senseiadams

Update - still running, still losing weight! Weight loss: 6/20 - 230 8/15 - 215 10/16 - 202!. Goal weight is undetermined and ultimately pointless as it'll change constantly when I add power lifting back in. Registered for a Spartan 5k in 2015...lots more work to do!

I really want to do a Color Run, we have them on occasion here in Nashville. I think it'd be a trip to dress the whole family in white, cover the strollers and run with the kiddos. I'll probably do an official 5k soon, but I'm going to keep on training for now. My end-goal at this point would be to be able to sign up with the wife for a full marathon sometime next year! Well, that, and to not be overweight anymore.

My wife (33) got put on this (massively restricted) diet in order to rule out some triggers for a medical condition that has been affecting her health for quite some time. She is already quite small (underweight, imo), so she's not used to having to watch what she eats - she's had 3 babies and still has a rockhard 8 pack, so she's doing something right. On my end, I'm 2 years older, 40 pounds overweight, and i love my wife - so I'm doing the diet with her, in order to ease our food choices and show some support. If I benefit from 4 weeks of total abstinence of most negative foods, so much the better (and it can kick start me into Paleo discipline). Do you have any advice or success stories revolving around this specific diet, from a "how to manage" point of view? It's not a problem actually sticking to the diet, it's more a problem of options! When you can't have any acidic foods, artificial coloring, or preservatives it really knocks out a lot of foods regardless of whether they are marketed as "whole," "clean," or "Organic". Ugh. Thanks!

I haven't yet, but I'm debating it. Still running 3x a week, adding weights back in as my back gets more confident. Down 5 more pounds since original post!

Background - 35 years old, 215 pounds, 6'4 of good intentions and zero follow-through. So, I registered here with lofty goals and great intentions back in December of 2013. I started power lifting, absolutely loved it, and then two things happened: First, a military-related back injury flared up and landed me in the hospital Second, I got laid off from my job. As you can imagine, this put a damper on my mood, I lapsed into semi-depression, and I started eating poorly again. I started drinking sugary drinks again, stopped eating clean, and generally made bad choices. Three weeks ago, I was playing with my (now 2 year old) daughter, and realized I was breathing heavily. While playing with a 20 pound toddler. I was mortified. My wife has had three children, and is still an avid runner with a 5'4, 102 pound perfect body that you would never GUESS was a baby-making factory. Talk about giving me, the retired-military-combat-medic-wanna-be-powerlifter-former-karate-teacher an inferiority complex! So I got off my ass. I started doing the bodyweight program, since I'm afraid of messing up my back again. If I can get past the fear, I'll be going back into Starting Strength. But, I started running. I work in Centennial Park in Nashville, in a large corporate complex, and the park is an amazing place to go for a run. I started running old Army PT drills, which are oddly similar to the C25K program in retrospect, just with more yelling. 3 weeks later, yesterday, I ran a full 3.2 (slightly over 5k!) miles, nonstop. I feel fantastic. I'm down 7 pounds, I gave up sugar again, and I'm making my own lunches and dinners rather than "one last fast food trip" every day. So, I'm patting myself on the back. I have a long, long way to go to the svelte, combat-ready body I once had...but I know that with the right discipline and motivation, I can be the first man in my family to maintain a healthy lifestyle into my middle years and beyond.

207 (was 225), at 6'4. I'll probably lose more though, I'm doing everything on a caloric deficit.

Beastmode! Our goals are fairly similar, though mine aren't specific pounds as much as body weight percentages. Bench: 1x Bodyweight Squat: 1.5x Bodyweight DL: 2x Bodyweight and also 10 pullups. We should map these out together, set a goal date, etc. I'm starting the next 6-week challenge too in January. Keep it up!! Edit: I show day 3 SL with a 70lb barbell row. Did you modify?

On a side note, two new woots today: punched a new hole in my belt, and I fixed my squat form to finally break the plane of the knee!

Day 5 complete Squats 5x5 65 Bench 5x5 55 B Rows 5x5 75 Also did 3 sets of 5 pull-ups, 85 on assist. This means I'm now pulling over 50% of my body weight. This was difficult so I may stall on it soon. I fixed my squat form too! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Still at it. 16 days! Thank you all soooooo much for the encouragement!

Nevermind. Instagram hates me. I'll edit this later.

Awesome. I'm having difficulty getting low enough in my squats, personally. As to the barbell rows, I've been doing pullups on the assist machine instead. Way to bang it out!

Awesome! Squats 5x5 - 60 OHP 5x5 - 50 DL 1x5 - 105 I think my form is improving, I found a power rack surrounded by mirrors today, and I was able to make sure I wasn't bending over in my squat. I still have a little trouble with hip flexibility, but I'm at least parallel now. Deadlifting is going to kill my shins though.

That's the whole reason I'm nervous - I ruptured two disks (L4/L5, L5/S1) in the Army, less than 24 months ago. I am just now weight-training and trying to get back into shape, now that I've been fully cleared. So far i have had absolutely zero pain, only gains and loss of weight. I am planning on recording my lifts tomorrow, and uploading to the form checks - I'm betting my squat and deadlift could use a little TLC. Thank you so much for the support.

It isn't affecting rows yet per se, more that I've been a little nervous. So far, I've managed 4 sessions without any back pain. I'm hoping if I can perfect my form, that I can avoid injury/reinjury. The jury is still out, but so far so good.

Congrats! I've never had a bodyweight bench either, I'm hoping to get mine eventually!

Rather than the barbell rows, I've been using pullups (with assisted pullup machine) to supplement. I have had a previous back injury and i'm a little more comfortable with this than I am with a new exercise I haven't done before. Is this a viable alternative? I started out at 210 pounds bodyweight, using 115 on the assist. I've dropped it to 100 so far. It's not as "super easy" as the rest of the week 1 Stronglift exercises, but considering they aren't taxing me at all at this point, I figured it's not really doing any damage (since I don't have to learn form, especially). What are your thoughts? Thanks!

Squats 5x5 - 55 Bench 5x5 - 50 Assisted Pullups 5x5 - 100 The assisted pull machine only had 15lb incriments, I was extremely pleased at dropping 15pounds from the assist and banging out the sets easier than I did with the extra help! Also down 2 pounds, and still no sugar. Woohoo!

5 days later, still soda-free, and down two more pounds!

I'm in TN, but I work for a company HQ'd in MPLS and I'm up there several times a year

The word you are looking for is Bunkai, and any student of Funakoshi Sensei who doesn't teach it is quite frankly cheating his students out of the entire art. Kata is there to drill in repetitive motion and train both sides of the body. Bunkai is there to glean the hidden movements out of the kata and apply them to a fully resistant partner/opponent. Sadly these days, most schools who proclaim themselves as "Shotokan" completely misrepresent the art as Shihan Gichin intended it to be.

Day 2 complete. Squats 5x5 - 50 Overhead Press 5x5 - 45 Deadlift 1x5 - 95 No sugar for 48 hours...in addition to 10 days soda-free.

I'm doing pullups instead of the barbell rows actually - I think it's a better back/arm workout than the rows. I haven't done a deadlift day yet, but according to most of the posters here, it's one of the holy trinity of weight lifting exercises, so I'm stoked to get to it. Today is my interval day too. Tomorrow i add 5 to the squats and start a 45lb overhead press and 95 pound deadlift. We'll see how that goes. Happy lifting!

I did the same thing yesterday I was completely lost on where to start, so I browsed around and found the Stronglifts program. If you're looking for an accountabilibuddy, I'm starting day 2 tomorrow (today is recovery). It's a pretty simple program to start. 5 sets of 5. Day one is: 5x5 Squats, 45 pounds (just the bar) 5x5 Bench, 45 pounds 5x5 Barbell Rows, 65 pounds (bar, 10lb weight each side) They even have an iphone app that keeps up with the reps and tells you the right exercises for the day that you're on. And it's free! Congrats on the start!

I was a poster child for the cola companies. I probably went through at least 2 12-packs of sugary sodas throughout the week and weekend at home, and several 20 ounce bottles per day at work. I started phasing them out about a month ago, backing down one less can this day, one less bottle and can this day, etc. Now I'm a water-addicted freak, and I'm down 21 pounds. I haven't had a pepsi, mountain dew, or other form of liquid sugary death in a week. I've done this before, the longest I managed was 3 months before "rewarding myself" became "full on soda binge", but I just don't see myself going back to drinking in excess of 1500 liquid calories a day after this. Woot! I'm Soda-Free!