Balance! Somehow, life always manages that, haha. You’re doing excellent work from what I’ve read. There’s no manual for this, but setting a good example is huge.
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That really means a ton, man; I appreciate it.
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Did a pretty baller push workout today and helped a gentleman learn to belt squat - he’s struggling with knee and back pain, but still wants to squat so I think that will be a big win for him.
Highlights today were a couple sets of 95s x 12 on the DB incline.
I have a big family weekend coming up, then a work trip, then… I think I’m going to go ahead and do the velocity diet for a month (with a planned one-day beer fest in the middle…). I’m going ahead and writing it here so everyone sees so I can’t punk out: shame > wussiness. My reasons, in no particular order:
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I am simply not being successful with what I’m doing. I really don’t have good nutritional habits. I came up wrestling and went to some schools where you couldn’t eat and whatnot and I think I really developed a poor mentality. I can manipulate my weight when I weigh and count everything, but that’s not how I want to do it (for several reasons I’ve mentioned). @QuadQueen has given me some great advice, and I’m just not executing well. I want to get better control.
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I do well with a plan that I just execute against; check.
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I want to model good habits for my daughter, who is very observant. She sees what I do, but isn’t here all day to see what I don’t do. What I mean is, she’ll see the reasonably portioned, performance meal for dinner when we eat together, but she’s not going to see that I’m drinking shakes and thinking about diet all day because she’s at school. The modeling is important for my son, as well, but it’s more obvious with my daughter.
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I also want to support my kids, which is different than modeling. She has athletic goals (and aesthetic ones that I don’t love, but she is working at it so I do like that part). Food is obviously part of these goals, but I don’t want it to become an obsession. If I’m only having to really deal with dinner each day, that frees up some time and mental energy to put more into it. I actually really like Cris Edmonds channel for this - he does a great job making “bodybuilding meals” look and taste like fun kid’s foods. I’d love for her to see the results she wants and be able to attribute it to her great daily habits vs. obsessing over nonsense.
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@T3hPwnisher doesn’t have a monopoly on arbitrary self-challenges.
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It’s stupid convenient, at least on paper.
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I’ve yet to try something new from this site that hasn’t either delivered or at least taught me something - win.
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My health markers are going to benefit from losing weight and cleaning up whatever is going in, no matter what, so that’s a win.
Anyway, that’s my plan. I’ll keep it posted here so folks can maybe eyeball if it’s worth a try for themselves.
@Chris_Shugart I typically have 3 hard workout days and 1-3 light days (cardio, “pump” sets, etc.) in a week. My assumption is I would just replace one pulse with Surge on the heavy days and just stick with the base V-diet on the light/ off days. Is that about right?
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Renaissance Woman has an aweful lot of helpful information for the ladies in our lives, and i think you/your daughter would get a lot of value out of it.
Girls are so tricky with dieting at that age. My daughter isn’t there yet, but not far behind. I’m just hoping she can develop a relationship with food where she sees it as a tool to solve the problem, not the problem itself. She sees me eat the way i do (obsessively) but i do my best to explain why i eat what i do, what it does for me, and why i eat it. Just hoping it helps.
Aside from that book, I don’t have much advice but I’m sure you don’t need it anyways.
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Dude, twinsies! I’m excited for you. I’ll definitely steal from you as far as navigating the family man side of the equation goes. I think I’ve got a decent way forward to make this work, but geniuses create and winners steal, haha.
It’s funny too: I forget it’s a fat loss protocol. In my mind, I’m just sold on “high speed/low drag”. Just like you wrote, freeing up the bandwidth as far as cooking and food selection goes will be huge. Being able to still model good nutrition is big too.
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@Andrewgen_Receptors Thanks man! I don’t think there’s “the answer” for daughters (or sons or anything for that matter). I think we just do our best, and then adjust based on what we’re seeing. They’re all individuals with their own needs and norms and it changes depending on age, environment, etc. I think your plan is the right one, that food is a tool, and then you’ll just have to see how she’s managing it. My daughter is a bit all-or-nothing like I tend to be, and there’s pros/ cons to that for sure!
@T3hPwnisher I greatly appreciate it! I think you said yesterday that we’re all winging it, so we’re all three on that same page here. I think it was reading some of the things you wrote that kind of clicked the “I’m freaking tired of thinking about food” thing for me, anyway, so this plan just really lined up. I don’t want to cook/ eat and I don’t want to think about when that’s the right move. Just having it laid out and done seems to make this a fat-loss protocol I actually want to do… not to mention I like the blitz of just getting in there and attacking the goal. These are all brave words until I’m actually doing it.
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Dude, just mad props for trying so hard to set a good example for your daughter. I just love the shit out of that. I hope the V-Diet is the answer for you, but if it’s not and you really want to talk about other options - I’m here and we can even get on the phone if that would be at all helpful. I’ll be watching you here, so definitely keep the updates coming, and keep fighting the good fight!
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I appreciate you! I don’t know if I’m hoping for an answer so much as just a kickstart, if that makes sense?
You are incredibly generous
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catching up on your log, lots of hard work in here but no where near enough direct arm work. Hope you are well.
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We’ll fix that - don’t you worry!
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Happy birthday dude!
Figure I’d share this on the “nutritional modeling” front: I’m turning my morning shake into oatmeal. I’m cheating by using a little bit of riced cauliflower, so factor in like 2g of carbs into your diet, but somehow we’ll live, haha.
Little bit of riced cauliflower, 2 scoops of Metabolic Drive, splash of water, mixed/stir until proper consistency. Resembles oatmeal in texture. Breakfast with the family.
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Thanks man!
I absolutely love this one. Thanks for sharing! Super helpful that we have the same priorities here and I can borrow some great ideas. This is a keeper.
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Absolutely dude! Lesson learned from this morning too: heat the riced cauliflower and THEN mix in the Metabolic Drive. I had been doing that at night, but this morning I tried mixing it all together first and heating it up, and it turned more into a brownie bowl vs oatmeal. Which isn’t bad: just not what I was going for.
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Do you use a lot of extra water to give yourself room for the metabolic drive to mix in?
As little as possible, haha. I like THICK oatmeal rather than watery.
I’ll start off with the riced cauliflower and put in like 3 serving spoons full of it. Really not a whole lot: not heaping spoonfuls. Just something to add texture. From there, I put in the Metabolic Drive. Then I’ll add a splash of water and start mixing it. It’ll be pretty clumpy to start, and after a minute of playing around with it I’ll add another splash. Usually, that second splash is where the magic happens, and it starts becoming more of a paste than a bunch of clumpy powder. Just keep on mixing and stirring and it’ll eventually be there.
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Perfect - thanks!
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Okie doke, friends, here’s what we’re doing.
I went ahead and did a velocity diet day today, before I start for real Saturday.
I have a big meeting in between and I think starting there would be career-limiting (ha! As if I have future steps).
I was hungry, but I think that was just getting used to it. I do worry about sulfur farts, though; that seems inevitable. I do like being on autopilot.
I went ahead and did my normal Meadows bodybuilding stuff. I’ll revisit the CT program, because it’s incredible, but I kind of want to reduce variables to assess how I’m doing on this kind of diet. As compromise, I’ll actually do a Meadows program vs winging it.
Since I’m back to that, I don’t feel bad listing it out:
- 5 minutes Airdyne
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Seated Leg Curls
Several warmups
85/10
115/10
130/10 + 100/6 + 70/6 -
Squats
Chains for all sets
45/6
135/6
185/6
225/6
275/10 -
Leg Press
2pps/6
4pps/6
6pps/20 x 3 -
RDL
135/10
185/10 x 2 -
BFR Leg Extensions
4 sets
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Haven’t run into any of that. Digestion is actually the best it’s been in a LONG time, probably because I’m not eating Noah’s Ark worth of animals on the daily alongside all the flora in the Garden of Eden.
But I’m also keeping up the Superfood and Metamucil, which may be helping there too.
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That was hilarious and good news.
I did forget to order the Superfood with my first batch. That will be at the house when I get back. I assume that will settle the noise in there a little.
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I don’t typically write these out, but maybe it’s useful for the infirm or traveling. I’m in a hotel gym, so today was a secondary push day. Everything is 1 minute rest between sets. Some had a couple warmups, but I’m not listing that.
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10m incline treadmill
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Machine press
3 x 8-12 -
DB hex press
3 x 10 -
Cable flye (one arm at a time, come all the way across)
3 x 8 -
Stretch push-ups
3 x failure -
DB rear delt
3 x 15 -
Machine OHP
3 x 10 -
DB 6-ways
3 x 8 -
Rope pushdown
6 x 10
BOSU crunches between sets -
10m incline treadmill
This is the view from my balcony:
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