Here we go again

My relationship with weight, diet, and physical activity hasn't been a battle, but a yo-yo, swinging up and down between motivated action and crippling lethargy. For me, this yo-yo cycle is more pervasive and is applicable to the other vectors of my health outside of diet alone. 'Curb' brought this phenomena to my attention, and it has stuck with me.

I think this is fairly normal so I don't beat myself up about it too much.

However, I have recently noticed that some of my frequently used belt loops have been put on hold while their one-notch-looser counterparts have stepped in to do the heavy lifting. My energy levels are low, and the winter temperatures make it challenging to get up and motivated. Since Taylor and I's wedding in June, I have been eating indiscriminately and putting physical activity on the back burner - I'm starting to feel the consequences.

To help with re-motivating, I remind myself, "Today, you are a product of who you've been for the last two weeks." In reality, that 'two-week' window represents your entire life up to this point, but for the sake of making progress on specific goals, I find two weeks to be a more manageable time frame. Focus on the habits you want to build for one or two weeks at a time and consistently check in with yourself.

So, it's time to hop back on the wagon and take whoever is reading along for the ride. I know that what I am doing here is simply playing back into the 'yo-yo' cycle, but I'm hoping that keeping track of my progress here can help lead to lasting results and other insights. There are a few philosophical elements to this exercise that I hope to explore as well - understanding your "why", building sustainable habits, understanding relationships with food (used for fuel vs. emotional eating vs. social, etc.).

Items I'll plan to touch on later - Mike Schmidt's Superfood Superhuman program, recovery, sleep, stress management, mindfulness, mental clarity, results of any these changes, etc.

12 Week Goals

There are a few goals that I am going to track for the next 12 weeks ending on March 1st. You'll soon find out why March 1st is an important date for me, but that's where I'm drawing my finish line for now. I'm using an app called 'Strides' to help track my progress. I've been using it for a few months on other goals and I really like it so far.

• Current Weight: 180 lbs - my typical apexed yo-yo weight

• Goal Weight: 160 lbs - this is where I was at my most athletic and is squarely in the range of 'healthy 5'9 male' per the internet. I was ~165 for the wedding and felt great.

• Weight train 3 times per week - nothing crazy, going for consistency.

• Run 3 times per week - I've never been a runner, so seeing how I can change this relationship is interesting to me. Not going for distance or time, just consistency, the distance and time will come later. That said, I should be able to start with running one mile per session and doing some interval sessions as well.

• No booze - I've done this before so should be easy to pick back up.

• No junk - minimize ultra processed stuff, focus on eating whole foods. I'm not a fan of overly restrictive diets, so focusing on the 80/20 rule is a good place to start.

• Intermittent fasting - 16 hour fast windows, I did this during Mike's SFSH program and found it helpful.

• Consistent with vitamin stack - Omega 3, Vitamin D, B12, Biotin, Vitamin C, Turmeric.

That should be plenty to keep me occupied.

Week 1 Recap: Onboarding

Goal Tracking

Giving myself a bit of grace here as I view this as more of an "onboarding" week. Getting back into a groove and trying to build some healthier habits went well, but I was not sprinting off the line. Was I motivated this week? Eh. Day one? For sure. All week long? Not with the same tenacity. Results at the end of the week were not fantastic - but its week one, what is there to expect? Point is, I'm feeling lighter, less bloated, sleeping better, and have my heading set in the right direction so its time to execute. Its also the week where I'm getting used to "warming up". Right now, I feel like the first 10-15 minutes of the workout are the hardest, but after I get my heart rate up for a few minutes I get into a flow state. I think that is a good analogy for where I am in this process from a macro level as well. Warming up, shaking off the rust, flow state not yet achieved but is on the horizon. I'm giving myself credit for setting the yo-yo in motion.

Weight

Average for the week was 177.7, down -0.3 lbs. There was a lot of fluctuation and I can feel how my body is holding weight when I wake up in the morning. Usually this is when I feel my lightest, but on the mornings after not eating 100%, I definitely felt heavier. Lowest for the week was 176.2 (down 1.8 bls from start), heaviest was 179.4 after a heavier meal on Saturday night. That means I had a total range of 3.2 lbs. This is more variability than I've experienced in the past. Lesson here is to continue to focus on crowding out junk, getting some movement first thing in the morning, and sticking to the fast windows.

Activity

Good start with early morning upper workout on Monday and getting back into the movements without pushing myself too hard. It was hard to wake up rest of the week, but I completed below.

• Monday - morning upper body

• Tuesday - 1 mile run after work

• Wednesday - 30 min incline treadmill walk before work

• Saturday - 60 min orange theory class - had to take a couple breaks to keep from crashing out**

• Sunday - 35 min HIIT - 4 rounds of 0.25 mile run, 10 push ups, 15 curls, 10 bicycle crunches, 10 reverse crunches

Of note, I did neither the lower body workout or full body work out that are in the plan, but I did end up swapping them for the orange theory class on Saturday and the HIIT workout on Sunday, and counted both as combo strength training and running/cardio. I think that is fair at this point. I like the HIIT workouts on the weekends and would rather do things I like and can be consistent with vs. forcing myself into a routine that I don't or cant. That said, at some point along this journey I'll need to lift heavy things - at least I have a blue print.

**Crashing out (verb): for the first few weeks of getting back into exercise I get light headed and feel like I'm going to throw up when I go a little too hard. Usually cooling my body down for 5-10 minutes gets me out of the tailspin. I've gotten used to this feeling, so I know when its coming. Typically it goes away after staying consistent for 2-3 weeks, so just need to stay committed. Proper hydration and blood sugar maintenance before workout is also helpful.

Diet

Not much to report here. Definitely did better crowding out junk food. Out of the standard "21 meals" I think I only had small junk snacks (a cliff bar here or there, splurged on some chips and a single serving Oreo cake on Saturday night). I would say I achieved the 80/20 split this week, but there is room for improvement. Taylor was gone all week so I made Philly cheesesteak bowls for like three dinners (ground beef, peppers, onion, mushrooms, provolone), #guydinner. I've stocked up on groceries with some chicken, veggies, eggs, avocado, salad items for lunch (home making the Powerhouse Salad from Potbelly), protein shakes, snacking carrots, pistachios. We'll see. This is where the most improvement can be made. Need to focus on hydration as well. I took breakfast to work this week, put it in the fridge, and forgot about it..

However, I have noticed that I don't need as many calories to feel full. I'm not eating out of boredom or emotion. I'm not keeping unhealthy snacks around and am actively molding my environment to make healthy choices easier. I think that's the big win for the week - bringing some intention back to my diet.