Viva Mexico! - Weight Loss Challenge: Day 8

The last two days have been filled with simple eating, plenty of fruits and vegetables and no high sodium food. Throw in a little bit of exercise and lots of fluids and this sounds like an obvious recipe for success, right? I have noticed that my body is not even remotely craving sugars like it did just a week ago when I first challenge. It seems my brain and stomach adjusted pretty quickly and have been very accepting of the foods I am consuming and the daily calorie intake associated. Even heading into Wednesday’s meals, I had not lost a lot of weight, but have been feeling really good with no bloating and a renewal of energy I have been lacking for a long time.

Here was the full menu from Wednesday (including exercise):

-vitamin
-apple
-bagel with cream cheese
-Dunkin Donuts large coffee
-Market Day Chicken Breast Tuscan meal
350 calories, 16g fat, 4.5g saturated fat, 22g carbs, 28g protein, 660 mg sodium
-grapes (2 servings)
-30 minutes of Wii Sports
-12 minutes of Elliptical Training

For those of you not familiar with Market Day, it is a special program done through local schools around the country as a fundraiser. Market Day sells plenty of food items for every occasion (lunch, dinner, appetizers, dessert, etc.) and the vast majority of them are easy to make or quick to cook. Their full meals like the Chicken Breast Tuscan do have an above average amount of sodium when you consider the portions are not very big, but the rest of the nutritional statistics are pretty decent. My dinner on Wednesday took just 7 minutes in the microwave to cook.

Would you believe it? The scale on Thursday morning flashed 174.1 pounds - a two pound reduction in a single day! I knew eating out the first two days of the week would have an impact, but I didn’t think the difference in results when staying away from the restaurants would show this quick! Body fat and body water were consistent with Tuesday’s weigh-in.

Here was the full menu from Thursday:

-coffee
-apple
-vitamin
-peanut butter and jelly sandwich
-coffee
-1 Miller High Life (The Official Beer of Campise Nation)
-Market Day Roasted Turkey with Stuffing meal
300 calories, 10g fat, 5g saturated fat, 23g carbs, 26g protein, 810mg sodium
-grapes (2 servings)
-30 minutes of Wii Sports

I went nearly seven days without an alcohol beverage, so I decided to treat myself to a single beer with dinner on Thursday. My overall menu for the day was eerily similar to Wednesday’s if you didn’t notice and not very calorie intensive at all. I will admit that the servings of grapes yesterday were larger than the first batch I had on Wednesday, but they are still a much healthier alternative over Doritos or cookies. I am predicting a case of Wii Tennis Elbow by the end of Week 2 if I keep this level of play up - any takers?

Unbelievable! 172.2! Believe me - I had to look at that number three times while typing this to make sure it was correct. This would mean that I lost FIVE pounds during just the first week challenge. I will tell you that this is above even the expectations I had for myself from the onset. If these are the results I can expect from a drastic change in diet to healthier eating, I am all for it. However, even I know that a single day does not constitute a trend. In order for me to truly be successful challenge, I would like to consistently make my weight for a period of time. Still, little did I know how prominent the impact could be by removing sugars and setting a few simple guidelines around what I eat and when I eat. We still have a lot of work to do and I want to make sure Week 2 has similar success in getting me closer to my optimal weight.