Nothing worse than a reverse before and after. Yep, I took an unfortunate step backward and put on a little chub. I have described my situation in my last few log posts, but it doesn't even matter. None of it changes where I am right now.
I have heard it said many times and it always rings true, relapse is part of recovery. So there's no need to feel sorry for myself or beat myself up. It's just time to get to work.
Now, most people would think I'm jumping back headfirst into calorie restriction, but they'd be wrong. I haven't been tracking macros for well over two months. I have no idea what my maintenance calories are. With being seriously detrained, the last thing I want to do is go too low on my calories and risk losing even more muscle.
Instead, I am going to spend the next two weeks fastidiously tracking every calorie. I'm not going to be going crazy trying to eat perfectly. I just want to make good choices and not put garbage down my throat. I'm figuring a good place to start is 14 times bodyweight. That will put me just shy of 3,000 calories a day.
The way I like to run things is to deduct calories from the weekdays so I can bank some for the weekend. I'll probably run Monday through Friday at around 2,800 which will leave me around 3,500 for Saturday and Sunday.
Training will be the three days a week full body program I have just started running. DON'T CALL IT A COMEBACK - The Perfect Post Layoff Program. With my back issue, unfortunately, cardio will be very limited. I'll just do what I can do and see how it shakes out.
That's it, nothing fancy. Just getting my bearings. I can slowly start building better habits and set myself up for success. Check back in two weeks when I assess and set out on Part 2.
