Eat Healthy at Chipotle!

Not bad for eating at Chipotle right?  Sodium is a bit high, make sure to drink a lot of water that day.  But it's very high in fiber and protein.  You can cut out cheese to save more, but I really wanted some cheese.  :)

Enjoy!

Nutrition Facts
Amount Per Serving
Calories 590	Cal from Fat 170
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 18g	27%
Saturated Fat 7g 35% Trans Fat 0g
Cholesterol 100mg	33%
Sodium 1950mg	81%
Total Carbs 58g	19%
Dietary Fiber 23g 92% Sugars 11g
Protein 55g
Vitamin A 0% • Vitamin C 0% Calcium 0% • Iron 0%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.
INGREDIENTS: Tomato Salsa,Black Beans,Fajita Veggies,Steak (4oz),Green Tomatillo Salsa,Cheese,Pinto Beans,Lettuce

Click Here to view

Day 42: 6 weeks is over! Weigh In

Alright, 6 weeks is over.  I've lost 25 pounds in 6 weeks.  Which isn't too bad if I say so myself.  Sadly I lost about 5 pounds of muscle, but I also lost 20 pounds of fat, and I have a feeling it takes a lot less muscle to move me around at 25 pounds lighter, so that was to be expected.

Now I am switching gears a bit.  I am going to continue on a "diet" so to speak, but I am no longer going to only be eating shakes & bars.  Essentially I will replace 3 of my shakes and bars with two "light" meals, or if I want, one large meal of ~ 550 calories (which isn't a ton, but after 6 weeks of no meals, I feel like that's a meal fit for a king!)

You can see the stats below after 6 weeks:

	Starting Weight	after 6 weeks	change in weight
Total Weight	283.5 Lbs	258.5 Lbs	- 25 Lbs
Fat	95.5 Lbs	75.5 Lbs	- 20 Lbs
Water	134.5 Lbs	134.5 Lbs	+ 0 Lb
Muscle	53.5 Lbs	48.5 Lbs	- 5 Lbs

Now I had the option to continue on another 6 weeks, and they estimated I'd lose about another 25 pounds if I continued for 6 more weeks, but I honestly can't do it.  Well let me rephrase, I could do it if I wanted to, but my goal was to get a jump start on a new diet, and I think I accomplished that.  Now I'm going to go another 2 weeks, while having 3 of the shakes/ bar a day and a meal and see how that goes.  After two weeks of that, I will most likely switch off of it entirely and either strictly count calories, or maybe do something like Weight Watchers.  We'll see how the next two weeks go!

Just wanted to say thank you to everyone over the past 6 weeks, it's been totally crazy and not super easy, but now that it's done, it was a great experience, and I'm feeling better than I have in years.  Thank you all!

Day 41: Tomorrow it ends!

So tomorrow will mark the last day of my 6 weeks of craziness!  I can't believe I made it.  I can literally count on one hand the times I "cheated" over the 6 weeks, and it was never like, eating a slice of pizza, it was always a conscientious cheating, if there was such a thing.

So I plan on celebrating, most likely with a big steak or something, and maybe some cici's pizza.  Then I'm going to take advantage of the jump start I got and continue down this path.  I've started exercising now, and I was able to work out 3 times this week if you count helping people move this weekend, which was actually more work than I would have if I were exercising.

Today I did 8.5 miles on the bike, which was 40 minutes.  It felt quite good and I'm really enjoying breaking up the work day with a little exercise.  It keeps the blood flowing and I feel more alert.  You have no idea how excited I am to be able to eat "meals" of food again.  I am so damn happy to be done, it's not even funny.  I finish out today, and then tomorrow. And then I will yell Freeeeeedoooooooom. Hopefully without someone ripping out my intestines.  :)

Day 38: Exercise!

So today I worked out at work.  Between that and helping people move, I've been doing a lot of exercise lately.  I'm hoping that it helps.  I've also finally got a Wii so I can use Wii Fit Plus to weigh in everyday (or every couple days) and make sure things are going the way I want them.  Gearing up for the conclusion of only eating crazy food.  It's exciting!

I'm hoping to get to work out once this weekend, and then again on Monday.  That will put me at 3 times this week, I also plan on doing some lifting this weekend as well.  It's not as much as I hoped but there's just never enough time in the day it seems.

Thanks all for the words of encouragement!  Only a few more days to go.

Day 35: Weigh In

Well I technically lost .5 a pound this week, but not the good kind.  I actually gained a half pound of fat and lost a pound of muscle.  I think the week of snow, where I didn't leave my apartment for the entire week took its toll.  Usually I walk about a mile a day just in my commute to and from work.  But this week that didn't happen at all.  Also on Valentine's day, I definitely decided to have a few beers.  I went out for a fun night of trivia and I really wanted to just let loose a little and enjoy myself. 

So I think the perfect storm of lack of any exercise and having a few beers on Valentines Day definitely caused an issue this week.  The bright side is I didn't gain any weight really, but I think I've hit the max weight I will lose without really assisting with exercise.  Up until now I've done minimal (sometimes none) exercise.  So I really need to buckle down this week and work out at least 3 or 4 times this week.  A combination of cardio and lifting should be good, maybe get back some of that muscle that I lost.  Also I miss my Wii Fit, so I think I will need to get out and purchase a Wii since my roommate is moving out and I don't actually own a Wii. 

	Starting Weight	after 5 weeks	change in weight
Total Weight	283.5 Lbs	262 Lbs	- 21.5 Lbs
Fat	95.5 Lbs	78 Lbs	- 17.5 Lbs
Water	134.5 Lbs	135.0 Lbs	+ .5 Lb
Muscle	53.5 Lbs	49.0 Lbs	- 4.5 Lbs

Ok, goals for this week are work out 3 times cardio and 3 times lifting.  They can be in the same session or broken up.  I'll let you all know how I do.

Day 28: Weigh In

The weather outside sucks, it took forever to walk to my dr (who is near my office, but the office wasn't open because of the weather), I weighed in and I didn't lose much weight, but my muscle mass didn't change, which is definitely a good thing.  So I actually gained some water, and lost some fat.  All good signs.  I'm about 2.5 lbs away from being under 260, which is totally exciting.  I can't wait to be like, oh yeah I weigh ~ 250.  That'll be awesome.

ONLY TWO MORE WEEKS OF THIS DIET!  I'm so stoked!  21 lbs in a month, not too bad I don't think.  18 of the 21 pounds is fat, so that's way exciting. 

	Starting Weight	after 4 weeks	change in weight
Total Weight	283.5 Lbs	262.5 Lbs	- 21 Lbs
Fat	95.5 Lbs	77.5 Lbs	- 18 Lbs
Water	134.5 Lbs	135.0 Lbs	+ .5 Lb
Muscle	53.5 Lbs	50.0 Lbs	- 3.5 Lbs

Day 22: Work Retreat

So today we have a work retreat and it is lunch time. We're at Busboys and Poets, which is kind of a fun place, but the catering here looks really good and everyone is eating sandwiches and wraps, chips and looks like a salad but already has the dressing on it, so I can't partake. *sigh*

Marakie (coworker and friend) has informed me the food is terrible and I love her for it. I have decided to believe her implicitly, the food here is crap. Just got a little easier.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Day 21: Weigh in

Well just finished the 3rd week.  Or to be more accurate, tonight will be the end of my first 3 weeks.  Feeling pretty good, I've been getting an injection of B12 when I pick up my food, mostly because they're fun and they give energy and boost metabolism.  Also there doesn't seem to be any side effects, at least none that I suffer from so I might as well.  The weigh in!

	Starting Weight	after 3 weeks	change in weight
Total Weight	283.5 Lbs	265.5 Lbs	- 18 Lbs
Fat	95.5 Lbs	81.5 Lbs	- 14 Lbs
Water	134.5 Lbs	134.0 Lbs	- .5 Lb
Muscle	53.5 Lbs	50.0 Lbs	- 3.5 Lbs

How about that, plus I finally broke the 270 mark which has always been a huge hurdle for me.  I'm down 18 total pounds and I'm over half way done.  I am hoping to loose about 12 more pounds in the last 3 weeks, which would put me at 30 pounds in 6 weeks, which would be awesome and put me at about 250 - 255 pounds.  That would be an excellent jump start, and I can finally move from this crazy food to more normal food and continue to lose weight.  My ultimate goal is still in the 215 - 225 range, which if memory serves me, I looked and felt pretty good at.  It has been like a decade though, so who knows at this point!

iPhone app!

So I've been getting yelled at lately for not updating my blog enough so I found a free app for that. Weekends are hard, went out to the bars last night and didn't have a single drink. Had some water and brought along a shake to drink around 10:30p, which was interesting. People looked at me a little strange but what can you do. I think I'm not as fun to be around when everyone else is drinking, or eating for that matter. I try to not make a big deal about it but the people closest to me can definitely tell I'm not having as much fun.

It's a little depressing, I miss food, but on Tuesday I'll be half way there. People like to remind me this is my choice, they don't want me to quit but everyone wants to make sure I know that. Well set record straight I definitely know this is self inflicted. I have no delusions about that fact. It's not my choice to gain weight mind you, if I could I'd eat whatever I wanted and never gain weight. That would be my choice if I was given one, but since that's not an option and I've let myself go, drastic times call for drastic measures. So here I am, trying not to be morbidly obese. Haha scary that I'm technically morbidly obese. Ugh.

Haha wow this post sucks, but at least it's from my iPhone! You wanted an update ;-)


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Day 14: Weigh In

Here we are, another week down.  Only 1 month to go.  After two weeks I have lost 12.5 Lbs, which I guess isn't too shabby.  I would much rather lose more than that, but I like most Americans want this to be quick and painless.  I didn't get to 283.5 Lbs quickly, so I guess I shouldn't be thinking it'll come off quickly.  Gaining the weight was a lot more fun though, I remember CiCi's Pizza, and Al's Cheese steaks.  Those were the days.  I am losing a bit of muscle, but they said I'm well within the normal range of muscle loss.  It's very difficult to lose a lot of weight and not lose any muscle.  Also I haven't been lifting weights as much as I would like to, so I need to try and get down to the gym more.

	Starting Weight	after 2 weeks	change in weight
Total Weight	283.5 Lbs	271 Lbs	- 12.5 Lbs
Fat	95.5 Lbs	85.5 Lbs	- 10 Lbs
Water	134.5 Lbs	134.0 Lbs	- .5 Lb
Muscle	53.5 Lbs	51.0 Lbs	- 2.5 Lbs

The funny thing is if you look at the numbers, I actually gained a pound of water back (if you look at last weeks numbers).  This could either have something to do with the beef jerky I ate this weekend (opps) or just in general I always hover around that much water weight.  I'm not going to have any beef jerky this week and we'll see if the water weight comes down.  They actually encourage a high water percentage, athletes have 60% water percentage (I'm at 49.5%) while those that are very obese can have as low as 30%.  Kind of interesting. 

Day 12: Tough Weekend

So I took a little weekend trip, and it was the hardest time I've had with my diet so far. Honestly I never realized how much you eat when you go on a road trip, or at least how much I enjoy eating when I go on a roadtrip. I totally blame my parents (sorry mom & dad) but whenever we go anywhere in the car we have a TON of food, and we love to stop and try new restaurants. I tried to stick to my diet as much as possible, but I made a few substitutions.

On Saturday, I ended up swapping out a bar for some beef jerky. Man have I missed meat. I can now say that I would not make a good vegetarian, I freaking love meat. Then I went to a diner type restaurant called the Pink Cadillac, and it was as amazing as its website. The prices were so crazy low, after being in the city so long, I forgot how cheap it was just 3 hours outside of DC. I decided to have a salad and a cup of chili. I only had half the cup because it was almost entirely meat, but they were both very good.

Today I've almost entirely stuck to the diet, but I did have another small bag of beef jerky. Keep in mind that these bags of beef jerky are actually not bad for me. 120 calories 1.5g of fat 22g of protein. All of my meals are normally 160 calories, so it's a little low on the calories, but it's also low fat & high protein, which is exactly what this diet calls for, my shakes are 160 calories, 3g of fat and 16g of protein, so even though I'm cheating a little (don't ask about the sodium content in the jerky) I think it's still alright.

So while I may have strayed a little, I'm hoping it wasn't too detrimental. Still hoping to lose 4 lbs this week, we shall see how things go on Tuesday!

Day 9: The day I discovered Sobe Life Water

Sobe lifewater? It's delicious. I went over to Safeway today and got myself a cucumber and a pack of Crystal Light Green Tea Raspberry (that's a mouthful) "on the go" packs, so I can mix my own drinks when I want something with a little flavor. I've been drinking about 10 cups of water a day, and by cups I mean pints. So sometimes I just want something that has taste. Well anyway, I picked them up and I was looking for a 20 oz bottle of water, and they had absolutely none! So I had to get this Sobe lifewater, which has 0 calories. And wow was I surprised, it's absolutely delicious!

Also, I ate a cucumber, like just ate it, peel and all. (I washed it first) It was quite good as well, and made my side of the office smell delicious. Now that I don't have Field Berry anymore, my milk shakes have been quite enjoyable.

Day 8: Week 2

Well I'm now into my second week. Things are already going better, I've only got food I like! No more "Field Berry", which was a cross between chalk, sugar, and Pepto Bismol. It was absolutely disgusting.

This week I may talk a bit about the food, and my thoughts. I may come up with a poor man's version of this diet. Which wouldn't be medical advice of course. But it occurs to me that I won't have much to talk about other than. Mmm food, still going strong, yada yada yada. So I will have to get a little more creative about my discussions.

Last night I did have some Asparagus, that you microwave and it steams itself. I cooked it a little long, but it was really quite delicious. That was my 50 calories. :)

Day 7: Weigh In

Alright!  Just got back from the doctor.  It was a good visit, they're quite busy, seems like a lot of people are getting into this new plan.  I picked up another weeks worth of food, (this time getting more soups and not getting the food that tasted like ass).  I think week 2 is going to be easier if for no other reason than I don't have to eat the crappy food that I didn't know tasted bad.

Oh I know you're all just waiting to see the numbers, alright here we go!

	Starting Weight	after 1 week	change in weight
Total Weight	283.5 Lbs	275 Lbs	- 8.5 Lbs
Fat	95.5 Lbs	89.5 Lbs	- 6 Lbs
Water	134.5 Lbs	133.5 Lbs	- 1 Lb
Muscle	53.5 Lbs	52.5 Lbs	- 1 Lb

So as you can see, I lost 8.5 lbs!  With a large portion of it being fat.  That's very exciting.  I don't want to keep losing muscle though, so I need to keep up at the gym.  They don't round the total number, but they do round the other weights, so that's why it doesn't add up exact, but I am very excited.  Week 1 down and I'm 8.5 Lbs lighter.  She definitely let me know not to expect this type of loss every week, the first week is the most, and the next five weeks I'll average between 3 - 5 lbs a week.  But that's still good.  I'm on pace to lose 28.5 Lbs in 6 weeks.  Can't complain there!

Day 7: Morning

This is it!  My first weigh in day.  I didn't update too much over the weekend, I was mostly dealing with the fact that it's a little harder to diet when you don't have work.  I was literally sitting around watching TV because I needed a nice low key weekend after a week of hell at work.  But you wouldn't believe how natural it feels to be eating something while you're watching TV, and if that wasn't enough, every commercial was for some amazing new delicious food at some crappy chain restaurant.  I don't think I've ever craved Applebee's so much in my life.  I mean wtf, I hate Applebee's!

So at 12:30pm today I get to find out how much I lost.  Now I haven't actually been on the diet a week, I should have started this blog as Day 0, because technically I've been doing the diet for 6.2 days so far give or take, but today is the 7th day, and if I don't go in today, I won't have any food for tomorrow!

So I'm hoping to have lost 6-7 pounds.  Fingers crossed.  I may need some motivation if I only lost like 3 lbs because I feel like I could have done that just not eating 5 guys at all.  Also if I only lost like 3 lbs, or god forbid less than that, I may smack my Doctor for selling me snake oil!

The last few days weren't too bad.  Went down to visit Nate & Leanne this weekend, I think they had a harder time with my diet than I did.  Well Nathan couldn't believe I couldn't eat his chicken breast with this crazy sweet/hot sauce, it was delicious I had one bite.  I did have a salad.  The last few days I've really been craving some roughage so I've been taking 5 leaves of romaine and adding a little no calorie dressing that I got at Wegman's.  It's actually really quite delicious, and well within my 50 calories a day. 

Alright, wish me luck, I'll update later today.

Day 4: Finally!

So my doctor had said that the first 3 days would be the hardest, and I wasn't quite sure why or what to expect after the first 3 days.  But now that day 4 is over, I completely understand.  Today I had a ton of energy and for whatever reason had absolutely no problems with hunger.  When I had my soup, I actually felt full, and I felt full after each of my "shakes" today actually.  I'm quite excited.

With my new energy I decided to work out, did some lifting and 5 miles on the stationary bike.  I did 5 loads of laundry, cleaed up my computer desk, did some research online, and even found time to hang up all my clothes and buy that water filter for the fridge (go Amazon Prime)

So here's to tomorrow being as good as today!  Good night all.

Weigh In & Background Info

So I've been meaning to post an update about my first weigh in, and give a little bit of an explanation on how the diet works.  It's pretty simple really, almost too simple.  But I really wanted something that was easy to follow and didn't require any additional thought.

Currently I'm set at 1120 calories a day.  Which is so very little.  To put that in perspective, a 5 Guys Bacon Cheeseburger with Ketchup and Mayo is also 1120 calories.   So I could just buy one, cut it into 7 pieces and eat it throughout the day as well.  Good chance that wouldn't really satisfy me. 

I have a list of "foods" that I can choose from, the vast majority are "shakes", there are also bars and two kinds of soup.  Some of the shakes are premade and come in what looks like a new age drink box you had as a kid, with the straw attached to the outside.  Others are in a plastic bottle, with powder in, that you just add water to.  Both aren't too bad, the one you add water too can also be made into a pudding or a sorbet.

So I have to have at least 4 shakes a day, the other 3 slots I can have either another shake, a soup, or a bar.  Because I like variety, I go for the 4 minimum, with 2 bars and a soup usually.  Which isn't too bad.  The food is all designed to be high in protein, low in fat, and to elevate my metabolism, it's also all exactly 160 calories.  160 x 7 = 1120

I go to my doctor (primary care physician) and I weigh in every week, we discuss the previous week and make sure I am doing alright, and that I'm healthy and not doing anything dangerous.  The first weigh in is shown below.  Take a look, I'm going to be as open as possible, so that if I cheat you can all be on my case, and if I kick ass, you can cheer me on!  ;-)

Weight: 283.5 lbs
Total Fat % : 33.6%
Total Body Water %: 47.5%

Stay tuned for next Tuesday where I will weigh in again, and I'll let you know how much I've lost! 

Day 3: Early Evening

I'm hungry.  We'll have to see how the weekend goes, but I miss food a lot.  Haha.  This might be the "difficult" part of the first three days are the hardest, I think my body is starting to realize that it's not going to be getting much more than 1120 calories a day from me, and is freaking out a little.

I haven't eaten anything but the food they give me and some celery.  Tonight I might make some Green Beans or something equally delicious.  Definitely soup night tonight, I haven't had one since Day 1 and I miss warm food...

Maybe I'll throw random vegetables that I can eat into my soup, that might be good.

My goal for tonight is to update the blog with a post about my weigh in this past Tuesday, so that next Tuesday you all can see if I lost any weight.  Fingers crossed that I will!

PS: Is anyone still reading this?

Day 2: Mid Afternoon

Damn I need to chew something.  I checked my list of available foods I can have, I'm only allowed to stray 50 calories from the food provided with the program, so I decided I can eat a whole bunch of celery. 

So I ran over to the Safeway and decided to pick some up.  It's absolutely delicious.  How scary is that?  I was excited for celery! 

Thanks to Hailey for snapping this photo, she thought it was hilarious she was there buying a sandwich and I was there with a thing of celery.  The lady at the checkout looked at me funny too. 

Day 2: Early morning

Alright so here we are in Day 2.  Things I learned from the previous day...  This program makes the vast majority of its food taste like candy.  I guess fat kids love candy, but when I made the chicken soup last night (made = pour boiling water into a bowl mixed with powder) it was delicious.  After milk shakes and the dietary equivalent of candy bars, I forgot how much I missed food that wasn't sweet.  I never thought I'd say that in a million years.

The water in my apartment tastes like ass.  Wow, I had no idea, I never had to drink it while not eating something and it's really not very good at all.  Note to self, buy a Brita (someone else may enjoy this revelation)

Other revelation:  I can do this... It's all mindset and I didn't miss food much.  I miss chewing though, I may buy like a head of lettuce or some celery.  Do they make gum that isn't sweet?  Maybe tastes like a steak or cheeseburger?  I'll call Willy Wonka.

Day 1: Early Evening

Holy crap I'm starving.  I keep drinking water when I feel hungry.  Not going to fall off the wagon on day one, they said the first 3 days are the hardest.  I think it's more psychological than anything else, i don't actually feel like I'm missing food, I just feel like my stomach is empty.  It's really an odd feeling, my stomach is probably fairly large, and it should start shrinking soon. 

I'll post more in the about section and maybe some FAQs, I know people are interested in hearing about the food.  If others find this blog, they might be interested in learning the costs and other things.  It's definitely not cheap, I'll talk more at some point about how I think it's so very difficult for low income households to eat healthy.  It's a shame really.

Day 1: Mid Afternoon

So today I started my journey.  This will last at least 6 weeks, and Day 1 is going off without too much trouble.  I woke up this morning, excited to try my first "shake", unfortunately it didn't taste quite like the delicious chocolate shake I had envisioned.  It tasted like they made something that was good for me and then added some cocoa to it.  Which is fine, it actually tasted alright, I can drink a bunch of those.

We had a staff meeting today, and the office ordered Chipotle, everyone got a free burrito.  Today was my first test... I passed but WTF, normally we order some lame ass veggie option from some ethnicity half way across the country.  Today we order what might be my favorite fast food option.  Well that's fine, it's a good test, I passed thankfully.

So far today I've eaten a Chocolate Shake, A Crisp 'N Crunchy Fudge Graham Bar, and Cookies and Cream Bar. I have 4 "meals" left to go.  I've had a few glasses of water and I had my 1 Coke Zero that I'm allowed...  I'm going to miss Coke Zero the most.