Frustrated and confused. That’s how I’m feeling, at first I referred to these monthly pics as “progress pics,” but now it seems like I’m going to have to call them “accountability pics….”

There seems to be minimal change here. In the front view it seems like my chest/face are slightly slimmer, but that could be due to the shirt color and lighting. Conversely, the little neck fold in the side pics seems to be more prominent in the side pics, I don’t really know if that’s good or bad, or just due to me turning my head more.

Perhaps a better comparison would be with the same shirt, so I’ll compare today’s pics compared to two months ago:

As a reminder from last month’s wrap-up, I officially weighed in at 268.1, which is 3.5 lbs more than what I weighed in at the March wrap-up. 6.7 lbs more than my all time low on 4/4/15, which was the day I officially hit that 40 lb weight loss mark.

Looking at today’s pics, I’m definitely not back to March levels and compared to April is inconclusive due to the shirt.

Eye test = meh. So backup, look at the numbers.

This morning before the gym I weighed in at 270.1. W.T.F!!!! Did I really somehow manage to GAIN 2 lbs this month?

April I had the excuse that I was hurt. I worked out only 4 time the entire month, and being depressed about being hurt made my nutrition discipline suffer greatly as well.

This month, I went to the gym 14 times, pushed myself really hard, my speed and strength is where it was pre-injury, if not, even a little better.

So let’s take a more in depth look at what happened and make adjustments accordingly.

The beginning of the month I had a steady decrease. The first 22 days dropped 4 lbs to 264 flat. So that means in 8 days I gained 6.1 lbs back….how is that even possible?!?!

After the 22nd was the long Memorial Day weekend, where I did not do well nutritionally, and this week hasn’t been the best. However, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I was when I was injured, that doesn’t seem to add up, especially given my workouts and performance gains.

Speaking of, let’s talk about something positive for a second:

– Looking at my journal, the month of May signified the longest amount of time I’ve been able to jog at the gym. I was only jogging 2-3 weeks before I took time off due to the plantar fasciitis.

– Also, my pace has increased. My base pace has increased from 3.5 to 3.7-3.8, my push pace (slightly out of your comfort zone) went from 4 mph to 4.7-5.0 mph, and my all out sprint speed went from 5 mph to 5.7-6.0 mph.

– My frequency increased. The first half of the month I went 3x/week, from the 14th until today I went every other day.

So, performance wise, it was a great month, net weight was saying otherwise and the eye test is inconclusive for the month and definitely not the progress to match my best month.

So….change is needed, here’s some ideas I have:

1) Nutrition

It always comes back to this. I was better than the previous month when injured, but I still had a lot of slip ups. Memorial Day weekend I just took as a cheat weekend. My co-worker also introduced me to a taqueria near my apt that has amazing burritos, which I have definitely partaken in on non cheat/treat days.

That has to stop.

I also only made chili for one week’s worth of lunches. Not surprisingly, that was when I was losing weight. In fact, it was the week leading up to my lowest weigh in of the month. Coincidence? I think not.

2) Intensity in Workouts

As history has shown, pacing myself and patience are not my strongest points in this whole process. This month at the gym I averaged 24 minutes in the Orange and Red zones combined (greater than 82% of maximum heart rate) and they classify perfect workouts as having between 12-20 minutes. The most I had was 37 mins 28 seconds on the 20th, a couple days before I started gaining.

They say not to stay in the higher zones because the body switches to anaerobic exercise and leads to muscle breakdown instead of focusing on burning carbs and fat. From my previous experience in the weight loss challenge, usually one week my cardio would be high, then the next week my cardio would be fine but my body is lagging.

I attributed the high numbers to “my cardio needs to catch up,” and just thought to give it a couple weeks. I was working out at a higher intensity and the body needs to adapt.

After seeing the numbers, this was a pattern all month and the body hasn’t caught up. In fact, my foot’s healing seems to have plateaued, and now I’m feeling little tweaks to other places like my right knee and my left shoulder.

So, maybe I’m burning up muscle in the workouts instead of fat.

Following suit of today’s endurance workout and looking forward to the 5k in September. My speed is already where it needs to be, I just need to gain endurance. If I want to be able to jog the whole thing, that’s what I’m going to need to focus on.

My change, go to the gym more often, but ease back the intensity. Try to average the recommended numbers, and stop trying to get a PR every dang workout!

Other Things

I made this section to discuss other things I think may have contributed to these confusing results. Are they excuses? Possibly. These very well may be like when I bought a new scale before the weight loss challenge because I couldn’t believe how much weight I had gained.

A) Muscle Gain

I’ve been jogging more than power walking, this higher intensity is working the muscles harder, especially the larger muscles in the lower body. I can physically feel my muscles are bigger in both arms and legs. I’m stronger and I’m faster.

I may have lost some fat and replaced with muscle, however, the eye test still doesn’t reflect that. While there may have been some net weight gain due to muscle gain, I doubt it’s all that much.

B) Water Retention

The slip ups in nutrition, mainly eating carbs, retains water. One thing I have done really well this month was making sure I’m drinking a ton of water. However, I don’t think I’ve been getting rid of as much water as I have in the past.

One thing that may be contributing to this is a change in my pre-workout drink. I used to drink the GNC Lean Burn shake, which is a protein shake with caffeine added. Just to switch things up, and I also ordered on accident, got the Optimum Nutrition Pre-Workout stuff. This is not a shake, but a mixture of caffeine, vitamins, and creatine. Creatine helps with performance by getting your muscles to absorb more water, which pumps them up and leads to better performance.

I’ve only been taking a single scoop, while with my body size a double scoop would be needed. I honestly don’t feel much effects from it while working out, so I don’t know how much can be attributed to it for water retention.

Plus, I was drinking it all month, even when I was losing weight. On the other hand, I did make that switch to working out more frequently (and therefore ingesting more pre-workout mix) just before I started gaining.

It would offer an explanation for the pumped up muscles with weight gain. Although, if it really was just water in the muscles, I would have had a better picture.

I think I’m going to stop the pre-workout drink. I didn’t have one this morning and I felt fine working out. Had difficulty by the end, but it was an endurance day. We’ll see. I’ll write a whole post on this topic when I’m done experimenting.

C) Stress

This one is definitely true, but I’m putting in this category because I feel the other factors are more likely. I’ve had a lot of work related stress as well as personal stress, and it’s a known fact that high cortisol levels makes your body hold onto weight. Either way, I need to work on reducing stress overall anyway.

Long winded post conclusion

Performance wise, it was a good month. Weight wise, not so much and the eye test is inconclusive. Changes are needed because losing more weight (whether it be water or fat) will only help the stubborn foot injury and help with the 5k training. When jogging, the foot feels the stress multiple times your weight each step, so each pound matters!

Ending with the usual perspective, while I’ve slipped up once again, I’ve come a long way since January and just have to keep going!

Current weight: 270.1 lbs

Lost since last month: -2 lbs (gained)

Total weight lost since Jan 2015: 31.5 lbs