One-Sentence Summary: Good week in every way except where it counts: The metrics.
Food: I thought food this week was good, but given that my weight didn’t go down, I’m trying to think back and figure out if I cheated at all. I don’t think I did, but from what I’ve read, most “plateaus” in weight loss are due to not strictly adhering to a diet, or the diet not being restrictive enough, or not getting enough exercise … given that this has worked for four weeks, and exercise is a more objective thing and I did more this week than the last five, I am looking to the food as something I messed up. So, I’m just going to try to pay closer attention and get my boyfriend to point out this coming week if he sees me getting food whether I’m counting it. That said, assuming I counted things properly, I was right on my calories and macros for the week, even if I was “better” than them until Friday and over-ate Friday: I had built up that margin and “ate” into the margin, literally and figuratively. So, I am giving Food a 🙂 for the week.
Exercise: Exercise was great this week, except the refrain that I didn’t do core exercises. I got all my cardio in – and more – than my goal, and I got my weights in despite not starting them until Wednesday. I’m also still going up in weight to get back to where I was, though I’ve still a ways to go: At this point, it’s more about form and getting it in and building the habit and doing it rather than trying to bulk or anything. Steps are at a recent high due to all the time walking this week for cardio; I also met my unofficial goal of doing all four forms of cardio at least once. Calories from exercise are also at a record-high for this latest “yet again” fitness (since June), at 2745 calories. That beats my goal of ≥1875, beats Week 3’s 2505, the previous max this year in March of 2670, but doesn’t beat the week of March 28, 2021 at 3224. Otherwise, I’d have to go back to July and the first week of August, 2020, when I averaged 2883 calories/week with each week ranging 2603-3307 calories. So … I still could increase and have a ways to go to make a new record, but I’m certainly not unhappy with the calories from exercise this week. Perhaps the reason that I pushed it so much was that my weight was not dropping. Hence why exercise this week gets 😀.
Sleep: Sleep was the same as two weeks ago, where I was basically good except when I had the very early wake-up on Friday and couldn’t get myself to bed by 10pm to get my 8 hrs of sleep in. With three naps of <2 hrs each, sleep this week gets a 🙂.
Measurements: Now we get to the head-scratcher, and I considered this emoji to summarize this metric: 🤔. But, I didn’t use it. I was okay with weight not dropping on Sunday. Okay but slightly annoyed Monday. Tuesday concerned. Wednesday it was a WTF?! And Thursday. Friday I bent the rules to get at 220.5 lbs, getting a smirk emoji on top of that datum. And back up today again. It’s not that my weight is up; due to Friday, the average dropped by 0.1 lb week-over-week, and I set a new minimum. But as I’ve noted in most daily updates this week, and the Food summary above, I don’t know what’s going on. I’ve never stuck to things and done this much exercise in a week this early on and plateaued. And, it is demoralizing this early on in the process. But, I’m trying to trust the process and stick with it, maybe lowering food next week to try to push through it. And, bodyfat was up. It’s down the slightest from two weeks ago, and there’s still a ±3% range on the different calculations for bodyfat based on my measurements, but 27.6% is not where I wanted to be this week. Hence, this week’s emoji summary of measurements: 😟.
Points: Points this week are down the very slightest bit from last week at +65 out of a –100 to +100 range. I’m okay with that. Other than core exercises (not doing them) where I lost a lot, points lost this week came from not meeting the macro goals a few times, moving food around on Sunday, and not getting enough sleep on Friday. All-in-all, not horrible, fairly good, much better than Weeks 1–2.
Work-Life Balance: I got work done this week! Yay! Not enough, and not as much as I need to to not panic for this meeting, but I got stuff done!
Looking Over the Week: Per the tagline, this week was pretty good in most ways except for weight and bodyfat. For whatever reason.
Looking Ahead One Week: This week should be a normal week coming up, biggest issue is getting exercise in in addition to all the work I need to do in preparation for this conference.
Looking Ahead More than One Week: And same issues as last time foreseen in the look out to >1 week, where I have this meeting where I’ll be sitting in a room for 8 hrs a day and dealing with logistics otherwise, and driving to/from work, and not having the healthiest snack food within much too-easy reach. And then I leave the next day for a 9-day trip to Michigan and Ohio where I will again have much less control over food, though I should be able to get in exercise if I actually do it, since I’ll be at parents’ houses.
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