Approaching the end of an 18 month effort...

[newbutserious]

A year ago in December 2018/January 2019 I was thinking of doing a month or two of lifting and then cutting until the summer time. At the time I had recently dropped 30 lbs from being the most overweight I've ever been in my life. I had come down from the mid 190s to 164lbs. I was also, probably, the lowest muscle mass I'd ever been in my life. This wasn't a big deal to me exactly (my aesthetic preference for myself in terms of muscle is honestly pretty modest), but I hadn't really internalized the value of muscle for having energy, avoiding injury, making other forms of exercise easier and even just to burn off a few extra calories.

I can't remember if I read it here or some other forum somewhere, but I was lurking on a similar 'summer bod' thread and somebody advised the following -> "plan for summer NEXT year instead of this year". I had also been talking at the time to a friend of mine who is a doctor about the long term habits of people who keep weight off and never go back to being obese and just trying really hard to generally reality check myself to the fullest degree possible. (Well covered territory, but 1) long term habitual exercise 2) Weighing yourself every day to stay present, etc)

So I said "You know what? F it. An 18 month, operation summer bod 2020 is officially in effect". It's probably one of the best choices I've ever made.

I spent the first 4 months of last year (January through April) lifting more or less like a cold, unfeeling artificial intelligence had designated the exact schedule to optimize muscle gain and that I simply had no choice but to obey. A few weeks at the beginning were spent just kind of dialing in good weights for strength training and then I just really aggressively kept at it. I made a few periodic attempts to calorie restrict, but found my weight was going up even at a deficit (it really was the perfect storm required for that to be possible). I figured I should think long term and switched to a slight surplus and just allowed things to go as they would. Once I got to May 1st I switched to just getting through just one revolution of weight lifting per week with just a few key exercises happening twice a week and I started cycling. My lifts continued to improve, but obviously at a more modest pace. Importantly though I wasn't burning out and giving up early.

One thing I noted, and this was the first instance of this observation, the cycling was markedly easier to get into with strong legs. I've since noted that every single thing I try (running, pull ups, push ups, hiking) is easier.

In October I weighed 177 lbs and had just completely an all day 100 mile cycling trip for the first time. My lifts had continued to improve and I could easily use the language 'strongest I've ever been in my life'. I figured it was time to start cutting steadily and did so. I'm now at 167 with a target of roughly 155 by June 1st. I gotta say at 3lbs up in weight from this time last year I sure look way, way, WAY skinnier. So with really only about 4 months remaining in a long trip I feel like I'm really seeing the finish line and genuinely believe I'm going to make it there.

I'm 43 and that sort of general tired feeling I thought was just an aspect of aging is gone completely. I basically never feel physically tired. I'm thinking about all the cool stuff I'm going to do this summer (try a marathon maybe, climb some big mountains).

So I don't know. Just wanted to throw this out there. If you're in that New Years resolution mind set and you're thinking 'What can I accomplish in the next 4 months?'. Maybe consider what you can accomplish in a patient 16 months instead. Or a life time. It wasn't something I wanted to hear or consider at the time, but I'm really glad I allowed myself to think long term.