Wardrobe change. She picked her outfit out this morning (changed twice) and ended up going with the Dino slip-ons she inherited from her brother.

Woke up way too early today. Lounging on the couch with my dog, I’m alternating between reading the news and sipping coffee with my eyes closed. It’s so quiet before the kids wake up.

Down 10 lbs since starting CICO. Only about 50 more to go. 😭

Nothing like camping at the Oregon Coast in mid-August.

40mm is one of my favorite focal lengths.

What good are iOS widgets and WatchOS complications if they never update until you open them? It would be funny if it wasn’t so aggravating.

This is just me getting old, but I feel very uncomfortable/borderline offended with the Gen Z boys adopting this mustache/mullet/pit viper aesthetic. Gives me abusive alcoholic vibes. I guess that means they’ve probably accomplished their goal.

25 mph really is too fast for most neighborhood streets. 15 mph should be the rule.

My wife competed in a duathlon on her birthday today and got third place in her age group. Proud of her.

Lose It! app makes me laugh with its “positive pattern detected” notifications. Yes, I like potatoes.

My kids love these German Playmobil [Scooby-DOO](https://a.co/d/4Z6vQOE)! sets. They’re so creative. Keeps them busy and entertained for hours.

We rode bikes, played at the park, and chatted with the neighbor about her new dog. [afterword.blog](https://afterword.blog/shenanigans/ “afterword.blog”)

People always say you’ll miss the fingerprints around the house when the kids grow up. I’ll definitely miss their little faces and the parenting experience, but I certainly will not miss having to repaint the walls every 6 months.

536 calories. A McDonald’s double cheeseburger has 100 fewer calories.

Looking pretty sassy for a tax collector.

Digging the wrap on this MAX car.

**Changing My Lifestyle**

I’m about a week in with CICO (calories in, calories out), and although it hasn’t exactly been easy, I’ve stayed below my calorie limit all but 1 day.

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I’m about a week in with CICO (calories in, calories out), and although it hasn’t exactly been easy, I’ve stayed below my calorie limit all but 1 day. I’m still well below my restriction limit for the week, which means I did better than my expected.

I’ve set a goal of reducing my caloric intake by 800-1000 calories per day below my Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE), which I calculated to be about 3200 calories depending on my physical activity. I’ve budgeted a little bit more calories for the weekends because I know I tend to eat breakfast or have the occasioanl beer.

I know a lot of it has to be water weight, but I’m down about 6 pounds this week. I know this will level out, and so long as I stay on track, I could lose about 2 pounds per week.

The most difficult part so far is the evening snacking. I’m noticing my biggest cravings are in the evening. I’ve been trying to eat dense, low calorie foods like carrots.

I’m also finding that I feel a lot more human if I don’t eat breakfast. Breaking up 2,200-2,400 calories over 3 meals and snacks just seems to be not that much food at a meal for my body size. I do still eat breakfast occasionally, but I’m much more mindful of how many calories I’m eating and try to keep it low with a hard boiled egg instead of cereal, which would push me way over the edge.

Even though I’m aiming for 2 pounds per week, my goal is to lose 5 lbs per month until new years, for a total of 25 lbs. From what I’ve been reading, this should be attainable, but never having dropped that much weight before, I’m not sure. I’m planning on updating this blog to log my progress. I’ll check in again next week to write an update about how things have been going.

KMHD is my savior during election years.

I dropped my son off at the kinder kickstart program at his elementary school this morning. Although kindergarten doesn’t officially begin for a few more weeks, this papa is full of all the feelings.

Just used Google Takeout to send my photos directly to iCloud. Having moved all my emails from Gmail a few weeks back, I’m mostly done with Google.

A family affair.