OK, the 30 day experiment has officially ended as of midnight last night. In case you don't know what I am talking about, see HERE. The 30 days seemed to go by pretty fast. Maybe it was because I was busy, or not. I kept a sort of journal in the form of a spreadsheet during the 30 days. I would document what I ate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner along with the amount of calories. Primarily my daily food intake consisted of vegetables, fish or shellfish, and chicken. Then on the weekends I would go wacky, but still try to eat something healthy with few calories. I also progressed my running during the time frame from 2 miles in 15 minutes on the elliptical, to 3.5 miles in 20 minutes. I did elliptical training Monday through Thursday, and I play hockey on Saturdays, so that leaves Fridays and Sundays. Sometimes I would exercise on those days as well, but as a general rule, Fridays were for beer drinking, which makes elliptical training dangerous, and Sundays are my day to eat a bunch, watch football, relax, and not think about anything. On day 1, I weighed in at a whopping 229.2. As of this morning, my weight was 211.2, which comes to a overall loss 18 pounds. That is not too bad.

Here are my observations I noticed along the way:

1. My poops became regular both in interval, and consistency, short of maybe 1 or 2 days.
2. I had only 1 headache during the 30 days. I am not sure if this means anything or not, whereas I do not know how often I had headaches before I began.
3. Only once or twice did I feel hungry during the experiment, and each time it was due to staying up later into the night than usual.
4. I did not dislike ANY food that I ate for the 30 days. In fact, I think I prefer the type of foods I ate.
5. As my weight drops and I exercise more, I generally seem to feel better throughout the day. Before, I would get sleepy at work. In general, I just have a better feeling of well being.
6. I can sleep a full 8 hours through the night, maybe only waking up once (if that) to rotate. Before, I would usually take some melatonin or some other sleep aid.
7. My pants do not fit any more. This is not a bad thing I suppose.
8. I have a lot more stamina for hockey. I hardly get tired at all throughout the game. This is probably due primarily to the elliptical training.
9. I am able to skip lunch or dinner, and in its place, drink beer.
10. On the one single day of the 30 that I was in a scenario where I had to eat food from a Mexican restaurant, I was able to order a chicken and rice meal, which, although had more calories than I was used to, was way better than a say, a plate of nachos.
11. On the weekends when I would eat my big Sunday night football watching meal, I would wake up the next day having gained back a pound or two. However, this weight, plus more, would easily be gone in a few days.

So, where does that leave me now? Well, I have decided to extend the experiment another 30 days. I kind of expected the experiment to be hard or challenging and it really sort of wasn't. What will I do differently? Nothing, I suppose. I feel fine, I eat good food, I exercise, which makes me a better hockey player, and I'm sure my overall health will continue to improve, not that there was anything wrong before. It win/win/win/win/etc.. So I will go another 30 days and see what happens. I also expect to kick my elliptical workout up to 30 minutes, which should put me between 5 and 5.5 miles a day.

If I lost another 18 pounds int he next 30 days, that would land me at 193.2. In high school I weighed around 190, so I would be close to that weight again. This is not a goal, its just interesting. Of course, the weight is distributed differently now. I have a nice beer gut, which I'm sure probably racks up 15 pounds, and my legs are very muscular from playing hockey so much, and muscle weighs more than fat. Also, I'm not 18 years old any more, so I shouldn't expect to have the same shape as I did that long ago.

Anyway, there you have it. Good times.