I did buy a really good scale and was at 206.8lbs with over 35% body fat when I started the diet (I know,35+%! I was horrified!). I’m now down to 178.6lbs and am not going to check my body fat percentage again until I get down to my goal weight of about 165.

Then I’m off to the gym to try to add 10 or 15 lbs of muscle over the next year or so. I think that these goals are acheiveable in a nice long time frame and also think that I’d be pretty happy with weighing in at 175 or 180. As long as my body fat percentage is around 15. I’ll be a decade older next year and that final goal weight seems healthy and reasonable.

I am on a diet called Isagenix, it’s fairly expensive (about $300 a month) but the results are great and spending good money forces me to take it seriously. I get vitamins, cleanse juice, snacks, and 4 tubs of shake mix every month. I have a meal replacement shake for breakfast and lunch, take vitamins twice a day, drink about 2 liters of water a day, and have a small meal for dinner (I aim for about 600 calories at dinner). I do a cleanse day every week, on those days I don’t have any food all day-just the vitamins, lots of water, and 4oz of cleanse juice 4X during the day. So the $300/month actually looks reasonable when I consider that’s for 2 ‘meals’ a day and no food at all 4 days out of every month.

The diet is pretty easy to keep up, and the pounds keep dropping off even if I cheat a little sometimes. I’ve dropped nearly 30 lbs in about 3 months, I’ll probably be at my goal weight in another 3-4 months, and most people don’t yoyo on Isagenix. I’m planning to stick with the maintenance program(1 shake/day,2 cleanse days/month…$150ish) or the muscle-building Isapro program for as long as it keeps working for me. It’s set up as a multi-level marketing scheme but I didn’t get into it to make money, I wanted to lose weight and I am. But the changes are pretty dramatic, people are asking about the program and a few want to sign up under me – I won’t refuse to make a bit of money either. I’m pretty sold on the results … I’m down 28.2 lbs, my heart rate is down 25000 beats/day (resting pulse from 74/min 3 months ago to 56/min now). I feel a little hungry most of the time but not deprived, and I can indulge in a craving once in a while. So far, so good. Plus I’m sleeping better and don’t get as tired at work (but I’ve shed 30lbs of fat, so of course I’m more energetic during/after a 12 hour shift). And $300/month makes me think hard before I do something to set myself back, so no cheeseburger at 3am ’cause I’m bored and cranky.

Travis”