I meant what I said and think that we should give credit where it is due. We are all so hard on ourselves and hold ourselves mostly to an impractical standard. And most people outside of this forum or a few people in the gym have no idea of the work and consistency that we put in. I love you are prepared to show the results of your hard work and you should feel really good about it.
I didn’t say that but mostly because my random tan lines and centre body whiteness are just about the same. LOL
I laughed at this because I have like a shotgun spray pattern of vitiligo in my midback and when most people see it they ask if I had a sunscreen mishap
@unicornsandrainbows Keep up the great work!
Awesome work!!
@freshyfresh @whiplash1
Thank you for the kind words, it’s nice to see the work paying off!
Those are remarkable changes: outstanding work!
@T3hPwnisher Thanks for the nod! You have absolutely been a big help and inspiration on how to improve my eating.
Wednesday 10/30
A little something at home
DB Lat Raises
3 x 10 x 12.5
DB Zottman Curls
3 x 10 x 21
Very little. I was going to do a couple other things but this was all I fit in while air frying some steaks.
Thursday 10/31
Easy run, 4.5 miles, 52 minutes
Loop ended up being a little longer than intended. Winter is taking a swing at us here, 35F and windy. Had to wear a hat and gloves, jacket, etc. I’m not ready.
One of these days I’ll move back to the desert.
Friday 11/1
JN Essentials W7D2
Incline BB Press
10 x 95, 10, 10, 8 x 85
SS
Cable Row
10, 11, 11 x 105
SL Leg Press
8, 8, 8 x 190, 10 x 165
Rear Delt flye
3 x 12 x 30
SS
Leg Raise
15 x BW
Cable Hip Abduction
3 x 15 x 30
SS
Tricep Push down
3 x 15 x 20
Seated Hamstring Curls
3 x 12 x 120
Energy ran out quickly and I was dragging by the end of this. Made it through a couple movements with more weight or reps though, happy about that.
Had a bit of a rough day on the diet front. Hopefully my energy bounces back a bit, I was tired and hungry all day yesterday. I’d prefer not deal with that for 8 more weeks, but I can. Anything for beauty.
Monday 11/4
Sprints
9 x 15-20s hill sprints
1 mile easy run
Weigh-in
144.2, +0.6 from last week
So begins the non-linear portion of this cut. Dang, it was going so well. I feel a little bloated, even with fairly low carbs. My body must be holding onto some water, not sure why.
Last week’s macros:
It’s still going well! Look at you, almost a year now of steady attention to yourself and your goals…I’d say you’re doing very well.
It looked like last weigh in was on a lifting day and this weigh in was on a sprinting day. You could honestly be seeing water retention variables based on previous day/days training efforts. Sprinting is awesome, but it’s going to trigger a catabolic response since it’s such a high intensity activity, and the body will respond by holding onto water as a result of inflammation. Lifting can also do that as well, whereas lower intensity work won’t. It might be worth seeing if there is a relationship between elevated weigh ins and the workouts that preceded it.
Thank you for the encouragement and reminder! Always nice to have someone with a more level head than mind drop by. I get annoyed too easy with these slight bumps, I need to learn how to let it go and stay steady. Emotionally. I don’t really beat myself up with less food or more cardio at least. Unless the trend continues.
This could be part of it, I’ll have to take that into consideration.
For clarification sake, I realize it isn’t logged this way, but I weighed in before the sprints. It was first thing in waking, then out the door for the running. I keep that consistent. The proceeding workout would have been Friday’s lifting here. The weekend was relaxing, just regular step count.
Oh yeah, I figured that, but it’s more that, if you’re training differently on your weigh in day, it lead me to believe that you had different PRECEEDING workouts leading up to those weigh ins, since we’ll experience the downstream effects a few days post workout.
It’s been interesting to learn just how much of a delay our bodies have. Friday was an intense workout, couples with the low calories for a few weeks, I can see the stress/water retention thinking of it that way.
Yup! I’m not sure who I’ve heard it from, but the idea was, when you’re having a reaction to something, don’t think “What did I eat at my last meal”, but “What did I eat 2-3 days ago?”
I am looking for ideas of how to continually “progress” or lean into a cut as it goes further along, to avoid a plateau.
That triggered a question, how do you feel about fasting? Intermittent, once weekly 24 hour+ fasts, etc. I am also looking at fasting as a way to keep reseting my appetite, and fullness button that I feel like I broke a long time ago. I don’t want to always have to use willpower to eat less, but still keep the chubby away. It’s gotten better, but I still have to force myself to stop eating in many, way too many, situations.
So, my answer to this question really depends on the individual. I have worked with some folks where fasting takes stress off and makes their lives better overall. On the other side of the coin, I’ve worked with folks who are starving to the point that all they’re thinking about is when and what they’re going to eat once the “fasting window” closes. I’ve worked with some too that overeat during the “eating window” and don’t see any results, or actually gain weight.
Fasting is a tool, if you know how to use the tool correctly, it fixes a problem, and you feel good/strong using it - then go for it. On the other hand if you’re completely miserable, constantly thinking about food, and feel like you could eat your arm - it’s not the tool you should be using.
So, I guess my advice would be to try it and see how it goes. I would start with maybe just skipping breakfast or close the eating window at 4-5 pm and see how you feel.
I’m not sure if this is or isn’t the solution for you - and if you find that it’s not, let’s maybe talk to see if we can find a better strategy. Definitely keep me posted!
I’m definitely a fan of the notion of “fasting comfortably” vs “white knuckling it”. That phraseology really made it simple to understand for me.
I appreciate you dropping by and the response!
Currently, I am somewhere in this range with cuts. Not completely miserable, but I definitely think about food a lot.
I’m constantly looking up recipes, making meal plans, starting grocery lists, looking up recipes again, scrolling reddit and Insta for food ideas, counting down the hours until my next meal, dinking with my food log to see what I can have for a snack after dinner, etc.
I prep meals once a week. Sure, I am the “chef” in my house, but I realistically only need to think about meals for an hour to get a plan/list together for the next week. The astrisk here is it is partially my entertainment at work.
I’m wondering if fasting will get me more used to not thinking about food so much? But I can see how that could back fire and make it worse.
I like this baby steps approach. Especially closing the window, that could help with night time snack tendencies.
Yes! I am closer to white knuckling it between meals. I eat breakfast around 6am and my stomach and mind is on lunch countdown by 8/9am. Then again after lunch, by 2/3pm I am already looking forward to dinner. I usually just chug water/tea or diet soda, don’t make eye contact with the snack area at work, and ignore my growling stomach.
That said, you are supposed to be hungry on a cut, so I have been telling myself to just suck it up.
I pretend my cupboards don’t exist during the day but at night they stare straight into my soul
