EmbracingChaos' Quest For The Clean Bulk

[EmbracingChaos]

Looks like a good workout, but those dinners..dude. You didn't joke when you said it's amazing and likely disgusting. Just..wow!

 

I had a discussion yesterday with a colleague because he saw me buy 6 wheat rolls for my refeed and started to lecture me on how horribly unhealthy they are and that I should eat whole wheat stuff etc. and when I tried explaining to him what a carb refeed is and the mechanics behind it he just dismissed it, barely listening to anything I said. That was up to the point where I told him I'm looking to cut a few more pounds of fat where his eyes widened and he explained to me, that I look ideal for my size and don't need to change anything. Especially that second part of the discussion I've had with a lot of people, from friends to my family to near strangers and it can really tire yourself out to be extra dedicated or obsessed in a healthy way and constantly feel like you're having to justify yourself. I view it kind of like people who excel at the highest level of sports, say Ronda Rousey for example. You don't get to where and how she is if you're not insanely dedicated and well, obsessed and competitive. That might shine through in other parts of her life and her personality that one may not like or understand, but it is the very fabric that makes her who she is, the champion that she is. Now I'm far from comparing myself to her or anyone similar, but I'd bet the house that she's had to hear a lot of crap about how competetive and "extreme" she is in many ways.

 

In the end, as long as things serve a purpose, there are goals behind that obsession and you still have healthy relationships to people outside of that (which I didn't have when obsessed wit playing a certain videogame for example, *cough*), everything is fine imo.

 

Haha yea I can eat like an idiot, and so far I seem to be losing a bit of weight or at most maintaining.  So it's going to have to get even more intense just to gain some weight.  We'll see what happens, I've been debating on just counting calories post-meal, e.g. measure everything and then calculate the calories after I've made my decisions and done eating.  That way I don't feel limited/deprived, but I can still calculate what a good amount of calories would be to slowly gain.

 

It's interesting how other people can't understand wanting to look "better than normal".  They just don't get that looking good without clothes on is important too for some of us.  I had a ton of similar conversations on that Valentine's Day I'd told you about in your thread where I kind of went off the train tracks.  The entire dinner I heard things like "You look like Christian Bale in The Machinist" from my brothers (neither in good shape, of course) and "You look anemic", etc. from relatives.  People just don't understand what it takes to be Elite, so eh, you just have to not let it get to you.  That day I did, and it set me back because I gave in to what others thought because I was already struggling mentally to stick with it.

 

I watch every season of The Ultimate Fighter, and I really liked the one where Ronda Rousey was a coach.  It was interesting to see how relentlessly competitive she is and how she would constantly flip off Miesha Tate (the other coach) when her team lost or won, basically any time she wanted.  Her mom, a former Judo olympian or something, also came and guest coached for a bit.  You could see how her mom would have cultivated that driven personality, it was pretty cool.

 

What game were you obsessed with (if you don't mind me asking)?  I played Everquest when I was in high school and a few years after, and that darn game became close to the only thing I cared about for a long time.  It was crazy how addicted I felt to that game.  A lot of that obsession and focus sure has helped a lot in other areas of my life, but at the time I just felt trapped.  It became a very useful skill to be able to hone that same obsession and focus it into different areas of my life.

[Disil]

Haha yea I can eat like an idiot, and so far I seem to be losing a bit of weight or at most maintaining.  So it's going to have to get even more intense just to gain some weight.  We'll see what happens, I've been debating on just counting calories post-meal, e.g. measure everything and then calculate the calories after I've made my decisions and done eating.  That way I don't feel limited/deprived, but I can still calculate what a good amount of calories would be to slowly gain.

I really like that approach. The only issue would be if you end up overeating by an extreme amount, exceeding your bulking calories by a couple hundred, but that doesn't really seem to be likely so I'd say go for it.

 

As far as family talking you into setbacks, I've had almost the exact same thing happen a while back when my Mom basically made me reconsider and take a break from dieting down further. I now just don't tell her my weight or anything and she sees me exercise a lot and is happy that I do and that I'm happy doing it. Your brothers sound like the stereotypical crabs in the bucket trying to drag you back down to them, because I've seen the Machinist and you'd need to lose about another 25-30lbs to get to that territory if not more.

 

I've watched every episode of that TUF season and follow Ronda since she destroyed Julia Budd in Strikeforce a while back so I know exactly what you're talking about. Her getting woken up by her mother arm-barring her when she was a child surely is paying dividends right now, as is getting relentlessly drilled in practice, injuries or not. I'm not condoning this and I know a girl similar to this who basically had no childhood/youth until she was like 12 or 13 because of it, but I can respect the attitude that's been formed and the end result of it.

 

My obsession was World of Warcraft. I had just broken up with my girlfriend in a city I knew basically no one in and was planning on leaving a few months later and the WoW beta started and I got my hand on a key I shared with a friend of mine. There were a lot of highs and lows involved in the 5-6 years I played it, but overall it was extremely unhealthy in many ways and I'm glad I kicked it back in 2010.

[EmbracingChaos]

Dinner

Large bowl of cabbage w/ 1 yellow bell pepper

Large bowl of mixed vegetables

1 bowl of chicken alfredo spaghetti w/ sauteed onions & mushrooms

1.5 bowls of sausage marinara spaghetti w/ sauteed onions & mushrooms

2 garlic breadsticks & 1 slice of garlic texas toast bread

2 small bananas

2 large bowls of Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup ice cream

 

 

Spent the morning getting our garage door opener replaced, and then took the family to the zoo since it was finally a decent day (~57 degrees Fahrenheit).  We walked around for about two hours, got a decent amount of rest day activity.  My 3 year old daughter went down a slide at a park located in the zoo, and went butt first right into a mud puddle.  We ended up having to put my wife's jacket on her, and take her pants, socks, and shoes off because she was completely soaked and freezing.  I wore the backpack of our supplies and carried her back in my arms the entire length of the zoo.  That was quite a good workout, so I let myself splurge quite a bit on the ice cream.  All in all a pretty good day.

[EmbracingChaos]

As far as family talking you into setbacks, I've had almost the exact same thing happen a while back when my Mom basically made me reconsider and take a break from dieting down further. I now just don't tell her my weight or anything and she sees me exercise a lot and is happy that I do and that I'm happy doing it. Your brothers sound like the stereotypical crabs in the bucket trying to drag you back down to them, because I've seen the Machinist and you'd need to lose about another 25-30lbs to get to that territory if not more.

 

...

 

My obsession was World of Warcraft. I had just broken up with my girlfriend in a city I knew basically no one in and was planning on leaving a few months later and the WoW beta started and I got my hand on a key I shared with a friend of mine. There were a lot of highs and lows involved in the 5-6 years I played it, but overall it was extremely unhealthy in many ways and I'm glad I kicked it back in 2010.

 

That's a good way to go about it with your Mom.  Others just can't see the need to worry about the fine details, but that kind of stuff tends to be important to us.  It's natural to want to spread the information and progress, but it tends to just overwhelm other people, I guess.  My wife has told me more than once that she didn't even want to start a diet because she is so irritated already by having to help me track things.

 

Yea I'd just kicked my own MMORGP habit a few years before WoW was released, but I did try it for free one evening.  I'm probably pretty lucky that I was out of the game by that point, because I could have seen getting hooked on that one as well.  The closest I've come to playing those types of games again are the Elder Scrolls games, but luckily those have an end to the main quest line.  I'll binge play the game, and eventually I beat the main and primary side quests and never pick it up again.

[EmbracingChaos]

Dinner (3,048 calories)

1 bag of Costco frozen broccoli

1 yellow bell pepper

160g mixed vegetables

12 oz. boneless pork chops

200g green seedless grapes

2 peanut butter banana sandwiches (2 bananas, 2 slices of bread, 64g peanut butter)

120g Oatmeal

100g chips w/ 1 jar salsa

211g Kemps Black Jack Cherry frozen yogurt

 

 

Splurged quite a bit on the food today, yes wanted to eat a bunch of crap apparently.  Oh well, it was good.  Did some sprints with my 11 year-old daughter to help her practice doing the beep test, which she has been having trouble with at school.  Other than that, just a normal rest day.

[Disil]

Closing in on the final week of my cut, reading that dinner makes me slightly envious. I just snacked on 1/3 cucumber, 1 red bell pepper, 1 apple, 1 banana and a cup of cottage cheese while watching The Walking Dead. Does not compare, haha.

 

I absolutely loved Morrowind, liked Oblivion, but for whatever reason could not get into Skyrim and stopped after 8 or so hours. In general I seem to play less and less and the only games that really catch my attention do so due to plot/storytelling (Mass Effect 2/3, Max Payne 3, Tomb Raider the reboot, Remember Me) or great gameplay (Divinity: Original Sin, DMC, Far Cry 3, X-Com, Batman Arkham Asylum/City), but none of this lasts all that long.

[EmbracingChaos]

Workout (3 min. rest between main 5/3/1 sets, 1:30 min. rest between others, weight in lbs.)
Overhead Press (warmup), 3x105, 3x110, 5x115
Overhead Press 10x85, "", "", "", 8x85
Bench Press 10x130, "", 8x130, 7x130, ""
Weighted Dips 6x37.5, "", "", "", ""

Dinner (2,334 calories)
1 bag of Costco broccoli, 1 red bell pepper
7.5 oz. chicken breast
90g (2 servings) white rice w/ 843g (1.5 / 4 servings) Turkey Chili

2 servings Honey Nut Cheerios w/ 1 cup skim milk
120g (3 servings) oatmeal
1 medium banana

 

Have a nasty case of elbow tendinitis flaring up in my right elbow.  I've had it for a long time and it just does not like Dips or Overhead Press.  Oh well, nothing much to be done about it.  Was a great workout all in all, and diet seems to be right on par with where I'd like calories to end up.  Considering I'm not actually entering my food into MyFitnessPal until I've made all my food choices (I'm writing down measurements/food in a notebook and looking up the calories later), I'm happy to find that I naturally tend to end up in the right area.  I believe I got the best muscle gain in the past at around a 2,700 calories per day average, and with yesterday and today averaged together I end up at 2,691.  Coincidence I'm sure, but it's pretty neat nonetheless.  We'll see if that keeps up or not.

[EmbracingChaos]

* Disclaimer: Curse words to follow, if you have sensitive eyes/ears then it's probably best to not read this post

 

Two sections of goodness I found while reading Johnny B. Truant's The Universe Doesn't Give A Flying Fuck About You:

 

 

in the small amount of time you have to live, you can be whatever you want. It means that even though the universe doesn’t care enough to give you what you want, it doesn’t care enough to stop you from having it, either. So embrace that anarchy, and take those things for yourself.

 

 

How to level up

Just do it. Claim it. Stop waiting for permission to be epic.  Most people think that they need to be tapped on the shoulder by the Epic Fairy if they ever hope to be epic, or if they’re ever going to have the audacity to do something truly epic. But it’s not true. Want to be epic? Just do epic shit. There’s nothing else to it.  People always say, “I wish I was amazing. I wish I was awesome.â€

Fucking hell. Stop whining and just be it already. Be fucking awesome.  Nobody’s going to give you the gift of awesome. Nobody’s going to make you good, or great, or amazing, or epic. Nobody’s going to make you an expert or an authority or a voice anyone should listen to. Nobody’s going to level you up. If you want that next level, take it. Take it for yourself.

Grab it. Become it. Claim it

 

[Disil]

That's some amazing stuff.

[EmbracingChaos]

Workout (3 min. rest between main 5/3/1 sets, 1:30 min. rest between others, weight in lbs.)
Deadlifts (warmup), 3x230, 3x245, 3x260
Deadlifts 10x185, "", "", "", ""
Barbell Bent-Over Row 10x135, 8x145, 6x160, 4x175, ""
Squats 5x145, 3x160, 2x180 

Dinner (2,805 calories)

142g butter lettuce

1 orange bell pepper

180g cucumber

1 bag of Costco broccoli

6 1/8 oz. boneless pork chop
~250 calories quinoa rice, beans, refried beans, and onions (leftovers night)

~750 calories Alfredo Spaghetti w/ a bit of steak, mushrooms, and onions (leftovers night)

1 medium banana

120g (3 servings) oatmeal

213g Kemp's Peanut Butter Cup ice cream

1 Cadbury Creme Egg

 

My darn right elbow is still bothering me quite a bit.  I took 800mg Ibuprofen to hopefully alleviate some of the inflammation.  Other than that nagging injury, my workout went great.  I'm looking forward to tomorrow's rest day.

 

Diet looked pretty good, especially considering it was "clean out the built-up piles of tupperware in the fridge" night.  I didn't want to have to estimate the calories on the Quinoa/Rice or Alfredo Spaghetti, but my wife hadn't measured it out before she packed it up.  Since she is trying to lose weight and strictly count every calorie I took the hit for the team and let her have the turkey chili I had accurately measured and stored yesterday.  So my calories aren't as exact as I wish they were but should be in the general vicinity.  The creme egg was just because my daughters had been saving it for me for about a week, and since it was deadlift day, I figured it was the most likely day to avoid a negative overall impact.

[EmbracingChaos]

A snippet from How to be a seriously rad motherfucker, sequel to The Universe Doesn't Give A Flying Fuck About You

 

 

Stop looking for an answer and instead just look. You know what would be an outstanding thing to do. You know what would be amazing. You know what would be really epic, if you could pull it off.

… if you could pull it off.

And see that last bit — the bit about pulling it off? That’s what stops you. That’s what makes you unable to see the amazing thing right in front of you.

Most people, they have a series of possibilities in their lives that they don’t see as possibilities because there’s some big “… but it’d never work†or “… but there’s no way†attached to it. And that right there is at the root of most people’s inability to be epic, or amazing, or awesome, or outstanding, or whatever other word suits you.

Most people think that they’re unable to do that big thing. And they think that because it’s impossible — because they’ll surely fail — then doing it wouldn’t be amazing. Most people are under the delusion that if they fail, they haven’t been or are not being amazing.

But that’s bullshit.

To be amazing, you need to be brave. You must do the thing you think you cannot do. Whether you succeed or fail is immaterial. You know how people always say that it’s the thought that counts? Well, it’s true. Amazing is an attitude, not a set of accomplishments. But the cool part? If you keep up with the attitudes, eventually you’ll get some of the accomplishments too.

[EmbracingChaos]

Dinner (2,352 calories)

100g butter lettuce

1 orange bell pepper

130g cucumber

1 bag of Costco broccoli

8.5 oz. chicken breast

1 lb. 93% lean beef sloppy joe meat on 323g baked sweet potato fries

1 medium banana

20g Almonds

80g (2 servings) oatmeal

260g (4 servings) Kemp's Fat Free Strawberry Frozen Yogurt

 

No workout today.

[Disil]

I really like this Johnny B. Truant guy. I've had a similar moment a while back, kind of an epiphany where you're both super excited and utterly scared at the same time: I can do anything. Living in the Carribean for example: A pipe dream, completely unrealistic, but wait..what exactly keeps me from achieving it except for myself not doing everything in my power to make it a reality? The flipside of course, and how I pretty much lived my life for most of it, is being so spoilt for choice that I become paralyzed and don't do anything at all. This can be translated in to all sorts of areas, from work/career choices to exercise to love. In the end, whatever goal it is that you think is unattainable, you have to ask yourself if you really do / have done everything you can to achieve it. If you have, good, be proud, move on. If not, get to it or stop complaining. <- that's one of my main speeches I give myself in case I don't feel like working out or example.

 

As far as your elbow goes, I'm pretty sure it's mostly the dips - maybe you can sub with other tri/chest exercises? If the OHP really gives you trouble there too, maybe try a little wider grip? Just spitballing here, because if such an injury becomes chronic, that just sucks. I have my elbow-issues with chin-ups and diamond push-ups, certain dip variations as well, although bodyweight seems to work fine (on benches/chairs it's not) and I simply modify or do something else. Another thing, I've read from a lot of strength training guys that had problems in that regard and glucosamine has helped them a lot with their shoulders, elbows and wrists. If you're not hurting for money too bad, maybe give it a try for a month or two and see if it helps as it's one of the few supps that's not really feasible to just take care of with diet.

[EmbracingChaos]

Yea I've been a fan of his writing so far.  After I'm finished reading the book I'm on now, I plan on starting his The Beam: Season 1.  I haven't read any of his fiction yet, but it seems to have gotten good reviews.  Along the same lines of your main self-speech, I remember hearing "You can be or have anything, but you can't be or have everything."  You just have to pick what is the most important and go after it.  You may and probably would have to give up a lot of other crap to get some things, but there's technically nothing stopping you.

 

If my elbow issues persist I'll give the glucosamine a shot, thanks.  I'm not big on supplements (other than Creatine and fish oil), but if it could get rid of the irritation it may be worth a shot.  The damn thing has been keeping me up at night because I'll roll over wrong and send a pain spike through my arm.

[PaulG]

Nice log, EC! This is a cool alternative to the classic calorie-counting bulk. definitely following your thread.

[EmbracingChaos]

Nice log, EC! This is a cool alternative to the classic calorie-counting bulk. definitely following your thread.

 

Hey, thanks!  I'm always willing to get fat in front of an audience.  It's going to be all Oreo cookies and Ice Cream up in here...

[EmbracingChaos]

Workout (3 min. rest between main 5/3/1 sets, 1:30 min. rest between others, weight in lbs.)
Bench Press (warmup), 3x160, 3x170, 4x180
Bench Press 10x130, "", "", "", ""    

   - Time to increase the weight

Overhead Press 5x95, 3x105, 3x120
Decline Pushups 20, 20, 20, 15, 15

Dinner (~4,200 calories)
A+ Mongolian Grill

 

Workout went great.  As for food, my wife arranged a night to meet with some of our friends for dinner.  I definitely went way overboard at the Chinese buffet, I love me some Chinese food.  It's going to be annoying since it's going to throw off my post-meal calorie tracking I've been trying to do, but I feel like this is a pretty reasonable estimate.  If you can't enjoy eating like an idiot during a bulking period, then when can you do it?  I certainly can't do it while cutting, so I'm just going to have to learn to live with it during these periods.  I may eat real light tomorrow to kind of smooth out the calorie surplus, but who knows, I'm going to play it by ear.

 

Today's motivational quote brought to you by General Tso's Chicken:

 

I hated every minute of training, but I said, 'Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.'

 

Muhammad Ali

 

[EmbracingChaos]

Workout (3 min. rest between main 5/3/1 sets, 1:30 min. rest between others, weight in lbs.)
Squats (warmup), 3x160, 3x170, 3x180
Squats 10x125, "", "", "", ""    

   - Time to increase the weight

Deadlifts 5x210, 3x240, 3x265
Leg Extensions 10x115, "", "", "", ""

   - Time to increase the weight

Dinner (1,501 calories)
1 bag of Costco broccoli

9 oz. chicken breast

4 turkey sausage patties

4 slices turkey bacon

3 large eggs

120g (3 servings) oatmeal

1 medium banana

 

Squats went well this time, no knee twinges like last week.  I got caught up working so I didn't workout until about 3:00 P.M., by that point I was 21 hours fasted and didn't start eating until about 4:30.  I felt weak during my warmup, but didn't notice it any longer after the first couple of sets.  I think that was the longest I'd fasted before a workout and it was a bit surprising that I didn't feel any real difference.  I'm interested in playing with some long fasts, so I may take on one of those at some point in the future.  Our local Golden Corral does a breakfast/brunch buffet on Sunday mornings, maybe I'll do a Friday@6 P.M. - Sunday@9/10 A.M. (~ 40 hour) fast and try to put them out of business.  I sure do love breakfast food.

 

I ended up having a lower calorie day today to make up for yesterday's super-high calories.  That gives me a daily average of ~2,706 over the past 6 days.  That's pretty amazing considering I never logged any calories until I'd already finished eating for the day (still measuring food, etc. so I can accurately track).  So apparently my intuition is good enough to get me right around where I know I need to be, within a reasonable margin of error of course.  Granted yesterday was a WAG since it was a buffet, but I'm sure it was pretty close.  It also helps that I basically eat the same crap week by week, so it makes it really easy to make sure I'm in the ballpark.  Anyway, ~2,700 is what I was looking to start my first few weeks bulking at, so I'm excited to see how much weight that ends up putting on after another week or so at that level.

[EmbracingChaos]

Dinner (2,624 calories)

1 red bell pepper

4 cups organic normandy vegetables

6.5 oz. chicken breast

45g (1 serving) white rice

Half a can of refried beans

1 lb. 93% lean beef w/ 1 can of red enchilada sauce

260g (4 servings) Kemp's Fat Free Strawberry Frozen Yogurt

1 medium banana

120g (3 servings) oatmeal

300g Green Seedless Grapes

 

Rest day.  I was going to have chips & salsa tonight, but decided to just have some oatmeal and grapes instead.  Not sure why, but it sounded better.  After 7 days my daily calorie average ended up at 2,695 calories.  I'm going to give it another week at around 2,700 calories, with hopefully no buffet trips or unmeasured leftovers, and then evaluate my weight gain to see if I need to increase/decrease calories.  According to my weight trend, it "appears" that I've basically stayed the same since March 1.  I didn't actually measure out any food prior to the last week though, so hopefully the next week will be a better representation.

[Disil]

Well, you're a perfect example that this works without calorie counting, but also that it's immensely helpful, either to confirm or adjust. That buffet sounds great. I believe I haven't been to one in over a decade..might fix this when I'll eventually bulk again.

[EmbracingChaos]

Dinner (2,809 calories)

180g cucumber

1 red bell pepper

7 oz. whole wheat spaghetti w/ 7.3 oz. beef marinara & 1/2 cup light creamy alfredo sauce

5 oz. chicken breast

1 slice whole wheat bread w/ 32g all natural crunchy peanut butter & 1 medium banana

99g chips w/ 1 jar of salsa

3 servings of Life cereal w/ 1 cup skim milk

 

Rest day.

[EmbracingChaos]

Well, you're a perfect example that this works without calorie counting, but also that it's immensely helpful, either to confirm or adjust. That buffet sounds great. I believe I haven't been to one in over a decade..might fix this when I'll eventually bulk again.

 

Yea I seem to do pretty well without calorie counting, but I definitely wouldn't be able to do this without my history of having counted.  I counted calories strictly for 4 1/2 months when I initially dropped from 192-155 lbs, and then when I dropped from 155-129 over about 9 months.  There were smaller periods of 5 lb. losses here or there between those primary diets where I counted as well, after months/years without counting at all.

 

So now I can basically eyeball 32g (2 tbsp.) of peanut butter and 20g of almonds within a 1-2g margin of error.  I also know what a 3/4 cup serving of cereal looks like, or 4 oz. of basically any type of meat.  I'd never have been able to do that without constantly eyeballing it and then double-checking with an actual measurement after the fact to fine tune my intuition.  Not to mention, I know the calorie counts of each of those measurements now without having to look them up.  Sometimes you just have to do things over and over and over until it becomes natural.  I also sacrifice variety for the sake of not counting calories, and eat very little processed foods.  I think calorie counting is one of those necessary evils that you just have to go through.

[EmbracingChaos]

Workout (3 min. rest between main 5/3/1 sets, 1:30 min. rest between others, weight in lbs.)
Overhead Press (warmup), 5x100, 3x110, 3x125
Overhead Press 10x85, "", "", "", 10x85

 - Time to increase weight
Bench Press 5x145, 3x165, 3x185
Weighted Dips 6x37.5, "", "", "", ""

 - Not going to increase weight until elbow irritation is fully gone

 

Dinner (2,586 calories)

1 red bell pepper

5 cups normandy mixed vegetables

4.5 oz. chicken breast

1.8 servings 93% lean beef chili w/ 300g (2 servings) white rice

2 1/4 cups Kemp's strawberry frozen yogurt

1 large banana

90g (2 servings) oatmeal

1 red apple

250g green seedless grapes

[EmbracingChaos]

So it's time to admit to myself that things have definitely derailed and I've basically ended up spinning my wheels for the last two years.  On 10/29/2013 I had a weight and body fat trend of 149.1 lbs. @ 17.9%, and yesterday I was 150 lbs. @ 17.9%.  So I cut down to roughly 10% body fat, started trying to bulk and in the process of gaining weight I apparently gained nearly exactly the same ratio of fat and muscle that I initially lost.  That sucks, but there is no reason to cry over spilled milk.

 

I'm going to choose to frame this in a way that can still turn this into a success.  Now my goal is to get down to at least 13% body fat (if I'm honest with myself I'd like 11%, but that seems daunting right now) while keeping more muscle than during my initial cut, giving myself an opportunity to still profit from at least a little bit of muscle from this whole endeavor. As I transition out of each body fat trend number I'll post my prior and current weight trends at that body fat.  Obviously there will be variations and some body fat numbers will take longer to get through, but yea, let's keep more muscle this time.  I have a feeling my body is just VERY prone to retaining the exact ratio of fat and muscle at each body fat level, but it gives me a goal to shoot for at least.

 

Body Fat:

17.9%: 149.1 lbs (prior) - 150 lbs. (current) - +0.9 lbs.

[Disil]

Good to see you EC. And yes, we do have "set points" that our body "gets used to" and tries to get back to, whenever we deviate, so it's not surprising to see you end up at the same weight/bf 2 years later.

 

What I wonder: Where were your lifts at 2 years ago and where are they now?