Thread: Checking in

This board seems to be a little dead lately. Not a complaint, just an observation.

But that is the nature of a community like this. Mainly people show up when they are on protocol only. Once off protocol, it is good to live life. But that usually brings us back to the protocol to bring things back under control. So like many others around here, I come back by to share my story and see how everybody is doing now that my mind and attention is back on protocol.

Which leads me to where I am today.

My last round was a 23 day course in July. Did very well. Got down to 210lbs. Again. Once again, had a very hard time maintaining at that weight in P3. My body has a hard time staying there. Instead, it wants to be in the 215 range. Over time, I lose my grip on things a bit, some old eating habits creep in little by little and the weight creeps up. This happens every time. So my weight ended up where it really likes to be, which is around 225. Then a vacation, some more good times then Thanksgiving weekend and I am sitting at 232.

On my journey to an all around better well being, I decided that tennis could not be my source of fitness. It is just something I do that happens to burn a lot of calories. it is also hard on the body. So I added a weight lifting and flexibility training regimen beginning early November. I am sure adding muscle added a little weight but most of it was my own doing.

So, my wife and I are back on our second annual pre-christmas round. I love the timing of this. I load Thanksgiving weekend, then while everybody is out having fun and expanding their waists with holiday fun foods and drinks, I am ahead of the game. So when everybody else dutifully begins their New Year's resolutions, I am already done. That is the plan at least.

Things are different this round. My wife and I both picked up covid-19 at our Thanksgiving celebration. So from day 2 of loading through the first week, I was either sick with covid or quarantined at home. I was very sick on loading day 2, a little less sick on VLCD 1 and less and less the rest of the week. Loss of smell and fatigue was with me for the entire week. But the protocol went on just fine. Especially so considering the fact that I did not have much of an appetite the first week. The weight came off more than past rounds. But the second week once I was well have been a stall-fest. Most of last week, I was stalled around 220. Dropped 2 pounds Thursday morning, a half pound Friday morning, then the scale has been stuck at 218 ever since. I have been around the block in terms of this protocol so I am well aware that the scale isn't the end all or be all. But all things equal, it is far better to watch the numbers on the scale get lower every day. I also remembered this morning that my last BM was like last Thursday. Oops. Yes, that has been addressed. Hopefully the scale will be my friend tomorrow.

But here is the cool thing. My body is getting progressively smaller. A couple of years ago, I hit last dose day weighing 218lbs. My measurements (Hip, waist, thigh) were 38", 34.5", 22.5". This morning, I was at 218 with another week to go and my measurements are 35", 33", 21". That is amazing. My ending measurements from my last round were 35", 32.5", 21" and that was right below 210lbs. The previous round where I ended up at 210lbs had measurements of 36", 33", 21". So that tells me that even though I don't seem to be making much progress in terms of the scale, I am successfully reshaping my body a bit. I think the weight training has something to do with both a slightly heavier weight than last round at the same point but a smaller mid section. But to be fair, my regimen is barely a month old and I skipped an entire week due to covid.

Another new thing in my daily routine is that I added Athletic Greens to my ritual. It is a green powder that gives you all the nutrients you need from vegetables. This takes pressure off of me to prepare a lot of vegetables. To be honest, I might be overdoing it a bit on protein. But I am happy with my progress overall.

Moving forward, my plan is for LDD to be Sunday or Monday. We will see on that. I will be on P3 for Christmas and New Years. My wife and I plan on jumping back into another 10 days on January 10. Our break will be too long to be considered a planned interruption so we will re-load before resuming. After those 10 days, we should be at our lightest and skinniest, which is great because we are going to Costa Rica the last week of January.

Tennis has been great. This year has been epic. My team made it to Nationals in October. Bucket list deal for sure. I was able to keep my rating at 3.5 for 2023 so I will have plenty opportunities for advancement. I will be physically stronger and more flexible in 2023 which should help with the tennis. I was physically beat up this year.

Anyway, that is all I got for now. Hope you all are doing well

Thank you and no worries on the screen shots. My wife was taking psyllium husk in gel caps this round. Helped with fullness. I should take this myself. For me, I believe diet is more important than exercise. I can play tennis 6 days per week, 3 hours at a pop and for some reason the weight seems to go up if I eat poorly. Maybe an exaggeration but not too far off. But that is very helpful information.