I joined a few days ago, haven't done much with it yet. I think it's a good idea to create a community over there.

If anybody wants an invite, I'd be happy to grant one to all that want one.

As would I, PM anyone with invites with your email address.

Also, fill out your stuff man! I don't think we can post to your wall (or whatever it's called) until you're done.

I'll be doing that come Monday. OTOH, I can probably find something I can log tomorrow.

One of the things I miss about jury duty was those twice daily 9 story climbs to the court room. By the end of my time there I could beat the elevator just about every time.

I detest elevators, has to be 10 floors or a locked stairwell before I'll even consider them. I also hate buildings that make their stairwell exit into a back alley, wtf?

I'd like an invite please! Looks interesting.

Hmm, cutting down to 2 mugs of coffee is rough. I think I'll feel better for it in the end though.

I'd recommend switching to green or white tea. You'll get a bit of caffeine, but more importantly it's good for the liver and with any fat burning you're wanting to do.

Personally, I'm giving up dumbbells in favor of body weight training. Got myself a electronic copy of Convict Conditioning, so far it looks really good. Even have some idea how to get myself a proper chin up bar.

Will a door jamb screw in bar work?

Hmm, what is this other stuff, body weight training?

Is Convict Conditioning good, maybe I should read it/watch a documentary or something?

EDIT: Oh yeah, I've been replacing my coffees with herbal tea. Perhaps I can get it down to one mug and some green tea in the morning, herbals later on.

It probably would work, but I can't damage the door jambs. And at any rate the doors in the house are mostly too narrow for me anyways. I've got really broad shoulders and when I bulk up there's little wiggle room on either side of me. Apparently people in the 20s were a lot smaller than they are today as none of those doors would be legal now.

I haven't quite got it figured out, but I can either hang from the attic or from a balcony. Worst case scenario I can do my entire work out in the park where they've got some bars that I could hang from.

I always preach: Stay away from wheat. It makes a plaster plug in your gut we are not designed to digest well. It has low nutritional value and serves mainly as filler food in most cultures.
I also try to keep meat consumption down to 1 or 2 times a week. Make sure you meat is organic if you do eat it.

Nothing kills a thread like talking dietary restrictions...

Do you avoid wheat in particular or gluten? I presume the latter due to the "plaster plug" comment. If you are avoiding gluten you have to avoid several other grains as well, including barley (which sucks if you like beer).

By just avoiding wheat and corn (including corn syrup) you can cut out calories, which may be beneficial all on its own. But for wheat specifically the "bad" part is usually considered to be the gluten and you can end up with some really gross food trying to find gluten free (millet and some other oddball grain in my tortilla I used for lunch is a shining example: not very good).

Dietary restrictions are all part of living healthy, maybe not severe ones but you're going to have to restrict certain foods (e.g. candy, cookies, pie, etc.) to very few servings per week. You can't eat that stuff between every meal and remain healthy.

Actually I do eat some bread in moderation.Sprouted high fiber wheat bread . It does have gluten. And I do have a beer or three once in a while. But combined with my regular everyday diet my digestive system runs like a clock. I dropped 40 lbs when I stopped my standard american donuts, pizza, pancakes and buns kind of everyday wheat eatin' .

When I got in shape to join the military, I played Dance Dance Revolution just about every single day. We had just about all the PSX and PS2 games at the time, and we had Stepmania as well, with a USB/PS2 converter. I went down from 209 to 170 in a relatively short amount of time. I kept playing to maintain my weight, and by the time I got shipped to Lackland AFB, I was 166 at my weigh in.

Fast forward 6 years. I'm back to being out of shape, stemming from laziness, and I jumped up to 235. DDR is all well and good but it only provides cardio, it doesn't do anything else. I recently picked up the UFC Personal Trainer for PS3 and the thing is kicking my ass. The core workouts are intense, and the kickboxing training is quick and brutal. I constantly find myself sweating more then when I go to the gym or run. I'm on the 30 day workout, and finished Day 3 today, but I other workouts and exercises with it.

The problem with games like this is they don't control your diet. I'm back to my military fitness diet, which allows me to pretty much eat what I want, so long as I'm not binging. Drinking lots and lots of water is key, both for your workout and to speed your metabolism. In the military, it was 6 canteens of water a day. The other thing is to cut soda from your diet as much as possible. I always found it incredibly hard to lose or maintain weight while drinking any kind of soda. If I get fast food, I ALWAYS get unsweetened iced tea. It's just flavored water, it has no calories whatsoever, and tastes pretty damn good. Fast food is ok once in awhile if you are dieting, but just don't go insane and get it for lunch and dinner every day.