THAT's where that. I've never followed any of his programs specifically, but I've listened to him a bunch on the radio, and I've used most of his "big ideas" myself. Like lots of young people, my wife and I got into credit card debt early in our marriage. We'd go to Outback and charge it and carry a balance, then one day it dawned on me: we just financed a steak dinner @ 18.5% interest!!! We got out of credit card debt over 20 years ago, and I haven't looked back since . . . and the house (fingers crossed!) should be paid off in two years
I'm a dove hunter ONE day out of the year (opening day). We breast the meat out taking the two hunks off the sternum, and we wrap them with bacon and a jalapeno slice using a toothpick, and grill them. About 2-3 minutes before they're done, we put a slice of cheddar in the mix . . . I think that I could eat a dirt clod if it was wrapped with cheddar, jalapeno, and then wrapped in bacon
P.S. the fitbit heartrate data is cool. I've been running internal sprints (60s sprint, 60s walk), and I'd like to see what my bpm looks like . . . I know that it spikes to ~95% of max after the 2nd or 3rd interval, but I'd like to see how it recovers between intervals.
THAT's where that. I've never followed any of his programs specifically, but I've listened to him a bunch on the radio, and I've used most of his "big ideas" myself. Like lots of young people, my wife and I got into credit card debt early in our marriage. We'd go to Outback and charge it and carry a balance, then one day it dawned on me: we just financed a steak dinner @ 18.5% interest!!! We got out of credit card debt over 20 years ago, and I haven't looked back since . . . and the house (fingers crossed!) should be paid off in two years
I'm a dove hunter ONE day out of the year (opening day). We breast the meat out taking the two hunks off the sternum, and we wrap them with bacon and a jalapeno slice using a toothpick, and grill them. About 2-3 minutes before they're done, we put a slice of cheddar in the mix . . . I think that I could eat a dirt clod if it was wrapped with cheddar, jalapeno, and then wrapped in bacon
P.S. the fitbit heartrate data is cool. I've been running internal sprints (60s sprint, 60s walk), and I'd like to see what my bpm looks like . . . I know that it spikes to ~95% of max after the 2nd or 3rd interval, but I'd like to see how it recovers between intervals.
Dude, congratulations on being debt-free! That's huge! And awesome news on the house, too!
We've been very lucky in that I was raised by my parents who taught me a lot and I learned by their example that you often go without and debt isn't even an option (we lived very comfortably, but no where near rich at all -- that's what you get when you have a dad who is an incredibly hard worker). So we went into marriage with no debt on my end and my wife had college debt, but her dad said they would be responsible for it since he gave his GI bill benefits to the younger daughter and she'd have no debt. He basically said he'd take that if we would pay off her car that he had re-financed. It was hard for me to stomach on the surface because he refinanced it and we had like 5k (I can't remember now) left on it and it was an '05 not even worth that much lol, but I happily took that 5k to give him the 30k. We got that paid off in a few months of her getting her first teaching job and now no debt. We don't have as much saved as I would have liked, but that's okay. We're working toward that and we have the emergency fund and all that stuff taken care of.
And your dove meal sounds delicious lol. I don't hunt just because I can't bring myself to do it (almost everyone in my family does). I have zero problem with it at all and eat more meat than most other guys, but I'm just too much of a pansy. That's why stuff like The Walking Dead scares me -- not the zombies, but the fact that I'd starve to death because I couldn't hurt a deer LOL.
Woke up at 5 and felt a strain in my right glute/hip from where I'd slept on my side. Nothing horrendous, but enough that it would have hampered my workout, so I went back to sleep and said I'd double up on Saturday. Normally I'd knock it out in the afternoon, but I already had plans scheduled. Had a left over birthday gift to do for the wife that was supposed to get done back in January -- couple's massage. She had pulled a muscle in her oblique and I knew she wouldn't have enjoyed it at all, so I just waited and this was the first time I could get it booked for the 2 of us late enough that we could travel up after work. So we headed up and my wife was freaking out because I kept it a surprise and she couldn't figure out while it would be -- she kept asking in a panicked voice if I was going to make her exercise lol. She was pleasantly surprised when it was a massage. First time I have ever had one and man, I have to say I loved it. I'm hoping to get up at least about once a month to get one done from now on. Incredibly relaxing and there were a few spots she was working out that had me biting my lip because they hurt, but I knew it was good for the long run.
Daily capture of my off day via Fitbit:
Saturday, April 30
Weight: 223.2 lbs.
Slept in til about 10 because my body was just craving to catch up on some sleep. It was wonderful. Wife actually woke me up to let me know she'd been cleaning and was heading over to her grandma's. I could have kept sleeping, but I decided that was late enough and I was alert when she woke me, so no sense in going back to sleep and getting all groggy. Got to the gym a little after 11 and had a loooooong workout.
Fitbit workout capture:
Workout notes:
Man, I was tired after that lol. I hit the sauna for about 10-15 minutes after, too, since I'd just had the massage the evening prior. Felt very loose in the gym and pretty strong, too. It was a good workout. Had to run some errands afterward -- our Summer work hours are going to bone me, so I'm going to have to start showering at the gym otherwise there's no way I can lift in the AM and I'm not going back to afternoons, now. So I grabbed some shower stuff and had to run to Academy and grabbed some clearanced down workout socks, too -- half the ones (regular low cut socks) were getting holes in them and I tend to wear socks longer than I should. So I actually got some that are cushioned and had to make sure they all went above the heel of my shoe (had that problem before and that is miserable). Anyway, made out with like 15 total pairs of GOOD socks for under $15. Can't argue with that.
I honestly had no desire to do anything the rest of the day, but our friends wanted to go out to a new place that opened downtown and I'd heard good things about it. So we met them out at 7. I had one beer, but I wasn't really digging it and stopped there. The wife had 2 and my buddy had 4 lol (his wife just had one mixed drink). I'm old. It was just too loud for me to enjoy. It's a smaller sit down place, too -- really nice atmosphere, but it was just too loud for me to enjoy. Once the guy who was playing music showed up about 8:30, it was actually really great. I enjoyed listening to him (covered some really good country songs), but trying to hold a conversation in there (when I didn't really want to be anywhere other than home to begin with) wasn't great.
Didn't get home til 10, so I had a late night getting my 3rd meal in and staying up long enough after that for my supps (I actually fell asleep in the recliner and woke up at 1 AM and took everything then went to bed).
Daily capture via Fitbit:
Sunday, May 1
Weight: 224.8 lbs.
Got up at 8, got ready for church and had an awesome service. Just really great worship and a great message, too. Have to say, it was a pretty special day. I grew up in church, but it wasn't until sometime in my mid-20's that I first ever raised my hand in worship. Before that it always felt awkward and embarrassing. It wasn't until after that, that I realized I didn't feel compelled to do so back then; I just thought it was something people chose to do. Anyway, for quite some time now, I've been one of those who eagerly raises his arm to praise and I don't consciously think about it -- it just happens. Well, my wife was raised Catholic and it was far more reserved than what I was brought up around. I don't mind that at all. But during worship at the end of the service, I just broke down (happens pretty regularly lol) and was crying during it, but it was to the point that my body was actually shaking a bit (just crying that hard). Well, I was holding my wife's hand, but I felt her place her other hand onto my arm to hold me (which only made it worse lol), but after I'd managed to open my eyes back up, I saw her other hand in the air for the first time ever. My heart just felt this insane level of contentment. I mean, I have no doubts in that she's my wife and I picked the right woman, but marriage is hard. People know that. And seeing her hand up in worship was something that I couldn't have described how it made me feel other than just a deep feeling of reassurance that God truly put the right woman in my life.
Anyway, it was a beautiful day (for a bit), so we went for a brief drive on the way home and looked at houses in a subdivision near hours. She grew up in the area and I only moved to the state almost 7 years ago, so she was telling me about how she used to love it when she was a kid, had friends who lived there, etc. It was great. We'll see what happens when it's time for us to buy/build our first home together, but I certainly wouldn't mind that area one bit.
Got home and had myself 2 small protein shakes (only because I can never mix more than one scoop of Select into a bottle without it clumping). Wife went back over to grandma's and I was cleaning the house til it was time to go play basketball. Sadly only got 2 games of full court in before we ended up with 20 people, so we had to break it down to 2 half court games. But my team won the first 2 games and after the re-picking, we ended up with almost the same team and we managed to win every other game, too. So that was cool to play for 2 hours and win out. Only thing that sucked was this guy who has a reputation for playing dirty decided to go Latrell Sprewell and swing his elbows at me when I had him trapped on the baseline (not even swarming/grabbing him, either). Landed it right on my mouth and I was pissed. He had the nerve to ask if I was okay like 2 minutes later to which I responded, "No, I'm not. You elbowed me in the mouth." And he had some kind of remark about playing hard, etc. and I corrected him and told him swinging elbows is dirty and there's nothing else about it. Could have been worse, though.
Fitbit capture for basketball:
Had 3 scoops of whey isolate afterward and showered up and started laundry (got caught in an absolute MONSOON on the way home, too -- ugh). Wife had meatballs for us and we ate about 6. The stupid things are somehow 340 calories per 3 meatballs but only 15g protein -- yeah, horrible. So I ate 9 and got my protein to 200g and cals to 1600 for the day. Was going to have a pint of Halo Top after she got back from the grocery, but they were out. So I'd just sipped on some APS Chain'd Reaction Rocket Pop BCAAs, then a scoop of E9 nanaberry, and then my nightly combo of supps about 9 PM and I headed to bed.
Lots of older people say that "back in the day" they would save up to go out for hamburgers. Today, hamburgers is what you eat out when times are "tough" and you can't afford steak ;-)
My dad died a few weeks after I graduated from high school, but my mom who was on a fixed income was committed to sending me to college. She paid one semester when my high school friend's dad passed away and he learned that the state of KY would waive 8 semesters of a state college if you were the dependent of a deceased or disabled veteran. So I went to college from then on free, but my mom would have done without to see me graduate.
Had a left over birthday gift to do for the wife that was supposed to get done back in January -- couple's massage . . . First time I have ever had one and man, I have to say I loved it. I'm hoping to get up at least about once a month to get one done from now on. Incredibly relaxing and there were a few spots she was working out that had me biting my lip because they hurt, but I knew it was good for the long run.
Lots of older people say that "back in the day" they would save up to go out for hamburgers. Today, hamburgers is what you eat out when times are "tough" and you can't afford steak ;-)
My dad died a few weeks after I graduated from high school, but my mom who was on a fixed income was committed to sending me to college. She paid one semester when my high school friend's dad passed away and he learned that the state of KY would waive 8 semesters of a state college if you were the dependent of a deceased or disabled veteran. So I went to college from then on free, but my mom would have done without to see me graduate.
I've heard many elite athletes get these on a regular basis as part of their recovery!
Out of curiosity, where did you go to school? Still in KY now? I moved here almost 7 years ago from IL and absolutely love the area I'm in. We're hopeful that we can stay here for the long haul.
And regarding the massage, I am gonna do my best to see about maybe once a month but at least several times a year. It was just wonderful and the feeling at the gym the next day was fantastic. Working out my hamstrings was a close second favorite to my back just simply because it really needed it lol.
I picked up basketball I think my senior year of college. A friend I worked with who was younger than me was a HS standout and played all the time. I saw him playing after I got done lifting at the rec center one day and asked him if I could play. Started out by just playing defense and rebounding and over a few weeks/months finally would shoot a bit lol. I still don't really like to shoot. I take great pride in playing lock-down D on the best guy their team has if I can guard him and pulling down boards, setting screens to get guys an open shot, and sprinting down on a fast break the other way. Crazy how much more I burn playing ball than anything else I do.
Gotta say, seeing that number was pretty amazing. First time since 2012 or 2011 that I've been sub-220. Best part is I'm carrying more muscle than I ever was, so it's a pretty cool feeling. The leaning out has helped my chest a bit, but I think I'll truly see a difference at the end of this cut and once I have the gyno surgery done. In addition to the superball sized lump on either side, there's just a fat pocket around each that keeps you from seeing the muscle even when pumped/flexed (I can feel it underneath, but it's not visible at all on the outer pec because of that).
Switched my alarm back to 4:45 from 5 AM where it had been and so far, so good. I've managed to wake up more alert and no snooze button being hit, so I get to the gym at least 30 minutes sooner and feel like I'm not rushed in the slightest. Monday was "heavy" chest day, so here it is:
Workout capture via Fitbit:
Workout notes:
Seeing things move up is promising. That brachial plexus injury still screwed me big time going from over 300 on those lifts to down to 245, but it's up from the 205 that it dropped down to. Slow but steady progress. All about the long term.
Had my 75g protein via 3 scoops of Muscle Research vanilla whey isolate post-workout, got home and showered and got ready for work, cleaned the house a bit and then had 2 Quest bars around Noon for my second meal. Took Defuse, Slintensity and NaRALA before leaving the office at 5, got home and changed out of my work clothes, fed the cat, put some things away and then it was 5:30 and time to eat. Unfortunately, we had those meatballs (high fat, barely any protein) left over from the night before and I'm not wasteful, so I played with macros and put 3 of them onto a carb balance tortilla with 2 slices of Sargento reduced fat provologne cheese and made 3 of those. That was right around 1500 cals and 90g total protein (again, not great given the number of cals, but whatever -- I'm not being wasteful). Had some trailmix after that and finished off with a pint of Kroger's Butterfinger ice cream (600 cals total for the pint). I'd peg total calories right around 4k for the day. Done eating by 7 PM (I took a break in between some of that stuff lol) and dosed my pre-bed supps around 9:30 and went to bed.
I graduated from the engineering school at Louisville (Speed Scientific) but later I also received a Sec Ed degree from UK after contemplating a career change many years ago ;-) We live in Indiana now, but we're still close to Louisville.
. . .once I have the gyno surgery done. In addition to the superball sized lump on either side, there's just a fat pocket around each that keeps you from seeing the muscle even when pumped/flexed
Seeing things move up is promising. That brachial plexus injury still screwed me big time going from over 300 on those lifts to down to 245, but it's up from the 205 that it dropped down to.
I'm Mr. Consistency in the gym (RARELY missing a workout), but there have been short seasons when I was forced out of the gym due to an injury or (less common) an illness. When this occurs, I try to stay positive--this should be a lifelong venture in my opinion--and I just start with a weight that's much lower than when I stopped and just linearly work my way back up 5-10# at a time . . . okay, 5# at a time for me
Once again, no issue at all waking up at 4:45 AM, which was nice. Got to bed a tad later than I'd planned (a little after 10), so that wasn't as nice as right at 9 on Sunday night. Got prepped and straight to the gym for a heavy back session.
Workout capture via Fitbit:
Workout notes:
Nice increases and felt good. Only thing I wasn't a huge fan of was the Hammer Strength ground raise station for DL's. I do it just for sake of time (setting up the bar takes more time and this has a better RoM than a Smith machine). Was really feeling it in my legs more than my back regardless of form. So we'll see if I keep it in there or alter things moving forward. But in general felt strong and good and had a nice back pump going on, too.
Got some errands ran after I went home and showered and got ready for work since I got done so early with waking up sooner. Pretty regular day at work but I got out a tad earlier. Busted it to the post office to ship some things out and then home as quick as I could to try and mow. This weather has screwed me. I had plans to mow this weekend but it was just monsoons all Saturday and Sunday. And last week I had plans so many evenings that I didn't have any time to do it. Rain slated to come in again today, so I had to hurry. We had dinner plans with friends 20 minutes away at 5:30. So I got changed and started mowing at 4:30. I got the yard mowed in under 40 minutes that normally takes 1.25-1.5 hours. Our front yard is huge and it's a giant hill. I have to wear my old baseball cleats (metal) to mow it. Seriously. I was sprinting on the way up. Once again, Fitbit auto-detected it as biking lol:
So yeah, that was pretty amusing. But I was sweating bullets when I was done and my calves almost feel strained now from it. It was rough. BUT, I got the whole front yard done. Back yard is still a jungle, but not visible, so that'll get done Saturday hopefully. Dinner was awesome. Wife brought potato salad and an apple pie from Kroger and made a home made banana bread/cake dish. Our friend who hosted had some really good broccoli and chicken thighs with a pineapple salsa type topping that was delicious. Our other friends brought cinnamon roll cupcakes and jambalaya that was phenomenal. One of the best meals I've had in a while. All I'd eaten prior to that was my 3 scoops whey isolate post-workout and 2 Quest bars around Noon, so I was famished, but couldn't eat as much as I wanted lol (stomach got full on me quickly). So once we got home about 8, I had some left over chicken from the night before to get enough protein in and then some trail mix. Fell asleep in the recliner watching basketball waiting to take my night-time supps. Woke up a couple times and was too lazy to get up lol, so finally did about 12:30 AM and then retired to bed.
I graduated from the engineering school at Louisville (Speed Scientific) but later I also received a Sec Ed degree from UK after contemplating a career change many years ago ;-) We live in Indiana now, but we're still close to Louisville.
Yeah buddy!
May I ask what caused this? If there's a lesson as to what to do or what not to do: I'm all ears!
I'm Mr. Consistency in the gym (RARELY missing a workout), but there have been short seasons when I was forced out of the gym due to an injury or (less common) an illness. When this occurs, I try to stay positive--this should be a lifelong venture in my opinion--and I just start with a weight that's much lower than when I stopped and just linearly work my way back up 5-10# at a time . . . okay, 5# at a time for me
That's awesome, man. We're about 40 minutes south of Louisville. We actually head up probably close your way to Huber to catch some live music and a bottle of spiced apple wine on occasion in the Fall . My wife graduated from UL and most people around here seem to be UL or UK grads -- small world!
Regarding the gyno, it's actually really frustrating. Especially on forums like these, you'll see tons of stories about AAS usage and other things leading to it. In my case, there's a small prolactinoma/microadenoma on my pituitary gland. Not big enough to operate on, but it managed to increase my PRL levels that went undetected long enough that it resulted in gynecomastia on both sides. Estradiol levels were never high out of range; so it was only PRL related. Really sucks. BUT, all things considered, it could be way worse.
They actually did a CT scan and couldn't really tell even though they thought they knew what it was, so they made me do a mammogram immediately after. Never in my life was I so nervous and ready to puke as I was in that moment. Because I went in thinking "great, I have gyno -- this sucks" and that turned into "I MIGHT HAVE CANCER?!" -- really puts things into perspective. Gyno isn't in the same stratosphere. But a friend of mine who just finished med school said they were idiots for even mentioning that to me and ordering the mammogram since it was uniform on both the left and right side; e.g. that if it was cancer that would have been almost impossibly unlikely and it would have just been a growth on one side; not something uniform.
. . . so they made me do a mammogram immediately after. Never in my life was I so nervous and ready to puke as I was in that moment. Because I went in thinking "great, I have gyno -- this sucks" and that turned into "I MIGHT HAVE CANCER?!" -- really puts things into perspective. Gyno isn't in the same stratosphere. But a friend of mine who just finished med school said they were idiots for even mentioning that to me and ordering the mammogram since it was uniform on both the left and right side; e.g. that if it was cancer that would have been almost impossibly unlikely and it would have just been a growth on one side; not something uniform.
I think what you were referring to is male breast cancer or perhaps termed breast cancer in a male, and my wife (an RN) has seen just ONE case of it in her life and she worked oncology for over 10 years and on a Med/Surg floor for another 10+.
I think what you were referring to is male breast cancer or perhaps termed breast cancer in a male, and my wife (an RN) has seen just ONE case of it in her life and she worked oncology for over 10 years and on a Med/Surg floor for another 10+.
Normally I try to go no carb and really low cal on my off/cardio-only days. I was still pretty low, but went a little different this day. So I knew I had basketball planned for the evening, so I slept in til it was time to get up and shower for work. Got through my work day and normally would have just had a protein shake or 2 across the day, but I wasn't wanting that at all, so I did 2 Quest bars and wasn't hungry the rest of the time I was there. So when I got home, I finished off the last of this cabbage/pastrami dish that my wife had made a day or 2 prior so the leftovers wouldn't go bad and I knew it was mostly meat and veggies. Then I had the remnants of some fried chicken she had brought home for me. Again, not how I'd normally do a day like this, but it needed to be eaten and I also needed protein, so I polished off 2 breasts, a thigh and 2 wings and finished off with a pint of mint chip Halo Top.
About 45 minutes or an hour later I knocked back my CardioTryx and started prepping to go head to ball (it was half an hour away). Sipped on my MaxREPS + beta alanine + COP and slammed my 25mg ephedrine, 200mg caffeine, 1 AllphaBurn before leaving the house. Sipped on Compete + 5g taurine during ball (knocked one back across the first half and one more to finish up). I did things a little bit differently with my Fitbit this time. I got there a couple minutes late, so Game 1 was already underway. The place where these guys play is only half court and 4 on 4, so I was the 2nd to arrive for next game and 2 more guys showed up. We won our first and lost our second. I stopped the capture on my Fitbit since I didn't know how long I would be sitting. Was down one game, came back on and won the first and once again lost the second. Down one more game and then the final game was just a joke/blood bath -- not even fun. So I have 3 separate captures -- the first 2 encompass 2 games, the last only encompasses 1 (the bloodbath -- as indicated by the lack of worth when it comes to exercise, too):
Games 1 and 2:
Games 3 and 4:
Game 5:
Normally I'd slam a shake after ball, but it was almost 9 PM and I honestly just wanted to get home and get to bed. Had 2 scoops of Chain'd Reaction and sipped on that on the drive home. Tossed everything in the washer and started that while I headed up to shower. Prepped for bed and tossed everything in the dryer. Stayed up long enough to pull my work polos and stuff out so they didn't wrinkle (always pull them out after a few minutes damp and they're GTG without me having to iron or steam them). Pre-bed supps and then off to bed.
Daily capture via Fitbit:
Thursday, May 5
Weight: 219.0 lbs.
Thursday started off waaaaay too early for me -- at 12:30 AM when the tones went off and there was a house fire. We're hoping to move to the town where I'm a volunteer firefighter, but currently, I'm 20 minutes out of town (I can make it from my house to the station in 15 minutes if I don't hit any lights and that's driveway to driveway). As it currently stands, I don't respond to a lot of our calls because they're cardiac arrests or similar things that are resolved very quickly from the fire side and by the time I got there, it wouldn't help. Structure fires are different because they need a lot more hands on deck and usually last long enough that even if you show up late, you're helpful. Anyway, I clicked respond in the Active911 app, jumped out of bed, put my contacts in, woke the wife up to tell her, and got dressed. I actually made it to the station in 21 minutes from when I got the call -- I was pretty impressed I managed to go from fully asleep to dressed, contacts in, and to the station in that amount of time.
Well, when I got there, I didn't see any other vehicles at the station -- surely didn't think I could have beat everyone there, but even though you're not supposed to, I know plenty of guys keep their gear in their cars/trucks and respond in POVs. So I grabbed my gear, GPS'd it in the app and headed to the scene. I get there and no trucks, no signs of fire -- nothing. Call one of my friends who had checked responding to see what was up. "Yeah, they cancelled the call just as we were getting in the truck to head there." Never got an update in the app and my pager was silent. Was pretty pissed, but whatever. So by the time I got back to the station to drop my gear and then back home, it was 2 AM and my adrenaline was full swing. So it took over an hour to fall back asleep and when I woke up I just felt like trash (combo of all that and also the weather going from 80's to lows in the 40's over a few days). I ended up calling in sick to work and slept for a handful more hours. My body needed it.
Later in the day, I did end up going to the gym just because I needed the workout. As I've stated, my body doesn't respond to many days off well and I'll start feeling sluggish/groggy and then emotionally will just hit that minor funk/depression. Yesterday was the start to high volume week and we start with arms. Here's the workout via Fitbit:
Workout notes:
As you can see, I managed to increase on most of my lifts and stayed steady on the others -- all while having dropped weight. And that's a good thing because I've been really battling the body dysmorphia sneaking in on me lately. My arms look/feel waaaay smaller to me and it plays those mind games, but I've told myself to stick with this and trust the process. Again, when I know my strength isn't taking a hit, it'll be okay. But it's still a very real and ongoing struggle.
Got my cals up a bit yesterday after the screwed up sleep and everything else -- wanted to make sure my muscles were fed and my body was ready to get back on track.
So I grabbed my gear, GPS'd it in the app and headed to the scene. I get there and no trucks, no signs of fire -- nothing. Call one of my friends who had checked responding to see what was up. "Yeah, they cancelled the call just as we were getting in the truck to head there."
Okay, been a few days since I've been able to update. I normally don't do updates over the weekend because I like to do the full day update the day after once everything is completed and easily presentable in Fitbit. But yesterday threw me for a bit of a loop, so we're playing catch-up:
Friday, May 6
Weight: 222.8 lbs.
Friday ended up being an off day. I honestly can't remember what the reasoning is/was, now, but I slept in and then was going to either knock it out in the afternoon after work but then decided I just wanted to hang with the wife and watch a movie, so I decided I'd do a double on Saturday. After work I got some food and hung out until my wife got home from her walk/hike with her friend and she brought home Penn Station, so I had a nice big chicken parm sub (humming some Peyton Manning jingles right about now). We watched an episode of The Office (our favorite joint show and it is kind of fun because she is the Pam to my Jim -- she was working in our office (as a grad student at another university -- so not one of MY students lol) and she worked our front desk and then I asked her out). Then we rifled through some movie selections and we usually side on comedies because laughing keeps her awake better than drama lol. We decided on Train Wreck and let me just say, it was way better than I anticipated. I like all of the cast, but didn't really have a high bar set for it. But it was great and John Cena made me laugh SO HARD. Ridiculous. Good night in.
Daily capture via Fitbit:
Saturday, May 7
Weight: 224.2 lbs.
Slept in and got to going to the gym once I was up and moving. Hit my high volume/hypertrophy delts/traps session and planned on hitting legs along with it, but I just wasn't feeling it after being in there as long as I had already been. Plus, I had the entire back yard (roughly 1 acre) to (push) mow once I got done, so I decided I'd just bang that out first thing in the morning after church and a few hours before basketball.
So here is the Fitbit capture from the delts/traps sesh:
Workout notes:
It was a solid workout (and btw, I was 220 after the workout) and then I went straight home to mow lol. Once again, Fitbit logs this as bicycling and this is what I got from that:
I honestly just wanted to stay in and relax in my recliner I was so dead. But we had been invited to a friend's for a bonfire. So, we watched the Derby (we are in KY, after all) and then headed over there. I was there for maybe 15 minutes before we got toned out for a vehicle accident. The friend whose home we were at and his neighbor are both on the fire department with me and both had started drinking a beer. Well, they were planning on not going but giving me crap to go. I was still bitter about going out in the middle of the night/morning Thursday at 1 AM for a no-run and really didn't plan on going. Well, they decided after some hemming and hawing that we needed to respond because not enough people had and no one that could drive an engine (some of our younger guys) had, either. So I had to drive the wife's car and parade the 3 of us to the station. We got there, geared up and one of the Captains had shown up and was driving the engine, so one guy from our group jumped on with him, but my other friend wanted me to drive one of our brush trucks, so we took that out (my first time driving it). By the time we ended up on scene, there wasn't much to do and EMS had already transported the patients out (don't think anyone was too severely injured). So, we packed it up and headed back to the station. Buddy #1 and I were waiting there for the engine and Buddy #2 to show up so we could head back to his house. After about 15 minutes of waiting (they had to write up the report), we get toned out for a vehicle fire. So all crap apparently breaks loose and one other person who had shown up to the station late for the first call and the 2 of us were there -- Buddy #1 says for me to take the brush truck, but there's only room for 1, so he decides he's gonna drive the other engine and the other person jumps in with him. Well, great -- except they didn't shut their bay door and I'm still relatively new to this and still don't live in the district we service, so I'm not familiar with it like they are. So they rush off and I'm holding my **** in my hand trying to find the button to close their stupid bay door because even though it's a small town and you'd hope no one would rob us, I don't think they'd be too fond of us leaving everything wide open with thousands of dollars worth of gear just sitting there. So I finally get all the resolved and have to GPS it from the Active 911 app and head out. By the time I got there, the others were obviously already there fighting the fire and even the engine from that first accident scene was already on scene so all I basically did was have to run the pump for a bit while they smothered the last of the fire. But then we had to stay on scene for like another hour plus to wait for the tow truck to get the scene cleaned up and the car out, then it was back to the station to fill the air tanks, clean house, fill the tanker, etc. By the time we got back to our friend's it was almost 11 and my wife was barely awake on the couch with our other friend's wife and the kids all passed out. Not how I wanted to spend my night. I was largely just in a bad mood because my friend bailed and took the engine and just left me in a bad situation when I easily could have hopped on with him and saved time and been of more use.
So when I got home, the wife went to bed and I should have, too. But I decided to go downstairs to the big screen and watch basketball and snack. Actually fell asleep shoveling trail mix into my mouth. Ugh.
Daily capture via Fitbit:
Sunday, May 8
Weight: 223.0 lbs.
Well, I went to bed in a bad mood and woke up in the same spirits. I fell asleep in the basement bedroom and my wife came to wake me up and ask if we were still going to early service. I just grumbled and she said how about middle service and asked when I wanted to have her wake me up in time for it -- so I said 9:30. 9:30 rolled around and she came back and I just grumbled some more. We ended up not going and I'm angry/disappointed in myself for that. Church resets me and recharges my batteries for the week. I know this and yet I still was selfish and let my mood get the better of me. Additionally, we found out the gym was taken for something so no basketball in the afternoon. Well, I still had Friday's session to make up.
Only I didn't.
I let that sour mood follow me the whole day and stayed in watching TV while my wife spent most of the day at her grandma's (as she does most Sundays). I barely ate and all I wanted to do was snack when I was "hungry." It was just a poor choice of management for the day for me.
Fell asleep around 7:30 in the bed while hanging out with my wife only to wake up and realize she was downstairs watching Once Upon a Time (at 8:30), so by the time that happened, my sleep was all screwed up and I ended up staying up until about Midnight.
Daily capture via Fitbit:
Monday, May 9
Weight: 227.2 lbs.
Alarm went off at 4:45 -- and all I did was snooze it a few times and then decided to reset it and that I'd work out after work that day. Bad choice.
After the day was winding on at work, I realized that the way the week stacks up the smartest thing to do was to push my workouts a day, so Monday's on Tuesday morning, Tuesday's on Wednesday morning (which is normally off), and then basketball Wednesday evening and back to normal come Thursday.
I just didn't feel like myself all day because of skipping. I know this about myself, but it's just so easy to get off track by missing that one day and letting the wheels fall off. It's a downward spiral that can head out of control pretty rapidly.
It's really easy to stay dedicated for a month or so. The long-term is where you really find out what you're made of. Logs are easy to keep in the short term but when you look at the long term, that's where you have to really push yourself. And that's where I'm at. That first month was simple. Not easy, but simple. But pushing yourself so hard for a short duration is one thing -- over a longer period is entirely different.
(Spoiler alert, I hit the gym this (Tuesday) morning and feel MUCH better)
Daily capture via Fitbit:
So here I am. I was nearly flawless on my execution of workouts and nutrition until this past weekend. But that's okay. Life isn't perfect and I squared it back around today. It's easy to find that mindset of "welp, I already missed X, so might as well wait til Y to start back up..." I've done that before. I won't do that again. The gym brings my life balance. It gives me the mental and emotional stability I need to keep moving forward. And not just about the aesthetics of the mirror (though that certainly is a part of it because the body dysmorphia can kick in HARD and FAST and make you feel tiny and fat all a the same time). But more importantly, the even flow of energy throughout the day is what working out gives me. It's my medicine and it's important not to skip it. Days off and rest are one thing. Even a slower day at the gym. But just flat out skipping is bad for me. I need routine and structure to thrive.
It should also be noted that on Thursday and Saturday night I missed my doses of Keto Induce and those are the only times in this entire run since April that I have done so.
I felt/looked much better this morning after the gym so I'll ride that into tomorrow and keep on pushing. No giving up. This isn't just about a short-term thing here -- this is for life.
Do you teach at the university level? I taught College Algebra one night a week for about 5 years. I loved it, but I had to give it up when my boss quit and I had to take on new roles which "could" mean more travel . . . sadly, I almost never travel and really could have kept the teaching job.
The gym brings my life balance. It gives me the mental and emotional stability I need to keep moving forward. . . . I felt/looked much better this morning after the gym so I'll ride that into tomorrow and keep on pushing. No giving up. This isn't just about a short-term thing here -- this is for life.
I feel the same way, and this attitude finally sank in so that I finally quit "program hopping," because if you're really in this for life, what's 3 months or 6 months or even a year to try something out(?). There's plenty of time to try other programs in the future.
Not gonna lie -- the scale change in just those few days (since May 5th) is kind of a kick in the balls. The "fat gain" doesn't seem to be THAT much, but I am definitely looking a bit softer and like I've added just a bit back around the lower abs and love handles. Hopefully a few more days of things being back to normal will equalize it. I've dialed in my nutrition a bit more this week to be specific toward macros, too.
Woke up at 4:45 and stared at my phone -- wanted so badly to just silence it and go back to sleep. But I didn't.
Got up, got my morning routine done and got to the gym. It was a day late, but it was high volume chest.
Workout capture via Fitbit:
Workout notes:
Pace felt like it was down just a tad, but it was a good workout. I think it's more mental than anything else right now. Happy to see my lifts improving for the most part, though. I like to lead with regular bench, but they were taken so I started with incline DB presses and then rotated over to that.
Was in a much better mood at work with the endorphin rush. Had my 3 scoops of Muscle Research vanilla whey isolate post-workout about 7:30 AM, went home and showered and got ready, started sipping on some nanaberry E9 at the office, popped my first Epitome at 11 AM and then had 2 Quest bars at 11:30. Was out of the office early for a doctor's appointment for the wife, so I scarfed down 2 more Quest bars at 2:30 PM, and took my 2nd Epitome at 3 on my way out the door. We were stuck in a tornado warning for the county (even though it wasn't on path for us), so the doctors' office had everyone go down to the basement and that took 30 minutes so we were behind after that. Ugh. But all in all, we were fine so that's all that matters. First time for me meeting the wife's doc and he seems like a pretty good dude. We chatted about things (women's/fertility clinic) and he and I were on the same page that the next step for us is to have a sperm check, so he hooked me up with the lab info and I'll hopefully be getting that done next week. That will determine what we do next. It's a lot to think about and take in. On one hand, I hope my numbers are low so that points to less chance of a problem with my wife as that's likely harder to assess/correct, but on the other I obviously also don't want my side to be impacted. But if mine comes back normal, the things we check for her are riskier at this point and then if we have to look at in-vitro, that's obviously a huge next step. So we'll just pray on it and go from there.
Once we got home, we cooked dinner together. From some cookbook she has and called "cowboy grub" (I'm not a fan of a lot of the names lol, but the meals are good). We generally cut everything in half because otherwise we end up with way too much in the way of leftovers for just the 2 of us and we try our best not to be wasteful. So it was a pound of ground beef, some brown rice, a vegetable mix of green peppers, onions and something else, diced tomatoes, corn, and then garlic powder, chili powder, salt, pepper, cumin, and cayenne. Turned out pretty good and not too long to cook, either. I added in some Velveeta that had been left over from another recipe and was taking up fridge real estate to mine so that obviously upped the cals, but made it tastier and got me some fridge space back because it was not much of the block left at all. I ate the majority of it because I was just trying to get as much ground beef as I could lol.
Snacked on 1 serving of the dark chocolate almonds while watching TV after that and then my wife comes downstairs and says she wants to bake me something. I'm like "...okay?" She's like "It'll be good -- it's dessert." To which I obviously respond, sure lol. So a little bit later she comes down with what looks like a souffle of sorts with a somewhat hardened top and was soft on the inside. It was supposed to be some kind of chocolate lava (magma!) cake, and it was tasty. Tasted very similar to hot chocolate in flavor and was slightly undone, so a bit runnier than she'd planned on the inside, but still very good. That got finished at 6:50 and I said I was done for the night with food. Ended up drinking 2 scoops of Humapro around 8:30 and then took my Keto Induce + MCT Evolved with my pre-bed supps (which that list is shrinking) around 9 and went to lay down.
Do you teach at the university level? I taught College Algebra one night a week for about 5 years. I loved it, but I had to give it up when my boss quit and I had to take on new roles which "could" mean more travel . . . sadly, I almost never travel and really could have kept the teaching job.
Hence Hebrews 10:25: Do not forsake the assembling of ourselves together
I feel the same way, and this attitude finally sank in so that I finally quit "program hopping," because if you're really in this for life, what's 3 months or 6 months or even a year to try something out(?). There's plenty of time to try other programs in the future.
I only do academic advising for a university. I taught (it was as a TA, but I actually had full control of the class and was unsupervised) public speaking during grad school and am qualified to teach COMM courses, but just haven't reached the point of wanting to do that. I was approached when I started this job, but I wanted to focus on the full-time gig first and then it's never really brought itself back up (plus it seems like I keep getting my hand in too many other pots lol).
I'd come to realize about myself already how much I need the exercise and the structure, but it's almost like treating yourself like an addict (not to diminish what someone with a drug/alcohol addiction goes through whatsoever, btw) because it's just so easy to spiral out of control. I view it as "oh, one day won't be a big deal" and it really shouldn't be, but I have to be better about making myself go that next day and not letting it turn into multiple days off. And it's not even about the "gains" or anything like that -- it's just because the lack of exercise results in my mood just being so much worse and that rolls over into so many other areas. Slippery slope.
.gif "IP Gear")
