My Year With 3J - a journey into fitness

OOOPS, I forgot to update with my stats on the first. Suffice it to say not much changed at all, which is why I am now being moved to Keto. I KNOW things will be different this Sunday, though, so stay tuned!
 
11-08-15

This week was both good and bad - good in that I can SEE and FEEL the changes in my body again. Bad because now I am always hungry and wanting carbs. I forgot how just about every food out there is chock full of carbs. No, I do not need a list of the healthy, good for you, non-carb foods. I WANT the Reece's Peanut Butter Cup dipped in Nutella...

Found a new workout partner for Saturdays - my Kickboxing coach. He is in great cardio shape and is 20 years younger than me - and is now working on strength training. I was surprised my triceps are more powerful than his, but he whooped me in everything else. It is not a problem, I tell everyone that I am NOT in any kind of competition with anyone but myself...but especially not with someone 20 years my junior. If I beat him out, he feels terrible about himself and feels a loss...and if he beats me out he is SUPPOSED to do that, so there is no win. :)

Did all 5 days at the gym - slowly increasing my weights moved again now that my form is proper. I got sick again, but this time I received anti-biotics and everything got better pretty fast. Got all 4 cardio days in as well.

Feeling good, especially since my stomach and waste numbers dropped! Interesting that my weight did not move much, but it did drop as well, so all is good. Here are my stats:

*Weight: 186
*Neck: 16.25
*Chest: 40.5
*Stomach: 34
*Waist Line: 35
*Biceps: L: 13 R: 13
*Thighs: L: 24.25 R: 24.25
*Calves: L: 15.25 R: 15.25
*Forearms: L: 12 R: 12
 
You know, I never expected a Keto diet to be as hard as it is. The first week was not too bad, this second week is far rougher. I caught myself staring at wheat bread and thinking about how wonderful a slice of plain wheat bread would taste...
 
11-15-15

Keto diets are harder than I thought they would be! The first week is not so bad, but after that it gets exponentially harder. Still, it was effective, so it was worth doing.

My muscle sizes stayed the same, which is good. My weight, stomach, and waist line all dropped. My waist line went down an entire inch! I could tell it would be good since I had to move a notch tighter on my belt.


I went to a wedding last night...I am probably the only person on Earth who actually does not like the taste of Wedding Cakes. I have not had one that tasted good since the one at my own wedding almost 29 years ago, which was made by my wife's grandmother. Well, scratch that, my daughter's cake was great but it was actually made by both my daughter and my wife - and my wife is an amazing cook and decorator. But all the store bought wedding cakes I have eaten have been bad. Since I was still on the keto diet last night, it gave me a great excuse to not even taste a slice of it. :) The bride and groom both play Dungeons and Dragons with us (I am a dungeon master and have been since I was 13) and they know all about my diets and working out and such and fully support me on it, so no one was offended. Score one for Keto!!


I am going to keep crushing it at the gym. I feel my mojo has returned and all is good. Except for a few things that I still have strong desires for (a great pumpkin pie and Christmas cookies), I have noticed my desire for sweets is rapidly dropping. Or rather, when I have them I find them no longer as yummy and amazing as I used to, making them me want them less. This is something I did not expect. Due to my insanely powerful lactose intolerance level (I cannot eat an entire milk chocolate bar without becoming gassy and ill), many things I used to like are fully out of my reach anyway. But there is nothing for it, even the pills no longer work for me. The benefit is that I have to eat healthier whether I like it or not.


I have learned how to make lactose free condensed milk, so I can actually have a piece of pumpkin pie again - first time in years. I promise not to go hog wild on it. :)

Anyway, thanks for the kick in the ass 3J, I needed it. Onwards and upwards from here (or rather downwards - I am in a cut after all)!



*Weight: 184
*Neck: 16.25
*Chest: 40.5
*Stomach: 33.75
*Waist Line: 34
*Biceps: L: 13 R: 13
*Thighs: L: 24.25 R: 24.25
*Calves: L: 15.25 R: 15.25
*Forearms: L: 12 R: 12
 
11-22-15

Sigh...

Half way through the week I lost control and binge ate a bunch of candy / sweet pastries. Bad for my diet and my goals...but I learned something from it. My lactose intolerance has gotten to the point where I become greatly pained if I eat any amount of store bought candy / sweets. Real milk is used in so much stuff and I cannot stomach even a little bit of it any more. Spent two days in quite a bit of bloated pain before finally expunging it all, so obviously no gym time with me releasing vast quantities of biological agents. My wife even went to visit her mother for those two days... So at this point, no more of that stuff for me unless I make it myself.

I basically stalled this week. I gained a pound and all my stomach measurements rose slightly...so I undid my previous efforts and that makes me mad at myself. Why work so hard if I am going to take it all away so easily and quickly? For most, the hard work would simply stop, but that is not what I am here to do. This week, I am skipping the pumpkin pie and am going to eat healthily on Thanksgiving and afterwards (as well as before). I will eat too much turkey still, I am sure, but too much turkey is still far better than any amount of pumpkin pie.

So with all that out of the way, I can move forward. There is no reason (or ability) to lie about what happened - the pictures tell the tale. Without further adieu:


*Weight: 185
*Neck: 16.25
*Chest: 40.5
*Stomach: 34.25
*Waist Line: 34.5
*Biceps: L: 13 R: 13
*Thighs: L: 24.25 R: 24.25
*Calves: L: 15.25 R: 15.25
*Forearms: L: 12 R: 12
 
Excellent log Cybersage

I'll get mine started really soon. I have somewhat of a unique story as I was immediately put in a position at work to be constantly travelling as soon as I started with 3J. Long story short, I did use the diet plan 3J sent me but I couldn't really cook or prepare all the meals. Unfortunately I cut my calories way too far back and lost a whole bunch of weight really fast (had some pharmaceutical help which I'll detail in my log). Not good but I'm in the process of fixing the damage with 3J's help. So far so good and hoping I didn't trash my metabolism too bad. I needed to lose over 100 lbs. to start so I think I'm OK...

Anyway, I've done keto in the past and I certainly feel your pain bro. First month is a marathon of pain!! My big advantage is I'm single so no wifey and/or kiddo food to deal with. I can easily empty the house of all the bad shit and just kind of hunker down and suffer in peace.

Well, keep up the good work sage and I'll be following.
 
11-29-15

The weight gain of last week turned into a stalemate in body weight for this week - which I consider a win due to Thanksgiving being last week. I did all 4 cardio sessions and hit the gym every day of the week and am feeling good about it. I feel lighter, even though I obviously am not. Not much to say other than I have worked out a bunch of nagging stupid issues in my life and feel back on track.

All my major muscle groups shrunk slightly - I am not going to let that bother me, I knew it would happen and am hopeful that at least some of the shrinkage is from fat loss, especially considering my waist line dropped by 1/2 inch. :)

Anyway, onto the stats:

*Weight: 185
*Neck: 16
*Chest: 40.25
*Stomach: 34.25
*Waist Line: 34
*Biceps: L: 12.5 R: 12.5
*Thighs: L: 23.75 R: 23.75
*Calves: L: 15 R: 15
*Forearms: L: 11.75 R: 11.75
 
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As many of you have probably noticed, I have started running GW50 to aid me in my cardio fitness. You can find the log of its run in the prohormones section. The short of it is that GW50 (from SarmsSearch) has improved my cardio fitness quite a bit - or rather, my ability to do cardio (the fitness is what I will get from doing all the cardio). It has helped to motivate me to DO the cardio, most likely since I know it will not be so horrible as I always fear it will be.

I think cardio could be fun if I did not actually try to break a sweat while doing it (like over half the people at my Planet Fitness), but what is the point of THAT!?! I am running the GW-50 at 30ml per day. The recommended dosage is 20ml, but that did very little for me. I was feeling discouraged and then thought, "why not up the dosage a little?". I am glad I did, night and day difference.

So if you are feeling like cardio sucks and you do not do it simply because you do not feel motivated to do it, snag some GW50 from SarmsSearch and see what happens. It worked for me, hopefully it will work for everyone else. Though I have read that some people simply do not respond to it at all. I feel sad for them. :(
 
So I just got back the test results from my blood work drawn yesterday. It has been two weeks since I dropped from 500mg of test a week to my normal TRT dose of 150mg a week. I have also not been feeling right, so I figured blood work would help me see why.


MCH 25.6 (Range is 26.6-33.0 pg)
Bilirubin, Total 1.3 (Range is 0.0-1.2 mg/dL)
Alkaline Phosphatase, S 177 (Range is 39-117 IU/L)
AST (SGOT) 84 (Range is 0-40 IU/L)
ALT (SGPT) 98 (Range is 0-44 IU/L)

Testosterone, Serum 1010 (Range is 348-1197 ng/dL)
Estradiol 45.2 (Range is7.6-42.6 pg/mL)


I am still low on iron, so back to iron supplements.
My E2 is slightly high - I stopped taking an AI when I dropped the test dose - I should have kept it a little longer. Easy fix.
My Free Test is still way high - no surprise there. It will continue to decay. I have my urologist appointment at the start of February for my annual TRT checkup.

My liver hates me. Decades of heavy drinking means that this happens from time to time from the simplest of causes. I worked my back too hard last week ago and took Ibuprofen for a few days to remove the pain. The numbers are also usually slightly outside of the high limit for me. Back to taking NAC and TUDCA. I am just going to start taking 600mg of NAC all the time, upping the dose when on a blast or whatever.


Lesson for all you who are not yet heavy drinkers - DON'T DO IT!!!
 
I can positively thank GW50 for giving me the energy, and therefor the motivation, to do my needed cardio. I now do the full 20 minutes without any desire to quit! That has never happened to me before. :)

I can also attest that my liver values are coming down. I know this because I am taking a LOT of NAC (tudca on order) and my poop is getting darker. It has started to get lighter and lighter...and by the time I took my blood test it was a super light tan. Now it is a dark tan, and I feel much better inside.
 
Feeling good about this week - I would be surprised if I do not see good improvements. I stayed on the diet (except for a cup of egg nog, lactose free, it is a weakness of mine) and have worked out hard and gotten in my cardio. :) My pants feel loose and I feel good. I am going to do another cardio session today. If the energy keeps up I might actually start enjoying cardio!
 
12-06-15

The results were not as good as I had hoped, but they were not bad either. I lost 1 pound and both my waist and stomach did not change. My legs got slightly bigger and my forearms got slightly bigger as well. I will just keep on trucking and see what next week brings. I will not let it deter me, I have my mojo back.


I did something to my right arm, not sure what but my elbow hurts and upper arm hurts. It actually feels somewhat like growing pains, though I know it cannot be that. I have started taking aspirin for it, since that is very liver friendly. I am going to setup a doctor's apt if it does not go away, or at least start to get better, after a few days. It hurts between that knobby bone part that sticks out on the radius (on the outside of the elbow joint) and the bony part that sticks out on the ulna (the point made when you bend your arm). I looked at a picture to get the names so that's also why I also described it. The pain is closest to that knobby part of the radius. It also mostly hurts when I'm not using the joint when it is sitting still.


Onto my stats:


*Weight: 184
*Neck: 16.25
*Chest: 40.25
*Stomach: 34.25
*Waist Line: 34
*Biceps: L: 12.5 R: 12.5
*Thighs: L: 24 R: 24
*Calves: L: 15 R: 15
*Forearms: L: 12 R: 12
 
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keep up with man- doing good-

taking products like motrin with ibuprofen will inhibit muscle growth of course in excess- i cant for the life of me remember the exact process, so if you do need it try not to munch on it like candy- elbow pain up to the back part of the arm towards the tricep heads or does the pain feel like it wraps inwards to the bicep?

also, with the keto diet- theres a product by pat arnold - keto force beta hydrate, potassium and sodium. friends have used - i havent because never did it, but bought a bottle and its in the fridge- and say it helps.
 
The doctor told me it is "tennis elbow", ie tendonitis of the outside of the elbow. Immobilize the wrist, minimize use of the elbow, and ice it. :(

I am going to start taking a low dose of HGH to help the healing process. I will post a landing photo soon. :)
 
I hate my fucking elbow. It has not been right ever since my wife practiced an elbow lock on me a few years back. Dang her for being so into martial arts!!!

Not sure if the HGH is helping anything in my elbow, but it has surely kicked my libido into high gear. It never truly came back after succumbing to low T, but now...damn!
 
Been slacking it due to my elbow - need to take it easy. As such, I am sure this Sunday's check is will blow badly...
 
12-27-15

This week sucked, diet wise. Christmas cookies were made by my wife and sister, both excellent bakers. Cookies are one of my major weaknesses and I succumbed quickly and fully. The good news is that I have already eaten all the Christmas cookies so they are no longer a threat to my diet. The bad news is they have already left their mark on my body. My weight, stomach, and waist all shot up this week. I tell myself it is Christmas and that makes it ok, but I know it really does not. It is what it is, no need to beat myself up over it, time to move forward.



My elbow hurts differently now. It now feels like the circulation has been cut off and restored - I am getting slight tingly feelings in my thumb and next three fingers (not the pinky, oddly enough) and down the forearm on the outer side. My fingers do not get cold, so circulation is good, they just get tingly and sometimes slightly numb. Using a mouse makes it bad quickly, so I am going to see if I can take a week or two off work at the start of the new year to allow it to rest. I do computer networking for a living, so the mouse and keyboard are used constantly. Luckily, I have little problem using the mouse left handed...years of helpdesk support taught me that. The elbow has a slight sharp pain on occasion...sometimes there is nothing and other times I want to lop it off. I am hopeful this is a sign of the HGH doing some healing since I have never run it before. I am thinking of having the doctor check it out again incase something strange has happened.



I did some test runs at the gym last week to see what I could and could not do. I did cardio using my arms - bad idea. I hate all the other cardio machines, but I can do the elliptical without using arms so it should be fine. I only did 2 days of cardio last week, but am going back to doing 4 days this week now that I know I can do it. I did back day but skipped the dead lifts and the bent over rows, had no problem with the pull downs or the seated rows. I did leg day minus the squats and it was fine as well. I did very light flat bench presses, 3 sets of only 50 pounds (I normally do 125 pounds for my set of 15) and it was slightly difficult, when I tried the 150 pounds, my right arm would not engage at all, so I know that was way too high. Rather than find my max weight it would engage at, I felt doing a scant 50 pounds was more prudent. I skipped arm day altogether.



So onto my sad and pathetic stats for this week:



*Weight: 193
*Neck: 16.75
*Chest: 40.5
*Stomach: 35.75
*Waist Line: 35.25
*Biceps: L: 12.75 R: 12.75
*Thighs: L: 24 R: 24
*Calves: L: 15 R: 15
*Forearms: L: 12 R: 12
 
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I was told to stop all weight pushing until my arm heals and just do three sessions of thirty minute light cardio for now. Since 3J is the expert, I will bow to his judgement. Also, he told me not to be so hard on myself - which is a much more difficult thing to do...
 
I know how you feel about being hard on yourself when you shouldn't be. I don't envy that 30 minutes of cardio though...

Heal and then get back on the grind.
 
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