[Progress] 2 years

@faithwithobedience Good on you! You look awesome!!!

I'm with you on the scheduling with eating- everyone seems to think that you need to pace your calories throughout the day but I disagree. Just train your body to adapt well to differences in the routine, so you end up doing more of an "intermittent fasting" approach. I myself don't eat breakfast, small lunch, and then do whatever I want to at dinner and it works fantastically. I never gain fat that's for sure.
 
@faithwithobedience Great job. ! Definitely looks like your in a better place emotionally in the second pic. I have struggled with anxiety most of my life and when I got into working out the mental change was night and day. I think that's the most important thing because that will keep you going long after the early progress. Cheers
 
@faithwithobedience Probably one of the best post I've read on accomplishing goals and one of the most important ones you have built is confident. I would like to see other posts on your accomplishments. Good Luck to you.
 
@faithwithobedience Great job man, you're in your 40's, lived through a divorce and still managed to pick yourself up and get into shape.

About self-improvement: How about you go out make some friends? Maybe join some sports team or get into martial arts (you look like that could suit you)
 
@dawn16 In the past I made a few attempts to put on muscle, but I never stuck with it long enough to really see much progress. There were 2 things that were different this time that I think made the difference. One was that I found a reason to work out. I fell in love with obstacle course races. So I wasn't working out just for its own sake, I was working out to do better at the next race. The other difference was making it part of my morning routine. I do a set, I brush my teeth. I do a set, I floss and use mouthwash. I do a set, I shave. Etc.
 
@faithwithobedience I hadn't read your post immediately and saw your photos and first thought, "What a handsome man." A smile makes a world of difference. Healthy and happy is the best feeling ever right?

Keep up the awesome work.
 
@faithwithobedience I'm curious about one thing: what form of progressive overload did you use and what was your starting level?

But the important thing is that you improved your physical and mental health, that's the biggest accomplishment.
 
@thomaslowrens Initially I couldn't do a "real" pull up. I had to have my palms facing me and my hands close together. It was more of a row than a pull up. But I aimed for 3 per set. I couldn't actually do 3 per set, mind you, but that was the goal. When I couldn't pull myself up to finish a set, I would jump up and slowly lower myself to get my 3. Once I was able to do all 5 sets without jumping, I fixed my grip and started over. Once I worked back up to 3 per set without jumping, I added a 4th to each set, etc.

Push ups I started out attempting 10 per set. And again, once I could successfully do 10 every set, I'd add more.

Squats and abs are a bit weird. For squats, I already had a pretty good base because I had already been doing a lot of running. So I jumped straight into the one leg squats I'm doing now. For abs... I kinda just did 10 second contractions from the start as well. I'm not really lifting any weight, per se, just contracting as hard as I can and holding it for a count of 10. Presumably as I've gotten stronger the contractions are stronger, but since I'm always putting my maximum effort into it, it just kinda scales on its own.
 
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