$2 a day: week one recap

Well, week one is over now and let’s recap where I’m at. Last weekend I spent $42.60 on my first trip to Wal-Mart, and $5.10 on a return trip, totaling $47.70 so far on food. I weighed 280 pounds, about the most I’ve weighed ever, and my diet consisted of eating out (fast food or restaurants) anywhere from 3-5 times a week. I would have quite a fair amount of soda (anywhere from 2-7 cans a day), and I was semi-active, lifting a few times a week usually (3-4) and playing basketball usually twice a week.

What’s changed? The semester started and I’m back in classes and our city basketball league began in which I’m a player and a referee. I went from being semi-active to very active. I play basketball at least 3 times a week, referee basketball 1 night a week (usually 3 games of running up and down the sidelines), and lift weights 3-4 times a week. I’ve dropped caffeine completely from my diet, and taken my average sugar intake from many cans of soda a day to none, and where the food I’m eating is giving me an average of a little more than 1 can of Mountain Dew’s worth of sugar a day. I’ve gone from drinking little to no water on a regular basis to taking in almost a gallon a day (and this probably isn’t enough).

Since structuring our meal plan like we have and becoming more active, I’ve dropped 12.5 pounds in week one, weighing in this morning at 267.5 pounds. Now, this sounds like a lot of weight to drop in one week, but we can presume a lot of this is water weight. Other factors that led to weight loss that I had already predicted are the fact that I’m keeping my metabolism rolling. By eating smaller portions every 2-3 hours my body is constantly at work. Another factor, eating the foods that I’m eating is dropping weight. I’d estimate I’ve dropped my calorie intake from 2800-3400 calories a day (and think about every time you go out to eat you can almost guarantee 1000 calories) to 1600-2200 a day. I’ve cut out sugar in any kind of mass quantity. I’ve heard people say that merely one soda a day can lead to 5-10 extra pounds at the end of the year, something I was surpassing by quite a bit.

Now, remember, the goal of this experiment was and still is merely to feed myself on $2 a day without the help of other people. This is a goal I’m succeeding at. Am I getting sick of the food yet? Yes and no, nothing is anywhere near the point to where I can’t stand it. I still love the egg sandwiches, and like I’ve blogged about previously I am not a big fan of oatmeal. I need to think of another way to prepare it for it to be enjoyable for me personally. The most efficient meal and a meal that I think I’ll never get sick of is having the cinnamon raisin swirl bagel for breakfast. It feels like the perfect serving size, tastes amazing, and does a superior job at filling me up.

What are the highlights of the experiment so far? The way I feel. I already feel better. Eating less, working out, and staying active has led to weight loss and Friday night when I went home to the basketball game I already had a comment on how I already look slimmer (from someone who doesn’t even know what I’m doing as far as this experiment). Everything about this from a mental standpoint feels good so far and I’m liking it.

What am I not a big fan of in the experiment so far? I’m not a fan that the price of tuna went down merely a day or two after we purchased it. Earlier this week at Wal-Mart tuna went from the price we paid, $0.56 a can, down to $0.50 a can. This would’ve saved me $0.60 and Jesse $0.90, which is quite the amount for the money we’re spending. I’m not a fan of the oatmeal like I’ve stated, and how fast the bananas go bad for the way I wanted to use them (1/2 banana a day per bowl of oatmeal). There also has been a desire to go snag a meal from Taco Johns because I love it so much, but obviously I’ve resisted so far, and don’t plan on caving. It’s things like tomorrow though, my friend’s 21st birthday, that I wish I could take someone out to eat and actually eat as well, I do enjoy that freedom. It’s not going to kill me but I would like to be able to eat out from time to time for a good reason.

Finally, I must reiterate that this is not a crash diet or any type of massive calorie cut. We are still intaking a solid amount of calories (1600-2200 per day is my guesstimate right now), carbs, fat, and protein on a daily basis. I’m not a doctor, but I’m fairly certain that even if this was performed long term we would be no where near malnourished. Also, I am showing no signs of malnourishment either (I’ve made sure to look up symptoms). The worst thing about our diet from a health standpoint appears to be the minimal amount of fruits and vegetables, which I’d gander to say a majority of people don’t get enough of either.

Please, if you have any comments or suggestions let us know, we like to keep this thing as much an open-source project as we can.