Good morning!
Photos from yesterday's rehearsal are in!
Since we (for now) is downgraded to a power trio with no singer, we asked a photographer friend to stop by and shoot a few pictures of us, for Facebook etc.
The results are pretty damn good. Check it out:
(All photos by Thomas Buchberg)
Should you be in doubt, I'm in the last picture. :)
It's amazing what a great eye and stellar cameras and lenses can do. We're so jused to seeing smartphone pictures these days, and it's just mind blowing how much better this is.
Rehearsal was great. Thomas brought his wife and her sister+boyfriend, and they were lovin' it. We had a great time.
When I came home, Wife had made General Tso's Chicken from scratch! Wow.
This is one of those things. Having moved from the US to Denmark, there is a LOT of foods that we just can't buy, and if we do find them they just don't taste the same.
So Wife has simply learned to make a lot of it from scratch.
This was a first for her, and it came out perfect. We all loved it, and I am sure it will be a regular around here.
Now, if only it didn't have so many calories. LOL. I spend about 1200 calories on dinner yesterday.
It's a good thing that I didn't spend calories on much else, other than SKYR to up my protein intake.
I ended the day at 2100 calories, 900 under my allowance. They'll go in the stack of "extra calories" for when I want a fun day. This, mind you, is after subtracting 500 calories for weight loss. :)
My spreadsheet is being VERY generous to me in regards to calorie allowances these days. This is because of my very active days over the last month or so. I did a LOT more steps and a lot more movement than I normally do.
It'll even out over time. Right now I'm just enjoying that I can be a little more free.
Of course, this doesn't change the fact that I need to be in a calorie deficit TODAY if I want to lose some fat. I am sure I am in a deficit at 2100 calories, though. That's pretty obvious.
Since I am in no rush, I just follow my spreadsheet's calculations. This is the best way to make adjustments regardless, to ensure that the spreadsheet is correct too. This is still my biggest concern in all this.
Actually, I'm not concerned with the spreadsheet. I'm concerned about whether my fitbit is too generous handing me calories burned, and thus allowing me to eat too much. I'm still not sure about this.
It's definitely a ball park okay number I get. I just need to find out if it is more beneficial for me to take a slightly lower number, like maybe 95% of it, instead of it all.
I need this to be relatively accurate, at least over time. There will be a time where I want to GAIN weight in order to gain muscle. At this point it is also essential that I don't read the calorie burn too low.
I need it to be as close to the real world as possible.
...
I'm 400g down in weight today.
Overall, though, I'm still slowly gaining weight. And I'm still slowly gaining fat. This is what my 28 days averages tell me. I think I am turning it around though. The reason it tells me that there is still trouble and bad news is because of the many days I have lost control over the last month. My average intake is several hundred calories higher then my average calorie burn. Of course I have gained weight.
Still, I'm turning it around, and I am sure results will show soon.
Today, I - again - have one of those "low fluid" days. It's weird. I have never before had a day where my fluid percentage was less than 60%, and this is the 3rd day in a row. Ever.
I don't really care about that number (other than that it pushes my metabolic age up, which really hurts my pride!), but of course lowering my fluid percentage will up my body fat percentage, as these are relative numbers.
I know that these numbers can fluctuate wildly, but they ARE indicators of thing changing.
Let's see what happens. I am certain that I am on the right track on my calorie intake and macros. It's just a matter of my body adjusting to my changes, and me staying off the high calorie candies. :) Damn candies.
...
I'm proud that I made it through the weekend without stupid snacks. Even Saturday, which was a very quite and passive day. This is typically one of those days where I would binge on sugar. I didn't, and I'm proud of that.
I think it helps me that I stay very satisfied on my foods. I eat what I am allowed, or at the very least the minimum that my body requires.
Another thing is that I try to remember to eat a little more and better on training days. I try to get a little extra carbs in for energy, as I know that the training burns quite a bit extra. Not only while doing it, but also as an after burn. I think it's pretty important to stay energized, and the energy comes from the carbs.
I'm trying to not be scared of having carbs in general. As long as I burn them off, there is no danger in carbs. The worst I can see happening is them holding on to fluid, and I don't care about that. Hell, the worst that could happen would be the fluid hydrating me and my metabolic age going back to 29! :) I wouldn't mind that!
...
So, today is training day. I'm gonna go walk a little bit, then hit the gym.
Again, I'm not gonna walk excessively, but I will take a detour walking to the gym, giving me an extra mile going there, and an extra mile going back.
Then, I'll be active in general though the day. Let's see if that doesn't give me 10,000 steps or more.
If it doesn't, that's fine. I don't want to be obligated to do 10,000 steps, but it's a nice goal. I have so many days where I am much higher, so days with less are just fine.
It's all a matter of finding the level of food intake vs. comfort level that I am comfortable with.
...
At some point I decided that 3,000 calories as a daily allowance was a nice place to be, for maintenance. I think I will still end up there on most days. That's what I see.
The days where I walk a LOT more, I tend to just burn a few hundred calories more, and they are nice to have to up the allowance in general. However, they are also tedious and hard work to earn.
Are they really necessary? Not really? All they do is give me a slightly higher carb allowance, that I would most likely spend on junk eventually.
Walking about 3-4 miles earns me 250 calories. That's a Snickers, regular size, pretty much. Is ONE SNICKERS really worth walking a full hour? I don't think so.
In that case, I'd rather just be a little more laid back and comfortable, and eat good food.
I'm generally active, whether I do the extra walks or not, so I am in no way concerned with not doing extra cardio. In fact, I often fail to see the point to it.
...
Today, I'm thankful for:
- A wonderful weekend!
- The band! So much fun yesterday!
- Wife for being awesome AND an amazing cook!
- Morning coffee!
- Gym day!
Have a great week! Life is good!
