TLDR: Paint It!

Too Long Dad Recap

I was lucky enough to be able to play quite a bit of Blackjack with my dad before he died. From him, I learned a lot of the common table talk you hear at the table.

Like when you get 17 and dealer is showing a face card, you might say, “That’s a mother-in-law hand. Can’t do anything about it.” Or, if you push with the dealer, you might console yourself by saying, “a push is a win.” Silly things like that, which have not made me any good at Blackjack, but it does make the experience better.

But my favorite is when you someone at the table gets an ace on the first card. Before the next card comes, you exclaim, “Paint it!” The face card is the paint, get it? It’s silly, but I can’t help but say it every time I play Blackjack and it happens. I find myself automatically saying “Paint it!” or “Good luck on that Ace, sir!” whenever I see an Ace dealt to anyone at the table.

I enter 2021 with a positive mindset. I feel like I’ve been dealt an Ace already, with good health, a solid day job and a loving family supporting me. But even with that strong starting hand, it’s up to me to “Paint it!” and make it a Blackjack of a year. With consistency, discipline and humility, I think 2021 could be my best year yet, even if it is the year I turn 40.

Despite my generally positive attitude and my tendency to focus on the future, we did ritualistically burn the 2020 wall calendars this weekend to turn the page and make 2020 hindsight!

Things I Watched This Week: Raw Footage

I’ve been putting a ton of work into my YouTube channel lately, so I’ve mostly been watching raw footage of my videos lately. Over the holidays, I posted several new videos, and just this weekend caught up on writing posts about each one here at the website.

Posts on my latest videos:

• Enchilada casserole review – featuring Three Amigos intro
• Establishing maintenance calories – featuring Dazed and Confused intro
• Lunge Fireside Chat video reflecting on 95,000+ lunges in 2020 – featuring my best intro yet based on Forrest Gump

Latest Video – My First (Somewhat) Original Recipe

Finally, I posted another video this weekend with my first ever anabolic recipe concept. It was my take on an existing series of recipes created by Ethan Harold. His focus has mostly been sweet puffs, but I wanted to try to make savory Pizza Puffs. I think I did ok, I enjoyed eating them, but they probably could use some work.

The video features a pretty funny Puff the Magic Dragon parody song. Check it out below.

YouTube Growth

That consistent posting, plus some unique video concepts and funny intros have helped me triple my subscriber count in the last couple of months, hitting 100 subscribers this weekend!

100 subs feels great. Also, the more recent videos have helped me connect with other YouTube creators, because they’ve been reviews and spinoffs of recipes from other creators. My little niche in the fitness YouTube world is full of really supportive characters, and I am psyched to be a part of that community.

Going forward, I plan to post a new video every week on Sundays, continuing to evolve and improve my style. I believe there is an audience out there for someone my age posting videos that feature some fitness and some nutrition content/challenges like so many much younger creators are doing.

The key will be to upgrade the quality of the filming and editing over time, because I have a long way to go with that. But, I’m up to the challenge and appreciate the support from those of you who subscribe or watch videos I post here.

Things I Ate This Week: So Many Calories

Like I’m sure many of you, this week felt a little out of control relative to other weeks of the year. I was able to manage the holidays overall pretty well, but discipline definitely tailed off after Christmas. The sweet and savory food around my house just continued to flow in to the kitchen and refrigerator.

The real issue is that much of the food doesn’t feel like it will get eaten at all if I don’t eat it. It can feel like a father’s duty to eat the leftovers that no one else wants to eat before they go bad. This is the definition of a “first world problem”, but I took on that role late this week and blew through my macros.

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Much of that overeating happened around New Years, which included a large spread of traditional Albanian food, including: Burek, Russian Salad, Qofta (meatballs), Baklava, Kataifi, etc. I filmed a video about the Albanian day of eating that I’ll post next week, so more to come on all that. In addition to those more unusual foods, I ate many of the staples I normally eat, including protein ice cream, a Pizookie, etc.

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So far, my physique is still holding up and the scale hasn’t moved too much, but in the upcoming week, we are going to get back on track. By this time next week, things will feel tighter, both physically and mentally as I get that control back.

2021 Physique Goals: Stay lean all year, maintain 165lbs bodyweight or less, make 2021 the year of maingaining, in contrast to the bulk and cut from 2020. Whichever one worked best, I’ll do that in 2022!

Things I Lifted This Week: Intensity Incoming

On the day after Christmas, I did a Murph workout with my new 20-lbs weighted vest. I finished with a time of around 48:30, which is a very good marker for me to shoot to beat on Memorial Day.

I start another block in the upcoming week. The last few months of high volume work are going to give way to sets of 5 and 6 for the main movements this week. I’m still training 5 days a week, doing lunges every day and getting steps. Minimal planned cardio.

In addition, working on incorporating a heavy set of each of the following movements, alternating between a heavy single and heavy triple for each movement each week. I have done a bit of that sort of thing just fooling around, but going forward, I will be more formal in programming singles at the beginning of workouts rather than at the end.

• Bench – 1@7 this week, 3@8 next week
• Squat – 1@7 this week, 3@8 next week
• Deadlift – 3@8 this week, 1@7 next week
• Overhead Press – 3@8 this week, 1@7 next week

2021 Training Goals: keep focusing on getting bigger in 1Q, then prioritize strength starting around May to peak in August for the big 40th birthday deadlift PR. Not going to put a number on it, but my all time best is 435lbs at around 185lbs bodyweight, plan to do more than that at 165lbs bodyweight this time around.

What are your goals this year? (comment below)

Have a great start to the year, at least you won’t have to deal with a bunch of “resolutioners” in the gym if the gyms don’t open…Thanks everyone, keep it on the DL.