Polaris

Hi, a green belt ITF Taekwon-doin here. *waves* First of all, there are different styles of TKD. The biggest ones are ITF and WTF; I clicked your link and couldn't find whether that school belongs to one of them or a smaller one, but anyhow. While emphasis depends on the particular group, in general WTF is a more flashy, sports-oriented style (the style you see in the Olympics is WTF) and ITF focuses more on self-defense in comparison. So in terms of general health, either one works. Feeling of accomplishment... according to my understanding, because WTF is more like a sport, it's very focused on sparring, which might or might not be your cup of tea. We spar in ITF too, but you don't have to if it's not your favorite thing, as there are a lot of other areas to concentrate on. (Also keep in mind that WTF is full-contact, that's why they wear body armor.) In terms of self-defense, ITF wins hands down. Again depends on the specific group, but in mine, we're regularly taught self-defense both in dedicated classes and in terms of, "what effin practical use does this weird hand-waving have". While the styles have their general differences, you should definitely consult the specific school you're thinking of attending and ask them what areas they focus on. Because even in the same city, one group might be more practical and self-defense oriented and the other all about sparring, regardless of what style they represent. Teaching styles, degrees of formality during classes etc. also vary a lot, and I think it's important to find a group that fits you. Personally, I can say that the kind of people I've had as instructors and peers have had a great impact on the fact that I'm still practicing this. Of course I'm 110% of the opinion that ITF is better, but I'm trying to be objective here. Oh, and btw - you don't have to reach a certain weight to start practicing TKD, or any martial art. I know it might seem really intimidating to start if you're overweight and/or out of shape; I originally planned to get myself in-shape before daring to start, but then I thought, the classes are gonna help a lot in getting in shape and besides, the longer I wait to start, the longer it'll take to get that glorious black belt. I attended the beginner's class despite being a hopeless couch potato, and sometimes it was so rough, but two years in and I'm still not dead.

That blanket fort looks so comfortable. I need to make some bedposts so I can build one. Anyway, not sure if I've been to this thread before, but hi, another introvert here, with added social anxiety issues. Long story short, I had virtually zero contact with kids my age until I was about six, which totally wrecked my social development. I had to do a lot of catching up later on, and I still think that part of my brain is just broken because it wasn't developed timely. (Kind of like feral children can never learn to speak.) Because I lack/ed the innate ability of human-human interaction, I observed it like a robot and invented all these algorithms that I can pretty much auto-run by now. Meaning, I can be very charming and social on the outside when necessary, but inside, I'm constantly worrying about saying or doing the wrong thing. Which inevitably happens from time to time and destroys me every time. I also have... trust issues, I think? In the way that no matter how good friends I am with someone, I'm always afraid that one day, they'll become fed up with me and dump me. And lots of things can trigger that fear because due to certain fun events, I'm extremely tuned in on (and sometimes paranoid about) people's negative emotions and reactions. A friend doesn't talk to me for a while? They must hate me. Definitely. No other explanation. A random facial expression? They're about to tell me I'm too annoying to handle.

I'm sure you didn't mean me, but I'm still gonna answer For me, it's because I'm picky and I have a good people sense, as in, I know pretty much straight away if someone might 'click' or not. And people who click with a weird creature like me are damn rare, especially in such a relatively small country as mine. And I don't want to date someone just for dating's sake, knowing they're not gonna be right for me, it would be a waste of everyone's time. (Also, I hate dating, so I can't even do it for fun.) I don't want to settle for a partner who is nice enough, I want someone who I can gaze at with wonder like all the stars are in their eyes, and I want to be as special to them. Honestly, the worst thing is knowing, statistically, that there must be several potential soul mates for me... and fearing I won't find any of them because I was born in a wrong place, or the wrong time, or just unlucky.

I wanted to write about today's workout and my bench press progress but I just can't. I'm a horrible person. I fail so much, constantly, with people, I don't know what's wrong with me. I try to be good, I try to be a better person than I was the day before and I just... I can't. It makes me think all the bad things that happen to me happen because it's what I deserve.

I am so sorry, honestly. I did not mean it seriously, I meant it as a jokey compliment, as in "hey you seem hella cool, all potentially attractive people are always taken [tongue-in-cheek smiley face]". I joke-flirt often, and it didn't occur to me that it wouldn't come through the right way in text and/or still be offensive. I'm sorry, I'm trash. This is why I don't flirt with women in real life. I'm hurtful even when I'm kidding, I'm afraid what would happen if I were serious.

Oh god why did I click on that video I made it to two minutes and had to quit because the urge to punch my monitor was growing too strong. Imo getting a relationship or sex isn't that hard. I see people together every day and hear stories about people getting laid that frankly get me thinking, "Why would anyone wanna get with that?" because - truth time - I'm a judgmental prick. (Like, I fight for human rights and all that, but you should hear the snobbish voice inside my head sometimes.) If that's all you want, any relationship and/or sex, the only way I see you could completely f*ck it up is to be so obsessed with it you ruin everything, or Idk, be a hermit or something and never meet any people. It gets way harder when you start having standards, any standards, and you start wanting a good relationship and/or sex with someone you actually like. (I need to quote one of the best stories I've ever, ever read here because it's so relevant: "But in the end, he was not unhappy. He didn't think he had wasted his life. And that's as much as most of us can ask, perhaps. -- Unless, we want to trade 'not unhappy' for 'happy'. Then everything becomes immeasurably more complicated.")

Did you just take antibiotics, or did you have to go to the hospital and get an IV? Maybe I'm overconfident, but my body's proven quite effective at keeping out infection - last year I had surgery and was told infection of the wounds is very likely at some point, but I healed perfectly. I use Intensity by Star Nutrition, I think it's a Scandinavian brand. I mainly bought it cause it's affordable and tastes decent. It's Fresh Lemon, and tastes just like lemon candy power. Though I read that both caffeine and creatine require some water to be absorbed properly, but I can't see why I can't chuck down water afterwards without having to mix them up.

Good to know. English isn't my native language, so sometimes the right word escapes me. Can I eat my PWO powder without mixing it with water? Because it tastes just like those candy powders they sell at some places

One thing I've realized about temptation is that you need to "quit what you can quit, change what you can't, and recognize the difference". Yeah, kind of like the one they use in AA But hear me out. For me, I'm a recovering chocolate addict. I had to quit it cold turkey and I got withdrawal symptoms like I'd been on drugs. Even though so I broke the addiction, thinking about life without any chocolate ever made me miserable. So I have a single chocolate bar on some days (usually as a pre-workout energy boost) and that goes in my food log, and it's 221 kcal less I can eat that day. It keeps me sane, and ensures I won't completely abstain and be miserable until I snap and binge eat ALL THE CHOCOLATE. So maybe you could try something like that with alcohol? Like, ask your friends if you could, as a group, drink less for some time because you're trying to cut down on alcohol consumption. Or do activities that don't involve alcohol more often. (Funny thing, btw, you're the opposite of me - I hate being drunk but I love the taste of some liquors. Like whiskey. Whiskey on the rocks is <3) Willpower... is pretty hard to advice on, because you just gotta do it. Even when you reaaaaally want to, or don't want to do something, you do it. Even when it's hard, every time. It's gotta do with short- vs long term gratification, which some people find easier than others. The good news is, you must have it since you already employed it to lose 150 lbs, now you just need to apply it on stuff that you still struggle with. It might make you less happy in that moment, but it's gratifying in the long term. Good luck on reaching 130 lbs! That's where I'm aiming too.

If my maintenance is 1430 calories, I'm gonna cry. But really though, it's extremely unlikely that my tracking would be that much off. I mostly eat the same stuff daily, and have double-checked at least the calories either from the packaging or this one Very Official Finnish website that lists food macros. You'd think if I were eating at maintenance the weight loss would have tapered, but it went with the same 0.5 kg/week pace until it came to a screeching halt. I'm gonna give calorie/carb cycling a try. I planned the first high-kcal for today and was shocked that I have to eat an entire bag of carrot bread to get enough calories and carbs. Many sites say that your body gets used to a calorie deficit, so hopefully the odd higher-calorie days will give it a good shake. So the weight dropped after you went back to 80/100g? Interesting. Thanks for the input. I will see what this cycling does, if anything, and report back. I'll have to buy new batteries for my scale, though, because for the last two mornings all it's given me's been an error message. That is a good point, not for me but people like BoxingYogini that have dropped a lot of weight. It's such a "d'uh" thing, but it's easy to forget. I started with 1600-something kcal and lowered to 1430 a couple of kilos ago, but for someone with a much bigger loss, the number's gonna have to be a lot smaller too.

I am in awe of your handstand and pull-up prowess. I can't do either yet, though I'm aiming to do a single pull-up before this year ends. Btw, do you find front squats very different/harder than back squats? I'm thinking of adding front squats to my routine, but the bar position scares me.

That is weird to me, because I can't recall ever seeing a bench pressing rack without spotter bars, provided they were bench pressing racks and not just general racks with a bench under. Maybe it differs between countries, I mean, I'm Finnish and you guys are in the US, right? Now I'm wondering why, though. Wow, okay. Thanks for the new source of paranoia. I still think I'm gonna go to the gym, but I'll wrap up the leg and wash it right afterwards, it can't be that dirty there.

Got the mission about sorting out my fall semester courses done, for the most part. I even wrestled my anxiety so I managed to e-mail a study adviser about stuff I wasn't sure about. (E-mail fear is a real thing. Social anxiety is funny like that.) Now I just need to enroll on them when it becomes doable, but I made a sheet with all the dates like a boss so I won't forget Though I'm thinking I need one or two more courses, maybe I'll take up another language. I'm not especially girly, but I love decorating! I dream of my own house constantly so I could decorate and DIY it to my liking. I volunteer to pick out curtains for you, if you pay for my trans-Baltic flight

Got my first tattoo today! The pic isn't that great, and the yellow will show up better once it's healed, but here it is. Cookies to the first one who gets the reference.

I hope you're right. I just wish it happened sooner rather than later, because I'm fed up with dieting, and my lifts are suffering because of the constant deficit. I bought a PWO today to help with that, because I'm always so tired at the gym, especially after work. It's not even 10% of days really. I eat more on some of those days because they're cheat meal days, but I doubt I'm going over maintenance. I go over maintenance... maybe once in two or three weeks. Like, all in all, I'm clearly on a deficit when you take the weekly average. I got my tattoo! It's awesome, and didn't hurt more than when a dentist is scraping tartar with that horrible machine. Actually, it was more bearable because it wasn't happening inside my mouth.

Yeah, mainly I just wanted to vent (Though I still do think they were being impolite, but not everyone does, so I guess it's a mileage may wary thing.) A question for you lifters with inked skin: I got a tattoo (my first one, yay!) on the outside of my shin today, is it okay to go to the gym tomorrow? Provided I don't wear or do anything that rubs on it, and maybe wrap it in saran wrap to make sure it doesn't catch bugs. //Edit: Ya'll speaking about benching without a spotter made me wonder, don't your bench press racks usually have spotters? I mean those metal things you can set up at a correct height to catch the bar if you can't get it up anymore.

I caved and bought green tea capsules in hopes of getting some fat melting. I know supplements are not magic, but my diet and exercise are on point, so I don't know what else to do. And green tea seems like one of the most scientifically proven fat burners that also has few bad side effects. I took the first one today afternoon after a small snack and went to take a nap (that stretched to two hours because I'm the worst at waking up), and my stomach was sore and making noise even when I woke up o_O It wasn't too painful, but a little alarming, and I hope it goes away once my body gets used to the capsules. Because I do not wanna go to work feeling like that. The appointment for the tattoo that I promised myself as a reward for the last challenge is tomorrow. I'm a little scared, but mostly excited. Mostly.

I wandered over here from the Adulting PVP thread, and I have been just sitting here like O___O because wow, you are an impressive individual. I am in awe of your strength and focus and badass parkour skills. It's too bad you're not single. (Also you really made me wanna learn parkour now. Grrr. Absolutely have no chance anytime soon.) I also had no idea what a crow was outside of the context of actual corvids, and now I want to learn that. Although I suspect it would destroy my weak wrists/forearms/shoulders. Or do you think I could condition and improve my forearms learning the crow? Because I know I should do something about them, but lots of the exercises suggested to me are just, well, a little boring.

But the main boss is a one-time thing, not weekly. And it's not that huge a task, really, though I won't be doing it all in one go. The game plan is to 1) Get a friend drive me to Ikea to buy a new matress 2) Get rid of the old bed (I'll sell it or donate it to a recycling center that'll come pick it up) 3) Get another friend drive the pallets from the hardware store to my apartment, help me sand the visible edges, haul them to my room and fasten them a bit 4) Throw the new matress on top 5) Profit. So I'll consider the main boss beaten when I have a new bed to sleep on. Looks great! Although I would be afraid of training with kettlebells with that window right there

So I've managed to drop from 67kg to 61.something in a little over three months by tracking my food intake, lifting and a little cardio. Mostly I stalled at the same weight for a week or two, and then dropped 1-1.5 kilos overnight. But ever since the end of the last challenge (July 19th), I've been stuck at 61.x and I. Am. Going. Nuts. I have no idea why this is happening. It's not stealth calories, because I've been tracking everything I eat over 90% time, and when I haven't and have possibly overeaten, it's been a cheat meal and less often than a weekly occurrence. I set my target calories (1430) to sedentary activity level and rather under- than overestimate the calories from workouts that I subtract. I'm 164 cm and estimate my BF% to be around 25%, which gives me a TDEE of 1950-1800 kcal, depending on how many times of the week I exercise. So I have 100% certainly been on a deficit. But the weight is not budging. I got the 60.6kg once during the past three weeks, but I'm not sure I wasn't dreaming that, because I haven't got below 61 a second time. I had 3/4 of a homemade pizza on Sunday in hope of shaking up my metabolism, didn't help. I've started running hill sprints 2-3 a week in addition to my other training, no effect (except my calves are killing me). The frustration is driving me crazy, because I only have about 2 more kilos to shed before I'll be at my target of 59kg and can go on a bulk and build some muscle. A lot of sites are talking about calorie/carb cycling, so I'm wondering if that's something I should try? The 5-2 method seems like a best option; it's where you're on a deficit 5-6 days a week and then eat at or over maintenance 1-2 days a week, preferably on the most intense training days. Has anyone done this, or has any pointers? I'm desperate to break this plateau, but I'm also terrified of gaining the weight back, so I'm scared of eating over maintenance even one or two days a week. I'm also mildly carb-phobic, and since most of the extra calories should come from carbs, I'm hesitant. I need help.

Ooh, I don't know what my mini bosses will be, but I have the perfect task for the main baddie! I'm planning to replace my old bed, get a new mattress and build a frame for it using pallets. I stumbled upon pallet beds this one day and fell in love with the idea. I'm thinking of replacing my old 120cm wide bed with a 90cm one, because I did some measuring and noticed I really don't use the extra 30cm. I can use it for storage, plus I can sneakily store shoes and stuff in the pallet frame.

I'm a uni student who does weights and taekwon-do. I try to do my lifting on separate days from TKD training, but sometimes they would overlap. In which case, and I strongly recommend this, I do my lifting before TKD. Because that will take some of my energy from TKD training, but I eat a protein bar of something in between and I'm not dead. On the other hand, if you're already tired from TKD/judo/etc. training, you're more likely to injure yourself during big lifts. I'd also recommend waiting for your class schedule before locking down the gym days. Because if you have an especially early and/or long day full of classes, you might not have energy to lift stuff afterwards. Or you may want to lift afterwards to release pent-up energy, people are different.

This is one of those rare instances where I feel perfectly fine saying you're a guy, you wouldn't understand.