Perrin_Aybara

Ok so far so good! Week 1 was a bit of rebuilding after the madness that has come before. Been spending way more time at home, despite this week being just as busy as the last few months . Managed to get some of the lingering chores done (garden needed some work, and had to spray some insecticide around - love living in the hills, hate the bugs invading my house when it's been just a little too long between sprays ), going to go catch a movie tonight. Workout wise, all guns blazing, I think the squat, deadlift, inverted rows and pendlay rows targets are OK, but will need some effort with cleans and pushps! Going to add in some pushups on off days, otherwise i'll miss this target pretty badly. I was going off my old numbers using bad form (high, wide hands, flared elbows), have corrected my form, which has dropped the reps down. Will up the training to get this back on track Lagging on the smoothies this week, but will pick it up this weekend which will make me hit my 5 for the week. Looking forward to this more than ever, not feeling too sore like I thought i would coming back to training, enjoying BJJ (getting smashed, but enjoying it anyway ) Bring on the week 6 PR's

Main Goal: Lose approx 20kg's, at least 2.5x bodyweight squat, win a BJJ comp, cut dairy to get to fully vegan. Challenge Goals Have been pretty slack lately, due to being incredibly busy at work. Will be cutting out this as an excuse, and getting back to good habits after about 4-6 weeks of relative inactivity. #1: Strength train 3 times a week. Will be doing a modified stronglifts program (see attached), based on more OHP work instead of bench press, and extra exercises because i'm backing off the starting weights compared to where I was a few weeks ago. Week 12 is where I was previously, but because I wasn't consistent, it didn't feel comfortable - felt like my form was shakey. So, deload right down, and blast through, while working form, and consistency. Will result in about 15-20% increase on my PR if I hit all my target weights. 3 points to STR if all 18 workouts done, with 2 as a bonus if I hit all targets, 1 bonus if I hit all targets except OHP and Pendlay rows (as these are pretty ambitious goals for me) #2: Train BJJ 2-3 times a week. Monday and wednesday class will be 45 minutes of drills, 45 minutes of rolling. Will also try and get to saturday's open mat a few times (time on weekends permitting - see life goals). 2 points DEX, 3 points STA if all 12 sessions attended. #3: Clean up Diet - Smoothie edition. Fitting in with my main goal of going vegan and losing weight, as well as getting helthier overall, I want to start having smoothies every day. I want to make at least 5 of my weeks smoothies green smoothies, as I have been experimenting with these and have a good recipe base to hide some kale and spinach. More greens, more nutrients, less calories Life Goal Been pretty tired when I finish work for the day, coming home and crashing, so I want to make up the lost time with my family a bit. Going to be planning at least one date night a week with my wife, and spending more time walking the dogs - at least once a week take them for a big walk (1-1.5 hours), either in the bush or down at the beach.

First victory marker over stress! Nearly went down the same road as yesterday, but was able to stop myself on the spiral, made myself have a late breakfast. Stressful morning continued, craving for bad food for lunch kicked in. Made myself go to paws (vegan place near my work) and had a mixed veggie stir fry, stewed cabbage, cauliflower and potato curry and rice. Cravings disappeared as soon as I started eating. It's only one meal, but feels great to bounce back positively from yesterday's disappointment. Sent from the FBI van 3 blocks down the road.

Those are great goals! Good luck with sticking with them!! I love awesome views on a walk. I live in the hills of perth, about 5 minutes from a veritable maze of bush trails through a national park. And being in the hills, you get some amazing vantage points, which me and my wife stumble across completely randomly. Makes for a great walk when you don't know where you're going! Sent from the FBI van 3 blocks down the road.

O_o wow... consider this recipe stolen!! Sent from the FBI van 3 blocks down the road.

Ok so bit of a mixed start. Exercise had been great, both workouts no misses, building back up the weight nicely, back to working weight of 100 kg squats and 110 kg deadlifts, the 120 kg targets are within striking distance of this challenge if all goes consistently! Very pleased with that. Diet goal of salad and smoothie every day has not gone well so far though. Only 1 day where I got in both, and one other day I got in a smoothie. Definitely room for improvement here! But overall my eating has been pretty clean (except fot today but more on that later), and I'm going to make this happen! Focus (and preparedness) needs more focus! Stress impulse control was going well... until today. Got stressed out at work, had only a coffee for breakfast. Worked through lunch (didn't even see the clock until 2:30) then got chips and a coke. And dinner wasn't the best either, because I hadn't eaten well all day I was starving, massive bowl of creamy mushroom pasta later and I think I can say day ruined! For something that seems so easy to correct, I really struggle. Seems so obvious, eat on time and be prepared. But even when I have good food with me at work, when I stress out I forget to eat, or convince myself that I'll just finish this task then eat (2 hours later....), then the cravings for junk kick in. But I'm staying positive, I didn't expect to nail this straight away, if I can keep it to just the one fail this week, rather than the 3 or 4 out of 5, that's sn ok start. Sent from the FBI van 3 blocks down the road.

Just remember that no matter was has happened before, you cam choose what happens next! We all make mistakes, the important thing is to acknowledge it as the SINGLE mistake that it is, and not the whole overwhelming sum of all past mistakes that lead to this point. You can do this! Just think at the end of 6 weeks this will just be one missed point, compared to many gained! Sent from the FBI van 3 blocks down the road.

Maybe I'm a bit of a sadist, but I love the feeling. Esp after a big back day, stretching out the shoulders feels great then :-D Lets you know you're alive and working hard towards your goals! Sent from the FBI van 3 blocks down the road.

I agree with I-Jo, pitching forward moves the weight too far out over your toes. My mental queues for squats are; hips back first (just a little), them break the knees and squat, but keep your chest up. Even when I'm doing more of a powerlift style squat (more bend compared to oly squats) I always keep a "proud" chest. Sent from the FBI van 3 blocks down the road.

Yeah I ended up buying a squat rack, oly bar, plates, plate rack and bench. Fits with what I do in the gym! I also have a 20 kg kettlebell and a pair of dumbells. I worked out that I could afford all of that for about 2-3 years of gym membership, so I saved up and did it. Haven't always used it (fifo work killed the habit), but haven't regretted it once. The simple pleasure of an uninterrupted workout... bliss! Sent from the FBI van 3 blocks down the road.

Don't you know there is no squatting in the curl rack!?! Hahaha thanks for the reminder of all the reasons I don't use commercial gyms anymore! The grossest thing is when people leave their sweat all over the equipment.... don't miss that at all! Good luck with your goals (and possibly avoiding all the gym clichés!!)! Sent from the FBI van 3 blocks down the road.

Second challenge for me too :-) looking forward to it! I love lifting heavy, awesome feeling when you beat gravity's latest challenge :-D feels even better when you didn't expect it to be so easy, or its a new pr! I always use yoga as a warmup to my weights sessions. Not full on yoga, just a few basic flows, mainly focused on opening up the hips, glutes and hamstrings. Sent from the FBI van 3 blocks down the road.

This is my second challenge, looking to improve on my results last time and learn from the mistakes I made. Last time I didn't go so well on the diet related goals, so trying to bring a little more focus on those this time out, while still maintaining my workout habits. Starting stats: TBA Weight: BF% (Digital Scales): Neck: Chest: Waist: Hips: Biceps: Forearms: Thighs: Calf: Squat: Deadlift: Overhead Press: Barbell Row: Dips: Inverted Rows: ULTIMATE QUEST My ultimate goal is to have a BF% of 12% or less, 2.5x Bodyweight Squat and Deadlift, and be able to overhead press my bodyweight (whatever that happens to be at the time). However those are some pretty lofty goals from where i am now, so my first quest will be... MAIN QUEST BF% < 25% Squat >= 120 kg (5*5) Deadlift >= 120 kg (5*5) Overhead press > 60 kg (5*5) I think that the squat and deadlift are achievable during this challenge, overhead press and BF% may be the next one! Mission #1: Building the habit: Workout 3 x per week. This is weights training only, i'm not counting walking my dogs as a workout, or any work I may or may not do on my "off" days as a workout. Workouts will look like: Workout A Squat 5*5 Overhead Press 5*5 Barbell Rows 5*5 Workout B Deadlift 5*5 Dips 3*F Inverted Rows 3*F Workout C Squat 5*5 Overhead Press 5*5 Deadlift 3*5 Pass/Fail if I miss more than 1 workout. STR+3, DEX+1, STA+1 Mission #2: Breaking the habit: No Stress eating/drinking. Whenever i'm stressed i grab a coke or go for the nearest junk food. This is going to stop, and be replaced by one of either a 5 minute walk or 5 minutes of meditation, then re-visit my choices. This is a repeat of the last challenge, but slightly tweaked based on what didn't work for me. Going to have to be a lot more prepared for the caffiene withdrawals (I had no idea how much caffiene i was having until i stopped cold turkey, and had massive headaches and the shakes ), will be starting by slowly cutting back, and building up to cutting this habit out after about week 4. Grading: A = no stress impulses after 6 weeks, B = 1/week, FAIL = More than 1 per week. Note: this isn't including "planned" cheats (such as having a whiskey and coke of a friday night), just the impulses that relate to stress impulses. CON+1, CHA+2 Mission #3: Improve my diet: going very broad here, would like to have included at least 1 smoothie and 1 salad per day (salad/veggie only meal), consistantly across the challenge. This isn't to say that the third meal isn't going to be healthy as well, this is simply the first marker on my trail to having a healthy habit. Grading: A = missed 0-1 day per week; B = 1-2 meals (salad or smoothie) per week; C = 2 missed days per week; Fail = >2 days per week missed. CON+4, CHA+1 Life Mission: Walk my dogs at least 30 minutes a day. They need to be walked more than they do now, aiming for at least 5 times a week by the end of 6 weeks. STA+2

Yeah i'll be in the next challenge - I want to get a better run at it this time!

Yeah definitely bit off more than I could chew trying to go cold turkey, with no plan. Going to make it the focus of my next challenge, to cut back and then eliminate it. Thanks for the advice about ibuprofen, will definitely look into that! It wasn't really the hunger side that did me in, was more the habit and withdrawals. Didn't really try any other exercises as I generally do a lot of compound movements, so evem the upper body stuff (like military press and bent rows) all rransfer power through my ankles. And if they are out of alignment to the point of causing an injury, I didn't want to risk putting a load through an already injured area, so I held off. Once I was sure the intital inflamatipn was gone, and I had the rehab under ckntrol, went back to it and so far so good (although I have missed a workout yesterday, but thats not related to the injury) Sent from the FBI van 3 blocks down the road.