D5: 10.18.15

When I left for the trip, last weigh-in was 247…weigh-in after my return was 250. One of the biggest changes and one I’m most satisfied with is my being able to drop immediately back into a dietary mindset that forces me to think about each food choice before I make it. One by itself, in the long run, will not matter, but each one is a brick. Let too many slide and the question then becomes whether you’re building a wall or a pile of bricks…

Now...given that I was up 3 pounds after that 10 days is attributable to a few things. Those would be not controlling my diet to the extent I was prior to leaving and the addition of beer. In addition to my stunning ability to very easily add pounds, I also have a fairly high chemical tolerance, so this means a lot of calories from beer...add to this some fairly unhealthy choices food-wise and a lot of work, but not at a lot of activity and the sort of phantom weight drop from the previous postings is gone, but it seems a lot like bloat...we'll see as this week progresses.

Taking my family on a business trip was an interesting experience, but one not likely to be repeated. Without getting into sidetracking specifics, solely on the fitness front, as mentioned, there was the diet issue, but also I didn't get any chances particularly to get in any workout time and was mostly too gassed even if did. Left to my own devices, I would have probably forced the issue and fully intend on training at least 3 of the days the next time I go up there for another week-long trip. I will also be packing protein powder for the stay, which I also didn't do this time...

Today was conversely a lot of activity and as soon as I got back into town yesterday afternoon, I re-took the diet reigns again. In addition to lots of playing outside with my son, I also got right back onto the Air Dyne tonight. Here's that:

Workout: Cardio
Equipment Used: Schwinn AirDyne
Duration: 5.75 miles/~25 minutes
Driver: DBX: Songs For The Wrong
Calories: unknown

Quality Level: N/A I punted a bit early tonight because I was a bit tired from both the trip and the outdoors activity, which varied quite a bit but was mostly chasing around an energetic 5 year old. I also want to try to sidestep my ass being sore a bit, if possible. I was able to keep the admittedly very low level of the previous workouts, even at near double the time. Until I get to the point of going through an entire CD (or at least 45 minutes) consistently, duration-wise, then I can begin to actually start working on cardiovascular improvement on a more training level.

Observations/Intel:  I can tell my mindset is starting to return back to previous days as I also started shopping gyms today. I don't really need to do this for a couple reasons...first, I don't intend on going to one at all in 2015, let alone regularly and second, if I do want to hit one, the hotel I typically stay at has at least a modest one. But...it's good to know what's out there, since the two 24 Hours by me and entirely unsuitable and I'm not driving across town. Fuck VASA/Gold's whatever the fuck and their stupid contracts, so that leaves either private gyms or another chain. The only one that is in both areas would by Anytime Fitness, so I might (probably will) go on-site to one of those to check it out...

My "soft" (*ahem*) goal is to be down to 235 by the end of this year and I may return then both the gym a lot more regularly and to a site I used to frequent, but I can't very well say I'm back until I'm actually back and realistically, that's more like a drop down to 220 before I'm going to consider myself within reason, so I'm back to exercising regularly, then back to actually working out, but a few miles down the road before "back" back, if that makes sense... With that long of a layoff, it may take a while, especially given that I can't dive full headlong right into it and have to make some compromises along the way...