[quote]rubberducky7o3 wrote:
But good news is I have a very high quality before pic now. Before as in, I want to see some real results by May 24th.
[/quote]
What kind of specific goals have you set by May 24th?
And why May 24th, is that a special day?
[quote]MeanderingGirl wrote:
I’ve been lurking here for a while now and this thread has provided the impetus for me to sign up and join in.
I’m so impressed by all the encouragement and advice you’ve all offered to the OP - you all ought to be congratulated. Kudo’s.
I’m just starting on my journey (3 weeks in) at 41 years old.
Best of luck, Ducky.
[/quote]
Did not even see this yesterday! But thanks! Your being inspired and motivated makes me that much more motivated! I’m not the person to ask advice since I am just starting my journey as well, but yes, there are lots of helpful people on here who for some odd reason care about random strangers they have never met. It’s a great community!
This thread is a really weird/awesome part of my life now. My girl friend kind of rolls her eyes when I talk about what someone said on T-Nation or what I posted but at the same time she knows it is helping and can see a difference not only in my appearance but in my attitude…mainly my confidence and drive to succeed and my healthy goal and other goals in my life.
It is all mixed in together! You can’t be successful at one aspect of your life and fail miserably at another. It just doesn’t work that way. T-Nation has helped me push through all different aspects of my daily life. Not just my workouts and diet. So welcome! And thanks to everyone else!
[quote]dagill2 wrote:
[quote]rubberducky7o3 wrote:
But good news is I have a very high quality before pic now. Before as in, I want to see some real results by May 24th.
[/quote]
What kind of specific goals have you set by May 24th?
And why May 24th, is that a special day?[/quote]
Good question. I mentioned results. But what are those results? Getting back down to 155lbs would be nice. But I don’t know how smart it is to go by weight when muscle is involved. My goal is to see a significant difference in my body. In my thighs. In my love handles. And maybe even my face. I’ll have to think about this.
May 24 is my 25th birthday. So yes, a special day. 
[quote]rubberducky7o3 wrote:
I recommend the latter - go by whether you see/feel a significant difference in your body and your workout performance, not by the scale.
[quote]rubberducky7o3 wrote:
there are lots of helpful people on here who for some odd reason care about random strangers they have never met. It’s a great community! [/quote]
we’re just grooming you. It won’t be long before we ask for money.
[quote]rubberducky7o3 wrote:
there are lots of helpful people on here who for some odd reason care about random strangers they have never met. It’s a great community! [/quote]
Don’t be fooled, there are plenty of jerks around here. For some miraculous reason, none of them have posted in this thread.
[quote]rubberducky7o3 wrote:
[quote]dagill2 wrote:
[quote]rubberducky7o3 wrote:
But good news is I have a very high quality before pic now. Before as in, I want to see some real results by May 24th.
[/quote]
What kind of specific goals have you set by May 24th?
And why May 24th, is that a special day?[/quote]
Good question. I mentioned results. But what are those results? Getting back down to 155lbs would be nice. But I don’t know how smart it is to go by weight when muscle is involved. My goal is to see a significant difference in my body. In my thighs. In my love handles. And maybe even my face. I’ll have to think about this.
May 24 is my 25th birthday. So yes, a special day. :D[/quote]
It’s tricky to set goals when your recomping, I feel your pain. I’ve yet to come up with a good answer so good luck.
[quote]dagill2 wrote:
It’s tricky to set goals when your recomping, I feel your pain. I’ve yet to come up with a good answer so good luck.
[/quote]
This is one of the few areas where I think caliper measurements can actually be pretty useful, while the tape measure and scale is nearly useless. If you’re actually successfully recomping, your subcutaneous fat will decrease while your muscle size is increasing. Calipers, assuming the readings are done in a consistent manner, are going to be one of the best tools for measuring that.
With just about anything else, it’s hard to tell if the changes are because of bloating, digestion, glycogen levels, or changes in muscle size. If your thigh measurement increases, but the subq fat on your thigh decreases as measured by calipers, then things are going in the right direction. The navel measurement is especially complicated, since so many things affect that.
That’s not to say that calipers are that useful for actually measuring bodyfat levels, but they are useful for measuring trends in how much fat you store just under the skin.
This thread makes me feel really good.
Some of you comments reminded me of this -
PRONOIA - The delusional belief that other people are plotting our well-being or saying nice things behind our backs.
I think in this case it’s true. 
And it confirms my belief that people are mostly good. All these strangers who are trying to help you out, and who honestly get some vicarious happiness about your progress. It’s a nice thing.
It’s really fun to see someone discover lifting and proper nutrition and change their life in good, healthy, happy ways. Keep going!
I just want to look/feel better than I ever have? Is that better. I will post a before pic at some point and you can see how much fat I can lose and how much I can tone.
Here is my workout from yesterday. Was not feeling well so I skipped HIIT.
Lunges
3x10 each leg (30lb barbell)
Incline db press
20lbs x10
22.5lbs x10
25lbs x 10
DB row
22.5lbs 2x10
25lbs 2x10
Planks
2x 1 min
Post workout: Surge Recovery 1 1/2 scoops
Here is my workout from today:
Deadlifts
45lbs 5x5
Close grip bench
45lbs x8
50lbs x8
55lbs x8
60lbs x8
Cable row
60lbs x8
66lbs x8
71lbs x8
77lbs x8
Back extensions
1x25
Plank
1x 1 min
10 mins HIIT
Post workut: Surge Recovery 1 1/2 scoops
These are kind of trial runs to see how much I can lift for each. Next week I will start at max weight and try to hit all the sets and reps and then work my way down if needed.
[quote]Powerpuff wrote:
This thread makes me feel really good.
Some of you comments reminded me of this -
PRONOIA - The delusional belief that other people are plotting our well-being or saying nice things behind our backs.
I think in this case it’s true. And it confirms my belief that people are mostly good. All these strangers who are trying to help you out, and who honestly get some vicarious happiness about your progress. It’s a nice thing.
It’s really fun to see someone discover lifting and proper nutrition and change their life in good, healthy, happy ways. Keep going!
[/quote]
Thanks for the support and kind words! I do believe there are more people in the world wanting to change it for the better not the worse. They just don’t get all the media hype. I like to think of it in this way, because I have bad anxiety and at one point I had to stop reading the news: Yes there are hundreds/thousands of people who die everyday in various ways. But there are still billions who live and we need to not forget that. Just in the same way there are hundreds/thousands of bad people in the world. But there are still billions that are good
[quote]Powerpuff wrote:
And it confirms my belief that people are mostly good. All these strangers who are trying to help you out, and who honestly get some vicarious happiness about your progress. It’s a nice thing.
[/quote]
To add to the feel-good vibe - I saved a man’s life tonight. Pulled him onto the platform a second before the train could crush him. He was shitfaced.
[quote]nighthawkz wrote:
[quote]Powerpuff wrote:
And it confirms my belief that people are mostly good. All these strangers who are trying to help you out, and who honestly get some vicarious happiness about your progress. It’s a nice thing.
[/quote]
To add to the feel-good vibe - I saved a man’s life tonight. Pulled him onto the platform a second before the train could crush him. He was shitfaced.[/quote]
Right on. Thank goodness you were in the right place at the right time - and not looking at your phone while he fell.
[quote]rubberducky7o3 wrote:
But I would have to say, if it came to survival I think I would run instead of fight so maybe I shouldn’t give it up completely lol. [/quote]
Except, running 5.5 mph for survival won’t do much for you.
Both for that purpose and for fat loss, high intensity interval training sprinting will do much better for you.
There are many ways to do it and many excellent article on T-Nation: a brief example is to run rather nearly as fast as you can for 30 seconds (but not where you’ll injure yourself or burn out), walk for 30 seconds, run for 30 etc, repeat for a total of say 10 times. This is just to give you a general idea, I’d recommend picking a particular program and following it.
Much better for fat loss than jogging, “despite” being accomplished much more quickly.
Bill Roberts: You are correct, as can be corraberated within the friendly confines of the T-Nation vaults.
The Fast and the Furious (HIIT) training can do more to destroy you (esp.with a Prowler) in 10 minutes
than 2 hours of steady state cardio can.
Again for Ducky, go get a full body photo taken.
This way you know where you started and it can be used for motivation.
The scale is Really Fucking Useless !
I am Faster, Stronger and Leaner since lifting than when I put 350-400miles per week on my bike as a competitive cyclist.
I also WEIGH 30# more, and yet i am Faster ! The power to weight ratio thing you know.
Anyway, I keep staying motivated knowing that you may one day surpass my lifting prowess, that keeps me going !
(right now there is a 15 year old chinese girl warming up with YOUR MAX). ha ha ha lol
[quote]nighthawkz wrote:
[quote]Powerpuff wrote:
And it confirms my belief that people are mostly good. All these strangers who are trying to help you out, and who honestly get some vicarious happiness about your progress. It’s a nice thing.
[/quote]
To add to the feel-good vibe - I saved a man’s life tonight. Pulled him onto the platform a second before the train could crush him. He was shitfaced.[/quote]
if you ever find yourself in central Scotland, you drink for free
[quote]Powerpuff wrote:
[quote]nighthawkz wrote:
[quote]Powerpuff wrote:
And it confirms my belief that people are mostly good. All these strangers who are trying to help you out, and who honestly get some vicarious happiness about your progress. It’s a nice thing.
[/quote]
To add to the feel-good vibe - I saved a man’s life tonight. Pulled him onto the platform a second before the train could crush him. He was shitfaced.[/quote]
That’s the tragedy - he didn’t fall, he was drunk/stupid enough to think walking from one platform to the other was a good idea. Two seconds later and he’d have died of his own stupidity.
Right on. Thank goodness you were in the right place at the right time - and not looking at your phone while he fell. [/quote]
[quote]nighthawkz wrote:
[quote]Powerpuff wrote:
[quote]nighthawkz wrote:
[quote]Powerpuff wrote:
And it confirms my belief that people are mostly good. All these strangers who are trying to help you out, and who honestly get some vicarious happiness about your progress. It’s a nice thing.
[/quote]
To add to the feel-good vibe - I saved a man’s life tonight. Pulled him onto the platform a second before the train could crush him. He was shitfaced.[/quote]
That’s the tragedy - he didn’t fall, he was drunk/stupid enough to think walking from one platform to the other was a good idea. Two seconds later and he’d have died of his own stupidity.
Right on. Thank goodness you were in the right place at the right time - and not looking at your phone while he fell. [/quote]
[/quote]
Wow. It’s good you were paying attention and had the presence of mind to get involved. I’ll bet you had quite the adrenaline rush.
[quote]Powerpuff wrote:
Wow. It’s good you were paying attention and had the presence of mind to get involved. I’ll bet you had quite the adrenaline rush.
[/quote]
I nearly hit him for being so stupid.
Bock on topic: ducky, one more thing we may not have emphasised yet - strive to get stornger while using good form. It isn’t strength training if you’re not getting stronger.
Food/exercise log for this week:
Monday 3/30:
Coffee
Meal 1: Quest bar
Meal 2: Beef jerky and cashews
Meal 3: Chicken burger; brown rice; broccoli; grapes
Coffee
Meal 4: Turkey sandwich w/ honey mustard and spinach leaves; yogurt
Meal 5: 1/2 avocado
Meal Prep
Meal 6: Curry chicken w/ veggies
Supplements- Fish oil
Tuesday 3/31:
Coffee
Meal 1: Oatmeal w/ peanut butter; 3 slices turkey bacon; egg whites; two-over medium eggs; ¼ grape fruit; milk
Gym- full body + 10 mins HIIT
Meal 2: Surge Recovery (1 ½ scoops)
Meal 3: Curry chicken w/ veggies and brown rice
Meal 4: Beef jerky and cashews
Meal 5: Turkey sandwich w/ honey mustard and spinach leaves; carrots and hummus
Supplements- Fish oil, Juice plus
Wednesday 4/1:
Coffee
Meal 1: Yogurt
Meal 2: Quest bar
Meal 3: Curry chicken w/ veggies and brown rice; milk
Meal 4: Turkey sandwich w/ honey mustard and spinach leaves; carrots, cauliflower and hummus
Supplements- Fish oil
Thursday 4/2:
Coffee
Meal 1: Quest bar
Meal 2: 4 scrambled eggs with spinach and peppers; 3 slices turkey bacon
Gym- full body
Meal 3: Surge Recover (1 ½ scoops)
Meal 4: Beef jerky and cashews
Meal 5: Cheat meal: Bread and butter; bloomin onion; 6oz steak; 2 side Cesar salads from Outback; lemonade
Friday 4/3:
Coffee
Meal 1: Peanut butter toast; milk
Gym- full body + 10 mins HIIT
Meal 2: Surge Recovery (1 ½ scoops)
Meal 3: Curry chicken w/ veggies and brown rice
Meal 4: Beef jerky and cashews
Meal 5: Chicken salad w/ veggies, balsamic, and EVOO; brown rice; asparagus
Drinks
Late night snack: cashews
Saturday 4/4:
Sugar free vanilla latte w/ soymilk
Meal 1: 3 scrambled eggs; buttered toast; ¼ grape fruit
Meal 2: Pistachios
Meal 3: Chicken salad w/ veggies, balsamic, and EVOO; brown rice; asparagus
Meal 4: Quest bar
Meal 5: Cheddar cheese; 4 slices turkey bacon; 2 over-medium eggs
Sunday 4/5:
Meal 1: Peanut butter toast; milk
Sugar free vanilla latte w/ soymilk
Meal 2: Deviled eggs; beef jerky
1 hour Hike
Meal 3: Easter Dinner: Ham; broccoli casserole; roasted potatoes; dinner roll; cake
Snack: Toasted marshmallows (3 small)
Meal 4: Ham; hemp seeds; milk
Also, wow some of the conversations in here are crazy. Glad to hear you saved his life, even if he won’t remember.