Its been a week since my last check in (if that’s what you want to call whatever this is). To be fair, I had kind of forgotten that I even posted here until later in the week. I had a few goals in mind when I wrote last, two of which I think I executed on and one I didnt. Diet’s on point right now and activity every day. I’ll elaborate in a minute. Stretching really didnt happen as much as I need to.
Even though its the second week, I feel like a lot of first week stuff went down this week. To be fair, last week was an attempt to start back slow, kind of see where Im at, without making too many concrete plans. This week, I had a concrete meal plan, I logged all of my food, I went to the chiropractor, I went to the gym 3x and I’ve been working on my sleep.
The Meal Plan – I put together a fairly loose plan because I just could NOT decide when I wanted to eat certain things. This made writing down a day to day meal plan where I would commit to eating something on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc. The point of the meal plan for me is to get an idea of what Im eating for the week, so I know what to buy at the grocery store. If I know what Im eating, then it keeps the food budget pretty much under control. Part of the plan, especially this early on in the process, should account for snacks as well. Switching to a different set of habits does take some time and getting hungry in between meals without any options for how to handle it will just result in being hangry (and more likely to deviate from the plan).
Diet – Diet is paramount. I may have mentioned one of the cliches previously – “Abs are made in the kitchen”. In that vain, I’ve had some success in the past keeping things lower in carbs (which helps with the blood sugar control as well), adding in some carbs shortly before workouts so I don’t completely bottom out or have to make adjustments to my pump. The upside to this is that on the days I go to the gym in the evenings, I’m getting a pre workout meal about 1.5h previously and its DELICIOUS. I end up burning off the carbs in the gym anyway. In addition to keeping things lower carb, I’m also watching my calories a bit. The only thing Im really concerned about right now is staying at a caloric deficit (taking in less than Im putting out). According to Whoop, Im burning somewhere in the range of 2800-3000 per day, so on workout days, Im trying not to go over 2500 and on non workout days, 2000.
In order to keep myself on plan, I find that food logging keeps me accountable and so far, it has. I have to be real careful about the data that Im collecting. I have a tendency to get caught up in the analysis of the data (I tend to over analyze) and then it hinders the execution of the plan. Im six days in on logging all of my food and have so far adhered to the above plan.
Another thing I hate about “dieting” is the idea of being hungry and eating bland food. I cant stand bland food. Im also not a body builder, so I’m not interested in going to the extremes of leaning out in that way. Taking the time to plan meals has made a big difference. There’s a lot of repetition in meals, but if they taste good, who cares. My breakfast and lunch are basically the same and they work pretty well right now. I have a homemade breakfast sammich in the morning on keto bread (~600 cal) with a cup of coffee. For lunch, Ive been eating homemade wraps using zero carb tortilla wraps, with sliced ham or chicken, a slice of cheese, and low calorie ranch dressing. Dinner has either been some kind of ground beef or chicken thighs, with some vegges. On workout days, I’ll have white rice or potatoes (20g-50g of carbs, depending on blood sugar and the workout) an hour and half before my workout. The low carb bread and wraps have a fair bit of fiber in them. On workout days, I’ll eat before training, and then again after training. If I’m still feeling a little hungry at the end of the evening, I’ll have a low carb yogurt and some kind of chopped veggies (celery or cucumber usually).
Generally, except for the snack in the evening, my plan is to keep each meal around the 500-600 calories. Because I’ve chosen to log everything, that means I’ve been measuring everything. The food scale makes a world of difference. There’s only been one day this week where I made a questionable choice for one meal (pepperoni is incredibly high in calories) and it affected my meal choice for the rest of the day. However, the leaner and less processed the meat, the lower in calories. Lean beef, chicken (preparation is everything – I cannot stand dry chicken.), fish. I’ve also not been skimping on the veggies. I basically bought three different steamer bags of veggies (a mix, green beans, and squash) and mixed them all together in a bowl – then ate off of the bowl for nearly 6 meals.
Ive been using the Cronometer food logging app for several years. Based on articles I’ve read, all of the food logging apps are getting better, so any of them will probably work. Cronometer’s worked well for me in the past. I like the interface. I like the custom options for recipes. The scan tool is insanely convenient. If you eat a lot of the same things day to day, then logging is really easy because you just copy the meal from the last time you ate it to today (if you’re eating it today, of course) and done. When I made the veggie mix, I just created a custom recipe (I tend to add the date when I do this for when the combination changes.)
I quit wearing a watch when I started carrying a cellphone regularly. However, about a year ago, I decided that Id get an Apple watch to keep track of some of my fitness stuff. Its been pretty useful for keeping track of my blood sugar as well. In addition, I wear a Whoop device, which I find to be incredibly useful for tracking sleep, calories, stress, etc. Both devices integrate to Cronometer, so Im able to keep all of my data in one place. Not super important or necessary, but handy. One thing I like is that Whoop tracks calories burned. Its allowing me to determine if Im at a caloric deficit or not.
Last week when I went to visit ALL of my doctors – my blood pressure was elevated. With the abundance of stress, bad diet, alcohol and general lack of activity, its no wonder. Back to the meds. I also had started eating better and exercising. By Saturday, my BP was low and I could feel every bit of THAT. Too many changes at once. So I started monitoring my BP throughout the day, had a conversation with my Dr and quit taking the BP meds. Three less pills I have to take. WIN!
Chiropractor – All I can say is WOW. Since I stopped doing PT last month and also not stretching as consistently as I know I need to be, I’ve some pain in my shoulder. The surgeon said it would probably be there for awhile, and since i hadnt been doing much about it, I didnt think anything of it. My chiropractor retired in the fall and I hadnt found anyone to see for that. Because I sit for most of the day for work, I tend to get jammed up. Since I also want to start being more active like I had been, I figured it was time to find someone to receive some chiropractic care. Since the adjustment on Thursday morning, I’ve had very little pain in my shoulder. I still need to stretch and all that, but no pain like I was having and nothing lingering. I go back Monday for a follow up and I’ll be sure to share that tidbit with him. Another WIN!
Activity – 3x at the gym this week and planning to go again in the morning. Monday and Wednesdays workouts were still in the feeling out stages. I did legs Monday, and I was dragging at the end of the day, so it felt like I was just going through the motions a little bit. However, I did manage to get on the leg press and crank out some reps. That felt like I was doing something heavy again. Wednesday was chest. I was feeling a bit apprehensive about it because of my shoulder, so I took the time to stretch a bit before doing anything. Right now, Im only doing machines. I didnt feel any pain during the workout. I decided to also see where the shoulder was at and threw in some lateral raises. No pain at all. Yesterday was Back and I could tell I was starting to feel like I wanted to actually work out and work harder. Ended up being a really good session – did about 5 exercises, with some biceps, and an overhead shoulder press on the machine thrown in. My shoulder is clearly weak. But, I got the work done and the shoulder has felt good all day with no pain.
I’ve been trying to do 10 min on the bike after meals, especially on the days Im not at the gym. Thursday, I did 30 minutes in the evening and did another 30 minutes this morning (and planning do to another 30 probably once Im done with this). Im thinking there’s more to be done with this.
Sleep – Sleep has always been a struggle. It doesnt help that I tend to drink a fair amount of caffeine. I’ve been good about limiting that to first thing in the morning and right before I go work out. I also started taking magnesium citrate again at night before bed, along with some melatonin. Since Im wearing the Whoop, I decided to take its recommendation for sleep and have started going to bed earlier (I used to go by 10:30P or 11P. Now Im at about 9:30P most nights). I already feel a noticeable difference in how I feel after sleeping. I still toss like a rotisserie chicken, but its an improvement. But instead of not wanting to get up and sleeping way later than I need to be, I’ve been awake most days before or at 6AM. By 630 or 7, I feel reasonably awake, alert and ready to take on the day – which I havent felt in quite awhile. I should use that.
Week 3 – Meal planning, workout, and meal prep tomorrow. I have a treadmill coming on Tuesday. Im not crazy about walking on the treadmill, but I’ve been doing it for the last couple of weeks at the gym without issue. Im also not really feeling going across town to either the mall or the YMCA to walk. I’ve been riding the bike more, but the seat is uncomfortable (I ordered a new seat, so more on that later. This treadmill will fold up, so storing it should be ideal and it wont take up a ton of space. I need to walk more though, which is why I bought it. So, Im thinking now that I have all of this new found energy and time in the morning, Im going to try to either walk or bike in the morning and again in the evening (unless Im at the gym and I’ll end up walking at the gym anyway). I think Im going to add stairs into my cardio at the gym as well. No new diet goals this week. Stay on plan and execute.