Stronkey Kong Starts Thinking Longterm

[Stronkey Kong]

This is the change I needed, to step aside and focus on long term goals. 

 

I'm gonna use this space to track workouts and a couple simple things... long term. 

 

Get stronk

Walk to Mordor

Stick to my snow-valanche debt payoff strategy

Read the a Bible... all of it.

 

I have four-year goals in mind... mainly because that's my debt payoff schedule. Except the bible, that's 1 year. 

 

More details to come. 

 

As for now I'm prepping for greyskull. I'm just doing similar bodyweight& light barbell or kb exercises to get muscles going again. 

 

Today I did 2 rounds of:

10 BW squats 

10 knee pushups

10 75# barbell rows

10 breath plank 

 

I'm not going to focus on diet or weight loss. These have not served me well. I'm focusing on performance and wellbeing. 

[Snarkyfishguts]

Well, HOWDY!! Nice to see you around again.  

 

I love the long term  build of the battle log over the challenges, and I hope you find this format supports your goals ?

[Sovalis]

Hi Stronkey! *Waves*

[Stronkey Kong]

Hi all. 

 

I just popped in for an update. 

 

Workouts are lagging. I've been really stressed and not sleeping well the last couple nights... so my fitness tracker says, and so I feel. So i've been focusing on getting the rest I need to boost my training readiness before attempting another workout. 

 

We just did performance reviews at work. I asked for a raise and my boss actually smiled and seemed a little giddy. (Sigh. I should've asked for more) but he said he will support my request ands he thinks it's worth it). With that,  my four year debt payoff plan is getting easier. I had a good budget together for my current 40 hour work week, with plans to pad it with OT. Now if I just stick to that I'll be very comfortable on a much shorter, less precarious ride. 

[Stronkey Kong]

 

1779

 

That's how many miles it is to Mordor... according to the majority of the first hits in a google search.  If I walk 1.21 miles a day for four years I'll hit that number. 

 

Now, there's an app or two ands a few other posts that give different numbers. I'll abide you nerds arguing over which is correct, but I like 1779, so I'm gonna stick with that. 

[Snarkyfishguts]

Ooh I'm glad you're getting support for your raise request. Yes! 

 

I am tired, Stronkey. I dont' want to math. LOL. I trust you!  

[Stronkey Kong]

 

Not much exercise. 

 

Diet,  not a focus I know,  but it has been getting better.  I've been just eating less and not being all wrapped up in concern for calories, protein and all that.

 

I've also been researching polyphasic sleep.  Sleep is one of the big struggles of mine, particularly oversleeping which cuts into morning walks and workouts. This week I'm experimenting with 6 hours at night of core sleep with a 20 minute nap before work to add a couple hours to my day. 

 

Other than that I'm focused on preparing my house and all for Great Lent. I'm also switching back to night shift in two weeks. I fell a bit behind on bible reading last week/ weekend but got caught up last night. 

[TimovieMan]

On 2/16/2024 at 1:20 AM, Stronkey Kong said:

 

1779

 

That's how many miles it is to Mordor... according to the majority of the first hits in a google search.  If I walk 1.21 miles a day for four years I'll hit that number. 

 

Now, there's an app or two ands a few other posts that give different numbers. I'll abide you nerds arguing over which is correct, but I like 1779, so I'm gonna stick with that. 

1779 is what we have on our Road to Mordor sheet as well!

3404 if you go There and Back Again. ?

 

[Stronkey Kong]

This morning I walked my first 1.30 mi toward Mordor!

 

 

Unlike the hobbits, I haven't even had breakfast yet...

 

 

This week, known as Cheese Fare week, I've been preparing for Lent (which starts Monday), by fasting from meat (last week was Meat Fare week) and eating all the remaining cheese in my fridge.

 

 

We are not only called to fast from certain foods, but from other bad habits, taking upon ourselves some additional struggle (according to our abilities), pray, and give alms in order to distance ourselves from earthly matters and draw closer to God. I'm also planning out a whole new set of habits and routines that also dovetail with general fitness and health goals.

1.  I am now following a daily prayer rule... a more formal, daily commitment to pray with specific sets of prayers etc...
2. I also have to keep up with my Catechism class readings, daily scripture reading, and reading other spiritual works.
3.  I will be fasting from sleep  which just means reducing my sleep by reducing my overall hours with a wake up time.
4. I will be fasting from screens (except for work and necessity)
5. Fasting from inactivity-- i.e. get off my but and work or walk and exercise.
6. And of course following the traditional Orthodox Lenten fasting rules... i.e. mostly vegan, no oil except on weekends, and there are three days that we can eat fish.

To pull off goals 1-3, I'm going to be committing to a daily schedule.

 

12:00 am -- Bedtime -- be in bed, asleep or not.

6:00 am -- Wake up and do morning prayer rule. Afterward, coffee, read all the things.

8:00 am -- Exercise -- stretch, walk to Mordor, tack on some light calisthenics. -- I can also run morning errands during this time etc. Gotta be able to flex on this.

10:00 am -- Nap 30 min.  -- polyphasic sleep hack

10:30 am -- Light breakfast, then get ready for work.

11:30 am -- Leave for work. Regular work hours, noon-10 pm. Goal is to be home by 11 pm.

11:00 pm -- Evening prayer, then read or meditate until bedtime.

 

That's the general idea. I need to attend extra Lenten church services some mornings and evenings, so as needed I'll flex things for that.

 

For #4, I'm going to disconnect the ethernet cable for my TV and give it to my priest or someone in my parish for safekeeping... and I'll not be on here for the duration of Lent. I might still play video games on weekends, but only if I'm standing or sitting on a stool.

 

#5 -- yeah just walk to Mordor, exercise, and get outside... might have to start working in the garden, and I'll be working some overtime in addition to all the extra church services... yeah, I"m gonna be busy.

 

#6 --The fridge is almost cheese free, and I'm going to avoid shopping for the first couple of weeks and just live off the fast-friendly foods in my pantry until I'm absolutely out of something necessary. I have many pounds of vegan protein powders and a 50 lbs bag of jasmine rice in there. So I'll probably not even have to buy anything but fruits and veggies for the last few weeks.

 

That's all for now, I'm late for my nap!

[Snarkyfishguts]

Wow! I hope you find what you are looking for in these practices? 

[Stronkey Kong]

Another day, another mile closer to Mordor!

 

Also, I did the maths...

 

At my current weight, which sadly is 300-ish lbs., if I walk the distance to Mordor I'll burn the caloric equivalent of 80 lbs of fat. Thus, at the end of this four year period, I could weigh 220 ish lbs if I stick to sedentary-ish maintenance calories.

 

The only trick is I'll have to be 300 lbs the whole time... so every five pounds I lose, I'm going to add 5 lbs to a weighted backpack and ruck, and probably look into some type of weighted vest, or...

 

Should I start making my own chainmail?

 

https://www.ironskin.com/tutorials/

 

[Stronkey Kong]

Since my last update, about 2 months ago,  I have completed my first Orthodox Lent, visited a monastery, got exorcised then baptized, celebrated my first Pascha, and lost 10-15 lbs. 

 

I ate no meat, very little oil,  only once or twice did any dairy accidentally enter my system.

 

I didn't get much walking done, but I kept fairly active by cooking and helping out at church... and doing all the prostrations.

 

I'm not here to preach on the religious aspects of this experience, but I really do feel like a whole new person,  lighter and stronger in body and spirit.  10/10 would recommend to a friend. ?

 

I'll be back in a bit too talk about what's next on the horizon. 

[AwayLifter]

I did a hike last year in Chamonix Mont Blanc and one photo reminded me of Mordor:

 

 

[Elastigirl]

On 5/16/2024 at 5:33 PM, Stronkey Kong said:

 

 

I'll be back in a bit too talk about what's next on the horizon. 

[Stronkey Kong]

At the beginning of Lent I had a pretty good set of routines going. All the get up at 6 am, pray, read, exercise, nap, work etc.

 

In the middle of Lent I decided to increase my work hours, aiming for about 50 hrs./week so I could pad my savings for a week off during the April/May week, which was Holy Week. In the last two weeks of Lent, my boss needed a big push to get some things moved at work, so he called us all in for mandatory Saturday OT, two weeks in a row. So I worked a 60 hour week, followed by a 70 hour week, followed by a week off attending lots of extra Church services... while fasting.

 

That said, my routine got thrown into a wood chipper, and I have to start all over.

 

So for the time being I'll be working on getting my daily schedule back (posted above on March 14).

 

On the diet front, I'm going to  follow the Mount Athos diet routine.

 

Mount Athos is a Greek, Monastic Republic-- an autonomously governed state in Greece, where every "citizen" is an Orthodox Christian Monk. They follow a strict weekly regimen of fasting (vegan foods, no oil, one meal a day (more-or-less)) M-W-F every week. A little more moderate vegetarian/Mediterranean diet on other days, with fish on Holy/Feast days. Combined with their rigorous work schedules, they tend to live a bit longer, and quite a bit healthier than the rest of us. There is also a diet book which I've read that tries to capitalize on this lifestyle... as a diet book it's pretty typical.

 

Anywho, I'll be trying my own take on this routine.

 

MWF: Lenten fast with vegan foods and no oil.

TRS: Standard pescatarian, eating moderately/sensibly.

Sunday: Feast day. Whatever shows up at post-Liturgy meal, and a dinner or treat that satiates any cravings.

 

I'm also taking a year off from drinking, so no alcohol until next Pascha.

 

Finally, some fun stuff. This weekend I planted up some containers. I have tomatoes, peppers, basil, oregano, strawberries and rhubarb. I also have a couple raspberry bushes I need to plant. Then I have fragrant sumac bushes, serviceberry trees, a chokeberry tree, and a couple raspberry bushes I need to plant up. I'm also going to try to get a rain garden as well as a butterfly sanctuary garden started. I might be tearing down my wood deck as soon as I get the courage and plans for a stone patio together. And I just ordered a charcoal grill, so some bbq for those feast days, as well as grilled fish and veggies for the rest of the week are coming.

[Stronkey Kong]

Okay. Took a break there. I think I'm coming back.

 

Things have been crazy. I forgot to mention above, but my boss got fired in early May. Our department went without leadership for about three months, and constant interruptions from managers in other departments. Our new guys were losing their minds, and I felt like I was going to lose the support I needed for my job and be stuck with lots of other tasks. I began a job search and had a new job lined up, gave two weeks' notice and as of Monday last week I was ready to leave and was looking forward to the promotion, pay increase, and new role/company. Then that afternoon we had what I thought was going to be a passing of the baton with the new manager, but turned out to be more of a "we need info/suggestions on how to improve the department" meeting, and ended with a new offer with a pay increase 2x what I'd get if I left, the promotion, and a chance to actually help improve things. Glory to God, I was in a giant rut resigned to just keep digging deeper, and in one hour everything changed.

 

=========================

 

I'm re-starting my weight loss adventure.

My starting weight was 300 lbs. I'm currently at 296-ish. My current goal is to hit 282 by Oct. 13. Then go into maintenance for a while.

The Mt Athos diet wasn't working. I stopped. Now I'm working on hitting macros and getting back into lifting.

I'm using Cronometer to track my food, and the Rennaissance Periodization app to track/design/adapt my macros.

I'll sum up my macros as such: tons of protein, moderate carbs, and lower fat. I'm not going to post numbers, just cuz I'm not obsessing on the numbers.

Exercise-wise, I'm just trying to get moving more. I still have quite a bit of yard work, and I want to walk more. I'm gonna start looking at tearing down the deck tomorrow, and settle on a plan for setting my power rack outside somewhere somehow.

The squirrels at all my tomatoes. But I've got lots of chiles!

 

I'm just rambling off bullet points right now. More to come.

[Stronkey Kong]

I found out yesterday that, despite what I thought, there wasn't a promotion included with this recent pay increase, which I have mixed feelings about, but if it turns out they only care about getting the work out of me and nothing is really changing, the raise will substantially shorten the amount of time I'll have to put up with things-- when my loans are paid off and I can take a huge pay cut and do what I want.

 

Got a late start today, didn't have time to prepare food for work, and this made it difficult to hit my 220 g protein for the day. And there was a lot of junk in place of it.

 

Did my first workout in quite a while tonight. In summary, I'm doing a body building style program, whole body workouts but with an upper body emphasis. Tonight I started with pushups and rows, did a lot of sets of dumbbell exercises, then finished with a few sets of squats and good mornings. This workout was a tester. I put my numbers into the app along with some feedback about how things felt, and later some AI will spit out a meso cycle to run for the next month.

 

I also found out, mid-workout that my microplates don't fit on my Oly-dumbbell handles, so I ordered a set of nicer handles, and an EZ curl bar, and a tricep bar. Extra bars will make supersets and weight swaps easier any how.

 

 

[Stronkey Kong]

 

Weighed in at 306 lbs. on Friday morning. Oof.

 

Trying to start a new lifting program on a deficit was not working. I overate a bunch of cheesy popcorn mid-week, plus pump and creatine and boom. 306 from 296. I was at 294 this morning, so I'm sure it's mostly water weight.

 

I have been on a roller coaster of fasting and feasting, diets and donuts these last few years, a 40 year old metabolism combined with a job that keeps pulling me closer and closer to the computer screen. All the ups and downs and changes, I HAVE NO CLUE HOW MY BODY FUNCTIONS OR WHAT IT NEEDS TO THRIVE OPTIMALLY.

 

I decided to switch gears and stick to maintenance until I dial in just what I'm doing and what I need. I'll be doing a maintenance diet until Thanksgiving (at least). If I gain I'll readjust. If I stay the same or lose a bit of weight I'll keep going and set myself up for 2025 after the Holidays.

 

My maintenance calories are 3207 per day, which is plenty of food. I'll err on the side of a slight deficit, but I'm not aiming for less than 3207. Just get 220 g of protein, get close to maintenance on calories and don't go over.

 

On the plus side, I made it through three whole bodybuilder type workouts. I had a lot of soreness this week, but I pushed through and I actually feel pretty good right now. Though, now that I've done all the test workouts, the app generated all my working sets for the next week... and where I was doing 2-3 sets on every exercise, now I'm supposed to do 4-5 sets, so we'll see how that goes. But, after a week, I have a better feeling for what I like and what I want to do, and am going to do an overhaul of the program in terms of what exercises I do and how I do them in terms of sets and orders. I'm doing a lot of upper body dumbell/barbell/EZ bar/tricep bar work and like to superset a lot of things to make the workout shorter. And spreading it all out over 4 days instead of three.

 

So yeah. That's the "plan" for now.

[Stronkey Kong]

Weighed in at 305.4 this morning. This was post coffee and halfway through a protein shake.

 

Workout #4 is done, and I got it all done in about an hour. The last time I did this one it was about 100 minutes, maybe even two hours, but not focused and spent a lot of time messing with the app and tweaking as I go... and I just realized I'm a day ahead because I'm still doing the  3-day/week mesocycle. So tomorrow is a bonus rest day! Kinda.

 

This week I'm staying at my parents' house overnight so I can take care of their animals while their on vacation. So I take care of the dogs, cats, and chickens and drive home to do my workout, take care of my cat and fish, and prep for the workday. Then back to their place in the evening.

 

So sticking to a 3 day week is better, rather than trying to bump it to 4, then again 4 means shorter workouts, but I haven't settled on all the details so I'll wait till next week.

 

Now for 2nd breakfast.

[Stronkey Kong]

302 today, and is probably about the average for the week. I even dipped to 299 point something the other day.

 

Not to shabby to be eating 3200 calories a day and still ticking downward. I also tend to be about .4 degrees warmer than I usually am. My metabolism might actually be fixing itself.

 

This last week I didn't really do any working out past monday. As I mentioned taking care of my parents' place, I spent so much time running around between work, their place, and mine, that  I barely had time to workout. Plus, their cats really had it in for me getting a good night's sleep. The normally shy cat suddenly got friendly once she realized my pets were soothing and joy inducing and not pain and terror inducing, and decided to take the early shift by jumping on the bed, purring and rubbing against me repeatedly as I was trying to fall asleep. Fat, jolly cat took the middle of the night by jumping on the bed with a thump and rumble, then purring loudly and licking my face before settling right in between my legs to sleep. This cat is about the same size and weight as a large watermelon. Demon cat would take over the late-late and morning shifts by antagonizing and waking up fat cat, then meowing to be fed early in the morning. Then, as soon as my feet hit the floor, demon cat would attack them angrily. Demon cat is the worst cat ever.

 

Friday was the end of that. But instead of rest all day, I volunteered to work in our church's bookstore, which was super relaxing. Then I walked a mile or so to have dinner with our men's group.

 

Was gonna workout Saturday morning, but slept in until after noon.

 

Sunday, I started my latest landscaping project. My native plant kit finally arrived and I started chopping up the turf with a mattock.

 

Today was awesome. I spent about 10 min warming up for my workout the turf chopping project, then did my workout.

 

Dumbbell press

Hack Squat

Skull Crushers and Curlz (superset)

BB Hip Thrusts (skipped cuz back, see below)

DB Flyes and BB Shrugs (superset)

 

But, my back is quite fatigued from mattock work and bent over rows and curls and things. Not terrible like I hurt something, but it is tired and moving quickly is difficult. I spent the rest of the day burning things... I bought a raised fire pit for the backyard and decided to burn a few boxes (tidied up the house a bit too), then I grilled all the animals: salmon, chicken breast, pork chops, and bistec (thinly sliced top round beef). And potatoes. That took care of dinner, recovery protein, and lunch and dinner, and maybe even some breakfasts all week.

[Stronkey Kong]

Oof.

 

My back was not happy this morning. I could barely get out of bed, so I skipped today's workout. 

 

It's better than yesterday, though not recovered completely, now that i've been moving around. 

[Stronkey Kong]

Since I started tracking the new diet almost 2.5 weeks ago, I'm down 3.1 pounds based on Mon ands Fri weigh ins. Despite not having completed a workout since last monday. 

 

This is eating for maintenance. I just prioritize protein, try to stay on par for the day, and I can even have some reasonable slips a couple times a week. 

 

Back is like 99%. Still sore, but I'm probably just fine and hyper aware, and just need to stretch a bit more. 

[Stronkey Kong]

I spent the rest of last week not working out and resting my back... I guess.

 

Then Monday I slept in and skipped my scheduled morning workout. So, I pushed back my bed time and opted for evening workouts.

 

About to do my third for the week. I switched to a 5-day schedule to spread everything over the week and have shorter nightly workouts.

 

Diet-wise, I'm a month on the current maintenance plan. I've lost somewhere around 1-2 lbs overall. I have very few cravings and am getting back into the hang of measuring and tracking again. I can have a rich meal a couple of times a week still. I am sick of eating so much (healthy food to take care of a 300+ lbs body). I feel ready to go back to weight loss.

 

10/10 would recommend doing a maintenance phase before starting a weight loss phase.

 

I think this week, then next week doing the same then start a 8 week loss phase that ends around Thanksgiving.

[Stronkey Kong]

Cut Starts tomorrow: 9/23/24

Ends 12/15/24 (duration 13 weeks [84 days])

Current Weight: 306.6

Goal weight: 288.6 (-18 lbs)

 

Behaviors:

M-F weightlifting workouts (whole body split, prioritize compounds and cut anything after 1 hour of lifting)

7K+ steps /day Mon-Sat (focus on this)

 

4-6 meals/day

Daily Macros:

PRO                                Fat                                      CHO                             Cal

225

80

315

2880

 

Accountability:

Daily Tracking Calories

Daily Tracking Workouts

Daily Logging on Battle Log... just show up and say how the day went.

 

Edit: I updated my goals. I decided to start Monday because

1) I felt like a couple of days, not tracking (but not slacking) was a necessary mental break.

2) My nephew's 3rd birthday was today, so I could have cake and ice cream and not care.

3) Also, NGL, I had a pizza yesterday (1 medium sized, thin-crust frozen pizza), tho the rest of the day was not off the rails and likely compensated very well.

Then I wanted to  extend the diet by a month and slow down the proposed weight loss...though I might be able to get 2 more lbs. down. Weirdly, macros and activity levels are the same <smh>. The app gave me a warning that the 8 week version might not be low enough to get me to goal on time, or doing so would burn me out. I also reflected on how irritable I've been this week with 4 workouts and maintenance calories. Going a bit slower will be better.

 

Addit: To hit 7K steps a day, I need to walk 1.5 mi per day, which I am going to make a morning habit M-S to walk at least 1 mi. Just for fun, my maintenance macros are (225/110/345/3290).

[Stronkey Kong]

Day 1 (83 to go)

 

I overslept, by about 45 minutes and my morning was a little rushed.

 

I got my workout in, but I skipped front squats and lateral delt raises (because I did them both in my Sunday-afternoon-makin-up-for-the-workout-I-skipped-Friday workout) and skipped pec flyes because time and felt the DB incline Bench press gave me what I needed for pec work.

 

I started off with a preworkout shake for breakfast (vanilla whey and banana). Then I boiled chicken breasts for food prep and took one to work. I will eat them as punishment for not getting food prep done over the weekend.I also mixed a bag of iceberg salad lettuce with coleslaw mix and tossed that with a 1/4 c of red wine vinaigrette dressing... basically just really low calories filler vegetables to help me feel fuller. My second breakfast was a big bowl of oatmeal with raspberry preserved mixed in and egg whites on toast all of which I ate standing up in the kitchen in about 10 min.

 

The one chicken breast and the can of beans, was not really enough protein for the day. Had to dip into my stash of Kodiak oatmeal at work and got a clif bar, together getting me a good 30+ g protein, but put me at my carb limit. I finished the day with a scoop of chocolate whey, made it a little extra thick and drank it from my coffee mug... it reminded me of hot chocolate. Something to keep in mind for the colder months. I ended up a little over on protein (good) a little over on carbs (acceptable given I was), moderately under on fats (good) and under on calories overall.

 

I only hit 4000 steps today. Had I got up earlier I might have gone for a walk but that's that. I had figured I might try seeing what it would take to get that done at work. I had 1K from just walking around the house with my workout, cooking etc. The other 3K from work itself, trips to the bathroom, breakroom etc. But I didn't have much free time to just get up and walk and just test it out. Tomorrow I might try to take longer routes when I make up my mind to  walk somewhere at work.

 

All in all, a good day one despite a few setbacks.