Davlamin

I've been not great lately. I have run into a couple of high-stress projects back-to-back.

I haven't felt like working out that much at all lately (since pretty much mid-June), and I have slowly gone toward some less-than-good eating.

I think I'm finally starting to get out of the over-stressed zone and back into only the stressed zone, but I see my willpower lacking (both for food and for acquiring things I don't need). I've been eating a lot of carbohydrates (and some fried foods) through various means instead of doing good, clean food prep.

On top of that, a lot of my protein intake is coming in through the means of protein powders and protein bars (other than through some stews that are a little higher in fat and carbs than what I want to do). Suffice to say, I am going to work on stopping the protein bars, since they're pretty high in fat and carbohydrates in comparison to powders, but I've got to work on getting back on the prep train. I need to try new recipes that are easier to do and also mass cook them.

I have been having a hard time forcing myself out of bed in the morning, and also in going to bed.

I have had some success in cleaning up my apartment, though I am having strong emotions tied to either acquiring or getting rid of things. These emotions are strong and off the hook and need to get back into control. These emotions are also affecting me externally, and I'm fearing that I'm showing these to others as well (both inter-personally and at work).

Apparently, I was in the middle of a post and never made it. This looks like it was drafted in mid-June:

I think I'm running into a rut; I know I am in need to change the workouts again, but I am starting to feel a little uninspired for the gym. It could be due to the same routine leading to potential boredom, or that I've stuck this out for five months, which is longer than I've ever really done this before.

I had one of my chest/arm days where I started out the workout not entirely motivated, and then the start of the workout was full of technical difficulties (e.g. the chest heart rate monitor). Once I started getting into the workout, the heart rate wasn't too bad (though according to the monitor, it was in the lowest of the exercise zone, so that was a little discouraging.

Also discouraging was that some lifts were tougher than they were last time (and I felt them in other areas, e.g. biceps and triceps as part of other compound movements). At least the cardio part I did got the heart rate up to zone 4 of 5 (though my hip was tweaked a little early on). It's discouraging, since leg day (understandably so) had my heart rate in zones 4 and 5 throughout (bigger muscles work the heart and body harder).

It's also summer in the Midwest (where we do more things outside, which is good; but we then grill not-so-good foods and pot luck many other bad foods and lots of booze, which is obviously not as good). I'm noticing that this will be my next real test of willpower.

I think I'm running into a rut; I know I am in need to change the workouts again, but I am starting to feel a little uninspired for the gym. It could be due to the same routine leading to potential boredom, or that I've stuck this out for five months, which is longer than I've ever really done this before.

I had one of my chest/arm days where I started out the workout not entirely motivated, and then the start of the workout was full of technical difficulties (e.g. the chest heart rate monitor). Once I started getting into the workout, the heart rate wasn't too bad (though according to the monitor, it was in the lowest of the exercise zone, so that was a little discouraging.

Also discouraging was that some lifts were tougher than they were last time (and I felt them in other areas, e.g. biceps and triceps as part of other compound movements). At least the cardio part I did got the heart rate up to zone 4 of 5 (though my hip was tweaked a little early on). It's discouraging, since leg day (understandably so) had my heart rate in zones 4 and 5 throughout (bigger muscles work the heart and body harder).

It's also summer in the Midwest (where we do more things outside, which is good; but we then grill not-so-good foods and pot luck many other bad foods and lots of booze, which is obviously not as good). I'm noticing that this will be my next real test of willpower.

Ugh! The working out has been great...but it feels like there's been little chance to relax from the work stuff, so I am consistently feeling mentally drained from tough work projects, which kills my ability to consistently have good workouts.

I've dropped to somewhere around 252.5 pounds and need to change my splits up (since I've been doing the same lifting routine for a little more than six weeks now), and I've been consuming more calories on lifting days to keep the loss good, but not make it go too crazy (wasn't doing much more than 2 lbs. a week on my big weeks anyways).

I have been hitting the treadmill harder now after my last meeting with my trainer (doing more interval work after lifting to help break down fats and such) and have been trying to do a little more HIIT-style of lift as well. I like this more HIIT style, since I don't focus as much on the lift "negative" but just trying to get a level of weight up a big number of times quickly and then rest it up a bit.

I have also shocked myself recently by sauteing spinach to put in my morning eggs (as well as mushrooms) - both to help increase potassium in my diet. It's not too bad, especially if the tuna's a stronger flavor; the texture of the cooked spinach is irrelevant, since it's mixed with everything else. The taste of the sauteed stuff isn't bad by itself, though definitely not one of my more favorite things by itself.

I am one of those "sensitive" people who easily reacts to the FitBit bands. I also didn't entirely like how MyFitnessPal would give me credit for daily activity even though it wasn't as a workout. I tried the Basis Peak, but that didn't sync with anything other than its own app. So, I looked up the UA Health Box and looked into it so many times that it just didn't make sense not to test.

I don't appear to be reacting to it too much in the few days with it, though I'm not as cool with the scale as I am with the FitBit scale (it's big and a little more inconsistent in my two days with it). The other nice things is that it integrates with its own chest strap (yes, many find them uncomfortable; I only do when I have to press my chest against some pad), and the integration between it and the band is nice with some extra LEDs to show where your heart rate is at a glance.

The reviews are quite right, though; the display is really weak, especially in sunlight. I will try to make it brighter (there is at least that option), but I don't see it helping that much; thankfully I don't really need it while out of doors!

First, did all of my old posts disappear? I don't seem to find them on my profile page. I will be disappointed if they all left, since I was quasi using it as a journal. If so, I will just focus more on the pen-and-paper stuff (only seen by me), which is kinda fitting since pen and paper is key in many nerds' lifestyles.

Talked to the trainer on Monday (after a week of horrible food due to timing/lack of prep done on Sunday). My parents were coming into town, so I had to make sure the apartment was presentable, and then they came to town, so my normal diet was different (especially when driving to and from Notre Dame for the weekend trip).

Then, there was the wicked schedule I had for Monday/Tuesday for traveling to work (and tiredness/needing to buy new pants that fit...tried on pants that were smaller than 40 in the waistline!), so it's been kinda hell in trying to get in a workout. At least now, I have better-fitting pants (and belts), and have a new food plan to use with the exercise plan.

I hadn't been properly filling in calories for the working out I did, so I had been losing a bit faster than I was aiming to (who's really going to complain about that, right?), and I had some cooking concerns (e.g. do I try a little of a sauce or some spices? When/where do I do that?), as well as wondering how to get more potassium without getting too many grams of fat or carbs for my macros. This will be a little bit of a challenge that I look forward to trying out.

This is kinda burying the lede, but I have also hit my halfway point in weight loss (for this year's goal). I don't feel that 220 will be my end-all goal (I have to also include body fat percentage as a secondary goal). It's pretty exciting that I'm lighter than I am when I graduated college, but it's more exciting that I am wanting to do more and be more. Now, if I can only make money without the job and spend the rest of my time doing all of those other things I want to do (I can dream and be irrational, right?)!

The last few nights have been brutal for me as well. There's a craft beer week in my city, so of course others are drinking quite a bit (not really a problem for me, I don't like to drink much), which caused an issue on Tuesday night (I rode with someone, and they then socialized with others for quite a while, causing me not to get home until late). This shift then affected my Wednesday night (and of course, coworkers were in town and wanted to meet), and caused me to lift past midnight.

I know these time zone shifts (and other shifts caused by socializing) have affected my sleep pattern, and my cognitive function (as I can tell in the Peak brain app test results), though I wonder if I my bed and mattress are affecting things as well (could very well be doing so; they are old). Thankfully, I was able to make my room even darker than it was before, so that's less of an issue for me (especially as the sun rises earlier).

These later starts to the day affect my diet, as I don't take the time to get my normal breakfast (and morning meetings make delay drinking a replacement shake), so I feel this is all affecting everything I do. Thankfully, as I get into the early afternoon, I'm pretty well energized and mentally better, but it's still different from how things were the last two weeks.

Also, why is it that (most) activity trackers make you try to rely on their automatic sleep tracking? I have not found one that is remotely accurate (the UP3 was accurate one night, but since then hasn't logged any sleep for me at all). I find it extremely frustrating and almost downright aggravating (at least the Fitbit One and Fitbit Charge HR still have a manual mode...too bad the HR causes my wrist to break out in hives or rashes if worn for too long a time).

Finally, on motivation, why is it that I put off leg day forever and forever? My hips aren't great, so it feels abnormally sore there after a leg workout, but then there's the TRX workouts that I do that get my heart rate into my peak range, which (while doing lifting-style exercises) causes me to start coughing and almost dry heaving (yes, quite appealing there).

For the first time in my life, I have had a masage and finally felt what I was supposed to feel. I was always told that it was relaxing, and I always had wondered if I was doing it wrong by not feeling mentally relaxed afterwards (often, it was a generic Swedish massage with medium pressure).

Now that I've been lifting and exercising, I think I finally have felt what I was supposed to feel from a massage: it was a good body relax and release. I had a great therapist who talked to me before about what I wanted and offered some suggestions of what to do, and I finally had my own input to provide as well.

No, I don't feel totally mentally relaxed and melting wherever I sit, but I can tell that there was built up tension that I didn't really know I had. We talked during the massage and it wasn't just about what she was feeling or me asking about a certain area, but about allergies, treatments we are doing for those things and the great treatment my trainer had given me as well (the massage was done in my gym's dedicated massage therapy rooms).

It's not surprising that my neck had tension in it, being a desk jockey that I am (and the flights as wel), but there was some definite tightness in my lats (pretty much where they meet up with the pecs on the sides) as well as horrible tension on the front of my deltoids. My pecs had some buildup in them, but I gathered that due to results from lifting two nights ago.

I can say that physically, I feel more relaxed/less tense than before, and since the built-up acid has been released from my muscles, which helps making my mind more relaxed an hour or two after it all ended. I am just glad that I now think I know more of what should expect from a good massage session.

Oops, I've been away for a while. Work had been quite busy, and I barely had time to think outside of work, exercise, and getting decent food and rest.

The exercise has been tough with the new splits and set/rep size, though I've been able to complete at least the first half of each movement (e.g. at least three of the 5 sets of 15 reps each). Of course, as the times going through each split, I've either increased the weight or total number of reps, so I'm not totally down and out about that.

The diet wasn't great last weekend, and it could be because of wanting a change from the constant same old, same old, the contents in some protein shakes, or because I was mentally exhausted (I tend to make poor food decisions while mentally exhausted...though I did avoid going to the Mt. Dew crutch that I used to always use).

Either way, there was still some loss over this last trip (just less than two pounds), but less than I wanted.

Today, I had a slow day getting back to my home time zone and took forever to get to the gym. Once I was part-way through, I was much more energized than when I had started and felt much better overall.

On the positive side of things, I have finally started to narrow down what I want for supplements on top of the foods I want to eat regularly (at least some real foods that offer some carbs and now have protein powders that aren't laden in carbs and fat as well). Now, I can finally have things such as sweet potatoes (in moderation)!