How low can you go, how high can you get?

After fluctuating between 190 and 191 the first half of the week, I finally make a solid break through the 190 barrier on Thursday. I've now made it four days in a row below 190, and this morning I managed to hit 188.8.

It was a bit of a relief as I was in danger of plateauing the week before. Between June 18th (Sunday) and 28th (Wednesday) I'd only gone down from 191.8 to 191.0, plus during that time I had gone up as high as 193.4. I searched the web and read that a cheat meal might help break through my weight-loss plateau by kick-starting my metabolism. I'd heard about this, but when I looked through my food journal it looked like I was having plenty of cheat meals yet still managing to stay within my calorie budget. Examples:

• June 19 - McDonald's steak, egg and cheese bagel
• June 22 - Mountain Mike's pizza lunch buffet
• June 23 - Cardinal fettucine alfredo (That's pasta served at the Cardinal coffee shop, not pasta with cardinal meat!)

Maybe I was having too many. But I decided to give it a try anyway. So Thursday, after making extra sure I had enough in my calorie budget for it, I ate that most satiating of all cheat meals, the In-N-Out Burger #1 meal (double cheeseburger and fries), a whopping 1,070 calories! Boy, did it feel good to eat In-N-Out again. But would it really make a difference ... and more importantly, in which direction?

Well, it seemed to work, as I ending up losing one entire pound between Thursday and this morning. So what was different this time from all those other cheat meals? Take another look:

• June 19 - 1,361 calories under budget (before McD steak bagel)
• June 22 - 660 calories under budget (before MM pizza buffet)
• June 23 - 1,414 calories under budget (before fettucine alfredo)
• June 29 - 383 calories under budget (before INO #1 meal)

(Yes, I know what you're thinking: "You, Tony, starving yourself of 1,400 calories?")

My slow weight loss June 18-28 seemed not to be so much from the cheat meals but from the fact that I was managing to completely starve myself over that time. There were plenty of times I was afraid to eat too much, especially after the cheat meals - note after the pizza buffet how I still ended up starving myself of another 754 calories. It must've really screwed up my metabolism and shut it down. So I guess the lesson here is: don't be afraid to eat!

As for yesterday's run, it was a little rough as I didn't eat enough carbs on Friday and Saturday morning. Enough said. Next week's run will be better. It has to be - it'll be 11 miles!