It's a wrap! (At least the 1st 6 weeks)

It's a wrap. Put a fork in me. Fin-nee. Finished. Done. Cooked. The first six weeks of my minor human experiment is over. For the past six weeks I have tried to eat as clean as possible. By clean I mean close to the source. It was mostly raw foods and most of the cooked foods I ate were veggies of some sort. I was originally motivated to seek a different lifestyle because I had "ballooned" up to 235. I was feeling very uncomfortable and swore I would not buy another set of clothes that were just one size bigger.

I came across a book called Eat To Live that discussed mainly a plant based diet being one that could get you to your body's "normal" weight. I then read a book called The China Study. The China Study was written by a scientist who had grown up on a farm eating the traditional SAD (standard American diet). He went on in later life to complete a 20 year study of health and dietary patterns among different villages in China. The conclusion he came to was that those that ate the traditional western diet (protein from meat) contracted and were dying from the typical western diseases (heart disease, cancer, diabetes, etc.) Yet those that ate a plant based diet were not dying of these diseases and were living longer and healthier lives.

So with my desire to lose weight and the facts presented in The China Study I decided to embark on a plant based eating regime. On the Tuesday morning I began my program I weighed in at 228lbs. This past Tuesday when I weighed in after 6 weeks on the program I was down to 212lbs. In the span of a short six weeks I was able to easily remove 16lbs of unwanted mass. That's a very healthy loss of over 2 1/2 lbs a week.

I am taking this week "off". That does not mean I am going out and gorging on steak and burgers and french fries and pizza and (crap I'm getting hungry). What this means is no measurements this week. I am still eating clean. Starting next week I will be introducing an exercise program in combination with my eating program. I will do this for six weeks and again track my results here on this blog.

I've thought about a 3rd 6 week segment where I would go back to my normal eating and just do exercise. The reason I am thinking about doing this is I have this inkling in the back of my head (I know, not a big thought as I am generally incapable of those) that our societies obesity problem stems almost exclusively from a horrible diet. I've had many folks tell me you can eat whatever you want as long as you exercise. Not sure this is correct. Well, we'll see where this next six weeks leads me.

One thing that has bothered me over these past six weeks is a perceived lack of protein. I have been eating a lot of beans, nuts, etc but I just don't feel like there is enough protein in my diet. Its hard to eat enough plant material to get enough calories and protein. I will say other than the weight loss there have not been a lot of other noticeable changes. I don't "feel" any different. I still feel tired a lot, but that could be contributed to the fact that I rise before 5:00am every morning. Traffic sucks in my area so I have to get on the road so I don't have a 3 hour commute. I am getting between 7-8 hours of sleep so its not a lack of sleep I just think my body has never adjusted to getting up so early. I guess its good I was not born a farmer.

6 weeks down. Another 6 to go. Stay tuned.

Tale of the Tape
weight - 212.4 (down 3 lbs)
fat% - 29.7
BMI remained steady at 27 (goal is under 24)

Just for Today I will relax and revel in the progress I have made and dream about the progress yet to come.