Getting Leaner

I moved to a new location and a new job over the summer, and I've been using this occasion to work on building up my fitness. I now live several thousand miles away from where I was living previously, and my day job is pretty much a dream job.

I made a few changes with this move that seem to be paying off with regards to getting leaner. I weighed 265 lbs. when I moved here and when I last checked I weighed 250 lbs. I just tried on some shirts and noticed myself in the mirror that my face looks a lot leaner, and my midsection too (although there's still more to go!). Here's what I did:

• Lower stress. My path forward is more clear, my finances are more secure. Overall this has lifted a lot of the stress that was weighing over me. There's still room to do better, and there's still a lot of chaos I'm managing, but overall it is a big relief from the previous few years.

• Regularly scheduled exercise. I picked a time of day that made sense, and started making exercise something that I did each day. Because I do this every weekday now, it just feels like a normal part of weekdays, and something that I need to do. For convenience and in order to allow for learning about time management in my new job, I decided to exercise first thing in the morning every morning. That way I would avoid crowded gyms and make sure I got exercise every weekday. 

• Low-pressure weekends. I have time for doing active stuff on the weekends, but I'm not holding myself to that. I'm not forcing this to happen but I have room for activities. Mostly lately I've needed to be stricter about quiet time. I've been taking Sundays as time where I don't have to do anything, and where I can think or read, and not have to do communication. I now live near a lot of beaches, so I've been trying to get out on the beach on the weekends. This may be helping me get some more Vitamin D than I was previously, also.

• Type of exercise. I increased my weightlifting days to 4 days a week, which is about the maximum that I want to do. My workouts have been running about 45 minutes in length, and my motivation and energy levels seem appropriate to that. I want to do more aerobic stuff but this is what I've managed to fit in regularly so far. I think I'd need to cut back on the weights in order to do more of something else. Generally I've been keeping to a basic weightlifting strength program from my old gym. Each workout starts with an Olympic lift drill, moves on to a core powerlifting exercise (press, squat, bench press, or deadlift), then a secondary exercise, and wraps up with some accessory lifts. My old gym has been providing programming for everything but the accessory work, and I plan out some thoughts on that every week based on my own experience. On the 5th weekday when I'm not lifting, I've been going surfing. I'm not a great surfer but right now I really enjoy just getting on the water as a way to get centered and focus. These are what works for me right now; what works for anyone else is whatever makes you break a sweat and get your heart rate up a little, while keeping your interest enough for you to keep doing it regularly.

• Food intake. As I've discussed previously, this really is the big factor. Having a routine schedule on weekdays lets me keep to a managed and predictable food intake. Here's what seems to be working: 

4:30 AM Wake up
5:30 Gym
6:30 Eat Breakfast: some protein, some starch and/or fruit, some coffee with cream and sugar. For instance, cappuccino plus a small plate of eggs, rice and/or juice and/or fruit, and sausage.
11:00 Lunch: Protein salad. I've been going to a food truck that does some sort of grilled protein with salad. Favorite so far has been grilled ono fish with a lettuce, tomato, and cucumber salad. Some days I might have more starch at lunch if my workout was particularly intense, but I find I don't really need it. I also seem to be sneaking in an extra cup of coffee at some point during the middle of the day.
6:00 PM Dinner: Trying to keep this light. Maybe a handful of macadamia nuts, a few bites of protein or fruit, and some green vegetables.
9:00 PM Sleep

I can totally keep this intake going if I've got my stress managed. If I'm stressing out then this seems to go out the door. So really that's the major thing to work on that remains here. That's what I'll circle back to do. I'll let you all know if I have some new insight on that.