the reformation: six months in

a six month difference

It's been close to two months since my last check-in (hey, life gets busy). I'm six months into my "healthy living reformation" - or, at least, six months into the 'reformation' that has, so far, stuck. In my last check-in I weighed in at 168 pounds. This morning the scale told me I was 164. That's only four pounds lost ("Maybe I'm on the upper end of the expected water-weight fluctuation?"), and I thought it'd be more. That isn't just wishful thinking: I'm down to the last notch in my belt, down another shirt size, and I've been making good gains with weight-lifting despite being on a restricted caloric diet. Nevertheless, 164 pounds isn't bad (that's twenty-five pounds lost); as a matter of fact, I haven't been down to this weight since early 2015. I've still yet to hit my autumn weight of 160, at which point I'll shave my beard. Because the beard's getting damned annoying, and the summer's going to start getting hot, I may say to hell with it and shave it before I hit my goal. I'll try to be good, though.

The last six months I did a 'cut', eating around 1500 calories a day (or trying to). My diet's mostly been high protein, predominantly eggs, chicken, and cottage cheese. I'll throw a whey protein shake into the mix if I'm feeling spunky. I've embraced variation in my routine, alternating low weight and high rep workouts with high weight and low rep ones. I've been consistent with working out four to five days a week, and I'm really starting to fall in love with squats (though that doesn't mean I don't dread leg day). Lately I've been alternating between squat shoulder presses and weighted squats, the latter of which is done with Zoey on my shoulders. Not only does it add extra weight for my legs, but she's squirming around so much that I get a core workout just trying to not to topple over. Here are the pics from my last photo session (put on here more for my reference than yours):

and, no, I'm not sucking in or flexing. this is all natural.