Category: GlibFit

Week 1 – Setting Goals

Glibernauts and Lady Glibs, are you prepared? GlibFit returns with a lower budget, straight to Netflix sequel starring Ted McGinley! Can you feel the excitement?!?

Week 1’s Real Talk – Trust the Process

Most fitness challenges tell you to commit to some goal. Lose 10 pounds in 10 weeks or something like that. I think that’s a bad idea. Instead, I’m going to challenge to you commit to a process.

Don’t tell me you are going to lose so many pounds, or increase your squat by so many pounds, or nail that hot crazy Korean chick you know you shouldn’t. Tell us what you are going to do.

First thing – pick your goal. Is it weight loss? Or is it fitness? Weight loss is the process of depriving your body of energy so that it converts fat stores into energy. Fitness is the process of picking things up and putting them down, using excess energy in your diet to improve your heart, lungs, and muscles. These are not the same things. And while they aren’t mutually exclusive, most people should pick one as their goal. Not both.

Is your goal weight loss? Cool. What are you going to do to eat less? Keto? Food tracking? Fasting?

Is your goal fitness? Cool. What are you going to pick up? How are you going to move your flabby, disgusting, pale body?

Are you such a fat out of shape fuck that you can do both at the same time productively? Cool. What are you going to do?

In the comments, tell us where you are at and what you are going to do for the next 10 weeks.

If you followed GlibFit 1.0 and the comments, you know that I am such a fat, out of shape fuck that I could do both. Yay. I’ve been doing this for the last six months, and I’ve picked up a thing or two in this time. I’m not an expert, far from it. But I’m a fan of the wall-thrown spaghetti approach to life. So for the rest of GlibFit 2.0 you can expect wholesome programming where I lay out one thing that’s worked **for me.** You can take it or leave it.

So here’s my status and commitment. I’ve gone, so far, from 422 lbs to 336 lbs and from about 50% body fat to about 35% body fat. I’ve discovered tendonitis in my knee and I’ve greatly reduced pain from it with bodyweight exercises. And I’ve totally wrecked my metabolism in the process.

So my goals are to get my metabolism on track while maintaining a much smaller and more reasonable calorie deficit (eating 2800 calories for a 750 deficit instead of 1800 eaten per day), while going to the gym six days a week. Six days I’ll do the PT, four days I do upper-body lifts, and three or four days I will do cardio.

Don’t know what to do to lose weight? Go read this. Don’t know what to do to start improving fitness? Go read this.

Bonus 1 Week Challenge

Log your eating, or log your workout, for one week. Keep track of what you are doing, and then at the end of the week look back at what you did. Are you happy with that?

We made it! Some of us are smaller than we started, others are bigger, others just hung out and gave support. It’s time to celebrate!!!

 

 

As for me, I had a good February, a bad March, and a good April. Next challenge, I’m ready to set a true weight goal and possibly a strength goal.

Starting in a few weeks, ALeapAtTheWheel will take over for GlibFit challenge #2, another 10 week challenge with new goals and new material!

Hello Glibs,

We will be taking a 4 week hiatus from GlibFit, and then will be returning with GlibFit 2.0, son of GlibFit.  I will be taking over for GlibFit 2.0. Do Not Adjust Your Set. GlibFit 2.0 will return at the Same Glib Time, Same Glib Channel.

Take a month to get fat and lazy, but be back here with your decoder rings ready.  We will have a special, secret message for every Junior Glib Ranger four weeks from today!

-ALeapAtTheWheel

 

Sorry for the rushjob this week. We just moved into a new office with zero privacy, so I don’t have the luxury of polishing this off during downtime at work. I’m trying to get this written up before I leave for work.

As we approach the end of the first GlibFit challenge, I hope your goal is close to being attained. For me, I’m a creature of habit. If I can establish a habit, things will go really well. If not, I’m going to constantly struggle. I don’t know whether that’s a universal human thing or only for certain personality types.

I’ve had a really hard time adjusting to the zillion schedule changes that have happened during this challenge. I started out in a temporary office in a decent routine, but when we moved out of that office, things went to shit. One week Two weeks Three weeks Three and a half weeks of work from home later, the new office was finally opened yesterday. Of course, this new office was originally slated to be ready when I started this job over a year ago, but let’s ignore that.

To some extent, this is just an excuse. It doesn’t truly matter what your schedule is, you can eat a healthy diet and find an hour to pound out a couple miles on a treadmill. However, establishment of habits requires a bit of stability. The purpose of this challenge isn’t to be healthy for 10 weeks, it’s to give us a bite sized goal that is long enough in duration to cement healthy habits into place permanently.

Anyway, I’m gonna try to close out this last week on a positive note, and I encourage those of you who have also had trouble establishing the habit to end the challenge with a bang so that you’re in a good place to cement your habits into place when challenge #2 starts up in a few weeks. (Additional details to follow)

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).

If you’re still doing well on your glibfit task, you’re doing better than me! By now, it’s not a challenge, it’s a lifestyle for you. Congratulations! On the other hand, if you’ve been on and off about it, you may find it’s still a struggle for you. Either way, 3 weeks left, so push it hard and kick some ass!!

 

My go-to healthy dinner over this challenge has been chicken and vegetables. It’s not the most exciting food, but it’s practically no calories and you can do a lot with the empty palette that is chicken. Here are a few ways we’ve done chicken and vegetables over the past few weeks:

Chicken Stir Fry

• sliced chicken breast marinated in teriyaki sauce (we did beef one time)
• bell pepper (sliced)
• onion (rough chop)
• carrot (julienned or sliced)
• broccoli
• cauliflower

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• Heat a light layer of (vegetable/olive/canola… doesn’t really matter for this recipe) oil on medium-high in a large and light pan (a wok, if available) until shimmering
  • I like to stir fry on medium-high because things move a bit too fast when on full heat
• In a large bowl, add the vegetables and enough teriyaki sauce to coat the vegetables. Toss until the vegetables are coated.
• In the pan add a batch of vegetables and chicken.
  • Don’t crowd the pan too much, the deliciousness comes from where the food touches the oil. It can’t touch the oil when it’s stacked 2 or 3 deep
• Stir the stir fry by tossing the food.
  • I usually let the food warm up for 30 seconds to a minute before I start tossing.
  • This is why it’s important to use a relatively light pan. Tossing with a heavy pan sucks.
• Repeat with the other batches.

 

Smoked Chicken Breast

• Chicken Breast
• Spices
• Charcoal kettle grill
• Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce
• Apple Cider Vinegar

 

• Spices (I didn’t write it down, so I’m guessing — any good chicken dry rub would work)
  • Garlic powder – 1 tbsp
  • Onion powder – 1 tbsp
  • Kosher salt – 2 tbsp
  • Cayenne – 1 tsp (add more for heat… or add red pepper flakes)
  • Thyme – 2 tsp
  • Black pepper – 1 tbsp

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• DISCLAIMER: I used chicken breast because it was on hand. There are better cuts of chicken that could be used.
• Put the dry rub on the chicken and put it (uncovered) in the fridge.
  • Pat the chicken dry and trim off excess fat and connective tissue before doing the dry rub
  • Do this at least 2 hours before putting the chicken on the grill…. ideally 8+ hours before
• Fire up the grill in smoking mode
  • Pile coals (I prefer lump charcoal) in one corner of the grill
  • Add chunks of smoking wood… I used hickory
  • Add a water pan either over the coals (on the top grate above the direct heating zone) or under the chicken (on the bottom grate in the indirect heating zone)
• Place chicken on indirect side of the grill
• Smoke for ~2 hours at 325-350

 

As for me, it’s been a few weeks of maintenance after a great start. I’m a bit frustrated, but I’ve had a bunch of changes at work, including a bunch of meals with law firms, resulting in my low carb goal being hit or miss. The physical activity goal is also hit or miss. I have a pair of treadmills coming in next week, so the excuses go away next Tuesday.

Anyway, I’m a bit grouchy because of the effect of these work changes.

How did you do with your goals this week?

On the plus side, I have somehow managed to stay mostly plant-based while in Del Boca Vista, through the simple method of insisting Webdom or I cook every meal. Unlike her son, my MIL is completely not fussy and will eat anything put in front of her, unless it’s too spicy. (Hmm…I wonder if she’s also UCS’s (((Mom))).) So it’s working out OK.

On the negative side, I’ve consumed vast quantities of wine. Like, you know, a metric fuckton of bottles of wine. OMWC’s Mom has some memory issues, which is to be expected if one is old enough to be the parent of an Old Man. Happily, she is a very sweet lady whom I love, so, while also challenging, it’s mostly sad. But sad enough that I need Coping Wine. Even Webdom, who is not a notable drinker, is imbibing nightly.

How did you do? Wait, what? I’m the only one still doing this??????

In honor of halfway week (we’re halfway through the first GlibFit challenge), I’m going to halfway write this article! Actually, I’ve been downtown at a conference the last 2 days, so I’m writing this Friday morning while my breakfast heats up and before baby trshmnstr wakes up.

Did you know that getting some physical activity into your regular routine helps with more than just energy levels and endurance? There is evidence that it improves the quality of your sleep.

Some of that improvement may be because of stress reduction and the alleviation of anxiety.

As for me, I’ve been eating conference food the last couple days so I didn’t have much control over the carbs. However, it was mostly hors d’euvres and tapas, so I didn’t eat all that much. I got a bunch of walking in, but no specific physical activity. I’ll try to get out and walk with baby trshmnstr this weekend while Mrs. trshmnstr is marathon training.

Well, look at this. You’re almost halfway through the challenge! Hopefully your habits have improved and you’re starting to see improvements in your fitness, however you’re measuring that. For those scoffers ne’erdowells friendly Glibs who have been GlibFit skeptics, now is the perfect time to hop on the bandwagon! All the glory with 40% less work!

We’ve finished up all the Girl Scout cookies in our house, so that temptation is gone.

Now is the time when eating fruits and vegetables pays off.

As for me, this week has been a maintain week. I’ve had some good days and some bad days, but the weight hasn’t gone anywhere. I probably didn’t hit my low carb goal, and was 1 day short on my physical activity goal. Next week is gonna suck worse because I get new job responsibilities starting Monday.

Pro-tip: when you type “sesame street exercise gif” into DuckDuckGo with the search filter off (because that’s how you find the funny ones), you get about 80% Q-bait like this:

As a feltosexual, you fleshy humans are horrifyingly disgusting to me, but for some reason you arouse one another with your bouncing and jiggling.

I got a computer up and running, but Mrs trshmnstr is using it and I’ll forget to write this article if I wait for her to finish, so I’m phoning it in yet again!!

If you’ve been diligently working toward your goals, week 3 is the week when things start to come together. If you’ve been half assing it like me, week 3 is part two of the week of suck.

Even if you find yourself impatiently waiting for results, you’ve already established the habits necessary to succeed.

As for my week, it was a bit of a blow to the self confidence that the diet portion didn’t go great. However, I did hit my physical activity goal for the first time, and it’s hard to be too down on yourself when you don’t have to wear pants to work. (NSFW)

Hello GlibFitters, apologies for the crap article today! My laptop decided to corrupt the OS randomly, and I haven’t had time to fix it. This week, I’m phoning it in!

This week is the week of suck for those of you that have been dutifully improving your fitness since the start of the challenge. Week 2 is the low point of the whole process. Week 3 sucks less, and you should be over the hump by week 4.

Just remember that all this hard work will pay off in the near future, and the suck will subside.

Worst case, give yourself a break for ten minutes and grab a hamburger.

As for me, this has been an up and down week. I’ve had catered lunches to account for and Valentine’s day was a complete fitness failure, but I’m maintaining weight and have hopped right back on the horse. A bad meal or a bad day aren’t enough to kill my momentum anymore.