Holy crap I’m pretty sick of work travel. I have definitely been stalwart with my exercising habits but it is just too easy to eat more at a restaurant because of portion sizes. I ordered way too much food for one dinner last Wednesday, paid way too much for it, and didn’t even eat half of it. It has given me some interesting data on how my weight fluctuates though.
Weight Update
First of all, I think eating more allows your stomach/body to hold way more water. I have a hard time believing my body can hold 7-8 pounds of food. Maybe it’s possible but I believe a portion of this is water weight. When there’s less in my stomach, it makes sense that my body will absorb, process, and release it more quickly. This also means it gets out of my system before I measure my weight. In the end, I think this reasoning will help me not freak out when I see that I “gained all that weight back”.
The second thing I found interesting was how easily my weight has come back down. Even if it spikes up 5 pounds in a day, it only takes three days for my weight to come back down. This is pretty encouraging to me. Whenever I used to screw up my diet, I would think about how much progress I lost and that it wasn’t even worth trying to get back on track. Both times my weight spiked, it looks like my body took a few days to process the extra food and my body weight came back down to 171.
Exercise Update
Exercise has continued to be something I really enjoy as I push myself more and more. For me, having both set/rep goals and time goals for sessions is very helpful. Pyramids have been an easy way to set rep goals. Adding another 5 to (for example, 20 to 25) adds a lot of intensity without needing to change the mechanics or expectations of what the workout is like. And time is important because it doesn’t let me get away with an “easy” workout. If I’m done my normal routine in 15 minutes, I have 45 minutes that I need to fill up. Even if that’s just walking, it’s better than going home.
Budget Update
I tried out Trader Joe’s because my mom has been raving about them and I was surprised how cheap it was. She was telling me the quality of the meat and produce is higher than Costco. I’m not sure how true that is but I liked the stuff I bought last week and there is one 5 minutes from my new house. Here’s what that breakdown looks like
The chicken can be stretched out to 4 meals per pack. The steak can be stretched out to 2 meals. I’m thinking I will buy 3 steaks, 2 chicken thighs, and 3 brussel sprouts packs. This around $60 a week, which would extrapolate to $240 a month, giving me $160 to eat out with friends. The chicken is definitely not as efficient as buying from Costco, but I enjoyed being able to switch up what I was eating mid-week. When I buy at Costco, the portions are so large that I need to focus on eating a huge back of food within that week.
Leave A Reply