August update

Numbers

Weight: I finished last month weighing 165, aiming to end this month below 170. I finished this month again around 165.


BJJ, musculation, cardio: I did BJJ every week and thought about it quite a bit between classes; I feel like I’ve hit a good approach to how I’m learning BJJ lately and it seems to be showing up on the mats (I’ve gotten a lot harder to submit and I’m even getting the occasional submission against people who’ve been training much longer than I have). Doing musculation every week, and have added pull-ups and dips back in as well for the last few weeks. With cardio I’ve been making progress in my interval training and generally feeling pretty good about how it translates to BJJ practice.


Cruising mindset: I think the mindset is going well. I don’t think about it much during the month but looking back now, I am straining to improve and fantasizing about being better but not afraid of not improving and at peace with where I’m at, so it’s feeling pretty good overall.


Reflections

I spent several days hovering right at 170 early in the month, and then slowly dropped back down to the mid-160s in the later part of the month. At this weight it is hard for me to lose weight quickly. But I really like this weight range. When I lose weight the pounds come off more slowly which is probably good for muscle retention, and when pounds come on despite my best efforts they come on slowly which is probably good for muscle growth. And, I just look pretty lean. Someone at BJJ this month said to me, when I was changing into a non-sweaty shirt after class, “dude, you are actually shredded! I hope I look like that when I’m your age.” That was amazingly cool to hear. This is someone who never knew me when I was superobese. They just see me as someone who’s reasonably muscular and unusually lean. That was a highlight of the month for sure.
So I should keep aiming to lose, while feeling okay with it if it doesn’t happen on my preferred timeline, in order to keep those benefits. So I’ll still say that my goal is just to stay under 170, but I should probably be trying to drift slowly to around 160 if my body will allow it (that’s lower than I’ve ever been).
That’s basically why I’m doing the ten pound window - I want to try to learn to stay around 160 but give myself the latitude to grow a bit above that without being too strict. But it is definitely a challenging range for me so it’s good that there is that flexibility built into the goal.
Musculation: I always talk about how consistent I’ve been with my isometrics because it can be hard to see really much progress over a month in my actual musculature. But let me tell you. For the first time since maybe like October or November, I feel like my target muscles got bigger this last month or two. A bit more volume and a lot more protein. I guess it does make a difference. 
Adding in dips and pull-ups was surprisingly hard. It was unexpected how much strength I had lost, though I got much of it back pretty quickly. The first week my shoulders were very creaky and achy. That’s one reason why I think I’ll want to try to keep these exercises back in the rotation - see if I can try and keep my shoulders adapted and strong.
BJJ has been cool this month. I’m really refining my hypothesis/experimentation approach. I’ve been focused more on the standing portion of grappling lately and that’s felt productive I think, but I’ve also made progress in other areas (I need to keep experimenting but I feel like I’ve had a significant breakthrough with passing this month as well). I’m really excited to improve at BJJ and really want to get better as quickly as I can.

Predictions

Weight: Stay under 170 this month. If I can get closer to 160 that would be great but I’ll view that more as a nice bonus.


BJJ, musculation, cardio: mainly just consistency. I will hope to make progress but as long as I’m still doing at least the bare minimum every week I’ll be happy with that.


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