Heavyweight #4
October 2024
Hello friends! Welcome to another edition of Heavyweight, a monthly report of my fitness journey.
Movement
This month, I focused on rowing after I stumbled upon “The Pete Plan,” a rowing plan designed to train for competition. I halved all the distances because I noticed that doing “too much, too fast” on the rower usually leads to my achy elbows. At the time of writing, I’m in week 4 of 24 of the program.
Introducing intervals with the rower has been fun. I had been doing 30-minute sessions three times a week, and that got monotonous—plus my elbows started to complain. But now, I’m ramping up gradually and haven’t had significant pain or soreness while rowing, which is good.
What did bring some soreness was trying Dan John’s “Armor Building Complex.” This complex comprises two double cleans, one double military press, and three front squats. I decided that doing this every minute on the minute for 20 minutes sounded like a good idea, but it turns out 60 front squats is a lot. This was supposed to be peppered between rowing sessions, but I decided against it. Maybe I can incorporate a couple of these a week for fewer rounds in November.
Nutrition
If you read the previous update, you know there was a lot of trial and error. I decided it was time to switch gears and go back to something I know works: fasting. I started with a handful of 16 to 18-hour fasts, and the second half of the month transitioned to 36-hour fasts, cutting one of them down to 24 hours because I had a social engagement and I wasn’t going to say no to food and drink from friends. Who does that?
I did “dirty fasting,” meaning it wasn’t a pure water fast. I usually drink copious amounts of coffee and tea while I fast, as well as seltzer water, but what made these fasts dirtier was that I allowed myself 100 calories on fasting days. These calories took the shape of a cup of miso soup (25 cal), bone broth (50 cal), or a couple of tablespoons of half and half (40 cal) in my coffee. Between hours 18 and 24 seems to be the most challenging part of the fast for me, hence the salty drinks to fight off the fasting headaches.
On the days I ate, I focused on keeping my protein intake high and my carbs moderate; I didn’t measure fat that closely. The weekends were a little bit of a mixed bag. On Saturdays, I do better than on Sundays. I indulge a bit more than on any other day on Sunday. It’s all about balance, right?
Results
I started the month at 332 lbs and ended up at 318.2 lbs, a 13.8 lb loss this month. Most noticeably, my body fat percentage dropped 3.1%, and I gained 3.2 lbs of muscle. So, all in all, I think we can call October the comeback month. We’re so back!
I’m 118.2 lbs away from the goal, and two of the toughest months for clean eating and exercising are upon us. Will I make it through Thanksgiving and Christmas unscathed or succumb to the butter cookie tins?
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Before you go
Let’s spice it up. For every restack of this piece, I will do ten double kettlebell front squats.
If you have any prayer intentions you would like me to add to my days of fasting, please let me know in the comments.
What would be your ideal three-course cheat meal?
If you could keep my Nonno in your prayers I would appreciate it.
Love this! I finally picked swimming back up this month, and while we don’t own a scale, I’m excited to hopefully lose a little of the baby weight from #2 (you know, 18 months ago 😂). I’m also looking into some moderate strength training because I’ve heard it’s really good for moms, and the frequency with which I hear that is getting aggressive 😂😂