Tag Archives: Diet

Fasting for a 53 Pound Weight Loss

April 21, 2023 tremendousblog 1 Comment

Did anyone not get fat during COVID?

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I know I did. With snacking one of the few activities still permissible by law, I ballooned up to 219 pounds by the summer of 2021.

Little things show you it’s gone too far.

Bending over to tie my shoes was no picnic. Ahh….picnics….

I knew I had to make a change. And while moderation can be a tough balance, you know what’s pretty simple?

Eating nothing.

I experimented with various fasting schedules until I found one that resulted in weight loss, week after week.

Here’s how I did it:

Schedule

Sunday: Skip breakfast and eat dinner only. (I’m not really into lunch.)

Monday: Fast all day.

Tuesday: Eat a normal, moderate diet.

Wednesday: Same.

Thursday: Fast all day.

Friday: Cheat day!

I eat as much as I want all day, including my favorite foods. Cookies, ice cream, chips, you name it.

But those foods are off limits the rest of the week.

Consuming a lot of calories one day per week can keep your metabolism high. It tells your body not to go into “starvation mode” and expend as little energy as possible to survive.

After all, the feast is coming!

I find including a cheat day makes it much easier for me to eat healthy the rest of the week.

It’s not that I can never have cookies. Just not until Friday.

Saturday: Eat a normal, moderate diet.

Workouts

I also work out five times a week. I generally do 4 cardio sessions of 30 minutes each and a strength session of about 30 minutes.

I try to put as many workouts as I can on fast days. Fasting and cardio together may improve longevity.

Electrolyte Supplementation

The key to fasting is keeping electrolyte levels in a healthy range. When your electrolytes get low, your life sucks.

You’re tired, your muscles ache, and your heart can race. Just trust me, it’s not pleasant.

So I never fast without electrolyte supplementation. I like to consume 4-6 eight ounce glasses of electrolyte replacement drink per day.

I usually buy a powdered electrolyte mix from Dollar General, which works great. I’ve also had good results with Liquid IV and Pedialyte.

Isn’t Fasting Dangerous?

Actually, fasting has a ton of health benefits.

In addition to weight loss, you can improve insulin resistance and immune response. You may even live longer too!

But of course, everyone’s body is different. Discussing it with your doctor is always a good idea.

Wrap-Up

If you’re getting chubby, you probably have a hard time with portion sizes. I do too!

That’s the magical thing about fasting. Portion sizes are easy.

Zero!

You also have a ton of free time to work, enjoy the outdoors, and pursue hobbies. It’s amazing how time consuming cooking, eating, and clean-up can be.

If you give it a shot, let me know how it goes! And when your fast is over, get one of these. 🙂

Have you tried fasting? Why or why not?

How I Eat Delicious Organic Produce for Next to Nothing: Introducing Misfits Market

March 4, 2021 tremendousblog 292 Comments

Last Saturday, my wife went to a farmer’s market with her friend. As her friend loaded up on yummy veggies, my wife noticed something: she was paying $40 for a small bag of vegetables while we pay $26 for twice as much. And ours is 100% organic, whereas the farmer’s market haul was only about half.

Do we have special connections down on the farm? Sort of…

For over a year, my wife and I have gotten almost all our produce from Misfits Market, a subscription service that sends a big box of delicious, all-organic fruits and vegetables to your door every week. The quality is absolutely exceptional. I thought radishes were cold, tasteless chunks under harsh lights on salad bars until I tried theirs! Colorful, peppery, crispy, delicious!

Misfits is a great way to introduce yourself to new kinds of produce. I’ve tried golden beets, turnips, rutabagas, chard, collard greens, and countless other delicious things I never would’ve thought to buy otherwise. Getting the surprise veg each week is like Christmas! But if you prefer to choose your produce, they offer that as well.

We pay $26.25 a week for more than enough veggies for both of us. In fact, we often have to delay our next shipment (easy to do), so our real cost is probably barely over $20/week.

Before we got Misfits, I would buy a smaller assortment of veggies at Aldi for about $20. To get as much produce as Misfits, Aldi would run at least $30, even for non-organic! And Aldi is about the cheapest grocery store there is.

So let’s review:

1) Cheaper than any grocery store
2) Incredible taste
3) All-organic
4) Shipped to your door

What’s not to like? Well, nothing, which is why my wife and I have been loyal Misfits customers for so long! If you want to join us, use this link to sign up and you’ll save $10 on your first order. I’ll also get $10.

They have plans for households of 2-3 and a larger box for bigger households. FYI: Single-person households won’t be able to eat all this.

Enjoy in good health!

For more posts about health and nutrition, check out some of these:

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Food, Health

How I Learned to Cook

December 10, 2020 tremendousblog Leave a comment

For 11 years through college and most of my 20’s, I cooked little more than toast. Every meal I ate, I ate at the cafeteria and later, once I had a real job, an actual restaurant.

I had many a scrumptious dinner, but I also had an anemic bank account and expanding belly. I realized something had to change.

How do you learn something with zero background? Find the best teacher you can and do exactly what they say. My first was Budget Bytes, an excellent blog that posts simple recipes with very detailed instructions. Every step comes with a photo. If mine looked like hers, it gave me confidence.

Try her Split Pea, Bacon and Potato soup. I fed some to a friend recently and she couldn’t stop raving about it!

Eventually, I was ready for a bigger challenge. Around that time, I discovered Joshua Weissman, whose creative and technically sound recipes inspired me to make things like sourdough bread that I never thought I could do.

His latest video on breakfast burritos just made me glad I wasn’t fasting that day!

The startup costs in cooking for myself were substantial (pots and pans, spices, etc). At first I didn’t think I was saving a dime. But over time, my food spending plummeted.

There was another side effect I never expected. As soon as I quit eating out daily, I immediately lost 30 pounds with no effort at all.

You can make more money, but you can’t easily make more health. I hope these links will help you guys eat well, be healthy, save money, and have fun!

Comedy, Health

The Only Health Podcast That Makes Me Laugh Too

December 9, 2020 tremendousblog Leave a comment

Lee Syatt may not be famous (yet), but he’s a hilarious comedian. Unfortunately, he’s also well over 300 pounds at 5’4″. Lately, I’ve been enjoying his new podcast What Was I Thinking?, where he is detailing his efforts to get in shape.

I find myself laughing hysterically walking down the street as people distance themselves from me for reasons far beyond COVID. If you’d like to do the same, check out his podcast and also his new Patreon, where Lee works with his brother (who happens to be a noted personal trainer) to get healthy.

As someone who once had many of the same problems as Lee, I wish I’d have had this show when I was losing weight!

Tremendous