One of the hardest things...

It seems to me that one of the hardest things in this game is consistency...

You MUST be consistent in your diet, in progression, every step of the way requires consistency.

For example, I had my diet going perfectly for a good year straight. I was making good lean gains, and I was under 10% body fat. My abs were showing up nicely and I was cut and vascular and loving it. Then, when my life took a turn for the worst, so did my diet. It wasn't that I started eating bad, I started eating less! It was hard for me to stomach thousands of clean calories a day, and some days I only had one thing to eat all day. I was a mess and I was crashing...HARD...

So then, in a vain attempt at catching up, I started a very crappy diet of lots of protein bars and lots of other crap that looks good, but should only be eaten here and there and not all the time. I would end up replacing a whole meal with 2 or 3 Muscle Tech protein bars.

To make a long story short, I had lost all of my energy that I had to work out with, my motivation was slipping, and I've put on some very unwanted fat around the midsection. It's not that much, but it really hurts the ego when the coveted "V" shape is all but gone from your body after you've worked so hard to attain it.

Once you find something that works, stick with it! And if you are serious, don't let little things get in the way and mess it up for you...