If you’re reading this and you’re not me, it probably won’t be that thrilling. There are plenty of other content nuggets more compelling and scientific to consume on exercise and health. This is the fourth web post that logs what is on my mind so I can refer back to it later. Read April’s here, May’s here and June’s here. The aim is these monthly posts will be valuable to rewire habits and thinking with my training.
Goal: Keep on reducing body fat so I look good on the beach
Results: Progress stalled, workouts and running significantly down, skipping meals has been helping maintain weight
| April 1st | April 29th | May 31st | June 28th | July 29th | Month Change | Total Change | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weight (kg) | 73.1 | 69.8 | 68.6 | 66.1 | 66.4 | +0.3 | -6.7 |
| Fat (%) | 25 | 22.6 | 22 | 20.5 | 20.6 | +0.1 | -4.4 |
| Muscle (%) | 71.2 | 73.4 | 74.1 | 75.4 | 75.4 | 0 | -4.2 |
| Fat Mass (kg) | 18.3 | 15.8 | 15.1 | 13.6 | 13.7 | +0.1 | -4.6 |
I’ve reached what could easily turn into the inflection point. Four months of concentrating on my body, diet and exercise and the progress has stalled. I’ve been here before and gained the weight, undone the habitual cache of exercise and stuffed any old food in my mouth. Today is 1st August, I need a reboot, a level up a back to basics to avoid the inflection point.
There have been a couple of small wins this month, more on that in a bit.
Context: Eighteen weeks into the mission of losing fat, gaining muscle and improving cardiovascular performance I’ve plateaued in the last four weeks. For a variety of reasons I’ve started to fall off the wagon. I need to get back on. July has been crap. Hardly any workouts, running or progression to speak of.
I’m still feeling really motivated to carry on and recalibrate. Not to dwell on the last month for too long, I think it has been a combination of drinking too much, hot weather, holidays, bad sleep (see drinking and hot weather).
How about some good stuff? I put 2KG on going on holiday for a week and eating everything. The good bit – within four days of returning and skipping meals I lost 2.8KG. And, I saw my first sub 20% body fat on the scale – 19.7%.
Not eating is the biggest progression accelerator.
Plan for August
- Full house on training, show up to each planned session
- Drop 2% body fat
- Reduce drinking right down
- Improve sleep
- Get back on the wagon
- Think, research and write about mindsets – what makes us believe we’re staying on the wagon
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