Within Sight Of The Finish
With less than three days left of this second diet it’s probably time for another update.
Like ‘The Week From Hell’, what I’ve dubbed ‘The Month From Slightly Higher Than Hell’, (working title), has taught me a few things while testing my perseverance, patience and general perspective on what is and isn’t important in my daily life.
Lets run through the banned list and analyse the difficulty of sticking to each.
Alcohol: Being designated driver for a month has been less than exciting, yet always guarantee’s I don’t miss out on any of the party due to always having to round up the stragglers. Cutting out alcohol has been a major factor in my weight loss, and the only time I nearly wavered from the path of righteousness was Australia Day because, well, it’s un-Australian not to sink tinnies while blasting the Hottest 100.
Difficulty rating: 5/10
Fast Food: This began as a blanket ban on all take away, but was quickly adjusted to allow for Subway trips, because lets face it the local franchise was in danger of closing down without me. Therefore this was an avoidance of the big three as it were, Macca’s, pizza and anything coated in the Colonel’s secret recipe. Yet another key ingredient in weight loss, this was suprisingly easy to avoid for the month, with cravings minimal. Certainly helped by the fact I wasn’t hungover to the point of insanity every Saturday and Sunday morning craving a juicy McMuffin while stumbling to work.
DR: 3/10
Normal Soft Drink: Such was my habitual routine of drinking fountains of Coke every week that it took me a while to adjust to not automatically grabbing a red grenade from the fridge. Once I did though the cravings went away and avoiding sugary drinks became much easier.
DR: 4/10
White Carbs: This was a complete fail. It was almost too much effort to eliminate all white carbs so I caved very quickly. Moderation was indeed practiced, but I was certainly dissapointed that I couldn't last a week before forgetting that I shouldn’t have ordered a white bread bun burger at a hipster Geelong establishment.
DR: N/A
1200 Calories: What the fuck was I thinking. I’m not sure in what otherwordly hell the idea that 1200 calories a day was a good target for a large 21 year old male was concocted, but whoever came up with it needs to be excecuted at dawn. The Warden told me I was stupid, but in my attempt at defiance and sticking it to the man I persisted, very unwisely. The stabbing hunger pains subsided after about a week. From there it was just a dull ache, with a constant yearning for more. I assume it was almost sad to see the once great ‘Eatsman’, famous for consuming 25 snags in a sitting while dipping them in jugs of beer, reduced to a snivelling pile of skin and bones gnawing on his own arm for sustenance. I was told that starving myself and losing large amounts of weight could lead to a heart attack. That would have been a mercy kill. But hey, at least I’d look good in the casket now.
DR: Armegeddon.
The journey has been tough, but the results have been ever so sweet. After hitting 110kg in early December I weighed in at 98kg in the last week of January, almost 2kg loss per week including the holiday period. I’m excited about those numbers, but there is a long road ahead yet. Hopefully it’s more yellow brick than boulevard of broken dreams.
