No longer obese...just overweight!

You've probably heard someone say that a person is not fat, just big boned. The Optifast equivalent saying would be saying that someone is not obese, just overweight! Let me explain. There is something called the Body Mass Index (BMI), which attempts to define levels of fatness. I started at the very top, being morbidly obese. Morbid because I was on my way to dying early? Maybe. Let's just say that it didn't fill me with hope when I got this diagnosis. Anyway, after being moribidly obese, there are those of us that are "only" obese, which I was for the majority of this diet. Then last Thursday, my BMI dropped to 29.62, which qualifies me as being only overweight. So am I still fat? Yep. But not obese! (My doctor said so...)

Of course, there are still pounds left to go in this diet. 47 pounds to be exact. It's daunting, but I am inspired by the fact when Matthew McConaughey lost this exact amount, he won an Oscar. When I look in the mirror, I still don't see the college version of myself, but I am getting closer. If I squint just right, I can see a version of the old me...

One of the best things about this diet is that it's shown me how many kind people that I have around me. People are constantly coming up to me and complimenting me on my weight loss. When I attended my niece's wedding, I felt almost like I was part of the wedding. So many people came up to me and complimented me on my weight loss that I must have had a stupid grin on my face for the whole night.

The other day, a normally stone faced baliff stopped me on my way out of court and said to me, in full Clint Eastwood voice, "If you lose any more weight, I won't recognize you anymore...punk." (Ok, he didn't say "Punk")

In other news, I've found that my strength level has waned somewhat with the weight loss. You might say that I still look pretty strong at 6'3" and 237 pounds, but if you saw me in the gym with the tiny pink dumbbells, you might think again! Occasionally, when I'm lifting with a friend, I do tackle the heavier weights, but it kills me for the rest of the day. It's just basic calories as fuel logic- since I have my body at a huge calorie deficit, my "feats of strength" have to fit into a limited fuel tank.

No, I'm not as strong as I was a few months ago, but this will come in time, I'm sure. I'm at work building my garage gym- I bought an Ironmaster self spotting rack, about 480 pounds of weights, an adjustable bench and a couple barbells. It doesn't look like much yet, but the goal is to have a pretty well outfitted garage gym by November, so I can build some muscle when I get back to real food.


Week 1- 5/8/14 334.5 16.5 318
Week 2- 5/15/14 318.0 6.9 311.1
Week 3- 5/22/14 311.0 5.1 306
Week 4- 5/29/14 306 6.0 300
Week 5- 6/5/14 300 4.5 295.5
Week 6- 6/12/14 295.5 3.0 292.5
Week 7- 6/19/14 292.5 8.5 283
Week 8- 6/26/14 283 4.5 278.5
Week 9- 7/3/14 278.5 5.0 273.5
Week 10- 7/10/14 273.5 1.5 272
Week 11- 7/17/14 272 8.0 264
Week 12- 7/24/14 264 3.5 260.5
Week 13- 7/31/14 260.5 6.0 254.5
Week 14- 8/7/14 254.5 3.5 251.0
Week 15- 8/14/14 251 5.0 246
Week 16- 8/21/14 246 3.5 241.5
Week 17- 8/27/14 241.5 4.5 237

97.5 Pounds lost!

100 Days Without Food! The first 100 days on Optifast

Does being without food for a hundred days bring out the monster in me? Not yet, but we'll see.. As of today, it's been one hundred days since I've eaten anything but Optifast shakes or broth. I could not have even imagined 100 days without carne asada tacos, steaks, hamburgers, pizza, cake or even salad. So how has it been? ABSOLUTE HELL!!! Just kidding.. After the first couple days, it's been pretty manageable. I was hungry the first day, got awful runner's cramps on the 2nd day and since then haven't had to deal with hunger very much at all. When I do get hungry, a shake takes the hunger away. (Insane cravings for gas station pizza are another matter...)

One thing that really helped me get through this diet was the broth. The shakes aren't the greatest, but they sell you packets of chicken broth at Optifast that I would have nightly with hot sauce and lemon. Strange as it may sound, this was often the highlight of my day. As the diet went on, I discovered that I could get broth at restaurants, so that my wife and I started going out to eat for lunch. I started at our favorite Vietnamese restaurants (each a couple blocks from each other). I would order the Pho without noodles, beef or onions- just the broth, please!- and I would add lemon, hot sauce and crushed basil. I wouldn't eat the basil, but it gave it a nice taste. Recently, I began to order chicken broth at a couple Mexican restaurants and seafood broth. At this point, I know it sounds strange, but in the absence of regular food, I've come to really appreciate how delicious broth can be. My wife makes fun of me because before I would never really season anything (but would just eat the "good stuff" out of the soups), but now I put a lot of effort into getting the taste right on my nearly daily broth.

This Saturday, I also went to my 25th high school reunion. It was a good time. Interestingly, more people recognized me than did at my 20th high school reunion. This probably because I'm starting to look a little bit more like the skinny guy I was in high school than the three hundred pound plus lawyer that I've been.

Anyway, it was fun. A lot of joking around, some remembering and I got to at least smell some good BBQ! A friend of mine said, jokingly, that I'd ruined the reunion for him because I was so skinny and it made him feel guilty about eating the hamburgers! He did get over this guilt, somehow, and chow down some burgers, though.

The most negative aspect of the diet after 100 days would probably be the loss of muscle strength and definition in my arms. I've gone from Popeye (in my mind) to Olive Oil..but I know that this is something that I can remedy fairly quickly after I transition back to food. I've already begun looking to rebuild my home gym. In the interim, I've moved up from the 400 calories Optifast 70 to the 800 calories Optifast 800- this, I'm told, will allow me to maintain more of my muscle mass along with my weight workout at the Y. We'll see. First, let's finish this weight loss. 61 pounds to go!

Week 1- 5/8/14 334.5 16.5 318
Week 2- 5/15/14 318.0 6.9 311.1
Week 3- 5/22/14 311.0 5.1 306
Week 4- 5/29/14 306 6.0 300
Week 5- 6/5/14 300 4.5 295.5
Week 6- 6/12/14 295.5 3.0 292.5
Week 7- 6/19/14 292.5 8.5 283
Week 8- 6/26/14 283 4.5 278.5
Week 9- 7/3/14 278.5 5.0 273.5
Week 10- 7/10/14 273.5 1.5 272
Week 11- 7/17/14 272 8.0 264
Week 12- 7/24/14 264 3.5 260.5
Week 13- 7/31/14 260.5 6.0 254.5
Week 14- 8/7/14 254.5 3.5 251.0

Eight Three and a half Pounds lost!