You're mostly right. I didn't mean an entire chicken breast, I was just specifying the breast to give an idea of what I was eating (i.e., not a leg bone with all the skin and fat intact). I've been keep track of the ounces (roughly) and putting that into sparkpeople, which is where I got the 500 calorie figure.

A lot of determination, I guess. I got just plain sick of being fat. I have a lot of endurance so the energy wasn't much of an issue. As for sanity, well I planned the whole thing out in my head before I began so I knew what I was in for and I was well prepared to not touch most of my favorite foods for many months.