Thursday

I weighed myself this morning, and I've lost 1.5 pounds since Tuesday.  I can't get my hopes up too far at this point, because I can fluctuate so much with my weight from day to day - two to three pounds from one day to the next isn't uncommon. 

I had a bit of a problem as far as breakfast was concerned, though.  I had a breakfast date with some friends, but I couldn't meet them till I dropped the kids off at school.  So I made some turkey bacon and had three slices of that, hoping it would be enough to jump-start my metabolism.  For the rest of breakfast , which I ate about an hour and a half after waking up - and I was terrible today about remembering to take photos - I ordered an omelet - a Greek omelet without cheese.  It was pretty bad - I should have just gone for scrambled eggs.  The tomatoes were winter pale and tasteless, and the olives were the bland, sliced kind from cans.  It was rough not having any potatoes, grits or toast - things I love love love!  But I sucked it up and ate my nasty omelet - the company was good!  And it stuck with me - I didn't get any lunch till 3, and while I ate a few carrots between times, I wasn't all that hungry. 

I keep saying I wasn't hungry and being happy about it, but I should say what I really mean is that I felt okay.  I didn't feel grumpy and drained the way I get when I haven't eaten recently.  This is a good thing - I hate feeling that way.

For lunch I had a pretty good salad - leftover salmon from last night, mixed with baby spinach and baby greens, great northern beans and avocado, with a mustard vinaigrette dressing.  I had more carrots to eat, but I ended up giving them to a friend because I was so stuffed!  I just drank water, my usual beverage.

We had another rushed evening - yet another evening school event.  The original plan was to reheat the enchiladas from Monday night, so I did that for everyone but me.  I made some more soup, with beans and tomatoes and onions, and I ate that, and we all had some sauteed spinach.  Things were so rushed that I forgot all about taking photos, but I ate two bowls of soup and had a glass of wine.  All in all, while it's not the best food ever, it's not too bad, and I do feel satisfied.  I also am feeling really good - upbeat and energetic.

Wednesday - lunch and dinner

For lunch I had leftovers from the tuna/bean salad from dinner, along with some cucumbers.  Here it is:

 I really wanted some crackers or something to go with it - what a habit eating grains is for me!  But I felt pretty satisfied after I ate it, so that was good.

My husband ended up having to work late, so I got a bit peckish as dinner got pushed later than usual.  I had a few bits of toasted seaweed, which I'm assuming is okay to eat.  I like this kind, which has wasabi powder on it - it's spicy!

Our original plan for dinner was salmon, rice, and green beans.  I find it hard to eat big pieces of meat and fish, so I was a bit worried I'd be hungry with just fish and vegetables.  So I made a quick batch of soup with black beans and vegetables.  I was surprised by how much my kids enjoyed the soup - I have a feeling they'll be eating more vegetables than usual as this diet progresses.

 I forgot to take a picture, but I actually had thirds of the soup.

Here's the salmon (sideways, sorry).  I've never been a big meat eater - that's about as much as I can take in a single meal.  I do love beans, though, so that is going to help.

All in all, it wasn't too bad.  And I have to say, it was lovely to eat until I was full, for a change.  And I wasn't hungry at all for the rest of the night.

My first slow-carb breakfast - blah!

So one thing I've been doing that is bad, bad, bad, is that I haven't been eating breakfast right after I get up.  According to the 4-Hour Body plan, you should eat within 30 minutes, an hour at most, of waking.  I wouldn't mind that so much, but breakfast has become a sort of ritual for me.  I am the kind of person who needs a certain amount of alone time in order to be a kind and patient person when I'm around other people.  And as a librarian, dealing with sometimes difficult customers, and as a parent, dealing with sometimes difficult children, that alone time is necessary to being able to maintain my equilibrium in trying situations.

So in the morning, whenever my schedule permits it, I have my breakast "respite."  It honestly gives me a psychological edge for the rest of the day when I can have my breakfast, a quiet cup of copy, and read a book.  20 minutes works - a half-hour is optimal. 

I've been getting up at 7, getting the kids ready for school, leaving at 8 to drop them off, and getting back home and eating breakfast at about 8:30.  So that's not really going to work on this diet plan.  And what I normally eat?  All things that are prohibited on this diet.  Usually a whole-grain bagel or toast, some cheese or yogurt, and fruit.  Yup.  None of that is permitted now, so I have to eat something that is not appealing to me at that hour of the day, and I have to get up extra early to eat it.  This diet had better see some results pretty quickly, is all I'm saying. 

This morning I got up at 6:30 and made myself breakfast:  four strips of turkey bacon, two eggs, and some refried beans from Trader Joe's (with jalapeno).  And some coffee  Here it is:

I only managed to eat about half of it, though.  It was just too early for that kind of breakfast for me.  And the refried beans were just awful.  I tossed those in the trash, along with the rest of the can, and gave the remainder to the dog, who has decided this is the best diet plan ever.

I was feeling a little queasy after that attempt at breakfast, so I had a little bowl of sliced cucumber.  I really, really miss fruit.  I thought I might be craving chocolate or bagels or something, but so far what I'm positively dying for is a bowl of strawberries.  Or a mango or a banana.  I cannot wait till Saturday!

I felt faintly nauseated all morning at work today.  Maybe that's not so bad - I wasn't hungry at all!  I have to say, though, I'm not feeling too optimistic about this breakfast change.  Ferriss says it takes a few days to get used to it.  This may be the hardest change I'll have to make with this plan.

Dinner on Thursday - the first "Slow Carb" meal

It was kind of a rushed night because one of the kids had an evening event.  My original plan had been to reheat some leftover pasta, which was fine for everyone but me.  I ended up making a salad that I used to eat a lot when I lived in Italy: great northern beans, onions, olives, tuna, olive oil, a little garlic, a little vinegar.  So I ate a couple of helpings of that and some sauteed fresh baby spinach. 

The first helping is at the top; the second one is below.  The plate is actually a salad plate, since our regular dinner plates are so big I think it makes me take larger portions, so we've gotten in the habit of using the smaller plates as dinner plates.  Not that it matters with this diet, I guess.  It wasn't the best meal ever - I think that if I'd planned for this diet I would have shopped differently last weekend.  But it wasn't bad - and the wine sure helped make it palatable.

They had a bunch of soda and desserts after the event last night, but I have to say I felt pretty full and just didn't look at the spread.  I had a cup of water and chatted with people, and it wasn't really so bad because I honestly wasn't hungry.  In fact, I felt perfectly satisfied, hunger-wise, all through the evening and didn't really think about snacking after we got home and sat down to watch a movie, which is kind of unusual for me, now that I think about it!

Lunch on Tuesday: food pictures - the last hurrah

So I started reading about the 4-Hour Body diet yesterday morning.  I had plans to meet a friend for lunch that afternoon, at our favorite upscale lunch spot.  I hadn't actually committed to starting the diet at that point, but I was thinking about it.  So I started taking photos of what I ate. 

Restaurant Eve is in Old Town Alexandria, and it's a great place to eat.  It is totally overpriced, though, and is definitely the kind of place you'd go for dinner as a special occasion.  But they have this great lunch deal, called the "lickety split" menu.  It's served in the bar area, and you get to choose two things from the menu for $13.50 - any two things - wine and dessert, soup and a salad, etc.  And the food is really, really good.

So here is what I ate:

The soup of the day was lobster bisque, which really wasn't thick and creamy like you'd expect.  It was flavorful and brothy, and those croutons on top?  They're tiny little puff-pastry circles - off the charts on this carbslut's scale!  It was delicious.

One thing I love about the 4-Hour Body Diet is that you get to drink up to two glasses of wine (preferably red) every day during the week!  That's more than I drink - I usually have a glass of red wine with dinner several times a week.  I love the food/wine combo, and there are some dishes that just aren't as good without a glass of wine. 

The bread?  Well, it was pre-diet commitment.  And wow, was it good.  Warm and softly dense on the inside, chewably crusty on the outside.  Mmmmm.  I ate one and a half pieces, as shown.  I could have eaten the whole loaf.  It has just occurred to me that if I came to this restaurant on a splurge Saturday, I wouldn't be able to afford to eat whatever and as much as I wanted!

My friend and I couldn't decide between the ahi rolls and the salad of the day, which was some kind of fish, can't remember exactly what (I love them all, so I'm not picky.  Snapper, maybe) and salad greens with strips of beets in a delicious vinaigrette dressing.  So we ordered both and split them.  (There were 9 little ahi rolls - notice that we cut one in half.  Fair's fair, after all!)  We didn't have dessert.  But we wanted it.

Not bad for a last hurrah, eh?  But really, it wouldn't have been that hard to follow the diet and still eat here - the fish and salad part would have been allowed.  The wine, too.  The bread, nope.  But I could have picked something else and still it would have worked.  I just wish I were more fond of protein and less a total and complete carb slut.

4-Hour Body Diet - Can she do it?

I have never, ever, actually followed a strict weight-loss diet.  I've done stuff like exercising more and eating less, and that works a bit - but I never lose all the weight I'd like to, and I generally gain most of it back.  I'm tired of this! 

I'm not hugely overweight - I'd like to lose about 15 pounds.  Mostly for health reasons, because my fat tends to congregate around my middle, which is of course a dangerous place to carry body fat.  And also because I'm tired of dreading bathing suit shopping and generally feeling disappointed in the way I look.  Sometimes I think it's harder to commit to serious weight loss when you're not that fat.  Just kind of fatter than you want to be. 

So, for the first time ever, I'm going to to commit to an actual, strict weight-loss plan.  Why this one?  Well, I should say that it's because of all the great things I've heard about the results from this diet.  And because it gives you tools to change your ways to keep the weight off.  But honestly?  It's because on this diet, you get one day a week where you can eat whatever, whatever you want.  As much as you want. 

The reason I've never even attempted a strict diet is that I know myself - I love food.  Not massive quantities, and not binging, but the food itself.  I eat a pretty healthy diet - mostly whole grains, vegetables, fruit.  I never eat fast food.  I rarely eat dessert, even.  But I love pasta.  And bagels.  And cheese.  And chocolate.  I love to cook.  I used to live in Italy, which is where I learned to cook.  I can look in your refrigerator and take what you have in there and make a pretty good pasta sauce, no problem.  But portion control?  Not so good.

So can this self-professed carb slut follow a diet that includes no grains of any kind, not even whole grains - and no fruit - NO FRUIT! - for six days a week?  I'm not terribly confident, but it's worth a shot.  I'm following the diet from Timothy Ferriss's book The 4-Hour Body.  We'll see how it goes.

The book directs those who want to follow the weight-loss plan to choose two from a list of things to do in order to help make the plan successful.  The choices are

1. Take photos of yourself in underwear or a bathing suit and put it somewhere you'll see it often. (I'm not doing this because I live with my husband and kids, so, um, no, I don't think so.  Although it might be helpful to have them as before and after pictures - keep them on my phone when I'm tempted to eat a bagel or something.  We'll see)
2. Take photographs of everything you eat for 3-5 days, and for maximum effect, post them online for others to see.  (I'm going to do this one - I started snapping photos yesterday when I decided to take the plunge.  I totally forgot to do as Ferriss suggests and put my hand next to each item to make portion size evident - I'll have to start that.)
3. Find someone to do it with me - competition helps.  (I may do this if I can get anyone to join me.)
4. Measurements - get a simple tape measure and take measurements (hips, waist, biceps, thighs) and total the numbers to arrive at total inches.  This is more helpful than just using a scale becuase your weight isn't necessarily going to show what fat has been converted to muscle.  I'm doing this one, too - measurements to be posted soon.

So, that's it.  I have to say I'm not terribly optimistic about my ability to stick to this, because it's going to feel like such deprivation.  But it's not forever, right?  I'm hoping that once I lose the weight I want, I can go back to a modified version of what I usually eat, but that if the weight starts creeping up, I'll know what to do to set matters straight.  And I think that knowing that I can totally splurge on Saturday - well, that is attractive.  Very attractive.  I don't think I have, in my adult life (at least not post-childbearing days), ever eaten whatever I'd like to eat, and particularly not as much of it as I wanted! 

Can the allure of a splurging Saturday help me maintain the diet the rest of the week?  Maybe, if I see some results.  We'll see.