Sunday, January 23, 2011

Day 1 - Mind Over (Food) Matter

Well, unfortunately I'm writing this on Day 2. My plan was to update after my son went to sleep last night, but I fell asleep too!

Yesterday was seriously hard. Most likely because I started the day not sleeping well the night before. My son woke up off & on all night long as we're all still getting over a head cold. I've always required at least 7 hours of sleep each night (ideally 8). Anything less than that is a recipe for me being grumpy, tired, and impatient all day long. So, needless to say I was weak for Day 1 of the plan...not a good way to start.

The day started with my spinach & egg scramble and fruit dish of raspberries & almonds (8:15 am). I added some garlic & fresh pepper to the egg, and it was delicious, but the raspberries were really hard to choke down. I usually love raspberries, but they were SO tart. I realized that in the past, I've usually eaten them with sugar or within vanilla yogurt. They were so tart, I felt a little sick to my stomach. Washed everything down with my 2 cups of water, and I left for my Step Aerobics class. I know the book says you're not supposed to exercise during the Fast Forward phase, but I love my Step Aerobics class almost as much as I love chocolate!

I was so thirsty that I drank another 4 cups of water during class. How is that for water intake? Only 11 am, and I've already downed 6 cups. After class, I thought for sure I would be starving, but nope. I had errands to run after class including a trip to Target and the grocery store. And then in Target, it hit me. I was starving! So, I grabbed a box of those 100 calories natural whole almond servings, and was out the door. I felt bad for breaking down already, but the book said that dizziness was not normal during this phase, and that you should add another protein serving if you feel anything like this. I started feeling quite dizzy walking down the aisles. Being that they didn't have hard boiled eggs at Target, I grabbed the almonds. At least I didn't leave the list of approved foods (yet....gulp).

Which brings me to this: I am a cheater. I've known this for a very long time. No matter what diet I've been on in the past, I've always found a way to "sneak" something in my mouth that I know I shouldn't. This is one of the reasons that I thought this plan would work for me because of the daily chocolate allotment. Although, you don't get that in the Fast Forward phase. :-( Yes, my friends -- the idea is to rid your body of sugar, artifical sweeteners, salt, etc. etc. etc. And as the day went on, it got harder and harder.

Raspberries were 4.99 a pint at the grocery store (crap). I had a feeling they would be the most expensive. I only left with 4 pints. After thinking about all of the frozen raspberries I bought yesterday, I decided I just wasn't going to spend any more money on them (especially after it was hard to choke them down at breakfast). I'd just reduce my serving size at each meal to 1/2 - 3/4 of a cup. (Here goes the cheater in me, again.) I had already picked out my meals for the next 8 days after the 5-Day Fast Forward and made my grocery list. That combined with a few staples that I already had on hand, I ended up spending $60 more than I usually do at the store. At first, I was horrified, but then I realize that during the week, I end up at the grocery store replenishing things we need at least another 1-2 times, and I probably end up spending $60 more in those visits. So, all in all, it probably evened itself out from my usual budget/spending.

After the grocery store, I went home to have my parfait meal (1:00 pm). Oh my God, I hate plain yogurt! I added the fresh mint and covered the berries in cinnamon and cloves (as the book suggests), but I still ended up hating the parfait. I was sad at this point because this was the meal I was looking forward to the most because I used to eat a parfait at least once a week before this plan. Then, I decided to have a hot cup of chai green tea, and my world turned around. It was so good that I ended up having 2 more mugs.

Tried to take a nap, and I kept waking up to pee. And then, I got seriously hungry and then I got mad. Talk about mood swings! Again, it's the lack of sleep and lack of sugar that caused all of this. (I know!) So, I cheated. And this time, it was 2TBSP. of peanut butter straight outta the jar. Man, I felt better.

During the day, I guzzled more water. I figured out that if I filled up my SIGG bottle twice each day, that equals 8 cups. Dinner time was at (6:00), and I made the spinach salad. I loved the hard boiled egg with some pepper, and I drizzled some balsamic vinegar and fresh juice from a Minneola that I bought at Trader Joe's, which is a cross between a grapefruit (yuck) and tangerine (yum). Put the raspberries & almonds on top, but the salad was just OK. I hated the raspberries as they made me sick to my stomach again. I don't understand why they make me feel so icky. I got mad again about my meal, so I made some more tea.

Around 9:30, which was supposed to be my last meal and smoothie time, I cringed at the thought of having to eat more plain yogurt and raspberries, so I took a Yoplait vanilla yogurt out of the fridge and sprinkled my almonds on top. Cheated again. It was at this point that I decided I'm either going to A) Quit the Fast Forward phase altogether (telling myself "It's optional, remember?") and skip right to good meals listed in the book, or B) I'm gonna start putting a sprinkling of sugar on my raspberries for the next 4 days and eat vanilla yogurt instead of plain yogurt. I went with option B.

I feel like a big cheater doing it this way because I know the author wouldn't agree with me. Plus, I really didn't want to skip to the good meals after I had SO much spinach, eggs, and raspberries sitting in my fridge. But, after I thought more about it, I AM A CHEATER! I can't change. I've tried, and "the more you tell a child they can't have their crayons, the more they want them". The end result of a potential huge weight loss in 5 days certainly won't be the same for me, but I'm willing to bet it will be close! Plus, I'll be happier and willing to stick with the full plan for 25 more days. One size fits all isn't the case here --- Got to remember to make this work for ME!

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