ZM Strong like Bull training log (Tactical Barbell training log)

Food today:

Breakfast:
2 eggs
1/2 tsp butter
3/4 cup cottage cheese
1/4 cup protein granola
6 raspberries
1 tbsp chia seeds
----Total: 513 Kcal, 27g fat, 26g carbs, 39g protein

Snack: During class
1 chicken leg quarter
1/4 cup noodles
a bit of spinach
----Total: 587 Kcal, 37g fat, 19g carbs, 41g protein

Lunch:
1 wrap turkey cheese lettuce tomato
----Total: 225 Kcal, 11g fat, 5g carbs (apparently its a low carb tortilla since its based on tomato or whatever), 24g protein

Dinner:
6 oz ground beef +gravy
1/4 peas
2 rolls
a few fries (not very good fries)
1 cup orange juice (if I wouldn’t have had this, I would have kept inside my calorie intake. Darn.)
1.5 pieces lasagna
1/2 cup milk
----Total: 1642 Kcal, 75g fat, 113g carbs, 108g protein

Days total: 2968 Kcal (103kcal over), 150g fat, 153g carbs, 212g protein

Got my protein goal. Almost have more fat than carbs. Interesting.
I guess my diet naturally leans away from plain carb (starch) sources. Not complaining.

Poured some agar plates today, some of them weren’t great since there were some clumps of unmelted agar that poured over, but I got 3 good agar plates, a few okay/maybe useable ones, and 1 that I transplanted some moss on.

I have a chemistry project I’m doing. Im taking the tannins out of acorns. I will be able to eat the acorns when I’m done, I’m going to make flour which I will make into some sort of bread/pancake/hardtack like food.

Time to work on it a bit

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November 12 2025 W12D3 Strength Day

Today I will be doing the situp challenge, lat pulldown endurance, incline bench endurance, and I guess I should run my mile. I think I will superset my 3 main lifts with eachother so I have the time to do all of those.

I will be able to continue my extraction of tannins from acorns today. I got it running for a bit yesterday before I had to shut it off for the night.

Breakfast in sechs Minuten, oder, es ist sechs vor sechs.

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Es ist gut heute (It is good today)

Breakfast:
3 eggs
3 oz beef
1/2 tsp butter
1 cup whole Greek yogurt
1 tbsp peanut butter
8 raspberries
3 black berries
----Total: 911 Kcal, 53g fat, 32g carbs, 71g protein

Snack:
a bit of Hamburger and gravy
----Total: 150 Kcal, 9g fat, 1g carbs, 14g protein

Lunch:
1 wrap turkey cheese lettuce tomato
1 slice honeydew
1 juice box
----Total: 328 Kcal, 12g fat, 26g carbs, 26g protein

Need 1476 Kcal and 100g protein

I did my workout. For the challenges, I did 35 situps in a minute, 150lb x 15 for lat pulldown, and 115 x 20 for bench. Mile time… 8:00 flat. I was going a good pace and sprinted at the end. Man… that’s awful. Old time was 7:34 (not 7:21 like I thought for some reason). Gained 26 seconds.

I can’t wait for Mass… After doing my 20 reps on bench, I had a good chest pump (first in awhile)… man mass is going to be fun. Finally get to be back under the bench again.

Il post the meat of my workout in a bit. Need to eat and do homework.

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Today’s been very stressful for me. I feel like my brain isn’t absorbing information as efficiently. The stuff were learning in physics just isn’t clicking for me, where doing Uniform circular motion stuff and Its just not clicking, for the satellite motion stuff we have to take two formulas set them equal to eachother and then solve from there with what we can, which typing it out makes sense but its not clicking into my head when I do it. I just need to do more practice.
And my Precalc homework is stressful. Its so many questions, and I swear some of it we NEVER learned. We’re doing stuff with logarithms, and I get most of it, but the one was asking to find the graph with two points, and we never learned that in class (or somehow I missed it?), I looked in the book on how to do it and I was like okay, but then to do the problem I needed to do that wouldn’t work because I would be taking the Natural Log of ZERO. UGH.
And then there’s like no time to do stuff. I can fix this though! I can come in afterschool to have a space where I can just get work done and study. On Thursdays it would actually give me more time because I won’t be taking the bus ride home (about 20 minutes from leaving school to getting back), then only having time to use the bathroom, eat a little, and get some stuff in order, then take the 20 minute car ride to the college. If I stay after though, I would eliminate the bus ride and have an extra 30 minutes to get work done. So I’m going to do that on Thursdays now. Maybe Wednesday too. Monday and Friday I can’t really stay after school. Wednesday next week I need to remember to bring earplugs so I don’t have to deal with the nonsense on the after school bus.

I HAVE NO CLUE HOW IM STILL PASSING AP EURO!!! I HAVE NO CLUE I NEVER STUDY AND I FIND IT DIFFICULT BUT I STILL HAVE AN A (with a curve but its still a high A)
Friday I have my Physics test for uniform circular motion, and then Thursday next week is the math test. Homework, and then physics practice is more important than studying for the math stuff for now.

I don’t have ANY free time for the most part other than on the weekends.

I could start planning out meals, and prepping them for the week maybe. Would just need them for Tuesdays and Thursday at minimum, so I can take them to school.

I think I’ve come to the realisation that the reason I’ve liked working so much is because it distracts me from the fact that I am lonely and have LITERALLY ZERO SOCIAL LIFE. I have a few friends I talk to in school but that’s it. I can’t even handle a social life probably because I have no time almost. So I don’t know.

However, today I did talk with the girl who sits near me in Physics. For like an hour. And it was a real conversation. It wasn’t one that I start, we talk for a little, and then ends. I start, talk a little, ends, Over and over, like how it is with some of my other classmates in other classes. But this time, I started the conversation by saying about how I wish this school had a Chinese class, then we talked for awhile. Then we got a decent breaking point in the conversation, and then I put in a new topic, and it continued, and she of course added in stuff. It was great I rarely get to have good conversation like that other than with family and whatnot, and even then a lot of the time especially with dad he does a lot of the talking, I just say a few things that keeps it going.

I should get to bed soon.

Didn’t get all my food in today, have like 500ish Kcal and 60g protein. Argh.

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November 13th W12D4 Nothing today
Since I did cardio yesterday, Today won’t have any. No time to do it, also.
I have a math test thing for the MAA AMC, some math thing. Its nothing serious but Il do my best of course. Im glad its today so I won’t miss any time for strength class.

I need to eat all my food today, I can’t be slacking. Il try to pack something.

I will be able to get some work done today, which is nice.

During my college program today, I will be able to check on the agar plates, and hopefully transplant some moss to the ones ive made, and then make some more.

Breakfast in zehn Minuten, oder, es ist zehn vor sechs.

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Don’t have time to put everything down need to do homework and study

breakfast
eggs
3 oz beef
something

lunch was a turkey wrap

dinner
pasta with meatballs a cup of grape juice and sourdough and butter

did MAA AMC test it was difficult I might have gotten 2 or 3 right I skipped most of them because I didn’t know which means I get 1.5 points for each of them. one was pascal triangle thing the other was with a farmer a fence and a box of chocolates

homework and study time

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November 14th 2025 W12D5 Second to last day of Operator+Black… wow.

Today for strength my tests will be Incline bench strength, a 2 minute plank, and… nothing I think. I made a mistake writing all of the stuff out before, incline bench endurance wasn’t one that I did, you did Flat and Incline strength, and then picked flat or incline endurance, I picked flat. So I guess I will do front squat. Might as well try to test that. I think I need more wrist flexibility though.

Sunday I will be taking my Physique pictures, and then get my official weigh in to base my calories off of for Mass.

Yesterday:
For the college program, I was finally able to pour agar plates. I poured 6 nearly perfect ones, inoculated them with moss, sealed, and then parafilmed them. So now they are just sitting there to grow for next week. If needed, we can put them in an incubator.

In total I have 4 50% Hoaglands agar plates, and 6 10% Hoaglands agar plates. Im getting much better at doing this type of work. And this might be very useful practice for the future if (or probably, when) I work in phytochemical pharmaceuticals, I will have to test medicines on bacteria to prove efficacy.

Breakfast in sieben Minuten, oder, es ist sieben vor sechs, oder, es ist sechs Uhr sieben

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Got my score on the AMC10 math exam.
I got a 51/150…
Which means Im tied with 1st place in the school. So that’s good I guess.

Today was good. Physics test was pretty easy so I think I got a good grade.

Breakfast:
3 eggs
3 oz beef
1 tsp butter
3/4 cup cottage cheese
1/4 cup protein granola
a bit of honey
1 tbsp chia seeds
1 salt and honey bagel
----Total: 1163 Kcal, 49g fat, 96g carbs, 80g protein

Lunch:
1 turkey lettuce cheese wrap
----Total: 197 Kcal, 10g fat, 4g carbs, 21g protein

Snacks:
3 oz ground beef
1 piece lasagna
----Total: 500 Kcal, 26g fat, 23g carbs, 39g protein

Need 1004 Kcal and 70g protein

Today’s workout:

OHP
45 x 6
65 x 3
75 x 3
85 x 2
85 x 2
85 x 2

Squat
115 x 5
135 x 4
155 x 3
175 x 3
195 x 2
215 x 2
215 x 2
215 x 2

Pullups
BW x 5
10 x 2
20 x 1
30 x 2
30 x 2
30 x 2

Incline bench: 155 x 1 (2 if you count the spotter rep, I think I got it but I couldn’t tell if he helped or not)
Plank: 2:07. That’s a record for sure.

I did front squat, but I didn’t go super heavy since my wrists aren’t that great at it. They can bend the way they need, I would say, but after a bit they start feeling sore/hurt. So I need to work in some more flexibility like Ive said I wanted to do but never actually did.

Time for homework

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So that’s good I guess.

Cut out ā€œI guessā€. Own your accomplishments.

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I don’t know how to respond to this other than ā€œOkayā€.

So, Okay.

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My score sucks according to Google. Its below average. How is it still tied with 1st in my school that’s horrible.

November 15th 2025 W12D6

I think I gotta find myself a girl. I feel I’m lacking in love. I have my parents and cats, sure, but I know it’s not the same as what I lack. I need to improve myself. Not in the sinful, evil way of ā€œlooksmaxxingā€, but in the good way, of making myself more kind, and chaste of myself, if that’s the right phrase.

I have work I need to get done today. Im almost done with the scarf for my Mom’s birthday, so once I get that done I can move on to my math homework.

I think I will start studying today. Saturdays can be my studying day. Everything I learn from the week I will sit down and review and study.

I will have to work on my organizational skills. I have the ability to make studying easier, so I will do that.

Plenty to do today.

Breakfast: Not the healthiest

2 eggs
3 pieces of bacon
1 slice sourdough bread
1 tbsp jelly
1 cup 2% milk
1/2 cup cottage cheese
1/4 cup protein granola
----Total: 739 Kcal, 32g fat, 62g carbs, 50g protein

Time to get work done.

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Lunch
1 chicken salad
2 chocolate peanut butter balls
----Total: 336 Kcal, 13g fat, 14g carbs, 36g protein

Snacks
1 pack protein oatmeal
-----Total: 220 Kcal, 4g fat, 27g carbs, 12g protein

Dinner
1 piece chicken pot pie
1/2 cup rice
1/2 pomegranate (these are very good, definitely a new fruit I will be having)
1 cup 2% milk
-----Total: 648 Kcal, 23g fat, 77g carbs, 27g protein

Days total: 1922 Kcal, 73g fat, 180g net carbs, 125g protein

Ugh… Not enough… I was lazy with eating, I spent a lot of time outside though which is good.

I feel like I might be getting sick again. I have a sore throat.

What might be causing this?

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November 16th 2025 W12D7

Operator is finished! Next is the rest and retest week.

DAMN I’m getting kinda fat. I took my physique pics… not as lean definitely. Don’t look any more muscular, if anything just fatter. Il post them when I get them sent onto this laptop from my phone

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Here is the post of my physique from August 24. Will post current ones in a bit.





Its not that bad, but I definitely am fatter. Oh well. I just need to eat healthy. Having fat isn’t bad, anyways, it holds more energy for the body. Its just… weird, because I haven’t been ā€œfatā€ in almost 2 years. My waist size is 33 inches now.

Forgot to mention: Weight is 163.5 lbs.

Im excited to see what mass protocol will bring… hopefully more muscle than fat.

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Today’s food

Breakfast:
3/4 cup cottage cheese
6 blackberries
4 tbsp pomegranate arils
1 lemon
1 cup mint tea
some honey
----Total: 239 Kcal, 5g fat, 28g carbs, 20g protein

Lunch:
4 small pieces of baklava (first time having it.. that’s tasty. I can’t eat it its gonna make me fatter.
1 peanut butter ball (I’m not going to eat any more of these they are making me fatter)
1 cup white tea
1 pack protein oatmeal
----Total: 625 Kcal, 35g fat, 58g carbs, 18g protein

Snack:
1/2 pound canned chicken
3 eggs
4 meatballs
1 cup pasta
some tomato sauce
2 pieces of asparagus
----Total: 857 Kcal, 32g fat, 46g carbs, 88g protein

Dinner:

3 hotdogs wrapped in bacon
2 hotdog rolls
1/2 cup protein granola
1 cup 2% milk
----Total: 1150 Kcal, 62g fat, 98g carbs, 47g protein

Days total: 2870 Kcal, 135g fat, 230g ā€œnetā€ carbs, 172g protein

Good enough, but I know during Mass I will HAVE to get my protein requirement no matter what.

Did a lot, yet I didn’t do much today. I washed dishes, cleaned the shower, washed dishes again, dumped some leaves from the yard.

I’ve noticed that a lot of days I have a ā€œhigh sodium intakeā€. Its over 3-4 thousand mg a day most days. Is this too much?

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November 17th 2025 Rest and Retest week Day 1

Il probably do some walking, maybe a quick jog, but thats it. Im sure my body is gonig to enjoy this rest.

Im going to do more stretches this week, thats my focus.

Im going to start drinking more water too. I don’t think I drink enough. Im going to try to drink 2 bottles of water (so 1 liter) today. I think some of the weight I’ve gained is simply water weight. So I’m going to drink more water, and eat more potassium rich foods. Maybe I’ll try to sweat a bit later.

Need to get back on track with my diet. I’ve been slacking the last few days. Haven’t used the list I made.

Breakfast in Drei Minuten, oder, es ist Drei vor Sechs.

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I’ve noticed that a lot of days I have a ā€œhigh sodium intakeā€. Its over 3-4 thousand mg a day most days. Is this too much?

It’s worth appreciating that RDAs are the amount necessary to, effectively, ā€œnot dieā€. It’s applied to a sedentary population giving them just enough to survive. It’s why the protein RDA is so low. For active athletic individuals, sodium demands are much higher, because they’re sweating more and require a greater degree of electrolyte support.

Stan Efferding has some great discussions on the value of sodium (or salt, specifically) for athletes.

hopefully more muscle than fat.

One of my favorite quotes is ā€œhope is not a planā€. Don’t rely on hope here. One of the best parts about physical transformation is that YOU are in control of the entire process. It’s one of the reasons that so many people are drawn to this activity: it’s one of the few times in life where you are the ultimate arbiter of your results. In team sports, you can play the best game of your life but your teammates can biff it and let you down. In individual sports, you can play the best game of your life but come up against someone that was simply flat out better than you in every way. In the business world, you can have the best plan and product and have your whole business wiped out due to a market crash because of a coup in some country you’ve never heard of having a butterfly effect. But when it comes to your own personal fitness, you get to decide if you will succeed or not.

That is the ultimate empowerment. Don’t leave it up to hope. Think of what Hannibal said

ā€œAut inveniam viam aut faciamā€, which is to say ā€œI shall either find a way or make oneā€

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