Deckard Gainz scribbles and scrawls through catacomb halls

[Deckard Gainz]

 

Let's do this. Actually, I'll be doing something a little different this year.

 

I'm leaving behind the tradition of using the beginning of a new year to tackle existential threats.

I’m starting with a side quest.

 

 

 

Late last year, around September or October, I signed on with a small publisher to illustrate a children’s book. It’s a passion project more than anything, but I do have official deadlines, one of which I’ve already missed. I got an extension, but now that we are beyond the fun of the holidays and into the bleak and awful portion of winter, it’s time to hunker down and work. I’ve got about 2 months to complete it, so I’m hoping to do line work this month and coloring next month.

 

Diet and exercise will still play a major role in my achieving my long-term goals, and will still be part of my challenge, but won’t be as intense of a focus. I’m hoping I’ve built enough routine and discipline that these will be the easier of the goals. I’m keeping this simple, just going to post with updates whenever I can. The reality is, my diet and exercise are working. But they are working very, very slowly compared to my relative patience. I'm hoping to "set it and forget it" so to speak, by checking the boxes and not paying too much attention to the scale or the mirror for a while.

 

Challenge Goal 1: Complete line work

Current Line work completed: 2/22 pages

Weekly Line work goals

1/2-1/8: 6/22

1/9-1/15: 10/22

1/16-1/22: 14/22

1/23-1/29: 18/22

1/30-2/5: 22/22

 

Challenge Goal 2: Juggernaut (4x-week)

Challenge Goal 3: Eat well and track

[Laghail]

Big fan of this approach. Hope it works well for you.

[brutalbears]

Kick some ass on that line work! I vote you post some pictures of it on here so we can all bask in your progress!

[Mike Wazowski]

Woo, go you on hunkering down and getting the work done! Still on a cutting-ish plan with the food?

[RedStone]

6 hours ago, brutalbears said:

Kick some ass on that line work! I vote you post some pictures of it on here so we can all bask in your progress!

 

Totes. So second! ...if you're allowed...

 

 

(wait, wut?)

[Deckard Gainz]

I'm hesitant to post progress pics since the art will still be up for review at this stage, but I've gotten clearance to post the cover art so I can do that for now. 

 

 

It's a story about a nice monster with big squeezy arms that wants to hug people, but he looks weird/scary so they are afraid of him. Eventually, he puts himself out there and starts being nice and helping people around the town and they all come to befriend him and look past his scary exterior. "The Squeezor Is Coming!" goes from a cry of fear to a shout of joy as he heads into town.

 

18 hours ago, MikeWazowski said:

Woo, go you on hunkering down and getting the work done! Still on a cutting-ish plan with the food?

 

I'm not doing as much day-to-day variance (juggernaut seems to have me much hungrier on rest days), but I believe I am still staying under TDEE overall by about 200-300 calories.

 

I'm a little disappointed with a peak week right off the back of a week of holiday over-eating (I took last week off from dietary restriction and tracking). I expected to at least maintain the rate of growth I saw last cycle, but all of my progress so far is half what it was. Half is more than zero/negative, but I thought the extra calories might have translated into more strength gains (I didn't take the week off lifting). This week I've gone Squat +5 , bench +5, deadlift +10, and OHP is tonight.

 

Dietary effectiveness on fat loss is frankly difficult to observe, particularly when throwing in a week of relatively poor eating. I started taking measurements and progress pics in mid-November. I see virtually no change in either since that time. I got a "smart scale" that tells me my body fat has gone virtually unchanged in that time as well. It doesn't help that none of these methods are very accurate or precise. Seeing so little from how hard I'm working is frustrating, so that's why I want to just ignore the whole progress observation piece for a while. I'm demonstrably stronger/healthier/thinner than I was when I started lifting in August, so what I'd really like to do is revisit this stuff in 3+ months or however long it takes to observe significant change. The only thing I really want to keep a close eye on is whether or not I need to change anything to keep things effective. 

 

Next week is a deload week, and I think I'm going to take it. I'm not incredibly fatigued but I do have some kinks and nags that I'd like to rest up. My whole left arm is a mess; I have some pain in my shoulder, elbow, and wrist, all from different things that started at different times. They don't effect my lifts too much but I can't help but thinking a light week would improve them. So I know what to do with my main lifts, but how do people deal with accessories on a programmed deload? The Juggernaut book, you guessed it, mentions nothing on the subject despite it being 25% of the program. lol. I'm guessing I just drop the weight by 10-20% or something? Deloads still seem silly to me but whatever. I'm also tempted to cut harder during this time, but I've read that kind of defeats the purpose of the deload, which is recovery. If I don't really need that much recovery, do I still need a bunch of extra calories? Do people that want fat loss add in cardio on deloads? I got questions, man.

[Grumble]

Can I buy this now? grimble is all about monsters lately.

[farflight]

On 1/2/2018 at 12:28 PM, Deckard Gainz said:

I’m starting with a side quest.

All i can think of is this...

 

Love the book idea, might suggest it to my schools

[Deckard Gainz]

47 minutes ago, Grumble said:

Can I buy this now? grimble is all about monsters lately.

 

I should be done in March, and hopefully the publisher won't take too long printing/releasing it. I'll probably post some of the content here along the way once it's all cleared and approved.  I'll definitely be posting a link whenever it's available for purchase.

 

I don't know about grimble, but that was me too at that age, and every age since.

[Grumble]

16 minutes ago, Deckard Gainz said:

 

I should be done in March, and hopefully the publisher won't take too long printing/releasing it. I'll probably post some of the content here along the way once it's all cleared and approved.  I'll definitely be posting a link whenever it's available for purchase.

Fantastic

 

16 minutes ago, Deckard Gainz said:

I don't know about grimble, but that was me too at that age, and every age since.

Monsters are always awesome.

[Scaly Freak]

A hug and snuggle monster? My nephews need this book.

 

Also, following this thread now.

[Deckard Gainz]

Week 1(0?) Update

Challenge Goal 1: Complete line work FAIL

Finished 1.5/4 pages

Challenge Goal 2: Juggernaut (4x-week) PASS

8/8 reps on OHP - no change. 2 months now with no progress

Challenge Goal 3: Eat well and track FAIL

 

I'm feeling guilty after this weekend. I ate and drank worse than I should have, and I got less than half of the progress I wanted to make on the book. I had more time that I could've utilized, but it was in smaller blocks and less convenient than having a dedicated work time. But I'm not always going to have that. I also need to work more on week days. I need to be tougher. 

 

I'm grateful for a deload week, not because I "earned" it, but to have a week's worth of shorter workouts for more free time and less fatigue (mental and physical). Maybe this week will allow me the time I need to catch up on last week's failures. I'm going to try and cut a little more this week, but the real test is always the weekend. 

[Scaly Freak]

Bad weekends happen to everyone. It's part of that whole being human condition. Put it behind you and move on.

 

It might be worth your while to try and figure out why the weekend went off track. Did you forget to buy groceries, so there was nothing to eat in the house, and that's what led to bad eating habits? Would planning ahead and scheduling your time have made it easier to get the pages done? A fail at two out of three goals is a learning opportunity, take advantage of that. Look past how things went wrong, figure out why, and then figure out if you can do something to prevent the latter for next weekend.

 

Mistakes are always forgivable, as long as we own up to them and learn from them.

[Deckard Gainz]

18 hours ago, scalyfreak said:

It might be worth your while to try and figure out why the weekend went off track.

 

It wasn't my weekend that went off track; it was my week nights. I think I made mostly correct decisions over the weekend, it's just that my range of choices weren't all that good. I set myself up for failure by relying so heavily on the weekend for book progress when there is a pretty decent amount of time to do things on week nights. Even with work, exercise, and cooking/eating food, I usually still have 2-3 hours of free time, which I spend relaxing by watching tv or playing video games. And it turns out, I can work on this while watching tv (kinda).

 

So, I made some adjustments based on this realization. I got about 2 hours of work in last night after dinner. Last night was easy mode because it's deload week and my workout is light/fast, and also we ate leftovers so there was no cooking time to factor in. I started binging Clone Wars on Netflix, which is just cheesy/bad enough that I don't feel the need to pay too close attention while I work. Supposedly the later seasons get better, so I'm just grinding through S1 atm. It worked out great. I got about 1/3 of a page done in that time. I used the extra time to go to bed early. It's going to be a busy couple of weeks, but that's the nice thing about projects is that they are temporary.

[Deckard Gainz]

Drawing Update

Last night I drew a desk lamp, a cup with some pens and scissors in it, a picture frame, and two books on a bookshelf. Hooray, progress!

 

They say a deload week should make you excited to get back up to heavy weights, and I have to say half way through the week it's already working. I'm already looking at my spreadsheet for the coming month, ready to go back to 5x5 and ready to go heavy again!

 

In addition to the pull-up bar, I also got a bicycle trainer for Xmas, so I got that set up during my rests between sets. I only rode for maybe 5-10 minutes once I got it set up, just to test it out. But I'm looking forward to longer sessions and tweaking the resistance to meet my needs.

 

The trainer is loud as hell, but pretty cool! I don't think I've mentioned cycling before in any of my threads, but I'm hoping to add some significant cycling training into my routine as the spring season approaches, and especially once it's warm enough to ride outside. Last year and friend and I did a 45ish mile geared ride to a campsite and camped overnight. It was awesome, but I was WAY too out of shape for it, and I ended up getting a ride home instead of making the return trip on the bike. He did a number of other fun rides and events that I was either unwilling and/or unable to make, at least in part due to my poor fitness level. There's also an annual 24-hour bicycle race that we've been in for the past 2 years. This year, I want to be lighter and in better shape for all of it. The trainer should help!

[calanthrophy]

On 1/5/2018 at 10:52 AM, Deckard Gainz said:

It's a story about a nice monster with big squeezy arms that wants to hug people, but he looks weird/scary so they are afraid of him.

 

Story of my damn life right there.

[Grumble]

33 minutes ago, calanthrophy said:

 

Story of my damn life right there.

 

[farflight]

 

 

Yea, best thing I've ever heard, about myself, a student told her teacher she "thought she did well on the test from the hairy scary man" (for the record, I am 6'2, was 280+ lbs, long jesus type hair and a decently large beard)

[ixaera]

4 hours ago, calanthrophy said:

 

Story of my damn life right there.

 

I am the opposite, every person on the planet looks scary/weird and I'm terrified they all want to hug me

 

(but you are funny, and I would make an exception for anyone here)

[Deckard Gainz]

Quick update because I probably won't update again until Monday. I ate pizza on Wednesday (rest day) for the first time in at least a month and washed it down with some spiced rum. And then last night I did all my leg stuff, wanted to jump on the bicycle to finish out the night but I decided to catch up on some freelance work while I caught my breath and ended up working for 1.5-2 hours instead. Ended up not riding the bike and ordering Chinese. I stepped on the scale this morning 2 lbs over last week's weight, but still under 220 so I'm calling that breaking even for the week.

 

For what was kind of a fitness trainwreck of a week (especially if I include the past weekend), I'm not feeling as guilty as things like that have made me feel in the past. I've been relatively on point for the vast majority of the past 5ish months. Even when I do indulge, I seem to eat better. I only eat 3 pieces of pizza instead of 4 or 5. I order pepper steak, which is moderately better than some fried and breaded chicken special, etc etc. A little indulgence here and there doesn't bother me as much anymore.  Also, I'm wearing a new shirt I just got for Xmas and it looks pretty slick, and elicits a feeling I'm still not used to yet: being tighter in the chest than it is in the gut. Things are still going well!

 

I worked on the book every night this week except last night (because I was working on other stuff), so while I'm still not working quickly enough to hit my self-imposed deadlines, I'm still making progress, not just being lazy, so I chalk that up to a victory. We press on. 

[Deckard Gainz]

Weekend Update!

I'm really happy with my progress, in art, diet, and fitness. Aside from a belated family holiday brunch Sunday morning, virtually 100% of the weekend was productive.

 

I did not achieve the weekly drawing goal I set out, which was 4 pages per week. Over the course of the week + weekend, I finished about 3. This leads me to believe it was an impossibly optimistic goal. There is no way I could have completed much more without sacrificing quality (either quality of the art or my quality of life). I'm meeting with the author on Wednesday and we're going to discuss realistic goals, as well as potentially truncating stuff both for improved book composition and reducing the overall workload. I'm excited to have some really strong work to show going in, and some good ideas about how we can shrink some things down. This may bring the deadlines back into a realistic position.

 

I also ate really well. Not just in terms of calories and macros, but like I ate some delicious food. I got the SO a sous vide for Xmas, from which we're now both reaping the rewards. We cooked a beef roast in there for 48 hours, and it came out so tender that SO said it was almost weird to eat. She also made some low-carb dinner rolls made with eggs, almond flour, and a ton of cheese. They tasted like salty heaven. Lastly, I don't know what her secret was but she made the best green bean casserole I've ever eaten. Instead of the standard crunchies on top, she used pork rinds (maybe that's the secret). We ate the whole meal all over again on Sunday (leftovers) because it was just that good. There was also the delicious brunch in there.

 

Usually the weekends are all rest for me, but because I just got my trainer and just finished an unsatisfying deload week, I managed to pepper in some time on the bicycle. I must have been tired on Friday because I only lasted about 15 minutes, but on some fresh legs I pedaled for about 45 minutes on Saturday, bouncing between the highest and second-highest gear ratios. Do squats, y'all.

 

In between all of this, I managed to wash the sheets, take care of a bunch of the dishes from our cooking shenanigans, take out some recycling and compost stuff that's been building up, and a few little around-the-house tasks that make life easier on both of us. I couldn't be happier about the weekend's progress. I hope to keep going strong into this week!

[Grumble]

1 minute ago, Deckard Gainz said:

Weekend Update!

I'm really happy with my progress, in art, diet, and fitness. Aside from a belated family holiday brunch Sunday morning, virtually 100% of the weekend was productive.

 

I did not achieve the weekly drawing goal I set out, which was 4 pages per week. Over the course of the week + weekend, I finished about 3. This leads me to believe it was an impossibly optimistic goal. There is no way I could have completed much more without sacrificing quality (either quality of the art or my quality of life). I'm meeting with the author on Wednesday and we're going to discuss realistic goals, as well as potentially truncating stuff both for improved book composition and reducing the overall workload. I'm excited to have some really strong work to show going in, and some good ideas about how we can shrink some things down. This may bring the deadlines back into a realistic position.

 

I also ate really well. Not just in terms of calories and macros, but like I ate some delicious food. I got the SO a sous vide for Xmas, from which we're now both reaping the rewards. We cooked a beef roast in there for 48 hours, and it came out so tender that SO said it was almost weird to eat. She also made some low-carb dinner rolls made with eggs, almond flour, and a ton of cheese. They tasted like salty heaven. Lastly, I don't know what her secret was but she made the best green bean casserole I've ever eaten. Instead of the standard crunchies on top, she used pork rinds (maybe that's the secret). We ate the whole meal all over again on Sunday (leftovers) because it was just that good. There was also the delicious brunch in there.

 

Usually the weekends are all rest for me, but because I just got my trainer and just finished an unsatisfying deload week, I managed to pepper in some time on the bicycle. I must have been tired on Friday because I only lasted about 15 minutes, but on some fresh legs I pedaled for about 45 minutes on Saturday, bouncing between the highest and second-highest gear ratios. Do squats, y'all.

 

In between all of this, I managed to wash the sheets, take care of a bunch of the dishes from our cooking shenanigans, take out some recycling and compost stuff that's been building up, and a few little around-the-house tasks that make life easier on both of us. I couldn't be happier about the weekend's progress. I hope to keep going strong into this week!

 

Too damn productive. Stop it.

...

 

Good job.

[RedStone]

DUDE. Solid wins all around. This Jpop stars knows...

 

[Laghail]

[Deckard Gainz]

15 minutes ago, Laghail said:

 

Yall need some therapy.

 

 

I'm just gonna leave it there for now. Enjoy.