An interesting experiment

I've got lots to catch you up on...my stats, the beginning of my gym contest, and a ode to the joy of buying new clothes in smaller sizes ("oh 22, how I love you"). But I still have to go grocery shopping, do laundry and get to the gym. And it's 6:30 pm. YIKES!

Anyway, for the past several days I have experimented with a new (for me) way of eating. It's low carb...not quite as extreme as the beginning of some of the diets out there like Atkins. But just limiting my carb intake, avoiding bread, rice and potatoes altogether, and not worrying about fat content (for a change).

Well, I have been very energetic. My mood has been calm and positive. I've got a lot going on and I'm not getting stressed out. I haven't had as much sleep as I should have, but I have still been feeling great.

Until today, that is.

I started out OK, but ended up having a six-inch "healthy" sub from Subway between multiple errands. It's really the first bread I've had since Tuesday, and it was wheat bread (but rather big...you know their breads). I was fine for a while, but then started getting tired and my mood shifted considerably away from positive. Instead of going to the gym after I finished clothes shopping, I just had to come home and take a nap.

When I woke up, I had my carb-free next meal and I've got my second wind. It's amazing! It's not much of a test of the concept yet, but I tell you that I might just be onto what is going to work best for me.

I have to go grocery shopping before doing laundry, as I am out of detergent. So I'd better get going. The gym tonight is questionable. It's open 24/7 but I do have to get to sleep at a decent hour.

My head is spinning

Well, that online contest I started is over for me. I was just not able to get up to speed with the meal planning part. The cool thing is that the 12-week program can be started anytime, although the contest was for a specific period of time.

Then, what do you know...my gym announced a similar contest which starts June 1st...and the first prize is $10,000!!!

With that kind of motivation, and a sincere desire to tackle this overweight thing once and for all, I have found myself doing a ton of research into various diets and food concepts that I had not considered before. My head is spinning...not just from the vast amounts of information available, but from the contradictions I'm finding. And I'm starting to consider that the conventional wisdom about losing weight might be completely backwards.

How often to you hear a report on the findings of some medical study that completely contradicts a previous report on the same topic? First eggs are bad, then they are good. Or it's caffiene. Or whole grains. Or butter. Or wine. Pick your poison...and you will find contradictory evidence about the benefits/risks of each food or approach to weight loss abounds.

All I know for certain at this moment is that the thought of spending my days counting the calories and nutrient content of everything I put into my mouth is making me seriously depressed. There has to be a better way! I can't live my life constantly fearing I might eat something that puts me over some number on a chart. If that is the only way to get thin, I would almost rather stay fat.

Almost.

Gotta do your prep!

It has been one heckuva week! On Monday I started an online body transformation contest and, quite frankly, it knocked me over!

I'll tell you more about the contest as the weeks go by, but the main thing is I didn't prepare adequately. In the days leading up to the launch, I spent more time picking out my outfit for the daily pictures than I did studying the materials! It's a pretty intense program and you gotta know your stuff.

What I can tell you is that as a result of being involved in that contest - and receiving a lot of encouragement from other contestants and my trainer - I have worked out SIX TIMES this week, five of which were in the morning before work! I wake up at 4:30 and get to the gym by 5:30. And I am about to close on my FIFTH DAY of "eating clean".

We're entering a whole new chapter in this adventure.

New Stats

One of these days I'll figure out how to make this show up the same size every month:

Did a tiny bit of backsliding if you look at inches. But I did go down a bit in body fat, so that was good.