MAR1984's thread of grumbling and bragging

MAR1984 said:
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.
Click to expand...

I love Avatar!! I haven't seen the movie yet though. I've heard some not so good reviews on it...so I'm a little hesitant..lol! There's one episode that I actually cried when I watched it. I probably shouldn't admit that..huh? hahaha! Oh well. Anyways...enjoy the series. Oh and good job kickin' butt at the gym!
 
jen_renee said:
I love Avatar!! I haven't seen the movie yet though. I've heard some not so good reviews on it...so I'm a little hesitant..lol! There's one episode that I actually cried when I watched it. I probably shouldn't admit that..huh? hahaha! Oh well. Anyways...enjoy the series. Oh and good job kickin' butt at the gym!
Click to expand...

Having seen some of the series now, I can see why fans of the movie would seem disappointed with the movie. If you go in expecting it to be the same as the series, you'll probably be disappointed as well. There are some plot points different and some parts left out or altered. Most of the characters have slightly different personalities (and pronunciations :p) Since I saw the movie first having never seen any of the series, I liked it, for the most part. There was one scene i found pretty silly though, and it happens to be one of the heaviest critiqued scenes on the internet, but the story is there and its a good one. Good enough to get me to look up the series.

Thanks for the comments!
 
you will get there with the pull up dude :) and when you do it will be such a sweet feeling :)

Your training seems to be going extremely well and the fact you can actually see as well as feel the results must be a great motivation to keep pushing it!
 
Thanks ForReal and Flumes for the support! I really appreciate it!

Still feeling good today. Going golfing tonight. I'm such a hack, but I golf with a good group and we have a lot of fun. That will probably mean subway for dinner tonight, although I'm kinda in the mood for rotiserie (I'm sure I butchered that word lol) chicken, might stop at the grocery store and see if they have any later. Either that, or maybe I'll be really lazy and get some KFC grilled chicken - tastes good and I think its something like 90 calories per piece on average. Something different than my normal subway tuesday routine.

I was doing some thinking today and started getting a little down/frustrated. My scale tells me that currently, I am at 50% bodyfat. 50%... that seems like a lot, doesn't it? Thats got to be completely wrong, right? One of my goals is to get to 20% body fat. If the scale is right, in order to get to 20% body fat I'd have to get down to 220, and thats assuming that 100% of the weight I lose is fat and nothing else. If I assume that only 80% of the weight I lose is fat, then at 220 I could still be at 30% body fat. Thats a little frustrating to me, because I don't want to weigh under 220. I think I would be fine at 240, but I want to be <20% fat. I like being a big guy. I just want to go from a big (fat) guy, to a big (bulky/muscular) guy.

I've been keeping an open mind about how I think I'll want to progress after I reach 260, and I think this new realization means I'll continue trying to cut fat until I weight no less than 220, and then switch to trying to build muscle at some point. I don't ever want to weight less than 220. If I got all the way down to 220, and then put on 40lbs trying to gain muscle before attempting to cut fat again, I would be fine with that, see where I end up.

Then I remind myself that its not all about the numbers, and I shouldn't get ahead of myself. Hell, its going to take a good year of comittment just to get down to 260 from here, I shouldn't even bother with the "after that" part yet.

I also remind myself how good I looked and felt at 260 before, even though I still had a high body fat % in the mid to high 30's at least. At 260, I had people tell me I shouldn't lose any more weight. At 260, I was happy and could do anything I wanted to do without my size being an obsticle. Just reminding myself, its not about the numbers, its about how I feel. Really no reason this should be anything I should be concerned over at all. I'm moving the numbers in the right direction, so thats all that matters, right?
 
First thing: no golf for me last night :(. both my teamates wanted to golf (first time all year), so I let them. Each team only gets to golf 2. I could have filled in an open spot in a 4-some somewhere, but I figured a week off from hacking couldn't hurt. I played DDR for my workout last night instead.

Second thing: Just realized just now, the whoosh on the scale I saw this morning officially puts me -20lbs since I started back up trying to lose fat in June. I'm about half way back to where I got to last fall - 2 more months of work - then I'll be moving back into less chartered waters for me.

Third thing: weight lifting day. Hoping to continue my strength surge I've been going through. We'll see how I feel once I start going. The biggest thing for me will be to hit 3x5x185 on bench press today. What I do for squats (push up to 230 or repeat 225) will probably depend on how I feel during warmups.

Final thoughts: nothing else really planned tonight. Just getting through the hump day grind. Judging by the lull in activity on the forums today, I guess many others are feeling the same way - its wednesday, push through, put it behind us.

All for today,
Matt
 
Well, the gym yesterday was kinda a let down. Not a total let down, but not what I was hoping.

First squats, did 230, got all my sets and reps. No problems, good start.

Then Bench press - all was going well until my second set at 185. On my third rep, I just completely lost all strength and nearly couldn't get the bar off my chest onto the safety catches. I think I did something to mess up my right shoulder a little, and for some reason it just gave out on my. I still attempted a 3rd set and did 3 reps easy and probably could have finished 5, but I didn't want to further aggravate my shoulder. I think I might have just lost controll of the bar for a second on the third rep and my arm got into a position where my shoulder couldn't support the weight.

The soreness carried over to cable rows, too. I had to take it easy, and if I let my arms get fully extended, I would feel a bad pain in my shoulder.

Not sure what happened. I don't think I have been overtraining, I only do 3 days a week and I'm not assualting isolated muscles from all directions, just hitting 3 major compound lift movements each workout. Pretty sure I've been getting enough calories and protein for my muscles to recover in between workouts, since I've been progressing in strength. If it were as simple as a stall, I sure wasn't expecting so hard a stall the first time (haven't yet stalled once since I got back into the gym). Not sure if I did something doing my pullups on monday, or maybe pulled something a little too hard stretching before attempting the bench press, or aggrevated something in the act of doing the bench press, or just did something different all together outside of the gym. I'll probably take it easy on friday and play it by feel. I'm supposed to do standing overhead press and pull-ups - 2 exercises that will put a lot of stress on that shoulder. First sign I get of something feeling off, I'll cut my workout short for the day. I'd hate to have to skip exercises for the day, but its better than being sidelined from working my upper body for 6 weeks due to an injury.

I feel like I don't want this whole post to be negative, so on the positive, I'm under my weight loss goal for the month the first time this morning, for the july challenge weigh in. Only by a couple tenths of a lb, but still under. I'll be under 350 by the end of the month no problem now. I feel like once I get under 350, I'll be rolling down hill to 300. I already got the first 20lbs out of the way. Those 20lbs (350-370) were like, damn, I can't believe I'm getting out of control again. I caught it just in time and fixed the problem, reversed course. Losing the first 20 felt more like, stopping the sinking ship. Now I can set a course and start heading in the direction of my goal with even more focus.

Thats all for now,
Matt
 
MAR1984 said:
Well, the gym yesterday was kinda a let down. Not a total let down, but not what I was hoping.

First squats, did 230, got all my sets and reps. No problems, good start.

Then Bench press - all was going well until my second set at 185. On my third rep, I just completely lost all strength and nearly couldn't get the bar off my chest onto the safety catches. I think I did something to mess up my right shoulder a little, and for some reason it just gave out on my. I still attempted a 3rd set and did 3 reps easy and probably could have finished 5, but I didn't want to further aggravate my shoulder. I think I might have just lost controll of the bar for a second on the third rep and my arm got into a position where my shoulder couldn't support the weight.

The soreness carried over to cable rows, too. I had to take it easy, and if I let my arms get fully extended, I would feel a bad pain in my shoulder.

Not sure what happened. I don't think I have been overtraining, I only do 3 days a week and I'm not assualting isolated muscles from all directions, just hitting 3 major compound lift movements each workout. Pretty sure I've been getting enough calories and protein for my muscles to recover in between workouts, since I've been progressing in strength. If it were as simple as a stall, I sure wasn't expecting so hard a stall the first time (haven't yet stalled once since I got back into the gym). Not sure if I did something doing my pullups on monday, or maybe pulled something a little too hard stretching before attempting the bench press, or aggrevated something in the act of doing the bench press, or just did something different all together outside of the gym. I'll probably take it easy on friday and play it by feel. I'm supposed to do standing overhead press and pull-ups - 2 exercises that will put a lot of stress on that shoulder. First sign I get of something feeling off, I'll cut my workout short for the day. I'd hate to have to skip exercises for the day, but its better than being sidelined from working my upper body for 6 weeks due to an injury.

I feel like I don't want this whole post to be negative, so on the positive, I'm under my weight loss goal for the month the first time this morning, for the july challenge weigh in. Only by a couple tenths of a lb, but still under. I'll be under 350 by the end of the month no problem now. I feel like once I get under 350, I'll be rolling down hill to 300. I already got the first 20lbs out of the way. Those 20lbs (350-370) were like, damn, I can't believe I'm getting out of control again. I caught it just in time and fixed the problem, reversed course. Losing the first 20 felt more like, stopping the sinking ship. Now I can set a course and start heading in the direction of my goal with even more focus.

Thats all for now,
Matt
Click to expand...


Well done Matt. Everyone has mediocre gym days. IMO you just gotta power through them, and relish the days when you feel like you can take on the world. But any effort is 10x better than sitting on the couch haha.

Great job on the first 20. Take the time to lift a 20 pound weight when you get a moment. Then realize that you dropped that! Your knees are thanking you :)

Anyways, have a solid weekend man. Stay on track! Glad you're progressing like planned!
 
Great job on the first 20. Take the time to lift a 20 pound weight when you get a moment. Then realize that you dropped that! Your knees are thanking you
Click to expand...

Thanks for the comments andy! Yeah, every time I'm at the gym and I grab 2 45lb plates off the rack to carry over to a bar, I find myself thinking, "damn, this takes some effort just to carry these across the room. And to think, I used to have that weight and more on my body!" In another 20lbs, I'll be pretty much back down to where I've lost the weight of my wife! Its kind of an astounding feeling... kinda scary actually, thinking about what the consequences might have been had I not turned my weight around when I did...
 
I'm overdo for an update.

Friday, I took it easy in the gym. I repeated 230 for squats and 115 for overhead press. I did 3x5 underhand chin ups.

Saturday, my wife and I had company over. We grilled up some hamburgers and brats, and I had some pasta salad. Didn't overdo the eating, but guess you could call it a cheat day.

Sunday, I had some leftovers for lunch and we made stuffed zucchini for dinner. And I sat around all day being lazy.

Monday was back to the gym. I did 235 squats, and completed 3x5x185 for bench press. did 3x10 @ 140 cable rows. My shoulder didn't really bother me at all.

Today I went golfing.


I'm not feeling very motivated this week. I'm still mostly staying the course, but I feel like with the right (or wrong lol) temptation, I could slip up. So far so good though. Keep reminding myself why I need to keep going.

Did I mention yet I have poison ivy? Thats not helping things either.

Anyways, just wanted to post an update
 
Well, my diary slipped to the 3rd page, guess that means I'm late for another update :p

Wednesday in the gym, I bumped squats up 240 and finished all my sets and reps successfully. I also bumped up my standing overhead press to 120, and completed it, although I struggled on the last rep and broke form. I had to laugh at myself afterwards - on my last rep, I found myself standing up on my toes, as if pushing my whole body up was going to make me finish the rep any easier :p. I'll have to repeat this weight on monday for breaking form. Then I did the standard palms away assisted pullups. I managed 3 sets of 4, and hung on the last rep for an extra 10 seconds or so. Last time I did these, I did 5-4-4, so no improvement this time, but thats ok.

Yesterday, I came home to find the AC not working. The house was up to 85 degrees, although it was in the 70's outside - the AC kept circulating air, it just wasn't cold air, so the result was that it kept getting warmer. This is where I'm glad I'm still a renter. I found out yesterday that my shoulder is still bothering me. I was changing water in my aquarium, which involves me dumping 5g buckets out the front door, and I felt some pain in myshoulder while dumpting the buckets (~50lbs per bucket). That doesn't make me too happy. Wife and I played DDR last night. We were working through some difficult songs, so it was a pretty intense hour. Only 2 songs on this particular disc I couldn't pass on the 3rd difficulty level.

Friday again, and that means another day in the gym. Squats, bench, and rows again today. I could be looking at 245 for squats, and 190 for bench. Both will be tough to get, if this week has been any indicator for today. So, I'm not sure if I want to hold back and repeat previous weights, or go for it. It'll be a game time decision.

I think starting next week, I'm going to add deadlifts into my workout. I'll do it in place of squats on the days I do overhead press and assisted pull ups. So, my A day will be squats, bench, and row, and my B day will be Deadlift, Overhead Press, and assisted pull ups. I just feel like progress is really starting to slow down, and I need to add in something where I'll see some quick and easy progress for a few weeks. Plus, doing squats 3 days a week is really getting tough.

I'll approach deadlift same way I approach my other major lifts. I'll start out with a weight I can do comfortably, and focus on trying to add 5lbs every workout.

I'm approaching a milestone with my weight. This morning I weighed in at 350.2 on my scale. About to be back under 350 in the next day or 2. That means I basially hit my July goal on the mark, and can now focus on being <340 for august. I can't believe its august already... Not too much longer until it starts getting colder around here. I'm definitely going skiing this winter! No gall bladder problems right in the middle of winter to hold me back. Fall, though, is my favorite season. August, September, and October are my 3 favorite months. I know its technically still fall through november and most of december, but around here those months are generally considered winter.

Thats all for this installment. Have a great weekend everyone!

Matt
 
I continue to be pleasantly surprised. Yesterday was a strong day in the gym. I completed my reps on squats at 245lbs no problems. Bench was completed at 190, again, seemed pretty easy. Cable rows, 3x12 at 140 - that means next time I get to up the weight to 150. So, improvements in all exercises. Very surprising, as all week has been a struggle at lower weights. Everything seemed easier at higher weights/more reps. Go figure.

This morning, I woke up and the scale said 349.8. Big milestone, getting back under 350. When I started all this and re-motivated back in the beginning of June, my goal was to get here by the end of July. On the last day of July, I beat my goal by 0.2lbs. Do I know how to pick a goal or what.

I'm going to enjoy my rest weekend. I deserve it :) Hope everyone else has a great weekend as well!

Matt
 
Hey, sweetie! I remember looking for your journal when I first started posting here but you didn't have one. I'm really glad you decided to start one! I look forward to keeping up to date on your progress! You're such an inspiration!
 
Thanks for the comments stacy! If I remember, I think a comment from you is what convinced me to start up a journal thread. Thanks for stopping by!


Well, after getting a tease in the 340's, my body decided to start playing games with water retention I guess. I jumped all the way back up to 353 on sunday and down to just 352 this morning. I know fluctuations are normal and expected, just a bit frustrating being behind on my august goal right out of the gate.

meh, who cares about body weight anyways. I'm more excited for lifting weights today. Small change to my routine, substituting in deadlifts for squats in my B day workout. i'm excited to see how it goes the first time. Not sure how much to start out with, but figuring it out is half the fun. It'll be fun having a new lift to see the quick improvements at the beginning. I expect a 80-100lb gain in deadlift strength over the next 2 months, maybe more. My shoulder has been good all weekend, and I'm hoping today I'll be able to build on the progress from last friday.

Anyways, short update today. Just feeling like its going to be a good week.
 
MAR1984 said:
Thanks for the comments stacy! If I remember, I think a comment from you is what convinced me to start up a journal thread. Thanks for stopping by!
Click to expand...

Awesome! I'm glad that I had a positive influence! heheh :D


MAR1984 said:
Well, after getting a tease in the 340's, my body decided to start playing games with water retention I guess. I jumped all the way back up to 353 on sunday and down to just 352 this morning. I know fluctuations are normal and expected, just a bit frustrating being behind on my august goal right out of the gate.
Click to expand...

You're probably right, it's probably water weight. That happened to me and for 9 days the scale didn't move, then over night I gained weight. Finally a few days later the weight I gained overnight also left over night, then a day or two after that I started losing weight like mad. It's pretty normal I think. "Stalls and whooshes". lol

MAR1984 said:
I'm more excited for lifting weights today. Small change to my routine, substituting in deadlifts for squats in my B day workout. i'm excited to see how it goes the first time.

I expect a 80-100lb gain in deadlift strength over the next 2 months, maybe more. My shoulder has been good all weekend, and I'm hoping today I'll be able to build on the progress from last friday.
Click to expand...

Whats a "B day workout"?

It's good to see you so excited about lifting weights! I've often thought about doing some weight lifting but kind of don't want to mess with the weight loss as it's going so well right now. Maybe after I reach goal I'll start lifting, OR if I hit a really long plateau, I might use weight training to shock my body out of it. lol
 
Whats a "B day workout"?
Click to expand...

The opposite of an A day workout.

On my A day, I do squats, bench press, and cable rows. On my B day, I will now do deadlifts in addition to standing overhead press and assissted pull ups. I alternate each workout, so...

M: A
W: B
F: A
M: B
W: A
F: B
etc. ad naseum

So thats what I refer to when I refer to my A day or my B day.
 
MAR1984 said:
The opposite of an A day workout.

On my A day, I do squats, bench press, and cable rows. On my B day, I will now do deadlifts in addition to standing overhead press and assissted pull ups. I alternate each workout, so...

M: A
W: B
F: A
M: B
W: A
F: B
etc. ad naseum

So thats what I refer to when I refer to my A day or my B day.
Click to expand...

Ohhh Oki, I think I understand. So do you like work your upper body on one day and then your lower body on the next day? :) Sorry if that's a stupid question, I'm not really very versed in weight lifting terms and stuff. lol Total newbie here. :p
 
Stacy said:
Ohhh Oki, I think I understand. So do you like work your upper body on one day and then your lower body on the next day? :) Sorry if that's a stupid question, I'm not really very versed in weight lifting terms and stuff. lol Total newbie here. :p
Click to expand...

yeah sort of like that :p. Except each workout works my upper and lower body, just in different ways.


So, been a few days. I introduced deadlifts to my workout on monday. I started off with 3x5@225. It was a good comfortable starting weight - took some effort but wasn't overdoing it - but I feel like my form suffered because it was uncomfortable dragging the bar up my legs. It scraped and irritated my skin. So by trying to keep the bar from scraping my legs, I feel like I was out of form, leaning too far forward, and unable to extend my hips before straightening my legs. I think I'll have to wear long pants on deadlift days from now on. I did overhead press with 3x5@125 on monday, and I did assisted palms towards me chin ups with 160lbs of assistance for 3x7-6-4+hang.

So far in august, the scale has not been kind to me. After getting down to <350 on July 31, the scale jumped up to 353 and has pretty much remained right there for the first 4 days of august. Its just water and its not bothering me all to much, but I do need to keep telling myself that as long as I keep doing what I'm doing and don't start eating over maintenance, this will pass and the weight will start coming down again. The frustrating part is that I wanted to have put the 350's behind me and be in the 340's. For some reason, it wouldn't have bothered me as much if the scale would have remained locked at 349.8 for 4 days, instead of just a couple pounds higher. pretty silly, but thats how my mental psychology works. The other mental problem I have with it is that the longer my weight sits there without moving, the harder it will be to make my aug goal of being <340. Today or tomorrow is sort of the tipping point where I can still make it if I lose at my planned 1% rate.

10lbs lost per month for me is actually less than the maximum rate I'm going for, and is supposed to easily attainable all the way down to my preliminary 260 goal next year. At least I should be able to do it through the end of the year, and then I actually allow for only a loss of 8lbs a month for the last 40lbs to get to my goal by may. I picked those goals and those rates because they are less than my personal allowed maximum rate of weight loss of 1% per week, are supposed to be easily attainable, and allow for the possibility of getting ahead on my goal. All that was designed so that my weight loss was to be a motivating factor as I continually met or exceeded my expectations, and allow for some setbacks later on where I could be ok with a temporarily slowdown, stall, or weight gain if I was already ahead of my goal, such as a planned vacation to Boston for thanksgiving, or a tentatively planned vacation to an all inclusive resort somewhere in the carribbean in early 2011.

So... while the number on the scale is not the be all end all I'm concerned with, ... wait, I guess I need to clarify something because it does sort of seem like the number is the only thing I'm concerned with. The reason I picked the 260 number is not because its just some random happy number I pulled out of thin air. It was the weight I got myself down to my first couple years of college. I was at a size I was happy and confident, even though I still had a high body fat %. I could see the difference in myself, looking at myself in the mirror or in photographs. I was able to look in the mirror and feel good about seeing all the progress I made, rather than feeling bad about how much fat there was. I was small enough to do everything I wanted to do (*cough* roller coasters *cough*). I associate 260 as the weight that corresponds to size and shape I was once happy with. Thats why that is the number I picked as my first goal to get to.

So... while the number on the scale is not the be all end all I'm concerned with, I really want to keep up with these goals I've set for me and I should be able to. Not being able to do so would be a little frustrating and demoralizing a bit. Still have to continue doing what I'm doing though, because if I just give up, I'll go backwards. Happens every time. Working out and eating right to maintain is still better than going backwards.
 
I think your goals sound pretty reasonable. :) I myself am shooting for 2 lbs a week, though I'm beginning to realize you can't firmly plan for something like that. I can go nearly two weeks and not only not lose weight but gain a couple pounds, and then the next week drop 6 or 7 lbs in 5 days, all while doing the exact same thing the entire time. I think most of that has to do with water retention, so it all kind of evens out.

I guess in the end it shouldn't matter how long it takes, as long as you're doing what is healthy and good for your body. If it takes six months or 2 years, what matters is never going back to the old way of living. And though the doctors and weight loss professionals disagree on a lot of things, one thing they all seem to agree on is that slow weight loss is what is healthiest for the body and mind. They say 1-2 lbs a week (4-8 lbs a month) is best. So if you're not losing 10 lbs a week, it's not the end of the world, and it might just be better for you not to lose that fast. :)

But however you do it, it's worth it to live a healthy and active life. Going back to "the old way" of living is just not an option. :)
 
Well, its almost been a week since my last update. Thanks for the comments stacy I really appreciate the support.

I've been staying the course for the last week. My water retention problem is basically gone. The weight's been coming down pretty steadily. As of today, I can lose 3lbs a week and be under 340 by the end of august, so I'm back on track for my goal, just probably won't lose a little extra like I thought I might at the beginning of the month.

My lifting has been progressing as well. Just yesterday, I did 3x5@255 for squats, and a struggling 3x5@195 for bench. I'm doing cable rows at 3xF@160 now. Deadlifts, my new lift, started at 225 the first workout, and upped the weight to 235 the second workout. Tomorrow I'll attempt 245 for 3x5. Its still a very manageable weight, but I'm working on getting my form down. I should get 3x5@130 for standing overhead press tomorrow as well, and still doing pullups and curlups with 160lbs of resistance.

I have a problem with my feet. Got some blisters or something on the inside of both feet, on the arch, but back towards the heal. Think they're caused by my sneakers finally wearing out. It makes walking difficult. I can't wear those shoes anymore though.

I'm going to cedar point on saturday :(. Its a :( because I know there are some rides I really want to ride, but won't be able to. Getting to ride those rides is part of the motivation behind me losing weight. I love rollercoasters. I hate not being able to ride th best ones. This time last year, I figured it would have been no problem to shrink enough to ride all the rides by opening day this year, and I even had a stretch goal of maybe just making it by the close of last season. heh... guess thats what happens when you get set back by health problems and lose motivation for a few months. Now, I should be able to make it by the opening of next season, but I have to stay committed and keep up with close to my maximum rate of loss for the next 9-10 months. The only reason I'm going this weekend is because of a work company picnic, with reduced ticket prices. Otherwise, I wouldn't spend the money to go. Its kind of depressing seeing the rides but not being able to ride them... but at least it'll be a reminder to keep pushing forward.

Thats all for this update. Just letting you all know I'm still alive and making progress.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top