Today, you’ll perform 15 minutes of steady-state cardio upon waking. As I said yesterday, we’re really going to bump up the duration and intensity of cardio as this 12-week program progresses. My tip today is about the advantage of performing some form of exercise every day.

Of equal importance today, though, is that you take stock of your progress after your first 6 days on my 12-Week Lean Muscle Program. On the 7^th day of each week, you’ll perform a ritual that helps you stay on track with this program to ensure that you’re getting the most from it. I’ll go through these changing parameters each week, individualizing them as much as I can for each of you who are following this program.

YOUR WEEKLY CHECK-IN

Here’s your to-do list, and potential adjustments you should consider making based on your results:

* Weigh yourself upon rising. Remember that the goals is not to lose weight — although that will happen — but to use your current bodyweight as a metric for shifting your diet, adjusting your cardio, and/or changing up your supplements.

Take note of your shift in bodyweight, and record that in your journal. I don’t want you to make any adjustments at this point unless you’ve gained more than about 3 pounds or lost more than 5 pounds. I want you to follow my program for 2 full weeks before we do a more rigorous evaluation. However:

* If you have gained more than 3 pounds:

Are you following my calorie and macronutrient recommendations as precisely as you can? I recommend that you:

• Use a scale to weigh your foods
• Rely more on the calculator I included in my Nutrition Overview

* If you have lost more than 5 pounds:

This may be a good result for you, especially if you’re overweight and weigh more than about 170 pounds. Hold steady if that’s the case. We’ll re-evaluate next week. However, if you weigh less than 170 pounds and you’ve lost this much weight, then you may be cutting calories too low. I recommend that you:

• Use a scale to weigh your foods
• Rely more on the calculator I included in my Nutrition Overview
• Also consider that you’ve dropped water weight
• Bump up your protein intake by about 25-50g per day.

We’ll make a more detailed evaluation at the end of the second week, allowing your body to settle in to this new program.

* Take photos of yourself. I want you to take these photos in the exact same way that you did before you started this program. Here are my bullet points about taking these photos:

• Take them at the same time of day as you did before beginning this program
• Take them in the same place as you did before beginning this program
• Take them with the same lighting as you did before beginning this program
• Wear the same clothes as you did before beginning this program
• Use the same photographer (even if that’s you)
• Pose in the same way as you did before beginning this program

* Make sure your journal is up to date. This one should be easy enough because it was my video tip from yesterday. Make sure you’ve recorded all of the foods and supps you’ve taken in. Also make sure that every workout is up to date, including yesterday’s active rest cardio.

You can also record your thoughts about how the program is progressing. This journal will not only be a valuable record throughout this 12-week program, but you’ll often turn to it when you follow another similar program. You’ll begin to see patterns of what foods, supplements, and training strategies are working best for you.

Remember that every person responds differently to various protocols that I recommend. I gave Kai and Danielle very different recommendations even though they were following the same program. It’s up to you to recognize what is working well for you and what is not. Your journal is one of the biggest keys to determining this.

* Follow up on accountability. Establish contact with others on social media if you have not done this already. Reach out to me on Instagram at krisgethin and let me know how you feel after your first week on my 12-Week Lean Muscle Program.

GETHIN TIPS TO YOUR ADVANTAGE: Perform cardio on your active rest days.

While it’s still very early in this program, and you may think you’ve earned a day off, my tip today is about the advantage that performing cardio every day provides.