Day 34: I did it!

Body Fat: 17%
Total Inches: 134.0
Weight: 144.6 lbs



I did it! My goal was to get down to 145 pounds and although it took me an extra 4 days, I've done it! It feels good - I'm down to my lowest weight in over 14 years. Previous to this 4 hour body challenge I was at my highest at about 165 - 20 pounds higher then when I got married. I suppose that's not really that bad, but it was definitely noticeable. Then Jobina went on her so called "death diet" and I lost about 1o pounds. Fast forward to May where I went on the 4 Hour Body's slow carb diet and now I've lost another 10 pounds for a total of 20 total. Before these two diets I'd never really gone on a diet before so it was quite the new experience for me. Perhaps that's why it worked fairly quickly for me?

Breakfast: 2 eggs, iced water

Lunch: Taco salad

Supper: Pork tenderloin, sauteed veggies, salad

4 Hour Body Weight Loss Eating Plan: Random Impressions

-First of all, this diet isn't the "super diet" that works for everyone. Jobina did it with me and found it wasn't as effective as other eating plans she's tried.
-If you like me are coming from a high carb lifestyle it can be pretty painful (withdrawal) to go off off pasta and cheese.
-Having a cheat day to look forward where you are encouraged to eat anything you wish is a very nice way to handle the temptations. By having a cheat day I was able to stop myself from cheating the other 6 days of the week.
-Psychological effects: Definitely my choice to track my progress was probably the biggest factor in keeping it up, followed by the public nature of this blog. Also, having Jobina do it with me meant I had at home accountability. "Misery loves company" is very true! We both felt that if we cheated we were not only letting ourselves down but the other person as well. This was powerful motivation when one of us was tempted or "whiny."
-Cheating: If you look at the chart at the top, you can see that my weight jump up after a cheat day. Perhaps if I didn't cheat, I wouldn't have experienced these jumps, but I found that the mental pressure release from the cheat day helped me to stick to the diet in the long wrong.
-Scale: Our scale kind of sucked. The body fat analyzer didn't work for me a lot of the time and so tracking this became useless. It was nice to see some total inches lost, but it wasn't as effective a motivator as I thought it would be. I think that for other people this might be different though. As long as you are seeing progress of some time (weight, total inches, body fat) it will help you to keep going.
-Feel: I don't feel much more healthy, even though I dropped the pounds. Part of it is that I have back problems right now, but a lot of is that you don't feel that great after eating lots of meat.
-Cost: This diet ended up costing us a little more then usual due to eating out on cheat days and purchasing extra meat.
-Miscellaneous: I didn't realize how often I reward myself with food (usually bad food). Several times on Friday nights I would feel lost not knowing how to celebrate the end of a week. I'd say it took me 4 full weeks before I weaned myself off this kind of thinking and substituted other things.
-Future: I can see myself going on this diet every now and then (Ferris says to embrace cycling and stop worrying about keeping your body at a constant weight) when needed. I'd like to try experimenting with other parts of the book (building muscle, building strength, etc) but my back situation might stop me. As soon as I do, I'll start posting. In the meantime, I'll slowly add some carbs to my diet but keep tracking my weight to see what happens. I would like to maintain this weight for awhile.