Welcome to Week 15 of me publicly broadcasting my goal of getting down to 195 pounds every Friday until that goal is accomplished.
History Of How I Got Here
2010 – Early 2015
- Used weight training to lose 80 pounds of fat and than maintained a healthy weight around 205-210 pounds based on home/work lifestyle.
- 2015 goal to lose 15 pounds of fat which that would equate to about 195 pounds (if no muscle loss)
November 20, 2015
- Hardest time of the year for me to lose weight is during the holidays, so I challenged myself to get to 195 pounds during the season.
- Countdown Week 1 (click here)
- Countdown Week 2 (click here)
December 2015
- Countdown Week 3 (click here)
- Countdown Week 4 (click here)
- Countdown Week 5 (click here)
- Countdown Week 6 (click here)
January 2016
- Countdown Week 7 (click here)
- Did not achieve 195 pounds during the holiday season
- Decided to continue to pursue and document 195 goal until accomplished
- Countdown Week 8 (click here)
- Countdown Week 9 (click here)
- Countdown Week 10 (click here)
- Countdown Week 11 (click here)
February 2016
**SPECIAL NOTE**:
Truth be told, Michael doesn’t care how much he weighs. The real stat that matters to him is his waist. That’s the measurement that tells the real story about his fat loss. One of Michael’s other goals is to have a consistent 34.5” or smaller waist size. Since waist measurements aren’t as sexy as weight loss, he decided to focus on the scale for these countdown weeks, while looking at the waist as a secondary measurement.
WEEK 15: February 19 – February 25 2016
February 19th Stats
Scale Weight: 207.6 pounds
Waist: 35.0 inches
Week 15 Main Goals
- Drop scale weight from 207.6 to 207 pounds.
- Waist under 35 inches
- Eat about 1776 calories a day
- Ideally that breaks down to:
- 195 grams Protein
- 160 grams Carbohydrates
- 39 grams Fat
- Ideally that breaks down to:
Observations & Challenges
Workout
I have to admit…..I saw a VERY shiny object Wednesday night! It was so shiny that it kept me up thinking about it until 2AM in the morning! This shiny object was a completely different workout routine.
That’s just how distracted I was, I sacrifice my normal bed time to stay up and research this workout routine. I even created a workout template trying to figure out how I could stop my current workout routine and immediately start it Thursday morning!
As I woke up on Thursday morning, I was tempted to just totally skip my AM workout due to lack of sleep. I had been on my current workout routine for 4 solid weeks. I can honestly say it definitely challenges me and the gym results are awesome!
Why would I want to change it? Well, like anything that you haven’t tried before, the exotic nature of something is always more appealing than what you currently have. There’s no question in my mind that my diet and workout are working in perfect harmony right now!
I would be an idiot for changing my workout too soon right! Well, the other factor that made me look at other workouts is that normally around the four week mark is when people change up their routine. Given that my weights have changed consistently there’s really no need to change the workout, but when you are use to change every 4 weeks, that habit sticks with you.
Sleeping
I’ve noticed that my sleeping has been off again. I am able to get up around 5:20 AM with no problem. My problem is going to bed around 9:15 PM to ensure that I get around 7 ½ hours of sleep.
My sleeping these past few days have been 7 hours or less for a few nights in a row. I also started watching too many TV programs past 9 PM. I need to stop myself from slipping back into bad habits. In order to avoid stressing my body too much, I need to make sure I’m getting 7 ½ or more hours of sleep a night.
Eating
I’m pretty much in the zone right now. Last Saturday, my wife and I went to see a movie. While there, we shared a medium sized popcorn. If I was going to go into super cheat mode, I would have normally eaten about ¾ of that popcorn by myself.
Given I was in the zone, I barely had ¼ of the popcorn. Due to the taste of cornels on my tongue, I did have some more popcorn later that night at home. But I still didn’t go crazy! I ended up making that day an official cheat day but I really just ended up eating more fruit than I normally do for dinner.
I felt really good being in control this week. I could feel myself becoming lighter this week due my current targeted daily calorie number.
Mentality
On Thursday morning, I decided that I would still go through my workout despite my lack of sleep. I owed it to myself to be great. So I drank my water and did my normal morning ritual. Due to this being a heavy day, I had a pre-workout drink of BCAAs. That along with some motivational music on the way to the gym lit a fire in me!
I bounced up and down in my car and felt the rhythm of the classic hip hop songs blasting on my Pandora playlist. I glanced at the rear view mirror, and repeated my Release The Beast chants…..”Release The Beast!!!…..Release…The….Beast!!”
If you have no idea what I’m talking about you need to check out my book, Release The Beast: Conquer Mental, Physical & Diet Challenges To Unleash The Champion Inside!
That mentality got me through a grueling workout. I felt so energized that all the heavy weights I used felt light during my lifts. It’s awesome what the right motivation will do to your progress!
Food Journal
Here are my honest food stats for the week:
End of Week 15: February 26th, 2016
- Scale Weight: 206 lbs (1.6 lbs lost from previous week)
- Waist: 35.0 inches (0 inches lost from previous week)
- 95% Compliant
- 21 out of 22 meals I ate during the week were compliant with my eating plan
This was a week in which the mirror told a different story than what the measurement tape and scale said. I can see my body changing in the mirror. I see how my waist is started to shrink, while certain muscles have started to become more defined. My measurement numbers could have been influenced by what I had for dinner last night, so I can’t take them seriously
This was a good week for myself. A pound of weight loss a week is a good thing at this stage in the game. It means I’m not losing weight too fast and losing muscle. I need to just keep riding this wave of confidence.
Upcoming Week 16 goals:
- Drop scale weight from 206 to 205.5 pounds.
- Waist under 34.9 inches
- Eat about 1776 calories a day
- Ideally that breaks down to:
- 195 grams Protein
- 160 grams Carbohydrates
- 39 grams Fat
- Ideally that breaks down to:
15 Weeks Down……11 Pounds to Go……Just 0.5 inches left to lose from my waist!
I hope you are enjoying my journey! Let’s see what happens during Week 16!
