2021 General Fitness thread

[Buehler445]

How's everyone's 2021? These threads have been full of good stuff in years past.

What are we doing this year?

[BigBeauford]

Originally Posted by Bearcat

A bit of a tangent off this and motivation varies of course, but one thing that's worked for me to help ensure expensive equipment doesn't become a coat rack is to feed good habits.... I did body weight and dumbbell workouts for months with equipment I had laying around, then ended up buying a nice cable rack thing after ~18 months. Basically the same for hiking and walking/jogging, upgrading to better shoes, better earbuds, and was gifted a smart watch once I had been doing those things for a while and wanted to upgrade the experience some.

I had always sucked at buying shit and then using it for like a month, and would also feed good habits with beer instead of more good habits (granted, the name of my workout routine is currently called BeerFit... )

I agree, I have a few "coat racks" for various things in my house (looking at you dumbass synthesizer). What changed is getting to work remote 100%, and using my lunchbreak or my 30 minute window before picking the kids up. Other than that, I don't find there is a magical pill to set yourself straight other than filtering out what hasn't worked for you. I've never liked running (especially when I was in the service) and I for sure knew a piece of cardio equipment that I had to self-motivate for usage would be a giant waste of money. But it's a different ballgame with this Peloton having what amounts to a personal spin instructor and a live leader board going no matter when you take the class.

Oh, and the instructors are crazy hot. That helps.

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by BigBeauford

I agree, I have a few "coat racks" for various things in my house (looking at you dumbass synthesizer). What changed is getting to work remote 100%, and using my lunchbreak or my 30 minute window before picking the kids up. Other than that, I don't find there is a magical pill to set yourself straight other than filtering out what hasn't worked for you. I've never liked running (especially when I was in the service) and I for sure knew a piece of cardio equipment that I had to self-motivate for usage would be a giant waste of money. But it's a different ballgame with this Peloton having what amounts to a personal spin instructor and a live leader board going no matter when you take the class.

Oh, and the instructors are crazy hot. That helps.

Yeah, one dumb thing I kept going back to was early morning workouts, because IMO it's ideal only if I can get my ass up to do it... and working from home full time really helped in that I started doing either lunch time workouts or starting work a bit early and then working out immediately after work. And I've gotten better at eliminating the things that don't work.

It took me about 6 weeks of habit-forming before the bad feeling of skipping a workout started gnawing at me more than usual, and about 2-3 months before working out was just a thing I did.

I've been traveling in recent months and finding a gym is just a thing, which was unheard of before... even over the holidays, making sure I got the workouts in.

Sucks that it took until my 40s to figure shit out, but working from home full time was huge, plus the unfortunate motivation of watching parents/relatives getting older and having health issues, combined with my own retirement planning and actually wanting to make it that far.

[notorious]

Originally Posted by Bearcat

Yeah, when I first started I had the feeling of... what the hell DOESN'T have carbs in it?! ...but, I liked being on it in general. I usually wouldn't hit <30g/day, but would stick in the ~50-75g range, and always seemed to feel better overall when I stuck to it.

At times I'd get in the bad habit of kicking myself out of keto on the weekend, just to spend a few days feeling starved and getting headaches as I got back into it, rinse & repeat.

Wonderful beer.

FYP

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by notorious

I've been bad. I've been insanely busy, but I'm managing the business instead of skinning knuckles on floors.

Ballooned from 205 to 230 since July. 5 pounds a ****ing month is just horrifying. 500 calories in excess PER DAY.

Eating like shit and not exercising has created this monster. I'm 6'3, carry it decent, but it's time to cinch this shit up.

I can do it, just need to start. The sad thing is I was doing 25 grams of carbs a day back in early December, made it through the keto flu (which sucks ass), dropped 10 in a week and then ****ed it all up by falling off the wagon.

Wish me luck, but I probably won't know what to do with it if I found it.

Were you going for Keto? I accidentally got the Keto flu once and MOTHER OF GOD. That noped the shit right out of that deal. My wife was like "You're an idiot. When I started the current diet way back when we had lunch together whenever that was, I ate quite a bit of fruit. If you're cleaning it up and not looking for Keto, I'd recommend hammering an apple or some strawberries to smooth the crash.

Keto flu ****ed me up hard. And at the time, I didn't even know it was a thing. That's a never again thing for me.

What helped me, is get some shit you like that is satisfying. I worked out some brussels sprouts procedure that I really dig. I honed in on this like 15 minute chicken taco recipe (with carb balance tortillas - don't come at me) that I really dig and can kick out quick. That helped me a lot.

When you're on the road, that's hard man. I've prepped some stuff that I've had decent luck with. A few years ago, in a fit of rage, I decided one fall that I wasn't going to eat any sandwiches. I had to get pretty creative. Bratwust and smoked sausages on the grill are decent cold. I also (back before food got stupid) got some sirloins and chicken breasts and got them cooked up properly (I tried to have them on the smoker and then sear them on the grill. If I do it again, I'm going to sous vide them and sear them off on the blackstone), rested them and sliced them - vac seal and back in the freezer. Thaw a bag the day before I plan to eat it and it is pretty damned good cold in a lunchbox.

Cold brew coffee also saved my life from the caffeine front

My rough spot is late at night when I'm in the office and trying to stay awake/engaged. That's when I get some level of satisfaction from shit. I just try to have fruit around and hammer that so I don't do dumb shit.

Good luck man. It's really ****ing hard if you're a guy like me that gets a shitload of value through satisfaction from good food.

[J Diddy]

Truth told I was in a slow declining hell since Covid hit.

In 2017 I weighed in around 200, which is heavy for a guy at 5'6." in October of 2021 I was pushing 240. 3 days shy of back surgery, which got scrubbed because lo and behold my heart’sejection fraction was around 25%. I was in constant pain, had no energy, worked as long as I could which turned out to be in January of 2022.

There was a very bleak beginning to 2022 but it turned out some good things happened in '21 that saved my ass. My wife left her job of 17 years to work at Ducommun where she now works doing some cool shit (she helped build parts for the Artemis lunar project—heh I got a kick ass T-shirt out of the deal) which is a union job which has kick ass insurance. They covered so much medical costs and prescription costs that my old insurance, which was decent, wouldn't, that I probably wouldn't be here without them. Also, after hearing about my heart failure (yeah my former cardiologist never thought to bring this up with me and I was too stupid to look for it) I got my ducks in a row and filed a disability claim that I later repealed because I decided to work until I either dropped dead or fired. This was such a blessing because when I got an attorney to process my disability it was mostly done and since they work for a percentage of back-pay and I did not receive any (your first payment begins at the first full month after date of disability which would have been 2/22 and I was deemed disabled in 6/22 beginning in 1/22) they worked for free.

That being said I was depressed as all hell. I was stuck all alone by myself all day, no money, no energy, in pain all day, I was drinking the pain away, the edema in my feet was so bad that I literally went up two shoe sizes. Finances were a disaster, we were a wreck and then shit starts to turn around that summer. We filed for bankruptcy. We're living off her paychecks. They bring in the St. Luke’s head of cardiac transplants and he prescribes Entresto. Her insurance covers it at $200 for a 3 month supply. I apply for their discount that knocks it down to a $10 co-pay for 3 months. Energy gets better. They schedule the new pacemaker, they add a new lead to improve the ejection fraction, discuss adding an ICD, I go to KU and do a MUGA (super accurate method to determine ejection fraction) pre new pacemaker and lead it's at 49 so I don’t need one (ejection fraction is normal at 55 for a man my age). I get out of the hospital and I’m drinking less, sleeping more, walking more, lost 15 pounds in a month. Weight is down from 235 to 219.4 as of this morning. The wife and I walked 2.5 miles yesterday afternoon in less than an hour. I used to have to ride an electric scooter to get through Wal-Mart. I am still waiting to see about my back and do have an MRI scheduled for a potential surgery to take some pressure off my sciatic nerve. I am fighting like hell to get back to the 150-170 range. I'm still healing and trying to get off disability and trying to get back to work.


So I know, tldr, but I’m pretty damn proud of myself. I went through some shit in 2022. So physically and mentally I’m so much better than I was this time last year.

[Buehler445]

Keep working J.

[notorious]

Originally Posted by Buehler445

Were you going for Keto? I accidentally got the Keto flu once and MOTHER OF GOD. That noped the shit right out of that deal. My wife was like "You're an idiot. When I started the current diet way back when we had lunch together whenever that was, I ate quite a bit of fruit. If you're cleaning it up and not looking for Keto, I'd recommend hammering an apple or some strawberries to smooth the crash.

Keto flu ****ed me up hard. And at the time, I didn't even know it was a thing. That's a never again thing for me.

What helped me, is get some shit you like that is satisfying. I worked out some brussels sprouts procedure that I really dig. I honed in on this like 15 minute chicken taco recipe (with carb balance tortillas - don't come at me) that I really dig and can kick out quick. That helped me a lot.

When you're on the road, that's hard man. I've prepped some stuff that I've had decent luck with. A few years ago, in a fit of rage, I decided one fall that I wasn't going to eat any sandwiches. I had to get pretty creative. Bratwust and smoked sausages on the grill are decent cold. I also (back before food got stupid) got some sirloins and chicken breasts and got them cooked up properly (I tried to have them on the smoker and then sear them on the grill. If I do it again, I'm going to sous vide them and sear them off on the blackstone), rested them and sliced them - vac seal and back in the freezer. Thaw a bag the day before I plan to eat it and it is pretty damned good cold in a lunchbox.

Cold brew coffee also saved my life from the caffeine front

My rough spot is late at night when I'm in the office and trying to stay awake/engaged. That's when I get some level of satisfaction from shit. I just try to have fruit around and hammer that so I don't do dumb shit.

Good luck man. It's really ****ing hard if you're a guy like me that gets a shitload of value through satisfaction from good food.

I tried Keto with my wife when the doc said she had gestational diabetes 6 years ago.

I was a pissed asshole. That shit was horrendous. I was in better shape and burned more calories back then, though. My body said **** you, you need carbs or else.

[notorious]

I have no idea how you do it on the tractor or sprayer. Not enough room to do pushups or setups, plenty of room for snacks and horrible shit to shove into your mouth.

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by notorious

I have no idea how you do it on the tractor or sprayer. Not enough room to do pushups or setups, plenty of room for snacks and horrible shit to shove into your mouth.

Sprayer isn't so bad because I typically have to quit before lunch and it's hard as shit to eat in there. The tractor is rougher. It helps that I've met my goddamned lifetime quota for sandwiches. That helps put some planning into what I take up in there - see the story about getting pissed off and going an entire fall without eating a sandwich.

[notorious]

Originally Posted by Buehler445

Sprayer isn't so bad because I typically have to quit before lunch and it's hard as shit to eat in there. The tractor is rougher. It helps that I've met my goddamned lifetime quota for sandwiches. That helps put some planning into what I take up in there - see the story about getting pissed off and going an entire fall without eating a sandwich.

So many days riding that tractor with my sandwich in the cooler. I'd do fine until after the farm report and that damn restaurant from Garden would come on and tell us their special for the day.

Lunch would be gone at 10:45am thanks to that hag., with nothing left to eat until 7:30-8pm.


This sums it up perfectly:

[Shoes]

My better half is looking for a treadmill, any suggestions for those who have an in-home gym?

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by notorious

So many days riding that tractor with my sandwich in the cooler. I'd do fine until after the farm report and that damn restaurant from Garden would come on and tell us their special for the day.

Lunch would be gone at 10:45am thanks to that hag., with nothing left to eat until 7:30-8pm.


This sums it up perfectly:

Exactly.

[penguinz]

I can't even curl a 5lb dumbbell or lateral raise an 8lb with my left arm at this time. Waiting for last bit of pain and tightness from surgery to go away so I can hit the gym. Tomorrow will the 3 weeks post op.

[Titty Meat]

Originally Posted by penguinz

I can't even curl a 5lb dumbbell or lateral raise an 8lb with my left arm at this time. Waiting for last bit of pain and tightness from surgery to go away so I can hit the gym. Tomorrow will the 3 weeks post op.

What surgery did you have?

[loochy]

Originally Posted by Shoes

My better half is looking for a treadmill, any suggestions for those who have an in-home gym?

We bought this one during covid and it's badass.

https://www.nordictrack.com/incline-...ommercial-x32i

It's huge and sturdy. It's quiet. It inclines up to 40 degrees and declines to - 10 degrees. It has a massive screen and the iFit workouts are extremely interesting.