Day 6

With only two days remaining, I entered into today very confidently.  Maybe a little too confident.  I figured that if I managed through tomatoes and protein all day, that veggies and protein would be a piece of cake.  Of the 6 days so far, this one was my most challenging.  It wasn't that I didn't have enough to eat or that I didn't have a variety in my meals.  Today was the day I wanted everything else.

I'm going to venture to say there were several contributing factors to the "toughness" of today.  First, I was home all day.  Days 1-5 I had to get up and go to work.  I had all the food I was going to eat in front of me.  I didn't have an option of encountering other foods.  Every time I open the fridge at home, I saw something that I wanted eat.  Now mind you, it wan't even that I craved crappy food.  I wanted the chobani yogurt or the cheese stick.  Of course when I opened the pantry and say the ever so delicious chocolate oreos, I had to pull my arm away from the package and walk away.  But that wasn't what I was craving.  I was craving good foods, just not anything I was suppose to have today.

A second contributing factor that I had was the annual neighborhood block party.  The food was tempting and the grilled smelled delicious.  I could have licked the actual grate, but I probably would have destroyed my tongue and the neighbors would most likely talk about me in a not so favorable fashion.  How was this any different from the day before at my friend's end of the year BBQ?  Well, there I didn't have to explain myself to the guest.  They were all my friends and knew I was doing this crazy experiment.  I didn't want to explain myself at the block party.  No one needs to hear that story (Says the girl writing a blog about her diet!).  I was asked to be in the annual pie eating contest and my neighbor insisted that it was only a small slice of pie and it was fun, my reply was lamely, "I really don't feel like it, but maybe next year."  Really?  Maybe next year??  I should have been better prepared with a response.  Lesson learned.

tofu noodles and veggies

lettuce wraps

But I made it.  I didn't cheat.  I did take 2 bites of a burger, no cheese or bun.  Figured that counted as protein, but actually felt guilt and didn't finish it.  It was cold too, so not quite worth it.  I did make some yummy dished though.  For breakfast I made a veggie and egg white omelet.  Added hot sauce.  Yup, again with the hot sauce.  Lunch - I used tofu noodles as my protein and added a ton of veggies and a quick tomato sauce.  I did leave the block party for dinner.  I made the yummiest lettuce wraps.  Just grilled up the chicken and added a spoonful of salsa.  I can't wait to make those again.

One day to go.  9 pounds down.  The end is in sight.

xoxo -k.

Day 5

Last day of school, presenting to a staff of 45 on next year's teacher evaluation plan for 5 hours, attending a "official start to summer" cookout at a friend's house, and trying to stick to this diet - tomatoes and protein.  I thought for sure I'd cave today.  Surprisingly, I didn't.

Breakfast, I ate a tomato sprinkled with salt.  I was also a stress ball because my presentation was starting any minute.  Due to the concentration I had for the morning, it went by very quickly for me.  Lunch arrived and I devoured 2 pieces of grilled chicken and another tomato.  My husband got up in the morning and grilled me 4 pieces of chicken for the day.  (thanks, honey!)  They were so good!  I think that I hadn't had any form of protein in 4 days made me enjoy the cold piece of chicken as if it were my favorite food.  That also may be why I'm finding that this diet isn't very difficult at all.  Yes, there are restrictions and self-control but I simply plan what I am going to eat for the day and that's it.  Other foods aren't tempting me, they're just not.  Ok, so back to my day - I ate lunch by myself today because I needed to get ready for the second part of the presentation.  Again, I was so focused on that that the chicken and tomato were simply something I could grab easily and not really think about.

This is so not my picture. And I didn't use lemon.
I just needed something to represent the day! 

Finally, presentation was over and my summer vacation began!! I headed over to a friend's house for the end of the year party and brought my little lunch bag with me.  Inside - 2 more tomatoes and another piece of chicken.  I thought for sure I'd want to nibble on a cheese burger or a hot dog or some of my favorite macaroons.... oh macaroons, how I love you.  But again, I found I was easily able to walk away from it all.  I threw a tomato on the grill and ate that as a little snack.  It was yummy.  Then I hung out with friends, drank my water happily (though I would have loved a beer), and then grilled another tomato and heated up the last piece of chicken and ate dinner.  I was able to eat another 2-4 tomatoes and more protein if I wanted, but I wasn't really hungry. And no cabbage soup again!  So I left it at that.  Nothing fancy, nothing crazy and simply 2 more days to go.

The scale is showing about an 8 pound loss at this point and I can totally see it.  I've officially hit wedding weight and I'm a little less than 5 pounds away from pre-Gavin weight.  Day 6 looks to be easy - all the protein and veggies I want.  Maybe I'll switch it up and have some salmon.  Though the grilled eggplant was so tasty, I'd eat that again in a heartbeat.  Maybe both!

I think my big focus now isn't if I can do this diet, I obviously can.  My thoughts are already heading to how can I keep this off... I'm anticipating a 3-4 pound gain once I start eating "normally".  But hopefully I can keep the rest off.  I think that's the real challenge.

I've forgotten to mention that both today and yesterday, I did throw some exercise in there.  In the morning, a friend and I went for a walk around town.  Yesterday, we walked nearly five miles and today it was nearly six.  I felt a little sluggish yesterday, but today felt normal.  I'm sure the carbohydrates in the bananas helped that.

So here's to the next two day... may they be quick and easy. :-)

xoxo -k.

Day 4

Bananas, lots of bananas.  Though the thought of this day made me cringe, it actually wasn't so bad.  Along with up to 8 bananas today, I was able to have 24 oz of skim milk.  And of course, the amount of cabbage soup was unlimited.  Manageable.  At this point I know I'm half way through and my will power is better than I thought it would be.  I'm not going to screw this up now.  The scales shows a 5 pound lose as of this morning.  I'll take it.

Breakfast consisted of a banana, 8 oz of milk and a few ice cubes thrown in the blender to make a smoothie.  Exactly what I wanted.  Before this diet, I was making a protein shake every morning.  I love them.  So with this banana smoothie, I felt like I was back to my old routine.  Then about an hour or two later, I had a banana.  Lunch - 2 bananas.  Now I was at the Wadsworth Atheneum for an all day professional development, so cabbage soup really wasn't a lunch option.  Got home from PD and you'll never guess what I had.  Yup, a banana.  I added a cold 8 oz. glass of skim milk with it though - for a little something different.

just in case you needed a visual of a banana

Dinner was welcomed with a warm bowl of cabbage soup.  Added the hot sauce for flavor.  I might be obsessed with the hot sauce... I seem to add it to everything.  I didn't eat a lot of it though.  Didn't really want to.  And dessert, you guessed it, banana #6 and the final 8 oz of skim milk.  I did have this great idea to freeze a banana and eat that for dessert... thinking I'd at least change the texture.  But, being the genius that I am, I didn't peel the banana before freezing it.  Yes, I apparently thought the skin would simply peel right off.  Mmmhhmmm. Brilliant.  Side effect of this diet is apparently you turn into an idiot.  Awesome.

Overall, I wasn't hungry today.  The bananas were filling and it wasn't very hard at all.  I liked having milk as a change.  I still ended up drinking 48 ounces of water along with the 24 ounces of milk.  But it all was manageable.  I do wish I had a toothbrush throughout today though.  That many bananas gives that "sweater on your teeth" feeling.  You know what I'm talking about.  I could have done without that.

So, I'm official halfway through this diet.  Tomorrow I get to eat protein!  Downside of tomorrow, the only other thing I can eat is 6-8 tomatoes and of course, cabbage soup.

xoxo -k.

Day 3

So apparently, I have a steady following on this diet!  I've received several text messages, emails, Facebook posts and had discussions about this endeavor of mine.  So let's get started on what happened today....

Today was fruit and veggies all day - no bananas and no baked potato today.  Also, the goal is to stay away from starchy veggies.  With that said, I found today to be the easiest of the three days.  Fruit for breakfast and snacks.  For lunch I had some left over stir fry from last night with more hot sauce - I love hot sauce.  I didn't find myself hungry at all today.  However, today was one of the busiest days... it was the last day of school.  There was lots of packing, cleaning, and getting things dome around my classroom.  I didn't really give myself much time to stop and think about food.

I have to say that I am finding myself really showing some serious self control.  I bought donuts for the kids today as a special year-end treat and cut them all in half.  (No worries each kid ended up with a donut and a half, not just a half.)  Anyway, I ended up getting chocolate frosting on my fingers and usually after cutting everything up, I would totally lick my fingers or the knife.  Don't judge, you know you've done the same thing.  After cutting everything up and passing it all out, I washed my hands and the knife without sampling the delicious chocolate.  Now if you know me, that is NOT my M.O.  I think the sense of commitment is there because I know it's over in 4 more days.  I'm not saying I will be stuffing my face with chocolate come Monday, and throwing all this hard work down the toilet, but if there is a donut in the vicinity - I will be tasting the frosting.

Moving on in the day, I thought that I wanted to have a salad for dinner, but I was craving something warm.  I wanted to stay away from the cabbage soup, so I came up with these tasty treats... I cut think slices of eggplant and grilled them.  Then in the blender, I threw in a tomato, some salt and lemon juice and made a little sauce.  Next time, I will add some fresh basil.  I ate 2 of them like that.  I didn't make enough sauce so the next 4 "eggplant steaks" I added a slice of tomato and mmmmmm.  I would totally have this again with a side of spaghetti squash.

"eggplant steaks"

Energy-wise - not my best day.  I'm feeling a little sluggish.  Now this could be due to it being the last day of school, or that I'm stressing about giving the professional development at my school on Friday, or the fact that my throat is sore (I'm not getting sick, I'm not getting sick, I'm not getting sick). And once I got home, I had to start "cleaning" my house because the cleaning lady is coming tomorrow.  So I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off.  The logic in "cleaning" for the cleaning lady is prime subject matter for another blog.

Regardless of the kind of day I'm having, I have found that I feel in complete control of this experiment.  I've easily said no to food or snacks offered to me and I'm not really craving anything.  Tomorrow is bananas and milk.... hmmm.  I have some ideas to change it up a little and I'll go into them tomorrow.  We'll see how I feel about self-control tomorrow.  I also have a staff party at a friend's house on Friday... that is where temptation will throw it's best at me.

Stay tuned.

xoxo -k.

Day 2

Veggies, veggies and more veggies... So diving in head first in day 2, I'm feeling pretty good, lost a pound.  Am I sold?  Not yet.  I've done some serious prep work to get ready for today, and I am hoping that all the prep that I have done for days 1 and 2 will make it easier for tomorrow.  With that said... breakfast was tough.  Cucumbers with a little bit of salt.  Meh.  I was hungry within the hour.  But no big deal, I could it.  Now the beauty of this diet is that you can "eat all you want" but I wasn't really craving anything either. 

Yummy Squash Chips

I prepped an enormous salad for lunch, filled with my favorite stuff.  My fear was that I was going to miss having real dressing.  To my surprise, I squeezed half a lemon and added a little salt and I devoured it!  It was so tasty.  Now I'm not sure if lemon was something I could or could not add to this day, but hell, it was a lot better than adding anything else.  I'll take the gamble.  I also made these delicious squash chips... repinned from pintrest!  Simply slice the squash super thin (I used my mandolin), spread out on a cookie sheet and sprinkle with salt and bake at 200*F for 2-3 hours.  I sprayed the pan first with Pam they wouldn't stick.  Freakin' delicious!  So delicious that when I made more to pack up for tomorrow, I noticed the bag was missing...

Found it in the living room...

Yup, he ate them all.

dinner...mmmmmmm

Dinner was a super yummy stir fry with a splash of hot sauce.  The best part of today was I never had to tap into the cabbage soup!  Which was a relief because I'm sure on day 4 I'm going to need a change from bananas and milk all day... not looking forward to that.  I never ate the baked potato either... never wanted it.  I baked it ahead of time in preparation for breakfast, but could do it.  Then, because dinner was so filling, didn't bother with it then either.

But so far, this seems very manageable.  It helps to know there is an end.  Only 5 days to go.  Tomorrow seems perfect - fruit and veggies all day.  Combining the two will make for lots of options.  I like options.

xoxo - k.

Day 1

Day 1 -
So, here we are at the completion of the first day of this diet.  Fruit all day along with as much cabbage soup as I'd like.  I have to say, very manageable.  I hit the grocery store last night and made sure I got enough fruit to last me all day.  I pre-cut everything and that just made it so much easier.  Breakfast was no big deal and I even had a snack before lunch.  Lots of watermelon and strawberries.

Then came lunch time.  I wanted a sandwich with turkey and cheese.... I ate pineapple, more watermelon and more strawberries.  Being only day 1, it was easy to keep myself on track, but the desire to want something more substantial was strong.  But I mustered through it.  I think it helped that I was at work at there was no other food for me to try and consume.  Would I be as successful at home with a full fridge and pantry?  Hmmm.  Not part of this experiment so I'm not going to dwell on it.

Got home from work and decided that I would make the cabbage soup.  Holy onions!  Threw it all in the pot and let it steam away.  While waiting, I continued to eat more fruit; blueberries were quick and easy.  I am typically not a fan of cabbage soup, but I was actually looking forward to eating something other than fruit.  I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised.  I enjoyed a bowl full of soup and polished off a few more strawberries as dessert.  All in all, a very successful first day.  I don't feel starved and actually look forward to trying all veggies tomorrow.

The soup is something I can eat everyday, and as much as I want, but I wonder just when that limit will be hit.  Cabbage soup every day for a week?  The thought is sickening.  We shall see.
xoxo - k.

Here's to the Next 7 Days...

So I haven't blogged in over a year.  It's been a little busy around here.  We've been blessed with another baby boy that was born in October and now our family is complete.  With the completion of this part of my life (being pregnant that is), it time to lose the rest of the baby weight.  I've been very fortunate that after my second and third pregnancies I lost of all weight gained in less than 3 weeks.  My problem is losing the weight from my first pregnancy.  I've been plagued with 20 pounds that don't want to leave.  I have to admit that I wasn't trying super hard because I knew that I wanted to have more children, and the idea of losing it all to gain it all back didn't seem worth my efforts.  But now that I know that no other children will be occupying my womb, it's time to get serious.  For the past 7 weeks, I've been able to shed 11 pounds with eating better and exercise.  It helps that the past 7 weeks I've also been involved in a little weight lose competition with a couple of friends. With the last week of the competition being this week, I've decided to try one of those crazy diets you read about.

Why am I telling you all this?  Well, I decided that during this 7 day experiment, I would blog about my experience.  If it works, you can try it, too.  If it doesn't, well then I'm the only idiot that wasted time.  For you, this is a win-win.  Who doesn't want to lose 10 pounds in 7 days?  I decided to try a diet that initially repinned on pintrest.... oh pintrest, that's a whole blog in itself.  Anyway, the diet intrigued me and decided to look into it further.  I found what seemed to be the best information on www.my7daydiet.com.  This is the plan I've decided to try out.

So for the next 7 days, I'll try to post how the day went: how I feel, what I liked, hated, etc.  I figure this might be a comical endeavor.  Here's to the next 7 days...

xoxo k.