Progress
- Starting weight: 170 pounds
- Current weight: 168 pounds
- Goal: 159 pounds
What went well: Got the workouts in
What went well was actually getting these workouts in. Think that is the thing I’m happiest with from just the past four weeks is that I have been consistently getting three weight workouts in each week.
I’ve also been doing a decent job with the food journal. It’s been a straightforward text file that I’ve been adding to in the Drafts app. The speed of input is really helpful but at some point I’ll probably need to start using something like MyFitnessPal if I want to really evaluate my macros and food choices.
What can be improved: social eating, restaurant choices
I still very much have a treat yourself mentality. A couple things will be helpful for me to keep in mind. First, I regularly listen to Pat Flynn and Dan John and Dan has a phrase: “Eat like an adult“.
Second, this tweet from Dan Go:
When you achieve something avoid rewarding yourself with food.
You’re not a dog. You don’t need a treat.
— Dan Go (@FitFounder) March 26, 2021
At this point a lot of this is really winning the mental game and removing that connection of looking to food as a reward or as comfort. Because then it becomes used in both very good situations and in very bad situations.
I’ve also tended to have a very low bar for what to celebrate with food. Things like “Making it to Friday”.
How did the previous experiment go? (Protein shake + Greens powder lunches)
I’d go with: not great. I think the whole “starve yourself and then eat dinner” works well for some people but not for me so far. I think it hinges on not eating 3 meals worth of food in that single meal. But I like to eat until I hurt.
On the other hand this does work pretty well for hunger for a few hours. I still want to keep this in the routine in some way, so I may do it for the afternoon snack. Or it can really start to become my go-to snack—previously, this has been things like So Delicious ice cream bars or dried mangoes.
Next Experiment: Bringing the shocking rule back – Sauerkraut and Sardines
Last year I tried out some shocking rules, a concept from Ben Horowitz’s “What You Do is Who You Are”. (Check out my post here.)
One of them to try again is sauerkraut and sardines. I actually use mackerel more but sardines provides a nice alliteration. So I could call it Kraut ‘n’ Kerel it’s pretty catchy as well.
In any case this would be about adding some daily food choices—this fish and fermented food combo would be for healthy fat and gut health.
A list of daily things that I can try to take in:
- AM
- Vitamin D & Fish oil
- Anytime
- Sauerkraut
- Sardines (or other canned fish)
- Broccoli (1/2 lb lunch, 1/2 lb dinner)
- Before bed
- Magnesium
A book quote to share
This one is from “Decoding Greatness: How the Best in the World Reverse Engineer Success“.
The second best practice is to aim for balance in the types of metrics you collect. One example of balance is tracking a combination of behaviors and outcomes. For some, there is a temptation to focus only on behaviors because behaviors are controllable, while outcomes, in many cases, are not. That’s a mistake. The only way to find lead indicators is to record both actions and outcomes and work backward, uncovering hidden drivers.
Actions and outcomes. I currently have been posting the outcome metric (weight) in these posts. I have been tracking food (in the Drafts app) and weight workouts (in the Strong app) but it could be worth posting all of those in some way here as well.
(And, yes, the scale number isn’t as useful as accurate fat % and lean muscle, so I’ll try to get those in the next 8-week cycle.)
Let’s keep it going!