Day 20 (Activate Cycle Day 2)

A much more successful day today!  I hope this means I'm back on track...

Something interesting -- before I started this project, I was beginning to have some suspicions about my ability to tolerate beef.  I noticed that I usually got indigestion (and other not-so-pleasant issues that I won't go into here -- TMI and all that...) after eating beef.  I absolutely LOVE a nice, rare chunk of beef for dinner, but I think I have developed a sensitivity to it.  Years ago, I worked with a nutritionist in an attempt to sort out some of the boy's problems.  Through doing elimination diets we determined that he has a sensitivity to proteins, with "cow" being the worst offender -- this definitely explained his trouble with milk and a whole lot of other stuff.  I was advised to keep him off of the beef for two weeks and rotate the other proteins, keeping 3 days in between.  Well, I have been off beef for 18 days and had my first exposure in that BBQ'd patty last night.  No indigestion last night to report but this morning, well, you can probably guess where this is going -- TMI and all that...

Today's menu:
Breakfast -- 6 oz vanilla yogurt with lots of strawberries mixed in, coffee
Morning Snack -- missed it -- too busy vacuuming & cleaning/running the stairs...
Lunch -- Dr. Mike's freaking fantastic taco salad, green tea, probiotic supplement
Dinner -- BBQ chicken breast (with Dr. Mike's sauce), lots of broccoli, green tea

In keeping with the festive mood around Canada Day, breakfast today was red and white!  Holy cow -- that was one tasty meal!  Almost better than the red grape/vanilla yogurt combo -- almost...

I never managed to make it into the yard today -- kept myself very busy running up and down stairs, cleaning, vacuuming, running laundry here and there, organizing the winter gear.  Then I spent the afternoon teaching the daughter how to sew while I worked on a valence for the holiday trailer -- lots of bending, etc.  I sure hope this counts as exercise -- it's not like I do it every day...

I don't usually have the energy/patience to do this type of thing for a whole day.  I've been more alert and calm lately, willing to take on projects that I've been avoiding, and enjoying them.  This makes me happy!  This makes my family very happy!

I feel....... better.....

Day 19 (Activate Cycle Day 1)

Happy Canada Day!!  We're having BBQ all weekend!!

Back on track today -- hopefully!  This is a 3-day weekend for me and so far my track record for eating on weekends hasn't been great.  I'll be making a conscious effort to stay on top of things...

I should be getting plenty of exercise over the next 3 days.  The weather is beautiful, so I'll be getting some clean-up work done in the yard (spent 2 solid hours on it today) -- and I have new, pretty, pink gardening gloves to make it fun when I tackle the thistles...

Here begins the "alternate day fasting".  Today is food from the Activate menus (higher-calorie day) and tomorrow will be food from the Accelerate ones (low-calorie day) -- odd days will be Activate and even days will be Accelerate -- this is meant to keep your metabolism in high gear and get your cells to burn fat rather than store it.  No danger of the consequences of carb sensitivity or weight loss plateau!

Today's menu:
Breakfast -- 4 scrambled egg whites with 1 Tbsp salsa, 1/2 cup oatmeal, 1 peach, green tea, probiotic supplement (this was A LOT of food -- actually didn't finish it...)
Morning Snack -- (didn't need one -- oatmeal is very filling -- drank a lot of water instead...)
Lunch -- Traci's tuna salad, probiotic supplement
Dinner -- BBQ peppercorn crusted hamburger patty (no sauce), small baked potato with approx. 1 Tbsp each of low fat sour cream & salsa toppings (terribly tasty -- didn't miss the butter at all...)


Oh, how happy I was to have that oatmeal!  I put the diced up peach on top and it was yummers!  Unfortunately, I didn't read the menus carefully enough and thought I could have the potato with dinner -- that's a big no-no -- remember the "no carbs after 2:00" rule -- dummy...

And I kinda forgot about veggies with dinner -- dummy...

By the way -- look what I found while trolling the internet this morning!  A website/discussion board of 17 Day Diet friendly recipes -- I'll post the link right here and under "Useful Links" at the bottom of the page as well.  I'll definitely be spending some time looking through this tonight...17 Day Diet Recipes

Even though my mealtimes were "off" today (lunch at 2:00, dinner at 7:30), I'm feeling good about stuff tonight!  Tomorrow will only be better!