TLDR: Small Victories, New Vectors

Too Long Dad Recap

With just around 3 weeks left in 2020, every day an opportunity to start a new habit, make a decision to change your current path and get into a better one. Don’t wait for a New Year to do it.

There is the current path of history and an infinite span of future paths that change constantly. Sometimes when you get older, it can feel like the paths in front of us are limited.

My son and I have lengthy conversations about his many possible futures, where he might go to school, what he might study, what great industrial or technology company he might start and how. Last week he was going to found a massive tech company, but this week he wants to be a tenured professor at Oxford. My retirement prospects rise and fall each week, LOL.

This week I made a lot of progress with expanding my audience. I was shouted out by a bigger YouTube channel, which led to some followers. I picked up another 30 or so followers on Twitter and Instagram. The momentum is building with DadLifting, which is fantastic!

Things I Watched / Listened to This Week: Expanding Anabolic Universe

This week, much time was spent expanding my list of YouTubers creating anabolic recipes. A few very small channels I found to be really interesting, including Black Thor and Josh S
- There is a whole crop of people out there making videos about “anabolic” recipes, including reviews and their own twists on recipes.
- 2020 has led to a lot of creativity in the kitchen. I doubt I would be so into cooking if I hadn’t been stuck at home since March.
But I think the Remington James model still works the best. He keeps the recipes pretty simple and is very specific with the recipe ingredients.
- The more intricate the recipes, the more likely it is that I don’t have the things they are using, like cake batter extract, rice vinegar or whatever. The ingredients have to be generic enough to be useful across several recipes.
Other content was the usual stuff, like Jordan Feigenbaum from Barbell Medicine’s weekly Instagram live session, and the latest couple of podcasts from Omar Isuf and Eric Helms at Iron Culture

What did you read or listen to that you think I should check out?

Things I Ate this Week: Letting Myself Go

Nutrition adherence continues to slip, which is understandable after sticking to the cut for so long. The next few weeks ahead of Christmas, I plan to document my effort to establish a new maintenance at the bodyweight of 162lbs.

But, I also enjoyed the food I splurged on this week. Because I had the right ingredients (several loaves of 647 bread), I made two great recipes from young YouTuber Ethan Harold: Banana Brulee Puffs and Cinnamon Puffs. The cinnamon puffs I made with cinnamon protein powder, which made them extra tasty. These recipes call for blending up 8 slices of bread in the Ninja blender, which sounds odd, but it works!

For the next 2 weeks, I’ll keep track of bodyweight and calories and keep steps (NEAT levels) consistent and see if I can dial in a calorie number that will keep me at my current weight. I’m expecting it to be around 2,000-2,100 calories. To get an accurate number, I have to track better and adhere to the target better. No more overeating and trying to catch up with compulsive cardio sessions. Two more weeks to finish the year strong.

Saturday Bake Off

Saturday, I had some free time and baked a bunch of anabolic treats. I had pumpkin that serves as the base for pizookie and brownie recipes. My son had been asking for another Oreo cheesecake.

So, I made all three. I usually like to make the cheesecake without crust if its just for me, but I had a premade Oreo crust, so we went with that. He crushed 1/4th of it for dinner after it cooled off!

See below for links to the recipe videos:

Here is the Brownie recipe (Remington James Video). The way I make it (without ice cream) is around 420 calories with 57g protein, 36g carbs (16g fiber), 6g fat
Here is the Pizookie recipe (Remington James Video). The way I make it (without the chocolate chips or ice cream) is 444 calories with 73g protein, 35g carbs (11 fiber), 3g fat
Here is the cheesecake recipe (Remington James Video). Using the premade crust and light cream cheese (instead of fat free like I usually do), it came out to 2546 calories for the whole thing, with 166g protein, 207g carbs, 121g fat (I had 1/8th, not great macros)

Things I Lifted this Week: Bored Already?

Training was good this week. The novelty of not doing heavy singles is starting to wear off, but the bodybuilding style and rep ranges seem to agree with my body.

I’m still using Juggernaut AI power builder program. There are 16 more weeks left in the program based on where I set the date of my “meet”.

But, I’m already trying to figure out what to do next. Powerbuilding is the focus. My next program to balance high rep schemes with some low rep strength work and maybe weekly singles. I may have to build the program myself, because so far the Juggernaut program hasn’t been that exciting for me and it costs money every month.

Started a new block that has sets of 8 reps for the main movements every training day.
The new block also has new main movements to focus on, besides the usual squat, bench and deadlift.
So, I did wide grip bench press, Romanian deadlifts, and SSB good mornings this week.
Romanian deadlifts and wide grip bench felt great, good mornings are never fun.
Lunge update: 164 days in a row
- Thinking of doing a lunge-specific video and post talking about the 225+ days of lunging since early March (90,000+ lunges), the reasoning and the benefits

Some topless highlights while its still bearable in the cold gym!

New Barbell: Bare Steel Equipment

Finally, I received my new barbell from Bare Steel Equipment (website). This is a brand new barbell company started by a school teacher who runs the MorningLifter website and podcast. He had a great idea for a product that he patented and he also offers barbells. I love supporting him and his endeavors.

I was missing a bar with a center knurl, really happy with it!

At some point, I also hope to get more involved in a real fitness business, but he is out there making it happen, which is incredibly inspiring.

Dad Report: Old Toys, New Tricks

Like many parents with means, we spoil our kids every Christmas. That usually means there are so many toys, some can get lost in the shuffle or quickly discarded after a few hours. This week, we brought some of those toys out again, including the Oculus VR headset pictured below.

We also had a few toys that were just so impossible to construct when we got them last year that we had given up on them. But as parents, we pulled out a couple of those and have mandated that we at least finish constructing them before Christmas before the new onslaught of toys enters the picture.

This is a good lesson for the kids, but it also becomes a hassle as a dad. Especially with this Gearjits toy, which is so intricate and difficult that I have to fully participate in the construction of it. We are only a few pages through the instructions and I don’t know if we’ll get there. I put this out there as a PSA to other dads: don’t buy this stuff unless you want to make it yourself and you enjoy arguing with your spouse and kids!