start.

I had been eating a paleo diet for about a 7 months. I saw really great results with it. I lost about 10 pounds
on the diet. I am built pretty small so for me there was a lot of noticeable improvement. I went for about 6 full months without cheating even one time. I knew that if i did i would not just have a small cheat, i would probably end up binging. 

Right before i started on the paleo diet i was a binge eater. I would do really well all week and give myself two days to eat whatever i wanted. On those days i would force feed myself everything i possibly could. Most of the time i wasn't even hungry. I hid this from everyone and didn't really wrap my head around what i was doing to myself.

I can remember my rock bottom like it was yesterday. I was with a friend in Vegas. We were taking photos and i looked at a picture and thought gosh my face is big. i had just had a burger and large tots from Sonic. Oh, and i had pizza hut the night before. Just me - not my friend. Either way. We were on our way home and she wanted Subway. I insisted on KFC. We were driving and I was stuffing my face with fried chicken and potato wedges. I had crumbs all over me and I looked at my friend. I said "what the hell am i doing to myself?? Im not even hungry!" I think the week after is when  I started eating Paleo. 

I was doing great. I felt good and I could see big changes in my appearance. And then it happened. I decided why not have a reward? I have been doing SO WELL, not one cheat in 6 months is amazing for me. So I went to Hooters. I ate about 4 wings before my stomach was just pissed. On the way home I got a cupcake because why the hell not I already had Hooters, right? The next day I was so sick to my stomach. It was the beginning of the same cycle I had been in months before. 

From that day on it was the same routine. I would do great during the week since i had the structure of going to work. On the weekends everything went to shit. I would wake up with good intentions and continue to say this time it would be different. It was always the same thing. Binge eating on the weekend became the new normal. As much as I did enjoy eating Paleo I knew that the fact that I was depriving myself from things that I loved was messing me up a lot.

I reunited with an old friend a few months ago. When I saw her she looked amazing. I hadn't seen her in so long but she looked fit, inspired, and determined. As we talked more she let me in on what she had been doing. 

I had only heard of iifym once or twice through social media. What i heard about it made me immediately turn the other way. It sounded like a bunch of people excited to eat anything they wanted without gaining weight and putting on serious muscle in the meantime. pizza and ice cream and cookies and fries and and and... you get the idea. Then my friend shed some light on what it really is. Based on your weight, height, age, and activity level you are given a specific set of macros that you need to hit each day. While i am able to eat anything i want to get there, it would be extremely difficult to hit my macros eating only fast food and desert all day.

I started off higher with macros to regulate my metabolism but been able to go lower since.

These are my macros now:

Calories: 1530
Carbs: 136
Fat: 50
Protein: 126
Fiber: 30-40

In the beginning it was really hard for me to reach these macros. I felt I was eating an extreme amount. As time has gone by I have really enjoyed being able to eat more. 

1 Month results:

weight: gained 1.5 lbs
waist: lost 4 inches
body fat: down 4% body fat

I am stoked by these results. I am extremely thankful that I did the measurements and body fat test because if I didn't all i would see is a 1.5 lb gain and be real pissed. My ultimate goal...I am not too sure yet honestly. I want to look and feel really good. I think that's about it. Maybe get my body fat to 15%.