Well, here I am! The end of the second 17 day cycle -- hard to believe, but I made it and I'm so excited to be starting Cycle 3 tomorrow! I will see toast and cheese again and be able to eat relatively normally while we're on our week-long camping vacation. We're all really looking forward to leaving at the end of the week -- getting away will be awesome! I love that I'll have my own little kitchen to work with, which will make sticking to my plan easier than if we were eating in restaurants the whole time...
As predicted, some of my muscles are protesting the workout they got yesterday, though it's not as bad as I thought it would be. I guess that "minimal" exercise I've been doing has been helping. What hurts right now is my knee -- where I whacked it on the step of the ladder -- twice. We'll see what the rest of my body has to say to me tomorrow...
Today's menu:
Breakfast -- Cream of Wheat, 1 peach, coffee, probiotic supplement
Morning Snack -- 100 g Silhouette 0+ raspberry yogurt, red grapes, coffee
Lunch -- green salad with red pepper, celery, cucumber, tuna, balsamic vinegar/olive oil dressing, green tea
Dinner --small pork chop, steamed carrots, sliced tomato with salt & pepper
The Cream of Wheat, while I absolutely LOVE it, doesn't last nearly as long as the oatmeal does -- should have paired it with a protein, because I was hungry less than an hour after eating breakfast. Then lunch was delayed because I was so wrapped up in the redecorating project that I lost track of time -- got a little light-headed, so I decided it might be a good idea to eat something. Way to go, dummy...
Another weigh-in tomorrow morning and then the start of Cycle 3! I already have breakfast planned. So excited!!
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Day 34 (Activate Cycle Day 16)
Yup -- 34 days on a diet! I NEVER in a million years thought I would EVER stick to a diet for over a month -- because I'd never had to -- or wanted to. If nothing else, I have proven to myself that I can sustain a "project" like this (that is, do something for myself) and not feel guilty about it. That's a great feeling. Pair that with being more alert during the day, sleeping better at night, having more patience and fitting my clothes better -- well, I'd say we have a success on our hands!
Of course, it helps that this diet delivers results quickly. I have looked at other plans over the years, and they seemed so hard to follow and then maintain afterward. I remember looking at Eat Right for Your Type years ago -- and then promptly writing it off because, as a Type A blood type, it looked like I was never going to see carbs or beef ever again and was doomed to having to become a vegetarian (at least that's how I read that chapter...) -- not bloody happening. I guess I wasn't ready...
The 17 Day Diet makes it so easy to change your habits without making you feel guilty if you have a bad day -- it's OK to give in to that 9:30 PM carb craving or have that glass of wine once in a while, just get back on track the next day. And drink ALL of the water, every day!! Two things that I have loved about this plan: 1) it works, for the most part, with the foods you would usually eat and, 2) the fact that it's broken into those small cycles, and you are able to add foods back into your life every 17 days until you're back to eating "normally" again. I say "normally" because I know that my eating habits have changed and though I'll be back to having more of my old favourites very soon, I'll be keeping some of my newfound favourites in my meal repertoire as well (can you say vanilla yogurt and Kashi cereal?!). I haven't managed to establish the love affair with veggies that Dr. Mike talks about, but I have a new respect for them now, and will most likely continue to use certain ones as snack foods (grape tomatoes, cucumber, baby carrots) and I'll be more likely to order a meal sized salad at a restaurant instead of that huge slab of beef...
OK -- random rambling thoughts done for now. There's nothing too earth-shattering in the changes department to report today. My exercise came from something like 400 trips up and down a ladder and 100 or so up and down the stairs. Okay, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but redecorating a bedroom provides lots of activity that I wouldn't normally get in a day. Moving furniture, carrying buckets of water up and down the stairs/ladder, climbing/descending said ladders and stairs umpteen times, sanding/washing walls -- it all worked lots of muscles that I know I've forgotten about. They'll be talking to me about it in the morning, I'm sure...
During one of my numerous ladder trips, I realized that my shorts were falling down. This isn't huge news, but when I realized that I needed to tighten up the drawstring in the waistband, I giggled out loud. I haven't had to do that with these shorts in years! Good feeling!!
Today's menu:
Breakfast -- 2 scrambled eggs, 1/2 grapefruit, coffee, probiotic supplement
Lunch -- Dr. Mike's fabulous taco salad
Dinner -- Friday night's leftover pepperoni/mushroom pizza (yup -- I cheated, sort of -- but I figured, I'm going to be washing walls until 10:00 PM, so those carbs weren't going to have a chance to turn into fat...)
One more quick note -- as this was Day 34, I should be starting the next cycle in the morning, but I had that one bad weekend back in Cycle 1, so I'm off by a day. Cycle 3 will start on Monday, which is so exciting for me. When I get groceries tomorrow, I will be buying some bread and little Babybels -- I'm planning a sandwich for lunch and those cute little cheese rounds with my morning snack!
Of course, it helps that this diet delivers results quickly. I have looked at other plans over the years, and they seemed so hard to follow and then maintain afterward. I remember looking at Eat Right for Your Type years ago -- and then promptly writing it off because, as a Type A blood type, it looked like I was never going to see carbs or beef ever again and was doomed to having to become a vegetarian (at least that's how I read that chapter...) -- not bloody happening. I guess I wasn't ready...
The 17 Day Diet makes it so easy to change your habits without making you feel guilty if you have a bad day -- it's OK to give in to that 9:30 PM carb craving or have that glass of wine once in a while, just get back on track the next day. And drink ALL of the water, every day!! Two things that I have loved about this plan: 1) it works, for the most part, with the foods you would usually eat and, 2) the fact that it's broken into those small cycles, and you are able to add foods back into your life every 17 days until you're back to eating "normally" again. I say "normally" because I know that my eating habits have changed and though I'll be back to having more of my old favourites very soon, I'll be keeping some of my newfound favourites in my meal repertoire as well (can you say vanilla yogurt and Kashi cereal?!). I haven't managed to establish the love affair with veggies that Dr. Mike talks about, but I have a new respect for them now, and will most likely continue to use certain ones as snack foods (grape tomatoes, cucumber, baby carrots) and I'll be more likely to order a meal sized salad at a restaurant instead of that huge slab of beef...
OK -- random rambling thoughts done for now. There's nothing too earth-shattering in the changes department to report today. My exercise came from something like 400 trips up and down a ladder and 100 or so up and down the stairs. Okay, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but redecorating a bedroom provides lots of activity that I wouldn't normally get in a day. Moving furniture, carrying buckets of water up and down the stairs/ladder, climbing/descending said ladders and stairs umpteen times, sanding/washing walls -- it all worked lots of muscles that I know I've forgotten about. They'll be talking to me about it in the morning, I'm sure...
During one of my numerous ladder trips, I realized that my shorts were falling down. This isn't huge news, but when I realized that I needed to tighten up the drawstring in the waistband, I giggled out loud. I haven't had to do that with these shorts in years! Good feeling!!
Today's menu:
Breakfast -- 2 scrambled eggs, 1/2 grapefruit, coffee, probiotic supplement
Lunch -- Dr. Mike's fabulous taco salad
Dinner -- Friday night's leftover pepperoni/mushroom pizza (yup -- I cheated, sort of -- but I figured, I'm going to be washing walls until 10:00 PM, so those carbs weren't going to have a chance to turn into fat...)
One more quick note -- as this was Day 34, I should be starting the next cycle in the morning, but I had that one bad weekend back in Cycle 1, so I'm off by a day. Cycle 3 will start on Monday, which is so exciting for me. When I get groceries tomorrow, I will be buying some bread and little Babybels -- I'm planning a sandwich for lunch and those cute little cheese rounds with my morning snack!
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