January update

Numbers

Started the month at 182.5. Ended it at about 181.5lbs. I was trying to lose weight this month but didn’t find as much success as I expected.


I went to the gym every week this month, and did my resistance training every week, though I kept resistance training lighter, since I was (at least intending to be) fueling my body with fewer calories this month and didn’t want to push myself too hard, just enough to maintain muscle mass basically.


I was very successful with my idea of trying to educate myself via ai. I put together, over the course of the month, a list of three dozen or so areas of governance that I want to learn more about, and I’ve made pretty good progress on about a dozen so far, which is pretty exciting.


Reflections

So I went into the month planning for it to be another slow bulk month, but it didn’t take me long to make it a fat loss month instead. There were two main reasons for this. The main one, actually, was fatigue. My muscles were tired - or rather, my nervous system was. The idea of going right back to my previous isometrics regimen, or even a scaled back version of it, was really unappealing, almost unthinkable, even after a two week deload. So if I wasn’t ready to resume training at the same pace, I figured, I might as well put the time to good use by losing weight, especially since I’d been open to some kind of January minicut from the beginning of when I planned out these coming months, back in September.


The other, more predictable/typical reason, is holiday weight gain. I was really surprised; I felt pretty lean in the middle of December, and by the beginning of January I was already quite a bit softer and rounder than I’d like to be. And I didn’t even feel like I let loose all that much! But I guess maybe I’m just not great at guessing the calories of foods that I don’t eat often; presumably I was taking in more than I realized. So it will be nice to reset on that front as well before resuming the slow bulk project. Maybe this will help reinforce some of those foundational habits that are the entirety of my weight loss diet and still core to my slow bulk diet, as well, which would be good.


I’m really excited about the learning that’s happening for me with the ai project. Once I’ve covered my three dozen topics to the point that I’m happy with, I already have ideas for where I’ll go after that. I told a friend last week that I feel like I’m getting, for free, and education that five years ago I couldn’t have gotten almost for any sum of money. I want to take advantage of it.


Predictions

Starting the month at 181.5, planning to continue losing weight this month. It feels like this doesn’t really count as a minicut so far as much as a long deload/maintenance phase. I don’t know; maybe 177 would be nice to reach this next month? That feels unambitious compared to my weight loss in 2024-5, but simultaneously ambitious compared to how this past month has gone. We’ll see what ends up happening.


For BJJ and resistance training, just planning to stay in the weekly habit. Wish me luck.



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