seems like you got a solid plan, though should get a captains of crush handgripper, you can take it anywhere and they have a different range of resistance, ive got a 200lb one and can work up a sweat by just doing a few sets of using it. Great for developing that godly handshake, getting your forearms shredded, take it anywhere and costs like 20 quid.
also for the backpacker, resistance bands are really useful, can do full body workouts, again will fit in a side pocket and are pretty cheap. You get what you pay for but they all do the job, if your using a pack of cards (which is really cool idea btw) you can write a couple more with these 2 convient gadgets and cover a lot more ground than what you get do with just bodyweight/isometics.
When you are a beginner, you will gain muscle and lose fat for the first year or so by doing just about anything. But if you really want to be efficient and effective during the process, you should get a gym membership and grind away at the major compound exercises: squat, deadlift, bench press, pullups and/or BB rows.
Just look up Starting Strength, Wendler 5-3-1 and other variants of these programs that keep it simple.
Also, there really isn’t any way to effectively measure muscle mass gain and fat loss in such small increments. There really is no point in measuring yourself every week unless you are benchmarking your total body weight when bulking or cutting. Also FYI, 1 lbs/month is about the rate matured adult males can gain muscle naturally over the course of first year of training.
I have no more sugar cravings since I stopped drinking diet 7up, you can even find this on wiki that diet sodas can increase sugar cravings. Other than that, quitting diet sodas has changed absolutely nothing in my life, I used to drink 2L of diet 7up a day.
Everybody has their own weird things that they can’t drop. I almost never eat candy, but if someone produces a bag of gummy bears…or worse Jolly Ranchers, I’m taking down the whole bag within 20 minutes.
I tried several times before and failed, i’ve been drinking diet soda like a maniac for almost 10 years, it did damage to my tooth enamel so much that right now I have to drink coffee through a straw.
The thing about about sugar cravings was proven in a study that you can find on wiki, I experienced it myself.
I’m actually not going to post any ‘results’ since I came in here just to offer motivation and occasional advice. My lifts have been steadily going back up over the past two months since I am no longer on a calorie deficit and am back on a strength-based training program. But I’m sure most of you guys are not interested in that.
Just keep in mind that one year is considered ‘short term’ in fitness and 8 weeks is certainly nothing. Aim high and keep pushing yourself every day with a long term vision. This is only the beginning.
