Hanging Up My Spurs.. (A personalized note to every member part of my journey)

[Mr.Rob]

Hey Gents,

I am sad to say that I am hanging up my spurs. I don't know how for how long and I hope its not forever but I am getting out of the pickup game.

My health and hormones are screwed up for some unknown reason.

Specifically my free testosterone and SHBG hormones are in the wrong proportion to each other and as a result I have the erection strength, sex drive, and vitality of an 70 year old man. I've been in denial about this for some time now but I've come to full terms with this in the past month.

I MUST fix this.

On paper I should be healthier than most of you. I have a clean organic diet rich in healthy fats, animal protein, gluten free carbs, and a cornucopia of fruits/vegetables. I'm physically active 4 times a week through weight lifting and cardio. I sleep 8 hours a night. I meditate daily to relieve stress. Yet I have little appetite for sex and low motivation.

Nonetheless this has been a tremendously painful decision for me. I developed such a huge passion for the game at one point in time that putting this area of my life to rest tears my heart out.

Last night I put together a list of all the major posts from my journey since I've been a member on the boards here including my first posts, my FU's, and all my lay reports. I'm not very emotional about tragedies or sentiments and I haven't shed a tear since I was 12 years old but going through my journey last night I about cried at how far I've come since I started 3.5 years ago. I'm still in disbelief that I experienced success and overcame so many fears, insecurities, and limiting beliefs that held me back at one point.

I realize success is not created in a vacuum and thus I want to write this post to express my gratitude to each and everyone of you that supported me during this journey.

I have written a personal thank you statement to each of you that has had a level of influence on me from these boards. This list is not written in any specific order other than #1 on the list which is...

Chase Amante- Wow... my deepest gratitude can only be offered. 3.5 years ago when I was sifting through "how to attract women" results on Google. "How to Attract Women: The Guide" was the only search result I starred to read for later. Reading about a socially awkward and depressed red head that went and built an elite dating/sex/social life not only blew my mind but gave me hope in a time of hopelessness and fear... On a lighter note I remember the honest thought that passed through my socially conditioned and immature mind was "well I'm brunette so surely there is even more hope for me than this guy!" haha.

It still amazes me to this day the depth of impact and influence you've had from something as simple as a blog. I believe the most beautiful aspect of your work that you've created through Girlschase.com is not merely just what is written but what is unwritten and absorbed between the lines of your work. This being how to think. The mental models that you write from which your readers inevitably adopt when they buy into your material.

You know who you are, you have a strong value system, you have a strong identity, you know what you believe, and you have a responsible code of ethics you've personally determined. You don't have any articles on how to develop this for oneself (although I'd pay money to read your perspective if you were to write a series of articles or a book on the matter) but it rubs off on your readers mental models subconsciously.

In an industry where many fail to impress responsible mental models and thought processes when conveying material on success with women I think as lost readers stumbling upon your work we are lucky to come across such influential material with a responsible writer on the other end of the keyboard.

If you had not made the decision to forge ahead and recreate yourself back in 2001, as I believe it was, many lives wouldn't be as fulfilled today as they currently are. Many men would not be achieving the success in dating and personal growth if you had never created this. The world is ultimately better off as a result of your work.

My deepest gratitude and respect.

Drexel Scott- Thanks for the support over the years as well as the Skype session we did. I don't think I would've hit my seduction/dating goals I set for myself in 2015 as quickly as I would have without your guidance.

Anatman- You're a nasty rad son of a bitch ... no larger of a compliment can be given.

Franco- I always thought it was cool how big an effort you put into coaching Marty's field reports when he was posting regularly. You were really rooting for him to make it and he did. I don't think I've seen you personally coach any other member of the forums with such detail and I always thought that was cool.
Thanks for moderating as well over the years.

Marty- I hope you read this because I still to this day consider you one of the most inspirational people I've ever met. Most guys that get into this are in their 20's and on top of that most guys that get into bettering themselves with women drop out. You humbled yourself completely, asked for help and implemented everything to the T, and actually changed your behavior to reap the rewards. Having the honor to witness you, an older guy, create a dating life you can be proud of is highly inspirational to me as well as it should be to anyone. All the young (and older) guys that come into this with excuses should read your massive collection of field reports, shut the fuck up, and put in the work or eat a dick.
I'm glad that I have had the honor to meet you and call you a friend.

Lotus- I'm glad to have had the honor to meet you as well. We talked on the phone about this subject already and you really helped me consolidate my perspective on all this. Really grateful for that conversation and look forward to linking up in the future.

Ross- I always thought it interesting the weight of your posts. You don't post much but when you do people listen. Always found that to be quite interesting. Appreciate your support over the years man.

Drck- Your views piss me off sometimes, but I respect you a lot nonetheless. You're overly harsh criticism pisses me off sometimes too, but the rare few times you've dished it out to me you've been right which I appreciate (I've certainly dished out my fair share ;] ).

Radeng- You're a rad sonofabitch too man and I've enjoyed growing with you. Thanks for the support over the years.

NarrowJ- "Bend it ova NarrowJ gon' poke her like wet paint" haha... Thanks for the support over the years and the many highly entertaining lay reports.

Rdawg- I've always enjoy reading your reports man, you've done some epic shit. I appreciate your support over the years bro.

RAGE- Always enjoyed chatting over Google Hangouts. Hope your doing good man and I look forward to seeing where you end up 5 years down the road.

Gentle_Phrases (when you were on the boards)- Most of you may not remember Gentle_Phrases but this kid inspired the shit out of me for a time. His work ethic and hustle were so amazing. At one point we traded numbers and talked on the phone daily for a good while but out of nowhere he dropped off the boards without a word. It was always a mystery to me why this happened.
He was so dedicated that I figured he'd never be the one to drop out. I think his willpower depleted after relentlessly going out and not seeing results. Perhaps he dropped off and still made it and I hope he did. I always felt like his success was right around the corner but because he dropped off no one ever knew what happened next with him.

Mr. Wes- Shout out man! I've enjoyed watching your development since you first came on and we almost met up at one stage. Hope you're doing well wherever you are right now.

Grand Pooba- Enjoyed growing with you and swapping notes. Thanks for the support over the years man!

Ray Zorse- I remember at one point you were in awe by the success I was having. A year later I was in awe by the success you were having and still am. The homeless pickup is still ultra inspiring and you are a true badass mother fucker. I promise to be a badass when I get to my late 30's man.

Pretty Decent- Appreciate the support over the years brotha. Keep it pimpin ;0

Asian Persuasion- Another oldschool board member from back in the day. You got kicked out of a mall for hitting on the hired guns at the job you were applying for haha. You went hard man! If you were 30 years old you'd be a total douche, but being in high school... respect in my book. Always took note of your approach ethic back in the day.

Richard- Thanks for the support over the years man! I was initially jealous of you when you first came on the boards back in the day since you started after me and racked up like 5 lays before I even got my first kiss haha. But I've always learned a lot from you and glad to have your support over the years.

TomGrey- Probably no one remembers this guy. We both started at exactly the same time and were at the exact same skill level back in summer of 2013. He experienced more progress than me at first but then had a bad day or two and eventually got sucked into a spiral of failure and quit. Meanwhile I kept chipping away and experienced success. I appreciate this guy because we motivated each other for a while since we were at the same skill level.

Nova- A lot of people were always peeved with your trolling and thought it inappropriate and whack... I died laughing everytime and I think people need to deepen their sense of humor. Preciate your support over the years as well man.

Zac Adams- Dude I still don't understand your posts and English writing skills to this day but you've always been a cool and have always supported me. Thank you for that.

Really I just appreciate anyone that's ever commented, asked for advice (and implemented it), given me props/encouragement, and of course given me advice and criticism. There's a host more people that have been a part or witnessed my journey including:
-Mischief
-TheDoctor
-BarryS1
-Smith
-Big Daddy
-Pinot Noir

I was never the best, but I beat my personal best every time. I doubled my lay count every year from the previous year. I always made progress. I never thought in a million years before I started this journey that I'd ever get any real success with women.

During this journey I've put in loads of time, driven hundreds of miles, endured loads of emotional pain, relocated geographically, and spent thousands of dollars investing in this area of my life and at the end of the day it was COMPLETELY FUCKING WORTH EVERY CENT, EVERY SECOND OF TIME, AND EVERY MOMENT OF BAD EMOTION.

If a reset button was pressed and I had to revert back to 3.5 years ago and was told I'd have to do it all over again I wouldn't hesitate to do it in a second. To anyone reading this that is just getting into learning success with women and that isn't completely satisfied with your current dating situation.
Commit fully and go for it.
No one is cut from a different cloth.
Either go all in and make a change or buy the subscription to Chase's blog and live vicariously through the articles.

So yeah guys I'm hanging up my spurs. I'm as saddened as I can be however I do believe it is for the greater good and whatever direction this health issue is taking me right now is something that is necessary for my growth and will lead me towards my ultimate goal of becoming the strongest version of myself.

I believe I will grow in ways I'm currently not imagining and will make sense as to why this is happening when its all said and done. I went through a similar phase of anger/uncertainty before I stumbled upon pick-up/self improvement.

I will still lurk around the boards and perhaps engage in interesting threads. I will post my progress in the lifestyle boards of my journey of health. If anyone is interested for whatever reason to view my pickup journey from 3 years ago up until this February make a reply and I'll create a post with the links of my reports in sequential order.
I do hope to see where and what you all end up achieving in the coming years.

With the push of the submit button in a few moments from now I will have closed this chapter of my life and started the newest chapter of my development in becoming the strongest version of myself and of becoming a man.

Godspeed gentlemen,

-Mr.Rob

 

[Franco]

Re: Hanging Up My Spurs.. (A personalized note to every member part of my journe

Rob,

You've been an inspiration to a lot of the guys on these boards as well. Sucks about the issues you're running into; it seems to me like you should be healthy as well! I hope you're able to find a resolution to this and that it doesn't hold you back in your future endeavors.

I hope to still see you around these boards from time to time! You're always welcome here. And I appreciate the kind words. =)

- Franco

 

[Drck]

Re: Hanging Up My Spurs.. (A personalized note to every member part of my journe

"On paper I should be healthier than most of you. I have a clean organic diet rich in healthy fats, animal protein, gluten free carbs, and a cornucopia of fruits/vegetables. I'm physically active 4 times a week through weight lifting and cardio. I sleep 8 hours a night. I meditate daily to relieve stress. Yet I have little appetite for sex and low motivation"

I do piss people off, and gladly, LOL! Because Life is boring otherwise. IMO I just see things differently than most people in USA but I guess you are right though, I pissed lots of people off in my life, not even trying...

Anyway, as always, everything is relative and things should be placed in perspective. You know, in USA people are either left or right sighted, there is not much of a middle way. It's either Left or Right, but never Forward. Many times there is lots of pointing of fingers, blaming, accusing and so on, yet the motive behind mostly remains $$$... Couple examples:

* Eggs have been demonized for decades. Now there are "new" studies showing that eggs are actually quite good for health...
* Cholesterol has been demonized for decades. Now there are more and more studies showing that high cholesterol may not be the culprit at all... There are people with quite high cholesterol and they live longer than average... And there are people with normal levels of cholesterol, and they still die of heart disease... In the mean time, pharmaceuticals made and are making billions on drugs that lower cholesterol, so called statins, with the promis to prevent heart disease...
* Salt has been demonized for high blood pressure, who knows for how long. But if you really look it up online and do some research, salt has actually minimal impact on blood pressure...
* Regular food is being demonized for years now. Yet go to the "healthy" food stores such as Whole Foods, and see the price... Why is the price double that regular food though??? It is all BS...
* Low fat diet - do I have to say more? What a nonsense...
* Look at "healthy" food, e.g. yogurt. They label it "low fat" which many people incorrectly interpret as healthy. So they start eating this yogurt and think that they are eating healthy... However, if you look at label, you can find the amount of sugar that it contains: 7 grams, 15 grams, 27 grams and who knows where it ends... It is just unbelievable...
* Healthy foods and Natural approaches to prevent e.g. cancer or other diseases... They will make a mix of various fruits and vegetables, some exotic extracts they imported somewhere from India through Amazon.com, and they will make it tasty - and sell it to you for thousands of dollars with the premise of healing... Right

See what I am talking about? There are many contradictions. What works for one doesn't work for another.

I'll give you another examples:

Broccoli. Broccoli is great, when you look it up you may find out that it decreases levels of estrogen and increases levels of testosterone. Great, isn't it? So why don't we start loading ourselves with broccoli and increase testosterone levels? Well, broccoli also suppresses thyroid activity, which many sites don't tell you.... So you might have high(er) levels of testosterone but low functioning thyroid.... In other words, if you start loading yourself with broccoli you may find yourself feeling like a crap... Total opposite of what you have expected...

Lemon. If you were a sailor and didn't take any vitamin C for weeks and months, you may develop scurvy. So you start drinking water with lemon, or simply vitamin C, suddenly miracle happens - you feel great again! But what if you are healthy and already eating balanced diet? Well, vitamin C will not really do many miracles for you...

Coconut milk. You may truly enjoy its taste... Others will trow up because their system can't stand it...

...our organism is a delicate machine, millions of chemical reactions take place every second... It is very easy to disturb this balance by - you guessed it - food... If your ancestors were Eskimos eating just fish for thousands of years, do you think they will be doing as good as you eating your diet? Chances are, not... If your ancestors were mainly eating beef, do you think you will be doing great on 'healthy' Mediterranean diet? Well, you may, but you may not... It all depends, it is all relative on hundreds of other things...

So there are many things to consider, there could be many things that will make you healthy. All the "healthy" food may be healthy for many, but it doesn't mean that it is healthy for all. We simply know too little and we are too diverse... In other words, what works for one may not work for another....

Try this: Screw all the healthy food, screw the healthy fats for the next 3-4 weeks... Get a nice beef steak couple times a week, eat eggs with bacon for breakfast, or whatever you like, simply enjoy yourself... If you are in the "optimal" range of weight, well, screw the optimal numbers, screw being "ripped", it is not natural... gain 5-10 pounds instead... If you can't dead-lift at least 250-300 pounds, don't even consider yourself as being fit. If you do 300, well, add another 25 pounds to it, it won't hurt. At the same time stop that cardio nonsense! Cardio increases cortisol levels - which is a stress hormone! Testosteron is Anabolic hormone (which you need), it builds muscles, it makes you man, it makes you horny - while cortisol is Catabolic hormone, the exact opposite... Remember, it is all about balance, about being moderate... I'm not saying to eat broccoli or not to eat broccoli; I'm saying eat in balance, along with the other foods - while keeping in mind that balance may mean something different for you, me or other guys...

I bet your body is simply "starving" for normal food that your ancestors ate for millennia, because all you eat today is the healthy, organic, clean foods...

PS: If you are not pissed yet about "being so healthy" let me know, I could write much more!

 

[Mr.Rob]

Re: Hanging Up My Spurs.. (A personalized note to every member part of my journe

Drck... Eat a dick.

However this still holds true:

Your views piss me off sometimes, but I respect you a lot nonetheless.

 

[Mr.Rob]

Re: Hanging Up My Spurs.. (A personalized note to every member part of my journe

I hate to see ya worrying about your health and you're drive faltering, I sure do hope you get it figured out. Really truly one of the best GC success stories is your own.

and

Best of luck with your health, your school, your career and your life success. I think you have a bright bright future ahead of you and many adventures of all sorts coming your way. If you're ever passing through NC don't hesitate to drop me a line.

Kind words to hear man. And will do chief.

You've been an inspiration to a lot of the guys on these boards as well.

Kind of you to say Franco.

I hope you're able to find a resolution to this and that it doesn't hold you back in your future endeavors.

I will personally see to it that it won't. Thank you.

 

[Hector Papi Castillo]

Re: Hanging Up My Spurs.. (A personalized note to every member part of my journe

NastyRadRob,

Hanging up spurs is for cowboys. You're not a cowboy.

You're a pimp.

When your dick starts raging again, I'll be happy to see some LRs

See ya soooonnnnnnnnnnnnn.

Hector

 

[trashKENNUT]

Re: Hanging Up My Spurs.. (A personalized note to every member part of my journe

Rob,

What happen man, i hope your health is not too much trouble. Please rest well.

Mother Theresa. XD

 

[Big Daddy]

Re: Hanging Up My Spurs.. (A personalized note to every member part of my journe

Dayum Rob,

This made me realize how old I'm getting (not really)!

It's nice to see someone who's been grinding from the very beginning coming this far. Don't worry about this man - you've overcame way shitier stuff along the way.

Just don't take so much to get back because you'll have a lot of catching up to do

 

[Mr.Rob]

Re: Hanging Up My Spurs.. (A personalized note to every member part of my journe

@Drck

I feel bad for dismissing your comment. Thing is I agree with all you suggested and my research matches up with yours. I'm just tired of telling people 3 sentences about my situation and then having them prescribe another treatment like they know the solution. I'm sure you can understand.

Didn't want to end on a bad note there.

@Anatman- Thanks for making me smile
See you soon patna'

@Big Daddy- I don't mind catching up, I just want to make sure I get the opportunity to catch up! Prec.

@ZacAdams- yes XD

 

[PrettyDecent]

Re: Hanging Up My Spurs.. (A personalized note to every member part of my journe

You had an awesome presence on the boards, my friend.

Sometimes you need to focus on another area of life, even for a little while, and you can come back to pickup even better than before.

Best of luck on your journey and the road ahead!

Much love,
Nick

 

[Chase]

Re: Hanging Up My Spurs.. (A personalized note to every member part of my journe

Hey Rob,

I wonder what the deal is with your T-levels and SHBG. Wasn’t even familiar with the latter until I looked it up just now. Looks like there are a lot of potential causes for too-high or too-low levels of it; caloric restriction might be the only controllable one. If you’re definitely getting enough calories though, well… I hope it isn’t any of the worse ones, man.

You’ve had a great run on here. It’s been a pleasure to watch you progress with girls and develop as a man, Rob.

And girls never go away completely. Health comes first; without health, tough to focus on much else. But I suspect you’ll get back to some of your old tricks at some point once you’ve gotten to the bottom of this health issue and remedied it.

For now, it’s been an honor having you on here, and I hope you realize you inspired plenty of new board members with your scrappiness, conquests, and steady improvement.

Kick butt on this mystery illness. The boards have got your back. Glad to hear we will still see you on here sometimes in the meanwhile.

And once your T and SHBG aren’t out of whack anymore and your soldier stands at attention again... and you’re ready to get back in the game... well, we’ll be here.

Chase

 

[Grand Pooba]

Re: Hanging Up My Spurs.. (A personalized note to every member part of my journe

Rob!

Love you man! You inspired me in ways that I've never written about - especially your relentless drive and pursuit to improve and keep improving. I remember we started at roughly the same time, and at about the same place, and man you've grown leaps and bounds ever since and your style definitely inspired my own. Some very entertaining lays, but especially your pulls...and the distances you drove to make them happen...fucking amazing!

Girls never disappear, like Chase said, so I definitely hope to see you here again once you've handled your personal health and other parts of our lives. I guess that's the beauty of it, too - the ability to jump in and out of the game at will. You've already learned and internalized so much, and once you figure out what's going on with your health I know you're bounce back stronger than ever before!

Stay classy!

 

[Mr.Rob]

Re: Hanging Up My Spurs.. (A personalized note to every member part of my journe

For now, it’s been an honor having you on here, and I hope you realize you inspired plenty of new board members with your scrappiness, conquests, and steady improvement.

Thanks for the kind words Chase.

Great to know I have yall's support.

Will keep you all posted as things progress.

 

[RDawg]

Re: Hanging Up My Spurs.. (A personalized note to every member part of my journe

- Rob

It's been a pleasure man. I'll never forget you were one of the first people to comment on my first ever report and offer advice. All the best buddy and hopefully we all hear from you soon

Salute,
Remi

 

[Marty]

Re: Hanging Up My Spurs.. (A personalized note to every member part of my journe

Rob,

Only just saw this as it was bounced back to the top of the boards by the last response. I'm not so frequent on the forum any more as you have gathered.

I am very sorry to read about your difficulty and I hope that you find an excellent doctor who has the technical knowledge as well as the patient manner to guide you through this issue and resolve it to the greatest extent possible. I agree that you seem to be doing everything right and I am sure that this fact mitigates or at least minimizes the additional impact of the condition you suffer from. Alas you would not be the first or last who takes care of himself according to all medical recommendations and nonetheless falls victim to a seemingly random illness. As it happens, I was given some difficult news by a doctor myself at the beginning of this year (not that I want to detract from your thread) and he did say that while it is surprising in someone who follows a sensible diet and fitness regimen, that fact makes his job that much easier as he doesn't have to deal with additional issues that exacerbate the condition.

Thank you for making very kind remarks about our joint learning process as well as the time we spent together in the city that weekend. I am also glad to call you a friend, and though as you may have realized I have now relocated to Europe, I am very pleased that we met in person while I lived in the States.

Get a nice beef steak couple times a week, eat eggs with bacon for breakfast, or whatever you like, simply enjoy yourself...

I hate to say this especially since I have no right or qualification to give you advice, but Drck may actually have a point there. When I started my current relationship I realized quite soon that the expectation in terms of sex frequency was quite a lot higher than I had been accustomed to before, and one of the first things I did was increased the eggs and red meat in my diet... with good results. If you have a good doctor though you might want to consult with him/her before doing anything too drastic.

Wishing you a successful recovery period, all the very best and hope to see you back soon!

Marty

 

[ray_zorse]

Re: Hanging Up My Spurs.. (A personalized note to every member part of my journe

Hey Mr.Rob thanks for the personal note, well I just browse a bit / lurk these days so I didn't see yr message until now. Well, maintaining a healthy approaching habit that keeps AA at bay is a great and important thing to do but it's also stressful and takes a lot out of you at times. Although my AA is back since I no longer put pressure on myself to approach the first attractive woman I see, I also feel kind of better and more relaxed for taking it easy and just quietly going about my day, with other priorities like, getting to my meetings, finishing my degree, starting an FBA business and so on. So although I feel I am currently not fulfilling my destiny and living up to my potential of being a complete fucking badass and persuading my brain that everybody is in love with me, it isn't all bad, haha. I remember taking about a 2mth break from pickup about 6mth into my journey as I was really burnt out from multiple 10+ hr pickup sessions per week, my studies were suffering and I wasn't having a whole lot of success to encourage myself with, turns out this was a really good thing to do as it re-established my priorities and made me more relaxed as evidenced by my getting an awesome lay immediately on my return to pickup 2mths later. So it sounds like you're due for a break for similar reasons and will get similar benefits from it, I recall your earlier posts which in hindsight point to this hormonal issue and it sounds really frustrating. It's not an area I am too knowledgeable about, but if it was me I would be extracting all possible information from the Internet by creative search terms, reading journal articles, and so on. If you have a family member or a friend who is currently enrolled in a university I recommend using his/her library password to read articles that are behind paywalls. There is something called ezproxy which many university libraries use, and it means when you browse a site like sciencedirect.com (Elsevier is the company that publishes the journals on this site), your browsing requests/clicks get forwarded from your computer to the library's ezproxy server and from there to the publisher's website. Since the publisher sees the requests coming from the IP address of the library, which it knows as a paid subscriber to all the publisher's content, it lets you read the article. To use the system, you google search T-levels and SHBG, and say you end up at http://www.sciencedirect.com/article/123456 you change this to ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/www.sciencedirect.com/article/123456 (substituting the name of your library's ezproxy server), enter your library credentials and Bob's your uncle. I hope it helps. Take care bro and don't be a stranger
Ray

 

[Thedoctor]

Re: Hanging Up My Spurs.. (A personalized note to every member part of my journe

Hey Rob,

Tough deal. Hope it all gets sorted out soon and we see you back on the boards man!

-John