I'm kinda dumb.

I've been told that the definition of smart is how quickly a person's brain can make mental connections, properly filling in little details to arrive at a conclusion or understanding. In that case? I'm dumb.

I've been working out same as always, only I've noticed that the sweat ring around my neck has been much smaller recently, indicative of lesser effort. Except maybe not. Because if I look back at what I ate the couple nights prior to a bad workout? I find a bad diet. A meal or meals full of sodium. The same sodium that holds my liquids in over the weekends and makes me gain a faux 10 pounds. That sodium also is preventing me from sweating in the big amounts I'm used to! I'm kind of sure of it. Because this morning I've been eating clean for a couple days now, and without changing anything else, I had a good 4" of sweat by the time I was off the elliptical. The lesson, as always, is I'm an idiot.

In other news, I think that one of the reasons I've been slipping and eating a bit poorly again, outside of the stress of the current job/job hunt/new job deal (and those factors are probably related), is because I've stopped having my protein shake for breakfast. I usually have a good 40 minutes to kill after the gym but before work which I use to write up my posts and generally dilly-dally, but I've stopped with my shake! Why? I know exactly why. A shake has somewhere north of 8 ounces of water in it. If I drink one, then step on the scale? That's a half-pound! So in my race to be under 300, I started taking bizarre steps like eliminate the shake to keep any extra weight off. Well, that protein helps to keep me full, as does a fiber-bar or banana if I go that route. So by 11 I'm getting hungry and by noon I'm kinda losing my mind. That's why I'll get a salad, fruit and water for lunch, but then stop at Starbucks and get a White Chocolate Mocha and a Lemon Loaf.

I did mention at the start of this post that I'm dumb, yes? Yes.

So I just had my shake again. And I'm 300.8.

Oh, today is Dan my Workout Partner™'s last day at work. We're going out for lunch. He wants Thai. Which is distinctly *not* my fruit salad and lean chicken meal. But I'll do my best to be reasonably good.