Day 48

Wanted to check-in.  It's been a week since I last updated my progress.  Nothing new to report, other than my new weight of 331.5.  That's 24lbs down from my start weight.  Only 1 more lb to go till I reach 25lbs.  I think I'm going to have to go to Sams and lift a 25lb bag of flour.  Or I could lift three gallons of water.  I think that will help put my progress in perspective.

Pants are still getting bigger.  I'm going to need to add another hole to my belt in a few more days.  I'm hoping that I'll break below 330 this week.  That's a pretty doable result.  Of course, if I don't, there is always next week.  :-)  I'm not going to stress out about it.

Yesterday was a fast day.  I skipped breakfast and lunch again.  I've been doing that pretty consistent for the last two weeks now.  For dinner, I just had a 280 calorie healthy choice dinner.  I cooked up 8oz of mushrooms (just plain mushrooms and a tiny bit of Pam to keep them from sticking) and threw them in with the meal.  That really helps make the meal seem more substantial.  I LOVE mushrooms, and they are so low in calories.  I rounded out the day with a big bowl of popcorn.  I've been eating too much popcorn.  I just like to snack, and it's a pretty filling low calorie snack.  It's just a shame to fill half of my caloric intake for the day with such fluff.  I have a book from the library filled with 100 calorie snacks.  I should take a look through it for ideas tonight.

Day 41

Yesterday was a fast day.  It went very well.  I was busy at work, so I ended up skipping lunch.  My first meal of the day was dinner.  I had a Health Choice top chef steamer dinner.  They're pretty good for what they are.  The quantities are low, but they taste alright and are much closer to a balanced meal than anything I would be able to cook quickly.  When I get home, I'm typically pretty beat from work, and I don't want to stand around cooking too much.  The meal was 280 calories.  I rounded the day off with a half cup (before being popped) of popcorn (air popped).  That got me close enough to 600 for the day.  My wife and I went for a walk in the neighborhood since it was so warm out.  We were walking for about an hour.  I get a good laugh sometimes looking at my phones pedometer, because I often burn more calories walking than I ate for the day on my fast days.  I know some people will allow increases of calorie allotment based on calories burned on fast days, but that seems like a slippery slope to me.  I'd rather just loose more weight.

Today was a regular day.  It was a little more difficult.  I was considering skipping breakfast, since I wasn't too hungry, but I decided to compromise with myself and eat a banana.  I made it to lunch without too much hassle, but I ended up going out for lunch.  The only place that's close to my office is a Wendy's.  They've got a nice coupon/promotion going on for a free chicken flat bread sandwich if you buy a small fry and drink.  Unfortunately, they wont let me trade the fry in for a baked potato.  I was pretty hungry, so I went with a large fry and a small diet coke.  I had them ditch the honey mustard that they normally put on the sandwich and replace it with regular mustard.  That alone saved at least 100 calories from my meal.  After the fries, ketchup, and sandwich I figure I ate 800 calories.  It left me feeling full, so I can't complain too much.  For dinner, my wife had been planning an outing with my Grandma.  They wanted to go to Red Lobster.  I'm sure I'll never know exactly how I did, but let me just say that those biscuits are not diet friendly.  I figured my meal should have been around 1000 calories if they made it properly.  I think I had 4 biscuits, which would equal about 600 calories.  All in all, not too bad, but I never know what to think, because most restaurants undervalue their calories.  Either way, at an estimated 2500 calories for the day, I should be all right.  With my weight, I can eat 3500 calories and break even.  For the most part, I think I'll do really well if I can just stay away from the big five C's, (Chocolate, Cookies, Candy, Cake, and ice Cream).

I weighed in this morning at 335.  That puts me over the 20 lbs lost mark.  Still not seeing too much of a difference in the mirror myself, but I know it takes time.

Week 5 Update

April 18th
Day 36
Weigh In:   337.5lbs

To goal:        87.5lbs

I'm roughly one month in to my diet plan.  I've lost a total of 18 pounds.  I know I've got a lot more to go, but I'm trying to be optimistic.  I haven't told many people that I'm dieting, because I really don't want my attempt to lose weight judged by others.  I'd prefer people notice I've lost weight themselves instead of pretending to notice I look slimmer after I tell them I've been dieting. 

I was pretty skeptical about being able to get over hunger when I started ADF.  I've fasted before for different reasons, and it wasn't a pretty sight.  The first few days were pretty difficult, but it really did get easier.  I do find it hard some days, and I have to be careful not to focus too much on all of the good things I can eat the next day.  I've had a couple occasions where I almost had a checklist of the foods I wanted to eat the next day.  I found that if I do that, I will most certainly over-eat.  The sad thing is, I can honestly say that even my worst normal days on the diet have been more or less typical of how I lived pre-diet.

I feel like things have slowed down a little bit, but in the grand scheme of things, they really haven't.  I've been dieting for just over a month, and I've lost 18 lbs.  I mean, that's a half pound per day.  I figure that I lose about 1 lb every fast day.  That's just crazy to me.  My only regret so far is that I didn't start this years ago.  I wonder how much my life would have changed if I wasn't as overweight as I currently am...That's a scary though.  I'm pretty happy with how much I've lost, but I find myself being impatient.  I know that I didn't gain the weight in a day, and it's going to take a long time to lose it.  Only 89 pounds to go!

Weekly updates:
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 5
Week 10
Week 11

Day 27

So I just completed my fast day yesterday, and I weighed myself this morning.  The scale showed 340lbs.  I was pretty shocked that it was so low.  I was 344.5 yesterday morning.  I'm happy to have a new low weight, but I have a feeling I'll be lucky if I can match it after my next fast day.  It definitely helped get my excitement back up.  I know that losing 15.5 lbs in 27 days is not slow.  Heck, losing 10 lbs in 27 days is not slow.  I've just been hoping that by the time things really start to slow down, I've lost enough to give myself the encouragement I need.  It's pretty easy to get discouraged when you've lost 15 lbs and no one can tell.  I'll keep at it.  I haven't been below 340 lbs in 10 years for sure.  I can't wait to see the 330's.

I had my now standard start to the day for fast days.  No breakfast.  A cup of baby carrots (70 calories), and 2 hard boiled egg whites (44 calories) for lunch.  Dinner was a pretty crappy frozen diet dinner of Lean Cuisine steak tips and broccoli (150 calories).  It just didn't have nearly enough to make it a meal.  I ended up cooking two medium sized potatoes, which added ~240 calories and added some ketchup for flavor (20 calories).  I didn't eat anything else, even though I had 75 calories to go.  I just figured the potatoes may have been more, so better safe than sorry.  All in all, I didn't go to bed hungry.  I woke up and just ate a banana for breakfast.  I've been trying to have a light breakfast on my regular days.  Just some fruit or a packet of oatmeal.  I know that I'm going to end up having a ton of calories at dinner time, so I need to keep breakfast and lunch low.  I don't want to be hungry, but I need to fill up on low calorie density foods.

Week 3 Update

April 8th
Day 26
Weigh In:   344.5lbs

To goal:         99.5lbs

I'm getting myself upset with the scale. It is quite inconsistent. I expect fluctuations between weighings. It's inconsistency between stepping on the scale that's hard. For example, yesterday I gained a pound by peeing.  I bet you've never done that before.  I need to care less. That'll be hard.  My weight is a two pounds more than my lowest weight so far.  I took it on a fast day morning, so tomorrows weight should be significantly better. I just need to not get upset if it's not better, or even higher. 

So it's been a little over three weeks now since I've started ADF. So far so good. The hardest part so far has been the social aspects. Whether it's been my meal times with my wife, or having to double up regular days to allow for special occasions, it's definitely held me back a bit. I haven't made it a full week yet without having to squeeze an extra regular day in. Last week it was Friday. My uncle was in town, so my grandma had all of the family over for dinner. I did better than I could have, but I should have done better still. 

My wife has been difficult as well. She's not a very punctual person, so trying to time my meal for the same time as hers is difficult. I'm also very hungry when I get home from work, so I kind of need her to be ready to eat, not still unsure of what she is going to make for herself. On Saturday I decided to make dinner for both of us. It was ready and waiting when she got home. Of course I still had to sit and wait ten minutes for her to go do some laundry which really could have waited. It wasn't a big deal, but it kind of cheapened my gift of dinner to me. 

Other things that I need to work on is getting rid of temptation before it grips me. My wife gave me an Easter basket (something I really wish she hadn't, but she likes to give me things). I should have put stuff away. Came up with a plan on how to get rid of stuff without eating much of it. Instead, I put it next to my chair and it sat. A few days later, I had an itch for a snack. I ended up eating a thousand calorie chocolate bunny. After eating the bunny, I decided not to let that happen again. I opened all the eggs and put the twenty chocolate kisses to the side. I figured I'd bring them to work and let my coworkers easy them. Of course I forgot to bring them the next two mornings. So I ended up eating them all. I did let both slip ups happen on regular days, so it wasn't really a "failure" so much as an extra speed bump.

Weekly updates:
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 5
Week 10
Week 11

Day 20

Almost three weeks on. It doesn't seem that long. My main struggle is living with my wife who is eating normal. It definitely hurts our meal times together.  She's still nursing the baby, so she needs to eat every day. Maybe in a few months she'll be able to get on board with me. 

Easter was fun. We cooked lamb. I tried to eat better than I normally would have, but that was still a ton of food. Monday was a fast day. Went really well. It was eight o'clock and I still had 250 calories to burn, and I wasn't hardly even hungry!  Maybe that was from the entire bag of salad I had for dinner.  :-)  I celebrated by making a large bowl of popcorn. It's nice to go to need full. 

Scale came up at 342.5 this morning. That's 13 pounds lost so far. My scale only does half pound increments, so it's hard to get precise numbers, but it feels like I'm losing 1.5lbs every fast day.  That's an incredible amount to lose in one day.  When I divide my fast days by pounds lost, it equals 1.625 lbs per fast day.  I know this wont hold up long term, but I'm really liking it for now.  

I've got my annual exam scheduled for Thursday, and I'll get to see the results of my blood work. So far so good.