Originally Posted by
LetsGo
I’ve been on another downswing, and I’ve realized that my at-home “workouts” aren’t remotely cutting it. For several months after I wasn’t really working out much, I feel like I still had the hormonal benefits from my earlier workout regimine. It takes a month or two for the hormonal benefits to kick in when you start a program, and then I guess it takes a few months for them to wear off.
I need to get heavier weights, there’s not that much I can do with the 4 lbs and 7 lbs dumbbells (which were all I could buy when I first started looking for them.) Going to failure with 7 lbs weights, 15 times per day, just isn’t my thing. I have some 15 lbs ones on the way, which is better but probably not enough. I also need an actual pull up bar to hang from my door. The one I have from my brother is the kind that twists and expands into the door, but it doesn’t feel secure at all and I know I will fall if I use it. (I’m 153 lbs.) I may also get those resistance band things, which might help as well.
I need to build a meditation practice, I think that would make a difference, at the margins. I’ve been trying to improve my sleep, but it’s not going very well.
It’s one of those times where I feel like I haven’t made any progress at all, but I do have my old updates to look through and re-read about the upswings that I never used to get (aside from a couple of brief times on vacations.) I’d encourage anyone going through this to keep some form of a journal, and ideally also a calendar, and note any major changes in your workout, diet, herbs, sleep, etc, so you can find patterns. Maybe I should do something like that with an Excel sheet. Hopefully everything is accumulating over time, and I’m not back to zero.
I had tried doing the prohormones for about a week, hoping it’d break me out of the funk, but I still had zero libido and anhedonia, and realized that using them was a mistake because I wasn’t really working out. I looked through my Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding and came up with a workout plan that I think I can do from home. I will have 2 HIIT days and 4 lifting days, as the program calls for. Then after awhile, I will add either an arms-only day, or a third HIIT day. The grass is too wet and slippery to go running today, but maybe I should run in a paved park area near me.
To be frank, until about a week ago I had been entirely omitting the HIIT from my regimen, thinking that it was just cardio and that it wouldn’t help my hormones at all. Sprinting is anaerobic, not cardio, so the 30 second sprints are like workout sets. Also, for the first 8 or so months, I was only lifting 3 days per week, often only 10 sets per workout, yet I still made progress. But overall, it wasn’t what it should have been. Also, I was still eating gluten until October - but then I got sick for a month with mono. By doing workouts and HIIT, hopefully I’ll see more rapid progress - especially once I’ve built myself up enough to where I can use the prohomones. I want to be done with this PFS bullshit, but these things cannot be rushed.
Reluctantly, I’m cutting out rice and quinoa as well, which I was supposed to do from the start. I won’t be able to eat at restaurants now, which is very annoying. I don’t know how I’ll go on dates if I can’t go to bars or restaurants. From what I’ve read, it seems like legumes aren’t considered “paleo” because they have phytites, but they are virtually eliminated by cooking, and “ancient man” did eat beans. I’m not sure if unsweetened almond milk is okay - it’s almonds and water blended together and strained, although I think there are trace amounts of other things as well. I’d like to be able to make smoothies.
On the TMO website it talks about carb backloading on workout days - eating things like gluten-free pasta (I love red lentil pasta), rice, and both kinds of potatoes in the PM. Maybe a smoothie with my gluten-free oatmeal before bed. I could absolutely do that, especially since I’ll be working out 6 to 7 days per week. And I’d be able to have dinners at restaurants occasionally. I’m just grappling with the rules on this.
I’ve come up with an alternate way to cycle the herbs that I’m going to experiment with. Basically, one 13-day cycle, and then at the same time, a separate 7-day cycle of the herbs that I feel are less effective (goji berry, iodine, etc.) Every day, I’ll be rotating through both lists and maybe I’ll get better results that way. Plenty of guys only rotate through 13 herbs, so I’m curious to see how this works.
My hair loss has accellerated significantly. I got a red light laser helmet thing and also ordered a microneedling pen. If those don’t work, then sometime in 2021 it’ll be time to shave my head, or go with a nearly-shaved head - and either way, grow out my beard. As a short white guy, I feel like I’d have to be pretty muscular to pull off the fully shaved head look.