Caution

Rob is back! There better be food.

I go hunting every year with my FIL. Hoping to bag a big one this year, I didn't last year and it made me sad. 

I decided to take last challenge off to regroup, get business taken care of and to get my head cleared. I was successful in some parts, and not successful in others. Work has begun to lighten up so I feel that I can now devote time and energy to getting back to the weights. During the last 7 weeks I kept up the shopping habit and Mrs. Caution decided to get serious about losing weight as well. The bad side of it is that I became mildly depressed and drank way more than I should have which gained me a few pounds and put me in a place (mentally) that I hadn't been to in awhile. This stops now.

Main Quest

Take control of my life again and get myself back in shape and lose some body fat. 

1) De-load and do a few rounds of SL 5x5

2) Booze, no drinking. I need to re-evaluate my relationship with alcohol

3) Start tracking my macros, measurements and plot them so I can keep track of what I'm doing

Life Quest

1) I've been so good on the budget I've set so far but I want to drop it down to 75 bucks a week for food while keeping the meals interesting enough that my better half will stay motivated. 

Numbers:

Weight: 187.2 lbs

Height: 5'9"

Waist: 33"

Stomach: 35"

Chest: 41"

Biceps: 13"

Quad: 21"

Caliper: 21%

Navy/Army (average) Fat Calculator: 21.6%

Silver Hydra's Meat slop:

I'm very sorry for your loss Orc, your family is in my prayers. I'm just stopping by to silently follow for now. 

Great analogy Orc, I find the toughest part of that though is that while a camp fire needs wood and oxygen, motivation needs many more components to fuel the fire. and sometimes the original fuel doesn't work anymore. Example: For me when I started, it was "I need to lose weight to fit into my pants". But once I fit into my pants I lost that motivation and I fell off the wagon and eventually they didn't fit anymore. So once a motivational factor falls off sometimes it is important to find a different source of motivation.

You've rocked this challenge, great job!

 

Today, I plan to accomplish nothing!   

A great day indeed! Although, I somehow feel slightly guilty when I do that, even if it is planned. 

Got home, and stayed up too late watching the NFL opener.  I was able to do some stretching and mobility work while that was happening so it wasn't a wasted night.  

 

Football season is upon us!!!!! I are excite. 

Hope the cruise is going well!  Have fun - and good luck finishing strong this week!

It was a great time! We had a 9 course tasting menu, saw the huge aquariums at Atlantis, drank Coronas on the beach (yes I failed the no drinking part of my challenge). If it weren't for my flight home, the trip would have been the best trip I've ever been on. 

So, I didn't get a chance to test my lifts last week and I won't be able to this week either, busy week. Catching up on chores like laundry, lawn care, etc... Car broke down on Tuesday, bad crankshaft position sensor. which ever Nissan engineer designed the location of that sensor, f you buddy. Took me 4 hours to do what I thought would be a 30 minute job and my hands/arms are bruised and cut up. Maybe the 400 dollars the dealer wants for that fix would have been worth it. 

 Ate left overs Tues, Wed and Thursday so haven't gone shopping yet. Tomorrow is the shopping trip. My wife is gone for the weekend to school so my Father-in-Law is coming in to go to the Bills home opener on Sunday with me. I'll wrap up this challenge on Monday most likely. 

Edit: Some Pictures will be up when I get the chance. 

I love Stone. we're having a cigar, food and Stone pairing coming up soon. The menu and beer pairing is from stone, and the cigar guys are going to pair a cigar with each course. I'm really looking forward to that. 

Shrimp can be pretty expensive for sure. My go to protein source is of course chicken, but dang do I get tired of it sometimes. 

 

So the weekend went pretty much as expected.  I ate everything.  We ate lunch saturday with my sister and a cousin.  I had a Thanksgiving sandwich, turkey, dressing and cranberry sauce on bread.  It's freaking fantastic.  I understand why Ross got so upset over it.

 

 

How have I never had one of these?

Push-ups are one of those things that you get better at them by doing them more (greasing the groove). Last year sometime I did the 100 push up challenge. When I started 25 or so was my max. After a few weeks 25 was very easy, just do them every other day and you'll be surprised how easy they become. 

Nice deal on those weights! You're rocking it as usual. 

Also, captain hammer

A few cookies here or there doesn't hurt, especially when it helps satisfy cravings so you don't binge cheat (I do this all the time :-/). Great job on the weight loss, have fun on your camping trip.

i love the green beans w/ bacon and coleslaw (duh!). I don't think i've ever had succotash...

It's just basically lima beans, corn, bell pepper and other stuff. I like this recipe (it has bacon) http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/fast-succotash-recipe/index.html?ic1=obinsite

Sweet!

 

I would love to own one of these:

 

I had to reverse image search that, Yamaha VMAX., looks pretty sweet, and has one monster engine almost double mine. 

What kinda bike is it?

2013 Harley Davidson 883 Superlow 

Augghh!  Not the beautiful new bike acting up!  And missing out on a ride with the guys, too - no wonder you were bummed.  Glad your wife was nice to you - always welcome at a moment like that.

 

Have fun on vacation!  Where are you going?  Post pics!

Yeah, it was disappointing for sure, super bummed out. My better half knows how to cheer this guy up, a trip to Buffalo Wild Wings We're heading out for a short 3 day cruise in the Bahamas. Pics will happen. 

sorry about the bike! but i think you're right to think of it that way. maybe it's better off you didn't ride!

 

What kind of veggies do you do with the pulled pork? I always rack my brain for what to eat with it. I typically end up with boring frozen broccoli because, why not?

I switch it up a lot depending on the season. Right now it is Corn on the cob, because I love it so much. Often times I'll do a starch like salt potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes or baked sweet potato bites with some cheyenne pepper and a side romaine salad. Other veggies I pair with it are green beans w/ bacon, succotash, coleslaw, candied carrots things of that nature. Oh I also sometimes pair it with home made cinnamon apple sauce. 

Has a cheat day, still under weekly calorie goal, like a boss

You're making great improvements on your lifts, I suspect you still have a lot more newbie gains you can benefit from, If you have shoulder pain while benching, try a close grip bench press, keep your elbows tucked into your sides, it'll take some load off your shoulder and put more on your triceps 

Caution,

 

I'm impressed by your lifting numbers.  How long have you been lifting?  Is there a specific program you follow or are you creating your own to reach a particular set of goals?  Just wondering. 

Thanks, I've been lifting for a little over 2 years now. I started with Starting Strength then moved to 5/3/1. I toss in a random program here and there but usually just go back to 5/3/1. 

Weekend sucked. I spent Saturday help setting up the lodge for the charity dice run on Sunday. Sunday I got up cleaned up the bike and rode it to the place where I was meeting the guys. After everyone got there and we started to get ready to ride, my bike refused to start. The guys pushed started me, figuring it was just a dead spot on the starter, rode around the block, stopped and the bike wouldn't start again. Push started again and rode home, wouldn't you figure the bike worked fine after that. Must have been my guardian angel telling me not to ride yesterday.

Went grocery shopping instead I only needed dinner for 3 days instead of 7, the wife decided to take me out to dinner last night because I was so bummed out, and we leave for vacation on Thursday. 

Weekly grocery cost: 48 dollars

Monday: Pulled pork

Tuesday: chicken skewers and sweet potato home fries

Wednesday: chicken stirfry

Say what?

 

 

You know you've been cooking up a storm when...

 

 

That pad thai looks tasty! Did you make sunbutter sauce? That doesn't look almondy... it does look tasty. I love pad thai-paleo or not.

 

@Rooks, I love the Bruce Lee quote in your signature. So much so that I might borrow it for my own.

Must be the light, I'm not sure what almondy looks like tbh. It was a pretty big hit with the Mrs. though

Your thumbs must be beast mode if you're using hook grip all the time!  

Huh, and I always thought that "so are you sisters?" was code for "please don't tell me you're lesbians." I don't know what it means when straight couples get the same thing.

Please don't have a boyfriend I would guess. /shrug

Very very nice!  On both the DL sets and the paleo pad thai!  Curious, do you use wraps?  Or switch grip?  Or can you just man-bear-pig grip that thing double overhand style?  

 

lol, thanks! I use hook grip, chalk (and a dash of pain near the end). My DL numbers aren't high enough where my grip has failed me yet. I'm sure it will happen one day though, then I'll think of straps. I just don't like mixed grip much. 

Lower in fat anyway. They probably won't hold together as well due to the low fat; maybe add an egg when you mix up the sausage? We found some sausage seasoning and add it to ground turkey and it tastes just as good (though less rich due to the less fat.)

Yeah, I was thinking the chicken wouldn't hold up as well, ground turkey w/sausage seasoning could work. 

So tonight's dinner, Paleo Pad Thai

Rob, poke poke.