Day 6

I've come to realize that I am an emotional eater. I never thought I was until now. I like to reward myself with food. Having a bad or long day at work? How bout an M&M blizzard from DQ. Having a rough week at work? How bout a whole weekend of eating whatever I want because I deserve it. I'm also an all or nothing type person. I either follow something to the letter of the law or I don't follow it at all. For example, this diet. I'm following it to the letter of the law and you would not believe how many times I would have loved to gone to Cracker Barrel or any restaurant and eat my favorite foods over this holiday weekend. I always looked forward to the weekends because I knew I'd eat good. It's true that I don't have any cravings (which is what the dr said would happen) but I do miss me some bread!! Especially white bread like Jimmy Johns sandwiches or garlic bread. But it's weird that I'm not craving it. I just miss the taste of it. I have been hungry a lot this past week but I think that is because I've been walking 3.6 miles every day for the last 4 days. I reheated the burger that I made a few days ago and OMG was it delicious!! Even though it was 2 days old! And I bought a steamer for my veggies. That was the best thing I could have bought. I've been eating steamed broccoli and asparagus and it is DELICIOUS!! I would NEVER had gone through the trouble to make steamed veggies before. A ride through the nearest drive through was a lot easier and tastier. But when your diet is extremely limited, you start to enjoy the simplest of foods (i.e. a plain burger which is just a patty of beef). What's also funny is that me and my boyfriend planned our weekends around where we were going to eat next. Now that I'm on this diet, we have a bunch of free time that we don't know what to do with. Inevitably my boyfriend is going to end up losing weight while I'm on this diet because now he's finding stuff to eat at home :)

I am staying focused on my goal. I'm excited to see what my weight loss is tomorrow after being on this for one week. I know I've lost something. I can feel it. Plus I don't think I'm eating more than a 1000 calories per day! How can you not lose weight?? And now that I've had a weeks worth of the IP food, I know what I like and what I don't like and get to customize my food for the upcoming week. Yay!

Day 4

I know I skipped a day but yesterday it was just way to beautiful out to even log in! Sunny and 75 without a single cloud in the sky. Also, I was out at a book signing on Thursday night to meet my favorite author Jennifer Lancaster and didn't get home until midnight. So needless to say, I didn't wake up until almost 10 on Friday...yikes. I've noticed on this diet that I'm tired earlier than usual. By 8pm I'm ready for bed. Sometimes I like to go to bed just so I'm not tempted to eat. I've been hungry between meals but it's a different kind of hungry. It's not a low sugar type hungry where I'm shaking and looking for the nearest fast food restaurant. This type of hunger is tolerable. Also, my workouts (I've only been walking) seem better. I can feel a difference in how my body is reacting. Before I felt tired before I even made it halfway around the trail and I'd get so frustrated because I know I can make it all the way around. Now I feel like even though I'm hungry, I don't feel weak. So I got that going for me :)

And yesterday I cooked hamburgers on the grill and they came out AWESOME!! Trust me, this is a rare occurrence. My boyfriend will be the first to tell you that anything I cook on the grill comes out the consistency of a hockey puck. I couldn't believe how good they were (I could only have 1 7oz burger with nothing on it) for being made with 96% lean beef. Also, I've never cooked asparagus and I took a simple recipe that my best friend gave me (little evoo, seasalt and pepper) and actually cooked them on the grill and they came out PERFECT!! I mean perfect crispness and taste. I ate them all and didn't even leave some for my boyfriend (his loss, he decided to go out golfing with his friends). I figured they wouldn't be good by the time he got back. So asparagus is my new fav veggie! I was desperate to find more veggie options since lettuce and cucumbers were getting old fast.

Anyway, I still haven't felt any real withdrawl symptoms like headaches which I thought FOR SURE I'd get. This makes me happy because I know that I can always come back to this diet plan if I need to (which I'm hoping I won't because it's not easy).

Now I'm off to start my day and enjoy the rest of the holiday weekend. It's going to be nothing but sun and 80's all weekend except for Monday of course. Mother Nature can't give us everything :) And I have to be honest, I do miss going to Cracker Barrel with my bestie on Saturday mornings. CB was my weekend guilty pleasure. Oh well, I keep my 50 lb goal in mind and that keeps me motivated! Plus I'm getting out of this vicious sugar cycle and I couldn't be happier about that.

Day 2

I survived the first day! Who knew I could go one day without carbs. I'm guessing that this is going to get harder as time goes by. I didn't experience any headaches or nausea so that was good although by the evening I was feeling a little tired due to lack of energy. I stuck to the plan and didn't eat more than 4 IP packets when I could have had one more. I may have to do that today since I'm feeling very hungry.

I did ask my friend who is on this what she did for salad dressing. I have no clue on how to properly mix vinegar and oil. She said she's been putting hot sauce on everything even salads. Now I would never have thought of that but I did put it on my eggs this morning and it rocked! Guess I'll be stocking up on hot sauce! One thing about this diet is that it is extremely bland. I also need to get a variety on the vegetables. All I've been eating is salad and cucumbers. That's going to get old pretty quick. The list of "unrestrictive veggies" has barely a handful of veggies that I like. This is the problem when you do not cook and eat convenience food, you don't know how to be creative.

I did have a slight panic attack last night when I remembered that I was going to dinner with my friend tonight (plans that were made before I embarked on this diet). I don't want to sabatoge myself so early in the game so my plan is that no matter where we go, all I'm getting is a plain chicken breast and some lettuce to make a chicken salad. I must remember the goal and not be bummed out that I won't be able to enjoy all the awesome fattening food I use to.

Day 1

So today I started the Ideal Protein program. For those of you unfamiliar with it, it's similar to Atkins but monitored by a doctor and better for you (at least that is the bill of goods I was sold). It doesn't matter to me at this point, I just want to see results!! It was suggested to me by a friend who has already lost 67 lbs on her own and she found it when she hit a plateau and now has lost 16 lbs in 4 weeks. Now those are my kind of numbers! I know, I know, I didn't gain back 50 lbs in a month and I know I won't lose it in a month but I live by instant gratification (which breeds disappointment and frustration thus leaving Seattle Sutton and Nutrisystem in the dust). The whole point of this program is to "reset" the pancreas so that it's not overproducing insulin. In a nutshell, if you are doing all you can to lose weight (eat right, exercise) and still not seeing results, it may be because your body is not using sugar like it should. Sugars include carbs and let me tell you, I never met a carb I didn't like. If your body was functioning normally, it would use the sugar you consumed to fuel your muscles. If not, then your body is storing all that sugar into fat. I'm obviously not a doctor but given some other things I've noticed about my how my body functions, I truly believe that my body is not using sugars properly in addition to my eating a high carb based diet.

So far I had the herb and egg mix for breakfast and 25 oz of water, a chocolate shake for my mid-morning snack (did I mention I am a chocolohoic) and just had my 2 cups of vegetables and a bowl of salad for lunch. I'm holding off on my packet of chicken soup for later which may be sooner rather than later. I have to admit, the food is actually decent! My biggest challenge will be discipline. I'm all excited now because it's new but just like a new pair of shoes, eventually the newness wears off. But I am determined to make this work. I realize that I should have done this in the winter so that I can have that rockin body for summer (HA! yeah right) but at this point it's better now than never. I've come to a point in my life where I have to start worrying about my health just as much as my vanity. Every single one of my Dad's brothers and sisters (total of 8) had diabetes after the age of 40. That was not the future I wanted for myself.

Because I feel in my heart and soul that I am going to beat the system (i.e. my lack of willpower) and reach my goal and KEEP IT OFF this time that I wanted to document my journey. I realize that the topic of weight loss and the struggles with it is very common. I just want to be able to look back and never forget how hard I worked to get to where I am. So let the journey begin!!!