This mornings scale reading claims I gained another .6lbs.
This experiment has failed miserably. I have decided to try a new diet. I have discovered that going hungry nearly all of the time and only losing 6.8lbs in 12 days is not the results I was looking for. I mean - I was the results I was looking for, but not the means.
I will be creating a new blog tomorrow to keep myself in check with my new diet.
I am going to continue to juice in the morning for breakfast, but a healthy lunch and dinner along with a vigorous workout at the gym each day is going to be my new game plan. I actually started yesterday and it felt really good to get back in that gym and sweat.
Thanks for reading up to this point. I'm sorry if I disappointed anyone with this blog. I just can't see starving myself for such a small reward. I'll bet the weight comes off faster by counting calories and hitting the gym.
Starting Weight: 254.6
Current Weight: 247.8 -
11 day Total
Weight Loss: 6.8lbs
A 30-day diet experiment that died at day 12
Friday, September 21, 2012
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Day 11
This morning I stepped on the scale with a bit a trepidation. Yesterday morning's weight gain had me very angry, but this morning I dropped another 1.2lbs. All it cost me was starving all day yesterday. Not good!
Yesterday's lunch was much greener, a much smaller, and a lot less tasty.
I went with:
3 big handful of spinach
2 carrots
1 green apple
Total: 145.5 calories
It still tasted fine to me. It was a bit greener than what I am use to, but I don't find drinking spinach juice as aweful as I would have two weeks ago.
I went back to work more determined than ever to make this diet work.
If my math is correct then yesterdays lunch was only 145.5 calories, give or take. That is less calories than my granola snacks, which now has me on the hunt for new mid morning and pre-dinner snacks that have less calories. I am considering the plain Cheerios in a ziplock bag. 1 cup of plain cheerios is only 110 calories and they taste good. I grew up on Cheerios and enjoy eating them as a finger snack.
I added up my calorie count over the last few days and my juice choices could have been better, but my dinners were killing me. The Ranch dressing was incredibly high in calories compared to the simple teriyaki sauce. We are talking about a 300 to 400 calorie difference depending on how much dressing you use. 2 Table spoons of Ranch is 140 calories compared to teriyaki sauce's 2 table spoons at 30 calories.
Here is an example of how wrong I was dieting. On day 8 alone I consumed 2267 calories for the entire day. That is roughly 700+ calories above my recommended daily calorie intake for maintaining my current weight at my age, height, and weight. In order for me to lose weight at the recommended speed of 2lbs per week I should be consuming no more that 1500 calories per day. I can do this!
Since I had a much smaller portion of juice for lunch yesterday, when I got home from work I was starving. We had a few errands to run, but as soon as we got back I made my usual chicken salad dinner with teriyaki sauce as dressing.
One hour later I was hungry again. Not just snack hungry, but stomach growling hungry, so I ate some peanuts and they managed to get me through the night.
Day 11
This morning after I weighed myself I made the 145.5 calorie breakfast juice.
3 handful of spinach
3 carrots
1 apple
This morning this didn't taste so great. I choked it down, but didn't really enjoy it. I'm beginning to wonder if I should forgo this juice diet and just juice in in the morning, eat healthy the remainder of the day, stay away from the sodas and energy drinks, and hit the gym in the afternoons again. The gym is basically what got most of the weight off of me the first time around. I didn't have the motivation to go to the gym before starting this juice diet, but now after torturing myself with hunger the gym isn't looking so bad anymore. Plus, to be honest, even though I have been feeling hungry a lot, the juice is giving me energy as sufficiently, if not better than, the two energy drinks I use to have every morning.
Currently I will remain on this diet, but now I have a lot to think about.....
Starting Weight: 254.6
Current Weight: 247.2 -
11 day Total
Weight Loss: 7.4lbs
Yesterday's lunch was much greener, a much smaller, and a lot less tasty.
I went with:
3 big handful of spinach
2 carrots
1 green apple
Total: 145.5 calories
It still tasted fine to me. It was a bit greener than what I am use to, but I don't find drinking spinach juice as aweful as I would have two weeks ago.
I went back to work more determined than ever to make this diet work.
If my math is correct then yesterdays lunch was only 145.5 calories, give or take. That is less calories than my granola snacks, which now has me on the hunt for new mid morning and pre-dinner snacks that have less calories. I am considering the plain Cheerios in a ziplock bag. 1 cup of plain cheerios is only 110 calories and they taste good. I grew up on Cheerios and enjoy eating them as a finger snack.
I added up my calorie count over the last few days and my juice choices could have been better, but my dinners were killing me. The Ranch dressing was incredibly high in calories compared to the simple teriyaki sauce. We are talking about a 300 to 400 calorie difference depending on how much dressing you use. 2 Table spoons of Ranch is 140 calories compared to teriyaki sauce's 2 table spoons at 30 calories.
Here is an example of how wrong I was dieting. On day 8 alone I consumed 2267 calories for the entire day. That is roughly 700+ calories above my recommended daily calorie intake for maintaining my current weight at my age, height, and weight. In order for me to lose weight at the recommended speed of 2lbs per week I should be consuming no more that 1500 calories per day. I can do this!
Since I had a much smaller portion of juice for lunch yesterday, when I got home from work I was starving. We had a few errands to run, but as soon as we got back I made my usual chicken salad dinner with teriyaki sauce as dressing.
One hour later I was hungry again. Not just snack hungry, but stomach growling hungry, so I ate some peanuts and they managed to get me through the night.
Day 11
This morning after I weighed myself I made the 145.5 calorie breakfast juice.
3 handful of spinach
3 carrots
1 apple
This morning this didn't taste so great. I choked it down, but didn't really enjoy it. I'm beginning to wonder if I should forgo this juice diet and just juice in in the morning, eat healthy the remainder of the day, stay away from the sodas and energy drinks, and hit the gym in the afternoons again. The gym is basically what got most of the weight off of me the first time around. I didn't have the motivation to go to the gym before starting this juice diet, but now after torturing myself with hunger the gym isn't looking so bad anymore. Plus, to be honest, even though I have been feeling hungry a lot, the juice is giving me energy as sufficiently, if not better than, the two energy drinks I use to have every morning.
Currently I will remain on this diet, but now I have a lot to think about.....
Starting Weight: 254.6
Current Weight: 247.2 -
11 day Total
Weight Loss: 7.4lbs
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Day 10
I'm 1/3 of the way in now and this morning I got angry after weighing myself. I have gained another .6lbs. At this rate I will barely loose 18lbs by the end of 30 days. Time to reevaluate this diet. (Read below)
For lunch yesterday I had less greens at home than I thought I did, so this is what I created:
3 green apples
2 kale leaves
4 carrots
1 heaping tea saucer of assorted berries (blue berry, black berry, boysenberry)
This one came out real sweet. I have come to prefer a little more green in my drinks by now, but I had to use what I had.
I spoke with one of the vendors that I deal with at work on a regular basis and he informed me that he was looking for a weight loss program that he and his wife could get into. He is 71-years-old and is wanting to loose a little belly fat. I informed him of my current attempt and how it's going. He could tell that I was very excited to share my story and I believe my enthusiasm passed on to him. He wrote down the name and the price of the juicer I purchased from Costco and told me that he was going to give it a try. I told him about this blog and I sent him a link via email. I warned him about the early detox side effects such as headaches and possible lethargy, but he saw how much energy I have now on week two, so the early side effects didn't phase him. I hope he and his wife have success. I told him to keep my updated.
For dinner I had my usual boneless, skinless, chicken breast on a bed of spinach leaves with light ranch dressing for flavor.
I spent a great portion of the evening playing Kinect Sports with my girlfriends young daughter. I forgot to keep track of the calories burned. I only remember the calorie count from our last game of baseball on the Kinect, which was 110 calories burned.
Day 10
I'm not going to lie. After I weighed myself this morning I was pissed off. I feel great, energy wise, but I have been going hungry a lot and to see my weight keep going up and down (with bigger ups than downs lately) is beyond frustrating. My girlfriend pointed out the fact that the juices we have for lunch and breakfast are a bit larger than what we saw on "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead", and she's right. In the documentary they were drinking there juice from regular 12oz. drinking glasses and we have been drinking our juice from the larger 17oz. glasses. It's time to dial down.
I started researching calorie counts in raw vegetable juice this morning and after a little math discovered that I have basically been consuming almost 600 calories for breakfast alone, and another 600+ for lunch. Count in dinner and my granola snacks with breakfast and lunch and I am going way over my daily calorie intake for the day.
According to health science professionals the average persons daily calorie intake should not exceed 2000 per day. In order for a male of my size to lose weight at a rate of at least 2lbs per week, my calorie intake should not exceed 1600 per day. I have been drinking nearly 1300 before dinner, and that is not counting my snacks between juices (which equal 380 alone).
I'm not even going to discuss breakfast this morning because, lets just say, we went WAY over. We used more oranges than usual and it turns out that oranges are about 112 calories each.
For lunch today I will use less fruit and more veggies. The hard part about this is that the stuff that has the least calorie count, i.e. spinach, takes a huge dry bulk to make a little liquid and the best veggie, calorie wise, which makes a lot of juice with little dry bulk tastes disgusting to me ....celery. I printed myself a calorie list of all of the ingredients I bought, which is a lot (see my refrigerator pic below)
Starting Weight: 254.6
Current Weight: 248.4 -
10 day Total
Weight Loss: 6.2lbs
For lunch yesterday I had less greens at home than I thought I did, so this is what I created:
3 green apples
2 kale leaves
4 carrots
1 heaping tea saucer of assorted berries (blue berry, black berry, boysenberry)
This one came out real sweet. I have come to prefer a little more green in my drinks by now, but I had to use what I had.
I spoke with one of the vendors that I deal with at work on a regular basis and he informed me that he was looking for a weight loss program that he and his wife could get into. He is 71-years-old and is wanting to loose a little belly fat. I informed him of my current attempt and how it's going. He could tell that I was very excited to share my story and I believe my enthusiasm passed on to him. He wrote down the name and the price of the juicer I purchased from Costco and told me that he was going to give it a try. I told him about this blog and I sent him a link via email. I warned him about the early detox side effects such as headaches and possible lethargy, but he saw how much energy I have now on week two, so the early side effects didn't phase him. I hope he and his wife have success. I told him to keep my updated.
For dinner I had my usual boneless, skinless, chicken breast on a bed of spinach leaves with light ranch dressing for flavor.
I spent a great portion of the evening playing Kinect Sports with my girlfriends young daughter. I forgot to keep track of the calories burned. I only remember the calorie count from our last game of baseball on the Kinect, which was 110 calories burned.
Day 10
I'm not going to lie. After I weighed myself this morning I was pissed off. I feel great, energy wise, but I have been going hungry a lot and to see my weight keep going up and down (with bigger ups than downs lately) is beyond frustrating. My girlfriend pointed out the fact that the juices we have for lunch and breakfast are a bit larger than what we saw on "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead", and she's right. In the documentary they were drinking there juice from regular 12oz. drinking glasses and we have been drinking our juice from the larger 17oz. glasses. It's time to dial down.
I started researching calorie counts in raw vegetable juice this morning and after a little math discovered that I have basically been consuming almost 600 calories for breakfast alone, and another 600+ for lunch. Count in dinner and my granola snacks with breakfast and lunch and I am going way over my daily calorie intake for the day.
According to health science professionals the average persons daily calorie intake should not exceed 2000 per day. In order for a male of my size to lose weight at a rate of at least 2lbs per week, my calorie intake should not exceed 1600 per day. I have been drinking nearly 1300 before dinner, and that is not counting my snacks between juices (which equal 380 alone).
I'm not even going to discuss breakfast this morning because, lets just say, we went WAY over. We used more oranges than usual and it turns out that oranges are about 112 calories each.
For lunch today I will use less fruit and more veggies. The hard part about this is that the stuff that has the least calorie count, i.e. spinach, takes a huge dry bulk to make a little liquid and the best veggie, calorie wise, which makes a lot of juice with little dry bulk tastes disgusting to me ....celery. I printed myself a calorie list of all of the ingredients I bought, which is a lot (see my refrigerator pic below)
On a side note: I was right earlier in the week when I said that by Wednesday I believed that my Pleurisy will be gone. Today is Wednesday and I feel zero pain from the previously infected lung. Not even a little ache if I bend to my left, so not everything is all storm clouds and thunder bolts. I'm happy that I feel good :)
So today at lunch time I will be rethinking this diet. Smaller 12oz portions of more vegetables, less fruit. That is the key. I got too comfortable and was worrying about taste, when we all know that "good taste" seems to equal "bad for you". It sucks, but it's kind of a basic truth. I'll just have to convince my taste buds to go green. No pain, no gain.
Current Weight: 248.4 -
10 day Total
Weight Loss: 6.2lbs
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Day 9
I have dropped another .4lbs as of this morning.
Once I got home for lunch yesterday I jumped right into making myself something tasty.
I went with:
2 green apples
1 large handful of spinach
4 carrots
1 tea saucer full of assorted berries (blueberry, boysenberry, raspberry)
This is only the second time I have tried using the berries and I remembered how last time I couldn't taste them because I used an unpeeled orange in the mix. This time I left the orange out altogether and I was very happy with what I ended up with. I really want to get myself some acai berries for the health properties. Technically we should all be eating more purple. The color purple in fruit and vegetable signifies the presence of antioxidants and resveratrol, which is known to promote longevity. I learned that from Alton Brown. He's my celebrity man crush. I would love to spend an afternoon picking his brain.
As my lunch hour was drawing to an end I was running a bit behind. I was the only one home and I couldn't leave without cleaning my juicer. As I was heading out the door to go back to work I almost forgot to grab another granola bar. What I found in the cupboard put me into a high speed panic. The Nature Valley Honey n' Oats Granola box was empty. After some quick thinking on my part I grabbed a couple of handfuls of Honey Nut Cheerios and stuffed them into a zip lock sandwich bag and took them to work with me. The Cheerios were a perfect little snack around two o'clock. These would make a great substitute. Honey Nut Cheerios are only 118 calories for a whole cup and the Nature Valley Honey n' Oats granola bars are 190 calories per package. The only problem is that eating dry Cheerios has a tendency to shred the roof of my mouth.
I ended up exercising last night by playing Kinect Sports for 1-1/2 hours. I know that playing an Xbox game doesn't seem like exercise, but the Kinect keeps track of how many calories you burn and I probably burned more than it claimed because I was intentionally hopping around between game rounds to keep moving. The Kinect claims I burned 230 calories, and it was much more fun than just walking around my neighborhood and risk dealing with packs of stray chihuahuas and pitbulls ....have I ever mentioned that I live in a Spanish neighborhood?
For dinner I had another healthy boneless, skinless, chicken breast on a bed of spinach leaves. This time I used ranch dressing again and I added 4 pepperoncini's and a half of an avacado. I took a picture to liven up my blog a little.
Day 9
Apparently the weight is beginning to drop off again, which makes me happy. I was starting to get a little disheartened for a few days there.
This morning I had my usual:
2 green apples
2 handfuls of spinach leaves
4 carrots
My taste buds have changed quite a bit since the beginning. I am to the point now that I don't even notice the spinach and carrots in my drink. It's almost as if I'm just having a tall glass of apple juice in the morning and I have always loved apple juice.
Today for lunch I will have to go with a different green because I used the last of my spinach this morning. I still have some red chard I can use. I will have to visit Costco tonight after work and bulk up on a little more of everything. Maybe I'll get some Acai berries. This diet is not proving to be cheap, but it's healthy.
I should take the time here to mention that during my first week I didn't have much energy and I had a pretty nasty headache all week. This week my energy level is great. I feel really energetic and there is no sign of that headache coming back from the lack of caffeine. I haven't had a Monster Energy drink or any soda in over a week and I'm feeling really good. I was just commenting to my girlfriend on Saturday as we were heading to the youth football games that normally I stop by the local liquor store on our way out of town to buy myself a Monster and this time I would only be stopping for gas. It felt pretty good
Starting Weight: 254.6
Current Weight: 247.8 -
5 day Total
Weight Loss: 6.8lbs
Once I got home for lunch yesterday I jumped right into making myself something tasty.
I went with:
2 green apples
1 large handful of spinach
4 carrots
1 tea saucer full of assorted berries (blueberry, boysenberry, raspberry)
This is only the second time I have tried using the berries and I remembered how last time I couldn't taste them because I used an unpeeled orange in the mix. This time I left the orange out altogether and I was very happy with what I ended up with. I really want to get myself some acai berries for the health properties. Technically we should all be eating more purple. The color purple in fruit and vegetable signifies the presence of antioxidants and resveratrol, which is known to promote longevity. I learned that from Alton Brown. He's my celebrity man crush. I would love to spend an afternoon picking his brain.
As my lunch hour was drawing to an end I was running a bit behind. I was the only one home and I couldn't leave without cleaning my juicer. As I was heading out the door to go back to work I almost forgot to grab another granola bar. What I found in the cupboard put me into a high speed panic. The Nature Valley Honey n' Oats Granola box was empty. After some quick thinking on my part I grabbed a couple of handfuls of Honey Nut Cheerios and stuffed them into a zip lock sandwich bag and took them to work with me. The Cheerios were a perfect little snack around two o'clock. These would make a great substitute. Honey Nut Cheerios are only 118 calories for a whole cup and the Nature Valley Honey n' Oats granola bars are 190 calories per package. The only problem is that eating dry Cheerios has a tendency to shred the roof of my mouth.
I ended up exercising last night by playing Kinect Sports for 1-1/2 hours. I know that playing an Xbox game doesn't seem like exercise, but the Kinect keeps track of how many calories you burn and I probably burned more than it claimed because I was intentionally hopping around between game rounds to keep moving. The Kinect claims I burned 230 calories, and it was much more fun than just walking around my neighborhood and risk dealing with packs of stray chihuahuas and pitbulls ....have I ever mentioned that I live in a Spanish neighborhood?
For dinner I had another healthy boneless, skinless, chicken breast on a bed of spinach leaves. This time I used ranch dressing again and I added 4 pepperoncini's and a half of an avacado. I took a picture to liven up my blog a little.
Day 9
Apparently the weight is beginning to drop off again, which makes me happy. I was starting to get a little disheartened for a few days there.
This morning I had my usual:
2 green apples
2 handfuls of spinach leaves
4 carrots
My taste buds have changed quite a bit since the beginning. I am to the point now that I don't even notice the spinach and carrots in my drink. It's almost as if I'm just having a tall glass of apple juice in the morning and I have always loved apple juice.
Today for lunch I will have to go with a different green because I used the last of my spinach this morning. I still have some red chard I can use. I will have to visit Costco tonight after work and bulk up on a little more of everything. Maybe I'll get some Acai berries. This diet is not proving to be cheap, but it's healthy.
I should take the time here to mention that during my first week I didn't have much energy and I had a pretty nasty headache all week. This week my energy level is great. I feel really energetic and there is no sign of that headache coming back from the lack of caffeine. I haven't had a Monster Energy drink or any soda in over a week and I'm feeling really good. I was just commenting to my girlfriend on Saturday as we were heading to the youth football games that normally I stop by the local liquor store on our way out of town to buy myself a Monster and this time I would only be stopping for gas. It felt pretty good
Starting Weight: 254.6
Current Weight: 247.8 -
5 day Total
Weight Loss: 6.8lbs
Monday, September 17, 2012
Day 8
I weighed myself the this morning and discovered that I lost .4lbs. Hopefully this is a sign that the weight will start dropping quickly again.
Yesterday all my diet plans basically got blown to Hell. I managed to have a juice for breakfast, which was posted on the my Day 7 blog, but lunch and dinner didn't go as planned.
We went to my mothers house yesterday afternoon to celebrate a couple of birthdays and to have a barbecue and swim. I planned to swim, but the weather was so nice just sitting in the shade visiting with my mom and sisters that I never got in the pool.
I also planned to have veggie burgers, but what I had mistaken for veggie burgers in my freezer when actually turkey burgers, so we had those instead. The turkey burgers turned out to be pretty good. They don't take as long to grill as regular burgers do. I discovered this by over cooking the first batch.
We had planned to have lunch at my moms and have a juice at home for dinner, but we ended up staying at my moms until fairly late for a school night, so I ended up having 2 turkey burgers. On the plus side I kept the calorie count low by skipping the buns and wrapping my turkey burgers in whole leaf lettuce and using a little thousand island dressing and fresh onion for condiments. I also ended up having a Mike's Hard Lemonade that one of my brother's-in-law brought and 1 slice of red velvet birthday cake.
I guess one small cheat day didn't hurt. I actually hate less on that cheat day than I would have on a regular day before the diet, so the guilt is minimum.
Day 8
Today I woke up and my rib pain is down to a minor dull ache. Tonight I plan to get some exercise by walking my dog while everyone else is out at football and cheerleading practice. I don't think that walking the dog will irritate my Pleurisy, plus I didn't buy the exercise disc for my Kinect last Thursday like I meant to because of the rib pain.
This morning I made my usual breakfast juice:
2 green apples
1 peeled orange
4 carrots
1 large handful of spinach leaves
I have come to love my breakfast. Any apprehension I may have once had about drinking veggies is completely gone. I have no problem drinking my morning juice like I am sucking down a vanilla milkshake.
I will be going home for lunch everyday this week to make my lunch juice and continue with the low calorie dinners. I'm excited to see how the weight starts dropping off because of the exercise combined with the dieting. I plan to buy the "Your Shape: Fitness Evolved" disc for my Xbox Kinect this Thursday since I am confident that my Pleurisy will be completely healed up by then.
Starting Weight: 254.6
Current Weight: 248.2 -
5 day Total
Weight Loss: 6.4lbs
Yesterday all my diet plans basically got blown to Hell. I managed to have a juice for breakfast, which was posted on the my Day 7 blog, but lunch and dinner didn't go as planned.
We went to my mothers house yesterday afternoon to celebrate a couple of birthdays and to have a barbecue and swim. I planned to swim, but the weather was so nice just sitting in the shade visiting with my mom and sisters that I never got in the pool.
I also planned to have veggie burgers, but what I had mistaken for veggie burgers in my freezer when actually turkey burgers, so we had those instead. The turkey burgers turned out to be pretty good. They don't take as long to grill as regular burgers do. I discovered this by over cooking the first batch.
We had planned to have lunch at my moms and have a juice at home for dinner, but we ended up staying at my moms until fairly late for a school night, so I ended up having 2 turkey burgers. On the plus side I kept the calorie count low by skipping the buns and wrapping my turkey burgers in whole leaf lettuce and using a little thousand island dressing and fresh onion for condiments. I also ended up having a Mike's Hard Lemonade that one of my brother's-in-law brought and 1 slice of red velvet birthday cake.
I guess one small cheat day didn't hurt. I actually hate less on that cheat day than I would have on a regular day before the diet, so the guilt is minimum.
Day 8
Today I woke up and my rib pain is down to a minor dull ache. Tonight I plan to get some exercise by walking my dog while everyone else is out at football and cheerleading practice. I don't think that walking the dog will irritate my Pleurisy, plus I didn't buy the exercise disc for my Kinect last Thursday like I meant to because of the rib pain.
This morning I made my usual breakfast juice:
2 green apples
1 peeled orange
4 carrots
1 large handful of spinach leaves
I have come to love my breakfast. Any apprehension I may have once had about drinking veggies is completely gone. I have no problem drinking my morning juice like I am sucking down a vanilla milkshake.
I will be going home for lunch everyday this week to make my lunch juice and continue with the low calorie dinners. I'm excited to see how the weight starts dropping off because of the exercise combined with the dieting. I plan to buy the "Your Shape: Fitness Evolved" disc for my Xbox Kinect this Thursday since I am confident that my Pleurisy will be completely healed up by then.
Starting Weight: 254.6
Current Weight: 248.2 -
5 day Total
Weight Loss: 6.4lbs
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Day 7
This morning I jumped on the scale to find that I gained .6lbs. I think the weekends are definitely going to slow me down a bit. It hard to stick to a strict regimen when your weekends are not regimented.
I stuck to my guns yesterday and had nothing to eat at the football games accept for the granola bars that I brought with me.
After spending the whole day at the ball field we were all starving. We drive past an In-n-Out Burger on our way home from this particular field and the kids begged to stop for dinner.
In-n-Out Burger isn't known for their health food, as most of you probably know, but as some of you may not know, they also have a secret menu. So my girlfriend and I had a single burger with onions "protein style", which means it comes wrapped in a lettuce leaf with no bun. We got the burger only (no fries) and drank 3 calorie light lemonade to wash it down. I felt a little guilty, but I looked up the calories when I got home and discovered they were only 240 calories, so I didn't feel so bad after that.
Later that night we had shopping to do. We had to replenish our depleted stock of produce. I was completely out of green apples and they have been a mainstay in nearly all of my concoctions, so off to the grocer we went to get supplies and a wee bit more free exercise.
We ended the evening relaxing at home and watching a Redbox movie that we rented at the store before the whole lot of us were snoring in our beds.
Day 7
This morning my Pleurisy seems to be drawing to an end. My ribs still hurt but not nearly as bad as earlier in the week. I figure the pain will be completely gone by Wednesday if I'm lucky.
Discovering this morning that I gain another .6lbs is a little frustrating, but as I said yesterday, my body has gone into preservation mode. Plus the protein burger probably didn't help any; I won't kid myself. Lastly, I haven't been able to compliment my diet with any form of exercise because of the rib pain from the Pleurisy. That's about to change.
Today we are going to my moms to celebrate her and my brother-in-law's birthdays. My mom has a large pool and I plan to swim some laps for exercise. Swimming is said to be the best calorie burner. We are going to be swimming and grilling with my sisters and their families, so we will be able to stick to our boneless, skinless, chicken breast with spinach leaves.
Before I get ahead of myself I should mention breakfast. This morning I made juice for my girlfriend and I. This time we felt like having some berries, so this is what I made:
4 green apples
1 orange, unpeeled
2 large handful of spinach leaves
8 large carrots
1 tea saucer full of assorted berries (blueberry, strawberry, raspberry)
It tasted great, but to be honest the berry flavor couldn't push through the unpeeled orange.
Since we are going over to my moms house a during the day today we are figuring on having the grilled chicken and spinach for lunch and juicing for dinner later this evening. We shall see how that goes.
Starting weight: 254.6
Current weight: 248.6 -
7 day total
Weight loss: 6lbs
Friday, September 14, 2012
Day 6
Today when I weighed myself I weighed 248, so I gained .8lbs. This doesn't phase me. I knew my body was going to go into preservation mode. Tomorrow morning will be a loss again. I'm sure.
I went home for lunch again yesterday. The pain in my ribs was so excruciating that walking to my truck hurt, but driving my truck brought a whole new meaning to the word pain. Once I got home, which is only 3 blocks from where I work, I was sweating profusely from the pain. I muscled my way through it and went inside to make my lunch.
Lunch juice consisted of:
2 small green apples
3 large carrots
1 large handful of spinach leaves
2 meduim heirloom tomatoes
I know that yesterday I said I was going to have a cabbage mix, but to be honest the cabbage was in the back of the fridge on the bottom shelf and my ribs hurt too bad to dig them out. I basically made a concoction of everything that was within easy reach. It turned out to be a good juice though.
For dinner I went through a test of will power. One of my buddies took his wife for a weekend vacation to the bay, so my woman and I agreed to watch his daughters. The girls wanted pizza for dinner, so we went out to Mountain Mikes Pizza, which happens to be my favorite pizza joint in the whole world. I had a salad instead of pizza even though the aroma in the place was killing me. I have discovered that I am now enjoying pepperoncinis.
By the end of the night the pain in my rib cage had mellowed a little and I went to bed exhausted.
DAY 6
This morning I woke up and the pain in my ribs was barely there. I was so happy about the pain subsiding that discovering that I gained .8lbs didn't bother me at all. Technically (and forgive me for being crude) I have been constipated since yesterday, so today's weight has a bit of baggage to it.
This morning I made 3 servings of juice for me, my girl, and her son. This huge concoction consisted of:
6 green apples
2 oranges
12 carrots
3 large handfuls of spinach leaves
I'm writing today's blog from the bleachers of our local youth football games. I am a fixture at these games every Saturday and I will be here for six hours yet I am determined to stick to this healthy diet. We all know that snack bar food is the very antithesis of healthy, so I brought a 3 Nature Valley Granola bars with me. I will have one every two hours to keep my metabolism running full speed. I will figure out what to do after the game. I guess you will find out on tomorrows blog.
Before I close day 6 I should mention that today I woke up with tons of energy and the headache that has been plaguing me all week has finally left for good (I don't know why, but I can tell).
Starting weight: 254.6
Current weight: 248.0 -
6 day total
Weight Loss 6.6lbs
Day 5
I weighed myself again first thing this morning and lost another .6lbs. I went from 247.8 on day 4 to 247.2 on day five. Apparently I have, or I am, reaching that state where the body fights to hold onto the weight because it thinks something is wrong. I got news for you body. Something is wrong. You weigh so much it's difficult to tie your shoes. Snap out of it!
I went home for lunch again yesterday's and made a juice I'll never make again. I'll explain after the following list of ingredients:
1 heirloom tomato
2 apples
6 green grapes
1 whole orange (with peel)
The acidity from the orange mixed with the heirloom tomato made a weird ketchup after-taste. I realize that this mix was mostly fruit (or all fruit depending on your understanding of tomatoes), but after being tortured by the pain in my left lung all day I really didn't feel like torturing myself with a bitter/sour lunch juice. Plus I ran out of carrots.
On the plus side I definitely enjoyed having the heirloom tomato in the mix. I will be adding tomatoes more often to my lunchtime concoctions. I'll just have to go easy on the acidic fruits.
Last night for dinner I had a boneless, skinless, chicken breast with a side of steamed broccoli. I added nothing to the broccoli, such as butter or salt and I only seasoned the chicken to taste. I've learned to enjoy broccoli in my older age. It is one of the few veggies that I would eat on a regular basis as a side dish.
I went to bed not hungry but in dire pain from the lung infection.
DAY 5
Last night I got horrible sleep. I could hardly move without my left lung waking me up from the pain. I was grunting and groaning all night.
This morning I woke up feeling like I have a dagger stuck in my rib cage and it's hard to find a comfortable position to sit in where I can breath normally. I have started a cycle of antibiotics, so it's just a matter of time before the infection passes. Until then I will deal with the pain like a man ....by grunting and groaning and, as my girlfriends young daughter says, sounding like we have a zombie in the house. That girl cracks me up!
My girlfriend offered to make my juice for me this morning, but I have found that I enjoy making what I'm about to drink, plus I figured that moving around would help get my body accustomed to the pain I will be facing today at work. I told her thank you, but no thank you, and explained why I thought I should make it myself. She's an amazing woman.
So, this is what I created this morning:
2 apples
2 large handfuls of spinach leaves
4 large carrots (my baby did some grocery shopping last night. I love her.)
1 orange (peeled)
This concoction I have discovered is the perfect morning juice for me. It has just enough green and just enough sweet. I really enjoyed my breakfast juice despite the fact that I'm in so much pain from the infection.
For lunch today I am going to try something outside of my comfort zone. It will consist of all veggies with a wedge of cabbage and heirloom tomatoes is it's base. My girlfriend made it for her lunch yesterday and said it basically tasted like a spicy V8. She added Tapatio for flavor, but I'll skip the Tapatio sauce. I'm not big on heat in my drink unless Vodka is involve.
So, this is my day 5 blog. Tomorrow will be a bit more difficult. My lady is the president of our local youth cheer organization, so every Saturday during football season we spend the entire day at the youth football games watching our Rookie, PeeWee, J.V, and Varsity cheer squads perform. My (hopefully someday) step daughter cheers on the Varsity Squad and my (hopefully someday) step son coaches the Varsity Football Team's offensive line. We are at the games for roughly 9 hours every Saturday, so juicing lunch will be impossible. We will juice for breakfast, but lunch will be at the game, so we are brainstorming on what to bring (that we can sneak in) to eat that is healthy yet filling. I guess you will find out on the day 7 blog.
Starting Weight: 254.6
Current Weight: 247.2 -
5 day Total
Weight Loss: 7.4lbs
I went home for lunch again yesterday's and made a juice I'll never make again. I'll explain after the following list of ingredients:
1 heirloom tomato
2 apples
6 green grapes
1 whole orange (with peel)
The acidity from the orange mixed with the heirloom tomato made a weird ketchup after-taste. I realize that this mix was mostly fruit (or all fruit depending on your understanding of tomatoes), but after being tortured by the pain in my left lung all day I really didn't feel like torturing myself with a bitter/sour lunch juice. Plus I ran out of carrots.
On the plus side I definitely enjoyed having the heirloom tomato in the mix. I will be adding tomatoes more often to my lunchtime concoctions. I'll just have to go easy on the acidic fruits.
Last night for dinner I had a boneless, skinless, chicken breast with a side of steamed broccoli. I added nothing to the broccoli, such as butter or salt and I only seasoned the chicken to taste. I've learned to enjoy broccoli in my older age. It is one of the few veggies that I would eat on a regular basis as a side dish.
I went to bed not hungry but in dire pain from the lung infection.
DAY 5
Last night I got horrible sleep. I could hardly move without my left lung waking me up from the pain. I was grunting and groaning all night.
This morning I woke up feeling like I have a dagger stuck in my rib cage and it's hard to find a comfortable position to sit in where I can breath normally. I have started a cycle of antibiotics, so it's just a matter of time before the infection passes. Until then I will deal with the pain like a man ....by grunting and groaning and, as my girlfriends young daughter says, sounding like we have a zombie in the house. That girl cracks me up!
My girlfriend offered to make my juice for me this morning, but I have found that I enjoy making what I'm about to drink, plus I figured that moving around would help get my body accustomed to the pain I will be facing today at work. I told her thank you, but no thank you, and explained why I thought I should make it myself. She's an amazing woman.
So, this is what I created this morning:
2 apples
2 large handfuls of spinach leaves
4 large carrots (my baby did some grocery shopping last night. I love her.)
1 orange (peeled)
This concoction I have discovered is the perfect morning juice for me. It has just enough green and just enough sweet. I really enjoyed my breakfast juice despite the fact that I'm in so much pain from the infection.
For lunch today I am going to try something outside of my comfort zone. It will consist of all veggies with a wedge of cabbage and heirloom tomatoes is it's base. My girlfriend made it for her lunch yesterday and said it basically tasted like a spicy V8. She added Tapatio for flavor, but I'll skip the Tapatio sauce. I'm not big on heat in my drink unless Vodka is involve.
So, this is my day 5 blog. Tomorrow will be a bit more difficult. My lady is the president of our local youth cheer organization, so every Saturday during football season we spend the entire day at the youth football games watching our Rookie, PeeWee, J.V, and Varsity cheer squads perform. My (hopefully someday) step daughter cheers on the Varsity Squad and my (hopefully someday) step son coaches the Varsity Football Team's offensive line. We are at the games for roughly 9 hours every Saturday, so juicing lunch will be impossible. We will juice for breakfast, but lunch will be at the game, so we are brainstorming on what to bring (that we can sneak in) to eat that is healthy yet filling. I guess you will find out on the day 7 blog.
Starting Weight: 254.6
Current Weight: 247.2 -
5 day Total
Weight Loss: 7.4lbs
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Day 4
Just for the heck of it I decided to weigh myself again this morning. I'm down another 2.2lbs, so now I weigh in at 247.8. That was a nice surprise. Maybe I'll just weigh in every day and begin my blog with my new weight.
It turns out that my estimate yesterday was incorrect. The headache never dissipated, in fact I had it all through the night and into this morning. As I write this it seems to have gone away, but only time will tell.
I drove home for lunch again yesterday and made a nice juice. This experience is getting easier every day. Yesterdays lunch juice consisted of:
2 apples
3 kale leaves
3 carrots
1 orange
1/2 lemon
It tasted pretty good. I seem to be getting use to the green flavor from the various leafy greens. Kale, when juiced, has a rather "fresh cut grass" kind of taste. It's not gross. It's just very green tastings. Spinach leaves are still my favorite.
For dinner last night I had the usual boneless, skinless, chicken breast laid on a bed of spinach leaves, but this time I substituted the teriyaki sauce for a very small amount of Hidden Valley Ranch. Let me tell you that drinking veggie juice for only 3 days now has drastically changed my taste buds because that ranch dressing tasted SUPER salty to me, and I have always been a big fan of ranch dressing. Who hasn't?
DAY 4
This morning I woke up with an unusual pain. I don't think it is diet related however. My ribs on my left side are hurting nearly as bad as if I have a broken rib. I have had lung infections a few times in my life and I have a pretty good guess that this is what the pain is. Moving around knocks the air out of me and just typing this blog is making breathing uncomfortable. But I'll deal with it. I'm one of those unfortunate souls that doesn't have health insurance, so I won't be seeing any doctors any time soon. ...and for the record: I am a non-smoker and my lady is also. I don't have friends that smoke around me and I work in a clean, non-polluted air, office. I have allergies and I live in Central California where they are currently harvesting almonds all around my little town, so I'm chalking it up to that.
This mornings juice turned out way sweeter than I was ready for. I drank it, but actually found it a little too sweet to really enjoy. Had you asked me about it 5 days ago I would have told you that there is no such thing as "too sweet", but apparently things are changing.
For my breakfast juice I had:
2 apples
1 handful of loose purple grapes
4 carrots
1 large handful of spinach leaves
4 sprigs of mint
The only thing new that I tried in this mornings juice was the grapes. A few purple grapes seem to go a long way, so I found a perfect natural juice sweetener. I just have to go easy on how many I use.
So, this is my blog for day 4. This diet is getting much easier as the days pass. I'm still having a little Nature Valley Oats n' Honey granola bar between juices. I seem to get hungry roughly 2-3 hours after my juice, but believe it or not those little granola bars hold me over for another two hours before my next meal. My current schedule is: 6:30am - juice, 10:00am - granola, 12:10 - Juice, 2:30 granola, ...and dinner whenever we get around to making it.
From this day forward the following weight loss/gain will be my blog signature:
Starting Weight: 254.6
Current Weight: 247.8 -
4 day Total
Weight Loss: 6.8lbs
It turns out that my estimate yesterday was incorrect. The headache never dissipated, in fact I had it all through the night and into this morning. As I write this it seems to have gone away, but only time will tell.
I drove home for lunch again yesterday and made a nice juice. This experience is getting easier every day. Yesterdays lunch juice consisted of:
2 apples
3 kale leaves
3 carrots
1 orange
1/2 lemon
It tasted pretty good. I seem to be getting use to the green flavor from the various leafy greens. Kale, when juiced, has a rather "fresh cut grass" kind of taste. It's not gross. It's just very green tastings. Spinach leaves are still my favorite.
For dinner last night I had the usual boneless, skinless, chicken breast laid on a bed of spinach leaves, but this time I substituted the teriyaki sauce for a very small amount of Hidden Valley Ranch. Let me tell you that drinking veggie juice for only 3 days now has drastically changed my taste buds because that ranch dressing tasted SUPER salty to me, and I have always been a big fan of ranch dressing. Who hasn't?
DAY 4
This morning I woke up with an unusual pain. I don't think it is diet related however. My ribs on my left side are hurting nearly as bad as if I have a broken rib. I have had lung infections a few times in my life and I have a pretty good guess that this is what the pain is. Moving around knocks the air out of me and just typing this blog is making breathing uncomfortable. But I'll deal with it. I'm one of those unfortunate souls that doesn't have health insurance, so I won't be seeing any doctors any time soon. ...and for the record: I am a non-smoker and my lady is also. I don't have friends that smoke around me and I work in a clean, non-polluted air, office. I have allergies and I live in Central California where they are currently harvesting almonds all around my little town, so I'm chalking it up to that.
This mornings juice turned out way sweeter than I was ready for. I drank it, but actually found it a little too sweet to really enjoy. Had you asked me about it 5 days ago I would have told you that there is no such thing as "too sweet", but apparently things are changing.
For my breakfast juice I had:
2 apples
1 handful of loose purple grapes
4 carrots
1 large handful of spinach leaves
4 sprigs of mint
The only thing new that I tried in this mornings juice was the grapes. A few purple grapes seem to go a long way, so I found a perfect natural juice sweetener. I just have to go easy on how many I use.
So, this is my blog for day 4. This diet is getting much easier as the days pass. I'm still having a little Nature Valley Oats n' Honey granola bar between juices. I seem to get hungry roughly 2-3 hours after my juice, but believe it or not those little granola bars hold me over for another two hours before my next meal. My current schedule is: 6:30am - juice, 10:00am - granola, 12:10 - Juice, 2:30 granola, ...and dinner whenever we get around to making it.
From this day forward the following weight loss/gain will be my blog signature:
Starting Weight: 254.6
Current Weight: 247.8 -
4 day Total
Weight Loss: 6.8lbs
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Day 3
One of the first side effects I was warned about were headaches. Yesterday one hit me around 9am and plagued me for the remainder of the day and all through the night. I read that the headaches are brought on from lack of caffeine, which might be true for me since I usually have 2 Monster Energy drinks by lunchtime every weekday.
I went home again for lunch yesterday to make my juice and visit with my beautiful woman. I don't make my lunch juice before hand because I read that the juice looses a lot of nutrients if it isn't consumed 10 - 15 minutes after juicing. This may be a load of crap, but the information came from Jack LaLanne and he looked pretty darn good up until the day he died last year, so who am I to second guess.
My lunch juice consisted of:
4 carrots
1 beet, greens included
1 apple
1/2 lemon
I'm sorry to inform you that creating that recipe was a mistake. I managed to choke down the whole glass, but I swore I would never do a whole beet plus the greens again. The only thing that tastes more like dirt than a beet is dirt.
My lady and her son had a good laugh watching me fight the gag reflex while drinking that nasty thing, so at least someone was having a good time. Actually.... we were all laughing in the kitchen after I made my juice, because we were watching my woman make herself a juice and she jammed so much stuff in the juicer that it got lodged in the little in-feed tube. I told her that she had to go slower because this thing is a juicer, not a wood chipper. We were all laughing so hard our eyes were tearing.
At the end of the day we had another healthy dinner last night consisting of boneless, skinless, chicken breast on a bed of spinach leaves with a very small amount of tariyaki sauce (15 calories) for flavor.
DAY 3
I weighed in this morning as soon as I got out of bed and emptied my bladder. I now weigh 250lbs. That means I've lost 4.6lbs in two days. I would say that such a large amount lost in such a short time is simply water weight, but since I started this diet I am drinking WAY more water than I was before the diet, so technically I should have more water in me now. Anyway, the weight loss has gotten me a little more enthusiastic about what I'm doing. If you only knew how many times I've said to myself "screw this juice diet. I'm getting a pizza".
I didn't sleep super great last night. The headache kept waking me up, but I felt like I slept better than I have over the past two days. The headache is still with me this morning, but it's really dull and I believe it will subside completely before today ends.
Last night I went to the store and got a few more ingredients to liven up my juices. I picked up some more apples, some ginger, a few bags of grapes (green and purple), and some mint. So far the rest of my supplies are holding up. I bought my carrots, spinach leaves, kale, beets, etc. in bulk at Costco.
For breakfast this morning I had:
2 apples
1 large handful of spinach leaves
1 thumb sized piece of ginger
4 carrots
3 sprigs of mint
It tasted pretty good. It was still as green as fresh cut grass thanks to the spinach, but it tasted good nonetheless.
I am still not having any problems in the bathroom. I think that perhaps having the small healthy dinners of boneless, skinless, chicken breast are keeping everything solid.
So far I haven't started any kind of light exercise regimen, but tonight I plan to walk my dog for a decent distance and Thursday I am going to buy "Your Shape: Fitness Evolved" for my Xbox Kinect. I downloaded the demo a few days before starting this diet and it seemed like a really good exercise tool. Plus it has gotten some fairly nice reviews by fitness experts online.
So this is day 3. So far, so good.
I went home again for lunch yesterday to make my juice and visit with my beautiful woman. I don't make my lunch juice before hand because I read that the juice looses a lot of nutrients if it isn't consumed 10 - 15 minutes after juicing. This may be a load of crap, but the information came from Jack LaLanne and he looked pretty darn good up until the day he died last year, so who am I to second guess.
My lunch juice consisted of:
4 carrots
1 beet, greens included
1 apple
1/2 lemon
I'm sorry to inform you that creating that recipe was a mistake. I managed to choke down the whole glass, but I swore I would never do a whole beet plus the greens again. The only thing that tastes more like dirt than a beet is dirt.
My lady and her son had a good laugh watching me fight the gag reflex while drinking that nasty thing, so at least someone was having a good time. Actually.... we were all laughing in the kitchen after I made my juice, because we were watching my woman make herself a juice and she jammed so much stuff in the juicer that it got lodged in the little in-feed tube. I told her that she had to go slower because this thing is a juicer, not a wood chipper. We were all laughing so hard our eyes were tearing.
At the end of the day we had another healthy dinner last night consisting of boneless, skinless, chicken breast on a bed of spinach leaves with a very small amount of tariyaki sauce (15 calories) for flavor.
DAY 3
I weighed in this morning as soon as I got out of bed and emptied my bladder. I now weigh 250lbs. That means I've lost 4.6lbs in two days. I would say that such a large amount lost in such a short time is simply water weight, but since I started this diet I am drinking WAY more water than I was before the diet, so technically I should have more water in me now. Anyway, the weight loss has gotten me a little more enthusiastic about what I'm doing. If you only knew how many times I've said to myself "screw this juice diet. I'm getting a pizza".
I didn't sleep super great last night. The headache kept waking me up, but I felt like I slept better than I have over the past two days. The headache is still with me this morning, but it's really dull and I believe it will subside completely before today ends.
Last night I went to the store and got a few more ingredients to liven up my juices. I picked up some more apples, some ginger, a few bags of grapes (green and purple), and some mint. So far the rest of my supplies are holding up. I bought my carrots, spinach leaves, kale, beets, etc. in bulk at Costco.
For breakfast this morning I had:
2 apples
1 large handful of spinach leaves
1 thumb sized piece of ginger
4 carrots
3 sprigs of mint
It tasted pretty good. It was still as green as fresh cut grass thanks to the spinach, but it tasted good nonetheless.
I am still not having any problems in the bathroom. I think that perhaps having the small healthy dinners of boneless, skinless, chicken breast are keeping everything solid.
So far I haven't started any kind of light exercise regimen, but tonight I plan to walk my dog for a decent distance and Thursday I am going to buy "Your Shape: Fitness Evolved" for my Xbox Kinect. I downloaded the demo a few days before starting this diet and it seemed like a really good exercise tool. Plus it has gotten some fairly nice reviews by fitness experts online.
So this is day 3. So far, so good.
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Day 2
I have to rectify one of the things that I stated in yesterday's blog. I weighed myself last night and discovered that I was quite away off on my weight estimate. I wrote that I am 265, when I am in fact at 254.6. I'm not sure yet how I am going to do my weight. I was thinking that I would record it every other day.
Yesterday when I had my lunch and I learned something valuable. I don't do celery. I tried mixing up a new concoction consisting of:
1 apples
1 handful of spinach leaves
1 bunch of celery
3 carrots
Assorted berries (blue berry, blackberry, strawberry) to attempt to kill the celery flavor since I don't like celery at all.
It didn't work.
I juiced an orange and mixed that into the blend hoping it would kill the celery flavor. It knocked the celery flavor down a few notches, but I could still taste it. I didn't wuss out though. I still drank the entire large glass of juice and just told myself that celery is now off of the ingredients list for the remaining 29 days.
I had to veer off track when it came to dinner. Since it was day 1 and my body hasn't grown accustom to going with out solids, I decided to have a light dinner. I had a single boneless, skinless, chicken breast and I laid it on a bed of spinach leaves. I put just a hint of teriyaki sauce on top to flavor the chicken and give the spinach leaves a little dressing. I went to bed around 11:30 (After the Chargers game) feeling great.
DAY 2
This morning I decided to go with something a bit sweeter for breakfast, so this morning juice consisted of:
2 green apples
2 handfuls of spinach leaves
4 large carrots
5 strawberries
1 unpeeled orange
I really enjoyed breakfast. The juice was still a strange green concoction, but it tasted rather nice. I'll probably stick to the sweeter juices for my breakfasts from here on out.
Today for lunch I will go with something with a little more roughage and a little less fruit. I'm thinking some sort of kale, spinach, carrot, apple mix. I'll make it up as I go along.
For dinner I plan to do chicken breast on a bed of spinach leaves again. Until I can get my body adjusted to the juices I figure that one small dinner will still keep my weight dropping. Eventually I plan to drop solids all together. I am thinking a week should get my body prepared.
Physically...
I'm okay. I'll admit that for some reason I was more tired than usual when I got home from work last night, but that could be chalked up to anything from me not sleeping good enough the night before or just the fact that I need sleep. However, the tiredness is the reason I decided to go with a small dinner instead of juice.
I have read that some of the people that go on this diet become a bit lethargic at first. I have also read that most develop diarrhea, and I've been dreading that part, but so far the diet hasn't effected me in the bathroom. I am only on day 2 though. Maybe the small dinner will keep everything solid.
Energy wise I don't feel any different. I'm a naturally hyper person, so I've never really had trouble with not having enough energy. If this diet effects my energy levels by dropping them, then I will definitely know that something isn't right.
So here is my blog for day 2. So far, so good.
Yesterday when I had my lunch and I learned something valuable. I don't do celery. I tried mixing up a new concoction consisting of:
1 apples
1 handful of spinach leaves
1 bunch of celery
3 carrots
Assorted berries (blue berry, blackberry, strawberry) to attempt to kill the celery flavor since I don't like celery at all.
It didn't work.
I juiced an orange and mixed that into the blend hoping it would kill the celery flavor. It knocked the celery flavor down a few notches, but I could still taste it. I didn't wuss out though. I still drank the entire large glass of juice and just told myself that celery is now off of the ingredients list for the remaining 29 days.
I had to veer off track when it came to dinner. Since it was day 1 and my body hasn't grown accustom to going with out solids, I decided to have a light dinner. I had a single boneless, skinless, chicken breast and I laid it on a bed of spinach leaves. I put just a hint of teriyaki sauce on top to flavor the chicken and give the spinach leaves a little dressing. I went to bed around 11:30 (After the Chargers game) feeling great.
DAY 2
This morning I decided to go with something a bit sweeter for breakfast, so this morning juice consisted of:
2 green apples
2 handfuls of spinach leaves
4 large carrots
5 strawberries
1 unpeeled orange
I really enjoyed breakfast. The juice was still a strange green concoction, but it tasted rather nice. I'll probably stick to the sweeter juices for my breakfasts from here on out.
Today for lunch I will go with something with a little more roughage and a little less fruit. I'm thinking some sort of kale, spinach, carrot, apple mix. I'll make it up as I go along.
For dinner I plan to do chicken breast on a bed of spinach leaves again. Until I can get my body adjusted to the juices I figure that one small dinner will still keep my weight dropping. Eventually I plan to drop solids all together. I am thinking a week should get my body prepared.
Physically...
I'm okay. I'll admit that for some reason I was more tired than usual when I got home from work last night, but that could be chalked up to anything from me not sleeping good enough the night before or just the fact that I need sleep. However, the tiredness is the reason I decided to go with a small dinner instead of juice.
I have read that some of the people that go on this diet become a bit lethargic at first. I have also read that most develop diarrhea, and I've been dreading that part, but so far the diet hasn't effected me in the bathroom. I am only on day 2 though. Maybe the small dinner will keep everything solid.
Energy wise I don't feel any different. I'm a naturally hyper person, so I've never really had trouble with not having enough energy. If this diet effects my energy levels by dropping them, then I will definitely know that something isn't right.
So here is my blog for day 2. So far, so good.
Monday, September 10, 2012
DAY 1
I'll start this blog with a little background on myself.
My name is Steve and I'm overweight. About 5 years ago I was experiencing pain in my hips, especially at night as I slept, so I went to see my doctor and was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis. At that time I was about 80lbs over weight, so my doctor told me to drop the pounds to take the stress off of my hips when I walk.
Roughly a year later, my wife of 17 years left me. This came as no surprise. We were both unhappy and at each other throats practically every day. I found myself depressed and over the next year ended up losing all the weight that my doctor had ordered me to lose. I didn't do it the healthy way though. I simply wasn't eating.
Once the weight was off, the depression subsided, and with a little help from one of my sisters I learned to live again. I started going out at night and having a good time with friends again. I even started dating.
Once I got the wild-side out of me I decided I was ready to for a serious relationship, which was a good thing because about that time I met an amazing woman and fell head-over-heels in love. Eventually she and I moved in together and have now been a couple for nearly 3 years ....and I'm still head-over-heels, heart skips a beat when she looks at me, smiling like a schoolboy when I think about her, in love.
So, six months ago a started a new job where I sit behind a desk all day and get very little exercise. Not surprisingly, the weight is sneaking back. I am 6 foot 1 inch tall and my ideal weight (according to my doctor) is 190lbs - 200lbs. As of this writing I am at 263lbs.
TIME TO LOSE WEIGHT
I decided it was time to lose weight again, so I started looking up diets. Over the weekend I watched two documentaries. The first one was "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead", and the second one was "Forks over Knives".
I decided that eating veggies would be my salvation this time. Unfortunately I don't like vegetables, so the only was I was going to be able to choke these suckers down is by juicing them. I went to my local Costco, bought a nice juicer, researched recipes from - www.jointhereboot.com - that I thought might enjoy, and then hit my local market to purchase all the veggies I will need for the first few days.
So here is my plan:
1. 30 days of mostly vegetable juice with small "healthy" snacks between juicings.
2. Basic exercise, such as walking and light aerobics (using Xbox Kinect)
It's as simple as that.
So here goes.....
DAY 1
Today's plan is Juice for breakfast, small Nature Valley granola bar for mid morning snack, juice for lunch, another snack before dinner e.i. apple or orange, and juice for dinner.
Breakfast Juice (which I've already had this morning):
Consisted of 2 apples, 4 carrots, 2 beets, and 6 red chard leaves. I've decided to call this concoction "The Dirty Apple" because all I tasted was apple and beet (which tastes like dirt). If you think about the amount of veggies I drank this morning it is crazy. This is a lot of food if you just sat down to eat all that. I felt comfortably full when the glass was empty.
Lunch Juice:
Will consist of the same as breakfast. Since today is my first day and I haven't had any experience at this I will have to go with what I know. I will be driving home for lunch to make the juice and then heading back to work as quickly as possible.
Dinner Juice:
Will consist of 2 apples, 1 wedge Red Cabbage, 2 large Carrots, 1 piece Ginger, 6 red chard leaves, and 1/4 lemon. I have yet to try this one yet, but I'm anxious to see if I will enjoy it.
MY PLAN
For the next 30 days this is what I will be doing. Every morning I will weigh in and then sit down and add my progress, side effects, and thoughts to this blog. If all goes according to plan I should be at least 25lbs lighter in 30 days, but it could be more since I naturally drop weight fast when I set my mind to it.
Wish me luck :)
My name is Steve and I'm overweight. About 5 years ago I was experiencing pain in my hips, especially at night as I slept, so I went to see my doctor and was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis. At that time I was about 80lbs over weight, so my doctor told me to drop the pounds to take the stress off of my hips when I walk.
Roughly a year later, my wife of 17 years left me. This came as no surprise. We were both unhappy and at each other throats practically every day. I found myself depressed and over the next year ended up losing all the weight that my doctor had ordered me to lose. I didn't do it the healthy way though. I simply wasn't eating.
Once the weight was off, the depression subsided, and with a little help from one of my sisters I learned to live again. I started going out at night and having a good time with friends again. I even started dating.
Once I got the wild-side out of me I decided I was ready to for a serious relationship, which was a good thing because about that time I met an amazing woman and fell head-over-heels in love. Eventually she and I moved in together and have now been a couple for nearly 3 years ....and I'm still head-over-heels, heart skips a beat when she looks at me, smiling like a schoolboy when I think about her, in love.
So, six months ago a started a new job where I sit behind a desk all day and get very little exercise. Not surprisingly, the weight is sneaking back. I am 6 foot 1 inch tall and my ideal weight (according to my doctor) is 190lbs - 200lbs. As of this writing I am at 263lbs.
TIME TO LOSE WEIGHT
I decided it was time to lose weight again, so I started looking up diets. Over the weekend I watched two documentaries. The first one was "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead", and the second one was "Forks over Knives".
I decided that eating veggies would be my salvation this time. Unfortunately I don't like vegetables, so the only was I was going to be able to choke these suckers down is by juicing them. I went to my local Costco, bought a nice juicer, researched recipes from - www.jointhereboot.com - that I thought might enjoy, and then hit my local market to purchase all the veggies I will need for the first few days.
So here is my plan:
1. 30 days of mostly vegetable juice with small "healthy" snacks between juicings.
2. Basic exercise, such as walking and light aerobics (using Xbox Kinect)
It's as simple as that.
So here goes.....
DAY 1
Today's plan is Juice for breakfast, small Nature Valley granola bar for mid morning snack, juice for lunch, another snack before dinner e.i. apple or orange, and juice for dinner.
Breakfast Juice (which I've already had this morning):
Consisted of 2 apples, 4 carrots, 2 beets, and 6 red chard leaves. I've decided to call this concoction "The Dirty Apple" because all I tasted was apple and beet (which tastes like dirt). If you think about the amount of veggies I drank this morning it is crazy. This is a lot of food if you just sat down to eat all that. I felt comfortably full when the glass was empty.
Lunch Juice:
Will consist of the same as breakfast. Since today is my first day and I haven't had any experience at this I will have to go with what I know. I will be driving home for lunch to make the juice and then heading back to work as quickly as possible.
Dinner Juice:
Will consist of 2 apples, 1 wedge Red Cabbage, 2 large Carrots, 1 piece Ginger, 6 red chard leaves, and 1/4 lemon. I have yet to try this one yet, but I'm anxious to see if I will enjoy it.
MY PLAN
For the next 30 days this is what I will be doing. Every morning I will weigh in and then sit down and add my progress, side effects, and thoughts to this blog. If all goes according to plan I should be at least 25lbs lighter in 30 days, but it could be more since I naturally drop weight fast when I set my mind to it.
Wish me luck :)
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