Race to goal weight

Oddly enough, I met a LoseIt challenge of dropping 25 lbs in 2015, after starting way late but with a kick start thanks to a couple bouts of Noravirus (I had it 3 times in 2015, what a record to set!

This year, guess the goal will be to get back to my grad school weight, which means dropping another 20 lbs to 215, while maintaining strength (using bench as a measure - at 265 lbs).  This is going to be tough since I am already within 5 lbs of my minimum since I began tracking, and the last time I was under 230 lbs was at Carderock, Round 2, after almost 200 days of sobriety and running like a madman with Dave Grant. 

There is some hope in my recent acceptance that running is not the answer.  You either make up the calories or your body adapts to the motion and efficiency starts working against you.  Short, high intensity bursts of exercise go a lot further to burn fat than the slow, steady churn and burn of long distance running.  Most of my progress this year has been thanks to that change.  I lost the most weight when I changed out distance runs for sets of 400m / 800m sprints and adding lifting back into my routine twice a week.

Guess I'll keep that routine up, and keep one long run a week on Fridays as the going in plan.  Also need to add in some random workouts to keep my body guessing.

Will also keep up the switch to vegetarian.  Overall, I feel a lot better after the switch.  Meat free since May, except for two times when I have been unable to avoid it in order not to offend.  Truth be told, no cravings except for the occasional severe episode for fried chicken, oddly enough.

And the calorie counting.  Oh, the calorie counting.  Started up counting on LoseIt again with my normal, massive deductions to compensate for thyroid issues today.  Katy was dismayed to learn that I hit my calorie limit at lunch, so no dinner for me (she had just started cooking dinner when I told her this).  But hey, it's the only thing that works consistently.

And to the final change, which is probably the hardest.  In fact, I think it's even harder than going totally sober.  Sobriety isn't that bad after the 14th day, except when you have those days of piercing clarity.  I'm planning to switching drinking habits to less than or equal to the new UK guidelines for health, which are 14 British units per week regardless of whether you are a man or a woman.  And don't get all hopeful yet - there are 3 British units in one pint of 5% lager.  So less than 5 pints of 5% lager per week.  Much less than 5 pints for me, since my typical tastes are for beer that is upwards of 7%.  They also recommend "several" dry days per week.  Not too hard if you are following the limit.

Perhaps an additional modifier, should the above not result in progress, will be a workout per unit earned (which, in LoseIt lingo, a workout is 30 minutes of any exercise)?  Dunno about that one, will try a baseline deduction to 14 units per week first and see where it goes from there.

Of course Katy eats a meatball sub in my face today.  We stopped at a sandwich place while Ryan was sleeping in the car.  The only vegetarian option they had (besides salad) was a black bean burger.  And I hate black bean burgers, so I snacked on the dried peas we bought this morning instead.  Decent test of my willpower.  Dammit. 

20 lbs to go.  Burn it down!