Day 9

Day 8 food:

Chili

Clam chowder

Pineapple

Apple

Chicken stir-fry

Cabbage salad

Almonds

Cashews

Banana

Shrimp and chicken soup

My workout was good, but I can still feel some inflammation and pain in my lungs when I get my heart rate up, and as a result I can't go as fast as I would like. Once I start breathing heavily my lungs bring up a bunch of clear phlegm and my chest starts to hurt. I used to get this feeling when I was a smoker, but I've been clean of that for well over a year now, so it's most likely just related to inflammation from bad food and lack of rest over the past month. It's definitely getting better, though, so I'm not worried at all.

Food choices have been good, but was extra hungry for some reason, so I broke my fast early and had a bowl of soup late in the evening as well. It doesn't seem to be psychological hunger, so I don't feel bad about feeding myself quality food when I'm actually hungry. I'm eating quite a bit of fruit, which doesn't seem to be affecting me negatively, but I know to get really lean I'll probably need to curtail that a bit at some point.

Mentally I feel really good. I'm more sociable, have much reduced anxiety, and I can focus at work a lot better. I've also decided that I'm going to continue being fairly strict beyond just this month. I realized that when I give myself leeway to cheat I go off the deep end and end up back where I started, and I don't want that to happen again. The only thing I'm considering adding back in after this month is over is a little bit of high-quality dairy once in a while, and a little alcohol. What I've realized about alcohol is that if I have beer or liquor in the house, I will drink it. Wine seems to be okay to keep around as I don't go crazy with it. So what's the solution? Only drink beer or liquor outside of the house, and never alone. What that means is that if I want to have a few drinks I will need to go out with either my girlfriend or my buddies, which will improve my social life (which is a bit stagnant right now) and also keep me from going off the deep end. When I go out I almost never drink too much, especially because it costs a lot more, and I'm usually driving. I think this will also allow me to enjoy the times that I do drink more, as it will coincide with conversation and comradery instead of just being something "that you do."

But again, this month is strict, so I won't initiate that plan until December. So I'm going to keep on eating good food and getting good workouts, and keep on posting.