This week I actually gained 2.6 lbs. or 1.2 kg.  In a twist I dropped .7% in my body fat, though.  So what does this mean?  Well, in my opinion it means several things:

1. 
   
2. I went over my daily allotted calories due to not tracking.
   
3. Thankfully those calories went to building muscle.
   
4. I most likely did not burn as much fat as I would have if I had stayed “on track”.
   
5. This is still a positive week because it’s essentially a “non-scale victory”.
   

I can’t say that I was truly pleased about the weight gain, but I understand why it happened.  Last week after my weight loss challenge concluded I went into a mindset that was a little bit self-sabotaging.  Namely I started binging.  Not only binging, but binging on food that wasn’t good for me like candy and snacks.  Things that were mostly high calorie, but low on the “filling”.  I also didn’t track my food a large portion of the time and I just made bad choices all around.  That’s OK though, because I gained in muscle thanks to my workout schedule.  Essentially I ate like a powerlifter, even though that’s not my goal. Another positive that is coming out of it is that currently I’m in a better frame of mind when it comes to eating and I’d rather get it out of my system now than while I’m on vacation in Dallas.

I did take some steps to help me while at home though.  I threw out all the candy that I found tempting.  I also started making myself journaling once again.  I’ve also started mulling over my attitude of restrictions towards food and if I’m depriving myself rather than passing on something that I just don’t crave anymore.  For example if I want to eat a burger, that’s fine.  I can find a way to fit that into my daily diet.  However, if I find myself at McDonald’s do I still want that burger, or would I rather have one that’s quality?  And if I pass on that burger, am I being selective or restrictive?  I’m also starting the book “Full-Filled” over again and working through the exercises to try and get a better grip on my mental state and see if I can analyze why else I may be having issues with binging.

So yes, I’m going on vacation next week and I’m pretty excited.  I’ll be seeing a number of people that I knew in High School, both friends and their parents.  I’m looking forward to seeing them and seeing how they react to my current body.  The last time they saw me was just over 3 years ago and I wasn’t in very good shape.  I’m still not in prime condition, but I’m probably in the best shape I’ve ever been in.  I’m interested because I remember a podcast where someone stated that when they went to a job where people hadn’t seen them lose the weight they felt that there was an adjustment they had to go through mentally because they were no longer getting “kudos” from people.  She was no longer the person who lost weight, she was just that person.  So she had to adjust to this new role and it threw her identity off a bit until she finally adjusted.  I know at some point I will reach that point in my life and I wonder what it will be like for me.  There’s a part of me that’s wondering if Dallas will be a glimpse of that.

As far as the gym goes, things are going well.  I have been pretty tired a couple of days this week, but I’ve been to the gym every day.  The new routine is progressing well, but I did find that I failed on the last rep of my last set of bench presses.  For those who may not remember, but what this means is that I may not be able to progress in that exercise if I do not gain in my strength in the next couple of weeks. If in two weeks I cannot finish any of the sets on my “heavy day” then I will have to keep that exercise at its existing weight for the next cycle.  Not that it would be a bad thing since obviously more weight would be counterproductive, but it would be a bit of a disappointment to me.  In order to try and help myself I’ve started up the push-up regimen in Runtastic’s SitUps Pro again to see if I can gain some more strength that way.  I’m not sure if it will actually help or not, but it’s an experiment.

I’m also going to try going to a gym while I’m on vacation in Dallas.  My father contacted several gyms to see what they would offer for someone visiting and he was able to find one relatively close to my parents’ house that will let me have a week-long guest pass for only $15.  I consider this to be a pretty good deal so I’m going to take them up on it.  However, if this gets in the way of my time with my family I’ll throw it out the window and take the time off.  My little brother mentioned to me that he’d like to go to the gym with me while I’m there, so we’ll see how that turns out too.

So often we concentrate on the scale, but we can’t always allow ourselves to be fooled by those.  There are many reasons why these numbers go up and down including water loss, body cycles, muscle gain, and even the climate changing.  Bodies are mysterious things and they tend to be very frustrating at times.  For example if I didn’t have an Omron to measure my body fat I’d never have known that muscle gains attributed to my weight gain this week.  I would have just concluded that it was all fat.  So sometimes what we need to concentrate on are factors outside of the scale.

1. 
   
2. Planning a meal menu
   
3. Lifting more weight at the gym
   
4. Finding your cardio easier than it had been previously
   
5. Losing weight on vacation
   
6. Exercising consistently (or at all)
   
7. Putting importance on your health
   
8. You start bringing your lunch to work/school
   
9. Feeling more confident in your appearance
   
10. Fitting into old clothes or noticing your current clothes are too loose.
    
11. You make healthy choices when dining out
    
12. Researching a restaurant before you go there.
    
13. Feeling better physically and/or mentally
    
14. Tried a new healthy recipe
    
15. You start a new hobby
    
16. Notice a physical change in yourself
    

Dodge,

All caught up on my SIOC podcast listening.  Love the updates, and your insight.

Keep up the good work.  Your time/efforts are much appreciated.

Can’t wait for the next release.

Jason

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