Week 6 - The Bi-week 188.0
What happened to week five? Well, I had ever intention of weighing and measuring, but I overslept, 8 a.m. which is Ferris Bueler kinda late for me. So I rushed out of the house with the full intention of doing it Tuesday. I had a slightly sore throat, which is no surprise since it's winter and the air gets really dry this time of year. However, by lunch I was in extreme misery with chills and a very sore throat and headache to boot. So I went home to find I had a 103 degree fever. It didn't get better the next day, so I called in sick, and the following day, which means a trip to the doctor to keep my job. By this time, I had eaten my normal Monday breakfast, a turkey Sandwich, two slices of toast, one bowl of soup and I attempted to eat yogurt, which didn't go over well, I basically gagged it down. Five meals in three days compared to five meals a day.
So I spend enough time in the doctor's office to reach Nirvana when she tells me that I have Strep throat and I'd be swallowing little red and pink pills for a while. The whole time I was hungry, but unable to eat because swallowing anything felt like swallowing a sharpened jack. The type from the game, jacks, not a 2 1/2 ton floor type. That would be a feat for anyone no matter how they felt.
I really didn't eat normally until Friday night, Domino's. Not on the menu, but I was just happy to be able to eat normal food again. One of the biggest perils of this involuntary starvation diet is I'm still hungry. I spent weeks feeding my gut every three hours and then basically not eat for a week, so I've got to retrain my stomach that it will be fed again soon.
I wanted to mention in week five, a repeat of one of the things I mentioned before is that my fingernails got harder. At this point, I can't use my old method of trimming my nails, which is to rip them off where they separate from the skin. It sounds painful, but it's not. It's a nervous habit that I do even when I'm not nervous. I can't do that any more, the other day I was sitting in traffic and started ripping my ring finger's nail off. I slipped and poked a hole in my middle finger on the other hand and it bled almost instantly. So I've now started using the nail clippers that I can never find, which is why I usually just ripped my nails off. At the begriming they were hard enough to turn flat head screws with, and still are. I plan to do a inch-lb torque test when I'm finished with my nutritional rehabilitation.
Back to the matter at hand. A week of starvation and then a cheat day followed by reasonable eating again and I've actually gained a quarter inch on my belly. This is nothing to be concerned about, but this proves how starvation or self-control and will-power diets don't work. By the middle of last week, I was down significantly, but it was almost all dehydration. After several days of not eating my body is in a starvation mode and will store any extra calories it can -- as fat, which neither I nor you want.
The good news, I ran a mile last night, spent 25 minutes or so on the weights and know that I'm near the end of my illness as I wasn't completely drained like other times when I did anything last week. Tonight it will be 1.5 miles and 30 mins on the machines. I know I can probably go completely nuts but feel like crap, so I'm going to stick with gradual increments.

Week 7 183.8 19.72% body fat half way point.
Well I'm finally feeling back up to speed after being sick. I'm now off the antibiotics and I've managed to run two miles continuously. Although that's far from where I want to be, but two weeks of inactivity have caught up with me. I've noticed that my arms are now getting smaller which is no surprise since my gut is shrinking and the human body will store fat anywhere it can. Since my goal is not losing weight, but dropping fat I'll be adding weight training back into my regimen at least twice a week on my off-cardio nights in addition to my core-building exercises. I'm pleased with my results to this point, however, because of being ill for a week, I don't know if I need to make changes yet. If you're at this point and you notice that the weight is the same day in and day out, change something. The body is an amazing machine, for thousands of years it and it alone has kept the species going through drought and famine as well as feasts. You've got to learn to fight your body's natural tendencies to store fat as it sees a negative caloric expenditure that could be interpreted as lean times. Change something, eat a little more, exercise a little less. Stop the diet and continue exercising for one week, but that's not permission to go carte blanc and load up at the smorgasbord, eat reasonable, but avoid chicken and fish opting for lean beef or pork and a healthy side dish. Like I said, I won't know because I did change things radically on my body by eating a day's worth of food over the course of several days, unintentionally.

Week 8 185.2 19.0% Downsizing
I bought new pants last week! Woo Hoo! Ok, I'm not that excited. I bought new pants because I'm down to three pairs of jeans that I haven't completely destroyed. I ripped the crotch picking up something heavy in one pair after they slid down just a little too far. I'm now in a size 33 (33 inches, US) which isn't actually 33 inches, but that's alright. It'll be a year or so before I rip another pair to shreds. Maybe not, the one pair has a hole in two pockets and one in the knee, so they may be next on the chopping block.
If you looked at my weight this week vs. last week, you'll see that I'm about a pound and a half heavier than I was last week, yet my body fat percentage is actually 3/4 of a percent lower. I switched my 'cheat day' with Sunday because of the NFC championship game and I knew that the pizza, chips and everything else would be all over my house. So I indulged myself, maybe a little too much, since I ate from 3:00 p.m. until about 6:30. But that's fine every once in a while, you have to live. I'm not a Mr. Olympia hopeful, I don't have to be so strict. And you won't see me 'not eating' the day before or the day after an event like that. I'm right back on the same regimen, no skimping or over exertion to 'make up for it'. By the end of the week, I predict that I'll be right back on track as far as the scale is concerned.
The one thing that's not quite on track yet though is my three miles twice a week goal. I'm running two miles, well the first mile is running, the second mile is a very fast walk or really slow jog, I'm not sure which. Either way, I'm looking to improve my two mile time from 25:33 to about 15-16 mins and adding a little more distance each week. I think I can do three miles, I just get bored out of my mind. I hate cardio, always have.