I'd love to join! As soon as I recover from top surgery...

Can there just be a warning that goes out if people are going to be really open / if the group is going to be public because then I'd rather not. I'm 100% stealth except to my immediate family.

Quote from: MaxAloysius on July 26, 2011, 03:37:48 PM
My motivation exactly. The better muscle we have under the chesticles, the better chance we have of the surgeon being able to successfully contour the scars. 

I'm not sure entirely, it would really depend on the level of comfort other people have with the kind of information they want to provide. Ideally I'd say starter pics and maybe once every couple of weeks to a month to see actual physical changes, as well as notes on what kind of things everyone's eating, and how long they're exercising for, and on what muscle groups they're focusing etc. Or alternatively we could all work out a plan together and tackle the same things, for example working out a diet for everyone to follow and a specific set of exercises and time spent exercising etc. It really is up to what everyone else is comfortable doing.

But I think we've got much more of a chance of succeeding at something like this if we all work together to make it happen.

Wow, this sounds like an awesome idea!   Thanks for thinking of is, Max!

Not all of us have people we can do this with IRL, so online is the next best thing, I think.

I actually know of this website, http://www.fitocracy.com/,  it's supposed to be like facebook only for workouts.
But I never created an account there because I didn't know anyone to do it with.  It's really only works to have friends join with you. 
And I think this site could keep track of all that stuff for you.

I like this idea. I'm horrible about working out, I tend to just do it whenever I feel like it as I have no real motivation. >_> This might be helpful.

I have no real "goals"; I'd love to build up some muscle, but I'd mostly be in it for the fun of working out and building endurance/strength.

Pec exercises frighten me a bit o.O I don't want massive chesticles XD But if the muscle helps top surgery, it's all good, I reckon.

This current issue was weighing on my own mind recently; talk about coincidence.  I am going away for a vacation really soon, but when I get back, I would definitely be down for something like this.  I do work out rather regularly, but would love to get some more muscle and definition.

Wow, this sure got a lot of replies while I was at work! I'm glad everyone thinks it's a good idea!

I don't ever use LJ, so I know nothing about it, but if someone had the knowhow on how to set up the kind of community we need, that would be awesome! We need something that can only be viewed by the people in the group, so completely locked to anyone without permission. And yeah, I'm not really keen on posting pics of myself either! But I figure if we do it without faces in the pics it should be pretty safe, and it would be heaps and heaps of extra motivation, since you would want people to see how much better you're looking over time, and also you'll feel great when three months down the track you can look back and see how much you've changed.

And yeah, this was meant to be more of a 'FITNESS!!!!' thing than an 'I NEED TO LOSE WEIGHT!' thing, and generally speaking if you're eating well and exercising your weight should end up healthy anyway. And let's everyone remember while we're doing this that muscle weighs more than fat, so you could end up puting on a little weight in the beginning. XZ

Oooh, I'm so keen for this now! Is everyone excited?! 

QuoteOooh, I'm so keen for this now! Is everyone excited?! 

youtube.com/watch?v=tmGUh-8sxvs
ARE YOU READY TO PARTY, MAX?!

had to. XD

AHAHAHA, awesome! My mood exactly!

By the way, I'm planning on doing a lot of hiking this fall.  If anyone is in the Boulder/Denver, CO area it would be nice to have a hiking/gym/whatever buddy.

Okay, so when is this thing happening?

Well Adio has kindly offered to set up an LJ thingamy for us (lol, not an LJ user, can you tell? ) so hopefully soon. I don't know if it's only me, but I can't seem to get any LJ pages to load, I'm wondering if they're doing maintenence or something? Anyone else having issues?

I'm on LJ often enough, don't really know how to use it but I can get around, and over the last few days there have been pockets of time where I can't seem to access it. Like right now.

Yeah, I haven't been able to get it to work for the last couple of days either, and now it will open the main page and let me log in, but after that no pages will load and I eventually just get the 'server timeout' error message. Hopefully the problem will be fixed soon, will let everyone know when things are up and running, although at this rate it might take a couple of days. XZ

Sorry been volunteering all day.  I just tried it and it's working for me.  I'm hoping to get things set up tonight.

Any ideas on a name for the community?

QuoteCan I join in even if I've been working out regularly for a couple of months already?

I don't see why not?

Quote from: MaxAloysius on July 27, 2011, 04:32:28 PM
Yeah, I haven't been able to get it to work for the last couple of days either, and now it will open the main page and let me log in, but after that no pages will load and I eventually just get the 'server timeout' error message. Hopefully the problem will be fixed soon, will let everyone know when things are up and running, although at this rate it might take a couple of days. XZ

Really? It's been working fine for me the past few days... odd.

Working on the email screening questions and guidelines.  I'm totally open to suggestions for the rules, the name, and anything else related to the comm.

I PM'd these to Max, but I figure I'll just post them here anyway.  These are the tentative guidelines, not the questions:

1)  Treat others with respect.  Transphobia, homophobia, heterosexism, etc. will not be tolerated in this community. Disrespectful comments will be deleted and the offending member will be removed from the community.
2)  Use "I" Statements and avoid speaking for others.
3)  All pictures and long posts of text must be placed behind an lj-cut*.  NWSF (not safe for work) posts must be placed behind a cut as well.
4)  Copy-pasting or otherwise re-posting another member's posts or pictures will result in an automatic, permanent ban.  This includes sharing another member's photos off-site (such as a personal website, tumblr, blogs, forums, etc).
5)  All posts must be friends-only/locked.
6)  Pictures may include faces or other identifying characteristics if you so choose.  However, realize that not all members will post pictures with faces or other distinguishing features.
7)  Photos are not mandatory but are encouraged in order to track progress and gain support from other members.  Changes are not always apparent when looking at ourselves.
8 )  Please remember and respect that not everyone has the same goals and that the primary purpose of this community is to gain support and have accountability for those goals.

Additions?  Subtractions?  (Multiplications? )

Hm, I've been kind of thinking about this and...do you have to track progress? Or is it cool to still be a part of the community, helping out and stuff, and maybe occasionally posting updates of your own?

Because I do sort of like the idea of a place for sharing tips and pointers and such as a community, but as I said, I'm horrible at actually tracking progress and everything. I know there's already sites like that, but we already have a built-in community feel for this one in a way and I never tend to stick to the other sites (hard for me to get involved, so to speak).

No, I don't think you have to track progress.  That was just stuff I typed up based on other comms and what was talked about in this thread.  It can be about whatever (fitness related).  Also, if someone would like to make a comm or other place for us to do this, I don't mind at all.

Looks pretty good to me, anyone have anything else they think should go into the rules?

Also, as Adio said before, don't forget we will have email screening questions for this community to try and keep out those who don't want to participate. It will be as private as we can make it, so hopefully that will relieve some of the worry about posting pictures and information.

@Noah G. : I know what you mean, I've been to some of those sites before and I just couldn't ever get into them. I think that was some of the motivation behind this as well, we're already such a great community, and it would be awesome to do soemthing like this with people we already know and have spent time around.

I don't think it should be a problem. While the main idea was for us to post individual progress and have peer support, we'll also need things like exercise and healthy eating tips. The community should just be a place for us to pool our knowledge I think, as well as get the support we need on our own individual fitness journeys.

awesome guys, I'm excited at how quickly this group seems to be comming together, and I totally agree with the rules posted. 

Another question, do we want to keep this to just susans members, or to people who heard about the LJ page through here?  Or open it up to other guys from other sites as well?   I would think we should start as Susans guys only, at least at first, and maybe re-think new members later depending on how its working.