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Message: <blockquote data-quote="paradox42" data-source="post: 4384686" data-attributes="member: 29746">Cool thread. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f60e.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":cool:" title="Cool    :cool:"  data-smilie="6"data-shortname=":cool:" />Where I Am: 5'11" (though actually I want to get measured again to be sure because my parents and other older adults who've known me for years keep telling me that I look taller to them), 170 lbs. as measured on a medical-grade scale at my gym last night.Where I've Been: I've always been a stick, before the last year or two; couldn't gain weight to save my life during my 20s no matter how hard I tried. I've since come to believe that a large part of that was that I wasn't getting enough protein, but suffice it to say that doing 6 months of hard weight-training exercise 5 times a week just to go from 125 lbs. to 140, was not a work/reward ratio I liked. Last year, after I got promoted to supervisor at UPS (and therefore am no longer allowed by union contract to so much as touch a package unless asked to do so by a union employee), I started to see my fitness level go down and joined a gym. After I got back in shape, weight stabilized around 140, I decided to try bulking up again, since my metabolism had clearly slowed in my 30s. And this time it's working- I reached my last-year's weight goal of 160 lbs. after only 2 months.Exercise: Every night, Monday-Friday, after work, I hit my gym on the way home (the gym is open 24 hours and is almost directly on the route I take between work and home- those are the primary reasons I picked it). I typically do 20 minutes of jogging/elliptical, followed by ~40 minutes of weight training hitting different areas of my body each night. That's followed by a soak in the gym's hot tub, and 10 minutes of relaxation in the sauna, before I head home to eat dinner.Diet: I wasn't paying much attention to this in my 20s, because I always had a high metabolism- one of those people who could eat anything and never gain an ounce (even if I wanted to- and yes, I'm well aware that pretty much everybody else wishes they had that problem). These days, though, particularly after my successful bid to reach 160 pounds last year, I watch my diet during bulk-up periods closely. In recent weeks I'm usually eating between 3000-3700 calories per day, and I drink a shake of whey protein at the gym every night after my workout before I hit the showers and hot tub. Trying to follow the rule of 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight, though it isn't always easy and I usually go over or under by a few grams. Since my childhood I've been eating a bowl of instant oatmeal for breakfast nearly every day (generally the only times I don't are when I'm on vacation and it's unavailable), and lunch and dinner are freeform- whatever I feel the desire to eat (though I'm careful to count calories and protein of course). It's probably higher in sodium than is particularly healthy for me, but I haven't seen health troubles yet so I haven't had a need to cut back on that. When I eat fast food, which is admittedly more frequently than it should be, I almost invariably do Subway or Chipotle. I often hit Chipotle twice a week- I can't help myself, the burritos are so good!Goal: I plan to hit 180 lbs. by the end of this summer if possible (and I think it will be). I often weigh myself twice each night at the gym, once before and once after I do the hot tub/sauna "cooldown." Usually I lose a pound or so in the cooldown, but the last two nights I haven't lost anything as far as I could tell- so my body fat's almost certainly in the single digits now. I'm stronger than I've ever been in my life, and feeling great! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> If I can hit 172 by the end of this week I'll be a happy camper. I was between 169 and 170 on Monday night, so so far so good.</blockquote>

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