Just Turned from Calorie-Deficit to Calorie Surplus

[Ataraxia]

I have a hazy memory of going to a clinic after a dogbite, and they put me on the scale and said, oh you're a little overweight, 155lbs(?) for 5'6" 20-something year old. And I'm like, what? Overweight? Huh? Of course I was eating as much ice cream as I wanted and thought workouts were for athletic people, and of course at no point in my life have I ever been considered anything remotely near athletic. I was never really taught the virtue of athleticism in terms that meant anything to me. That was never a word I could call myself.

Last week I stepped on a scale of my own will for the first time in maybe a decade. And what the hell happened, I was 120lbs (54kg) and all that Paleo zero-sugar stuff I'd been doing actually had meaning. I ended up somehow working out three times per week, generally to muscular exhaustion. My rock climbing trainer said I need to go on a calorie surplus, and from what I read on NF and other places, it finally dawned on me that it was no longer time to be on a calorie deficit. When winter came and last year's pants now looked silly and wouldn't stay up, when half of my wardrobe was now thrift store fodder, I knew something major had changed. Maybe dragging my fat butt up all those mountains and across the desert had something to do with it. I hope to never be so embarrassed about a hellish state of poor fitness again.

This is the first week of my calorie surplus. I now am seriously working on obtaining an athletic body type for the first time in my life. It is against my natural feelings to eat more, it feels very weird. But I know it's right because of physiology.

So, it is somehow no longer a theory, a bunch of things people say. Now it seems like everyone can really do it, it's not rocket-science, you just have to go the distance. Next time you fall off the wagon, burn up the wagon and hike your way home even if it's hell at the time.

[Ataraxia]

Here's one of the dumb lumps of rock I mentioned.  Up and across for 7 days of unprecedented hell, getting my ass handed to me nearly every minute. LINK

 

I was not in good shape.  It was just the sheer lunacy of the human condition, which is what I recommend to you.  I may have gone a bit insane since then, or has it always been this way?

 

I'm going to try berserker mode for the first official time, next Wednesday when I boulder, to see if I can reach that dumb green hold that is terrifyingly high over an arch, seemingly far away.  And the next hold, which is even more terrifying.

[El Exorcisto]

That's a nice rock you climbed on. I haven't gone rock climbing since I wa a kid. I did some bouldering at The Gunks in New Paltz NY and some little climbs at Little Falls. When I was on Outward Bound we did Big Squaw in Maine. The view from Big Squaw was incredible.

 

Good luck with the bulk.