My Weight Loss Diary: Week 1

Posted on January 1, 2012 by admin

Several years ago, I blogged about a diet I went through and lost over twenty-five pounds. I have gained back all but ten pounds of it. I had forgotten how weight affected me. Now as I get older (and older) I am noticing the effects of weight. Through circumstances too numerous to enumerate, I find myself at the precipice of morbid obesity if I don’t do anything about it. I have many symptoms of an impending spin, crash and burn and enough is enough.

When we moved into this house, I was forty-five years old. I climbed almost every tree on our property and trimmed them out. At fifty-six, I wouldn’t dare do that now.

My passion is costume making. I love to go to Renaissance Faires, at least I used to, but obviously my costume doesn’t fit anymore. The last time I stuffed myself into it, I bruised my kidneys and they hurt for a week.

Each summer, there’s a Faire nearby and I’d like to go… in costume. I refuse to make a fat costume, so I need to get skinny so I can make the costume I really want. Also, every year there’s a holiday masquerade ball in town. It’s too late to go this year, but next year is not outside the realm of possibilities. I’d like to go and dress to the nines. There are still those people who want top-notch costumes and are willing to pay for them and I might be able to scrape up a little business on the side…. Like I have a lot of time with two jobs where I work fifty to sixty hours a week. Anyway, that’s the dream.

I recently took a 40-hour a week job where I sit. I have gained five pounds since I started. Duh! I have noticed horrible acid indigestion from sitting, because that roll of fat around my midsection is squeezing my stomach. My back, knees and feet hurt all the time, I get easily winded, I think I may have sleep apnea (I certainly snore like some beast) and I have heart palpitations. I don’t walk, I lumber and waddle. I’m getting off this roller coaster of death. Since I work until ten o’clock at night, eating late and sitting for eight hours is not in my best interests. I am choosing the middle of the day to have a regular meal and I’m cutting out the very “convenient” noodles in a cup from the middle of the shift meal break mostly because of the high salt and fat content. I don’t need to add hypertension to my list of problems. Besides… salt makes me hold water like crazy.

I look in the mirror and my brain tells me I don’t look THAT bad. My husband tells me I only have to lose a couple of pounds. A couple of pounds my eye! I went shopping with my daughter, and she coaxed me into trying on the same wrap-around skirt she had just tried on. I looked awful! I almost started crying. I recently saw a picture of myself and I looked huge!

In the movie industry, they say the camera puts ten pounds on you. I think that’s a lot of bull! The camera shows you the truth. Your eyes lie to your brain. Unfortunately, the world is obsessed with looking like emaciated stick figures. There was no way to justify the angle of the camera or a bad pose. I’m fat. I’m considered obese. Okay, thanks for sharing…. Now, do something about it without shelling out $350.00 per month for pre-packaged food.

I researched Medifast and have a friend who did Optifast. While it may work for some, I decided it wasn’t for me. I don’t normally eat brownies and pudding, so adding (diet) brownies and pudding to my diet didn’t seem appropriate. If I’m going to eat oatmeal, why should I pay a ton of money to someone else for the privilege? I can buy almost four boxes of instant oatmeal for the price of seven packages with one of these companies. I’m not saying they’re bad, thousands of people have successfully gone through these programs and graduated to a healthier lifestyle. Good for them!

Other programs I’ve researched seem good on the outside, but when you add up the calories, for your daily diet, you end up eating 1600 to 2500 calories per day. If you’ve been pigging out your whole life on 40oo calories a day, yeah, 1600 to 2500 calories would seem like a starvation diet and yes, you would lose weight, but more slowly. At that rate, you’ll be on their diet for a long, long time and that’s exactly what they want. They’re in this to make money… lots of it and the longer they can keep you on the diet, the more money they stand to make. To do this diet effectively, I need to go back down to 1200 calories a day. I like the idea of six little meals a day so that’s what I’m going to do.

I purchased some (lower calorie) diet drinks and bars to fill in. I don’t have everything in place yet, but If I don’t take a stand, I’m going to be pulling the Scarlett O’Hara, “I’ll think about that tomorrow” game.

I first began my diet before the holidays and that was a mistake. There were too many distractions and temptations. Overall, I still lost five pounds, but I have a vision in my head about a whole new wardrobe and a thin body to put it on. At that rate, it won’t happen.

I got some really cool 1928 jewelry to go with this new wardrobe and I have the patterns to make everything I want. As a matter of fact, I probably have enough fabric stashed away that I don’t have to buy any. Anyway, here it is, the first day of the new year. I’m definitely not going to call it a New Year’s resolution.

WEEK 1 

Sunday, January 1

Day 1

Weight: 210     Pounds lost: 0

I weighed in first thing in the morning. I started the day okay. I didn’t eat a lot of junk, I just ate a little too much. I feel a little too full and somewhat bloated after going out for Mexican food last night. I weighed in at 210 and I’m going to record the weight as well as how much weight has been lost. Part of my problem is that at one job, I’m on my feet and active, but the other job has me sitting. This is a problematic because I can’t seem to find time to do any kind of dedicated exercise. I need to work on that.

Monday, January 2

Day 2

Weight: 210     Pounds lost: 0

There’s no change in my weight, but at least it didn’t go up. I’ll count that as a blessing.

I’m not particularly hungry this morning, so I won’t eat until I am. I find that I’m the most hungry between two and five in the afternoon. When I work until ten o’clock at night, I try not to eat after 7:30 and even then, it’s just a fiber bar and a lot of water. The bulk of my eating is in the middle of the day where my body has a chance to metabolize the bulk of what I eat. For me, carrots are the vehicle. Even though the average carrot is about 30 calories and high in sugar, I don’t need to take citracal or any other type of dietary fiber to keep my system going. Usually. The Mexican food is really doing a number on me.

Tuesday, January 3

Day 3

Weight: 210     Pounds lost: 0

I’m still feeling so heavy and bloated I didn’t even want to weigh in. My back was hurting from throwing freight on Sunday morning so I took some Excedrine…. I had a stomach ache for the rest of the day and night. Time for Prilosec. My ulcer has flaired up again.

Wednesday, January 4

Day 4

Weight: 208     Pounds lost: 2

Food for the day: tea, 2 pkgs of instant oatmeal (no milk), chicken sandwich, 2 hard boiled eggs, 3 carrots, 1 protein shake, 3 protein bars, lots of water. (and a little bit of pot roast)

Two pounds… I can live with that. I still feel really bloated. Today, I decided to start listing what I eat again to keep myself accountable. I’ve gotten a little sloppy. I put together a slow-cooked pot roast today. (the recipe is listed under recipes) I had a little of it and it was wonderful!

Thursday, January 5

Day 5

Weight: 207     Pounds lost: 3

Food for the day: tea, 2 pkgs of instant oatmeal (no milk), a few pieces of chicken, 1/2 red bell pepper, 4 small carrots, 2 hard boiled eggs, 1 protein shake, 2 protein bars, water

When you eat things which act like paste in your system, you pay dearly. Topping it off with Excedrine, which I’m not supposed to take was a disaster. I ate less today because I felt so lousy. I drank a lot more water though.

Friday, January 6

 

Day 6

Weight: 206     Pounds lost: 4

Food for the day: tea, 2 pkgs of instant oatmeal (no milk)

Slow and steady. All things considered, four pounds isn’t bad. I’m not discouraged but I’m beating myself up for having eaten that heavy Mexican food dinner that the waiter had to practically carry out on a crane. Rice, beans, chips guacamole and especially cheese are not diet food. It was wonderfully delicious and it was a long-needed date night with my husband, but I paid for it. Today though, I finally feel much better. Interestingly, it took the better part of a week to undo that dinner. The ulcer issue is still there, and that’s my fault, but I’m taking care of it.

 

 

 

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Slow Cooked Pot Roast

Posted on December 6, 2011 by admin

There’s nothing so delicious as a slow-cooked pot roast. By slow-cooked, I mean eight hours in a crock pot. The meat is so tender that it fairly falls apart. The vegetables are tender and tasty and the broth rich and flavorful.

You will need a 5-6 quart crock pot

1 Pot Roast (approximately the size of the opening of the crock)

1 Bag of tiny red potatoes, washed and unpeeled.

1  sweet onion cut into quarters

4-5  stalks of celery cut into 2 inch lengths

4-5  carrots (unpeeled) cut into 2 inch lengths

3  bay leaves

1/2 tsp salt

1 can  Campbell’s Beef Consomme Soup

1/2 cup cooking sherry

4-6 cups chicken broth. (see homemade broth recipe)

 

Pull the roast apart along thick marbling lines. You may have to cut it.

Heat 2 Tbsp of vegetable oil in a skillet and brown the meat on both sides.

Heat the broth to almost the boiling point.

Place the potatoes on the bottom of the crock.

add some of the celery, carrots and the bay leaves.

Place the browned meat flat on top of the vegetables.

Place the onions and the rest of the vegetables around and on top of the meat.

Pour the consomme and sherry into the crock. Fill the crock the rest of the way with the hot broth.

Cover and cook on high for 7-8 hours.

Serves 4-6

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Hearty Vegetable Soup

Posted on December 6, 2011 by admin

If you’re looking for a hearty vegetable soup, here it is. It was actually derived from the “Sacred Heart Diet Soup.” The original recipe makes about 16 quarts of soup, so the recipe was cut to about a quarter of the volume. It should be about 4 quarts. Below are the original ingredients. You can add vegetables, change them, do whatever you want. If you want to start with chicken or beef stock, you can do that too, but do yourself a favor. Try the soup as it is written at least once. If it seems too bland, you can always add meat. This is a high fiber soup. The green beans are there for a reason, but if you choose to add another type such as kidney beans, go for it. It makes it a lot like a minestrone. Enjoy.

1 large can of Vegetable cocktail (like V-8)

1  15 oz can of diced tomatoes, 2 if you want more.

Green onions for taste, chopped

Beef bullion to taste (1 or 2 teaspoons ought to do)

Dry package of chicken noodle soup mix

4-5 stalks of celery, chopped

1 can of green beans or 1/4 pound of fresh green beans

4-5 carrots, washed, unpeeled and sliced

1 bell pepper (green, red, orange or yellow) chopped

Generous handful of chopped mushrooms

1/4 head of shredded cabbage

 

 

Simmer until vegetables are soft but not mushy. Add extra water if needed

You may add some garlic or other seasonings to taste. Go easy on the salt because the soup already has lots of sodium in it.

 

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Homemade Chicken Broth

Posted on December 5, 2011 by admin

Have you ever looked at the label on granulated chicken broth? It’s tumeric that gives it its color. Save those chicken carcasses and get more cluck for your buck! They’re the stuff great chicken stock is made of.

Instead of throwing that chicken carcass away, pull off any left over skin, put it in a plastic bag and freeze until you have six. Making good chicken broth is an all-day task and it heats up the kitchen. Start early in the morning. It’s a good task for cold days.

Cover a large cookie sheet with foil. Make sure you have an inch of foil sticking up all around because when you’re done, It will be full of chicken fat. Spray lightly with cooking spray.

Put your six carcasses on the foil and place in a 350 degree oven for two hours (no convection cooking). Turn the carcasses over and bake for about two more hours. Check the bones. They should be very brown but not black. Charring destroys the color and flavor.

About a half hour before your bones are fully cooked, fill a large, I mean LARGE cooking pot half full with water. Bring the water to a boil. When the carcasses are browned, place them in the water with a pair of tongs. Boil the carcasses for two more hours, adding water as necessary. Do not add ANYTHING to the water.

Allow to cool for about an hour then pull out as many of the bones as you can using the tongs. The carcasses will have fallen apart.

Strain the broth to remove the rest of the bones.

Tupperware 2-cup and 4-cup square-rounds work perfectly for this next part.

Ladle the broth through a fine strainer into your containers. Seal and place in the refrigerator.

The following day, skim the fats and other solids from the surface with a fine strainer, reseal and place in the freezer. When frozen, remove from tupperware containers and place in plastic bags. Label and they’re ready for use.

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The Noble Carrot

Posted on December 5, 2011 by admin

Most diets will limit your intake of high carbohydrate vegetables such as corn and carrots. They’re not the ideal vegetable for weight loss.

Many people, especially the overweight tend to have sluggish digestive systems and I’ve heard it said that the average overweight person has about five pounds of residual waste products in their intestinal tract. Well, duh. Our pleasure-indulgent lifestyles and our cravings for fast food and low fiber snacks are the reason we are becoming a nation of fat people. It reminds me of the movie Wall.E where people have become obese and lost the ability to walk because they spend all their time in lounge chairs, eating and drinking. Okay, we’re not that bad… yet.

Anyway, back to the carrot. Yes, it may be a “carb-on-a-stick,” but they’re tasty (that’s the sugar, by the way), full of vitamins and naturally LOADED with fiber. The carrot is Nature’s answer to all those fiber drinks we feel we need to drink because our diets are fiber poor. What do we do? We have colonics! What’s wrong with this picture!?

At only 30 calories apiece, a couple of raw carrots every day are enough to get even the sluggish of digestive tracts moving. They’re the “Pac-Man” of vegetables as far as I’m concerned. If you’re cutting out the other carbs, a couple of carrots aren’t going to hurt you.

I have serious issues with the diet drinks that are “full of dietary fiber.” Why not just eat food that is full of natural dietary fiber? Oh yeah, that enriched, Wonderbread, peanut butter and jelly sandwich just doesn’t cut it and you just can’t have it on whole grain bread.

So, you’ve filled your belly with high carbohydrate paste. No wonder you’re fat! A couple of carrots would at least move that nutritionally bereft lunch you just consumed through your system.

PB & J sandwich: 18g fat, 500mg sodium, 59g carbs, 12g protein, 3g fiber, 432 calories

Two carrots: 4g fat, 100mg sodium, 13.8g carbs, 14g protein, 4g fiber, 60 calories

One should eat 14g of fiber for every 1000 calories. That sandwich just ate up a quarter to a fifth of your caloric intake with only 3g of fiber.
To get the same number of calories, you would have to eat 14.4 carrots. Nobody eats that many carrots in a day, but you can see where this is going.

14.4 carrots: 28.8g fat, 720g sodium, 99.36g carbs, 100.8g protein, 28.8g fiber, 432 calories

Okay, now it get a little gross. When you’re constipated, your body becomes tired and sluggish. You “wish you could go.” When you finally do, it always feels sooooo good. Plugging up your system is more than plugging up your system. It’s poisoning your body.

Two things have happened. Your diet doesn’t have enough fiber in it, and you’re not drinking enough water. These two things will keep you “going.”

My parents used to make jokes about how old people always talk about what a great poop they had (now they talk about it). When you think about it, it really is a big deal. As you get older and your body metabolizes more slowly and your activity level is lower. Your body isn’t moving waste through your system like it used to. But at any age, a great poop in the morning really feels good and carrots can help this happen.

CARROTS ARE COOL!

Carrots don’t require any special preparation; just wash and go. Obviously, raw, unpeeled carrots are better for you than cooked carrots but they still have the fiber you need. Like I said before, a couple of carrots and plenty of water every day can keep your system moving and you’ll never be constipated.

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Why Do We Get Fat?

Posted on December 5, 2011 by admin

Most of us are creatures of habit. Your body gets used to and expects certain foods at the same time of day. For instance, Mr. X gets up in the morning, has a cup of coffee, scrambled eggs, bacon and a piece of toast and goes to work. During the course of the day, he might have a bag of candy to stave off hunger. At lunch, he goes to a fast food joint and has lunch. In the afternoon, he has some other unhealthy snack and goes home to a full dinner and dessert later. He might still be hungry a few hours later, so he might munch out on some chips or crackers. This man sits at a desk for forty hours a week and gets relatively no exercise except perhaps playing basketball with his friends on the weekends. This man has justified his two to three pound weight gain every year for the last thirty years. Obviously, he’s taking in more calories than his body is burning.

This scenario seems to be the norm. We have justified our lifestyles and our eating habits around convenience and social, pleasure eating. That coffee stand Latte every morning is costing us more than just money. An average sixteen ounce low-fat milk Latte has  230 some-odd calories. Add chocolate and whipped cream and you might as well not eat for the rest of the day. I’m sorry, if you’re overweight, this stuff isn’t helping. “I’m on a diet. All I had this morning was a Latte.” Really?

I’m so glad I can’t drink coffee. I’m not even tempted, but the occasional sixteen ounce, two percent milk, Oregon Chai Latte was good for 274 calories so I can’t talk. The occasional run to Coldstone Creamery for a “gotta have it” Strawberry Banana Rendezvous was a killer. It used to cost me a whopping 1420 calories. Not good. That’s more calories than I’m presently taking in every day on this diet. This is a no-brainer.

As we get older, our activity level tends to decrease because of our jobs and our general lifestyle changes. Studies have shown that people who have forty hour per week desk jobs that do a half hour of exercise each day are more likely to suffer a heart attack than someone whose job requires standing all day…. Something to think about. Perhaps break time, lunch time and in between time ought to be spent on your feet.  I’ll hunt down the specifics and post them.

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“The Sacred Heart Diet” A Dietary Kick Start?

Posted on December 5, 2011 by admin

I met a lady who turned me on to The Sacred Heart Diet and said she lost about ten pounds every time she did it. EVERY TIME? I thought the idea behind “dieting” was to lose weight and keep it off, not to jump start your body every couple of months because you’re overeating. She did say it was for detoxing and jump starting your metabolism. I looked at the soup recipe and the rules of the diet, and it can’t be any harder on your body than fasting.

If you research this diet, you’ll know that it has nothing to do with any of the Sacred Heart Hospitals. What I’ve been able to glean from the sites I’ve explored is that it is, as I was told,  a seven day jump start diet designed to do just that: jump start your metabolism. Just as we tend to be creatures of habit, our bodies tend to do the same thing so jolting your body out of its complacency might be a pretty good thing.

So, here it is, the Sacred Heart Weight Loss Meal Plan. There are several versions out there, but they’re all about the same.

After reading numerous blogs about this “diet,” I’ve come to the conclusion that too many people are looking for a quick fix for obesity. If you don’t change your eating habits, you’re not going to get thin, no matter how many “diets” you do. Your life shouldn’t be about dieting, it should be about eating healthy. If you revert back to your old eating habits, you’re just going to get fat again, and then some. So what’s the answer… go back on a diet? Really?

You need to make the decision to change your relationship with food. If you spend the better part of a week eating vegetables, of course you’re going to lose weight. If your body is suddenly deprived of fats and carbs to burn, its going to turn to the stored body fat. The greater part of your diet is supposed to be vegetables. DUH!

The Sacred Heart Diet is not a diet. A diet doesn’t last only seven days. It’s more of a kick start. That’s why I’m calling it that. Your life isn’t supposed to be about dieting. “Oh, I’m on a diet this week. I can have that next week when I’m not on a diet. Huh?

I plan on trying this 7-day “diet.”

 THE SEVEN-DAY KICK-START DIET 

DAY 1

Eat: Soup and fruit. Eat only these items and as much as wanted.

Drink: Only unsweetened juice, black coffee, black tea, plenty of water.

Do Not: No milk or sugar in coffee or tea. No bananas.

DAY 2

Eat: Vegetables and soup. Eat as much soup as possible. Have a baked potato for dinner with a little bit of butter.

Drink: Drink plenty of water

DAY 3

Eat: Eat lots of fruit and vegetables and soup.

Drink: Drink six to eight glasses of water.

DAY 4

Eat: Eat at least three bananas and as much soup as possible.

Drink: Drink as much skim milk as possible.

DAY 5

Eat: Eat ten to twenty ounces of steak or some ground beef. If needed, you can consume skinless chicken or fish in its place but today the body will benefit from protein. Eat tomatoes and sacred heart soup.

Drink: Drink lots of water.

DAY 6

Eat: Eat meat with no limit and have a bowl of soup. Eat as much cooked and raw vegetables as wanted.

Drink: Drink lots of water.

DAY 7

Eat: Eat brown rice. Have some vegetables and soup as well

Drink: Drink lots of water.

 

THE SOUP:

1 large can of Vegetable cocktail (like V-8)

2  15 oz can of diced tomatoes

Green onions for taste, chopped

Beef bullion to taste (1 or 2 teaspoons ought to do)

Dry package of chicken noodle soup mix

1 bunch of celery, chopped

2 cans of green beans

1 pound of carrots, washed, unpeeled and sliced

1 bell pepper (green, red, orange or yellow) chopped

Generous handful of chopped mushrooms

1/2 head of shredded cabbage

THE DIET:

I looked around the internet to read about other people’s success with the Sacred Heart Diet. I found some interesting correlations between substitutions and total weight loss. One person used chicken broth for the base instead of vegetable juice (like V-8 and yes, I know V-8 is full of sodium), poured tons of salt in the soup and drank apple juice and cran-apple, both of which are probably crammed full of extra sugar.  The diet specifically says, “unsweetened fruit juice.” This person also peeled their carrots. Why? The outer cambium layer is healthy. It’s the layer which carries nutrients to the rest of the carrot and I believe, is the most nutrient-rich part of the carrot. When all was said and done, this person then complained that only eight pounds were lost. It’s not a mystery to me.

For those of you who took E.S.T., the Forum or more specifically, the Six-Day Advanced course with W,E and A, you would remember the day which was dedicated to following the instructions EXACTLY… (Stand up… Thank You… Now, Sit Down…. Thank You… Now, Stand Up….) Remember that? If this diet is supposed to work for you, follow the instructions exactly or you won’t get the result you’re looking for. We as humans tend to fudge or even break the rules, do a thing our way because we think we know better without having tried or done it the way it was meant to be done. The sad thing is, some of us never learn. We keep making the same error.

Gee, let me think. The whole purpose of the vegetable juice for the base is to create anon-animal-protein soup. What you’re doing with this soup, is depriving your body of the animal proteins in favor of fat-burning vegetables. Then, later on in the diet, you reintroduce the animal protein. The whole premise of this diet is so clear to me. It’s the same with the bananas. The diet only lets you eat them on one day, and with dairy which you also can’t have but on that day. You’re shocking your body into metabolizing faster. If you’re life is about fudging everything you do, you’re not going to achieve the intended results.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

This quote, wherever it came from, is an obvious misnomer unless you insert the word stupid.

Insanity: doing the same stupid thing over and over again and expecting different results.

This isn’t Burger King and you can’t have it your way.

I’m going to follow the diet to the letter and see if my results coincide with the claims. Yeah, I probably sound like an arrogant jerk and perhaps I am about some things, but I want to lose this weight so badly I’m practically willing to jump through flaming hoops to do it. I made this decision, and I’m going to stick by it.

 7-Day Diet, Day 1        

Food: The Sacred Heart Soup, Fruit, and lots of water.

This morning, I prepared my soup. I was rather surprised that it took almost an hour to chop everything up. I sliced the celery stalks lengthwise before I chopped them. I did the same with the carrots, and in the case of larger ones, I quartered them lengthwise before chopping. I hate canned green beans, so I used two pounds of fresh and cut them all up. I also used a half of a Chinese cabbage. My gigantic 17 quart spaghetti pot is full and the soup is so thick it’s more like a vegetable slush. Of course it still needs to cook down, but it has substance. I didn’t add the beef bullion yet because I want to see how it tastes once it cooks and all the flavors meld together.

After my husband got out of the shower, he made a comment about how good the soup smelled. I told him about my soup and he said he wanted some of it too. I suppose I’ll be making two batches this week. Anyway, I added a little garlic powder and oregano to the soup as well. I hadn’t eaten any breakfast, so I ate a bowl of soup. It was good. I went about my business and was getting ready to go to work and I realized I might end up feeling really hungry before my first break so I had another bowl. Well, I was already kind of full and those last bites reminded me of the movie “Cool Hand Luke” when he was trying to gag down those last couple of hard boiled eggs.

I ate an apple at break, my soup at dinner and a papaya at my second break. That papaya was a real treat. I’m glad I saved it for later rather than eating it for breakfast.

7-Day Diet, Day 2: no weight change       

Food: The Sacred Heart Soup, Vegetables, Baked Potato, and lots of water.

When all was said and done, I ate about nine cups of soup yesterday. That’s a lot of vegetable bulk. Even so, while my weight didn’t go down, It didn’t go up either. I think tomorrow might be another story.

This morning, I wasn’t hungry. Also, the last thing I wanted to eat if I was, was the soup. I put it off until almost eleven o’clock. It was a three cup serving and I sprinkled garlic powder all over it. Actually, I liked it. I spent the day making my killer pie crust and then making a couple of pecan pies for a party on Sunday afternoon. I wasn’t even tempted to taste any of it.

I know I’m supposed to eat as many vegetables as I can, but I can’t. I’m not hungry. When I am, I get my baked potato!

I ate my baked potato in the late afternoon. I sort of undercooked it, but it was still good. I had a couple of carrots afterward. I’m satisfied.

My husband had the Sacred Heart Soup for dinner and was thrilled. He absolutely loved it. As a purely vegetable soup, I don’t think anyone can knock it unless they are missing all those preservatives and ingredients they can’t pronounce.

7-Day Diet, Day 3:  1/2 pound lost

Food: The Sacred Heart Soup, Vegetables and fruit (no bananas), and lots of water.

I went to bed last night with a bit of a sore throat. I still have it this morning. It’s no wonder because where I work has become a bastion of viral maladies. It seems like everyone is sick with some kind of plague. Then again, perhaps the sore throat and the slightly runny nose I’ve had for the last several weeks is just detox. I don’t feel bad, it’s just annoying. Time for a Zicam swab and a little Advil. Other than that, I actually feel pretty good.

I’m not hungry, but I know I need to eat this morning because there won’t be any time to munch out on anything until lunchtime. Papaya… Good! Carrots… Good! Apple… Good! Soup… Good! Blueberries? Excellent!

I just couldn’t eat the soup. I wasn’t very hungry, but I didn’t follow the diet as it was written. Therefore, if I don’t make the expected weight loss goal, I lose the right to complain about it.

7-Day Diet, Day 4:  1/2 pound lost

Eat: Eat at least three bananas and as much soup as possible.

Drink: Drink as much skim milk as possible.

I had a backache through my entire shift last night. I haven’t been drinking enough water and I think I have backed up the plumbing a little bit. I haven’t felt hungry and the thought of eating more soup doesn’t thrill me. At day four, I am finally starting to eliminate the soup from day one. I’ve been walking around trying to let gravity and nature do its thing. I feel like I have a rock in my gut. Must-drink-more-water.

By lunchtime, my body righted itself. I ate my bananas and drank my milk, but I just couldn’t eat the soup. I did however come up with a cool and filling way to eat the bananas. The milk, a banana, ice and vanilla extract in the blender. It was a little like a smoothie. If I had had more bananas, I would have put two in mix. Anyway, it was tasty and very filling. In fact, so filling, I couldn’t eat any soup before we left for the Christmas party. Again, I didn’t follow the rules as written.

At the Christmas party and didn’t eat anything. It was a mexican food buffet with all kinds of great stuff and a whole table full of desserts. Didn’t touch any of it, and I didn’t feel deprived. I’m kind of a diet ninja right now except I would really love a steak right now.

7-Day Diet, Day 5:   4 pounds lost

Eat: Eat ten to twenty ounces of steak or some ground beef. Eat tomatoes and sacred heart soup.

Drink: Drink lots of water.

This was something of a quantum leap from yesterday. 4 pounds lost on this “diet.” I’m not sweating it. If I lose, I lose. If I don’t, I don’t. I know I’ll lose weight, exactly how much really isn’t a big deal. What I did get out of this so far was a really tasty soup which I can modify. My husband loves it. Yes, I think I’m a little tired of it for now, but with a few additions down the road, it can make a great soup base for other soups, both vegetable and those with meat. A tasty vegetable soup several times a week is good for your body. A soup this thick definitely gets your vegetable servings in and that’s a good thing.

Last night’s cravings are gone. Actually, I’m not even very hungry right now. I need to go to the store to get meat. Tomatoes and/or soup isn’t exactly what I’d like for breakfast, but that’s what’s on the menu for today.

I cooked up stir-fry meat when I got home at noon and put it in my soup with a sprinkling of garlic! It was soooo good! I could eat another bowl right now, but I’m going to wait about an hour. If I’m still hungry, then I’ll have some more. I think restraint is needed. I scarfed that bowl of soup down probably because I hadn’t eaten in ten hours. “So didja even taste it?” Eating too fast is also sometimes a bad habit with me. This is something I need to work on.

That was too much meat for me today… over twice as much as I would normally eat. I feel bogged down and heavy. My stomach doesn’t feel all that great. Meat digests much more slowly than anything else. That’s why I’ve felt so good for the last two weeks. I’ve had no meat.

I’m done. After bananas, which are binding in your intestinal tract, all that meat made me sick. I don’t have the time available for exercise and that may be the problem. All those bananas and that meat just sat in my system. I gained back the weight I had lost. Basically, I lost a week of weight loss and my momentum! While this supposed diet might appeal to some, I think it was a bust. I’ll stick with what I’m already doing: eating less. I can lose about four pounds a week doing it my way. I’m too old to be messing with food like this.

 

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