A Fortnight of Brutality (an RFL remedial cut) [Archive]

csb5731

10-28-2010, 02:56 PM

MY SAD BULKING HISTORY

Now, since I got back into this gym thing in 2008, I’ve never really had a successful bulk. My 2008 and 2009 bulks just ended up with me getting fat by late-autumn or so, me pretty much saying “screw the gym, I’m now fat, gimme more beer!” Spring rolls around like it always does and I decided that in order for me to enjoy summer I’d have to lose some weight, and did both times. Got into pretty good shape, reasonably lean.

This year, early summer, I did a short 8-week bulk where (I thought) I gained around six lbs with very minimal or no fat gain. I was psyched and thinking myself to be The Man at the time, but a retrospective analysis incorporating reality sees it as 3 lbs creatine weight and some rebound lean mass from ~3 months of dieting. I guess I ain’t The Man.

This bulk I was starting out leaner than before, leaving me some “room” for fat gain, and I decided to do a basic, workman-like standard bulk, targeting 1 lb gained per week. I swore up and down to myself that I would not worry about fat gain, as remedial cutting would be performed at necessary intervals. I didn’t (and don’t) want to have to diet for three months, ever again.

One thing I decided to do for this bulk was follow a prescribed lifting periodization scheme. I’ve never been the best about progression – at first I was kinda That Guy that goes in and does this and that without following a regimen or tracking weights. That “instinctive training” method never worked for me. I got better over time, but gradually adopted the opposite approach, and did my damndest to add weight every single workout. It worked great for my summer bulk, for six weeks or so, and then basically all my joints and tendons simultaneously seemed to all go south. This time I was going to follow a regimen with built-in progression and back-cycling, so I ended choosing Haycock’s HST method.

csb5731

10-28-2010, 02:57 PM

THIS PAST BULKING ATTEMPT

I started the bulk following a two-week post cut-break. My post-cut “stabilized” weight was about 149 lbs (I had been trying to avoid sub-150 lbs for psychological reasons, but wasn’t successful) and I would have been hovering around 10% BF. Bumped up calories to 2600 kcals/day (300-400 above est. maintenance), started creatine-loading, and at two weeks in, my weight was up five lbs. I was certainly smoother (chronic high carbs and no formal cardio helped in that aspect). But my weight plateaued and even declined a bit so I bumped up to 2800/day, and eventually gained a little bit but shortly looked to be plateauing again. For most of October I’ve been hitting 2900-3000 kcals/day, making sure I hit 3000 on weight training days. Typically ~200g protein, 350-400+ carbs, 60 – 80g fat. And I’ve been 160 lbs or so for the last few weigh-ins. So I am hoping to hit 12 lbs gained next weigh-in.

Doing the “math” on this bulk, though, is a little depressing: I figure three pounds gained from the creatine mono (typical for me), and 2-3 lbs carb-bloat, leaving maybe 6 pounds of true weight gain. And of that, I’m going to be lucky if half is muscle. So I’m looking at having gained 3-6 lbs of fat, max of three lbs muscle. I have been using calipers to measure skinfolds, but haven’t been bothering calculating %BF because it always underestimates my %BF. But the ab skinfold is up by around 4-5 mm, the iliac crest and thigh by 1, maybe 2 mm, and chest/bicep are unchanged. Waist is up an inch or an inch and a half, but fortunately, all my new 30” pants that I bough post-cut are still quite loose. Vanity-sizing FTW!

The logical side of me says not to cut yet, but I need a break. This bulking thing is a little more onerous than I thought it would be, and I’m a bit leery about going straight into another 2-3 month lifting periodization cycle (when I wouldn’t want to cut), which would send me through the fatty-time holidays.

csb5731

10-28-2010, 03:00 PM

THIS REMEDIAL CUT, MY FIRST REMEDIAL CUT

I’m giving myself two weeks, three tops and I'm going to hit it hard. I’m not looking to get super-lean, or anything like that (it’s almost winter), but getting back to 10% or so seems doable. Eh, I think. It kind of depends on how much of the weight I’m holding is the old chronic carb-bloat. I did a couple days at maintenance several weeks back, thinking I was going to bail into cutting, but my weight dropped by a couple pounds and it looked like I hadn’t gained much fat, so I went back to the delicious high carbs. So we’ll see after a few days into this diet.

As of today, I am planning to do this diet as a tortuous modified pmsf, ala Lyle McDonald’s Rapid Fat Loss Handbook. I don’t really know why – I hate keto diets. I’ve had good success with Lyle’s UD2 in the past, but don’t think I’m ready to board that train just yet. UD2 requires a certain amount of commitment beforehand, like using tactical nukes. I ain’t that committed to the UD2 scheduling and high-volume training at this point. RFL doesn’t require or suggest nearly the volume. I expect RFL to be as or more brutal than UD2, but it’s just 11-12 days of dieting. I THINK I can do that.

It’ll test my metal.

If, at the end of 11-12 diet days and the subsequent reefed, if I still feel too tenuous about body fat to go into Serious Bulk Mode, then I’ll decide if I want to diet further. In any case, I’m going to be done by Thanksgiving.

csb5731

10-28-2010, 04:53 PM

THE PLAN

So, I bought the RFL e-book the other night, the hard-copy came today, and so I just did diet planning.

Friday will be the last day of official of bulking under rigorous caloric control. Saturday will be a Mexican Fiesta, hopefully not too epic. Sunday I am going to attempt to wean myself off of oats, and the best condiment of all times, maple-flavored HFCS. And buy a ton of chicken breasts.

The RFL diet is Lyle’s take on the crash diet, and as with UD2, he provides a lot of rationale in his book, explaining why it is set up the way it is. But the diet itself is a simple one. The book spells out the diet, and the he also has a secure link to a handy calculator into which you enter your stats, and it spits out the simple diet plan. I just did that.

Essentially, it’s looking pretty dismal. I suspect I am 12ish percent bodyfat or possibly leaner, so the puts me as a Category 1 dieter. That fact, in conjunction with me planning on lifting, sets my protein at 2g/lb of LBM. Ick.

I’m going to be eating ~280g protein from lean protein sources per day, and some fibrous veggies.

280g protein, Holy Jeebus!

Lyle pushes using real food, but it’s going to be kind of tough. I don’t eat mammal, so it’s going to be mostly chicken breast, turkey breast, some fish, and FF cheese here and there. I will probably be using a little whey, depending on how hungry I get. I have about thirty pounds of the stuff.

Typical day will probably be about a pound and a half of chicken breast, 4-5 ounces FF cheese, and broccoli, cauliflower and salad. Then whey to fill the gap. Oh, and a s%^t-ton of fish oil. And, as a “Category 1” dieter, I don’t get Free Meals. I do get the reefed at the end, and I’ll do that UD2 style - monstrous.

I’ll do full-body weights 2X week, with my very first w/o being of the UD2 depletion-style sort: high reps and volume. The rest will be heavier, lower reps and low volume. I’ll throw in some LISS cardio here and there, perhaps. Me and depleted cardio aren’t on the best of terms.

I will take starting stats/pics tomorrow. I’ll be kinda hairy, and kinda smooth.

Twelve days tops. Epic brutality and extreme testicular fortitude. Manly amount of animal flesh consumed. Ghengis Khan would approve.

You can do it, son. You can do it.

csb5731

10-31-2010, 07:12 PM

Today is day zero minus one, or carb-taper day.

For me, this special diet requires special measures.

I’m probably about as bad as they come about succumbing to diet-breaking foods when these foods are readily available, in my fridge/pantry (it’s like I can go on auto-pilot for short periods, and why I generally don’t buy peanut butter), but I basically will never go out of my way (i.e. visit the store, or DQ) to do so, because I have to consciously think about it.

To improve my odds of adherence, I am stowing my remaining rolled-oats supply, my dextrose, and my gallon of caramel-colored, pseudo-maple-flavored metabolic poison in my big-old safe, on the explosives shelf, next to the fast-burning pistol propellant. It’s where they belong. For the next 12 days, they are Dangerous Chemicals. I couldn’t fit my brown sugar container on the same shelf, so it’s on a different one, sandwiched between a 1911 clone and a CZ75B. So the brown sugar is temporarily classified as a Major Caliber Lethal Weapon and I am simply being responsible in securing it as such. When this is all said and done, I’m going to make myself the world’s most badass pancakes.

http://i51.tinypic.com/msf9so.jpg

This safe is difficult enough for me to open when I’m fully cognizant (it’s like, turn four turns counter-clockwise to number X, then clockwise stopping on number Y after skipping it three times, then…). I suspect there’s no way in hell that I’ll be able to crack the thing under my typical lack-of-carbs-brain-fog. At least not without great, great deliberation.

I’ve ate what remains of my russet potatoes today. Same thing with my eggs. Over the last six months I’ve stopped tossing yolks, and see no reason to start tossing them now. Egg whites currently hold zero appeal to me. I just won’t have eggs. I’m not worried about my rice supply, as it takes too long to cook to be a spontaneous threat.

csb5731

10-31-2010, 07:22 PM

Final bulking weigh-in Friday was 161.0 lbs (drank a little water to make it), up 12 lbs since start of bulk. I took starting pictures this weekend – looking pretty smooth. As I said earlier, last time during this bulk just a day or two back at moderate carbs made a big difference, but that was three or four pounds back. So I will be fatter now. I was hoping that when the bloat goes, I’d be looking in the ballpark of 12%. But I really am generally optimistic. We shall see.

End of bulk picture below. One day post-mexican fiesta (and my waist this morning had jumped to ~ 30.5 inches) and, while I have been trying to cut back on carbs today as a segway into this torture, Halloween has proved to put a wrench into the works. But I haven’t been too bad. Three mini Snickers, three mini Kit-Kats. I haven’t touched the mini Three Musketeers cause they suck. The chocolate on the mini Three Musketeers, IIRC, is paper thin. That leaves nougat, and whatever that is, without substantial chocolate, it’s lame.

http://i55.tinypic.com/2cwml4m.jpg

csb5731

11-01-2010, 06:07 PM

Day 1: Only Minor Levels of Brutality.

Got up pretty early and made coffee. At that hour, chicken and broccoli didn’t sound good and I did contemplate having a whey/casein shake instead. But I ended up sautéing 8 oz of boneless/skinless chicken breast and steaming some broccoli. Used the Lite Salt liberally to start getting my sodium/potassium in. Had some more chicken for lunch, and some whey on the way to the gym this evening. More chicken and broccoli for dinner and pre-bed will be whey with a little casein.

So around 280g protein today.

I was hungry here and there but it actually feels kind of good at this early stage. I had kind of forgotten what “real” hunger was like the last couple months. I feel more aware/alive in a strange sort of sense. Not saying I wouldn’t enjoy a big bowl of oats right now, though, and I don’t expect this tolerance to last long. The very-low carb brain fog that I am susceptible to hasn’t seemed to set in yet.

Workout was “pull” depletion work: Back, hamstrings, bi’s (low volume on the bi’s). Was just like I remembered depletion w/o’s to be, and my hamstrings did cramp up real bad after the second set of 15. I had to take a stretching break in order to continue.

Tomorrow I’ll do “push” depletion work, and that won’t be fun. I should have done that today, to get it over with, but I opted for pull instead, as Friday was a push day.

Pre-workout weigh-in was 158.2 lbs, down 2.8 from Friday. Less food in gut? Not drinking enough? Losing a little bloat? I don’t know.

csb5731

11-02-2010, 06:38 PM

Day 2: Still Only Minor Levels of Brutality.

Today was very similar to yesterday, diet-wise. About 25 oz chicken (raw weight), bunch of whey and a little casein. And some broccoli, cauliflower, and salad. As a cat. 1 RFLer, I am actually eating more than I did on UD2 low days. But it’s pretty much all protein. Oppressive amount of flesh. After dinner, I’m not hungry at all, and I’m not even that hungry come breakfast time.

I am feeling a special kinship with the African Wild Dog, Lycaon pictus. We gotta do what we gotta do, even if it isn’t pretty, palatable, or humane.

http://i53.tinypic.com/2ykeyl1.jpg
Me and my bros know all about commitment and brutality.

While I do feel a little different in my cognitive state, I don’t feel that bad yet.

“Push” depletion workout was this evening. Leg presses were kind of miserable, and chest wasn’t all that fun either (had to drop weight after a couple sets). On a positive note, I am able to use more weight now on depletion than I was when I did UD2 a season ago, so maybe I did gain a little muscle these past few months.

The overall quantity of depletion work I am doing on this here RFL is only about 50-60% of what I’d be doing on UD2, and I think that will be adequate, given the longer time-frame on very low carbs. It’ll be a learning experience, if all else fails.

I will be doing full-body, low-volume, moderate rep-range work every 3-4 days from now on. Tomorrow I might do a little LISS.

Were I a superhero, I’d be known as The Urinator. I’d dowse oil-rig fires with my inhuman volumes of pee. I'm drinking a lot, and not holding onto it for long.

Today’s weigh in at the gym, pre-workout: 157.8 lbs. Down just a bit from yesterday.

csb5731

11-03-2010, 06:11 PM

Day 3: Maybe Slightly Higher Levels of Brutality

I did 40 minutes of fasted LISS in the AM. I had a half a cup of fat free cottage cheese for breakfast, as it is permissible, and I mixed in a little chocolate-flavored casein. It was actually pretty good. Ate chicken, veggies and whey for the rest of the day. I really need to get to the store and buy some fat-free cheese. So, anyway, ~280 g protein from lean protein sources again today, some and veggies.

25 oz is a lot of raw chicken, and it’s only about 55% of my RFL protein dosage:
http://i53.tinypic.com/2u93mle.jpg
Did Velociraptors eat this much carnage?

The sad fact is eating that much chicken wouldn't be a chore at all were it accompanied by a couple scoops of sticky rice or a big baked potato. But by it's lonesome self, or just with them fibrous veggies, it's kind of a task. I can’t get no satisfaction.

Low-carb realization has set in. At this point, I can kind of feel what I call the Low-Carb Arrogance Factor coming into play. I’ve done Atkins a couple times before, and people had said things to me like, “You’ve changed!” They weren’t talking about my appearance – they were talking about me becoming a real jerk. I just tend to turn into an arrogant a-hole after prolonged low-carbs. I’m perfectly aware of it at the time, but I can’t and don’t want to change. I begin to thrive on dark thoughts and being a smug a-hole. My empathy goes out the door along with my glycogen reserves.

But as nobody yet has made any remarks as to my attitude, maybe I can make the full 12 days before somebody decides to kick my a**.

Anyways, in an attempt to stave off the dark thoughts, I’ve began to formulate a theory about the importance of starches as a component of Humanity. Yeah, I get that they aren’t necessary for human survival, but there is more to being human than simply surviving. More on that tomorrow. It’s ground-breaking, Nobel-prize potential stuff.

As I didn’t go to the gym today, I didn’t weigh myself. I no longer own a scale after my last one broke and it’s about the best thing to have happened to me. No more 4+ times a day crazy-undressing-and-weighing-myself-every-time-I-eat-something-or-go-to-the-bathroom. I’ve even stopped daily measuring of my fat with the calipers. I’ve almost become sane, aside from my new budding delusion of superiority.

I did measure my waist in the a.m. It’s down about three quarters of an inch since Saturday. I feel that I’m looking a little leaner.

Scott_W

11-03-2010, 06:23 PM

Low-carb realization has set in. At this point, I can kind of feel what I call the Low-Carb Arrogance Factor coming into play. I’ve done Atkins a couple times before, and people had said things to me like, “You’ve changed!” They weren’t talking about my appearance – they were talking about me becoming a real jerk. I just tend to turn into an arrogant a-hole after prolonged low-carbs. I’m perfectly aware of it at the time, but I can’t and don’t want to change. I begin to thrive on dark thoughts and being a smug a-hole. My empathy goes out the door along with my glycogen reserves.

I'm with ya on that one, grumpy as hell on a cut. Good luck man you have a good starting point to cut from.

csb5731

11-04-2010, 03:46 PM

I'm with ya on that one, grumpy as hell on a cut. Good luck man you have a good starting point to cut from.

It's wierd in that I almost like being grumpy! It gives me a DELUSIONAL feeling of superiority or "alpha-ness". I need to keep in mind that "alpha" and "a$$hole" are not the same thing. I am decidedly the latter (though a bit better today).

csb5731

11-04-2010, 05:46 PM

Day 4: A Little Less Brutal Than Yesterday

26.5 oz of chicken (raw weight), and some veggies and salad, a small dose of n.f. cottage cheese, and whey/casein. Pretty boring stuff, but still really liking the c.c. and chocolate protein powder combo.

Today I did another 40 minutes of fasted LISS in the morning. Basically, walking fast outdoors, just shy of outright “speed-walking”, and early enough so that the number of witnesses to my pathetic cardio routine would be minimal. Even if the book “allowed” for more intense cardio, I don’t know if I’d do it. My legs are surprisingly still sore from the high-rep leg presses, and when I’m on low carbs, I generally don’t feel like doing cardio at all.

Low-carbs even cures me of my odious personal habit of Incessant Pacing. I am the Couch Master now, and am learning a lot of the advanced features that my digital cable TV provides that I had been unaware of for a couple of years.

While I still feel decidedly sub-optimal, I’m doing better today. No more fond thoughts of eviscerating some poor sap, anyway. I fantasize about a good bludgeoning here and there, perhaps, but no slow and painful deaths. Baby steps.

No gym today, so no weigh-in. Tomorrow will be a full-body session, and I am thinking that I’ll take 5g of carbs beforehand, as the book discusses as an option. It’ll be interesting to see if that miniscule dose actually helps out. And, then, darts night at the bar. I’ll be having Diet Cokes. Because I am 5’7” of stalwart stallion-ness, and atm fancying myself to be far superior to you carb-eating mortals, I am not at all worried about blowing the plan. I am a little concerned about the possibility of me sticking a dart in the eye of someone who eats nachos in front of me. I will have to remind myself that this is my choice, and it’s based entirely on vanity. I’m a shallow person, and I really need to remind myself of that fact from time to time.

I only have eight more days before a UD2-style refeed. And it will start off with Cap’n Crunch or me Lucky Charms. Normally, Lucky Charms sound gross to me, but right now they sound pretty good (read: they sound really g%^amn awesome). Almost good enough to trump The Cap’n.

Almost.

csb5731

11-05-2010, 11:33 PM

Day 5: Barely Brutal At All

Diet was pretty much the same as the previous five days, but with Diet Cokes. A short fasted “cardio” (using the term euphemistically) session in the morning. I did a full-body tension w/o this evening with 5 g of the dextrose beforehand (note: can't even taste 5g of dextrose in 300 ml water), and the w/o wasn’t bad. No noticeable loss of strength yet. I am appreciating the low volume right now.

Weight at the gym was 156.0 lbs. Down five lbs even from the end of bulk, and I can't make anymore arguments that what's left isn't fat - the bloat HAS to be gone. I look better, but not as lean as I was hoping to. But realistically I still figure I look 12ish if not a little leaner. But I'd like to lose 2-3 lbs of fat before getting back to mass gaining.

Went to the bar tonight, after workout, and had a house salad with chicken breast and no dressing (ick). I tossed the egg yolks and croutons, and drank a TON of Diet Cokes (Well, I hope to hell they were Diet Cokes, as my off-kilter sweetness sensors found them pretty sweet - but it's what I ordered). As fortune would have it, my dart-buddy was also dieting, hard, so I didn’t have to watch him drink IPA and eat chicken fingers and fries. Another friend did show up after I ate, though, and ordered an appetizer platter for all of us, but both us dieters were resolute and didn't even have a bite.

I did lose 1-4 on Cricket, though, because I just couldn’t hit the bulls. I choked big-time. I used my diet as an excuse for losing, but as I’ve lost in worse fashion before I don’t think anyone bought it.

And today’s not been too bad in terms of mood – I’ve been on my best behavior, far better than Wednesday.

csb5731

11-06-2010, 05:16 PM

Day 6: Halfway to the End of This Brutality

I'm into new territory today! When I'd done Atkins before, the total calories was a bit higher and I ate plenty of fat to offset the lack of carbs. When I did UD2, fats and carbs were really just a tad higher than now, but the suffering phase was not quite four days in length, and then it was onto Carb City. But my body right now REALLY wants me to visit Carb City, and then cross the border into Guacamole, Mexico, where a Salma Hayek look-alike waits to spoon-feed me the delicious, green dip.

It's Saturday, so I don't have to deal with people that I don't want to, and that is kind of helpful in keeping mood in check. While my mental acuity certainly isn't 100%, I truthfully don't feel all that bad. Again, us Category 1 RFLers aren't exactly on SUPER LOW calories (I figure I might be getting almost 1400/day with all the required protein and some tag-along fats/carbs), and I am rarely hungry from eating lots of chicken. Just feeling generally deprived, and occasionally craving things that I normally wouldn't.

For example, I can't stop thinking about guacamole. I've certainly always liked guacamole, but have never before spent an entire afternoon thinking about it. I did today. Right now, the sound track in my brain is an old one from KC and The Sunshine Band. It goes something like: “guac-guac-guac, guac-guac-guac, GUAC-E-MOL-E, GUAC-E-MOL-E!”

No gym today, and I am taking the book seriously about keeping cardio down to a dull roar, so none of that today either. I actually wanted to go hiking, but learned from the last few weeks of my summer UD2 experience to follow Lyle's instructions in not doing lots and lots of cardio when dieting hard. And my legs are sore from yesterday's workout.

Diet is pretty much the same today as the previous five, with a little more fat-free cottage cheese and a little less powder. It amounted to 5g additional carbs, but no big deal. Still hit ~280g protein.

csb5731

11-07-2010, 04:52 PM

Day 7: Aside from a Brutal Lust for Guacamole, Not All That Bad

Today's diet was OK in the compliance aspect, although I only got about 100g protein from flesh. Tired of chicken, or anything chicken-like. The rest was from powders, a little fat free Swiss singles, and fat-free cottage cheese. The chocolate-flavored casein I use has been helping out with my desire for something sweet, but I still want guacamole and it occupies my thoughts. Hell, at this point, I'd rather just watch the guy from Man vs. Food eat a trough of guacamole vs. watch the most awesome things ever filmed by the producers of Girls Gone Wild.

Did poorly on veggie consumption today. I bought a bunch this morning, but they just didn't sound all that satisfying.

I did 40 minutes fasted LISS today. Didn't go to the gym, so I didn't weigh-in, but feeling leaner. While I doubt that I'll undo the fat gain from three months of bulking entirely in this two week cut, I am thinking I'll be plenty lean enough to return to mass-gaining endeavors at it's end with no worries.

Interesting fact about guacamole: Did you know that the Aztecs invented guacamole? Yeah, so, they ripped out the still-beating hearts of captured enemies, and wore their sacrifices' skins and stuff as gruesome costumes. And they also liked to watch team sports where the entire losing team gets sacrificed. Sound depraved, but in the end, what's important is that they invented guacamole.* They couldn't have been all that bad. Think what awesome foods they might have come up with if it weren't for them conquistadors. We might have some sort of super-guacamole today.

*And you have to admit, it would be pretty cool to see Matt Hasselbeck, wearing the skin of Ben Roethlisberger, presenting Ben's dripping heart to Quetzalcoatl, holding it high above his head in victory. I'd pay to see that.

csb5731

11-08-2010, 06:19 PM

Day 8: Cravings are Getting a Little Brutal

Another day of ~280g protein and not much else. No cardio, no gym, no weigh-in. My waist/abdomen this morning, one week in, was tenuously sub-29”. So it’s dropped over an inch in one week

I will do this thing through Friday as planned. Tomorrow will be another tensionesque (medium/lower rep-range) workout, and Friday evening will be another, followed by carb-loading through Saturday. The carb load will NOT be as low-fat as a typical UD2 carb load, as I don’t think I can do it right now, but I will keep them in check – say 50-60 g fats. Sunday is going to be a UD2 power-style workout, and I’m going to feel AWESOME. I just hope that I can discern if I’ve added some lean mass in three months of bulking.

I read some posts online this morning about the guy who lost 27 lbs eating Twinkies, which got me thinking about Twinkies and how good they would taste. That soon led to me thinking about other Hostess products, like Ho-Ho’s and Ding-Dongs. Then, I started thinking about the Hostess Cupcake. My recollection of the Hostess Cupcake is that is denser than it’s Hostess siblings, and that density sounds especially appealing. In any case, my thoughts during the day were about 50% work, 25% Hostess Cupcakes, 25% guacamole. At home, it’s 50% Hostess Cupcakes, 50% guacamole.

A forensic investigation of my past three-day internet history reveals that my libido is pretty much shot. That didn’t take long at all. TDRB count is down, for sure.

csb5731

11-09-2010, 09:51 PM

Day 9: Less Brutal Cravings, as Realization of Completion is Nigh

Did some fasted cardio in the morning, and a full body low-volume workout in the evening. Compounds were in the 8-10 rep range, the few isolation exercises were @ 15 reps. Did the 5g of dextrose thing again. Don’t know if it helps, but the workout wasn’t bad and strength hasn’t (noticeably, anyways) diminished. Weight was 152.2 lbs (!) - I’m almost down 9 pounds since the Friday before last, and four pounds from this past Friday (only four days ago). I don’t think I was good about hydration today. I’m actually hoping today's weigh-in was artificially low.

Last night I found the perfect low-carb activity. Normally, when deep into low carbs I don’t like to do relaxing things if they involve some modicum of focus or the use of imagination (e.g. reading a novel, or watching NCIS re-runs). Last night, in desperate boredom, I pulled out my two coffee cans full of collected pocket change from who knows however many years, and sorted and counted most of it – all but the pennies. So, it netted me $110 in quarters, $42 in nickels, and $135 in dimes. That’s almost $300! I figure I have $50 in pennies, but I might Coinstar those, because low carbs and REALLY Onerous Tasks don’t mix. But low carbs are good for easy, boring tasks that don’t take too long.

Whilst the prudent thing would be to bank my unexpected “windfall”, I’m deciding whether to put it towards a new desktop PC, laptop, or just buy a new Ipod. I really don’t need yet another Ipod for me to lose, get stolen, or wash in the laundry (I’m on Ipod #5), so I hope I don’t end up buying one for the purpose of immediate gratification. My PC is so 2003 that it’s kind of embarrassing, so I think I’ll go that route. If anything, it would be really great to fit all my jpegs of underclad Russian women onto a single hard disk.

Due to me thinking too much yesterday about Hostess Snack Cakes and guacamole at work, today involved some serious catch-up (which was welcome, in a way). The urgency factor helped lessen my cravings.

csb5731

11-10-2010, 11:27 PM

Day 10: Entirely Non-Brutal

I think I may have adapted, or see a light at the end of the tunnel. Low energy for sure, but mood is fine and today I wasn’t really having bad cravings. I’m coasting at this point.

About 20 minutes of LISS today (fast walking), and nothing else. No weigh-in today, didn’t hit the gym.

Friday morning I’ll bust out my calipers and take pre-refeed skinfolds, then I’ll do the same on Sunday or Monday, post carb-load, do try and figure out what exactly it was that was lost during this 2 week of high-protein-and-not-much-else-diet.