forkboy

Nothing major to report. Still cruising along. I have implemented a challenge to myself to not have any alcohol or treats while at home. I have been rocking this since my birthday in January basically. It has been a boon. I don't feel guilty about a couple of drinks if we go out to dinner, but given that we don't go out that much I am able to limit my alcohol quite a bit. I really don't have treats at home or out. I find I used to have them as a stress response more than anything. I may reincorporate once I get into the refeed/cheat range of low BF. I have a ways to go for that. I am seeing progress and I am in the groove, so I am just going to keep rocking it for now. My workouts are up to 6 days a week, 3 days of power lifting and 3 days of kettbell or conditioning. My strength on my power lifting has plateaued a little, but nothing to worry me at this stage. I am making good progress on the conditioning. All and all no complaints. Another thing I have found super helpful is not using the 6 week challenge approach. I know I am locked in now for a long period of time. I am thinking I may start needing to add refeeds or cheats in June-ish, but for now I just keep at it every day plugging away watching those numbers fall over time. Cheers.

Thanks for stopping by Will! I am mid-way through Q1 of this year, so thought it was time for a chart!

Things are okay. I had a birthday. I am now on an official countdown to turning 40. I also had to go out of town for a few days to a conference and therefore missed some days at the gym. Between missed gym days and birthday beer and cake my weight loss has plateaued a bit here in early January, but I am in this for the long haul so not too worried. My gym recently added heart rate monitors and a giant screen so the coaches can track where we are in our training. I was skeptical at first, but it is pretty cool. I know when to back off a little if I am going to hard and it is also pretty obvious when I am slacking and can pick up the pace when I am doing any conditioning work. I have also signed up for one of Anthony Mychal DeMarco's email courses. I am enjoying it. I haven't learned much new, but it is a nice reinforcement of some principals I need to get through my thick skull. Some of the stuff is intuitive, like consume more lean protein and non-starchy vegetables and minimize processed crap, but other things are pretty new, like exposure to micro-nutrient intake's impact on weight gain. Since it is an email course a piece of it comes out each day which is a nice way to consume, but I am struggling to see the bigger picture. Having been in a sort of IIFYM school for a long time I am waiting for the hammer to drop on total calories and total protein goals. I am not sure if he is even going to head there or not, but I am curious how it will play out with my current targets. I have difficulty hitting 170g protein targets on lean meat alone, but since he is not a big proponent of artificially processed anything I am wondering where whey will fit in and how overall protein will come out in the plan. It's been fun to learn either way.

I put this thread up and then proceeded to do nothing over the past couple of weeks. I decided to go the cliche route and start anew with the year. I have not really been tracking macros the last couple days, but I will start in earnest again today since I am back in the work routine now after having been off for quite some time. I have avoided alcohol and sweets while at home and opted for higher protein options during my meals. I think my eating has been fine the past few days, I just haven't been tracking it. I hit the gym today. Squat day. We are doing 4X8, which is a bit of a beast. I followed it up with SLDL 4x8s and then chest supported rows and shoulder raises. They all felt good. The rest has helped I am sure. I will go up next week on the SLDLs, rows, and shoulder raises. Tomorrow I am going to go into a kettle-bell class for some conditioning work. I finished the book Spartan Up yesterday. It was okay. I found the message a bit repetitive at times and there were some statements made that were not entirely factual and had a political tinge to them that I did not find appropriate in that kind of book, but the underlying message is a good one. We have choices everyday. We can take the easy way or we can take the path toward growth. It was a great reminder of our own potential to change our lives, so I appreciated it. I am considering signing up for either a Spartan race or a Tough Mudder, but am early in the research process for now. Now to go track some macros....

Thanks Ash! Big hugs right back at ya!

Thanks Swamps! That photo is too awesome, so I had to replace my icon with it.

Moving here: http://rebellion.nerdfitness.com/index.php?/topic/75792-a-new-log-for-a-new-quest/

I have been gone awhile. I want to come back, but I want a clean start. I want to pop in on posts of friends, but not feel obligated to reply to every post and constantly stay up on everyone's activity. I want this community to be something I look forward to rather than another box I have to check. I don't want to join a specific challenge. 6 weeks will not do. In a few weeks I will turn 39. I must meet some big challenges before I turn 40. I need some accountability to make that long of a quest work for me. I must post somewhere. I will post here. Today the quest begins. Big Goals: Sub 170 lbs (165-168 will be my target) - This is hard and possibly not realistic. I have been power lifting for about 18 months and have put on quite a bit of muscle, but I think my BF will be where I want it in the mid to upper 160s so I am going after it. 1,000 lbs combined lift in the big three (Bench, Squat, and Dead Lift) 20 pull-ups and 20 chin-ups So those are my targets. I am interested in lots of other stuff too, like being able to run obstacle courses, being able to do muscle-ups, etc., but I think just focusing on these three targets will have me well on my way. If I can get to this place physically by 40 I will open up a whole new world of what is possible. How will I be getting there? Macro tracking. High protein. I will likely play with low fat and low carb options throughout the year. I will engage in intermittent fasting. I will be increasing my overall activity level. I currently do 3 days of power lifting and one day of either kettle bells or bro-day type workouts and sporadically run. I will be adding in more conditioning work with kettle bells, hiking, running, and hopefully some fun sports/game activities. I will take walk, mini workout, and mobility breaks at work and in the evening. I will stay accountable by posting here regularly. I will meditate. I will journal. I will read. I will drastically reduce alcohol, caffeine, and sugar consumption. I will be in the now. I will fucking crush it.

I admire you for following the GMB program. I bought one once and found it so hard that I just became discouraged. I am so inflexible and have such poor mobility that I think I would prefer in-person coaching. I think you are amazing for following the program on your own like that. Super big kudos! I need google's Celsius to Fahrenheit converter to understand your weather posts. What a sad American I am. But at least I learned it was 46 Celsius here today.

In other news I caught a stomach bug that every other member of my immediate family had but me, until yesterday that is. I tend to not get sick nearly as frequently as they do. As a matter of fact, I can't recall another even minor illness in the last 18 months. This stomach bug was a bitch though. Won't go into the details, but fortunately it was only a 24 hr thing. And as an added bonus I dropped a couple pounds without trying. Needless to say, however, I missed the gym today and missed my macros in a major way yesterday and am thinking it difficult to get there today too. A total body purge makes protein loading seem a whole lot less appetizing.

You are so so wise. I agree on all points and feel like you are speaking with my voice. Love the "maintenance mode" comment, that is totally what happened for me too. Agreed on the challenge creating a habit. I think I will stay on this thread for this challenge and then move back over to the battle log. I think another good thing about the battle log approach will be that I won't feel like I have to get on and post and keep the challenge thread going. I can and will post, but just as I need to and want to. Then I am free to just stalk and read up on how the rest of the rebellion is doing without feeling the pressure to stay on top of it all. Too many threads move too fast for to feel like I can participate meaningfully. The battle log will give me the freedom to just drop in and out all the time, more my style anyhow.

I have struggled with the idea of not drinking wine. I know I am not an addict in the conventional sense because I don't drink until I'm drunk, it doesn't affect my home life or work life, yadda yadda, but I am not sure my relationship with booze is entirely healthy either. I seriously have panic thoughts when I think about not having a glass or two of wine at the end of the night. I am super precise with my macros and I measure everything and I am always careful to leave room for 5 or 10 oz a day. That sounds kind of sick as I write it out and read back over it! Wow. Anyhoo, I identify with your no wine-ing goal. Tips on overcoming the panicked thoughts? Keep rockin' it!

recovered from my weekend miss on my macros. i gotta say i think i really prefer this daily metric better than the 6-week challenges. debating whether i want to give up challenges and just go back to my long ignored battle log. i am not really grading myself over 6 weeks. i am not tracking anything for role playing purposes. i have not created any rewards for myself. i am not sure this is the best method to approach my new tack. more to contemplate...

No, it sounds like a lot to me. Kick ass.

If there is a reason for my existence it is to eat tacos. I am not sure how I follow their impact on your weight though. Are you having deep fried or flour or something? A solid corn tortilla with carne asada or chicken is like my go to meal. Macro proportions are like perfect for me, but then again I am not in the paleo school. Now I need to go eat some tacos...

k, so I am back into the swing of reading up on nutrition in some of my free time. I believe I am like the classic yo yo dieter and I have been killing my metabolism over the years. I basically have this pattern where I am either in consistent deficit and losing weight or eating like a total fucking asshole with very little in between. I have a bit of a conundrum now though because I am not happy at my current weight. I think if I can drop the last 12 lbs I gained that I might best be served by staying there for awhile, slowly working on increasing my maintenance calories. If I could keep my BF and weight where I am comfortable and work on increasing my capacity to take on more calories then go on a cut again, rinse and repeat I would slowly build the metabolism and the body I want. This is more like a 5-10 year project, even longer than I had been planning recently. Just an observation worth sharing. I missed my macros a little on Saturday, not too too bad, but a miss. I was on target Sunday and yesterday though. I have been pretty well on track with curfew and exercise.

Hey Ash! How you been?!? Got a thread I can follow? Thanks for stopping by!

No fun, sorry. Ginger tea seems like it might make everything better. On the bright side being sick allows you to keep kcals down for a day without even having to think about or count them or anything. Seriously though, get better soon!

Damn man your lifts are so serious these days. I have like a life quest to get to 400 lbs on my DL. It is actually quite literally in my Epic Quest thread in my siggy. I hear you about gym slobs. Totally fucking annoying. The gym I go to has two power lifting "barbell clubs" with a morning crew (my crew) and and evening crew. I feel like my crew is always cleaning up after dumb shit the evening crew leaves lying around. I don't know what makes them so special that the feel like it is okay for others to pick up their shit. Also, why do you keep putting the 10s behind the 45s?!?!?! Are you stupid? K, 'nough venting on your thread. Keep kickin' ass!

k, so along the theme of my need to track things I understand I am not in control and the need to feel like I am may not be productive, but alas, I do it anyway. I have a new daily tracker to get me to 40. I am putting to rest my Degobah weight chart below and have started a new one. Too depressing to always see where I was in late Feb and early March.

I like and appreciate your assessment. I do have to say though I am not sure I follow its relation to my path. I actually feel like my micromanaging and tracking of inputs and outputs worked rather well. I saw consistent weight and fat loss and increased muscle mass and strength in my lifts over a period of 8 months. I have issues I think living in ambiguity, which may be another way of stating what you have listed. This is how I see my my recent failure playing out, as a series of missteps... 1) My coach and I decided I could compete in a power lifting meet and that in order to prep I could increase my carb and calorie intake a few hundred calories to see bigger lifts over a 4 month horizon. I started adding more calories. 2) My weight indeed did not go up much, just a couple pounds. I was at 175 before and then my weight ticked up to 178-ish over several weeks. 3) I decided I was too busy to post daily on NF and would move to weekly. 4) I decided I was too busy to read on NF others threads. If I am not going to "participate" I thought, why would I write shit on my own thread. A community does not work if I expect others to read my posts but I don't bother checking in on them. That is just selfish. I have my own spreadsheets and lifting logs, so no need to share. There is a fine line here as it relates to accountability though right? 5) I moved while work got crazy simultaneously. I started drinking at night to deal with the stress. Entering 21 oz of wine in MFP and calculating my alcohol at sometimes 30% of my daily calories was discouraging. 6) The stress continued to mount and I continued to take the wrong way out. Pizza, beer, the usual suspects. I gave into stress not really an acknowledgement of a lack of continued success at all. My weight ticked up a bit again, now I was in the low 180s. Still I could eat pizza and drink beer and just lift 3 days a week and stay in the low 180s? Why not. 7) I stopped NF altogether. I stopped recording calories. 8) Bad habits returned. If I am not accountable. I don't have any defined parameters and I am not checking my caloric intake. Results? Total fucking shit show. Who knows what I was drinking and eating. I woke up to read 189.5 on the scale. And I am back. To be clear this was not intended to be more whining, more of a chronology and a documenting of the slippery slope. I think the simple act of tracking and reporting on my tracking to others periodically is really all I need. If I let those two things go I have a hard time. I can still drink beer sometimes, but if I never record it and see that 1000 calorie spike it is like it didn't happen. If it didn't happen then I don't see my body changing. Anywho. My two cents at this point. Thanks for the tip on the book. Is it Matt Perryman by chance? Amazon has a kindle addition I may check out.

Reading this thread I think I just figured out why they call this nerd fitness. That read on Ragnarök was pretty interesting. Thanks.

Whoa! That is some badass shit man! Super impressed. I am not sure my glass nose could handle that kind exercise. Kick ass man. Do you have any more fights planned on the horizon?

A journey of 7s perhaps. If I do a 10 week challenge, then take of 2 weeks and repeat 7 times I will arrive at my destination. This does not fit neatly into the mold of the rebellion's 6 week efforts with periodic one and two week breaks. I do like the idea of going a little longer like 10 weeks and always taking a little longer of a break. I am mindlessly rambling at this point. Just excited.

Some math... It is 574 days. 82 weeks. How to divide this quest.... Into challenges, into one major challenge, into a handful... 10x 8 week sessions seems to have a nice ring to it. Maybe. Hmm...