MAR1984's thread of grumbling and bragging

Hey Matt,

couldnt agree more with your thoughts on subway. I pop in every now and then to grab something quick and relatively fresh and so many times I see overweight people loading up massive subs! Sometimes I cant believe my eyes at how much stuff they can cram in to one piece of bread.

I would urge you however to not think about the reasons they are there or what they might be thinking about why you are there. You are there to eat and from what I have read you know exactly what you need to eat to lose weight so what does it matter if people in their own tiny minds think about you.

The advertising campaign from subway around weight loss is relatively honest in my opinion and when you go in to their shop everything is well labelled so I know what is not too bad for me and what is very bad for me... MMMMmmMMMM meatball marinara ... great for a hangover :) But I would imagine a lot of people just see the ads on tv and assume that its all healthy and good for them. These are the same sort of people that think just because something doesnt have a pound of sugar in it or has "light" on the label they can eat 20 servings of it - thats their ignorance, you know better.

All of this talk of subway is making me hungry now... I think Ill go and get a 6" veggie or something :)

Keep up the long posts in your diary, it makes for great reading.
 
Totally feel you on the Subway thing.

Its funny, because I order my sandwich (chicken btw, always. Its hands down the best) with most of the veggies, vinegar, and a SINGLE line of LIGHT MAYO. I must sound a little spastic to those employees, but when I don't emphasize it, they do like 3-4 passes with regular mayo. So now, I am in line cringing at the fact that my sandwich just cost about 300 more UNNESSECARY calories because I wasn't assertive in my sandwich order.

Wow, lets just end that rant right there.

RE: the other lady. IMO, weight loss is 80% effort, 20% knowledge. Its one of those things where having a plan with no action is just as effective as killing yourself in the gym but overeating to compensate. I think there is a FREAKING TON of bad information out there, but once people seriously take some time (lolgoogle) to figure out the correct way to do lose weight, its another obstacle out of the way.

GL next week man. You know as well as I do that if you get through next week with minimal to no cheats, you'll be that much happier about it.

Have a STRONG week!
 
ForRealThisTime: Thanks for the comments! Don't worry, I'm not too worked up about what people think. Just sorta blew my top over the subway thing the other day. I'm glad you like the long posts - I was starting to think it turned people off from reading :)

Andy: I hate how the subway workers apply the sauces. I'm the same way as you. I always say, "Just a tiny bit of" whatever sauce I'm getting, unless its the honey mustard. And then there is still one generous bead on there, more than I would have put on my own. But you're right, if you're not real specific, its back and forth and back and forth until the sandwich is swimming in sauce. Some people actually want to taste the sandwich lol.

I haven't quite workout out how next week is going to go yet, but I'm starting to formulate a plan. The biggest part is really going to be controlling what I eat. If I can do that, I'll be good. Second bit is, I need to bite the bullet and get myself a daily admission into the local YMCA to do my lifting on monday. Maybe I can get some golfing in on monday as well. Tuesday and Wednesday are days where my wife and I are planning on visiting a local ammusement park, called Darien Lake. 1 day for the thrill rides, 1 day for the water park. While I feel I'll be able to avoid the typical carnival foods, I've gotta eat something those 2 days, so it'll be a challenge to make sure I'm getting enough calories of some decent food. AND, plenty of water. Back to cleveland next thursday, where I'll do my typical wednesday weight lifting. Next friday is a day of community service through work (which also lets me not have to use a vacation day and still get paid for the day, so its not reeeeally community service since I'm getting paid for it :p ) Then saturday will be my usually friday workout, sunday a day of rest, and back to the normal grind in 2 mondays.

So, today will be probably a DDR night again (we did over an hour last night), and then tomorrow will be weight lifting. That leaves saturday and sunday. Probably heading out of town on saturday. I want to visit with an old friend from high school and his wife - they just had a baby. Maybe do that saturday afternoon. I really hope to convince my cousin to take me out fishing on his boat saturday evening. Sunday is the 4th. Mostly resting and watching my intake.

So there you go. Watch my intake, got stuff planned for every day. Try to do what I can to keep from melding into the couches. I can get through this week!


Lets see, yesterday's workout went well. I did 3x5 at 200lbs for squats. Then I did 3x5 at 100lbs for standing overhead press. Finaly, did assisted curlups (pull ups with palms facing you). I surprised myself by getting 5 reps the first set. I got 4 tough reps the second set. The 3 set, I tried to hang at the top of the bar for as long as possible. All these were done with 160lbs of assistance, so I was still lifting 200lbs of my body weight. Then I went over to the cable pull down maching and did 1 more set of pull downs with the weight at 160lbs. It was a struggle to get to 8 reps.

I think, if I'm ever going to do an unasisted pull up, the most important thing will be getting my weight down. Suppose by next may, I've lost 100lbs and gained 50lbs of strength, I'll be really close! might be able to pop one out then!

As I said, I did DDR yesterday after my workout. We tried a new disc (I bought all the games for the PS2 I could find, so we don't get bored doing the same songs. I play on the 3rd highest of the 4 difficulty settings. Some songs, I can get perfect on. Others are still a challenge. Almost all songs on the hardest difficulty, I can't do because the patterns are just too tough to see and hit. 3rd level is good enough for working out. Unfortunately, I'm getting so good at the game that my wife and I got through and passed every song unlocked on the disc in about an hour. So much for that disc :p Didn't care for many of the songs anyways, so unless we can unlock more, I think that disc is toast. Today will probably be mre DDR. We have 5 discs total - 2 are our favorites, and I think we have one we tried but didn't like much, and 1 we haven't tried at all yet.

Tomorrow is weight lifting again. It should be a milestone day for squats. I'll be attempting 3x5 at 205. That means, the bar, plus a 45 plate and a 35 plate on each side. I have a feeling I'll be repeating the weight next week though, but its ok. As long as I keep progressing. Then its 170 3x5 for bench press, and 140 cable rows. The friday workout is always the toughest.

The blip I saw on the scale weight on tuesday has now vanished, almost as quickly as it appeared. Back down to 362 today. Perfectly on the mark for my goal of getting below 350 by the end of july by losing 3lbs per week. I know I'm easily going to make it.


OH! I almost forgot to tell you guys about my dinner last night. I had burgers. Bear Burgers. Yes real, american, wild, eastern black bear. I'm a semi-hunter. I used to hunt only deer, with minimal success. My cousin (the one I want to take me fishing) hunts about everything that its legal to hunt. Last fall, he took me turkey hunting, and I got myself a wild turkey. Then, just before thanksgiving, I went bear hunting with him and his 30-man hunting group. They got a bunch of bear this year, and I was fortunate enough to get one my first year out. My cousin was hunting bear for 20 years and just got his first one last year. Bear is tasty, tastes a bit like pork, they say. But the ground meat makes excellent burgers, and also bear chilli! And then, I also got a buck the next week during deer season. We had to buy a small chest freezer, and its nearly full of bear meat and venison. :) Yummy lean proteins! Only tag I missed out on filling this year was the spring gobbler tag. Gave it a good shot, but never got a turkey to come in to us.

I hope there aren't any animal rights sctivists around that I've offended by sharing this story. I'll at least have you know that I'm an exellent shot, and every animal I've ever shot was killed instantly without suffering.

Thats all for today. Take care everyone!
Matt
 
I recently got a pullup bar and its not easy! I can do 1 unassisted haha. I will hopefully be able to do more as the strength builds up but they are a seriously good way of working out your upper body.

Nice to hear you are keeping down the Black Bear population. Every time I go hiking in North Georgia I expect to get mauled. The locals tell me they are "just big teddy bears" but I dont want to find out up close. There was an attack on the news recently, the first recorded black bear attack on a human in Tennessee (I think it was Tennessee). Friends of mine are seriously in to hunting and I have sample some of their fare, pretty good eatin. I dont consider it cruel and I believe it gives people an appreciation for where their food comes from. Most people think that the meat they buy in stores comes from a meat factory... they have mentally conditioned themselves to not think about it as an animal. By hunting you are taking an animal that has had a wild enjoyable life. By buying meat from a store you are probably taking an animal that has had a life of living in pens etc.. not much of a life.

Gator is mmmMMMmmm
 
Hi Matt!

Just perusing thru your journal and have to give you credit for your hard work. Both food and exercise wise!

Your weightlifting is fantastic! (I just started going to the gym 3 months or so ago and recently started free weights 1 month ago.) I do most compound lifts you do....
Squats
Bench Presses
Bent-Over Rows
Overhead Barbell Presses
Stiff-Legged Deadlifts
Barbell Curls
Calf Raises

Im embarrased to say most my barbell lifts are just the bar. I have no physical strength at all and my stabilizing muscles are non existant.
But I am seeing progress...my biceps and quads are showing some definition. And my weight is going in the right direction.

And like yourself, I started golfing occasionally.

I'll peruse your thread a little more later as I am at work but I just wanted to say Hi and commend you on your journey!

Good luck!
 
GJ on the workouts man. You remind me of my own situation. Its funny how developed my lower body was just from carrying around 350lbs of weight for a few years. Now that I've shed a bit, my lower body looks cut as hell. I wish I could say the same for my upper body haha. Anyways, not sure where I was going with that, but keeping some of the muscle you have now is going to save you so much time down the road.

Also, nicely done on the squats. I've been doing BW reps just holding a 35 pound weight out in front of me. I certainly feel it, but I think I'll add in some proper squats, since my workout seems to focus more on upper body anyways.

BTW, I'm pretty jealous of a BEAR burger. You are currently farther than I on my conquest to eat every animal.
 
Thanks for stopping by Flumes! It was a big challenge for me to start weight lifting. I have an inferiority complex. I don't like lifting around people who are stronger than me because I feel like I'll be ridiculed for it like I was in high school. But I've gotten past that now, I think.

I like the free weight compound movements. I'm hopefully doing just enough to hang onto muscle mass while I'm losing weight. Getting stronger in the process is nice to. At some point, I'd like to swap out the cable rows for the standing rows, and add in some form of deadlift, and maybe a power clean now and then. I will do an unassisted pull up some day!

Strength will come for you. It comes faster with fewer sets and reps. 3x5 is what is allowing me to go up in weight every workout. Are you doing any sort of program for your lifting? I ask because there is a program called Stronglifts 5x5 that sounds perfect for you. Its for free weight beginners, and all exercises start out with just the weight of the bar. I started out basically doing something like the Starting Strength 3x5 routine because it allowed me to start out with higher weight, something I thought I needed. Really though, I'm just trying for progressive overload to hold onto muscle mass. Maybe in a year, year and a half I'll have lost enough fat where I'll try to switch to putting on more muscle mass. We'll see, gotta make it a year first.

ForReal: yeah, those bears are all over the place. Usually, they're as afraid of humans as any other wild animal, and keep their distance. Some are menaces, and down right dangerous. They sure are tasty. I'll have to try gator some day. I still love venison the best!
 
Thanks for replying Matt

I am on a program from the bodybuilding workout forum...Its called All Pro's Simple Beginners Workout.
I'll explain it as best I can. Its a 5 week cycle. Week one is 8 reps and increase by 1 rep up to week 5 which is 12 reps.
I lift three times a week (the exercises I mentioned). First day is heavy day, second day is medium day third day is light day.
(2nd and 3rd days are deload)

Its simple, and its pretty forgiving if I do the three days mentioned or just two days in a week do to weird shift work, (I do 2 heavy days instead).

Thanks for the advice on Strong Lifts 5x5 but I had to make a choice back then and I went with this one cause there was a big active help thread on that forum.

Im in no rush to add weight...I just wanna make sure I am doing it right.
By the time I'm 50....I hope to compete....I think I'll be in 'senior' classification by then! lolol Might have a chance!!!! lol

Keep in touch....and look forward to following your progress!

Eat Lift Rest ....Repeat!
 
Thanks again Flumes! sounds like your program is in line with your goals. Keep it up and you'll be winning competitions in no time!

I don't know if I would ever want to do body building for competition. I just want to be strong and solid.


I'm feeling really good today. For starters, its friday. And I have a week of vacation to look forward to. The scale is moving down again, 361 this morning. Back to the gym for weight lifting this afternoon. Just, don't have a thing to complain about today. My wife even crushed my hard boiled eggs in my lunch box this morning, and I just laughed it off.

Gotta stay focused though. Keep reminding myself that I need to get through next week. No need to go all out and eat things I haven't been eating and snacking when I wouldn't normally snack just because I'm on vacation and back home. Still need to go lift weights next monday. I'm really excited for roller coasters tuesday and wednesday. I think for this park, I'm small enough where I shouldn't have to worry about being too big to ride anything. Little nervous about the water park though. I mean, its a blast, I love water slides, but I don't really have a water park body lol.

I'll try to keep posting over my week away, as I hope that will keep me motivated. I'll let everyone know how I'm doing.

Take care!

Matt
 
I'll have a better/longer update post later tonight or tomorrow, but for right now I just want to update to say I made it through the week without reversing progress, and I arrived on the other side just as motivated as when I left. I even managed to lost a couple lbs over the week.

More to come later.
 
Alright, here's the novel summary of the last week...

Saturday, July 3rd:

First day of vacation. I left for my home town. Its meant to be a no workout day, so all I had to do was control my intake. Had breakfast at home, and subway for dinner on the road. Made it to my home town in the evening, and stayed away from the snacks. Shot some fireworks off in the evening that I brought with me from Ohio.

Day 1 of vacation: success!

Sunday, July 4th:

Another no-workout day. Got up in the morning and golfed 18 holes with my dad and brothers. I golfed horridly, but I got good exercising walking the 18 holes. I drank a lot of water so as to not get dehydrated. I think I drank enough. In the evening, we had typically 4th of july party foods for dinner. I had some hamburger (no buns) and some BBQ chicken breast, some baked beans, and a little bit of pasta salad. I didn't really overdo it. At night, we shot of the rest of the fireworks, and my wife force fed me a couple smores made with reese cups instead of plain hershey chocolate. Yummy :) Then late at night before bed, I couldn't resist a little more pasta salad. Oh well, its a holiday.

Day 2 of Vacation: Neutral.

Monday, July 5th:

Woke up and had a good breakfast. Can't remember what I did for lunch. In the afternoon, I went in to the local YMCA for my monday work out. One of my lil brothers has a membership, and can bring in 3 guests. I was able to do my normal weight lifting routine. In the evening, my wife and I made dinner for my family, so it was good and healthy. No unnecessary snacking in the evening.

Day 3 of Vacation: Success!

...to be continued
 
Tuesday, July 6th:

Got up in the morning, had breakfast, and left with my wife, 2 of my brothers, and one of my brother's girfriend for Darien Lake amusement park, near Buffalo, NY. We would be spending 2 days at the park - first day for the general rides, second day for the water park. I knew it would be a big challenge to control what I ate throughout the day, but the high prices for everything made it kinda easy. I was able to ride almost everything at the park. Some of the rides were a tight fit and a bit uncomfortable though. And, I couldn't ride the biggest and faster coaster in the park - couldn't buckle the seat belt. It didn't really get me too down though. I sort of expected that I might not fit some rides. What was nice is that going in the middle of the week, there wasn't really a line for anything. I didn't mind waiting while my brothers went and rode the coaster I couldn't, it only took about 5-10 minutes.

I had a cheeseburger for lunch, while I was waiting for my brothers to get off the coaster. It wasn't very satisfying, but it was lunch. Although, then I had to sit and watch while everyone else had subway a little while later. For dinner that night, we went to bob evans, and I had some chicken, sweet potato fries, and mac and cheese. It was a very yummy, filling, and satisfying dinner, after being out in the heat and sun all day.

Day 4 of Vacation: Success.

Wednesday, July 7th:

Second day at the park was water park day, after breakfast at the hotel. That means, I got to spend most of the day walking around with my shirt off. It was a little uncomfortable, but I did it anyways. I think it made it a little easier knowing that up to that point this summer, I'd already lost 10lbs. Even if it didn't make that much of a visual difference, it helped my confidence. Managed to keep most of the sunburn away. Didn't eat anything all day though. We left the park early and stopped for subway on the way home. I got my usual footlong. Went to bed early that night.

Day 5 of Vacation: Success.

Thursday, July 8th:

Today I get to head back to cleveland and leave the temptations of my hometown behind. My original plan was to get some weight lifting in after returning home. However, I made plans to stop and visit some relatives on the way home to work on an old boat that is being given to me. Its been sitting on a trailer for about the last decade. We cleaned it up, and they're taking it to someone to look at the motor, so we don't break it by trying to start it. But, it was another day out in the heat and sun. And then, my relatives made some hamburgers and hotdogs for dinner. They were small burgers, so I had a few (no buns), and I also had a beef hotdog. Again, not overboard for my current size. After getting home in the evening, we went to the movies to see "The Last Airbender" and had some popcorn and snowcaps - a usual weekly snack.

Day 6 of Vacation: Neutral because I didn't get a workout in.

Friday, July 9th:

The reason I came back to cleveland on thursday was because on friday, I had to go in for some volunteer work for the united way, through my job. Although it was "volunteer" work, it meant that I didn't have to use a vacation day to get paid for my job that day, so I did have some selfish motivations for doing it. My job was to clear small trees and turn them into mulch with a chipper. Most of the trees were 6-8" in diameter and very heavy. I left on the bus for the camp at 8 AM, and started working by 10:30. The morning couple hours were hot and dry, so naturally I was soaking wet from sweat. Lunch break at 12:30 was a ham and turkey sub, and plain hamburger (no bun), and some potato salad. Not too bad, but I needed the energy for the hard work I was doing. The afternoon 3 hours were done in the rain, but we still worked. I was completely beat by the time we finished up at 3:30 and on the bus home. I ambitiously thought I could get a workout in after returning home, but by the time I walked into my house around 5, I stripped in the doorway and went straight to the shower. I nearly fell asleep on the couch, but my wife and I still went out to go see "Despicable Me", which of course meant more popcorn and snow caps :p

Day 7 of Vacation: Moderately Successful

Saturday, July 10th:

Woke up in the morning, had some breakfast, and left cleveland again to head back to spend the day with my relatives (the same ones I stopped at to work on the boat). This time, we were just heading out to a lake to go fishing on their other boat. The boat had some motor troubles so we ended up not being able to go out, but fishing from the dock we managed to catch about 50 perch. We filleted them that evening and I brought them home with me. It was a long day. I never made it home until after 11PM. Worst part was, I got completely sunburnt. Didn't bring the sunscreen with me, as I thought I'd be able to escape the sun sitting under the canopy on the boat all day. I got home, coated myself in aloe, and went straight to bed.

Day 8 of Vacation: Success, although I barely ate anything all day.

Sunday, July 11:

Last day before getting back to work. I think I had my best night of sleep, and didn't move until nearly 10:30 AM. We made scrambled eggs and steelcut oatmeal for breakfast. Then, we went out to finally get a new bed. We were supposed to get one as a wedding gift to ourselves, but we kept putting it off for over a year. First we were waiting until we paid off our rings, then I had my surgery, so I had to pay that off. Finally, we decided to go out and get one. We got a California King from The Original Matress Factory - An Ultra Plush Othopedic. These beds hold up, even for big guys like me. We've been sleeping on a Full Size from the same place, and its great. We just wanted something a little bigger, and I wanted something longer so my feet wouldn't hang off the end. The bed is supposed to be delivered on Tuesday.

After Returning home, we made my perch for dinner. Fresh caught perch are my favorite, I think :) We thought about going to see another movie in the evening (we do that a lot, if you can't tell), but decided to instead stay in and enjoy our last few hours of vacation just relaxing and doing absolutely nothing. Went a little overboard with the snacks in the evening, but nothing too bad. I had the munchies for the first time in over a month. Settled into bed around 10, hoping to get a good night sleep before the alarm went off around 6AM.

Final day of Vacation: Neutral due to the evening snacking.


Overall Thoughts on the week: I consider the whole week a success. I was active almost every day - I didn't just sit around snacking. I was able to control my intake pretty much every day, even when given less than ideal options. I managed to get 1 day of weight lifting in. And, the scale has gone down since the start of vacation. Maybe not as much as I'd hoped, but down none the less.

The new challenge is to get back into my previous routine. That mean, counting calories, MWF weight lifting, and some cardio a few times during the week. It will be interesting to see if the weight drops quickly and whooshes this first week back, as I'm sure due to spending a lot of time in the sun last week, my body went through cycles of getting dehydrated, then overcompensating by retaining water.

So, thats the log of my week off. Today is back to the gym for weight lifting. I just hope I can do the exercises with my sunburn. Right now, my upper arms are itching unbearably. Probably means they're going to peel, despite my aloe assault. Seriously, I can't even type a whole sentence right now without stopping to itch, its so unbearable. Anyone got any tips on getting it to stop?

Take care,

Matt
 
Just a quick update today. Workout at the gym went well yesterday. I figure I'm pretty much back at my strength level from when I was lifting about 8 months ago. I did my 3x5's of squats at 210, and bench at 175 - both improvements. Cable Rows, I got 3 sets of 10 at 140 - an imporvement, the last 2 times I tried that I only got 3x8.

Still losing weight/fat. I think as of this morning, I've officially left the 360's behind for good. Pretty confident I'll make my july goal of <350. I'm starting to imagine I'm seeing some muscular definition in my arms, chest, and torso. I know I'm not gaining muscle on a calorie defecit, but when I lost weight every time before, I never saw the definition starting to show up. Probably because of never lifting weights, a lot of the weight loss was muscle loss. I'm really starting to feel like the weight lifting is making a huge difference! Its very motivating.

I expected to feel some DOMS today, having been away from the weight room for a week, and 10 days since doing bench press. But surprisingly, I don't feel sore today at all. Well, except for the sunburn. The itching hasn't been as bad as yesterday, and as far as I can tell, I'm not peeling (at least not yet), so I'm happy about that, that I might actually get to be a little tan this summer :p

Tonight I'm going to attempt to golf again :p. I can't say enough how truly dreadful a golfer I am, but at least I'll get some exercise. Tomorrow, i'm back to the weight room, trying to get buff. Tomorrow might be a DDR day as well. Haven't really done true cardio in a while, maybe close to 2 weeks. I'm still losing the weight though, through intake control - the most important aspect of losing weight, IMO. Then lifting weight for muscle maintaining, then cardio for a general fitness health, and a small boost. To think, I lost weight before through an unsustainable amount of cardio, and now here I am losing weight at the same rate doing not even half the structured cardio I did before. It makes it seem much easier to lose weight, and I still thought it was easy before.

Off topic, can you guys believe July is nearly half way over already? And once august hits, thats when it really starts to feel like the year is winding down. I'll be traveling to my little brothers sporting events, up here in my part of the word the weather will be getting cold and miserable. I'm looking forward to skiing this year though - I missed out last year due to my gall bladder surgery. But, ever since I got out of college, I find its just amazing how quickly time has been flying by. Truely, I want it to slow down! I want to enjoy the rest of my 20's, not race through them. It just further motivates me to make the most of getting in shape now, because I'm not going to be young forever, and time will not wait for me to get in shape before passing by.


Can't think of a good segue from the last "deep" paragraph, but my wife and I bought a new bed! We bought it on Saturday, and it was delivered today. Its a California King :). Its probably going to take me a lot of getting used to sleeping with my feet not hanging off the bed :p. Aside from being much bigger than our previous full size bed, its basically the same bed inside, with a little more cushion on top for a softer feel. The bed was delivered this afternoon, so I got to duck out of work for an hour or so to go accept the delivery. I'm really excited to get a good night's sleep in the new bed tonight - I probably won't want to get out of bed tomorrow :p

Well, I guess thats all for now. Keep truckin' along, everyone!

Matt
 
Time for another exciting entry :p

Yesterday at the gym was tough. For starters, I got a migraine on the way over to the gym after leaving work. I wanted to smack myself... I read something in a thread about migraines earlier that day, and I even thought to myself, I haven't had one of those for a while thats just persistent and won't go away for like 3 days... then all of a sudden, there it was. I wasn't going to let it stop me though.

The workout itself was pretty rough yesterday. Squats were first as always, and I bumped the weight up to 215. I wasn't really overly struggling to do it, but it was the most effort its taken in the month or 2 I've been lifting now. I get the feeling I'm going to stroll into the weight room tomorrow either feeling strong enough to lift the world, or I'm going to stall and not be able to finish my reps. I probably won't try to push it up to 220 on friday, as I've already increased the weight 10lbs this week in 2 workouts. Overhead press was rough also. I did 110. Next monday when I increase the weight, I get to use the 35lb plates to get the weight to 115. Really just gives me an ego boost more than anything :p, same as when I get to 225 for squats and get to use 2 45lb plates on each side.

I did the palms facing me assisted chinups yesterday. I got 3 sets of 5, so still improving. Last time I did them, I got 5 the first set, only 4 the second set, and could only hang for the 3rd set. It will get easier as my weight drops and I get stronger. Hopefully soon I'll be able to take away some of the assistance - right now its set to the max.

Last night, my wife and I went to the movies to see The sorcerer's apprentice. Could think of worse things I could do with my time. Anyways, movies mean a popcorn and snowcaps snack. I keep thinking that someday, I'm not going to be able to keep seeing progress if I'm having movie theatre popcorn sometimes up to 3 times per week. But for now, I guess I can just be happy that I'm so big and can enjoy it as a snack, all the while still losing weight :) I have made some changes though... formerly, my wife and I would get a large bucket to share with extra butter. Over the last few weeks, we've switched to sharing a medium bag with no butter. Hey, its a start. Small changes can make a difference.

I went back to look at some of my former entries and noticed that somewhere along the line, I missed responding to a post. Better late than never I suppose:

Andy said:
GJ on the workouts man. You remind me of my own situation. Its funny how developed my lower body was just from carrying around 350lbs of weight for a few years. Now that I've shed a bit, my lower body looks cut as hell. I wish I could say the same for my upper body haha. Anyways, not sure where I was going with that, but keeping some of the muscle you have now is going to save you so much time down the road.

Also, nicely done on the squats. I've been doing BW reps just holding a 35 pound weight out in front of me. I certainly feel it, but I think I'll add in some proper squats, since my workout seems to focus more on upper body anyways.

BTW, I'm pretty jealous of a BEAR burger. You are currently farther than I on my conquest to eat every animal.
Click to expand...

Thanks for all the encouragement! Your right on about my (our) body compositions... my legs are huge. I see definition in my calves. Not much definition in my thighs yet, but they're huge and solid, like tree trunks. Theres a lot of muscle down there, just gotta teach my body how to use it. As I lose weight, hopefully the strength that propels my huge body to a standing position in my legs will be converted to extra strength I can add to the squat bar. My upper body on the other hand... well, lets just say its going to take a while. Actually though, as I lose weight, maybe I'm just imagining but I think I'm starting to see some definition in the muscles in my arms, shoulders and chest. Definition isn't going to be good enough for me to look right though. At some point I'm going to have to bulk those muscles up a little so my top half matches my bottom half. I'll get to that after I take care of some more body fat though.

And if you're on a conquest to eat ever animal, I imagine I'm probably still behind you. Bear, Turkey, and White tailed deer are the only game animals I've had. Unless you count fish, then you can add in yellow perch and some various other lake pan fish.

Lets see, anything else I can talk about today? hmm, today is supposed to be a cardio day. I WAS planning on doing DDR with my wife later, but then she sends me a text message a couple hrs a go telling me she doesn't feel like doing anything except go home and watch TV... :/ And I didn't bring my gym clothes with me to either hit up the exercise bike at my work fitness center, or stop at the gym on my way home from work. So, I told her I'd do DDR by myself then. Maybe I can get some practice on the double dance pad mode. I'm really good with 4 arrows to concentrate on, but 8 on 2 pads gets tough real quick. Actually, there's this DDR like game in the arcades that has 4 arrows and a center button, and the arrows are on the diagonals instead of up down left and right, and while I'm really good at the normal DDR, that other game I'm horrid. Eh, probably just do a single pad anyways since I can do higher difficulty and get a better workout in.

Thursday's just about done now. Tomorrow's friday and the start of another weekend. I feel like I need it after the first week back to work, even though I just had a 9 day vacation. I'll hit the gym, and probably catch a movie at night. Inception is coming out tomorrow, I've been looking forward to it for months. I get the feeling it'll probably be the best movie this summer.

Well, can't think of anything else to ramble on about. Hope everyone is having a great week.

Matt
 
Hey Mar, I here you on the cinema popcorn, I am not sure I could live without it. I love movies and the popcorn is an integral part of the experience. I dont really like anything on my popcorn so the butter thing isnt an issue. I stopped getting coke though and now get a bottle of water so Ive changed it a little bit :) "lets all go to the lobby.... lets all go to the lobby... lets all go to the lobbbbbyyyyy and get ourselves a treat" :)


Your weight training seems to be flying along, you are squatting more than I weigh lol! I feel puny now. The pull ups are tough as hell. I got a pull up bar a few weeks ago and couldnt even do one unassisted but I can do 4 now, nothing major but at least its progress. I found a good video on youtube (dont know if there is a problem posting links on here so I will just tell you what to search for) from a guy who is a bodybuilder and has made a series of videos for people who want to train at home. He has a video about pull ups which I found very useful. If you search for "cobra lats" and look for a video by a guy called scooby you should find it. His videos are a little quirky but he seems to give good advice.

Thinking of going to see inception too, looks interesting. I went to see predators last week, its not really my kind of movie but I enjoyed it :)

Have a great weekend.
 
All I can think about right now is, mmmmmm, popcorn in a couple hours :) To tell the truth, since we stopped getting butter on the popcorn, I like it better. It started making me sick for a couple days with the butter before. My wife and I get coke zero with our popcorn, all the taste, but no calories. Great stuff, that coke zero.

Speaking about my weight lifting, I killed it today! Remember these famous last words from yesterday:
I get the feeling I'm going to stroll into the weight room tomorrow either feeling strong enough to lift the world, or I'm going to stall and not be able to finish my reps. I probably won't try to push it up to 220 on friday...
Click to expand...
...well, I felt invincible in the gym today. I felt so good during my squat warmups that I absolutely pushed it to 220 today for my 3x5. It was tough work, but I got it done. Bench was 180 for my 3x5, and I killed that as well. Definitely felt like I was working hard though. 140lbsx3x10 for cable rows, and while I was running out of energy by then, but I got them done and then headed home feeling pumped up the whole way. it was a great day at the gym. I'm completely surprised about it after struggling on wednesday. All I can say is, yay for overcompensation :)

Thanks for the comments ForReal. I'm sure I'll be posting about what I thought about Inception tomorrow. I have such high expectations for it, so I hope its not a let down. I still want to see Predators too, but that might be mid next week's movie.

Have a great weekend too!
 
Weekends... this one kinda sucks.

My wife went out of town, for starters. Went back home to Pittsburgh to visit with some friends. That leaves me up here in Cleveland alone. I'm just feeling super lazy. I don't have the motivation to do anything at all. I'm not even talking about weightloss/exercise motivation, I'm just talking about life in general. All I've been doing is sitting on the couch wasting time online. Yesterday was completely blown. I rolled out of bed at 11, my wife left afternoon, and I just sat on the couch until 7, before grabbing subway for dinner, and returning home to sit on the couch until after midnight, before heading to bed. What a waste.

Today is starting out a little better - up before 9, but now I'm right back here on the couch on the laptop, same place I wasted the entire day before.

Part of it is without my wife around, I just don't know what to do to pass time. We really do like everything together. Its not like I don't have something I could be doing either. Last year I started a new hobby - fishkeeping. I keep african cichlids. Last winter, I bought a tank off craigslist, 125 gallons and 6 feet long. In the spring, I started building a stand for it. I haven't finished it yet. I should be working on it this weekend, as I have/had plenty of time. Why can't I just motivate myself to get up and work on it? I really want that tank up and running, and the work isn't even that hard or boring, its actually fun. I just have no motivation to do it right now.

Maybe, my body just needs the time to veg out. I mean, I just had a week long vacation a week ago, but we were always running somewhere, didn't have any time to relax. I can't think of the last time I had a weekend where we weren't going somewhere to do something. Maybe it finally caught up to me this weekend?

Anyways, despite sitting around, its not like I'm running to the kitchen for a snack because I'm bored. In fact, it took a conscious effort to actually eat dinner yesterday - I probably could have just sat around and went to bed without eating anything at all. So thats a good thing in that in the past, boredom would lead to eating because I'm bored.


Aside from my ranting about my boring weekend, my weight loss is actually going excellently. Everytime I ever tried to lose weight before, I would just eat as little as possible, and exercise as much as possible. Usually, once a week, usually on sundays, my wife and I would get pizza or calzones or burritos or chinese or something you normally don't associate with foods you eat while trying to lose weight. While I saw progress, I never was able to maintain after I stopped actively trying to lose weight. I would always go back to eating whatever I could stuff my face with, and getting fast food and all that other junk I mentioned more frequently. And, I completely stopped my workouts.

This time, while I'm not restricting any of those foods I like and used to eat, I haven't been craving them at all. I keep telling myself, whenever I really want pizza or burritos, I'll get some. I just haven't wanted them, for almost 2 months now. Instead, I crave the better choices. And I'm weight lifting now - something I never did when I lost weight before. I'm getting stronger, and its like every pound a lose, I can see some definition that much better. Its like every lb a lose is pure fat this time, and I'm not losing any muscle. Other times I lost, I never saw the definition because while I was losing the fat, I was also losing my muscle as well.

I'm just really starting to feel like, this time I'm going to make it. This time, I'll be able to keep losing weight/fat as long as I want, and then switch to maintenance or muscle building. This time, I don't feel like there is any old way I could slip back to - the old way is gone. The new way is better, as judged by my body never craves the bad things it used to. My body craves the new way, the clean foods. I feel like I'm armed with more knowledge and more awareness of whats happening this time. I know how to count, and thus I know how to maintain.

And sure, everyone always says "this time I'm going to do it", but this time really does feel different. In a year from now, I could be 100-120lbs or more lighter. Who knows how strong I'll get lifting weights. I'll be the fittest/least fat I've been since I was a kid. I feel so sure that its going to happen, its like waiting for that movie to come out that you really want to see, or that video game you can't wait to play, or that vacation you've been looking forward to for months - I can't wait for spring/summer 2011. It can't come soon enough. I feel like I'm only living half in life for the rest of 2010, because in 2011, there'll be so many more things I can do that I can't do right now. I feel so confident, its like if i could just hit fast forward or time travel directly to 2011, I'll be exactly where I expect to be. I won't fail. I can't fail. There is no other path to travel. I have one path, and its progress. There is no going backwards. Not because I'm declaring it so or not allowing it to happen, but because I truly feel as if for the next year my life only has one path, and that path leads to a me that has lost over another 100lbs, is strong, and able to do whatever I want. There is no other way to go. I couldn't resist it now, even if I wanted to. It is inevitable.

Enjoy the rest of your weekends,
Matt
 
Mr Matt! Nice update. I have to say this to you - take some time to chill. Your body needs to relax sometimes and a little sitting on the couch every now and then will do you no harm at all.

I think you kind of explained my day yesterday... only I got up at 3pm... lazy lazy lazy!

Its so interesting what you have said about not craving things, I am exactly the same this time. I have not said to myself "you cant have this or that" and as a consequence I really do not miss anything because I know that if I want it I can have it. Yesterday I went to subway for dinner (just like you haha) and I have never paid any attention to their cookies before but being that it was Saturday I thought "hmmm Id like something sweet" so I got some and they were really nice :)

Due to me not doing anything yesterday I was awake early this morning. The weather was due to turn bad in the afternoon so I got out of bed and went hiking. I got home just before the lightning started. I feel great.

This fitness thing is making all the difference to me this time. I feel so strong. It feels like someone is pumping drugs in to me or something. While I was hiking today I made a fist with my hand and squeezed... I actually hurt my fingers. I feel like there is bucket loads of energy inside me. While I was out hiking I passed lots of other hikers and we all greeted each other with a joyful "good morning!". All of these people looked healthy and fit and like they make an effort to get out of bed on a Sunday morning. I caught a glimpse of myself at the car and I looked healthy, sweaty.... but healthy.

I had a shower when I got home and noticed whilst washing under my arms that my lats are starting to pop out :) those pull ups are certainly working.

Its great to read your updates, you seem to becoming aware of your fitness and health right at the same time as I am and its an exciting thing.

Oh I had two apples when I got home and they tasted fantastic.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday and dont beat yourself up for taking time to relax every once in a while :)
 
Thanks ForReal! I did enjoy my lazy weekend. I downloaded the entire series of "Avatar: the last airbender" to see the cartoon that inspired the movie. Mostly because It doesn't look likely they're actually make the sequels, and I'm interested to know the rest of the story (without just reading it on wikipedia or something). I'm 2/3 the way through the first season now :p. Also, went to see "predators" last night - pretty good, better than I was expecting. Inception was good also, I saw it friday night. I probably need to see it again before I really understand it all and form my final opinion of it. There were some logical inconsistencies that were throwing me off.

Gym day was today. Still going strong. I can't express enough my satisfaction with my lifting the last couple sessions. Feels like I'm on the other side of a plateau or something. I'm progressing in every lift every session. I hit a couple semi-milestones today. First in squats, I did 3x5 at 225. 225lbs is the bar plus 2 45lb plates on each side. It feels like getting to the next level. I never thought about it before, but I really do much more than 3x5. I start with 5 reps of just the bar. Then I move into the rest of my warmup sets - 5x135, 5x185, 5x205. and THEN, I do my 3x5 at my workout weight.

Another mini-milestone in standing overhead press - 3x115, again, with appropriate warmups. 115 is the bar plus a 35lb plate on each side. Next milestone is 135, or the bar with a 54lb plate on each side. And I did palms away assisted pull-ups. I did 3 sets, and got reps of 5, 4, and 4, respectively - huge improvement since last pull up sessions. Right now, I'm using 160lbs assistance, and I weight ~355, so I'm lifting 195lbs. When I was doing these last fall, I weighed ~330, and used ~140-160lbs resistance. I don't think I ever tried 130lbs resistance. So, I think I'm doing more weight now than I was before. Part of these getting easier is that my weight has been going down. Some part of the progress has to be getting stronger, too. I need to be taking assistance away faster than I'm losing weight if I want to be able to do a pull up next year. If I want to do a pull up next may when I way 260, I need to add 60lbs of strength to my pull ups in a year. Should be doable. Thats only 5lbs a month. I'm gaining 10-15lbs a week of strength in squats, and 5-7.5lbs per week in bench and overhead press. Cable rows are going up 10-20lbs per month. Next year, I will do a pull up!

I did have a stumble in my squat reps today, in a literal sense. On my 4th rep of my last set, a lost my balance and almost fell forward. I managed to take a step forward and catch myself and stand back up. (what I should have done is just bail and let the safety bars catch me, I could have hurt myself trying to catch 225lbs leaning so far forward). Anyways, then I did my 5th set, and a 6th just so I would get 5 good reps in. I might repeat the weight on wednesday, so I get all my reps with perfect form and no stumbles.

On wednesday, I should also hit a mini-milestone on bench press. I'll attempt my 3x5 at 185 - the bar plus a 45lb plate and a 25lb plate on each side. I'm getting closer to 200lbs. That'll be a huge motivational boost when I get there. Should be 2-3 more weeks, if I don't stall out.

Thats really all I got to say today. This thread is supposed to be me grumbling and bragging, and up til now I've done more grumbling than bragging. Now I've got something to brag about. I'm kickin' butt at the gym, I'm getting stronger, I'm losing weight, I can see myself getting skinnier in the mirror on a weekly basis, I can see muscle definition I've never seen before... things are great!

Talk to you all later!
Matt
 
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