Weight: 221.0 (-10.2)
Fat: 34.0% (-5.3%)
Meals: Big breakfast, small lunch, medium dinner
Exercise: Cardio (Treadmill 23:00 WL5 - 288 calories, 1.63 miles)
Pictures: Front/Side/Back/Flex
Today I reached my first real milestone: a ten pound loss since the beginning of my weight loss. Now, I still think the weekly averaged weight is still the right way to go, but seeing a number that's more than 10 pounds less than my initial measurement is definitely a positive mental boost.
I'm still not sure exactly how much weight I'm going to lose ultimately, as I'm more interested in fat percentage and putting on muscle than I am the final number. Based on a 10% body fat, assuming I keep the same amount of lean muscle mass (unlikely), I would probably bottom out around 160 pounds. More muscle is going throw that number off, so 170 is probably more realistic. As such, 10 pounds down, 50 more to go. A good start, but lots more work to do.
Portion Sizes
I'm not sure if my change in eating habits, or what I might call the "I don't need to stuff myself" plan, or the fasting is responsible for this, but I find that old portion sizes are actually becoming uncomfortable for me to eat. This morning was a perfect example.
On some weekends, I travel across town to work on renovating a house that my business is working on moving in to. We've almost completely gutted the house, removed all the flooring, half or more of the drywall, replaced half the flooring (to get to the beams underneath), rebuilt an entire wall, tore out the entirety of the kitchen, etc. It's been a lot of work, and my part in it has been pretty small, but it's still a ton of work, some of it strenuous, some of it not-so-much. But I definitely felt the need to "fuel" myself and I actually started drinking non-diet soda, I would eat a big breakfast on the way there, chow down for lunch and still be hungry for dinner.
For breakfast I stopped at a fast food place and got two sausage egg and cheese biscuits, a pretty standard order for me. The odd thing is... I couldn't finish it. I made myself eat it, thinking that I needed the fuel, but after eating the first sandwich I really did feel full. I waited another 20-30 minutes before I shoved the other one down, which really made me feel bloated and icky. Partly this was the sense of feeling I should eat what I buy and not let it go to waste, and partly this was based on the assumption that I needed this to make it through the day.
When lunch arrived, we had pizzas from Pizza Hut. Normally I would eat 3 or 4 slices and debate whether or not to have one last small slice. Today, I was still so full from breakfast that I couldn't stomach more than one and a half cheesesticks. I didn't even have a slice of pizza. My energy levels were good, and my stomach was clearly telling me "no more". Afraid that I would regret it later as my tank ran dry, this made me very nervous, but I figured I could always eat a cold slice if necessary.
Didn't happen. I made it through the rest of the day, even waited an hour for a tow truck to show up to pull my car out of the muddy front yard, with no inclination to eat more. I stopped on the way home for a couple small burgers more out of a sense that it was dinner time than a real hunger.
I did finally feel hungry later that night; I went to the fridge to refresh my water (I have a nice filtered container in the fridge), and the smell of the leftover pizza hit me hard, causing my stomach to growl menacingly. This was very late that night and about 6-7 hours after those burgers. But I've been trying to avoid adding an extra meal late at night, so I got my water and went back to what I was doing.
Overall though, my impression of full seems to have changed from "bottomless pit" to "wow, I really am full already" in just a short time. I suspect it's not just the fasting, but either way it's a pleasant change.
Non-workout workout
As I mentioned I did go to this house to physically labor and today wasn't a disappointment. My work really consisted of two tasks: helping to clear a tree from the side of the house (so we can put in a parking lot) and putting up insulation. Needless to say the insulation wasn't very taxing, although the motion of standing to measure, followed by bending to cut was good for my thighs, although my knees took a beating. But the tree part was definitely a good chance to move around, with some added weight.
I wasn't working the chainsaw so I mostly did hauling. Branches primarily (it was a big fluffy pine type tree), but I did get to move a number of reasonably small logs. I didn't want anyone to think I was showing off; I've been keeping my diet and exercise fairly low key. But when no one was looking I was lifting the logs over my head or "pumping" them as I carried them across the yard. Later on, when I was alone I started running the branches across the yard... bend down to grab a handful and then run them across the house, toss them into the pile and jog back. In effect, I turned it into an extra workout and it was a little fun. Amazing what a difference an attitude shift is.
Oh, and I should mention that yesterday's weight lifting didn't hurt me today at all. My quads still continue to be my sorest point, even though it's the one exercise I actually scaled back. I increased all my weights with the other exercises but I still wasn't really sore when I woke up today. Just as well considering the extra work I did. Hopefully Sunday will give me a good chance to let my muscles rest and rebuild. The biggest mistake with weight lifting seems to be failing to give the muscles adequate time to rebuild, which is ironically where the real changes occur, not in the lifting.
