The "D" Word

Today I'm talking about THE D WORD - you know the one - DIET.

Until twelve years ago when my thyroid decided not to function properly I ate what I wanted and exercised just by living an active lifestyle.  And lucky me, I had weighed the same amount since I was 15.  So when I started to put on weight, in spite of taking meds for my under active thyroid gland, it was a cruel blow for me.  So here I am 12 years and 40 pounds later.  You've probably heard the camera adds TEN pounds, but lately the camera is cruelly showing me I need to lose TWENTY pounds. 

Don't get me wrong I've been on a pretty healthy low calorie diet for the past twelve years, and a couple times I've had good success with dieting, but lately nothing seems to work.

When I saw the "3 Day Military Diet" on Pinterest I was curious.  First of all I'm not incredibly gullible so I knew I wasn't going to lose 10 pounds in 3 days, because I don't normally eat over 12,000 calories each day (10 pounds = 3500 calories x 10).  So I went into this with eyes wide open. I'm thinking if I eat these foods (or equivalent) three days each week and eat a reasonable amount of calories the other 4 days each week I might lose 1-2 pounds per week.  And I would honestly be excited by that because it would be progress in the right direction.

Here's the diet as I found it - in researching I have found many different versions.  I added up the actual food I chose and it may be lower than some because I used low cal meats like turkey and came out in the +1200 calories/day range. 

There is a lot of chatter on the Internet about how this diet will put your body in starvation mode and how difficult it is to follow.  But for me it's been easy because fixing the foods is quick, I know exactly what to eat each day and my NORMAL daily calorie consumption is around 1800-2200 calories, so I'm cutting down by maybe half the calories I would normally need eat.  Most of the diets I have followed and gotten results with are under 1200 calories, but this is just easier for me for some reason.

Oh and another note, I don't buy into the whole chemical process theory - you lose weight by cutting out and/or burning calories.  So if I add anything just be very cognizant of the calorie count.  Somethings I just can't function without - like my morning coffee.

3 DAY DIET
(this is the version I pulled from Pinterest, it has been pinned about a thousand times so I don't know where it originated, I've noted a few things after each day and my total calorie count for the day includes any extras)

DAY 1: - My version has 1205 calories
Breakfast--1/2 Grapefruit, 1 Slice Toast, 2 Tablespoons of Peanut Butter, and Coffee or Tea
Lunch--1/2 Cup of Tuna, 1 Slice of Toast, and Coffee or Tea
Dinner--2 Slices of any type meat (About 3 ounces) 1 Cup of Green Beans, 1/2 Banana, 1 Small Apple, and 1 Cup of Vanilla Ice Cream (YUM)!!!
Tip to Try: Warm the apple and/or banana and eat them over the ice cream. Delicious!

I ate an entire 7 oz can of good quality tuna packed in water because it only had a few extra calories and I didn't want to throw out the rest, I added a small amount of salt, pepper and a TRUE LEMON packet to the tuna and it was pretty tasty.  I ate 3 oz of thick sliced turkey for dinner - total of 90 calories, I ate the whole can of green beans, again because I didn't want to waste food and it added 30 calories.  I also drank a Special K protein water - 30 calories about 4 pm to hold me over until dinner.  I ate carb smart ice cream, whole grain bread, and natural peanut butter.

DAY 2: My version has 1027 calories
Breakfast--1 egg, 1 Slice of Toast, and 1/2 Banana
Lunch--1 Cup of Cottage Cheese (Or 1 Slice of Cheddar Cheese, 1 Hard Boiled Egg, and 5 Saltine Crackers
Dinner--2 Hot Dogs, (no buns), 1 Cup of Broccoli, 1/2 Cup of Carrots, 1/2 Banana, and 1/2 Cup of Vanilla Ice Cream

I boiled some eggs in advance and put them in the fridge to make it easy each day. I ate an extra 1/2 cup of cottage cheese at lunch. I ate turkey hot dogs - 45 calories each, put some fresh basil on the broccoli and dipped the hot dogs in spicy mustard (5 calories!) because satisfying the taste buds is about FLAVOR.

DAY 3: My version has 1090 including the extras at lunch
Breakfast--5 Saltine Crackers, 1 Slice of Cheddar Cheese, and 1 Small Apple
Lunch-1 Hard-Boiled Egg, and 1 Slice of Toast, Turkey Hot Dog, 3 saltines
Dinner--1 Cup of Tuna, 1/2 of a Banana, and 1 Cup of Vanilla Ice Cream

This was my favorite breakfast so far.  I ate another 45 calorie hotdog and 3 crackers (87 calories) with lunch because I figured I wouldn't make the day on an egg and slice of bread.

I'm drinking a lot of water, but that is also normal for me. I've had my coffee everyday, some versions I have seen said it was okay to drink coffee and tea, some said not to, just be aware of how many extra calories you are adding.

 I'm anxious to see what the scale says tomorrow morning.  I fairly certain I'll be down at least ONE LEGITIMATE pound (because I've probably cut out 3500 calories from my diet in 3 days).  If so, I may do this every week - 3 days out of 7 for a while. Twenty pounds at a pound/week, minus a couple gained back during the holidays.....I could be twenty pounds lighter by spring if this works.

Most importantly I am not starving, I am not weak, this is not making me sick. I feel fine.  Having a list of high protein foods, fruit and vegetables makes it easy for me to consume 1000-1200 calories.

Has anyone else tried this popular Pinterest Diet?  Did it work for you?

I'll keep you posted on my progess (or lack of),

Laura