Big_Show in #OperationWeddingSuit

[Big_Show]

I need a fresh start and I have a fresh goal so I figure I need a fresh Battle Log.

 

I've spent a few months trying to keep up with Challenge Threads, but the basic fact is I've got too much to work on  and I think I need something a little bit more freeform.

 

The basic targets of this:

- next May I'm going on a big family holiday to Center Parcs and I want to not feel self-conscious in the swimming pool (which will probably feature every day for the whole week)

- soon after that I'll be on a beach holiday somewhere in the Med (see above)

- next September I'll be at my 15yr Uni reunion and also a wedding, and I intend to buy myself a good new suit for them both and I want to look good in it

- in August 2020 I'll be marrying the Welshman and I have plans on how I want to look for that.v  Bascially, I want to look good in rolled up sleeves and a waistcoat after I take the suit jacket off and we have our first dance.

 

My plan is to takle problems just a few at aa time, for as long as necessary, then move on to the next one.  The first two are:

 

- lift three times a week.  I need to rebuild this habit without trying to do extras, because that's when I fall apart.  It's probably the old triathlon habits, but I have to get away from the mindset of beating myself for not working out 11 days in 7 days

- go on a gluten-light diet.  I was totally gluten-free for several years a little while back due to severe IBS, then as a result my IBS healed itself a fair bit and I've been able to eat more of it.  But lately I've felt the need to cut back as I think I'm suffering various symptoms again, so that's my first obvious port of call.

 

This is my starting point.  I'll be weighing in shortly and using that as a various approximate tracking metric, but not my main one.

 

640 Days to go.  Time to get to work.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Following along. Those are good goals.

[Sloth the Enduring]

Following for future beach pics.


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[Endor]

Some big targets, plenty of motivation there!

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[Charlie_Quinn]

Following!

[Big_Show]

22 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Following along. Those are good goals.

 

Cheers, Ranger Chaplain!

 

19 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

Following for future beach pics.


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As soon as I feel confident to have my shirt off in a photo I shall post some!

 

9 hours ago, Endor said:

Some big targets, plenty of motivation there!

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Definitely focusses the mind!

 

8 hours ago, Charlie_Quinn said:

Following!

 

Great to have you along!

 

-----------------------------------------------------------

 

So today was definitely an eye-opener.  Weighed myself this morning and the verdict was a rather hefty 118.7kg (261.7lbs/18st 9.7) which, depressingly, is basically the same it's been all year.  Hence my change of tack.

 

I also measured my waist.  My actual waist - not the bit below my belly where I actually wear my trousers, but the true one around just under my belly button.  And that came to a rather horrifying 48".

 

So that's my starting point.  And that in itself is a hell of a motivation to kickstart my habit changes.

 

After work I came straight home to get on with my post-holiday adulting; unpacking, getting washing done, all that jazz.  I got some shopping on the way so I could make us a Bolognese for dinner, and that's also sorted out my lunches for the next couple of days at work too.  With a view to my goal of going gluten-light, I served it with new potatoes instead of pasta; I'm working on getting my dinners & lunches right first before I start looking at other things I'm eating during the day.

 

It may sound ridiculous, but I have also set myself the goal of getting the washing up done every evening after dinner.  We've kinda got into the habit of eating late and then leaving it until the day after, which then means you have to wash up before you can start cooking dinner, or you just create a second load of washing up that may or may not all get done the next day... so this is the beginning of my Batcave improvement.

 

Tonight is also the first night in well over a week that I haven't had any alcoholic drinks at all (admittedly mainly due to our holiday).  While I was tempted by a train beer, I instead realised how knackered I was and got a train coffee instead.  And after a few cups of tea this evening I'm now on the Pepsi Max - I'm not usually a big one for fizzy drinks, but it's something a bit different to the usual tea and means I'm less likely to have "just the one" beer or wine instead.  And those calories really do add up pretty quickly.

 

So my current habit focusses are now:

- lift three times a week.

- transition to a gluten-light diet. 

- wash up every night

- have several alcohol-free days a week

 

I'm going to try to limit it to those as my priorities for a little while now until these habits are a bit more formed.  Don't want to overload myself and end up giving up on stuff again.

[Big_Show]

Today has been a bit of a different day.  No gym yet (starting again on Saturday), no washing up as all the food we're having came in foil trays ready for the oven, and no jobs to do after work.

 

So I came home, read a book for a bit, then the Welshman and I went out for a walk to shoot zombies on the The Walking Dead: Our World app.  We stopped for a couple of pints on the way, but considering the day he'd had I feel this was necessary.

 

Not really much else to report; guess it's a bit of a bleh day before the weekend.  Calm before the storm of the weekend I guess?

[Endor]

I'm trying to limit booze as well, I'm settling into a pattern of no booze Mon/Tues/Weds to get me started.

[Big_Show]

I'm trying to limit booze as well, I'm settling into a pattern of no booze Mon/Tues/Weds to get me started.

Yeah, I'm aiming at that too. Not gonna beat myself if I have a pint or two one night, but it can't then lead to a couple and/or a bottle of wine too on a school night.

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[Big_Show]

Time for a weekend update!

 

Friday was fun.  Headed home from work, picked up an M&S indian meal deal for dinner (2 curries & 2 sides) as it would be much cheaper & healthier than getting a takeaway but still didn't involve any actual proper cooking, then sat on the sofa with a book until the Welshman got home from work.  Then out for a couple of pints, followed by sofa time with "takeaway" and some wine.  Caught up on some Apprentice & Doctor Who.  A good day.

 

Saturday morning was a nice lazy lie-in.  Then off to the gym for a workout!  First one of the month, it turned out...

 

My programme is very simple at the moment I have two workouts which I'm alternating 3x a week, which means I do theoretically each one three times over a fortnight period.  It kinda feels like I'm a total gym newbie again, so I'm just working on the basic main lifts with a bit of focus on pull-ups/chin-ups and dips as well.

 

I won't be posting every workout on my thread, but this one was as follows:

- NF Academy warm-up

- barbell deadlift: 5x60kg, 5x80kg, 5x90kg, 3 sets of 5x100kg

- one-arm DB rows: 8x20kg, 3 sets of 8x25kg (only managed 6 on the last set)

- assisted dips: 4x sets of 8 with 65kg assistance (only managed 5 on the last set)

- assisted pull-ups: 4x8 with 65kg assistance (only manegd 4 then 3 on the last two sets)

 

I know I've gone backwards, but insntead I'm looking at it as having tonnes of progress I know I can make again.

 

The rest of the day included a very long walk, with a few pubs, playing the Walking Dead mobile game.  We got over 20k steps and had a lovely day, so I think it was a day well-spent.

 

Sunday has been quiet.  Popped into town, did some housework, we went out for a bit of a walk again (yes, zombies and a couple of pubs were involved), and the rest of the day is spent in comfies on the sofa with laptops and catching up on TV.  Got a busy weekend coming up so want to kickstart this week as soon as it start tomorrow.

 

Liking Endor's idea from his comment earlier on.  Start by having Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday as dry days and take it from there.

 

On with the new week!

[Big_Show]

Ok, so this last week was a complete bust as far as my goals were concerned.  But I did have a lot of fun as well!

 

I slept funny and somehow hurt my back (yay to being in your 30s and injuring yourself without having to do anything) so the gym was out for the week.  Unfortunately I also apparently took this as the excuse to ignore all of my eating goals for the week too...

 

On Thursday it was a surprise trip to London for the Welshman's birthday - we saw the Book of Mormon then stayed over in Soho and had a great night out.  Friday was spent mooching round London drinking various mulled beverages and also paying a visit to Borough Market (I love that place), then we got food and drink that evening.

 

Saturday we headed off to Surrey with his Mum & Step-Dad (whose birthday it also was) and spent a fun afternoon at Topgolf - I was terrible but it was a lot of fun!  Then we went out for Tapas and a funny night of drink & dancing.

 

Now we're back home and I have my gym bag packed for when I'm on my way home from work tomorrow.  I have my food sorted for the next few days at work, and intend to properly focus and knuckle down from here on in.  Gotta carry on respawning until it finally sticks, I guess!

[Big_Show]

Also, I'm changing up my gym workouts.  Alternating push & pull just doesn't seem to inpsire me to to keep going, so I'm heading back to a 3-day split instead.  Back & biceps day, leg day, and chest, shoulders & triceps day.  I know where I'm starting with two of them, but I'm a little bit undecided on what to do with leg day.

 

My current thoughts are:

- squats

- leg press

- weight lunges (even though I hate them with a vengeance, they do seem to work)

- weighted calf raises (because they definitely help with my lower leg injury rehab/prevention)

 

Not sure what else to put in there, or if that's enough to start with when I haven't done a dedicated leg day in quite a while?  Any input gratefully received!

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

22 minutes ago, Big_Show said:

I slept funny and somehow hurt my back (yay to being in your 30s and injuring yourself without having to do anything) so the gym was out for the week.  Unfortunately I also apparently took this as the excuse to ignore all of my eating goals for the week too...

It was Thanksgiving in the US, I'm just going to extend that holiday grace to you over on that side of the pond.

[Charlie_Quinn]

14 hours ago, Big_Show said:

My current thoughts are:

- squats

- leg press

- weight lunges (even though I hate them with a vengeance, they do seem to work)

- weighted calf raises (because they definitely help with my lower leg injury rehab/prevention)

 

Not sure what else to put in there, or if that's enough to start with when I haven't done a dedicated leg day in quite a while?  Any input gratefully received!

 

How about adding in some more unilateral exercises along with the lunges - Single leg squats and single leg Romanian deadlifts, for example? They'll help with any imbalances and aid the rest of your training.

[goodbye_farewell]

Hey look, it's a forum thingy.

[Big_Show]

Hey look, it's a forum thingy.

Well shit the bed, a wild Wovercast has appeared!

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[Big_Show]

 
How about adding in some more unilateral exercises along with the lunges - Single leg squats and single leg Romanian deadlifts, for example? They'll help with any imbalances and aid the rest of your training.

Thanks for the ideas, I'll look into them! Need to book a trainer session to learn the form, I am clumsy and terrible at these things on my own.

Quick phone-based update on yesterday:

- I ate relatively well. Was stuck using the canteen where the option I liked was burger & chips, but at least I didn't have the bread bun for the burger. Unfortunately when I cooked a big beefy stew for my parents I did also serve it with cheesey bread. Delicious, though.

- My parents came over to deliver our wine order from the pre-Christmas booze cruise to Calais. So I opened a bottle of wine over dinner. Days without weekday drinking this week: 0 for 1.

- The gym went well though! Beginner's Back & Bicep day completed. I have planned out a simple Leg Day for Tuesday, so I probably won't be walking much later on. Or on Wednesday. Or on Thursday....

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[Big_Show]

Tuesday!

 

I made good choices at work for food today.  No extra gluten binges occurred, no trips to the shop, no food bought on the way home.  Except for the black Americaon I bought to drink on the train to give me a bit of a boost before the gym.

 

First leg day in quite a long time!  The weights weren't very high (because I have an irrational fear of squats, and I didn't know what to start with for the rest of them) but it's a starting point, and I'll keep increasing them every week until I find the biting point.

 

My starting point for Leg Day is currently:

- NFA dynamic warm-up

- 5x5 barbell squat (+ warm-up sets)

- 3x8 leg press

- 3x8 barbell lunge

- 3x8 leg extensions

- 3x8 smith machine calf raise

(I did originally have seated leg curls in there too, but as soon as I tried that today it made my dodgy achilles scream out in pain and I realised it would be a Bad Idea to continue.)

 

Not walking too badly from it yet, but no doubt tomorrow will be a bit more of a revelation.

 

This evening's drinks have been solely tea-based, despite the temptation of the many boxes of wine still piled up in the corridor, and tonight's dinner was baked belly pork and ratatouille - gluten-free, and also no carbs.  Be interesting to see how the latter affects my appetite tomorrow.

 

No gym tomorrow! Despite the temptation to go along anyway and keep my streak going, I am only aiming for three times a week and I don't want to get bored of it/burn out/injure myself in the first week/all of the above.  So instead I'm going for a haircut & beard trim ahead of our (very early) work's Christmas meal on Friday (all the other weekend nights clsoer to Christmas were already taken for this restaurant when we booked it.  In JULY.)

 

Time to go looking for the new challenge threads!  It's Tuesday, so some of them will probably already be several pages long...

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Good job getting workouts in and balancing them with restraint.

Be careful at that work Christmas Party.

 

[Raxie]

HAYOOOOO!!!!

 

I know whisky is not necessarily conducive to operation wedding suit but here have this gif

 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

2 hours ago, Raxie said:

HAYOOOOO!!!!

 

I know whisky is not necessarily conducive to operation wedding suit but here have this gif

 

You were asked not to mention whiskey around certain people.

[rowan]

*SNEAK SNEAK LURK LURK OH WHAT DO WE HAVE HERE IT IS A BIG SHOW CRUSHING IT REAL HARD*


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[Raxie]

2 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

You were asked not to mention whiskey around certain people.

He mentioned it first on my thread to be fair... XD

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

9 hours ago, Raxie said:

He mentioned it first on my thread to be fair... XD

He doesn't have get-people-drunk super powers either, if we want to be fair.

[Raxie]

He doesn't have get-people-drunk super powers either, if we want to be fair.

I'm fairly confident we share that power and it's when our powers combine disaster strikes