OT: The Avalounge but every time someone posts the quality declines

[The Abusement Park]

Only place close by I'd do is Telluride, maybe Crested Butte. I applied to a job at Alta this last summer so I'd likely try again there. Maybe Baker or somewhere else in the PNW if I really wanted to get away from Colorado.

Not sure yet. Need to see how this summer goes.

Working at Alta would be soooo awesome. Incredible terrain there, and Snowbird as well. Hope it all works out for ya buddy.

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

Man I've had some serious insomnia the past week

 

[Bonzai12]

Anyone ever been to Pochitos?

Supposed to be the best tamale place in Denver. Always been curious.

 

[Cousin Eddie]

Ah man, I missed the coke conversation.

 

[dahrougem2]

Lebanese food is GOAT.

 

[Alex Jones]

The last time I had taco bell was probably 10 years ago Cinco De Mayo. Ate around 10 tacos, went to a party, ate many more tacos, drank a 5th of tequila. You can probably finish the story.

Normally the fifth of tequila comes before the Taco Bell.

 

[The Abusement Park]

Came across this video last night, and considering we just had a long discussion involving rappers, I figured I'd share. Super interesting.

 

[Alex Jones]

*sigh*

I think I've hit my first actual wall/plateau in this weight loss thing.

I'll be upfront, so as to accurately convey the whole story. I started at 338 lbs, and as I said before I lived my life and often said "I live how I live, and I'll die how I die". I started this because I wanted something better for myself. Whereas every other time I tried to do this it was always for a misguided reason (usually for someone else).

I hit the 70 lbs loss mark not too long ago, but for the last week-ish (maybe slightly less than a week), I've been sort of stuck in the 263/264 range. I don't believe I'm eating any different. Though I have made a better attempt at meal prepping, this is still only the 3rd time I've done it (which my meals consist of 4oz of baked chicken and 2.5oz of steamed broccoli).

I got some advice already from a good friend, and I'm going to try that out, but it is ****ing frustrating to be hitting it. I also know it's probably time for me to start incorporating more weightlifting into my workouts (which up to this point have largely been just extensive cardio work).

I'm down to 263, my goal has been 220. I refuse to accept that this is a permanent block, but as I said it's frustrating considering I was losing at such a rapid pace before. I want that ****ing scale to start reading in the 250's soon, and then get my goddamn mojo back.

Obviously I don't know what your baseline strength is, but right now if you're not someone who works out or lifts in any capacity I think you would get a lot more from activities such as HIIT and free weight circuit training instead of just finding machines at the gym and trying to lift as much as possible. I would suspect you have a lot of ability to recomp, so adding in more weight training will slow down your weight loss, if that's your primary goal.

I think you should focus a lot on finding healthy foods that you like, even if it slows down your weight loss. I know a lot of people that have dieted, but then gained a ton of weight back because they never learned any medium between starve yourself/diet mode and the food that they ate previously, which is usually extremely unhealthy. You have to find a stable diet that you enjoy, that fills you, and that has good nutritional composition.

 

[RockLobster]

Obviously I don't know what your baseline strength is, but right now if you're not someone who works out or lifts in any capacity I think you would get a lot more from activities such as HIIT and free weight circuit training instead of just finding machines at the gym and trying to lift as much as possible. I would suspect you have a lot of ability to recomp, so adding in more weight training will slow down your weight loss, if that's your primary goal.

I think you should focus a lot on finding healthy foods that you like, even if it slows down your weight loss. I know a lot of people that have dieted, but then gained a ton of weight back because they never learned any medium between starve yourself/diet mode and the food that they ate previously, which is usually extremely unhealthy. You have to find a stable diet that you enjoy, that fills you, and that has good nutritional composition.

I'd prefer not to slow down the weight loss, but I think that's where I am right now by default. I'm not going to let it deter me, as even though I've noticed the weight staying relatively the same all week, I've been in the gym for at least 45 minutes each day doing my usual intense cardio workout. As I've said, I've begun to include some weight lifting, but minor (as my plan was never to bulk up muscle wise, but rather start to tone/define the muscles). It's been lat pulls right now as I don't know enough about the weight lifting equipment, but soon I'll be doing more with my roommate (who does know more about this stuff).

I was mainly just venting at being stuck at this weight I've been at for the better part of the week. I'd been losing it so fast that I knew I was going to hit a wall/plateau at some point--I was just hoping it would come a little bit later when I was a little bit closer to my final goal.

 

[Alex Jones]

I'd prefer not to slow down the weight loss, but I think that's where I am right now by default. I'm not going to let it deter me, as even though I've noticed the weight staying relatively the same all week, I've been in the gym for at least 45 minutes each day doing my usual intense cardio workout. As I've said, I've begun to include some weight lifting, but minor (as my plan was never to bulk up muscle wise, but rather start to tone/define the muscles). It's been lat pulls right now as I don't know enough about the weight lifting equipment, but soon I'll be doing more with my roommate (who does know more about this stuff).

I was mainly just venting at being stuck at this weight I've been at for the better part of the week. I'd been losing it so fast that I knew I was going to hit a wall/plateau at some point--I was just hoping it would come a little bit later when I was a little bit closer to my final goal.

Not to be that guy, but I would consider trying to go the free weight route over machines, especially for someone who hasn't done a lot of lifting in the past. Machines are good at isolating single muscles or muscle groups, but free weights are a lot better at building functional and core strength baselines. You can always tell when you play sports who the guys are that don't do anything but the machines, as they are typically blown up but have stiff, unnatural movements.

 

[RockLobster]

Not to be that guy, but I would consider trying to go the free weight route over machines, especially for someone who hasn't done a lot of lifting in the past. Machines are good at isolating single muscles or muscle groups, but free weights are a lot better at building functional and core strength baselines. You can always tell when you play sports who the guys are that don't do anything but the machines, as they are typically blown up but have stiff, unnatural movements.

Yeah, he does free weights mixed with machines, so when I start to do more with him I'm sure we'll have a combo of both.

I weighed in at 262 today...which is finally below the 263 mark, albeit just barely. So now the focus is on building on that and hopefully being past this little plateau I am in.

 

[Foppberg]

What do you do during your 45 minute cardio sessions? Is it just running or do you mix it up with various, more dynamic workouts?

 

[RockLobster]

What do you do during your 45 minute cardio sessions? Is it just running or do you mix it up with various, more dynamic workouts?

Elliptical. I've got some bad knees, so straight running track had been really painful, not to mention boring (whereas for some reason, on an elliptical it's been relatively pain free and I'm not bored).

My goal is to burn a minimum 700 active calories in each visit, and about 1100-1200 active calories a day. In order to do that, it means a minimum of 45 minutes at the gym. That counts as about 1.25 of the pre-programmed "Weight Loss" Elliptical workouts (which alternates inclines and resistance levels every 4 minutes). Up to this point it has been working, and working well. I can't complain about the results because I was 301 on January 1st, and I just had a checkup at the doctor's office on February 12 and was down to 279, and I'm now down to 262. So it has been working.

I've had so many people tell me two vastly different things: One group tells me that it's important to change things up because your body will "become used to doing things" or "used to what you're doing" and then it won't respond to the weight loss attempts; Group two has more-or-less told me that it's horseshit and that everyone just hits plateaus, but if you keep at it you'll get past it and be back on your path. Basically they subscribe to the notion that "your body can't 'learn' anything, everyone hits a slow period, keep working and you'll be around it".

Lately I've been doing my 45 minutes of cardio work and then doing 3 sets of 10 reps of a weight as sort of a "cool down"--usually the Lat Pull because it's what I know. I'm as green at this as can be, so I'm incredibly uncomfortable doing things where I don't know how to do it correctly. My roommates had been going w/ me to the gym anytime I went in the evening, but they've been slacking a bit. I've told them that I'm wanting to incorporate some more weights in my exercising, but I needed their help and guidance to know what to do and how to do it. So I suspect we'll be doing that together starting as soon as tomorrow (we almost always go to the gym together on Saturday's, Sunday's, and usually Thursday's).

 

[UncleRisto]

Here's another vote for HIIT. Gonna start doing that again myself too. It's much more challenging than steady pace jogging. And on what was said about machines, I'd stay away from isolation exercises altogether. For weight loss, you wanna emphasize exercises that work on the big muscles and you move a bunch. Squats (squats, not leg press), lunges, burpees, a bunch of other bodyweight stuff works, kettlebell swing, then mix in some stuff with dumbbells and barbells.

 

[Foppberg]

I've done HIIT before, personally I liked it better than actual running. But that's more so because I hate just running on a treadmill, or even a track. I get bored in like 5 minutes.

 

[Bubba Thudd]

I've hit the treadmill before.

But I've learned to watch where I'm walking, so that doesn't happen again!

 

[S E P H]

Yep, it was Souchu I believe (vodka? But very weak?) I had. It wasn't bad by any means, the girls were fun to talk to like they should be. Just a silly way to spend money.

I studied Biomedical Engineering and then became a consultant. Now I run global programs for pharmaceutical and Medical device companies who are creating commercial systems for the management of all their scientific and promotional stuff. I understand enough about the drug and device development life cycle, regulations and the teams involved to help companies understand the big picture on how they need to manage things to save money. So in Japan my customer will be launching drugs in a few months and they need somewhere to help organize all of their commercial operations around that. My team builds it and I manage the work. If you're interested in more just pm me.

I didn't want to be at a lab bench or a cubicle for years to 'make it'. The days can be long but the responsibilities I have are huge. Hoping to move into a high enough position I can be in more strategy and less technical so the grind isn't as bad.

That sounds really interesting, so in a way you're a pharmaceutical sales and marketing man now that understands molecular biology setting up businesses logistics? Not exactly your job, but those dudes make bank. When I shadowed physicians in past, we always had pill salesmen come around doctor offices all the time and a family friend was in charge of all salemens and made a cool million I believe.

I'm with you on that, relating to being cooped up in a lab or office. It was just weird how you with a biomedical engineering degree kept travelling around with all your stories instead of being in a lab. Cool job.

I've hit the treadmill before.

But I've learned to watch where I'm walking, so that doesn't happen again!

 

[Lonewolfe2015]

That sounds really interesting, so in a way you're a pharmaceutical sales and marketing man now that understands molecular biology setting up businesses logistics? Not exactly your job, but those dudes make bank. When I shadowed physicians in past, we always had pill salesmen come around doctor offices all the time and a family friend was in charge of all salemens and made a cool million I believe.

I'm with you on that, relating to being cooped up in a lab or office. It was just weird how you with a biomedical engineering degree kept travelling around with all your stories instead of being in a lab. Cool job.

Pretty much, depends on the day, customer and what they need but yeah. Keeps things interesting. But it's pretty stressful work right now, hoping I can slow down or jump up a level and be a bit less stressful at some point.

It is weird, not a lot of my friends understood until some of them joined where I work. Then they all started to realize our degree didn't just have to be engineering or science related. Opened up a lot of eyes. There's I think around a dozen of us that went the same path to my company and we're really successful for it. We know so much more than someone with a sales background or a philosophy degree about the industry.

 

[Foppberg]

Damn, that sounds really interesting. One of my friends is trying to work his way into R&D in the pharmaceutical industry, definitely not a boring career.

 

[Big Z Man 1990]

The Avalanche haven't had much in the way of rivalries since arriving in Denver in 1995. Their now-defunct rivalry with the Red Wings was largely confined to the postseason from the 1990s to the early 2000s (they didn't have any playoff meetings after that).

They've never had any geographic division rivals, but they have some division rivals now that share something culturally with Denver (sports rivalries aren't always about geography). The Dallas Stars can be considered a rival because back in the 1980s, two of the top TV shows were the primetime soaps Dallas and Dynasty, the latter of which was set in Denver - and their fanbases were very much rivals with each other. The Blues are another cultural rival, as Denver and St. Louis are both home to brewing companies, Coors and Anheuser-Busch, respectively.

 

[famicommander]

Just picked up tickets for four concerts inside of a month

April 3 Nightwish
April 18 In This Moment
April 20 Kobra and the Lotus
May 1 Kamelot and Delain

Should be some pretty metal times ahead.

 

[Bubba Thudd]

Just picked up tickets for four concerts inside of a month

April 3 Nightwish
April 18 In This Moment
April 20 Kobra and the Lotus
May 1 Kamelot and Delain

Should be some pretty metal times ahead.

I would go to every one of those.
As it turns out, though, the only one I'll be able to is Kobra.

Kinda surprised that you listed Kobra and not Texas Hippie Coalition on 4/20... THC should be the headliner.

 

[Murzu]

Just picked up tickets for four concerts inside of a month

April 3 Nightwish
April 18 In This Moment
April 20 Kobra and the Lotus
May 1 Kamelot and Delain

Should be some pretty metal times ahead.

Out of these I only know Nightwish. One of my favorite bands. I might even like Floor more than Tarja.

 

[S E P H]

Out of these I only know Nightwish. One of my favorite bands. I might even like Floor more than Tarja.

Dude Floor is like a man, she's huge and not very lady-like for me. She's really buff. I don't think she's a better singer than Tarja either. Deeper and more powerful voice for sure, but songs like Nemo, She Is My Sin, Bless the Child, and Beauty and the Beast are perfect examples of what I mean about Tarja. Just fit those songs perfectly.

Kamelot is/was a fantastic band, Roy Kahn was an amazing singer and brought that creepy sort of Gothic element. The new singer is great, but the songs have been really lackluster on the past two to three albums.

 

[UncleRisto]

In the Netherlands, Floor sits on you.