Dirty Accountability

[Dirty Dan]

Hello to all who join!

Long time past member who hasn't stepped foot in a gym for a very long time. Now 35 years old, life has had it's fair share of challenges. Over the past few years I've sat back and let my physical health, and mental well being really decline. Struggled on and off with depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and letting stress control my life. I've built up this irrational fear of going to the gym.

All of these life events that have brought me to where I am today, share one thing in common. They are all excuses. It's time I make a positive change in my life, and start holding myself accountable. Below, I hope to document my journey, and path to a better me. I welcome any old friends, and new ones to join along and follow my journey.

Thanks!
-Dan-

 

[Dirty Dan]

Day 1 starting pictures. Not my proudest moment, but we all have to start somewhere.

 

[Carnivorecon]

I heard something on mindpump podcast (which is worth checking out btw) about a person who struggled to go to gym for some reason or other, they decided to literally just turn up and leave for first 2 weeks, this made going to the gym a habit without too much difficulty or stress, another person wanted to run regular, they just used to lace up their trainers and take them off again and it worked, its something to consider, if going to the gym and working out maybe too much just endeavour to go, create a habit and learn that there is nothing to fear then build on it. Respect for making a wise decision to take care of your health, best of luck my friend it's onwards and upwards from here!

 

[Dirty Dan]

So I went to the gym for the first time today. Felt rewarding just making the initial step of going there.

Did 10 minutes on the stationary bike. 20 minutes of stretching, threw some weights around focusing on arms and back. Didn't want to write anything down just yet. Ended with a mile on the treadmil. Walked 3/4 and light run the last 1/4.

Definitely felt very weak, and discouraged but it's baby steps.

Some overall goals:

1.) Heart health, alot of the men in my family have had early heart attacks. I'd like to avoid that, by focus on cardio and controlling my diet.

2.) Losing that belly fat

3.) Solidifying a diet dependent on current goals, and sticking with it.

4.) Building strength

I'm not focused just yet on building size, however if that certainly happens from training hard and controlling diet, I'm not going to be mad about it lol.

 

[Dirty Dan]

I heard something on mindpump podcast (which is worth checking out btw) about a person who struggled to go to gym for some reason or other, they decided to literally just turn up and leave for first 2 weeks, this made going to the gym a habit without too much difficulty or stress, another person wanted to run regular, they just used to lace up their trainers and take them off again and it worked, its something to consider, if going to the gym and working out maybe too much just endeavour to go, create a habit and learn that there is nothing to fear then build on it. Respect for making a wise decision to take care of your health, best of luck my friend it's onwards and upwards from here!

Thank you very much for the great advice, appreciate it my friend. Thanks for joining in on the journey!

 

[Renew1]

Following.

Rock and Roll, brother!

 

[Dirty Dan]

Following.

Rock and Roll, brother!

Welcome, and thanks for following along!

 

[thebigt]

hope you stick with it

 

[Dirty Dan]

hope you stick with it

Thanks Big T, great to see ya!

 

[thebigt]

Thanks Big T, great to see ya!

back at you

 

[Smont]

I'd like to give you some advice if your interested.

1. Get in the car or whatever you use for transportation and just go to the gym. Walking through the door is the hardest part 9 out of 10 times.

2. If you're worried about the way you look currently then throw on a sweat suit.

3. No1 else at the gym cares what you look like or how much you lift, in fact, seeing someone who shows up regularly and uses proper weights and doesn't try to ego lift is very respectable. Because there trying, and there not wasting there time doing dumb ****.

4. Diet down to your ideal weight before you put emphasis on size. Still train for strength and train hard, but put your main focus on achieving your desired bf%. The lower your bodyfat is the better your insulin sensitivity gets, the better your insulin sensitivity is, the better you burn fat and build muscle.

5. Check in here every day, accountability is something we all need. Even when you screw up, come in here and say I screwed up on my diet today or I missed my workout today. Then fix it.

If I were you I would put the diet first (everyone should)
The cardio second and the weights third. Keep your workouts simple with a few compound lifts and maybe 1 isolation exercise for each body part.

Hope you find some of this useful. Good luck and I'm following along too

 

[Dirty Dan]

I'd like to give you some advice if your interested.

1. Get in the car or whatever you use for transportation and just go to the gym. Walking through the door is the hardest part 9 out of 10 times.

2. If you're worried about the way you look currently then throw on a sweat suit.

3. No1 else at the gym cares what you look like or how much you lift, in fact, seeing someone who shows up regularly and uses proper weights and doesn't try to ego lift is very respectable. Because there trying, and there not wasting there time doing dumb ****.

4. Diet down to your ideal weight before you put emphasis on size. Still train for strength and train hard, but put your main focus on achieving your desired bf%. The lower your bodyfat is the better your insulin sensitivity gets, the better your insulin sensitivity is, the better you burn fat and build muscle.

5. Check in here every day, accountability is something we all need. Even when you screw up, come in here and say I screwed up on my diet today or I missed my workout today. Then fix it.

If I were you I would put the diet first (everyone should)
The cardio second and the weights third. Keep your workouts simple with a few compound lifts and maybe 1 isolation exercise for each body part.

Hope you find some of this useful. Good luck and I'm following along too

Smont, thank you very much for the advice, and words of encouragement! Part of the reason why I've decided to come back here on AM. Nothing but great advice, and great people.

I definitely agree that I need to dial down on the diet first. Have to cut out all of the junk and fast food I've been eating. I'd like to attempt to eat clean, and track the amount of calories I take in.

My biggest challenge is work.

I'm on vacation this week, which is why I've decided to get back to the gym. Once I go back to work I'm afraid that's when I'll fall into all the bad habits again of eating out all of the time, and being too tired to get to the gym. Excuses though. Can't have any of that.

 

[Smont]

Smont, thank you very much for the advice, and words of encouragement! Part of the reason why I've decided to come back here on AM. Nothing but great advice, and great people.

I definitely agree that I need to dial down on the diet first. Have to cut out all of the junk and fast food I've been eating. I'd like to attempt to eat clean, and track the amount of calories I take in.

My biggest challenge is work.

I'm on vacation this week, which is why I've decided to get back to the gym. Once I go back to work I'm afraid that's when I'll fall into all the bad habits again of eating out all of the time, and being too tired to get to the gym. Excuses though. Can't have any of that.

If you need help with a diet plan I'm more than happy to help. I'm very good at making low calorie meals with large amounts of food and I've got a lot of tricks for making healthy versions of the things that I like like pizza and desserts. I've been going back and forth between cutting phases and recomp phases for probably a little over a year now. I've dropped from 223 to 187 lb and I've definitely added some muscle along the way, not during The cutting phases but during the recomp or slight bulk phases. It's made for some pretty dramatic before and after photos that I'm very proud of, even though I'm still not happy with the way I look lol. But I don't think I ever will be

 

[Carnivorecon]

Can definitely agree with what smont said, hardest part is getting to the gym. I work a physical job and some days I'm drained mentally and physically, what's helped big time with dragging my ass to the gym is the routine of mixing my preworkout, the act of scooping things out and choking down what tastes like pineapple flavoured car battery acid just creates a shift in mindset, once I've done that its game time and theres no going back. Also getting there the fist dozen times and having a good workout when you really wasn't looking forward to it creates positive experience that you draw on anytime you don't feel like it, you know you'll feel good once you get going, I've never regretted going to the gym but i always regret not going and thats my motivation on the hard days when it feels like just getting of the couch is climbing mt Everest!

 

[Smont]

Can definitely agree with what smont said, hardest part is getting to the gym. I work a physical job and some days I'm drained mentally and physically, what's helped big time with dragging my ass to the gym is the routine of mixing my preworkout, the act of scooping things out and choking down what tastes like pineapple flavoured car battery acid just creates a shift in mindset, once I've done that its game time and theres no going back. Also getting there the fist dozen times and having a good workout when you really wasn't looking forward to it creates positive experience that you draw on anytime you don't feel like it, you know you'll feel good once you get going, I've never regretted going to the gym but i always regret not going and thats my motivation on the hard days when it feels like just getting of the couch is climbing mt Everest!

Yeah, I'm in the same boat with work. It's hard dragging yourself into the gym at 8:00 at night after working 12 hours LOL but I made it a routine I get home from work around 5:30 and immediately make dinner, at 7:30 I hop in the shower because I find taking a shower kind of wakes me up for my second wind. And I head out the door, there's plenty of times that during that process I'm arguing with myself in my head that I have to go. I literally will blurt out loud stop being a b****. I can't count how many times I've said that and one of my kids will look at me and be like I didn't even do anything lol

 

[thebigt]

Yeah, I'm in the same boat with work. It's hard dragging yourself into the gym at 8:00 at night after working 12 hours LOL but I made it a routine I get home from work around 5:30 and immediately make dinner, at 7:30 I hop in the shower because I find taking a shower kind of wakes me up for my second wind. And I head out the door, there's plenty of times that during that process I'm arguing with myself in my head that I have to go. I literally will blurt out loud stop being a b****. I can't count how many times I've said that and one of my kids will look at me and be like I didn't even do anything lol

lol...i used to work in a box factory, hot as hell...my wife thought it was weird that i always took a shower before going to work--it woke me up and energized me.

 

[Smont]

It

lol...i used to work in a box factory, hot as hell...my wife thought it was weird that i always took a shower before going to work--it woke me up and energized me.

It's a life saver lol. Anytime I don't have the motivation/energy to go do something I hop in the shower and I'm fresh and ready to go

 

[ELROCK]

Following!