I probably need something to help me get back on track. I started off so well in January but I’ve stalled.
I’ve adjusted my nutrition and I’m allowing myself more carbs. I was doing so well with the carnivore-ish diet that I wasn’t losing weight. My meals were too big, but if they were smaller I got hungry. I’m trying to lose 2 lbs per week which puts me on a 2000 calorie per day diet (more or less) and my meals were 1200+ calories. Doing that twice a day obviously misses the mark.
Hopefully I can hold it together this week. Food for work should be good today - couple handfuls of almonds (gone), two hard boiled eggs (gone), two of those fancy Tuna Creations flavored tuna packets, and a can of Chunky Steak and Potato soup. That should all be close to 800 total calories and set me up for a good dinner.
I had initial success with fasting but the restriction has been resulting in overconsumption later so I’m trying to even things out.
This is what happened to me too. I’m just having a hard time finding something successful and sustainable. I think I need someone else in charge. Lol. Make me food. Tell me what to eat. Tell me what to lift. Make it dummy proof. I have faith in you. You’ve got this.
This is why I dig my current approach where the fast is every other day, rather than a daily habit. I really look forward to the mornings where I train, because it means I get to eat breakfast, but I also look forward to the mornings where I don’t have breakfast, because they’re faster/easier mornings.
Joel Greene talks about how “daily” is really alien to our biology/ancestry, and that gels well with my own thought process. Chaos is the plan, haha. Having a little bit of it during the week keeps the drudge away.
Maybe this is something I let my body take over a bit more. I try to eat light on days I don’t train. Today would typically be one of those days, but I woke up hungry. My body feels wrecked from my Saturday morning basketball extravaganza. I’m just tired and sore all over.
On the flip side, I can hit a tough session completely fasted, so maybe my heavier eating days should follow my harder training days instead of coinciding with them. I also train later in the day so the window between training session and bedtime is much smaller than your approach.
I also train later in the day so the window between training session and bedtime is much smaller than your approach.
Yeah, that will definitely require some playing around with to make work. It’s like pain meds: you have to stop the hunger BEFORE it happens, because if you wait until you feel it, it’s too late.
But ultimately, if it’s all a calorie game, I looked at it like such. I can eat smaller meals 7 days a week to create a weekly deficit of X, or I can eat the same sized meals as I like and just eat 2-3 fewer a week to create a weekly calorie deficit of Y. And what’s nice about not making the fasting a daily thing is that it’s something I can toggle up or down as needed.
Resting today. Did some curls and overhead extensions to make up for skipping arm work yesterday. Might even jump on the Airdyne at home tonight for some ‘easy’ conditioning.
That was legit my life for 38 years. I assumed that perpetual hunger was just a character trait of mine. I actually considered it a sign of good health. When I was sick, my forever hunger would cease, and when I recovered, I’d feel it again.
It’s only INCREDIBLY recently I’ve managed to know a life without that hunger. It’s actually been an adjustment for my family, haha. I was always the FIRST one to suggest getting lunch and where to go, and now I just join them for lunch and have a coffee, or if we make lunch an event, I end up just having coffee with them. 3 meals a day is just too much for me.
Maybe I just need more red meat. I do well when I crush some steak/roast/burgers and eggs, but I have to be careful of the portions now that I’m trying to cut a few more pounds. It makes sense to be a little hungry if I’m eating a deficit.
I remember seeing your food back in May/June when I first played with the steak and egg diet and you were eating like 20 ounces of meat at each meal. I was only having about 6-8 ounces and was getting hungry. It’s interesting to see your tweaks with food. It jumped out at me about a week or two ago that your portions were much smaller now compared to then, which tracks since you’ve been losing weight.
The data on this old bike isn’t like the stuff on the Assault Bike or the Hammer Strength version. I have no clue what’s accurate but we’ll go with distance. Calories said 335 but my watch says 219 (184 active + 35 resting). My heart rate averaged 113 bpm so I think I’ll go with the low number.
The delta isn’t actually that significant. I had worked up to 18oz at the top of the gaining phase and 13oz at the bottom of the losing phase. I DID have some nights of 26oz steaks, but that’s because I had one a free steak dinner a month from Texas Roadhouse and was taking advantage of it, haha. But yeah: eating enough until we’re done is huge, and it took me a while to learn that lesson. I’d have the TINIEST piece of meat in my meals, and try to fill them out with non-starchy veggies, nut butters, low fat yogurts, ketotricks and frankenfoods, and was just STARVING. Literally eating every 30 minutes: eat something, then start a mental clock for 29 minutes until the next eating opportunity, and in between mainlining diet sodas. Just tweaking the portions of the real food UP made the other stuff drop.
Saw your comment over on @BethB ‘s log but wanted to carry the convo here.
Do you have any control/influence on the spending for your school’s training facility? It might be worth seeing if you can boondoggle getting a reverse hyper over there. It will definitely benefit the athletes, but for the back pain you’re dealing with, it could prove helpful.
If nothing else: they make excellent drink holders.
Our spending is locked down. They won’t even tell the Department Chair how much money we get each year. The only way I get anything big like a reverse hyper is if I personally apply for and receive grants. We don’t even have a decent back extension machine. The one we have cost a lot, but it’s stupid. That’s government spending for ya.
I’ve been rewarded a $2000 grant each of the last three years but application time is October and I get the money around January so I’m just making a really long wish list for now. The YMCAs here are second to none and even they don’t have a reverse hyper. There are 7 locations within driving distance and I can say for certain 4 of them don’t have a reverse hyper. I haven’t been to the others in awhile so there’s a slim chance they may have purchased one, but I doubt it.
Guess it’s time to hit the internet and search for DIY options.
Guess it’s time to hit the internet and search for DIY options.
Check facebook market as well. The patent expired on it, so lots of companies have come out of the woodwork to make their own and, in turn, a lot of folks are buying them up and then posting them when they get some buyers remorse.
Jumps
20" x 5
24" x 5
30" x 5 with Decline Crunch
BW x 13 x 3 sets no cramping, but I could feel it creeping up on me.
Squat
135 x 5
185 x 5
235 x 5
265 x 5
295 x 5 Squat FSL
235 x 5 x 3 sets I started my watch on jumps today and it took about 29 minutes from that moment to here. I was not feeling strong today. Every set of squats was a challenge. Every. Set. It’ll be interesting to see if how I do on next week’s TM test before I start an anchor. Truth be told, bench and OHP feel dialed in, but these and deadlifts feel heavy. But I’ll let the TM test be the deciding factor instead of being a wuss.
Hang Power Clean
195 x 3 x 3
Kickstand RDLs
110 fixed bar x 8 ea x 2 sets with Flutter Kicks
2 sets of 15 ea
45 Deg Back Ext
40 lb bar on back x 15 x 2 with Side Crunch
25 x 10 ea x 2
Time to bounce and pick up the kiddo from daycare. It was like 4:46pm when I left and they close at 5pm sharp. This session took 53 minutes plus about 5-8 more minutes for the warm-up stuff. Again, too long. The plan was to do my sled session after lifting, but no time today. Maybe I’ll make it up tomorrow.
230.0 lbs on the scale so yesterday worked. Let’s see if I can string together two days in a row. I have a blend of like six different proteins including casein that I brought with me today. I relied on good old fashioned whey yesterday and as I shared in another log, those don’t stick with me for long. I survived the day, but was hungry quite a bit. I’m hoping the casein blend works a little better. Unfortunately, if I find myself hungry throughout the day, I won’t be able to pinpoint the variable. I trained yesterday and it was tough on me. I have a theory that the day following my afternoon training tends to make me feel more hunger as I recover from the session. If I’m not hungry today, then I guess I can contribute it to the casein blend.
I trained yesterday and it was tough on me. I have a theory that the day following my afternoon training tends to make me feel more hunger as I recover from the session.
Specifically, moderate/high intensity training is sugar/glycogen burning. We burn out our reserves, and our body craves to replenish those reserves. Lower intensity relies more on fat for fuel, of which we have pretty much limitless reserves, so there isn’t a corresponding craving to replenish.
One solution is to be ketogenic, so that ketones are the fuel substrate employed rather than glucose, but part of me is wondering if you timed carbs for the post workout meal after your intense sessions if that would stop follow-on/”hangover” cravings.
That’s definitely another variable to play with. I had chicken and rice for dinner pretty much immediately after my session. The rice portion wasn’t huge, but it was something. I haven’t been having a lot of carbs, but I’m not low enough to be ketogenic.
I recently solidified the fact that roasted potatoes absolutely wreck my guts and the air quality of everyone around me. I tried it with a sweet potato and it was less noticeable, but I still blame them for the bloating I experienced later. That sucks because potatoes used to be a big go-to for me in meal prep - they’re quite filling for the amount of calories in them. I can still eat mashed potatoes (roasting dries them out and makes them more starchy), but I never do. Roasting is just easy.
I tried it with a sweet potato and it was less noticeable, but I still blame them for the bloating I experienced later. That sucks because potatoes used to be a big go-to for me in meal prep - they’re quite filling for the amount of calories in them. I can still eat mashed potatoes (roasting dries them out and makes them more starchy), but I never do. Roasting is just easy.