Jarric

23 hours ago, Sepherina said:

This was a lightbulb moment for me.   I have in the past struggled with this particular part of bulking precisely because of this (struggled to eat enough).  I may have to dig more into this….and mull it over.

That's really interesting; I've not come across the idea that protein is an appetite supressant before. Generally I only worry about protein when I'm cutting - when I'm bulking and sticking to my normal protein shake routine I figure I'm going to get enough protein without trying, but it's a little harder to fit in on a calorie budget.

01/01/2024 - 174.4lbs

08/01/2024 - 172.0lbs

15/01/2024 - 170.9lbs

22/01/2024 - 169.2lbs

29/01/2024 - 169.0lbs

05/02/2024 - 168.8lbs

12/02/2024 - 169.2lbs

19/02/2024 - 165.7lbs

26/02/2024 - 167.1lbs

04/03/2024 - 167.3lbs

I'll take that to be honest. I stuck to the plan, and kept calories low early in the week to the point that I dropped to 163.8lbs by Saturday morning. After 4,000kcal on Friday, and another 3,750 on Saturday I'd pretty much used my weekly calories. As Sunday was my birthday I didn't track, and just grazed on chocolate most of the day which was really nice to do for a change. Overall, I'm happy with how I managed the week and optimistic that I can get the scale going down again this week.

On 2/29/2024 at 1:26 PM, sylph said:

Related to Carl Withakay, mayhap?

See now I don't know if there's an actual Carl Withakay character somewhere, or if you've just added something great to this character

Either way, I've just asked WW if Erica has a brother called Carl, and she said "She does now."

On 3/1/2024 at 7:29 PM, Laghail said:

Farmer Carry

• I did half mile of 80lb carries, how do the Rangers report this nonsense??

 

Same as any other lift, but with reps instead of distance. e.g. 3 x 100ft. x 155kg or whatever. (to be fair, I definitely don't do half mile farmers' carries )

That mantis shrimp comic is fascinating; thanks for sharing that.

On 3/1/2024 at 8:20 PM, TimovieMan said:

Proper weigh-in on Sunday, or Monday at the latest. 😇

Well, it's Sunday now...

On 3/1/2024 at 11:45 PM, DrFeelgood said:

The thing most people don't realize is that US customary units work the same; hence the saying "a pint's a pound the world around". 

I've never heard this saying before, but given that a UK pint weighs 1lb 4oz it's probably not very useful here. Though we have the saying 'a litre of water's a pin and three quarter', which I guess doesn't work in the states.

3 hours ago, DrFeelgood said:

Almost back down, now.  I reviewed my journal and apparently my eating was crazy for 10 straight days after the Feb 11 weigh-in.  I've been reeling it back in now for 11 straight days, which makes a nearly one-for-one recovery.  That's much better than the impression I've been carrying of needing 3 weeks to bounce back from 1 week off.    The coming week should see me overtake my previous low--that'll be very nice, indeed.

That's great news! Congrats on getting back on track so quickly.

On 2/29/2024 at 4:43 PM, Harriet said:

Interesting... I thought the only correct way to do a heavy lift is with the valsalva manoeuvre? I mean, I could breathe during a squat or deadlift, but I'd have to go a lot lighter and it would destabilise my back. I was more thinking about how I breathe during the rest. I don't breathe during an actual lift. 

Isn't the valsalva manoeuvre the thing where you hold your nose and breathe out to equalise pressure when swiming?

And no, I don't breathe during a squat/deadlift rep either, I was just talking about taking in air to brace your core before the start of the lift.

On 2/29/2024 at 4:09 PM, Harriet said:

You know, when it's cold and you want to eat Lebküchen. 

True. Also when it's mild. And when it's hot. Lebküchen is great.

On 2/29/2024 at 4:18 PM, Harriet said:

I tried some vegan protein powder today (can't eat egg whites, can't eat dairy, not sure tofu is good with iodine deficiency, don't eat fish, already eating a lot of meat, not going to eat seitan because of gluten). It was so utterly disgusting that I am not sure I will even be able to put a small amount in my oats. What the fuck were they thinking, putting that on the market for sale to humans? Ugh. 

I use vegan protein powder (because WW complains about the smell of whey protein if the shaker isn't washed out instantly). I've found a mint chocolate vegan protein blend is palatable enough for me to drink every day. Or vanilla-flavoured pea protein isn't too bad. I'd avoid rice protein personally, more from the texture rather than the taste.

I've always been intrigued as to what beef protein powder is like, but it's crazy expensive here.

20 hours ago, Sovalis said:

I think the challenge for me with this is that it will involve tracking again, which is something I find very fatiguing and have gotten away from. I am maintaining quite nicely with my intuitive eating, but the loss seems to have stalled a bit, which makes sense. I expected I would get to a point where my work activity was going to balance out what I was eating and it seems after six months it finally has. I wonder if my aversion to the tracking means that I am still dealing with diet fatigue to the point where it is unwise to start tracking again? I think I am at the Step 2 in the four steps, and I could maybe tackle Step 3 with a focus on increasing my veggies and tightening up my bread/junk food which has snuck up while Dave has been gone. 

I think that sounds like a sensible plan - I'd hold off on calorie tracking if you really don't feel mentally up to it right now. 

In theory you never need to count calories to lose weight, though for me it would be harder not to. If you're aware of your regular eating patterns then you can tweak the tyoe and quantity of food you eat, and probably see weight loss for a while. Then after a while you'll hit maintenance, and will have to reassess again. This is actually exactly the same process as with calorie tracking, it's just that with calorie tracking it's easy to go 'I'll drop my target number by 200kcal/day', whereas with tweaking your diet you have to think about more carefully about change strategies.

Either way, for now reducing junk and increasing veg is probably enough to see results.

18 hours ago, Harriet said:

My fatigue doctor wants me to avoid any exercise that requires mouth breathing. Um. But squats? So today I gave it a shot and it turns out I can squat 35kg x 5 and then breathe through my nose to recover. Not sure about heavier weights or higher reps though. Or walking up stairs. Definitely cannot do that. But perhaps this is a good reminder to keep the lifting mild given how sick I am. It's supposed to be the year of gentle wellness not the year of going HAM and gasping for air after exercises that are too hard for me. I will focus on consistency rather than upping the weights and reps too soon.

My coach always encourages us to breath through the nose only on squats and deadlifts. I'm crap at it, but theoretically it should be possible to go heavy doing that (with practice).

On 2/27/2024 at 4:26 PM, Harriet said:

Slug 12. I managed a bit better with the shadows and form this time.

 

The shading and highlights on this are amazing, absolutely love it.

W3D3

Yesterday was a good day. Crossfit was muscle ups, handstand pressups, and KB swings. I must have got around 18-20 muscle ups and twice as many HSPUs. Really pleased with that.

I then ran out of enthusiasm for the rest of the day, and laid in bed on my phone until lunchtime. Missed morning Duolingo.

Finally got some inspiration in the afternoon to set up our TV, and do a tiny bit of cleaning. I did also buy some cans of coke, which fails my hoardsperson goal.

I went bouldering, before chilling at home for the evening.

Kneehab done and heat applied, calories tracked, drew a tiny, shitty octopus, did evening Duolingo, teeth brushed. 5.5/6.

2 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Then I challenge you to draw something purposefully ugly. 😄 It’s weird but it can help!

Oo, now that's interesting. I'm finding it harder to think of something to draw than seems reasonable, but I'll try and come up with something.

Glad the university gig got sorted out, that sounds really exciting! Also, handy that you can now fit your trousers, because going to work in sweats might not be the best starting image

Hope Ghostess's trial stuff goes smoothly.

5 minutes ago, Laghail said:

You’re a beast. Totally get that feeling 

Thank you mate.

W3D2

Yesterday was a good day. Did my kneehab as a warm-up before a very slow cycle. Working from home, though I had technical issues plaguing my morning and was very busy.

In the evening we had Pathfinder session zero, and by the time we got home I was exhausted. I went straight to bed skipping food, languages, art, and teeth brushing. Spent money on parking and a drink at Pathfinder. Calories were low at least. 2.5/6

Pathfinder stuff for those interested:

We had session zero of abomination vaults, which was a bit of talk about the session (not too much to discuss, as Paizo produce really good players' guides for their adventure paths, so we had a good idea of the setting/premise). Then we set about making our characters, and working out party optimisation (checking we had all the roles, skills, and equipment we needed between us). We wouldn't usually bother, but Abomination Vaults has a real reputation for TPKs, and we'd like to try our best to survive. Our party is, provisionally:

• Trip, my human inventor. He's an archer, crafter, and will have all of the INT skills covered. I will also be our hoardsperson (i.e. I'll keep track of the party's loot).
• Charnamé, a wood elemental person kineticist. He will be our front line tank. The player is our documancer (he'll keep good notes of every session, unlike the rest of us who'll keep bad notes)
• Erica Withakay, a frost-touched human leaf druid with a leshy familiar. She'll be our healer, primal caster, and cover the WIS skills. This is WW's character, and she'll also be our cartographer (she'll map the dungeon for us)
• Obong, King of the Swamp (I think), a monkey folk rogue. He'll be our trap-finding, lock-picking, skill-monkey skirmisher.
• An as-yet-unnamed fetchling summoner and his undead eidolon. He'll be weird divine magic, and the eidolon might be a front line fighter while he stands back and blasts cantrips I think? The player will be our rules lawyer (he'll look up rules to take some of the work off the GM)

W3D1

Monday was a good day. Crossfit was squats, 95kg (190#) x 3, 85kg x 5, 77.5kg x 7. Then some rope climbs and rowing.

Work was busy, but we had a team lunch for someone's birthday which was fun. I finished late though, and was knackered in the evening.

We had to do some cleaning as we had an electrician coming round Tuesday, which used the remainder of my energy. Skipped kneehab and art, calories tracked (a little high from lunch), and languages done. 5/6 (with the double up from cleaning and hoarding).

On 2/27/2024 at 2:27 PM, Sovalis said:

I think you are doing quite well considering how off you have been feeling. I hope that next week is better for you though, it’s a bummer to read you sounding so disappointed. 

 

Looking forward to hearing about your session zero!!

Thank you. I don't actually know if I'm feeling disappointed because I'm not doing as well as I'd like on my goals, or if I'm disappointed because I'm just feeling off. Either way, I hope this week is better for me too!

Session zero was not super exciting, mostly just trying to balance a party that won't be immediately killed in session 1, but I will do a proper recap (maybe not tonight now).

10 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Sharing is caring you knows.😉 What makes you not feeling it, is it creative resistance or not fun or something else? Feeling tired is definitely not conducive to art making so hopefully it’s just that. 

I know, I just haven't drawn anything I didn't hate in the last week. Although to be fair, I've drawn exactly one thing in the past week, so that's not particularly surprising. I'm just not really feeling inspired to draw anything, and although forcing myself to do some little 2-minute doodles is probably the right thing to get me back in the swing of it, that isn't very inspiring.

2 hours ago, Laghail said:

 

I call bullshit. You're deeply committed to language learning and to your own growth. I'm cool with you observing that you're unhappy with how things went, but I'm wanna put a vote in for how hard you're working on this stuff.

Thank you man. Let's reframe that; I'm not happy with the amount of time I've been putting into this recently, and I want to make it more of a priority.

10 hours ago, Snarkyfishguts said:

 

oh yay!! Happy birthday a wee bit early  

 

Someone said to me that weight loss isn’t so tidily scheduled and that bodies are not Amazon prime and I’ve been obsessed with that since.  You’re doing great!

Thank you! And yeah, that is a very fair point. I'll be cutting for the next cycle of this challenge too (assuming we do it again), so it really doesn't matter if I hit the goal at the end of this one.

7 hours ago, athousandwords said:

Happy early birthday to a fellow March baby! 🥳

 

My birthday's on Friday, and my daughter's is on Sunday, so with all the celebrating I'm sure I'll be up next week. I'm just going to enjoy it though - it's part of the journey.

Happy early birthday to you too! 🎉I share a birthday with your daughter then! Hope both you and your daughter have great days when they come.

On 2/27/2024 at 4:47 PM, Harriet said:

Ah, you're doing cycles? How do you approach them?

No idea yet  . I bulked a bit last year, then stuck in rough maintenance during race season, then started a half0hearted attempt at cutting in about November and started cutting properly in January. I like the sound of 3-month bulk and cut cycles, but I really need to decide how long I want this cut to be first!

On 2/27/2024 at 4:47 PM, Harriet said:

I am not doing it yet. Honestly I need to develop some consistency before I even worry about optimising. My current programme is: go the fuck to the gym 3 times a week for 3 months, then reassess. I might try creatine later. I did try it once when I was lifting more consistently, and it upset my stomach. I understand it's only a minor benefit--maybe one more rep per set--and that you get a bit from meat anyway. I'm a hungry environmental vandal and I eat a quarter kilo of meat every day so I might not need creatine.

That sounds like a excellent programme, which will get you a long way.

And yeah, creatine supplements have a fairly marginal effect, and for some people they don't work at all. It would depend what your creatine phosphate storage capacity is, but some people will reach saturation just from diet and some will be able to take on a fair bit more through supplements. It's probably never likely that the gains will outweigh the lack of lifting you'll want to do if it gives you a bad stomach though.

Week 2 stats

The muscle - 6/7 kneehab sessions done, though one was a token gesture. Only managed to apply heat 3 times, but got 3/4 cycle sessions.

The decisionist - 7/7 days tracked. Finished the week at 18,907kcal (average 2,701 per day), over my target of 18,000, so no extra credit. I was basically over because I was 1,000kcal over on Sunday, otherwise I would have made it. I gained 1.4lbs this week, but I lost 3.5lbs the previous week so it's probably still a realistic number.

The cartographer - 2/7 days doing art, and I didn't share any art here. I need to get my mojo back with this; I'm really not feeling it right now.

The translator - 4.5/7 days of Duolingo (actually 2 days and 5 half days). More commitment needed here, mainly to do an evening lesson when I've already done a morning lesson.

The hoardsperson and the campmaker - 6/7, being 5 days with no spending and one cleaning session. Could easily have done another cleaning session, but this still isn't bad.

The face - 4/7 days of tooth brushing. This is a sure sign that I've been tired/overwhelmed/feeling rubbish, though I'm not sure what to do with that information right now.

Week 3 will be all about calorie damage reduction early in the week, as I have a friend's work leaving do and my birthday at the weekend. I'll also be having session zero of our Abomination Vaults campaign (finally!), and I'm hoping that will give me some enthusiasm for art again. For the other goals I just need to put in some damn effort.

W2D7

Sunday was a good day. Went outside on a real bike for the first time in bloody ages. Turned into a 2-hour ride (with some pushing up muddy hills), which was quite nice.

Accidentally ate loads. Lunch was a full english at a local place - went for the second smallest option and it was still over 1,000kcal. Then cooked roast lamb for dinner, overdid the amount of veg, and ended up over 1,000kcal for that too.

Had a bath in the afternoon, then collapsed on the sofa after dinner until bedtime. didn't do languages or art, 4.5/6 again.

W2D6

Saturday was a good day. Cycled at the gym, then went bouldering for a nice chill session. Saw my grandma, watched the rugby, and chilled with a beer in the evening. Kneehab done, calories tracked and reasonable, and even did some drawing (though I hated what I drew, maybe I can fix it?).

Not sure if I brushed my teeth in the evening so haven't counted it, pretty sure I was quite tired and didn't do evening languages. No money spent, but though I rolled for cleaning I didn't actually do any. 4.5/6

Payday last week, so I spent a while bunch of money on stuff. All planned spends though - a race I'd agreed to sign up for and accomodation for another race I'd already signed up to in the main.

I had a bit of a weird win too. We're going to France this summer, and our Airbnb cancelled on us a couple of weeks ago. It's taken ages to find another place, but we've ended up somewhere that's £250 cheaper than the first one we booked. The net result is that I didn't need to pay off my credit card this month, and I'm a couple of quid in credit on it still.

01/01/2024 - 174.4lbs

08/01/2024 - 172.0lbs

15/01/2024 - 170.9lbs

22/01/2024 - 169.2lbs

29/01/2024 - 169.0lbs

05/02/2024 - 168.8lbs

12/02/2024 - 169.2lbs

19/02/2024 - 165.7lbs

26/02/2024 - 167.1lbs

After a massive loss last week I'm not surprised to see a bit of a gain back this week. I might have got away with keeping last week's weight, but I accidentally had two massive meals yesterday and finished the week almost 1,000kcal over target as a result. 

The start of this week is all about damage control, as I've got a colleague's leaving do on Friday, tapas out for my birthday on Saturday, and then lunch out on my actual birthday on Sunday. I plan to enjoy all of that, but I can set up the start of the week to mitigate its effects somewhat.

With 3 weeks left and 5lbs above target I'm not sure I'm going to hit it, but we'll see what we can do.

On 2/25/2024 at 4:39 PM, Harriet said:

Diet shit:

This was really interesting, thank you. It's got me thinking about how I deal with my next bulking phase once I'm done with this cut.

Have you considered creatine supplementation? (Or are you doing that already, and I've misunderstood stood the bit about ATP?)