Update: September 20th, 2011

Well, things are still rather stressful for me, but I've noticed my holding weight, which has been bouncing back and forth is starting to do so less and less, and for the better, so it sounds like some things are stabilizing.

I'm probably going to do a full week cycle soon after I return from Vancouver BC at the beginning of October. See how that holds up with my system.

Also, tried on my jersey the other day as a measuring gauge of my progress thus far. When I first tried to try on a Timbers jersey back at the end of January, I couldn't even get into a 2XL-sized jersey. Three months later I was able to squeeze into one, but it was rather sausage-like. Last week, I am proud to announce, I was able to squeeze into my XL-sized jersey with a sausage-like fit, but I couldn't have done that 8 months ago. This made me feel pretty good.

I haven't been eating as much lately, which is good and bad. On one side, when I do eat it's mostly lean protein, like chicken or fish, some beef. On days when I'm not seeming to eat as much is when I have slips, where I have a little bit of a bad food, like a burger from McDonalds which is high in calories but in a small size. Luckily I have been not ordering much in those situations so the effect is minimized. For example, the last 2 days I've eaten fairly healthy.

Yesterday, my birthday, I enjoyed 7 oysters (5 of which were very lightly breaded and pan-fried; the other two were raw), as well as pork and (lightly breaded) calamari, and then later on smoked chicken wings, some diced potatoes, green beans and corn, and three meat balls. A slice of birthday cake was also consumed. Today meals consisted of a beef polish sausage with chili, cheese, veggies and jalapenos, a half a hot dog with onions, and sushi.

I've also been drinking lots of water and tea. Lately I've added some honey to my tea due to irritation from soccer matches, which won't be getting any better this week! I had some beer on my birthday, but for the month so far I haven't had much more than that.

Things are holding steady, which means that progress remains. I'm looking forward to seeing how this next cycle will go!

Thanks for reading, and for your support. And not just diet-related support, but in everything. I appreciate it from the bottom of my heart.

Cheers!