Quick update

Hey there everyone. I'm back in action on the weight-loss front. I've been sticking to the Paleo diet pretty religiously, and I've been rewarded with some more weight loss. Today I was 206.6 lbs., closing in on the 100s again. Not that I mind being 200+, but for my current level of lean mass 190 is going to be the sweet spot I think. I've been eating a ton of good food too. Last night I made a big grass-fed tri-tip roast in the Mexican barbacoa style, and it's delicious, so I've got lunch for the next few days. I also made a really good dessert with dates (which I hate), walnuts, and cocoa. Check out the recipe here, and try them, they're amazing. I added dried coconut as well, which made them extra good, but they're great on their own too.

That's about it for me, and I hope everyone else that reads this is doing well.

News

So, I felt like I should post an update here to let everyone know what's going on in my life. On Monday, March 8th, my grandma passed away. She was 83 years old. She helped raise my brother and I, and was like a second mother to us. She'd been dealing with advanced Alzheimer's for the past few years, but she never forgot us. I will miss her tremendously.

On the day she passed I didn't worry about staying on my diet, so I had some non-paleo foods, but I got back on the wagon immediately the next day. I drove up to Sacramento with my brother on Tuesday because he goes to school up there and my mom didn't want him to have to drive by himself after everything that happened. I stayed with him for a day and flew back down yesterday. I'd never been up there before, so it was nice to get away, at least for a little bit.

I weighed myself this morning, and was surprised to see 207.8 show up on the scale. I've dropped close to 9 pounds since the first of the month. Not sure if it's healthy weight loss, but I've been eating enough food, so I don't know. I was really sick for a few days last week, and I could only eat fruit during those days as everything else tasted repulsive to me. I also haven't been able to take my creatine for a week, so I'm sure some of the loss is water. But it's encouraging to see the number on the scale move again. I haven't worked out in a week, and won't be able to get back into the gym until tomorrow, but it goes to show that eating right trumps working out every time.

What I'm up to

I resurrected my workout log thread on the Crossfit message board, and there's a ton of info there that I don't feel like re-writing for this blog, so just check it out here.

I'm not going to be weighing myself daily during the 6-week paleo challenge that I'm participating in. The goal isn't how much weight I can lose, but how much I can improve my performance. The weight will take care of itself if I focus on good food and hard work. I'll keep you posted as the challenge gets going.

Quick update

Today's Weigh-In: 215.2

5-day Average: 216.3

Not a ton to say today, just wanted to check in. The weight is coming down nicely, but I haven't had a chance to work out since Monday due to an upper-back injury that's keeping me down. I'm rehabbing it but it feels like I'll still be out until next week. As long as I keep a close eye on my eating it shouldn't prevent me from losing weight, it just bugs me to not be able to train.

See you next week.

New month, new goals

Today's Weigh-In: 216.6 lbs.

Since it's February I've started reducing my alcohol intake even more, as I said I would in my new year's post. I've actually decided to go a tiny bit stricter than I laid out then. Instead of allowing 3 days a week with alcohol, I'm only allowing two: Friday and Saturday. And I'm still sticking with a 3-drink max. That reduces my alcohol intake from ~40 drinks a week (prior to January), to 21 a week (during January), down to 6. That should put a decent dent in my empty calorie intake.

I took shipment of another batch of grass-fed beef, this time 15 pounds of just ground beef. I find myself using the ground beef much faster than the other cuts, so I needed to restock. I've find a chili recipe that is amazing, and I eat it every day for lunch. I've done so for the past month and I still look forward to it every day. I've got the chest freezer up and running, but it's looking a little empty with only 25 pounds of meat in it, so I'm thinking of finding a good source of pastured chicken and possibly some organ meats. I love beef heart, so that's the first thing I'll be looking for.

Everything has been looking good on the diet and exercise front this week. I've been trying to listen to my body more, and I think that's working out pretty well. I work out pretty hard, so sometimes when my I'm super hungry, I know I should just eat a big-ass meal. It's my body's way of telling me that it needs food to run efficiently and to recover for the next workout. It also works the other way. Sometimes I just won't be hungry in the afternoon, so I'll skip lunch and then eat a regular dinner. It all balances out, and I know that as long as I'm eating quality food 90% of the time there's no way I can fail.

I've adjusted my goals to hit a 215 average by Valentine's day, which should be easy. I've also adjusted my weight training goals a bit. I hit one of my goals, which was a 225# clean, so I increased that to a new, loftier goal. I also added the snatch as one of my targeted lifts, because I'm so bad at it it's not even funny. That's all for now, hope everyone is doing well.

Number crunching

Today's Weigh-In: 217.2 lbs.
5-Day Average: 217.2 lbs.

Looking at my weigh-in this morning, I was a bit disappointed. I've been eating clean, working out hard, and sleeping well. Taking my fish oil and creatine. So why isn't the weight going anywhere?

So I busted out my tape measure, and took some measurements to compare to those I took at the beginning of the month. Turns out I've lost an inch off my hips and 2 inches off my waist, without changing my other measurements significantly. This means that I have indeed lost fat, just not weight, which also means that I've increased my lean body mass. This makes me very happy. There's nothing worse than working hard and not seeing any results, and sometimes it's easy to get lost in what the scale tells you. But you've always gotta remember that the scale is not the only way of measuring progress.

Looking back on some older measurements, from when I was at my lowest weight, and I'm only an inch bigger in the waist and hips than I was then, but I'm almost 20 pounds heavier. This means that in the past year I've probably gained 12-15 pounds of muscle, and between 5-8 pounds of fat. Thinking of the weight gain in that sense makes it much easier to swallow.

Another way of measuring muscle gain was to compare body fat percentages. At my lightest I was about 18% body fat, and now I'm at about 20%. 18% @ 196lbs. means 161 lbs. of lean mass. 20% @ 215lbs. means 172 lbs. of lean mass. So that's in line with my estimate above.

I find it fun to play around with numbers, and it helps to see everything from a different perspective than just the scale weight.

Weird weigh-ins, beef review, and goal check

Today's Weigh-In: 214.8

5-Day Average: 217.8

Good weigh-in today, but the past few days were really bad for some reason. I stayed within my calories every day but one, but my weight shot up and stayed up from Thursday until Monday. Hmm. Hopefully today's wasn't a fluke, but I doubt it was since I ate great yesterday and worked out hard. We basically did 3 workouts: a 2000m timed row for warm-up (did it in 8:11), 5x3 deadlifts for the main workout (got up to 365# for 3 reps), and finished with as many rounds as possible in 5 minutes of 10 lunges, 10 sit-ups, and 10 kettlebell swings (using 53# kettlebell, got 4 and a half rounds). I like this set-up since it lets me get a decent cardio workout, a good strength workout, and a nice anaerobic burner at the end.

I received my grass-fed beef last Thursday, and I've been putting it to good use. The first thing I made was a big crockpot of Texas-style chili (no beans). My girlfriend said that it was the best chili I've ever made, and she loves the flavor of the grass-fed meat. I have to say I agree. It actually has much more beef flavor than the store-bought grain-fed meat. I also used some sirloin in a stir-fry which was pretty good, although I should have marinated the meat for longer. All in all I'm quite happy with the quality of this meat, and I think I'll be making this a regular part of my life.

I've got 11 days to bring my average down to 215, which still looks doable. Looks like small changes can make a big difference. Just gotta stay consistent.