Well let me start off by saying thank goodness for cheat days!
My wife just had her 27th birthday yesterday and we went to Olive Garden to celebrate. I was swimming in a sea of bread stick and alfredo ecstasy. Shortly after I was plummeting down into a food and carb induced coma, but hell it was worth it.
One of the unexpected things that came from the gluttonous night out was actually a realization. As my wife and I were driving home we got to talking about how crazy it is to eat that much junk and calories in one day. Then we got to talking about how that used to be pretty much a normal thing for us. Which in all honestly kind of blew us both away. I mean it was not uncommon for us to go pig out at Olive Garden two to three times a month! Not to mention all the other things in addition to that like picking up pizza on the way home, or Panda Express or Taco Bell or Chick-fil-A. To think that we used to eat like that multiple times a month or even in the same week left us both feeling a little more sick to our stomachs than we already were.
It’s one of those things that you just don’t recognize you are doing in life until you change your habits and then look back. It seemed really silly to think that I once said “I don’t know how I gained all this weight” after I started dissecting all my old habits. Well no freaking wonder, the great mystery has been solved!
Another cool part about realizing and recognizing these old habits is one, I can obviously avoid repeating them again easier in the future. Two, it really gives me an appreciation for good, whole foods. Just the way I now feel after eating healthy pretty regularly for 12 weeks, that’s including with plenty of mistakes and cheating along the way mind you. All the difference has been made from eating healthy foods with planned intention more often than not. So now, I can enjoy my cheat days when I have them, and be glad I don’t have to do that every day because I feel much better day to day without it. After yesterday, eating like that everyday seems like it would be more of a punishment than a reward.
Weekly Weight In
Current Weight – 177.6
Total Loss – 1.6 Pounds
Really not too bad considering that my cheat day was yesterday! I think that come Wednesday or so I will see this drop a decent amount too. I am still excited to keep moving forward and keep seeing the progress!
This week also starts the second phase of my workout program that I am on.
Which means that my lifts will be slightly adjusted and there will be some different movements thrown. This will be a nice change and will hopefully result in some good gains and some challenges also.
The second phase will last 8 weeks and this is the second phase out of 4 total.
For February, I plan on sticking to pretty much what I have been doing with a couple of tweaks. I’m going to keep my calorie count at about 1500-1600 a day. I will be concentrating on adding in a re-feed day every Friday. On my re-feed days I will be consuming about 2k calories. Then, every two weeks or twice a month I will have a cheat day. Doing a dedicated cheat day I believe will help me postpone my cravings and help me stay closer to my daily goals even more consistently.
What “postponing” your cravings means and why it has an advantage?
It’s a technique used to play a trick on your brain. If you are say really craving a bunch of chocolate chip cookies and milk. You will want to write that down on a piece of paper for your “cheat day”. So when you get craving, you write it down and then you eat that thing on cheat day. This gives you the ability to tell yourself you will have what you want, just not right now. That way it doesn’t seem like you will never get to eat that cookie. Best part is when you delay your craving to your cheat day, you stay right on track the whole week, and then come cheat day you can eat that cookie ( or a dozen) completely guilt free!
Plan for Feburary
- Drink One glass of green juice a day (I have left over juice)
- Keep at a daily intake of 1500-1600 calories
- Have one re-feed day a week of 2000 calories
- Have two full out cheat days
- Take a decaffeinated green tea pill every night before bed
- Work out 3 times a week on second phase of program (Kinobody)
- Continue planning out meals for each night
- Continue intermittent fasting each day
- Get to 11% Body Fat
- Get to 170 Pounds
Well though technically Hell Month is pretty much over, I’m still going to keep pushing it. I think that I did good for my challenge but not as good as I could have done. I don’t know if it’s still the after effects of having a stomach full of pasta and bread and I’m still just riding that high or what but I feel pretty great right now. I feel super inspired and motivated to continue down the path that I am on. I think the dedicated cheat days will help me along that much more and I am excited to get started on the second phase of my workout plan as well. It just feels so good seeing the progress and actually doing something consistently for once in my life.
So there is still a lot to see and a lot of good stuff happening so keep up to date and be sure to follow!
You’re not getting any younger.
The Cardinal Gift 