I had planned this to be a two week checkpoint.. I think at this point I’m just over three weeks.
Progress so far has been good. It hasn’t been quite as strong as the first two weeks I did this in August, but that’s to be expected considering the workouts I’ve been doing. Here’s the graph so far:
I’m somewhat embarrassed to say that I was at a high of 258. That’s a lot. I’m now at 247 and going down steadily. My belt is down a notch. Based on current progress, I should be passing 240 no later than mid-February. 230 will likely be the second week of March.
In the meantime, my workouts are going great. I’m spending about 75 minutes going hard, three times a week. Weights for every major body part are up. I’m doing 205-225 for bench (5 sets), 225-315 for squats (5 sets), and 225-325 for deadlifts (5 sets). Clearly, I’m still adding, or at least maintaining, my lean mass. So we can safely say I’ve lost at least 10 lbs in fat. Cool.
Some observations:
Weighing Yourself Daily Is Hard
One of the most surprising things so far has been the annoyance of daily weigh-ins. This is a huge mind game, because you have to step around the fact that your weight naturally fluctuates. It’s critical to weigh yourself at the same time everyday; I do mine immediately upon waking. But it’s still important to recognize that things will fluctuate and look past this to the bigger goals.
In my first two weeks, I lost like 8 lbs, which was frustrating at first. Then I did the math and realized that my 2 month total at that rate would be 32+ lbs. Make sure to look at the medium term trends, not just the short term - the short term will disappoint.
Cheat Days Rule
I’ve had Five Guys, Ledos, Papa Johns, Donuts, and McDonalds. This is the biggest psychological advantage. It gets you through the week to know that Saturday you can still have all that crap.
The Day After Cheat Day Sucks
Your stomach always grumbles the next day.
Food Is Not The Problem. Gratification Is.
The most surprising thing has been that I don’t usually miss most of the crap I used to eat. What I miss is the chance to get a break from work at lunch, or the spontaneity of grabbing a burger on the way home. The lifestyle of food has proved to be a much more dynamic factor in this than I expected. I haven’t figured out quite what this means yet, but it’s definitely on my mind.
Onward
I’ll do another check-in sometime soon. I wish I had taken pictures for before and after, but I honestly didn’t want to. I may start doing pictures in the next week or two. In the meantime, keep going!