Thanks. Well, I just landed back here today after my short but busy trip to the mainland. We live high on a hill, it’s raining its ass off but no real risk to our home or immediate area. There is substantial flooding in some areas, though.
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Glad to hear you and yours are safe. I saw there was a dam that could break? I was hoping you weren’t in the danger zone there. Stay safe my friend.
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Monday 3/23
2 mile hill run at the end of a very long and draining day.
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Wednesday 3/25
2 miles run and 125 swings with the 50lb bell, as follows:
Swings
Half-mile
Swings
Half-mile
Swings
Half-mile
Swings
Half-mile
Swings
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Also, since Friday when I came back from a work trip, I’ve been on a “diet”. Severe calorie deficit. Zero processed foods, no added sugar, no energy drinks/artificial ingredients. No “snacks”. HOLY SMOKES
I’m hungry!
I don’t plan to keep this up for too long. Just enough to “reset” some bad habits.
I’d like to bring back energy drinks and sugar. But I don’t know. We’ll see! All I know is, if I could drop a few pounds, be better at pullups and running as a result, maybe look a little more athletic lol, and then resume eating in time to be physically robust (IE, joints well-lubricated) for the Spartan race, I’ll be OK.
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I would be cautious about combining extreme caloric restriction alongside these other restrictions while also attempting to train if the goal is to reset bad habits. There is a high potential for burnout, followed by a compensatory binge to “correct” from the burnout.
Don’t think of properly fueling as a “bad habit”. If you’re eating quality food sources, eating enough of them to not feel hungry with hard training is a GOOD habit. Save the calorie restriction for when the training isn’t as intense.
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To be clear, the caloric restriction is merely a side effect of not having the habit of eating tons of calories from healthy sources. I think a lot of my calories were coming from snack foods, which admittedly are from relatively healthy snacks, but in a volume which defeats the purpose. Think organic oatmeal bars. Or acai. These things are both delicious and healthy in small doses, but I might have been eating a little too much of them if you know what I mean. Hopefully, this experiment teaches me how to get enough calories from truly healthy sources. All that being said, I do appreciate the words of caution and I think they are warranted. Today feels like I might have gone a little too deep too fast.
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Also, I had been putting brown sugar along with coconut milk in my coffee in the mornings. Oh what I would give for a brown sugar coconut milk coffee today LOL
That is an example of the kind of habit I am trying to step away from; but I am finding that it is very hard for me to replace those calories, because eating that much rice and chicken is kind of difficult.
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On the above note - Today I started putting coconut oil (not milk) in my coffee. Love it. I was in a deep deficit, and this is letting me get some calories in without some of the things I’m trying to avoid.
Hopefully this helps me stay strong for a bit.
Also, my wife (who has ZERO need to drop weight, and is far more disciplined than I am) has offered to join me for a few days or a week, starting tomorrow, on this “no junk food” thing.
Again: All our snacks are “healthy” by the standards of the general public. But I don’t think the consumption rate I had was “healthy”.
In any event, I’m thinking another week ish of relatively strict diet, then evaluate what I should be “allowed to have” and possibly NOT include energy drinks, and then MODERATION.
As in, it’s delicious, it’s not a processed or “unhealthy” food, now eat a HEALTHY QUANTITY!
Rambling, I know. But there it is.
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It’s a good ramble.
As someone that used to eat every 30 minutes and was addicted to snacking, it might be worth investigating eating “enough” at meals that there is no desire to snack. I find we have a lot of cultural taboos over eating large meals, which, in turn, puts us in a situation wherein we “need” to snack to make it to the next meal, but in something of a self-fulfilling prophecy, I believe we avoid eating large meals BECAUSE we’re factoring in having these snacks into our daily routine. If we just eat enough when we sit down to eat, we don’t eat the snacks, and we end up typically in a better place than we were in before.
Because rarely is it the case that we eat the snack and actually feel satiated. Often, the snacking just opens up the hunger floodgates. Meanwhile, when we’re riding out fasting for a bit, it tends to self-perpetuate.
If nothing else, making it a policy that, whenever we eat, it’s a meal: not a snack, goes far. If I think “I’m hungry”, the follow up is “Am I ready to sit down to a full meal right now?” If the answer is No: I’m not really hungry. I’m probably bored. Or possibly thirsty. But if I AM ready for that meal, irrespective of time of day: it’s time to eat. And then I wait until the next time I’m ready for that.
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This was ABSOLUTELY my case
100% sir
I’m loving this idea
Words to live by. I really appreciate this. Way more than can come through in this response. Thanks, man.
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Hell yeah brother! Always happy to discuss. It still means a lot to me whenever I see the title of this log, so any way I can help out, I’m happy to.
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3/28 Saturday
No training yesterday. Took half day off to go be with my family, we took a 3 mile walk.
Today I took a 3 mile run, in town while the kids were at a thing.
Town runs suck but you gotta do what you gotta do.
Still eating sqeaky clean.
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It is!
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3/29 Sunday
1 mile valley run to park
10 pullups and 30 squats
1 mile valley run home
No breaks for breathing or mode-shifting - i ran straight to the pullup bar, dropped and squatted, then took off at a run from there.
This will count for tomorrow’s work probably as I’m slammed with obligations.
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Tuesday 3/31, upper body pulling at the park while the kids had a game.
Pullups, monkey bars, a one-minute hang, one-arm hangs, and my favorite, one-arm-hang-swap. Relax the free hand by your side, then bring it up and grip, dropping the other hand to your side. Go back and forth without dropping to the ground.
Kinda turns into a 1-arm scap pullup.
Oh, and tons of scap pullups too.
Today 4/1, 4.6 or 4.8 mile run in 45:54. Fastest I’ve recorded for this steep hilly route.
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4/3
Easy day. 1 mile run to park, then 25 pullyps 50 pushups 75 squats and a walk back home.
Then a long long family day of good times!
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4/6/2026 Monday
Only way I could train: Got up at 4, went to the park at 5.
(This early, it takes a lil bit to get fully awake, haha). Meetings start at 6 and run until I’m exhausted, then I have parenting responsibilities after that.
I ran laps around the perimeter of the field, in my trail running shoes which I’ll wear at the race.
Every time I got to the back straightaway (around 100 yards) I did a full-out sprint.
Slow jog the rest of the lap.
6 total sprints and about a mile total distance (though not tracking), then some practice throwing a shovel handle (the only bad Spartan obstacle).
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4/8/2026
Wednesday
1 mile run
13 rounds of EMOM:
-4 pullups
-8 pushups
-12 squats
1 mile run back home
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