From Unappealing to Slightly Less Unappealing - A QUEST!

[robosphere]

Getting older is GROSS

- lower metabolism and deterioration of muscle mass
- loss of libido and the inability to sleep-in past 7am, for some reason
- hair EVERYWHERE! nose, ears, shoulders, back, etc.

See? Gross.

Luckily, I have a plan. After a year and a half of stops and starts, I and my family are in a much better place with lots of positive energy. I feel like we've finally gotten it together, and we've been hitting the gym regularly, and haven't been stuffing our faces non-stop.

Here's what I plan to do

1. Eat at a deficit and use my fitness pal to log my meals and calories. I realize that "ballparkin' it" does NOT work for me, as I have convenient memory loss when it comes to adding snacks. I will continue to eat at a deficit until I look less like a piece of flabby garbage. I'll post weigh-ins on mondays.

2. I will follow a good exercise routine. In this case, I'll be doing Kelei's routine http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...6471313&page=1
I've tried others, but like this one the best. I'll be doing six days a week, but keeping it to 30 reps because I'm eating at a deficit. I'll document workouts in this journal.

3. I will buy either a razorba or easyraze, which are brands of razor extenders for shaving backhair. If you're lucky, I'll post some befores, durings, and afters!


Welcome friends! Les do dis!

[robosphere]

btw, 211.2 lbs this morning, and I don't think I ate enough. Tomorrow's a new day, though!


I had extra time at the gym this morning, so I did 50's instead of 30's

lat pull 130# 12/6/4/3/3/3/3/3/3/3/3/3/3

lat chin 130# 12/9/5/3/3/3/3/3/3/3/3

seated row 65# 10/6/5/3/3/3/3/3/3/3/3/3/3

drag curl 85# 10/6/4/5/3/3/3/3/3/3/3/3/2

rear delt machine 80# 10/4/3/3/3/3/3/4/4/3/3/3

shrugs 175# 12/9/9/6/6/4/4/


I still have trouble estimating how much rest will get me 3, but I'll get better.

It's pouring, and there are flash floods all over. I barely made it home tonight from work, so I'm thinking the gym at 4:30am is out of the question. Maybe tomorrow after I get home from work.

[robosphere]

Sooooooo, not going to the gym was the right call this morning, I had to take two alternate routes just to get to work this morning because a lot of roads are still washed out.

Also, we got water in our basement last night. It wasn't a lot of water, but more in my home gym area than anywhere else. My workout today is going to be moving all my equipment and wrestling the stall mats, so I can air them out. Luckily, I'm sure my 5 and 3 year olds will be plenty willing to "help"

[auriga]

You know Im in for some roboprogress!

Lifting at home is so much easier for the busy Dad.

You are gonna keep on killing it my friend. Now, I should probably do some of the work I am being paid to do ha.

[robosphere]

So, as far as my calories, these were my two choices

- 26 to 30 kcals/kg/day for normal, healthy individuals with sedentary lifestyles doing little physical activity [12.0-14 kcal/pound]
- 31 to 37 kcal/kg/day for those involved in light to moderate activity 3-5 x a week with moderately active lifestyles [14-16 kcal/ pound]


My job is pretty sedentary, I'm an MRI tech. Outside of work, though, I'm doing this workout 6x a week and play with my kids outside, do yardwork, etc., so I picked 15kcal/pound. At 210lbs, that came out to 3150 cals. So, for my deficit, I'm going to knock 500 off of that, and shoot for about 2600 calories a day. I don't think it'll be that hard. If I lose too fast or slow, I'll adjust accordingly.

Feeling awesome!

[auriga]

Hey robo! Sounds like the wheels are in motion man, fantastic!

I gotta say however, the program you are doing would murder me. You already know that diet is the hardest part and some days 2600 seems to go down like its nothing, but I know you are all over this and before long a leaner meaner robo will be shaving his back on the internet!

erm, what? Haha.

Yeahhh buddy!

[robosphere]

Haha!

Yessir, I'm innit to winnit!

Already a little leaner, but definitely not meaner.

[robosphere]

Woke up at 4:30am to get to the gym before work. Usually my sleep is not that deep, because I think I'm always keeping half-an-ear out for my kids waking up. This morning, though, I woke up from the deepest sleep. I jumped up and hit the alarm off, but then stood there sort of stunned for about a minute, all dumb-faced.

Workout today was fine. I don't love 5am workouts, but when I'm on dayshift, that's the best time to guarantee I get it done

Front Squats 120# 12/6/3/3/3/3 movin' on up

RDL's 140# 12/5/3/3/3/3/3 movin' on up. For these I rested maybe 15 seconds to get the 3's

Leg Extensions 90# 12/5/3/3/3/3/3 movin' on up. Same as above, 10-15 seconds

Leg Curl 80# 10/4/3/3/3/3/2/2/2 I rested 30 seconds for these. Leg curls are TOUGH for me

Standing Calf 125# 25/15/10/8/8/6/5 moving up

Seated Calf 90# 25/19/12/9/8/8/8/6/6 moving up


For some reason, when I started doing this eating at a deficit, I did everything with reduced reps except the calves which I did like the normal routine. I don't know why, but that's how I started doing it, and that's how I continue to do it.

Taking one of my daughters out for a daddy/daughter date tonight. Will try not to eat ice cream or a cookie.

[robosphere]

What is it about the gym that every time I pull into the parking lot, it triggers the urge to take a massive dump?

[robosphere]

So, I normally work 2nd shift, and go to the gym around 8:30 or 9, whenever their childcare opens or whenever my wife has a zumba class. This week, I was asked to work 1st shift, which is fine, but to work out, I have to get up at 4:30 am, when I'm not my sharpest. Every morning, I forget one key item for work. The other day, it was deodorant. Yesterday, it was my white work sneakers, so I had to wear my black Chucks at work. Today, it was my lunch. One day, I'll get it all right.

Speaking of lunch, I've been sticking to my calories so far. Forgetting lunch stinks. There's a little cafeteria here, but I already had my food for today logged in MyFitnessPal for today. I hate trying to estimate portions and whatever from the caf. Whatever, first world problems.

The workout: Today is chest/triceps, which I usually do at home in the rack for safety. I had to do it at the gym today. Because of the water in the basement the other day, I had to turn all my stallmats and spray with bleach stuff. My whole workout room still has a bleach smell, and I didn't feel like breathing that in this morning.



Flat Bench 135# 12/3/3/3/3/3/3 Don't like doing these on a regular bench, prefer the rack, but oh well. MOVE UP

Incline Bench 105# 10/4/3/3/3/4

Rope Pressdown 60# 12/4/3/3/3/3/3 The cable pull at the gym felt similar to my lat pull at home weight-wise, which made me happy. MOVE UP

Overhead Pull 60# 12/6/3/3/3/3 MOVE UP

Delt side raise 20# 12/4/4/3/3/3/3 MOVE UP


This was a decent morning. The weight room was empty. Listened to Ross Tucker Football podcast and Colt Cabana's Art of Wrestling podcast. Good times.

[robosphere]

No morning dump at the gym this morning, and you know what? I missed it a little. Some people are never happy. I only had time for 30's today.

Lat Pull 135# 12/3/3/3/3/3/3 only 10-15 second rests for this. MOVE UP

Chin Pull 135# 12/6/3/3/3/3 MOVE UP MOVE UP

Seated Row 65# 12/3/3/3/3/3/3 I did 20 second rests here MOVE UP

Drag Curl 85# 11/3/3/3/3/3/3/3

Rear Delts 80# 12/5/3/3/3/3/3

Shrugs 185# 12/6/5/6/6

All in all pretty decent this morning! There was an older couple, mid 50's maybe, and everything they were doing was synchronized. Side delt raises, side bends, front raises, etc. All of it done together. It was kind of cute.

[Steve1124]

I know what you mean by not being able to sleep past 7, I had the chance to sleep in because didn't need an ear for my little ones, but of course I'm up at 7, I could of slept till 9 or 10, but no! Your posts are good reads, some of the things made me cracked up.

Good program you've got here, interested in following.

[robosphere]

Thanks, dude, and I'm interested to hear how your trip to the powerlifting gym went!


This morning, I didn't have to go to work, and it was a lot tougher to drag my butt to the gym in the early morning. Still glad I did. Going helps keep me in the whole thing. If I drag my butt to the gym, it's somehow easier for me to track my calories as well. The whole thing.

Today was a legs day

Front Squats 125# 12/4/3/3/3/3/3 MOVE UP

RDL's 145# 12/6/3/3/3/3 first rest was 30 seconds, 15-20 seconds after that MOVE UP

Leg Ext's 95# 12/5/3/3/3/3/3/3 MOVE UP

Leg Curls 80# 12/6/3/3/3/3 Same thing as RDL's MOVE UP

Standing Calf 130# 30/15/15/15/ MOVE UP

Seated Calf 95# 30/15/15/15/15/10 MOVE UP


Glad I went, and I"m moving up on all lifts.

Also, my wife thinks it's idiotic to spend money on one of those razor extenders, and has offered to shave my back for me. She is truly a keeper.

[Steve1124]

Keep it up, consistency leads to progress...

[Steve1124]

Keep it up, consistency leads to progress...

[robosphere]

Thanks, dude. That's the key. I've done this program before, but kind of half-a$$ed it. This time, I am being very faithful to the program, and my diet as well. I think I'm going to pick up protein powder today while I'm at Savemart getting multivitamins. I'm going to start having creatine/protein everyday. My protein ingestion has not been up to snuff, and this'll be easier to throw the powder in some cottage cheese for a super protein snack.

I worked out in the basement today, and that's where I prefer to do chest. I feel so weak on incline bench, but there's no kind of safeties at the gym. I feel a lot more confident at home. Also, the rope pressdowns and overhead pulls are harder at home, because the gym has shiny new-ish commercial equipment and mine is a decent home piece, but not nearly as smooth as the gym's.

Bench 140# 10/4/3/3/3/3/3/3

Incline 105# 11/4/3/2/2/3/3/3 Still at 105, but moved up one rep. Progress is progress.

Rope Pressdown 65# 9/4/3/4/3/3/3/3 REALLY hard on mine at home. Guess I know where I'll be for a couple weeks

Overhead pull 60# 8/4/4/3/3/3/3/3 DITTO

Delt raise 23.5# 11/3/3/4/3/3/3



Also, the second half of this workout was done with my 3 year old in the room trying to do ab-wheel rollouts and rope pulldowns with no weight on it. It was too cute.

[Steve1124]

Thanks, dude. That's the key. I've done this program before, but kind of half-a$$ed it. This time, I am being very faithful to the program, and my diet as well. I think I'm going to pick up protein powder today while I'm at Savemart getting multivitamins. I'm going to start having creatine/protein everyday. My protein ingestion has not been up to snuff, and this'll be easier to throw the powder in some cottage cheese for a super protein snack.

I worked out in the basement today, and that's where I prefer to do chest. I feel so weak on incline bench, but there's no kind of safeties at the gym. I feel a lot more confident at home. Also, the rope pressdowns and overhead pulls are harder at home, because the gym has shiny new-ish commercial equipment and mine is a decent home piece, but not nearly as smooth as the gym's.

Bench 140# 10/4/3/3/3/3/3/3

Incline 105# 11/4/3/2/2/3/3/3 Still at 105, but moved up one rep. Progress is progress.

Rope Pressdown 65# 9/4/3/4/3/3/3/3 REALLY hard on mine at home. Guess I know where I'll be for a couple weeks

Overhead pull 60# 8/4/4/3/3/3/3/3 DITTO

Delt raise 23.5# 11/3/3/4/3/3/3



Also, the second half of this workout was done with my 3 year old in the room trying to do ab-wheel rollouts and rope pulldowns with no weight on it. It was too cute.

Progress progress progress, yeah!

What kind of safeties do you have at home?

Protein on cottage cheese, good idea

What program are you running?

[Mainer215]

Pretty cool looking program there Robo. Looks very interesting. I may look to give it a try after I do a few more cycles of AllPro's beginner workout.

Keep up the good work.

[robosphere]

It's Kelei's intermediate/advanced routine. I linked it in my first post, and it's also in the stickies in the workout section.

My safeties are just the bars on my power rack. At the gym, I'd have to ask for a spot, but who wants to spot for all those mini-sets? I know I wouldn't!

I bought cookies and cream protein powder. Should've just gone for straight vanilla. Cookies and cream is gray colored - not very appetizing. I mixed it w/ cottage cheese last night, and it was pretty disgusting - and I eat all kinds of disgusting crap!

[robosphere]

First weigh-in 211.2
Today's 208.7

2.5lbs. Maybe a little aggressive. I'm going to keep the same calories for a week, and if I lose more than 2lbs, I'll bump up another 100-200 calories.


Eating wasn't bad this week. I really planned my days out in advance, which seemed to work. GO FIGURE!

I'm so dumb, that when planning food and following an exercise regimen shows good results, I'm amazed! It should be common sense, and you'd think I'd have gotten that somewhere along the line before I was 44.

Oh well. Keep on truckin'!

[robosphere]

I slept 8 1/2 hours the last 2 nights, and I feel like a million bucks! Again...shocker.

The gym was really crowded today, and a friend of my wife's kept talking to me, and goofing up the timing of my reps. Still, I felt good, but had to do 30's in order to get a shower and get my daughter to speech

Lat Pull 140# 10/4/3/3/3/3/3

Chin Pull 140# 12/6/3/3/3/3. Move up

Seated Row 70# 12/5/5/4/4/4/3/3. Move up

Drag Curl 85# 10/4/3/3/3/3/3/6

Rear Delts 85# 12/4/4/3/3/3/3. Move up

Shrugs 195# 12/7/5/5/5. Move up


I did 40 of the seated rows out of optimism, but as my wife's friend talked and the clock ticked, I switched to 30's out of necessity.

With my weightloss and another workout in the books, I'm feeling pretty great.

[Steve1124]

I slept 8 1/2 hours the last 2 nights, and I feel like a million bucks! Again...shocker.

The gym was really crowded today, and a friend of my wife's kept talking to me, and goofing up the timing of my reps. Still, I felt good, but had to do 30's in order to get a shower and get my daughter to speech

Lat Pull 140# 10/4/3/3/3/3/3

Chin Pull 140# 12/6/3/3/3/3. Move up

Seated Row 70# 12/5/5/4/4/4/3/3. Move up

Drag Curl 85# 10/4/3/3/3/3/3/6

Rear Delts 85# 12/4/4/3/3/3/3. Move up

Shrugs 195# 12/7/5/5/5. Move up


I did 40 of the seated rows out of optimism, but as my wife's friend talked and the clock ticked, I switched to 30's out of necessity.

With my weightloss and another workout in the books, I'm feeling pretty great.

It's great to know your lifting makes ya feel good. I hate when I. Miss. It's like I'm missing my addiction...

[robosphere]

Only slept 4 1/2 hours last night. I got up at 4:30am to go to the gym, because I wasn't sure what our family plans were this morning, and didn't want to skip out. Can I tell you, I love and hate the gym at 5am. I love it because there's almost NO ONE there, and most of the ones that are there are upstairs on the treadmills and bikes. I hate it because, well, it's 5am, and I only slept 4 1/2 FRIGGIN' HOURS.

No matter - I went to lift, not to b*tch.

Front Squats 130# 10/3/3/3/3/3/3/3 I was sad not to move up on these, as I feel silly doing squats without even 45lb plates, but I'll crawl my way there

RDL's 155# 12/5/4/3/3/3 MOVE UP

Leg Ext 100# 12/5/3/3/3/3/3 Rested only like 10-15 seconds on these MOVE UP

Leg Curl 85# 12/4/3/3/3/3/3 MOVE UP

Standing Calf 140# 27/16/14/13/12

Seated Calf 105# 28/20/17/17/15/13

Listened to Adam Carolla's podcast this fine morning while lifting


Was looking around the gym and said to myself,"Hmmm...just me and a bunch of older people, not a lot of us young'uns", then looked in the mirror and saw my graying hair and muzzle and thought,"ohhhh, I AM one of the older people". To tell you the truth, it bummed me out just a little. No big whoop

[auriga]

Making progress robo, awesome to see my friend. I havent been online much lately and spit my protein shake all over my phone when I read post #9.

Thanks lmao.

[robosphere]

Making progress robo, awesome to see my friend. I havent been online much lately and spit my protein shake all over my phone when I read post #9.

Thanks lmao.

What are you doing? Get on the road with your family!

[robosphere]

OK, I haven't used protein powder and/or creatine in a long time. Should my farts smell like a serial killer's basement?

[robosphere]

Rest day today. I'll get an hours worth of cardio in push-mowing the lawn

[Steve1124]

Robo, you feel any different since you taking the protein powder? When I was with out mine for awhile I was a bit blah, then I started taking it again and I felt like I could throw a twinkie through bullet proof glass. Do you have the non-motorized lawnmower?

[robosphere]

It's a gas powered push mower, but not self propelled. It takes a little over an hour to mow the whole yard.

I don't feel any different from the protein powder other than the cloud of funk that has surrounded me for the last 48 hours.

[Steve1124]

It's a gas powered push mower, but not self propelled. It takes a little over an hour to mow the whole yard.

I don't feel any different from the protein powder other than the cloud of funk that has surrounded me for the last 48 hours.

Cloud of funk, that's hilarious.

An hour of pushing lawnmower pretty good for legs and back.