Diets are always hard if you don’t know how to do them 😉
Everything here is for “normal” weight loss, down to 15% or so, where the abs are beginning to show.
Here are some tips that have helped me:
Calories in / calories out are the single biggest weight loss driver
This means, that calories consumed mused be reduced, and daily activity should remain, or slightly increase
Protein is more filling than carbs and fat
and it helps keep the muscles, when you keep training
Volume and regularity of meals helps with hunger
instead of just removing things to eat, or removing whole meals altogether, try to keep the volume similar by replacing foods.
Water fills also
Hunger before meals is ok, and normal.
But you should not be always be hungy. Fruits and vegetables are great snacks.
Sleep more.
Still try to enjoy foods. Skipping breakfast at the weekend to enjoy some icecream instead? Yes please.
Small treats and gifts for yourself are important to keep going, and make the journey not to bland.
Eating out: minimize
Eating out with friends / parties: It is ok to occasionally indulge a little bit, when the situation arises
Just be mindful about the foods and portions
You don’t need to eat a whole cake
That’s most of it, I believe. Nothing special, and posted everywhere else.
There is no magic trick to do it.
Just a short overview over every supplement I usually take.
My personal guidelines for which/if to take a supplement are
ROI: cost vs potential benefits
potential benefits: how well studied / safe is it
potential benefits: are they applicable to me / my goals
In general you don’t really need to take anything, unless there are actual deficiencies. But there is also a difference between having just enough of something, or having optimal amounts; this is the gap I try to bridge.
I usually take
protein powder as needed (meal plan)
creatine, fish oil and vitamin D with my breakfast
everything else gets mixed in my greek yoghurt mix, which I eat every evening.
I always like the look of colored plates, regardless if the are actually completely colored like competition plates, or just classic black with white lettering.
Therefore I grabbed some paint and did just that.
Thing learned: space efficiency is not great, if your goal is to reach everything…
After two hours later, and two rounds of color for each plate, they look great. Much better than it seemed while painting.
I always liked the look of the power- or weightlifting platforms with their finished surface, protective sides and cool logos. Especially homemade ones having an inspiring quote, motive or picture that represent the mindset and goals of the maker just ooze of personality and inspiration.
After recently moving to a place with enough place for a plattform I couldn’t resist and had to attempt one for myself… Well, maybe I searched only for places with enough place 🙂
Prior art
Commonly they are build with two layers of plywood as base, on top of which comes another plywood sheet in the middle and tractor or horse stall mats for the sides. For example like in this post: How to Build a Weightlifting Platform.
I did it differently. Having no garage to train in, my plattform stands in the kitchen — and I didn’t trust plywood and a moderately thin rubber mat to prevent cracking the floor in case I do something stupid.
The materials
– 50 x 50 x 4 cm³ rubber mats, 8 pieces for the surrounding
– 100 x 100 x 2 cm³ rubber mats, 2 pieces for the base
– 200 x 100 x 1,8 cm³ plywood(?)
– 3 litres epoxide resin and 0,75 litres solidifier
– an awesome poster
50 x 50 pieces
100 x 100 piece
Needed to rent a transporter…
Wood
Resin
Poster
Assembly
The assembly is pretty much a no-brainer, except for applying and sanding the resin. You can leave the plywood as is, or make it personal by spraying/painting a quote or picture on the plywood or glue a poster on it. Or even something more creative I cannot think of! I choose the poster route 🙂
(1. Optional: Cut parts off of the poster you don’t want.)
(2. Optional: Glue it to the plywood. Easy as that.)
3. Place 4 pieces of the small rubber mats to the left, 4 pieces to the right, and the two bigger mats in the middle.
4. Make a temporary wall for the resin around the plywood so that it resembles a very flat tub. Some type of tape should do it. It should be sealed tight, unless the resin flows / drops through it.
5. Mix the resin and solidifier according to the manual and fill the tub.
6. Spread the mixture evenly. Small bubbles will probably form; try to burst as many as possible.
7. Wait a week. Then remove the temporary walls around the wood.
8. Sand and grate the edges with different types of abrasive paper.
9. Place the finished board in the middle and add your equipment.
(10. Optional: Decorate the rest of the room.)
Step 1 Cut it
Step 4
Step 4 The tub
Step 7 Drying
Step 8 Rough sanding
Step 8 Next: Fine sanding
Step 10 Decoration
Result
It is just awesome! I’m really in love with how it looks and performs. It’s radiating in light, but not too much, the natural pattern of the wood is great and the motive really shines and stands out.
There are some very small beauty mistakes like an edge of the poster was not glued and got lifted up, and some really small bubbles here and there. I don’t know if you can really prevent every single bubble, but double checking the correct adhesion of the poster should at least eliminate the first problem.
Looks are subjective, but performance not. The resin is very anti-sliding — there is no way i could move my feet without lifting them off the ground first. And the whole plattform is rock-solid and even. It feels pretty much like on an indoor basketball court or football field.
so pretty, so shiny
like a mirror sometimes
poster floated to the top
Idea behind the chosen picture
The picture got chosen not only because of the kick-ass Bowser illustration itself. If you don’t know, Bowser is the main villain in most Mario games. You have to literally rescue the princess and defeat the final boss Bowser. But it’s deceiving. There will always be a new game, where you have to defeat Bowser again. Or another game with another “final” boss. Or you just play the same game over and over ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The conquering of a goal usually never means the end. There will be new goals, new bosses. In a way, the final task in achieving a goal isn’t even the real goal. The way to reach the goal is the real struggle, the real villain. Like in a game, like in training. Once you reached your final boss, you’re already grown so much that the fight isn’t even that important anymore.
That’s the idea, and what I never want to forget.
Acknowledgments
Many thanks to my friends Sebastian and Robin for their manpower in grating and final placement of the equipment! And to my brother Benjamin for the technical guidance and general help — you can find other interesting articles on his blog (in german), for example how he build the squat rack (parts 1, 2,and 3) seen in the pictures 🙂
