EmbracingChaos Posted October 5, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 5, 2015 Moved my Tuesday fast day to Sunday. At 11 A.M. I started thinking about how I wasn't looking forward to doing it on Tuesday. So I figured instead of dreading it on Sunday, all of Monday, and then still having to go through it on Tuesday I'd just leverage the fact that I had already fasted 17 hours by that point and do another 24 to knock it out for the week. So, I did. I have to say that makes it a lot easier to deal with when you're "surprised" that you have to fast. It made me think of doing a mind game with myself. Since I usually don't eat until dinner anyway, I could do a calorie lottery. 6 pieces of paper with 2,000 calories written on it, and 1 with fast day. Each day right before my wife is about to prepare dinner I draw my piece of paper. If it's a fast day, cool, I'm already about 24 hours fasted at that point, no big deal to wait until morning. If I draw 2,000 calories, cool, let's eat. I'm a big fan of "last second decisions" so unnecessary stress is avoided. I used to get all worked up and anxious over things in the future (still do) and half of the time the event doesn't even happen. Anyway, just a thought I'll probably never try. It would be an interesting experiment, though... I'm not going to count those fasting calories for Sunday though since they are designed for Mondays' week. I'll just have to backfill my Monday calories to this entry (should be about 2000). Food: Fast Day Exercise:Rest Day Supplements:4 fish oil capsulesDaily multivitaminCreatine Weekly Deficit/Surplus To-Date: -3,859 Quote "Take arrows in your forehead, but never in your back" - Samurai Maxim Challenges: 1, 2, 3, 4 Battle Log Hinge Habits, Be Like Water, Failure Should Be Welcomed, Architect Your Environment, Set Goals For Processes Not Desires, Minimum Effective Dose 101 Link to comment
EmbracingChaos Posted October 6, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 6, 2015 Just could not stop eating last night; I was craving chips and salsa, waffles, all kinds of stuff. I managed to stick with 2000 calories until later in the night, but I felt a serious case of binge eating just over the horizon. Usually I try to grit my way through with the plan by sheer effort, which has about an 85% success rate but during those 15% failures I tend to do a lot of damage (as can be seen both from previous entries in this log and from my blog post Be Like Water). I decided to try a new approach. So, I chose to eat my own dog food (not literally, this is a software engineering phrase meaning to follow your own advice) and be like water. I made a massive bowl of broccoli late in the evening and poured Frank's Red Hot all over it. It was glorious. I felt more full, it tasted good, and I feel great this morning. Sure, I went 133 calories over my plan for the day, but who cares? That's way better than struggling until I snap and inhale an entire cheesecake in one sitting (that's on the low end for me). I'm happy with how it went and I'll definitely be using that solution more often. If I'm craving crap, but I'm willing to eat a massive bowl of vegetables, then I'm going to have some damn vegetables. Food: 2,133 calories / 212g protein / 40g fat / 256g carbsEating window ~11:15 AM - 8:35 PM Exercise:Deadlifts 4x305, 5x290Weighted Chinups 6x195, 7x175Overhead Press 5x120, 7x110Barbell Curl 6x85, 2x5x85 Supplements:4 fish oil capsulesDaily multivitaminCreatine Weekly Deficit/Surplus To-Date: -2,240 (transposed from Sunday's fast-day) 1 Quote "Take arrows in your forehead, but never in your back" - Samurai Maxim Challenges: 1, 2, 3, 4 Battle Log Hinge Habits, Be Like Water, Failure Should Be Welcomed, Architect Your Environment, Set Goals For Processes Not Desires, Minimum Effective Dose 101 Link to comment
Disil Posted October 6, 2015 Report Share Posted October 6, 2015 That's awesome. Really liked the blog post as well. 1 Quote How about a glass of purgatory with a splash of heaven? Link to comment
EmbracingChaos Posted October 7, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 7, 2015 Dreading squats today since my ITB is still on the suck. I'm just going to try to do as little moving around as possible before I work out, and save my ITB stretches until afterward. Hopefully that will have it fresh enough to get in some heavy squats before my range of motion is limited. Food: 1,843 calories / 179g protein / 51g fat / 168g carbsEating window ~4:30 - 6:15 PM Exercise:Rest Day Supplements:4 fish oil capsulesDaily multivitaminCreatine Weekly Deficit/Surplus To-Date: -2,677 Quote "Take arrows in your forehead, but never in your back" - Samurai Maxim Challenges: 1, 2, 3, 4 Battle Log Hinge Habits, Be Like Water, Failure Should Be Welcomed, Architect Your Environment, Set Goals For Processes Not Desires, Minimum Effective Dose 101 Link to comment
EmbracingChaos Posted October 8, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 8, 2015 I felt it afterward, but squats went great during the workout itself. I was surprised. Food: 1,981 calories / 199g protein / 41g fat / 216g carbsEating window ~4:30 - 7:15 PM Exercise:Barbell Squats 6x165, 7x150Weighted Pullups 7x185, 8x167.5Overhead Press 6x120, 8x110Handstands 2, 2, 2 Supplements:4 fish oil capsulesDaily multivitaminCreatine Weekly Deficit/Surplus To-Date: -2,976 1 Quote "Take arrows in your forehead, but never in your back" - Samurai Maxim Challenges: 1, 2, 3, 4 Battle Log Hinge Habits, Be Like Water, Failure Should Be Welcomed, Architect Your Environment, Set Goals For Processes Not Desires, Minimum Effective Dose 101 Link to comment
EmbracingChaos Posted October 9, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 9, 2015 My wife went for a job interview yesterday and was ill in the stomach because of it, so I did a 40-hour fast for the day with her. So Friday is going to be a "cheat" day in that I'm going to eat all of those extra calories in the form of pizza and other crap. Food: 40 calories / 0g protein / 4g fat / 0g carbs Exercise:Rest Day Supplements:4 fish oil capsulesDaily multivitaminCreatine Weekly Deficit/Surplus To-Date: -5,216 Quote "Take arrows in your forehead, but never in your back" - Samurai Maxim Challenges: 1, 2, 3, 4 Battle Log Hinge Habits, Be Like Water, Failure Should Be Welcomed, Architect Your Environment, Set Goals For Processes Not Desires, Minimum Effective Dose 101 Link to comment
EmbracingChaos Posted October 10, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 10, 2015 Awesome day of eating. Deep dish pizza, frozen yogurt, cereal. Good stuff. Food: 3,509 calories / 237g protein / 78g fat / 505g carbsEating window ~11:30 AM - 6:30 PM Exercise:Bench Press 5x185, 6x175Weighted Dips 5x210, 6x190Barbell Rows 3x5x170Tricep Extensions 3x5x115 Supplements:4 fish oil capsulesDaily multivitaminCreatine Weekly Deficit/Surplus To-Date: -3,987 1 Quote "Take arrows in your forehead, but never in your back" - Samurai Maxim Challenges: 1, 2, 3, 4 Battle Log Hinge Habits, Be Like Water, Failure Should Be Welcomed, Architect Your Environment, Set Goals For Processes Not Desires, Minimum Effective Dose 101 Link to comment
EmbracingChaos Posted October 11, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 11, 2015 Food: 2,334 calories / 209g protein / 97g fat / 177g carbs Exercise:Rest Day Supplements:4 fish oil capsulesDaily multivitaminCreatine Weekly Deficit/Surplus To-Date: -3,933 Quote "Take arrows in your forehead, but never in your back" - Samurai Maxim Challenges: 1, 2, 3, 4 Battle Log Hinge Habits, Be Like Water, Failure Should Be Welcomed, Architect Your Environment, Set Goals For Processes Not Desires, Minimum Effective Dose 101 Link to comment
EmbracingChaos Posted October 12, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 12, 2015 My will broke to some cravings last night. I was wanting cereal bad and ended up splurging on two bowls of cereal. It's the combination of still not being able to walk or go up/down stairs without pain from my ITB, stress from my wife looking for a new job, and generally just sick of tracking everything. My right rotator cuff is also acting up, so I'm kind of a mess. I'm going to choose not to overreact to it this time though, I'll just pretend the splurge didn't happen and stick with the plan. I did order some crutches from Amazon yesterday so I can take the weight off of my ITB. Everything I read says that it helps it to recover faster. I'll still do my squats/deadlifts but when I have to leave the house I'll probably use the crutches for a while. It definitely can't hurt. Food: 3,065 calories / 234g protein / 93g fat / 342g carbs Exercise:Rest Day Supplements:4 fish oil capsulesDaily multivitaminCreatine Weekly Deficit/Surplus To-Date: -3,148 Quote "Take arrows in your forehead, but never in your back" - Samurai Maxim Challenges: 1, 2, 3, 4 Battle Log Hinge Habits, Be Like Water, Failure Should Be Welcomed, Architect Your Environment, Set Goals For Processes Not Desires, Minimum Effective Dose 101 Link to comment
Disil Posted October 12, 2015 Report Share Posted October 12, 2015 Looking at your weekly deficit, you're still doing absolutely fine. Much more important to get your injury taken care of. Maybe you should simply go back to maintenance/a slight surplus until that's resolved? Crutches are a good idea too. Quote How about a glass of purgatory with a splash of heaven? Link to comment
EmbracingChaos Posted October 12, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 12, 2015 Looking at your weekly deficit, you're still doing absolutely fine. Much more important to get your injury taken care of. Maybe you should simply go back to maintenance/a slight surplus until that's resolved? Crutches are a good idea too. Yea, I'm still burning fat and today is my regularly scheduled fast day, so it's really not that big of a deal. It's just disappointing when I don't "stick with the plan". A minor slip-up like this is good practice for when I make a bigger one though, so hey, good to go. Especially because I almost grabbed a third bowl of cereal last night after the first two, the Lucky Charms were calling my name. It could definitely have been much worse. I thought about stopping fat loss but because ITBS is an overuse/inflammation issue I don't think it would help much. Looking at my spreadsheet from the last time I struggled with this, I gained ~4.5 lbs. over the course of 5 months (since I wasn't running) and being in that calorie surplus didn't seem to help me recover. So I'm just going to be patient and do my exercises and stretches. It just takes a long ass time to heal which sucks. It's amazing how 2 hours of running pain-free can cause months of issues afterward. Quote "Take arrows in your forehead, but never in your back" - Samurai Maxim Challenges: 1, 2, 3, 4 Battle Log Hinge Habits, Be Like Water, Failure Should Be Welcomed, Architect Your Environment, Set Goals For Processes Not Desires, Minimum Effective Dose 101 Link to comment
EmbracingChaos Posted October 13, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 13, 2015 Fast day went down without issue, though I must admit I'm quite hungry. About to get my workout in and eat lunch... vegetables never sounded so good. Food: 40 calories / 0g protein / 4g fat / 0g carbs Exercise:Rest Day Supplements:4 fish oil capsulesDaily multivitaminCreatine Weekly Deficit/Surplus To-Date: -2,240 Quote "Take arrows in your forehead, but never in your back" - Samurai Maxim Challenges: 1, 2, 3, 4 Battle Log Hinge Habits, Be Like Water, Failure Should Be Welcomed, Architect Your Environment, Set Goals For Processes Not Desires, Minimum Effective Dose 101 Link to comment
EmbracingChaos Posted October 14, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 14, 2015 New PR with deadlifts even with my gimp leg; I'm pretty excited about that. It hurt like hell grinding out that 5th rep but I got through it. My ITB doesn't hurt any worse than usual today so I think it's okay to push through that pain temporarily as long as I ice it afterward, take NSAIDs, and do my stretches. I found an excellent set of ITB stretches on YouTube (it's a yoga pose progression, I believe). Here is the video for my own future reference and for others: Food: 1,931 calories / 193g protein / 45g fat / 216g carbsEating window ~12:15 PM - 7:30 PM Exercise:Deadlifts 5x305, 6x285Weighted Chinups 4x200, 6x180Overhead Press 6x120, 7x110Barbell Curl 3x5x85 Supplements:4 fish oil capsulesDaily multivitaminCreatine Weekly Deficit/Surplus To-Date: -2,589 1 Quote "Take arrows in your forehead, but never in your back" - Samurai Maxim Challenges: 1, 2, 3, 4 Battle Log Hinge Habits, Be Like Water, Failure Should Be Welcomed, Architect Your Environment, Set Goals For Processes Not Desires, Minimum Effective Dose 101 Link to comment
EmbracingChaos Posted October 15, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 15, 2015 Food: 1,975 calories / 166g protein / 91g fat / 143g carbs Exercise:Rest Day Supplements:4 fish oil capsulesDaily multivitaminCreatine Weekly Deficit/Surplus To-Date: -2,894 Quote "Take arrows in your forehead, but never in your back" - Samurai Maxim Challenges: 1, 2, 3, 4 Battle Log Hinge Habits, Be Like Water, Failure Should Be Welcomed, Architect Your Environment, Set Goals For Processes Not Desires, Minimum Effective Dose 101 Link to comment
EmbracingChaos Posted October 16, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 16, 2015 Food: 2,005 calories / 181g protein / 29g fat / 263g carbsEating window ~4:30 - 8:00 PM Exercise:Barbell Squats 6x165, 7x150Weighted Pullups 6x190, 8x170Overhead Press 6x120, 7x110Handstands 2, 2, 2 Supplements:4 fish oil capsulesDaily multivitaminCreatine Weekly Deficit/Surplus To-Date: -3,169 Quote "Take arrows in your forehead, but never in your back" - Samurai Maxim Challenges: 1, 2, 3, 4 Battle Log Hinge Habits, Be Like Water, Failure Should Be Welcomed, Architect Your Environment, Set Goals For Processes Not Desires, Minimum Effective Dose 101 Link to comment
EmbracingChaos Posted October 17, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 17, 2015 My wife's family is in town for my daughter's birthday on Saturday. Stressful, particularly even more so than usual because her sister is staying with us, but still managed to keep food under control. All of the candy, cupcakes, ice cream, etc. at the birthday party is going to be a challenge. Staying mentally strong and focused is the name of the game. Food: 2,002 calories / 246g protein / 50g fat / 163g carbs Exercise:Rest Day Supplements:4 fish oil capsulesDaily multivitaminCreatine Weekly Deficit/Surplus To-Date: -3,447 Quote "Take arrows in your forehead, but never in your back" - Samurai Maxim Challenges: 1, 2, 3, 4 Battle Log Hinge Habits, Be Like Water, Failure Should Be Welcomed, Architect Your Environment, Set Goals For Processes Not Desires, Minimum Effective Dose 101 Link to comment
Disil Posted October 18, 2015 Report Share Posted October 18, 2015 It's just one weekend. You got this. 1 Quote How about a glass of purgatory with a splash of heaven? Link to comment
EmbracingChaos Posted October 18, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 18, 2015 Made it through the birthday party without cracking. I've been finding the 5-minute journaling really helpful, I've been much more productive than usual with writing, spending time with my kids, and helping my wife out with random things. I hope the trend keeps up because I'm enjoying getting things done. Food: 1,985 calories / 229g protein / 79g fat / 81g carbs Exercise:Rest Day Supplements:4 fish oil capsulesDaily multivitaminCreatine Weekly Deficit/Surplus To-Date: -3,742 1 Quote "Take arrows in your forehead, but never in your back" - Samurai Maxim Challenges: 1, 2, 3, 4 Battle Log Hinge Habits, Be Like Water, Failure Should Be Welcomed, Architect Your Environment, Set Goals For Processes Not Desires, Minimum Effective Dose 101 Link to comment
EmbracingChaos Posted October 19, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 19, 2015 Food: 2,078 calories / 223g protein / 39g fat / 220g carbsEating window ~1:30 PM - 7:45 PM Exercise:Bench Press 6x185, 7x175Weighted Dips 5x210, 7x190Barbell Rows 3x5x175Tricep Extensions 3x3x120 Supplements:4 fish oil capsulesDaily multivitaminCreatine Weekly Deficit/Surplus To-Date: -3,944 Quote "Take arrows in your forehead, but never in your back" - Samurai Maxim Challenges: 1, 2, 3, 4 Battle Log Hinge Habits, Be Like Water, Failure Should Be Welcomed, Architect Your Environment, Set Goals For Processes Not Desires, Minimum Effective Dose 101 Link to comment
EmbracingChaos Posted October 20, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 20, 2015 I felt like pure ass Monday, likely for several reasons. My ITB is still all aggravated and preventing me from even walking, left-over stress from the weekend, and I switched to half caffeine coffee which is causing some caffeine withdrawal symptoms. So, I took the day off from dieting and ate whatever I wanted, keeping in mind that I would have to live with the choices. So the calorie count is relatively high, but not nearly as bad as it's gone in the past. I stuck with my eating schedule of not eating until dinner and then I made myself have a ton of vegetables before I started in on snacks. This was what I ate, because the next time I need a day off, I think this is a pretty good template. Focusing on minimizing damage was the name of the game:500g of mixed vegetables500g of butternut squash300g of green beans200g of various peppers1 lb. of steak1.5 cups of spaghetti1.5 cups fat-free chocolate frozen yogurt with a banana and ~20g almonds3 macadamia nut cookies w/ 1 cup skim milk1 cup fat-free chocolate frozen yogurt with 2 snack size Reese's Peanut Butter cups (this was awesome)Food: 3,188 calories / 162g protein / 73g fat / 459g carbsEating window ~5:00 PM - 8:00 PM Exercise:Rest Day Supplements:4 fish oil capsulesDaily multivitaminCreatine Weekly Deficit/Surplus To-Date: +908 1 Quote "Take arrows in your forehead, but never in your back" - Samurai Maxim Challenges: 1, 2, 3, 4 Battle Log Hinge Habits, Be Like Water, Failure Should Be Welcomed, Architect Your Environment, Set Goals For Processes Not Desires, Minimum Effective Dose 101 Link to comment
Disil Posted October 20, 2015 Report Share Posted October 20, 2015 Sounds like a perfectly fine day, especially given the still pretty tame fat count. 1 Quote How about a glass of purgatory with a splash of heaven? Link to comment
EmbracingChaos Posted October 21, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 21, 2015 Felt pretty full during the morning so I went ahead and did my workout and then the fast day that should have been on Monday. That puts me back into a weekly deficit at least. I'm planning on just having about 24 oz. of flounder that we have sitting around needing to be eaten for dinner with a bag of broccoli, which should put me right back on track due to being so low calorie. Even if I don't stick to that the week is easily recoverable at this point, so I'm not too worried about it. Worse comes to worse I can spread the rest of my deficit over the remaining days of the week. Food: 40 calories / 0g protein / 4g fat / 0g carbs Exercise:Deadlifts 4x310, 5x280Weighted Chinups 6x200, 7x180Overhead Press 6x120, 7x110Barbell Curl 3x5x85 Supplements:4 fish oil capsulesDaily multivitaminCreatine Weekly Deficit/Surplus To-Date: -1,332 Quote "Take arrows in your forehead, but never in your back" - Samurai Maxim Challenges: 1, 2, 3, 4 Battle Log Hinge Habits, Be Like Water, Failure Should Be Welcomed, Architect Your Environment, Set Goals For Processes Not Desires, Minimum Effective Dose 101 Link to comment
EmbracingChaos Posted October 21, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 21, 2015 Welp... guess I'm going to just call this quits again and jump to maintenance. I went to the doctor this morning to see about my leg, took x-rays (which were clean) and got a referral to get an MRI. I was prescribed MethylPREDNISolone, which is a Glucocorticosteroid, to bring down the massive inflammation in my leg. It works by raising cortisol and the major side-effects are muscle loss, fat gain, increased hunger, and insomnia. Awesome. The best thing seems to be to just try not to get worse from this spot and do what I can to get my leg to recover. This is the suck, but what can you do... Quote "Take arrows in your forehead, but never in your back" - Samurai Maxim Challenges: 1, 2, 3, 4 Battle Log Hinge Habits, Be Like Water, Failure Should Be Welcomed, Architect Your Environment, Set Goals For Processes Not Desires, Minimum Effective Dose 101 Link to comment
EmbracingChaos Posted October 22, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 22, 2015 It was nice to eat up to maintenance, though it's bittersweet because I'm still around 13.5% body fat. I'm going to stick it out at maintenance for the next week and a half to work through the steroids and hopefully help my leg heal up, then I'll probably introduce a very minor surplus and see how things go. 14.5% is my drop dead point where I have to drop fat back to 13%. Food: 2,362 calories / 245g protein / 72g fat / 149g carbs Exercise:Rest Day Supplements:4 fish oil capsulesDaily multivitaminCreatineMethylPREDNISoloneNortriptyline Weekly Deficit/Surplus To-Date: -1,250 Quote "Take arrows in your forehead, but never in your back" - Samurai Maxim Challenges: 1, 2, 3, 4 Battle Log Hinge Habits, Be Like Water, Failure Should Be Welcomed, Architect Your Environment, Set Goals For Processes Not Desires, Minimum Effective Dose 101 Link to comment
Disil Posted October 22, 2015 Report Share Posted October 22, 2015 I feel ya. On the bright side, the reason you're sitting there with an injured leg is because you're in such good shape that you were able to run a ridiculous distance with no prep or traning. The overwhelming majority of the population is unable to run like a quarter as far as you did. Sure it was dumb, but also a lesson. Getting through this with the right meds (check) and no longer on a deficit (check) should happen fairly quickly, so just stick it out until then. Bodyfat is like the last thing to worry about right now. 1 Quote How about a glass of purgatory with a splash of heaven? Link to comment
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