I could certainly sympathize with him based on my own experience over the past few weeks! Here's where he's at now:
DietForADollar: How are you doing Ben? Did you have a good Holiday?
Ben: It was great! I've got to tell you though, I slipped a bit on the diet. To put it another way, I fell off the wagon so hard that I'm still recovering! I told myself I'd "cheat" a little but that little turned into a lot.
D4AD: I hear ya' - I too loosened up the diet quite a bit and ate pretty much anything and everything. I definitely think it's good to do that now and again because I find it gives you focus and appreciation for eating well. Where are you at with your bodyweight right now?
Ben: This morning I was 180.4 which is still about 8 pounds below my start weight back in November. I was 187 just the other day but I was carrying so much bulk and water weight that once I got strict with my diet again it shed right off. Speaking of appreciation for eating well - you really hit the nail on the head with that! It's funny how it takes a 'binge session' to really understand and feel the difference that eating well makes. Your mind can play tricks on you and tell you that what you're eating tastes great and you 'should get more' but ultimately, in the end your body lets you know that those foods aren't the fuel you need!
D4AD: Absolutely! What are you doing for exercises or physical activity now?
Ben: Basically I'm just doing pushups, pullups, bodyweight squats and ab exercises at home right now. I can tell that I'll need to do something to start progressing beyond bodyweight exercises soon. I try to get some walking in as well when the weather allows. I found that it's so much easier to make time for exercising when I'm eating well. I have the energy I need and don't feel sick if I'm pushing myself.
D4AD: Eating right to get the proper fuel you need to exercise is definitely a key point. There have been plenty of times when I've tried doing a workout after eating the wrong foods and I feel downright terrible. It makes the workout feel like a chore instead of a fun activity.
Any other positive or negative effects from the change in diet?
Ben: I'm not sure if it was 100% related to the diet or not - I'm telling myself it is - but I ended up get a bit of cold too as I was eating the wrong foods. The way I'm looking at it is that I was eating great and feeling great then all of a sudden I shifted gears and started eating poorly. When that happened, my body reacted, I felt terrible, I'm guessing my immunity went down and I picked up a cold. Honestly, now that I'm looking back at it I can't believe just how many negative effects I felt from eating like I did! It's definitely a testament to what good eating can do for you and how important it is to do it consistently.
D4AD: Any other info you'd like to pass along?
Ben: Not really, other than that now that it's the New Year I've buckled down on the diet and will be doing more exercise in the coming days and weeks. I'd like to see if you can give me some pointers about the dietary changes you mentioned you read about in that book over the past few weeks. I find that stuff interesting and if it can give me a leg up on seeing more, better and faster results I want to learn more!
D4AD: Will do. It is interesting information and has a lot of research behind it. I've been putting a plan together for myself based on it and will pass that on to you as well. I plan to get a lot of that information posted online as well and track my progress so others can learn from it too.
Thanks for taking a few minutes with me here again, Ben. Keep up the consistency and we'll check in again soon go over diet updates, increasing activity and to see how your doing.
Ben: Sounds good. I'll look forward to it.
It sounds like Ben is as normal as the rest of us and enjoyed his Holiday feasts and festivities. I don't see any problem with that and as I mentioned, think it's good to splurge every now and again to get it out of your system.
We'll check in again with him in the coming weeks to see if he's able to get below that 180 mark. With a little tweaking of the diet and a more refined exercise program, he'll begin to see rapid changes again.
Stay tuned for the latest!
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