I actually did get up at my normal hour with the intention of going to the gym. I read about this thing called “The Half-Hour Deadlift Challenge”
The Half-Hour Deadlift Challenge
By Dan John
Load the bar to 315 pounds. In the next half-hour, deadlift it as many times as you can. (Gary, a 61 year-old competitive thrower, can do 60 reps. He does doubles on the minute.) I suggested that to insure less soreness do one rep every thirty seconds and drop the bar at the “top” lockout position on every deadlift.
That’s right, drop every deadlift. You’ll experience far less soreness this way.
I think it goes without saying to keep good posture here. The upside of challenges like this is that your technique actually improves over the workout and your capacity to work increases.
Now, if you can’t deadlift 315 yet, well, maybe that’s the problem you’re having right there! — DJ
That sounded pretty cool to me. I read about all sorts of challenges or special cycle programs, and never really know where to fit them in. I just get on my Wendler roll and keep moving. So I thought today would be a perfect time to try that.
At first I wondered, if this guy does 61, doubles on the minute, he’s probably got a decently high 1RM thus 315 isn’t much to him. 315 is certainly work for me. I did just PR with a single at 405, but it was max effort for me. 315 will wear on me. I thought I should lower the weight, but no, stick with 315 and get what I get. No question, it’s about pacing. I figured work up like 135×5, 185×5, 225×3, 275×1, then start the clock and hit 315. I figured to start off with 1 per minute and see how it rolled. I would get what I got. If I needed to space out to 2 minutes, then I would. 5 minutes, then so be it. Just keep trying to do whatever I could for 30 minutes with 315. Then try it again some other time and beat it. 🙂
Alas, I opted against it. Once I got up, my body said to go back to sleep. I think this was best.
I am suffering from burnout.
The day job has me exhausted. Lifting taps energy, and I know i have not been getting enough sleep (e.g. 6-7 hours a night instead of 7-8). Working at KR Training on enough weekends takes a lot out of me, especially right now in this Texas summer heat; it’s the sort of thing where I intentionally plan to “do nothing” the following Sunday except rest and nap a lot… and I do. I am pooped. I need rest.
I have rested a lot more this week, sleeping in, napping. I feel better, and towards the end of this week feel like I’m climbing a little bit out of my hole. So, while I hate not lifting, I feel a lot better.
All good.
The deadlift challenge will have to wait for another day.
Thought about going to the gym and just doing something. Didn’t know what but wanted to keep it light yet moving me… maybe throw 135 on the bar and do 5×10 squats, 5×8 bench, then some pull-ups. Nothing much, in the spirit of deload.
My body said no… sleep. Rest. I learned that when you’re in recovery, as soon as you feel better, that’s not the time to jump back into it. Give your body a little bit longer because you’re really still not out of the woods just yet. Come Monday, my body should thank me.
But I opted for a “jack shit” deload. No gym. I stayed home, slept in (!), then just did some rehab-type work. Did my shoulder mobility work, a bunch of foam rolling, stretching, some bodyweight stuff (e.g. a lot of lunges). Just got my body moving, but no major stress on it.
Not sure if I’ll do this all week or just today. Will take each day as it comes.
What’s swirling in my head about where I’ve been and where I’m going.
If you’ve read what I’ve been writing lately, there are things going on in my life affecting my health and my perspective. It’s minorly physical health, mostly mental and emotional health. I continue to grow weary of negativity, of poor perspective. I’m trying to improve some of this for myself, and also culling things from my life that are unappealing, or don’t otherwise aid in growth.
So with that, I think it’s time for a deload. I really don’t want to take one because well… it’s deloading. It’s rarely fun. 🙂  But I think I need it so I don’t get myself to a point where I am forced to take one because something goes too far. Taking a chance to impose some recovery is just how it will have to be. In fact, I wondered if this might be a “Jack shit” deload, and I just sleep a lot, foam roll, stretch, eat protein and fat and minimize carbs the whole time, maybe do some bodyweight work, but basically do nothing else for a week and see how my body takes it.
I keep flipping through 2 books: Wendler’s latest, “Beyond 5/3/1“; and Brandon Lily’s “The Cube Method“. I found myself already doing some of the things Wendler put into the Beyond book, which stands to reason as the book is somewhat a collection of things that he’s already put out over the past year or two. But it’s also got a lot of new things in there. Joker Sets are a good example, and I think I can find a place for them. Because you see, I keep thinking about how Cube requires a (mock) meet at the end of the cycle to retest your 1RM’s and set up for the next cycle. It’s a slight problem for me because I don’t quite have the means for proper 1RM testing. I don’t have training partners, and while the gym equipment is good for most “fitness” needs, it doesn’t quite serve my heavier lifting needs. If I had a real power rack I’d be fine. If I could, I could put safety pins at the bottom of the bench press and also bring up the pins a hair more so dumping the bar during a squat wasn’t quite such a yoga-inducing experience. I have been looking at some ways to maybe make it work, and I think I might get there. But Cube just comes off like if you don’t really know your proper maxes, you may not get the right ends out of the program. But with Joker Sets, I just might find another way to finagle things to help me get closer, given my context.
Of course the flip side is I just start going to Hyde Park Gym because they have all the right equipment, plus strongman stuff. I think I could even use chalk!
But for now, here’s where I remain. I think in some regard I vacillate between wanting to change and wanting to stay the course. It takes time to really know how things are working out, and I cannot deny when I see progress. So if it’s working, do I need to change? And if there’s a need for change or a desire to change, why? Just to be different? or to solve an issue? Gotta examine why I want change.
I think one change I want now is to bring in some sort of dynamic work. It’s not so much wanting to see what things like “dynamic effort” method work can do, tho certainly I’m curious how that would play out since I’ve never done any true DE work. It’s more that all this slow work I think is too slow. 🙂  Here’s an example. When I park my truck, I always engage the parking brake, which is done via a pedal pushed by my left foot. When I push it, I feel some weird achy pain in my knee. But when I started doing work like the farmer’s walks, the elliptical work, that pain went away. I found when I did more with my body than just “slow lifts”, things don’t feel so bad. Remember, my primary reason for this is because I don’t want to become decrepit; it’s about my health and getting around in life, not trying to break world records on the platform. If doing some more dynamic/explosive work can help me out, great! It’s perhaps also why strongman stuff holds some appeal to me, because there’s a lot of practical movement there, not specialized movements of weighted bars, y’know?
Hence, let’s try power cleans. But I must admit, now that I’m trying them I’m not sure they will accomplish what I’m after, so I may drop them after a few more sessions with them. My use of them now will be light and “more”, meaning whereas it’s generally recommended to do things like 5 sets of 3, I might do 5 of 5 or 5 of 8 just to get more reps and more feel for it, especially since I am using light weights. It might be better to do true DE-style work, which then gets me back to where Cube comes in. But Beyond 5/3/1 has a listing that puts some dynamic work in, and that might be interesting to try for a cycle or two.
Anyways, for now I am enjoying some minor changes that simplify things.
I am enjoying going back to a BBB-style template, keeping things simple. Just a couple exercises/movements, hit the basics, be done with it. Adding all the back work in I think is also going to be good for me. I’m still finding the right proportions, but so far so good. I do think supersetting with an exercise that works in the opposing plane is right. So that is, on bench days I bench and row, but superset the bench with pullups. That is, bench and row are both in one plane of movement and pullups are perpendicular (if you will). My shoulders appear to not complain so much when I do this. This also means I can drop some of the additional arm/shoulder/back work, because this should be enough.
The “6 week cycle” I like. That is, you run 1 cycle, skip the deload, bump the weights up, hit another cycle, and 7th week is a deload. Part of the reason I am bummed to deload now is again poking at the Cube. Cube runs for 9 weeks, so how would this pan out for me? Can my body handle 9 weeks? So I wanted to do 3 cycles in a row, but I have to remember that since I only go 3 days a week, whereas a normal 5/3/1 cycle is 4 weeks, mine are 5, so I’ve effectively done 8 weeks. I’m sure I could handle a 9 week Cube cycle since they do lay out differently. So thinking about it now as I write this, well, isn’t so bad now. 🙂
I also think that adding Joker Sets in is good. I’m not sure I can do it regularly. But I think if I make the last sets of my last cycle (before deload) contain Jokers, that would be a lot of fun and quite telling. For now I will plan on them.
As for my fat shedding.
CBL isn’t happening for me. At least, not strictly. I am keeping with a carb-cycling tho. That is, I am keeping CBL-inspired and guided for the most part. But if I need some extra carbs on the weekend to get through because my body is screaming at me? I’ll eat something. I have learned to listen to my body and if it really needs it, I’ll give it. I need to operate on many levels, beyond just lifting. I need to be fully functioning when I’m on the gun range because students count on me and there are safety matters to contend to, so screwing with blood sugar isn’t always a sound thing, y’know? 🙂  I’m seeing very slow progress on the fat loss front because of this, but it at least seems to be happening. So if it takes me many months, fine. If this means I can adopt a protocol that works for me and I can live with for life, great. That’s better than any sort of gimmick diet program, y’know?
I decided today would also be a Joker Set day. Why not?
One weird thing was on my PR set (145) I wrapped my wrists. Again, feeling a little pressure pain on my wrists, so a little extra support isn’t bad. But this was very strange feeling. I never wrap my wrists when pressing, and the angles were all different. It set up and rested and moved in a very different plane. Threw me off. I wasn’t expecting it, and then all my brain wanted to do was focus on how it was different and analyze it all… instead of just moving the weight. So I racked it at 5 and moved on.
155. Fine. 165 just didn’t happen. I tried, racked it. Tried again. No go.
I did learn something tho. I really really need to work on being full-body tight when I Press. I often don’t get that until after the first rep, and what good is that? I’m thinking the Joker Sets are going to teach me a lot, because heavier weights towards your max are going to demand everything being just right.
On the cleans… I dunno. I put 95 on the bar, pulled from the floor, felt like an uncoordinated doofus. Changed to just do hang cleans until I got the idea. Then dropped the weight at the end and didn’t feel so uncoordinated. I’m not getting under the bar, the snapping of my arms hurts my elbows. I know it’s just my technique having no clue right now. I’m debating sticking with it or not. I’m not sure they will accomplish what I’m wanting… that I might do better just doing pure dynamic work. I don’t know. Mulling things over. I have nothing against cleans and do think I should give them a fair shot before I write them off. But I know what my goals are and just have to see what will get me where I want to be.
I was so close to squatting 300#, but I had to reset my weights and technique because it was time.
Hey, we all have ego, and getting so close to that milestone then having to fall back… it’s a blow.
I’ll admit, part of me wants to squat over 300 because it just comes across better – three instead of two. Because even 299 isn’t as impressive as 300, despite the fact you’ll never notice the 1# on your back. It’s the same mental games as why they price things at $2.99 instead of $3.00.
300 feels like I’m being more serious, like I’ve accomplished more. When you have world-record raw squats over 1000#, when you have elite guys doing 700, 800, 900 pounds. Even when typical squat strength standards for someone of my weight is in the 400’s for advanced and 500’s for elite… you feel like 200? That’s not much, but 300 is just closer.
But I have to stop only looking forward. I should look the other way too.
We have so many people in our society that cannot bend over or squat down to pick something up off the floor. I see people struggle to just go up and down a step. I’m not talking elderly people. I’m not talking people with extraneous physical limitations (e.g. in a wheelchair). I’m talking young people. I’m talking about people too overweight and too out of shape. We sit behind desks all day long and our body goes to crap.
comparatively speaking, squatting 200# is a hell of an accomplishment.
It took me more than two decades of struggle to climb to those numbers. Regardless of how they compare to anyone else’s, they are mine, and I’m proud of them. I put in a lot of time and effort to reach them. I do not apologize for not “measuring up” to what someone else can do. The only person I need to measure up to each day, and get better than, is the competition I see in the mirror. That guy needs to be better today, than he was yesterday. And tomorrow, he needs to be a little bit better than he was today.
I do it. I know lots of people do it, and have it done to them. Numbers are looked at compared against the upper echelon. There’s something to this as that’s how (world, national, state, gym) records are made. It also helps us see what we as humans are able to do and how much further we’re able to push ourselves and better ourselves. It shows how long the road is that we can choose to travel down: we can have a life-long journey, if we wish. But sometimes, it’s important to also turn around and look back at where you came from, and realize how far you’ve come.
I like how the article looks at some guys and does the math on what they actually gained.
It’s a lot less than you think.
My point here (even if all the numbers aren’t exact) is that the guys with some of the greatest muscle building genetics in the world have gained fifty pounds of muscle in their lifetimes. Think about that for a second.
What this means is that if you’re the average skinny-fat guy who weighs 160 at 5’10” with 18% bodyfat you’re never going to be over 200 pounds. If you do hit that milestone you’ll be fat.
I don’t know if I ever really thought about the weight aspect, especially when you factor in trying to be lean. Many of the top pro bodybuilders look totally jacked, tons of meat slabs on their frame, and yet… they aren’t over 200# (often because they’re also short). So while the notion of “heavyweight” tends to mean being over 200-225 lbs. (depending who you ask), most of us just won’t get there.
The article also talks about the speed of the gains, and like anything they come on quickly at first, then really slow down.
So you don’t just have to wait, but you have to realize there’s only so much that can be done. But also don’t let the numbers be unrealistic. To slap 30# of beef on your frame is actually quite a lot of muscle. So tell you what: take a picture and your weight/measurements now. Put in the time and work to take that 30# of muscle. Take another picture and weight/measurements. We’ll talk again then. 🙂
Walked into the gym feeling fine. I gave myself permission to jack-shit it today, but figured if I felt good enough I would do the deficits because I actually like them and feel they are paying off. Today’s effort was validation.
I was only supposed to work up to 355. My 3rd rep started to break form, but I wanted a 4th so I went for it tho the form wasn’t hot. I wanted to do more and on a whim opted to try Joker Sets. I hadn’t given it a thought prior to that moment, but went for it.
In short, Joker Sets are doing your normal workup, including still pushing for reps on the last set. Then, you add 5-10% and keep going with the reps for that week (e.g. 5 reps on the 5 week, singles on 5/3/1 week, etc.). Add another 5-10%, and just keep going until you can’t make the reps, tho you need to stop just short of failure. There’s a little more to it than that, but that’s the gist. Wendler covers it in his “Beyond 5/3/1” book.
I opted for 20# jumps because that was about right, and easy enough to just throw a dime on each side of the bar and keep going for singles. 375 wasn’t too bad. My PR at the time was 380×3, so going to 395 felt good. Screw it… that close to 4 wheels? Let’s go for it.
Pulled it. And it was awesome. 🙂
I took a video and compared it to how I felt during the lift. No, the form was not textbook pretty. It’s not the form I’ve been focusing on to help bring up my weak points. But the form really wasn’t all that bad and would be a “good lift”. I can say without a doubt that I would not have done this before my reset. My form them was so bad this would have been a struggle and I am not sure I would have broken the floor. But all the work I’ve been doing for stricter form, keeping the back proper and making it more of a push with the legs than a pull with the back, the deficit deadlifts, and probably even the pause squats and ensuring I break depth on squats… I think it all added up and paid off.
So, hell yeah! 🙂
I actually realized I went from 395 to 405, when the jump should have been to 415, but I was really focused on the 4 wheels and felt that was good enough. I’d rather make 405 than miss 415 anyways.
I’m thrilled! I’m still floating on the high from the success.
That said, I am not going to adjust my weights to use 405 as my max and recalc my numbers. I know I got here because of the focus on form, so I’ll stick with the sub-max work and stricter form to bring things up. There’s no question that paid off, and frankly that’s more important to me than a 1RM. But, I’ll still be happy with the lifetime PR!
Assistance – Band-assist pull-ups (superset with all pressing)
12 x 3 (8 on last set) x bw
Assistance – Seated cable rows
3 x 15 x 70
Today just felt awesome. Well, it didn’t start out that way. Drag-ass out of bed, and the first few sets felt really heavy. As I went along, something in my right wrist didn’t feel good, so I decided I would wrap my wrists for the last set. And when I hit that last set, cranked down the belt, wrapped the wrists tight, hit some ammonia (still experimenting with it), and cranked out 6 easily. I should have stopped there, but something just said to do more so I did. Yeah my butt lost contact with the bench, and rep 8 had to work for the lock-out, but I just felt like really going for it. Looking back over my logs, that ties a rep record @ 205, so that’s cool. I mean, last cycle I did 6 @ 200, so 8 at 205 was really cool. I just felt really awesome.
And it shows as I moved into assistance work, because usually cranking that hard during the work sets and my assistance work can’t crank so hard, but look… I hit the inclines fine and even AMRAP’d it on the last set. Only 12 but still. I also superset band-assisted pull-ups with every pressing set with AMRAP on the last set. I really am liking this and my shoulders are ok with it, so I’ll slowly increase this next cycle (4 reps per set, at least).
Last thing was seated cable rows. I’m searching for what to do for superset with my pressing sets. Sure, face pulls, but I want something a little heavier, more substantial, but also not something that will detract from the main lift. Rows make sense, but full on rows felt like it’d risk detracting. I thought why not, try the seated (cable) rows. I figured it wouldn’t hurt, but I didn’t realize how good it would be! The pull at the bottom actually did a nice number on my upper back and shoulder area, in terms of stretching and popping some stuff in my spine (in a good way). The squeeze, the constant tension, really pinching the shoulder blades together, yeah, I think this might work out better than expected. I’m sure I’ll drop the weight down around 50 and drop the reps to 10 max and see how it goes. But preliminary assessment is it’s worth a shot.
I like the refined approach I’m taking to my lifting.
I don’t know why things were so awesome today. Might be the diet change. I’m not strictly following CBL any more, but keeping the basic idea of no carbs for the most part, a refeed the night prior to a training session, but allowing myself to more freely eat carbs over the weekends. I am thinking the fuel is helping. Makes sense. If it means it makes my fat loss slower, but becomes a more solid eating program that I can stick with without much effort, then I’ll go with it.
As for the ammonia, I’m still playing with it. It’s interesting. I cannot shove it up my nose and inhale deeply like I see the pros do… but I get a fair shot of it. I think what’s changing for me is not feeling like I have to inhale then get into the lift “before it wears off”. No, let it wear off. Don’t rush into it. Inhale it, let it clear the mind, get the focus, but just let it be and get into the lift as normal. It’s interesting stuff for sure.
One day at the gym I saw this catalog atop the pile of magazines:
Apparently what matters most are pecs, abs, and boobs.
It reminded me of that Simpsons episode where Homer finds the overturned sugar truck and is sleeping in front of the sugar mound:
All I could hear in my head was “first you buy their supplements, then you get the abs, then you get the women”. 🙂
Flipping through the catalog, it was the same old thing of overhyped promises: promises to get h00g3, ripped, be better (and more legal!) than anabolics and other PED’s, and of other enhancement — if you just buy and take our expensive product. Oh yeah… and when you take our product, you’ll get the body you want, and the woman it belongs to (thank you Paul Stanley).
Of course, few of these products are proven to work; heck, even the bro-science is often weak. And when you have places like examine.com to give you the straight story well… you do realize how much of this stuff is just parting foolish you with your money.
But still… we dream. And still we throw our money away.
Yes, if there can be a short-cut that is proven to work, we will take it. Why? Because we are human. We want to bigger, better, faster, more, and we want it now. We also find it difficult to be patient. We also find it difficult to accept that this is going to take time… a lot of time. So if we can find a way to still get to the same place but do so in a faster or more effective or more direct manner, we’re going to do it. It doesn’t matter if it’s winning the Tour de France or just choosing to go straight down the street instead of around the block when driving — we’re going to do what it takes to accomplish things in the most expedient manner.
I have lifted weights on and off since I was a teenager. I never stuck with it, and looking back I can see why: I either got bored, or I didn’t see the results I wanted (bigger/stronger, and sooner rather than later). I think that’s why I’ve stuck with now for the past 2+ years: I’m far from bored, and I see awesome results.
But still, I think to myself… gee, over 2 years at this, and I’ve only come this far? I thought I’d be further!
Furthermore, when I think about where I want to be in terms of my strength levels and body appearance, I think it might take me another 3 years. The strength gains will not come like they did the first few months on Starting Strength. In fact, a simple calculation like on Wendler of having 4-week cycles thus 13 cycles per year, and if you go up 10# per cycle on squat/deadlift, that means you should gain 130# per year, right? No, if you get 50# you’re doing great, because you’ll go maybe 6-7 cycles, then reset, then another 6-7 and reset, and those resets take a large chunk out of your numbers, so looking year to year and it may only be a 50# increase. If you’re lucky.
Is that so bad? If I’m honest with myself, no it’s not. In fact, it’s quite realistic. It’s actually the way it is… just that no one tells you it’s going to take this long. Thankfully, that’s starting to change.
If he’s right that Andy Bolton started with a 600# deadlift and it took him 20 years before he pulled 1000#, that averages out to like 20# a year. I’m sure that wasn’t Andy’s actual increase, but it gives you some perspective. So next time you get mad because your lift isn’t going anywhere, you have to step back and really see if it’s not going anywhere or if it’s just going really slow.
Or just look at Paul’s own story. Two years before he could bench 135. But now he can close-grip 445. But it’s been 20+ years to get there. If anything, it makes me wish I was back as a teenager and knew then what I know now, so I could have stuck with it. I’m way behind the curve.
But, Paul teaches another thing:
It took me more than two decades of struggle to climb to those numbers. Regardless of how they compare to anyone else’s, they are mine, and I’m proud of them. I put in a lot of time and effort to reach them. I do not apologize for not “measuring up” to what someone else can do. The only person I need to measure up to each day, and get better than, is the competition I see in the mirror. That guy needs to be better today, than he was yesterday. And tomorrow, he needs to be a little bit better than he was today.
He’s quite right. It doesn’t really matter if your numbers aren’t killer next to someone else. Sure, to compare your numbers to charts/standards or to what a federation establishes for “raw elite” or just to someone else’s numbers… it is useful to a degree because it gives you some perspective about what’s achievable, what’s realistic, etc..  But in the end, it’s more about you improving yourself. I’ve found myself doing that too, telling people my numbers and minimizing them because I know compared to the big boys, my numbers are nothing. But I have to remember they’ve been doing this for 20 years, and I’ve been doing it for 2.
Those readers who have been engaged in serious bodybuilding for more than a year probably have realized that the growth of muscle tissue beyond normal levels is a relatively slow process. And while I have never seen the results of studies that might reveal exactly how many pounds the average bodybuilder gains in the course of one year of hard training, I think that most experienced bodybuilders would agree that a five-pound gain of pure muscle tissue – as opposed to give pounds of body weight, despite its composition – would be considered a considerable achievement.
Think about that. You read the bodybuilding magazines and are bombarded with how with this product or that technique you’ll put on 20# in 20 weeks, and get 20″ biceps in a matter of minutes. And here’s Mike Mentzer, one of the best bodybuilders ever, and he says if you can gain 5# in a year, that’s a “considerable achievement”. That implies in normal course you will probably gain less than 5# in a year! But then, Mike continues and puts it into perspective.
Five pounds of muscle tissue may not sound very impressive, but if a bodybuilder were able to sustain that rate of growth (5 pounds of pure muscle tissue per year) for five years, he would, at the end of that period, end up some 25 pounds heavier. If you could envision that much beefsteak laid out in front of you on the dinner table, you would then get some idea as to just how much “meat” 25 pounds of muscle is – enough to transform the average American male weighing 155 pounds into a veritable Hercules at 180 pounds of solid, cut-up muscle. It should also be remembered that of that average American male’s 155 pounds of body weight, the muscle weight component is roughly 20 pounds (the remainder being bone, water, fat, and waste materials). Given this fact, his muscle weight gain of 25 pound over five years would represent a transformation that would more than double his existing muscle mass!
Is 5 years that much to ask?
Well, yes it is. But what do you want?
I’ve been around now for long enough. I’ve done enough things that take time: 4 years of high school; 4 years of undergrad, 2 years of grad school, 4+ years to get a black belt. And yeah, you come to realize that you just have to put in that level of time before you can really understand. To ask 4-5 years of work under the bar really seems a minimum to not only get the strength levels or physique or whatever that you want, but also to have enough experience to know what you’re doing, to know what to keep doing, and to get somewhere satisfactory.
So really no, 5 years isn’t much to ask.
But that doesn’t mean we won’t get impatient. That doesn’t mean it won’t be easy. That doesn’t mean we won’t long for something “more”.
But I think about it. I can see if I stick to a good long-term diet strategy, I’ll be able to look in the mirror and see precisely what I want to see.
If say I can gain 50#/year on my deadlift and squat and 25# on my bench and press (as rough numbers), then 3 years from now that’s 150 and 75… and that will mean things like squatting in the mid-400’s, pulling low 500’s, benching maybe 3 wheels and pressing maybe 2. Hell, that’s damn respectable.
Yes I’d love to have those numbers now, but that means I should have started 5 years ago. There’s just no getting around having to put in the time.
Really, there aren’t any shortcuts here. No product in a catalog will get me the body I want (and thankfully I already have the woman). And I just can’t get around the limits of human reality – 5#/year might be all I pack on.
I just have to wait.
No, it’s not easy to accept (yet again), but it’s refreshing. It frees you from burden. It lifts off pressure. It helps you see clearer so you can know what’s useful and what’s useless towards helping you get there. Accepting the reality that it’s going to take time, that’s OK, because so far the journey’s been a good one, and I look forward to the road ahead.
Stuff From Hsoi 