Food: I did legit-well on food this week, and I managed to come in at 96% of my goal. That’s the second-lowest goal-wise, but that’s because the lowest was when I was at my parents’ and I was in maintenance mode at 2220 calories/day. That means that, scanning through my records since the week of January 20, 2019, this is the lowest calorie week I’ve had. It’s slight, but it’s a nice feeling. I also stayed at just under 100% on fat, it’s my lowest carbs week at 95% of the goal, and I was just above 100% on protein. I was also very low on cholesterol – the lowest since March of this year at just 106% of my goal. I was similarly low on sodium at just 126% of my goal, tying the week of May 10 this year, though my all-time low in the last two years (so, 2-year-time-low?) was the week of December 15, 2019, at just 117% of the 2300 mg goal. The reason for being low on both is that I had a fair bit of turkey this week which is lower in cholesterol than chicken, and I had salmon for three meals this week which is low in both (and the glaze I do has no added salt), and I did very little stir fry which meant no sauces that are based on what I term “flavored salt.”
Exercise: Exercise continues to be my primary area of failure to get everything in. To recap, the goal is: ≥15 minutes of core (bodyweight) exercises every day (preferably in the morning), ≥30 minutes of weight lifting 3 times per week (preferably in the afternoon), and ≥40 minutes of reasonably intense cardio 5 times per week (preferably in the evening). While Week 10 was by far the worst week since I started, with only 2 walks and that’s it, this week wasn’t much better. But, let’s look at the pros before looking at the cons.
Pros: I finally did weights which, if you exclude the Bowflex at my parents’ house, puts me at the first time doing weights since March 2019. I also did do some cardio. And, I burned more calories through exercise this week than in Weeks 01, 03, and 10.
Cons: I did zero core exercises this week. I only lifted weights once. I only did cardio three times. The reasons were three. On Sunday, we woke up, packed the car, and drove 17 hours, so that was a wasted day. Monday, I was too tired and had too much work to catch up on to do anything. Then Tuesday–Wednesday, the mosquito bites from Sunday night flared up with a vengeance and it hurt to just bend my ankles, let alone wear socks and do 40 minutes of cardio or something else. So, it was a “legitimate” excuse, but still an excuse. Then, when I finally sucked it up and the bites were fading in intensity, I did weights and cardio Thursday. But by Friday night, everything was sore from DOMS, so I was having trouble walking let alone lifting weights again. DOMS persisted at least through today, so again no weights, but I forced myself to do the elliptical.
Sleep: I did well most nights on sleep, and the sleep time was remarkably consistent this week. but I did take several naps, or light dozes in bed with eyes sort of open. The exception to getting ≥8 hrs of sleep was on Sunday when we got back from Michigan at 2:45am, and went to bed at 3:45am, and got up after sleeping a little less than 7 hours. Succeeded by a 2-hr nap that afternoon.
Measurements: This week was “good” in that there were substantive improvements. Bodyfat went down and I’m still “ahead” of where I expected to be with that. Weight went down 1.9 lbs, and the best-fit line has me at my goal for this 8-week set of cutting to be at about 201 lbs. However, it’s possible I’ll catch up with where I wanted to be within a week or two. The average weight puts me at 0.1 lbs behind where I wanted to average last week. My minimum weight for the week (today) is 0.3 lbs above where I wanted to average for the week. But, max-to-min, I lost 2.6 lbs, and the goal each week is now 0.75% of my bodyweight, which is roughly 1.55 lbs at this point. So, yeah, I’m catching up a bit after the last two weeks traveling.
Oh— also, the 1.7 lbs that I’m up above my average goal for the week? That’s all lean mass. Because I’m lower bf% than my goal, I’m actually at 55.6 lbs fat with a goal of 55.9 this week, vs 157.5 lbs lean with a goal of 155.5 lbs lean. So, I’m “okay” with being a bit behind in weight, given that aspect.
Finally, I tweaked the pie chart a bit this time, adding in a very faint line indicating my lowest (ever measured) bodyfat percentage at 15.8%, and a little green arrow pointing upwards showing that’s the lean mass overtaking the fat, as I work towards my goal.
Points: Points this week were better than last, coming in at +51. Not my best, but the reason was – as usual – exercise. With exercise in the morning being worth 2 points and afternoon and evening 2.5 points, not doing them means I got those in the negative. So, that’s that.
Looking Over the Week: The purpose of the points system is to try to put everything together into one metric, appropriately balanced for how I feel things are important to me and what I need to try to do. So, all the hitting my calorie and macro goals, mostly doing okay with sleep, recording weight, fat, and food, all of that gets me a fair bit of points. But, those are balanced against the exercise I didn’t do. Whether there is a “legitimate excuse” or not. So, I would say that considering I was “out of commission” with respect to doing anything on Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, it was an “okay” week. Given the weight I managed to lose despite not getting in the exercise I was supposed to is also a good thing, and definitely a positive note.
Looking Ahead 1 Week: There’s a song by Rihanna called “Work,” where some of the lyrics are simply, “Work, work, work, work, work.” I have nothing specific coming up next week that should interfere with continuing to make improvements, so fingers are crossed that I will. I also hope to make more progress towards catching up on my weight goal, though it’s again unlikely to be met: The goal is to average 209.8 lbs, meaning I’d need to lose a solid 0.4 lbs per day to even come close, and even then not quite make it, though it would set me up to be on track for the next week. I could get back on track in two weeks if I were to lose a steady 0.3 lbs/day, every day, for the next 14 days. Which is also unlikely. So, it’s more likely that it’ll take at least 3 weeks to catch up. Which is a bit annoying since that means the weight in my tracking sheet is a bright red, but I could turn that off if I find it too demoralizing. That in mind, it is likely I will hit the <210 lb mark this coming week, which will be another psychological “win,” would be my lowest weight since April 2019, and indicate I’ve lost more than 16.4 lbs which is the second-most I’ve ever lost during one weight loss attempt, and it took over 200 days to do it. So, there’s still a lot of progress to show even if I am a week or two behind on my weight loss goal, but still catching up (or even if not … so what if it takes an extra two weeks?).
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