Hey, from the secret Toronto base

[ThoughtArcade]

Hi everyone! Just thought with a few spare moments at work that I'd introduce myself and officially de-cloak. Im 38 and from Toronto.

 

I'll give the uber-short version of my story. When I was young, i was the fat kid. Picked on, bullied etc. It became a real complex for me, and to this day I probably still have a touch of body dysmorphia, always thinking I'm fatter than I am (until recently, but that's later). Of course, as i got a bit older I gre to about 6 ft and proportioned out. But I was never athletic, never excercised -- I wasn't quite sedentary, but athletics just weren't my bag. Home was safer & comfier. Movies, TV, books, games, etc...

 

Skip ahead to about 5 years ago. I made a resolution to try and get in better shape. I was about 220, hit the gym and in three months of daily cardio (also, adjusting my eating, and I succumber to my wife's propaganda and became a vegetarian). I went down to 170 in *three months*. There was a lot of cause for concern, because it was so rapid, but in reality, i was probably eating MORE than I had previously. I was doing fasted cardio, and would eat like a cow through the rest of te day. What probably changed most is WHAT I was eating -- on nights when my wife was out, that would be "meat night" and I'd way over eat, but that was enough of that. I managed to maintain that wait for a couple of years, even when the daily cardio turned into every second day or so.

 

But then (cue ominous music)...

 

MY SON WAS BORN and everything changed. I didn't excercise at all. Nothing remains the same afterwards -- I am the principal cook in our house, and my meal choices were getting faster, simpler and worse. Sometimes getting any food into us at all, in a state of extreme fatigue, was a challenge.

 

And I grew -- on January 1st of this year I had gone up to 194. 

 

So, January 2nd I thought enough is enough. I don't want to be "fat dad" -- and I was feeling more and more depressed. I joined a gym -- actually two, Planet Fitness (don't judge me, it's cheap and close to work!) and Bloor Street Fitness. But when I got on the elliptical,  I just couldn't do it. It was boring beyond belief -- I couldn't. But I tried something else, something I had never done before: weights. 

 

I came up with a workout plan for myself basedon the machines -- and then, moved up to the free weights. Strength training. Slowly educated myself, and about a month ago discovered this site, and took tips from it. I go 4 times a week (mostly, sometimes I just don't and walk to work, walk for work, instead -- usually 10k, just to change it up). 

 

In any event, when I first went down to 170, I was pretty damn pleased, but this... this is a whole other level. Strength training feels like home. Right now, even though my calories are on point, I keep dropping fat and weight -- I'm at about 158 (from 194 on january 1st). I'm keeping with a slow, cutting reduction in calories, because I want to deal with the fat first, and then start looking at bulking back up. The best part is, I now have, for the first time in my life, visible abs (kinda visible, almost there!). I think I'm probably about 5 lbs of fat away from actually looking... cut. It's crazy. I don't even feel like I'm working that hard, which is the crazy part! About 45 minutes in the gym, on a full-body circuit, and that's that. Protein supplement + BCAA (because BCAAs are harder being a vegetarian). Also, Glutamine on the recommendation of a body-builder friend. No thermogenics (except for my morning espresso, which is less a thermogenic and more like sweet black blood that I need so the daylight doesn't incinerate me). 

 

My plan is to cut the fat, keep doing what I'm doing, and then start on a bit more of a bulking phase with a more traditional workout layout (Chest days, back days, etc).

 

Anyways, that's me! Anyone else from toronto? Anyone else want to trade Planet Fitness Toronto horror stories?

 

 

So, a bit about my nerdliness...

 

 

Favourite books: Anything by Robert Jackson Bennett (American Elsewhere, City of Stairs, The Troupe)

Favourite movies: Tron, Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ghost World, 

Favourite music: Velvet Underground, Oingo Boingo, ELO, Devin Townsend, Mercury Rev

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Basement Cat]

Welcome to the rebellion!

 

Good luck with the lifting! Keep us posted!

[Yraen]

Welcome to the Rebellion. I take it from the weights you posted that you have a smaller frame size right. I'm around 6ft and if I get down to 158 I'd be almost nonexistent. Anyway good luck cutting and then bulking. Also congrats on the weight lose. That's a lot to lose in about six months.