I’m finally back home from the meetup and now I’ve got to claw my way back on the horse. Tomorrow, I hit the gym so I can take a weight lifting class and then at least an hour of cardio. I just know that I’ve got Sweet Basil cheesecake that’s waiting to set up a home in my thighs.
Congratulations, Baconface!
Darth Ravan Rules, we are so there with you. I actually ate well during the meetup, except for the tiramisu (it was WORTH IT) but I drank more in the last 5 days than I had in the previous 6 months combined!
But Xero1 is also for true: I came home eager to post on this thread that I already called the trainer I met with last week to schedule sessions for this week. She’s going to make me pay for my misbehavior last weekend but I have to say I’m looking forward to it.
Again. So worth it. That was frakking delicious.
2 weeks on me low cholesterol diet. Still going strong. I’ve lost about 5 lbs.
After 4 or 5 months of paying for it and not going, I went to the gym today. I hit it like I’d been lifting all winter, I’m sure I’ll be praying for Sebacean Living Death in a day or two.
So I have another 5k up again this weekend. Hopefully it will be cooler and less humid than my last run. This time i have better shoes which should help and on Friday i am going to get a better pair of socks.
This week I am actually doing distance training more so than i did last time. Last time i took it really easy the week before hopefully running about 2 to 3 miles on Wend and Friday I will be more prepaired for the big run. I also might run a mile, mile and half on Thursday.
I have also found motivation to further the intensity of my weight loss. While I am doing it for myself I have recently met a girl who is also in the process of working out and loosing weight. I really like her and she is inspiring me to now work on eating even better and kick up my workout routine.
ill come give another write up of this run. Hopefully I will shave a 30sec to a min off my last run. I have been running in hills lately its still tough but i feel great.
Well, I didn’t get my extra cardio in on Saturday or Sunday, but I did manage to fit in my standard Thursday and Saturday strength workouts and Sunday cardio during the meetup. I was too tired to do Monday’s back day, so I bailed. But I managed to fit it in in the college gym today (which would normally be an off day) between classes. So I’m not completely off the wagon, but need to make sure to get back on tomorrow. 
Eating-wise it looks like I ran a little short a couple days, and I was a little over my fat percentage on Saturday due to the dining out (26% instead of 20% max and my normal 8%-15%). But all-in-all it could be a lot worse. I feel like I’m starting to lose some of the fat, but won’t know 'till the calipers come out later in this month. I’ll get my cardio back on, though, 'cause I’m gonna lose that Cromdamn gut one way or another!
I’m much less number motivated that most everyone posting these days, but I’m really pleased because I’ve found a yoga instructor that a) I like and b) I can afford. So I’m back to actually having some guidance for it, which I hope will help me keep up with it.
That said, I still hate downward dog when I’m congested. EVIL! But when I’m in a class, I do it anyways. At home, I just tell myself it will feel evil and don’t do it.
Yay for regaining flexibility (I surprised myself today touching my toes) and building some upper body strength.
Monday Workout
Mobility exercises
then
Seated Curl and Press - 2x10 @ 14kg
Lat Pull down/press - 2x12 @ 70kg
BB Bent Over Rows - 2x10 @ 22kg
Straight Leg Crunch - 2x15
Side Bridge 2x45secs (Should have been 60secs) - Both sides.
I have to be egotiscal in that when I was doing the seated curl and press, it was awesome that I was seeing veins running down the bicep. It’s good to see that on my arms and that I’m actually developing muscles. I’ve never really got to this stage before and it’s very very cool. [/ego trip]
My desired look keeps changing as I keep going down, but I think I just want to be muscles with decently low bodyfat that is maintainable.
Wife made a great dinner on Monday - It was a chicken, carrot and leek pie with sweet potato mash. Very yummy and I have some for my lunch today. Not that high in calories as only the crust was pastry, the rest was stock, carrots, chicken and leek. yummy
It’s was the wife’s birthday yesterday and I got her a chocolate cake which was very very yummy (if I say so in my expert opinion. Didn’t go to the gym but that’s fine, I’m going to go today.
My goals
Get to desired weight range of 180lbs-190lbs
Do a photoshoot - I like the idea of showing off the muscles. For someone that has had to deal with gyno, it’s almost like therapy to say ‘Yeah, I did something about it’.
Work on getting around 15% bodyfat
Work on doing 20 full range handstand pushups
Work on getting muscles (generally all over, strong back, lats, bis and triceps, legs).
Read more about exercise and nutrition (it would be cool to do a personal trainer type course, but I don’t know.
In a supermarket on the 28th March - They are selling a HRM strap and watch for 15 quid, it might not be the best but I might get it and see how it fairs as a rough guide. It has a calorie counter so I wonder if I can use it as a ghetto fitbat
It’s a Crivit sports HRM
http://www.lidl.co.uk/cps/rde/xchg/S...ndex_19283.htm
I’m using the numbers as a guide that I’m doing good, I’m concentrating more on fat loss, muscle development and generally that I’m enjoying exercise and that clothes are fitting better these days.
Casilda - Cool on the flexability issue, I’m working on that myself. It’s so cool when you realise that you can touch your toes. How are you developing your upper body strength if I may ask.
Wednesday Workout
Walking RDL - 2x8 (each side) @ 14kg
Glute Bridge Ups(Great for getting that pert arse) - 2x12 @ 14kg
Lunge with plate hold - 2x10 (each side) @ 10kg
Alternating Superman - 2x10 (each side)
Handstand pushup - 5 reps of partial pushups (probably no more than an ince or two in range of motion - but it’s good that I could push back up again). 1x5 of negative handstand pushups.
So major breakthrough in the partial pushups Yeah me.
I then did 30 minutes of interval biking (level 10)
Just made a yummy salad
It had 2 sausages, lettuce, cherry tomatoes, a slice of chopped cheese, 1 slice of ham, cucumber and carrots with black pepper and chilli jam. All mixed. Ate it with a protein shake. Very nice…Had a bite of the chocolate cake. Again it was good, no guilt. Within my calorie range.
sounds good Bishop!
I rocked the Back and Biceps workout today and got to use my heavier weights, feeling reat about that!
had chicken breast and a bunch of different mixed veggies with it for dinner so not too bad
tomorrow is yoga, I’m going into work an hour early so I won’t be doing it in the morning, hopefully I’m not too burned out at the end of the day to do it then
I’m in the market to buy a food scale this weekend and wondered if anyone here has tips on what to look for or a brand they like the best. Is it better to get one that has a bowl instead of a flat top? I’d prefer to get one that plugs into a wall instead of running on batteries. Not looking to spend more than $30 if I can help it.
A few thoughts on food scales:
Good ones have a tare function which resets the scale to zero accounting for any weight already on the scale. So if you, say, want to measure out a bowl of cereal you just put your bowl on the scale, hit the button, then fill it to the desired weight. Also, if you then wanted to add X grams of something else to the bowl, you could repeat. (Incidentally, this makes baking dead simple and is far more accurate than volume measuring.)
Speaking of grams, for diet purposes you’ll want one that measures in grams (and oz/lbs, but you’ll use grams far more because a difference of a few grams will throw off your logging with many foods). And you’ll need a digital scale. Those little spring-loaded things won’t do you much good for food logging.
Lastly, a flat-top scale gives you way more useful options than others. Instead of putting everything in a bowl and washing it all the time, you can use it creatively. Have a pile of chicken on a plate to serve out? Hit tare and unload whatever amount for each plate (it’ll read negative as you take chicken off) then just hit the button between plates. Have a plate and need to add 50g of peas? Weigh the peas, peas + their container, OR the plate – all viable.
I have a Salter Model 1017. It runs on batteries (two large watch batteries), but they last about a year even with me using the living he’ll out of it. It goes for around $50, I think, though I’ve had it long enough that it’s probably superceeded now by something better.
Sorry if this is just annoying since ou said you’re looking for something else, but thot I’d chime in anyway. Weighing food sounds extreme and annoying to most people, but it’s really not bad at all once you’re set up for it. A few extra bucks for a scale that’ll make it easy – turns on fast, fits in a nearby drawer so you can pull it out and do your thing, measures accurately and quickly, fits under anything, has a pull-off rubber cover for cleaning, etc. – is worth it in the long run.
copying my post from the life is teh suck thread and adding a little for here:
so I get up this morning, and need to shave
running kind of behind so I try to do it quick, end up cutting myself in 3 places including right on the border of my lip and couldn’t get it to stop bleeding, so ended up just plopping a band aid over it and getting out the door
right when I get to work, I step out of my truck and WEEEE I slip on ice and fall right on my butt
then trying to get up I slip again and fall on my knee, and as this happens I somehow skid my shin across some ice which slices it open, got a nice 3 inch in length cut there now
then I got to work 9 hours in a job that requires a lot of physical activity
so I feel absolutely awesome right now
and now to top it off I will in fact AGAIN not be doing my yoga, last week it was my wrists hurting and this week its this crap
yikes!
your story reminds me of a series of unfortunate events that happened to me a few years ago:
Walking the neighborhood at a good clip to see the holiday lights with my family, I interrupted the hub as he turned to say something to me to point out a particularly pretty door-front. True to his husband training, he whipped his head back around to look and I slammed full-body into an overturned metal shopping cart that was shoved against the fence.
Wrapped my chassis around that thing like Bugs Bunny, ricocheted off, rolling down the sidewalk and into the gutter where the muck finally stopped me.
I was a ball of pain.
The hub mistakenly tried to haul me up, a look of horror on his face- or at least that’s what it looked like from my streaming eyes. I’d had the breath knocked out of me and here he was, desperately trying to get me back up.
I finally made it up, the hub exclaiming he’d run home for the car. I told him no, I needed to walk this one off as I felt my body already stiffening. I brought up the rear, dragging my more injured leg behind me, stifling tears.
I got no sleep that night. Rising painfully the next morn to go to an early class, I tried to camouflage the horror facing me in the mirror with makeup. Shaky and exhausted, I put too much makeup on one eye (navy blue eyeshadow- what was I thinking?!), couldn’t wipe enough off, so I had to match the other one, and before I knew it, Drag Queen.
I tossed my hair (long at the time) hastily into a clip, grabbed my jacket and took the hub’s car to class.
Of course I was late. I finally found a tight space close to the bldg entrance. Stiffly exiting the hub’s car, I hit my head on the lower than I’m used to door jamb and limp myself to class.
All the terminals were taken and I had to drag myself behind the instructor to the far side of the room to an empty seat against the wall. A kind man, he tried to reign in his look of alarmed concern as I tried to quell my occasional exclamations of pain.
After class, I met the hub and puddytat and a couple friends for lunch. As I sat down, my girlfriend asked me about the dried blood all over my jacket.
WHAT?!
I examined my reflection in the window and saw that I had grabbed the last night’s muck-covered jacket (it looked like dried blood!) and saw that in banging my head on the car, my clip was crazily awry and very lopsided on my head! This, combined with the overdone makeup and igor-like walk must have made a real good impression on anyone with sight!
Took me more than a week to move without wincing.
Hang in there, DR. You’ll make it out.
You brought up things to look for that I hadn’t thought of. I’ve been looking at sites to read reviews and a lot of them complain about battery life, so I was worried about getting one that ran on batteries. I will be looking for a digital scale with the tare feature and a flat top. Thanks for the tips, Chuck. It helps a lot to know what to look for. I don’t feel so overwhelmed looking at all these scales online.
woah!!!
thanks for the cheer up bkitty!
I actually wasn’t feeling that bad until I took my lunch break, I should have known to just worked through it but I was hungry, when I sat down is when my muscles started cooling down and suddenly everything hit me like a freight train so it was mainly the afternoon that sucked pain wise
going to try to do the ab routine in the morning then legs & back after work tomorrow
Did my training session yesterday and had a weigh/measure. Some good news, some ok: I gained six pounds in the last 30 days putting me at 202 (good). According to the calipers I’m still at 21.2% body fat (ok), which means that about 4.5 lbs of the weight gain is muscle (good). The fun now is that I’m pretty much at the weight I want to maintain, around 200 lbs. So now the ugly part: I’ve got to get rid of that body fat without losing all my hard-earned muscle.
It looks like the extra hour of cardio really helped to turn the tide, knocking off some of the fat I’ve put on with the muscle. I didn’t get the full amount in this week – still struggling to recover work/school-wise from the meetup – but I’m going to try and make damn sure that I get it in next week and going forward. My rough plan of attack is to try and keep my strength workouts early in the day with the cardio around late afternoon/early evening. Diet-wise I’m pushing my last meal of the day back to around 6:30 and will work hard to not eat after that. I’m also going to try and front-load my carbs a bit more, keeping the same good balance but taking in more of them in the morning and post-workout vs in my final meal of the day.
It seems like in some ways the farther I go down the path the tougher it gets. It’s nice because I do get to eat more now, but it seems that to continue making progress I’m going to have to control my diet even tighter. What the hell though, right? I can do it!
Thanks to everyone who’s posting here. It really is awesome when I’m struggling with making changes and keeping motivated to be able to check in here and see that I’m not in it alone.
One cool plus, though: I added a full two inches to my thighs and a quarter inch to my calves in the last month. I also gained an inch in the chest and shrunk my waist a quarter inch. Still a long way to go, but it’s nice to see progress.
So sat we all! In fact I signed in to the forum just now specifically to come here and read something that would motivate me to change, eat a granola bar, and go get to my frakking yoga session. Sometimes that’s hard on a Friday at 7 p.m. when I’d really rather have a beer, but it’s what I am going to do.
Thanks, dudes.
Spending a week eating properly with Chuck and Audra did me a world of good: down to 374.4lbs - woot! 
Woot! Go you! Having healthiness buddies is a good, good thing. I rely on the fiancee for cooking and on you all for workouts, and that really makes a difference.