Adjusted Reality

“Reality can be beaten with enough imagination.” – Mark Twain

Author: Quix Page 72 of 217

The show must go on…

By

On May 23, 2016

In Uncategorized

This is my motto this year week.  I’ve given myself time to throw a pity party about everything, and now it’s time to put on my big girl panties and move on.  Drinking more days than not over the last two weeks finally made me crash HARD yesterday (woke up at 10:30, took a nap from 1-3, took another from 5-6:30, and was asleep by 11).  I still felt tired this morning.  It’s time to start doing good shit for myself.

May23-2

The last couple weeks have been kinda like this – the awesome healthy veggie/hummus/turkey sandwich, but also the fries.  And the not-pictured beers later.

#projectraceweight took a back seat the last two weeks.  I don’t think I’ve gained anything, but losses have been minimal if any, and I haven’t been tracking my calories.  I didn’t hit the gym for about a week.  While my consumption post-cruise has not been reprehensibly bad, I’ve been forgetting things like water, vitamins, veggies, and some things have been fried or slathered in BBQ sauce or covered in cheese.

However, there’s no day like today to start again.  This week, I’m hoping to remember what it was like to be at least a recreational triathlete.  I’m ready to turn it up a notch, though that notch is from 2 to 3, not to 11 or anything.  I need to start tracking my intake again, it’s the only way I make progress.  I’m also ready to go to bed at a reasonable hour and stop pretending I’m in college again.

So, here’s where I’d like to reset with next week’s goals.

  • Go back to doing the things that were working.  Water, vitamins, veggies/fruits, tracking calories, 10k steps.
  • Gently start a schedule again.  I’d like to hit somewhere between 3-5 hours of things a triathlete would actually do (run, bike, swim, weights) on top of otherwise being active.
  • I also want to start getting up and doing some of it in the morning.  My schedule has definitely shifted to bedtime at midnight or later most nights.  I’d like to start thinking of 7:30-ish as a reasonable time to get up, not the middle of the night, so I can do a little cardio or weights before work and still get there at a decent hour.
  • Bike commute once.  This is the week it happens.  I practiced over the weekend and I really enjoyed using my bike as transportation.
  • Go play outside as much as possible.  It’s been really nice outside but I’ve been staying up too late and been too bleh to really enjoy it this week.  Next week, it’s on.  Also – WAH PAHHHH!  I’ll be at the waterpark when it opens at 10am on Saturday.
  • Volunteer for Packet Pickup for Cap Tex the day before (Sunday).  Not doing the 5am wakeup call this time. Maybe even ride bikes there if we’re feeling saucy, perhaps?
  • Stay on the 60 day schedule completion for my Personal Training class.  I have 90 days to do it but I’d like to be done in 60.

So far, I got up early enough to get a quick run in before work, and I plan to hit the gym for weights after work before we stock up on groceries, so it’s off to a good start!

Here’s a few other things that have happened in my life the last two weeks besides vacation, work crap, and vodka…

Short Hair Kinda Care

May23-3

Recursive me is recursive.

It freaked me the fuck out the day I got it cut.  It’s the shortest it’s been in my adult life.  I think it may have been the way it was styled or just the huge difference in length, there may have been a bottle or wine that night instead of the gym to cope.  But a few weeks later?  I love it and wish someone would have tied me down to a stylist’s chair earlier.  The jury is out on whether it’s going to be great for training because it just sort of almost doesn’t go back (if I really need it out of my face it takes a clip and multiple Rey ponytails).  However, I love that I can wash my hair in the morning before work, and it is mostly air dried before I can finish my coffee.

SUP Paddleboard Yoga

2016-04-20 18.46.39

It’s hard enough to just do this… right?

I like to paddleboard.  I like to yoga.  I’m not particularly good at either, but I figured, why not try both at the same time?  I suppose it’s the same logic as triathlon (why not suck at 3 sports at the same time?).  At first it felt super awkward, but then I realized something – while some of the things I lack (strength, flexibility, balance, etc) kept me from succeeding at every pose, I tried it all.  I found that I could get up into a backbend on a paddleboard.  I got up into a headstand for about .2 seconds.  I also fell in the lake three times and slipped on my board a bit as well.

One of the girls gave me huge props when she found out it was my first class.  She said that she was scared of falling off.  I told her I figured that I had been in the lake all morning, so that didn’t bother me.  I guess sometimes it’s just about not letting the fear of failing falling keep you from trying something fun.

Bike Adventures

May23-1

Not all bike rides need spandex and garmins.

I’ve come to love my bike more lately, but one thing I really wanted to get into this Spring is using my bike as transportation.  This weekend, we finally did that.  We took a 5 mile ride on the cruisers down to a new lunch spot (and then back a little more slowly with full bellies).  Then, we got a call that some friends were hanging out at a brewery 3 miles away, and we biked there and back as well (about 16 miles in total).  It felt very Austin.

I will start riding my bike more.  I really enjoy it.  I didn’t even mind traffic *that* much, especially on the no-clips cruiser.  We’ll see how rush hour traffic makes me feel but I’m ready to give it a try!

And with that, I’m off to make the most of my week, the show must go on, y’know.

 

On jumping off a cliff…

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On May 19, 2016

In Uncategorized

When I was super young, what I wanted to be when I grew up changed daily.  I wanted to be a singer.  I wanted to be a dancer.  I wanted to be a famous Olympic gymnast.  I wanted to be a best selling author.  I wanted to be an actress.  I wanted to be an artist.  I wanted to perform (either directly or indirectly) and entertain.

May19-2

Can I have that flexibility again?  There’s a reason gymnasts don’t run much…

While I always pictured myself being more than comfortable, it was rarely about the money.  I always wanted to be well known, the best at something, to be famous.  As I grew older, and got a little taste of it on a localized level, I realized it has it’s ups and downs.  It’s kind of enthralling, but it’s also got a whole lot of bullshit baggage.  So, maybe, I’ve gotten a bit complacent as of late with my head telling me that pretty good is good enough.  Giving up on outlandish childhood dreams was fine because maybe I just didn’t want that anyway.

I always figured I’d have a damn good story.  I think I have the beginnings of one, but I’m not entirely sure if I’ll be happy with “and then she made pretty good money at a job she liked well enough, and was moderately good at triathlons, the end”.  I used to believe in mad passionate extraordinary love or nothing.  Excellence or die trying.  Sometimes being mega maniacal and driven to your craft to the point of insanity brings your wings too close to the fire and makes you fall, but the other option is flying low.  Sometimes, you miss the heights, the heat, and the sizzle.  Sometimes the lack of mad passion puts you in a very comfortable and very safe rut.

On Thursday last week, while on vacation, I got some pretty terrible work news about my job that makes pretty good money doing something I like.  Luckily, Zliten and I are just fine, but a lot of people I consider friends, perhaps kind of like family even after working with them for almost a decade, were not.  I don’t comment on work that often, and I’ll leave it at that about what went down, but I was sad, then mad, then exhausted, and then it really sparked a “what if” moment for us.

May19-1

This is what mourning your friends becoming ex-employees and contemplating your life decisions looks like done in Belize.

In my industry, layoffs are as common as a cold.  While I haven’t experienced this firsthand, it absolutely does happen.  Companies crunch employees to ship games and then reward them for their hard work with a pink slip.  CEOs restrategize and downsize.  A game doesn’t get the right score on metacritic and half the team gets cut and the other half doesn’t get bonuses.   Funding gets pulled and your paycheck mysteriously doesn’t show up in your bank account.

I’m either lucky, or damn good at my job, or both, so I’ve never had to hastily pack my things and go.  It’s always been a huge and careful deliberation with a target destination, and it’s only happened twice.  I’ve only made the leap with a parachute and a backup.  I’ve never been pushed off the cliff.  I’m probably a statistical anomaly that I’ve been gainfully employed in the game industry for 15 years and never laid off, but I’m not naive.  Someday, my number will come up.

These things make you look around and take stock.  What if I was on the other side of the chopping block? What would I do?  What’s my backup plan?  Of course, the traditional route is applying for similar jobs.  However, there are many reasons why working at what I do is a job I like, but getting a similar one would be a nightmare.  Even beyond the fact that I’ve finally started accruing 25 days of vacation a year and have stolen a comfortable office chair from someone who left earlier in the year.

I can’t lie – the job hunt process exhausts me and I’d rather do it as little as possible.  While neither of us have a shortage of recruitment pings, most of them are not local, and it’s not in the cards to move cities since now BOTH of our families are here.  My title belies my actual duties a little bit, so I’m worried that what I’m getting headhunted for, while definitely bumps in pay and title and responsibility, are reaching further away from the creative, where my passion lies. On top of that, building/learning a team and becoming an expert on your subject is a lot of work.  Starting from zero doesn’t really appeal to me right now.

On the other hand, I’ve realized that I’ve sort of plateaued in life right now.  I’m what you would call a goal oriented person.  I’m all about harder, better, faster, stronger.  I’m all about becoming just a little better than I was yesterday.  For a while, I focused all those efforts on essentially losing half a person.  Then, for a while, I focused on racing, and PRs, and new distances.  I feel like it’s time to tackle something new.

blogheader10

The last really new thing I learned was scuba diving.  That was 2013…

This may be a weird thing to say as someone who’s gotten two promotions in the last six years, and is planning to race an Ironman in about 11 months, but I can’t help but feel stagnated.  It’s not enough.  The promotions, the racing, it all feels like logical, still-in-my-comfort-zone expansion.  It may just be the offseason talking, but I’m ready to expand my expertise in other ways as well.

The upshot is that after a lot of soul searching, I’m not looking to do a complete life upheaval right at this moment.  So far, what’s left after the dust has cleared is not untenable, and I have cautious optimism that it will get better, so I’m staying put. None of the monsters chasing me are so terrifying and horrible that the cliff is the best option right now.

However, it was enough of a shock to realize that if it’s not in my nature to randomly jump off a cliff myself, I should probably start obtaining the materials to make my parachute and learning the basics of how to skydive in case the ground crumbles out from under me one day.  I’ve not learned a whole lot of tangible skills or made myself more useful in the last few years.  That’s a problem.  You need to keep learning and growing even if it sounds exhausting because it’s actually probably what really makes you alive.

So, to diversify our personal human portfolios, we’ve signed up to do our personal training certification and follow up with triathlon coaching this summer.  After thinking about it, it seems like a better investment than hiring a coach right now.  If I’m going to spend the money, I want the knowledge, and with us BOTH doing the classes, I think we can check each other.  In the long term, am I looking to start working at a gym recruiting clients?  Hell to the no.  But what does sound fun is coaching novice runners or triathletes,  developing an app, or building some sort of community.

I also plan to start getting my hands dirty again learning Unity (moblie game creation software).  I don’t plan on taking any paid classes, but I’d like to have some more current knowledge about how to make a game rather than *ten years ago I used a proprietary editor and then I became manager so I didn’t really do it that much*.  I never wanted to be one of those people who just told everyone what to do, but it’s gotten to be that way lately.  For my soul, I need to get back under the hood and starting throwing parts around and turning wrenches again.

Light and fluffy vacation pictures and photos post will be coming soon, but I wanted to get this one off my chest first.

Chasing Fishies is Calorie Free

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On May 5, 2016

In Uncategorized

I’m going on vacation soon.  I’m super excited about it – a week of no work, all play. There will be scuba diving, snorkeling, being by the ocean.  There will be games with family, shows, entertainment, dancing, lounging by the pool and reading.  I cannot wait so hard, I actually lost sleep over it one day last week.  Christmas morning syndrome… I guess you still get it at 37 years old…

Sunday-1

I love to be on a boat!

However, the fact remains that I’ve worked hard this spring and lost some weight and want to continue to make progress.  Slightly related, a huge part of cruising is the sheer amount of AMAZING food and drink available.  Not just available… but kinda sorta of pushed on you.  I’ve gotten better about this in my daily life.  If it were up to me, I’d be ready to make the cruise more about fun and less about food.

However, I’m traveling with family, and they are REALLY into the food part of cruising.  Their favorite part is the fancy sit-down dinner every night, and they tend to do breakfast, lunch, snacks, ice cream, and extra post-dinner buffet sometimes as well.  If I follow suit, I’ll gain all the weight back, and I’ll probably end up throwing myself off the side of the ship.

To keep me from being fish food, I’ve come up with some strategy on how to do the all inclusive thing without gaining a bunch of weight.

Breakfast

cruise19

More books, less pancakes…

I plan to skip breakfast every day that I can.  I know breakfast is the most important meal of the day blah blah blah, but the problem is the cross section of a) healthy breakfast food I like and b) food they serve on a cruise includes fruit, and perhaps some turkey sausage and that’s about it.

I’m HOPING to do that by avoiding it altogether on sea days.  I don’t plan to get up before 10am on vacation unless I have a good reason to do so. I’d like to start my mornings when we aren’t in port with a little gym session, and if I have more time to kill, relax and read by (or go swim in) the pool.  I’m going to tell my family about my plans.  However, if I *have* to join someone at breakfast, I’ll just grab a coffee and maybe some fruit and bide my time until lunch.

The exceptions are: shore days and the last day.  On shore days, I’ll be up and out playing before the noon lunch bell, so I’ll probably split my calories and have a small breakfast and lunch.  The last day, I’ll splurge and eat whatever I want for breakfast, because pancakes are fucking yummy and I’ll be home for a healthy lunch/dinner.

Lunch

Mar16

Salads will be key here… maybe *slightly* smaller though…

The great thing about cruise food is that they have tons of vegetable-filled options available at the lunch buffets.  There’s a lot of unhealthy stuff as well, but it’s generally easy for me to fill my plate with mostly good stuff. Lunch should be the easiest meal for me to navigate as long as I make good choices and eat reasonable portions.

My strategy: start with one plate, half full of vegetables or salad, a quarter full of good protein, and then the last quarter can be whatever I want.  If I’m still wanting food, I’ll get one more soup-sized item (soup, or something that fits in that bowl).

If I’m still hungry after that, I need to calm the fuck down, take ~30 minutes to digest and drink a bunch of water/tea/coffee/whatevs, because no matter what the content of those plates were, that’s plenty of food.  I’m now eating things only because they’re around, and none of us want that (because you’ll have to listen to me bitch about my weight that much longer).

If I’m still hungry after that – see the snack section.

Dinner

Thurs-6

You don’t pass this up, but maybe you accommodate by eating lighter the rest of the meal.

Dinner is a little trickier, because with the family, it’s formal dining at a set time (5:30pm), served in courses, all at the breakneck speed of whomever eats the slowest at the large table.  It’s going to be a challenge, so I have to be smart and have a plan here, or I can easily consume a full day’s calories in one meal.

Rolls and butter are served before dinner, and great bread is my fucking kryponite.  If they’re amazing, I’ll indulge.  If they aren’t, I will attempt to skip it.

Then, comes appetizers and entrees.  If I’m debating between main courses, I’ll always pick the one that sounds like it has the least calories, but I won’t forego something I really want for something I don’t.  For appetizers, since lunches are going to be very salad heavy, I’m skipping those in the dining room.  I’ll choose either one or two appetizers/soups, depending on how light it sounds, and what else I’ve consumed that day.

As for dessert – I’m going to listen to my stomach and my heart.  If I’m full – just coffee.  If I’m not stuffed, or there’s something I *HAVE* to have, I’ll order it and attempt to eat just enough to get a taste of it.  I’ll consider this an opportunity to get better resisting eating things just because it exists.

Snacks

cruise16

Trying to concentrate more on the scenery than the eateries…

Here be dragons.  Even if you manage to eat sensible meals, there’s always other ways to completely overeat.  Room service breakfast.  24-hour snack station with sandwiches, cookies, deserts, etc.  Burgers and dogs and fries at the pool.  Pizza parlor.  In between buffet lunch and dinner is a magical thing called the snack buffet and sometimes there’s the midnight chocolate buffet.  Dinner buffet after formal dinner.  Late night room service.  It doesn’t end.

While these indulgences are all tempting, the fact is, I’m losing weight by giving up snacks at home, so I plan to mostly stick with that on vacation.

I’m enforcing one and only one rule here.  First, I must check in with myself, and ask if I am really and truly hungry right then.  If “I could eat” or “that looks yummy” or “that smells good”, then I’ll get myself some coffee, tea, or water.  If I am actually going to eat a deck chair, I will get myself a fucking snack and probably eat a little less at the next meal to compensate.

It sounds counter intuitive on an all inclusive situation like the cruise to bring my own snack options, but I am.  I’ve got some mini bags of pretzels, pita chips, and jerky.  I may not touch them at all.  Hear me out.  I think it could save me a bunch of calories when I just want a SMALL snack and don’t need something like a plate at the buffet.

Alcohol

Wed-6

Cheers to Belize beer!

I would like to strike the balance of enjoying myself and not sabotaging the rest of my efforts.  Things I have to remember:

  1. Bar drinks are way more potent than you make at home.  Drink them slower and have a water between each.
  2. Stay away from the fruity drinks and heavy beer (as the rule, the rare exception is another story).  Stick to liquor either with soda or on the rocks, wine, or light beer.
  3. While there will be imbibing, it’s also something I can do just fine when I’m NOT on vacation.  So enjoy, but not to the point where I waste a day hungover.

Activity

Wed-5

You’re naturally pretty active on the cruise ship because you walk everywhere, but I’d like to make sure I keep the kind of activity up that I have now:

  • 10k steps per day.  Non negotiable.  Cruise ships and ports provide AWESOME walking opportunities and there is zero reason this should not be effortless.
  • 2-3 weights sessions (there are 3 sea days…)
  • Maybe some stationary bike or elliptical during sea days just for funsies unless that ends up being lame.
  • Go play outside on the ship – water slides, rock climbing, wave rider, etc.
  • Snorkeling, scuba, and adventuring in port, oh my!

The great thing about not recovering from a marathon on a cruise ship is that I’ll have tons of energy to go do all the things.  I’m really looking forward to it!

And when it comes down to it – I know what I’m going to look back on in years to come and it’s not really the food.  I remember dancing with my husband until 3am until the DJ kicked us out.  I remember winning just about every single card and domino game I played with the family one year (and one year I didn’t win once until the last day).  I remember the descent on my first dive ever in Bonaire.  I remember playing the Yes/No gameshow as a family and doing horribly.

cruise19

Yes, I remember the food as a whole, and yes, even some specific dishes come to mind, but not even the amazing steak and lobster dish compares to chasing down a stingray in Cozumel.  So, this time, I’ll focus more on that, because chasing fishies is calorie free.

Someone has to keep track of it

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On May 2, 2016

In Uncategorized

I realize half the time when I try to recall my week, I have to look back to instagram, dailymile, twitter, and facebook.  Some people are scared to have their personal life all over the internet.  In my opinion, someone has to help me keep track of it, I’m thankful for social media and my (sometimes over?) sharing.

Anyhoo, this week I did quite a few things I’m super proud of!

may2-5

Go team tri!  Some day we’ll all be racing together at the same time…

While I had ulterior motives (getting credit in the Texas Tri series), the important thing to remember is that we got our asses up at 5am to be at transition OPENING and body marked athletes and then handed out water and gatorade at the transition aid station.  Body marking was super fun, and I’d do it again, but it was 2 squats per person to get the numbers on the front and back of their legs, so I did about eleventy billion bodyweight squats that morning.  Maybe I should count 3 weights workouts last week?

May2-1

Little boxes, on the vanity, little boxes, from Ikea…

I *finally* finished the bedroom vanity project (last night around 10).  That was tough, y’all!  While I will admit that I could probably use one more clean out of the actual drawers, I’ll call this a win.  Everything now has a place, and there’s an intentional place for everything.  I sort of wish I had a before picture, but I’m kind of glad I don’t.  The whole clean space on the floor between the drawers was full of crap, there was very little clear counter space, and crap was shoved in the shelves every which way.  Also, I have a jewelry problem.  Two weekends and about 100$ at ikea/homegoods later?  Voila!  Organization!

This stuff both makes me happy and pisses me off at the same time.  I am looking forward to getting more rooms tackled, and also to when I start training and I stop giving a shit about what my house looks like again for a while.

may2-2

Just a few moments away from topping over…

I’m sure it sounds weird to say I’m proud I went to the bar, but I realized it had been at least four months since I’ve been to a social drinking establishment (not a place where I got food and a drink, but an actual bar).  After work and gaming at work, we headed a few feet over to the new Kung Fu Saloon for a drink.  They have giant size patio jenga!  We ended up meeting two other couples and playing against them and won both times.  The first time, the tower got almost double the height it started!  It was super fun to be social like that, but it’s definitely not quite my scene anymore.  Can I say it’s just a change of taste, and not me becoming a geezer?

May2-3

Texas is pretty (as seen on the disc golf course).

Saturday, I finally had my first run that I wanted to keep going, since… I don’t know when.  Sometime last year perhaps?  This is a good sign that my brain is continuing to unbreak.  I’m not in ANY fucking hurry to do 15+ mile runs any time soon, but Saturday, I only had time to do 2 miles and I think I would have been up for about 5-6.

I’d sum up last week’s “training” as very little formal stuff, but lots of activity.  The actual, trackable stuff went like this:

  • 2 mile easy run
  • 5.6 mile neighborhood bike (clip practice), 2 mile bike (on the cruiser)
  • 2 great heavy weights sessions

…and, that’s it.  Well, including the fact that I had two 11k, three 13k, one 14k, and one almost 20k day – including Frisbee Golf and triathlon volunteer work.  At some point, I probably need to start doing more official stuff.  I’m just not ready to force anything yet.  If I want to burn my calories by taking 3-4 walks a day, so be it.  I’m especially not starting that yet.   But soon.  We miss our endorphins.

may2-4

When ordering korean bbq tacos don’t forget the kimchi.  I made that mistake.  Never again, they were so much better with it!

In terms of food consumption and all that, I was really good last week.  According to fitbit, I ended up averaging just about -1000 per day, which actually equates to the 2 lbs I lost.  It’s really nice when it all makes sense and you actually get results out of hard work.

My activity level right now is PERFECT for losing weight.  Walking all the time and easy bike rides do nothing to raise my appetite.  Whereas before 1200 calories was miserable, I’m looking more at 1500-1800 to stay -1000, and it’s amazingly easier to be a person and also lose weight at the same time.

I’ve reintroduced the recommended daily allowance of veggies and fruits, vitamins, and water to my diet as well.  I’d say I was about 5/7 days on the first two, but drank water like a champ.

As for this week, my goals are:

  • Keep up with the water, vitamins, 2 weights sessions per week and 5 freggies a day.  Also, be as good as this week with the calorie counts as I was this week.
  • Get a haircut.   It’s getting crazy scraggly, and soon I’ll be in the water all the time and not want to put up with a mid-back length mop.
  • Finish up the other surfaces in the bedroom (dressers, nightstands).  This should literally take us 20 minutes.  No excuses.
  • It’s grey and cold today, but tomorrow it gets really nice for the rest of the week if weather.com is to be believed.  Get all the chores done today and then go. play. outside.  Fishing, kayaking, s’uping, swimming, biking, running.  Even if it’s just for a little bit if I’m busy or really hungry and wanting dinner when I get off work.

Let’s get it on!

 

Update: #projectraceweight – 6 weeks and change

By

On April 29, 2016

In Uncategorized

Inspired by my husband who’s along for the ride as well – I figured since I’ve been glossing over it lately, I should post an update.

Apr29-1

Still taking ridiculous selfies so you know not much has changed…

I have been doing this #projectraceweight thing for 6 weeks and 3 days (but who’s counting, right?).  Until this very week, it’s felt like an exercise in frustration, to be quite honest with all y’all.  It may be my fault for not weighing in regularly before that, and not wanting to face the scale right away, but I felt like I was eating so very little and my body was just saying, “Fuck you – you want to deprive me of calories?  I’ll fight you.  Let’s do it.”

I’m used to this for a few weeks.  But then I hit the month mark.  And then 5 weeks.  That’s a long time to eat -1000 calories or so per day without any effect.  I may have bitched and moaned and been a little surly, but I’m nothing if not persistent, so I kept at it.  I couldn’t eat much LESS than I was, so my M.O. was and is onward and through.

Finally this week I hit a few milestones:

  • I have weighed at 189 or under for a full week.  In fact, today I had my lowest weight since August: 184.4.
  • Fitbit says I’ve lost 7.1 lbs in the last month.
  • Most of my t-shirts I abandoned because I felt huge are back into play.  They all magically got longer again!

Let’s concentrate on that 7.1 lbs.  If  I can do that for the next 3 months, I might be able to reach the 160-something promiseland.  It may not be the 150 I was dreaming of, but I knew that was a long shot and would probably take two offseasons to get there.

Looking back, I think I’ve found a few reasons why I’m starting to see some momentum now.

  • Water is life.  I was REALLY bad about that for a while.  This week I’ve been focusing on drinking enough water and I feel better and I think it may be having some effect on the scale.
  • I’m getting a little more actual trackable activity in terms of bike rides, paddling, running, and lifting heavy things on top of the 10k steps per day.  Only a few hours a week, and nothing with much intensity, but it’s still affording me a few more calories.  I’ve not hit the threshold where it’s stimulating a lot more hunger, so I can eat closer to 1500 calories instead of 1200, still be 1000 under my burn for the day, and my sanity is a lot more in tact with a few more calories to play with.
  • Usually, I’m not a huge fan of vitamin supplements, I think that with a healthy balanced diet, you typically get what you need, and my bloodwork tends to confirm it.  However, when eating -1000-ish calories, there are a lot fewer opportunities to get that good nutrition in.  I’ve felt tangibly better this week taking a multi, a B, and a D.

I’ll be quite honest – I’ve gone from feeling despair last week to happiness this week.  I know I don’t lose easily, my body really likes stasis, but I’ve never fought it for SIX weeks like this before.  It’s a good thing that my mind is more persistent.

Apr29-2

I’ve considered doing this during long rides too…

And because you made it through 500 words about my weight, here’s a picture of my Iguana sleeping on my aero bars.  Happy Friday!

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About Me

I'm a video game producer and a lover of anything game related by trade.  I'm a triathlete by hobby.  I live for being on or in the water as much as I can - scuba diving, snorkeling, paddleboarding, water slides... you name it.  The dichotomy between my outdoor and indoor realities are interesting, but they're all mine!  Longer version here...

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