Week 4 Progress Report

Starting weight: 300.6

Current weight: 288

Total shrinkage: 12.6 lbs


It's that time again! It's been a very interesting week. I fell off the bandwagon pretty hard for two days. I ate not only once outside of my normal low-carb diet, but TWICE. Twice in a row. On Wednesday and Thursday. I made the very large mistake that often leads me to stray - I didn't eat during the day. I could use all of the normal excuses: "I was busy and didn't have the time," etc. but I won't.

I try to avoid the feelings of shame associated with cheating - shame and embarrassment is captured quite effectively in a vid I posted previously. I can't think of a worse feeling than what that lady must have been experiencing.

Instead, I'll talk about what I should have done differently to prevent this from happening. The big thing for me is time, so I shorten the time it takes to prepare meals. For instance, in preparation for the upcoming week I'm buying a big bag full of chicken breasts from Costco. They're great - I can cook 6 in the same time I cook one, so I cook a few days in advance. I very tired of eggs, so instead of the normal breakfast fare I have a diced up chicken breast with some raw veggies. The first thing I should do every single morning is get some food in my mouth - more is better, but I absolutely must eat breakfast. It sets me up for a moderate day, and makes me less hungry at night.

Something else I consider my golden arrow of preparing ahead of time is low carb cheesecake. Getting some fats in the tummy first thing in the morning is key to appetite control - what better way to do it is have a slice of cheesecake for breakfast? Sounds weird I know, but nothing is easier than grabbing a slice and getting ready to go. You can eat it one handed when chilled (my recipe is more firm than some) as opposed to something like eggs or my diced chicken breast option. One handed is good if you're collecting items for work, although I'd suggest to finish before getting in the car.

I'm not too worried about the extra weight I'm carrying. What is normal for me, is that when I slip two things happen: I immediately stop losing, and gain back a few pounds of water weight. I can't be sure that my extra weight this week isn't actually fat since I don't trust the BMI/hydration results from my scale.

The other thing that happens is that a few days after being careful once again, I end up being almost as light as I should have been if I had never fallen off the bandwagon. Now, if I were to forsake my dieting for an entire week, I certainly would gain back the fat I lost PLUS the 8 lbs or so of water weight I seem to carry when I eat unhealthily.

So, for next week I predict to be 8 lbs lighter than this weeks final weight in.

Lets see how close my estimate is. Think I can be 280 in a week?

I plan on using a special jump start technique that goes beyond what I've already written about - tune in tomorrow for more details!