Today, 1000 Reps

Ten rounds of the following:

40 squats
30 push ups
20 dips
10 pull ups
---
100 reps
x
10
----
1000

(I didn't make it.  I will try this again.)

Escalating Density Training - Chin Ups and Dips

12 minutes total

Goals
Chin Ups:  75
Dips:  100

Results
Chin Ups:  6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 5, 5, 5, 5, , 3, 3, 3 = 68
Dips: 10, 10, 8, 8, 8, 7, 6, 6, 6, 6, 4, 4, 4, 4 = 91

Here Is a Workout Split That Allows Full Body Every Day

It's not a body-PART split, or muscle group split, but more of a body REGION split.  You get the benefit of separating movement targets for selective "rest" but you are still able to work the whole body every day.

The "split" is:

1.  Front of Body
2.  Side of Body
3.  Back of Body

Regions, body "parts" and exercises

Front of Body: 

     Front delts - pike push-up
     Chest - chest dips, push-ups
     Biceps - chin-ups, body-weight "curls", skull crushers
     Core - knee and leg raises, crunches, sit-ups, plank
     Quads - sissy squat, assisted pistol squat

Side of Body:

     Middle delts - some kind of body-weight lateral "raise"
     Obliques - hanging twists, side crunches, lying on side raises
     Side quads - lying on side one leg raise

Back of Body:

     Back - pull-up, row, chin-up, front lever, drinking bird
     Rear delt - body-weight equivalent of bent lateral, face pulls
     Triceps - tricep dips, tricep push-ups, diamond or close grip push-ups
     Glutes and Hams:  Bulgarian split squat, hip thruster, hover squat
     Calves:  calf raises, tip-toe walk

Extreme and Simple Whole Body Reboot:  Sprint

Making the Vans Zero Drop

Leaky Gut: More Examples of the New Reality

Supplements and medicine

Grass-fed, uncured beef hot dog snack

Olives and cucumbers

Breakfast

(Just kidding about that last one.)

NEW: Week's Workout Schedule

Day 1:  Basics - volume and reps
      Push-ups, rows, knee raises, squats
      Shoot for 1000 reps (10 sets of 25)

Day 2:  Skills - 1 rep negatives of
      One arm push-ups, one-arm chin-ups, front lever, pistol squat
      As many times as possible throughout the day, do not count

Day 3:  Intermediate - difficult exercises, intermediate rep range
      Dips, pull / chin ups, hanging toe raises, lunge or split squat
      Rep range is 8-20, shoot for 400 reps (100 each, 10 x 10)

Day 4:  Skills

Day 5:  Advanced - unilateral assisted exercises, low rep range
      Archer push-up, archer pull-up or one-arm row, hanging toe-to-bar, hover squat
      Shoot for 100 reps (25 each, 5 x 5)

Day 6:  Skills

Day 7:  New skill, sprints

Leaky Gut Diet - Some Examples

Here's what I'm eating and drinking a lot of.

Bone broth, olives, sauerkraut, ginger tea, apple cider videgar, Himalayan pink sea salt, avocado, fish, supplements (l-Glutamine, Cicrumen, fish oil).  Not pictured:  licorice tea, peppermint tea, berries.

UnChronicles: Volume 1 - I Just Spent Six Months in a Leaky Gut (More Like Six Years)

Or 10.  Or more...

On Wednesday I had confirmed what both of us (doctor and patient) have suspected.  Via blood test results, we have confirmed that I have leaky gut.  In addition to the standard tests like cholesterol and other markers (all normal for me), she tested for food sensitivity.  In order, starting with the worst, I am sensitive to:

Wheat

Banana

Yeast

Corn

Tomato

Beef

Dairy

Egg white

Chicken

Chocolate

Potato

Orange

Soy

Anything above 2.0 indicates "out of range" and wheat was 23.1, banana 23.  The least of the bad was soy at 5.8 followed by chocolate and apple.  Seriously?  Banana?  Apple?

Although this list is shocking and sobering, it's not surprising.  I think it is more reflective of what was tested for and what I ate prior to the blood draw rather than an exhaustive list of what bothers me.  That is to say, if I had eaten sweet potato and lentil before the blood draw and the testing detects these, they would have shown up too.  I believe these results are indicative of a fairly indiscriminately unhappy digestive system.  My inhaler history clearly reflects this.

To add to the pain, my blood pressure was through the roof, higher than I've had it measured outside of an emergency room.  She made me march down the street to the nearest pharmacy and fill a prescription for Lisinopril.  I don't want to take medication and she knows it, but for now I have no choice.

In the coming months I will try to document what I and my doctor are doing to overcome leaky gut.  Aside from the script for bp, we are focusing on diet and lifestyle changes.  As quickly as possible, as gradually as necessary.  Generally speaking, I will try to remain as "paleo" as possible, avoiding grains, dairy, sugar, legumes, anything artificial, and anything processed.  I will also try to avoid the foods on the above list as much as possible, with some exceptions.  For example, if grass-fed organic not GMO no antibiotic beef is available, I will not it.  My choices are so limited.

Additionally, may doctor wants me to "take it easy" because of the bp and the stress.  So that means dialing the bike commuting back by as much as I can tolerate.  Maybe to once a week, rather than 3 or 4.  I will also try not to do strength training every day and will keep the workouts short.

As far as supplements and additions to the diet, I am trying to add as much bone broth and fermented vegetables (yogurt is not an option) as I can per day.  I hate supplements, but I am reading over and over that they are essential to combat leaky gut, so I am taking l-Glutamine, Circumen, and fish oil.  There are others I need to add, which I will document as I begin to take them.

I am continuing intermittent fasting, and am attempting to cut my coffee intake by 50%.  Most sources say to quit coffee entirely but I will try to keep one cup a day and see how it goes.

And of course, no alcohol.  We'll see how that goes, but I'm not pretending I can get away with skipping that one.  It's largely what got us here in the first place.

Lunch today:  bone broth, grass-fed ground beef with asparagus (in coconut oil), a little bit of salmon and some beet greens, kim chi, sauerkraut, and olives.  Also, licorice tea, peppermint tea and ginger tea throughout the day.

Workout today:  twelve minutes of escalating density training (EDT) pull / chin ups.  I did 71.

Escalating Density Training (EDT): Pull / Chin Ups

12 minutes, various grips and grip widths.

5 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

71 Total

On Being Process Oriented in a Goal Oriented World

I love my job.  I love my boss, my employer, and my co-workers.  I enjoy going to work and I enjoy being there.  I look forward to it.  I'm not kidding.  But my boss and my department are goal-oriented. I think they have to be.  I'm guessing all bosses and all departments are goal oriented.  But I always struggle to make and keep and talk about goals.  It just doesn't feel natural to me when deep down, I realize that the main key to success, mine anyway (if I have any), is showing up.  At work, I could do better, I could work harder, I could be smarter and better and more competent and well trained.  I wish I were.  But I show up and do my best and have a good attitude.  At the very least I have these things and they have served me well. I DO make the goals and talk about them and talk about meeting them.  But I do this because I'm supposed to.  The truth is I work hardest at showing up and being a team player and having a good attitude.  And the beauty is I don't really have to work at these things.

The same is true for me in fitness and exercise.  The truth is, I don't think I really have any goals other than doing it again today and tomorrow.  I have typed a number of posts, especially lately, about progress towards goals.  But I don't really have any goals.  In strength training this seems strange or misguided, because the message always is that you need goals and you have to keep track of your progress and better yourself.  Progressive overload.  If you don't, you fail.  What's the point in working out if you are not meeting goals? 

Well, I don't really have these goals.  Building muscle?  Honestly, I don't really care.  I don't want to be bigger.  I don't want to take up more space.  I don't have bicep or chest or abs goals, really.  If anything I wouldn't mind being smaller and take up less space.  But that's not really a goal either.  Almost everything you read is based on building muscle, getting this or that to grow, bulking, lean muscle mass, cutting.  Blah blah blah.  I'm sick of it.  I think it's a teenage male mentality and maybe it has to be in order to sell.  That's one big reason I'd probably be miserable and horrible in a fitness career.  I'd have to start talking about the same things.  The same dubious goals and motivation.

I love and respect Mark Sisson and have benefited greatly from his work and read his blog every day and have bought and read his books.  He says he has a goal of helping 1 million people and he wants to "look good naked".  Why?  What about the other 40 million people that need your help?  Have you failed them?  Look good naked to whom?  Your wife?  Part of being a wife is not caring what you look like naked, and whenever I'm naked with someone, there's not a lot of looking going on.  Maybe you want to look good naked to yourself, but that's a moving target I would suspect, and "good" doesn't have a clear definition.

I talk about achievement goals like a muscle up or pistol squat, but the truth is, I don't think I even care that much about those things.  To some degree they're parlor tricks; things to make people ooh and ah.  They make ME ooh and ah.  But I don't really work on them and if I did, I would be able to do them by now and I can't.  I just don't really have anyone to impress.

I forget.  I forget all the time.  I forget that I don't really care about building muscle mass or doing a hand stand.  So I forget and then I switch to body-part splits and keeping track and muscle-building dogma and maybe do weights and dead-lifts.  Or I try to progress to a calisthenics crowd-pleaser.  I forget that my real goal is to get and stay strong with minimal equipment and to keep doing this.  I get convinced by all the noise out there that I'm supposed to be objective and work towards muscle and strength goals or else I'm wasting my time.  But then I do remember eventually that I am doing this because I like it, it makes me feel good, and it's fun to wake up and imagine what kind of work out I might do today, rather than the nagging feeling that I have to nail that front lever or bench 275 by end of summer.

I love calisthenics because it's simple and beautiful.  It's fun to watch and to do.  Ever watch someone lift weights?  Not pretty.  Pretty ugly really.  And watching someone bench 350 is really no more interesting than watching someone bench 135.

If I have any kind of notoriety or tangible success or advice-giving credentials about anything at all, it would probably be in four areas:  bike-riding to work, intermittent fasting, natural hygiene, and calisthenics. (Possibly also minimal footwear but the jury's still out on that one.  I DO it, consistently, and think it's a good thing but I'm not exactly sure why or what it's doing for me.  More on that later.)  I've been riding my bike to work and back more often than not for the better part of 13 years (I only know because I remember starting sometime around my 40th birthday).  But I'm slow, upright, un-spandexed, and wholly uninterested in speed or "performance" (whatever that is).  I'll never race.  I don't want to race.  I'm no faster today than I was yesterday or last year.  I'm probably slower.  My bike is heavy, comfortable, bag-laden, and made of steel, leather, cork and hemp.  I have no goals other than to do it again, I don't know exactly what it's doing for or to my health, and I don't really care.  Well, I do CARE, but I'm not planning to look into it.  I show up and have a good attitude and enjoy the process.

Similarly, I've been doing body weight calisthenics every day for at least 6 years.  I only know this because my family and I took a beach vacation in 2011 and it's the first time I remember trying to figure out how I would keep working out while away from home.  How can I do pull ups?  (Push-ups, squats, pull ups on doors....)  As I said, I can't do a muscle up, but I can do a lot of push ups and am proud of that fact.  I show up, every day.  And I don't have too much trouble keeping my weight consistent and my pants waist size 32 and to not be fat despite my age and consistent transgressions (beer).  I show up every day.

Similarly, I can count on one hand the number of "normal" breakfasts I've had in the last five years, and all showers are rinses for me.  These may deserve their own posts, but it's not a struggle to do them, they benefit me greatly, and I can't imagine not doing them.

Progression to Goal: One Arm Push Up

Regular push up:  30
Feet elevated push up:  20
Dip:  18
Assisted one arm push up with other arm on ball (voleyball size):  12
Assisted one arm push up with other arm on ball (basketball size):  10
Archer push up:  8
On arm push up on waist-high bar:  6
One arm push up on thigh-high bar:  3
Diamond push up:  12
21s push up:  7 lower end of range, 7 higher end of range, 7 full range

Progression to Goal - Pistol Squat

Body weight deep squat:  30
Body weight feet together deep squat:  20
Drinking bird:  16
Sissy squat:  14
Bulgarian split squat:  10
Hover squat:  6
Assisted pistol squat:  5, 3

At Last, a Not Ridiculous Looking Minimalist / Barefoot Sneaker

I've griped in a prior post about liking minimalist shoes for what they do for the feet but not so much for the styles available, especially in the sneaker category.

Here is the SOM (Sense of Motion) sneaker.  Some clown shoe-ish-ness happening, but mostly they have a rather punk, Chuck Taylor look.  Exactly what I was looking for.  Pretty expensive ($135ish now, I paid $150) but worth it for me.  They feel great and are about as heavy as a piece of paper.

True Pyramid - Push Ups, Pull Drop Set, Squat Drop Set

Push Ups:
1
1 1
1 1 1
1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1   (10)
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1   (15)
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1   (18)
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1   (20)
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1   (<--  23 This was my previous total, Nov. 2016)
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1   (25!)
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1   (28!!!  That's 130 MORE REPS!!!)


Pull:  Drop Set
Ring pull up - 10, assisted ring pull up - 6, body weight row - 5, easy row - 6 = 27 Reps

Squat:  Drop Set
Alternating assisted pistol squat - 6, alternating lunge -  4, squat - 10 = 20 Reps

Today: Sore in Six (Core), Bodybuilder (Push), GTG (Pull and Legs)

Core:  Sore in 6 - 1 minute of traditional sit ups, lying flat on the ground, followed by 30 second plank, 20 second rest, then 1 minute of leg lifts, 30 second plank, 20 second rest, 1 minute of crunch, 45 seconds of plank.

Push:  Bodybuilder (Traditional Pyramid) - push up - 26, ring push up - 16, feet on 1st step push up - 15, 2nd step push up - 12, ring dip - 9, pike push up - 7, weight ring dip (30 lb) - 6, archer push up - 5, diamond push up - 12, close grip push up against bench - 15, tricep extension - 18, 12, 12, 12 (very little rest)

Pull:  GTG (Grease the Groove) - 1 arm row, singles

Legs:  GTG - 1 leg squat variations, singles

Calves:  Sore in Six - walk on tippy toes 1 minute followed by calf raise - 30 seconds, rest, repeat

Escalating Density Training - Push Up, Row, Squat, Knee Raise - Implementing the Programs

15 minutes each of two sessions

Push Up & Row:  174 total reps, largely in sets of 12 and 10.  This is considerably higher than my last total and I feel I need to increase the difficulty either by using weight or higher reps each set.  Maybe sets of 20 to start or feet elevated.  Or both.

Squat and Knee Raise:  157 reps in sets of largely 10 reps, some 12 and one 15.  This also substantially beat my last score.

Thoughts and plans:  I need to dial up the intensity and dial down the volume and frequency.  These easy exercises are boring even though it's challenging to do so many of them in such a short period of time.  Stay with the harder exercises.  As much as I like the concept of whole body every day, I probably won't continue to make gains with it and I will probably continue aches and pains and joint issues.

Consider a split of push, pull, legs and do Grease the Groove on the "rest" day and combine it with New Exercises.  Consider GTG/New Exercises/Work On Skills for the non-worked body part on a day. Consider picking the favorite "programs" and do each for a week.  So, EDT for a week, Sore in Six for a week, 5 x 5 for a week, etc.  Consider dialing EDT down to 12 minutes rather than 15 so it's twice "sore in six".  Consider dropping Pump because it's similar to EDT and Sore in Six.  Consider 5 x 5 being weighted dips, chins and squats / deadlift.  Come closer to failure.  Get better at measuring strength and as strength increases, continue to decrease volume and frequency.

Maybe cycle through the programs with a push/pull/legs split on days, each program for a week, then go to upper / lower and then whole body and then cycle back again.

Sounds like a broken record: ring dips, ring pull ups, lunge - true pyramid

Ring dips (last time I made it to 11, possibly on 9/15/16):
1
1, 1
1, 1, 1
1, 1, 1, 1
1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1

1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1

1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1

1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1

1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1

1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1

1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1

1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1

1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1

1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1

1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1    16!!!!!!

Ring pull-ups (last time I made it to 9):

1
1, 1
1, 1, 1
1, 1, 1, 1
1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1

1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1

1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1

1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1

1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1

1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1

1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1   12!!!!!

Lunge

1
1, 1
1, 1, 1
1, 1, 1, 1
1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1

1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1

1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1

1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1

1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1

1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1

1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1   12!!!!!

New Exercise Day - Famer's Walk, Hanging Toe Raise, One Leg Dead Lift, Pike Push Up, L Sit

Farmer's Walk

90 lbs (45 lb dumbbells) - approx 30 seconds
100 lbs - approx 30 seconds
110 lbs - approx 30 seconds x 2   .......... this one's a keeper

Hanging Toe Raise / Hanging Knee Raise - sets of 1, 2, 3  I was pretty excited that the first time I tried the hanging toe raise I actually got it.

Practice Front Lever - knees bent and then one leg straight.  I haven't visited this one in a long time and this is the first time I tried it with one leg out, actually did pretty well.

One Leg Body Weight Dead Lift

Pike Push Up

Practice L Sit - this one I'm not even close

Bringing it All Together: Choosing Revolving Routines to Measure Progress

I've gone through a ton of different routines through the years here and I have been undisciplined - doing something for a while until something else catches my attention.  Then I do that for a while.  But lately it has become crystal clear to me that I will not make progress and remain interested if I don't start to measure progress and then try to beat my last stats.  So I have gone through the archives and pulled out the approaches that I like the most, and that lend themselves most to measurement.  I now have about eight different schemes, and I am planning to record my work in each and rotate through them, attempting to beat the scores from the last attempt (where possible).  Here they are:

Volume:  as many sets as I can of high quality reps of push, pull and squat (super set) in a day, done all together or spread throughout the day.  I have minimum rep counts in mind but am not being militant about it.  So for pull-ups it would 10, squats 30-40, push-ups 30-40, dips 20, etc.  Last week when I did this I did 10 total sets.

Escalating Density Training:  I am very excited about this one.  I do two 15-minute sessions a day and in each I pick two opposing exercises and do as many reps as I can of each in that 15 minute period.  You don't worry about the number of sets or the number of reps per set, just the total.  So it behooves you to keep the sets many and the reps per set few.  I do push/pull for one session and squat/core for the other.  I've done this with push-ups, rows, leg lifts and air squats but I'll have to look up my totals (I think 129), a few days ago I did pull-ups (19 sets, 58 total) and dips (19 sets, 76 total) and then I did split squat (15 sets each leg, 49 total each leg, and regular sit-ups (lying flat, feet not held - 63).  Most of this was in sets of 3 or 4.  Next time I do this I will do push-ups and rows, air squats and leg lifts because I have done this before.  I will have to find the counts in order to beat them.

Grease The Groove:  Choose a difficult move from each category and do sets of singles or doubles as often as possible throughout the day.  Here the goal is not rep totals or sets but just getting stronger and better at the movement.  Last week I did assisted one-arm push-ups, one arm rows, and one leg squats (hover, pistol).

Pump:  Here I am trying to do the traditional pump style of weight-lifting, the object of which is to pick a resistance at 20-rep max and then do sets of 12 with minimal rest until the muscle is as pumped with blood as you can get it.  So for this, light weights work well or exercises where 20 is challenging (dips, for example) and do sets of 12.

True Pyramid:  I love this one.  When you write out each rep it looks like an actual pyramid, with the point at the top.  Pick an exercise and do one rep, then do two, then three, and keep going like this until you can't do any more and mark the rep count for your final set, try to beat that next time.  The other day I did this with ring dips, pull-ups and split squat.  The last time I did this was about a year prior and I reached 12 dips, 9 pull ups and 8 or 9 squats.  This time I got 16 dips, 12 pull ups and 12 squats!

5 x 5:  An approximation of the starting strength approach.  Pick an exercise where it will be difficult to do 5 reps and do 5 sets of 5 reps.  I did assisted one arm push ups, assisted one arm rows, and assisted pistol squats.  I like this and wanted to make sure I include a low rep day.

Traditional Pyramid (Bodybuilder):  The idea here is to try to do a pyramid workout the way bodybuilders do, with "light" sets at the beginning and increasingly heavier sets at the end.  But I am not using weights, so I am varying the difficulty with a new leverage or a new exercise or a new angle.  Or maybe I'll use weights also.  I have the most recent totals detailed in another post.

New Exercise Day:  The idea here is to pick three exercises that I am repeatedly reading "you really must do" and that I don't do and, well, do them!  This week it will be Farmer's Walk, Dumbbell Clean and Press, and

Sore in Six:  Here's a new one that I haven't tried yet but I am very excited about, coming from Athlean-X.  Pick an exercise grouping (push, pull or squat) and pick three exercises in each with decreasing intensity, do a minute of the first then a minute of the second then a minute of the third until you've reached 6 minutes and you are lying on the floor gasping for air.

I will post my stats as I go along.

"Traditional" Pyramid Day

The idea here is to try to do a pyramid workout the way weightlifters do, with "light" sets at the beginning and increasingly heavier sets at the end.  But I am not using weights, so I am varying the difficulty with a new leverage or a new exercise or a new angle.

Push:

Shoulders inclined push-up:  30
Flat push-up:  25
Feet inclined push-up:  20
Dip:  15
Dip with 15 lb dumbbell:  12
Dip with 20 lb dumbbell:  10

Pull:

Over waist-high bar rows:  30
Waist-high bar rows knees bent:  25
Waist-high bar rows legs straight:  20
Feet on bench waist-high rows:  15
Feet on bench waist-high rows wide grip:  12
Neutral grip pull up:  10

Legs:

Body-weight squat:  30
Feet close together body-weight squat:  25
Walk Across the Floor Lunge:  20 each leg
Bulgarian Split Squat (Body Weight):  15 each leg
Hover Squat:  12 each leg
Goblet Squat, 60 lb dumbbell:  10

Whole 30 Challenge Wrap-Up and Observations

May 23, 2017 was the final day of the Whole 30 Challenge.  I happened to have had a doctor appointment that day.  It was a coincidence, although I did want to have one at or near the end of the challenge.

BP
Unfortunately, my blood pressure was not where we wanted it to be.  Therefore, I have orders to take it from home several times and if it is above 140/90 consistently, to begin taking Lisinopril. I am surprised and not happy about this and hope that it remains below that threshold or than I can get control of it with some means other than medication.

Weight Loss
The doctor measured my weight at 177 with allowance for clothing.  This is lower than I have measured it using the digital scale at work, which I have used throughout the entire Whole 30 experience.  I have not weighed that low on the same scale since the Dr. apt so I am assuming the scale I have been using measures a bit high.  At any rate, I started around 193 and my Dr. pointed out that the last time she measured my weight (granted, over two years ago) I was at 196.  So I managed to lose at least 13 and perhaps as many as 15 pounds while on the Whole 30.  That is roughly a half pound a day.  I am assuming that since I have continued on this slow downward trend that at least most of this is fat loss rather than water weight fluctuation.  The weight loss is my biggest victory from this Whole 30.  I cannot remember the last time I have consistently weighed in the 170s, and now the fantasmagorical dream of making it to the 160s (my college weight, circa 1986) does not seem out of reach.  I will keep working on this.

Intermittent or Regular Fasting, Migraines
Prior to the start of the Whole 30 Challenge and over the last several years I have practiced "intermittent" fasting.  There is plenty to read about this but in short I have generally followed the compressed eating window approach, which is to limit eating to a shorter-than-normal period in the day, say 8 hours, and do not consume calories during the other 16 hours.  To me, this is actually "regular" fasting rather than intermittent.  I have grown to really like this, or rather to really like prolonged periods without eating.  But the effects on weight loss and body composition have been small.  For that reason about three weeks into the Whole 30 challenge I decided to switch my approach to fasting and to follow the "eat-stop-eat" approach of one to two larger fasts per week and a free-for-all on the off days.  But since I can't imagine eating early in the day now, I opted for a modified approach where I still skipped morning eating every day and then twice a week I skipped breakfast and lunch.  So typically I would eat two meals a day on the non-fast days, starting around noon, and then one main meal a day on fast days started after 4:30 and sometimes as late as 7:00.  I didn't (and don't, as I'm still doing this) count hours between meals.

This new fasting schedule has been very interesting.  First, it has not been  difficult.  The fasting days have been really positive because I can go to work without having to lug any food with me.  I have continued my bike riding and calisthenics workouts without any negative consequences and in fact, have generally found that my strength and endurance are better under this new schedule of eating.  Most noticeable has been the bike riding on fasting days.  I just really feel good on the ride home, at which point I am at least 20 hours without calories.  I believe this new fasting schedule has been largely responsible for the continued weight loss.

But roughly corresponding to the new schedule I have seen a marked increase in migraines.  I suffer from classic migraines and would consider them "minor", as I normally don't have more than maybe two or three a year and generally don't find them too disruptive, nor do I find the pain too bad.  Every now and then, say every three or four years, I have had them in groups; every day or every other day for a few days.  The last time I remember this happening was I think 2012 when I was in Greece.

This has been happening three times a week to every other day roughly since I switched to the new fasting schedule.  I did mention it to my doctor and have done a little research on this.  My doctor said that I may be detoxing and that could account for it.  I would assume that I have been detoxing during the entire Whole 30, so it is surprising that this effect would start around day 24 or so.  But if it's true, it may not be an entirely negative thing.  Maybe I am burning some toxic fat that has been around for a very long time?

The other possibility is that this irregular and more extreme fasting pattern may not be a good option for migraine sufferers.  Something to do with glucose levels in the body.

The migraines are distressing and not worth enduring in the name of weight loss.  So I have decided to give this new fasting schedule one more week and if the migraines continue, I will move back to a more regular eating and fasting schedule.

Allergies and Asthma
Two things I had hoped would improve under the Whole 30 Challenge are persistent yet mild asthma symptoms and nearly ubiquitous allergies (itchy, watery eyes, some sinus issues, itchy throat).  The asthma has greatly improved.  Until the Whole 30 Challenge and throughout the entire winter I had daily symptoms and would use the inhaler sometimes a few times a day.  Since Whole 30 I have used it at most once a day and have found that the symptoms are often not bad at all and will pass on their own without any treatment.  The allergies, unfortunately, have not improved much.

Digestion
My digestive symptoms improved quite a bit but were nowhere near eliminated.  I think this issue deserves a larger post, which I will do in the future.  Suffice it to say that I think a complete correction of these problems will take a long time and a lot of effort.

Alcohol
This is the big one.  The elephant in the room.  I am typing this quite a long time after finishing the Whole 30 Challenge.  Why did it take me so long to finish this post?  Conflicted feelings and a need for complete honesty I suppose.  After I finished the challenge, I decided to continue not drinking.  It was easy not to drink at this point, as my cravings were no longer physical and I had a good number of days of feeling great under my belt.  I made it to 41 days.  I had two beers on a Friday night and then drank quite a bit that weekend.  In the couple of weeks following, I drank only on the weekends.  And at this point (about two months later), I am pretty much back to my prior levels of drinking, both in terms of amount and frequency.  As with the digestive issues, this will require a post of its own, or perhaps even a new blog or a new focus.  This is really the issue (duh!).

Whole 30 Challenge: Day 29

Weight:  182.0

Whole 30 Challenge, Day 26

Weight:  183.0 -- That is exactly 10 pounds lost!

Whole 30 Challenge, Day 25

Weight:  183.4

Digestion:  2.4
Allergies: 3
Asthma: 2.5  The symptoms are still there but much milder and I have to reach for the inhaler less than a third as often as before.
Mood:  3.4
Arthritis / Joint Stiffness:  3.9
Alcoholic Drinks Last Night:  0

Whole 30 Challenge, Day 23

Weight:  184.6

Digestion:  2.1
Allergies: 2.7 This one is stubborn.  My eyes are still watery and itchy, although maybe not quite as bad.
Asthma: 2.2  The symptoms are still there but much milder and I have to reach for the inhaler less than a third as often as before.
Mood:  3.2
Arthritis / Joint Stiffness:  3.7
Alcoholic Drinks Last Night:  0

Whole 30 Challenge, Day 22

Weight:  185.2

Digestion:  2.3
Allergies: 2.7 This one is stubborn.  My eyes are still watery and itchy, although maybe not quite as bad.
Asthma: 2.0  The symptoms are still there but much milder and I have to reach for the inhaler less than a third as often as before.
Mood:  3.2
Arthritis / Joint Stiffness:  3.6
Alcoholic Drinks Last Night:  0

Whole 30 Challenge, Day 15

Weight:  185.8

Digestion:  2.3
Allergies: 2.7 This one is stubborn.  My eyes are still watery and itchy, although maybe not quite as bad.
Asthma: 1.7  The symptoms are still there but much milder and I have to reach for the inhaler less than a third as often as before.
Mood:  3.5
Arthritis / Joint Stiffness:  3.5
Alcoholic Drinks Last Night:  0

I haven't been listing food because it's just too darn boring.  But I feel I should note this.  Yesterday I did a hike with my daughter and her girl scout troupe.  The hike started around 2:00 and I hadn't eaten anything.  Brought some boiled eggs, olives, pickles, avocados, jerky, berries, a banana... I think that's it.  Not too much.  We shared this.  When I got home we had to rush and get ready for an evening out and for a babysitter, so I only had time to eat 4 chicken wings around 5:30 pm.  I didn't eat anything else yesterday.  Today I got up at my normal time and had black coffee.  I did a morning pull-up workout and then rode my bike to work.  I finally ate at around 11:00, which is 18 hours after my last food. I had a feast of olives, boiled eggs (3), sprouted raw pumpkin seeds, a pear, beef and liver bites, 2 avocados with salt, pepper and lime, and some salami.  This was a lot of food and it was 18 hours after my last food and after much exercise.  I feel great.  You'd think I'd be ready to pass out.  Fat burn, baby!

Whole 30 Challenge, Day 12

Weight:  186.4  Still going down, baby!

Digestion:  2.2
Allergies: 2.7 This one is stubborn.  My eyes are still watery and itchy, although maybe not quite as bad.
Asthma: 1.4  The symptoms are still there but much milder and I have to reach for the inhaler less than a third as often as before.
Mood:  3.3
Arthritis / Joint Stiffness:  3.5
Alcoholic Drinks Last Night:  0

Whole 30 Challenge, Day 8

Weight:  190.0.

Whole 30 Challenge, Day 5

Weight:  188.0!  Yes, yes, I know, water water and whatever.  But that's five pounds in under five days!  And I can feel it!

Whole 30 Challenge, Days 3 and 4

On Day 3 I started to feel a lot better, physically, than I have in a long time.  I'll lay off the extreme detail, but on this day I had a burger with portobello mushroom "bun", Trader Joe's grass-fed uncured hot dogs, sauerkraut, fried eggs, turkey, cooked carrots and leeks, green beans, and lots of sparkling water.

On Day 4 I started to move from wondering how many days I have left of this to wondering how much better I'm going to feel tomorrow.

Weight:  191.8 lbs
Waist:  33"
Mid-Belly:  I'll get back to you on this.  For this measure, I have devised the girth-o-meter.  It is a string that goes around the girth at mid-belly (about 3 inches above belly button).  On the first day I tied a knot in the string where the other side met it.  Today, I'm farther in.  This is my most salient measure and my most hopeful outcome so far.

on a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 being horrible and 5 being perfect

Digestion:  1.9
Allergies: 2
Asthma: 1.4 (hitting the inhaler at noticeably less often and when symptoms come on they usually clear by themselves.  This is really fantastic.)
Mood:  3.3
Arthritis / Joint Stiffness:  3.5
Alcoholic Drinks Last Night:  0

7:00 - Black Coffee
9:30 - Green and Dandelion Tea
12:00 - Turkey, green beans, cooked carrots and leeks, 2 boiled eggs, avocado
Later afternoon and evening:  blackberries, apple, blueberries, sunflower seeds, salmon with sauerkraut, deviled eggs, sparkling water

Whole 30 Challenge, Day 2

Today

Weight:  191.8 lbs
Waist:  33"
Mid-Belly:  39"
Digestion (on a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 being horrible and 5 being perfect):  1.8
Allergies:  (same scale) 2
Asthma:  (same scale) 1 (hitting the inhaler at least 3 times a day)
Mood:  (same scale)  3.1 (but only because I'm excited to be doing this)
Arthritis / Joint Stiffness (same scale):  3.3
Alcoholic Drinks Last Night:  0

7:00 - Black Coffee
9:30 - Green and Dandelion Tea

Noonish -

• Chard with Olive Oil, Ginger, Turmeric
• Broccoli
• 4 Scrambled Eggs
• 2 Grass Fed Uncured Hot Dogs (Trader Joe's)
• Large Apple
• Banana
• Small bit of chicken salad and tuna salad

2:30 PM - Black Coffee

7:00 PM - Sunflower Seeds

8:00 -- Lamb meatballs and salad, iced tea

Whole 30 Challenge, Day 1

I have attempted 2 Whole 30 Challenges in the past.  The first one I caved on day 11, and the second one I completed. You can google it for the full details, but it is basically 30 days of strict ancestral eating of whole foods with as few ingredients as possible and as close to the source as possible.  Yes:  meat, fish, fowl, shellfish, eggs, good oils, nuts, vegetables, some fruit.  No:  sugar and sweeteners, grains, alcohol (!), dairy, industrial oils, medication, artificial ingredients, legumes, soy, fruit juice...

Goals (in no particular order)
Weight loss
Improved mood
Improved digestion
Reduced inflammation
Reduced allergies
Reduced asthma
Improved sleep
New permanent habits
Whatever else comes along....

Today

Weight:  193 lbs
Waist:  33"
Mid-Belly:  39"
Digestion (on a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 being horrible and 5 being perfect):  1.6
Allergies:  (same scale) 2
Asthma:  (same scale) 1 (hitting the inhaler at least 3 times a day)
Mood:  (same scale) 3 (but only because I'm excited to be doing this)
Arthritis / Joint Stiffness (same scale):  3
Alcoholic Drinks Last Night:  7

7:00 - black coffee
7:30 - 15 mile bike to work
9:30 - green tea and dandelion tea
11:30 - black coffee
1:00 ish - chicken, green beans, avocado, raw carrots, sauerkraut, boiled eggs, raw ginger, raw turmeric
5:30 ish - mixed nuts, large apple
7:30 ish - chicken, purple potato, scallion, garlic, olive oil, broccoli

St. Croix sparkling water

I Tried To Do This All Day

In a super-set, with super strict form.  The vertical space between the lines indicates the passage of time:

Pull/Chin-Ups     Russian Push-Ups    Squats    Super-Set Total
1                          2                               2                 = 5
2                          4                               4                 = 10
3                          6                               6                 = 15
4                          8                               8                 = 20
5                          10                             10               = 25
6                          12                             12               = 30

6                          12                             12               = 30

6                          12                             12               = 30
----------------------------------------------------       -------------
 33 Pull               66 Push                    66 Squat      165 Total Strict Reps

I meant to travel back down the pyramid but I was too tired.

In the endless and frustrating discussions about the body-part splits and sets and reps, a refreshing conclusion can be that whatever scheme allows you to get the most reps per measure of time is the one that is best.  I've discussed this here before.  So on a one-body-part-a-day-once-a-week bodybuilder scheme, maybe you do four exercises and four or five sets of 12, 10, 8, 6, etc.  Something like that.  So that's around 36 reps spread across four sets for four exercises, which is about 150 or so reps for the week or 600 for the month.  A whole body every day scheme that's something like the above would give you over 900 push reps a month. And a less intense, higher rep approach like I've done so many times before, would give you way more.

What I've also discussed here before is that the Quality of the rep far outweighs the quantity.  So a set of 15 hard, squeezy, slow push-ups is very likely superior to a set of 50 fast degrading ones.

Combine the two ideas and you've got the notion that the best scheme is the one that allows the most Quality reps per unit of time.

How do you measure Quality?  I think you'll know it when you feel it, but one idea I have is to see if I can make progress (get stronger) while keeping my rep totals constant or even decreasing, for a given exercise group.  I've dabbled in this idea here before, and that has led me into slow reps and concentrated reps and so forth, but you can get lost in this and end up cheating yourself.  I want to take another look at this.

Eighteen Hour Fasting Progress

Weigh in:  194 lbs

Last week I did at least 3 eighteen hour fasts (can't remember because they are so much like my regular routine).  At least one of these was on a bike commuting day.  That is to say, I rode to work (15 miles), worked a full day, worked out a few times throughout the day, and rode home on no calories.  Just coffee, water and tea.  It really wasn't that difficult.  I was definitely hungry when I got home but the rides felt very good.

7:30 AM - 8:45 AM - bike to work, 15 miles, one hour and 15 minutes

Exercise round 1 (9:15 AM):  
Dips - 20
Squats - 40
Pull-ups - 8
Push-ups - 30

Exercise round 2 (10:45 AM):
25 v-sit crunches
See how long it takes to do 20 pull-ups:  2 minutes
See how long it takes to do 100 push-ups:  4.5 minutes
See how long it takes to do 15 assisted pistol squats on each leg:  1 min 45 sec

Exercise round 3 (12:15 PM):
Parallel bar knee raise - 10
One arm body-weight row - 6 each arm
One arm incline push-up - 6 each arm
Split squat - 3 each leg

4:00 PM - 5:30 PM - bike home, 15 miles

It's clean Monday, so I had a dinner of mixed nuts, lentil soup, veggie burger, and chick pea salad.  Finished eating by 8:00, so tomorrow I'll have lunch at 2:00 and that'll be 18 hours.

The Push/Pull/Squat Superset Pyramid Fat Burner

I chose three total exercises, one from push and one from pull and one from squat. Then I decided squat needed more so I added another.  I chose a difficult pull, an easier push, and one of each for squat.  I did each exercise as a superset, started with a warmup type of rep count, started with the hardest, doubled the reps for the easier ones, and then rested for as brief a period of time as I could handle.  For the next round I added one rep to the hardest and doubled that for the easier ones, again with as little rest as possible. Rinse.  Repeat.

So, for chinup to Russian pushup to alternating leg backward lunge to regular squat, it was, respectively,

Chinup, Russian pushup, alternating leg backward lunge, squat:
3, 6, 3, 6 = 18 reps
4, 8, 4, 8 = 24 reps
5, 10, 5, 10 = 30 reps
6, 12, 6, 12 = 36 reps
7, 14, 7, 14 = 42 reps
8, 16, 8, 16 = 48 reps
9, 18, 9, 18 = 54 reps
10, 20, 10, 20 = 60 reps

For a total of 312 reps.

My new Fitbit tells me this was 20 minutes, 151 calories, and average heart rate of 111.  That is 70% fat burn (whatever than means).

Lunch was approximately 17 hours after my last calorie from last night, and was a large mixed green salad with sauerkraut, olives, and vinegar and oil, 4 scrambled eggs, and two small baked potatoes with butter.

Done With "Steak" and Eggs, Next Adventure Is Eighteen Hour Daily Fast, All Day Body-Weight Calisthenics

I've concluded that the Steak and Eggs diet is a great way to shed water and to learn to hate steak and eggs.  It's fine, and I have no doubt that it works and worked for bodybuilders.  But it's not suitable for a 51 year old who likes variety and food adventure and has no interest in competing in a contest.  I lost 9 pounds in the 1.5 weeks that I endured this diet.  I also never ate steak, so maybe my mileage varied because I did not follow it to the tee.  But man, what a miserable way to torture yourself for dubious gain.  I would guess that the water weight loss would eventually morph into fat loss, but I have neither the gumption nor the drive to find out.  I do really want to make myself understand and remember that the ultra low carb approach just really isn't the best one for me.  I think it's best for those with a lot of body fat, particularly sub-cutaneous as opposed to visceral, and with blood sugar / insulin issues.  Certainly for people with a lot more at stake (so to speak) than I have.

But my mission has not been dropped, dammit.  I'm more fired up than ever to lose weight and width and the gut and the bloat.  And I think I may be settling on a two-week cycle approach.  Try it for two weeks (if you can) and see how you feel.

I'm going back to familiar territory, but I'm going to hit it harder.  This feels right.

The one "radical" dietary move that I've made over the last few years of looking into this, and stuck with, is fasting.  But, although I can count on one hand the number of times I've had a meal before noon in this time period, I have never really pushed it.  But it feels great and I love it and it feels positive and natural (unlike "steak" and eggs every day).  So in terms of diet I am going with a longer fasting window - 18 hours.  Generally that will mean for me no calories before 3:00 PM and often more like 4:00 or 5:00 depending on what happened the night before.  The rest of my diet I will not really worry about.  And on the weekend I will certainly not eat before noon, but won't worry about the window size.  This will be a great experiment because it's not foreign to me, I know I will feel great, and I will have an opportunity to see what fasting alone does for my body composition.

I also seem to have merged into a two week cycle on exercise.  I used to torture myself because I thought I was supposed to find the final answer in all this experimentation and stick with that until the sun sets.  Body-weight training or weights?  Body part splits or whole-body?  Days off or not?  To failure or not?  It's hard to avoid this kind of questioning, but if you have an active mind and like variety, then you are playing a losing game sure to heighten your confusion and misery if you try to find the one final answer and then stick with it and only it without wandering.  Maybe the answer is "yes" to all these questions. Maybe the answer is never say never.  Don't sell your weight bench.  (I do the same thing with musical equipment and guitar playing, but that's another story.)

So for these two or so weeks I have a renewed interest in fasting and in body-weight training, whole body all day every day, and progression to more advanced movements.  The advanced movements are the muscle-up, the one-arm push-up, the one-arm pull-up, the front lever, the L-sit, the pistol squat, and maybe some day some hand-stand and back-bridge stuff (although I've never tried any portion of either of these and they intimidate me.)

9:00 AM - A Grand Century

• Body-weight squats x 40
• Russian push-ups x 30
• Knee raises x 20 (hanging from a bar is preferable but I have nothing to hang from so I did them while sitting on a bench and doing a modified crunch at the same time)
• Pull-ups x 10 (VERY challenging)

11:30 AM - A Big Fifty

• Dips x 20
• One-arm rows (Australian pull-ups) x 10 each arm
• Relaxed non-working leg split squat x 6 each leg (similar to a Bulgarian split squat or shrimp squat except that the non-working leg is relaxed and bent at the knee rather than being pulled back by the hand as in a shrimp squat or top of foot resting on a bench like Bulgarian split squat; both of these tend to aggravate my foot)
• Knee raises on dip bar x 14 (could have done more here but wanted everything to add up to 50)

I didn't bring any food to work today and I'll be here until at least 4:30 PM.  I have some sunflower seeds in the car so I'll likely break my fast with them around 4:30 but won't have any kind of "meal" until well after that.

1:15 PM - The Big Ten

• One-Arm "Incline" Push-Up (on weight bench) x 3 (VERY difficult)
• One-Arm Pull-Up x 3
• Assisted (Minimally) Pistol Squat x 3
• Parallel Bar L-Sit and Hold (5 seconds) x 1

3:00 PM - The Miscellaneous 44

• Diamond push-ups (strict form) x 20
• Bicep curl/row x 12
• One leg dead lift x 10
• L-sit hold on bench (10 seconds) x 3

Revisiting Bodyweight Calisthenics and Serious Doubts About "Steak" and Egg Diet

Weigh In:  193 lbs - 2 down from yesterday.

I haven't done body-weight only whole body for a long time and that's what I used to do exclusively.  I miss it. I want to see where I stand after all this weight-lifting.

Body-weight squats:  40 (on tired legs)
Russian push-ups:  30

Some time later...
Dips:  18
Pull-ups:  10
Assisted pistol squats:  6 on each tired leg from doing legs yesterday

Very happy with this so far.  These are the standards I was regularly doing before the weightlifting and my form was good.  Could have done more.  I would like to get back to building upon this.

I am realizing that there are three some problems with the "Steak" and Eggs diet.  First, it's horribly painful.  I don't think I can handle another meal.  This is for young, obsessed people.  Second, I don't think it's a good way from someone like me to lose weight.  By "someone like me" I mean someone who is naturally more slim than not and doesn't store a lot of body fat easily.  I really think the fluctuations I've seen are entirely in water weight and not in body composition.  Third, it's antithetical to an approach that could become permanent.

You've got to be realistic with what you eat.  You have to live in the real world and not overthink your diet.  I don't think you can vilify entire macro-nutrient groups.

Starting Week 2 of "Steak" and Eggs Diet - Leg Day

Weigh-In
195 lbs.  That means I gained back 4 of the 5 pounds I lost last week.  And yes, I still realize this is probably all water.

This weekend was a horrible free-for-all.  I'm not sure 51 year olds get to do "cheat days".  I ate whatever I wanted whenever I wanted.  I never ate before noon but did have a lot of junk and beer.  I was on the road the whole weekend and it was very stressful.  I managed a very quick chest/back workout on Saturday and a pretty good single-super-set arms yesterday.

Leg Day:
Bulgarian Split Squat - body-weight x 16, 20 lb dumbbell x 12, 30 lb dumbbell x 8
Calf raises

I'll stop posting my beverages because it's always the same:  coffee, tea and water.

Today's lunch is sausage links, roast beef, and 4 fried eggs.  One of my goals before end of week is to actually eat steak at least once on the steak and eggs diet.

I am going to give the "steak" and eggs diet one more week and then move on.  I think I will be doing two week samples of various diets to see which one feels the best and gives the best results.  So far I know that's NOT going to be the steak and eggs diet.  This is rough.

I think a big part of my problem is that I read about these diets and workout plans with the eyes of a young person.  I need to realize that most of the people whose videos I watch and articles I read are at LEAST 20 years younger than me.  I am starting to understand that most of these drastic things are for people who can adapt quickly.

I am pretty sure the best plan in the end will be one of moderation.  Boring!

So I just don't think (at this early juncture) that extremes like cheat days and total elimination of one macro-nutrient group are advisable for anyone older than, say, 35.

But I'll keep at it so I know for sure.

I would vow to only watch workout and diet videos at read articles by extremely fit people 50 and older, but there are precious few of those people!  THAT'S the problem I'm trying to fix here.

Two other ideas I have for two-week diet trials:  one-meal-a-day fast every day and eat whatever I want for dinner, and the Whole30(5/7) (Whole 30 week days, weekend free for all.)  I'm also thinking about a variant of eat-stop-eat and also the "bro" diet.  The former would be "normal" eating most days with one or two 24-hour fasts per week.  The latter would be frequent eating, so I'm not too excited about going there.

Legs - All Day Muscle (and Fat) Blast, Day 5 of "Steak" and Egg Diet

If you've never heard of it, you should Google the all day muscle blast.

6:30 - Black Coffee
water, water, water

Weigh In:  191 lbs - no change from yesterday

8:20 - Dumbbell deadlift squat with 50's - 15 reps
          20 second stationary bike sprint

9:00 - Cable hack squat with 100 lbs - 15 reps
            20 second stationary bike sprint

10:00 - Cable hack squat with 110 lbs - 12 reps
            Calf raises (finally remembered)
            20 second stationary bike sprint

10:15 - Black coffee
water, water, water

11:00 - Cable hack squat with 110 lbs, 12 reps
            Calf raises
            20 second stationary bike sprint

12:00 - Cable hack squat with 100 lbs, 10 reps
            Calf raises
            Stationary bike sprint - 20 sec

12:20 - Meal 1 - 1/2 lb ground beef, 5 scrambled eggs

1:00  - Cable hack squat with 100 lbs, 10 reps
            Calf raises
            Stationary bike sprint - 20 sec

2:40 - Calf raises
           Goblet squat - 50 lb dumbbell, 10 reps
           Stationary bike sprint, 20 seconds

Tonight I will break my carb fast.  This weekend I will continue to delay the onset of eating but will eat whatever I want.  Plenty of junk.

Day 4 of Steak and Egg Diet, Shoulders and Arms Workout

Weigh In:  191 lbs (down 5 lbs from 4 days ago)

9:00:  a few stationary bike sprints

Shoulders and Arms (12:30 PM):
Seated military press machine:  100 x 8 slow negatives, 90 x 7, 80 x 10
Cable curls:  80 x 8, 70 x 9, 60 x 14
Cable tricep push-downs:  70 x 7, 60 x 9, 50 x 15

1:00 Meal 1 - Pork roast and 6 fried eggs
8:00 Meal 2 - Chicken strips, salad

Chest and Back, Day 3 of the Steak and Egg Diet

Incline Dumbbell Press
Lowest incline:  75's x 12, 70's x 8
Next incline up:  70's x 7

One Arm Dumbbell Row
75's x 15 (this was easier than I thought it would be so I went up in weight on the next one rather than down)
80's x 12
75's x 10 (slow negatives)

7:00 Black coffee
9:30 Black coffee
water, water, water
1:00 Meal 1:  1/3 lb ground beef, 5 eggs
5:30 Snack:  Cheese omellete, salami and olives
7:00 Meal 2:  Pork roast and broccoli bathed in olive oil

I don't have access to a reliable scale but I can tell you that my pants feel pretty darn loose.

Progress Report: Day 1, 51 Year Old Does "Steak" and Eggs Diet

I'm one day in and I'm still not skinny!  Dang it!

Seriously, though, I feel like a hundred bucks.  I really do.  It feels less horrible when I tie my shoes, I'm less foggy and my mood is pretty good.

Yesterday:

Lunch - a few strips of bacon, 4 small sausage patties, 4 eggs fried in olive oil.  (Already taking liberties.)
Snack - salami
Dinner - chicken, kale sauteed in olive oil
Drink:  two cups of black coffee and a green tea with dandelion (detox)
Debauch - 2 glasses of red wine

Yesterday's exercise:
Cable lateral raises
Dumbbell military press
Cable curls
Cable tricep push-downs
Cable crunches

So far for me "steak" includes bacon, sausage and chicken, and "butter" includes olive oil, and "coffee" includes tea and red wine.  Ok, you gotta make it your own.

I may also take liberties with the cheat "day" and make it more like a day and a half so it blends in better with what the rest of the family is doing for the weekend.  But my cheating will be fairly mild.  Mainly beer, some processed carbs, and some "clean" carbs.  Very little sugar.  I hate sugar.

Today's vital statistics:
Same height, can't measure the gut, weight 193.  I don't want to read too much into this but that's three whole pounds lighter than yesterday.  Water, bloat, whatever - I'll take it.

Today's exercise:
Farmer's walk - something like 10 times across the (small) gym and back with two 50 lb dumbbells.  I'm using this as a "fat burner".  The limiter here seems to be my forearms and upper back.

Since I'm at work I like to use the gym and do things that I can't do when I'm home.  Same thing at home - I like to do things I can't do in the gym (ring calisthenics, pull-ups, weight vest stuff, barbell stuff).  Today I'm doing legs and I have access to leg curl and leg extension machine but no barbell.  I do have cables so I will do pre-exhaust with leg curls and leg extensions and then do some kind of hack squat with the cables.  Then I'll probably finish with goblet squats and lots of body-weight, pause-at-the-top calf raises.  .  The extensions and the cable squats tend to tweak my knees so this will be ill-advised knee day I suppose.

If I find myself with a few minutes and some energy I may do some brief stationary bike sprints.  I put the resistance up to 15 and go for as long as I can (maybe 45 seconds to a minute) five to ten times.

What Happens When a 51 Year Old Man Tries the Steak and Eggs Diet?

I'll let you know!

Call it what you want and Google it to your heart's content.  Strictly speaking it's the diet that 50's bodybuilder Vince Gironda advocated for burning fat, and it's the "diet" that informed the 70's "golden era" bodybuilders.  Taken literally the diet advocates two meals of steak and eggs cooked in butter per day and nothing else but black coffee and water.  Generalized it's a ketogenic or "very low carb" diet... Atkins, anti-diabetes, lots-of-other-names.  To the purist, when I say steak and eggs I mean steak and eggs.  To the generalist it means I can eat what I want as long as I keep the carbs as low as possible.  Somewhere in between were the golden era bodybuilders who reportedly ate cheese omelettes and hamburger patties and such.

I'm a generalist but I think the purist's path is warranted here.  I don't think there's anything magical per se about steak and eggs (except that maybe the nutritional value may be as high as you can achieve when eating just two foods per day), but the focus is clear and it grabs and holds the attention.  So I like it.

Also hidden in this approach are other benefits, such as intermittent fasting, which isn't mentioned necessarily but is unavoidable on two meals a day.  I already do this, so I like it.

But I'm just enough of a generalist to say that I am going to try this but when I say "steak" I mean "meat" and when I say "eggs" I mean "eggs".  And maybe some greens thrown in for fiber.

Oh, and there's one "cheat" day free-for-all per week where you are encouraged to eat whatever you want whenever you want (hello beer, I missed you so.)

I'm going to try it, and report it here.  And if I can get the nerve up, I may even take some pictures, knowing full well that these words lack potency without visual proof.

I'll keep lifting as intensely as I can and will ride the bike to work when I have the energy.

The vital stats:

51 year old male, roughly 6 feet tall and weighing 196 lbs.  Muscular but flabby in the midsection.  "Slim" looking to the untrained eye.  (By the way, I have gained 9 pounds since I started lifting weights rather than only strict body-weight calisthenics and slacked off on riding my bike to work.  I know some of this is muscle but plenty is flab.)

My waist size is 33" at the hips but way horrible yuck yuck the farther up you go.  So that reading is more like 39" or more at mid belly.  I hate this!  Thanks a lot beer and stress and poor sleep and lack of self control!

Goals:  get the weight down and the belly measurement way down.  They can go as far down as they want to as long as my strength is not compromised and I am happy.

I'll keep you posted.

HIT The Mike Mentzer Way (for Real): Upper Body

Chest:

Cable fly with 40s x 8 (slow, squeeze palms together and hold)
Immediately to incline bench with 170 (the stack) x 4
Immediately to Russian push-ups x 4
= 1 set, 16 reps

Back:

Cable straight arm pullover with 40s x 8 (man, this is a lower abs killer!)
Immediately to lat pull-downs with 140 x 4
Immediately to body-weight row:  5
= 1 set, 17 reps

Triceps:

Cable tricep push-down: 35's x 6
Immediately to a lighter weight:  x 5
Immediately to diamond push-up: x 5

Biceps:

Cable curls: 35 x 8
Lower the weight x 4
Lower the weight x 4
Lower the weight x 4

Upper Body

Today's Effort (always emphasizing the negative):

Incline dumbbell press:  65's x 16, 12
Superset ring dips to Russian pushups:  5, 7

Bent dumbbell row (chest against incline bench):  65's x 12, 10
Superset ring pullup to ring body-weight row:  6, 8

Lying tricep extension (skull crusher):  55 x 14, 65 x 10
Superset diamond pushup to ring tricep extension:  8, 9

Barbell curl:  65 x 14 (elbows unhappy)
Dumbbell cheat curls emphasizing the negative:  45's x 6
supersetted to ring bodyweight curls:   12 or so

The Last Several Days

Alcohol
Tuesday night - 2 beers, Wednesday night - 1 beer, Thursday night - 0 beers.  Do I hear choirs?  Although my diet and exercise accomplishments this week have been good, I'm most proud of this.  It was a long time coming.  Not too difficult.  I've been drinking a lot of Pellegrino and Perrier.  The sleep has been bad to ok but overall I feel like a hundred bucks.  Maybe it's the glow of pride but physically I feel a lot better and mentally I feel a zillion times better.  A sense of optimism and enthusiasm has returned to some degree, I don't feel depressed, and the temper is much better.  Physically the reflux is still an issue but I do recall that this gets worse before it gets better.  Overall it just feels great to have a positive plan and to have started to execute it and to know where it's going.

Diet
Since I am now actively addressing the single biggest challenge to my dietary goals, I decided to go with it and play with carbs.  I have tried long term low carb before (and probably will again) but in the face of relatively unchecked drinking those experiments are unreliable at best.  I don't really think permanent low carb is a good option for me, nor is it necessary given that I am by nature a most slim and active person. If I had obesity issues it would be another story.  But I do want to play with carbs and lose belly fat.  So I decided to go very low carb the last three days and then will "cycle back" to carbs on the weekend.  So....

I don't remember Wednesday's eating well, but yesterday:
     black coffee in the early morning and again mid morning
     around 1:30 - cheese omelette with 4 eggs, chicken thighs with collard greens and olive oil
     around 6:30 - meatloaf, salad, and half a potato pancake
     total carbs well under 50 grams

Friday
    black coffee and tea throughout the morning
    chicken thighs, spinach, fried eggs with olive oil
    not sure what's happening for dinner but I will try to keep the carbs low

Exercise
I've been doing full body every other day with a mix of weights, weighted calisthenics and body-weight calisthenics.  Mostly compound movements.  I enjoy this but it's exhausting and I doubt I could do it if I am riding to work every day.  I will say this, and it's the most important discovery I've made over the last month or so that I've only been riding once a week.  I have been doing weighted squats and deadlifts for the first time in years, and even though my weights are quite modest (in the lower 100ish pounds give or take.  For squats, it's whatever I can lift over my head.  For deadlifts, the most recent max as 135 for 12 reps.  Quite modest.)  My legs are getting stronger.  I could tell on the bike today.  And I have purposely kept the reps as high as I can.  No fewer than 10 and trying for 20 whenever possible.  I think high rep squats are the key to leg strength.

On the non-lifting days I've been doing micro-bursts of HIT.

Winding Down and Gearing Up

The alcohol titration project is going well, more or less according to plan.  Last night I had three beers (I'm chasing them with Perrier or Pellegrino so I can keep drinking fizzy stuff but also keep with the plan).  Tonight it's two.  Tomorrow one.  Then BINGO, that magic breakthrough beautiful horrific gleaming screaming groaning moaning write home go tell it on the mountain moment.  Then the plan is to hold that steady flow for the week nights into the great and tender beyond.  Weekends a tempered free for all.  This plan will require tweaks.

For strength training I've done whole body every other day this week.  Yesterday I had access to the gym at work, which has a modest amount of equipment.  Might as well use it if it's there.  The challenge is the make it difficult if the weights are not that heavy.  I'm already progressing to some fairly heavy stuff (for me).  This time I decided to do three sets of push, three of pull, and three of squats.  I put the bench press machine on the lowest incline (about 35-40 degrees and after warmup I was able to do the stack (170 lbs) for ten solid reps.  Then I dropped the weight two notches and did around ten again, then did the same thing again for my third set.  For pulling I chose bent over rows on the cable machine.  It was hard to use a heavy weight because I kept wanting to be pulled forward, so I kept the weight fairly light (around 100 -120 lbs) and did three good sets of as many reps as I could get with exaggerated and slow form.   Rep range was 16-12.

Squats are difficult in this gym.  I tried squats on the cable machine but couldn't really get it to feel right.  I probably could have used the two 50 lb dumbbells (as high as they go in this gym) and done dumbbell squats for reps but instead I decided to pre-exhaust with the leg extension and leg curl machine and then do goblet squats immediately after.  This worked well, and I was only able to do the squats with a 40 lb dumbbell, but I'm aware of the concerns about leg extensions and the knees, so I probably won't do this any more.

On the off days like today, I can't seem to do a complete rest, so I have been doing some light HIT.  Today I took a light barbell (55 lbs) and did six bent rows followed immediately by 6 dead lifts followed immediately by 6 overhead presses followed immediately by six squats.  Short rest, then do the same thing for five reps of each and so on until you get down to one.  Pretty good stuff and I didn't feel like I created any problems for tomorrow.

Speaking of which, I am home tomorrow, so I'll probably do standard barbell dead lifts for weight and then push ups and rows with the weight vest on.

I've definitely done this before, but I'm starting to get interested again in a one set scheme.  One of the things I have to repeatedly remind myself is that a lot of the videos I watch for ideas are made by young people, or people who are at least significantly younger than me (which counts for 35 year olds).  And so much of it may not apply.

I do know that the older we get the more important strength training becomes, and that it IS still possible to build muscle (at any age), and it is important to get more rest and avoid too much volume.  Brevity and intensity are best.

So I think I'm heading towards a one set per exercise per day whole body as often as possible while still making gains thing.

Never Say Never - Weight Lifting and Body Part Splits

For the last three weeks I've been lifting weights and doing body-part splits.  Man Oh Man Oh Man you should never say never.  I just all of the sudden felt like I needed a change.  This has coincided with a largely weather-induced break in bike riding to and from work.  So without the constant physical exhaustion I have felt that I could really increase the load in the other exercise arena.   Interest moves around as you constantly search for something to keep you in the game and making progress.

So to bring this all together and to not feel guilty for getting back into things I said I was done with, I realized that changing things around is ultimately a good thing, not a bad thing, and can add to what you're doing.  So I decided to play it fairly instinctively and to take a roughly two week block to work on strength training a certain way and then to move on to something else for the next roughly week or two.

I decided to use weights and body-weight calisthenics, and to do heavy weights and low reps and also light weights and high reps.  I also decided to try different kinds of body-weight splits and days between workouts.

I also decided that on some workouts I would do multiple exercises per muscle group and in other workouts I would only do one, and I would vary sets and reps.

I started with an old school 70s bodybuilding routine.  Day 1:  chest and back, day 2:  arms and shoulders, day 3:  legs.  Repeat.  I did a mix of weights and calisthenics, barbells and dumbbells and machines, isolation movements and compound movements.  Mostly I did low weight and high reps.  Sets for a given exercise were usually in the rep range of 30, 25, 20, 18, 15, 12. Never fewer than 10.  Very light weights, like 20 lb dumbbells for curls, 15s for lateral raise.  You have to set your mind on the fact that the weight does not matter.  It's almost irrelevant.  What matters is proper form and to exhaust the muscle.

For the next cycle I did a push/pull/legs split.  Chest and triceps on day 1, back and biceps on day 2, legs and shoulders on day 3.  For this cycle I did higher weight and lower reps.  So I may have done incline bench with 50s for 16 - 18 reps (the heaviest dumbbell my work gym has), dumbbell curls with 45s for 6 reps, etc.  For one of these workouts I did weighted ring dips (30 lbs) for sets of 5 and weighted chin ups with 30 lbs for sets of 5.  I also did barbell squats and dead lifts.

Now I've decided to go to an older old school body-building routine, which they used to do back in the 50s and 60s.  That's full body every other day.  I'm really excited about this because I really do prefer to do the whole body in a workout.  But of course you must do fewer sets overall.  Today I did weighted ring dips 20 lbs x 6, 10 lbs x 9, body-weight x 9; weighted ring chins 20 lbs x 6, 10 lbs x 7, body-weight x 9.  I did one set of barbell squats with 75 lbs for 10 reps but only because I'm too tired from dead lift yesterday.  I am most excited about this cycle because each body day I want to pick one exercise per muscle group and do three sets with weight in a reverse pyramid, and only compound movements.

So for this cycle I intend to pick and choose variations on deadlift, squat, bench press, dip, push up, pull up, row, and military.

I'm already thinking about the next split, which I think will be upper body one day, lower body the other.

Really the fun here is to be to a point where I have a lot of tools in my arsenal and on any given day I can pretty much start with an open mind and then come up with a plan that incorporates weights, body, different rep schemes, varying amounts of rest, and a whole lot of interest value.

Last Night's Progress, Things I Want to Fix

Last night I had six beers and two whiskeys.  That's seven drinks and that was the plan because it is roughly one less than my highly estimated daily average.  However, whiskey is not a good choice here because of the tendency to over-pour.  I didn't measure shots.  And I felt just as awful today as ever (not 7/8 as awful), so I'm not sure too much progress was made in last night's consumption amount so much as today's disclosure.  This is the only forum where I'm sharing this information but at least it's a forum that's outside of my own head.  Technically, anyway.  The fact that no one reads it I suppose makes it still inside my head but the knowledge that anyone could read it at any time makes it feel like it's outside of my head.

Anyway, tonight the goal is six.  That'll be easier I think because beer comes in convenient packs of six or some multiple thereof.

I have a more detailed post in mind about how all the physical problems I am experiencing, which seem to be separate and different are really one extended problem in my opinion.  Or rather they all bloom out of one common root.  So here I'll just list them.  I believe everything I'm about to list comes primarily from alcohol abuse.

• bloated stomach
• internal (visceral) belly fat
• all manner of digestive issues from start to finish, including acid reflux, unhappy stomach, IBS type of stuff, frequency of going, infrequency of going, likely leaky gut
• borderline or high blood pressure
• nearly constant allergy symptoms, such as itchy and watery eyes, scratchy throat, sneezing, plugged nose
• fluid in the ears
• asthma and wheezing
• cough
• mild arthritis
• mild depression
• moodiness and temper

I'm 51 years old.  I'm about 6 feet tall and 186 pounds.  I work out every day and am strong with a good amount of muscle mass.  I look like a slim and athletic person in most places.  My pants waist is 33 and that's a bit loose.  So that's pretty good. But it's the part that's a few inches above the waist that is the problem.  The spot where the top button of a two-button blazer or suit coat hits.  That's the protruding problem.  Everything bad is happening behind there.  That's where the fat is being laid down, the blood pressure is going up, the acid is rising, the airways are constricting, and the future lower digestive distress is forming.

I'd like to be 170 lbs with a flat happy stomach.  As I said my pants waist size is 33".  I just measured and that's what I measure just at the top of the pelvis.  But the spot a couple inches above the belly button is 39".  Wow.   It's very uncomfortable to put my shoes on. That, my friends, is bad.  

On Alcohol, Drinking and Changing Habits

I've read a lot of books and articles and listened to a lot of podcasts and watched a lot of videos on drinking and health and exercise and quitting and behavior and habits.  One thing I've noticed is that the message is one-sided and simplified and the positions are biased and hard-lined.  People who are compelled to write or blog or vlog about drinking are biased.  They are either teetotalers to begin with and therefore would never understand the allure (and are likely already biased against it without knowing much about what they're biased against) or they've been through the ringer with drink and have come out the other side an admirable foe.  Or maybe they've been through the ringer with a family member.  The message is largely that alcohol is bad anyway you look at it and it will kill you and it almost killed me.  Drinking behavior is measured by arbitrary scales that smack of "degrees of badness", like "moderate", "heavy", "binge".  If you binge, you are in serious trouble.  Yet everyone binges.  The preponderance of evidence that some level of drinking can in fact be good will often be cited but not dealt with in a rational argument.  If it's always bad it can't sometimes be good.  And good is defined by the number three or less for males and two or less for females per day.  But save those all for the weekend and it's bad.  Binge.  Bad.  It's odd to me that the facts that teetotalers don't live as long as drinkers and drinking is always bad and will kill you can coexist in same conversation.

The notion that heavy drinkers also live longer than teetotalers, which I've seen more than once and  deserves to be googled, shall not be allowed to enter the room or even tap on the window.  How would we deal with this?  And how would we bring it up without seeming to advocate drinking?  We are not advocating anything.  We are trying to have a rational conversation.

Everybody Likes a Quitter
The preponderance of books and confessionals and testimonies and bleedingly honest videos follow a familiar and predictable line.  Started at age 13, blackouts, fights, violence, stealing, property damage, poor judgment with vehicle, arrests, near death experiences, financial loss.... Then a wake up one day and never again sort of triumph.  This makes great reading and listening.  I also know it's exceedingly rare.  The person who downed a fifth of Jack at age 13 likely had it in the cards to be on the far end of the spectrum.  This narrative is extreme, and I suppose that's what sells books and attracts attention.  But I think the majority of people who buy the books and listen to the podcasts aren't quite so extreme.  I also know that successful quitting can be a gradual process done by one's own devices and can be a moderation in behavior rather than a hard stop.  But that would be a boring book.

All Vices are Not Created Equal
My starting point here is health and fitness.  If you know nothing on the subject and tried to research whether alcohol and health and fitness can coexist, you would get an equal number of extreme yesses and extreme nos.  EVERYONE knows a glass or two of red wine with dinner is a ticket to perfect health.  Yet chronic alcohol use ravages the body and WILL kill you.  Two glasses of red wine a day is chronic alcohol use.  Is it all in the amount?  I just don't see how it could be that there would be a magic cutoff point where the same substance is physiological nirvana then absolute assassin.  I know that the poison's in the dose, but still...

I read a lot of posts and watch a lot of videos by health and fitness people, muscle-builders, who discuss these things.  I'm really interested in what the "golden era" bodybuilders of the 70s used to do.  I also watch a lot of videos on fat loss, calisthenics, intermittent fasting and various other health topics that are currently in vogue.  Turns out they do a lot of the same things.  Relatively low carb diets, resistance training, hard work, consistency, self control, and ......  cheat day!  A cheat day, or a break, or a day off, or a carb cycle or a periodicity whatever, seems to a key to success.  The golden era bodybuilders spent Sundays eating junk.  Cakes and donuts and pancakes the size of a table top.  According to more than one account, they did this on Sunday and then on Monday were bloated and puffy and sick and miserable, but went back on the diet (low carb, high protein, relatively high fat) and by Wednesday they were back in shape.  Ric Drasin talks about this a lot.  He was there.

Some of the vloggers I follow try to spend the cheat day taking in as many calories as possible.  They may start the day with a giant box of sour patch kids.  The rest of the food choices follow this line.  Ah, youth!  This would kill me immediately.  I don't think anyone older than 30 would do this and that says a lot.

Ok, fine.  The cheat day keeps you in the game by allowing for one precious minute with all the evil vices you've spent the rest of the week avoiding in the quest for a small waist and abs and muscles self-actualization.

But what of alcohol?  Let's say that I proposed to all of these venerable experts that my cheat day will be a case and a half of beer.  Or maybe two chickens and two fifths of Irish Whiskey.  How do you think that would compare?  Would I be laughed out of the room?  Run out of town on rail?  What's the difference?  Why is sugar squeaky clean and alcohol evil?

I watched a video recently where two old school bodybuilders from the golden era discussed alcohol and said that if you follow your diet and exercise programs diligently during the week and then go out on the weekend and drink yourself into oblivion, you will wipe out all your gains.  Why?  Because alcohol metabolizes as sugar.  Yet, these are the same people who spoke fondly of the cheat day.  And that cheat day was full of donuts and manhole-sized pancakes.  (And according to some, pitchers of beer back in the day.)  Uh.... ?

Alcohol will always be on the dark side.  It's bad.  It's dirty.  It's not for Puritans.  But, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I would be much better off if I drank 6 beers a day or 6 whiskeys a day than if I drank 6 Cokes a day.  I haven't drunk 6 Cokes in the last 25 years.  I can't even imagine it.

But this observation will not fly with most.  Coke is squeaky clean and alcohol is dirty.  Even if they metabolize in roughly the same way.

And never mind the obvious fact that doing without either would be a golden ticket.

What's the Point Here?

I've been drinking every day for 30 years.  Always more interested in the nightly buzz than the binge or blackout.  I don't like to get really drunk.  I don't like to drink all day.  I sleep before I do either of those.  I'm reasonably healthy and definitely strong.  But in those 30 years my minimum daily requirement has roughly quadrupled.  Something else is going on here besides a relaxation crutch.  At this point I don't really care what that thing is as much as what to do in order to turn the progression in the other direction.  Alcohol is stigmatized and only the extremely ill then recovered tend to end up blogging or talking about it on video.  I can't identify with either of those.  That's why I don't think I can put a name or definition to exactly what I'm grappling with here. And it's also why I can't get inspired by narratives I keep seeing and hearing on how they got from there to here.

Goal:  To not drink alcohol every day and to not use it as a way to wind down.
Plan:  Taper, then move to dry week nights and free week ends.
Method:  Reduce consumption by 10% of the prior day until zero.
Reward:  Don't worry about the weekends.
Long Term:  Ebrace the raw, feel, be awake and don't worry about it, see how it goes, be honest, reassess.  Practice not drinking and get good at it.

Tonight:  8 drinks minus .8 (round up to 1) equals seven drinks.

Tomorrow:  7 drinks minus .7 (round up to 1) equals six drinks.