Thursday was solid despite having to improvise and eat at 5 guys

their grilled cheese is delicious and saves some cals over a plain little burger which I find far less satisfying, so all in all, good choices made and still in goal for the day despite not being able to stick to plan

today is a modified plan, but planned, and travel today and tomorrow means likely 2 shakes per day to meet protein goals with road food, but I have a plan and so far that plan is good, so let's do this thing!!!

wed - maintenance

still struggling with massive hunger

I think it's likely hormonal, I have ordered an additional supplement, and doubled my DIM dosage...I am also having trouble sleeping and waking up at 4:30 am for no freaking reason so I do think it's just a combination of PMS week and peri-menopause hormone shifts

I'm also going to do a dumb thing and add ginger tea and lemon juice to my morning coffee...which in theory should help with appetite and digestion, but I have my reservations about that one...I can try it for a couple weeks and just see if I feel any differently or if it helps at all with the raging freaking appetite that I'm so tired of...

yesterday I went through my diet calendar and physically wrote the big pink M on the days I was maintenance (or failed to log) for the month

there were actually only 6 even though they were mostly clustered in the last week...while that's not the way maintenance calories are supposed to work - by plan you never have them back to back - it doesn't erase that I'm not seeing progress as I anticipated on my January plan...I'm really not losing any weight on the scale...I'm not losing any inches in my waist...and I'm not looking visually any slimmer in the belly...that's a lot of work tracking and working out and many many poverty days with no measurable progress...

so, tweaked the plan for feb...took out the running because the weather is just not cooperative and running in the living room is clearly just not the same level of effort and clearly not cutting it...switched to huge beast instead of lean best - had never tried lean before jan, but have seen results with huge, so going back to what I know works, the lean schedule is just not intense enough for me, I think...also added in an extra glute day still using BBL high and tight, mostly because that makes it a weekly schedule instead of a shifting 6 days and for me to stay on track it's just easier if ever day of the week keeps the same exercise for the week because weekend travel gets in the way so I try to make my saturday a rest day...also added in a "doubles" custom version, which is to say Total Body on M/W/F...I will do that at light weights, I'm thinking just 5 lbs to treat it more like a cardio workout and a recovery kind of light muscle activation workout, which I'm hoping will boost up the results a bit...I know I super need to stay on top of nutrition if I'm going to push that hard, so that's goal #2, get the protein in, keep the carbs low, get good food not junk food...

Let's see how feb goes and maybe some better results...winter is a hard time to lose for me anyway, but normally I'm better than this, so time to step it up!!!

Did great yesterday (monday) except for a late night snack, which I logged into today...I'd rather struggle a bit today than be over yesterday...so, planning ahead, and hopefully that's a winner...scale is up today (161) but boobs are enormous and sore, so not sure what's water weight from PMS or what's real...who knows these things????

I feel so gross and icky today...also stomach not happy...this might work well for keeping calories down, but it's going to be total havoc on motivation...just focusing on getting through the day...

Friday was good, maintenance for the first time in a week which is nice, and lots of protein, and total body for cardio, and hot tea in the evening rather than cocktails...all in all quite nice!!!

January results:

up 4 lbs
down 3/8 inch in waist

not terrible...not great either...I did have that week that was mostly maintenance, but was actually very adherent most of the month...so...tweaked it by adding 3 days/week of doubles, tweaked the supplements (notably increasing DIM and adding a tumeric one that's supposed to help with menopause hormones)...and now it's onto phase 2 of beast - let's get bulking

Wednesday was great, both workouts, poverty calories, protein met without a shake, and no alcohol

no alcohol on whiskey wednesday and while spending two hours on the phone with a friend in GA

had a vitamin water instead, it was great

today 158.6 (-1.4 lbs) and 29.75 (-0.75 inches)

nice progress, I'm sure at least some of that is the bloat and water from lucifer's waterfall trailing off, but it still feels good to see progress in the metrics

weekends are such a challenge

did great on friday, fit in both workouts and poverty calories even while traveling - super big win

saturday lots of work on the shed, maintenance calories plus drinking to celebrate a neighbors upcoming wedding, on target except no workouts, it was a stretching day so I'm not super worried

sunday it all falls apart...more work on the shed...plus drinking in the evening which I should have skipped...plus more food than necessary, so another maintenance day, plus no workouts...I should have gotten my booty off the couch and done the working out instead of doing the drinking...

one day already derailed...really need to pull it together

tuesday was mediocre...food mostly on point (like 100 cals over)...2nd workout not done due to getting home from costco super late...hate to miss stretching again, but needed some tv downtime and was still too full from dinner...not great but also not terrible, I really wanted to stuff my face and eat a lot more...stress???