find the beginning of Mike’s Journey here

Mike gives us an updated look, in his own words, at his journey so far, the ups, downs, doubts, and hitting a plateau….

6/29/12

Hey Guys,
So I have been at a weight loss plateau for a couple of weeks, and want to let you know why (for people that may think they are doing good).

I was getting frustrated with EM2WL for a few. REAL frustrated. I have been at 285.4 for 3 weeks and have not lost. I have been hitting my numbers (or so I thought) for the last 3 weeks.

Anyways, I was like 3 seconds from seriously cutting calories. however, before I did that, I made an effort to parse through ALL my numbers/date for the last month. What I found was pretty shocking and I know why I plateaued.

1. Alcohol – Yep, its a killer for me. Over the last month I have let wine back in, and the bar on the weekend. While I was “leaving room” for my wine, while drinking it I would get careless with my food a bit.

This resulted in me not estimating my calories well/eating less health choices. We all know alcohol gets processed first by the liver, and can lead to fat retention due to other foods not being processed properly.

2. Two binges, because of drinking, completely wiped out two weeks worth of work. Two Fridays in a row me and my buddies drank a ton, and hit jack in the crack afterwards (when drunk the justification is “Damn I’m working out I can eat!”.)

Anyways when your running at a 500 calorie a day deficit, a drunk time + trip to jack in the box will wipe out your progress for a given week, Nuclear Holocaust style.

3. I needed a mental break. While we all know that weight loss is hard work, its nice to take some time off to recharge the mental batteries. I took off from working out and counting calories (I did NOT eat unhealthy, and ate basically what I eat on my healthy days anyways).

So I sabotaged my own weight loss, and my first inclination was to blame EM2WL when I had no-one but myself to blame.

Things I hope you take from this.

Because we are running at TDEE – 15%, in some cases being 300 calorie deficit, one slip up during the week can sabotage that weeks weight loss. Thats a 2100 calorie weekly deficit. One night of drinking, or one errant jack in the box trip that sends us over our TDEE can ruin the hard work in that week. We may not gain weight (hitting our Maintenance weight), but you might kill that weeks weight loss.

I was lax on this, however I am recharged, and re-doubling my efforts.
Ill be burning about 3000 calories with 2 hikes this weekend to kick off my getting on track week.

7/12/12

Hey Guys,

Just doing my monthly update. I am down 30lbs in I think ~3 months (may 3 1/2). I had a rough patch for a week or two (of binging a bit) but I got back on it, and now moving down again.

Gotta keep my head in it and keep pushing forward.

Mike