The Bad
- Diet only slightly improved. In general, I’ve been eating higher quality foods, but quantity is still an issue. As a major caveat to my quality improvement, last night during the Super Bowl, I ate a burrito, pizza, chips, and was even dipping leftover chicken nuggets into queso. Oooof. My stomach’s retribution was swift.
- Procrastination only slightly improved. My first post dated Jan 22, 2024 contains photos taken that day and sentiments from that day; however, the post was actually written on the weekend of Feb 10 and 11, 2024. Please forgive me.
The OK
- Resistance training improved. I’m averaging about 3 lifting sessions per week, but I need to be hitting the iron 4 times each week.
- Cardio showing signs of life. I’m performing low-impact medium-intesity cardio for 20 minutes approximately 2 times per week. I’m cognizant of the recovery requirements of my increased resistance training volume, so I’m not trying to reach my goal of 30 minutes 6 times per week right out of the gate, but I’m definitely being lazy about this.
- Alcohol consumption decreased. I’ve historically consumed my junk calories in the form of delicious IPAs, double IPAs, triple IPAs, stouts, imperial stouts, … you get the idea. Craft beer rules! I’ve cut down on the frequency and intensity of my beer consumption, and on the couple of occasions that I’ve had a beer or two (with one notable exception involving a night on the town), it’s been a Guinness (relatively low calorie despite its reputation from folks who’ve never crushed a 375 calorie Dogfish Head Worldwide Stout before) or a Dogfish Head Slighly Mighty IPA (only 95 calories!).
- Sleep is meh. 6-7 hours won’t cut it with my increased recovery needs. I need to get my ass into bed at least 8.5 hours before wake up time so that I can get a solid 8 hours of sleep. In my experience, my meh sleep is contributing to my poor diet habits.
Wrapping Up
I’m 100% aware that sleep and diet are the most important factors for reaching my goal. So far, I’ve been letting myself down by not stepping up in these areas. If I don’t finish this month strong, my measurables are going to be very dissapointing on the 1st of March because this is the period for easy newb gains.