What are your New Years Resolutions for 2021?

[David]

Alright, @David, here is a video summarizing exactly what you need to do to complete your weight gain resolution:


Seriously though, drinking a lot of whole milk is probably the best, quick, cheap way to gain weight because it has a significant amount of all of your macronutrients. For me, I did not drink a gallon a day, but I was drinking about a gallon in a week. Honestly, I think you need to gain at least 20 pounds, since you are pretty underweight. If you do not consume dairy for any reason, you can use whatever similar non-dairy product you want.

Check out the Starting Strength book/program by Mark Rippetoe if you want to use barbell training to gain strength/muscle (mainly strength, this is not a hypertrophy (muscle-enlargement)/bodybuilding program, but you will gain size via weight-gain). I do not suggest doing what Rippetoe says and gaining up to >200 lbs in about four months because that is not healthy. A good synopsis, but definitely "read the book": https://physiqz.com/powerlifting-program...h-routine/

My resolution for 2020 was to gain weight/muscle, which I succeeded, especially after utilizing my school's gym (took four years to finally use that facility, funded by my tuition) and sticking to a program. Went from ~143-163 lbs and gained some size, mainly a broader/a little bulkier shoulders and larger thigh girth (3x a week squats, ftw!). 

For 2021, probably keep sticking to what I have been doing with strength training (not quite recently due to not being at school and potential of gyms closing in NJ due to COVID) and continue to get stronger. Maybe transition to an Olympic Weightlifting program once I finish my current one (who doesn't love snatches?). Also, I need to get started on a career/start contributing to my retirement

Milk is definitely an easy way to do it, same with peanut butter, but I don't like consuming too much dairy (pretty much just greek yogurt and occasionally cheese) and dairy-free alternatives I'd go with are pretty low calorie (unsweetened almond milk is my go to). Just need to start drinking smoothies again as well as have a few snacks (like protein bars) and an extra meal everyday, along with adding a little bit more calories to my normal meals (and maybe cheat a bit more often :p) 

Yeah ideally around 20 pounds is the target, just setting 10 pounds as the goal as I should be able to hit that within a year and I don't want to put weight on too quickly anyway, would rather slowly build on muscle than to build muscle and have fat on top of it. 20 pounds of pure muscle (or close to it) would be quite hard to hit within a year from what I understand but I do need to look more into it, might very well hit 20

As for the barbell I might consider some exercises with one, but calisthenics is more my style and I've got a weight vest I'll use after a certain point to start putting on additional muscle. When I eventually reach 140-145 I'll probably stay there since I like being on the slimmer side

Also, nice! Sounds like you're making great progress