Shanemr

A bit of a opener, I did not advance to level 2 since a little more than halfway through my last challenge I just fell off, completely, I deserve nothing for that. So this will be my second challenge, I started.... quite strong in my first challenge, I did have some accomplishments, and I had a major win with selling my house (Closing paperwork this week). So I have alleviated my biggest hindrance, my Big Empty House. I got into the gym, I got into jogging, I was feeling great, but then, my old nemesis depression crept up and quickly smashed my work and scattered my motivation. I've been drinking too much, stopped meal prepping, and basically sinking into a funk the closer I've gotten to my 32nd birthday this Wednesday. An effect of long term single life, with a fear of forever. Sappy stuff aside, it's no boon to me to wallow in my loneliness, I'll be moving somewhere local for the next 6 months while I research leaving my hometown and finally getting out, it definitely took me long enough. Part of my fall fulfillment will be the purchase of a Kayak, something I have wanted for a long time now. Now to sit here and ponder through my work day on realistic, obtainable goals, I would normally push on my previous goals but I'm not even that far anymore. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ My life goal needs to be more activities, less bar life. Gods I don't want to become a "Regular". I'm going to get back training and start going out to the local 5K races, try to build a team to run with and more. I want to participate in no less than three 5K races in the next 6 weeks. I can think of life goals....Exercise goals are harder even though they are more rigid and defined. Running, I need to get back to going at least 10 miles a week. Lifting, I need to get back in the gym and on the SL5x5 try to add at least 30 pounds to all my lifts Health, I still smoke, I want to quit, I need to quit, all of this has minimal gains while puffing those horrible things. They make me feel terrible. This going along with the bar and drinking. Less time at the bar, the less the urges will be. This happens now. I'm not so good at the assigning stat points to my goals, or making really concrete finish line goals. These are 4 things I want to accomplish. It's an interesting day to write all this out as I am on a low mentally right now. Life is challenging, even more so alone, but it is my life and I do have some power to enact changes over things I can control. I accomplished selling my house, that alleviates a lot of stress off of me, mainly all the yard work, repairs, maintenance, and the feeling of being trapped. I have lived there since I was 12 so 20 years now. I've never gotten to travel, go to college, or a list of other things. These are all still on my list. In the near future I am looking into a 2 year Engineering degree, and with some of the money from the house finally go see the remaining safe places to visit on my list. I turn 32 Wednesday, that's young to many people but I feel the clock ticking faster. Now is the time to stop wasting those ticks on drinking, and other non rewarding activities.

Mon-Fri wake up at 6AM eat breakfast, usually some sort of egg and veggie scramble. Grab lunch out of fridge depending on if I had time to cook, drive to work. I work from 7AM-5:30 at a desk helping walk in and phone customers. I generally don't get to move around much. I usually don't go to lunch. I get off at 5:30 and head home. Mon-Wed-Fri I eat around 7PM and go to the gym around 8PM, home shower sleep repeat for 5 days. Weekends are random. Usually nothing very exciting. on Tues and Thursday I go jogging, and sometimes one day on the weekend. Just go search Paleo recipes, learn to cook. It's survival.

If you run a lot you may need some carbs, especially if your day to day life is active. Go look at the nutritional info on a loaf of regular white bread and 100% Whole grain wheat. The carb count is the same, a few other values are slightly better on the wheat, but in all it's not that different. One sandwich (2 slices of bread) is at or just over 200 calories, not even counting what you put between them. So lets assume a condiment, some probably processed meat, cheese, tomato, lettuce etc. The basic sandwich is now probably is the 400-500 calorie range, Or have some raw veggies such as broccoli, carrot sticks, or even some steamed mixed veggies and you lose most of the sugars and fat, plus you cut the calorie intake about in half. Imagine the typical guy lunch, Ham sandwich, mayo, lettuce, tomato, a soft drink, and a bag of chips. Depending on the choices made you can be hitting 800+ calories and a ton of carbs in what most people consider a light lunch. Replace cola with water, the sandwich with some baked chicken and steamed veggies and you can eat just as much or more and cut the calories and carbs by more than half. As I said before I have a VERY sedentary job that last from 7AM-5:30PM I aim to be at or just under 1800 calories a day, and as few carbs as possible without going overboard. When my diet is where I want it and clean like a good Paleo lover, I feel amazing, the weight is easier to drop, and I don't even have to wear deodorant as I stop producing any body odor. My body loves to carry weight, I HAVE to stick to a super strict diet or I start putting weight back on.

Sorry, I have been so busy at work even my game apps on my phone have been asking why I left them all alone. That and packing and finding a place to go has been it's own adventure. With all the activity and work stress, plus some weird tweak I did to my left shoulder I have slipped off track a bit. I am locking that down today. @hansjay Hello, my apologies on the lack of a response. Work has finally slowed down enough to come back on and update. I really believe in the paleo approach, the catch is meal prep is time consuming and requires planning and forethought. I am still learning quite a bit myself. Most of my improvements were from obvious changes in diet. cutting out the "fat kid" tendencies, no fast food, avoid bread, and adjust caloric intake to activity level, which for me is very little except in the gym. I work a desk job where the phone and walk-in customers keep me in this chair about 9-10 hours a day 5 days a week. @Kailer I can hardly recall what I did over the weekend..*processing*.. I finished the head gasket job on my car, and modifying/installing new aftermarket cooling fans, played another rousing round of D&D, did some packing, and went looking at apartments/rental properties. I have a few leads, but the big lack is what I would consider qualified room mates. I will have something figured out by months end though.

Update of everything else. It's going great, I am building mass, my weight is holding steady but my midsection is shrinking. I can feel hard spots that used to be squishy. My legs are beast, my run has gotten a bit short seeing as the heat here lately is nearly dangerous even in the evening but I am going about 3 miles a session. My diet has been good and steady, and my lifting has been increasing steadily I haven't hit any walls yet. I have also been incorporating lifts and exercises other than the SL 5x5 routine, such as pull ups, which I have reached 5. And as mentioned above I have found a buyer for the house, hopefully have it all finalized by end of next month!

Looks like I have a buyer for the house! Shopping apartments and getting the gears cranking for my first move.

I'm not up to topless confidence yet. Living an entire life overweight and fat, being made fun of as a kid, and a bevy of other confidence crushing moments, I'm feeling 400% better about myself, but I still have a bit of healing to do before I go anywhere shirtless.

Oh, also on the house. I have made a few moves, there are a few glaring things that need fixin' before I can attempt to sell it to some poor...er lucky would be home owner. The central AC is 10 years old and has started to self-destruct. It seems the air handler in the attic was attacked by some wandering rust monster and although it still works, it's durability is at about 20% I could get into details but let's just leave it at an obvious problem. I have gotten one quote at $6,700 for a basic Trane unit. I have a few more quotes in the works. I also an attempting to contact a few contractors for other small fixes around the house. There are a few houses in my area up for sale, so I view it as dating, I don't want it to look like a fixer upper. Now, there is a master plan here. I need a new car, my 2006 Nissan Sentra Spec-V mini wannabe race car after 2 engine rebuilds is not the most reliable basic transportation....So a small refinance will net me all the fixes, debt paid off, and about half the cost of a new/newer car. Keep my bills nearly the same after paying off my old debt, And score me a much nicer house that will boast a new metal roof, a new AC system, and other "Renovations". I can't be in a rush and get in a bind waiting for it to sell. This route will assist me in making it the long run while I hope for a buyer. Note: Unless I become wealthy at some point, once the house is sold I may never buy a house again....

I realize I overshot my pullups goal. 5 was more realistic going back to back. As for weight, doing the 5x5 powerlifting I gained weight. Finally, I haven't missed a workout..as per the weight gain. Im still pleased with progress and have a better understanding of setting goals.

Stronglifts 5x5 current weights as of 8/15/2014 Squat: 75 LB Bench: 95 LB Row: 70 LB OH Press: 70 LB Deadlift: 105 LB

The house, well, my first step is to get an appraisal to get an actual value to use for the sale. There are a few more projects that I need to complete before I consider it picture worthy to actually advertise and have people come look at it. I have been trimming up all the random bits of stuff around the house to minimalize , clean and prepare if someone did pop up and want to buy. The part that makes my running difficult is the same thing that makes yard work so hard, 94+ degree weather with 90%+ humidity every day, and lately it's been raining before I get home so it becomes an unbearable sauna outside. (Southern Louisiana) The same weather has been cutting my runs short, I just sweat so much it's ridiculous, and after running outside being on a treadmill is not the same, it sucks.

Everything is going well, The running has gained a good bit of ground, I am now completing 5 miles in roughly 55 minutes breaking my personal one hour goal. Tonight I had my first round of Strong Lifts 5x5 at the gym instead of my limited weights at home. On my run days I have been working on my pull ups throughout the day. The diet is solid, paleo, keeping in line. THe weight isn't changing much but I am losing bulk where it matters, wearing clothes I wouldn't fit in before. Another motivator was seeing the guy next to me at the gym deadlifting 405 pounds tonight. First day is squat, bench, and barbell row. I started at Squat: 55lb Bench: 65lb and Row: 65lb. I can see where these 5 powerlifting exercises and the incremental increases will make a big difference. I'm pretty stoked and feel better a month from 32 than I ever did even as a teenager.

The 6 workouts won't be that bad, I love doing my 5 miles 3 times a week and once I have my gym membership this week, the SL5x5 isn't very time consuming, and the gym is literally less than 10 minutes from my work. The pullups I can do at the gym and at home, and yeah 10 may be a bit much. I'm OK with setting my goals high though. The house actually has a mortgage for just under 80K left on it, I'm gonna ask 140K pay off all my debt and walk away with around 50K, a little traveling, and see about getting back into some education. I have never gotten to travel, and I turn 32 in a month. I have Japan at the top of my list, Ireland, Scotland, New Zealand, and a few others. So yeah, use the money to go travel. Also, I never went to college, at 19 I lost my dad and had to take care of my Mom until she passed 5 years later working full time or 2 jobs. So I need to work on some education, or at least certifications in a field. I really want to go to college in a classroom setting and go for engineering. I'll see when I get there. This week after my run, which with the Louisiana heat and humidity means a lot of sweat, I weighed in at 189 and leveled off at 191 after a day. So keeping with my Paleo diet, and pushing my workout routines the next 6 weeks I am expecting to be real close to my goals in weight, getting my 5 miles under an hour (currently at 1 hour 8 minutes) and start slowly stepping up my protein for my lifting.

That joke already crossed my mind, I even had some sports wrap at home I was eyeballing. But, now I have a kickass looking compression shirt to work towards looking badass in.

Well I have a rather hairy chest, I'm a bit against adhesives there. I bought a Nike sleeveless compression shirt at TJ Maxx, $20. Did my 5 miles and no problems. The interesting part was that thing got soaked in sweat, really helped cool me off as long as I kept moving.