1 year, 6’2” 37y/o, 215lb weak to 205lb not-weak

[crteague]

@pencin It crosses my mind now and again. But the temptation to chase gains tends to make me push and self-injure. I'll plateau eventually...someday.

edit: sorry, realized that was only half the answer. I've made some dumb decisions (e.g. putting off getting a pull-up bar) that have impacted my progress. I'm also a form stickler, so some of the slowdown is there, too. For example, I'm still doing 1LDL because I hated my form. It's gotten a lot better, and I'm a lot happier with it now. Just had more work to do.

 

[marymadeleine]

@crteague You making sure to do all your stretches? Would give you a lot of spare till you risk an injury.

 

[crteague]

@marymadeleine My last injury was when I tried to do something dumb (in retrospect) to get a better range of motion on my rows, and a pretty dramatic failure screwed up my wrist for months. Yeah, newbie goofs.

I definitely do all of my warm-ups, currently 15 reps all around does me right.

 

[glassful_of_violets]

@crteague I love all of this. Keep it up!

 

[crteague]

@glassful_of_violets o7 You too!

 

[dawn16]

@crteague Thanks for this. I started a new routine today based on your post.

 

[crteague]

@dawn16 Right on! Keep at it - keeping the habit is the most critical, and nothing beats regular effort. You got this!

 

[chesterton77]

@crteague I am proud of you man. I’m 37 and trying to get myself back In the groove of things. It’s been really tough and I have a steeper hill to climb(currently at 300lb 6’1. I don’t look it but I definitely feel it. I’ve been active all my life and this rut I’m in has been one of the longest. I appreciate you sharing your journey brotha. It gives me hope

 

[crteague]

@chesterton77 Keep at it! Getting on the exercise wagon is probably the best thing I've ever done for myself.

I've had to stack the deck re: diet. More than anything, I craved better food - I just had to make it more accessible. Lots of snack cheeses etc. As long as I took the time to listen to my belly (instead of habit, or what I wanted to taste), it went really easy. It's weird when a chicken Caesar sounds amazing - but it's pretty great!

Learning the difference between what I wanted to taste, and what I wanted to eat, was difficult but immensely gratifying.

I believe in you, man. You got this!

 

[jeiza]

@crteague Can you expand on this a bit more? I don't eat like complete garbage, but I also don't stick to any diet. If I want something that I know isn't healthy, I'll think about how healthy or unhealthy I've been eating recently and decide what to do based on that. I'm not really sure I understand the difference of what I want to taste vs what I want to eat though. I do understand the idea of what I want to taste, that's where I get any craving for like ice cream or whatever it may be. I'm interested in the idea of what I want to actually eat though, but I guess I've never really thought of it that way before so I don't really understand it.

 

[crteague]

@jeiza What I do is take a full stop, close my eyes, and really think about different foods I have available, one by one. That's helped me distinguish between what sounds tasty, and what sounds good. Sometimes something sounds good enough, I'll cook it right then because it sounds so good.

It's completely unscientific, I'll admit. But I've also noticed that I've been eating a lot less junk if I take that time.

 

[jeiza]

@crteague I can't say I get it, but I'll definitely have to try it out. Thank you!

 

[crteague]

@jeiza Good luck! Hope it works for you!

 

[seeker17]

@crteague You had me at "filthy casual" you sound like a "normal" person. What is a Google sheet?

 

[crteague]

@seeker17 I figured that would resonate with some readers!

Google Sheets is part of the whole Google Drive/Docs ecosystem; Sheets is the spreadsheet/workbook one. I use it because it's web-based, so it's fully portable - desktop, laptop, phone, everything can access it. I'd hate to lose a physical notebook, and Sheets lets me highlight with different colors and make notes to myself.

It's been great for things like form checks - highlight it, make a note, then it stands out when I start my next workout. I also use highlighting to just track how my workouts were. Green means all three workouts with full sets, yellow means partial (maybe missed days, maybe short sets), red means nothing that week (read: I was sick). Add in blue for important form notes and it's colorful, but it's also easy to tell at a glance how I've been doing - and I feel like a boss every time I can mark a week green!

 

[seeker17]

@crteague Awesome thanks for explaining that!

 

[jimcrawford]

@crteague Would you mind sharing how you structured your sheet? I’m thinking about one as well, and I’d be curious to know what works for others. Thx.

 

[crteague]

@jimcrawford Here you go!

 

[jimcrawford]

@crteague Thank you, this is very helpful!

 

[crteague]

@jimcrawford Glad to hear it! You can see how it's developed as I've used it more.