Getting my "me" back.

What is going on right now?? 

At this exact moment, I'm listening to 90's Hits on channel 806 on Directv. Walking In Memphis, by Marc Cohn is playing.  Useless info.

Last fall I started at 243 lbs, and began doing WW again, and lost about 10 lbs. I have always done it online, because I can't take the thought of meetings, or the time away from my family since hubby works far from home. I somehow miraculously kept that off, so when I decided 3 weeks ago that I was going to be anorexic (HA!), I started from 234 lbs.  I actually did pretty well for 2 weeks only eating about 300 calories a day, and lost 5 lbs the first week alone. The second week I started doing 45 mins of cardio a day and started gaining weight. Back up to 229. Um. WTF? No. Time for a new solution.

Instead, I decided to do a little research on nutrition, and WHY I was gaining weight on a "very low calorie diet" (VLCD) combined with exercise. That is when I stumbled up on an article on by Lyle McDonald on his website, BodyRecomposition.com. It's titled Why Big Caloric Deficits and Lots of Activity Can Hurt Fat Loss. All I can really say is that is was eye opening, at the very least. I got interested in this man, his long, LONG posts, and the science behind his work. I was intrigued, and convinced, and HOOKED! After reading post after post after post, I realized that while being a body builder, he has no hate for the fatties, and has a program for almost everyone at every level of weight and fitness. It was obvious that the program I needed was his Rapid Fat Loss Handbook program. People have some amazing results. And that is what I need: Amazing Results. And for $39, I'm in. I started this on 5/3/12. Only 4 days ago! Just wait until I tell you how much weight I've already lost.

In short, Rapid Fat Loss (RFL) is a crash diet. Ohhhhhh, the bogeyman of diet words. Whatever, I don't care, give it to me. It's a hardcore diet boot camp, not for the faint of heart, and meant to make your body drop fat and water at lightening speed. It's meant to be a short term diet (anywhere from 2-12 weeks according to your needs and weight/fitness level) that will hopefully lead to a total change in eating habits. When I've lost the weight, I will move into a few different maintenance levels that will require continued discipline.  It's low/no carb, no sugar, no fruits, and low fat. It consists of lean meats, unlimited veggies (except for starchy ones), and 2 free meals per week. There are some other strict parameters built in as far as what condiments you can/can't use, what supplements to take, and you use his calculator to figure out your protein needs per day. Strangely enough, on this plan you can ONLY work out 2-3x per week, doing low intensity cardio for up to 30-45 mins, and you need to stick to his strict weight training program that he has created not only for people who go to the gym, but also for people would rather do it at home. Why so "little" exercise? Well, refer to this article for the science behind why:  Why Big Caloric Deficits and Lots of Activity Can Hurt Fat Loss.

I'm not giving you the details. I paid for it, and you can too. If you are interested, I encourage you to read his website, where he gives lots of details, and even a money-back guarantee! Wowza! He has an extensive list of FREE articles on his FREE website that give you the down and dirty on the science of fat loss.  He is amazing. Much respect for this guy! He's not a warm fuzzy kind of guy; really he's more of a tough love, no bullshit, don't-keep-asking-me-stupid-questions-that-you-can-search-the-answers-for kind of guy. I can dig that.

So what am *I* doing then? Details please...

Here is what I do daily, and it is based on MY height/weight/etc. Please don't assume this is what you would need. I am what is considered a Category 3:

• Protein Intake: 119 grams spread into 4-5 meals, trying to equally distribute my protein...EDIT: Just redid the diet calculator and after my weight loss over the past few days, I'm down to 113 grams of protein/day.
• Carbs limited to roughly 5 grams/meal (there is a little give, especially with the carbs coming from unlimited veggies)
• Fats don't have a limit, and they should stay low, but I intake about 20 grams/day
• Calories come to an average of 800/day
• Omega 3's every day...like 10 of them! A daily multi-vitamin, and a calcium supplement
• Some days I take Liprodrene for the energy, and I consume a lot of caffeine
• Exercise 3x/week. Elliptical 30 mins, then Lyle's weight training at home program
• Obsess over every morsel that goes in my mouth
• I schedule 2 free meals per week. Last night was my first and I ate pizza, salad, and frozen yogurt at one of those stupid, trendy yogurt bars. It was delicious, but honestly, for the first time in my life I felt the ill effects of sugar. I felt like crap a little while after eating!

So, that's it. Except my stats. I hate this part:

• Height 5'9"
• As of 5/3/12, my weight was 299
• As of 5/6/12, my weight is 222.2. That is a 6.8 lb loss. In 4 days! Woohoo!
• BMI of 43.5% ewwwwwww!

Okay, that's it for now. In the coming days I will be posting a few recipes that I have been using lately including a super awesome low carb bbq sauce. Whipped it up today and OMYummmmmm!