Day 16

Sorry about the gap in updates.  A trip to Shreveport and one day of being lazy caused the missed days.  In a nutshell, I spent 4 days in Shreveport with the family and avoided cheating on the diet the entire time.  I ate chicken, chicken, corn, corn, salads, fruits, chicken, and salads.  Water to drink, of course.  My exercise took a hit, however.  I only got one ~3 mile run and no weigh-ins.

Back on track, however:

Morning weigh-in: 205 lbs.  I "think" that I put on a little weight from the day before.

Breakfast - Banana

Lunch - Chicken from a whole chicken that I oven roasted last night and some red grapes.

Dinner - Mixed vegetable stir fry and a chicken thigh.

The one part of the diet that I feel as though I've slacked a slight bit on is the water intake.  I don't feel like I have done a great job consistently drinking water throughout the day.  I also haven't gone #2 with the frequency that I was "enjoying" for the first part of the diet.  I'm not sure what has exactly changed to cause it, but it feels as though I'm holding on to my food longer than I should.  Hopefully I will get regular again soon.

Day 11

Morning weigh-in: 206.4 lbs.  Woot!  I'm in the danger zone, though.  Today adds chicken and fish!

Breakfast - Fruit bowl

Lunch - 6 oz grilled chicken breast, green beans, half of a corn on the cob, and a tossed salad.

Dinner - A grilled chicken leg quarter, tossed salad, and corn on the cob.

Exercise - New personal best!  4.5 miles total, 4.2 miles were run continuously!  That felt pretty great.  In addition, I would like to note how sweet it was to run in the rain.  About 20 minutes or so of my run was in some fairly heavy rain.

It will be interesting to see if/how the addition of chicken and seafood will affect the weight-loss.  To be honest, I'm pretty happy with where I'm at right now, so if I taper off slightly, I won't be upset.  It isn't that the food is unhealthy, but it does seem to sit a bit heavier.  Perhaps I'm just not used to it.

Day 10

Weigh-in: 208.4 lbs

Breakfast - Banana

Lunch - Peach

Dinner - Tossed salad and grilled corn on the cob.

Exercise - Washed and waxed the goat

Boring blog today but I'm adding it from my phone at work. Sorry. I'm dropping dome weight though! Hoping to exercise some more on Wednesday. I can't wait for the chicken and seafood.

Day 9

Morning weigh-in: 211 lbs.  This is a slight weigh gain, but not too bad.  I cheated the diet on Saturday night and didn't do much exercising either Saturday or Sunday.  The momentum probably shifted today, however.

Breakfast - Orange

Lunch - Vegetarian chili and an orange

Dinner - Cooked mixed vegetables and....cooked mixed vegetables

Snack - I don't think I had any today

Exercise - 3.4 miles BUT on my little "hill" circuit.  The total distance of the course is only around half of a mile, but I run it continuous with a slight break when I cross the street, where I will walk.  I actually ran the whole thing at a pretty quick pace, about on par with my last 3.2 mile run and that included uphill and the slight bit of walking.  For me, anyways, it was a pretty solid workout.

Day 8

Morning weigh-in: I did not weigh in.  I know what you are thinking, "he is ashamed because he cheated".  Well, that isn't the case at all.  I felt fine in the morning and my body seemed to "handle" last night's food just fine.

Breakfast - Baby carrots

Lunch - Tossed salad

Dinner - Roasted vegetables (too many to list), grilled corn on the cob, and vegetarian chili.  I got some more of my favorite peppers today....amazing.

Snacks - I snacked just before dinner on baby carrots, broccoli, celery, cauliflower, and cherry tomatoes.  It was a pretty nice little veggie tray.  Big thanks to Levi and Ott for eating their porkchops right in front of me.

Exercise - Not what I was hoping for today, but I only played disc golf.  A decent amount of walking/climbing, but not the long run that I was hoping for.  This is the first day that I feel as though I let my schedule beat my desire to get some exercise in.

I expect to be even or 1 lb or so over my last weigh-in, but I honestly don't feel as though the damage will be that bad.

Day 7

Morning weigh-in: 210.4 lbs.  Wow!  I did not expect that.  I figure my accurate "anytime" weight to be somewhere between 211 and 213 lbs., but that was a good feeling.  Perhaps the outlier was yesterday's higher weight, rather than Thursday's lower weight.

Breakfast - Banana

Just got back from Town Talk in Fort Worth and got some great deals on stuff to make salads.  I will post more later.

Lunch - Nothing too substantial.  I had a tossed salad and picked at some carrots.

Dinner - *sigh*  I had already known about this evening prior to starting the diet, but it was a "cheat" night.  We attended a wedding for one of my friends and, at least for the evening, sticking to the diet was no longer expected.  I ate some chicken and a small portion of pasta.  I did, however, eat a LOT of vegetables and fruit, so I felt good about that.  I also went astray on the "water only" part of the diet.  Despite drinking a lot of water there, I also had 4 drinks.  1 scotch on the rocks and 3 vodka/tonics.  I cheated, but I felt good afterward, not bloated and unnecessarily heavy, so that was good.

Exercise - Ran 1.4 miles.  Nothing too crazy as I plan to do a solid run tomorrow and/or play some basketball.

Day 6

Morning weigh-in:  214 lbs.  I know, this is a slight gain in weight, but I don't feel bad about it at all.  I think that the drop to 213.2 was a bit of an outlier.  In addition, I ate dinner way to late last night, finishing my chili around 9:15 p.m.  No worries, though, I still feel as though I'm on the right track.

Breakfast - Banana and a pill

Lunch - Vegetarian chili and an orange.

Dinner - This was a treat!  Mitch came over and we all shared a little of what we are eating for this diet and even tried some new stuff.  My meal was a grilled artichoke, grilled corn on the cob, a tossed salad, and about 5 pieces of a vegetarian sushi roll that Mitch made.  Even without the preface that it was his first time making them, they were pretty damn good.  Looking forward to trying again with some shrimp once the diet includes seafood.  It was a good dinner and a little encouraging being able to include a friend in the diet as well.

Exercise - Nothing spectacular, but I did some leg lifts and crunches whilst sitting on the floor before bed.  Also did some more stretching.

Day 5

Morning weigh-in: 213.2  lbs.  I don't expect this to hold exactly, but it was good to see some progress.

Breakfast:  Banana  *I haven't mentioned this yet, but I am also taking a mult-vitamin every morning with my breakfast.  It doesn't hurt to do anyways, but it is especially important with this diet, I think.*

Lunch:  Bowl of vegetarian chili and an orange.  I know it seems like this chili is getting repetitive (and it is), but it is probably the best tasting and most filling dish of anything over these 5 days.  I'm honestly not tired of it at all.

Dinner:  Yet another bowl of chili, though this was a new batch from what was for lunch.  I also had a tossed salad.  I haven't mentioned it yet, but the salad dressing of choice has been olive oil and red vinegar.  That will probably make it in to my post diet menu.

Snacks:  Garlic stuffed olives (love 'em) and a few olives stuffed with habanero peppers (love 'em).  I also picked at some random fruit (blackberries, strawberries, grapes).

Exercise:  This was fairly exciting.  I ran 3.2 miles and did it in just over 33 minutes.  I ran it nonstop and in a little better than 3 minutes faster than both the 5k that we ran a month ago (race) and the 3.2 mile run I did a couple of weeks ago (exercising).  It felt really good to show some progress in my training, as well as my diet.

Day 4

8/25

Weigh-in:  215 lbs. 

Breakfast - Banana

Lunch - Small bowl of vegetarian chili and a granny smith apple.

Dinner - Sweet corn on the cob, grilled summer squash, and steamed green beans.

Snacks - Raw baby carrots, plus more baby carrots, later had some raw mushrooms.

Exercise - None.  I did some stretching this evening, though, to stay loose.  Tomorrow should be a good day of exercising.

Note:  I feel like I need to get some more calories throughout the day.  I don't feel bad, but I don't feel great, either.  Today was a little worse than the other days, but yesterday included the fewest calories since I started.  I'm not certain if it is a lack of certain nutrients or just the doldrums from a diet that is far from the norm for me.  I am taking a multi-vitamin every morning, so I think it may have to do with the caloric intake.

Day 3

8/24

Morning weigh-in: 216.4 lbs.  Back to the starting weight, but it is moving in the right direction.  The real "flushing" seems to just be getting started.

Breakfast - Skipped.  Shame on me, but I didn't grab anything on the way to an orientation I had and the food they provided was fresh bagels and 5 types of cream cheese.  It looked and smelled amazing, but I resisted.

Lunch - Fruit salad and a small bowl of chili.

Dinner - Tossed salad, roasted broccoli, and roasted cauliflower.  I am starting to remember how much I like olive oil and red vinegar for a salad dressing.

Exercise - 1 mile run.  I ran it under 9 minutes which, for me, is a big improvement from where I was just a month ago.

Day 2

8/23

Morning weigh-in: 216.8 lbs.  I'm trying not to be too concerned about a .4 lb weigh gain while eating like a rabbit, but I think the influx of water had something to do with it.

Breakfast - Fruit salad and an orange.  Okay, it was more of a brunch, but I had the day off.  What do you expect?

Lunch - Vegetarian chili.  This was pretty good.  Once can of tomato sauce and one can of diced tomatoes was the only "non-fresh" ingredients included.  7 roma tomatoes, a whole onion, 4 cloves of garlic, and a red bell pepper made the rest.  My pot included 4 small hybrid peppers home grown by a family friend.  Not only were these tasty, they aided in the "flushing" process.  I say "my pot" because LJ can't handle the heat.  This was the most filling meal yet.

Dinner - Tossed salad, grilled corn on the cob, grilled artichoke topped with fresh roasted garlic (amazing!), and a small portion of vegetarian chili.

Snacks - A handful of raw baby carrots.

Exercise - 2 miles of mixed running.  1 mile was an reasonable pace, the 2nd mile was half sprinting, half walking (alternating).

Day 1

In a nutshell, here is the spirit of this blog.  I will be documenting a 21 day diet that I outlined below, but will try to occasionally update this at least through December 5th.  Why December 5th, you ask?  That is the date of a half-marathon that I am pseudo-committed to running.  This presents quite the challenge since 1 month ago, I was doing next to nothing to exercise and Lord knows my dietary habits weren't the greatest.  Now, aside from this relatively short detox diet, I refuse to give up a lot of the things I love.  I can't picture being happy without my steak, oreos, slurpees, and beer.  I just want to be a relatively healthy beer drinking carnivore.  That isn't too much to ask, right?  I started running about a month ago, running every other day and throwing in some basketball on Sundays.  I have a long way to go before I'm ready for 13 miles, but I have to start somewhere.

8/22

Here is the diet:

The first 10 days consists of solely eating fruits and vegetables whilst drinking nothing but water, with the water intake being between 3 & 4 liters.  A little salt, a little pepper, a little olive oil for added seasoning, but little else.

The next 11 days will add chicken and fish to the equation.  Otherwise, the same rules apply.

No candy.  No beer.  No soda.  No chips.

Morning weigh-in: 216.4 lbs

1st days meals:

Breakfast - An orange and a banana

Lunch - A fruit salad made by yours truly.  This had everything.  Mangoes, oranges, bananas, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, grapes, and probably some other stuff.

Dinner - Grilled sweet corn on the cob, grilled asparagus (hello stinky pee), and a tossed salad.

Exercise - Ran 3.5 miles