My execuSlim experience

One month done!!

2009-09-16T07:31:00.001-07:00

So it's been quite a month. It actually went by really quickly. Was it hard? Not really. There were a couple of days where I really wanted a french fry or a slice of pizza, but I survived. I lost 18 pounds, almost 5 inches off my waist, and my body fat percentage was cut in half. My energy level is great, I've been working out, and the eating has just become second nature.

Life is shifting back to normal. I've had birthday cake. I've had cocktails. I've even had a slice of pizza. I haven't been this thin in a long time. The only bad thing is that I don't fit any of my clothes. I need to make more money so I can shop. I bought a pair of seven jeans yesterday at a size 30. My old pair is a 34.

I'll keep you posted on my progress. I refuse to gain any weight back, so this will keep me in check.

Week 3! woohoo

2009-09-09T08:43:00.001-07:00

Apparently I haven't had much to say this last week. I added a little more food. I worked out a little more. I went on a mini-vacation to Laguna for the weekend, where I actually felt pretty good and confident in a swimsuit. I ate out every meal, so I wasn't able to weigh or measure. I had a few cocktails; mostly Vodka and sodas with a lime and one light beer. I thought I was going to gain weight this week. NOPE!

I lost 2 more pounds. That's a total of 17 pounds in 3 weeks. (This is way too much information, but I probably lost more. Ummm...haven't gone to the bathroom in 2 days. ;/ )

So 17 pounds in 3 weeks. 176 to 159. 34 inch waist down to 29.5 inches. Body fat from 21.9 to 10. And if you look at my pictures it appears that my head grew about 4 inches around.

People are telling me to stop losing weight. People are calling me skinny. People tell me to please eat something. It's kind of fun. I haven't been called skinny in a long time. I"m very happy where I am. I don't want to lose anymore weight. So this week I begin my transition back to more normal eating. Dana gave me my list, and now it seems like I'll be eating a lot and eating all the time. I get to bring things like nuts and avocados and peanut butter back into my diet. I get to snack on zone bars and protein shakes again.

So this has all been good. Now the goal is to maintain and keep working out. I'll keep you posted!

Boyband weight

2009-09-01T20:16:00.000-07:00

So two weeks into this thing and I pretty much hit my goal weight. I weighed 161 today. My goal was 160....pretty close. How cool is that? I think it's pretty amazing. As you can see in the pic, the waist on my shorts is a little big. Ok, a lot big. I can definitely see the difference in two weeks. I definitely feel leaner and thinner.

So now what? Now I'm going to up my workouts. I'm gonna turn up the cardio and really try to lean down. I'm going to lift a little heavier to put on a little muscle. I decided to stay on the diet for one more week and start to transition next week. I am very very happy. :) I still want my abs to look better, but I'm happy.

I'm a cheater :(

2009-08-30T16:31:00.001-07:00

So I cheated for the first time last night. I got home, and I was so tired. I was too lazy to make anything. I was too lazy to cook anything, and I was really hungry. There was this pack of trader joe's cheddar sticks in my fridge. It wasn't so bad, but I felt guilty. I'm only supposed to eat cheese that's less than 1g of fat per ounce which is basically eating wax. This cheese is 7 grams of fat per ounce. I only ate one stick which is one ounce. It was 80 calories. Can't be that bad right? I know myself though. Once I cheat, it gets easier and easier. I know it wasn't that bad, but if I don't lose weight on Tuesday, I'm gonna blame trader joe's.

Other than that the weekend was pretty good. Fast food tip #1. If you're at Baja Fresh, it's not on the menu anymore, but if you order the "side by side", they'll still make it for you. It's basically some seasoned grilled chicken breast on a bed of lettuce. They put the dressing on the side and they pile all of the bad stuff in one pile, so it's easy to throw out. I was able to eat "fast food" and still stay within the confines of execuSlim. Yay me.

Day 10.....Leather boyband pants

2009-08-27T11:09:00.000-07:00

So everyone who knows me knows that I used to be in a singing group called "At Last". That's partly because when you have friends like Jimmy Mays and Dr. Matt Cobb, you get introduced to new people like this: "This is my friend Ken. He used to be in a boyband." Nice, right? So in my first blog I said that I wanted to get down to boyband weight. I weighed in on Tuesday at 166, and I'm not supposed to weigh in again til next Tuesday, but here's what happened this morning....

Let me give you a little bit of back story first. It was the Fall of 2000 I think and At Last was going to have their first CD release party. It was at Club Soho downtown, we had a cool stage and all these people were coming. We were planning wardrobe....we didn't wear the same thing, but we matched...and my mom wanted to buy me some leather pants. Yes you can laugh, but they were popular then. My mom actually sat outside the dressing room at Macy's and made me come out and told me the ones I wanted weren't tight enough. LOL. Mom's great. So anyway, we got the leather pants, we did the show, and it was fun for all.

So this morning, I was pulling some workout shorts from the bottom of the pile out of my closet, and guess what falls to me feet? Yup...the leather pants. DKNY. Kinda shiny. Really soft. Completely lined. Size 30. In my head I argued with myself about whether I should try them on or not for about 3 minutes. I won the argument, by the way. I tried them on. They fit.

As Kramer said the other day....Woo F-in Hoo!

Woo F-in Hoo (quoting michael kramer)

2009-08-26T05:27:00.000-07:00

So with one week down I lost a total of 10 pounds! That's pretty amazing. I've seen tons of people lose weight on this thing, and my goal was to lose 16 pounds, but even I didn't think I would lose 10 in the first week. I was ready to be ecstatic if I lost 5. Everybody's been telling me I looked like I lost weight, but who knew?

As far as the eating goes...it's not always the easiest thing to do, but I've learned as a personal trainer that results are the greatest motivator. That's not any different in this situation. I have 6 pounds to go, and I've never been more motivated.

Now let's talk about this one week picture. The hair isn't any better. I wish somebody would have told me. The luv handles are definitely smaller. I feel good about that. Manboobs....I guess they're better, but they still need a little work. Now if you look closely and squint and maybe dim your screen a little...you see the beginnings of some ab definition. Is it me or does my head look huge? Some of my friends are telling me not to lose too much weight. They said when I was really thin I looked like a bobblehead or a lollipop because I have a big Asian head. What would we do without our friends?

So thanks for reading...and thanks for the support. I'm definitely on my way.

Weekends are rough!

2009-08-23T11:05:00.000-07:00

I gotta keep this real and honest. During the week it was easy. I prepared all my food for the day, ate every 3-4 hours and that was it. There was no social life to factor in during the week. Over the weekend, I met some friends for dinner before we went to the show, and I had to be really careful about what I ordered. I was one of those people who only ate half the stuff on my plate. Then I went to meet some other friends at the bar last night. I wanted to have a drink to be social, but I felt so guilty. I had two bottles of water and splurged on a diet coke. lol.

The other thing that made it tough was going back to the gym. Working out naturally makes you hungrier. I didn't work out the first few days because of how little calories I was eating. I have 15 years of fitness experience so I knew what to do and how to time my rest periods and how far I could push myself. I wouldn't recommend you go to the gym on this diet without supervision or recommendations. Even if you get a trainer, I would have the trainer call the execuSlim office and get recommendations so they know what to do.

What saved me from all the temptation this weekend was this blog. I think that anybody who needs to commit to something should blog about it. I would totally feel like I was letting people down if I gave in. I don't know who is reading this. I can't even lie on the blog, because all my friends would totally call me out on it if they saw me cheat. haha. So trust that I'm commited, and hopefully on Tuesday or Wednesday I'll show you some great results.

Chocolate dreams and purple pee sticks

2009-08-21T18:34:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning and started laughing. I had a dream that I binged on chocolate. In my dream my alarm went off, I woke up, and there were empty chocolate wrappers and an empty box of chocolates. That's probably because I was really craving something sweet last night.

Then the day got better. I placed my keto-strip in my stream of urine and it changed color!! It was a nice purple. Magenta maybe. That sent me straight to the grocery store to buy lettuce, spinach, brocolli, apples, fat free salad dressing and other things I haven't been able to eat for the last 3 days. I get to slowly add in certain vegetables and fruits now, and I get to eat all the lettuce I want. So I've had 3 very filling salads today. They were mostly lettuce, but I threw in some spinach and protein to make it a little more satisfying. I almost feel normal. I'm so happy this happened today. Let's just say the lack of fiber in my diet was starting to take its toll.

I have to say I do feel like I'm leaning down. It's good timing since I'm going to Catalina on Sunday and I'm going to a pool party the next weekend.

Day 3

2009-08-20T18:42:00.000-07:00

So today was the first day I felt a little hungry. I think it's in my head though. People are posting pictures of cupcakes and real food on their facebook pages, and that's not helping. lol. I also had a little headache which is probably from the caffeine withdrawal. I'm allowed to have a cup of coffee a day, but I figured I'd try to lay off it for a while. I'm the guy who can drink a full monster and go right to bed, so no caffeine at all is probably making my body scream.

My keto-strip came back the same color as yesterday. That means I have to go another day eating only protein. The good news is, even if it doesn't change color by day 5, I can start adding in my veggies and fruits. I miss them.

The best part is that I already feel thinner. I know that sounds crazy, but I put on a pair of jeans that usually fit really well, and they were a little loose around the waist. How exciting is that? I'll probably get weighed and photographed on Wednesday next week, so we'll have to wait to find out.

Until tomorrow....

Day 2!!!

2009-08-19T17:12:00.000-07:00

So today was pretty uneventful. I had my all protein all day. It wasn't bad. The supplements help me to stay focused and not be hungry. I thought it would be hard to drink a gallon of water a day, but I have been so thirsty all day, I think I'm already over with 6 hours before my bedtime. The only problem is I have to go to the bathroom every 5 minutes. I walk from my office to the bathroom, and by the time I get back to my office, I have to pee again.

Speaking of pee, I did my first ketoacidosis test strip today. When I pee on the stick and it turns purple, I get to eat vegetables and fruit. My strip turned a nice rich....beige. It was probably just the color of my urine. No purple. Not even pink. So I get another day of all protein all the time.

I guess the best thing I realized about this diet is how much money I'm saving by not eating out, not going to starbucks, not buying an energy drink, etc. I can literally eat on less than $4.00 a day doing this. I should eat like this for a year and save up to buy a new car!

Until tomorrow.....

Turkey Breast, Eggs, Love Handles and Manboobs

2009-08-18T20:55:00.000-07:00

Today was the first day of my new “eating plan”. During Phase one of execuSlim, I am allowed lean protein, water, my supplements and nothing else. I decided to divide my allotted daily intake into 5 portions to spread it out throughout the day. I mostly ate turkey breast and eggs today. The portions were depressingly small, but I was surprisingly not hungry. I guess the supplements and the appetite suppressant really work! I really expected to be grouchy and have those hunger headaches, but my energy levels were actually really good. I also thought drinking a gallon of water a day would be really hard, but I just kept the bottle of water next to me and it hasn’t been a problem.

Now let’s talk about these before pictures. At quick glance it doesn’t look that bad. Forget about what was going on with my hair today. That can’t be saved. But look closely. There’s some love handle there (For you chiro students out there…those are real love handles...nothing false about them.) There’s a little ab showing at the top, but around the belly button is a lot doughy. Then there’s the manboobs. You can’t really tell from these pics…but they’re starting to sag on the sides a little. Not cute. Now I can see where that 21.6% body fat all is. Oh well….I’m counting on Dana and execuSlim to fix all of this. I don’t know what I’ll do about the hair though. I might just have to shave it all off.

My butt's still a little sore.

2009-08-17T21:40:00.000-07:00

So today at 12:30 I had my first official visit with Dana at execuSlim. I learned a lot today. The first thing I learned is that I'm shorter than I thought I was. I'm only 5'6.5". I thought I was at least 5'7". lol. The second thing I learned is that I'm fatter than I thought I was. According to the body fat scale (bioimpedence) I'm 21.6% body fat. Of course, there's a margin of error, and I was probably dehydrated today (all I had to drink was an energy drink, a cup of coffee, and I diet coke), but that number is still depressing.

Then we did my EKG and some blood work. It looks like I'm healthy enough to go forward with the diet. Dana went over the eating plan with me. execuSlim is actually an anti-imflammatory diet. Inflammation is the root of several different disease processes including heart disease and cancer, so I'm doing a good thing! I can't have any carbs at all until my pee-stick turns purple. I'm always hungry, so I hope I survive. With the amount of vitamins and supplements I take though, I'll probably stay full. The gallon of water a day will help too. Finally, I got a shot in my butt. That's why I'm a little sore. The injection had B12, B6, and some other stuff that's going to help me lose my weight.

So tomorrow the true test begins. I only get to eat lean protein. It'll be the first day, so I expect to be hungry, grouchy...and hopefully a little lighter. I forgot to take my "before" picture, so hopefully I'll post something tomorrow.

What? Huh? Why?

2009-08-13T15:25:00.000-07:00

I’m going to start this by saying that I don’t think I’m fat. I gained probably 25-30 pounds while in Chiropractic college, and since graduation, I’ve lost 20-25. By normal standards, most people would probably say that I’m in pretty good shape. I’m a Doctor of Chiropractic, and I’ve been a certified personal trainer for over 15 years. I know how to exercise, and I know how to “eat right”. So why am I doing execuSlim? Why would I need a medical weight loss program?

First of all, I think it will help me to be healthier. I love pizza, burgers, fries, and people who know me know that I can bake myself a mean red velvet cupcake. I eat well enough to keep my weight down and look fairly decent, but going through my family history is like reading a Pathology textbook. Everything is there including heart disease, stroke, colon cancer, hypertension, diabetes, kidney failure, and the list goes on. My father had a triple bypass in his early 60s, and both of my grandfathers died fairly young. If I follow their path, at 37 years-old right now, I have maybe 20 years left.

Ok, so I’m also doing this because I’m vain. Yup, I said it. I’m in good shape, but I want to be in great shape. I work out 5-6 days a week, and I eat fairly well (aside from the usually one day of gluttony I allow myself), but I still don’t look like I can do some laundry on my belly. When I was 25, I could cut carbs and do crazy amounts of cardio for a week or two. That doesn’t really work anymore.

execuSlim is a service offered where I work. I see Dana sitting in her little orange office with her big smile helping all these people to lose crazy amounts of weight. Having worked in the fitness industry for so long, I’m always skeptical of diet programs, but I’ve seen Dana work miracles. I don’t need a miracle, but I want to see if she can get me over my plateau. I want to see if Dana can get me back down to boyband weight.

So I will begin this journey on Monday, August 17. I’ll keep you posted on how execuSlim works, the eating plan, how I feel, how much weight and body fat I lose, and I’ll even try and post some progress pictures every once in a while. Feel free to write in with some encouragement and support. I’ll be going through cupcake withdrawals, so I’ll need it.