About 4 years ago I was the heaviest I’ve ever been. I did 3 months of the Ketogenic diet and lost 15lbs. I loved how I felt but I hated how antisocial the diet was. It is a lifestyle that’s hard to keep. I also started intermittent fasting and that did wonders for my mood. I used to get ‘hangry’, angry when I was hungry, but intermittent fasting seemed to change that and evened out my sugar levels and my mood.

I’ve been on a fantastic healthy living journey since I started my sticker chart at the start of 2019, (here’s a post and video after a year on this journey), and I’ve kept this up. But at the start of the school year I dropped a bit too much weight and actually ended up lighter than my university weight, despite working out 5-6 times a week. So I started drinking a protein shake in the morning and worrying less about fasting.

Now, 6 months later, I’ve gained about 5-6 healthy pounds back, but considering how hard I’ve been pushing myself, I should have gained more muscle mass by now. So I’m going to change a few things.

My plan:

1. Eat more and more often.

2. Two protein shakes a day.

3. Add creatine monohydrate and BCAA supplements.

4. Train with a focus on strength and pushing my muscles to fatigue… but also giving different muscle groups more rest between workouts

5. Stretch more and make sure I maintain (and hopefully improve) flexibility.

6. Drink more water.

My goal: Gain 7-10 pounds in the next 6-8 weeks, then reduce my food intake and go back to lighter weights with higher reps, and probably lose 2-4 pounds. I hope plan to end up at least 5 pounds heavier than I am now.

That might seem like a lot of work for 5 pounds, but it will be 5 pounds that I want and that I know that I can keep on. I was the same body weight, give or take just a couple pounds from about age 26 to my mid 40’s, if I got fit or unfit, the weight just shifted but didn’t change. It was only when I approached 50 that the unhealthy weight gain started.

I should mention that I’m also going back to the challenge I had with my brother-in-law. The goal was 60 push-ups and 30 pull-ups. I got to 60 push-ups (barely and not prettily) but I had to stop the pull-ups for a while. I have started back and last night I did 21. I want to hit 30 in the next 6 weeks as well.

So now I have set goals. I’ve made them public, and I’ve started on my path. I’m putting a reminder in my calendar for every Sunday to weigh myself, and a reality check reminder with a link to this post on May 18th. I believe that I’ll achieve my goals as long as I remember my age, and be smart about not pushing my body (and especially my back) too hard. On with the plan!