After 42 days, The 29th Expedition: Erebor has docked into port. Its results:

13 lbs / -5%

(Overall Graph)

That now adds to a total loss of 43.5 lbs in 12 weeks, outpacing the magnificent keto initiative of Expeditions 13 and 14 of 36.25 lbs. That said, The 14th lost 12 lbs—basically the SAME as The 29th.

Back then, I stumbled into the answer without knowing it! I was averaging 212 grams of fat back then in a keto context. Unfortunately, I still believed in having my protein jacked-up high, so it averaged 128 grams as opposed to today's 75. That higher amount would prove to come back and bite me.

Waving that all aside, how did I lose this 5%? This was the total served in the ship's galley for the voyage of cooked totals:

• Ground Beef: 12.2 lbs
• Bacon: 9.5 lbs
• Bacon fat: 4.5 cups
• Butter: 10.1 lbs
• Ghee: 3.7 lbs - homemade from 5.4 lbs of butter
• Coffee: 10.4 gallons
• Lamb: 1.5 lbs

What did that look like? While averaging 1.7 sticks of butter, it evolved into adding hitting 4.3 oz of ghee in my 3-cup coffee at 3-something in the morning.

For lunch-ish? A half-package of bacon and 1-2 tablespoons bacon oil poured atop a 1/2 lb burger that cooked down to 5+ oz—sometimes I skipped the bacon fat (hey, sometimes I share). After 10:30 AM, I'm good for the rest of that calendar date. Sometimes, I'll make another cup of coffee to pick up any ghee stragglers (0.3 oz at most) around 2-3 PM, but mainly, it is just water.

Pretty simple, right? I feel like I'm overeating because I've forgotten what those diet hunger pangs felt like. This approach runs around 2000-2100 calories (if that EVER mattered).

When I look back and remember how ravenous I was to eat my next morning "meal" of crackers—dehydrated spinach, broccoli and flaxseed—I just shake my head. That 1240 kcal ceiling was just dumb. "Look at me, I'm semi-starving. My body will NEVER react adversely to this with a wild roller coaster ride back up! Weee—who needs sustainability?!"

...hey, I had to learn that I had to eat BACON to lose weight!

Gaffigan got it (mostly) right.

No, forever shall it be said that SUGAR is the killer in the room. And it's added to virtually every product—AHA approved! Yep, the American Heart Association recommends 60% of your diet to be sugar. Do we even need 1% of THAT?

...but...need vs. want...it is an entirely different beast. You just don't get to 336 lbs by not WANTING 4 or 5 donuts, a buffet table of Taco Bell, a 1/4 gallon of Blue Bell Ice Cream and to wash it all down with 2 liters of Coca-Cola for the night. I'm not exaggerating there.

Perhaps, my eating foods sourced from, or pretty darn close to, animals isn't a bad thing...

And hey, I have my vice! I'm pretty sure there's not a coffee cougar lurking in the jungles of Central America. Actually, I TOTALLY get that caffeine is a natural pesticide AND a psychoactive drug! That said, look, I have NO problem of being the Billy at the head of the mind flayer army comprised of Hawkins residents gutturally choking down chlorine and rat poison to take over the world a small, Indiana town.

But, SUGAR...I'm totally convinced THIS is Sugar's theme song.