Testing...1..2..

Is this thing on?

It's not as good as an email chain with buddies, but this does serve to document and maintain a chronological record of this journey.

I do find that a daily accountability to "the record" helps to keep me on track, in the same way that my Apple Watch and it's goofy fitness widgets keeps me in the game throughout the day.  That is to say, I havent been good about updates, and so performance has suffered as well.

Bottom line...I'm right at or slightly above my upper bound for my Maintenance Phase at 246.6 lbs.  I'd prefer that to be 245.5 or lower but given the 18th birthday shenanigans this weekend and come celebratory drinking among the adults for 5 kids raised, I'll excuse it.

Today is Tuesday in Week 2 of Maintenance.  Starting Sunday night, I'll switch back to Deficit and begin the march down to 235lbs.  I'll be in a 900 calorie deficit, week 7 of the Novice Linear Progression (getting tough), and I'll be adding dips and chins as assistance work.  As long as protein stays high, I expect good things over the next two weeks.

Yesterday was a good day having returned to form on the diet front, if not as much on the exercise front.

• Calories - 2541, 243 Protein, 147 Carbs, 117 Fat
• Steps - 10,106 but I only really deliberately walked once yesterday vs my normal 5x.  Life happened.
• Workout - Squat, Bench, Power Clean.  Everything is starting to require a substantial effort on reps 4 and 5, even in the first set.  Still, I manage to perform best in the 3rd set.

I decided to revert to the empty bar with power cleans, and I think it's going to pay off.  It's a technical lift when done correctly, and the 135lbs I was attempting makes sense mathematically, ASSUMING form is solid.  Form is NOT solid.

I'll simply progress up 5lbs per session and be patient.  I'll top out soon enough anyway.  If at some point I've added enough practice and weight to the bar to where I simply decide to add a chunk of weight and get to work, so be it.  I'm not there yet.

Sleep wasnt what it should be, even with Nichol having an early wake up this morning.  I really need to seize the opportunity for a 9 hour rest on Monday/Tuesdays.  Eventually my body will demand it.

This morning was Barbell Complexes and my standard neighborhood walk.  I'm at 70lbs now and I think I'm going to hold steady here for a bit.  Not only is the aforementioned Power Clean one of the exercises on the circuit, but I'm adding volume to my Presses at non trivial weights, and doing Good Mornings while relatively exhausted which isnt super smart.

Note on Performance Metrics: I think I'm going to switch to my Wahoo chest band for Hear Rate measurements vs the Apple Watch.  I'm sorry but I'm KILLING it by the 3rd set and gulping air like a gold fish.  No way in hell is the 122 bpm measurement I got this morning accurate.

Additionally, I'm at the point where I need to think about wrist wraps on my heavy work sets on Press and Bench Press and the watch gets in the way.  I'll need to dig it out and probably get a new battery for it.  Hopefully there isnt too much technical overhead getting it to sync up with the Apple Health suite.