TLDR: Lifting Again, In America

Too Long Dad Recap

Based on what was on CNN and much of social media, much of the country held its breath all week as election results trickled in. My bet is most “dads who lift” didn’t get caught up in the apparent stress.

Like me, you probably went about your routine, checking off items on your list. You probably realize your life will be much more impacted by your consistent actions everyday than by anything a politician can do for you.

That’s part of what makes this country great. While there is clearly a progressive movement, you can be confident that your basic liberties aren’t going to be infringed on, leaving you free to better yourself, your financial situation or your health through your own efforts.

Back in 1984, Ronald Reagan had a political ad with the tagline, “It’s Morning Again in America.” That’s how I feel every morning, no matter who is in office. Just being able to have another morning is always preferable to the alternative.

For me, the focus remains providing for my family, lifting heavy weights, eating low calorie dense foods, and making fun memories with my kids. Comment below with your “why”.

Things I Ate This Week: Too Much

For a second straight week, I’ve been struggling to hit the targeted calories. I think I’m now below my body’s set point and progress from this point will take more discipline than I’ve had in the last few weeks.

So, I went over on my calories most days this week, but the extra steps and cardio made up for it and my weight hovered around 162lbs all week. I did make some really great food for myself that kept me going. After eating those, the overage on calories would come from some snacking on random sugary snacks sitting around the house. I need to do better this week.

Anyway, the anabolic cheesecake I made last Sunday was the highlight of the week. For the next 3 days I was able to eat a fat slice of cheesecake for breakfast.

My protein ice cream skills continue to improve, and it remains a staple. The picture below is one that includes orange dreamsicle flavored protein combined with strawberries for a fruity flavor that is incredible. Another day though I mixed it up with some coffee flavored ice cream, which hit the spot.

Today and yesterday, I made the cinnamon puffs mentioned above. The recipe involves blending slices of bread into a batter that you then bake, but the batter would probably work fine as a pancake batter. The icing made with fat free cream cheese really brings it together.

Things I Lifted This Week: Mostly my Feet

This week was the final sort of de-load, mess around week. But today I started the first block of the Juggernaut AI powerbuilding program. Its a 5 day split that generally follows a push, pull, legs, push, legs split.

• I continued my lunges streak (400 a day), which stands at 129 days and counting.
  • The weather really cooperated this week with temperatures above 70 degrees this weekend.
• I’ve been getting lots of cardio and steps in as I try to hold my 162 lbs bodyweight and prep for a final push to 160lbs and below. I even hit the rowing machine a couple of times.
• On Friday night, I got a wild hair and decided to make up a step-focused challenge for Saturday
  • I was invited to walk 9 holes of golf, so I knew I would have extra steps
  • I decided it would be cool to see if I could beat my entire family’s combined step count (3 kids and the wife)
  • I am working on the video I shot of the challenge, but (spoiler alert) they got 47,800 and I came within 700 of that number but ultimately failed.
  • The golf actually was the least productive part of the day in terms of getting steps, only like 9000 in 2.5 hours, which surprised me. 

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Dad Report: Bonus Days

Not to be Captain Obvious, but it is getting dark super early these days. It happens every year, so not a surprise. But it is always a shock to the system.

Side note: My wife recently replaced the blinds in our bedroom and somehow didn’t get blackout shades, so when the sun rises at 6:30am, it feels like noon in my bedroom. It sucks.

So, it gets dark around 5pm these days and is only going to get worse for the next month or so. The 10U travel baseball team I coach tried to have a practice at 4:15 to 5:15 one afternoon this week, and we had to stop around 5:05 on account of darkness. By the time I got done shooting the shit with the other dads, we needed a flashlight to find our gear.

So, the very sunny and warm days this weekend were a bonus. Being able to golf in shorts in the morning, coach a baseball game in the afternoon on Saturday were much appreciated before we shut it all down for a long, cold winter in the garage!

Hope you had a great weekend. Thanksgiving is just a few weeks away, and it will be a very different experience than most of us are used to, but us dads will make do.

Thanks for reading, keep it on the DL (DadLifting). I’m out.