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I saw the word 'hormones' in this thread, so I thought I'd put this here. So I have a severe vitamin D deficiency. It's not related to winter as it's too severe to just be caused by the darker days. Yes, I do get outside regularly with my head and hands uncovered (these are guidelines set by my country: to get enough vitamin D in your system, you must be outside for at least 15 minutes with your head and hands uncovered.....). For some reason my body is not turning sunlight into vitamin D. It might be something that's running in my family, but we're not sure yet as it is all so very new. My doctor gave me supplements and said I had to check back with him in a few months time to see if they work. My mother just told me today that she took the same supplements throughout the entire winter and she still had too little vitamin D in her system. Now, why hormones? Apparently vitamin D is a hormone. If there's a shortage of this in your body, your other hormones might go a little lot crazy (not to mention the insane lack of energy and the incidental low moods). Does anyone have experience with this? What did you do?

I'm a little late to this party, but what the hell... Back in January, I put up my first 1 RMs on my big three, then took a couple weeks off to let some patellar tendinits heal, got busy at work, and now I haven't touched a barbell in 1 month (to the day actually). Ouch! Gained some weight. Apparently, if you stop lifting weights, but keep eating as if you were going to the gym 3-4 times a week, you gain weight. "I know right... makes no sense... " he added sarcastically. So its time to get back on track. Gonna keep it real simple. Goal 1: Strength Training at least 3 times a week Doesn't matter what I do, as long as it involves barbells and is intense, that'll work. I've been sticking with stronglifts, and have graduated to 3x5, I might change up to doing less each workout, but going as frequently as possible. We'll see. Prolly gonna throw in some HIIT or circuits occasionally. Goal 2: Stick to Warrior/Renegade diet eating plan In the past I've always tracked macros. I am tired of that. It takes too much time, and I'm at the point where I can safely judge the majority foods I eat on a daily basis. Plus, the warrior/renegade thing prevents me from overeating and it fits my lifestyle well. Goal 3: No alcohol for the rest of the six weeks. (with one exception) until my Birthday. I've been reading about the estrogenic, stubborn fat gain aspects of alcohol. Plus its the number one x-factor that tends to tank my challenges. However, I will make one exception. I am turning 30 before the end of this challenge and I know another friend has a birthday in March as well. If I can't get out of a big birthday bash thing... I might have a few drinks. But that is one night only for the challenge. Life Goal: Track and Learn to manage my mood. Get back on track with this Dissertation. Another factor in my recent derailed challenges has been my mood. I missed three whole days of work over these past two months because of depression and anxiety. I am fairly certain I have something going on with my mood that's been screwing with my life that I've been ignoring, so I'm going to start doing something about it. Tomorrow, I'm going to talk to a counsellor. That's the first step. Then I'll be starting to track my mood daily with an app on my phone and maybe start journaling. Hopefully, I'll be able to identify some patterns and triggers, and work out a strategy to deal with whatever this is. Take vitamin D. I'm gonna have to haul ass on my dissertation. I'm gonna have to work extra hours, weekends, etc. to meet a list of goals and deadlines. No real plan involved as of yet other than to just work as much as I can, try to maintain my sanity, and keep going. Grading: Right now I'm just thinking pass fail for all.