Twelve pounds ago, I approached this diet with commitment and, as evidenced by these entries, some degree of humor. Ok, ok - a large degree of humor! From that dreadful hot water/lemon ritual to the introduction of green tea into my routine, I've certainly found enough to kvetch about! (And let's not forget that nightly conga line with my two furry little roommates!) On Friday, I began Cycle 2 ("Accelerate"), which begins the process of adding some carbs back into the menu. Wait...what?! I was really comfortable with my cycle 1 menu: protein, cleansing veggies, low-fat ("active culture") cottage cheese and no-fat, low-sugar yogurt. For 17 days, I cursed the carbs! I shoved away the sugars! I banished BAGELS, for the love of God! And now, I have to begin to reverse the curse and bring those little devils back? (sigh) Okay.......talk about screwing up a good routine...
Yes, it's true; while I may not be Monk, I clearly have potential. I am a true creature of habit. After all, I suppose that's contributed to how I got to this point to begin with: habit. I smoked. A bad habit. I quit smoking. A big victory. I sucked on wild cherry throat drops for several months as a substitute. Obviously I quit the smoking, but not the habit. And then ... my friends - the carb army - moved into my house and onto my hips and my thighs and my stomach and my ... well, you get the picture. The point is - I love a good routine and the first cycle of The 17 Day Diet gave me a great one. And now, Dr. Mike wants me to alternate days on cycles 1 and 2. What he's really saying is that he wants me to think. At 4:30 AM - the time I'm now going to have to get up every morning to fit thinking into my new routine. Yikes! This has disaster written all over it! Friday morning, Day 1 on cycle 2. I rose from my bed and bolted down the dreaded hot lemon water. I ate 2 Eggbeater eggs, 1 4 oz serving of yogurt and a cup of green tea. I packed a plum in my cooler (along with 2 20-ounce bottles of Smart water) for consumption at the office with my coffee. Not too bad. Had my usual big salad with loads of protein and a 4 oz serving of Breakstone's Live and Active low fat cottage cheese - and a cup of green tea for lunch. Hey ... that seems like a lot of food. No worries - dinner came and I screwed it all up. No "natural starch". I ate my usual cycle 1 dinner. Ah, well. There's always tomorrow, I thought. A quasi-work day. Up at 6. Eggbeaters, green tea, fruit. (Hot lemon water goes without saying.) Copied the food list and meal plans for cycle 2. Made three branch visits. Went grocery shopping...for 90 minutes (reading the fine print on those labels takes time, my friends!) ... at 2 stores. Put stuff in my cart I thought I'd never see again: potatoes, Cream of Wheat, BEEF! Joyous! Got home at 1:15 - starving! I can now appreciate that segment of Dr. Mike's book that says we should avoid getting so hungry we could "eat the lining out of an empty Spam can"! Seriously. The cats' dry food began to take on gourmet properties. I opened a can of tuna to add to my salad. I heard a wee cry behind me. Phoebe and Annie heard the can opener and responded to it immediately. Side by side they sat, their faces looking like those "Precious Moments" figures - in stereo! My stomach let out a very loud growl and they were happy to settle for a saucer - each - of tuna "juice"... then went to stand guard over their kibble. They could sense danger. Later, as I was putting away my groceries, I reflected on this whole cycle 2 business. The food options and menu choices on cycle 1 leave no room for hunger. You're truly almost always full (unless you do something as stupid as I did and wait too long between feedings!). I lost 12 pounds. Nice, but nowhere near "goal". Cycle 2 adds carbs...how will that contribute to continued weight loss? BUT, I know people who've lost a total of 25 pounds following the book, following the cycles (and without exercise, but we'll talk about that later!). I decided that I don't necessarily need to understand it. I just need to do it. And so, cycle 2 begins. Tonight's menu: steak on the grill - with steamed vegetables and green tea, of course!
Yesterday, I ran into someone I haven't seen in awhile. I was comparing yogurt labels (I'm almost sorry I bought a Kindle. I seem to be doing all my reading in the grocery store these days - and don't mean tabloids at the checkouts!). After the initial greeting, she peered at me for a minute and said, "You've lost weight!" "Yes," I said. "Twelve pounds." "Great! I can really see it in your face!" We exchanged a few more pleasantries and parted company. After the aforementioned luncheon episode, I went into my bathroom and looked in the mirror. She was right. My face is thinner. But ... what is that thing that's beginning to droop down from my chin? It looks like that droopy thing that hangs down below a turkey's beak...the thing my grandmother used to call a "waddle". And it's got wrinkles! Hey.........how is this fair? I knew it - it's all the poultry I've been eating. When I was in my 30's, I lost quite a bit of weight and my ugly double-chin just went away...completely; it didn't leave any sagging reminders of its former presence! Now that I'm older, that no longer happens? Is the gravity fairy going to do some sort of top-down visit? If this happens to my chin, I don't want to think about what's going to happen to "the girls" (and I'm not talking about the cats!). Yes, yes ... I know all about "exercise", but to be truthful, I don't think they can latch onto weights and do any kind of meaningful crunches. Or lifts; really - if they could do 'lifts' on their own, I wouldn't need the weights, would I? I took a deep breath. Maybe I don't need to worry about them right now. Maybe I can give that a rest for a minute and focus on the waddle. They sell chin straps, don't they?
Oh - I should mention that I led a few of you to believe that I'd focus on the Wii in this installment. Well, I would have, but I've got some other writing to do and I've finally gotten my focus back for that, so the Wii went by the wayside for this particular weekend. Its life was spared.
As for my own exercise? Well, while it's still not quite what it should be, I figure that quick-walking while pushing that HUGE grocery cart of carbs through the aisles of two different stores should count for something, right?
Right....................................!!!!
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