Deckard Gainz

Oh yeah, I'm over it. I kind of look at individual days as a pass-fail. There's only so much good OR bad you can do to your body in any given day. This sucks when you're working hard to make positive changes; it makes change take forever and ever. But it's great for mitigating failure! In this sense, the "fuck it" attitude is kind of fine, if you've already committed to a loss for the day. 20 tendies or 50 tendies would not make a significant difference if my body can only process a max of 15 tendies in any given timeframe. I don't know the actual tendies-per-hour processing rate for the human body, but you get the idea. The exception to this is things that mess up subsequent days, like hangovers. I actually didn't have a hangover, but I had already planned for possibly skipping the gym yesterday just in case. I will still hit 3x for the week as long as I make sure to go today and tomorrow. 4 is the goal, but 3 is fine.

This is basically where I've landed so far. It's effective for deciding whether or not to eat out, but less effective for parties/celebrations I feel obligated to go to. My week so far has the potential to illustrate my current struggles and successes, so I'll journal it out here. Sunday night going into Monday, I did not sleep well. I don't have a good reason; sometimes it just happens. I gave myself 8 hours, and slept 4.5 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ For lunch I had a salad and maybe 1/2 cup's worth of shredded chicken. I also put about a cup's worth of salad bar chicken and 1/4 cup of ham in the salad as well. Salad is a vessel for protein. Other salad items include cucumbers, broccoli, shredded cheddar, red onion, and probably about 2oz ranch dressing. I eat a salad similar to this almost every day (I often mix up the type of cheese and dressing, sometimes exclude the ham). There are little main course items at the work cafeteria that contain a protein, a veg, and a carb, and I sometimes get the protein and possibly the veg, in addition to my salad. Oh, there are also soups and sometimes I will get a soup if it's not full of carbs (I almost always get chili on Thursdays). Sometimes I will grab a fruit to eat for a PWO about an hour before the gym. Workout looked like this: OHP 5x5 @ 140 - 3min rest (PR) assisted pull-ups 3x5 (-45lbs) lat pull 5x5 @ 165 ss1 DB skullcrusher 3x10 @ 30lb DBs ss2 35lb plate raises 3x10 DB curl 2x12/1x10 @ 25lb DBs Treadmill 1 mile @ 5mph Dinner was about 1 1/2 - 2 cups pulled pork with bbq sauce and 2-3 cups of roasted brussel sprouts. In bed by 10 (to wake up at 6). Tuesday I went to a baseball game for a friend's bday. I ate a salad for lunch; dinner was a buffet. I ate 2 burger patties, 2 brats (no buns on either), and probably 2-3 cups worth of breaded chicken tenders. I had 4 mixed drinks and 3 beers. And 3 oatmeal cookies. And got to bed over an hour later than my bedtime. I enjoyed myself, but it was not a healthy night by any means. Wednesday I was tired from the game and will power failed me at lunch. In addition to my salad, I had a scoop of a spicy vegetable dish (not too bad) and a slice of pizza (bad). I skipped the gym. Dinner was 2 sausages and steamed broccoli with butter and salt. I live in Wisconsin so 4 sausages in the last 3 days is fairly normal. In bed by 10:30 (7.5 hours to sleep). It should seem pretty obvious where I'm failing here. Mid-week binge eating and drinking is irregular, but not as irregular as I should make it. I shouldn't be getting lifetime PRs if I'm cutting, so I'm probably not cutting. Or, I'm back to being fat enough to pull that off (entirely possible). I do weigh 20-25 lbs more than the last time I hit an OHP pr. It's super cool to keep progressing on lifts, but I really need to be losing some fat first. I'd rather look better, even if it means lifting the same thing (or less!) for weeks or months or forever. Pride at the door and all that.

This program recommends 60-90 seconds. That's cool. It doesn't change the fact that 21 total sets in 45 minutes is damn fast. I'm usually done lifting within around 45 mins as well (with my AHEM, 2-3 min rests) but I also don't do 7 exercises, including 3 big compounds. I once took a stab at 60s rests in a GVT workout. It did not go well for me. Jett, you're probably fine and I'm probably just slow.

Less frequent than they used to be (fortunate for my health), and every situation's different. Even between my two gaming groups, I'm far more likely to have drinks and eat unhealthily in one of them than the other, because reasons. My plan is usually to have fun. Everything else is ancillary. I think this is an ok approach that may need some tweaks. I'm with you: the overly restrictive thing doesn't work for me at all. This bird you cannot change.

I think 1 of 2 things is true here. Either: You're fairly new to lifting heavy barbells, OR returning from a long break. in either case a linear progression program like this is perfect. More repetition with the main lifts strengthens your muscle memory, allows you to more readily develop and remember mental cues to improve your form, and doesn't distract you with a bunch of other exercises to learn and remember. You're comfortable with the main lifts and are actively working through plateaus. In this case, Grumble's suggestion seems more appropriate than hammering the big 4, but it does raise the question: why go with a linear progression program then? Actually I have an even more striking observation. How are you supposed to do 9 heavy sets and 12 total superset sets in 45 minutes? Does that work? Am I just a SUPER slow lifter? Does that 45 mins in your schedule also include changing clothes and stuff?

Food and alcohol mainly. I tend to focus on having fun and losing focus of consequences and all that.

I don't advocate for unitaskers at all, and this one is particularly gratuitous. My mom, bless her, is not the best decision-maker in these matters. Also, something something buy me dinner BEFORE trying to put anything near my bum, etc.

Alright folks! We got all the re-introductions and warm fuzzies out of the way. Let's get to business. 1. HEALTH AND FITNESS Given the nature of this site, this seems the natural place to start the audit. So here's what I'm doing now: 1a. SLEEP First and easiest. Alot 8 hours; let the body do the rest. Devices on night mode or not at all, No caffeine in the late afternoon/evening, etc. I have a pretty good track record with most of these things. Fitbit says I sleep 6.5 hours on average regardless of how much more time I alot myself, and I hit that pretty regularly. 1b. WATER I have this one more or less in the bag as well. Working out 4x a week and consuming about 60oz water during that time alone really helps out, but I'm also just fairly good about drinking lots of water throughout the day. 1c. FOOD I eat pretty healthy. Most lunches are salads, most dinners are homecooked, and virtually always a simple meat + vegetable. Portion sizes are probably on the large side, but given the lack of most carbs, I think this generally ends up still being a caloric deficit. 1d. ALCOHOL This is a problem area. When you're trying to burn fat, pretty much any alcohol is too much. I enjoy alcohol and regularly find myself in social situations that involve it. I am averse to giving myself hard limits and rations when I'm trying to enjoy myself. I've tried to be more mindful of the alcohol I consume, regarding it like a treat, all in moderation etc. I have not recently binged as much as I have in the past, but the effects stack up pretty quickly. I don't have an actionable solution to this issue yet. My mitigation techniques include: - Drinking more water while drinking alcohol - Liquor straight or with seltzer - Abstaining or avoiding some situations altogether 1e. EXERCISE Over the past 3-5 months I've been using a 5x5 climb to get back up to my working weight, which I'm just reaching now. I'll probaby need to find a new program fairly soon. I enjoyed juggernaut and will probably go back to it unless someone hard-sells me on something else. I'm focused mostly on aesthetics and not sure I'm willing to commit to a full BB-style workout (but I'm listening...). I usually throw in 5-15 minutes of cardio at the end of a workout; it's usually about all I can handle. I'd like to do more conditioning stuff but it seems like there are 50,000 exercises out there and you have to watch a video and develop a specific skill for each thing, which is obnoxious (I tried for months and STILL can't do a pistol squat correctly). Overall my biggest challenge is breaking down in social situations. This is something I handled well briefly a year ago. Why then and not now? Maybe because fitness was much more front of mind, which I have y'all and this site to thank for. Maybe there are some other things I could be doing? Most of the thoughts I fixate on when trying to motivate myself are... not good, in one way or another. Maybe that can be another audit target.

Yeah that actually sounds like a pretty awesome spread. Hell, Ableton with just one of those keyboards is great. Live recording is always difficult IMO, lawnmowers or no. I absolutely love this stuff. I'm particularly into the synthwave versions.

My mom actually has a ... I don't know what you call it, but it's like a baking sheet with a cup holder for the can, and you plop the chicken right on top. Now THAT's obscene... but also incredibly delicious. It's similar to this. Also apparently there's a whole market for these things?? https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0007ZGUK2/ref=sspa_dk_detail_0?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B0007ZGUK2&pd_rd_w=vghkF&pf_rd_p=46cdcfa7-b302-4268-b799-8f7d8cb5008b&pd_rd_wg=LO58T&pf_rd_r=JA12DVA9GW58CXNVAGD6&pd_rd_r=c0632e25-611a-11e9-921f-93d945d215dc

I read that book back in the day. It basically set the scene for all cyberpunk

Discomancer sounds pretty dope.

I'm back! Stay awhile, and listen! I've missed you all. I've also missed having an outlet to write about myself at length to an audience (a perceived audience anyway). It's the closest thing I'll have to journaling. An actual journal just wouldn't work for me. So here we are. let's recap: In October 2017, a few months after starting my nth iteration of Stronglifts 5x5, I stumbled upon this wonderful site, got to know a bunch of good, cool people, and did a few consecutive challenges. In the span of around 6 months, I lost around 25lbs and blew old lifetime strength goals out of the water. I figured out that the biggest benefit of challenging, for me, is having a place to lay all my thoughts out and organize them into effective actionable items, and having some other folks around that know things and are good about being honest with themselves and others. Actually doing the stuff has been much easier than I thought it would be. Around March of 2018, I suffered a shoulder injury that took me away from lifting for probably longer than it needed to. All the weight that I had lost over the past year eventually came back (though presumably some of it was muscle this time around). In the past year since that injury, I illustrated a children's book, I mourned the loss of a close family member, I completely changed career fields, and I finally got back on the weightlifting wagon and have been hitting the gym 2-4x a week for a number of months now. Oh, and I actually joined a real gym! All of these activities kept me pretty busy fairly consecutively over the past year. Finally though, I have an opportunity to stop, reflect, and go back to focusing on the WHY, rather than just the WHAT. And what better place to do that than here? The goal of this challenge is to audit my life, determine where I can make improvements, and establish a plan of attack. I'll start with the obvious things and work my way to more complex/difficult stuff as time permits. Unfortunately there are no real success metrics to this sort of challenge, but any progress is good progress, and this will definitely be "challenging" no matter which way you slice it. Just for funzies, I can include some details about my progress on existing programs and goals. How's that sound?

Good luck on your next 100lb BB lift, and all that other stuff too!

Hey, cool challenge. What are you using to make beatz?