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Hi everyone,
I only joined last night but have already beem welcomed by several people and got some chats going on. I feel this is the place I've been looking for. I read through a out 50 complete journals and went through the Aus/NZ and recovery sections. Couldn't have asked for more really.
I just turned 40 and am form New Zealand.
This will be my first time logging and I have to figure out a nice way to do it. I'm sorry if this is too much text but I wanted to try detail where I am currently and what lead me here as a baseline.
For weekly updates I hope to get a nice clean format for laying out what I ate and lifted and took.
I've been listening to the podcast for a year now and have learnt so much, and also for a year I've been telling myself I will start a log here but took a while to atcually do it.
I am not in a rush. I wanted to wait until I stalled in weight loss and had my training and diet more consistent and also had more knowledge and experience form working with the PT. I feel that time is near.
I have two years of quarterly tests for base line bloods of various types as well as ECGs, testosterone level checks and did one of each of those last week.
I will try get copies of all the results to share here. If that proves difficult I'll get private ones done.
I have a 2500mg Vial of Test E in the mail and will order an AI tonight. I'm going to test the waters at 150mg for a couple of weeks then titrate up by 50mg a week until 400mg and all going well stay there a good while. I fully intend to log and monitor and analyse all this, as well as listen to feedback and suggestions.
I'm not an ego driven person and like to share and help others but also happy to be helped or shown the way and easily admit when I'm wrong.
I haven't tracked much to do with sleep but I have made so much progress correcting my lifetime of poor sleep. I have had some ups and downs as I adjust to getting fitter but exercise has been a godsend for this, often I just go to sleep at 9pm and wake up naturally at 5 or 6. There's a whole other world going on in the early hours I was previously unaware of, I'm enjoying becoming a part of it. The gym is packed by 6am when I go in to do cardio. There's people surfing at the beach, people out walking and running, it's kinda exciting to me still.
Diet
I want to stay on a egg and beef heavy keto diet for now. I cook in my van and one ingredient meals suit me.
Ground beef, corned beef, eggs and salmon from cans is easy for me and mainly what I eat.
I decided to just try focus on hitting my protein target of 200g for now. I can't stay under the 30g carb limit for keto because I drink two litres worth of milk in coffee a day, so keto is just a convenient way of describing it. I did switch to cream for a while but I can't afford it.
Random day 1
Random day 2
Random day 3
Today I got an atcual hunk of beef (photo attached) and it cost $21.78 NZD which is $12.74 USD or 10.96 Euro. How does this compare to where you live?
I go to the farmers market weekly to get rural farm eggs and I intend to form a relationship with butchers and farmers soon. I always thought it was cool that Jay Cutler used to model for his local rural farm stand in exchange for free eggs.
I've attached a couple of random day logs from my food tracking app.
I used to be much fatter. Those 24 beers a day I used to drink was about 3600 calories, 300 carbs. Adding to that whatever I ate and it's not a pretty picture. You can probably imagine what I might have looked like.
I did lose a lot of weight in the past two years but I wasn't tracking anything or taking photos but I was trying to do the keto diet.
I always used to think I wasn't into sugar and never ate junk food but in hindsight I felt that way because of the massive sugar and carb intake from beer which was a full on blind spot - I think had I logged that into an app even once I would have been shocked.
When I quit all of a sudden I could wolf down two family-sized blocks of chocolate and I'm still chubby (see photo) though I think I've got a handle on that now.
I used a few tricks to do that, namely spending my now small weekly food budget as soon as I got it, I'd go get two trays of eggs and 15 cans of corned beef so the option to buy junk food went away. It was a mental thing for me, I found myself a couple of times feinding for it like I used to for drugs. I was a little bit ashamed of myself for it.
Though I didn't really notice the weight loss myself, others did. My mum showed me some photos of my face before and now and it was atcually a pretty big difference. Going further than where I am now I think will require me putting in much more effort, I feel kinda stalled. I could stop dairy for a while and loose a little more just from that I think.
Training
I have had a PT for 5 months now, one hour a week, and I've learnt so much from him. I'm really glad I'm doing it. No way I could have learnt this much by myself.
I have a few sessions I default to, for legs I copied one of Lee Haneys Championship Workout routines and it stuck, that is:
- Pre-exaustion on leg curls and leg extensions, 3 sets of 12 for each.
- Then Hack Squat or Leg Press, finish with calf raises.
I'm really attracted to the hack squat and leg press, I do this twice a week. His idea was to use the pre exhaustion so you didn't need to Max out on the compound machines and I think it works. When I do hack squat first and go heavier I don't feel quote as broken the day after. Still experimenting with this.
I really haven't nailed how to record my workout sessions. That's one thing I want to figure out as part of my logging here. One session we did recently was:
- Seated Row
Weight (kg): 7.5/11.25/15/17.5
Reps: 12/12/12/12(2 rir)
- Captain’s Chair
23 Reps of bent knee, 10 of straight leg. He wanted to see my limit on first try.
- Leg Press
Weight: 40/65/75/85*
Reps: 12/12/12(2)/12* (1 rir, 5/4/3 “rest-pause” set with 5 sec rests.)
- Kneeling rope pulldown
Weight: 5/7.5/10
Reps: 12/12/12(2
I've attached a screenshot from my spreadsheet, it shows three or four sessions i did with my trainer.
The other week he taight me the 8x8 “Gironda” trick with 30 sec rests on the Leg Extension:
Weight: 20/30/”/”/”/”/”/”/”
Reps: 12/8/8/8/8/8/8/8/20 (Failure)
That did me in. I was making noises and a lady stopped and pretended to wait for the machine and watched then left when I was done. And I really was done. It was like the sound stopped and something took over me, it was amazing.
Cardio
I either go to the gym and do 30 minutes steady state on the stationery bike first thing in the morning where my heart rate gets to about 110, I start sweating lightly at 15 minutes.
If I sleep in or miss this I walk to the pharmacy which is a one hour round trip.
That's what I currently do consistently but I've always been a big walker. Being drunk all the time I basically never drove. But i have some goals and plans for more cardio:
Want to start roller derby again and train to become a referee. I did an 8 week beginner course last winter but stopped after it finished. I just went along to support mu lady friend at the time and was just going to watch but the girls there came at me hard, literally called me a pussy while forcing dodgy skates onto me. As soon as I stood up on them I felt a rush of adrenalin, it was really fucking fun and I was hooked.
I want to go once a week, it's 2 hours and I'll probably spew first time, it's really fucking taxing. Despite doing quite a lot of walking and biking I'm nowhere near fit enough to do skate drills for two hours.
I've always wanted to do yoga or Tai Chi or something like that. I have a fancy gym membership that gives access to yoga/plates studios owned by the same company. I'd like to add a one hour group class sometime.
I want to be more consistent with meditation and breath work too.
Lastly I want to start using my skateboard as transport again and maybe get a surf board this summer. It's way too cold in the southern hemisphere still.
Substances and Prescriptions
I have been on the methadone program for three years and now take 90mg a day. I spent two years on 120mg and tapered to 80mg the first half of this year, it went poorly and I wasted 6 months in bed more or less. Had to go back up 10mg to 90mg where I am now. The program requires me to get ECGs twice a year, so I have three years worth of those
I take Antabuse daily and have been for two years. This is why I have quarterly liver tests. I feel I don't need it anymore, but I robbed my mother of sleep and peace of mind over the past two decades and I know she finds comfort knowing a pharmacist watches me wash antabuse down with my methadone every day so don't want to, however it's a variable in this, adds to poly-pharma issues and I think I should stop while taking testosterone. If anyone has any knowledge or experience I'm all ears.
I have been prescribed a daily multi vitamin and thiamine tablet also, based on blood tests during detox, I should request another test now and see if I still have deficiencies.
I had fatty liver at detox too, but that has been confirmed to have been completely reversed. I'm lucky I think and intend to make the most of this second chance.
Smoking and Vaping
This year marked the end of my 25 year relationship with nicotine - one of the things i truely regret. In my youth I think I would have had a shot at becoming a pro skateboarder but just after I turned 15 I started smoking daily, and later that year I started working full time and become a pack a day smoker which was two packs by 18 and after that I started rolling my own and could get through 20 grams a day and more if I was drinking that day, which I was. And I just let skating go.. just like that, all that effort and plans and I traded it for tobacco without a second thought, it's unbelievable in retrospect but it is what it is.
I was an early adopter of vaping, started in 2008 but the devices were so crappy that it didn't dawn on me you could replace cigs with them full time. I mainly had them for long haul flights. 2015 I was building them and making my own juice ans lasted a year then went back to the fags almost without thought, I just did. Insanity. But in 2021 I went back to vaping again and I got massive improvements in lung capacity and energy, etc but the truth of the matter is I had it in my hand 24/7. No exaggeration, I fell asleep with it and as soon as I opened my eyes I resumed. It's a hell of a lot better than cigarettes.
When I started training this became more and more of a problem. And I decided I'm done, and registered with the governments quit smoking service and they gave me a script for enough patches to do a three stage taper of six months, and gum/lozenges. That was two months ago and I am ready to ditch the patches, but I may try the weakest patches and see, just to finish the 3 month version of the program. I ditched the gum in week 3 and my mind slowly forgot about it all.
I only joined last night but have already beem welcomed by several people and got some chats going on. I feel this is the place I've been looking for. I read through a out 50 complete journals and went through the Aus/NZ and recovery sections. Couldn't have asked for more really.
I just turned 40 and am form New Zealand.
This will be my first time logging and I have to figure out a nice way to do it. I'm sorry if this is too much text but I wanted to try detail where I am currently and what lead me here as a baseline.
For weekly updates I hope to get a nice clean format for laying out what I ate and lifted and took.
I've been listening to the podcast for a year now and have learnt so much, and also for a year I've been telling myself I will start a log here but took a while to atcually do it.
I am not in a rush. I wanted to wait until I stalled in weight loss and had my training and diet more consistent and also had more knowledge and experience form working with the PT. I feel that time is near.
I have two years of quarterly tests for base line bloods of various types as well as ECGs, testosterone level checks and did one of each of those last week.
I will try get copies of all the results to share here. If that proves difficult I'll get private ones done.
I have a 2500mg Vial of Test E in the mail and will order an AI tonight. I'm going to test the waters at 150mg for a couple of weeks then titrate up by 50mg a week until 400mg and all going well stay there a good while. I fully intend to log and monitor and analyse all this, as well as listen to feedback and suggestions.
I'm not an ego driven person and like to share and help others but also happy to be helped or shown the way and easily admit when I'm wrong.
I haven't tracked much to do with sleep but I have made so much progress correcting my lifetime of poor sleep. I have had some ups and downs as I adjust to getting fitter but exercise has been a godsend for this, often I just go to sleep at 9pm and wake up naturally at 5 or 6. There's a whole other world going on in the early hours I was previously unaware of, I'm enjoying becoming a part of it. The gym is packed by 6am when I go in to do cardio. There's people surfing at the beach, people out walking and running, it's kinda exciting to me still.
Diet
I want to stay on a egg and beef heavy keto diet for now. I cook in my van and one ingredient meals suit me.
Ground beef, corned beef, eggs and salmon from cans is easy for me and mainly what I eat.
I decided to just try focus on hitting my protein target of 200g for now. I can't stay under the 30g carb limit for keto because I drink two litres worth of milk in coffee a day, so keto is just a convenient way of describing it. I did switch to cream for a while but I can't afford it.
Random day 1
Random day 2
Random day 3
Today I got an atcual hunk of beef (photo attached) and it cost $21.78 NZD which is $12.74 USD or 10.96 Euro. How does this compare to where you live?
I go to the farmers market weekly to get rural farm eggs and I intend to form a relationship with butchers and farmers soon. I always thought it was cool that Jay Cutler used to model for his local rural farm stand in exchange for free eggs.
I've attached a couple of random day logs from my food tracking app.
I used to be much fatter. Those 24 beers a day I used to drink was about 3600 calories, 300 carbs. Adding to that whatever I ate and it's not a pretty picture. You can probably imagine what I might have looked like.
I did lose a lot of weight in the past two years but I wasn't tracking anything or taking photos but I was trying to do the keto diet.
I always used to think I wasn't into sugar and never ate junk food but in hindsight I felt that way because of the massive sugar and carb intake from beer which was a full on blind spot - I think had I logged that into an app even once I would have been shocked.
When I quit all of a sudden I could wolf down two family-sized blocks of chocolate and I'm still chubby (see photo) though I think I've got a handle on that now.
I used a few tricks to do that, namely spending my now small weekly food budget as soon as I got it, I'd go get two trays of eggs and 15 cans of corned beef so the option to buy junk food went away. It was a mental thing for me, I found myself a couple of times feinding for it like I used to for drugs. I was a little bit ashamed of myself for it.
Though I didn't really notice the weight loss myself, others did. My mum showed me some photos of my face before and now and it was atcually a pretty big difference. Going further than where I am now I think will require me putting in much more effort, I feel kinda stalled. I could stop dairy for a while and loose a little more just from that I think.
Training
I have had a PT for 5 months now, one hour a week, and I've learnt so much from him. I'm really glad I'm doing it. No way I could have learnt this much by myself.
I have a few sessions I default to, for legs I copied one of Lee Haneys Championship Workout routines and it stuck, that is:
- Pre-exaustion on leg curls and leg extensions, 3 sets of 12 for each.
- Then Hack Squat or Leg Press, finish with calf raises.
I'm really attracted to the hack squat and leg press, I do this twice a week. His idea was to use the pre exhaustion so you didn't need to Max out on the compound machines and I think it works. When I do hack squat first and go heavier I don't feel quote as broken the day after. Still experimenting with this.
I really haven't nailed how to record my workout sessions. That's one thing I want to figure out as part of my logging here. One session we did recently was:
- Seated Row
Weight (kg): 7.5/11.25/15/17.5
Reps: 12/12/12/12(2 rir)
- Captain’s Chair
23 Reps of bent knee, 10 of straight leg. He wanted to see my limit on first try.
- Leg Press
Weight: 40/65/75/85*
Reps: 12/12/12(2)/12* (1 rir, 5/4/3 “rest-pause” set with 5 sec rests.)
- Kneeling rope pulldown
Weight: 5/7.5/10
Reps: 12/12/12(2
I've attached a screenshot from my spreadsheet, it shows three or four sessions i did with my trainer.
The other week he taight me the 8x8 “Gironda” trick with 30 sec rests on the Leg Extension:
Weight: 20/30/”/”/”/”/”/”/”
Reps: 12/8/8/8/8/8/8/8/20 (Failure)
That did me in. I was making noises and a lady stopped and pretended to wait for the machine and watched then left when I was done. And I really was done. It was like the sound stopped and something took over me, it was amazing.
Cardio
I either go to the gym and do 30 minutes steady state on the stationery bike first thing in the morning where my heart rate gets to about 110, I start sweating lightly at 15 minutes.
If I sleep in or miss this I walk to the pharmacy which is a one hour round trip.
That's what I currently do consistently but I've always been a big walker. Being drunk all the time I basically never drove. But i have some goals and plans for more cardio:
Want to start roller derby again and train to become a referee. I did an 8 week beginner course last winter but stopped after it finished. I just went along to support mu lady friend at the time and was just going to watch but the girls there came at me hard, literally called me a pussy while forcing dodgy skates onto me. As soon as I stood up on them I felt a rush of adrenalin, it was really fucking fun and I was hooked.
I want to go once a week, it's 2 hours and I'll probably spew first time, it's really fucking taxing. Despite doing quite a lot of walking and biking I'm nowhere near fit enough to do skate drills for two hours.
I've always wanted to do yoga or Tai Chi or something like that. I have a fancy gym membership that gives access to yoga/plates studios owned by the same company. I'd like to add a one hour group class sometime.
I want to be more consistent with meditation and breath work too.
Lastly I want to start using my skateboard as transport again and maybe get a surf board this summer. It's way too cold in the southern hemisphere still.
Substances and Prescriptions
I have been on the methadone program for three years and now take 90mg a day. I spent two years on 120mg and tapered to 80mg the first half of this year, it went poorly and I wasted 6 months in bed more or less. Had to go back up 10mg to 90mg where I am now. The program requires me to get ECGs twice a year, so I have three years worth of those
I take Antabuse daily and have been for two years. This is why I have quarterly liver tests. I feel I don't need it anymore, but I robbed my mother of sleep and peace of mind over the past two decades and I know she finds comfort knowing a pharmacist watches me wash antabuse down with my methadone every day so don't want to, however it's a variable in this, adds to poly-pharma issues and I think I should stop while taking testosterone. If anyone has any knowledge or experience I'm all ears.
I have been prescribed a daily multi vitamin and thiamine tablet also, based on blood tests during detox, I should request another test now and see if I still have deficiencies.
I had fatty liver at detox too, but that has been confirmed to have been completely reversed. I'm lucky I think and intend to make the most of this second chance.
Smoking and Vaping
This year marked the end of my 25 year relationship with nicotine - one of the things i truely regret. In my youth I think I would have had a shot at becoming a pro skateboarder but just after I turned 15 I started smoking daily, and later that year I started working full time and become a pack a day smoker which was two packs by 18 and after that I started rolling my own and could get through 20 grams a day and more if I was drinking that day, which I was. And I just let skating go.. just like that, all that effort and plans and I traded it for tobacco without a second thought, it's unbelievable in retrospect but it is what it is.
I was an early adopter of vaping, started in 2008 but the devices were so crappy that it didn't dawn on me you could replace cigs with them full time. I mainly had them for long haul flights. 2015 I was building them and making my own juice ans lasted a year then went back to the fags almost without thought, I just did. Insanity. But in 2021 I went back to vaping again and I got massive improvements in lung capacity and energy, etc but the truth of the matter is I had it in my hand 24/7. No exaggeration, I fell asleep with it and as soon as I opened my eyes I resumed. It's a hell of a lot better than cigarettes.
When I started training this became more and more of a problem. And I decided I'm done, and registered with the governments quit smoking service and they gave me a script for enough patches to do a three stage taper of six months, and gum/lozenges. That was two months ago and I am ready to ditch the patches, but I may try the weakest patches and see, just to finish the 3 month version of the program. I ditched the gum in week 3 and my mind slowly forgot about it all.
a lot of 'sort of desert' 
