One-Sentence Summary: Mostly maintained habits rather than improving, progress slow but steady.
Food: I feel better about this week’s food because I think I tracked more stuff, though I am still consuming bits here-and-there and not counting it … but it’s much less than it was a few weeks ago. That means that the –3% of limit on the calories is more accurate than last week’s –2%. Macros are also slightly improving, I’m purposely using a bit more oil in cooking, or eating a few more nuts because I’ve consistently been low on fat the last several weeks. The thing(s) to watch out for moving forward are still the snacking issues, especially because we got those chocolates I mentioned in my last post and they are so easy to snack on.
Exercise: Slight improvements and disprovements (is that a word?). Total calories expended through exercise this week was significantly (880) less. It’s because I did much less walking, and if I hadn’t done most of The Loop yesterday, it would’ve been very low. But because of that, total steps were a bit up compared with last week. As is a constant note, I need to do better on this, almost on par with needing to eat more carefully (track everything and stay within the limits): Weight is lost in the kitchen, but what weight is lost is determined by exercise (or lack-thereof). Unless you’re doing a lot of exercise … but in general, it’s much easier not to eat a doughnut than to walk for 45 minutes.
Sleep: Similar to exercise, some things were better this week, some were worse. I averaged more sleep per night this week than last. But I had two nights instead of one that were less than my goal of 8 hrs/night. And, this is the first week in a long time that I lost points due to napping too much. So, again, improvements are needed.
Weight and Bodyfat Measurements: I improved this week, though I’ll say “barely.” Even though I think that’s a bit of self-sabotage, so let’s look at things in a bit more detail. With respect to bodyfat, I improved very slightly, by 0.3%, but that is well within the noise of the measurements, so I basically stayed the same (but likely did not go up). Weight this week flat-lined for the majority of the week, but I can also say that only one day was at – and no days above – the average for last week. And, the last two days, my weight plummeted. Though the reason for yesterday’s very low weight was because I weighed myself after losing 2 lbs of water weight in my walk. The average weight is still clearly lower than the previous week’s average, and I’m now –8.0 lbs (max-min) lost, so perhaps I should scratch the “barely” improved. I also did a post earlier this week about whether my weight loss is in par with my historic rates, and it’s actually smack dab in the middle, so even though I’m behind on my goals, it’s not out-of-line with how I’ve done before. So, perhaps I need more realistic goals? With yesterday’s number, I’m actually on par with my second-best, but then with today’s I’m back to being in the middle.
Points: I’m down this week from last week. Two points were lost due to the excess naps I noted above, but then it’s –6.25 pts due to exercise instead of –1 last week. Food was mixed this week vs last week with staying inside daily goals, the biggest issue being Monday due primarily to all the extra snacking and transfers from the previous week. There is no “carry-over” from this week over to next, so I’ve a clean slate so far’s that’s concerned for the day I’m writing this, Sunday.
Personal Accomplishments and/or Records: I’d say the biggest accomplishment this week is that 80-minute walk yesterday, doing The (almost) Loop. Which included going up the main hill which I haven’t done yet this year, and I did it in 11min 53sec. That’s surprisingly on par with where I was a year ago, though slightly slower (~8%) than in late Summer 2020 after doing the elliptical most days for 2 months.
Looking Over the Week: So, yes, some improvements, some steps backwards, but (very slow) progress being made. Not horrible. Decent.
Looking Ahead Several Weeks: Well, a just-decided-today (Sunday) trip to Australia at the end of May for two weeks now means that, over the next 64 days, I’ll be gone 24 of them, and people will be visiting the house 11 of them. It will be harder to stick to my plans and goals, but I need to try and show that I’m not giving up nor relaxing things – going backwards – like before. Especially for an extended, two-week period in another country. That aside, I’m still hoping – though it’s looking less likely like it’ll happen – that I can get down to at least 210 lbs by my birthday. I mean, at this point, 12 lbs in a month should be doable, if aggressive. It would be really nice to be 200 lbs by Australia, but that would be 22 lbs in 6 weeks, which is unlikely. Though, I already weigh less now than I did last time I visited. Though the first time I visited these folks in Winter 2013/2014, I was around 180 lbs and 20% bf. No possibility of getting that low on weight, extremely small possibility on bf%.
Goals Change?: Based on my original schedule, I am to go down in calories (by 60/day = 420/week, or just 3.6% less) and modify the macros goals for food starting this coming week, based on weighing 200±5 lbs. Clearly, I am not at that weight range. However, assuming I can actually stick to it, given the aggressive weight loss goal in the preceding paragraph, I’m going to go for that goal. That said, I decided to face reality – at least on “paper” – and reset the goal progress from December 26, 2021, to March 13, 2022. In other words, I set my weight and fat loss goals at a certain amount, and set the starting point for late December 2021. Facing reality is keeping the same goals, but resetting the progress to coincide with where I was on March 13, 2022, after I got back from my conference. Which, of course, pushes everything else back a month or two. That said, I’m on track to get fit for my 40th birthday (😭) in 2023: ≈170 lbs, ≈11–12% bf, and be in the middle of a second bulk cycle.
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