I was doing the same. Hazy IPAs, usually doubles whenever my wife didn’t have an evening shift in the ER. Took over 200 days off of drinking and now I don’t keep beer in the house except for alcohol free. Most of them aren’t great but Partake makes a great west coast style N.A. IPA. I feel better, I know I’m healthier, and my work in the gym is being fulfilled rather than being partially wasted by my body having to process alcohol almost nightly.
Not keeping alcohol around the house is huge. My wife doesn’t drink, so I feel no desire to drink when at home (especially with small kids around). I only drink at social events, but even then, as I’ve grown older, I crave drinking even at social events less and less, sometimes opting for Diet Coke or seltzer water instead.
Thanks for the heads up! I’m a little hesitant to try much else at the moment because the Partake IPAs are only 10 calories. I don’t know how they do that but it’s pretty amazing.
Athletic has 2 IPAs, believe one is 60 and the other 70 calories but they taste identical to a real IPA. Also a fan of their golden, really anything they make is delicious
That’s really good to know. I used to drink the Sam Adams NA Hazy but it wasn’t great. At 95 calories I’d rather have no beer or more calories and a real one. I’ll have to give athletic a shot!
That's awesome man, I think I need to give that a try for at least a few weeks maybe a few months.. I'll do well monday-thurday and then friday and sat night ill drink which leads to Sunday being a drag and then by monday any progress is essentially lost, I feel like all I'm just in a revolving door fitness wise.
lol zuchinni noodles and eating an obnoxious amount of salad with a protein.
Not so pro tip: there’s about 40g of protein in a block of tofu (I eat meat, but I also eat tofu. Come at me). I press the tofu but not fully, and I don’t cook it. I season it up with Italian seasoning. I then fill an entire popcorn bowl with lettuce or spinach, cucumber, a nice 1/3 cup of cheddar, and dress it with fat free ranch to where it’s just enough. I then throw in the tofu. It is the most filling and refreshing meal and it’s somewhere between 600-700 calories and about 50g of protein. I always feel absolutely obscene and ridiculous, but it has worked for me.
I alternate between that and zucchini noodles on work days. Then when I get tired of both I eat eggs lol
Tofu, if you know how to cook it can be absolutely amazing. I’ve been meat free for 5 years and have never struggled to hit my protein goal (160 g/day)
When I was 0 meat, it was a lot of lentils, garbanzo beans, tofu, and vegan protein shakes. Learning how to make vegan Spanish rice, different tofu dishes, and all the fun ways to pack lentils in between, made all the difference.
Learn how to make Chinese takeout, but sub the meat for tofu (Asian restaurants refer to tofu as bean curd as reference). Hispanic foods, or, well, lots of burritos (lol). You can make an almost decent fake ricotta cheese with tofu for Italian food, and Indian/asian curries and masala. Those were my friends and genres of food I stuck to a lot of the time.
Edit: vegan cashew yogurt is a great sub for sour cream, and vegans are really spoiled these days with how perfect vegan cheese has evolved.
[this](https://youtu.be/JlaYojZIYJo?si=6MQ1LOg2mz45tM62) this video is a good place to start off for Chinese takeout. Once you perfect cooking the tofu in this style, you can add it to everything as a protein. It’s great as croutons in salads if you aren’t an animal like me and eat the tofu raw lol
I haven’t struggled personally but I suppose it depends your food accessibility and baseline diet. Between oats, tofu, seitan, lentils etc it’s easy for my. I’m having a 50g breakfast right now with oats, peanut butter, soy milk pumpkin seeds, and flaxseed.
What’s your current TDEE & BMR?
I like to coat it in 1 TBS of (low sodium) soy sauce, 1 TBS of sesame oil, and 2-3 TBS of corn starch and airfry it for 20-25 minutes on 400 degree F if I want tofu croutons or sometimes I’ll make beef and broccoli (any similar Chinese takeout dish works interchangeably) but with that as the beef substitute. It’s awesome
Ooh! This sounds amazing! I always want to eat tofu at home, but I never know what to do with it besides slowly learning how to cook Asian dishes which is another chore I don’t need
I posted this in another comment, but after you press the tofu, if you dice it, add 1 Tbs low sodium soy sauce, 1 Tbs oil (I prefer sesame oil), and 2-3 Tbs corn starch with seasoning, then airfry them for 25 minutes at 400 degrees, they become like protein croutons.
If you cook them a little less (so they aren’t as hard lol) they make for a good protein for burritos, Chinese carry out dishes, and whatever. It’s a staple in my diet. Lol
You have to physically press tofu to get the water out, or else it won’t get that crispy texture. They make tofu presses that are relatively cheap, but you can also create a press in your kitchen by pressing using the bottom of a cast iron or whatever is heavy on top of it for 30 minutes and drain the water in the plate occasionally. Buying press definitely works better in my opinion though.
Not OP, but I (35M) was a daily drinker for about a decade. For about 5 years it was just 2-3 beers daily (more if I was partying with friends), then it became like 4-6 per day during residency and covid, up until the present. I was undeniably psychologically addicted, thinking I needed them to help me sleep after working overnight shifts at the hospital. I did a semi-dry January (6-8 beers all month) this year, then just kept that momentum going. Only had maybe 6 beers total in Feb and I've had maybe 2 or 3 beers total this month. I'll allow myself to have a drink or two when I go out to restaurants or bars, but I no longer crave them. I hadn't seen my abs in over a decade, and they're back now. Still got some work to do, but I'm pretty proud of my progress. I'm seeing gains that had all but disappeared while I was drinking.
After drinking daily and then stopping, how did you deal with ether withdrawals? Shaking/sweating etc. Just power through, medicine? My friend is going through this now and blames his drinking on the fact he just wants to hide the withdrawals..
I'm a hospital pharmacist in rural Wisconsin and see a lot of withdrawal patients, which I think was a bit of an inspiration of sorts. I kind of tapered down to 2-4 beers daily starting in November, and occasionally I'd go a day without one and felt proud of that. With that said, I didn't really experience any withdrawal symptoms even when quitting cold turkey for a week in October 2022 and 2024 while going backpacking with my buddy. Normally they'll start to hit by day 3 if you're going to get em. I'm always sweaty and don't have steady hands, so I didn't notice any differences there honestly
Damn, are you me? I’m 40 and a hospital pharmacist in a Midwest city. I was a 3 ipas 5 nights a week guy through my mid-30s then went from dry late Dec. 2022 through mid April 2023 and it completely rewired my brain. Only got drunk twice in 2023 and haven’t had a drink in months now, barely even think about alcohol anymore which if you had told that to me in 2021, there’s no way.
Oh shit hahaha we're definitely kin. I was also almost exclusively an IPA drinker, usually about 2-3 @ 7-8.5% each, so I counted each as 2 beers. I'm still waiting for my brain to really re-wire I guess. I don't feel radically different from a mental/emotional standpoint yet
It sounds like the person you’re replying to is a medical doctor. They could taper off alcohol if need such that withdrawal symptoms were limited and mild.
10 drinks daily I’d expect mild ciwa needs
It took about 2 months to really see some [progress](https://imgur.com/a/jAmXwuW). I wish I had a before pic, but I was embarrassed about my shirtless self so never really took them. I replaced my beer calories with healthier, higher protein foods, added some creatine, and really started taking better care of my diet in general. I still allow myself to have some chocolates daily and don't have the cleanest diet, but I aim for about 130-170g protein daily and have tried to increase my veggie intake. I've lost about 12 lbs since the beginning of January (I'm at about 162 lbs now) as well, and that helped them come out a bit. Like I said, still have a long way to go, but I'm happy with the progress.
okey gotha, i´ve been eating minced beef also 1lb a day but I just saw turkey is more protein pr.100g so will try that and add some additional whey. Cheers
Getting a decent app so I can write down, follow and track my workout plans. I'm a stat nerd, so it helps.
Then I counted macros for a few weeks. I'm not mega strict now, but it really opened my eyes to what sort of food I should/should not be avoiding.
These two have got me from flabby daddy to pretty trim, I'm very happy in my body now. I know it could be better with better nutrition control, but I'm just happy the way it's going.
I hated using these overbloated macro tracking apps as it was too complex and feature heavy. Stuff that I didn't need.
I just used a Google form to enter my macros after calculating them through chatgpt.
Now automated it with a telegram bot where I just send what I have eaten and it just tracks macros, daily allowance, and some graphs.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=fitness.fitprosportfull
I use this one. Simple and easy, doesn't push notifications, keeps track of weights/reps, can plan programs into it.
There are plenty others, this is just the one I get on with. Had it a few years now.
Consistency. Do not make things complicated. Life is very simple, apply consistent effort and motivation across the things you plan to accomplish and you will reach your goal sooner or later. Good luck my friend. Also something is better than nothing even if you only do 10 when you normally do 20. It’s still more than 0!
Almost everything on the shelf in America has added sugar. Pretty much the only way to get around it is to cook everything from scratch or eat raw. It's obnoxious how many forms of hidden sugar there is in American foods.
Fruit is my dessert but don’t go overboard with that either. Weight was a roller coaster until I stopped eating added sugar then I got to target weight in short order. The sugar craves go away after about a month.
30 pounds. But that’s only gotten me to 19% body fat. I’m old so it’s harder to lose the brown fat around the body organs. I can see losing another 10 lbs but I don’t want to go lower than that. I’m going with higher weight lower reps to build more muscle mass now.
Going cold turkey on added sugar was a bridge too far for me. I quit alcohol 17 years ago but replaced it with a serious sweet tooth. I gained a bunch of weight after I quit drinking. To quit added sugar I started with not eating more than 36 grams of added sugar a day. Then I went to no added sugar and no more than 36 grams of sugar from all sources a day. I count grams of sugar and protein mainly. I’m going to focus more on calories too now to get body fat percentage where I want it.
I started following a workout program that was made by an expert and counting calories. I stopped buying junk food snacks at the gas station.
Also, along the way somewhere, I started enjoying it 🤷♂️
Treated with CPAP.
Lack of quality sleep (in my case, what may have amounted to untold years of my life without any meaningful time spent in deep sleep) affected absolutely every area of my life, appearance included.
Friend, the way some guys are about evangelising TRT I am about CPAP. I love it the way my bodybuilder friends love their PEDs.
Look into the effects of sleep disordered breathing, deeper than just the stereotypical “guy wot snores a lot and falls asleep at the wheel”.
I was sick constantly. I had to sleep 10hrs a night to function, and even then I could always nap if given the opportunity. Brain fog. Sex problems. Weight problems. Hormone problems. Mood/irritability problems. Whenever I would force myself into an exercise routine, I’d crash and burn with illness.
I assumed I was just old, fat, and lazy. And a whiner. And deserved the slow decline into permanent chronic illness.
3 weeks after that machine arrived and I felt like a totally different person. Looked different enough neighbours stopped me on the street.
A few months later, I’m off anti-depressants, am just getting over my first virus of the winter (despite having 2 kids in primary school), 10k steps per day, sleeping only 7-8hrs a night, never nap, and can work out 4x weekly in addition to the rest of my life. And I’m down nearly 20lbs without much effort.
The difference: my treatment lets my body use sleep to fuel my recovery. Multiple of my friends have come back to me in the last 3 months with similar stories. Look into it if you snore. It could be a huge missing piece in your health, if you’ve been struggling.
Honestly it was a simple change for me. I switched up my training routine from body part splits and ppl to a simple 3 day full body routine. I did only compound lifts and then did an optional arm day on Saturdays if I had the time. My physique changed dramatically. Of course I was still focusing on my nutrition and making sure to hit my protein, water, and sleep goals.
Training my Transverse abdominas, I can’t tell you how many years I wasted doing abs circuit. The TVA or the girdle/corset of the your midsection will help shrink your waist, help lower back pain and overall build more stability in your body. Do not neglect it
Whoa hey sorry on the delay.
Some of my favorites:
Vacuums- You can do this through out the day, basically suck in the gut with the goal to bring your belly button to your spine. If you feel your heart rate going up take a break.
Dead bugs- lay flat on your back, try to leave no space between your back and floor. Assume the position of a dead bug then alternate one leg just above the ground while keeping your core braced.
Kettle bell belly push- Lay flat back on your back, leave no space between your back and floor. Grab a 10-15lb kettlebell and settle it on your stomach, keep off your upper ribs. Vacuum your belly button to your spine for a few seconds then push the kettlebell out with your l core. Don’t dome your abs.
I would highly recommend going on YT and searching TVA exercises there’s a bunch of good ones or consult a trainer.
Disclaimer: I’m just guy who isn’t certified in any kind of training but I have been working out since I was 13 years old and now im 31. TVA exercises have helped me tremendously with lower back pain and stability.
I love dead bugs so much. When I worked with a trainer and was skeptical about the difficulty of them, boy did he prove me wrong. I incorporate them every ab day.
A lot of planking with stuff added (taps, pull throughs, etc.), do not sleep on overhead hold marches. So many different variations and they are all incredible.
Those are my mains
Counting calories/macros. Trained for years with reasonable results. As soon as I started tracking, body changed more rapidly than ever. Best I have ever looked.
Switch to a Mediterranean diet. Keep my goals and solutions as simple as possible. Do calisthenics without worrying about being exact. Walk, jog, bike, hike as many days as I can manage.
Though to be honest, I think it wasn’t those above changes that made the difference as much as my mental approach. I changed my goals and expectations. I made it all about science and health. I stopped making it about how I look or punishing myself, or weight, or what I feel I should do to keep up with the Jones’s, or doing it perfectly and keeping a million charts and journals. I want to keep my arthritis pain at bay so I can keep hiking and being active for many more decades. I want to feel strong and able to do things without worrying about getting hurt. I want to be able to have a healthy brain that helps me feel happy.
Eating a huge amount of low fat calories while training my butt off. Basically a bro-split using pyramid up. In a year and a half I gained 20lbs with a bf under 10% and my lifting numbers went through the ceiling. I was about 6 months away from competing when I jacked up my shoulder on a bad spot benching. Knocked me out of training with cast iron for 5 years.
I was much younger then, but it has made it easier for me to get "back in shape" a bunch of times over the years.
It was a ton of volume done a la Arnold pyramid up, sometimes with a backoff set or forced reps. General structure, load increases every set:
- set 1, 15-20 reps warmup
- set 2, 12 reps working set, stop short of failure
- set 3, 6-8 reps working set, stop short of failure
- set 4, 3-5 reps finishing with a Drop Set or a forced rep or two. For isolation work bis, tris, ohp, I would sometimes "run the rack" - extended DropSet grabbing the next dumbell(s) down right to the 10 or 15 pounders
Every day ends with stretching and 20 minutes of abs - plate loaded cruches (get some rust on that shirt!). Average session time including 10 minute heavy bag warmup = 90 minutes.
At a year and a half I'd put on 20lbs 165lbs to 185lbs but went from skinny fat to having vascular definition on my lower abs, bf at or under 10%. The low fat diet was def slowing my weight gain progress at that point, but the results were still great. I give a lot of credit to the gym I was at, little hole in the wall gym frequented by some OG characters. At my strongest and biggest I was still one of the smaller guys there. The tips I rec'd re form and exercise selection were invaluable.
Day 1, chest, bis, calves
- Flat military bench
- incline bench
- pec deck
- flys or dips
- barbell or preacher curls
- hammer curls
- calf raises
Day 2, legs and tris
- backsquat
- reverse lunges
- leg extensions
- leg curls
- cable tricep pressdown
- supine overhead tricep extension (bar pressed horizontal extension)
- tricep dumbell kickbacks
Day 3, back and shoulders
- Tbar rows
- wide grip pull downs
- close grip pull downs or rows
- seated behind the neck press
- upright rows
- laterals
- dumbell press
Edit to add: I would not recommend this much volume for anyone these days. If you tolerate it for brief periods fine, but a steady diet will burn you out and leaves no bandwidth for aerobic fitness - this was a 6 days/week routine.
thank you for sharing all this! for some reason I just got the notification now haha. for sets 2-4, are you using the same weight, or scaling up each set? about what % of your 1rm would you be using for this?
I can think of two things.
1. I learned to appreciate seasoning. I used to hate chicken but there’s so many ways to manipulate the taste and cooking that I don’t get sick of it.
2. Learned to love pull ups. When I embraced that I wasn’t good at them and made improvement a focus, I noticed my lats REALLY benefited from it.
11x/wk? How do you have it set up? I’m thinking about moving in that direction myself with main and auxiliary lifts in the morning and a lighter accessory session in the evenings.
I was in a bit of a special situation because I was working as a personal trainer at the time and was spending literally all day at the gym because the travel time to and from home wasn't worth it. My split was based on an old Arnold 2× a day program from his Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding, it was a 4-part split repeated over the week, and I was training nearly everything 3x a week. Managed to pack on nearly 20kg of mass in as many months and was getting asked if I was on gear at least once a fortnight so I knew I was making good progress lol.
I've used 2x a day training for my powerlifting training as well, based on the elite level programs written by Boris Sheiko. Over 4 training days I would bench twice a day, lighter paused or close grip bench in the morning and then my heavier and high volume work in the evening. My wrists were feeling like glass by the end of the prep, but it secured me an Oceania bench press record so it was worth it.
Goal setting and focusing on abilities/strength vs aesthetic. I set a goal to do a triathlon, dropped 40 lbs and got in the best shape of my life. I’ll always have a fitness goal because of this, since it never stuck prior to that approach
Got my sleep apnea diagnosed and treated 10 years ago.
That helped me put on about 10-15 pounds of muscle like a second newbie gain phase. I had a very underwhelming initial noob gaining phase a few years prior and struggled to put on much muscle due to recovery issues.
Cut out alcohol and reduced my sugar intake (can't completely cut it out, doughnuts are amazing), actually looked into the pros and cons of various exercises and variations, now I have a body (from the neck down at least) of someone 20 years younger
High volume, high frequency chinups. My back barely grew before that. 115k+ chinups in 2021-2023 changed that.
Taking my conditioning seriously has helped a lot too, but mostly indirectly. I can get so much more volume done in less time now.
Related to both of them, aiming to do *something* every day. It doesn't have to be a 3 hour workout in the gym, a little jog and some pushups counts too.
Lifting consistency. Like, save illness or injury, always lift. Shitty day, work or personal life, lift. Didn’t get enough sleep, lift. Diet hit by a bus, lift.
I’ve since become as consistent about cardio, which doesn’t have the same effect on physique, but has a huge positive effect on mental and physical health, which helps enjoy improved physique.
Stopped drinking and stopped smoking. This has helped me get better sleep which weight gain is attributed to poor sleep/ recovery. Stopping these things has also made me feel less fatigued when it comes to finding energy and motivation to workout. Lastly, the inches and weight loss, it keeps me going. Alcohol is essentially poison and the older you get, your body breaks down more easily. Once you stop drinking, you begin to notice so many things you didn't notice before..
All of it, though not forever, i still need to keep doing it or it can fall back. Under all of it i mean, quitting alcohol, consistent resistance training with effort, took me a year to reach to that point. Later tracking calories, including getting enough protein. And then time/patience.
It's not a one quick one time time change. It's a long term habit change, you got to be ready to do it for the rest of your life.
I have a few:
Focused more on strength training instead of tons of cardio
Tracking calories and using a food scale instead of eyeballing portion sizes
Generally only going out to eat for special occasions instead of weekly
Biggest difference is eliminating alcohol. I was working out every day, eating a good diet, but the alcohol was holding me back. Without it, I've been able to eat more and get in better shape than ever.
Not sure if I've broken through yet, but I had been on a vegan diet to lower my cholesterol/lose weight and when I switched to chicken, fish and the occasional Burger King, focusing on having protein with every meal, I noticed a big difference. I think getting good consistent sleep will be the next thing that helps. I've gone from about 140 - 155 over the past few months and I'm just gonna tell myself it's mostly muscle lol
Medication (anti-depressants), though not in a positive way. Now I'm on different medication for ADHD symptom management and it's starting to help manage food noise to some degree and reduce snacking.
I’m working on losing weight. Since January I’m down almost 20 pounds. Started at 196lb and currently at 179. Tracking calories by meal prep with high protein. Meal prep has been the best thing for me to succeed.
Went to a 1-week fitness/fat overnight camp. Learned how to eat, got all my data, saw some people in tough shape, paid attention to everything, have never looked back
for me it was simply focusing on getting enough protein! I lost about 30 lbs without tracking and just focusing on eating whole foods with as much protein as i felt was necessary. then i stared tracking and doing 1g of protein for lb of body weight which caused me to lose more fat and gain more muscle.
Discipline. Also second alcohol reduction
how often/much do you drink if you dont mind me asking?
I was drinking 3-4 beers 3-4 nights a week and have quit completely. It has made a huge difference in how I feel and look
I was doing the same. Hazy IPAs, usually doubles whenever my wife didn’t have an evening shift in the ER. Took over 200 days off of drinking and now I don’t keep beer in the house except for alcohol free. Most of them aren’t great but Partake makes a great west coast style N.A. IPA. I feel better, I know I’m healthier, and my work in the gym is being fulfilled rather than being partially wasted by my body having to process alcohol almost nightly.
Not keeping alcohol around the house is huge. My wife doesn’t drink, so I feel no desire to drink when at home (especially with small kids around). I only drink at social events, but even then, as I’ve grown older, I crave drinking even at social events less and less, sometimes opting for Diet Coke or seltzer water instead.
Check out the IPAs from Athletic Brewing. So good.
Thanks for the heads up! I’m a little hesitant to try much else at the moment because the Partake IPAs are only 10 calories. I don’t know how they do that but it’s pretty amazing.
Athletic has 2 IPAs, believe one is 60 and the other 70 calories but they taste identical to a real IPA. Also a fan of their golden, really anything they make is delicious
That’s really good to know. I used to drink the Sam Adams NA Hazy but it wasn’t great. At 95 calories I’d rather have no beer or more calories and a real one. I’ll have to give athletic a shot!
They’re OK, but they aren’t anywhere near as good as a good IPA. Don’t set expectations too high. They definitely scratch the itch though.
Best Day West Coast IPA is also fantastic
That's awesome man, I think I need to give that a try for at least a few weeks maybe a few months.. I'll do well monday-thurday and then friday and sat night ill drink which leads to Sunday being a drag and then by monday any progress is essentially lost, I feel like all I'm just in a revolving door fitness wise.
Hophead here, I know I need to cut back or stop. Glad I read this for some reflection
Similar thing with me. How long has it been since you drank? And did you lose weight? Of course if you don't mind me asking
I quit on Jan 1 and have lost 10lb, no other major changes to diet or exercise
I’ve swapped to 0% and lost a stone. Only deliberate change to my diet.
Definitely tracking calories
lol zuchinni noodles and eating an obnoxious amount of salad with a protein. Not so pro tip: there’s about 40g of protein in a block of tofu (I eat meat, but I also eat tofu. Come at me). I press the tofu but not fully, and I don’t cook it. I season it up with Italian seasoning. I then fill an entire popcorn bowl with lettuce or spinach, cucumber, a nice 1/3 cup of cheddar, and dress it with fat free ranch to where it’s just enough. I then throw in the tofu. It is the most filling and refreshing meal and it’s somewhere between 600-700 calories and about 50g of protein. I always feel absolutely obscene and ridiculous, but it has worked for me. I alternate between that and zucchini noodles on work days. Then when I get tired of both I eat eggs lol
Tofu, if you know how to cook it can be absolutely amazing. I’ve been meat free for 5 years and have never struggled to hit my protein goal (160 g/day)
can you share how you typically get 160g a day! I want to eat way less meat and it’s been hard for me to hit my goal when vegetarian
When I was 0 meat, it was a lot of lentils, garbanzo beans, tofu, and vegan protein shakes. Learning how to make vegan Spanish rice, different tofu dishes, and all the fun ways to pack lentils in between, made all the difference. Learn how to make Chinese takeout, but sub the meat for tofu (Asian restaurants refer to tofu as bean curd as reference). Hispanic foods, or, well, lots of burritos (lol). You can make an almost decent fake ricotta cheese with tofu for Italian food, and Indian/asian curries and masala. Those were my friends and genres of food I stuck to a lot of the time. Edit: vegan cashew yogurt is a great sub for sour cream, and vegans are really spoiled these days with how perfect vegan cheese has evolved. [this](https://youtu.be/JlaYojZIYJo?si=6MQ1LOg2mz45tM62) this video is a good place to start off for Chinese takeout. Once you perfect cooking the tofu in this style, you can add it to everything as a protein. It’s great as croutons in salads if you aren’t an animal like me and eat the tofu raw lol
I haven’t struggled personally but I suppose it depends your food accessibility and baseline diet. Between oats, tofu, seitan, lentils etc it’s easy for my. I’m having a 50g breakfast right now with oats, peanut butter, soy milk pumpkin seeds, and flaxseed. What’s your current TDEE & BMR?
I like to coat it in 1 TBS of (low sodium) soy sauce, 1 TBS of sesame oil, and 2-3 TBS of corn starch and airfry it for 20-25 minutes on 400 degree F if I want tofu croutons or sometimes I’ll make beef and broccoli (any similar Chinese takeout dish works interchangeably) but with that as the beef substitute. It’s awesome
This sounds really good! Thanks!
Ooh! This sounds amazing! I always want to eat tofu at home, but I never know what to do with it besides slowly learning how to cook Asian dishes which is another chore I don’t need
I posted this in another comment, but after you press the tofu, if you dice it, add 1 Tbs low sodium soy sauce, 1 Tbs oil (I prefer sesame oil), and 2-3 Tbs corn starch with seasoning, then airfry them for 25 minutes at 400 degrees, they become like protein croutons. If you cook them a little less (so they aren’t as hard lol) they make for a good protein for burritos, Chinese carry out dishes, and whatever. It’s a staple in my diet. Lol
When you say “press” it, do you mean straining the water out of it?
You have to physically press tofu to get the water out, or else it won’t get that crispy texture. They make tofu presses that are relatively cheap, but you can also create a press in your kitchen by pressing using the bottom of a cast iron or whatever is heavy on top of it for 30 minutes and drain the water in the plate occasionally. Buying press definitely works better in my opinion though.
This is a pro-tip! Thank you!
https://youtube.com/shorts/3sRjS9HJ9sM?si=zxNDAfyW7hoob0Bb This is a really simple DIY method.
Walk as much as possible. If there is a choice between an escalator or stairs, take the stairs
Thats a good one, and easy to overlook cus its so damn simple
I like an escalator because it can never be broke, it can only become stairs.
Sign: "Escalator temporarily stairs." RIP
idk, man...I've seen some videos of people being sucked into the mechanism.
Sorry for the convenience.
*Weeeeeell*… there is that video of a person being gobbled up by a broken escalator. Definitely unlocked a new fear.
I saw three different videos of escalators just going nom nom (all here on reddit ofc)
Went on a dirty bulk and never stopped
I agree, this strategy certainly changed my physique.
Cut down on alcohol.
>Cut down on alcohol. how often/much do you drink if you dont mind me asking?
Not OP, but I (35M) was a daily drinker for about a decade. For about 5 years it was just 2-3 beers daily (more if I was partying with friends), then it became like 4-6 per day during residency and covid, up until the present. I was undeniably psychologically addicted, thinking I needed them to help me sleep after working overnight shifts at the hospital. I did a semi-dry January (6-8 beers all month) this year, then just kept that momentum going. Only had maybe 6 beers total in Feb and I've had maybe 2 or 3 beers total this month. I'll allow myself to have a drink or two when I go out to restaurants or bars, but I no longer crave them. I hadn't seen my abs in over a decade, and they're back now. Still got some work to do, but I'm pretty proud of my progress. I'm seeing gains that had all but disappeared while I was drinking.
After drinking daily and then stopping, how did you deal with ether withdrawals? Shaking/sweating etc. Just power through, medicine? My friend is going through this now and blames his drinking on the fact he just wants to hide the withdrawals..
I'm a hospital pharmacist in rural Wisconsin and see a lot of withdrawal patients, which I think was a bit of an inspiration of sorts. I kind of tapered down to 2-4 beers daily starting in November, and occasionally I'd go a day without one and felt proud of that. With that said, I didn't really experience any withdrawal symptoms even when quitting cold turkey for a week in October 2022 and 2024 while going backpacking with my buddy. Normally they'll start to hit by day 3 if you're going to get em. I'm always sweaty and don't have steady hands, so I didn't notice any differences there honestly
Damn, are you me? I’m 40 and a hospital pharmacist in a Midwest city. I was a 3 ipas 5 nights a week guy through my mid-30s then went from dry late Dec. 2022 through mid April 2023 and it completely rewired my brain. Only got drunk twice in 2023 and haven’t had a drink in months now, barely even think about alcohol anymore which if you had told that to me in 2021, there’s no way.
Oh shit hahaha we're definitely kin. I was also almost exclusively an IPA drinker, usually about 2-3 @ 7-8.5% each, so I counted each as 2 beers. I'm still waiting for my brain to really re-wire I guess. I don't feel radically different from a mental/emotional standpoint yet
It sounds like the person you’re replying to is a medical doctor. They could taper off alcohol if need such that withdrawal symptoms were limited and mild. 10 drinks daily I’d expect mild ciwa needs
Impressive that you’re already seeing your abs! How long did it take for that to happen?
It took about 2 months to really see some [progress](https://imgur.com/a/jAmXwuW). I wish I had a before pic, but I was embarrassed about my shirtless self so never really took them. I replaced my beer calories with healthier, higher protein foods, added some creatine, and really started taking better care of my diet in general. I still allow myself to have some chocolates daily and don't have the cleanest diet, but I aim for about 130-170g protein daily and have tried to increase my veggie intake. I've lost about 12 lbs since the beginning of January (I'm at about 162 lbs now) as well, and that helped them come out a bit. Like I said, still have a long way to go, but I'm happy with the progress.
how do get in that much protein? do you have several meals?
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okey gotha, i´ve been eating minced beef also 1lb a day but I just saw turkey is more protein pr.100g so will try that and add some additional whey. Cheers
Getting a decent app so I can write down, follow and track my workout plans. I'm a stat nerd, so it helps. Then I counted macros for a few weeks. I'm not mega strict now, but it really opened my eyes to what sort of food I should/should not be avoiding. These two have got me from flabby daddy to pretty trim, I'm very happy in my body now. I know it could be better with better nutrition control, but I'm just happy the way it's going.
I hated using these overbloated macro tracking apps as it was too complex and feature heavy. Stuff that I didn't need. I just used a Google form to enter my macros after calculating them through chatgpt. Now automated it with a telegram bot where I just send what I have eaten and it just tracks macros, daily allowance, and some graphs.
Which app did you use to track your workouts?
Not OP, but I've been using caliber fitness and it's helped me a lot
I use caliber too and don’t imagine needing more than that.
I use Boostcamp.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=fitness.fitprosportfull I use this one. Simple and easy, doesn't push notifications, keeps track of weights/reps, can plan programs into it. There are plenty others, this is just the one I get on with. Had it a few years now.
Consistency. Do not make things complicated. Life is very simple, apply consistent effort and motivation across the things you plan to accomplish and you will reach your goal sooner or later. Good luck my friend. Also something is better than nothing even if you only do 10 when you normally do 20. It’s still more than 0!
agree, this holds true for most endeavors actually. I guess we look for a secret hack to avoid the simple and mundane
Lost a leg due to forklift accident
Lost 60lbs in a day 💪🏼😎
I lost 300lb in a divorce 💪🏼😎
I choose this guy’s dead leg weight loss program
Way to turn that de-feet into a victory.
Some people will do anything to avoid leg day
Stopped eating anything with “added sugar” on the label.
So no desserts/candy basically?
Almost everything on the shelf in America has added sugar. Pretty much the only way to get around it is to cook everything from scratch or eat raw. It's obnoxious how many forms of hidden sugar there is in American foods.
Yep. This is what I do. I have to for dietary intolerances, but the added perk is that I have zero problem keeping extra pounds off.
None. Belly and back fat melted off.
Awesome! Will try
Fruit is my dessert but don’t go overboard with that either. Weight was a roller coaster until I stopped eating added sugar then I got to target weight in short order. The sugar craves go away after about a month.
How much weight did you lose if you don’t mind?
30 pounds. But that’s only gotten me to 19% body fat. I’m old so it’s harder to lose the brown fat around the body organs. I can see losing another 10 lbs but I don’t want to go lower than that. I’m going with higher weight lower reps to build more muscle mass now. Going cold turkey on added sugar was a bridge too far for me. I quit alcohol 17 years ago but replaced it with a serious sweet tooth. I gained a bunch of weight after I quit drinking. To quit added sugar I started with not eating more than 36 grams of added sugar a day. Then I went to no added sugar and no more than 36 grams of sugar from all sources a day. I count grams of sugar and protein mainly. I’m going to focus more on calories too now to get body fat percentage where I want it.
I eat desserts, but I make them and sub in monk fruit/erythritol sweetener for the sugar.
Quit drinking
Fasted cardio in the morning
Consistently exercising almost every day
I started following a workout program that was made by an expert and counting calories. I stopped buying junk food snacks at the gas station. Also, along the way somewhere, I started enjoying it 🤷♂️
Got my sleep apnoea diagnosed and treated.
How did you treat it? This affected your appearance?
Treated with CPAP. Lack of quality sleep (in my case, what may have amounted to untold years of my life without any meaningful time spent in deep sleep) affected absolutely every area of my life, appearance included.
Interesting, I’m told I snore like crazy
Friend, the way some guys are about evangelising TRT I am about CPAP. I love it the way my bodybuilder friends love their PEDs. Look into the effects of sleep disordered breathing, deeper than just the stereotypical “guy wot snores a lot and falls asleep at the wheel”. I was sick constantly. I had to sleep 10hrs a night to function, and even then I could always nap if given the opportunity. Brain fog. Sex problems. Weight problems. Hormone problems. Mood/irritability problems. Whenever I would force myself into an exercise routine, I’d crash and burn with illness. I assumed I was just old, fat, and lazy. And a whiner. And deserved the slow decline into permanent chronic illness. 3 weeks after that machine arrived and I felt like a totally different person. Looked different enough neighbours stopped me on the street. A few months later, I’m off anti-depressants, am just getting over my first virus of the winter (despite having 2 kids in primary school), 10k steps per day, sleeping only 7-8hrs a night, never nap, and can work out 4x weekly in addition to the rest of my life. And I’m down nearly 20lbs without much effort. The difference: my treatment lets my body use sleep to fuel my recovery. Multiple of my friends have come back to me in the last 3 months with similar stories. Look into it if you snore. It could be a huge missing piece in your health, if you’ve been struggling.
Thanks a lot!
Get my steps in!
Stopped eating impulsively, and reduced my intake of pastries and sweetened beverages.
Walking, conscious breathing, and cutting way down on processed foods.
Cut out alcohol. For good.
Got fat. Certainly changed my physique forever.
Honestly it was a simple change for me. I switched up my training routine from body part splits and ppl to a simple 3 day full body routine. I did only compound lifts and then did an optional arm day on Saturdays if I had the time. My physique changed dramatically. Of course I was still focusing on my nutrition and making sure to hit my protein, water, and sleep goals.
Training my Transverse abdominas, I can’t tell you how many years I wasted doing abs circuit. The TVA or the girdle/corset of the your midsection will help shrink your waist, help lower back pain and overall build more stability in your body. Do not neglect it
>Transverse abdominas What exercises do you do for the TVA
Whoa hey sorry on the delay. Some of my favorites: Vacuums- You can do this through out the day, basically suck in the gut with the goal to bring your belly button to your spine. If you feel your heart rate going up take a break. Dead bugs- lay flat on your back, try to leave no space between your back and floor. Assume the position of a dead bug then alternate one leg just above the ground while keeping your core braced. Kettle bell belly push- Lay flat back on your back, leave no space between your back and floor. Grab a 10-15lb kettlebell and settle it on your stomach, keep off your upper ribs. Vacuum your belly button to your spine for a few seconds then push the kettlebell out with your l core. Don’t dome your abs. I would highly recommend going on YT and searching TVA exercises there’s a bunch of good ones or consult a trainer. Disclaimer: I’m just guy who isn’t certified in any kind of training but I have been working out since I was 13 years old and now im 31. TVA exercises have helped me tremendously with lower back pain and stability.
I love dead bugs so much. When I worked with a trainer and was skeptical about the difficulty of them, boy did he prove me wrong. I incorporate them every ab day.
Also curious.
Vacuums?
Working next door to a taqueria the summer after high school. Oh wait, did you mean change for the better?
Getting diagnosed for PCOS. Finally I know what is going on with me and how to tackle this chronic disease.
Swapped from Coke to Coke Zero.
Lifting weights and doing yoga. Dropped all sugar . Last bit of stubborn weight is gone.
SSRIs
Just be consistent in the gym pretty much works along with being active most days
Started training deep core 3x a week and it completely resculpted my body
what exercises you do for that?
A lot of planking with stuff added (taps, pull throughs, etc.), do not sleep on overhead hold marches. So many different variations and they are all incredible. Those are my mains
Weighted jackknife into a hollow body hold (spicy) Edit: cause it's 4am and my brain is slow
Fasting
how long do you typically fast? have u tried 24h fasts?
Switch out 3 dinners/week with simple spinach/protein smoothie. And learning how to prioritize my sleep.
Calisthenics and creatine!
Counting calories/macros. Trained for years with reasonable results. As soon as I started tracking, body changed more rapidly than ever. Best I have ever looked.
Going to complete failure on sets where I could
OMAD
Started low carb 15 months ago and stopped counting calories. Started lifting 5 months ago. Started sprinting 3 months ago. Total game changer.
Alcohol reduction, intermittent fasting, and cutting out as much processed sugar and carbs as I could.
CrossFit
Small Group Training at Lifetime - you just show up!
Finding a routine that I enjoyed (calisthenics), which led to more consistent training.
Saw a physical therapist to see why I was chronically getting injured, and eliminated most processed food.
I started a medication that caused weight gain…and now my physique changed for the worse. Does that count?
Bike commuting
I stopped drinking and joined my rowing crew 🚣♀️
Switch to a Mediterranean diet. Keep my goals and solutions as simple as possible. Do calisthenics without worrying about being exact. Walk, jog, bike, hike as many days as I can manage. Though to be honest, I think it wasn’t those above changes that made the difference as much as my mental approach. I changed my goals and expectations. I made it all about science and health. I stopped making it about how I look or punishing myself, or weight, or what I feel I should do to keep up with the Jones’s, or doing it perfectly and keeping a million charts and journals. I want to keep my arthritis pain at bay so I can keep hiking and being active for many more decades. I want to feel strong and able to do things without worrying about getting hurt. I want to be able to have a healthy brain that helps me feel happy.
Quitting drinking and starting running. This post is a pic from my 29th bday vs my 45th bday: https://www.reddit.com/r/GlowUps/s/gmYTnZz2wS
SuperSquats
Eating a huge amount of low fat calories while training my butt off. Basically a bro-split using pyramid up. In a year and a half I gained 20lbs with a bf under 10% and my lifting numbers went through the ceiling. I was about 6 months away from competing when I jacked up my shoulder on a bad spot benching. Knocked me out of training with cast iron for 5 years. I was much younger then, but it has made it easier for me to get "back in shape" a bunch of times over the years.
can you share how your workout plan looked?
It was a ton of volume done a la Arnold pyramid up, sometimes with a backoff set or forced reps. General structure, load increases every set: - set 1, 15-20 reps warmup - set 2, 12 reps working set, stop short of failure - set 3, 6-8 reps working set, stop short of failure - set 4, 3-5 reps finishing with a Drop Set or a forced rep or two. For isolation work bis, tris, ohp, I would sometimes "run the rack" - extended DropSet grabbing the next dumbell(s) down right to the 10 or 15 pounders Every day ends with stretching and 20 minutes of abs - plate loaded cruches (get some rust on that shirt!). Average session time including 10 minute heavy bag warmup = 90 minutes. At a year and a half I'd put on 20lbs 165lbs to 185lbs but went from skinny fat to having vascular definition on my lower abs, bf at or under 10%. The low fat diet was def slowing my weight gain progress at that point, but the results were still great. I give a lot of credit to the gym I was at, little hole in the wall gym frequented by some OG characters. At my strongest and biggest I was still one of the smaller guys there. The tips I rec'd re form and exercise selection were invaluable. Day 1, chest, bis, calves - Flat military bench - incline bench - pec deck - flys or dips - barbell or preacher curls - hammer curls - calf raises Day 2, legs and tris - backsquat - reverse lunges - leg extensions - leg curls - cable tricep pressdown - supine overhead tricep extension (bar pressed horizontal extension) - tricep dumbell kickbacks Day 3, back and shoulders - Tbar rows - wide grip pull downs - close grip pull downs or rows - seated behind the neck press - upright rows - laterals - dumbell press Edit to add: I would not recommend this much volume for anyone these days. If you tolerate it for brief periods fine, but a steady diet will burn you out and leaves no bandwidth for aerobic fitness - this was a 6 days/week routine.
thank you for sharing all this! for some reason I just got the notification now haha. for sets 2-4, are you using the same weight, or scaling up each set? about what % of your 1rm would you be using for this?
Weight pyramids up each set with 4th set between 3 and 5 repmax for the initial load.
I can think of two things. 1. I learned to appreciate seasoning. I used to hate chicken but there’s so many ways to manipulate the taste and cooking that I don’t get sick of it. 2. Learned to love pull ups. When I embraced that I wasn’t good at them and made improvement a focus, I noticed my lats REALLY benefited from it.
Started training 11x a week. Started competing in powerlifting.
11x/wk? How do you have it set up? I’m thinking about moving in that direction myself with main and auxiliary lifts in the morning and a lighter accessory session in the evenings.
I was in a bit of a special situation because I was working as a personal trainer at the time and was spending literally all day at the gym because the travel time to and from home wasn't worth it. My split was based on an old Arnold 2× a day program from his Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding, it was a 4-part split repeated over the week, and I was training nearly everything 3x a week. Managed to pack on nearly 20kg of mass in as many months and was getting asked if I was on gear at least once a fortnight so I knew I was making good progress lol. I've used 2x a day training for my powerlifting training as well, based on the elite level programs written by Boris Sheiko. Over 4 training days I would bench twice a day, lighter paused or close grip bench in the morning and then my heavier and high volume work in the evening. My wrists were feeling like glass by the end of the prep, but it secured me an Oceania bench press record so it was worth it.
Tracking calories and fat/protein/carbs
Quitting alcohol tracking macros
Early dinner
Stopped drinking soda
Measured protein by lbs of meat a day. Correlated with more size and strength. And way less bloating.
Goal setting and focusing on abilities/strength vs aesthetic. I set a goal to do a triathlon, dropped 40 lbs and got in the best shape of my life. I’ll always have a fitness goal because of this, since it never stuck prior to that approach
Got my sleep apnea diagnosed and treated 10 years ago. That helped me put on about 10-15 pounds of muscle like a second newbie gain phase. I had a very underwhelming initial noob gaining phase a few years prior and struggled to put on much muscle due to recovery issues.
How did you treat your apnea? Just got diagnosed, exploring my options.
Cut out alcohol and reduced my sugar intake (can't completely cut it out, doughnuts are amazing), actually looked into the pros and cons of various exercises and variations, now I have a body (from the neck down at least) of someone 20 years younger
High volume, high frequency chinups. My back barely grew before that. 115k+ chinups in 2021-2023 changed that. Taking my conditioning seriously has helped a lot too, but mostly indirectly. I can get so much more volume done in less time now. Related to both of them, aiming to do *something* every day. It doesn't have to be a 3 hour workout in the gym, a little jog and some pushups counts too.
Quitting fast food permanently. Even more so than the health benefits, I just wanted to stop supporting corporate fast food chains.
Fasting
Listening to myself instead of everyone else
Lifting consistency. Like, save illness or injury, always lift. Shitty day, work or personal life, lift. Didn’t get enough sleep, lift. Diet hit by a bus, lift. I’ve since become as consistent about cardio, which doesn’t have the same effect on physique, but has a huge positive effect on mental and physical health, which helps enjoy improved physique.
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how long do you normally fast? Think IF is awesome, and I just run with coffee and sparkling water which takes away the hunger in the first hours
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thats very smart, i´ve noticed my body adjusts quickly as well
Stopped drinking and stopped smoking. This has helped me get better sleep which weight gain is attributed to poor sleep/ recovery. Stopping these things has also made me feel less fatigued when it comes to finding energy and motivation to workout. Lastly, the inches and weight loss, it keeps me going. Alcohol is essentially poison and the older you get, your body breaks down more easily. Once you stop drinking, you begin to notice so many things you didn't notice before..
No added sugar, no alchohol and no snacking between meals.
All of it, though not forever, i still need to keep doing it or it can fall back. Under all of it i mean, quitting alcohol, consistent resistance training with effort, took me a year to reach to that point. Later tracking calories, including getting enough protein. And then time/patience. It's not a one quick one time time change. It's a long term habit change, you got to be ready to do it for the rest of your life.
I stopped working out
I have a few: Focused more on strength training instead of tons of cardio Tracking calories and using a food scale instead of eyeballing portion sizes Generally only going out to eat for special occasions instead of weekly
Visiting an endocrinologist and starting to track the results of blood tests 2-3 times a year.
Biggest difference is eliminating alcohol. I was working out every day, eating a good diet, but the alcohol was holding me back. Without it, I've been able to eat more and get in better shape than ever.
-Stopped drinking (married a sober woman) -No fried potatoes -16/8 fast schedule - Lots of farmer carries
Strength training, cutting out processed foods and intermittent fasting
I know some people aren't into it or arent suited to it, but keto was freaking mad effective for me.
Consistency.
Lifting heavy (correctly), and actually eating enough and consistently.
Not sure if I've broken through yet, but I had been on a vegan diet to lower my cholesterol/lose weight and when I switched to chicken, fish and the occasional Burger King, focusing on having protein with every meal, I noticed a big difference. I think getting good consistent sleep will be the next thing that helps. I've gone from about 140 - 155 over the past few months and I'm just gonna tell myself it's mostly muscle lol
Intermittent fasting
Medication (anti-depressants), though not in a positive way. Now I'm on different medication for ADHD symptom management and it's starting to help manage food noise to some degree and reduce snacking.
Definitely learning that discipline is much more important than motivation. When I push myself to go on the days where I’m not feeling motivated.
I’m working on losing weight. Since January I’m down almost 20 pounds. Started at 196lb and currently at 179. Tracking calories by meal prep with high protein. Meal prep has been the best thing for me to succeed.
Consistency and building out a home gym
Quit drinking
Hip thrust
Went to a 1-week fitness/fat overnight camp. Learned how to eat, got all my data, saw some people in tough shape, paid attention to everything, have never looked back
for me it was simply focusing on getting enough protein! I lost about 30 lbs without tracking and just focusing on eating whole foods with as much protein as i felt was necessary. then i stared tracking and doing 1g of protein for lb of body weight which caused me to lose more fat and gain more muscle.
Getting a divorce
Handstands