Looked back at last year's cut.... some observations/thoughts....
- Official lowest weight was 187.6
- Took me 6+ months to drop 27lbs!!!!! This go round I'm down 11 in 2 so far. I guess that's not much better, though I feel like I'm making much more progress this time. I'm hoping to do 20-25 in 4 this time.
- Last time I was at 188 my bench x6 was 225 and my back squats x8 were 260. Back squats were an estimate though cause I had switched to front squats and was using an equivalent #. Now I'm at 187 and my bench x6 is 230 and actual back squat x8 is a strong 265. Point being I feel a lot better at this weight than I did last year, and it looks like some gains were made. Only downside is I wasted time with weighted chins and my lat pulldowns took a huge hit- ~40lbs. But I think a lot of that comes from form and in any case my lats are
- Did a much better job of holding on to strength.... 2 months into my last cut my bench was down 15-20lbs
I'm pretty sure I completely stopped squatting for a while too 
Last year was a fukking mess. This year I think I actually carried some momentum into the cut and made some gains in the deficit. I know that's not gonna happen during this leg though.
shyt's going better... applying what I learned which made this cut more efficient. I got up 13lbs over the holidays but settled down to about 10 over my minimum weight for steady state. So if that what I can expect, if I get down just under 180 I should be able to stay under 190 for my bulk which would be excellent. If I can look how I look now over the winter and then do a quick 8 week cut to get diced for the summer I will be skraaaaaiiiiggghht. Long term goal is to stay in a 175-185lb window indefinitely.
Been averaging ~ 1.6lbs/week at what I am guessing is like 2000kcal/day once I factor in all the slip ups and diet breaks
That would put maintenance up around 2700 or so, so I should be able to make clean gains at like 2800-2900. Not gonna bother with a slow reverse diet... just get right back to it, let the water and glycogen refill quickly and get back to work. I got a little sloppy with the bulk but I tightened it up.... I figure the key to keeping it tight for the whole bulk this go round will come down to cooking dinner every weeknight (instead of having cereal or some other easy bullshyt), basically not having any sugar on weekdays (outside of whatever I use to cook), staying on my cardio grind (2 hours a week) and just having a little more discipline.
On the gains side I gotta be more deliberate with progression... I've had wifey on a double progression scheme for a few months (reps then weight) and it's been working pretty well. I'm gonna try and plan out my progression and see if that helps. Now that my form is dialed in on my big lifts it's just a matter of putting more weight on the bar over time. But the key is I have a plan based around experience... that is like 90% of the battle. Once you have that it's just a matter of executing.
I think I'm gonna start my Youtube channel. Been sitting on a crazy ass channel name for a minute lol.
8lbs down, 16 to go 
So it's been a little out of control but still under control. Nice little reset... gonna make an aggressive push up to a half break for the July 4th weekend to hopefully be balls deep in the 180s. This first leg got a slow start but once I had my shyt dialed in we were cruising for a minute... hoping to have another surge like that.
Upper body for lunch.... gonna get my car inspected. Might as well start the A/C now cause it's gonna be hot AF