252.5

In the ever mysterious "What is going on inside my body?" department, I basically took a week off (or at least a week of not closely watching what I ate and having a few beers after dinner) and I lost 3 lbs. I have lots of theories on how/why this kind of stuff happens, but it only seems to work out that way when you aren't expecting it.

The 30th day was yesterday, so that put me 15 lbs down in 30 days. I was hoping for at least 20 lbs but I'm happy with 15.

I'm right back at the lowest weight I got to in July, 2010, when I then had to live on the road for a few months and gained back the 15 lbs. So, even after a pretty intense month of diet & exercise, I'm more excited about attacking the next 15 lbs because it feels like real weight loss instead of making up for lost effort.

255.5

I've hit a weird wall for the last 5 days. It defies caloric math, but I also can't say I've been going 100%. I'm still at a significant daily calorie deficit, so not sure how my weight could hold for so long.

But, the only option is to try harder, so I'm going to try to get cardio in twice a day.

255

I'm 4 lbs off target, but I'm pretty happy with 12 lbs lost in just over 2 weeks. I kind of fell off my routine for a few days in the middle, so I could probably be on target if I kept my focus. I still think I can recover, but we'll see.

257.5

(Copied from a post I made on BodyBugg forum. In response to someone saying the key is making the transition to a sustainable lifestyle after trying to drop weight quickly).

It's always a work in progress, but I think I've got that part down.

I got in pretty good shape about 10 years ago. Then I got married and slowly gained most of the weight back over 3 or 4 years. It took me a while to figure out how to keep myself on the right track while in a couple, but I've finally got that down. I've struggled a bit in the last few years to lose weight, but I've been able to keep it off once I did (I gained back 15 lbs while living on the road out of hotels for 3 months, but kept the rest of the 70 lbs off that I lost).

The next big life challenge is just around the corner. Our fist child is due in August, so a big part of this rush to drop some weight is to try to get my weight down enough that I'm able to just hang on for those first few months where our lives and schedules will be hectic.

By next year, I'm hoping to be one of those parents you see running buy with a jogging stroller (my wife says I can't strap the baby to my bike).

258.5

I've been posting updates on a Bodybugg forum and forgetting to post on here. So below are some of the updates posted on that thread:
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6/7/11
Feels good to be back in the 250s. I'm almost back to the lowest weight I reached about a year ago. It doesn't feel like I'm making progress until I get back to that weight and then get below it.
Regarding the earlier question on my diet and exercise, here is a basic answer.
I eat every 3 hours (9am, 12pm, 3, 6 & 9). Instead of trying to count the running total of my calories for the day, I assign a calorie target for each meal. Each meal is about 300 calories except dinner, which is 500.
I have 1 or 2 meals for each time slot that I usually eat, but by knowing the calories planned for that meal, I can make it up on the fly if needed. Also, if I have to eat out, this gives me the flexibility of skipping the next planned meal to account for the heavier food I'm probably going to have to eat. In other words, it's hard to find a 500 calorie dinner when eating out, but an 800 calorie dinner isn't too hard to find, then I just skip the 300 calorie meal/snack I had planned for 9pm.
Exercise has been fairly random. Part of my planning when I first started this was that a 24 Hour Fitness was opening less than a mile from my house. The scheduled opening date was 6/4/11, so I planned to get a week of exercise in before it opened, so I would be in good enough shape to hit the gym twice a day once it opened. But on 6/4/11 I went to the 24 Hour Fiteness and it looked they there were still doing heavy interior construction. That was annoying, but it does look like it will be an amazing facility when it opens (you can see photos on their website, it's the Burbank Empire Center location in the "Opening Soon" section).
There have been a few days where I didn't really exercise at all (although I'm fairly active in general). But there have also been days of extreme exercise like the 8+ mile hike/trail run last Sunday.

I'm really happy with the way the weight has been coming off. I expected to get 4 or 5 lbs easy in the first couple days, then for it to slow down. It's being going in reverse, with the weight seeming to come off faster now than a week ago.

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5/31/11
264.
The fear of having to admit failure, even on an internet message board, keeps me motivated.

Just as a side note, I understand and generally agree with those who oppose this sort of dieting. But sometimes you have to give in to your personality type and work with it. If I had what it takes to go the slow and steady route, I would have never gotten fat in the first place. About a year ago I lost 70 lbs (starting at 320). Then I had to live on the road for a few months due to work (and had a 14 hour a day, 7 day a week schedule). I put back on about 15 lbs. Since then I've been hold at 265-ish. I've tried to get back in gear a few times, but never quite did it.

So, I figured a crazy attempt of 30 lbs in 30 days, coupled with some mild public humiliation if I failed, would be just what I needed.

Two other things to note: 1. I eat extremely "clean" (aka healthy), so I make every one of my 1,800 calories count. In fact, my diet is soooo healthy that on heavy workout days I have to measure out and eat straight salt since my diet only has bout 50% of the recommended daily amount. 2. I've lost about 30 lbs in 45 days once before, so this isn't something I'm competely new to.

Ok, there is the long part that I had typed out originally before the website kicked me off and I lost it all.

-Mike