SP’s note: The tardiness of this post is completely the fault of the site editors/schedulers. TrshMnstr had it pending in the queue and everyone thought everyone else was scheduling it. The Management Apologizes!
With only two weeks to go, it’s time to decide. Are you going to finish out by killing it, or are you done with it? For me, I’ve been stagnating since the beginning of March, so I’m looking to revitalize my motivation and get a good head of steam built up for late spring.
In 2 weeks, we celebrate, whether you sprint or limp across the finish line. How you finish is only a matter of personal pride!
Now’s the time to have a logistical conversation. Is GlibFit something we want to keep doing on a regular basis? What sort of regularity should we go for? I’m thinking that 2x per year is about right. One as winter starts to drag on, and one starting in the dog days of summer. Do we want to rotate article duty across a few people? I’m happy to do it all like this first one, but sometimes I don’t get around to writing the article until the morning of, so the quality suffers those weeks. Further, if we rotate, folks may be able to do some more in-depth articles about techniques and regimens and the like. Mrs. trshmnstr may even be willing to do up an article (she’s a trainer at OrangeTheory).
Rapidly approaching my seventh decade of life, I’m looking for more info about weight training for geriatrics — our muscles still respond as in our younger days, but the increasing brittleness of our tendons and ligaments presents a whole new set of challenges that I don’t see much info about on the ‘Net. Creatine is very helpful for hypertrophy in later life, but strategies to encourage hypertrophy whilst avoiding connective tissue injuries are lacking.
Frustrating. I’m doing everything I can to maintain muscle mass, but I’m largely stuck in experimental mode for everything else. I’ve already undergone two rather pricey surgeries to repair connective tissue damage, and I’d like to avoid more. Let someone else be the guinea pig for awhile!
I get it. I’ve been dealing with biceps tendonitis for a while now. Seriously annoying. It’s taking a long time to heal, especially since I can’t take NSAIDS. I want to avoid steroids as long as possible, so I’ve modified most of the activities that use that tendon.
I hear you about connective tissue and it sounds like you have maybe ten years on me. I tore a bicep at the elbow a couple years ago and didn’t get it fixed. Now I can’t do a , “Where’s the beach” with my right arm. I was surprised how it healed and regenerated smaller parts of the muscle.
yes.
Seconded. It’s a good motivator, and besides which it’s a topic I find interesting.
Yes. It’s helpful to see others’ successes, even if I have a less than stellar week. Or maybe especially then.
Agreed
Yep!
I cleaned out my shed, washed my car, mopped the living room and put some boxes of books in the attic yesterday. Does that count as a workout?
*per the burger article – In the conversation someone mentioned black bean burgers which sparked my curiosity. I looked around and the recipes are all pretty similar but I chose Pioneer Woman’s recipe and tried it out yesterday morning. I added a tiny bit of tahini and used red pepper instead of black. Basically it was a black bean falafel. I topped the patties with fresh tomato and sour cream. Good God that was delicious.
Pioneer Woman hasn’t let me down yet.
I have been a pathetic failure for a few weeks with my fitness goals. My hip pain is getting worse to the point I just need to sit after a day of walking at work. I am trying to see a doc to sort it out but seems insurance causes problems. Life was easier when I paid cash. I have been thinking of selling my welder to get some x-rays but I still need it to modify my pizza oven. Fuck it, I can eat pizza while sitting. In spite of missing my goals, I am still cinching the belt. I will need a new one, or poke more holes if my slow gains keep up. I was down 15 lbs at the physical where the doc ordered the x-rays. 15 from a physical 4 months ago but I was hoping for more.
I appreciate glib fit even though I am a failure at keeping goals and havn’t got into the habit of using myfitnesspal again. I usually late read but there is much to learn from you lot.
Medical tourism?
I think it’s more about incrementally changing habits than anything else as far as eating goes, and if you’re losing fat then you’re heading in a good direction. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Plus, don’t mess around with hip (or any joint) issues, man. Have you thought about swimming? That’s about the best whole body workout you can get and it’s great for people with joint pain.
Sorry about the hip.
Now, tell me about the pizza oven? I can live vicariously.
Punch holes in the old one. Makes putting on your pants a small hit of feed-good-juice in your brain every time. At least that’s what it does for me.
This past week was pretty much recovery from the week prior, which was dominated by my wife’s grandmother’s funeral and the accompanying family stuff. I did manage to more or less not eat like a teenager, which is good, but between lack of time, sleep, and a bad cold I haven’t gotten any exercise in to speak of.
On the plus side, I’ve decided to start dressing like a grown man of taste and sophistication now that I have a little less of a beer gut, so I’ll be heading to a tailor today to get a few suits and sport coats altered, and to see about having a few things made. I’d like to be the first person I know to actually own a bespoke blazer.
Sorry about your wife’s grandmother.
Yes, sorry about grandma. As I get older, I am racking up losses at an accelerating rate. Not happy with that.
Good for you on the sartorial changes! A man in a well-tailored suit is a wonderful thing, as I’m sure Mrs Naptown has mentioned.
Thanks, y’all. She was 91 and kind of ready to go. She’d mentioned to a few people over the past year that she didn’t want to outlive another son (she’s had two pass in the past five years and one is in failing health) and was in the giving stuff away phase. It’s never easy when people die, but she left very explicit instructions and went at home with her family around her, so as deaths go it was probably one of the better ones.
Well, I didn’t sign up for GlibFit, but I’m down about 9lb in just over a month, and I haven’t been very strict with myself. Nowhere near bikini ready though 🙁
So, Yay Me! And congrats to everyone else who managed to achieve at least part of their goals.
Woohoo! That’s awesome!
Nice!
I doubt I’ll make my goal, but I’m going to keep going.
I spent the week sick and did not get to the gym. I ate less than normal thanks to being sick. I have no idea what my weight is. I’ll weight myself next Friday when I go to the gym.
Progress of any amount is progress! 🙂
Between traveling and visitors I have not been hitting the plant-based goal too well. That changes tomorrow. I think I need to go out in a blaze of homemade pizza tonight!
Hello Glibs,
I am well and truly in a weight loss funk. March has been the long, dark night of the soul. Or metabolism, as the case may be.
https://i.imgur.com/MEmr1Jv.jpg
But over this time period, I’ve been consuming an average of 1663 kCal per day. I work out about 45 to 75 minutes a day, six days a week. There is no way that this plateau is sustainable. Slinging around 350 lbs all day by an ideal machine would take more than 1663 kCal a day. Add in the mechanical inefficiency, autonomic activity, etc, and something has to give at some point. Maybe not this week, maybe not next. But it will eventually. You can’t win, you can’t break even, you can’t get out of the game.
I started using a tape measure two weeks ago in an effort to process what’s been going on. The scale has only gone down a couple of lbs, but my waist has shrunk another 2 inches. My waist today is the size of my hips when I started this.
Something is going on, but I’ll be fucked if I know what it is. But I feel like I’ve processed everything, and I
Well, if your waist is getting smaller that’s a sign that you’re losing fat, which is the ultimate point. Are you getting enough sleep? Is stress an issue? Also, you might try mixing up your workout routine. Maybe change the ratio of cardio/conditioning to strength training that you’re doing, or just change up your routine. Sometimes that’s enough to jump start more progress.
Yep, losing fat is the goal. Seeing that continue in the right direction has been a big help, mentally. I keep saying I don’t care about the numbers I care about the trends. I’m actually starting to believe it.
These are all excellent ideas, and things I’ve thought about.
I get 7.25 hours of sleep or more a night. My CPAP and sleep tracker both tell me it is high quality sleep.
I do 4 body weight exercises assigned by my PT 6x a week for tendinitis in one knee. These are all resistance exercises targeting my lower body. Then on top of that I do 2x week of upper body resistance and 3x a week HIIT. My fitness progress has been going great. Muscle development in my legs is noticeable even under a significant amount of adipose tissue. I’ve progressed to the next exercise on two of the four PT exercises. My bench press is progressing at 5 lbs a week (upper limit for very fat people, so says my PT), but nowhere near hitting the wall. My rows are doing about the same. My cardio and aerobic capacity have also gotten a lot better, but still have a long way to go.
Stress… high, like always. I work in a very high stress job. Not as bad as like a newbie doctor, but not too far either. Its intellectually the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and the hours are longer than I’d like, but I love what I do and I’m damn good at it so I’m not going to look for a change. My wife has been *very* supportive of both this job and my weight loss activity. I’ve stepped back from two of my volunteer activities and have dialed back on the third one where I’m organizationally irreplaceable.
So, given all of that, I’m (now, finally) content to play the waiting game. There’s not much left to change, and I trust thermodynamics to be a implacable bitch. The weight loss will come back.
I, too, recently stopped most volunteer commitments (except Glibs) and am in the process of restructuring my agency so I can really get my health under control.
You are truly awe-inspiring. Thank you so much for continuing to update us on your amazing success!
Thanks SP. I really appreciate the community you and the other hosts have built here.
Well…hm…
I managed to not gain weight while out of town, so I consider that a win. And I’m starting to do some very light yoga again. I am recovering from an injury still, and I have a heart problem, so that makes this exercise thing slow going. But a little yoga feels positive. I’ve been consistently eating in my fed window, from 2pm at the earliest to 10pm at the latest. I’m a night owl, and don’t normally go to sleep before 3; I’m not eating right before bed.
Small progress is still progress! Woohoo!