I was dumb once and did them bare hand on pavement in the middle of florida summer… ended up with burns 
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I’ll take this moment to confess something shameful.
First: @TrainForPain is totally right - 6 weeks is enough, even starting from scratch, to make visible changes.
Second: I made visible changes early in this challenge. I’ve hit a wall due solely to my own lack of willpower.
Let me be clear: I still do my sessions 3x/week; I don’t eat bread, and overall my activity levels are high (compared to the public) and my food intake is healthy (compared to the public).
However, the more you lose, the more changes you must make if you want to KEEP losing. And I’ve failed to do those last few incremental changes; in fact, reversing my progress a bit.
I’ve been under a lot of stress lately, and have allowed myself to completely lose discipline with evening snacking, eating absurd quantities of candied nuts. These are my weakness, like heroin or something, and I just go through them by the handful.
I’ll have to tighten up.
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I don’t think there’s any shame in being completely honest with yourself and taking accountability. Sounds like you’ve made great progress, stalled a bit due to life, and are taking ownership of the path forward. Those all sound like things to be proud of to me.
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Are you farther along than you were on April 14, 2022?
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Yes.
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I ran 3 miles in a row (w/o a single moment of walking) for first time in my life a few days ago. Also, now acclimated to my 85lb kb and doing sets of 30 swings. Aiming for 5 more lbs.
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Nuts are tough. Blue Diamond Smokehouse Almonds are my weakness. I only have them in my house because my son likes them too. Some days, I can say no to them. Other days, I have to go out and buy another bag the next day. SMH. But you’ve been kicking butt so far. You already recognize the issue stopping you from those last few incremental changes. You know what it takes and you’ll make it work. Keep on trucking.
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Incredible, man! Way to go!
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I’ve been avoiding updating on here in general because I like to 
isolate
Long story short: I am now divorced.
Physique wise? Stellar. But it’s not because I’ve found continued inspiration in evolving my diet. It’s because I’m…not happy. Food is the first thing to go in traumatic situations for me. Have latched on to a higher fat and higher protein diet because I can at least go on auto pilot with the energy distribution and still function with painfully low calorie amounts. Gym is good. Strength and endurance has been good. But I’m not present mentally through most it, and forget whatever it was I supposed to be logging. wipes dust off of lonely log
So I’ve spent the last….whatever amount of time it has been just allowing myself to feel okay, whenever I actually feel okay. I’ve felt guilty for being happy, or laughing at a funny show, or resting easy because I equate that with carelessness given my current situation.
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I now weigh the same as I did at the start of this challenge. Unless I’ve recomped (which I’m not sure I have) I’ve massively messed up my rebound after my cut.
I’ve noticed that my cuts go well when I’m not too social, but with my friendship groups and rugby club etc I can’t go places and not drink. The peer pressure, the expectation and my love of cider all factors but it’s just my culture I’m immersed in. Those every other weekend blow outs killed my weight loss and on top of that I just messed my fat loss diet up.
Need a rethink on what I can expect to look like with my lifestyle.
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Likely not the healthiest advice in the world, but are you able to go deep into your deficit to create “room” for it?
I need to bail before I start ruining your health. Let’s call an expert! @QuadQueen
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11 days ago- in the time since, I’ve only lifted twice (3 times if I include what I’ll be doing today) but daily activity has been high… even more than normal. I know I’m losing fat, and quite a bit of it. My gut is gone and pants are starting to loosen up, and I now have to start cinching them around my waist with a belt again. My lifting belt will have to be brought in a hole. Abs are showing through a bit more and all that good stuff. However, I do feel as though I’m getting into the mental territory of feeling smaller, not really being lean, and losing some confidence in my lifts.
I have no idea where my weight is, but this has been a fairly steep drop in calories for me on the velocity diet. I’m still loving the ease and freedom of it, and I’m hoping to set a new baseline at a lower weight/BF. I can see myself continuing to use the general outline of velocity as a way to add weight/mass while not being an idiot about it.
I have 4 lifting days left on 531/RP, which I’m hoping to get through before the end of next week. I should be in a pretty good spot at the end of May, and I’m excited to hop back onto a 3-4 day per week program again.
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The first 2 weeks of a diet suck that way. You lose fullness from glycogen but haven’t really lost enough fat to see dramatic physique changes. Riding it out is what makes the difference between successful and failed diets. By week 4, changes are there. By week 7, it’s dramatic.
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Yeah, it’s only been ~3 weeks since I’ve actively been eating less, and only 2 weeks with the velocity diet. I’m absolutely committed to seeing this through, as the changes have been happening extremely fast. I can’t imagine what a full 8 weeks will bring. I’m excited.
I may take the advice you’ve given me in the past and have a time limit on the restriction portion of this whole ordeal. I’d like to hit 8 weeks, maintain for a few weeks and then start adding more food in.
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I’ve decided to run a higher protein variant of PSMF. The M stands for Masochist, right?
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Because @TrainForPain called me in, you’re going to get my 2.5 cents. Lol.
Alcohol is tough and if abstaining isn’t going to work for you, a couple things you could try:
- Follow each drink with 16 oz of water. This will help slow you down and with any luck, you’ll end up taking in a lot less alcohol.
- When you know you’re going to drink, scale back your fat and carbs on that day to, as @TrainForPain suggested, “make room for it”. Somethings gotta give, so if you can’t give up the ETOH, then you have to give up something else.
On the diet side of things - instead of taking on the impossible, just avoid extremes. Don’t starve yourself for 2 days and then go completely off the rails. Find a balance that works for you. A super simple starting point (I’m not sure where you’re at now) would be:
Fill 2/3 of your plate with non-starchy veggies, 1/3 with LEAN protein. Add a serving of healthy fat (roughly 18 grams worth) and run with it. At your post workout meal add a cup of vegetable based carbs (potatoes, sweet potatoes, legumes) or cooked oats, and you can throw 1/2 cup at dinner too if you find you’re struggling with recovery.
Keep it simple, don’t overthink it. It doesn’t have to be miserable, but it can’t be extremes. I can give you some more pointed suggestions if you want, but I’ll need to know what you’re eating now and how often you’re not following that plan.
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I have had a lot of people recommend this…. But I just could never make myself drink water when I’m out with the guys having a good time. These days my nights out are a lot tamer than my college days, so it’s not normally an issue anymore, but back then it was a real concern.
My compromise? I’m between every “real drink”, have a light beer. It’s the closest I’m gonna get to water, and the amount of liquid you drink does slow down the drinking if it’s gonna be a hard partying night.
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On the nutrition front, figured this was a great place to bring up that Piedmontese does weekly sales now at 30% off. I just scored a BUNCH of grassfed kabobs and stir fry beef, and even slummed it with some grain finished flat iron steaks.
Piedmontese beef is STUPIDLY lean yet amazingly tender. Great way to get in some protein while keeping fats on the low side.
@boilerman @flappinit @atlas13 and @punnyguy I seem to recall ya’ll being on the piedmontese train. This is an even better discount that the powerproject one.
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does shaving count
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Have you had their ground beef? I see 85/15 is on sale for what seems like a not-too-crazy price. How long do you keep the rest of the stuff frozen before using it?
Down over 21lbs for the year, looking to close strong and get to 30 down. Getting pretty tired of it but feeling and looking better, think I’ll run my 6 week block after this at maintenance then head back into a (hopefully) shorter cut afterwards.
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