The TFP Health Club

What are you talking about? 4 bowls of breakfast cereal, two glasses of milk, two cans of Diet Coke, two peanut butter sandwiches, two turkey sandwiches, a bowl of mixed greens, an apple, a gallon of fake green tea, two servings of ravioli with marinara sauce, a bowl of peas, a can of tuna, random handfuls of almonds and 6 scoops of delicious protein powder... totally a balanced diet for one day. I think I have some 90% dark chocolate in the cabinet somewhere. And I've really been craving raisins lately yet somehow always miss them at the grocery store. Wait, I'll get Raisinets!

I'm so goddamn hungry. Eating really is the hardest part of all this.

 

5,000 calories/day diet?

Why are you trying to gain tons of muscles, if I may ask?

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I've gained 7kg since my SO arrived and I'm feeling stupidly out of shape right now.

Once she leaves, I'm going to work out properly again. My building has its own gym, pool and sauna so facilities aren't an issue.

Just need to devise a good diet to get me away from the bad habits I currently have (oh, Ferrero Rocher... how I love you).

 

Enjoy it now Plan9. At some point in your life it all changes and what you now eat in one day is as much as you should eat in a week unless you want to be a blimp. Which I don't but damn, I sure wish I could just eat whatever I wanted. Used to, no longer.

 

Well, I doubt that'll ever be my problem. I'm a relatively healthy eater. I actually like things like plain oatmeal and lima beans. I don't like mayo or butter. I don't drink sugary beverages. I almost never eat junk food. The problem is that said diet was getting in my way of being more than a honky stick figure. Most of the guys I work with are huge into lifting and the pressure to be bigger (vanity) and stronger (real goal) made me realize I had to change my diet as well as my workout routine if I was ever gonna work on hulking out of my suit jackets. Going to a nice, modern gym helps. Having a partner that goes with you but does separate (girly) stuff is also a real motivator. Doesn't hurt if you're a little OCD and brainwashed by the military.

Ronnie Coleman once said "Everybody wants to be a bodybuilder but nobody wanna lift no heavy ass weights." Yeah, I don't wanna be a bodybuilder; I have no aspirations to look all pretty and have 19.4 raviolis on my belly. I just want functional strength. And my problem isn't necessarily the lifting part (my workouts thus far are pretty chill; I have no idea what I'm doing yet it seems to be working out okay), but the eating part to help grow whatever meat I can on my scrawny ass and thus get stronger is really pretty horrible. Between constantly feeling like I'm stretching my gut to the joy of using twice as much toilet paper as normal, I can see why legit guys that do this kinda thing for a living are so friggin' angry all the time.

I don't actually know how much I'm eating. Maybe 3k? 4k? I guess if I wanted to get super serious about this, I'd keep track with a spreadsheet and shit. Not really my thing. I've only weighed myself once since I started hard in April, I don't cry if I don't make progress; I've missed a week to moving into the house, epic rainstorms, etc. I think being super serious about it would suck the fun right out and I don't want that to happen.

No clue as to what my goals are reasonable. My objective for this year is to put on like 15-18 pounds. I'm halfway there already, give or take a few. I'm not going to be super cut or anything; I'm just an ordinary dude trying to be more of a caveman and... well... less of a pussy all the time.

 

The really fun thing--and I'm sure this has happened to everybody before--is when you start to fall asleep hungry but you're too tired to get up.

Talk about conflicting needs. "Food! Food! Come to me. I'm too weak to get you." I can't even imagine dudes that are serious about lifting.

All these "every day, no days off" fuckers, the CrossFit posse, etc... pfft, I'm just not that dedicated. And my knees hurt like hell too often.

Thanks a lot, military. "Hey, we want you to run half marathons in boots with 65 pounds on your back over a friggin' mountain."

/knees'd!

 

*notices your Tae Bo VHS collection on the shelf beside your Rex Kwon Do black belt*

We all know what you're training for with these martial arts classes, man.

 

Yeah, that's what usually kept me away from joining my friends. As soon as you lose the fun in training and being disciplined in your physical input and output, it's pointless. Unless you're Colton and model your muscles for money.

My fun goes away with the "requirement" to consume supplements. Had it once, and then never again. I'd much rather eat a bunch of tuna/red meat/beans for protein, pasta/bread for the energy and some fish now and then for the oils.

Then again, I always had to scale down so I usually went for a 80/20 mix of cardio/weights. When I'm between 85 and 89kg, I've achieved my "optimal fighting weight" (who knows what you MMA guys call it).

How much do you weigh now and how tall are you? I never went for cut muscles either... as long as the general shape is there, I'm happy.

I'm very familiar with people who have a high metabolism and what it's like for them. Mainly because my best training buddy would eat per meal what I'd eat in a day... and he'd do that 3 times a day. All while we had very similar training schedules and workout intensity.

I noticed some of the moves you described earlier. You're doing Muay Thai? With GSP being a national hero and everything in Canada, I'd expect that Greco-Roman and Muay Thai became much more popular there.

Also, wouldn't you rather want to do a mix of boxing and weights for the upper body strength? When I was actively doing Muay Thai, my boxing was alright but I had huge thighs. Have you seen any development in your thighs/kicking power?

Yeah... I gotta keep track. Have a huge tendency to over-indulge in food and need to keep myself in check. Which is why I usually only keep (kept) foodstuffs at home that are either healthy, or unhealthy but only store them in small quantities.

Fucking loved Rex and his fugly wife.

 

I would prefer to have a partner. My immediate supervisor (total rock star, that guy) in the military was my lifting buddy for a good stretch and I saw a lot of gains while in A-stan... which I then literally ran off training for a marathon that I didn't do thanks to college and... uh... general laziness.

That's the thing... I see the protein supplement as a shortcut and cost saver. It's cheaper and a lot easier on my stomach to buy a tub of premixed magic than it is for me to mow through an additional bucket of chicken breasts and steak and salmon. I'm sure Baraka will tell me that it's full of chemicals that will kill me, but I haven't had any problems thus far. It's a helluva lot better than Nitrotech's super explosive diarrhea formula.

When I was doing AFK ~20 hours a week I was roughly 75kg. I was scrawny. Still pretty strong, but I had issues when I was sparring dudes that were the same height at 95kg. I've always wanted to see what it would be like to step on the scale and see a good 200 lbs. Maybe I'll get there.

Fugly doesn't quite do it justice. She was a serious meathead. Clit like a sausage, I bet. He may have had "the pants," but she was the man.

 

Ah. No, you got me wrong. I always trained together with my buddies. My point was that they all went and got themselves whey protein, creatin, and whatnot supplements so they could beef up their muscle mass while they worked as bouncers/security guards and to intimidate white guys. I didn't join them in the chemical warfare activities.

Loved this one guy who called himself "J". He did Muay Thai with us and he was a muscle-packed, 140kg mofo. Sparring with him was probably one of the most boring exercises I've ever had. Weighed 40-50 kg more than me and had a superheavy punch, but way too slow to do anything with it. And what bothers me the most about muscled-up guys: no stamina. Guy was done after 2 rounds and drenched in a pool of sweat.

After that he cut down to 115kg. Still very nice body shape, but so much better at sparring. Incredible difference.

Well, I can understand your cost/volume argument, if it was only the supplements... but your earlier intake description makes it seem like you consume non-supplementary foods much more than I did back in the day anyway.

Mmmm... so sexy.

 

Rest days have become essential to my cycling now. Since becoming quite strict about it the muscles in my legs have started becoming noticeably more toned and just stronger.

Though I need to get off my lazy ass and start doing something other then just walking on my 'rest' days, like go to the gym and do some upper body stuff.

I'm going to Hawaii and then over to the east coast in January, I'd like to look more than just the 68kg weed I currently am with unusually large thighs.

 

Does the couch-to-5k app really help? I have never been a runner, but I am curious to try and see. I just think t would take me a while to be able to run for so long.

 

I'd like to know that too.... I'm not a couch potato, but in spite of my background I've always felt running was more of a struggle than it should be.

 

Ugh, what is wrong with me? I just didn't feel like eating today. At all. Like maybe it's optional or something. I woke up, had my usual double serving of breakfast cereal and then didn't eat anything until like 3 when I went to Subway and got a foot long roast chicken breast with provolone and had them drag it through the garden. Now I'm eating two peanut butter sandwiches. I doubt if that's over 1200 calories. I need to eat if I wanna "grow."

I don't know what the deal is... I'm still lifting just as hard but I can't seem to sleep at night and now my body is being a petulant child at feeding time.

Stress monkey!