I Lost Fat And Gained Weight.

     Alright, the results are in. Most of the numbers remained unchanged from what I told you on Sunday. The waist measurement stayed a quarter inch under my previous low, my body fat remained at a 1% loss, but my weight fluctuated. I weighed in yesterday morning on my official weigh in day, which is when I retook all the other measurement as well. I tipped the scale at 150.4, which put me at a 1.2 pound weight gain. I always weigh myself first thing in the morning, so that is absent food or water, which makes it more of a true weight. I don't think I was retaining water, so I'm sticking with the gain. That means that I managed to put on muscle and lose body fat. You know, that impossible thing, that most people tell you can't happen. I do have pictures, but the lighting was off, so it actually looks like I'm leaner in the before photos, but if you look closely at where my abs meet the waistline of my pants, you can see the difference. I made sure to where the exact outfit so that it wasn't a trick of different clothing. The only things that are different are the lighting, which was during the day and not the evening, so I'm washed out, and the camera was in a slightly different position It is very difficult to get the same exact shot without leaving the camera sitting in one location, but this is the best I could do, and it's pretty close. So here is the photo evidence.

     This is the first one. If you look you will notice more definition in my lower ab area. That is where I probably lost the biggest portion of fat. I'm getting closer with each time I push the limits of how I eat. When I say push the limits, it's really not a push, it's just trying something new. This time it was a path that was not defined, it was a natural progression based on my past experience. The goal was to eat less fat so that my body would utilize more of my body fat as fuel as opposed to dietary fat, and I'd say that it worked.

     Once again, you can see that the line along my abs, goes all the way down now, instead of stopping around the belly button area. That has been a big problem area of where my fat is deposited. It's one of those most common problem areas. I also tend to store fat under my arm pits, which is what I call the biggest flaw in my appearance, it's way my chest looks like it sags a bit. I'll get rid of it, but 15% clearly isn't the number where that will be gone. That brings me to the new goal, which is now 10%. That is a far ways off from a 1% drop. This is going to take a lot of hard work and discipline, which is going to be slightly derailed for a very short limited amount of time. I'll get that and way in a second. I have one more shot for you, and it's the cheeseball shot. Yeah I had to flex it out and be a douche. I'm a man after all, gotta show off the guns, even if they are more like peashooters

     I still have such a long way to go, but this journey is worth it. Ok, not to the derailment. I told you how I went to my buddies house for some backyard grilling. It was a real good time, but his wife and daughter had a cold, and I may have contracted it. I woke up this morning and after a few hours, I began having a tickle in my throat and a minor cough. Feels like a cold too me. On my way home from visiting the moms, I stopped and got some Vitamin C, and Elderberry. I immediately downed 3000mg of C, and doubled up on the dose of Elderberry. I'm going at this with both barrels. I also gave it an effort to burn it out, by putting three massive habaneros in my taco meat tonight. After I dished out the dogs portion, I put the habaneros in, and it was a little scary. It nearly looked like it was 1-1 habanero to meat, but I was all in.

     I sent that picture of the peppers to my buddy and joked that is a Chef's knife with them. It is a parring knife of course, but those are massive habaneros. I'll know tomorrow if my mega dose and pepper burning method has worked. I do plan on dosing myself one more time right before bed.

     Speaking of peppers, and yes I know that I always am, I did some more potting and organizing yesterday. My buddy gave me 13 more pepper seedlings, and two more tomatoes, so I had some work to do. I put a few of the larger plants in grow bags, and moved all the grow bags to a new area.

     The dogs are not happy about those bags being there. That was one of their lounge spots, but the peppers need room, and they have the entire rest of the yard. Most of those are flowering and fruiting right now. The carrot which is the plant right in the front is the only one with a ripe pod on it. It has great flavor, but the wall is too thick, which makes it difficult to eat. It might be good for cooking with, which I will try out tomorrow. I'll pick that one and dice it up and add it to my meal to see how it pans out. If it doesn't make the cut, that is one pepper I won't have to grow again. Oh, I did a count and have 91 unique varieties of peppers right now. That isn't counting the few that I have doubles and in some cases 4 plants of. The doubles are ones that I know are good, and plan on growing a bunch of those. those are the orange habaneros, and the scotch bonnets. I do have some growing pods on the bonnet right now, so I'm excited about having more of those to eat.

     That's the current set up, and it will change as the plants get bigger and need more space to grow. I am in need of more grow bags though. I have a few more 10 gallon bags, but that is it, and I'm currently low on funds, for more, so it's a good thing it should be a while before they are ready. I had to buy some compost and soil to repot, and have a bag of each left, so I can fill probably 2 or 3 more 10 gallon bags. 

     Oh, whatever has been eating my strawberries is now going after the nearly ripe tomatoes. I have two more that have been chewed on, hanging on the plant right now. This is getting annoying. I've only had 2 of the 15 strawberries that I've grown and one of the 6 tomatoes that have ripened. I need to find a way to scare whatever it is off. I want to actually eat what I grow. I don't think it's a bird, since they haven't gone after the peppers at all. Bird like peppers, and they are a natural transport to keep peppers growing, so it's clearly not them. I think it is a rat or something like that. I'll catch that little sucker in the act one of these days.

     My 30 days is up, and I went back on Instagram and Twitter today, but my desire to spend a lot of time on there is gone. I've already decided that Facebook is going to wait, at least until tomorrow, and I might go a day or two longer. I was thinking about reaching to my crush and taking another stab at going on a date, but since she has kind of ghosted me, I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Maybe it was the aspect of getting rejected yet again, that kept me from doing it. Well, that and it seemed pointless to try, considering that my free time may be up soon. If things go as planned, the moms should be coming home Friday, but I have my doubts. The dementia is getting in the way, and she argues with the therapists about doing the exercises, so her progress is slow. This is a bit of a bummer, but we will find some way through it.

     Oh yeah, I forgot to mention how this cold thing is going to derail my progress. The elderberry syrup is derived fro a glucose syrup, so that right there throws me out of ketosis. That means I'm going to have to be very careful of what I eat around the time that I take it. The glucose is pure carbs, so I have to limit my fat around that, so it doesn't get stored. This could be a good thing though. I will have to limit my fat intake ever more for a few days at the least. I'll get through this, but the original plan was to go ever more strict for a little while. I was going to cut the berries out entirely for a week, to see how I felt. The berries are my largest source of carbs, so taking them out, puts me at a very low level for carbs, probably under 10 grams again. It's been a while since I've gone that low. I would also be sticking to my 20-30% lower on fats. All of this would theoretically cause me to burn even more fat, but instead I'm going to be at a higher carb intake for a while, so I may just try some carb cycling for a month since I have to go down this path anyway. Once the cold is gone, I would raise my carb intake to around 100-150g, for a couple of days at a time, and then dropping them down to my normal levels. I would also have to watch my fat intake and at the minimum, cut it in half on higher carb days. This is a practice that is used by a lot of people, and it is said to be one of the truest ways to get excessive shredded. I think my current path is a saver way to do it, but since I have to eat the carbs in that syrup, I may as well take a stab at it. I'll of course let you know how everything works out, with pictures as a follow up. Today's photos will serve as the before, and I'll take another set around April 10. Which reminds me, that is also the time I'm going to be doing my quarterly 72 hour fast. Anyone up for it? It's easiest for most people to do the majority of it during the weekend, so I'd start on April the 4th, and go through to the 7th, although I may just run it through to the 8th. Just seems like a good day to break a fast, and I want to do it as clean as possible. That means cinnamon tea, bone broth then a small meal about 2 hours later. That meal will more than likely consist of lean meat and some cruciferous veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, and what not). I'm all ready for a full body reset, and that seems like a great time to do it. Especially if I'm a couple of weeks off an illness, and closing out a carb cycling month. Actually, that sounds like an amazing plan. This is going to be epic. Peace in and goodnight.