Gnomicus

Dude, it looks like you're doing awesome so far. Keep up the good work! Your goals and progress so far have inspired me. Thanks!

Sounds like you're doing great so far. After seeing your challenge to write 1500 words a day, my challenge to write 2 blog posts a week seems like weak-sauce. On the flip side though, you inspire me to keep at it. Then again, that's the difference between starting adventures and Wizards like yourself. Keep up the good work.

So far, it's a moderate start. I got on lifting 135lbs in squats sooner than I thought as I pulled that off for my 3x5 set on Friday. I still have to to a 5x5 with them, but I still felt really awesome. On trying to put together a paleo meal, I didn't get that done yet this week. It's hard to do that when I'm not really in charge of meals (my wife is an awesome cook), and when she's just had a new baby (friends have been bringing us meals). There are still some off days, and I probably just need to find some good recipes, let my wife know about my challenge and give them to her. Also, my inbox on my desk is still full. Sometime this week, I will hopefully be able to sit in front of my desk at home and work on that rather than only having the brain-power to veg (it was ridiculously busy weekend).

Regardless, this post is full of some of the best advice I've found in these boards so far. So, thanks Spammer Guy!

I wrapped up one challenge, let's go for two! Currently I'm sitting at around 155lbs and looking to continue to build it up. Last challenge I put on 10 lbs, but some was in my waist rather than my shoulders/arms/chest. I'm hoping to concentrate on a healthier bulk-up to see if I can keep moving that weight into the muscle area and not the gut. Diet -Continue to consume 3000-3500 calories a day per the Bulk Up section of the Rebel Strength Guide. -Consume healthier calories - attempt at least two paleo type meals per week to help move more toward a healthier bulk-up -Find a good shake recipe for high calorie snacks and test it out. Adjust as necessary. Fitness (Continuing the Rebel Strength Guide) -Squat and Deadlift at least 135lbs. On my set that would be a 45lb weight on each side of the bar. I've never lifted any sort of weights with a 45 on each side. -Push Press at least 95lbs. That would be a 25lb weight on each side. -Do at least 2 sets of 5 reps of pull-ups unassisted. Life -Empty the inbox on my desk at least 2 times a week. I've read Getting Things Done by David Allen and love it, but one thing I've been terrible about is actually keeping up with my inbox. I want to develop that habit, if not daily at least regularly in my life. I'm still doing the Rebel Strength Guide, following the Bulk-Up plan and I plan on doing the Barbell Battalion Rank 1A again this time through.

I wrapped up one, let's go for two! Diet -Continue to consume 3000-3500 calories a day per the Bulk Up section of the Rebel Strength Guide. -Consume healthier calories - attempt at least two paleo type meals per week to help move more toward a healthier bulk-up -Find a good shake recipe for high calorie snacks and test it out. Adjust as necessary. Fitness (Continuing the Rebel Strength Guide) -Squat and Deadlift at least 135lbs. On my set that would be a 45lb weight on each side of the bar. I've never lifted any sort of weights with a 45 on each side. -Push Press at least 95lbs. That would be a 25lb weight on each side. -Do at least 2 sets of 5 reps of pull-ups unassisted. Life -Empty the inbox on my desk at least 2 times a week. I've read Getting Things Done by David Allen and love it, but one thing I've been terrible about is actually keeping up with my inbox. I want to develop that habit, if not daily at least regularly in my life. I'm still doing the Rebel Strength Guide, following the Bulk-Up plan and I plan on doing the Barbell Battalion Rank 1A again this time through. Edit: I forgot to mention that if there're squads, I'd love to be on one as well.

All right, it's time for the wrap-up, which I'll also cover in the main wrap-up thread. Here's a recap of my goals and grade. Overall, I'll give myself a B. Brief overview of goals: 1) Follow the BB portion of the Rebel Strength Guide 3 days a week - A Mission accomplished. I had one day where I had to cut the number of sets short due to having woken up late, but other than that, I was doing workouts 3 days a week. 2) Track my diet using Dailyburn to make sure my calorie intake is high enough (I'm going the Bulk Up route) - B I was relatively decent at this. The hardest part were the days where I was busy and didn't take the time to log in and record my food. One or two days I went to catch up the next morning only to find I'd been short on calories the day before. I have to make sure I make regular time to do this in the future, especially so I don't reach the end of the day and realize I need another 500 calories. 3) Gain at least 5 pounds using the workouts and diet - A+ During the process of the challenge I put on 10lbs! Woot! On the downside, not all of it was good weight, and I put on a little bit of a tummy, but I know if I can adjust how I eat, while still bulking up, I should be able to burn that off once I've reached my goal weight before slimming down. 4) Life: I've been trying to write a blog post a week and have failed to be consistent recently. Time to get back on the horse and write. - C+ I did ok on this one. I have two blogs I've been trying to write on, and rather than writing two posts each week (one for each blog) I instead ended up writing one post each week for one or the other. I still got some good experience being consistent on my writing (except for the 1 week I missed), but it wasn't as good as it could have been. So that wraps it up for me. This is my first challenge, and I loved it. It was fun to be part of a squad and be encouraged along the way, and it was also great to be excited to work out each day. I've learned the community here makes Nerd Fitness way cooler. Thanks all!

So Friday was the last workout day. It was a final 5x5 day, so I did a partial set of pull-ups unassisted, two sets assisted, and two sets of negatives with a couple of random unassisted pull-ups at the beginning of sets as I could. For deadlifts, I did a 5x5 at 120lbs. It felt awesome to finish, knowing that I've done every workout I set out to do this challenge with only one day where I had to cut my sets shorter in deadlifts due to time. It's been a while since I can remember that consistent with something on a regular basis. Woot! For food, I didn't get as big of a morning snack as I should have. I had some pistachios, which I love. The problem is, they take forever to eat when you have to de-shell every last one of them, and it's easy to lose track of how much you eat. Plus a bag is only 4 servings, so it's not the cheapest snack out there. Moving forward, I think I want to try to figure out a good shake mix that I could have for morning and afternoon snacks (or afternoon and evening). I remember Steve saying to "drink your calories" and that's gotta be easier then what I've been trying to do. One thing I've learned is that eating a lot, or enough calories is something you can get the hang of. And it's still difficult. But what makes it more difficult is eating enough calories that will provide you with the protein you need and not the sugar and carbs. I'm sure I've put on a bit of fat this challenge (though I'm pumped to have gained 10lbs!), but moving forward, I'd like to find a way to eat healthier while still eating more. Since our new baby is set to arrive any day now, that means that work is going to fall mainly on me. But if I want to look like a (admittedly smaller and shorter) Michael Weston (from Burn Notice), I've got my work cut out for me.

Yesterday was 3x5's on Pull-ups and Deadlifts. I did one set of pull-ups un-assisted, then split the other two between assisted and negatives (with an un-assisted pullup to start when I could). On Deadlifts I went up to 115. I'm not sure I did as well on my calories yesterday. Due to a doctor's appointment my wife had in the morning, I missed my morning snack, and then ate lunch at work. Eating lunch at work isn't the worst thing ever, except I bought a Mountain Dew from the fridge. This was a bad idea, because the caffeine made me not as hungry for the rest of the day, meaning the afternoon snack was hard to stuff down, and dinner wasn't very big. Seriously, until I hit the weight I want, caffeine is killing me. But I'm prepped and ready to finish out strong. That is, as long as the baby doesn't decide to arrive this week. Being in the hospital for a couple days while/after my wife delivers the baby could mean my first missed workout of the challenge. I'd tell my wife to hold out until Friday (we're not due until next week), but at this point, I think she'd kill me.

Keep up the great work! I'm super impressed and proud to be a part of your group. Finish strong this week; we're all pulling for you!

This morning's workout went well. I had 3x5's today on Push Presses and Squats. I went up to 85 for the Push Presses and 125 for the squats. I don't think I'll make it this challenge, but I'm looking forward to the day that I can put two 45lb. weights on each side of the bar for an exercise (something I've never done before). Also, it looks like this week I hit 155lbs. Woot! I'm not sure how much of that is muscle as compared to fat. I think my calorie intake is at a decent level, but I could probably be eating a little healthier, so I'll need to assess that as I near the end of the challenge and just moving forward. But, while my gut has grown a little, my wife commented that she thinks my arms have gotten a little bigger as well. I hope she's right!

It was kind of an odd weekend. Friday morning's workout was good. I did 3x5's with 80 lbs. on the push presses and 110 on the squats. I could still push myself on the squats, but the push-presses are definitely getting hard. I'll probably go for 80 lbs again on my next 5x5 day and see how it goes before upping to the next level. I came in under 3000 calories on Friday, and I honestly didn't keep track on Saturday. I didn't mean to slack off, but my parents were in town visiting us and my dad and I ripped out a window in the back of the house, cut a bigger opening and put a door in it's place. So, I was kind of busy running around all day and didn't have a lot of time between meals and working and then catching up with my parents to write much down. If I had to guess, I'd say I did decent, but I was probably cutting it close. Plus I was doing more physical activity than my normal desk job, so that didn't help. On the life goal front, I didn't get my blog post done for this week. Often-times I end up writing finishing a draft and posting on Saturday, and well...see above. I probably should've planned better on that one. But I kind of count Spring Cleaning all week and a putting a new door in my house as leveling up life, so I'm letting myself slide on that one. This week, it's back to work after a week off, and I have some extra items to get done tomorrow, so I'll probably be up early (i.e. 5:30) so hopefully, after an episode of Eureka, it'll be off to bed. I'm looking forward to a great week.

All right, two days late on reporting, but better late than never. (Maybe I need to put a reminder in Remember the Milk to do these so I'm not so late all the time.) Wednesday was a good day for workouts as I did 3 reps of Pull-ups in a row on my first set. I was able to do 1 pull-up for the next two sets, but all the rest of my reps were assisted. Regardless, I was feeling pretty good. I think seeing a post by Steve on pull-ups when I knew I was struggling with them encouraged me to keep on pushing through. My deadlifts went up to 100 lbs. so that's two of my four exercises in the triple digits now! (Unless you count my weight on the unassisted pull-ups I guess). Earlier in the week I was struggling with getting enough calories, but now I'm back on track hitting around 3000. I found it's harder to motivate myself to work out when I have the week off. It's a natural tendency to be lazy and sleep in. But I've been forcing myself out of bed on time to get my workouts in before the day starts. And I usually find that I feel better once I've done them. I'm still hoping to keep pushing my weight lifted higher, but I'm reaching the point now where I feel like it's beginning to be challenging. The combination of challenge and momentum is awesome!

It's been a while since I've posted. Sorry about that. Friday's workout went well, and felt more challenging, but I've still got some work to do. I can still definitely handle more weight on deadlifts, and I'm trying to figure out what to do with the Pull-ups. I did some one-leg assisted on Friday, and that was ok, though one some it was hard to tell if my leg or my arms and back hurt worse. That can be frustrating because when it's the only pull exercise I'm doing for that part of my body, I'd like to be a little more successful at it. I'll keep plugging away. Yesterday I did Push Presses and Squats again. I went up to 75 on push presses, which was definitely a challenge for me. I completed all the reps, so I might push to 80 next time. On squats I did 105 pounds, which I was excited about largely because I was moving iron in the triple digits for the first time since I've started. Woot! In regards to eating, I'm re-evaluating calories. The other day I (and my wife agreed) noticed that rather than bulking muscles, I was getting a tummy. Not cool. This could be because of two things. It's largely (I think) because on days where I've been way over calories, it's been to due to fast food. I'm noticing first-hand that damage just ordering a value meal can do to you. But it's hard to resist when you're out doing errands as a family and your very pregnant wife wants something from McDonalds or Sonic, etc. I guess I"m going to have start going for the healthier options. The other cause may because that I"m getting too many calories. I'm going to adjust down slightly and shoot for close to 3000 a day and see if that helps while also making sure I'm doing my best to up my protein intake and reduce some of the sugar/fat intake at the same time. I asked my wife once if she wanted me to get buff and her reply was that it would be cool if I got some real abs. Unfortunately, covering them up with fat is working against me in that regard. :-/ Ah well, it's another week (and a week off) so hopefully I can pay good attention to my diet, workout hard, and lift heavy this week.

Cita: I do have that concern for my assisted pull-ups. I may try one leg this next time instead of both. I'm not sure of what else to do to get stronger on that front. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm definitely open to them. I can maybe pull off one and probably not from the fully relaxed state, but then I'm stuck.