Mostly I wish I played more. I could probably count on one hand how many times I played more than 40 hours in a week. I also wish I cared more / knew more about personal finance in those days. I could have put over half of my earnings in the market and still enjoyed a fine lifestyle. I didn't even really blow the money on things, I kind of pissed it away on nothing.

Saturday 22 Aug

Squat w/belt: 135x5, 185x4 x2 sets, 225x3 x2 sets, 245x3 x5 sets

Bench Press: 95x5, 115x4 x2 sets, 135x3 x2 sets, 155x2, 165x2, 175x2 [ties PR], 185x2 [PR+10] @8.5, 185x2 @9.5

Leg Press: 2p x10, 3p x10 x4 sets

Dips: x6 x5 sets

***

Moved this session to Saturday because I was on the road all day Friday for work. Squats felt kind of gnarly, back a little tweaked from all the driving. Still, these sets are fairly low RPE.

The template called for benching a lot of RPE4 doubles but I said fk that. I ramped up to a PR double which is also the most weight I've ever benched. I got a spot for the first set and did a repeat since I forgot to record. Good stuff.

Monday 24 Aug

Squat w/belt: 135x5, 185x4 x2 sets, 225x3 x2 sets, 245x2 x2 sets, 275x1 x2 sets @7.5, 290x1 @8.5

Bench Press: 95x5, 135x4, 145x3 x2 sets, 165x2 x6 sets @8
EZ Curl: x10 x4 sets

Machine Hack Squat: 90x10 x4 sets
Overhead Press: 45x10 x4 sets

DB Fly: 20s x10 x4 sets
DB RDL: 35s x10 x4 sets

***

Pretty purposeful day. Template called for 90% singles on squat, but 275 didn't feel heavy enough to be 90% so I upped the weight some for the last rep. This is my heaviest squat in 8 months, and was fairly easy. It's hard to rate singles RPE after all this time not doing singles, but I didn't feel any fear in the hole like I normally would on a true 90%+ rep. Depth is reasonable but could obviously improve.

It's kind of bittersweet that my strength is peaking like this because I know given all the weight I have to lose that the end is nigh. A big part of me wants to squat 315 and bench 200 while those numbers are in the realm of possibility.

Week 1 Diet:



Pretty poor, but without a doubt it's the fewest calories I've had in a week in over a year. Probably gonna need to go under 1700 to get substantial weight loss. Just gotta do better.

Days without eating junk food: 3

That's an impressive amount of fat; what's up with that?

but really, wednesday had cuban food (masitas de puerco, fried plantains, etc). Thursday had baby back ribs and friday had leftovers from ribs.

Welcome back! Congrats on turning things around and working toward new goals.

The protein looks low, but I know you know that already. Dropping to 1700 calories while raising the protein intake will probably result in a very different looking diet.

Good luck!

That's true. Online poker was exactly that...a gold mine. And, investing the profits at that time period was its own gold mine. Simply living within one's means and banking the rest should have left many if not set for life at least with a nice portfolio and enough independence to be picky about future careers.

I mention it because I'm sure opportunities will present themselves to Renton again. He mentioned a few things here, like coding, that he knows he needs to focus more effort on. I think he has a good chance at succeeding at this rebuild, but it's in his hands.

Thanks! Yeah I know its low. I'd like to get it north of 150g but it will take some doing. Because, as you said, it would imply a lot of changes in order to hit that number and still come under 1800.


yup yup. I haven't touched programming since I got this job. Need to get back on the horse.


Wednesday 26 Aug

High Block Pull: 135x5 x2 sets, 155x5 x2 sets, 175x5 x2 sets, 195x5 x2 sets, 215x5

Bench Press: 95x5, 135x5, 145x4 x2 sets, 155x3 x2 sets, 165x2 x2 sets, 155x3x2 sets, 145x5 x2 sets

DB Goblet Squat: 50x10, 75x10x3 sets
DB Fly: 20s x10 x4 sets

***

Block pulls felt decent until the 215 set. I had the faintest of back tweaks happen on the 5th rep and decided it call it. I was only planning to do one more 215 set anyway.

Bench kind of kicked my ass. The template looked like a light day at first glance but then once I realized how many non-trivial sets it was. And it was a weak day in general. 165 felt about as heavy as 185 felt last week.

Friday 28 Aug

Bench Press: 95x5, 135x4 x2 sets, 145x3 x2 sets, 165x2 x5 sets @8.5

Squat w/belt: 135x5, 185x5 x2 sets, 215x5 x5 sets

Bench Press: 155x2 x5 sets
EZ Curl: x8 x4 sets

***

I'm glad this training week is over. I feel kind of beat up and my back is still a little tweakey.

Week 2 Diet:



Days without eating junk food: 3

My method of food logging has been to log the stuff I ate at the end of each day and then tally the calories at the end of the week. Man it was painful adding these up. I actually felt during the week like I was doing fairly well.

There is some loose planning involved in my meals. I generally do 3/4 cup of oatmeal in the mornings with a 1/2 tbsp butter and some aspartame and cinnamon, and I try to bring my lunch to work most days. The evening meal is a wild card and that's kind of what ****ed me this week. My mom is doing keto, and it's one of those things where she's gaming it as hard as ****in possible, eating like 3/4 pound of bacon a day and stuff. So there's been a lot of 73/27 hamburger meat in my meals which tanked those days.

I'm down to like 168 so I've lost a little.

I find it easier to log what I am about to eat and keep a running total throughout the day, rather than at the end of the day.

By easier, I mean it makes compliance with the diet easier. It also isn't any harder as far as logging goes, since if I have time to put something in my mouth, I have time to type it into my phone.

It is harder in that it causes me to eat fewer calories, but that is kind of the point.

That would be pretty tedious. My setup is an excel spreadsheet that's on my home computer so it wouldn't really be feasible for me to do it throughout the day. Though I get what you're saying about it being better for compliance. Based on my previous experiences losing weight, I think it's not going to be an issue once I calibrate to the calories I'm meant to eat each day.


Monday 31 Aug

Bench Press: 95x5, 135x4, 155x3, 165x3 x5 sets @9

Squat w/belt: 135x5, 185x4, 225 x3 x2 sets, 245x3 x5 sets @7

Bench Press: 135x5 x2 sets, 155x4 x4 sets @8
Squat w/belt: 185x6, 195x6 x4 sets

***

Fairly brutal!

myfitnesspal or similar apps are really easy to use and >>> excel imo (I've tried both). Also MFP has a bar code scanner so you can easily scan whatever eat (if possible), which helps a little.

Idk I kind of like using my own setup more than mfp. I can understand that this is probably my own idiosyncrasies, but I did previously try mfp and didn't prefer it. One factor was that I liked having a broader array of calorie sources to mix and match.

Wat

The apps way easier. Once your favorite recipes are inputed, it literally takes 2min a day. Maybe even less.

Bolded is fine ofc. You can find anything in the world on MFP (though beware since it's user generated), so I don't understand the last comment.

That's like, your opinion, man.

Yeah the beware part is what I'm talking about. When I'm making a log for an item I eat frequently, I source multiple listings and either average them or pick the one that makes more sense. Then I can control F my spreadsheet to find stuff I've already logged. Got like 2 years of logs like this so I'm pretty dug in.


Wednesday 2 Sep

Deadlift: 95x6 x2 sets, 135x3 x2 sets, 165x3 x2 sets, 185x2

Bench Press: 95x8, 125x6, 145x4, 155x3, 165x2, 175, 185, 195 [PR+10], 165x2 x2 sets, 155x3 x2 sets, 145x4 x2 sets, 135x12

Some block pulls with 135

***

Kind of a mixed day. I decided to try some really light pulls from the floor (template called for dl/bench/block pulls) and ended up regretting it. 165 felt weirdly heavy in the middle of the ROM and 185 was tweakalicious. Called it right there.

Bench called for a sperg pyramid but once the weight felt pretty light in my hands on the ramping sets, I decided to deleted a couple of sets grab a low hanging fruit PR instead.

Once I got back to block pulls I barely had any time left and my right glute was hurting with 135 so I had to cut it short.

You can quickly do the same in MFP (adding your own entry that you know is correct, plus the bar code scanner hasn't failed me ever), but it's obv going to be quicker on a PC with a spreadsheet and you have a huge "database" already.

I find an advantage of MFP is the recipes tab. There are some things I cook frequently; having them saved as a recipe saves quite a lot of time. Of course, one could do the same on a spreadsheet via a lookup of some type, but the MFP approach feels quite quick to me.

Each to their own, though.

Friday 4 Sep

Bench Press: 95x5, 135x5, 145x3, 155x3, 165x3 x5 sets

Squat w/belt: 135x5, 185x4, 225x3 x2 sets, 245x3, 135x5 x5 sets with 3 second pause

Bench Press: 145x5 x5 sets

***

Bit of a commercial gym rant here. Most of my gym's olympic bars are these weird bars that are like 0.5cm wider than a standard bar. In the bench area there are two like this and one that looks more like a typical bar. Needless to say, I try to use that bar whenever I can. However, today there was a bro doing wrist curls with it on one of the three benches so I had to use the other bar.

Once I got to 155x3 with that bar it just felt ridiculously heavy compared to what I'm used to. I've been doing 165 for working triples lately and this felt like 165. I decided it was just a weak day and that I'd hold fast at 155, but then wrist bro left, so I switched to the old bar. As expected it felt much lighter, then I loaded 165 and it felt about as heavy as the 155 did in the previous set.

So then, being curious, I looked at the website for Hampton fitness, the company that makes these bars. It appears to be a fairly legit company and these bars are not cheap, running as high as $500 a pop. And then I go into the specs and all their bars weigh weird amounts like 46 pounds, 50 pounds, 40 pounds. Like ****in anything but 20kg/45lb. How is this **** not standardized by this point, and how do they not at least indicate the weight on the end of the bar? I know how, because mother****in bros don't give a rat's **** about what they do their 3 sets of 10 with.

Anyway, now it's got me paranoid because best case scenario, the bar I normally use is 45 and this bar is 50+ lb, but worst case, the other bars like 35lb and my PRs are illegitimate. I realize this is borderline sperg, but 5-10 pounds makes a huge difference on bench.

In other news, my right glute still hurts and flared up when ramping up to squat. I did some light pause sets to try to rehab it a little bit.

Week 3 Diet:



Best week yet. Still pretty bad. Down like 3lb.

Tuesday 8 Sep

Squat w/belt: 135x5 x8 sets (long pause)

Bench Press: 95x5, 135x4, 145x3 x2 sets, 165x3 x2 sets @9.5, 175x2 x2 sets @9.5

RDL: 45x10, 95x10 x4 sets
Dips: x8 x5 sets

***

I'm getting kind of tired of being hurt. I had hip pain over the 3 day weekend. This morning hip felt fine but lower back was kind of tight. Might be over cautious to avoid squatting heavy but the template as written was going to have me squatting 90% singles which was obv not gonna happen.

Bench was on the weak side, too.

No its a fact. I used it for years. They spend countless hours trying to do what you do but for a software release. Then they release software. Your spreadsheet is nowhere near as good. Also, the app being on your phone is where most of the value is.

Next thing you gonna tell me is that table selection software for online poker is not as good as human selection because you have all your players labeled.