This is a great idea and an exercise I think I’ll do myself. It’s easy to have physical goals and discuss them on here, but there is so much more to life. Determining actual values that will make you a better person day in and day out is so important. Great read, thanks for posting this.
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This one is my favorite. 
Your values make you a rare and amazing human being. The world needs more of you!
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Cheers Sven, appreciate that from you!
Any specific recommendations? (I’ve got a big queue of things to read and never enough time in the day, but always keen to expand, learn and grow.
It’s one of the things I think people miss in modern western theology, it’s become very thought and feeling driven, but is missing action - Jesus was clear your actions need to align with your faith, and like you say:
There is a huge amount of grace in that, but there is no room for all thought no action.
It has become my daily go to 25g of protein with the plain greek yogurt and the berries are always tasty.
I think that’s what I was realising, we all have values and a lot of them are “default” a product of our upbringing and society, some of them are chosen, but most adopted, unstated and really unshaped. But we have a choice in all of them and can be intentional in creating and shaping them and ensuring that we really operate in accordance with them.
Mine too!
Thank you QQ, really appreciate that, as there is only one of me, let’s hope that in some small ways I impact others to do likewise.
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I read this is a license to bulk up: please correct if necessary.
@alex_uk In truth, I’ve only ever been exposed to Aristotle in my formal education, and haven’t taken the time to read him direct. I never cared much for the classics, haha. However, the bits of Nicomachean Ethics I’ve read were where I gathered my take on him, and I imagine would be a good place to start.
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No correction required, I would love to see that. LOL
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I’m down for it after May (well the last week in May will be massive, as that’s my first and likely only ever cruise!).
It shall be done.
Thinking Brian’s linear program from next week until cruise (works perfectly timing wise), cruise deload, then I’m going for the the RP hypertrophy app, at least for a few months, try it out, focus on hypertrophy after a period of restriction and focus on building up and targeting areas I’ve neglected for years.
Really looking forward to eating more! Really love the lifestyle change, just want to return to eating more of it!
Morning weight was 200 exactly - 2.15 mile walk - shoulder is starting to feel a little better doing the rehab exercises, looking forward to getting back to lifting (I know then I’ve got the opportunity to lift I’ll probably stop looking forward to it!)
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200.5 this am, miserable weather today, will be forcing myself to do the “hard thing” of walking in it. Was rushed yesterday only got 1.65 miles, better than nothing. Did 10 press ups just to see how that felt on the shoulder, felt good, slight pain in the locked out position before starting but fine throughout the full movement, went slow and controlled to full depth. Hopefully a good sign, from memory press ups are good for shoulder health anyway, so will get some more sets done over the next few days - I’ll throw in some bodyweight leg work and ab work, get the body used to the idea of using muscles for more than walking.
Speaking of which the walking seems to be having a positive effect on the resting pulse, and BP seems to leveled off between 110-120/70-80 happy with that.
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Morning weight 200.
Away for the weekend with my home group from church, should be a good weekend, will impact the diet as we’ll generally be eating together, I’ll try and keep it high protein (taking whey) and good choices (won’t be eating any sugar) but it won’t be perfect.
Activity wise there’s a pool, not sure how big it is but I’ll do some swimming, not sure about walking, weather has got even worse and is borderline storm level.
My weight might be dropping slightly too quickly, I’ve got 13 days of moving averages - first week was -0.6lb moving average over the second week/6 days is -2lbs. I’ve lost 4.75lbs in 19 days, so averaging .25lb per day overall. Which I suppose is sub 2lb/1% bw per week- not that bad really, I’m also not 100% sure if I should have carried on cutting without training, might explain the acceleration in loss, but too late now, training resumes from Monday.
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22/02/25 - morning weight - no idea!
Kept 2 meals a day and having 2 shakes just to keep the protein high without having to dictate food for everyone else. I’ve not eaten sugar (and there have been plenty of sugar options, including some homemade cakes by our excellent home group baker) and dinner has been home cooked decent food. Scrambled eggs and ham for lunch. Tomorrow is a carvery for lunch (not sure how this translates outside of the UK but a huge meal, lot of meat, potatoes and gravy) - and I won’t be going light, I’m sure dinner will end up lighter as a result though.
I haven’t walked at all but have played a swimming pool game that’s kind of like volleyball but with a beach ball, no net and a the ability travel through entire length of the pool, some sort of slightly mad water polo maybe? Great fun and quite a lot of energy spent in a novel way. My shoulder has not approved of the high, fast overhead movements but is fine afterwards.
Great weekend away, with an awesome group of people, pure joy!
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24/02/25 - morning weight 199, new low (edited because I put 203, idiot, it’s 199!)
I’m guessing some of my loss has now come a little from muscle, over 2 weeks without lifting, I’ll survive! Today I’m back lifting, let the games begin!
Diet is going to be an focused on shifting macros slightly from fat to carbs (not that I’m counting still just choosing different foods!)
Breakfast:
Porridge made with oats and water (put on some Ceylon after the photo for taste and blood sugar benefits), half a pot (250g approx) FF greek with 25g of whey mixed in (I like to try and get 50g of protein per meal) and blueberries.
@decimation tagging you for breakfast ideas here this is about 2 mins of prep, the only non-single ingredient item was the protein powder, everything else is just single item (well unless you count the milk plus yogurt cultures, but that might be pedantic).
It’s so much harder to overeat when there’s no frankenfoods.
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thanks I’ll take a look at your log too.
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This is so true, oh my goodness. My favorite restaurant is a Brazilian steakhouse called Texas De Brazil. I have gone there and eaten until I was physically sick twice (I’ve gone there MORE than that, but only ate THAT much twice), and in both of those instances I still took in fewer calories than I’ve done in a 15 minute binge at Taco Bell. Heck, part of that is simply the mechanical process of having to actually CHEW the food. J M Blakely talks about how a McDonalds cheeseburger is so hyperpalatable that yo don’t even need to chew it: you could just leave it in your mouth and it will dissolve overtime. And then when you factor in that these hyperprocessed foods are loaded with cheap calories like seed oils and refined sugar ala highfructose corn syrup in order to motivate you to keep eating more and NOT feel hungry, and they absolutely work against you.
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I love Taco Bell. But heck almighty it is calorie dense. I have not eaten myself sick at a Brazilian steakhouse. But I have seen others eat at such restaurants and it has made me quite uncomfortable. I sat across from a woman I went to a conference with. The more she ate, and the more uncomfortable she became, the less I wanted to eat. But she started with 2-3 trips to the salad bar. I just ate the meat. I was not paying for a salad bar.
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Ah yeah, it should go without saying that I’m ONLY eating the meat there. Most folks run afoul because they eat from the salad bar AND the dessert at the end and then want to claim that all the meat did them in. I also stay away from the white meat.
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I did try the chicken heart once. It was like eating a superball.
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Right now this problematic for me. Just cooked this for lunch:
Which is kind of like a poverty paella, 1 bell pepper, 1 chilli, 1 red onion, a handful of plum tomatoes, passata, 200g tuna, 250g cooked rice.
I undercooked the bell peppers which were still crunchy, and apparently I have a gum infection (woke up with pain, which has since progressed from dull to agony), so ate everything but the peppers.
But yea chewing slows you down and gives actual time for the body to register you’ve eaten, I always try and abuse the 20 mins window when gaining, stuff it in before your stomach notices!
If you know these things (and use them) it’s fairly easy to make both increases and decreases in body weight, particularly when you do things consistently over time!
I hit the weights today, started linear progression (henceforth just going to call it LP) got 3 sets in and got an unexpected visitor, who I haven’t seen for ages, so ended up stopping and chatting over a coffee for an hour then then Mrs and in-laws turned up, and it was 3pm and I hadn’t eaten, so ate, now I need to get back to work, we’ll just count today as a little taster.
60kg:
100kg:
120kg:
Deadlift rep 1 on 60kg felt awful, like I’d had a back injury not a shoulder injury, after that all was well, felt pretty snappy and form felt good overall.
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I’ve seen that clip with Dave Tate. Super interesting. Although that bulking diet sounds INSANE even if he’d do it short term. Feels like your ass would be glued to the toilet seat for 3 hours 
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Or, given the complete lack of fiber along with all the processed food: maybe never. Which could explain why it was so good for weight gain!
If you know these things (and use them) it’s fairly easy to make both increases and decreases in body weight, particularly when you do things consistently over time!
Yup! It’s why I continue to never count or track. You can just figure it out.
Great to see you back to hitting the iron dude!
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funny how the same burger that will do this, will also last for years without deteriorating if you leave it on the plate. And people used to take their kids their for s birthday treat.
So gross.
25/02/25 - 200lbs morning weigh in.
LP wave 1 week 1 day 1 (attempt to complete 2, out of 3…I hope)
GS1
Sandbag over shoulder: 50kg x 4 x 5 sets
Deadlifts: 60, 100, 120, 140, 150kg x 8
RKC plank: some time x 5 sets
Face pulls x 60 (did in between sets).
This was supposed to be 4 working sets and I called it at 150kg.
Then I called the session. My gum infection is agonising, so I’ve been taking codeine for the past 36 hours and I barely slept last night, which wasn’t a problem for the lifting, but when I hit top set I got dizzy and queasy and couldn’t recover. 20 mins later and I’m still fighting to keep my stomach content and I’m still sitting on the garage floor, also struggling not to fall asleep - less than ideal, opiates are useful but not pleasant. Splitting this session and will do the rest tomorrow.
Shame because the deadlifts felt really good, a couple of sub standard reps, but considering fatigue and having not pulled properly for probably around a month, these felt locked in.
Glad the forms improving and it makes the work seem easier.
Set 1:
Set 2:
Set 3:
Had to trim the giant sets in the videos and just keep deadlifts because of the copyright 1 minute thing, annoying.
Also - my lats and my glutes are absolutely fried, that’s gotta be good news for my deadlift form!
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