The Shred W1D2

Cooking lesson of the day: it takes longer to cook chicken in foil, regardless of what the instructions say if you don't want salmonella! I was able to try out my nifty new meat thermometer, but couldn't seem to master it. I know, I seem to be full of technical difficulties in the kitchen. 

On a side note, I put some leftover spaghetti squash, onions, and bell peppers in with the chicken and it was delicious. 

My food is all packed for work tomorrow. Day two was a success. I love how full I feel on this diet, but I'm trying to mentally prepare myself for the upcoming weeks when there are more smoothies and soups and less real meals...

The Shred Diet Again

Adios, Nutrisystem. It is amazing how good a piece of toast, egg whites, and orange juice tasted as my first breakfast back to fresh foods. (Okay, I may have had a cinnamon roll for breakfast the day before...let's revise to fresh and healthy foods!)

My first day back to cooking, I'd love to say it was a success. Following the diet was a success. My cooking skills, a little hazy. (Again, my honest voice must jump in and say, weren't they always hazy?)

Dinner was my big cooking test and...I was cooking spaghetti squash for the first time. All the recipes I found required cutting it in half before cooking, which sounded difficult. I kept searching and found the perfect recipe for me.

All I had to do was very carefully stab the heck out of the spaghetti squash (aka Stress Relief!) and nuke that sucker for 12 minutes. In the meantime I was heating up my black beans with some diced tomatoes and onions. This is where the I-Suck-at-cooking-story comes in. 

I decided to multi-task. I set my lunch bag on the side of the counter near the stove and decided to let my dog outside. I'd come back in, finish up the squash and pack my lunch while things cooled down.

However the bag fell away from the wall and onto the burner. Thank goodness I was right back and noticed this, I didn't have those pesky smoke alarms telling my neighbors I suck at cooking too!

So after a second of debating if I should just tie it in a knot or duck tape it back together, I chose tying it. My squash was finished and I mixed my meal together. Yum!

So...if I was going to choose nutrisystem over the Shred Diet, it would seem like nutrisystem would be my choice. (Hello, microwave!) But, I'm loving the fresh foods on the Shred even if it is more work and I suck at cooking!

The Plateau

I read an article this morning about plateaus and how they usually happen about 4-6 months into a diet. I'm going on month 5 with Nutrisystem and seem to have hit one.

What should I do? So far I've stayed the course and waited. Every morning after sweating my butt off with T25, I read a couple articles on muscle vs fat, plateaus. I'm trying hard to be patient, but I'm not.

Today I tried a technique of eating more calories. I also made up my mind I'm going to do the shred diet again. I know from pictures, from clothes, and from the mirror, that my work is paying off. I just need some recognition of this fact from my scales!!

Stalled Scales and T25

Today marks day one of my 10 week adventure with T25. I was suckered into buying it after seeing the results on the infomercial.

It comes at a good time. I lost about a pound a week with Nutrisystem, and a lot of inches, but I'm at a point I just need to see my scales budge! It has been stuck on the same number for a week so far! 

Patience. I know the name of this game is patience. Next week my scales shall change for the better! (Please!!)

Nutrisystem

Since the beginning of June I have been on Nutrisystem. I received a half off email and it seemed like a good idea. I've lost 16.9 pounds in 16 weeks. I'm okay with this (all though I'd have liked to have lost more.) But...I've decided to cancel them. When I decided to cancel the guy at Nutrisystem informed me I should have lost closer to 30 pounds. He knew this because he was a weight loss counselor. I wanted to remark that I could tell he must be a great weight loss counselor because of his sensitivity skills. Right...

Diet Depression

I've been a horribly bad blogger! If anyone has been here to read my blog, they know this. The truth is, all my inspiration, motivation and competitiveness for the work contest dried up. The other aspect to my big diet FAIL is stress and emotions. It has been a heck of a crazy spring. I want to look forward to summer and I am, but...I'm also dreading it because of this darn diet depression.

Last year I very optimistically took all my summer clothes to the goodwill. There was absolutely NO way I was going to fit into them this year. Guess what? Yep, they'd fit.

Since I haven't been typing, I have still been chasing diets without you. I've tried a few old stand by's that have worked in the past including The New Lifestyle Diet and Weight Watchers.

One of my best friends told me about a medically supervised program she is starting and I was calculating how I could make this fit in my budget. Especially since I'm buying a condo which is all part of the stress and emotional eating pattern I've spiraled down. Diet depression truly equals diet desperation. It's not a good place to be.

This has me thinking of something I've thought about before. Diets work on the symptoms, but not necessarily the problem if you're an emotional/stress eater like me. This has me searching the internet and researching emotional eating.

Here it is Confession # 1. Even though I know I'm only treating the symptom, I'm starting another diet. The newest diet will be Nutrisystem. I could hardly resist. I had a special in my inbox that offered me 50% off of the program for the length of it. Moving out on my own and only worrying about my food costs it will be very reasonable for the budget.

Confession # 2. I'm putting this off until I move. Yes, I need to be patient anyways (another skill I'm working on) until the food gets here. But if the food gets here before I move, I'll wait. I need to have one thing settled in my life. Once I'm in my house I'll start the program and do some side-work on the emotional part of this. I've got some ideas on ways to help solve the problem instead of just treating the symptoms and I can't wait to share them.

The good news, yes in the midst of diet depression there is still some good news. I should close on the house this week and move in over the weekend! That will take away one of the huge stressors I've been dealing with. I should also get my Nutrisystem food this week. Maybe next Monday I'll be back to the diet. The bad news? I'm battling diet depression and completely failed on the first half of the diet challenge at work. It's frustrating, but I'm not going to continue to beat myself up about it and turn all emotional and start eating...seriously, it's a vicious cycle! It stops now.

The Flat Belly Diet Week 1 Review

At the beginning of this week I wasn't feeling too excited about this diet. The reason? Well...it starts with a 4 day Anti-Bloat. That just sounds like a whole lot of fun now, doesn't it? Yeah, it doesn't sound that great. I was looking past the 4 day Anti-Bloat at the list of recipes that include Chocolate, Peanut Butter, Avocado thinking, I'm sure I can get through the next four days!

The Basics:

Start with the 4 Day Anti-Bloat (about 1200 calories a day and drink 2 liters of Sassy Water). I didn't start exercise during the 4 Day Anti-Bloat except for 20 minute walks with my co-workers during the work day.

After the 4 Days you get three meals that are 400 calories a piece, that include a monounsaturated fat (that is where the chocolate, peanut butter, and avocados come in!) You also get one 400 calorie snack that includes a monounsaturated fat. They want you to eat about every four hours.

The Anti-Bloat gives you a meal plan to follow with specific foods (I did substitute the cereal choices since I had a big box of plain cheerios and didn't really have the space to add two more cereal brands in it.) After that you choose from their suggestions (which sound delicious.)

The Budget:

I made the substitution on this when it came to the cereals, but overall I spent about $135.00 for the week. This was for 3 adults to follow the program for the week, so it would have been a little less if it was just myself. (The first week I did the Shred it was for two people and the budget was significantly higher--but I didn't track the costs at that point, so I'll follow it again and add that information.)

4 Day Anti-Bloat:

Sassy Water -

 

2 Liters of Water, 1 sliced cucumber, 1 sliced lemon, 6 mint leaves & 1 TBSP grated Ginger Root

This is refreshing. I always loved the first glass, but was happy for the last glass! 

I think I will incorporate this into my daily plan, but just one glass a day.

It took a little time for preparation, but not the 4 hours on Sunday that it was taking me for the shred. 

My lunch is all packed up and ready for day one below:

Breakfast on the first day. My substitution of cheerios, unsweetened applesauce, sunflower seeds and the Sassy Water!

I like grape tomatoes...but...1 Pint was a lot of them! 4 Ounces of Deli Turkey was also a lot. 

Milk & Blueberry Smoothie and Pumpkin Seeds for the snack.

Dinner for the first day was Tilapia, Green Beans, and Red Potatoes...and of course Sassy Water!

Anti-Bloat Results:

I was down 5.6 pounds when the Anti-Bloat was done. That was definitely worth the kind of boring 4 days of food and the Sassy Water.

Beyond Anti-Bloat:

I don't feel like I'm on a diet with this food. I started out my freedom of choosing meals with one of their breakfast suggestions, 1 Waffle, 1 Cup of Dark Cherries, and 1/4 Cup of Chocolate Chips. (Yum!)

The first day of my meals I was in a seminar during the day. I brought a Luna Bar, with an orange and 2 Tablespoons of Almonds to eat during the day. I got home and made my new favorite meal.

This has Whole Wheat Pasta, Italian Sausage, Shredded Carrots, Halved Grape Tomatoes, and Chopped Celery, topped with Pesto Sauce. I felt like I had to be cheating the whole time!

Later I made my guiltless cookies. They worked great as my last "meal" of the day with a glass of chocolate almond milk. They had the chocolate chips so I had my monounsaturated fat.

Lessons Learned:

Become a Worst Nightmare of Waiters/Waitresses:

Substitute until it becomes a healthy option for you. I went to Red Robins and was looking for something I could eat that wouldn't kill the diet and had a monounsaturated fat. I saw the California Chicken Sandwich, that had a Zesty Guacamole, but it also had Bacon, Mayonnaise, and the bread on the bun.

I asked for the sandwich wrapped in lettuce minus the mayonnaise and bacon.

Here is how it ended up calorie wise:

Yep, 286 calories vs 744 calories. Good option if you ask me and props to Red Robins for having a nutrition customizer.

Diets Don't Mean Deprivation:

I have had such delicious meals. I feel like I'm cheating the whole time and I'm not. I always feel like diets are so restrictive but they don't need to be!

Next week I'll give an update on how this diet is going, plus I have a funny "Flat Belly story" to share, but I've ran out of room to add it today!