Week 4 - Day 0

Post-Vacation, Not Looking Good

Current Stats: 125.4 lbs; Body Fat Weight 26.4%

Whelp, coming back from vacation, I knew we probably gained some pounds, but it still sucks seeing. If we don’t count the 2 lbs lost from being sick that we knew was temporary, that’s about a 3 lb gain.

Honestly though, that’s pretty normal for a vacation. If you don’t gain some weight on vacation, I have no idea what you were doing.

Think about it. When you’re out on vacation, you are eating different foods than you are used to. You are going to restaurants a lot more than normal, drinking different things, and your body is just in a state that isn’t what you are used to. So yea, everyone is bound to gain some weight when they are on vacation. 3lbs honestly isn’t bad. I’m not worried about it.

(That’s what I’m telling myself to keep me from panicking because I’m totally obsessed with keeping my weight down and any gain freaks me out)

That fear comes from being really fat for a long time and then losing weight. I’ve always had the fear of going back up to where I was initially and that can’t be helped. Your entire life changes when you lose/gain weight. I remember how bad it was when I was heavier and I don’t want to go back to that.

Anyways…

It’s Day 0 of Week 4! We’ve been at this for almost a month now. Hard to believe honestly, but we’re here. So, let’s check with my AI Life Coach and see what we’re doing this week.

AI Prompt -> Hey my AI Life Coach! It’s week 4 and I’m back home from vacation. I didn’t do good with the eating aspect (gained 5 pounds according to the scales) but I did do all my exercises. What do you recommend for this week?

AI only works with what you tell it. I have no reason to lie or hide anything because I have no idea what information it’ll find useful. That’s what I mentioned the 5 lb gain and the fact I didn’t eat very good.

It’s response was pretty uplifting. It actually said “it’s common for vacation weight to include extra water retention from restaurant meals or less activity”. Well, the less activity part isn’t correct. I tried my best to do all the exercises it had planned and get a lot of walking in. The water retention though? I believe that.

Like always, it gave me some goals to work on this week. It actually structured them around me being gone last week which was neat.

Week 4 Goals:

• Balanced Nutrition Focus: Let’s refocus on whole, nutrient-dense foods with slightly lighter meals and more veggies

• Hydration: Aim for at least 8-10 cups of water per day to help flush out any extra sodium from last week

• Exercise with a Cardio and Strength Focus: Now that you’re home, we’ll add a bit more structure with gym workouts to keep progressing.

It never fails to amaze me how it’s able to come up with these things. It really is awesome how it knows what my end goal is, knows what happened last week, then give things to focus on this week to recover from it.

Unfortunately, the first goal may be a bit hard to do. After coming back from vacation, I noticed that I had a lot of extra food in my pantry and freezer. Rather than going shopping for a bunch of new things, I’m going to try and use up what I’ve got. I don’t like things going bad and I had bought this stuff before going on this journey. I’m still going to try and keep things healthy, but we will see.

That said, I did go to the store for essentials. Milk, bread, and bananas really. I also bought some frozen vegetable since I was running low on those and I want to make one of it’s recommended stir fries. But, other than that, we’re going to use up some things that we have. This means our grocery budget was very low this week, which is a good thing.

Hydration has never been a problem for me. I have a 40 oz “non-Stanley” Stanley cup (basically a cup that looks and acts like a Stanley, but it isn’t because they’re too expensive). Unless I get distracted with work, I’m drinking it down at least twice a day. Hydration is good.

Exercising is also good. I’m glad to be back with my weights and equipment. While body weight exercises are fine when it’s needed, I still enjoy lifting heavy things and putting them down. Very satisfying indeed.

So, that’s it! Cheap grocery week, good looking exercises, and we are working hard to lose those extra pounds gained. Let’s work hard this Week 4!