TankOnTwoLegs

Today was one of those days I actually didn't want to train. It was my day off and I just wanted to chill and so did wifey. But around mid afternoon we hit the gym anyway after we walked the pooch. I did the Magic 50 workout (but only 3 sets because my energy was down and I was training wifey as well) Plus did medicine ball tosses with her for a total of 20 throws. Afterwards I saw that the pool was empty due to the kids being back in school and the sky looking almost black so I did laps for 10 minutes.

Side note on the swimming: I used to only be able to swim for about 2 minutes straight when I was bigger. Now I can do it for 10.

To be really honest, I don't know how to eat. I tried being Vegan twice before, the first time was an epic fail because I was younger and living with my mother who didn't want to buy different foods for me and so I wound up just living on burritos and hearing her crap about my weight loss because basically she was jealous she wasn't losing weight, so I stopped. The last time I tried, was about 7 years back, and I didn't eat enough. So now it's like...I almost feel like I'm eating too much lol. I don't know guys. Today I ate half a pound of strawberries, plate of homemade spanish rice and beans (amazingness), a peanut butter sandwich, a big ass sweet potato and baby carrots. Seeing it typed up it actually doesn't look like I ate a lot. Again, I don't know. Sometimes the whole ED thing sneaks up and I second guess what goes in my mouth, then other days I couldn't give two turds about what goes into my mouth. I enjoy doing the raw til four thing, but when I'm at work from 7am to 2-3pm, I come home and eat the whole fridge at 4. The other day I swear when 4pm hit I hit my calories in the first hour and a half, I was so hungry. I haven't figured out balance. Or something. I don't know. Anyway, that's my day.

You could always just use non dairy creamer, either in powder form or plant based milk form. Chocolate almond/soy milk in coffee would probably taste pretty amazing.

Really long day at work today. 8 hour shift, with only a 15 minute break. Working nonstop, that counts as working out right? Sure feels like it with how beat I am. No gym tonight.

The raw til 4 thing went great today though, since I wasn't able to take an actual lunch break, I only had a banana at work, and seeds with raisins before work. Needless to say, I was starving when I came home a little after 4pm and ate a peanut butter sandwich, vegan nachos, and a "bowl" (bowl shaped tupperware container so like 3 bowls worth) of gluten free cocoa pebbles with almond milk. I feel better now.

Plus side: I don't have DOMS. I'm just exhausted lol.

Of course when you have DOMS in your lower body from your last workout, it only makes sense to give yourself upper body DOMS to even it out. Walked outside for a bit with the missus and the dog, then went on some errand running. After an amazing dinner of angel hair aioli (angel hair pasta with olive oil and garlic) with baked beans on top (wifey had fish instead of beans) we hit the gym for some night time training.

Lat Pulldown

3 sets of 5 reps @100lbs

3 sets of 5 reps @ 80lbs

3 sets of 5 reps @ 60lbs

Shoulder Press

3 sets of 5 reps @ 100lbs

3 sets of 5 reps @ 80lbs

3 sets of 5 reps @ 60lbs

Chest Press

3 sets of 5 reps @ 80lbs

3 sets of 5 reps @ 60lbs

3 sets of 5 reps @ 40lbs

http://i59.tinypic.com/167349t.jpg

It wasn't a bad workout, by any means. But I am wondering if machines are doing more harm than good. It feels awkward for me to use them, like the depth is too deep or something, I don't know. I may switch to free weights. I wish this gym had barbells but I'll make do. I may just stick with full body strength training instead of the isolated machines.

There are different notions of the intermittent fasting, some people just drink coffee, water, milk and/or tea during their fast, some just have a couple of pieces of fruit. Part of the 20/4 that I was on was that you had two "undereating" phases and then you had your "overeating phase." The point behind it was that your body uses more energy digesting the food and so it's essentially giving your body a break. Your two undereating phases weren't meant to go over 200 calories each time. then your overeating phase was to make sure you hit your calories. Your body wouldn't go into starvation mode, nor would you deal with hunger pangs because after a week of doing this (it was less for me actually) your body got used to it and adjusted so you wouldn't feel hunger at all until your overeating phase. Which for me, was 4pm, and I ate until 8pm. Then had the overnight hours of sleeping to digest what I ate during my overeating phase. The cool part was that after I stopped doing intermittent fasting and just ate 3 or whatever meals a day, the weight didn't come back on. So it's not some fad type "diet" since you're still eating the same calories you've been eating, it's just in the timing.

With greens and most fruits being so low in calories, it wouldn't be very far off from what I've described. It's not just raw for four hours and eat cooked for four hours, it's eating raw from the time you wake up in the morning, until 4pm, or basically dinnertime, then eating cooked until bedtime. Which kind of sounds to me like it'd be similar to a 18/6 regiment of IF. 18 hours fasting, 6 of eating. (or undereating and overeating if you want to use the terminology) Like I said, I lost 20lbs doing it that way, (20/4 approach) when I was an omnivore and never put it back on even after I stopped IF.

When I first started losing weight a couple years ago, I went by the Warrior Diet, which is 20 hours fasting with 4 hours of eating and dropped off my first 20lbs in about 6 weeks. I've seen the "raw til 4" thing going around on Instagram and YT and all that, so I was curious if it's the same type thing, eating raw basically from the time you wake up until 4pm and then eating cooked for 4 hours, or is it just eat cooked from 4pm until bedtime? Giving that I'm still trying to drop weight, I wouldn't have an issue with getting my calories in from 4pm to 10pm. I know that the 18/6 approach is popular with intermittent fasting as well. (I did 20/4 with no problem when I was an omnivore because of the caloric content of animal products obviously with being an herbivore I would need more time to hit that calorie mark) I work nights twice a week, which would cover that eating window so I'd have to adjust the timing but other than that, I have no problem with I.F. so raw til 4 seems doable.

Anyone have any thoughts or experiences doing this, or any advice or warnings about "raw til 4"? I tend to graze more than have real meals so 8 hours or whatever of munching on greens, seeds (I know they aren't technically raw but still.) and fruit seems almost ideal to me.

After yesterday's workout, plus last night's shift, my knees and hamstrings are cursing me out. We were so dead at work there wasn't much movement so I stood in one position for too long a few times and my knees kept locking on me. So felt like today would be a good day off since I have another night shift tonight, but tomorrow I'm off work so I'll be training again then. I still don't know what I'm training for, but I really like the idea of a long term goal. Other than just being able to pull off my jeans without unbuttoning or unzipping them. Though that is fun.

I decided to do a one week update progress picture, I don't see me doing this weekly but it's kinda neat to see the progress after such a short amount of time. The ones on the left were taken on the 7th, the ones on the right were taken today (the 15th)

http://i61.tinypic.com/9fmdr9.png

http://i60.tinypic.com/200td2t.png

Did a backpacked grocery trip today with the wifey. There were some really nice deals going on, like buy one get one free strawberries and salads. Bought strawberries (already have bagged salads in the fridge) and bananas, sunflower seeds, Lara bars, prep for vegan nachos and a few other things that somehow equaled out to like $65 lol. One really nice thing about being vegan, the grocery bill is so much less (I understand this shouldn't be a prime point of going vegan but when you're on a tight food budget with mouths to feed and everyone's on a different way of eating, it's a nice plus.) Just got in from today's training and enjoying a key lime pie Lara bar and sunflower seeds. Here's what I did:

Magic 50

5 dumbbell swings per arm (20lbs) I'll go heavier next session, was trying to find form and balance first.

5 dumbbell snatches per arm (20lbs)

10 lat pulldowns (50lbs)

Repeat circuit 5x. -This originally had 10 burpees instead of pulldowns but because I was planning to do cardio afterwards, I modified it.

Cardio

5K on the elliptical. Resistance level 3. Kept my heartrate at 160-170. Took 36 minutes. It may have been less had the program not turned off at 30mins. I caught a runner's high at mile one, felt awesome. When I was fatter and using the elliptical, my heartrate used to hit 200 and my body was at a standstill while my legs pedaled, being so much lighter now, my body actually rocks in rhythm with my legs and the machine. Caught me off guard at first like holy crap my legs can actually support my weight now!

Side note: Wifey finished her work out about 15mins before me and waited patiently, then told me that my butt looked really good on the elliptical. Today is just full of positives!

I used bodybuilding.com's calculator, I don't know if it is reputable but if pros are using the site, I guess there's something legit to it. It has you measure you waist, forearms, hips, and wrists, along with your height, weight and gender. Like I said it's not something I'm going to obsess over, even if it's off by a few numbers, I'm still the lowest I've been in a decade.

I enjoy walking, thing is, it's my mode of transportation so I don't feel like I'm getting a work out in because I walk everywhere I need to go. Low intensity cardio is something that I have bonded with for years, I've been working out on and off since I was 16 and for my stocky self, low long cardio seems to work best for me. I guess I want to do something more mainstream than just the elliptical but..eh. Guess I'm not mainstream. For HITT I like to do weight circuits, which I'll be doing tomorrow.

Outer pectoral DOMS is WAY better than DOMS in your quads. Nothing worse than whimpering when you're trying to get off the toilet.

Figured out my body fat percentage is 25%. Two years ago it was 32-34%. This is the lowest BF% I've been since probably puberty lol. I'm the same weight I was when my wife and I first met and that was back when I was 18 and had almost no muscle mass. I don't know how accurate this all is, but I took several measurements so, I'm hoping it's at least close. According to this lean body mass calculator, if I'm 205lbs now, with 25% body fat, my lean body mass is 155lbs. If I got down to 10% body fat, it'll put me at 170lbs, which was my high school prom weight. With my goal weight of 175lbs, I wasn't that far off.

At 5'6, this sounds much better than the typical 135lbs that BMI calculators give me. I like being stocky and physically big boned.

I'm not obsessing over the numbers, it's just nice to see such an improvement with only the effort of doing a 180 on eating.

Took the day off training today. Two days on, one day off seems like a good schedule to start on. I was going to do another day of cardio on the elliptical but wanted to chill out today and let my muscles recover. I'm was ambivalent most of the day on it because I haven't adjusted my mindset to being full =/= unhealthy. I had a good bit to eat today and I keep thinking I overate but I didn't because none of it was unhealthy. I had pasta, cereal, fruit, seeds and a pb& banana sandwich. I may have overdone it on the carbs but then again, that could just be the old mindset. Disordered eating doesn't actually go away, you just suppress it best you can with logic, knowledge and growth. Even if I did OD on the carbs today, they were actual food carbs, not junk so like I said, still adjusting and apparently overthinking. Tomorrow morning I'll get some training in before work.

Lots of cardio today. Went grocery shopping with the missus. We walk (well I walk, she wheels) and load up all our groceries into a hiking backpack and walk back, it's about a half mile distance but with the added weight it has to count for something. After that, we took the dog for a walk. Then we hit the gym, I was going to train wifey and hit the pool but there were too many kids in it so I trained her and hit the treadmill. I'm sure all humans with ambulatory movement were "born to run" but I'm really sure noone was born to run on a treadmill. I haven't ran in ever, the last time was in 2013 and I did it for a minute and a half then gassed out. So I wanted to see where I was at. I did ten minutes with 2 minutes running and 1 minute walking. By minute 7 I felt so off balance that I just walked the last three minutes. Are treadmills supposed to feel that awkward? To note, I didn't gas out or feel tired so I could have ran longer if I didn't feel like I was going to fall. To top it off, I brought along my mp3 player and didn't realize it was dead until I was already at the gym and setting up. Meh. But by the time I finished that, the kids were out of the pool so I did a 15 minute swim doing straight laps and actually feel like I worked out. I love to swim but I think I'll stick with the elliptical for cardio because I want to feel like I trained, with sweat and grime and all that good stuff. I dont know where to really run outside because I have no way of tracking mileage.

So to clear it up, my actual training session was a 10 minute run/walk and a 15 minute straight lap swim. I rounded it out with a set of 10 bicep dumbbell curls @25lbs per arm.

P.S. I've discovered Daiya! I bought a container of Daiya cream cheese, it was delicious, kinda sweet. I mixed it with salsa and heated it for a few seconds to dip with tortilla chips, so good. But at $6 a container, it's probably going to just be a once a month delicacy. I've also discovered a brand of cereal called "Mom's Best Cereal" it was basically cocoa pebbles only not as a sweet and tasted actually like cocoa instead of processed chocolate, plus it's gluten free and delicious. At half the price of Chex, I'm sold.

Since being Vegan and gluten free, my digestive tract feels like it's healing up. I don't know if that makes sense to anyone but I used to have intestinal distress over 4 times a week. On particularly bad days those 4 times a week would turn into 4 times in one day. It just feels really good to be able to eat, and enjoy, without worrying about where the nearest bathroom is or if I should even eat because of my stomach issues.

P.P.S Doesn't outer pectoral DOMS feel amazing? (That wasn't sarcasm btw)

Hm, something weird happened to my leg picture. I fixed it again, but I dont know if it'll stay. Anyway, thanks Ross! I'm looking forward to staying consistant with it.

So I caved under peer pressure (haha) and decided to make a training log. I figured this will keep me consistent with my training though I'm still not sure what I am training for exactly. Awesome thing happened today, one of the apartment managers at my complex gave me a gym key for free (it's usually $25), because she thinks my wife, my dog and myself are "awesome." (Personally I think it's just the dog). This means 24/7 gym access. It's a small apt size gym, only a few weight machines, dumbbells and a couple of cardio machines (two spinner bikes, two treadmills, one elliptical and one recumbant bike) there's also some resistance bands, medicine balls and those bouncy body swiss yoga balls, plus an adjustable bench. I'm really sure I can make due with it though. The weight machines are shoulder press, chest press, lat pull down, and leg extension/hamstring curl, though due to my knees and my need to walk I don't do the leg machine. Last night I worked a 6 hour shift, and got home a little after 9pm, this morning I had to open at work and got up at 6am and did a 7.5 hour shift. I'm surprised I even wanted to train but I think my diet is really rounded out nicely to where I have an almost annoying amount of energy, considering last night I was awake until midnight and this morning was ready to go after a shower, tea and a banana. Prior to being vegan, I'd be hitting the snooze button about 3 times before getting up. With the 24/7 access I can actually hit the gym whenever I want to instead of just during the office hours since it's hard to juggle that around a work schedule that isn't set daily hours. Without further ado, here's what I did today:

Shoulder Press:

3 sets of 5 @ 80lbs

3 sets of 5 @ 60lbs

3 sets of 5 @ 40 lbs

Lat Pulldown

3 sets of 5 @100lbs

3 sets of 5 @ 80lbs

3 sets of 5 @ 60lbs

Chest Press

3 sets of 5 @ 100lbs

3 sets of 5 @ 80lbs

3 sets of 5 @ 60lbs

This was after a back to back shift with only 6 hrs of sleep in between so I'm pretty pleased. The rest between sets was minimal, only long enough to tell wifey which lift to do next (I train her) and the rest between moves was only the time it took to move from one machine to the other.

Here's the after pump results:

http://i57.tinypic.com/23ljrpz.jpg

http://i59.tinypic.com/10rk583.jpg

I really like these first two pictures because I think they make me look lighter than 205lbs.

http://i59.tinypic.com/28hzzpk.jpg

I like my back, the love handles are less than lovely though. It's an improvement though, they used to take up my entire top-ass-hip area.

http://i58.tinypic.com/2v2d1c9.jpg

Wifey had issue trying to get my legs in without my crotch showing, and more issue with my posting it on the forum so proper censorship was needed. These wheels are plant fueled! Seriously, dark chocolate almond milk is amazing. It tastes like liquefied brownie batter.

The thinnest Ive been at the height I am at was 175lbs, and that was during high school graduation. I wasn't "allowed" to lift (parental issue), so I was soft bodied, but still broad and strong given my short stature. So I'm thinking 175lbs would be a decent goal weight for me, just with the muscle added on. Only thirty pounds away. I don't own a scale anymore, I find that I actually do better without one because I tend to obsess over it without doing anything about it. I'll just train until my pants keep falling off and when I'm at the pants size I was during graduation, I'll weigh myself lol.

I went ahead and calculated your RMR, or resting metabolic rate. For your age, height and weight, your RMR is an average of 1564 calories (based on bodybuilding.com's calculator) This is how many calories your body needs just to survive on a daily basis. It's not a number you should go under because then your body starts feeding off itself. From there, calculate how much your body burns each day with training, and add it to your RMR amount. So say you burn 500 calories a day, you would add that to the 1564 of your RMR, getting 2064 calories, this is how much you need to eat to maintain what you have now. To lose, just create a slight deficit, without going under your RMR.

This is just a for instance. If you eat 3000 calories a day you can cut 500 calories through diet and/or exercise and still have a good functioning body because your calories will still be well over your RMR.

Most RMR calculators run around the same with the same four formulas and give you an average.

Thank you! My muscles are like a magic act, I can feel them but I can't completely see them yet lol.

http://i61.tinypic.com/35bdpqw.png

http://i59.tinypic.com/24wdizq.png

Wanted to add these ones too. In the side pictures, on the left one I actually was sucking my gut in and at the time thought I looked good lol. In the back pictures, that left one is pretty much just well formed fat. I thought I had some developed lats lol. Feeling much better with how I look in pictures nowadays. My bench press PR is 155lbs and my deadlift PR is 180. I don't train consistently yet but did those lifts just to see where I was at. When I was bigger, my press PR was 135 and my deadlift PR was 165, so improvement is improvement. I don't train squats because my lower back and knees are shot to hell from childhood. (I have some wheels though)

Side note, it's so awesome to see the size difference in my underwear. I was a 2XL, now I'm a large.

Thanks for the kind words. I've been thinking about doing a journal, I just have to organize my training in between work and family life. Right now I'm just being active but nothing structured yet. I'm getting there though.

http://i58.tinypic.com/2qklyxz.png

Two years between the two pictures. On the left, I was a year into recovering from a five year long binge eating disorder. I ate everything not nailed down and got to 255lbs. The one on the right was taken today at around 205 and is the result of an ovo-lacto vegetarian lifestyle. Can't wait to see where being a full on vegan will take me.

I guess you could say I went from an infantry "tank" to a cruiser "tank."

Awesome, I hope he doesn't mind me picking at his brain a bit. Thanks for the welcome!

Hi everyone.

I guess the best way to start an introduction is at the beginning. For internet sake, my name's Tank. (Due to my short stocky build) I'm 27, male and live in Indiana, US with my wife and my dog. I've been an ovo-lacto vegetarian for a while and am in the process of making the switch completely to veganism. My digestive system is irritatingly weak. I have a lactose intolerance as well as a gluten intolerance (The lactose intolerance is worse, but the gluten one is more annoying because gluten is in damn near everything). Now with the current "bird flu" epidemic, my wallet is having a major "ovo" intolerance.

My stats are 5'6, around 205lbs. I actually do better with myself when I don't consistently weigh in. At one point, not very long ago, I hit 255lbs. I was a size 42-44 pants and a 2XL shirt. I developed a binge eating disorder and ate just about anything and everything I could. Including the foods that ripped up my digestive tract and didn't care. On a regular, I would consume 5,000 calories and did little exercise aside from walking from the desk to the fridge and back. But I bounced back, went through several life altering experiences and here I am, 50lbs lighter, 6 pant sizes and two shirt sizes smaller. There are still foods that I can't eat just one serving of so I stay away from them all together because now I actually care. In four months I'll be 28 years old and after that it's just a hop, skip and a jump to 30. I need to do something with my life and what's more basic than knowing how my body functions and what to eat to keep it functioning, ya know?

I want to keep my diet as natural as possible. No powders, no supplements, no fake "meats." Not that having these things as a part of your diet is a bad thing, I just know myself well enough to know not to go there because I'll allow myself to make them my main source of nutrition and that isn't a path I want to go on. To my happiness, I found out that Chex is gluten free and their Honey Nut variety is amazing. Couple that with some vanilla almond milk and a banana and my breakfast is covered. Having a Hispanic wife means my meatless dinners are met effortlessly with spanish rice and beans with potatoes and carrots. In between those two meals I'm usually at work so I can just grab some fruit. (I work at a grocery store, in the deli, yeah irony.) Fitness wise I want to get into running. I always try but always quit, maybe someone will have some advice for me on that, I hope. It always sounds so fun to compete in a race, even if it's just a short 5K.

I guess that pretty much covers it. Hope you all have a good week.