Final Push by Travis

…I've been writing this, seemingly a sentence at a time, for the last week, so apologies if it doesn't flow or no longer applies…

It's now down to a matter of days before the official end of the six-week challenge. I will freely admit that this week has been a bit of a pain the ass, as far as the diet has been concerned. There have been multiple occasions this week already and over the next couple of days where I have been or will be dining out. Obviously, one cheat meal can only go so far in these situations.

I know that a lot of you have been faced with similar circumstances and felt really discouraged at the prospect of getting knocked off the diet. It seems timely, then, to interject that the diet is not simply about eating almonds and spinach for the rest of your life. Instead, we should focus on two of the macro-concepts being presented by the eating plan; making smart dining choices and planning ahead.

When going out to eat, unless it's a cheat meal, the objective should be to minimize the impact of the food being consumed. Try to avoid foods that have a high caloric impact or no nutritional value and don't continue eating until you need to be rolled out the door. Similarly, if you know that you're going to be going out to eat and the choices may be limited, eat something good for you ahead of time and then get something small at the restaurant (e.g. an appetizer). This way, you won't feel like you're missing out.

Best of luck to everyone this last week!

Trans fats in quaker oatmeal? by Michael Ma

I was doing some comparison shopping yesterday and stumbled onto something interesting. The total amount of fat per serving of Quaker Oats 1-Min instant Oatmeal has total 3 grams of fats. But the saturated fats and unsaturated only added to 2.5. Going by what I read in the book, I interpreted that as .5 grams of trans fatty acids. The Ralphs brand was on sale for considerably less that seemed to not have this discrepency. In the past, I always favored bigger brands from big companies, but now I see there's a lot more value in getting stuff made by smaller vendors that generally process the food a little less.

The home stretch by Michael Ma

Less than 2 weeks to go. Everyone still hanging in there? I've been doing good with the exercises, and been averaging more like 2-3 cheat meals a week which were all unplanned. I'm gonna try a little harder to not do that for the remainder of this program. Even though I cheat more often then I should, I still try to make better decisions. I guess that's better than nothing. I think I'm making progress although I haven't really continued to lose weight at a rapid rate (2 lbs in the last 2 weeks). My muscles feel bigger, but my flab seems thinner. I guess all is good then.