So, I got all silly excited last month about trying something new with the diet and exercise, because new is exciting.

I’ve been banging my head against things for a while, with a strategy that worked, slowly, until it didn’t. The science of why that changed totally makes sense once I got the hang of it – when most of your exercise calories are walking and weights, the amount of RMR calories counted in exercise is a LOT more than when you’re running/biking/swimming. So, 1200 + activity becomes a little less accurate when 25% or more of those calories are ones I’d be burning anyway.
So, I was going to try to eat less. Working up my normal activity levels, I needed to eat about 1600-ish calories per day on average to lose 1 lb per week. It sounded totally reasonable.

As you can see, this is not what happened.
What does my dumb@%$ do? I get a wild hair and decide it sounds like fun to work out more instead. On one hand, it’s good because for some reason I CANNOT figure out how to eat in ways that don’t resemble a human dumpster at least a few times a week. I seriously do not know what is wrong with me right now. On the other hand, perhaps it’s part in parcel with doing more intense activity – both being hungrier and also justifying eating more.
By the details…
Week 1: 1805 calories consumed daily on average, 529 calories burned daily on average = 1276. More than I planned to eat, but considering my goal was 1300 calories or less, I thought I nailed it. Week one down, 19 more to go!
Week 2: About the same burn, but a little bit less on the intake. 1726 calories on average eaten per day, 545 burned, so I’m well below my goals. I’m a little upset because I have made exactly zero progress on the scale, but I warn myself to be patient.
Week 3: Stepped up pretty majorly with both. 1965 average food calories per day, which is a lot, but my calorie burn was up to 676 calories per day. So, still under that 1300 goal (just by a nudge). Growing more frustrated the scale isn’t moving.
Week 4: Back down a little. 1876 avg food cals, but I was down to 552 calories burned per day on average. This pushed me slightly over the 1300 goal, but only by 24 per day. Should be insignificant. Still should see some progress. When I started penning this blog was during this week, and the graph above was entirely flat.
Week 5: Worst week so far, I’m pissed at the scale and had a WEEK. I topped out at 2003 average calories per day, 512 average burned per day, so I was almost 200 calories over per day. Which… 1500 calories should not be “I gain weight” territory, but obviously, that’s how it be.

While the last week makes sense that I had zero progress, and maybe the week before, I should be seeing SOMETHING by now, right? I also know in my heart of hearts that I was eating less, or at least BETTER QUALITY (and yeah, probably less) than I am now before the pandemic. And while I’m working out more than I was, it’s definitely not at half ironman levels. And I kinda feel like that’s how I’m eating.
Social situations screw me up. When I’m at home, I can deal with the hungries better. When I’m out and there’s pizza or chips and dip or whatever just sitting out waiting for me to eat it, it’s just… torture when I’m just always hungry and I usually give in. I’ve had a 2500+ calorie day every day this month that has been influenced by being around other humans for foods and drinks. It’s funny, before this I was too burnt out for a while to really enjoy social situations. Now, I’m recovering a bit from that and I’m like YAY let’s try to see more people but BOO seeing people means I’m probably going to break my plan. To be honest, it’s also when it’s just us two (letting myself order in or stop for crap instead of sticking to a calorie plan), so I can’t totally use this as an excuse, but the highest calorie days are social things.
Either way, what I’m doing is a) obviously not quite enough to move the needle or b) I’m not tracking well. Not that I plan to be a complete moron over 4th of July and I will be tracking, ofc, but when I’m back I’m definitely going to put some effort into pre-tracking, planning what I’m going to eat better, enjoy ONE food splurge per week, not multiple, and sticking closer to that 1600-ish goal per day. If I coulda done that, I’d potentially be 5 lbs down and really happy with myself instead of just stupid frustrated.
#2 Sporty Spice Things
Where things have been going really really really well and I am really happy and proud of myself is doing actual workouts again.

Let me completely shift my tone here and talk about all the good things I’ve done in the last 5 weeks:
- I swam once a week. Holy crap! This is major for me!
- Full gold stars (3x week) for strength. I did cheat one week and had to do two workouts on the same day but otherwise I did everything as planned.
- I’ve started to do the workouts the garmin is telling me to do. Maybe not exactly on the days they’re on, but doing an average of about 3 efforts that are above base/recovery/shuffle. And I’m seeing some progress. My VO2 max is coming up, my garmin is giving me more difficult paces to hit, and I’m generally crushing them.
- 15 bikes, 13.5h total for the month. That’s almost 30 mins average per day. And 7 of those were difficult efforts.
- 10 runs. 5.7h total for the month. I backed off the last week since I had a knee twinge, but it let me bike more and my knee is feeling better. And just like the bike, 7 of those were difficult efforts (just less base miles/time).
So, yeah. I’d like another workout month like this. One swim a week. 2-3 days of doing one of the non-base or recovery workouts on the garmin. Weekend bricks. Just. like. June.

The only change is I plan to start riding a bit outside. I need to remember how to do that. But… not every weekend. It’s really hot. I have really loved our gym bricks because I don’t have to choose between getting up at 6am OR die of heatstroke.
#3 As for adulting, we…
- Met with the financial advisor. We are on track for retirement, and she had very few suggestions for us to do anything better. Yay!
- Road bikes went into the shop and are home. We take the tri bikes in this week.
- Murphy bed is installed! July goals are to keep working on the stuff in here so things are set up nicely for Joel. Once that’s better, I will probably start working on mine too.
- For July: take the truck in to get its spray liner. From January. Oops.
I think that’s probably good for goals here with everything else going on.
#4 Hobbies

- Book – I have typed THE END. At about 115k words. I was trying to race to get a first edit pass before 4th of July camping but decided that I’d rather not rush it and read it casually on the kindle when I’m happy with it. Funny, I typed THE END on book two on the same camping trip last year. This one took a little longer than expected but I’m excited the crappy first draft is out there now. Goal for next month is first edit pass and then a read + notes.
- Photos – got my mouse sorted, and I’ve finished Houston trips and I’m almost done with San Francisco. For July, I’d like to sort Vermont and get started on it. It’s definitely more than a month project.
- Guitar – I’ve started playing a few times in the last week after tuning my acoustic up, and goal will be play at least one song (more once my fingers are more calloused again) on WFH days.
- Travel –
- I get to go to Seattle as a tourist this time (not working the convention, but I have a free hotel room to share so I’m booking my flight and going to enjoy things like taking the ferry and leisurely checking out Pike’s Place Market and maybe a museum or garden or two.
- Arranging a short cruise with my parents in early October (they want to go on a 4 day)
- I think our fall vacation will be Colorado camping in November. Need to figure out the logistics of this and if we are ok with the colder weather (right now, yes please, sick of melting…)
#5 And work life balance, while I can’t say things are completely low stress right now, I seem to be keeping it in check decently well. I’m not working when I’m not working and am finding myself decently capable to relax.
And, on the last possible day with like 3 hours to go, you have a June update. 🙂 Wish me luck, willpower, and some magic dust on the calories IN part of things next month!