Day 5

Day 4 food:

Chili

Cashews

Pulled pork

Pineapple

El Pollo Loco chicken

Dried apricots

Pickles

Another good day in the eating department. I had planned on a workout, but the gym was packed yesterday so I spent the time training others. Usually I just teach a 1-on-1 during one class on Thursdays and work out during the other class (we have 2 on Thursday nights) but I ended up doing a 1-on-1 and helping out with the group class, since it was pretty packed. No big deal, we've got a doozy of a workout this afternoon, so having an extra recovery day probably can't hurt.

Mentally I'm feeling clear, I'm getting my work done, and my mood is really good. The only issue I'm having is craving sweets once in a while, or at night. The urge usually passes pretty quickly, though, and I haven't succumbed to it (nor will I), so it's more of an annoyance than anything. The more days of super-clean eating I put behind me the easier it will be to deal with those mental cravings.

Day 4

Day 3:

Eggs and turkey breast

Cashews

Deviled eggs

Sausage

Salad

Olives

Pork rinds (not a great choice, I know)

Sunflower seeds

Banana

Pulled pork with homemade peach bbq sauce (more tangy than sweet)

Carrots, celery, and bell peppers

Wednesday I attended a memorial service, and ate what I could from what was available. I think I did pretty well, all things considered. I did break my fast earlier than normal because I wanted to eat something before the memorial get-together, and I think it paid off well since I didn't have any crazy cravings for junk and just ate a modest meal of sausage, salad, deviled eggs, and veggies, and felt good about it. Mentally I felt a bit spacey early in the day, and it seems that caffeine hits me a lot harder now, but everything started leveling out as the day went on, and I felt pretty good.

I wasn't planning on working out but my brother wanted to go for a run and didn't want to go alone, so I joined him. We just ran around the park across the street from my parents' house for a half-hour, at a pace where we could have a conversation, and it was really good. I've always gotten injuries from running, but since we were on grass and moderating the intensity I didn't have any issues, I'm not even sore today.

Day 3

Sorry for the late post. I was busy all day yesterday, so you'll get two posts from me today.

Day 2:

Chili

El Pollo Loco chicken

Cashews

Apple

Did a workout but hit a wall hard after about 15 minutes, so I stopped. I always forget that there's a pretty gnarly adaptation period after eating crap food. My brain was foggy, didn't have any energy to push through the workout, and felt pretty crappy in general. Thankfully, since I've done this before, I know it will pass. My body is flushing water like crazy due to the lower carbs and lack of grains, so I feel lighter and look leaner. I just can't push the intensity on my workouts yet.

Day 2

Today's Weigh-In: 210.6

Okay, that's the last weigh in for a month. Let's see what I can do by focusing solely on diet and performance and not the scale. Here's what I ate yesterday:

Spicy Chicken & Shrimp soup

Chili

Red apple

Baked Tilapia with toasted almonds

Eggs with bacon, sauteed mushrooms, and spinach

Handful of cashews

I didn't break it down into breakfast/lunch/dinner since I don't really eat that way, but that's the basic order in which I consumed the foods. Last night I cooked up some pork loin chops with a homemade peach barbecue sauce so I'll have some good food for the next few days.

Cravings aren't too bad, once in a while I'll see some Halloween candy around the office and get a sugar pang, but other than that I feel good so far. I've been doing some mobility work with my bad shoulder and it's feeling a lot better, so I'll hit the gym tonight and see how it feels in a workout.

Day 1

I know I said I'd do my initial weigh-in and measurements yesterday, but I just flat-out forgot. I'll try to do measurements tonight, and get a weigh-in tomorrow morning.

The first day of a total diet clean-up is always tough, and today's no exception, especially with all the candy that's flying around the office post-Halloween. But my resolve is strong right now, and I'm drinking lots of water, taking my fish oil, and eating my clean, home-made food. I made a bit of an oversight mistake in that I forgot that the chili I had made last week contains some beer and some corn meal (as a thickening agent), but I'm not wasting good quality food just because of a few not-perfect adulterants, so I'll finish it this week and my next batch will be Whole30 approved.

Other than that I'm going for 100% adherence. I realized this morning while I was putting my lunch together that I didn't stock up on enough fruits and vegetables this past weekend, so I'll have to go shopping to restock the fridge. Also, I forgot to bring some nuts with me to work to have with my afternoon meal. If it sounds like I may have been a bit lax in the planning department, it's because it's true. I'll remedy all those things within the next few days, and I'm not going to let any little crap like that cause me to get derailed. What matters is my mental state, and to be honest I'm really, really ready to clean up my diet and start feeling, sleeping, and performing better again.

Tomorrow I'll post what I ate today, and will continue to do that for this month to have a nice little record for posterity.

Whole30 challenge

No weigh-in today, sorry. So, this month has been pretty sub-par. I'm basically in maintenance mode, allowing a lot of not-so-good foods to slip in. Time to clean it up.

I'll be participating in the Whole30 challenge during the month of November. This means no sugar, dairy, grains, peanuts, liquor, beer, or wine for the whole month. After last month's alcohol fast, and the subsequent re-introduction into my life, I find I'm better without it for the most part. I've been eating more and more things with sugar in them, and as a result I've been craving sugar more and more often. The sugar cycle is an endless one, unless pains are made to break it. I'm going to go 100% strict this time, not even allowing any of my little vices like pastured butter or heavy cream in my coffee. Just gotta go whole-hog and see what happens. One of the rules is no weighing yourself or taking measurements during the challenge, so I'll take my last weigh-in for a while on October 31st, along with some measurements, which I'll repeat after November is over so I can have some data (I'm a computer programmer, I live and die by data).

My training will stay the same, doing Crossfit workouts 4-5 times a week along with additional strength work 3-4 times per week. I'm not going to be counting calories, and I'm going to just eat as much as I desire. I'll also continue to do my intermittent fasting protocol, so as to not mess with too many variables all at once. I think I'll probably do a couple of Crossfit benchmarks this coming week so I can compare before/after numbers and see if/how my fitness improves. I'm also interested to see if cleaning up my diet will help with my nagging shoulder injury (which I suspect is partially being aggravated by inflammation due to bad food sources).

This blog might end up being used as a meal and workout log for a while, just to keep on track and give myself some perspective. I'll try to update it more frequently than I have in the past month, for sure.

That's my plan, wish me luck.

October goals

Today's Weigh-In: 206.8

PhysicsDiet.com Average: 204.41

Sorry for the long gap in between posts. I just haven't had a lot to say. As expected my low weigh-ins were not to last, but that's okay. I'm still closer to my goal than I was, and today's weigh-in was exceptionally high for some reason. It should stabilize around 204-205 within the next few days.

Well, we're 5 days into October and I haven't posted my goals yet. Here we go:

* Weigh 200 pounds by November 1st

* Continue doing Crossfit 5 days a week.

* Continue working ring muscle-ups

* Snatch 165 pounds

Now that I can do muscle-ups I have to work on doing them more efficiently and with less rest in between repetitions. Last week I did 5 in one day, but I needed a good 10-15 minutes in between attempts to be successful. I also want to focus on my Olympic weightlifting total, and my snatch is currently much worse than my clean and jerk. I'm going to be using Saturday mornings as skill work, so I'll practice both of these movements every Saturday this month.

I tweaked my shoulder (again) last week, so it's a bit tender, but I've been taking care of it and it should be 100% by the end of the week. On Saturday my Crossfit affiliate is hosting the Barbells for Boobs fundraiser, and the workout associated with it is called "Grace", which is 30 reps of Clean and Jerk at 135 pounds. I need my shoulder to be solid for that one, so if I have to baby it a bit this week then that's what I'll do.

Here's to a good month.