The girls you beat ate cod and that’s why they lost.
Reminds me of this old meme:
5 Likes
Everyone knows only eating 10 crashes your metabolism and that 12th goes straight to your love handles
I’d love to know their rationale. Like do they know they are just using some arbitrary number or do they really believe they have it dialed in THAT well?
1 Like
My theory with some contest prep coaches: You pay them to guide you through the process so you don’t have to think about it. But it mostly comes down to prescribing very low calories. I’ve seen contest plans come in at sub-1000 calories.
But they can’t sell “suffer and don’t eat much” because anyone can do that for free. So they like to pull out all these little made-up rules: this type of white fish, not that type of white fish, almonds not walnuts, etc. With calories and protein being equal, none of these little rules make a difference for contest fat loss. They do it to seem like they’re experts with top secret methods.
Or maybe some of them believe it. Many just give you the diet plans that worked for them. They bought haddock because it was on sale or the store didn’t have tilapia. They won their show back in the day so haddock is now the magical secret.
And I guess the specific number of almonds was just for calorie control, to hit the right number at the end of the day. As if the human body works that way. I mean, what do you have to do to burn off an extra almond? Take 20 extra steps that day? Strain a little harder with a stubborn poop?
But I do understand why people want these strict plans. Standing on a stage in your underwear being judged? Yeah, don’t want to mess that up.
Anyway, this conversation reminds me of when men get obsessed with either testosterone production or burning calories they need for gettin’ huuuge. In both cases, they’ll seriously start talking about avoiding sex because they’re worried it might affect their gains. And that, my friends, is when you’re dipping your toes into the mental illness pool.
2 Likes
Probably the latter. I don’t remember the exact number they gave me; that was just an example of how strict they were. It was a husband and wife, and I just deleted a whole paragraph dwelling on the past. lol let’s just say, the wife was probably not in a good place with herself, and she took it out on the figure and bikini competitors who hired her.
1 Like
Missing the forrest for the trees seems to happen a lot in fitness and strength sports.
Workout
RDL
Rear Delt Cable Flye
Machine Chest Press
Lateral Raise
Seated Cable Row
Arnold Press
Most of my workouts are just one or two lower body lifts, and then the rest upper body depending largely on what joints feel good. My high ham does seem to be getting better but it can easily flare up again with too much volume or load, so I’m being really careful.
Slow progress is better than no progress and Chris is still constantly trying to get in my pants, which is the best measure of success.
WAY OFF TOPIC: Have you ever heard of color season analysis?
It was a trend decades ago when a woman wrote the book, Color Me Beautiful in 1987. But the whole idea made a comeback recently – probably via TikTok and YouTube – and it’s actually pretty useful. (Maybe.)
Here’s the gist: Based on your skin tone, eye color, and hair color, you’re either a winter, spring, summer, or autumn. And within each season are three categories. So you could be a soft summer, or a deep winter, or a true autumn, etc. And that means there are 12 different categories you could potentially fall in.
This kinda makes sense even if you haven’t thought about it too deeply. Some colors look fantastic on people, and others can be overpowering or make them look kinda sick. Chris is shockingly handsome in a powder blue. I’m not sure what his bad colors are but when he puts on a pale blue T-shirt, he turns heads. I look jaundiced in peach and yellow, but get compliments in forrest green and mulberry colors.
So color matters. And now there are individuals you can hire, and even franchises that have professionals working out of their homes, doing these color analysis appointments.
This girl recorded the whole process.
It’s intriguing if you’re sensitive to colors and suspect they influence your mood or the way people perceive you.
Buuuuuut… you also have to wonder if this whole thing is kind of a scam. Because people can see with their own eyes what looks good and what doesn’t. And a person can wear something that’s not in his or her season, and still look alright. Brad Pitt is never going to be ugly in chartreuse green. It’s not his best color, but so what?
Maybe we’re better off not caring.
But I’m still curious. The thing preventing me from getting it done is that it’s likely the results are going to say that I need to go back to my natural hair color.
They might say red and auburn are tacky with my complexion. Well, they certainly are depending on which year of my 30s we look at: the neon firetruck and faded hot pink eras probably weren’t the most flattering.
Proof that my color preferences peaked in kindergarten.
So anyway, if you’re a person who has insights on color analysis, thoughts on color preferences in general, or ideas about whether I should change my hair or shave it off completely, let me know. I’m open to all the options.
3 Likes
Have you ever suddenly lost mobility in a shoulder? I’ve been working out around the problem, but it’s time to see the chiropractor.
On a related note, my hips and knees were on fire a couple nights ago… to the point of having a hard time getting up the stairs. The pain was unreal. So I took my bio-identical progesterone, and the pain went away almost immediately. To be fair, I also had a big dose of Flameout along with it, so that must’ve sped things up too.
There are people (in fitness!) who think joint pain is always the result of doing something wrong in the gym, but the truth is, it’s a bit more nuanced than that. Can using improper form cause joint issues? Obviously yes. But a hormone deficiency can do some pretty awful things too.
I didn’t realize this until discovering Dr. Tyna Moore. She’s talked about TRT helping with hip and knee pain for women, but during luteal phase, I find that progesterone clears it up and helps me sleep like a baby.
Progesterone isn’t a cure-all though. It would only be a cure-all if all your problems are caused by an insufficient production of it. And the need for it is largely dictated by what phase of the month you’re in. In fact, I get kinda chubby if I take progesterone during inappropriate phases of the month. That’s how impactful hormones are and how complex female hormones are.
A beneficial thing taken at the wrong time or in the wrong dose can give you more problems than benefits.
My angry shoulder could be gym related though, because the progesterone hasn’t helped with that lol. I must’ve tweaked it while benching or something. So I’ll be using the non-hormonal solutions for that: Curcumin, Flameout, chiro.
Speaking of hormones and female health, Dr. Tyna interviewed Dr. Patrick Flynn and their conversation blew my mind.
The two most controversial things Dr. Patrick Flynn said:
- “Women shouldn’t have a six pack,” and
- “There’s no such thing as peri-menopause.”
On the Color Season Thing
There are a couple compelling videos out there about how the entire concept of color seasons is a subjective load of BS that often causes women to wear colors they hate. Plus you can buy consultations from different people and get completely different results. So that’s weird.
But if I have a color season that’s easy to spot, I’d like to know what it is so that I can tell my hairdresser what to do or avoid when he colors my hair. Maybe reds, violets, and auburns aren’t the best.
So, this is probably the most unreliable way to do it, but I bought a $15 analysis off of Fiverr. Why not? Let me know if you want to see the results. Just kidding. I’m going to share them anyway.
5 Likes
This is somewhat true, but the effect is miniscule and barely statistically significant, somewhat like those “optimal training protocol” findings. Things like confidence and competence matter much more
so IMO
and
unless you personally feel more confident or comfortable wearing certain colours. For example, I avoid whites or other light colours because they make me paranoid about getting stains since I’m a clumsy person.
1 Like
Hahaha right?!
AMEN! Great points and I love how you put together those quotes!
One of the reasons I had a sudden huge interest is because of what happened one day when taking some work-related pics/vids.
We’re doing a bunch of baking videos for Metabolic Drive, and one day I had on a pale gray shirt that I thought looked nice. But then I snapped a test picture and it was terrible. I was shocked.
It made me look so washed out that I went and changed the shirt to a dark fuschia/mulberry color.
My hair and skin look dull. I’m almost the same color as the shirt.
Even in bad lighting, this color made my skin and hair pop.
So you’re absolutely right that it most likely doesn’t affect people’s impression of you. But there’s something eye-catching and powerful when someone is wearing their best colors.
I can’t take my eyes off my husband when he’s wearing baby blue or olive green. But red? Ew, go away, husband! 
I’m betting most people wouldn’t think twice if I had kept the gray shirt on. But does a person command more attention and have more confidence when they’re wearing something that they know looks great? I’m leaning toward yes, mainly because of confidence, like you said.
3 Likes
haha, you gave me the layup
I should take a step back. It absolutely matters for video/photo content creation! I didn’t consider this when I made my statement
My mum hates when my dad wears light colours and he hates black, green and red. So now his wardrobe is shades of navy 
1 Like
I think so too, and I keep wearing stuff that’s not quite right, but then not realizing it until it’s already out in the world! Sometimes I get lucky but maybe a professional can tell me what to do.
HAHA well navy is nice!
GOOD.
Shaaaaarrrrrp!
My husband “pops” in blue or the right green, too. He has blue/green eyes, which are impacted, but it’s more than that somehow.
1 Like
Exactly! It has to be something to do with the eyes! Maybe our husbands are the same color season. haha #ThingsMenDontCareAbout
1 Like
nice pic and plants looking great too.
1 Like
Seeing as how this thread appears to be a default gathering of the old guard braintrust of sorts, Id thought maybe I could throw out a topic of discussion to see what you all have experienced with it in the fitness realm:
The topic broadly speaking is… Does past trauma (sometimes) lend itself to people reaching higher levels of fitness success on average?
Obviously Im not talking about universals here, but its something I’ve picked up on in my travels through the land of training that often times the people at the top (or at least those getting much of the recognition) seem to have a somewhat troubled past
I havent kept up on the industry a ton in the last some odd years but some of the notable people that come to mind are:
CT Fletcher - Multiple world time champion lifter with a history of childhood physical and other types of abuse from his dad
Keven “da hulk” washington - Similar story - childhood trauma leading him to a “I train so no one can harm me or my family” type mentality
George Leeman - notable from a few years back, says the death of his younger brother fuels his training intensity
A different “hulk” Daniel Perales - Horrible childhood, trauma, life on the streets, drugs, gun to head injury … all leading to a lifetime of gym performance
You get the picture… Again, not saying one needs to have gone through some type of traume to excel in the lifting game, I just wonder if there isnt some “x factor” planted in some of these people that some of us “normal people” cant or wont tap into perhaps. Kind of like the trust fund kid who just “cant” hold down a job vs the immigrant who arrives with 2 nickels to rub together or something like that.
Thoughts? Have the people youve known who excelled the most had some issues they were working through? Are YOU working through some issues in the gym that push you to a level beyond “eh I just wanna lose some weight and be look better”?
2 Likes
I would say when you look into the background of a lot of the people we put on pedestals A Listers sport stars etc they’ve experience some sort of trauma. I think there often is something that needs to be different in your mindset to reach those levels, often it’s a selfishness, presumably stemming from a sense that nobody ever helped me, nobody cared about me so I have to look out for myself and no one else, that selfishness allows them to push single-mindedly into achieving whatever it is they think will shield them from the pain of the past, being big and strong, being rich and famous, being funny etc, the tragedy is that it just makes them more miserable.
I’ll end my entire speculative pop-psych ramble with this quote from Madonna:
‘My drive in life comes from a fear of being mediocre. That is always pushing me. I push past one spell of it and discover myself as a special human being but then I feel I am still mediocre and uninteresting unless I do something else. Because even though I have become somebody, I still have to prove that I am somebody. My struggle has never ended and I guess it never will.’
2 Likes
What!? I love that you’ve gotten that impression! The people who drop in here are so smart, funny, and kind. Thank you for being one of them.
Yes please! Otherwise my log will devolve into mainly just me talking about injuries, color analysis, and hormones. LOL
It’s very possible. Maybe those who go through serious trauma see their options for dealing with pain and end up choosing to turn it into something productive. That’d be my first guess. The therapeutic aspects of strength sports, and just general fitness, are undeniable.
Maybe going through hard stuff can give you a glimpse of your potential future. So then you voluntarily do other hard stuff that’ll lead to a better outcome than the hard stuff that you’d be facing without going through it.
Kind of like a “choose your hard stuff” situation.
5 Likes
Thank you!! They’ve grown since that picture was taken and now they may need to be repotted. haha that’s going to be such a headache!