Saturday, August 23, 2014

So you wanna lose weight? Do a Cleanse!

Below is my week long journey that started with a self realization and ended with (what I hope) a lifestyle change.

DAY 0 - Saturday, August 17th - You are a Lazy Mess!  

I went to bed on Saturday feeling fat and lazy after realizing that I haven't been taking the best care of myself over the past 6 weeks.  Gym?  Bootcamp?  Cardio?  Trainer?  I didn't know what to do, but knew I had to do something to give me some motivation.  I went to bed that night with my internal monologue saying 
"Brett, if you can just do something that will drive weight loss, I know you can stick with it and make some real changes in your life, but if you don't, then you will go backwards...again"
Thank god I listened...

Day 1 - Sunday, August 18th - 206.4lbs - The Flywheel Reality...

I woke up this morning with a focus on eating less and doing some sort of cardio.

Being a firm believer in math, I thought back to a blog post which addressed the number of calories people burn in a single day without doing anything extra (2000 - 2500 for men).  If you were to consume 2500 calories and just 'live', you shouldn't gain a pound...but if you exercise, you end up burning some of that down and shedding weight.  
  • For spinning I go to FLYWHEEL.  Some people like SoulCycle or a class at their local gym, but for me Flywheel forces you not to cheat...and if you do cheat, you have to hold yourself accountable.  The stats they give you, the app they have, as a whole are a very motivating tool.  By the end of the class I burned a bunch of calories, and got some strange green pressed juice from Starbucks that is supposed to give me energy.
  • As for eating less...GUILTY!  My daughter and I went to the food trucks and I consumed a bite or 3 of her Grilled Cheese with Short Rib (from Roxy's Grilled Cheese) and also shared a Double Awesome (with Pastrami) from Mei Mei with her.  I didn't feel super full, but the butter and other goodness isn't helping the weight, fat intake, cholesterol, blood pressure...to say the least
Day 2 - Monday, August 19th - 205lbs - The Weight and See?

Got on the scale, and I had lost 1 pound...maybe this model works...but I had to do more...I had to do more.  Maybe a cleanse would do me well.  My wife did a Blueprint Juice Cleanse for 3 days a while ago.  She didn't love the juice that much, but it did have the results she wanted.  For me, I needed something more robust.  Being a big guy, substance was important.  My friend Jill recommended a company called Joulebody, they are based in NYC and seemed to have the total package for me:
    • A support system (since I like to talk and want to make sure I don't screw up)
    • Food and drink, so I could feel a little more satisfied
    • Everything is fresh and made in their NYC kitchen, and once created it would be shipped in a cool package that keeps it cold and fresh.
The day ended with me booking another Flywheel for Tuesday and I was ready to kick some ass!
Joulebody Active Cleanse arrives Wednesday by 10:30am!
Day 3 - Tuesday, August 19th - 208lbs - Prep and Fear

Today, the scale is not my friend.  I had gained 3 pounds (208 pounds), making me net 2 over where I started for my lifestyle change week.  Flywheel was good, I burned 753 calories and was committed to getting on track.  The folks as Joulebody have a great website with prep instructions as well as recipes for things I can make to get my body ready.  Believe me, it was a miserable day.  I was scared to eat too much food, and tried to make one of the meals on their site for dinner to do all the right things.  After that, I ate nothing...booked Flywheel for Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, and went to bed hungry.

Day 4 - Wednesday, August 20th - 205lbs - And so it Begins 

I wake up and do my morning ritual of getting on the scale...BOOM!  I have lost 3 pounds...maybe this math problem philosophy is going to work?  Suffice to say, I am pretty miserable all morning due to lack of food and caffeine (did I mention that caffeine is not permitted?) until the package arrived.....like a dog waiting for a mailman I have the windows open to hear if the Fedex man shows up....finally, at 10:15am those squeaky breaks are evident and I run to meet him at the door.  You would think it was Ed McMahon with a check for me, but no, just food that equates to about 1100 - 1400 calories a day.  The Joulebody experience was really cool for me because (as my wife would say) I take directions very well...as long as I have them.  The regime is simple, juice and food at specific times.  The first juice was the ENERGIZE Drink, it was thick like a smoothie and tasted quite nice.  I was impressed with the quality and how filling it was.  At noon I have to take my lunch...it is green and a little scary looking, but let me tell you...it was damn good (see how happy I am).  To bridge my to dinner is on its way!  After my smoothie lunch, the track focuses on two more juices before dinner.  The first one comes at 3pm, POWER...this was probably my least favorite drink, but once again it isn't undrinkable and it tasted 'ok' but it just isn't what I would purchase in a store.  Last drink for day 1 was CITRUS at 5pm.  This one had some spice to it but was a really clean feeling drink that left me satisfied.  Fast forward to dinner time, it was also pretty good.  Cucumber Salad with dried chickpeas...again, by eating slowly and savoring what I had, it was pretty frickn good.  Net net, it was a great first day.

Day 5 - Thursday, October 21st - 202.8lbs - Passing Time
Day 5 brought a slight sense of normalcy.  I got on the scale to notice that I lost about 3 pounds and really started to become a believer.  Talking to people who work for Joulebody, I was cautioned that a cleanse isn't just about losing the weight, but having a healthier lifestyle.  I really wanted to lose 10lbs in 5 days, but understanding that like anything...the beginning is like a shock to the system (and the system will respond to it) but once you find a cadence it settles.  With me shocking my system on Tuesday and going through the system on Wednesday, my body was shocked and shocked to the dune of just under 6 pounds lost.  My day started at 7:30am with a class at Flywheel and to my surprise it was my most productive to date.  I had burned ~774 calories in a 45 min class but didn't feel as great as i have in the past, but I am guessing it is the lack of food that did it.

The hardest part of the day on a cleanse for me was the time.  How do I pass the time without eating?  Normally I would work out of a local coffee shop vs. home (as I work from home when not on the road) to stop from getting up and walking to the refrigerator, but today, today I couldn't.  If I did that I would be tempted to eat food at one of these places, and I needed to be in a controlled environment and the only place for that was home.  Mimi was out of town for the night, so nobody was cooking dinner, and my day ended with another nice meal and me chugging the respective 9am, 3pm and 5pm juices.

Day 6 - Friday, October 22nd - 201.4lbs - The Final Day

This morning, the message was clear...your body was shocked by the minimal caloric intake and now it needs to understand that my normal crap isn't in it.  That crap being meat, dairy, caffeine and alcohol.  I only lost a little over a pound today, but on an average of 2+ pounds a day weight loss, it was still pretty good stuff.  Today I felt lazy...it was almost like just focusing on a script...wake up....have a juice....drink some water...wait wait wait....have your lunch...have a juice...have a juice...eat your dinner and go to bed...

For being on a cleanse that is referred to as 'active' I was pretty damn lazy.  I didn't leave my deck or couch with my laptop from when I woke up until I left the house at 5pm to go run an errand.  Guess I was leaving the food going in my body to driving any weight loss...not feeling it was a good idea, but I did.  

My final dinner was chick pea curry with carrots.  It was good and filling and I finished it while watching the rest of the family eat popcorn while watching Ratatouille.  Yep, my last day ended with a cartoon about really good French food and a mouse.  I went to bed feeling satisfied still, and was very anxious to see what the beginning of my new day would bring.

Day 7 - Saturday, October 23rd - 199.2lbs - The Beginning

I couldn't sleep at all last night...got up at 3am, 4:15am and 5:20am.  I got out of bed at 5:40am and decided to get on the scale because my OCD had gotten the best of me.  Stepping on was a little nerve-racking as I had been so competitive with myself that anything below 198 pounds could be viewed as failure.  Well, I weighed in at 199.2 pounds.  5 days of hard work and I lost 8 pounds.  A sense of frustration definitely filled my veins as I really worked hard.  That brings me to the 'breaking point'...I finishing my week long journey and actually think it was pretty amazing to have lost 8.8 pounds or 4.2% of my body weight in just a few days.  

When closing out my last blog entry, I spoke of opportunities going forward and a drive to be fit and healthy.....well, I failed then, but today we get to give it another chance and really think I can drive this number down to the 180's.  

Onward!