In this particular recording I have decided not to remove the background noise, in particular each step through the snow/ice/slush. I hope this isn’t too bothersome, but if it is, consider this a warning.
Strength Milestone: 1 plate OHP
I am very happy to report I’ve achieved one of my major strength goals. For quite some time now I’ve been specifically focused on the overhead press and I’m overjoyed to be able to lift 135lbs. A few months ago this was something I struggled to even attempt, so this is a very concrete sign to me that I am continuing to make strength progress on the way down. Getting stronger, and feeling stronger has done remarkable things to my day-to-day mood over time.
My next strength goal is to be able to bench 2 plates (225lbs) and I think I’m well on the way to being able to do that. I think it will take quite a while to build up to a 3 plate squat and a 4 plate deadlift. I think people at the gym may be right that these targets are fairly arbitrary. If nothing else I think striving for 1/2/3/4 is at least a direction to focus on. That said I definitely intend on continuing to progress my overhead press, which is presently my favorite lift. I think I need to come up with strength goals for different movements like pulling. Currently I can do assisted pull-ups with the help of 200lbs, so it will be very gratifying to be able to work up to un-assisted pull-ups.
Weight loss milestone: 250lbs down
Yesterday I weighted in at 320lbs, which means I’ve lost just over 255lbs! To celebrate this particular milestone I decided to for the first time ever use a whole-body profile photo in a bunch of places. I am beginning to feel proud about how far I’ve come, but I am still primarily motivated to keep pushing towards my ambitious 15% body fat target.
As I’ve continued to make progress, I’ve begun to appreciate just how ambitious that long-term target actually is. I finally understand why people would look perplexed when I was at my highest telling others that this was my goal. Now I realize I was the biggest guy in the gym telling people in relatively good shape “I’m going to be leaner than YOU someday!” 🤣 Hopefully someday I can make good on early Gabriel’s optimistic promises.
Body Doxx
Sadly as you can see my 2nd arm wasn’t able to fit onto the scanning bed. While I meet the weight requirements for a DEXA, apparently I still don’t meet the size requirements. All the same, I will be very happy to have this to compare with another scan near my long-term weight target. According to this scan I’m at ~41% body fat, which is actually well below what my ’napkin-math’ estimate of 50%. It seems I was too pessimistic about how much lean mass I’m carrying.
Due to the arm being cut off, I am a bit disappointed that this won’t quite be a 1-to-1 comparison, but overall I fully expect the changes to be fairly clear regardless.
Micro-rant: Dieting is just a collection of skills
After the updates I share some recent reflections on how I believe that “dieting is just a collection of skills.” Many dieting tips are valuable in pursuit of developing or leveraging particular skills that may or may not factor well into a particular person’s life. I wholeheartedly believe that there are essential dieting skills that are broadly applicable to almost everyone’s situation, but there are many particular tools that suit those skills.
Some dieting skills and sub-skills:
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Social connection
- Reaching out to others
- Building relationships
- Participating in community
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Stress management
- Exercise
- Low-stimulation activities
- Lifestyle management
- Appetite control
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Nutrition
- Calorie Counting
- Macros Management
- Micro-nutrients
- Meal planning
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Cooking
- Recipes
- Cleaning
- Meal prep
Such a resource may exist, but I think an invaluable resource for helping people reverse particularly dire weight circumstances would be radically different from what I have seen. It could focus much less on specific dietary recommendations, but more on how to build these and other skills from the ground up. It seems that in the modern environment, we may underestimate how many ‘basic life skills’ can fade away if we are not careful. In this micro-rant I share about how much I think social isolation and atomization contributes to people’s health deteriorating. These days, I am more sure that we humans are social creatures, and that means that while the major factors for personal health are individual, that is far from the entire picture.