Snohomie

As the name implies, I'm in the SnoCo area (Everett). Would love to get together for a meetup.

I remember reading this article a while back, and just stumbled upon it again while reading through Pocket (best app for traveling EVER). http://suppversity.blogspot.tw/2014/09/can-you-get-fat-in-three-days-study.html- suppversity can be a little dense, although this is nowhere near as jargon heavy as some articles. tl;dr - in lean individuals, 3 days of 1,500 cal surplus (any type of food) didn't mess with their fat levels one bit. Important disclaimers: lean individuals (important because their metabolism & insulin responses are not compromised), and the study was just 1 3-day span. I imagine if they measured 6 weekends of 1,500 calorie surpluses each day, we'd see a different result (conjecture). Still, it suggests that you may be able to go out with those friends every so often without even giving yourself a mild setback.

I work out alone too. My best bud used to come with me occasionally, but even though I love hanging with him, I enjoyed working out solo more. Admittedly, I'm an introvert who spends 50hrs a week working with people, so I need my "me time".

I don't like Coffee (I don't like warm liquids in general), and I make more money than I can spend, so I see no reason to change. Plus - I just looked it up, Jack3d costs ~.50$ a serving (1 scoop, which is all I ever take). A cup of coffee at work is .45$ if you're part of the "coffee club". So I wouldn't really save a whole lot anyways.

I definitely notice a dropoff in my workouts if I don't use a pre-workout supplement. My favorite is Jack3d, but honestly it is probably just the caffeine that keeps me going. Jack3d provides almost all of my caffeine on any given day, so if you're a coffee/tea/dew drinker it may not do as much for you... but I'm like the energizer bunny with that stuff.

Thanks Gainsdalf, I was hoping you'd chime in. Looks like great advice, can't wait to start. Only working out 3x a week is going to be tough. I really need a(nother) hobby. My friend was just e-mailing me about joining a volleyball team (I've never played - hilarity will ensue) so maybe I'll do that on 1 or 2 off days. Also, to the world, any suggestions for a weight belt/vest for pull ups? I can do 3x8 currently, so I'd like to order something before I get home (my gym doesn't have anything).

*sigh* I'm all too familiar with that. I had the same problem in the beginning of August. Quite possibly a rotator cuff injury. The rotator cuff has several "tendons" (probably a better term for them) that go to a bunch of different areas (chest, tricep, shoulder blades, etc), so pain with all sorts of movements could be related to the rotator cuff. Best thing to do would be to find a good Physical Therapist, if that's an option. Shoulders are awfully complicated. If that's not an option, I'll at least provide what I did. Still rebuilding strength, but overall it worked. My therapist had me doing the Sleeper Stretch (#5), as well as two others: http://www.knowyourback.org/Pages/BackPainPrevention/Exercise/StretchingFlexibility.aspx - did the Doorway Chest Stretch, but only with one arm. Hold for 30 seconds, 3x a "set", 5 sets a day. I don't know the name of the other, but basically put your injured arm behind your back like you're holding a boquet of flowers behind your back, and bend your head toward your opposite hip (so if right shoulder, look to your left hip pocket). Again, 30 seconds, 3x a set, 5 sets a day. Hope that helps... but really, find an expert who can test you in person.

Hey everyone, *This is getting long, so my thanks in advance for those brave enough to read it all . This is half diet, half programming, so I wasn't sure what forum to use. I feel a little better about my diet plan than my lifting program, though, so here it goes. ** Ok, I'm done, and this is ridiculously long. Thanks for reading it! I'm currently on vacation in Taipei, but when I return to the states in 10 days I'd like to start moving towards a bulk. I'm good at cutting weight (I just hate doing it and procrastinate, but once I start a cut I keep to whatever limits I give myself), but both bulks I tried ended poorly (overabundance of family xmas food + gym shutting down for renovations did not help me one bit on the first, the second was a paleo bulk where I didn't track nutrition and ate too much fat (nuts/coconut milk)). So, I need advice from those who have bulked successfully. 5'10 160lbs, ~15% body fat. Part 1 - the diet Pre-vacation, I was maintaing/slight deficit around 2200 calories as I rebuilt strength from an injury (actually, 2). I mostly recovered to my old #s, lower body completely, upper body still needs some work to completely regain. I'm an IIFYM follower who consumes a lot of protein. On the vacation, my protein intake is down but I think I'm in a calorie deficit due to working out 6x a week, 10mi a day walking, and overall calorie intake being down a little (I'm not taking medication I normally take, which has a side effect of increasing my appetite) from my best guess. I'm working to keep my protein intake at least above RDA, but that's all I can really be sure of without being able to read labels or even know the name of what I'm eating so I can Google the nutrition data. My current plan on the bulk is to re-start at 2200kcal a day, 130+g of protein (higher necessary? Often done 165+ but I've been reading stuff suggesting that isn't necessary). I don't usually count carbs/fats to keep my life simpler, but I know enough about what I eat to know that I'm not drastically short on fats or carbs. Each week, I want to increase the calories by ~100, mostly in the form of carbs. I'm not sure at what point I should stop increasing calories (or even if I should). I will have 0 problems eating enough calories on a weekly basis - I love food. I used to be overweight and so I tend to overreact to small fat gains (or water retention), which I will consciously be fighting against this time, but that means I'm hesitant just to trust the mirror. Thoughts/advice? Part 2 - the workouts I do the holy iron trinity, typically 1 per day (8x5 squats, 3x5 or 5x3 for DL depending on my mood, and currently 12x3 on the bench since I am still rebuilding the strength there), 2x a week. Sometimes I'll do bench/squats on the same day since sometimes I only go to the gym 5x a week and I use the same rack for both. I also like to do heavy rope work, shoulder press, pull ups, curls/chin ups, planks, body weight rows, calf raises, and tricep pull downs as auxiliary work (usually do each 2x a week). Currently I don't have a set plan for what exercises when, it's just whatever feels good/is available/have time for. I don't know if that's fine or if I should add discipline to my workouts. I have a lot of stretching I need to do, so its surprisingly hard to fit all the exercises I want to do into 1.5hrs even if I keep my breaks to 45 seconds. My workout schedule goes like this: Sat - Definitely a work out day, have unlimited time and access to all equipment. Sun - Same as Saturday. Monday - Able to work out, bench/squat racks are harder to use since my gym doesn't have enough for the afternoon crowd. Have a 7am meeting so I can't go before work. Don't have unlimited time, but at least 1.5hrs. Tuesday - Same as Monday, except DL platform is closed for part of the afternoon so it is 50/50 if I can do DLs (the yoga crowd complained about the noise during their class, which is right during my workout, so the platform is closed). Wednesday - Have 1.5hrs, but I have access to all the equipment since I come in before work. Thursday - Same as Tuesday. Friday - Same as Monday, but I have unlimited time. Currently I try to skip Friday/Monday to avoid overexertion and because I tend to work out harder on Sat/Sunday, but I can really work out any day. I'd like to have at least 1 day off, preferably 2, but really I like working out so that's not vital. I hate jogging/elliptical/cycling, but I like sprinting and rowing if I need to add some form of cardio... I'd definitely do sprints on off days but I am worried about overexertion since that is what landed me in physical therapy to begin with. Anyways, I need some advice on how to best structure this... should I increase my reps with lower weight? Make each workout day about a specific muscle group rather than the hodgepodge method I currently employ? I feel like I am currently just working out hard, not necessarily smart. Part 3 - Psyche I'm now consciously aware that my first instinct will be to go "OMG, I'm getting fat, time to cut!", so I am hoping awareness will help me avoid actually doing that. Last time I got into a cycle where I'd bulk for 2 weeks, cut for 1. I don't think that was productive. So I'm open to any/all suggestions on fighting that. When/how should I measure progress? Currently I do a weight/photo assessment every Saturday morning on 1 glass of water and no food. Whew, that's a tome. Thanks in advance for the suggestions!

I just re-hit my max deadlift after ~8mo without deadlifting (actually 5repped my previous 1rm, I suspect added flexibility is helping me here). I'm not sure what I did was the best way, but I'm pretty happy with the results. It took about 2mo, and I was very cautious and not deadlifting as much as I'd want for the first month (had schedule conflicts with softball, didn't want to tire myself out before those games). The most important thing to do is to make sure your mobility is where it needs to be. Specifically your back, since that's where you've felt pain, but also your hips/hamstrings since tightness there could cause back issues (tight hamstrings will pull on the back). I was going to PT since my insurance was covering it, but a doctor, gym trainer, or some self education could probably get the job done. Make sure your form is good as well, obviously. That you're still feeling some back pain makes me suspect that you're not ready yet, but I can't really make that determination from the internet (or, hell, in person. I didn't even stay at a Holiday Inn last night). Once you know you're ready to resume deadlifting, just go slowly. Even if your back is ready, the other muscles (core, hamstrings, etc) might need time to rebuild the strength they've lost during this downtime. I could've made faster progress, but I tweaked my inner thigh squatting... hamstrings/glutes felt fine, but I hadn't built up strength in the secondary muscles that are recruited in a full body exercise. So go slow, your strength will return very quickly so there is no need to risk injuring yourself because of too much weight.

The only downside to cutting back on the drinking (assuming you don't have an actual alcohol problem, which I'm not qualified to determine) is it can impact your social life. I do not care for being the only sober guy with a bunch of inebriated friends at a bar/bbq/party/boat, personally. I have the same schedule issue - it's ridiculously easy for me to cut on weekdays, but much harder on the weekends. I have two mitigation plans that almost solve the problem (alcohol has a few negative impacts beyond the calories that will hamper athletic performance, but if we're just talking about losing fat...). 1 - Lets say you're aiming for -3500kcal per week, or 500 per day. Do -800 per day on the weekdays and then you can go a little above maintenance on the weekend without hurting your progress significantly... but you'll have (or at least I do) "fat days" a couple days after due to water weight retention that clears up by midweek. 2 - Eat only very calorie-sparse foods (I like broccoli and chicken breast) on the weekends, which could probably give you 700 calories (verify that #... I love rum, but it's a jerk to dieters) to spend on booze. I will eat a LOT of broccoli on those days (~2lbs) to keep the hunger pangs away. Both work. Nothing wrong with just putting aside the booze, but I'm all about reaching my fitness goals with as little impact to my preferred lifestyle as possible.

I started working out on a regular basis (back then 3x a week) back in 2009. I didn't start watching my diet until May of 2013. My diet was so bad, even the Paleo fans here would call Waldo's diet healthy in comparison. I once had an bad allergic reaction to a Pad Phrik King dish at a Thai restaurant and blamed it on my body viewing vegetables as an allergen it had never encountered. Point is, even with that crap diet, I made big strides in my workouts and (at least in appearance, I wasn't measuring then) body comp. You could tell I went to the gym, and my stomach got flatter while muscles bulged appropriately. I went from looking overweight and sedentary to looking (and feeling!) fit... while viewing veggies as 4 letter word. So you can totally make progress without doing anything about your diet (and portion control is definitely doing something). Now, you'll go slowly - I maybe dropped 7-8% body fat in 3 years of working out with a "see food" diet - but you'll make progress. Baby steps is a good way to approach fitness anyways. Get good at the exercising, then, when you can control your diet, the fat will fly off and it won't feel like you're fighting a war on two fronts.

Wow. Broccoli is the one vegetable that I truly like, well, maybe a couple others there but it's a small list dominated by Broccoli (I avg about 1lb per day). My favorite is to roast broc (after salt/pepper/chili for me) at 425 for about 18 minutes. Pull it out, throw on a little parmesan cheese, some lemon juice, and put it back in for ~2 minutes to get the cheese melty and the texture of the broc how you want it. Voila. My mom swears by the same recipe, but get rid of the cheese and swap with a bit (small amount is all you need) of Thai Sweet Chili sauce. It's pretty good too.

"Win the Day" and "Make a mistake? Ok. Go out there and make a play" - both taken from Chip Kelly's Oregon squads. They're kind of intertwined. I study leaders as a hobby and Chip Kelly reminds myself of me, even though he's a serious East Coast grinder and I'm a carefree West Coaster. "Make a play" helps recover from mistakes. Workout not as good as you'd have liked? Ok, go and make a play by knocking out some pushups at home. Eat more than you meant to at work? Ok, go and make a play by having a light dinner. "Win the Day" is kind of the long-term extension of "make a play". Focus on breaking your goals into 24 hour chunks, and focus on meeting your 24-hour goals. Whether that be a certain # of calories, going to the gym, studying, whatever. Need to spend 3 hours studying and hit the gym? Ok, that's your criteria for winning the day. Do that, and then the rest of the day is "you time", to spend gaming or netflixing or whatever you'd like.

Obtaining the nutritional data in a usable format would be the difficult part. Otherwise, I think it'd be fairly easy to create. If you can find/make a table with the data you want (and it needs to be a format I can use), I could throw something together really quick that would do the trick. I too found MFP far more cumbersome than entering into an excel spreadsheet, at least for me (half my job revolves around using Excel). I set up a spreadsheet with weekly calorie and protein goals, and break down my calories by day on the side so I can decide whether or not to eat that cookie. I type in my own nutritional data (I don't track anything other than calories/protein, so I have most of my food memorized or a Google search away), but it wouldn't be difficult to have Excel return the results for a given food at a given amount... except for getting the data in the first place.

Ahh, NF ate my post! I'm in a rush now to the gym, so this is a little disorganized. I aimed for 150-165g of protein per day, I started at around 160lbs and (pre cut) was maintaining at about 2500 calories per day, after having spent several months slowly increasing my metabolism. My staple foods: .75lb Baked Chicken Breast - no added fats, sometimes marinated in Sriracha sauce (5cal per serving) or heavily spiced (my favorite is applying curry paste, loads of flavor and very low cal) = 400cal, 75g protein conservatively. Sometimes I'd just spice the hell out of it instead, no added calories. 3 servings of crunchy baked lentils, usually spiced with cinnamon, white pepper, cayenne pepper, and either garlic salt or bacon salt = 210cal, 24g protein, and an insane amount of fiber (lentil nutrition #s seem to vary from brand to brand more than they should, I'm just going off the stats of the bag I have now). On workout days, 2 NOW Protein shakes = 220cal, 50g protein. That'd put me close to my protein goal, for about 900 calories. The rest I just kind of played with, I might eat some apples or strawberries if I found a good sale. I also used turkey sausage (100cal, 15g protein per link) or Premier Protein Bars (290cal, 30g protein), especially if I wanted some protein before bed. If I had eaten a lot at work, dinner might just be some Broccoli. I ate low-fat ice cream, which wasn't my plan, but it turns out the "Slow Churned" ice cream that either Breyers or Dreyers makes is every bit as tasty as the full fat kind, but only 110-130 calories a serving in the flavors I like (mint cookie crunch and rocky road) vs 170. It really wasn't that hard, other than withdrawal symptoms from lack of Thai Curries (my weakness, but I couldn't fit it in very easily).