Marginal gains

[mooshld]

Seeing as I have broken my self imposed isolation from the fern to bitch out all things Foster. I may as well jump in with both boots.

Embarrassed to say fitness totally fucked since COVID. Got a rugby tour with my old team on the weekend then the real work begins watch this space.

[Catogrande]

@mooshld Good luck mate

[mooshld]

So what's been going on.

Well after years of being in a pretty good place with my health and my weight. I have had a rough few years and things have started to slip. While COVID is the catalyst for my issues the reality is that I have probably lost focus slowly over time.

So the stats I am now 10Kg heavier than where I want to be. 88Kg at last weigh in, and I have been there for nearly a year. While in the past I was able to just hit a hard calorie deficit for a few months. Something has changed, maybe its getting older, maybe its working from home 100% now but the self control is gone and I haven't been able to get it back. I can put in a few weeks then one bad day and its a shit show. I just go nuts.

The level of activity is good I am still running a lot, and I even put in a home gym and get out to it a couple of times a week.

That's the physical side on the mental side it has absolutely wrecked me. Its bought up a lot of stuff from my past even going back to being a kid. Self confidence is gone, self worth the works.

So what's the plan.

• Well I have started to see a psychologist as I am exhibiting classic binge eating disorder behaviour, and my doctor is worried it will go further if unchecked.
• After years of avoiding it I now have a proper strength plan in place to try and build some muscle.
• I have set some running goals, achievable ones, though as I was getting injured trying to keep up with my younger self.
• I am trying to put in place multiple support networks, where as in the past I have always gone it alone.
• With eating I am restricting calories but not as harshly as I have in the past. I don't need to get this fixed in 6 weeks. Its fine if it takes 6 months as long as I am moving in the right direction.

Friday I will do a week recap on here to say what I have done and what goals were hit. But at the moment the plan is simple 4 Strength workouts, 3 Runs, log all my food and keep it around 1800, journal daily, with an emphasis on trying to be a bit kinder to myself.

[Rancid Schnitzel]

@mooshld said in Marginal gains:

So what's been going on.

Well after years of being in a pretty good place with my health and my weight. I have had a rough few years and things have started to slip. While COVID is the catalyst for my issues the reality is that I have probably lost focus slowly over time.

So the stats I am now 10Kg heavier than where I want to be. 88Kg at last weigh in, and I have been there for nearly a year. While in the past I was able to just hit a hard calorie deficit for a few months. Something has changed, maybe its getting older, maybe its working from home 100% now but the self control is gone and I haven't been able to get it back. I can put in a few weeks then one bad day and its a shit show. I just go nuts.

The level of activity is good I am still running a lot, and I even put in a home gym and get out to it a couple of times a week.

That's the physical side on the mental side it has absolutely wrecked me. Its bought up a lot of stuff from my past even going back to being a kid. Self confidence is gone, self worth the works.

So what's the plan.

• Well I have started to see a psychologist as I am exhibiting classic binge eating disorder behaviour, and my doctor is worried it will go further if unchecked.
• After years of avoiding it I now have a proper strength plan in place to try and build some muscle.
• I have set some running goals, achievable ones, though as I was getting injured trying to keep up with my younger self.
• I am trying to put in place multiple support networks, where as in the past I have always gone it alone.
• With eating I am restricting calories but not as harshly as I have in the past. I don't need to get this fixed in 6 weeks. Its fine if it takes 6 months as long as I am moving in the right direction.

Friday I will do a week recap on here to say what I have done and what goals were hit. But at the moment the plan is simple 4 Strength workouts, 3 Runs, log all my food and keep it around 1800, journal daily, with an emphasis on trying to be a bit kinder to myself.

It's awesome you're doing this and have steps in place. Now, please tell me to eff off if I'm out of line, but are you being kind to yourself here? This appears to be more a programme for a cut rather than long-term change. With 7 sessions and 1800 cals you'll definitely lose weight but you'll be starving much of the time. My worry (and this is probably projection) is that when you finally do reward yourself, those pleasure receptors will go completely nuts again. Just thinking long term, maybe up those cals a wee bit?

Again, just want you to succeed long-term 👊

[MajorRage]

@mooshld said in Marginal gains:

So what's been going on.

Well after years of being in a pretty good place with my health and my weight. I have had a rough few years and things have started to slip. While COVID is the catalyst for my issues the reality is that I have probably lost focus slowly over time.

So the stats I am now 10Kg heavier than where I want to be. 88Kg at last weigh in, and I have been there for nearly a year. While in the past I was able to just hit a hard calorie deficit for a few months. Something has changed, maybe its getting older, maybe its working from home 100% now but the self control is gone and I haven't been able to get it back. I can put in a few weeks then one bad day and its a shit show. I just go nuts.

The level of activity is good I am still running a lot, and I even put in a home gym and get out to it a couple of times a week.

That's the physical side on the mental side it has absolutely wrecked me. Its bought up a lot of stuff from my past even going back to being a kid. Self confidence is gone, self worth the works.

So what's the plan.

• Well I have started to see a psychologist as I am exhibiting classic binge eating disorder behaviour, and my doctor is worried it will go further if unchecked.
• After years of avoiding it I now have a proper strength plan in place to try and build some muscle.
• I have set some running goals, achievable ones, though as I was getting injured trying to keep up with my younger self.
• I am trying to put in place multiple support networks, where as in the past I have always gone it alone.
• With eating I am restricting calories but not as harshly as I have in the past. I don't need to get this fixed in 6 weeks. Its fine if it takes 6 months as long as I am moving in the right direction.

Friday I will do a week recap on here to say what I have done and what goals were hit. But at the moment the plan is simple 4 Strength workouts, 3 Runs, log all my food and keep it around 1800, journal daily, with an emphasis on trying to be a bit kinder to myself.

TSF has always been quite good here for this. The more you post, the more you get back.

I can relate to almost this entire post ... do your best, look forwards to your logging.

[mooshld]

@Rancid-Schnitzel said in Marginal gains:

It's awesome you're doing this and have steps in place. Now, please tell me to eff off if I'm out of line, but are you being kind to yourself here? This appears to be more a programme for a cut rather than long-term change. With 7 sessions and 1800 cals you'll definitely lose weight but you'll be starving much of the time. My worry (and this is probably projection) is that when you finally do reward yourself, those pleasure receptors will go completely nuts again. Just thinking long term, maybe up those cals a wee bit?

Again, just want you to succeed long-term 👊

Firstly, absolutely no offence. One of the reasons I decided to post back here is I am happy for the advice and discord with others who have battled a bit in the past.

So the thing with the training is I have been doing 7 sessions, with a miss here or there, for around 15 years now. It started in my 30s and was all just running. After COVID I picked up a decent lifting setup for cheap, form a bodybuilder who was happy to have the space back. Noodled around with it on and off but didn't commit to any kind of program.

So the only real difference is I am not running as much and am doing 4 weights sessions a week. Its a basic strength building program focuses on Squat, OHP, Bench and Deadlift. Not too complicated and I get it all done in about 45 minutes. So its more of a recalibration then an upping of my workload.

With the cals, I am not sure if you know my history but I dropped from 109kg to 78kg by eating 1300 a day for 9 months. I can't do that any more. I just crack after 2 weeks and end up hating myself. My problem is that I seem to have a very slow metabolism. Probably due to my very sedentary job. If I go above 2200 I am putting weight on. So giving myself that upper ceiling of 1800 is maybe not as unreasonable as it seems.

You are spot on though about rewarding myself and going nuts. One of the things the doc is working on with me is to help me find none food based rewards. To treat food as a necessity and less as a source of pleasure or reward.

Anyway 3 days in but taking it 1 day at a time.

[mooshld]

@MajorRage said in Marginal gains:

TSF has always been quite good here for this. The more you post, the more you get back.

I can relate to almost this entire post ... do your best, look forwards to your logging.

Thanks for the advice, it was certainly good to me in the past.

[Rancid Schnitzel]

@mooshld said in Marginal gains:

@Rancid-Schnitzel said in Marginal gains:

It's awesome you're doing this and have steps in place. Now, please tell me to eff off if I'm out of line, but are you being kind to yourself here? This appears to be more a programme for a cut rather than long-term change. With 7 sessions and 1800 cals you'll definitely lose weight but you'll be starving much of the time. My worry (and this is probably projection) is that when you finally do reward yourself, those pleasure receptors will go completely nuts again. Just thinking long term, maybe up those cals a wee bit?

Again, just want you to succeed long-term 👊

Firstly, absolutely no offence. One of the reasons I decided to post back here is I am happy for the advice and discord with others who have battled a bit in the past.

So the thing with the training is I have been doing 7 sessions, with a miss here or there, for around 15 years now. It started in my 30s and was all just running. After COVID I picked up a decent lifting setup for cheap, form a bodybuilder who was happy to have the space back. Noodled around with it on and off but didn't commit to any kind of program.

So the only real difference is I am not running as much and am doing 4 weights sessions a week. Its a basic strength building program focuses on Squat, OHP, Bench and Deadlift. Not too complicated and I get it all done in about 45 minutes. So its more of a recalibration then an upping of my workload.

With the cals, I am not sure if you know my history but I dropped from 109kg to 78kg by eating 1300 a day for 9 months. I can't do that any more. I just crack after 2 weeks and end up hating myself. My problem is that I seem to have a very slow metabolism. Probably due to my very sedentary job. If I go above 2200 I am putting weight on. So giving myself that upper ceiling of 1800 is maybe not as unreasonable as it seems.

You are spot on though about rewarding myself and going nuts. One of the things the doc is working on with me is to help me find none food based rewards. To treat food as a necessity and less as a source of pleasure or reward.

Anyway 3 days in but taking it 1 day at a time.

I wasn't aware of that! 1300 cals????. Damn. Impressive farking results but obviously came at a cost.

I actually know someone who did something similar. She went from 100kg+ to 58kg. But she has fluctuated and had major stomach problems since.

What I find scary is how I can sometimes just keep on eating. It's like I go beyond full and I constantly need to eat. It fluctuates between savoury and sweet, depending on what I've just consumed. Amazing how the brain can pretty much override the stomach.

Well, I hope you get to where you want to be.

[mooshld]

Monday Weigh in.
Weight 88.5kg
Bodyfat 28%

Running
First few runs with the orthopaedic insoles to try and fix my pinched nerve in my foot. Didn't go well huge blisters but still managed to get all 3 runs done. Nothing flash just 3 5ks at around 24 minutes each.

Weights
4 sessions all done. Program is going good getting towards the upper end of all my lifts so now need to do the fail downs. Current Lifts are Squat 80kg, BP 50kg, Dead 90kg, OHP 35kg. No idea how that looks compared to others but I am happy with it.

Eating
First week in the bag hit all my goals stayed away from all processed foods and ate super clean. Only blemish was a small slice of apple pie on Saturday night. But kept it at one and the cravings are under control. Hit my water goals as well.

Mental
Started my journaling this week to try and help identify my problem behaviours and to intercept some impulses. Mood was pretty average this week neither up nor down. Had a good weekend watching/coaching rugby and then in the garden working on the chainsaw. Not feeling great about the weight, and even worse about the bodyfat % but now I know where I am I can decide where I want to go. Anyway on to week 2

[mooshld]

Monday Weigh in.
Weight 88.2kg (300 gram loss)
Bodyfat 27% (Honestly this changes so much I think my scales just like to fuck with me)

Running
Ditched the insoles and use them in my walking shoes I only run 25 minutes 3 times a week at the moment I doubt it will make much difference. Foot feeling okay for now. Keeping an eye on it.

Weights
4 sessions all done. Current Lifts are Squat 80kg, BP 52.5kg, Dead 95kg, OHP 35kg. Dropping sets now on squats and OHP. Which means I am pushing my limit. Now the real hard work begins.

Eating
Hit my water goals and managed to count and hit eating 5 days out of 7 need to tighten up a bit this week. As starting to creep already. Didn't go crazy on the other 2 days just didn't count and thats one of my triggers for pushing the fuck it button. Started counting first thing this morning so will double down.

Mental
Week 2 in the bag. Starting to feel like a habit is forming and happy with my work in the gym and on the road. Work super stressful at the moment but trying not to let that leak into my personal life. A bit annoyed with my eating but I have lost 300 grams so thats something, would have liked more, but I will take it.

[voodoo]

@mooshld said in Marginal gains:

Monday Weigh in.
Weight 88.2kg (300 gram loss)
Bodyfat 27% (Honestly this changes so much I think my scales just like to fuck with me)

Running
Ditched the insoles and use them in my walking shoes I only run 25 minutes 3 times a week at the moment I doubt it will make much difference. Foot feeling okay for now. Keeping an eye on it.

Weights
4 sessions all done. Current Lifts are Squat 80kg, BP 52.5kg, Dead 95kg, OHP 35kg. Dropping sets now on squats and OHP. Which means I am pushing my limit. Now the real hard work begins.

Eating
Hit my water goals and managed to count and hit eating 5 days out of 7 need to tighten up a bit this week. As starting to creep already. Didn't go crazy on the other 2 days just didn't count and thats one of my triggers for pushing the fuck it button. Started counting first thing this morning so will double down.

Mental
Week 2 in the bag. Starting to feel like a habit is forming and happy with my work in the gym and on the road. Work super stressful at the moment but trying not to let that leak into my personal life. A bit annoyed with my eating but I have lost 300 grams so thats something, would have liked more, but I will take it.

Good stuff mate. 2 weeks in, that’s a great start. It’s amazing how easy it is to let stuff get away from us at this age, and how daunting it can seem to get back on track. You’ve taken the hardest steps already.

[mooshld]

Monday Weigh in.
Weight 88.0kg (200 gram loss)
Bodyfat 27%

Running
Managed to get out for my 3 runs nothing special want to make my weekend run longer need to get up a bit earlier on the weekend. Be easier after day light savings.

Weights
Only 3 sessions this week, so am a bit behind. Current Lifts are Squat 85kg, BP 55kg, OHP 37.5kg. Dropping sets now on squats and OHP. Got through the drop sets, next week is going to be brutal. Training to failure a bit scary with squats and BP but I manged to pick up a deal on the weekend for some more weights, and it came with a fairly average rack so that should keep me safe.

Eating
All over the shop this week, a lot of stress around an incident at the kids school. Meant lots of meetings and the normal weekly schedule was binned. Started this morning correct need to get back on track here. Targeting counting 80% this week to get things back to where they need to be. Should be easier school holidays now.

Mental
200 grams wasn't what I was looking for but thats a half a kilo gone over the last 3 weeks. Other positives run times are creeping downward again. Shade under 25 minutes for my 5k, goal is to get it back around 23. Things could have easily gone much worse this week but I still picked up a loss. Weight setup is looking good now with the new purchase have enough equipment now that I don't need anything else and there is space for two in the gym so trying to talk the misses into doing workouts together for the company. Big week coming up no obvious blockers need to reinforce those habits this week.

[mooshld]

Monday Weigh in.
Weight 88.4kg (400 gram gain)
Bodyfat 27%

Running
Got 4 runs in this week including one on the local hill. Weather was shit so happy that I still got out as its a total pain having to constantly dry the wet weather gear. Even managed another 25 minute 5k right on the nose. So that's progress

Weights
Picked up my missed session and did my normal 4 Current Lifts are Squat 90kg but this is right on my limit now so sets of 2, BP 60kg surprised I got through this, OHP 37.5kg dropped down to single lifts and 10 sets. Deadlift 100Kg the only one I am still going strong on. May add one more exercise to my routine. Want to get good at pull ups so will target that area.

Eating
Eating wasn't actually bad this week didn't get my 80% target but managed 4 out of 7 days. A lot of nervous snacking during the rugby and had one dinner out where I was probably not as strict as I could be. Some bad choices though around options too much bread which is a bit of a gateway drug for me. The truth is in the results though and to put on 400 grams needs to be a kick up the arse.

Mental
Been up and down this week, surprisingly not as gutted about the rugby result as I thought I would be. Over the years have come to expect that the game is taken out of the players hands with TMO and you can't blame them they are not in control of that. Its not like someone has lost their shit and punched someone. They just get it wrong sometimes.

A familiar pattern is starting to form though and I need to get on top of things again this week. May add a mid week update to try and keep me honest.