Cycle 1 Day 8

Ok, so I survived my first week on the 17 day diet.  I was def WAY too harsh on this diet at the beginning.  The first few days really suck, but I am now officially in love with this diet.  Once you get used to what you can and can't eat, it's really easy to stick to it.  Also, I decided to ignore the whole no drinking thing.  I'm not a big drinker anyway, so the little wine that I drink doesn't seem to be having a huge impact on my diet.  I also found an ice cream place by my house that has fat free sugar free vanilla frozen yogurt, which I have decided counts as a pro-biotic if I really need to have a sugar fix.  So far I have lost 6 .7lbs and I generally feel much better.  I had way too many carbs in my diet and now that I've cut most of them I feel a lot less bloated and I am generally having a lot easier time digesting my food.  I haven't had time to exercise as much as I would like, but with work and my commute it's not really realistic for me to get to the gym everyday right now.  Once I'm done in August, I will be better, but for now I am just walking more and taking the stairs. 

One of my favorite meals on the 17 day diet is the Kefir Smoothie.  It is soooo yummy and really filling.  Even if you're not trying to lose weight, you should still try it, it makes a great breakfast.  (1 cup lowfat Kefir, 1 cup frozen mixed berries, tablespoon sugar free preserves(i like strawberry), truvia to make it sweet, and I also like to add benefiber, but I like to add benefiber to everything.  stick all this in the blender... duh). 

I also have a new found love of tuna fish.  I like to take 2 cans of all white in water, drain them, mix in a tablespoon of fat free greek yogurt some shredded carrots, and cubed cucumber.  It's really good.

I was also totally surprised by how easy it is to eat out on this diet.  Pretty much anywhere you go has grilled fish and steamed veggies.  This is really important for me because the boyfriend and I love eating out.  Before I started this diet, we were doing it 4-5 days a week.  We have scaled way back, but I like knowing I can eat out.


Also, I fell off the wagon in a BIG way last night. BF and I went to the redsox game, and there is nothing about a ballpark that's diet friendly. To make matters worse, there was a 2 hour 2 min rain delay.  I had 2 glasses of wine and soft-serve ice cream before the game even started.  I then had another glass of wine during the game and a handfull of BF's crackerjacks and a few fries.  I was fully expecting to have gained a ton of weight when I weighed in this morning, and I actually lost weight.  I have no idea how this is possible, but I'm just gonna go with it.

OK, that is more than enough diet talk for today. peace out cub scouts

The 17 Day Diet

So, I haven't really had anything fun or otherwise witty to say in a long time (I had a soul crushing quarter of Law School...)

And while this is not at al interesting, I need an outlet to complain about my diet because I am pretty sure that everyone I know is already tired of hearing about it and this is only day 3.  And I know that you, my non-existent and captive reader, are completely entranced by everything I have to say, and are thus itching to know alllll about my horrible diet.

Ok, well first off, I am doing the 17 day diet.  I thought it sounded really stupid when my mom told me about it, but then she lost 20lbs (this is like adding "and then I found $5" to the end of a bad/boring story, it instantly becomes better).  The diet is not actually 17 days, it's broken up into 17 day cycles.  I am currently on cycle 1, and it is painful.  What I can eat. 

So, the food part of this is all fine.  Am I missing carbs like the deserts miss the rain?  Hells yes.  But, I've been able to stay on the plan and be content and full, so thats fine.  I can go 17 days without grains.  Here's the real problem: no alcohol or diet coke.  For those of you who know me, this is a real problem.  I quickly decided that the alcohol thing wasnt going to work for me since you aren't supposed to drink for the first 2 cycles.  This would mean 34 days of no drinking.  It's the summer, I live in Boston, I'm 25, and I am a law student.  There is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY that is happening.  So, I did a bit of research, and decided that dry white wine is low in sugar and calories, so I can have that, but I am trying to keep to 3 glasses a week.  I had 1 on Tuesday, so I have 2 more for the weekend.  That seems doable.  I also discoverd that Firefly makes a "Skinny Tea" sweet tea vodka made with Truvia.  I MUST get my hands on a bottle of that.  Ok, so I realize this post makes me seem like a total alchy, which is actually really funny because I dont drink that much, but not having the option is just oppresive.  Now, my other major problem, no diet coke, I have not found a solution for.  I normally have about 48oz of diet coke a day, and I am craving it.  I have found seltzer helps with the bubble cravings but it's just not the same.  I'm hoping that the craving diminish with time..... *sigh*

At this point, you're probably asking why I am even doing this diet if it's so horrible.  There are a few reasons for that: 1. My mom lost 20lbs on it (see supra), 2. I need to lose weight, 3. I actually feel better (my stomach is sensitive and now I am not eating a lot of the stuff it doesn't play nice with), and 4. probably most importantly, when I weighed myself this morning, I had already lost 2 .3lbs.  yes, I know this is probably ALL water weight or just normal fluctuations, but it is def encouraging. 

That's all for now, I promise to try to get less whiny as this process continues.