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Having a plan. Having a plan is number one, it gives you direction and prevents you from going to the gym looking lost/not doing anything/just fucking around.

Drinking water. Water is always on all of my lists because it is the answer to everything y'all. But really, proper hydration before, during, and after your workout will ensure pique performance.

Breathing. When exercise gets hard, the best way to cope is to breathe. Long slow steady rhythmic breathing is the best, it’ll calm your nervous system and provide your body with the oxygen it needs to succeed.

Stretching. And yoga. And foam rolling. All of these things help your muscles recover, as well as ensure you stay loose and limber. This makes your exercises easier and more effective. Don’t do static stretching before your work out though, this can cause injury and injury is no good.

Using a sauna. Swear my life changed after I started using a sauna. 15 minutes after a long workout feels amazing and helps my muscles recover so I have less delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). If you have access to one I highly recommend checking it out.

Eating protein. When I started working out, I doubled my protein intake and my body responded really well. I always make sure to have 30 g 30 minutes after my workout as this is optimum for muscle growth and repairment and makes sure your body doesn’t go in to muscle cannibalism after a workout (yikes).

Eating before a workout. I used to be really in to fasted cardio and I definitely still do it if my session is <10 min. But eating protein before lifting is really important and helps ensure you’re building muscle instead of burning it for energy.

Also caffeine. My workouts can’t happen without a cup of matcha or green tea before hand. Studies show that ingesting caffeine before working out can help you work out harder and burn more calories. Stick to natural sources and avoid caffeine pills or “fat burning” pills (aka lots of caffeine) as these are often too abrasive for the system.

Pyramid sets. This is a trick I picked up from a personal trainer. Start with 12 reps of a weight, say 50 kg squats. Then do 10 reps of 60 kg, 8 reps of 70 kg, 6 reps of 80 etc. Your last weight should be your max…this is an awesome way to build strength and stamina at the same time, and I do this for most of my compound exercises. Remember, the only way to keep building muscle is to keep adding weight!!!!

Setting goals. Even if it’s just to look good naked, goals work my friends. They keep us focused, motivated, and on track, plus gives you a sense of purpose during your workout.

Burn outs. A burn out is pretty much just a circuit or a couple exercises you do at the end of your workout to take your muscles to fatigue. Muscle fatigue is said to enhance and speed up muscle growth. Plus, pushing your body to its limits lets you know what you are really capable of.

Supersets. Super setting is completing one exercise after another with no rest in between them. I superset all of my exercises, it’s an awesome way to increase your workout load without feeling like you’re doing too much. Try resistance band training between heavy lifting, it’s not too hard and it makes quite a difference in gains.

HIIT cardio. I do HIIT 20 minutes a week and that’s it because that’s all you need!!! HIIT is more effective than long steady cardio at burning fat, boosting your metabolism, and preventing muscle loss. Perfect for people who hate cardio like me.

I know a lot of guys wanna improve their strength, and summer is definitely a good time for that. Many of us have more free time now that it’s summer. Perfect time to try out the gym. If you’re thinking of working on getting go the gym more this summer, I have a few tips that could really help:

Starting off is tough. Get through 2 weeks, though, and you’ll probably be able to make going to the gym a consistent habit! The first week is definitely the hardest. If you can, find a friend to work out with. Put the offer out there, and you’d be surprised who might say yes. It’s definitely more motivating to go when you have a friend going with you. It’ll keep you both accountable, on track, and motivated. Trust me, it worked for me back when I first decided to get serious about exercising.

Start taking a multi-vitamin. Sure, you should be able to get enough nutrition from food alone, but some diets have holes in them and multi-vitamins can fill those in. If you don’t have proper nutrition, you won’t see results, and you might actually strain your body. I know not all of us make the best food decisions every day. This will help your body stay on track.

Increase your protein intake on days you work out. When you lift weights, this is especially important. Meats are all high in protein. Try and make choices that tend to be lower in fats. Eggs are your best friends! Fish is great, and omega oils are Good for you, yo. Beans, peanut butter, nuts, milk, and yogurt all have protein, too (and the dairy items have calcium! an extra plus!), so don’t stress if you can’t have meat! And while we’re on the subject of protein, this is extremely important to point out: Protein shakes are NEVER a meal-replacement. Skipping meals or eating less than 2000 calories (if you’re counting) will hurt you. Seriously. Don’t do that. Protein shakes are meant to be consumed after workouts, unless they are specifically pre-workout shakes. Whey protein will be tough on those of you who are lactose-intolerant, because it’s made from milk, so even though it’s typically cheaper than other plant-based protein powders, the extra money will help you not feel terrible. The easiest on the stomach, I have found, are rice-based protein powders. If the store has little individual packets, buy different flavors and different ones to see which one(s) you like best. I personally am partial to the generic CVS chocolate flavored whey powder.

If you are just starting out on lifting, do NOT go heavy. Your muscles will build p strength faster than your tendons, so you could hurt yourself if you try to go too heavy too fast. If something hurts, do NOT do the exercise. Know your limits, and never push yourself to a crazy degree. I know you wanna impress your friends you’re at the gym with, or even the cute person you’ve been eyeing across the gym, but if you hurt yourself, you will look like a huge fool. It will ruin you. Don’t. Instead, do lighter weights with higher reps. I usually go for 3 sets of 10 reps, but you can go for anywhere from 8-12 reps. Only after you have built up a certain degree of strength would I even attempt to go heavier and even target certain body parts and muscle groups more intensely than others.

Have at least 2 rest days! Rest days are important. Your body needs to recover, or else it will never grow. You’ll also just exhaust yourself, and that’s not good. Use your rest days to just chill out. Stay hydrated and stretch so the soreness from your gym days won’t make you stiff and will dissipate faster!

Split your lift days by muscle-groups. This will keep your workouts structured and keep your body’s development proportional. I divide my days up like this: pull day (biceps and back), push day (triceps and chest with some shoulders), leg day (and yeah, don’t skip it), and shoulder day (since I just really want mine to develop well lol). I do abs every time, after I lift, but you can also do them before. Don’t skimp out with abs. Sure, it hurts, but the results are great. Core strength will really help with overall strength! I do at least 5 weight-lifting exercises for each designated day. Stretch before, and then get going! If you are unsure about your form for an exercise, most gyms have personal trainers who are willing to help you. Don’t be afraid to ask them a question! Youtube is also a great resource for videos on form. I like AthleanX’s videos, as well as Gabriel Sey’s, and Buff Dudes. Proper form is extremely important, otherwise you could strain your body or even seriously injure yourself. It’s especially important for heavier exercises.

Cardio days are good for you! Have at least 1 cardio day in your week! Walking, biking, jogging, dancing, and the elliptical are great for cardio. Swimming is also good cardio, but as a poor swimmer myself, I don’t really get much of a workout from it. If you have friends who like to play sports, soccer, basketball, etc are great for getting in some cardio and also making it fun (because jogging is honestly boring unless you jog outside or have a killer playlist). Speaking of jogging, I know this may sound silly to some of you, but try not to jog at night, especially if you’re a younger guy. Safety is important, and believe it or not, younger men in their 20s are the most common victims of violent crime. Know where you are, jog with a friend or two, be aware of your surroundings (if your music is so loud you can’t hear the cars passing by, turn it down a notch), and have your phone available in case you need to make a call. If things look iffy, call it a night and go home. If you’re in a hospital (or freaking dead), you won’t be working out much anymore.

This may sound silly, but celebrate your results! Get excited over your gains. Take selfies, flex in the mirror, admire those veins that pop that weren’t there before. Also, little tip: the secret to getting arms that look bigger is working your triceps. They’re more of your arms than your biceps, so even though nice biceps look hot, good triceps will make you look stronger. It’ll make you look impressive! And being excited about your results from all your hard work will help keep you motivated!

I got this ask and I wanted to make this into a post. I’m sure a lot of other trans guys will find this useful, too! Starting off, I would like to emphasize that there are a LOT of gym programs that can accomplish this goal, as well as a lot of diets (if you want to even go on one, some may find it to be unnecessary), so my advice and workout spread is just one of many options out there.

When it comes to diet, I wouldn’t worry too much about it, honestly. With how much you’ll be working out, you won’t necessarily need a caloric deficit to lose weight. You might actually gain weight because muscle is denser than fat, and so people say it weighs more than fat. You’ll develop more muscle mass from strength training, so you’ll probably gain a few kilos in your first few months doing this, while also achieving a leaner appearance because exercising burns fat. As long as you’re eating a varied diet and staying away from junk foods, you’ll be fine. I would also recommend getting a multi-vitamin to take every day just to fill in any gaps in your nutrition, but that’s up to you. It’ll also be important to eat a lot of proteins and carbohydrates for mass building, since those are what build up muscle and help your body grow and have energy. Definitely don’t cut too many calories from your diet when doing any kind of exercise. There’s a difference between a cutting phase and doing your body actual harm from not eating enough.

A decent workout spread that I think would be easy for a beginner to follow is a 4-day spread split between upper body and lower body days. With this, you’ll have 3 rest days in the week, so place them wherever you want. Rest days can be used to do literally nothing, or you could go for a walk, go swimming, bike someplace, etc. If you wanna go to the gym that day anyway, maybe use lighter weight and focus more on endurance (15-20 reps) than mass-building (8-12 reps) or you could do some cardio stuff like jogging or a HIIT circuit like the ones in the linked post. For any beginners here that don’t know what sets and reps are: a rep is 1 repetition of the exercise. For example, 1 push-up would be 1 rep. 10 push-ups would be 10 reps. Sets break up reps with at least 20-30 seconds of a break before starting the exercise again. 3 sets of 10 push-ups means doing 10 reps, waiting 30 seconds, and then beginning your next set, until you’ve done all 3 sets. Common shorthand for this would be 3x10, with the set number coming first, then the rep number. Using sets like this allows you to push yourself for a short burst of energy each time, so you don’t fatigue right away.

The workout spread is under the cut. I think this spread is good for a beginner who wants to focus on muscle mass gains and also get stronger. The exercises I picked are so you can build a decent strength base, and I view many of them as essential to mass-building in general, regardless of your experience level. I’ve linked the exercises to videos of how to do them:

But sometimes it’s hard, I have disability and the difficulties of a daily job and all the self care/heathy routine I try to achive make it really hard some days.

I feel a little discouraged at the moment ‘cause I don’t have the spoons and my ptsd/anxiety are unmanageable because of triggering events.

At home with my partner I can talk about it but with my coworker and outside it’s hard to seem “normal”, hide my anxiety.

But compare to the rest of my life i’m mostly happy now and I know I can do it, make my body stronger and my life softer.

Let me tell you something:

Progress is progress.

I don’t care what it’s about.

Oh, you just ate for the first time all day? That’s progress.

You haven’t worked on drawing in months but you sketched a little doodle? That’s progress.

You haven’t gotten out of bed in two days but you got up to get a glass of water? That’s progress!!

I know some days are hard. I know some days are trying and pull you down and you feel like you’ve lost progress you’ve made but even just a little bit of progress is progress. Please don’t stop trying. Please don’t give up on what you truly want. Please.

Know I’m proud of you for eating today.

That sketch? It’s wonderful, keep it up.

You went and did a thing even though your anxiety wasn’t happy? Gosh, I am so proud of you. You don’t even know.

I started testosterone, and I marveled at every little change happening to my body. I grew a beard, and hair *everywhere*. I counted the days until my voice dropped, I went from a soprano 1 to a bass 2, and I think that’s inspirational. When I woke up from top surgery, and looked in the mirror, I cried lovely tears of joy. I went from a DD, to completely flat. So much flatter than a binder got me. It was such a beautiful moment. Yes, transitioning is messy and bumpy, but the end result— my body is something I can appreciate and relate to now. My identity is not the product of internalized misogyny, it is the product of self-love. I love myself so much that I decided to stop pretending to be someone I’m not.

What to do for the new year as a spiritual person

I thought to make a post on what me and my WHOLE family does when it’s close to the near year. We do this so that we welcome in good luck, abundance and prosperity along with wealth. It’s something that mainly my mom’s side has done for a very long time and good things happen from it (I also called this what to do for the new year as a spiritual person because me and my mom’s side of the family come from a long line of spiritual family members!)

 So first off!

Go through your shit Like seriously. Get rid of things you no longer want or need. Like clothes, nick nacks, jewelry etc. Throw things away that is trash!

Organize make things more nice and neat within your room/home. go through things to find out what needs to be taken out, trashed or placed somewhere else.

Clean now with cleaning… You gotta do some serious shit. Make sure the dish washer is always empty and no dishes are in the sink (as best as you can). Your bed is made, your bath room is nice and clean, No piling trash etc. The point is, you have to try and stay clean as much as you can until it’s finally the new year and new month. Also wash your bedding and curtains if you have any.

Cleanse my grandmother would make flour washes to welcome in prosperity and abundance. She (and my mom when she was younger) would even wash the walls too. You can play music, light a candle, burn incense, use sage, holy water, you can even use perfume or colonge to cleanse your place.

Keep it looking spotless until the new year!

Something to note:

Now this is optional but is VERY helpful. My mom told me if you wish you can dedicate your place to who ever you work with. That your home is their’s as well. That you promise to keep it clean as possible in their honor for you know they don’t like dirty things. 

You could possibly even ask them to help bring in prosperity and abundance if you promise to keep the place clean in their honor most of the time. 

Cleanliness is next to godly-ness

Another thing, My grandmother would always buy new bedding and curtains and other stuff. In with the new and out with the old basically.

Personally, I wait 15 minutes to ensure they haven’t forgotten anything (it’s a long, painful wait, I know. Just bear with it!) and then get straight to work!

First off;

If they ate or drank at your house:

DO NOT save any leftovers from that meal, as it is now connected to them. Use it instead in the compost heap to help further along your garden.

Rinse down the dishes they used with vinegar first, spritz with sage-infused water, then proceed to washing the dishes normally.

And now if they did not eat or drink at your house

Open all doors and windows to air out the house.

Light some incense (honestly any will do at this point your just trying to make sure their scent doesn’t linger)

The couch or chair they were sitting on needs to be thoroughly vacuumed.

After vacuuming the couch or chair, cast a consecrated circle around the object and banish their energy from it.

Lightly mist with moonwater and place energized crystals in a spiral in said area.

Dust the House.

Sweep the floors and collect any trash, immediately taking it out.

Wash down all tabletops and counter surfaces with vinegar.

Wash the floors and walls with a mix of lavender/sage/moonwater.

Vacuum the carpets and rugs.

Smudge.

Squeeze out some garlic juice from 3 cloves of garlic and rub into ground outside of door (3 cloves per door).

Mix lemon juice with a drop of peppermint oil and use it to draw a line on the door frame, both sides; make sure you left no line breaks!

Rub a touch of dogwood oil on the outside doorknob.

Recharge your witch balls!

Air out your dreamcatchers if you have any!

If they sat down on your bed

Ohhhhhh boy oh boy oh boy. Guess who’s about to wash their sheets?

Surprise it’s you!

Wash your sheets.

Wash your comforter.

Wash the pillowcases.

Wash the pillows.

Wash the mattress pad.

Vacuum the mattress.

Mist lightly with moonwater.

Place energized crystals where they sat in a spiral.

Optional; write their name on an egg, take it outside, and crush it beneath your heel.

Can be a curse or just an emotional outlet, either way; it feels pretty good.

“But what if I don’t have all those incenses and oils and moonwater???”

Silly, just air out your house and clean it top to bottom using regular cleaning supplies!

If it helps, you can also say the following;

“Your body left my house,  Now, your spirits can too. And by ‘can’ I mean ‘will’, It’s time for all of you to leave.

You’ve worn out your welcome, When you never had any at all, Out the door with you lot, Away you go, away!

Then I turned 30 and it really felt like overnight I was more confident. More honest with myself. Sure I still didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life…

This is all most likely due to people with ADHD having what is called Executive Dysfunction.

Executive functions are brain processes managed by the frontal lobe that - basically - all have to do with Getting Shit Done. 

The image above lists off the brain’s executive functions. These are:

Activation. The ability to prioritize and begin tasks.

Focus. The ability to focus on the task at hand, not get distracted, and only switch focus when we want it to happen.

Effort. The ability to remain aware of the task at hand and regulate how much effort/energy is necessary for a task.

Emotions. The ability to regulate emotions.

Memory. The ability to recall information, and hold onto new information.

Action. The ability to monitor and regulate ourselves.

Executive Dysfunction is a symptom of ADHD (and many other things as well) that impairs the ability of our brains to start and finish these six processes.

Like ADHD itself, this is not something that can be cured or gotten rid of. But! There are tools and self-practices you can use to help improve your ability to manage your Executive Dysfunction.

This post by @psychlu has an amazing list of resources for those with ADHD, both for learning how to manage it, and learning more about it in general. Not all of these will work for you or right away. I know it can be frustrating in the meantime, but it really takes time to learn how to manage certain symptoms.

That post covers pretty much everything, but I also have some personal tips/advice for you below the cut!

Here’s my process for getting work done with ADHD! Feel free to take parts you like and ignore parts that don’t appeal to you to create your own effective workflow!

Write your to-do list (for the day/week/project.)

Break every task down as far as it can go. Instead of “write essay,” break it up into “outline paragraph 1,” “outline paragraph 2,” “write paragraph 1” etc.) Don’t be afraid to get silly! If breaking it down all the way to “set up computer,” “open Word document,” “format document,” helps you stay on track, then do it!!

Estimate the length of each task. You may say “but my ADHD means I am terrible at conceptualizing time!!” and trust me yo, I understand. But just go for it. Try finding the smallest unit and using it to measure, like this: “I want to write 6 sentences in paragraph 1, and I can definitely write 1 sentence in 5 minutes, so paragraph 1 should take me 30min.” When in doubt, always overestimate.

Prepare your schedule. I use Google calendar, but you can use any other app, a real calendar, or just a piece of paper! Google is nice because it gives you alerts when you have a new task coming up.

Block in all mandatory activities. First put in things that are mandatory/set in time, like classes, events, meals, and sleeping!! (Yes, treat meals and sleeping as mandatory, time-locked activities. You’ll find yourself a lot more productive if you take care of yourself!)

Lay in blocks of work + scheduled breaks. Scheduled breaks are really important! 5 minute breaks every 20 minutes of work is a good rule of thumb, and maybe a longer 10-15 minute break whenever you reach a milestone as a reward!

 Use timers when you’re working and during breaks. 30/30 is an amazing timed to-do list app for staying on track, and Forest is really good to keep your phone from being a distraction.

If you hyperfocus, make use of it! If you hyperfocus on your work, it’s okay to deviate from schedule as long as you’re still being productive! Just make sure you remember to take care of yourself (try not to skip meals/sleep) and make sure you can still finish the other tasks you had on your list.

If you can’t focus, mix it up! If you totally can’t focus on the assigned task, instead of just getting distracted, see if there is another task that is more appealing to you that you could get done in that time slot instead. You can always go back to the original task later.

Try to make it fun! Sing about whatever you’re working on, write funny comments in the margins, color code things and make them look interesting! Anything you need to do to engage yourself more, go for it.

Don’t freak out. If you completely mess up and fall way behind schedule, the most important thing is not to freak out!! Stay calm, tell yourself that it’s okay. Take a quick breather, splash some cold water on your face, eat a little snack, anything to keep yourself from falling into an unproductive rut. Then sit down, readjust your schedule taking into account the trouble you’re experiencing (maybe you needed more time on a task, or maybe you need to lower your goals for the day), and then… keep trying your best!

(feel free to use this/spread it around even if you don’t have ADHD. it was just created with us in mind!)

you can kill your current life without dying. you can kill this version of you and make a new one.