Week 1 Weight Loss Update: 11.5 lbs Vanished!
Today on Shalman’s believe it or not I’m going to give it to you straight. I lost 11.5 lbs in 1 week. I was actually down by 15 lbs the day after fasting but gained a few back. In the article 11 Mindless Eating Habits For Skinny Robots published on October 1st, I pledged to lose 20 lbs by November 1st and I held myself accountable in front of all of you.
I didn’t take this pledge lightly and gave it my all. I realize my week 1 weight loss is pretty unbelievable, and I’m pleasantly surprised myself. It feels as if toxic and fat just melted off my body. I’ve been staring at myself in the mirror everyday this week, so it’s hard for me to see all the details (I’m the dummy that didn’t take a before picture), but I’m starting to see more ribs for sure.
I also see a big difference in physical endurance. I just shred it up in spin class and on the treadmill these past couple of days with a new found energy and endurance.
Cheating
I guess you want to know if I followed all my guidelines from the previous article. No. I didn’t manage to pull off every single step flawlessly, even though I tried over and over again. The only cheating I did as far as food choices was to eat 1 piece of multigrain-raisen-nut bread with a thin layer of hummus during Saturday’s lunch, and a Chai from Panera later that afternoon.
My water-fast lasted 25 hours, from 4pm Saturday to 5pm Sunday. As I mentioned on Twitter, my first meal after the fast was Kefir and a serving of strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries. Right after this meal my heart started to beat really quickly and my belly hurt, so I took a nap. First thing Monday morning at spin class I had more energy than I’ve ever had in my life — I felt like the incredible hulk.
Active vs. Passive Weight Loss
After going through one week of my weight loss plan I realized that some things are easier to keep than others, depending on your physical abilities and inner core of motivation.
Let’s take drinking 1 gallon of water per day. This was definitely a very active task. The first day I tried to do this I was peeing every 3 minutes and at one point, and for a duration for 5 minutes, I felt my kidney’s begin to hurt from all the peeing. That sucked. So I toned it down but drank as close to 1 gallon as I possibly could each day — find your own sweet spot for this and then go a little further.
Not eating after 7pm is more of a passive way to lose weight. It’s no skin off my back if I skip a meal because I couldn’t get my food in on time. It just means a couple hours of hunger before bed, but an extra enjoyment of food in the morning. I’ve actually come to enjoy hunger throughout this week. I don’t eat until I’m full, not even close, and that keeps me alert and energized throughout the day.
Chewing food started out as an active procedure where I had to actively count to 30 (or until the food was liquid) during every bite. However, after about 4 days I started to eat without remembering the count, and as soon as I took the first bite I started counting, and only when I got to about 10 I realized what I was counting — it became a habit quite quickly.
Not having sweets has been a passive experience for me. I haven’t put myself in many situations where I’ve been tempted by the sweets, and I’ve been either at the internship, work, or with family during the week. The first 2 don’t serve sweets, and the last one knows not to offer — makes it much easier.
For the most part I’ve had salad, or fruit salad as last meal, except one time where I had a piece of grilled chicken and beans. I felt like my body needed some extra protein because my legs were sore longer than usual after my last spin class.
Exceptions
Not making exceptions in the rules for yourself has to be the number one way to reach your goal. When you sit down to make your goals, with an educated and highly conscious idea of the journey that is required in order to get there, you put some good rules together. Once you start breaking them you leave the door open for more breaches to come. Each time you breach, it becomes easier and easier to breach again. The best thing I’ve noticed is to be harder on yourself than anybody else will be.
People around me keep saying that I look great at my current weight, and there’s no reason to lose more. Others say that I’m losing weight too fast, and that it’s “not good.” That doesn’t phaze me because I have a plan and I’m sticking to it!
Expectations
While I did lose more than half my goal weight in one-third of the time, I do realize that it’s now going to be harder. The first weight consisted of water — since I started drinking so much water my body stopped retaining it and thus I lost a few lbs of stored water. There was also some extra toxic, and the first level of easy to lose fat.
I expect that it will be harder for me to lose the last 8.5 lbs. However, harder is just a relative term. With this much weight already off, and these healthy nutritious meals energizing me and allowing me to train longer and harder, I expect that my boosted metabolism will continue to burn the fat and I’ll have no trouble reaching me target.
Your Chance To Build Me
Since I’m well on my way to reaching my 20 lb weight loss for the month of October I’m going to need another goal. If I don’t get another goal, I’m going to be at risk for getting bored, losing motivation, and reverting back to bad habits. This is where you come in!
You build the perfect machine. I’m pretty open to which direction you, my smart and beautiful readers, want me to go. I’m currently at 183.5 lbs. The doctor recommended weight for my height is approximately 160. Should I keep dropping weight, set a fitness goal, maintain my current weight, or do you have something else in mind for me? Share in the comments below!
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Posted by Alex Shalman in Featured, Health | October 8, 2008 | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumble | Print | 9 comments
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Hey this sounds fantastic!
I love how positive and realistic you are. Way to go.
Well the answer to your question is pretty obvious I would say.
Your first goal was to lose 20lbs. But what other challenges are connected to weight loss? I’d say if you manage to continue to eat only healthy food plus regular exercise, you will also continue to lose some more weight anyway! But that shouldn’t be your most important goal. What you’re trying to do is to feed your body with the most excellent fuel in order for it to work flawless!
Also, I’d think a fitness goal would be great. I don’t know what you had in mind, but how about a marathon? What I like to do to test if I’m as fit as I think I am, is to take a friend and go hiking for an entire day! If there aren’t any mountains near you, or difficult terrain, you can just try to hike great distances.
Wishing you all the best
Do lose a few more pounds than you goal since once you go off diet, you will gain some back. Build muscles to increase your metabolism rate. After a while, do start introducing foods which you would have when not on diet (unless you plan a diet for life).
This great Alex,
Interesting your Dr and mine must be on the same plane- I have been told i need to lose about 15 lbs although lke you people think look great.
Go for losing a few more pounds as Avani says ned to allow for the time when you are off this strict regime
Hi,
I used to be pretty obese and started putting on a lot of weight especially on my thighs and bottom in my late thirties. I started exercising as often as possible and also cut down on a lot of high calorie stuff. Unfortunately I hardly managed to lose any weight at all. I then recently read an article by a lady who claimed that she managed to lose nearly half of her weight using a particular weight loss product. I tried it out and it actually worked really well. Within 4 months I managed to shave off 65 pounds completely. The results were pretty amazing and I feel so much healthier and energetic now without having to carry all that extra weight around. You can read more about the lady’s article at the link below
and congrats alex
http://www.obesityzapped.com
Congratulations on your quick progress, Alex. For next month, I personally would choose a performance-related goal rather than further weight loss. Since you’re already running and spinning, why not train for an indoor triathlon or a road race of some kind? If that isn’t inspiring, pick an activity you’ve always wanted to do like rock climbing and begin to train for that.
My spin instructor, who may very well become my personal trainer soon, suggested that I train up for next years Urban Athlon. That event looks pretty cool, I’m thinking about it!
Congratulations! What an accomplishment. It’s always so refreshing to read your straightforward honest disclosures. I say just find a balance. Get to a weight and physical condition where you feel good about yourself, be careful not to become obsessive and have fun with your eating and exercising. Once you get into a rythmn and keep it, you will feel great because you made a lifestyle change and not some passing resolution. Get ready. The holidays are coming up. But by then, if you keep at it, you’ll do fine.
Congrats! Keep up the good work! I’m in the same boat right now. I spend a little too much time on the computer and it has reflected on the scale! Your posts have inspired me to start my own blog goal and lose 20-30lbs as well. My target weight is around 185-195 and I’m at about 225 right now.
Plateau for a month or two … this diet is not a healthy one — too much water = too few nutrients. Find out how many calories you need to take in to maintain your goal weight of 160 and plot out healthy ways to get them. Practice that during the two plateau months and then get back into the severe diet for another month. The idea is that you will be accustomed to the healthy diet before the severe one and that you will return to IT (not the former evil diet) when you end the fasting / severe diet.
Maintain your exercise arrangement and possibly add some strength / agility workouts.
You’re doing fine … but think every step through and psych yourself to automatically do the right thing whenever the severe diet slips.
I have been working into becoming a vegetarian for a long time now. It’s tough to do when I have to take several meals a week ‘out’ with carrion eaters. But I am getting better and better with it. My problem is that too few places actually have palatable vegetable entres … most think that some limp veggies swimming in horrible oil and served in a pita pocket is a vegetarian meal. At home, I eat MUCH better than that!