Cheat Day 2

So at the end of this week, I am down seven pounds.  I went from 227 to 223 the first week, and 223 to 220 the second week.  I am beginning my second cheat day and though I am not as excited about it tis week as I was last week, I am still pretty excited.

I started the day with a cup of coffee with creamer and four pieces of turkey bacon.  Then I went to a donut shop and got a dozen donut holes and a raspberry filled donut.  When I was finished with this, I had such a sugar high that I could barely type!  They tasted awesome though!

For second breakfast I went to one of my favorite breakfast places and had Chicken Fried Steak and eggs with a side of biscuits and gravy.  Probably the most fattening, heart clogging meal that I could think/dream of.  It was delicious!

For Lunch I had McDonalds.  I had to force myself to go get it, as I wasn't really hungry.  In fact, I was still really full!  But I went and got my standard meal; which is a McDouble, small fry and an orange drink.  And because I wanted to make sure that I covered all of my bases, I got a four piece McNugget.

Dinner came really fast after my day of eating.  I went to a place that does Italian style pizza.  I got pepperoni, onions, and fresh garlic (luckily Jessi wasn't here, so I didn't have to worry about my breath stopping her from kissing me!)  It was delicious!  And I made it through the whole thing!  Even though I wasn't really hungry when I sat down.

Two beers and I called it an early night.

All told, I gained five pounds on cheat day.  But that is the point, right?

4HB cheat day

Wow, this week was kind of difficult.  There were definitely days that, had I not had cheat day on the mind, I definitely would have cheated.  But I made it to the day, and it isn't even noon and I have had: 3 egg whites and 1 whole egg (to minimize the effects of cheat day) a donut, a spanish omelet, hash browns, and a multi-grain pecan pancake.  It was glorious!

I had planned on having wingstop for lunch, but after that breakfast, I am not even sure that I would be able to eat at lunch.  So maybe I will try to make it Linner.  Then it is out for a night on the town in good ole San Angelo. I am looking forward to it.

The interesting thing that has happened on this diet; the thing that I didn't expect, is that having something to look forward to makes the days and weeks that much easier to bear.  I have dreaded almost my entire time down here this trip.  But having the cheat day and looking forward to it all week has really made it bearable.  It has also made the time fly.  I think that my wife Jessica has known this trick for a long time.  I just seem to be learning it!

A side effect of cheat day.  I seem to be pretty emotional.  I cried while watching this video on youtube.  In my defense, it really is quite beautiful and moving.

4HB day 2

So today was much easier than yesterday.  Probably because I knew what to expect.  I still have some strange hunger pains.  The kind that are just gnawing and not overwhelming.  But my body seems to be getting used to the change in food.  I was able to make it to the pool to swim some laps today.  I haven't been in quite a while, so it wasn't my best swim to date.  But, it was better than my first swim day.  And my energy seemed to stay up for pretty much the whole workout.

I am excited about cheat day.  I already have a meal plan worked out.  I am not sure if it is going to change during the week or not.  But I want pancakes for breakfast.  Wing stop for lunch.  And there is a good restaurant here in San Angelo that I discovered a couple of weeks ago.  I am going to get something delicious there and have a few beers.  There is also a bbq place around here that has really good peach cobbler.  I will work that in somewhere, just not sure where yet.  I think I will even get it ala mode!

An interesting change that has occurred, especially considering all of the beans I have been eating, is that I haven't gone twosie but once in the last two days.  And almost all signs of flatulence is gone.  I thought for sure that I was going to be struggling with it.  Considering it is a life-long curse of mine, I assumed that it would become exponentially worse when I was on a diet with so many beans.  But I have had virtually no gas and very little intestinal issues at all for the last two days.  Who would have guessed that beans would be the cure?

4HB day One

Day one and I have this to say:  I didn’t realize how much white carb food I eat.  I am craving pretzels, crackers, and bread.  I have eaten almost two cans of beans, five eggs and a chicken breast.  I am not hungry, but I am definitely not satisfied. 

So here is the deal with my body composition: I weigh 227.3 pounds.  32.5% of which is fat.  Which works out to 73.8 pounds.  I don’t have a tape to measure, but I am going to get one and do some measurements. 

My goal is 20% body fat in the next two months.  I am not sure what that is going to mean that I weigh.  But my guess is it will bring me down to about 205 pounds.  Some muscles will grow and some fat will go down.  Hopefully, anyways.

Here are a few pics of my meals...

4HB 30-day challenge

I get sick of saying this almost as much as everyone else that I know.  But here it goes: I need to lose weight.

I have been trying something that hasn’t been working.  I have been doing a shake diet that consists of spinach and fruit.  I have been working out 4-5 times a week and my calorie intake has been about 1800-2000 calories a day.  But I haven’t lost any weight.

My Sister and Mother had found a book that they both loved.  It is called the four-hour body.  I got it and have been reading it the last couple of days.  I am super intrigued by it and I am going to try the diet. 

It is basically a low-carb or at least slow-carb diet with a cheat day.  I like the idea of the cheat day!  I am going to keep a journal of the foods that I crave during the week and then eat them all on my cheat day.

I went and got a body composition test today.  And then I am going to go back after a month of the diet and see how I am doing.  The author claims that I can lose 20 lbs in 30 days.  Well, not necessarily lose twenty pounds, but at least have a 20 pounds change.  So maybe lose 15 pounds of fat and put on 5 pounds of muscle.  Which is why I got the body comp test.  I am also going to tape myself around the arms, legs, waist, and hips.  Then I am going to weigh and do the body comp.  I will post my results every week.

I am going to start on Monday with my cheat day being Saturday.  I already can’t wait for the cheat day!

Sick and Hurt

I have had a lot of downtime in the last week or so.

I was pretty close to deathly ill (Jessi calls it the man-flu, but I think I was honestly sick this time) last weekend.  I couldn't eat and literally spent the entire day in bed.  Then I took Monday off to recover from my day of laying around.  I was still queazy Tuesday so I decided not to do anything.  Wednesday is my down day because Jessi has school so I can't really justify leaving work for an hour to work out when I am also going to leave early to pick up D.  So Thursday came around and I finally felt ready to start it up again.

I went to the gym to do crossfit with a buddy of mine.  I got two pullups in and I felt something go wrong in my upper-back/neck area.  I finished the workout without the pullups and could barely turn my neck by the end of the day.  I tried for days to make an appointment with the chiropractor, but I wasn't able to get in until the following Tuesday.  I don't go to a standard chiropractor.  I see a lady who does Directional Non-Force Technique DNFT.  This is a technique that doesn't involve cracking the back.  It is muscle manipulation that allows your back to come to its normal resting position.  And it is the closest thing to a medical miracle that I have ever experienced.  I have a follow on appointment next Tuesday and I still have a little pain, but my range of motion is just about back to full and the pain is easily controlled with an ibuprofen.

At any rate.  I am heading back into crossfit for tomorrow.  I am going to focus mainly on leg exercises for a little while, until I don't have any pain in my neck.

I still love running.  It is definitely one of my favorite exercises.  But I am totally enjoying my break and working on some strength training in the form of crossfit.  I am hoping that increased muscle will help me to speed up my game a little bit.  I would like to run my next mile and a half in less than 12 minutes.  We will see if this does the trick!

Overdid it!

So last week I got up every morning and did Yoga.  I went for a run on Monday and Wednesday.  I did Crossfit on Tuesday and Thursday.  And then I got seriously ill on Sunday morning.  I had the ole "coming out of both ends."  It was awful.  Luckily I have a fantastic wife who took great care of me!  She let me sleep all day.  Which I almost managed.  I was only up for about four hours total out of that 24 hour period.  It was pretty awful.  When I awoke the next day I felt pretty nauseous still, but I was able to keep some food in. But the rest of my body hurt a lot.  I don't know if you have ever had the unpleasant experience of laying in bed for an entire day, but it has a tendency to make your joints ache and your muscles tender.

I was able to do Yoga in the morning on Tuesday and Wednesday.  It wasn't easy, but it was the challenge and so I powered through.  I almost didn't get up this morning.  I wanted to stay in bed so bad.  I even told Jessi that I was going to skip it.  I turned off the alarm, and my conscience got me out of bed.

At any rate.  I feel like I am able to get back to it tomorrow.  I am going to try some more CrossFit.  I will let you know how it goes.