Despite the fact that the motivation behind this whole experiment is somewhat kind of a joke, I actually was a little excited to get started with it. No time like the present to start putting my money where my mouth is, and not give myself any time to back out of it. Especially when the only real result to actually sticking with this is weight loss, and who couldn’t use some weight loss these days?
It’s funny, while I was preparing for the start of this whole thing, the day before I started, I basically ate as if I were on death row. Cereal that had some chocolate in it, Zaxby’s for lunch along with fried mozzarella bites and then Costco pizza later on for dinner. A Tim Horton’s copycat iced capp recipe I’d been sitting on for like a year, I urgently went ahead and made it because the leftover heavy cream I had in the fridge would undoubtedly be spoiled if I were to make it 28 days.
But now that the experiment has begun, I am taking this shit seriously. I hate failing to do the things that I say I will do, and I’m determined to go as long as I can with this, although there are a lot of loose parameters and tightening up of the rules that I need to do along the way.
I want to chronicle the things I’m eating, as well as try and put a price to them, because when watching My 600 Lb. Life, a lot of people try and make excuses of financial reasons why they can’t eat better, but they’re somehow ordering $45 worth of KFC to eat by themselves in a single sitting. Naturally, I’ll try my best to attach relevant nutritional information, as well as notate if I’m doing any sort of exercise throughout the days.
So without further ado, here is the summary of day 1…
Breakfast (pictured above next to my daughter’s breakfast):
- 1 slice Publix honey wheat bread (70 cal, 3g pro)
- 1/4 cup Daisy low-fat cottage cheese (45 cal, 6.5g pro)
- 5 links of Amylu chicken sausage (172 cal, 12g pro)
330 calories, 25.5 grams of protein. Total cost: $1.39
Surprisingly filling. I put the cottage cheese entirely on the toast, and combined them with bites of sausage.
Snack
- 2 oz. Kirkland brand sliced turkey (70 cal, 15g pro)
- 1 slice swiss cheese (80 cal, 5g pro)
150 calories, 20 grams of protein. Total cost: $1.09
Lunch
- 1 can Kirkland brand canned chicken (210 cal, 45g pro)
- 2 cups of spinach (20 cal, 1g pro)
- 1 slice cheddar cheese (80 cal, 5g pro)
310 calories, 51 grams of protein. Total cost: $2.51
Felt like a very generous portion of food. I opted to not use any mayo, because it has a hit or miss tendency to wreck me, and I’d rather not deal with that at all, and figured I’d substitute the calories of that, for more cheese.
Snack
- 2 oz. Kirkland brand sliced turkey (70 cal, 15g pro)
- 1 slice Colby jack cheese (80 cal, 5g pro)
150 calories, 20 grams of protein. Total cost: $1.09
Dinner
- 3 oz. salmon, steamed (118 cal, 15g pro)
- 2 cups of broccoli, steamed (60 cal, 6g pro)
- 1 slice Monterrey cheese (80 cal, 5g pro)
258 calories, 26 grams of protein. Total cost: $3.41
This was the best salmon I’ve ever had. Mostly because by the time I ate, I was really quite hungry.
Total
1,198 calories, 122.5 grams of protein.
Total cost: $9.49
So as far as hitting the 1,200 calorie mark, I think I hit the nail on the head. And all for the cost of a single Five Guys bacon hamburger.
Exercise
- 100 push-ups (25, 50, 30)
- 60 sit-ups (30, 30)
- 2.96 miles run (28.17)
So I want to disclaim that I know that when it comes to proper dieting, calories burned by exercise are typically “owed back” and I would be entitled to eat an additional 392 calories burned, according to my Garmin tracker. But seeing as how this was just day 1, I really wanted a solid baseline and really see how my body reacts to a strict 1,200 calorie diet, regardless of what activity I do throughout the day.
Honestly, it wasn’t really that bad in the first half of the day, but I have to say that by around 8 pm, I started to feel like I was feeling the effects of just 1,200 calories consumed throughout the day. I had just eaten an hour prior, but I was already feeling hungry again, and this is where I wondered if I had consumed back the 392 calories I burned while running, if I would feel this way.
However, seeing as how I have the innate ability to eat the same things again and again, day after day, the menu for tomorrow is very likely to be exactly identical, and considering I don’t run every single day, it’ll be a prime opportunity to see if I still feel out of gas by day’s end, when I’m not burning an extra 392 calories. Not to mention that paying back calories is probably something I may integrate into the process, just for safety and health, and not so much that I’m trying to cheat and re-write the rules.
Regardless, day 1 is in the books. I’m interested to see how this will shake out over the next week(s), and whether or not I’ll make it to my birthday still on the diet.
