Category: Diet

Let’s Get Paleo…

A couple friends of mine and I started a 30 day Paleo Diet Challenge on January 2nd. The diet will run through the 31st of this month and requires you to give up processed food and caffeine. So what can you eat? Most fruit, but they say eat mostly berries. Lean Meats, so no bacon or pork products – and nuts. So that leaves you with no bread, no dairy, and no sweets. Today is day 6 of this diet and I don’t feel any lighter. I sleep really well at night, but I can’t see any weight loss – which I think is why it’s so hard to spot weight gain!

My friend Jes asked me to post my daily menu which has proved harder than I expected cause I’ve been so busy, but, my days consist mostly of this:

Breakfast:

3-4 Eggs scrambled with onions
Snack – Cashews and Pineapple

Lunch:

Grilled chicken breast
Avocado
Mixed veggies – squash and zucchini

Dinner:

Fajita meat, brisket or some type of beef. I love beef. It’s what’s for dinner.
Vegetables – broccoli and cauliflower

I have not been weighing every day. In the past I have found that to be detrimental. If I see no progress I get very discouraged instead of just digging in and realizing that it is going to take time. I plan to weigh once a week and be happy with whatever weight loss I have. Loss is loss.

What do I miss most? McAlister’s Sweet Tea. I used to drink 4-5 glasses a week. I would order it half sweet half unsweet and I plan to get some on Superbowl Sunday. That will be my first “cheat” day after this 30 day challenge is up.

But… this “diet” is supposed to become a lifestyle. I’m still trying to mentally wrap my head around never having dairy or sugar or bread or anything artificial again for the rest of my life, but maybe I can cut those things back to like 10% of what I used to eat. So the occasional half-and-half and cup of coffee instead of 2-3 cups every morning. I’ve spent 36 years learning how to eat poorly, it’s going to take some time for me to figure out how to enjoy eating like this. Variety is the spice of life and right now mine is lacking variety for sure – but part of that has been because I have been really watching my carb intake as well. The fruits that I have eaten have been in moderation just so that I don’t get too many carbs and I burn the fat a little faster.

For now, wish me luck, I need to get below 300 pounds this year. It’s been too long that I’ve put this off… too, too long.

Diet Sports

2011: A Year in Review

“2011 was a rough year. I’m glad to see it go” – this was the sentiment one of my close friends when I asked him about the New Year and I have to agree…

When I look back over 2011 it is a jumble of work, school and more work. I started the year with the goal to lose some weight, but I only stayed the same for the entire year. I got a personal trainer for 3 months and realized that personal training is worthless without a serious diet change – and I changed my diet, just not enough and not consistently enough.

Work was a nightmare. I worked for Denton Bible Church for the first 8 months of the year and was self-employed running both http://www.eddierenz.com my web design business and http://www.soundandshow.com – my DJ Business all while juggling the financial responsibility of Dallas Theological Seminary – which cost me about $5000 out of pocket which might not seem like a lot, but when you have to pay $600 a month on a self-employed/part-time church worker budget it can be a real burden.

As far as actual income for 2011 I did pretty good. I made almost the same Salary that I made with Texas Instruments but I still don’t have health insurance and I sometimes miss the security of that weekly paycheck, but, there is nothing like being your own boss. There is a thrill that comes with not knowing if you are going to make any money for the next month and literally living by faith and watching God provide week after week, month after month. I live a very nice life and the challenges that I face are mostly self-induced.

Some of the Highlights from 2011

1. Found Author Harlan Coben and have enjoyed reading his books.

2. Re-Branded my Web Design business to Chemist Creative.

3. Started going to The Village Church and I LOVE it.

4. Started my Masters in Media and Communication at DTS

5. Started Crossfit

So, what’s in store for 2012?

I plan to kick off the New Year with a 30 Day Paleo Diet challenge. This year I’m doing it with friends and we have consequences for cheating. How do you stick to a plan? Accountability with consequences. Our consequences is 30 burpees for every cheating incident. If you don’t know what a burpee is you can check it out here:

I’m also doing Crossfit which is definitely a challenge for me. Well, I think it is a challenge for everyone that does it and the real challenge is being mentally tough and pushing yourself beyond your limits. Here is a quick video so you can get the idea of the ridiculousness of these workouts:

While personal training pushed me to my limits I don’t think it pushed me like these Crossfit workouts have pushed me. Plus, you are doing the workouts with other people and so there is a community aspect to the workouts.

By the end of 2012 I’d like to look like Alistair Overeem… who by the way defeated Brock Lesnar pretty effortlessly last night in UFC 141.

Big Goals for 2012

1. Reach a Goal weight of 300
2. Pay off all miscellaneous debt
3. Visit Jimmy in Shang Hai
4. Run the 8 Mile at the Turkey Trot

Diet

Weight Loss on Pause?

After losing a miraculous 20 pounds in 7 days my body decided to just stop losing weight. For 2 consecutive days I ate around 1200 calories and worked out about 2-3 hours each day with no weight loss. Talk about a demotivator.

I then ate regular food for 2 days and actually put on 4 pounds…. but, I’d also worked out wildly those 2 days and so I should have just stayed the same. It’s quite bizarre. But I’m continuing to press on with the diet and hopefully I can get down to 320 at least by August 1. i’ve got to continue to mold and work on my overall diet and workout plan until I have sufficiently figured out the right balance of carbs, fat, protein and workout.

I’ve never been more focused and despite the eye injury (Got hit by a racquetball racquet) I’m not going to be set back too far. I’m going to take the day off today and not workout, but it will be the first day in 15 that I haven’t busted my butt with at least an hour or two of cardio.

Much Love…. Eddo

Diet

I lost 20.1 pounds in 7 days

Post author By Evan Stark
Post date June 29, 2009
105 Comments on I lost 20.1 pounds in 7 days

Last Monday I wondered allowed on this site if it was possible to lose 30 pounds in 10 days. I started dieting and working out something serious in an effort to see if that was an accomplishable task – it just might be.

I weighed 363.3 last Monday and 343.2 today. How you ask? By eating less and working out more.

I decided to use all my years of combined dieting success and failure knowledge to my advantage. Lowering my carbs has always seemed to work well for me but it never seemed satisfying or sustainable. Counting calories was too complicated and cumbersome. I needed a program that allowed me a tiny bit of flexibility along with long-lasting results.

I kept eating my almonds for breakfast and for dinner along with lots and lots of water and a small lunch that normally consisted of about 30 carbs and lots of protein and fat.

The body actually burns fat better as a fuel than carbs and so you would think that I would be too tired to sustain three hour workouts EVERY. SINGLE. DAY last week. But I did and the intensity only increased instead of decreasing despite the decline of my caloric intake. That includes weight lifting to insure I don’t lose muscle mass – which, I can still bench press 275 10 times and so I think my muscle mass is doing just fine.

I’ve been sure to take my vitamins and joint supplements with this regime as well and I’ve never felt better.

Some people may say, “that’s unhealthy!!!” or “It’s mostly water weight!” – but they say that only because they really don’t know their butt from a hole in the ground.

Water weight is normally stored on people who don’t exercise or diet and secondly, God created our bodies so that they would be able to store so we could use it when needed. It’s like a wharehouse full of gasoline and I’m burning it up with exercise.

Part of my plan has come from reading Wilbur Smith books where these hunters in the African bush would literally chase elephants for 20 miles in a single day jogging through rough terrain with minimal water and food. Their bodies would lose fat quickly, but they would only become more fierce.

So my goal is to lose 60 pounds by Aug. 1st and I figure if the 360 pound guy on the biggest loser can do it, so can I.

Diet

Is it possible to lose 30 pounds in 10 days?

Post author By Evan Stark
Post date June 24, 2009
100 Comments on Is it possible to lose 30 pounds in 10 days?

I will let you know at the end of 10 days.

On Monday I started a diet. I’m self-employed and so I get to set my own hours and it really helps when sticking to a diet and exercise routine. South Beach always works great for me and so I thought I would give it a whirl. I got up and weighed Monday a heft 363.3 pounds. Ouch. That was what the scale said, I wasn’t in any pain myself.

I decided to go for a long bike ride and then to eat healthy all day and by healthy I mean strict low-carb with a few almonds and very little dinner.

Tuesday I got up and weighed 360.0 – not bad I thought, but that could easily be water weight. Yesterday I repeated the day almost exactly but I added in an extra hour of cardio and some weight training.

Wednesday morning I got up and weighed 355.0 – wow – that’s 8 pounds in 2 days. Would it be possible for me to lose 22 more in 8 days? I don’t see why not.

This morning I got up for the 4th day in a row and road my 14 mile bike ride. Then after I went to the gym and lifted for about 30 minutes followed by 90 minutes on the treadmill.

I’m eating almonds and water for breakfast with a spoonful of peanut butter tossed in the mix.

Lunch is an omelette with sausage (Yep, I fell off the no pork wagon) and the omelette is made with some extra egg whites and avacado, some onion and some salsa. Dinner has been almonds and cashews.

I’m wondering if I can handle a night at the gym tonight for some extra cardio? Perhaps a quick hour on the elliptical machine will do me some good. If I weigh 352 tomorrow then I am going to keep this up for the full 10 days adding more and more workouts until I have dropped 30 pounds. It might kill me, but it will be fun to see if it is possible.