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.

Body Media Fit Review

Last fall I checked myself into Jenny Craig. I'd gone that route before and almost a month on the plan I realized how much money I was dumping into their food plan. I quit going to Jenny Craig, but before I did I made a new friend, Body Media Fit.

I wasn't sure about it at first...I would have to wear the thing around my arm all of the time for it to measure how many calories I burn, how long I sleep, etc. Finally I decided that it would be worth the money and I invested in it.

Each morning I plug the little guy into my computer and it syncs the information to my account manager. It then tells me too much information. Like last night, in case I didn't REALIZE I slept like crap, my handy dandy little Body Media Fit told me that I was only at a 50% Sleep Efficiency. By the way, I'm tired today! This will also sync to other tools, such as Spark People. It's pretty cool.

In the Body Media Account Manager it sets daily goals for me to reach in order to lose how much weight I want to lose per week. The goal for steps is 8000 steps. I unfortunately on a normal day am at about 5000 steps. When I realize how under I am, it helps get me moving the next day. It really does help inspire me.

Speaking of inspiration, it is used by the Biggest Loser coaches. If it works for them, it works for me!

The Shred Revolutionary Diet Review

On January 7th I started the 6 Week "Shred" diet. It promises 2 Dress sizes, 4 inches, and up to 20 pounds in 6 weeks.

The Basic Plan

This plan works based on diet confusion. Each day the calories (which you never count) and food types will change. He also has an exercise program to follow which consists of just cardio for the first cycle. 

What I Like About the Plan

It includes a maintenance plan. After you get to your goal weight, you eat your own way for four weeks and then do any week of his six week cycle. You do this every 4 weeks for six months and then you go to every eight weeks.

What I Don't Like About the Plan

After the first six week cycle it begins feeling repetitive and restrictive. The first six weeks were fine, but if you have more to lose and try it for a second cycle I found it very repetitive feeling (just like my use of the word repetitive!).  I will try this diet again, but only for the six weeks, or once I get to my goal weight follow his maintenance plan.

A Typical Day

With this plan you eat 4 meals and 3 snacks. The meals should be about every 3- 3 1/2 Hours. The snacks are 100 calories or 150 calories and he has a great list of suggested snacks. 

The meals tend to revolve around Protein Shakes, Fruit Smoothies, and Soup. Breakfasts may include oatmeal, but on some days you enjoy pancakes with turkey bacon or a grilled cheese sandwich.

Some days you get a treat with lasagna, spaghetti and meatballs, hamburgers, and pizza. But mainly it will be a lean meat and veggies or Protein Shake, Soup, and quite often Beans. (Yeah, I know...the beans aren't super exciting.)

Lessons Quickly Learned

1. Preparation, Preparation, and PREPARATION!

• Menu Planning- I sat down and made a menu plan for each week, narrowing down his choices to what I would eat. If it's not on the menu, I don't eat it.
• Week Preparation- After Grocery Shopping I would leave everything out and prepare all of the food for the week. (i.e. make soup, cut veggies, snack packs) 
• Nightly Preparation- Grab the items I need the following day and put them in my lunch bag. All I have to do is go out the door WITHOUT forgetting my lunch bag!

    2. Snack Selection

• Not all 100 Calorie or 150 Calorie Snacks are the same. Pick the ones that are going to stick with you the longest (i.e. Hard Boiled Egg vs 100 Calorie Snack Pack of cookies)

Costs 

This started out a little more expensive and ended up lower as weeks went by. With the next diet and the next time I do the Shred I will actually save my receipts and have a budget number here!

Results

The black ribbon was my before waist measurement and the white ribbon was after six weeks. I lost about 6 inches from my waist! I was down about 10 1/2 pounds, but definitely think most of my loss was in inches. I have a few more pictures showing the difference of the two weeks below:

Overall I was thrilled with my results on this diet. I just couldn't follow it consecutively (I made it to week 3 and decided it was time to chase a new diet.) I will go back to this at some point, I'm sure. But for now I'm off to chase down the Flat Belly Diet starting Monday.