What Diet is Mikey On?

One question I get all the time is, “What diet did you use to lose 105 lbs?”. The truth is, I ALMOST don’t know. I’ll explain.

When I started my own transformation, I remember starting on a Wednesday. Sure, everyone else starts on a Monday, but I’ve never understood that. But I do remember that the first day of the new year started on Wednesday that year, and I was planning on jumping on the New Year’s bandwagon.

I decided to give myself one cheat day a week, and 95% of the time, that cheat day was on Saturday. So, that was actually a good strategy for a guy that was eating ridiculously (it’s a word, look it up) bad. This was basically my diet at the time:

Breakfast – an iced honeybun and a Mr. Pibb for breakfast

Lunch – a supersized meal at a fast food joint with 2 large servings of a soda

Snack – candy bar and a soda from the vending machine

Dinner – an entire bag of chips as I decided what to eat for dinner, which usually ended up being an entire frozen pizza followed by 2 big bowls of ice cream

I’m guessing dinner alone was typically around 4,000 calories… good times.

So, to sum it up, I would allow myself to eat like this one day a week, while the other days, I just simply “ate better”. For example, I switched my morning iced honeybun and soda for water and a bowl of oatmeal (with a tbsp of peanut butter… know about it).

For lunch, I remember going to the mall instead of a fast food joint and getting chicken with green beans. I made the green beans better by putting hot sauce on them. Sure, it’s weird, but they are my beans and I can do what I want.

That’s how I ate 6 days a week. But when Saturday hit, I went all out. The old Mikey came out to play.

But here’s the thing – as weeks went by, my “cravings” for the junk food each Saturday were lighter. The next thing you know, I went from cheating all day to just having 1-2 cheat meals all day, and the portions weren’t nearly as big.

I was eating salad almost every day… what the heck? This was coming from a guy that despised lettuce, let alone salad with a bunch of lettuce. My taste buds were literally changing. It was actually pretty awesome.

So, I basically followed that method for 6 months and it changed my attitude towards food. Luck? Perhaps. I don’t know… all I know is that it worked.

So, if you’re a junk food junkie like I was, cheating once a day might be the ticket for you and Joel’s Cheat Your Way Thin might be right for you. Everyone is different. Moving on…

How I’ve Kept it Off

Losing 105 lbs is one thing, but how would I keep it off? That’s just as big of a battle as losing weight.

Here’s the truth – I get bored with using a specific diet. I find myself having to “change it up” as much as my workouts (that’s a whole new discussion – I change my program every 4 weeks).

One approach that I don’t get away from week after week is intermittent fasting. I’ll be honest with you and trust me when I say I’m a little shy of admitting this – I scoffed at the idea of fasting. I thought it was ridiculous and was a fad.

But one summer, I had about 5 weeks before we were heading to the beach for vacation in Hilton Head. Sabrina, my wife, was knocked up and I knew it would be our last vacation with just the two of us.

By the way, yes, I said she was “knocked up”. She hates that and I know she’s reading this at some point and I like to push her buttons. There is no reason to push buttons other than it rocks. I’m a jerk, and that’s awesome.

So, I invested in Joel Marion’s Xtreme Fat Loss Diet, where there is one day of fasting after a cheat day. Already being relatively lean, I was still able to drop about 14 lbs of fat in 25 days.

That’s when intermittent fasting caught my interest and I wanted to learn more.

Great Weekend Read

So I read Brad Pilon’s book, Eat Stop Eat and it was one of the most interesting books I have ever read. I read it in one weekend and was hooked.

I’ve been fasting 1-2 days per week for 20-24 hours for well over 2 years now. I find that funny because I originally thought intermittent fasting was silly. Oops… now it’s a lifestyle that has helped me keep my weight off (and it’s much easier).

I’m not saying intermittent fasting is for everyone, but it certainly works for me and several of my coaching clients.

Other than that, I typically eat the same foods just about every day with the exception of dinner. I know it works, that’s why.

Do I cheat? Well, sure. This weekend I had some “Cinnamon Roll” cake and some Chinese take-out. It was deliciousness hitting my tongue.

My diet isn’t perfect… nor will it ever be. After dinner, I usually eat 1-2 Dove chocolates for dessert. When I’m out of town, I hit the local Starbucks in the morning for a cinnamon latte knowing that it has sugars. I don’t sweat it though.

At the end of the day, each and every bite you take will take you closer or further away from your goals (thank you Alwyn Cosgrove for that insight). You just have to find an approach that would work with you, not against you.

If you love fruit, and try to go low-carb, you’re going to fail. So my advice to you is this – try anything that might fit your lifestyle for 2 weeks. If you find that it doesn’t match you and your personality, skip it. Move on to the next approach.

Society tells us that we shouldn’t do that and that we have to stick to it even if it makes us miserable. So, tell Society, “Bite me” and do what works for you. Don’t be afraid to try different approaches.

That’s part of the journey – finding the “perfect diet” for you.

I love cashews,

Mikey, CTT

P.S. It’s my blog and I can sign off any way I want to. If I love cashews and want to tell you about that, I can do it.

Tags: fat loss diet, fat loss nutrition, weight loss diets