I will work out my brain muscle.

[y8s]

Hi NerdFitness.

About a year and three quarters ago I embarked on a bit of a nerd fitness lifestyle of my own. I was about 9 months from getting married and my then-fiancee was encouraging me to get my sht together so that I would be a long term emotional investment instead of dying off at 45 from whatever kills the fat and lazy types.

I have the benefit of having a wife who works in sustainable agriculture and has ties to some pretty serious sources of information in farming and food production so I had a bit of a nerdish head start with regards to separating the real food from the advertised "healhylicious" stuff.

We shop primarly at the farmer's market and supplement with grocery store where necessary. There's no need to explain to me the benefits of grass-fed beef or bison to me because my wife's organization probably has written a book on it.

When I started being conscious of what I ate, I did some research and learned that some companies really want to make a lot of money off how we eat. I dug deeper and determined that what we've been told to eat for decades was not what we're supposed to eat. I've read lots of Michael Pollan (met him and shook his hand) and have sat down to dinners with farmers who provide pork to Chipotle (essentially the guy in the video in human form--Paul Willis) and basically understand the deal with where food comes from.

I ate much better for those 9 months than ever in my life and 15 pounds of me vanished without much effort at all. It wasn't a Paleo diet or anything fancy, just reducing the crap and not eating too much of the non-crap.

Then after my wedding I started going to the gym fairly regularly. This is where I'm totally codependent. NF stresses the wingman thing and I understand TOTALLY. I don't go to the gym alone. I need someone else there with me. I have a friend who is that guy and nags me to go often. It's a great start.

So another year passes and another 10-15 lbs leaves me (I think 5-6 of those were from drinking the water in Bali but I'm ok with that and I'm feeling much better now.

To sum up my life in weight:

I finished high school at a scrawny 6 feet and 143 lbs.

I gained some weight in college but not ridiculous.. 185 lbs into my 20s.

As I crept into my 30s, I peaked at about 205lbs 2 years ago.

I'm now about 175-178 lbs and on the virge of 20% body fat.

Reading through some of the articles on the site were illustrative in that while I am losing weight in the right places (yay!), I'm also losing weight in the wrong places (boo!) and it's time to get a bit more serious about how to straighten things out for my body.

I should point out that 8-10 years ago I had high triglycerides and probably mediocre cholesterol scores. Recently having had my cholesterol checked revealed that everything has moved toward "awesome" values that even earned me a "wow" from the doctor on the test results. I should reiterate here that I eat NOTHING fat free, I consume real butter, eat a lot of red meat, and dont avoid saturated fats in general. So that's reassuring.

MY GOALS!?

Well, lets be honest. I want my wife to eat me for dessert. She's made specific mention to those little creases guys get where their legs join their torso and how hot those are. She's also into pecs. She's not into bulk though so I wont have to kill myself and I dont bulk easily anyway.

Lets pick some awesome things like...:

Body fat below 13% but see what results I can achieve.

Get those little lower-ab creases for my wife.

General muscle definition and decent pecs.

bonus: Live forever (I'll check in when I'm 90..)

I'm not looking to beef up like crazy. I want to look good and feel good and improve my life.

I'm willing to adjust my diet (meat and vegetables sounds awesome) and hit the gym a few times a week (3 is about where I'm at now--but using those more effectively is WIN).

So there's me. Hi.

Maybe later I'll post some fatty y8s pictures and some more recent ones.

[ETFnerd]

Is that from the poet y8s? Good to meet you...

[ebm1224]

welcome to the forum! congrats on your progress so far

[y8s]

Thanks for the welcomes.

y8s is my last name... spelling different than the poet.

I did leave out one goal though. I love beer. And I dont mean I love any beer. I love good nerds-would-approve beer. So that will probably prevent me from going to a whole caveman diet but that is how I roll. Plus I haven't given it up thus far and it doesn't seem to be a problem in terms of weight loss.

[Elastigirl]

Wow, that is so cool that you get to talk with some of the farmers for Chipolte. I bet those were interesting discusions. And with your wife in sustainable agrigulture, it should be no sweat to maintain the diet.

[y8s]

Tonight went to the gym with my wingman and we busted our asses with the dumbbells. usually we do 3 sets at a constant weight but tonight we incremented weight and did a fourth set of the starting weight to failure. it was pretty hard and we were very tired afterwards but I feel like we did a bit more than normal.

so that's awesome.

and then we had chipotle!

one interesting thing I did learn when I was losing weight by diet alone was that a chipotle burrito with all the junks was like 1200 calories but three tacos without beans, rice, sour cream, or guac was like 600.

of course now that I'm down to a decent weight I might re-add the guac back in... and perhaps a fourth taco!

[y8s]

I haven't been a good active user... but I think it's time for a small update since early november.

The holidays have been a challenge as far as consuming is concerned. I've been working on increasing my protein intake to closer to the weight lifter levels while reducing carb intakes to minimal levels by avoiding eating carb-based foods that aren't at least a way to hold meat to put it in my mouth (sandwich, taco, etc). At home it's not a big deal because I have my infrastructure handy but while traveling, it's more challenging to get the right quantity of protein and vegetables.

In any case, I've been trying to eat more to help gain muscle mass and trying to work out harder to increase muscle and reduce fat. So far the changes are small but I expect to see some differences in the coming weeks while I'm back home near my gym and protein.

I've added deadlifts and squats to my workout and am in love with them both. I seem to be a natural at squats for some reason. Compared to my workout buddy, I can squat more weight and get much lower more comfortably. But I will help him get there too! We are currently deadlifting just under 100 lbs with good form and reasonable amounts of lower back soreness for a day or two (feels like typical new workout DOMS and will probably stop after a few more weeks of regular deadlifts) and I am squatting between 70 and 95 lbs, depending on the day. I know it's not much, but with the protein increases and regular workouts, I'm sure those numbers will go up fast.

Body fat is still in the low 20% range but considering I ate like crap for most of December, I'd say that's ok. I'm not one for new years resolutions but I think January will show some positive changes in the numbers.

Today I also started tracking some measurements just so I can keep better track of progress.

Oh and I showed my wife how to do a deadlift.