Josh_C

I've read about butter in coffee and coconut oil in coffee. They had some coconut oil at my grocer on same so I figured what the heck. Those who have tried it: is it normal for the melted oil to collect a bit on top of the coffee?

Finally worked up to a hard set today on the squat. Got down in the hole with 115 and knew there was no way I was doing 5. I was right. Of course some of that may be mental. Either way, went with 3x5 today and plan to go for 5x5 again Monday. It's almost more satisfying to have to lower the reps and know I'm really working. Weird? Also, like so many others, I want to do pull ups. So I'm just gonna sub them in for the rows. I will start with as many chins as possible, then move to assisted pulls until I can bang them out LIKE A BOSS.

Good to hear Somme!! Congrats on the progress.

Fixed!

Any feedback on my bench press?

Have they called anyone? The police? A lawyer? Are you in the US?

Ok, so I've been spending time re-reading SS and checking out those links. I thought my back was looking good in the mirror. I've found that I need to maintain more of a horizontal back in order to keep it flat and keep my hips up. I thought I had it nailed, but then video taped myself yesterday. Not entirely pleased with the results, but I would be curious to hear how y'all think I can improve. I can't tell if maybe I should drop my hips a bit? Is it a matter of pulling my shoulders back?

More of an IF question than LG. In an effort to stave off too much fat gain during my 2.5 Thanksgiving dinners (two family dinners and a out-to-eat dinner with friends) I'm going to throw some 20-24 hour fasts in. So my schedule would be: Tuesday: normal 6-8 hour eating window ending around 6 pm. Ab Ripper X in the morning for a workout Wednesday: My normal SL workout for the day. In week 3. Just dinner at 6 and some whey. Thursday: A Thanksgiving 5K in the morning. Just dinner with lots o turkey and other deliciousness. Dinner will probably be around five. So like a 23 hour fast. Friday: My normal SL workout, "dinner" at 3PM which will be about an 18 hour fast.

I'm in week three of SL. This is the second time I've done the program. But the first time I'm actually trying to eat more. Also, last time I was simultaneously training for a marathon. Loving it so far. Of course my timing wasn't great considering my girlfriend and I are halfway through a weight loss challenge that ends at Christmas. @Corey: why the switch to lat pull downs?

Pittsburgh, PA. Voted one of the best places to live multiple times (doing this on my mobile and will update with links later). It is dirt cheap to live here. I can walk to get my groceries, AT&T has LTE here and you can get FioS in a lot of the city (or Comcast). There are distinct neighborhoods and each has its own flavor. But they are all accessible via bus from each other. Did I mention it's cheap? Also there is a movie theater with a VIP section that is baller. Pittsburgh is a recovered steel town. Google has a big presence here thanks to Carnegie Mellon University. There are lots of affordable cultural events (just walked out of seeing Chicago for $25.) There is a strong running community if that's your thing. Multiple CrossFit boxes, a good biking community. Our jail is an old castle. It's the city of champions. Home of Wiz Kalifa, Michael Keaton, Jeff Goldblum, Gene Kelly, and Christina Aguilera. It's also where the newest Batman movie was filmed and the home of CamsonRigby, LLC.

I don't think I've seen these? What are they called? (Edited to correct horrible grammar)

Very well done. I'm mega jealous of your ability to lift and train for a race at the same time. That home gym looks baller. I'm moving in April, hopefully to a house instead of an apartment. If so, I definitely want to build a gym. Either way, congrats all around. You're a big motivator around here.

Well done!!

As much as I love Ender's Game, I think it should be a book I haven't read 100 times. So I nominate Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl.

Is running outside an option? I used to loathe running when it was just the treadmill. I just watched that red clock until I hit my goal distance, and every second sucked. Switching to regular outdoor running made all the difference.

Greetings Scouts! This week in the Fall Frenzy we are collectively facing off against the Warriors. It should be a piece of cake crushing them into oblivion. The challenge is called Moving Your Body v. Moving Iron. We will run and those no-necks will try to lift weights. What you need to know: 1 meter of running is equal to 1lb of weight lifted (So a 5k run = 5,000lbs of total weight moved). Guild with the highest total average per participant wins All miles must be logged by Sunday, October 7. Log all miles here.

Weird timing for this post. I was just thinking about you on my commute yesterday Catspaw. I was listening to The Fat Burning Man podcast and he had a woman on. I think her name was Julia? I don't have the podcast info in front of me. But she runs a site about Paleo for women, and she was talking about fasting not working for women and having adverse effects. It sounds like a lot of her issues came from over exercising and under eating. But I just thought it was something you and other fasting female nerds might find interesting.

I agree. It's like there is one person out there designing every e-book sales site, and also every Viagra sales site.

Joel Runyon, in concert with Vic Magary (co-author of the Rebel Strength Guide) just released their "Impossible Abs" program. Anyone else looking into it? Doing it? Thoughts? http://impossibleabs.com/#pricing

38 days is plenty of time. Especially if you've always been a skinny guy and only recently put on a little weight. That will be much easier to shed. I would personally advocate some intermittent fasting (there is a whole thread on this) in combination with the lifting. But time is of the essence. Don't let yourself get overwhelmed with picking a program for lifting or dieting that you turn around and it's three weeks from now and you've just been puttering around.

How many 24 hour fasts are you planning on doing in a week? I found that doing the 24 hour fast, especially if there was a workout in the 24 hours, and then eating a regular meal as the book prescribes, is TOUGH. It was particularly silly a couple weeks ago when I was at a work conference. I had gotten up at my usual 5AM, lifted "heavy," driven to the conference, done a presentation, mingled on my feet for 2-3 hours, and then there was a cocktail hour. I had already hit 24 hours by that point. But having a captain & diet at that point was a poor decision. There were also no snacks at the cocktail hour. WTF?? By the time we sat down to dinner I was at about hour 25.5. I couldn't help myself and practically inhaled the dinner. I also found LG rough. I only did it for about 4-6 weeks, and found the same issues that you did. I've found it particularly tricky lately, since my schedule is completely different every single day. I was doing accidental 19-24 hour fasts, and then not having any good food available to break the fast. That being said, I do enjoy the fasting generally, even if it doesn't involve macro-counting. I've lost about 9 pounds in the last few months, and I've been feeling good. But in the last two weeks I went damn-near ketogenic to drop a little weight in anticipation of my vacation. Worked great but, as expected, could REALLY feel a loss in performance at the gym. Not a huge loss in the weight I was using, but at the end of workouts just felt more worn out. I also didn't make many gains in the two week period.

My girlfriend and I are going as Dr. and Mrs. Tobias Fünke.

I just finished reading Jason Ferruggia's "The Renegade Diet." Interesting stuff. He borrows liberally from lots of other authors like Ori Hofmekler, Brad Pilon, Robb Wolf, and Martin Berkhan. Essentially it is a Paleo-esque form of eating (high emphasis on all natural foods, grass-fed beef, etc.) with a recommendation of higher carb intake only right after working out in the afternoon. He couples this with a 16 hour fasting window, four hour "under eating phase" where you eat only protein and fat, and a four hour "overeating phase" where you eat your carbs. He also advises against any carbs besides green vegetables on non-training days. Lots of similar stuff to Berkhan here in my opinion. It's geared completely towards lifting in the afternoon, and I lift in the morning. There is a chapter on modifying accordingly, but it seems like too much of a pain to me. Some other interesting take aways: He recommends caloric intake for fat loss at 12xBW. This seems a bit high to me? EDIT: A cross-check with the IF Macro Calculator shows this as approximately my TDEE as well. Protein recommendation is 1 g per pound of DESIRED BW, with a maximum gain of 30 pounds and maximum loss of 50 pounds (I think. Don't feel like flipping through the book to check exact over/under numbers) Water recommendation of half your weight in ounces. So, if I weigh 190 pounds, I would drink 95 ounces in water a day. Recommends taking Athletic Greens, which seems to be a very costly supplement Recommends taking your temperature in the early afternoon for four days in a row. If it's not around 98.6, he says it means your metabolism is slow. Depending on how low, he recommends 2-3 weeks of eating at a caloric gain to get your temp/metabolism back up. He also recommends BCAAs, grass fed whey protein, transdermal magnesium, omega-3, and Vitamin D. I likely won't be following his plan, but I wanted to post to open up a discussion of anyone else that has read this book, or is considering it, and for some of the more science-y folks out there to weigh in on some of the above.

I agree with everything here re: liking your workouts. I only comment to add that I ran into this same situation in high school. I ended up going the no workout path. As a result, I didn't come back to fitness until after my first year of law school when I was 23. I've thought often how different my college years would have been if I had stuck with a fitness routine after losing my initial 20 pounds my sophomore year of high school. I'm guessing if I had stuck with it, I would not have looked like this at my college graduation: [ATTACH]5267[/ATTACH] My point is that you've already made progress and started on the habit. So don't take the easy out now. Like others have said, mess around until you find something you like. I once said I would never like running. Then I did couch to 5k and kept running from there. You won't know until you try. Good luck!

That's certainly my reading of what's been said so far. Grimm, I am literally doing the exact thing you are. I went with the PP Novice approach. It's only been a week but I like it. I can only do like 1-2 chins per set. On pull up day I did one, then the other sets were all zeros. But that one made me feel LIKE A BOSS. I had been doing lat pull downs and body weight rows before. Definitely saw some gains, but I think chins are the way to go in order to build to the pulls. I can only do a couple, but it's super fun. Also, I always felt awkward doing BW rows for some reason. Anyway, what I'm saying is I'm right there with you so of course I think it's an awesome decision.