Since we have out own group I'm going to use this for my v-life progress.

Just to brush people up on who I am:
I'm Ron, 24 years old. I attempted to do the V-Diet but failed due to some extreme gut issues ( lasted a solid week ). I wasn't about to give in and simply switched to HSMs and ditched grains and sugar. In 7 months I had lost 100 pounds.

I've continued the V-life since then, however I wasn't being very velocity. I didn't work out nearly as much or as often as I should. It's okay to say I am very weak in terms of strength, going from a couch potato to a skinny couch potato is no better.

I've started a simple strength 12 week program, 3 days a week of TBT. I'm going to eat the way I have been but simply add in 3 scoops of MD every day and a potato, then on work out days take half a FINiBAR pre workout and Surge after.

I'll also be using Rhodiola and Alpha Male. I take 15,000 IU of Vitamin D3, though since it is being so nice and sunny out I will drop to 10k during the week ( work indoors ) and then 5k on the weekends since I hope to be spending most of my time outside.

I will also remove "OFF" days. I will do "something" every day.

after my 12 weeks I will re-evaluate what I want to do, there is residual fat, so hopefully I will have the strength to do what ever it is I need to do.

Congrats on the weight lost so far and good fortune in your future endeavor. I won't say good luck because luck has nothing to do with transformations like this.

Neat to see someone else supplementing heavily with Vitamin D3 also. Ever since I read some of the articles here on that supplement and learned that the body will make upwards of 25,000 iu's of D from 30 minutes of moderate sun exposure, I've increased my daily dose to 10,000 iu's. Now it's just one of the many changes I've made in my lifestyle in the past couple years so I don't know how much the D is doing specifically, but I'm getting consistent results...

Hey ron, good thread idea!

I've enjoyed reading your stuff over the last few months. Hopefully you'll keep me entertained for the next few months!

Thanks Marzouk -- so Wednesday I decided to throw in some standing calf raises for the hell of it.

Today I can only walk on my toes! If I put my weight on my feet flat, talk about killer pain. It's like my calves are being torn off. This should make for an interesting workout.

That also reminds me not to deviate from the plan unless it's something no threatening.

I ordered some Sanuk boardroom shoes for wearing at work. They are basically dress leather uppers on a sandal bottom.

Can't wear vibrams at work, but these I can! Should be in wednesday with my Biotest supps, what a day :)

http://www.sanuk.com/boardroom

They make some other casual wear ones too, take a look.

Workout was pretty good today. I'm still a weak bastard but I added 5 pounds to all barbell lifts.

I think as long as I can maintain form, hit my target reps AND add 5 pounds every session I'll continue to do that.

Once I seem to hit a wall on the 5 pound increase I'll aim for every other session, then every week. Until I'm at a good strength level.

Hopefully over the next 6 week's I'll add 5 every session, then continue on a strength program but switch to something a little more advanced than what I'm doing.

I'm doing pulldowns and bent over rows till I can do pullups. I'm also doing leg presses until I can get more strength added it. Yeah I know, leg presses, but It's what this routine calls for and I'm going to do as it says for atleast 6-12 weeks then switch to Chad Waterbury's The Anti-Bodybuilding Hypertrophy Program.

Until my FINiBARs get here wednesday I've been double dosing Surge.

I might buy his book and do huge in a hurry. Thoughts?

Hey Ron,
Looking forward to following your progress on here buddy. (Not to mention the food pics you have up in the HSM forum)

If you're looking for fat-loss I am loving Chad's Body of Fire. I did it last summer and dropped about 15 lbs, doing it again right now hoping for the same result :) I also have Huge in a Hurry which might be more up your alley if you're looking to boost strength and put on some muscle.

Yeah I'm looking to boost strength and add some muscle.

Not quite ready to be 145 with abs and no muscle what so ever, hah. More like I'm ready to be 170 still not under 10% but clearly defined muscle structure.

I was 160 before starting the gym, I'll weigh myself after a few weeks.

Good luck with Body of Fire!

Thank you Neal @ Biotest for doing an excellent job with my Order. Thank you fedex for getting here a day early!

Just downed some Rhodiola. Also I don't know WHY I ordered Power Drive. However it seems I did. Guess I'll need to put it to use.

Also placed an order for Z-12, going to try 1 tonight and see how that goes, then 2 tomorrow and find out which I like better. I'm ready for the gym tomorrow! It can't get here soon enough.

I think you definitely would like huge in a hurry, also Jason Ferrugia has some good stuff in that department as well

I'm sitting here cooking dinner and waiting for the time for me to go to the gym.

I took my GPC about 30 minutes ago, 60 left. I'll head to the gym shortly so I can stretch and start at 90 minutes. I'm amped, im psyched, I want to go do this. I NEED to go do this.

My FINiBAR and Surge are ready, my hamburger is ready for my return from the gym. It'll be glorious. There's a bed of spinach waiting for it, gooey pepperjack cheese, bacon and spicy mayo.

It's time to change and pace around some more... later.

Okay- getting better. Leg press went from 50 to 95. Not bad, not bad. Flat benching has never been my strong suit, so I'm going to own this routine calling for it. I'm make flat benching work, one way or another.

Switched my standard bent over row to Pendlay Rows, thanks Lee Boyce.

I try not to talk to people while I'm working out, cute gym worker chick was over socializing with some guy taking way to long between sets ( but to be fair he's bigger and stronger than me ) and she said hi and kept trying to strike up conversation so I wasted a little time talking to her, but only between exercises not sets.

Two scrawny awkward kids were doing weird things with weights and a flip camera... it was slightly disturbing and distracting, but I still ended up sucking wind so good workout.

Nutrients are shuttled, once that Surge settles down I'll eat my burger ( will appear in the HSM thread this weekend ) then pop some Z-12 and crash.

I'll leave with these words: I'm so money!

My stomach has been on the fritz all day, I feel super bloated tonight so didn't down a protein shake.

Tomorrow is gym day, can't wait to get in there. It'll be a great time. I assume rhodiola is working, but I'm still super stressed, I guess eating to grow, starting a new job( same place i was at after 4 weeks of not working there, different position now) and working out are a lot of stress at once. I'd hate to feel it without the rhodiola.

Question about GPC someone may know, does it have to be taken on an empty stomach? Or say I downed a 2 scoop MD shake at 5 and take GPC at 6 I'm good?

Corst, hold GPC under your tongue and get a lot of it to absorb there.

My left knee had been bothering me all day. Can't say for sure if it affected my workout. I do know seated leg curls sucked tonight though. I totally didn't feel it, I just couldn't get into it. Ended up doing 4 sets of 12 versus 2 sets of 12 hoping I would find the groove. Just. Didn't. Happen.

I said I'd own the bench press so I made it my first set of the night. Was much better than it has been, but still needs attention.

Tomorrow is going to be a sunny 70 degree day and whenever I wake up I'll probably head to a hot wing competition ( I'll only eat smoked wings from my favorite team there, so no worries about being bad on fried stuff ), It's to support the Ronald McDonald house. Then I'll play with the dogs in the yard, maybe do some carry work( I've got some heavy objects in the back yard that are just begging to be moved), shirtless ofcourse to absorb the sun.

Finally I'll head to an Irish pup to go support a friends band to end the night. I love being active and not fat. I'm excited to head towards muscular...

FUCKING YMCA kicked me out with 3 exercises left to go!

I'm only going to go on the nights the cute chick is working, she at least lets a guy finish( in and out of the gym *zing).

That or I'll have to start getting up at 5:30 to go, or join the 24 hour gym. Honestly all our gyms suck, I need to find a good gym with some big strong guys and squat racks

I just realized next week is lab week. A whole week of shit food. Well 2 days anyhow this year, Monday is BBQ day ( YES! ), Wednesday is grill day ( hotdogs, hamburgers and grilled chicken! ), and Friday is fajita bar.

I won't be eating pizza day or pastabar day.

Looks like someone listened to me when I asked for healthier food options :)

Now i'm ready to leave work and go hammer the gym. Going to do my best to get there early so they don't kick me out again :(

All day while I'm at work I can only think about getting to the gym. It's great.

Lifts are steadily going up. Love it.

Okay folks. Bad news.

Yesterday I donated some blood to our new cancer diagnostic lab so they can use my blood as a sample to help get validation on our equipment.

Today the medical director pulled me aside. I have Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia ( CML or Chronis Myeloid Leukemia ). My white blood cell count is around 200,000. Normal is between 5,000 and 10,000.

This explains my night sweats. Needless to say I just want to go work out and shut out the world for a while. I might just get up and go even though today isn't a gym night. Fuck.

Needless to say I have a doctor's appointment scheduled for complete testing and analysis.