Support for the men & dads on the forum. RE; For the 30 som

Newfiedan

This weeks challenge is geared towards the men that are not getting enough protein in their diets, I am urging them to add in 30g at breakfast either via food or protein shake for the entire week, see what they get for results.

dave4d

31 grams this morning in my waffles.

outersoul

Monday - 31g @ breakfast
Tuesday - 31g @ breakfast

Newfiedan

I am going to be adding in 30 preworkout (about an hour before) and post workout (25ish afterward) see if that helps with muscle growth.

dave4d

30 Monday
31 Tuesday
39 Wednesday

outersoul

I am going to be adding in 30 preworkout (about an hour before) and post workout (25ish afterward) see if that helps with muscle growth.

Monday - 31g @ breakfast
Tuesday - 31g @ breakfast
Wednesday - 31g @ breakfast

rileysowner

Did a Tabata workout today doing something like a front squat with shoulder press at the top using dumbells. I went really light with the dumbells to make sure I could get through all the intervals. Man by the end I was beat and my legs were jello. I wonder how they will feel tomorrow. I was hoping to get in a light cardio session afterward, but my legs would not do it. I may try for one later today.

Newfiedan

yeah today is going to be a weight day for me I have been making pretty massive gains in my lifts, nearly 40 pounds in 3 weeks for military lift, so I am hoping to soon be able to conquer that chinup bar without any assists for a full 2 sets. I am not sure why but that one has always been my weak spot.

rileysowner

yeah today is going to be a weight day for me I have been making pretty massive gains in my lifts, nearly 40 pounds in 3 weeks for military lift, so I am hoping to soon be able to conquer that chinup bar without any assists for a full 2 sets. I am not sure why but that one has always been my weak spot.

I have never been able to do them (chin-ups or pull-ups) and by never I mean even when I was a teenager and lifted weights regularly. My strength both then and now is in my legs. At my best I would leg press over 400 pounds. I think for a while I even got over 500 pounds in the leg press, but my upper body strength has always been my weakness.

My plan, long term, is to get to my goal weight, them work to build muscle in a very systematic way seeking to achieve a good proportional look. If people are familiar with the Adonis index, I would like to get my body proportions to meet that. If you don't know about it, you can google it since I don't remember the web-page address out of my head.

I weigh in every day since it doesn't bother me to go up and down in weight like it does some people, and I was down about a pound from my last official weigh-in.

Newfiedan

I am more balanced I would say with a strong core and good muscle all over its just that I seem to be naturally geared towards lifting as opposed to pulling myself up like that. I am making good progress there and my arms/chest have always been well developed. I can do a sitting pull of 150 pounds for a set of 10 without dying or dips till the cows come home but is always been the pull up that I lacked for it, the wider the grip the harder it was for me. Close grips I am pretty good at with 140 pounds or so for a few sets. I have geared my workouts towards pull ups now to rectiy that.

outersoul

My lower body is also waaay stronger than my upper body. I have killer calves and quads.

Newfiedan

I have always had bigger legs, 15" calfs for a 5ft8 guy is not to bad lol, quads are pretty decent as well, I am aiming for that vin dieselish type of build, where I am slim but not to skinny, faint 6pack lines.

Newfiedan

So I have been reading up on the best foods packed with the best nutrition to squeeze the most out of the diet and I just wanted to post this for the men/women who have friended me on here.

Spinach (I tried adding more of this into my diet this week and it made a difference, baby spinach in my omelette, it has made a difference to my energy levels and i tend to not tire as easily on longer workouts now. The b vitamins and added iron are great as well.

Tomatoes (licopein) for the men this one is for prostate health and circulation a great fruit for the diet (yes a tomato is a fruit.

Mushrooms, these little guys are loaded with vitamin D, a fantastic 1, 2 punch for the diet and great for digestion.

Broccoli, this little green tree is a powerhouse for the diet, offering a whole host of benefits. This happens to be one of my fav veggies, I eat lots of it and it is great for anti aging.

Almonds, peanuts and pumpkin seeds, I blend these in a 2-2-1 mix and these little powerhouses have benefited me greatly. Energy, appetite suppresion, increased sex drive, and more.

Blueberries. I do not eat enough of these just yet but I will be adding more of them. just a 1/2 cup packs more antioxidants than a pot of green tea of coffee.

Omega 3s. Fish oil is the kicker here, its great for heart health joints and memory. I have found my mental faculties sharper with this one and my joints not hurting as much.

The body has a great need for nutrition and to ignore it is to deny yourself the benefits, I have learned this one the hard way, going from an overweight eat what I want kind of guy whose energy was lacking sorely to a man who runs 5 miles in a workout and still has energy to come home and play with my son who I am almost as energetic as now. I love how I feel and how I look, my confidence has gotten all the more powerful and I feel my body responding to my positivity, it has rewarded me by healing itself from the point where I required surgery for some serious health issues to being completely healed and feeling better than I have ever felt.



This brings me to this weeks challenge for the men. Diet is king when it comes to geting your workout energy and your physical health on track. I am going to be doing a 2 fold challenge this week.

1) incorporate at least 4 of the foods I mentioned above either via salads or supplement, either way get them in, leave the fast food at the fast food joints and start the day off right with a powerhouse breakfast. Get spinach into the diet at least 1 serving of a cup a day, take some omega 3 via food or supplement. Add in about 10 glasses of water every day, I aim for 14 but that is because I sweat like a beast during my workouts now.

2) In your workouts starting from monday till sunday I want you to push yourself further than you ever have. At least twice this week, bettter your personal best, smash the hell out of it. I did 5 miles UPHILL under 50 mins this week, (wtf I never would have thought I could run like that) Thats including intervals. I averaged a 9 minute mile for he entire run with a 10 min cool down. I want to see the same determination from the participants this week. For my motivational music today I picked up some aggressive music and ran to the tempo, Megadeths "hello me" was very motivational when i said to my body meet the real me a warrior, a phenom of power and you will conform to that image. Metallicas "of wolf and man" when hey say nose to the wind, shape shift, that is exactly what I am doing shape shifting into the man I want to look like. So whatever moves you download that music into your player and get out there lets see you beat yourself.

Newfiedan

I have spent some time reflecting today on my personal journey thus far and I have to say that in just under 3 short months I have gone from being a couch potato to a hard core gym rat lol. Its amazing what the transformation has done to both my physical and emotional health. I feel stronger now than I have ever felt. I know I am going to reach my goal but I wanted to acknowledge the men in the group whom I consider to be inspirational to myself and the group and bring the attention to them. Rileysowner whom has lost a ton of weight and marches to the beat of his own drum, he has been an inspiration to me because he is steady on his path and knows that the goal he wants will be worth it. Dave4d has been inspirational to me since even as lean as he is he remains dedicated and I hope one day to a 6 pack comparable to his lol. Dan2k11 whom is a dedicated father/teacher and has been putting in the effort to make the changes needed to get on the right path. All of the members who not only are members of the group but offer input and advice to eachother. I am proud of our little group and I encourage all to particiapte and get into the swing of it. Offer your own advice or experiences and above all remember this path you are on is for you and you alone, the benefits to the others we know and love is a reward all unto itself but you have to want this for you.

Woodman725

Although working out at the gym is not a new thing for me, counting calories and really watching what I eat is. I've been making healthy food decisions for the last year or so, but never really limited my intake, which got me to where I was. I've really enjoyed trying new foods in my diet, not so much new but regular. Stuff like oatmeal and almonds and others for protein. I'm going to try to get the foods in that you suggested. Several of them are already in my regular diet and snacks. I want to thank you for your suggestion of getting a pre-workout protein in. Unfortunately I only was able to do it once this last week. But I have stuck to my bigger breakfast and protein after my morning workouts. I think that greatly helped me to lose 3 lbs last week.
Pushing myself harder during my workouts is not a difficult thing to do, but it's difficult to measure. My workout is usually interval type training, so I don't really do reps or distance. About a week and a half ago I was about 20 min in and doing some jumping jacks and realized that I was kinda half-a$$ing it. Right then I stepped it up and within 2 minutes I was dripping with sweat. Since then, I really try to get the most out of my workouts and try to do a little extra where I can without looking like "that guy", like I want or need attention or something.
Good luck to all you guys out there in the group, and fee free to add me.

Newfiedan

I am totally shaking up my routine this week with rileysowner's suggestion of meatbolic resistance training, basically a 300 style workout with renegade rows and things of that nature. I am trying to see if I can get it all done in 30 mins or so, but that may be a stretch at first.

rileysowner

I am totally shaking up my routine this week with rileysowner's suggestion of meatbolic resistance training, basically a 300 style workout with renegade rows and things of that nature. I am trying to see if I can get it all done in 30 mins or so, but that may be a stretch at first.

Good job. I am sort of doing the same doing Tabata Intervals using the thrusts. Man that is a killer. I did it for the first time Thursday last week, and Friday and Saturday the muscles of my whole body ached. I was going to do it Sunday again, but I had an all day meeting Saturday and work Sunday and I was really worn out, so I decided to do them again today. After getting warmed up I hit play on my mp3 player for the mp3 that gives me the timing on the Intervals, and nothing happened. I figured, no problem I have a computer down here, I will just download another one and use that. 25 minutes later, still nothing, then I realized if I plug the mp3 player into the computer it will show up as another drive and I could play off that, and finally got my workout in. Sadly my HRM chest strap was not sitting right and didn't record my calories properly so while I got the workout in, I don't know how much I burned, and I haven't done this Interval long enough to know roughly how much I would burn. I will write it off anyway since I know I had a good workout. Depending how I feel I might do something else this PM.

outersoul

This week's challenge is interesting and kind of tough! I did knock out the spinach and mushroom in my Olive Garden dish yesterday. Does that count? LOL.

I need to get back on track nutrition wise so this is the week to do it. As for the protein challenge, that was a cinch. I have protein every morning in the form of a shake for breakfast.

Also for this challenge I'm going to try to up my outdoor running to 3 times this week. My knee has been a bit sore so I'm going to ice it after work and see how it goes.

rileysowner

I have spent some time reflecting today on my personal journey thus far and I have to say that in just under 3 short months I have gone from being a couch potato to a hard core gym rat lol. Its amazing what the transformation has done to both my physical and emotional health. I feel stronger now than I have ever felt. I know I am going to reach my goal but I wanted to acknowledge the men in the group whom I consider to be inspirational to myself and the group and bring the attention to them. Rileysowner whom has lost a ton of weight and marches to the beat of his own drum, he has been an inspiration to me because he is steady on his path and knows that the goal he wants will be worth it. Dave4d has been inspirational to me since even as lean as he is he remains dedicated and I hope one day to a 6 pack comparable to his lol. Dan2k11 whom is a dedicated father/teacher and has been putting in the effort to make the changes needed to get on the right path. All of the members who not only are members of the group but offer input and advice to eachother. I am proud of our little group and I encourage all to particiapte and get into the swing of it. Offer your own advice or experiences and above all remember this path you are on is for you and you alone, the benefits to the others we know and love is a reward all unto itself but you have to want this for you.

Excellent job. It is great to see the transformation happen. I have never thought of myself as someone who marches to the beat of his own drum, but I guess I am Especially here where the advice to most people having difficulty boils down to an incorrect understanding of starvation mode. It sometimes makes me want to scream.

I am thankful I could inspire you, and just so you know you are an encouragement to me as well with you various challenges. I don't always participate, but do enjoy doing them when I do, and thinking through the ramifications when I decide not to. Just so you know, I do consider all of them and look at then in terms of my own overall goals, I don't just discard them.

Newfiedan

"I did knock out the spinach and mushroom in my Olive Garden dish yesterday. Does that count? LOL" yes it does I would like to see a serving in every day as the spinach has made my energy levels better on long term runs and workouts, I am constantly having more and more energy with my workouts as I incorporate them, I have also noticed fewer grey hairs on the temples with the change in diet which is a plus lol. The only killer is that my hair is growin almost twice as fast now meaning I have to shave more often lol. I am glad that I get the gears turning for you riley, is a mutually beneficial deal for us then lol. The reason I say you march to the beat of your own drum is that you set the goals for yourself and stayed the course even when others tried to sway you away from it. For me that means you know your path and are deteremined to stay on it, thats marching to the beat of your own drum. I have long been a leader among my peers and I have no problems staying in that role. I hold myself to very high standards and I try my best to lead by example. When I set my mind to a task I achieve it and I know my work ethic is second to none when I am determined. I hope that I can be an inspiration to my peers on here, I have valued the input thus far and I look forward to being a success in this weight loss journey. This is but step 1 in my metamorphisis to my ultimate goal for my physical appearance and to be successful in life we must be successful in our physical/emotional well being.