KaraDavar

Well, yikes. I had been committed to posting here regularly, but then I started completely falling off my diet goals. The weird thing is, I seem to have lost some body as soon as I started eating junk food, which is confusing as heck. :/ I seem to be having trouble keeping in mind that falling down doesn't make the whole journey pointless. Especially as I only fell off one aspect of my quest, being diet. I've still been hitting the gym regularly, and I'll be back wrestling as soon as my neck heals up. So... yeah. Still going. Not perfect, but hopefully always trending better. I also found the records of my old lifts. What I thought was a PR overhead press tonight, apparently isn't. Don't quite know how to feel about that. On the one hand, I'm weaker. On the other, I feel better in my body than I did when I was dirty bulking. *shrug* Anyway, hopefully this is me back.

Straightforwardness is most definitely a value (at least for me) in and of itself. Great goals, best of luck!

I'm really sorry to hear about your dad. Those are all great goals, and all the best of luck with them. Following along.

Oh hi, NerdFitness! I thought I'd give you lovely folks an update on what's been going on with me. Gym Tuesday gym - [√] BP 30kg - 5, 5, 8 DL 36.3kg - 10, 10, 10 DB Row 8kg - 15, 15, 20 I feel like this session went pretty well. The big lifts both felt fairly comfortable, and pushing to 20 reps on the last set of DB rows felt good, given that I was aiming at getting 18. I feel like I made some technical improvements in my bench, in terms of stabilising my upper back and shoulders, but I definitely noticed my need to practice using more leg drive. All in all, not a bad session. Nutrition So this completely fell off. Without going into too many details, a relationship crisis made maintaining my diet not possible for a couple of days while we patched things up. The immediate aftermath of the crisis was a case of "just eat something instead of nothing", and then yesterday was reconciliation over lunch, where I couldn't count macros. But, as that's being taken care of, I'm back on the saddle as of today, and will update further as it comes up. General Comments Damn, this song is the most motivational thing ever. I need to create a playlist of Metal Motivation.

Your post about dopamine was like looking in a mirror, and suddenly things with me make a whole heap more sense! EDIT: I'm super glad the belt test went well!

It's just occurred to me that Zero Week is a thing. ZERO WEEK! Wrestling Wednesday Class - [√] Saturday Class - [√] So I've just gotten home from the first Saturday wrestling class I've done in months. The last umpteen times I've tried, I've ended up bailing, because mornings are difficult. But I made it regardless. I'm really glad I did as well; one of my classmates ran some ideas by me regarding a trio we could form down the line. That's a fairly long way off happening, but it's got me thinking to the future, and got my creativity flowing, so I'm super stoked. Gym Tuesday Gym - [√] Thursday Gym - [√] Sunday Gym - [ ] (I mean, it isn't Sunday yet ) I had a pretty bad mental setback last night when I realised that the goals I'd set myself in terms of upper body strength (1.5x BW Bench, 1x BW OHP, current bodyweight being 57.5kg) are lofty to the point of unrealistic. At the very least, they're the numbers of competition powerlifters, which is not necessarily a level of commitment I have, what with everything else. These HAD been numbers I was hoping to hit in a year to 18 months. I'm now wondering whether to temper these as goals, or whether to just readjust my time frame expectations, or what. Either way, even shooting and missing will no doubt get me close enough for jazz. Nutrition Hitting Daily Targets - [√] Cooking From Scratch - [ ] So I've been consistently hitting 50 either side of 1400kcal with 100g of protein. I realise these are low for someone who wants to lift big numbers, and that this will need to go up. I don't know whether to just increase that now, and accept that that will entail some body fat gain (a thing that I already feel very uncomfortable with), or whether to keep it as is, try to get less fluffy during the early days of LP, and then bump up the calories when the lift numbers start requiring it. While I haven't done fresh cooking, I have decided that I want to make shakshuka. That feels positive. All comments/advice welcomed. On to the next step!

Only a couple of months before its best-before date. Meant I got five 1kg bags for £40 or some wild number like that.

It has been great fun! I look forward to meeting other fans. That sounds amaaazing. I actually really like lentils as a protein source. I just wish I could cook them without making a horrific mess in the kitchen. Those are things I eat daily tbh. Short-dated protein powder is a gods-send for my purse strings.

Big congrats on quitting drinking, that sh**'s hard. Major solidarity, and best of luck with everything!

A random person at the bus stop gave me a rainbow ribbon and said I looked nice. I was sweaty and sore after class, and it just brightened my whole mood.

I reckon the viola is by far the best of the string family. It's just so full of gorgeous subtlety. It's like a good dark chocolate. Woop for small steps! Best of luck with everything!

OMG BEST DOGGOS I thought it was like stepping out into an oven with only 100˚F heat. I'll be happily following along.

I should add going to bed earlier to my list of long term goals lol. Go you, you got this!

Danke schön! Ich habe die Mutter meiner Freundin nie getroffen, deshalb ich möchte dass sie mich mag. Vielleicht wenn ich ein bisschen gutes Deutsch sprechen kann, sie wird. If I may ask, how have you found navigating the language barrier? I'll make sure to post regular updates regarding the wrestling! It's an exciting journey. Food wise, it's a lot of things. Finding tasty, cheap, high protein, low skill, vegetarian* food is an overwhelming task, especially given that my house has really limited freezer space so I can't bulk cook. Combine that with a history of a bad food relationship and.... well, I'm hesitant to rock the boat when I've found some things that work for me. (*While I'm not vegetarian/vegan, many of my housemates are, so I don't like cooking meat in the house.)