Take Care Not to Care

Don't ever let someone's negative and unwelcome outside perspective touch the goodness that you've got inside of you.

People often don't give a second thought to your fragility. They're not there for the planning, the execution, the trials and tribulations. They don't know about the countless ups and downs. They don't see your hard work, and their opinion of your results may not align with their own vision of success.

Harden your heart, dull your senses, avert your gaze and attention from those things which do not push you forward. Everyone is not a member of your circle, so don't give them the best seats in the house.

Your energy is precious. Use it to make your life and the lives of those who matter the most better.

It's worth it... And then some.

Morning follow-up

Woke up naturally at around 5am, 30 min before my alarm.

And I lay there, contemplating.

My tracker says that I got 5h 40m of sleep. Feels dead accurate, and that is less sleep than is ideal.

My knee is aching a bit more. It was getting better, but I seem to have tweaked it again, somehow.

I'm tired. And I anticipate a challenging day at work.

Seemingly a million reasons for me to stay in bed.

But when my 5:30 alarm went off, I did not hesitate.

I made a promise to myself to go all in...

So I'm going all in.

No shortcuts. No cutting corners. No missed opportunities. All gas, no brakes.

Time to get moving.

70 Days of Weights

Decided to food prep way too many lbs of chicken breast this evening - prior to tonight's strength training, and immediately after a 30 min walk in the hot sun.

Started on the grill but barely got 1/3 of it on, and my energy was waning fast. Got 1/3 in the air fryer and the rest into the oven. All 3 were tasty, but the air fryer might have been the best (my grill wasn't hot enough, I think. Live and learn).

I got in more steps before hitting the weights... Or rather, before the weights hit me, repeatedly, and with conviction.

I almost quit a few times. Going back to lifting heavy after a week of lighter weight was both physically and psychologically hard. But I did it, to the fullest.

It hurt. Taxed me to a level I wasn't sure that I could still rise to in the decades since I was last super serious about lifting and doing it with metronomic consistency, day in and day out.

But I went there, and I made it back out again.

Barely.

But I did it. I'm here, I didnt sell myself short, and I'm better for the effort of having done it.

I'm beat. But this chicken is making it at least a bit better.

Week in review

I made the decision a week ago today to lower the weights for almost all of my lifts, and concentrate on form, slowing down (particularly on the negative portion) and full contraction pauses during my reps. Probably going back to lifting heavy this week though, as I finalize a few more profound changes to my lifting program that will be coming soon.

All in all, it was good for my joint health, my mental health, and just gave me enough of a change so as to get me through some challenging times.

Food wise, I kept things largely whole foods based and clean as always. Did a bit more food prep, which was just what I needed given the hectic work week.

I restricted my carbs a bit more on most days than has been normal recently. Still ate tons of protein, tons of fresh veggies (especially tons of greens) and some fruit. Upped my fiber a bit more.

It was a nice cycle change that I may stick with this week, too.

Movement wise - I have been averaging between 140k and 170k steps a week for a while now. This seems to be sustainable and pretty effective as far as me achieving my desired fitness goals. I haven't done as much intense mobility work as in weeks prior, but I still did enough to progress in that area overall. I need to find more pockets of time to fit a bit more in, though.

I have a list of to-do's that I want to accomplish today. Went to bed really early, got up really, really early, and I'm kind of in a weird space right now. I need to just get moving and not think too much... 

Sometimes thinking just gets in the way of doing.

Weigh Day

4 more lbs down.

I've had to remind myself a few times lately to stay in the moment, that this is a long journey, and not to project my thoughts too far into the future, and not to dwell on the past.

It's hard sometimes. But I'm managing to stick to that mindset more often than not.

I want to not only make this progress stick, but I want to take it further than I ever have.

But that only happens one step at a time.

Time tracking

69 days of eating right.

66 days of exercise.

100% committed, focused, and determined to take this as far as possible for as long as possible.

Marking this down to look back at later to see how well I've maintained this level of effort and consistency.

This close...

It was 10:30pm when I began tonight's strength training session.

Yes, I'd already gone past 20k steps for the day hours ago. Been active. Eaten the correct foods in the proper amounts. But I opted to have an earlier than normal dinner with the fam vs. lifting first then eating alone. Chilled a bit, took a short nap. Almost stayed down, considered saying I'd been very productive and deserved to skip a day.

Nah. Not gonna do that.

I haven't cut a corner this far in, and I'm sorry but today was NOT the day for it.

Killed a leg workout. Pushed my step count even higher. Did my daily core training.

Already up later than is ideal, and it'll be a couple hours before I wind down enough to go to bed. But it was 100% worth it to keep the streak alive.

LETS GO

Focus

It is super important to stay focused on your goals, and to carefully manage what you devote your time and energy to.

Sometimes, what appears to be innocent - even beneficial - can be an element of chaos as far as the efforts that you're taking towards self-improvement.

It is a work in progress to learn the lessons that our lives try to teach us. Sometimes it is easier than is at other times to navigate the path we've set for ourselves. Sometimes you encounter an influence that alters your path.

Honest internal discourse and not losing sight of the future that you wish to live in can help you remain aligned with your vision. Your intentions should be geared towards keeping the water flowing, and to help you to avoid that which might poison your own well.

Rising

To be aware of and contemplate the seemingly infinite, while attending to and remaining rooted in the seemingly miniscule.

This is the way.

Weigh in

2 more lbs down this week.

In dealing with my knee issues over the last couple weeks, I've done 4 recovery focused things.

1) Kept my step count lower (still over 20k but minus 3k per day average this week vs last week)

2) Eaten on the upper edge of my calorie allotment to give myself some extra fuel to promote healing.

3) Limited some mobility work and stretches that put too much stress on the injured area.

4) Modify a couple of leg exercises to both give the injury some space to heal properly and to strengthen and engage more of my stabilizing/accessory muscles.

Knee still isn't 100% but it getting better every day. And I still haven't missed a workout, cheated my diet, or slacked off on steps and cardio.

2 lbs down? I'll take it.

Lets GO.

Disruptions

Be stronger than the forces that would serve as inhibitors to your goals and intentions.

Block that shit out, Baby. Stay on your path, obstacles be damned.

Reloaded

Time to kick the week in the teeth.

LFG

Rest, recovery, and pain management

Really feeling it today.

Truthfully, this has been building up to this point for several days. Knee pain, ankle pain, hips/lower back pain. Feeling a bit inflamed. 

Might be dietary, as I've had more red meat over the last week than I have in the month prior. Had a bit more refined, high-glycemic carbs also. Neither of those are a smoking gun, but not much else would be different as far as eating goes.

Movements might be to blame. I have dropped dumbell leg curls from my leg workouts for the time being, as I first felt the pain during that movement. My hamstrings already get a lot of work via traditional squats, 45 degree lunges, the eccentric half of cable leg extensions, and Romanian deadlifts - all done in sequence via a superset, repeated 3x, twice each week - plus the 20k plus in steps 7 days a week.

Could absolutely be overwork. For now, a bit of ibuprofen, some mobility training, some ice therapy, and maybe less intensity as it relates to getting steps in will get me feeling right again.

I thought today would be a cakewalk with no weight training, but I've got some work to do in order to be ready for tomorrow.

Weigh Day

Down 4 more pounds this week.

That is more than I expected, and a welcome sight, given how hard this week was to navigate. But I'm still batting a thousand - no cheat foods, sticking to the plan, working my literal butt off, and showing up every day throughout the day.

LETS GO

Sleep breakthrough

7h 5m of sleep last night. That is a big win.

This comes after days of trying to regulate my nighttime routine and lock in on a set bedtime. Too early to tell if this'll stick, but here's hoping...

Also hit a new step count high of over 28k. Getting them in throughout the day really is the key to ramping up one's overall activity level.

I ate a few more carbs yesterday than was ideal. Still within my margins, and they were good carb sources, but not the best practice for me to have the best results for fat loss.

My muscles love it tho. Full glycogen stores have me feeling big and strong right now.

I practive progressive overload religiously, but I'm thinking it might be about time to switch up my training programming. It'll still be 6 days on and 1 day off, and the muscle groups trained on a given day will stay constant, but the movements, total sets and total reps may change.

Still mulling it over... We shall see.

Weigh day tommorow. Hoping for more positive results. I'm working too dang hard for anything less than consistent progress towards my fitness goals.