Yep, that's a huge problem for me.  Or at least stopping once I've eaten something bad ... like cookies.  I'm a sucker for my nieces in Girl Scouts, so I buy a crapload of them.  And then ... eat them.   All.  12 boxes worth in two weeks. 

On the good side, I've run out of cookies, and have gotten my weight back down to 181.5 as of my weigh-in yesterday.

My morning long workouts (weight-lifting M/Tu/Th/F/Sa, and cardio-only on Su/W) are all lasting 1.5 to 2.25 hours long.  I'm burning 1,000 to 1,300 calories per session, with a few longer ones hitting as high as 1,800 calories.  So I've been powering off those calories I put on, now that I'm controlling what I eat.

Speaking of, after having a lot of problems with junk food always being around up through, oh, two weeks ago (since last Thanksgiving roughly), I'm FINALLY controlling my calories tighter over weeks.  And the weight is almost back down to my lowest point.  You definitely can't overeat and hope to not gain by working out.  Look at the time I put in above, and it didn't work.

I believe my body likes getting 2,000 to 2,100 calories a day as well.  If I eat 1,800 (pretty much one less protein bar a day), then it doesn't seem to lose as much weight.

Workouts are going well.  I stay energized (I use M5 Extreme at 1.5 scoops per lifting working) through the entire thing, and change the weight/reps most of the time between my early week workout for a body area vs the later week workout.  Minimal strength gains have been made, which is fine - I want to get the body fat down, not gain strength/mass right now.

Having mentioned the M5 Extreme, I'll go back to NO Xplode when I run out of M5 Extreme.  (Hmm, perhaps I should pick some up and alternate the stuff...)  The NO Xplode at 2 to 2.5 scoops gives me more of a "power" feeling than M5 does.  Like wanting to grab the bars of a cage and shaking them.  The M5 doesn't do that, and I think makes my heavy lifting days harder.  Both help keep my heart rate way up during a workout though, so long as I'm doing some lifting.

If I remember, I'm going to add a few chain links to my barbell tomorrow for chest day.  I'm finding that for things like chest press, either I can lift the barbell a dozen reps in a set, or I can't get it up for the first rep at all.  Like I have a weak point at the beginning.  Note that since I'm using a cable-based system, I have to start from the very bottom position on chest press, decline/incline press, squats, deadlifts.  That really bites.

Yesterday I encountered something interesting.  I have my laptop bungie-corded to the elliptical so I can play a game while I jog between sets (and during the cardio only portion).  Man, was it boring yesterday when the game was down for maintenance.  I can't imagine trying to jog for long periods without the laptop.  Weight-lifting I could do, but not long jogging.

Til next time...