As you know, I’m in the process of figuring out how to feed my machine and be fitter, leaner and strong er in the process.  I don’t believe I need a coach because I’m self motivated and try to read a fair amount.  In the last week I have switched a few things that I think made sense on paper and when applied.  I do’t like to make mid month changes but these ones were needed to make forward progress.  Here’s what I did:

1. I married my cardio days to my Carb re-feed days.  Most things I read say that is the way you should do it so I did.
2. I upped my calorie / carb count two days ago on carb day by 400 / 36 by drinking a Soylent an hour before the gym.  The way I felt as I did intervals on the treadmill was significant.  I started off feeling better and had enough energy after a 35 minute routine to row for 10 minutes.  I did a rotating 2 minute hard run with a 2 minute jog for 8 cycles and did a 2 minute warm up and 2 minute cool down on the ends.  I liked that way better than just running for 30 minutes.
3. I write down my plan for each day in a notebook and pretty much stick to those exercises.  It doesn’t matter that I don’t always finish the ridiculous list I give myself but instead stick to the options on the list and don’t stray.  I need consistency.
4. I have been reminded that the goals I want will take time. I see all these stories about people that put up before and after  pictures and progress pictures and they are a year apart.  It takes time and I must have patience.  I’m only 6 weeks in to my new years resolutions of hard core gym time each week.  I’ve seen some progress but have to keep in mind that the rest will come with good eating, diligence, consistency and patience.

From now until March, which is when I measure myself again and take my next set of progress pics, my routine will stay the same.  Had to do these couple of mid month tweaks for improvement and now we ride out the rest of the month and see where we are at.