Mundungu

Hey NF! So like most people I've stopped and started my fitness journey a bunch of times, but I've made a lot of great progress in 2014 that I'm trying to stick with. I started at 6'4'' and 140lb, In September I was up to 170lb, now I'm sliding back down to around 165. I've been hitting the gym lifting heavy 2-3 days per week, but my biggest obstacle has been in getting enough calories into my day. I suffer from anxiety and the first thing that happens under stress is that my appetite disappears and eating becomes a terrible chore. Here's my typical day: breakfast 9:30am - homemade bacon egg & cheese on an english muffin mid-morning snack 11am - 1/2 muscle milk gainer shake lunch 1:00 - rice & beans w/ ground beef & tortilla chips Afternoon snack 3:00 second half of the morning shake ride home from work 5:30 - Granola w/ almonds Dinner 8:00 various chicken/beef/fish & sides 500-700 calories Evening snack: muscle milk gainer shake Total calories: 2,500-3,000 depending on how much of my lunch/dinner I eat. With that, I'm still losing weight, but with some recent stress I just don't have the appetite to fit in any more. Anyone have any tips for increasing the appetite? especially when tired (I have a toddler who doesn't sleep at night) or stressed (my job as a lot of deadlines and client emergencies) Any thoughts/similar experiences helpful. Thanks!

I have a similar issue with mixed success/failure so I understand the frustration. I was 6'4'' and 140 before I started (super underweight). I have moderate emetophobia, which is a terrible fear of vomiting. Feeling full is enough to send me into a panic attack. Since January of this year, I got a script for Xanax to help me manage the symptoms and I've started weight training. The exercise has helped me build up an appetite and the meds have helped me keep the anxiety in check, but it's a struggle every day to get in my calories and many days I fail. Now I'm up to a respectable 170lb, and I've been trying to depend less on the medication, but it's definitely hard to keep going. If it is truly anxiety, I've found the medication helped me get started, but it was the workouts that ultimately helped me build up the appetite. I see it's been a little while since you originally posted so I hope you've been able to make some progress by now.

So happy I decided to go to a PT. I have a great workout and stretching routine that we are working on to strengthen my upper back so I don't end up hurt again with the goal of transitioning me over to not needing PT in a few weeks. It's lower weight and higher reps than I was originally doing and a lot of machines instead of body weight, but 2 sessions in and I feel good. I think I will still be way off track from my original goals, but I'm making the progress I wanted to strengthen my body to keep up with my new son. Thanks for checking in. Man the NF community is awesome.

Thanks Iggy! Despite all my good intentions, this challenge is turning up to be a bust so far. I've had a terrible hacking cough for the past week and a half that's kept me up al night in addition to the baby and the pain in my back and neck has been getting worse, so I'm actually scheduled to see a physical therapist on friday to see what we can do. In the state I'm in I also had to step down from the 5k this weekend. I'm still going to cheer on my coworkers and my brother who is expecting to run a great race though. It's odd because I always used to be such a great recover/healer with being sick or getting injured. I would just take a power-sleep for 10-12 hours and be excellent the next day. Now with my son I'm thankful for a solid 4-5 hours and it's really taking its toll on my body. That and picking him up and putting him down is just very rough on my shoulders, neck and back, and they don't have any time to rest. I'm not out for the season, but I am "on hold" until I see what the PT says tomorrow. Hopefuly they can give me some exercises to strengthen my back and neck safely so I can continue on my journey! Thanks for checking in, I appreciate it! -Ben

Holy backslide batman! Feeling crummy really knocked out my appetite and took away a lot of my hard earned gains over this week. Back down to 144 I'm also way off pace for my 5k in 2 weeks. No exercise tonight, just gong to pound some NyQuil and sleep it off, if not it's on to the doctors tomorrow morning!

More overnights with the baby and I think we are all getting our asses kicked by the seasons change here on the island. Temps went from 75 to 45 in a day, always throws off my internal regulators. even though I was feeling crummy yesterday I did knock out 4 sets of push ups, so it wasn't a total waste, but u wasn't able to keep my calories up and I'm afraid I may have backtracked by a few pounds. Priority number one: get back to feeling awesome.

I took the overnight shifts for the baby last night, so I'm a little sad to say that I skipped out on any hardcore exercise today, but I did however make a strong effort to increase my caloric intake today. With my terrible schedule I'm usually lucky if I get in 2000-2500 calories in for a day, but today I went out of my way to make sure I was always eating a lot and I got in about 3000 quality (not just crap food) calories. The scale is in my bathroom, so whenever I go in I step on just to see. I've noticed my weight can fluctuate about 3-4lb over the course of the day, but today was the first time in my entire life that the scale read over 150 (I hit 150.2) I've come back down since then to 149.8 but it was nice ot finally hit that milestone. With all the bodyweight exercises I can see a difference in my shoulders and upper back, and I'm definitely feeling better overall. Glad to ahve a 3 day weekend so hopefully I can get in some running tomorrow. Thanks for the support, gnite NF!

BAM! 3 sets of the beginner bodyweight circuit. I had to modify the push-ups on the last set, but still, BAM!

Thanks tank! Feeling much more positive today, in the words of the barnacle: "once I was sad. But then you know what happened? I stopped being sad and started being awesome instead. True story"

So I did the rest thing again today, feeling much better but I know my neck isn't 100%, maybe tomorrow but I don't want to push it. I did, however, get some crappy news that my wife's job she was supposed to return to from maternity in a few weeks got downsized out, so now she's officially unemployed and has to start all over. I pull in a decent living, but without her working and with having to pick up health insurance through my employer now i puts us in the hole about 1k/mo if we're good, worse if we're not. Old me would have just lost his mind, but the last time she got laid off we took a much bigger cut (she used ot be a high school teacher making the big bucks and had that awesome health insurance) and I learned a thing or two about cutting the household budget. I know we'll figure it out, I'm just worried because it's hard enough staying motivated when you're unemployed, but now that we have the baby I can't see how she'll have the time and energy to hit the pavement and find something that pays halfway decent and has the flexible hours this job had (teleconference operator) Now I get the whole running thing. If I didn't have to watch the little man this evening to give her a night off, I feel like I could have just ran and ran and ran. With this new obstacle I'm really trying hard to stick to my 6 week goals. I know reaching those goals will help me feel good and give me the energy to kick ass at my job. At the end of the day it is easier for me to make that extra 1k/mo at my job than it is for her to find a job that will pay her as much. So NF friends, don't let me slack! If you don't notice any updates on this thread from me for a day or two, message me and kick my ass, I need it. Much love, Gnite NF

Went back to the Chiro today and he said more rest is in order. also busted my chops for not resting longer last time, so it looks like my uppers will have to wait the week. hopefully I'm up for some running or jump rope tomorrow, we'll see. Today was a no-exercise day

Nice planning Iggy. I look forward to seeing your time posted!

Wow, I'm not at the point of needing surgery by any stretch. But my back is weak and I really feel it f I skip a week at the chiro. Just finished a modified bodyweight workout, 3 sets but I skipped the planks and rows to avoid aggravating my neck. I didn't end up working out yesterday and lost a lot of sleep last night won the baby so I made getting a quick exercise in and getting to bed early a priority tonight (yes this is early compared to my past month ) Thanks for all the support, gnite NF!

I definitely recommend finding a good CPA (I happen to be one in NY and I do a lot of work with creative professionals) but at the same time you shouldn't look to make things more complicated than they need to be. If your parents are running an existing business of the same type, start by talking to their accountant for advice on that side of things. As far as how to get the business off the ground, here in NY weddings are your bread and butter. Make friends with photographers and catering hall managers. I don't mean just call and ask them for business, I mean literally make friends with them. Learn from photographers on building shots and capturing moments, learn from catering halls on how weddings move through their facilities. Taking care of them is the best way to get recommended to their clients. I would also second everything James said above, read read read. It's a great way to learn. Good luck and if you have any questions i might be able to help with, feel free to message me. Best, Ben

As a CPA I completely share your disdain for Intuit and their legendary support services. That being said i you are looking for something that isn't cloud based or at least cloud connected, Quickboks or Quicken are the best options I could recommend based on experience. I know there are tons of other programs out there, but if you are looking to exclude web based programs you'll be missing out on more updated/clean programs, few companies are still putting a lot of effort on non-web software. Right now I'm looking into Wave Accounting as a web based solution and it seems pretty cool. Also every version of QB for mac I've used I've hated. If you really want to commit to a desktop program you might just want to run it on a windows partition on your mac. Best of luck!