Busier than I care to be. But finally, an update.

The good, the bad, the ugly.

The good, sugars are running perfect according to the meter. I go back to the doc for new labs Monday.
My previous belief that I'd broken my plateau was apparently wrong.  I have broken it now though. obviously a good thing. Down to 290. 
My wife has joined me in low carbing and she's starting to lose as well. I can't say enough how proud I am of her.
I may have already touched on this, but in the final work week of 5/3/1 for the first cycle, I hit new PRs in bench, dead lift, and squat. 155, 455, and 355 respectively.  The 455 deadlift was the last lift I did and it hurt. I went too big, too soon. I locked it out, but I felt it for a week. I'll slow down a bit on that front. I took most of the deload week off.

Yesterday I started cycle 2. Got way deeper into ketosis, and today I feel better than I have in a damned long time. Life is good.
I matched my bench PR of 155 and it was much easier than last time.  I tried and failed at 175. You win some, you lose some, but you lift some more, you get your weight, and you move on.

The bad. Hurting my shoulder and back. The shoulder is an old injury, and it was just aggravated, but badly. Thanks to rest, aleve, and massage, it's back to it's normal, regular, dull ache. My back was something else all together and may have been a kidney stone. I had all the right symptoms, and day before yesterday, all the pain just disappeared like someone flipped a switch. Odd, but I know how to take yes for an answer!

The ugly. That damn plateau.
A month at 295lbs. Give or take a pound or two each way. It sucked. How did I break it? Well, who knows, but this is what I did and it broke.
At the end of the week off, I hit the gym for limited reps and weight of all 4 lifts that I do. Very limited. Nothing over 60% of my actual 1 rep max for any work out. Really closer to 50 on everything. That night, I took my wife out to dinner at Applebees, which is of course, absolute junk for anyone trying to eat clean. I didn't go nuts, but I for sure had too many carbs.
The next morning I started an extreme diet consisting of Chicken breast, water, green leaf lettuce, onions, Romano cheese, and Caesar dressing.  (1gram carb per tblspn).  I ate them as lettuce wraps, and it's literally the only thing I ate for 4 days. And damn it's good. After 4 days I added some eggs, a few almonds now and then, some small pieces of cheese, etc.

Basically, I reset my metabolism. And according to the little stick, I'm deeper into Ketosis than I have been in a long damn time.  Now, according to some people ketosis is ketosis and levels be damned. Maybe it's true. I don't know. What I do know is that if I'm deep into it and I have a little too much creamer in my coffee, I don't go out of ketosis. If I'm barely in, I do.

Staying in keto, good.
Not being in keto, bad.


More numbers. Tight schedule this week, so I did squats and benches yesterday.
Squat,
warm up
BARx10
95x5
135x5
185x5
Work sets
205x5
235x5
275x5

Yeah, you're supposed to do more than 5. But, I just wasn't feeling right. I was wobbly and didn't feel stable. One thing I've been taught and try to listen to, if your body says no, accept it. So I did the required work and walked away. Today my shoulder and back feel good, so I figure it was a good choice.

Bench
warm up
BARx5x2
65x5
75x5
Work
95x5
105x5
115x8
Joker
135x1
155x1
And the miss at 175.

I felt good at the 155 and REALLY thought I had the 175 in me. But I didn't. My mind wasn't right, and frankly, I'm just not strong enough. I brought it down smooth enough, but 3 inches into the lift, I pushed it right into a brick wall. I'll try again in the next cycle. On the 5/3/1 week of this cycle, if I'm feeling it, I'll go for 165. One step at a time, right?


I've been neglecting accessory work, and that will change soon. I don't know why, but I have a mental thing about a 175 bench. I'll feel like much less of a wuss once I hit it. 

Sorry for the delay, but at some point the benefit of getting healthy has to be living life. That's what I'm doing. And thanks to getting into better health, life is better.