And I break at the bend

August has been a challenging month. I've spent much of it in maintenance mode, with slightly lower activity levels and less hardcore adherence to dieting. It's been good for me health-wise, and I've still managed to improve my fitness level - even if the progress is somewhat marginal when compared to the previous months.

I've finally relented to my wife's request that I replace my now ill-fitting wardrobe. Goodbye 48 waisted pants, hello 36s as of this weekend. Shirts will be getting replaced in the coming weeks, I suppose... Well, most of them, anyway.

I was under the weather to end last week, and missed 3 days of workouts for the first time since I began this all in February. Truth be told, I probably shouldn't have run Friday - it felt like it set my recovery from whatever I had back at least a couple days. Running again this morning and keeping up the pace as though I hadn't missed a beat was fantastic, and reaffirms that slacking off a bit this month is better for my long-term health and fitness goals than if I'd burned myself out trying to push through, knowing I needed to recharge.

Next week I'll begin a new weightlifting routine. I'm excited, but I'll miss my current program at the same time.  One thing that I can say about this month though is that I've probably had the best musculature gains of any so far this year.  While I attribute a lot of it to the workouts of the past 4 weeks, the extra calories and relaxed cardio program definitely played their parts, too.

I'm really ready for the fall weather to arrive... Assuming that it does, that is.

Changing Seasons

For around 3 week now, I've been coasting.

For 5 1/2 months prior, my foot was on the gas and the pedal was floored. But for a multitude of reasons, towards the end of July, I made the executive decision to chill out for a while.

Alcohol. White bread. White rice. Lots of takeout. Lots less exercise.

I didn't get out of shape. My life didn't fall apart. I lived a little, as the saying goes.

It was needed, so I did it.

But sometime last night, in the middle of a dream, that old, familiar voice spoke up very clearly, and told me that it was time.

So this morning I got up, food prepped today's meals (around 1100 calories), ran a mile and a half, knocked out 500 crunches, and got my mind set on being below 200 lbs by  October 31st.

Let the games recommence.