TLDR: Act As If

Too Long Dad Recap

There is an old saying, “act as if”, which people cite as a way to create better habits. The idea is if you want to be healthy, act as if you already are. If you want to be successful, act as if you are and good things will happen. I don’t subscribe to this when it comes to money matters, which is one reason why we don’t own status cars.

But, when it comes to vacation plans for 2021, I am using this mantra. I will act as if the world is going to be normal next year. That means thinking about Spring Break vacation plans that assume air travel and hotel stays are possible without much hassle. It’s something to plan for and to look forward to. Acting like the world is going to continue to be the current dumpster fire isn’t healthy for anyone.

Call me an optimist…

Things I Watched this Week

Massive Iron, Steve Shaw’s YouTube channel, offered two pieces of content that hit home for me this week

• First was a video dedicated to the exact position I am in today, which is at the end of a successful fat loss phase. See the video here

My first weight loss goal, achieved over a month ago, was to get back to 175lbs from 190lbs. Then, kept going and got down below 170lbs. Now that I’m closing in on 165lbs and I’ve hit a real groove with my nutrition and training, I am at another potential impasse.

I can stop here and be fine, or I can push the cut for another 5lbs to see if I can lean down even more. Steve Shaw’s advice is to keep going for another 5lbs, especially if things are going well. The video (plus some direct encouragement from Shaw on Instagram) strengthened my resolve to go for it. It hasn’t been that big of a challenge to keep going, so I might as well.

Goals for Older, Stronger Lifter: How Much Weight is Enough?

Second thing I gleaned from Shaw this week was more of a training philosophy thing to contemplate. His view is that at some point, pushing heavy weight for singles to get as heavy as possible isn’t productive. His view: once you can bench press 225lbs, squat 315lbs and deadlift 375lbs, it makes sense to stop at those weights and focus on adding reps and sets with those weights over time.

That means getting stronger such that you can do those exercises for 5-6 reps per set and keep adding sets over time, rather than try to push the 1 rep max as your primary goal.

This resonates with me to some extent, and may be a path I pursue after I turn 40 and after I see if I can get to 450-500 on the deadlift.

I don’t have plans to compete in powerlifting meets, and I don’t think I need to add mass to my frame. Basically, I want to be the strongest dad on the block with the best physique. Competition isn’t that stout for that, by the way. Food for thought as I close in on 40 years old next year.

Things I Lifted this Week

Training was good this week. I didn’t miss any sessions. Checked off 7 more days of walking lunges (streak at 80 days currently), hit my cardio sessions as planned. All-in-all a good week. See below for a collage of the heavy singles I hit this week.

Next week, the Candito deadlift program has me testing a 10 rep max set of deadlifts. I have never tried to do 10 deadlifts in a set. This week, I did 5×5 a 320lbs. I think a reasonable target is 335lbs for 10 reps…if I feel really good, I may shoot for 350lbs.

After the 10 rep test, the following 4 weeks will be peaking. The end goals will be to hit a heavy 400lbs plus deadlift, which I last hit when weighing above 180lbs. At my current bodyweight, I would love to hit 405lbs, but think I might be capable of more. We’ll see.

For squat, I’m just hoping to hit 355lbs, my current all-time best (at 190lbs earlier this year). Bench strength has dropped, so chances I hit 270lbs all-time best are basically nil. But I may be able to 245 or 250, which would be ok.

Things I Ate this Week: Making Abs in the Kitchen

I really got after the “anabolic” recipe making this week. The food prep was enabled by a great grocery store haul that included two blocks of fat free cream cheese, egg whites, frozen fruits and other staples of these recipes. In addition, I received a large delivery of pumpkin puree, which is a base of many cool recipes.

Even with two massive blocks of fat free cream cheese, I had to make a decision between two recipes I wanted to try: cheesecake or pumpkin pie. I have basically a lifetime supply of pumpkin, so I need to make a pumpkin pie or 10, but decided to go ahead and make the cheesecake. It turned out really well. Read my post about it here, and now I can’t wait to make the pumpkin pie once I get more cream cheese.

I did use some of the pumpkin by making two batches of protein muffins this week, by using Remington James’s protein donut batter. That recipe is so simple and tasty, I’ll probably make it at least once a week going forward to get that pumpkin consumed.

I made several batches of protein ice cream, including one using an orange flavored protein from Blasthouse and strawberries, which was incredible. Beyond that it was more of the same: chicken, yogurt, eggs, brussel sprouts, broccoli, carrots, etc.

I ate at around 1,850 calories daily, hit my calorie target every day this week and the results showed on the scale. My weight hit a low of 164.4lbs a few days ago and my 7-day average is 165.9lbs, fresh low there too. I’ll keep calories around 1,800 daily this week and see where that takes me. I’m still not getting too hungry, this level is tolerable. It just takes discipline, and as noted being busy and active helps reduce food thoughts!

Dad Report: Where’s the Sports?

I don’t have any good dad stories this week, so maybe just a rant.

Sports start very late at night, and we tend to put my our kids to sleep pretty early. In the morning when my son joins me in the gym, I relay the news of what happened the previous night with teams we care about.

I tell him a few things, then at some point I say “Turn on Sportscenter, see if we can catch some highlights.” Yes, I have cable, took a few years off and came back to it.

He turns it on and there is usually some off field over-produced story about some obscure person or sport. Disillusioned, we turn it off after a few minutes.

This pisses me on a few levels. First, I don’t get to share in the joy of watching the highlights, obviously. Second, he grows up in a world with a shitty Sportscenter, unlike the one I grew up with. In his world, ESPN is that channel you go to if you want to watch a puff piece about something tangentially related to stuff he actually cares about.

I can solve this problem easily by paying a few dollars more to add ESPNews to my cable package…

Anyway, have a great week everyone…and if my wife asks, keep all this on the DL.