30 Day Chef Boyardee Weight Loss Diet: Day 30
This will be the final post of my 30 Day Chef Boyardee Weight Loss Diet.
I honestly never thought this day would get here. Writing this post tonight marks the end of what may have been the most difficult diet I have ever put myself through.
I can not relate to you just how many nights I spent staring at the clock and wishing that the hands of time would move just a little faster. There were many times that I had a little bit of regret for having opened my big mouth and stating that I would be completing a diet eating nothing but Chef Boyardee products. The 800 calorie per day limit was not easy to follow either, based on the calorie-dense food I was eating and just how little volume it represented.
I ate 60 cans of Chef Boyardee canned pasta products over the last 30 days. I just finished my last can of this food about two hours ago. To give you an idea of what it looks like to stare down 60 cans of Chef Boyardee food and know that it is all you will be able to eat for a month, have a look at this picture:
I am sorry, but there is no way that I can communicate just how ominous this many cans of Chef Boyardee food look when you know that they will be your sole source of nutrition for an entire month. Add to that the fact that you can only eat two cans per day and your outlook gets even bleaker.
There will be some among you who actually count the cans pictured here and come up with a total of 59 cans. Well, that is because I had already taken a can to work with me on the day that my wife Lyann took this picture. Perhaps now, if you use your imagination, you can perceive just how difficult it was to get through the last month without ever cheating. I ate only Chef Boyardee food and I drank only water for the entire 30 day period.
Even now as I sit here typing, I am still drinking nothing but water. Since my 30th day of this diet does not officially end for another three hours, I am waiting until I wake up tomorrow morning before I eat anything else. Tomorrow is my free day where I get to eat whatever I want as a reward for having been so strict with my diet over the past 30 days. I plan to start the day with a waffle bowl full of Hoof Prints Ice Cream (with chocolate and butterscotch toppings).
Completing this 30 Day Chef Boyardee Weight Loss Diet was a great exercise in self-control and personal responsibility. There were many times that I had to fight the natural hunger pangs that people go through. I had to stay focused on my goal and develop a mental toughness I was unsure I could muster when this whole trial began. I get my wish now of being able to tell this story to kids when I am an old man. The time I ate nothing but Chef Boyardee for an entire month. Priceless.
I mentioned at the beginning of this diet that I would be keeping track of my results using a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and graph system of my own design. I made sure to keep very accurate records of my daily stats regarding weight, body fat and calorie intake. I did this so that I would be able to present the numbers I have been talking about every day during this trial in a visual format that would be easier for everyone to understand. Here is the graph showing my weight and body fat percentage for the last thirty days:
As you can see from the graph, my beginning weight was 161.2 lbs. My beginning body fat reading from my Salter body fat scale was 23.0% on January 2, 2009. The lowest weight I achieved during this 30 Day Chef Boyardee Weight Loss Diet was 147.5 lbs, just yesterday morning. I finished this diet at a weight of 148.2 lbs, which means I lost 13.0 lbs this month. My body fat percentage dropped by 3.4 % during that same time period.
These results came while eating Chef Boyardee food, not expensive health food. I only spent $48.00 in order to lose 13 lbs in 30 days. I do not know of a more inexpensive diet plan. A little self-control and personal responsibility go a long way to keeping your hard earned money in your pocket and out of the hands of diet company vampires.
Take another look at the chart above. Remember how I said in my previous posts that weight loss happened in a cyclical fashion? Can you see any patterns in the chart above? What I want you to notice in particular is the pattern that occurs four times between January 12th and January 30th. Each pattern segment is five or six days in length and follows almost exactly the same form. A small rise in weight, followed by a number of days of consistent weight loss. It is only by tracking your weight loss results on a chart that you will be able to see these patterns.
There were six different occasions during this 30 Day Chef Boyardee Weight Loss Diet where my weight went up, not down. If I had not been tracking my weight on a chart each day, I might have become discouraged when my weight increased. However, since I was able to recognize the pattern I revealed above, I knew that any small gain would be followed by a large drop in weight. This is part of how I was able to remain focused for so long.
To reinforce the point I made at the beginning of this diet about how knowing and maintaining your daily calorie intake is one of the keys to successful weight loss, I have also included the chart I kept that shows my weight and calorie intake for each day of this diet. It is shown below:
Notice how my daily calorie intake never goes above the 800 calorie line. I stated at the start of this 30 Day Chef Boyardee Weight Loss Diet that I would never exceed 800 calories per day and I offer my tracking chart as proof of that fact. What is immediately obvious from the chart above is that a consistent calorie intake of 800 calories per day is not high enough for me to maintain a desirable body weight.
With my calorie intake remaining constant at 800 per day, I consistently lost weight during the 30 days of this diet. I probably would have continued to lose weight if I had extended the diet. I felt it best to stick to the original stated length of 30 days because I had already reached the lowest weight of my life, even lower than when I was in high school. How many 39 year old men do you know who can make that claim?
This constant drop in weight is what prompted me to announce that I would be raising my total allowable daily calories during my next “substandard” diet beginning on March 5, 2009. I went back and forth between different numbers for a while, but finally settled on doubling my calorie intake from 800 calories per day to 1600 calories per day.
My reasoning for the 1600 calorie per day limit is as follows: Since I was consistently losing weight by eating only 800 calories per day, I knew that I had to raise my total daily allowance, but I did not know by how much. I figured that since I needed extra calories in my diet just to get to the point where I would maintain my weight, there would be no harm in doubling the original number. If it turns out to be too high and I end up gaining too much weight back during my next food trial, then I will simply reduce the total number of calories I consume each day during my third “substandard” food trial of the year.
My ultimate goal for this year is to determine exactly how many calories I must ingest each day in order to maintain a body weight that reflects the kind of body image I desire when I look in the mirror. I have never chased this number down in such a scientific fashion before and I find it rather exciting to be right in the thick of the experiment.
Once I do determine the number of calories required for me to maintain a consistent weight, I will then begin to experiment with different menu choices that all fit into my newly discovered calorie limit for weight maintenance. I will be glad to be switching to twice the calories I allowed myself over the last month. Eating only 800 calories per day was hard, but it was a necessary step in proving a number that was too low for maintaining my weight.
It was also necessary for proving my theory that weight loss is not dependent on what foods you eat, only how much food you eat on any given day and also on a consistent basis. Perhaps the greatest points I was able to demonstrate over the past 30 days are that you do not have to be rich and buy organic food to lose weight and that weight loss is possible for anyone who takes personal responsibility for what they put into their mouth each and every day.
My goal is to empower people to change from within. It is the internal change in the mind that causes the external change in the body. People do not need to be coddled. They need to be called to attention and informed of the sorry job they have done when making choices in the past. They then need to be informed and empowered to the point where they can learn to make proper choices in the future.
That is what my diet theories are all about. You have seen them proven before your eyes over the past 30 days, so perhaps now I retain the right to call them diet laws. They could be accurately stated as follows:
- Law #1 – Know your daily calorie intake.
- Law #2 – When in doubt, refer to law #1.
How My 30 Day Chef Boyardee Weight Loss Diet Affected Me
Now you have seen the numbers. You have also seen the graphs. You know that I started the month of January 2009 at a weight of 161.2 lbs. That is a far cry from the 190.0 lbs I weighed at this time two years ago before documenting my original weight loss and writing my quick weight loss ebook. But 161.2 lbs was not a weight that I was happy with. It did not give me a sense of satisfaction when I looked in the mirror.
Prior to this 30 Day Chef Boyardee Weight Loss Diet, my goal was to get back to a weight of 150.0 – 155.0 lbs. I reached that goal easily in the past 30 days and I plan to keep the resulting body image for the rest of my life. In order to give you the proper appreciation for how a man who is only 5′7″ tall looks at a weight of only 148 lbs, I have included the following photos taken by my very supportive wife and business partner, Lyann:
A basic picture of me taken from the front. You will notice a couple of things. First, I have body hair. Real men do have body hair. I made no effort to shave it all off like the pansies we see on the front of men’s magazines today. Men with body hair look like men. Men who shave it off look like women. Enough said. Second, I made no effort to get just the right lighting to show off definition. These are honest pictures with no retouching.
Obviously a picture of me from the back. Notice the absence of any body fat around my waist. I think I actually have very little body fat around my internal organs, as you will see later.
A picture of me from my left side. Notice how thin my waist is. A size 32 pants is huge on me right now.
A picture of me from my right side. Notice again how I am not making an effort to suck in my stomach at all. It is actually really difficult to push my stomach out at all.
A picture taken from my left where I am holding my stomach in as far as I can. Notice how I seem to hollow out in front?
A picture of me taken from my right where I am still holding my stomach in. I can not decide which of the previous two pictures is scarier, but the next one will really get you.
Here I am loosely holding a pose known in the bodybuilding world as the “vacuum”. Steve Reeves was the guy who made this pose popular back in the sixties. I did this one in particular to show just how empty my body had become on the inside after eating nothing but Chef Boyardee food for 30 days straight and weighing only 148 lbs.
Not only did I reach my goal weight during this first diet of 2009, I surpassed it. I probably went a little too far during this diet, but I always said that I would see it through to the end regardless of the consequences. My commitment to leading from the front in the weight loss and obesity war is stronger than my desire to give in to sugary treats and cheat during my diets.
I want to be the best motivator and example that I can be. The only way I can accomplish that goal is by doing what I say I am going to do, no matter what.
I would like to thank all those people who followed my posts during this 30 Day Chef Boyardee Weight Loss Diet. I invite you all to stick with me over the coming months as I alternate between my regular healthy diet of lean meat, vegetables and fruit and a “substandard” diet of processed foods. There is a lot more yet to come in 2009 and I would love to be the one to inspire you to weight loss success.
So long to Chef Boyardee. May he rest in peace.
This post was recently included in the Carnival Of Personal Development, February 2009 Edition, hosted by SomedaySyndrome.com, the Carnival Of Personal Development, hosted by throughtheillusion.com, and the Festival Of Frugality Singles Awareness Edition, hosted by brokegradstudent.com, where you can find a lot of other great and informative self development posts. Make sure to drop by and check out each of these great blog carnivals!
Technorati Tags: 30 Day Weight Loss Diet, Chef Boyardee Weight Loss Diet, 800 Calorie Limit, Chef Boyardee, ConAgra Foods, Weight Loss, Food, Personal Development
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4 Responses to “30 Day Chef Boyardee Weight Loss Diet: Day 30”
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I would be interested to see a similar diet played out for 30 days if you attempted to eat the same volume of food/same number of calories but spread out over four meals instead of the two it seems you ate daily (I admit I did not follow the diet and have not read all your entries – just stumbled across your final posting today, 1/7/2010). I would imagine doing so might have kept you more consistently supplied with energy, but it might also have increased your weight loss as your metabolism would have been more consistently stimulated.