Imp's fat loss log...because why not?

[LiamNilldeer]

Hi Imp,

This is great progess and truely inspiring, keep up the good work!

I mentioned in my own log that I really like the way you put together your updates and especially like your 7 day rolling average weight measurement, it feels to me like a more consistent marker of progress! I hope you don't mind but I've shamlessly stolen that to add into my own logging!

[Imp81318]

Glad to hear that you enjoyed my log, and that you were able to take a little something away from it for your own use.


A coworker just brought in 2 boxes of gourmet Duck Donuts into the office. I am not generally a sweets person, but they look and smell AMAZING. My will power is being tested today. Fortunately, they will not last long so I should only have to stay strong for a little longer...

[lukepeter]

Hey Steve.

Its been a while

Its been a genuine pleasure catching up - your activity level seems to be so much higher than when you started, you are lifting on a well defined routine with good linear progression, and your diet has been on point. How has the "not weighing everything" been going, I find I do this within reason myself for my staples, after weighing chicken breast every day for a year you get a sense of how much represents 100g etc.

Have you been back to the commercial gym training classes much, as I recall, the competitive aspect helped you stretch yourself a bit?

As always, strength and discipline for the road ahead (though it may be short for you being at your goal weight

[Imp81318]

Yeah, my general activity level is definitely up from when I started this but I attribute most of the non-workout-specific activity increases more to the time of year than changes in my lifestyle. I'm always more active during the summer than I am during winter. I haven't been to the gym in around a month due to too much travelling, but I have every intention of getting back there this Sunday since I will finally be in town for a full weekend. I do love those classes, and I'm quite hopeful that a return to the class will re-motivate me to get back to lifting weights as regularly as I had been before vacation (I know it has only been a few days since I got back but I feel significantly less motivated to lift pieces of iron having had a 2-week break than I had been). I'm really going to try to get myself into my at-home weight room tonight, but as always seems to be the case this time of year time will be tight.

I feel as though the road ahead is looking even longer than it did when I started this journey, for my aspirations are beginning to become much greater than I originally had plans for.

[Imp81318]

I'm not really sure how the not weighing everything is going at this point to be honest. I have had so many temporary/isolated interruptions to my "normal" consumption lately that I have been unable to really determine whether or not I've been continuing to make progress between water retention, lack of consistent weight training, excess calories, completely not counting at all while on vacation, etc. My best guess is that it is going pretty well and I anticipate resuming my weight/fat loss now that all of that stuff is behind me, but only time will tell for sure. This morning I felt considerably thinner than I have been lately, and yesterday I felt like my face/neck looked thinner in the mirror at some random points throughout the day. I have no idea whether or not any of that means anything, but the scale did read 170.6 lbs for the second consecutive day, which is 0.4 lbs higher than the lowest weigh-in I had pre-vacation.

[Imp81318]

Back to the updates... I worked out last night for the first time since June 29. That's about 3 weeks since my last workout! I just did the same weights as I had the last time I did the same program and everything felt really heavy/difficult. I initially attributed this to the 2-week layoff until I entered the workout into my log and realized that I had just increased weight on all of my lifts the last time that I did this program. I was able to get through all of the exercises, and if actually felt great to get back to the weights. My legs and back are a bit sore this morning, but otherwise I feel great. Plan to get at it again tomorrow night, then hit the class up on Sunday morning. If I have time and think of it I'm going to try to snap some updated progress pics tomorrow morning since I'm past due, but I'll be travelling for work so not sure if it will be on my mind.

[Imp81318]

I didn't get to travel to the meeting for work today, which was a disappointment, but I still didn't get up early to work out before work. I was pretty bummed about being told by my boss that there wasn't enough money left in the budget for me to go to the meeting after busting my butt on this project and doing a bunch of work on my own time to save budget so I could go to this meeting (which I'm sure he isn't aware of), but that shouldn't have been a reason not to get up early this morning. I did get to participate remotely and it went VERY well, so that's a plus at least. And I had a really good workout after work tonight and I feEl great, other than the absurd quad doms. I'm convonce these doms are God's way of motivating me not to take 3 consecutive weeks off from exercising ever again.

Nutrition has been on point all week, and for some reason it suddenly feels super easy to hit my macro goals each day with a hundred or more calories left. Could be due to the lack of weight training leading up to this week and just not feeling as hungry, or something else perhap.

I forgot to take a progress picture this morning, so I'll do it tomorrow. This afternoon I noticed that I'm suddenly much more jiggly than I have been recently so I'm hoping I might be in store for a whoosh.

[NeillC]

Back to the updates... I worked out last night for the first time since June 29. That's about 3 weeks since my last workout! I just did the same weights as I had the last time I did the same program and everything felt really heavy/difficult.

You must be superman. If I didn't go to the gym for 3 weeks then tried to do the same weights I would surely pull a muscle. In fact there is a pretty good chance one of my arms would fall off like spongebob in 'anchor arms'.
The next day I would be totally crippled by the pain. I would like to think it's because I am older but likely because I am kinda pathetic.

[Imp81318]

I'm not sure what you consider "older" but I don't consider myself a young buck anymore either. I suspect a big part of it is that I am new to all of this and I still haven't hit a point where I failed to make a progression since I'm still benefitting from newbie gains despite being in a deficit. Plus, most of the week I was on vacation was spent throwing my 40 lb son in the air and biking everywhere we went so I wasn't exactly sedentary during the break. Still feeling the DOMS today, but not as bad as they were a couple of days ago.

[NeillC]

I'm not sure what you consider "older" but I don't consider myself a young buck anymore either. I suspect a big part of it is that I am new to all of this and I still haven't hit a point where I failed to make a progression since I'm still benefitting from newbie gains despite being in a deficit. Plus, most of the week I was on vacation was spent throwing my 40 lb son in the air and biking everywhere we went so I wasn't exactly sedentary during the break. Still feeling the DOMS today, but not as bad as they were a couple of days ago.

I am 52. I find that even if I could actually do a particular weight I have to work up to it slowly over a couple of workouts as it's easy to hurt myself. After a three week layoff I would have to reduce the weights quite a bit and spend a few workouts to hopefully get bat to where I was.

[Imp81318]

It is definitely not easy for me to pick back up where I left off, but I am generally able to slog through a couple of workouts before I feel like I did before taking the break. This was my longest break since I started working out, and it was the closest I've been to failing on any of my lifts. Friday's workout actually felt really great, especially my upper body stuff. Lower body was a struggle, but I blame that at least in part on the wicked DOMS I was still feeling from Wednesday's workout and the fact that I really struggled to get my legs properly stretched out before and throughout the workout.

Regardless of all of that, thanks for stopping by and reading my log!


Update:

Yesterday I was on track for decent nutrition and on track with my planned dinner to hit all of my macro goals. Then my wife called me from the 6th birthday party she had taken my son to in the afternoon and suggested I take our daughter over. I agreed, and took her over since I wasn't going to get anything done at our house anyway. It turned out to be one of the best 6th birthday parties I've ever been to - the family had a great spread of food including hamburgers and hotdogs grilled on a flat top with bacon, mushrooms, and Swiss cheese. We ended up hanging out there all night eating and drinking beer. I somehow managed to keep things reasonable, and only ended up going slightly over maintenance, but we had a great time. Plus, the dehydration from the beer means that I had my lowest weigh-in yet this morning when I was expecting to be up from water retention.

[Imp81318]

I had a really good workout at class yesterday morning, followed by a great day of nutrition. Had a high level of activity throughout the day doing yard work and miscellaneous tasks around the house. Scraped paint from the deck, planted 2 small fig trees, picked cucumbers from the garden, trimmed some bushes, weed wacked, canned some pickles, etc. Felt like I hardly sat down all day. Wanted to pressure wash the deck to get ready for priming/staining but ran out of time. I'll try to take care of that tonight so I can (hopefully) prime it Thursday night after work. At some point I have to post a weekly macro update for last week, but no time to do it right now.

[Imp81318]

Last Week in Review (7/15 through 7/21):

Protein/Fat/Total Cals
Goal: 152 / 79 / 2,030

Sat: VACATION
Sun: VACATION
Mon: 143 / 74 / 1,890
Tue: 173 / 74 / 2,049
Wed: 148 / 68 / 1,939
Thu: 156 / 83 / 2,136
Fri: 137 / 72 / 1,901

Weekly Avg: 151 / 74 / 1,983

__________________________________________________ ___

Updates on progress have been posted throughout the last week. Updated progress photos, taken 7/22, have been added to my Bodyspace.

[Imp81318]

I'll try to post my last week's macros in review tomorrow morning but here is my overview summary of the week: Nutrition was good all week long. As of this morning I am sub-170 pounds, and down 1.1 pounds from last Friday. I have not worked out since the interval training class on Sunday. I've not been sleeping well and have really had a hard time getting out of bed all week for some reason. My wife has a nasty stomach bug that's been going around so I'm wondering if my body might be fighting something off. Regardless of the reason, not being able to get up in time for early morning workouts couples with staining the deck and building a massive lego set with my son in the evenings after work, plus taking an evening certification exam for work last night means that I didn't make time to work out this week. I'm ok with that as it was a busy week and I have every expectation and belief that I'll get back to it starting next week, after my mini-getaway with the wife tomorrow night. I am quite confident this is the lowest my weight has been since college.

I continue to be unsure of how low I intend to drop to, but at least for now I'm going to keep going a bit farther. Not weighing everything has been working out really well for me so far, and it has made estimating my daily calories so much easier and less time consuming so I am really glad I made the decision to go that route. I completely understand it may not work for everyone, but for me at least it has really worked out well. I'm still logging everything I eat, but I generally know where I stand and what I can eat at dinner time by the time it rolls around. I feel like I could stop logging everything and continue to make progress, but I fear that doing so would lead to me starting to snack after dinner in the evenings more and slow my progress. I really have no idea how much more I'm going to lose, but I'm thinking probably at least to 165, maybe 160. I just can't imagine myself ever being below 160 pounds, but we'll see where I end up on this crazy journey. I do know that when I started I never would have believed you if you had told me I was going to lose 35 pounds, but here I am.

On a side note, I have noticed something interesting: When I look at myself in the mirror I am much happier than when I look at the photos I recently posted in my Bodyspace. I'm not sure why, but I feel like I look much more lean in real life than I do in the photos..

[Imp81318]

Last Week in Review (7/22 through 7/28):

Protein/Fat/Total Cals
Goal: 152 / 79 / 2,030

Sat: 164 / 91 / 2,610
Sun: 183 / 85 / 2,187
Mon: 184 / 63 / 2,016
Tue: 158 / 81 / 1,949
Wed: 148 / 57 / 1,901
Thu: 138 / 76 / 1,917
Fri: 144 / 65 / 2,101

Weekly Avg: 160 / 74 / 2,097

__________________________________________________ ___

[Imp81318]

Weight loss has continued, other than a blip on the radar this weekend due to anniversary celebrations. I got back to the weights last night. After receiving feedback from several people about how I jumped right back into the same weights after 3 weeks off last time I decided to deload all of my lifts by 5-10 pounds for my workout since I have not worked out 4 of the last 5 weeks. All of my lifts felt easy and light. I think I'm going to repeat lifts at this weight on Thursday (Tuesday will be Workout B of my plan), then jump things back up starting next week if the lifts continue to feel light. Nutrition should be back on point this week so the journey will continue. Onward and upward!

[lukepeter]

Solid macros as always Steve - kids birthday parties and anniversaries are perfectly acceptable "be normal" days - Nobody wants to be the guy quietly sitting in a corner calculating macros for mini samosas and pop tarts

What percentage of total loaded weight is your 5-10lb decrease? It may be that I am exhibiting poor wisdom in this, but I typically do not reduce my weights at all after a short hiatus, but accept that for two weeks I will fail earlier than I did before the break. If you are lifting to stimulate growth, then do so with a purpose - "easing back into it" is all well and good, so long as you are increasing the rep range to the point where growth can still occur. It does not escape me, however, that my goals and yours are a little different - that considered, your time and mine are still both equally as precious in our respective perspectives - a workout that requires no significant effort may as well not be done at all (I am not saying that this is the case here, just something to look out for - I see a lot of guys at my little work gym that invest the time, but without the effort, and ultimately with no discernible results).

I am really stoked for you that you are still seeing good progress with a relaxation on the need to weigh everything, it inspires a little hope in me for the future

[Imp81318]

I was actually wondering whether I had wasted my time about 3/4 of the way through my workout last night. Truthfully, the only reason that I decided to do a bit of a "deload" to get back into my routine was because I had several people expressing shock that I had been able to jump back into the same weight, and one trainer specifically cautioned me that he injured himself several times trying to do just that when he was younger. I decided to heed the feedback I was receiving and try it out. As I am seeing how good I feel today I am thinking that I might shorten up my prior timeline a bit and do my Workout B at a reduced load, then bump back up to my prior weights for Workout A on Thursday rather than waiting until next week.

[Imp81318]

My wife had a training day yesterday, which meant that I had to take the day off from work to spend with our daughter. Had a great personal day spending time with her, which I seem to be doing far too little of, as well as fixing an electrical issue (switches wired incorrectly, not a safety concern) with our lights in the basement that has been present for the 7+ years we've owned the house. Of course, spending the day with her turned into an excuse to grab Chick Fil A for lunch, which I justified to myself at the time as another example of how I have to find a way to fit these "special occasions" into my calorie goals from time to time. I ended up not hitting my calorie goal yesterday, but I was comfortably under maintenance. This morning I am realizing that my drive and motivation has really waned quite a bit. I'm continuing to log everything, and I am being reasonably accurate with my tracking, or at least as accurate as I can be when estimating all of my portion sizes, but I am finding it easier and easier to justify not meeting my calorie or macro goals on a day-to-day basis. I am beginning to wonder whether this is a result of the relaxation on my tracking rigor or if it is more directly linked to all of the recent social/life events that I have allowed myself to relax for. Coupled with this relaxation on dietary restrictions has also come a dropoff in motivation to fit my workouts into my daily schedule.

As I have documented throughout this log my workouts have always been the first part of my routine to drop off and this week has been no exception. Yesterday was the perfect example of a day that I should have had no problem making time to work out since I didn't come to work, I spent a couple of hours in the house in the morning, and then I had 1.5 hours while my daughter napped. Instead, I used the time to do some work around the house which I know is not an inherently bad decision, but it shows to me a lack of prioritization of my workouts. And, as I'm sitting here this morning, I'm really struggling to understand why I continue to lack the motivation to work out when I know how much better I feel and how much more energy I have when I am working out on a regular schedule.

In the grand scheme of things, my weight loss has continued but at a slower pace - my overall average loss rate had dropped from 1.3-1.5 pounds per week to 1.1 pounds per week over the last month or so. I know that part of this is due to the litany of social events that have sprung up this summer, as well as vacation, but I feel it is also linked fairly strongly to my more recent dropoff in exercise. I need to figure out a way to re-institute working out as a priority in my day. I am beginning to become increasingly convinced that the best way for me to do this may be to force myself to wake up earlier and work out in the morning. Getting up in the morning has been a struggle lately as it is, but I feel like there are just too many distractions pulling me in too many directions in the evenings right now.

[lukepeter]

What you are experiencing is normal, motivation is transient - you will never be motivated to "train" unless it is something you derive genuine joy and satisfaction from - lifting weights is not really anyone's idea of fun

Getting stuff done around the house is a positive energy expenditure, you get the shot of dopamine that comes with crossing something off the list, and you are investing in your home directly. Until you find joy in something that aligns with your body goals its going to be a matter of discipline rather than one of motivation that keeps you going. Diet has always closely followed training discipline in my life, relax on one, and the other seems to slack as well. I am just really lucky in that my routine is so effortless to follow at the moment that no special provision need be made to get me into the gym, and the time constraints ensure I train at a high work rate.

Find whats right for you - ultimately it may be that a six pack and deltoid striations are simply not worth enough to you to keep you disciplined in your workouts - and that's fine - do what makes you happy, without compromising your ability to interact with your family and the world at a level that you consider acceptable. You are no longer at high enough bf% to be considered at risk for a number of chronic conditions, your strength to weight ratio is vastly improved, your playtime with the kids and ability to perform household chores is improved - you have made fantastic progress in so many spheres, now find what drives you to do something passionately, and do enough physically to maintain the steps that you have taken towards a healthier, happier you.

Just my .02

[Archawkeye]

This is such good advice. I'm also older, with limited time, and I know in my heart that I'm never going to look "amazing" but I want to at least feel healthier and stronger and look better, and having some perspective on what matters most, and some extrinsic motivation, really helps.

[Imp81318]

As always, sage advice provided and greatly appreciated Luke and Archawkeye! Part of the frustration that I feel is that I do actually enjoy working out, and I enjoy the gains I've made in strength and general physical fitness and I know that the only way to keep those gains is to continue to strain my muscles through exercise. I just struggle to fit it into my schedule, and I view one of my biggest hurdles to be making fitness a sufficiently routine part of my schedule that I always find time to fit it in, like doing chores around the house or going to work. And this is not to suggest or imply in any way that I think that I will have a 6 pack of anything other than craft beer at any point in my life - I fully realize that having that type of physique requires a level of commitment and dedication to fitness that I am not interested in pursuing.

I also feel a bit of frustration with myself because I continue to not know where I'm going on this journey, except to know that I am not yet where I want to be. I feel great, I can feel and see the progress I've made already (I did 3 chin ups on the playground equipment at the park the other day with relatively little effort, which represents a 300% increase from where I started haha), and rather than getting great satisfaction out of my progress I just see how much farther I could go even without really changing my routine or commitment level too drastically.

__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________________________
Side note: I was well-primed to end my day a solid 400kcal below my goal yesterday. I had eaten well throughout the day, was close on all of my macros, had had a solid and filling dinner of tuna fish casserole and veggies, and was ready to settle onto the couch to relax for half an hour before going to bed late last night. And then I grabbed the goldfish crackers. I wasn't really even all that hungry, I just felt like snacking on something. And that 400kcal cushion below my deficit goal evaporated quite quickly. I still didn't go over my goal, which means that I should remain on target for fat loss but I view it as a breakdown because I could have given myself that much more of a boost toward my primary goal and I squandered the opportunity away. Oh well, what's done is done.

[Imp81318]

Last Week in Review (7/29 through 8/4):

Protein/Fat/Total Cals
Goal: 152 / 79 / 2,030

Sat: NO TRACKING
Sun: 114 / 124 / 2,413
Mon: 125 / 70 / 1,963
Tue: 154 / 100 / 2,365
Wed: 159 / 79 / 2,029
Thu: 151 / 73 / 1,890
Fri: 121 / 104 / 2,095

Weekly Avg: 137 / 92 / 2,126

__________________________________________________ ___


Nutritionally, this week ended up very well-aligned with my goals somehow. I only did 2 workouts last week, but both workouts felt really good. The week was full of activity in the evenings just through living life. I have noticed that as I have skipped workouts my weight loss has slowed, which isn't surprising. I'm still losing at close to a pound per week, but I'm down from the 1.3-1.5 pound per week rate I had been maintaining previously. I took the family to my dad's hunting camp this weekend, which is a place that I have been going to since I was a kid, and it felt great to watch the 4th generation of my family enjoying their time there. Went for a short hike up the mountain, complete with picking and eating wild blueberries, Sunday morning then rented a paddle boat on a lake Sunday morning and spent half an hour paddling my son around. The boat was most definitely designed to be paddled by two people, and it was surprising difficult to pedal by myself. I have little doubt that I would have been really struggling to keep at it for the full 30 minutes this time last year. All in all it was a great weekend full of memories and continued progress.

It suddenly occurred to me this weekend that I have been calculating my macro goals based on my full body weight rather than basing it on my lean body mass. That, coupled with the fact that I calculated my goals using my starting weight of 200-ish pounds, which is 30+ pounds heavier than I am currently, means that I have been much more strict with my diet than necessary due to my inflated protein and fat goals. If I recalculate my goals using my current lean body mass assuming 30% bodyfat (based on an estimate in the bodyfat percentage thread here), my protein and fat goals are 1.0g/lb lbm * 168 lbs * 0.7 = 117.6 g and 0.4g/lb lbm * 168 lbs * 0.7 = 47g, respectively. This is a pretty significant reduction from the goals stated above. For now I am leaving my goals as they have been for consistency but at some point in the near future I may be revising my macro goals. I'm sure my wife would be happy to be able to stop buying so much meat for me! haha!

[lukepeter]

Last Week in Review (7/29 through 8/4):

Protein/Fat/Total Cals
Goal: 152 / 79 / 2,030

Sat: NO TRACKING
Sun: 114 / 124 / 2,413
Mon: 125 / 70 / 1,963
Tue: 154 / 100 / 2,365
Wed: 159 / 79 / 2,029
Thu: 151 / 73 / 1,890
Fri: 121 / 104 / 2,095

Weekly Avg: 137 / 92 / 2,126

__________________________________________________ ___


Nutritionally, this week ended up very well-aligned with my goals somehow. I only did 2 workouts last week, but both workouts felt really good. The week was full of activity in the evenings just through living life. I have noticed that as I have skipped workouts my weight loss has slowed, which isn't surprising. I'm still losing at close to a pound per week, but I'm down from the 1.3-1.5 pound per week rate I had been maintaining previously. I took the family to my dad's hunting camp this weekend, which is a place that I have been going to since I was a kid, and it felt great to watch the 4th generation of my family enjoying their time there. Went for a short hike up the mountain, complete with picking and eating wild blueberries, Sunday morning then rented a paddle boat on a lake Sunday morning and spent half an hour paddling my son around. The boat was most definitely designed to be paddled by two people, and it was surprising difficult to pedal by myself. I have little doubt that I would have been really struggling to keep at it for the full 30 minutes this time last year. All in all it was a great weekend full of memories and continued progress.

It suddenly occurred to me this weekend that I have been calculating my macro goals based on my full body weight rather than basing it on my lean body mass. That, coupled with the fact that I calculated my goals using my starting weight of 200-ish pounds, which is 30+ pounds heavier than I am currently, means that I have been much more strict with my diet than necessary due to my inflated protein and fat goals. If I recalculate my goals using my current lean body mass assuming 30% bodyfat (based on an estimate in the bodyfat percentage thread here), my protein and fat goals are 1.0g/lb lbm * 168 lbs * 0.7 = 117.6 g and 0.4g/lb lbm * 168 lbs * 0.7 = 47g, respectively. This is a pretty significant reduction from the goals stated above. For now I am leaving my goals as they have been for consistency but at some point in the near future I may be revising my macro goals. I'm sure my wife would be happy to be able to stop buying so much meat for me! haha!

You are not 30% body-fat Steve... (I would guesstimate 17-22%) Keep eating your proteins If the missus complains about how many chickens must be sacrificed to maintain your lean mass, get a tub of whey (it works out about 10% cheaper per g or protein in South Africa than lean chicken breasts) and use a scoop or two a day to get up to your protein number. As per usual, your nutrition discipline is fantastic. Paddle boating with your little chap on the lake is full of awesomeness, and I can guarantee that the Steve of a year ago would not have managed, or even cared to try possibly, to shunt him around for half an hour

[Imp81318]

Thanks, Luke. I punched my stats into our home body fat scale last night just for kicks and it said 22%, but I know they can be wildly inaccurate and vary throughout the day. I wanted to check it again tomorrow morning for comparison and I am considering starting to track its readings along with my weight just as anot her dataset to track my progress. Being 22% sounds better than 30%, but other than the inherent health improvements associated with the lower number I don't really care too much what it is other than to make sure I'm eating a sufficient amount of protein.

[Imp81318]

Weighed in at 168.6 lbs this morning, which means that I'm really starting to creep up on 40 pounds lost. That's nearly double what I thought I was going to lose when I started on this journey and I really don't have any plans of changing things yet. I'm continuing to fit in my workouts as frequently as I can, which is less frequently than I should or wish I was, and nutrition has also continued to be on point. As I have learned more about nutrition I have really started to feel a whole lot more comfortable with swapping different foods back into my diet and I've been able to do so while continuing to maintain my deficit and still losing a pound or so per week. This week, for example, I have been replacing my lunchtime salad with wraps. Throw in an extra serving or two of cottage cheese, yogurt, or a protein shake (I just discovered single serving chocolate milk protein drinks at the grocery store that have 190 kcal and 20-30 grams of protein while tasting like chocolate milk...and I LOVE chocolate milk more than most little kids...haha) and my nutrition is the same while getting back to eating more of the types of foods I was eating before starting this journey.

[Archawkeye]

Weighed in at 168.6 lbs this morning, which means that I'm really starting to creep up on 40 pounds lost. That's nearly double what I thought I was going to lose when I started on this journey and I really don't have any plans of changing things yet. I'm continuing to fit in my workouts as frequently as I can, which is less frequently than I should or wish I was, and nutrition has also continued to be on point. As I have learned more about nutrition I have really started to feel a whole lot more comfortable with swapping different foods back into my diet and I've been able to do so while continuing to maintain my deficit and still losing a pound or so per week. This week, for example, I have been replacing my lunchtime salad with wraps. Throw in an extra serving or two of cottage cheese, yogurt, or a protein shake (I just discovered single serving chocolate milk protein drinks at the grocery store that have 190 kcal and 20-30 grams of protein while tasting like chocolate milk...and I LOVE chocolate milk more than most little kids...haha) and my nutrition is the same while getting back to eating more of the types of foods I was eating before starting this journey.

Check out the Premier Protein drink at Costco. 30g protein, 160 calories. Pricey, though. I think even buying at Costco they're about $1.50/apiece. I'm sure powdered shakes are much cheaper. Still, they're nice to have around just to grab something quick. I usually throw one into my lunch box for the day.

[Imp81318]

Check out the Premier Protein drink at Costco. 30g protein, 160 calories. Pricey, though. I think even buying at Costco they're about $1.50/apiece. I'm sure powdered shakes are much cheaper. Still, they're nice to have around just to grab something quick. I usually throw one into my lunch box for the day.

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll have to keep an eye out for them. The drinks my wife has been buying for me are around the same price too.

__________________________________________________ __

I just got done forcing myself through a workout this morning. After getting home from another late committee meeting and not having the drive/energy to work out last night I decided that I was going to get up and do it this morning before work come hell or high water. Well, I did it and I am most certainly living by the motto that "done is better than perfect" this morning. I felt a total lack of energy and enthusiasm throughout the workout, starting with my first warmup rep and it carried through my last working rep. I started sweating as I was setting up the weights, felt lethargic, and completely lacked focus. I struggled to maintain form, particularly on my squats, because I just couldn't maintain focus on proper form as my mind was meandering through a maze of random thoughts about nothing in particular and I struggled to keep mental note of how many sets I had done on several exercises as well. I even found myself laying down in the middle of my last superset staring at the ceiling at one point before finally realizing that I wasn't supposed to be resting at that point. But, the good news is that I completed the workout and was able to return to my pre-hiatus working weights again.

[Archawkeye]

About the only time I can realistically workout is early, early morning (hence I'm just now finishing my coffee at 5:49 am), and I am NOT a morning person. "Done is better than perfect" - right on. I'm not feeling it at ALL this morning. This is the least motivated I've been since starting all of this. But, I know that once I get through squats, it's all good. I hate squats. Hate hate hate them.

I put on some music, maybe try to play Hearthstone or Wordbrain or something between sets to keep me alert, but then I have to set a timer on my phone or I'll lose track of time.

[Imp81318]

I'm generally a morning person and when I've been able to pull myself out of bed I have been OK with working out in the mornings in the past, but this morning I just had no energy. I don't drink coffee and generally avoid all caffeinated drinks, so typically my shower serves as my morning wakeup. Of course, when I work out in the morning I shower after working out so I don't get that benefit. I suspect my lethargy this morning was due to being out of the routine of working out as regularly, as well as the fact that I've generally been going to bed later the last few weeks. For whatever reason, I have been generally more tired and had a harder time waking up the last week or two. I just have to find a way to push myself through and get back into a more regular routine where I'm forcing myself to get up and work out in the morning, or else I force myself to do it in the evening.