2016 is just around the corner, and I am back to pore over recent posts, diary entries, and app/Keep notes to see how far I’ve come in personal growth, including health- and strength-wise.

So far the biggest most obvious change in life and circumstance is being a new home owner. As of July 2015, I moved out to a semi-country setting within a recent surburban neighborhood just east of Denton, far north of Dallas. This change re-introduced many challenges and responsibilities of being an adult, including paying higher bills ontime and staying on top of general household maintenance duties. Trying to stay organized on top of longer drive times to-and-fro also introduced a lot of stress and time-management issues.

We adopted 3 furkids this year, two babies and one 100+lb adult, all of whom demanded extra care and attention, not to mention medical expenses. Keeping a household full of sane well-behaved furkids required us to continuously engage these kids physically, socially, and mentally–sometimes to the point of exhausing our patience with them.

Moving to a new place encourages a natural curiosity of what the environment offers, and so the attraction to explore the restaurant scene in and around Denton, Little Elm and Frisco was hard to resist. The lack of shopping variety in our immediate neighborhood also invited unhealthy food choices at times. There were plenty of excellent discoveries with the side effect of expanding waistlines and increased scale poundages (not to mention lighter wallets).

With my diet straying far from ideal for the rest of the summer into the fall, I was not surprised to gain 8-10lbs in such a short time, which essentially returned me back to my starting weight in late 2011-early 2012. Despite that I was doing more low level cardio this year than in previous year, I could not out-walk my fork. A not-so-drastic change in work circumstance didn’t contribute much to weight loss..and in a couple of instances, made healthcare somewhat more difficult to obtain.

I had also hit my 5RM with the StrongLifts program and couldn’t get past the physical and mental barrier. It seemed the heavier the weights, the more my balance and form suffered; and in my head I just couldn’t focus on the needed corrective actions. When I resumed lifting after my move (sometime in latter half of August), I was more interested in quickly regaining my losses, and was inattentive to the detail of low and slow progression. The expensive upgrade to my squat rack didn’t really do much to increase my strength (though it was easier to store and organize my equipment).

Speaking of upgrades, I picked up a new optical HRM (Scosche Rhythm Plus) and a few more apps to inject some variety in my record keeping and fitness tracking. These discoveries allowed me to easily jump back into a somewhat regular schedule of exercise. The gadget geek in me craves the new and the novel, but the sober me realizes that I need to see measurable improvement before investing in more fitness toys. This elevated my expectations of my tools, increasing my affection for my newest apps (Instagram and Wahoo in particular) while decreasing my satisfaction with the MFP app (lack of tech support and the UA acquisition being of primary excuse).

I’ve come to end of recounting the most visible and impactful laundry list of things and events in this posting. I may have more to say before the last days of 2015 draw to a close. Stay tuned.