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30 in 30


PMRBT

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Yesterday, 8/4, was my last day of the Whole 30 and I can say that my 30 days was quite successful. Apologies for the length of the post.

 

In 2011, after several years of dedicating my life to work, I had gained a lot of weight. I worked hard to lose the weight, and was eating fairly healthy and all was good. In the fall of 2011 I fell into a very deep depression and for almost 3 years I was a man trapped in a dark shell filled with nothing but pain. I had a leg injury that 8 doctors and 6 MRIs couldn't figure out that kept me from exercising. I had developed significant anxiety and paranoia from being oncall for work for very long periods of time and high stress. I gained back every pound I had lost and was eating way worse than I ever had.

 

On 7/4 I had one of the most devastating days of my life, and as I had for the past 3 years, I had no idea what to do. Everything I tried, even if it was positive, somehow made everything worse. I spent 2 days thinking about what to do, and on 7/6, after not eating for 2 days, I decided to change everything once and for all.

 

My Whole 30 started on 7/6. I had no issues maintaining the diet. I had the right motivation and all the food I was eating was enjoyable. I didn't starve myself, but there were days I just wasn't hungry so I didn't eat as much. I ate probably 6 or 7 times a day, keeping track of what I ate (not calories) and my mood. The first two weeks were great, tons of energy and positivity, but my last 2 were very depressing for a lot of reasons, but not once did I cheat and eat something I wasn't supposed to. I ate almost all organic, and all the beef was 100% grass fed 90% lean organic. Berries, beef, chicken (limited), veggies, cashews, black olives, and eggs were all I ate. I also only drank water. Hint water saved me the last two weeks because I had been consuming sooooo much soda and juice previously that I really missed flavor.

 

I started walking to work, which is 2.6 miles each way, and while I did sometimes have to drive I walked over 100 miles during the month of July. My best 7 days were a Friday to Friday where I walked 41 miles. The only vigorous exercise, and the only exercise outside of walking, was this past Saturday. After finding someone who can fix my leg, I was able to finally do a 30 mile bike ride again without pain. I also started using my standing desk at work.

 

I have to admit there are two rules I broke. First is that I did not quit smoking, which I started in 2011. I have a handful of medical professionals I see regularly for various things and everyone felt that if I tried to quit at the same time, and slipped up from stress, that one failure might lead to complete failure. I agree and I'm glad I decided to separate the goals. The second is that I did not avoid the scale. I understand the motivation behind that, but I don't base progress on pounds. Off and on for the last 10 years I have recorded body measurements on Sunday. I only have 25% (120 weeks!) of the total weeks because I got lazy for periods of time, but I track 16 body measurements, and several others that are digital. So it was important to me to track how things were going.

 

One of the measurement I keep track of is my hydration level. How accurate it is, I don't know, but it is consistent and that's what matters. I increased my hydration by 2%. I don't know what measurements everyone is tracking when they give total inches but I lost 10.25 inches (neck, stomach at belly button, chest at nipple, hip at widest point). I haven't gone in for my annual body comp, but historically my calculation are within 0.5-1% of the scan and based on that I lost 4.6% body fat and it does not appear that I lost much, if any, muscle mass (still hovering around 153-155). My visceral fat (again consistency, not accuracy) only went down by half of what it did the last time, which I contribute to less vigorous activity.

 

I lost 30.79 lbs in 30 days. Comparing just numbers it was 25.4, but if my hydration hadn't changed I would be another 5 lbs lighter. Since 6/29 I've lost 33.02 lbs. The last time I lost weight in 2011 it took me over 150 days to lose what I lost in the last 30 days. All of my measurements are the same as what they were the last time I weighed 228 so I know nothing weird was happening there.

 

Here's the best news. On 11/2013 my overall cholesterol was 226, but considering how I was eating I can only imagine it was over 230 if not over 240 on 7/6. I had blood drawn last Wednesday and I was down to 165. My LDL alone was down almost 30% and is now in the "near ideal" bracket. I also had another 60 tests performed and only 3 were outside of "normal", none of which concerned my doctor even slightly.

 

Because of my test results, that I've maintained perfect blood pressures even when I was eating horribly, and how good I feel my doctor has said I can continue to lose as much as I want as fast as I want as long as I feel good physically.

 

Obviously my next goal is to quit smoking, but I plan to continue eating what I've been eating and even after I finish losing all the weight I am going to limit certain foods.

 

Thanks for letting me share!

 

 

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What a great set of results, thanks for sharing! 

 

I love hearing the results of others - weight loss, measurements but truly hearing things like lowered cholesterol, improved energy and  decreased stress levels is even better!  Keep up the fabulous work and I'm wishing big success in quitting smoking:)

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