Not sure I like where this is trending.
Everyone at work is looking to lose weight/get into shape. I'll grant you, everyone there needs to lose weight/get into shape, so their willingness to make an effort is a good thing. What's remarkable is their methodology.
One guy has gone vegetarian, walking daily. Two guys are juicing - one of those two is eating only juice. One other is jogging, with no real dietary changes. One last guy is mostly talking about getting ready to get ready to get serious about getting fit.
Everyone but the last guy has shown at least some improvement in the last month or two - scaling down from zeppelins to mere blimps; talking about 25 lbs lost here and there.
No methodology to the science behind it though - no telling how many pounds of muscle lost, or how big the weight gain on the rebound is going to be when they eventually give up and put it all back on (with interest). Bah, none of those guys listens to me.
When one's completely untrained with lifestyle habits in the Chronically Pathetic range, any positive change can show immediate, short term improvement. From a standstill, it's easy to show movement. Anyone can do it.
Then there's me, the Perpetually Intermediate-bordering-on-Advanced, doing some few things right year after year. Regular strength training. Good flexibility. Low to no refined sugar in the diet.
I promised myself at New Year's that I was going to step up my fitness game this year. When one already has some momentum, it's hard to see a speed increase. But, I too have seen some improvement over the last few months, not because I've knuckled down and done more of the same, or the same with more grit and intensity (although those things are fractionally true as I've had some higher frequency in my training, and have added weight - read: added intensity - to my regularly scheduled lifts), but because I've focused on a few additional aspects of fitness that I'd played down over the years, mostly nutritionally:
- I'm paying attention to my macros and keeping my protein intake high enough to ensure continued strength gains while keeping carbs low enough to slowly shed fat. Not doing this optimally, mind you, but doing it well enough and consistently enough. I'm tracking calories only as a general guideline to keep from gaining too much, too fast.
- Ignoring the grain beverages. I know, the hypocrisy of eschewing donuts and ice cream and pie and pasta and pizza and breads, but hammering ales. What can I say? I lived through the Clinton presidency. This is a small hypocrisy. But I don't really ever even want a beer now, and this nuance not only makes my carb macro numbers easier to meet, but removing that gluten from my diet makes me feel better, and look and feel less ... puffy.
- I'm doing IF. This doesn't even require effort, but I'm attributing a lot of my fat loss since January to it. I'll measure in a couple of days, and I anticipate seeing no loss of muscle but continued fat loss since the last check.
- I don't think my ability to recover has improved much, but I'm recovering more easily from daily sessions because I'm finally doing all the things I need to do in order to recover. I'm drinking a lot more water than I had been. No alcohol to dehydrate me. No evening drink of wine or beer for thirst or habit. Evening seltzer water is more relaxing.
I'm sleeping on a schedule - 9ish to 6:30. If I'm late, 10 to 6:30 is still 8.5 hours.
Taking the vitamins and BCAAs and Whey protein.
Some of this seems fundamental. And it is. Just like the way I look at the inadequacies in my co-workers' fitness plans, if I had some coaching/someone to shake my shoulder and ask me why dafuq, I probably would have instituted these aspects of training years ago. But I didn't, and in my ignorance (IF, say) or inertia (Beer and overeating, say) nothing inched up incrementally.
But it's inching now. Three consecutive nights having beers, and I don't feel like myself. Incrementally, I'm unveiling a new self.
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