Catching up!

Much has happened since my last post.  Okay... plateau, destroyed!  It took a while but I finally dropped below the 208 that was keeping me prisoner! This came from one of my competitors who is also my teammate in one of the competitions; "I am glad we have a determined team! I am the same way, when I make up my mind about something. Your bruised knee gave me a chance to catch up to you!"

The downside of having a teammate as a competitor.  She doesn't actually know my weight loss total or where I started at.  However, for the first weigh-in I was about 2% ahead of her, she feels she has caught up to me. She is using basic math and the insight given to her from our individual percentage that is being displayed to our team.  Since that contest started about 2 1/2 weeks after the one where we are competitors in, she is hoping that we're about tied now. After doing the math myself, I think I'm still about a half a percent ahead of her, maybe more.

Honestly, I thought I'd be down 55 pounds (at least) by now, as I'm writing this on Day 55. I'm only down 46 pounds... which is still huge!  I am still 9 pounds off my minimal pounds lost to make the 84 in 84 days goal that I initially set out to achieve. And since time doesn't stop, I need to increase my weight loss, safely to allow me to catch up.

When something messes up a plan, you can either keep plugging away and see if it can come to pass or launch a new plan. Get educated. And re-route. Point "A" to point "B" was what I thought I had planned out with this goal.  With the juicing and all the produce.  However, I was still consuming 1,200 to 2,000 calories a day. But, I wasn't consuming the literal pounds of fiber that I would be if I was eating the food itself. This picture comes from my friend's website/blog; "MakeItVegan." It shows 65 ounces of juice and in front of the glasses is three (3) pounds of remnants they push out of their Breville. They (and I) have the Breville JE98XL model.

In reality, yes. Our body needs fiber, but three pounds, in a single day?  That would be a lot to "process" through our system. He does a write up about fiber and goes in depth about that, so I will not beat that up here. I looked into calorie intake and starvation modes.  Also into what the body can handle. I need to find a way to 'catch' up safely.  There are a few articles on Livestrong that talk about VLCDs (very low calorie diets) that discuss consuming 500 to 1,000 calories.  If you do so, you are supposed to do it with the direct supervision of a doctor and no longer than two weeks at a time. The concerns are that to few calories without the proper nutrients, can lead to gallstones and other malnutrition issues. The underlining warning is that a VLCD should only be done by those who are also obese.  Well, technically, going off the BMI calculator, I am "obese" along with A LOT of the people in the U.S.  Let's face is, the standard American diet, like it or not, leads to a lot of very heavy and obese people.  Even some who are toned and look pretty fit with big muscles, can be "obese" based off the calculator.  Since I am still "obese" the VLCD technically could work for me. I certainly don't want health issues or gallstone issues. I do want to 'catch up' my weight loss to my days though.

The verdict: After a few hours of research I've decided to do it. I purchased TwinLab's Nutritional (Brewer's) Yeast to aid in my nutritional intake I give the break down (copied and pasted) at the end of this post.  Basically, I picked this due to the "naturally occurring" nutrients and the essential amino acids that it contains. This is a complete product. This product has only 35 calories per heaping scoop but is packed full of nutrients, protein, etc... For the next two weeks, I will still be juicing, just less overall. I will be rationing out my caloric intake throughout the day.

From what I've read it is better to workout early in the morning. To consume more food in the morning and mid afternoon and less in the evening. I read it is better to start the day with a water. Which is fine with me. I am making sure to consume between 80 and 120 ounces of water each day. I learned that it is possible to consume to much water. I was consuming about 160 ounces of water per day (16 ounces every hour). I learned that this isn't the wisest and that your kidneys process less water when working out then when your body is in a resting state. I have lowered my water intake to between 80 and 120 ounces, and am only consuming about a glass full while working out as the data I found said that the kidneys only process about 3 ounces while you are actively engaged in a workout. The body focuses more on sweating during this time, then processing liquid through the kidney.  That way you don't have the urge to go pee while in the middle of physical activities. It kind of "turns off" the spigot.

My routine: Workout in the morning before the kids and wife wake up.  After the workout make a juice. I'm now making one juice (about 45 to 65 ounces) per day. Then I'll grab 2 heaping tablespoons of the Nutritional Yeast and throw that in the juice (using the vitamix and about 8 ounces of juice to mix it in well, without clumps, then I dump that back into the main juice and mix it with a spoon).  The calories from the juice are ranging between 600 and 800. I then ration out my intake.  Starting with 16 to 20 ounces for breakfast and the rest throughout the day.

Then, depending on how I feel, I am taking one slice of whole grain, omega 3 Apple Valley bread with one tablespoon of almond butter on it and slicing it up (like you would a kid's pancake). I'll consume that over the course of a few hours... eating slowly to make sure that I'm getting the calories, but not all at once. This keeps me feeling like I have something in my body as the day goes on.

I am listening to my body.  If I get "hungry" I will of course grab something more. My plan for the next two weeks is to keep my caloric intake at below 1,000, preferably 500 to 800, even with the Insanity workouts that I'm doing.  I want to keep my caloric intake down.  I figure I still have enough fat cells on my body, that my body will have plenty to burn without me adding more calories to the mix. This will only be done for two weeks.  I will juice a variety of items to ensure that I am getting plenty of nutrients.

Yesterday was day two of this new way of eating and consuming on the VLCD, my wife asked me if I felt hungry and the answer (surprisingly) was; "No. I feel fine."  The biggest key is, rationing out my intake throughout the course of the day.  Besides, for years it has been said that 6 small meals is better than 3 meals a day. I'm hoping that my weight will drop and I will catch up, so in another 10 days my progress will be closer to 65 pounds in 65 days then the 9 pound deficit that I am currently facing.

Time to go make that daily juice.

My Progress: 46 pounds lost in 55 days!

Nutritional Yeast Nutritional Data:
"All the nutrients are naturally occurring - nothing is added! Supplement Facts Serving Size: 1 heaping tablespoonful (16 g) Servings per container: 31 Amount Per Serving % Daily Value Calories 35 Protein 8 g 16% Thiamin 1.4 mg 93% Riboflavin 0.7 mg 41% Niacin 5.3 mg 27% Vitamin B6 0.6 mg 30% Folic Acid 240 mcg 60% Vitamin B12 2 mcg 33% Biotin 16 mcg 5% Pantothenic Acid 0.4 mg 4% Calcium 59 mg 6% Iron 1.5 mg 8% Phosphorus 234 mg 23% Magnesium 33 mg 8% Zinc 1.2 mg 8% Copper 0.5 mg 25% Manganese 0.13 mg 7% Chromium 60 mcg 50% Sodium 60 mg 3% Potassium 222 mg 6% Alanine 592 mg * Arginine 464 mg * Aspartic Acid 800 mg * Glutamic Acid 1120 mg * Glycine 400 mg * Histidine 208 mg * Isoleucine2,3 400 mg * Cystine 112 mg * Leucine2,3 624 mg * Lysine' 592 mg * Methionine' 144 mg * Phenylalanine' 368 mg * Proline 400 mg * Threonine' 400 mg * Serine 448 mg * Tryptophan1,2 96 mg * Tyrosine 304 mg * Valine2,3 480 mg * 'The L-Tryptophan in the product is naturally present in the protein. It is not added or manufactured. 'Essential Amino Acids. 'Branched Chain Amino Acids. Other ingredients: Debittered Brewers Yeast. Free Of Contains absolutely no preservatives, fructose, honey, sugars or any additives."