Here we go again
The yo-yo is back in motion, can we make it 'walk the dog'?
12/7/20253 min read
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. The idea of 'yo-yo dieting' comes to mind, but for me this cycle has more pervasive and 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.
All things considered, I think this is fairly normal, and most people find themselves with a similar relationship to their health, 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.
