I felt light this morning. Figuring I'd be down to 100.x kg I stepped on the scales. 101.9Kg damn! thats 200g heavier than Monday! I measured my waist - also bigger than Monday - shit! This didn't set me up for a good day. I did my usual morning walk the whole time trying to work out why I'm gaining weight after daily intense exercise and a clean diet. At this stage in my sprint, I know I've let things slide a little in terms of my diet, but I'm certain I'm still in a calorie deficit every day. I'd prefer not to have to count calories, but I'll do that as a last resort if I can't solve this current puzzle. I was a little more level headed after my walk and a bit of a cry, and got to work investigating. I have setup a Gemini Gem which I use as a daily coach and tool to get advice from. This has been the single most useful tool I've added to my routine. I started the usual "I'm fat today and I hate myself" rant and eventually got into the actual facts: 1. I was a little out of routine the day before and ended up taking my usual creatine dose with my evening shake instead of at lunchtime. No big deal, but creatine sucks water into your muscles to repair then. 2. I'd also had an intense boxing session finishing at 7pm where as usual, I sweated a lot - I've started taking electrolyte tablets after a sweaty workout as it helps with recovery and stops me cramping up - again, the hydrolytes are going to suck in water to help muscle recovery. 3. I've been mixing miso paste, spring onions and garlic, maybe some mustard and a splash of lime to make a dressing for my rice. It gives it a nice flavour, but the miso is very high in sodium. Sodium holds water. 4. I was thristy in the evening and because I was thristy and afraid of cramping, I drank a lot. I've tried to stop drinking much after 6pm, but not last night. This had the usual expected outcome of needing to pee at 3am. Broken sleep = a cortisol spike = a stress reaction and holding water. So its water weight! Its good to understand how that would effect the number on the scales. I think the biggest lesson here that I still need to learn is that when you train hard, the scales are going to fluctuate - its natural. I need to remind myself of this, trust my process and not let a 200g increase turn into a binge. For lunch I had a steak, slaw and my miso flavoured rice - I think I have the flavour combo about right now; 1 teaspoon of miso paste, 1 teaspoon of crushed garlic, 1/2 a teaspoon of wholegrain mustard, 1 tablespoon of chilli oil (I'll be replacing this with chilli flakes). I added half an avacado to my slaw and a little left over dressing (I need to pay more attention to how many calories are in this stuff) and a little packet of salad chips we had in the fridge. Then i felt guilty. I didn't need any of those extras and I'd gained weight today - what am i doing here??? I also made sure to have my creatine mixed with water with lunch instead of waiting until my evening shake. I did the 6pm boxing class with a banana to spike my energy about 40 minutes before. I arrived about 30 minutes early and got a few extra rounds in before the class started. My coach game me some NMN powder to try - I felt pretty energized for the session. We worked on a lot of bouncing and quick combinations. I find the bouncing and being light on my feet challenging, I always have. I'd see my current boxing style as more of George Foreman (second edition). But I'm here to evolve and I'll work on the bounce and being light - who knows, maybe this gets easier the lighter I get. Dinner was a a big chicken salad. I had a little yoghurt dressing and sweet corn mixed in. I didn't have avacodo or any oil as I still felt guilty from lunch. I was still quite hungry after this so had my shake a bit earlier at 8pm. Vitiamin stack at 9 and then bed, asleep by 10:30. Looking back, I did everything right today; I didn't let a setback derail anything, I trained hard, I might've had a few extra calories with lunch, but then omitted calories at dinner, 2 cups of coffee only, vitamins, good night time / sleep routine. Lets see how tomorrow goes....