March 5, 2026
This week I want to talk about two things: my weight progress and what my career path might look like moving forward.
First, the weight.
I finally hit 201 pounds, which feels like a huge milestone. If you remember from previous posts, I had plateaued for a while around 203. For weeks it felt like the scale just refused to move. But eventually it did.
Now, I’ve been saying that I’ve been “backsliding,” but I’m starting to think that might not be the right word. What’s really happening is that the diet I started with wasn’t fully sustainable, at least not in its strictest form.
What I’m noticing now is that I’m returning to something closer to baseline, but a modified baseline. I’m not going back to how I used to eat before. For example, I’m not waking up every morning eating whole eggs and pancakes without thinking about it.
But I might have a pancake now and then, and that’s okay. The difference is that now I’m balancing it. Maybe I pair it with egg whites and avocado. Maybe I keep the portions reasonable. One pancake? Fine. Maybe even two. Just not going overboard like before.
So the mindset has shifted from perfect discipline to sustainable balance.
Where I have been struggling lately, though, is exercise.
And honestly, that ties directly into sleep.
Lately I’ve been staying up way too late working on the website. I’m usually going to bed around 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning, and the only reason I’m doing that is because it’s the only time I really have to work.
During the day I’m with the kids. As a stay-at-home dad, that’s my full-time responsibility. When my wife gets home from work, that’s time we spend together. So by the time everyone goes to sleep, that small two-to-three-hour window at night is really the only time I can sit down and focus on creative projects.
That’s when I work on the website, videos, music, and everything else.
But the downside is obvious. When I go to sleep at 1 or 2 in the morning, I’m only getting five or six hours of sleep, and that has a ripple effect.
Less sleep means:
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lower energy
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less motivation to exercise
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and honestly a bit of a hit to my mental health
So exercise has been drifting back toward baseline as well.
Even with that, though, the overall trend is still positive. Hitting 201 pounds is something I haven’t done in probably seven years. My body feels lighter, I feel better overall, and even something simple like how my pants fit is noticeably different.
So progress is definitely happening.
Thinking About Career Again
The other big thing on my mind lately has been career direction.
For context, I went to school for cybersecurity, but finding an entry-level position in that field has been harder than I expected. A lot of it comes down to experience. I didn’t do an internship during school, and that definitely hurts when trying to break into the industry.
On top of that, AI and automation are starting to reshape a lot of entry-level roles in tech.
Living in my neighborhood, I’ve noticed that a lot of my neighbors are teachers. Talking with them, several suggested something simple: why not try substitute teaching?
Apparently schools really need substitutes right now, and they said it should be relatively easy to get started.
So I thought, why not? Even if it’s temporary, it’s still work experience, and it could be something I do while continuing to pursue opportunities in cybersecurity.
But when I started the application process, I hit an unexpected roadblock.
References.
They asked for recent references, and that’s something I don’t really have. For the past four years, I’ve been in school, and for the past three to four years I’ve also been home with the kids. So the reference I provided ended up being considered outdated.
Now I’m trying to figure out how to solve that problem.
One option is volunteering somewhere in the evenings so I can build a new professional reference. Another option is picking up a small part-time job for the same reason.
Interestingly, there’s also a volunteer fire station nearby that actively recruits volunteers. That could potentially turn into a full career path down the line.
I never imagined becoming a firefighter, but life has a funny way of opening doors you didn’t originally plan on walking through.
For now, I’m keeping my options open.
I’m also applying to jobs again, especially data entry positions, since those have been popping up more frequently lately. I’ve got my fingers crossed that something comes through soon.
At this point, it’s just about staying flexible, trying different paths, and seeing where the opportunities lead.