We might end up 
but, seeing as there a lot of ways diet soda and energy drinks can negatively impact health (teeth, microbiome, cost, ulcers?, other things I can’t think of) if you believe that your dependence on those two tie back to caffeine and you don’t like coffee perhaps caffeine pills would help you learn more definitively if that’s the reason.
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I enjoy the experience of consuming diet soda and energy drinks enough that I’m willing to accept the health risks associated with it. Like I said: it’s the dirty part of my diet. If I wanted to eliminate them, I would (as I’ve done in the past), but they’re one of the very very VERY few food products that actually bring me any sort of joy.
I actually observed this while I was traveling. I had access to some amazing food, and zero desire to partake in any of it. Juice just wasn’t worth the squeeze for me. But the local gas station had some flavors of energy drinks I hadn’t tried before, and THAT got me excited. I’d like to hold onto that part of my humanity, as my relationship with food is already pretty poor.
So in that, I don’t think I drink diet soda and energy drinks because of a dependence on caffeine: I have a dependence of caffeine, and drink diet soda and energy drinks to get it.
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I get so jealous that you guys have the monster energy protein drinks and I’ve never found them in Australia
Ya know, I don’t ever drink those. I prefer my protein drinks to be protein drinks and my energy drinks to be energy drinks. Probably a part of that is that I will try to savor the energy drink whereas I’ll down a protein drink.
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Gotcha, I’d probably be the same, it’s more the idea I’m in love with
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That was a great post pwn. Pretty helpful to me as far as what (and why) to replace carbs with. I wouldn’t say I eat many “dirty” foods but I do have to remind myself to stay the course with mainly whole foods. Fast food is absolutely more convenient than preparing breakfast and lunches every day but (as I’m sure you can attest to) there are trade offs.
It’s cool to see your thought process and troubleshooting when it comes to your diet, too.
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Reading what you are doing for nutrition makes sense to me…i have recently had to switch to a ketoish style because of my health issues…but i still obviously want to make gains, get stronger ect…so im still obviously in the process of getting used to eating like this and so on but for future times looking at even that tip about not taking in fat post workout is good in my mind.
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@kleinhound Definitely run into a lot of that, haha. Things that sound slick at the time and then fail in execution. Heck, on the topic of energy drinks, Reign released a flavor recently titled “White Gummy Bear” that had me all excited and it tasted like…nothing. Always why I test before I buy a case.
@boilerman Glad you appreciated it dude. Fast food is too easy a trap to fall into, ESPECIALLY being out in the work force. You’ll see your co-workers eating that stuff everyday and it normalizes it, but then you have to take a step back and realize that these aren’t habits you want to emulate. In a similar capacity, my wife got some bloodwork back and was really (pleasantly) shocked at her readings, especially triglycerides. She asked me what makes those go up and I told her that alcohol and carbs tend to drive them up. She said “but I eat a high carb diet” and I explained that, no, she lives with me, which makes her THINK she has a high carb diet because she actually EATS carbs compared to me, but compared to the average American she eats a very low carb diet (typically only 1 carb source a day at dinner, usually rice). It’s amazing how our environment can shape perspective.
And dude, I love reading your log for the food photos, haha. You are killing it in all capacities.
@bigdaddi Glad it was helpful. I’ll say that the “no fat post workout” thing is definitely getting into the weeds, and I’m sure you can get incredibly jacked and strong eating fat post workout so long as you’re still putting in work and getting stuff done, but nutrition can be fun to play around with. I’d definitely check out Jon Andersen’s work if you’re interested in low carb muscle building stuff. It’s really fascinating.
POST NIGHT SHIFT TRAINING
PM WORKOUT I (1400)
5 round circuit of
10 chins (various grips)
4 standing ab wheel
10 dips
8 BW reverse hypers
25 band pushdowns
50 band pull aparts
Food break (3 organic cage free eggs, grassfed butter, 1/4 avocado, fat free cheese)
10 rounds of
10 thrusters at 95lbs
10 KB swings at 45lbs
Time: 14:40
30 GHRs
PM WORKOUT II (2100)
100 six count burpees in 6:19 (25 second PR)
Notes: A “non-lifting” day after a 12 hour night shift. First bit was just getting in the daily work, and then I wanted to do something that didn’t have burpees in it in anticipation for the evening, so gave that a go. Thrusters seem to help with recovery, which was good, because my legs still seem shot from BBB squats. Had me huffing and puffing at least.
Got through 60 burpees without stopping, which lent itself to that big time PR. I really seem to have a pattern figured out for pairing my conditioning to set up my lifting, at least for the time being. The 100 burpees tend to be pretty restorative after the heavy deads, and it’s good to get my body moving through space.
Went to Panda Express with the Mrs and my guts were not having it. Gut biome is definitely adapted to clean living. Mrs has been commenting that I look healthier, bigger, “like an anatomy chart”, etc. Great to get that kinda feedback. Feeling more and more like my old self, but also find myself not drifting back to my old habits, which I think is the key.
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I will definitely look at jon anderson thanks
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Hell yeah dude. Make sure it’s Andersen. He’s got an unfortunate last name in that regard: lotta people miss out looking for him, haha.
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Oh thanks for pointing that out…i absolutely missed the spelling haha
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My missus has, similarly, been commenting that I’m looking bigger. My enthusiastic “Thanks!” is always followed by, “And you’re ruining our couch and bed by deforming it, and spending all our money buying food and new clothes.”
Almost a win.
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I got a disgusted look and you’ve got new “growths” not growth but growths*, about my lats (when viewed front on) recently - I was happy.
*my Mrs refers to my quads as growths as well, it’s almost like she doesn’t enjoy big legs and back, she also derides the size of my arms, she wants a gym bro.
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My mum recently said that my behind and arms were getting too large, can’t verify that it muscle though
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Just caught up with our resident basketball ball playing bf% obsessed poster - I love how the internet can’t decide whether you are a genetic freak or dud, meanwhile you couldn’t care less and keep improving!
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@kdjohn Oh man, the backhanded compliments, haha. How brutal. I’m always thankful I married a fellow athlete, as we get each other, even though we’re also terrible influences on each other. Case in point: I came home from my night shift and told the Mrs ahead of time I was going to lift before going to sleep. We had a power outage due to the cold weather (rotating blackouts), and my wife gave me our camping lantern so that I could have light in the garage while I trained. There was no question on IF I was still going to train: just how. Meanwhile, she’ll blow out something major and ask me if I think she can still run and I’ll go “Yeah probably”, haha.
@alex_uk Motivation to grow for sure. Keep hammering those poundstones, haha. And yeah: the genetics thing is so goofy. What a dumb thing to be proud of. Oh, cool, your parents were awesome, but YOU suck.
@anna_5588 She recently said some positive things to you too: I’d focus on that.
AM WORKOUT (0700) POST NIGHT SHIFT
CIRCUITS (chin-bench): only plate change rests until topset
Chins (underhand)
20
11
12
13
14
15
16
Axle bench press
5xAxle
5x156
5x211
5x241
5x271
SUPERSETS (bench-row) 90 seconds rest between sets
Axle bench press 241
5x5
DB rows 115
1x8
4x7
Band pull aparts
1x50
75 DB bench dropset w/restpause (12 deep breaths between sets)
(6:upright)1x10
(5)1x6
(4)1x6
(3)1x7
(2)1x7
(1)1x8
10 BW dips
25 band pushdowns
Poundstone curls
150xAxle
PM WORKOUT (2100)
Tabata high handle trap bar pulls 135
Tabata 45lb KB snatches
Notes: Bench workout was interesting. We’re dealing with record cold here, and it was -45 with windchill. I’ve trained in colder, but I’m getting older and my circulation isn’t as good, so my hands kept going numb from handling the cold metal. Bench warm-ups were getting dicey, but by the time I got to the topset I had blood flowing and was actually able to shed my hoodie so I could get on my elbow sleeves, which helped. After that, things moved well. Was training by the light of an LED lantern due to the revolving power outages with no music: it was honestly quite serene.
The DB bench reps past the first set are all from memory, so there may be some misreporting. Still digging that approach.
The conditioning before work went well. Tabata trap bar pulls are still just awesome. They sneak up on you.
This is my last night shift for a few days, so I can get nutrition and training back on schedule for a bit before it starts all over again.
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Looking at how my schedule is shaking out, I’ll be deloading soon and restarting right around the beginning of March, which just so happens to correlate with a programming party that r/gainit over at reddit is having over the 6 month weight gaining block I put together of BBB Beefcake/BTM/Deep Water.
I’ve been looking for another challenge, and something that will ultimately drive me to eat more, and this may just be what I need. If nothing else, I’ve never run BBB Beefcake before, and it’s not like me to recommend a program I’ve never run before, so spending the next 6 weeks running it can at least allow me to put my money where my mouth is.
This would be the second time I’ve run SVR II for 2 cycles, fell in love with it, and then abandoned it for something shiny. I don’t know if that says something about SVR or about me.
I’m kicking around ideas though to “make it mine”. I’d keep up my stupid high amount of assistance work and my Juarez Valley front squats for conditioning.
I’m thinking, for deads, to use the axle on the 5s week. I could get cheeky actually and do axle for 5s, power bar for 3s and deadlift bar for 1s. Also thinking axle for 5s, deadlift bar for 3s and low handle trap bar for 1s.
For squats, I’d keep the buffalo bar for 3s and 5s and go SSB for 1s.
For press, axle for 5s and 3s and go log for 1s.
Just keep the axle for the bench, but maybe do pause reps for 5s week.
Transitioning from BBB to BtM gives me pause, just because I HATE full body training, but it might also be a good taste of medicine for me.
Will see where the next training cycle takes me, but so far this idea is exciting me.
Nutrition will still be “Deep Mountain”. I’ve done the BtM diet before, and though I certainly COULD do 1.5lbs of grassfed beef a day and a dozen cage free organic eggs, I’ve really got nothing to prove there.
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This is how I always train (sans LED lantern, that is). There’s just something about having only the sounds of your breathing, grunting and clanging of iron. It’s meditative, almost.
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I personally don’t understand how ppl train with music playing. I find it extremely distracting
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Well you’ve always stated that you don’t even like music, sooo…
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