Milestones

A couple notable achievements:

• On Feb 25, 2017, I ran the Lost Mountain 5k.   I finished in 27:20.08 -- a personal best (although i've only 2 two 5ks previously).
• On Feb 27, 2017, I squatted 225 (5 sets of 5 reps) for the first time.  This was a milestone because it's 2 45lb plates on each side.

I've been less disciplined on the diet side and my weight has ticked up to around 187, but if I can continue to improve my run and lift I'm not concerned.

Today was a good lifting day -- aside from the 225 squat, I deadlifted 265, hazarded some overheads (despite my shoulder) at 85 lbs, did 51 pull-ups (in sets of 8-11), and did planks (2m front, 1:15 each side).

Most importantly, i feel my efforts toward exercise have continued to make me more functional: I was able to mix a lot of concrete and set 17 posts for a garden enclosure on Saturday (after running the 5k).  That's not something I'd have been able to do a year ago.

Not dead yet!

I've continued exercising and eating moderately.

In the last 4 months i've lost another 10 lbs or so -- I'm down to about 185 despite getting stronger.

Strength

I can squat 215 lbs, deadlift 250, bench press 140, and barbell row 140.  I stopped doing the overhead press because i have a bad shoulder.  I lift maybe 1.8 times per week -- I shoot for two but sometimes stuff gets in the way.  I've also started doing planks trying to improve my core strength.  In classes when we do core stuff I do very, very badly.

Cardio

I wound up running that 5k at Thanksgiving, and with a younger member of the family involved it wasn't a very aggressive pace, so i did fine.  It'd been about a month since I'd done any other cardio, so on Tuesday I did a Spin class -- it was super hard.  Today I went jogging and did 2.8 miles in about 26:12.  Not blazing, but I was pleased.  I need to give this some more attention.

Weight

I'd still like to drop a little more weight -- i've still got some love handles.  I'd been targeting 185, but now that I'm pretty much there I think i'll stay the course for 180 and see how it goes.

Diet

On good, well-disciplined days, I eat:

• Breakfast: two eggs with cheese over a giant handful of spinach (wilted with butter in a pan).
• Lunch: container of jerk or blackened chicken, container broccoli, apple, yogurt with berries.
• Dinner: chicken, grain (rice, quinoa, couscous, pasta), vegetable (usually broccoli).

The meals are satisfying, but i do find myself wanting snacks between.  Being at work away from food is good for avoiding that.

I cheat a good bit -- on Wednesdays I eat lots of carbs and dessert (dinner at church) and on weekends I cheat extremely.  It's a lot of chicken, which is expensive and hard on the wife to constantly cook.  It's a lot of broccoli, but it's cheap and easy and i like it.

Trajectory

The diet feels fairly sustainable, I'm not that miserable.  The exercise takes a lot of time, but I don't hate it and want it to work out.  As work demands more time I may need to become one of those morning exercise people, but that sounds awful.