Set

    After four weeks of two sets of 30 jump squats per day I increase the number of repetitions per set to 35 on my way to 50.

  • Jump Squat Set Number One

    I have been doing jump squats on and off for three years. They have changed my entire body. They will be the core of my diet and exercise program for this year, with the goal to be doing between two and five sets of 50 consecutive jump squats per day, every day of the year.

  • New Year’s Resolution 2018

    Welcome to the blog.

    Starting today, January 1, 2018, I resolve the following:

    To spend the year alcohol, sugar, and dairy free.

    To eat on a 20/4 hour Intermittent Fasting/Feasting cycle.

    To do my 9th four month long experimental diet: a high fat, moderate protein, very low carb ketotic program. I will eat for ketosis from January 1 through April 30, then again from July 1 through October 31.

    To do between two and five single sets of high repetition explosive jump squats per day every day for the entire year.

  • Fat loss

    I have struggled with fat and body composition all my life.

    In 2002 I lost 100 pounds and kept most of it off for 12 years.

    I thought the struggles were over. I was fit, strong, and healthy.

    In 2014 I did an experimental bodybuilding diet (Tim Ferriss’ Slow Carb Diet) to see how lean I could make myself without losing muscle mass. The diet required one day of binge eating in every seven days. I binged on foods I had not eaten for 12 years. I got very lean and very strong. You can see the result of the diet on the far right in the image below:


    I also re-addicted myself to sugar and starches.

    While never re-gaining as much fat as I was wearing in 2002 I did balloon up to almost 230 pounds:

    Interestingly, knowing I was unable to stop eating sugar in the fall and winter of 2014/15, I used my overamped caloric intake to fuel muscle growth by doing sequential sets of high repetition heavy squats and deadlifts in the gym. I am carrying at least 25 pounds more muscle in that picture than in any of the previous images and I put it all on one very unpleasant squat, deadlift, and pullup at a time day after day after day.

    I have since removed 30 pounds of fat and currently look like this:


    It’s time to finish the fat cutting and return my body to proper leanness while preserving the muscular gains I made by lifting heavy in the gym.

    Fat loss is simple once you understand the process.

    It is not easy.

    I have never known anyone who lost substantial amounts of fat and kept it off permanently without real effort, often excruciating. I’ve been at this for 14 years and I’ve heard many claims that fat loss should be effortless if done properly. I have yet to meet a single person who took it off and kept it off for whom that was true.

    I will post my progress here on the blog.