Last year's thread - https://www.thewolfweb.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=650485

Here's to another year of posting about fitness goals and achievements on the most coolest college message board ever!

1/1/2020 9:02:18 AM

I barely ever partake in these, but I'd like to focus on it more this year. Currently at my heaviest ever at 230 lbs. I have my twenty year HS reunion this fall and I'm probably up 100 pounds on high school me right now, so I'd like to make some changes in that respect. My first realistic goal would be to get under 200 pounds. I need to work on both food intake (I eat anything and drink a beer or two every night with dinner) and fitness (I'm sedentary at home and work).

1/1/2020 9:20:50 AM

One step at a time. Diet is key. Just cut out the beers except on weekends and reduce your calories and you'll probably be able to get to your goal in 3-4 months. Keep posting progress updates here for accountability.

1/1/2020 9:26:38 AM

I made decent progress last year, mostly just happy I rehabbed my worst and most nagging injury. But since things can’t be simple I’m now rehabbing a TFCC tear in my wrist. Goals for this year are getting my wrist healthy enough that repping out 225 on bench isn’t an issue, keeping my psoas injury at bay and deadlifting 405 again, and regularly doing squats without injury. I’m at a good weight, wouldn’t mind staying about them same but decreasing fat and increasing muscle (not at the same time obviously).

1/1/2020 9:56:03 AM

^^^ As suggested, simply cutting beers would probably do a lot for you. I'd additionally recommend a tracking app. If you're like me and most other people, you probably don't have a good feel for calorie content. An app (and kitchen scale) will tell you how many calories you're consuming and where these calories are coming from.

1/1/2020 1:58:14 PM

I'd like to hit a 350 log press and 700 deadlift this year, but first order of business is dieting back down a bit. I let my bulk for a strongman contest back in October and chasing a 500 bench get a little carried away.

1/1/2020 6:18:04 PM

My goal right now is to just maintain my weight and fitness through the process of selling/buying a house, moving, and starting work in a new location. Once that process is complete, I am excited to do some biking on some new terrain with some actual hills. Also hoping to thru-hike the Benton MacKaye Trail in the Spring. If the relocation process runs long, that may have to push to the Fall, though.

1/1/2020 10:35:33 PM

Started back deadlift Sundays yesterday. Definitely a goal this year to get back to regular, weekly deadlifts. And still no unnecessary dessert/candy so far this year. I was never a big soda drinker, but really almost completely gave it up a few years ago except on rare occasions maybe 1-2x a year - hopefully will be the same for extra suger, even going a week without the extra desserts and I can already tell the "cravings" seem to have diminished.

[Edited on January 6, 2020 at 2:41 PM. Reason : ...]

1/6/2020 2:24:13 PM

Signed up for the aquabike portion of the Crystal Coast Half Booty (1.2 mile swim, 55 mile bike) in May, not doing the half marathon. Just got my first road bike and working towards that. Might try the whole half next year.

A couple years ago I was my heaviest at 210lbs. It took me about 10 months but I got down to 170. I have hovered between 170-175 since. I'm happy at this weight, but I'd like to change the body composition. I've never been measured but just going off photos I'd say I'm around 18% body fat. I'd like to get that under 15%

1/6/2020 6:32:03 PM

Got my bicep tear repaired and rehabbed. Everything's good with that now so I've been back to training full speed. Have a powerlifting meet in March to see where we're at. Should be a cake walk to qualify for nationals but the timing of that in July sucks, so probably do the North American Championships in October and make some damn noise.

1/7/2020 11:18:50 AM

I’m stressed out/ pumped up at my new job and I can’t eat during the day due to anxiety. I scarf down food anyway for lunch and afternoon snack. I drink a nutrition shake in the morning.

At night, I eat sugary foods to curb my anxiety over going to sleep.

I’m not able to fully count calories because I’m just too tired at night.

Last night, I actually did sleep for about 4-5 hours which is good.

I want to lose pounds and tone up.

1/9/2020 6:07:20 AM

GoldieO, thanks for creating this thread.

Let’s do this, everyone

Happy New Year

1/9/2020 6:08:16 AM

Doing a dry January (or possibly beyond) to shed the weight I added during the holidays and my foot injury. I'd be really happy to lose about 15 pounds or so.

I've been essentially eating the Mediterranean diet, started lifting 3x a week, play disc golf most days, and will be incorporating a very slow couch-to-5k training program to get my foot back up to speed to run again.

1/9/2020 10:29:25 AM

^^ You're welcome, but just standing on the shoulders of the great posters who came before me and started the original thread.

I started intermittent fasting 2 days a week last year - basically skipping breakfast Thursday and Fridays and not eating until noon, still going strong with that, would recommend for anyone else trying to reduce calories and whose schedule allows for it. 10 days into the new year and I haven't had any candy yet (except for Wintogreen mints bc I don't count those as candy) and only one dessert so far after a business lunch this week. Just proud of myself for resisting the huge pile of crap in our breakroom - it's like everyone cleaned their pantries out after Christmas and brought in all the leftover cookies, candies, etc.

1/10/2020 11:42:15 AM

Amazing how quickly those good intentions at the start of the year quickly turn into rationalizing eating a Cook Out milkshake bc you deserve it. Time to start a new no-dessert streak. How's everyone else doing so far in 2020?

1/20/2020 9:14:31 PM

holding steady around 160 lbs. I run ~200 kcal deficit daily and then do a day with a surplus every so often. makes it possible to go out to a nice restaurant and order whatever you want without worrying about the calories. counting calories works great, but it can cause some mental strain if you're not careful.

1/20/2020 10:58:15 PM

decided to add more weight machines recently. people are really inconsiderate. they'll sit on the machine and dick around on their phones for 3min between 10 rep sets I'll ask if I can work in or just wait and neither get results

is this epidemic at all gyms or just mine?

1/21/2020 8:07:16 AM

It's the resolutioners - they'll go away in a month. No one with any sense is doing 10 rep sets long-term.

1/22/2020 9:55:58 AM

^ This usually. No such thing as gym etiquette anymore. But also, try using more free weight options if your gym has them, those are usually less crowded than the Smith Machines or other weight machines.

1/22/2020 11:23:09 AM

Who's got a Peloton? Thinking about getting a bike (not a Peloton probably, don't really need all that) so I can randomly burn calories while I'm around the house watching TV or whatever. Some reviews of random bikes from Dick's or wherever scared me saying they felt like they'd fall over if you stood and pedaled hard, and I'm like 215 pounds, so there'd be some movement probably. Anybody got anything they like?

1/22/2020 4:18:41 PM

I'm not a fan of bikes, but I think I'd buy a rogue echo bike if I wanted a bike. The one at the gym seems very stable even when trying to go as hard you can on it. It's not something I would want to do an hour of cardio on, but it seems like it's built for interval training.

1/22/2020 4:41:26 PM

can probably find some bikes in good shape with low 'mileage' for cheap on craiglist, etc from people who bought them and didn't use them as much as they anticipated

1/23/2020 12:01:46 AM

Have you considered buying a road bike and a trainer? That way when it's nice out you can just go for a ride. It's also cheaper than a Peloton

1/23/2020 11:44:18 AM

I was thinking the same

1/23/2020 2:13:24 PM

I had a trainer once. Noise was god awful(i am in an apt) Also felt like it might wear out my tires extremely fast too

1/23/2020 4:48:08 PM

The noise can be a bit much, but they do make tires specifically for the trainer. I bought a cheap wheel to put the tire on so I didn't have to keep switching back and forth

1/23/2020 5:07:38 PM

peleton's oem is available from walmart
https://www.walmart.com/ip/ProForm-SMART-Power-10-0-Exercise-Bike-with-10-Touchscreen-Screen-On-Demand-Studio-Workouts/316995296

1/23/2020 5:24:11 PM

Peloton is a ripoff. I do my road bike and a Wahoo Kickr direct drive smart trainer and a TrainerRoad subscription. Virtually silent. All you hear is the noise from the drive train. It's expensive, but way cheaper than a Peloton.

1/23/2020 11:51:45 PM

One month into 2020. Made it thru the entire month and the only candy I ate was Wintogreen mints - a minor victory for me. Kept my dessert intake to a minimum - maybe 2 milkshakes. Very busy month at work kept me from my regular workout routine, but maintained my weight throughout the month.

How's everyone else doing?

2/2/2020 9:23:06 AM

Sadly I haven't added any exercise or gym time to the routine, but I have cut on the food intake. Primarily though I have cut all regular sodas (still enjoy some diet sodas) and severely restricted my beer intake. Probably had 5 beers all month, couple glasses of wine and a little liquor in a diet mixed drink. Started at 230 pounds and down to 221.5 pounds. Pretty happy about that all things considered. Really want to find time to add in exercise, but between cooking meals, running kids to their after school activities (I leave work at 4 and wife leaves at 6) there isn't a lot of time for going to the gym.

2/3/2020 8:43:32 AM

I lost 9 lbs this month. Not really sure how how much more I want to lose, but at least 10 more pounds. I started lifting again and my knees feel a lot better than the last time I lifted. I'm going to try to take better care of them this time around. I'm also having a rower delivered today and I'm so excited.

I am a back on keto and doing pretty well for the most part. I haven't had any beer this year and I'm pretty proud of that. I track everything in my fitness pal, except for yesterday at the super bowl party. I mostly ate steak and ribs though, so didn't go over my carbs. Pretty sure I went over my calories tho. Oh well. I didn't lose any weight last week, but since I lost 9 pounds in 3 weeks, I'm not discouraged.

2/3/2020 9:54:00 AM

good work!

I finally just got a half rack set up in my garage over the holidays. I really missed having my home gym like I had at my house in SC for years. I just didnt move it all with me to TX to the studio apartment we lived in. But now that we have a garage again I got the rack for bench, squats, pullups, and hanging leg raises. Covers so much ground for one static piece of 'equipment'. It's amazing how much more well-rounded the workouts feel going back to free weights after using machines for a few years.

2/3/2020 10:45:58 AM

got in a nice 2 hour bike ride today, couldn't let this weather go to waste

2/3/2020 5:43:38 PM

You guys, I need help. I can't stop eating. Every day, I am thinking "ok, today's the day I'm going to start dieting, counting calories, and losing weight" and then the day ends in "ok I blew my diet today, let me just eat whatever I want today, get it out of my system, and diet tomorrow".... Except this happens every single day.

I think I have a bad relationship with food. I think I'm emotionally eating to fill a void or to combat boredom / depression. I am close to giving up some days but I know this is not the weight that I feel most comfortable in. I need to get back on track and losing weight like last year. *sigh

2/16/2020 11:42:05 AM

Eating when bored is still a big problem for me. I have to keep myself busy or I'll just end up snacking on junk. It's so much easier for me to hit my calorie goal on days when I'm busy.

2/16/2020 4:24:20 PM

^^ What is your current weight and are you still down from a year ago? Boredom definitely contributes to the mindless eating - are you working right now? have things that keep you busy on the weekends? I started intermittent fasting a few months ago (mainly skipping breakfast 2-3x a week and hitting that 16 hr mark without food) and I find it's helped with the mindless eating bc you start to discipline yourself better after you realize the hunger pangs go away pretty quick.

Try black coffee, water, or tea between meals to help keep you from in between meal snacking. Try getting up to take a walk or do something else active if you find yourself tempted to eat while you're bored. NeuseRvrRat is right, you gotta stay busy to keep your mind off food.

2/16/2020 6:05:32 PM

I don't want to get into numbers but my current weight is about 30 pounds higher than what it was 2 years ago.

I lost 27 pounds over 6 months last year and that weight seems to have stayed off. But I have not been losing any additional weight since the holidays.

It's like the momentum has been interrupted and I am just trying to get back in the swing of things.

Intermittent fasting sounds like a great idea. I take medication AM and PM so that makes it a bit complicated.... but I can take my AM meds around noon and take my PM meds around 6:30pm...

My short term goal is to lose 10 pounds.

2/22/2020 11:56:49 PM

Intermittent fasting makes it much easier for me to achieve a calorie deficit. I did it for a good portion of the time when I was losing and I still do it sometimes during maintenance. For example, I had to go about a week without my exercise routine or meal prepping during my recent move, so I did IF to make it easier to hit my maintenance calories. One meal a day is another tool I'll use when I know I'm going out to a big dinner, but that may not work if you need to take meds with food twice a day.

2/23/2020 10:46:01 AM

Seems like reducing your sugar intake has an effect on the way you perceive/taste sweetness. This probably isn't breaking news to the smart peoples on here, but by really reducing my sugar intake over just the past 2 months I've noticed a) I don't crave it nearly like I used to and b) if I do eat something sweet like cake it's almost too sweet and I don't even want it. Similar thing happened after I switched to just black coffee a few years ago - tried one of those seasonal lattes at Starbucks last Fall and I couldn't even drink it bc it was too sweet.

2/25/2020 6:01:57 AM

Salt works the same way.

2/25/2020 7:07:50 PM

cocaine too

2/25/2020 8:09:12 PM

^^^I'm not a sweets person but when I gave up alcohol for August and for January, I craved sweets like crazy (in before somebody says alcohol is a sugar)

I've been doing pretty well this year. Had a perfect January in terms of closing my rings (had move goal set to 710 calories). I've been lifting MWF and running a couch to 5k THSu. Also playing a ton of disc golf or going on long walks on easier days. Eating around 1,500-2,000 calories a day.

I've had a lot of running injuries so I'm doing the couch to 5k program to the letter and I'm up to about a 33 minute 5k with the timed walks that are in there. My first race coincides with the conclusion of the program next Saturday, so looking forward to that. Just finishing without walking would be awesome and I hope to move to a sub 30-minute 5k before my next race in late March.

Haven't really lost any weight, but have lost 2.5+ inches off my waist and 1" off my neck. Just feel tighter/better and generally get good comments from people who haven't seen me in a while, so I'm happy about that. Also seeing gains on lifting but not doing a regimented program like I did before with Strong Lifts (also got hurt) but just moving up as much as I can doing 10/8/6 sets on bar exercises and 15/12/10 with db and body weight stuff. Working so far.

2/27/2020 12:52:36 PM

^Kudos on your success and optimism.

I suffer from depression so my capacity to binge is

This was a rough week for me. Being able to leave home and work through my meetings was tough. Social interaction is tough for me when I'm depressed. I have also tried as best as I can to stick to my intention to eat twice a day, 12pm and 8pm - This week has been less than perfect, but I'm not giving up.

2/28/2020 10:33:13 PM

I stopped myself when I was binging. Yay!!!

3/1/2020 12:28:23 PM

^ Congrats I guess? What exactly is a binge and how do you know when you're in the midst of one? Does this only happen at home?

3/2/2020 6:02:22 AM

I consider a binge to be immense eating like the stomach is bottomless. Feels like I could eat A LOT and sometimes I do exactly that. Indiscriminately eating whatever appeals to me in the moment.

This usually happens at home but it can also happen when eating out, where the portions are huge and I could eat the whole thing plus dessert. I think it’s an emotional eating thing.

3/3/2020 5:47:01 AM

How much water do you drink over the course of a day? Do you drink water with your meals?

3/3/2020 11:08:34 AM

^^ I asked about whether this is at home bc it seems one easy solution may be to just avoid having bingeable foods around the house. Whatever your weakness is - ice cream, oreos, spicy sweet purple bag Doritos, etc. - just don't keep them at home anymore. Harder to binge if you got nothing within reach to binge on, right?

3/4/2020 4:35:09 PM

Anybody know any good protein bars that aren't also secret carb bars? I need to get more protein, but I already pee enough without drinking more protein shakes.

3/12/2020 9:32:15 AM

beef jerky. Bars are garbage, as it's almost impossible to find any better than 10cal/gram of protein.

You'll still find yourself pissing all the time, as the sodium in the jerky will make you thirsty.

3/12/2020 1:03:14 PM