Weight: 180.0

Exercise: Lifted weights for 90 minutes following the Stronglifts program: Squat, Overhead Press and Deadlift.

Breakfast: Small bowl of Nutty Nuggets with almond milk.

Lunch: Mixed green salad with cabbage, carrots and almonds topped with Chef AJ’s Husband’s Favorite No-oil Dressing.

PM Snack: Baked tortilla chips with verde salsa made from Herdez Salsa Verde and El Pato Tomato Sauce with Jalapeno.

Dinner: Two pieces of Potato Lasagna.

Synopsis: As I have stated before, this hack was not about weight loss, as evidenced by a slight gain today. It’s not really bothering me as I have been able to maintain my weight, actually increasing it a bit with muscle gain thanks to Stronglifts.

I had purchased 32 ounces of mushrooms late last week in anticipation of making Chef AJ’s Disappearing Lasagna, but dinner plans were adjusted last Friday and I did not make it. So with all the ingredients I decided to try a new version of this fabulous dish tonight. Instead of tofu I used white beans, which is one of the recommendations in Chef A’s book, Unprocessed. I also substituted almonds in place of cashews. Since I had had no miso paste, I omitted it. The filling came out just as good as the tofu based one with less fat.

I had been using a whole grain noodle to layer my lasagna with, but decided to mandolin pieces of potato to create each layer with. I ended up using 4 small potatoes. In hindsight I probably should have boiled the slices for 5 minutes before adding them to the serving dish I was cooking the lasagna in. After 60 minutes in the oven, the top layer of potato was still uncooked and crunchy, while the other two layers were cooked through. I still loved the flavor of the lasagna and did not miss the noodles. The wife even complemented the white bean based filling, but this is one of her favorite dishes, I was hoping she wouldn’t notice the difference in texture.

Work was a challenge, I had my cereal on the go, but was not able to get an AM snack in today. When I finally got lunch it was nearly 7 hours later and just past noon. I was hoping to eat a bit sooner since I had planned on working out when I got home and didn’t want to lift weights on a full stomach. As I did a few days last week I put together a big salad with mixed greens, cabbage, carrots and some almonds. I topped it with, what has become a favorite salad dressing (thanks Chef AJ!) and added some Sriracha hot sauce.

My work out was good as I added 5 or 10 lbs. to each lift I accomplished yesterday. The work out is getting tougher as the weight increases requiring me to take more time in between lifts in order to recover. I should receive my new power rack and bench today, which I am looking forward to, even though it won’t improve how I lift. Some of the soreness I experienced the past few days seemed to go away as I started lifted. My guess is the soreness is from the 11 miles I ran last week, mostly in my butt and thighs.

Only real issue for the day was the full and bloated feeling I had after I finished dinner last night. It was another after 7PM meal last night, which isn’t helping me a bit. I started cooking at 530 PM, but by the time I pulled it out of the oven it was already past 7PM. I probably should have limited myself to a single piece, drinking more Crystal Geyser and waiting until the morning to add a snack to fill the void, but I didn’t and I paid the consequences.