I'm proud of myself for last through 3 days. I am glad I stayed home today so I could test the waters with healthy eating before the weekend. I am still having 1 serving daily of half and half which of course is a no-no, but I can't give up coffee all together. I would love to in the future, but I think it tastes better than tea and I can't go the diet soda route. I hope that in time the healthy choices start become the easy choice.

2 Day Check In

So after 2 days of following the plan, I am down 8 pounds. I know this 8 pounds is water weight, but it's nice to see it gone anyway. Typically the first week of any diet results in the highest weight loss for a single week and is generally attributed to losing water weight. I will also confess that I was and actually still am retaining water from my pre-diet meals (Mexican and movie theater popcorn).

So far, so good as to my choices. I very nearly considered eating some dark chocolate yesterday, but decided not to. I didn't really need it or even wanted it, so I skipped it. Chocolate is not on this eating plan, but as I looked at the nutritional content I figured I could have one or two and it would be OK. Maybe later I will give in.

My sister and I have agreed that once we hit the 20 pound loss we will have our first cheat meal. The diet does build in what they call free meals in order to help you not feel like you are giving up everything. So far I haven't used a free meal. I would like to stick to the 20 pound goal, but that could come pretty quickly. I asked her what happens if one person gets to 20 before the other. Her initial idea was to go ahead with the cheat meal for the one who lost the 20 pounds and make the other one watch as motivation and/or punishment. Once she realized that she would likely come in second for this challenge, she decided she didn't want to has to watch me eat something yummy and off plan. So now the plan is to wait until we both hit the 20 pound mark.

Since I stayed home today, I had a yummy chicken breast for breakfast. I have been eating eggs, but since I could have anything I wanted I went for the much higher in protein chicken with a morning banana. I will resume eggs again tomorrow as I will be back at work.

I hope to continue to drop any sort of weight before I weigh in again on Tuesday morning. I have only been on the plan since Tuesday morning and I expect great things from this diet. The book did state that people often can lose 15-20 pounds in the first week so I hope to be right up there.

Tonight I am having chicken fajita chicken with guacamole, grilled veggies and fruit. I am finding the fruit is very helpful in keeping me on the plan. I am also finding that it tastes so much sweeter with I haven't had any other sugar.

Day 2

I cooked chicken for lunch today and that really helped. I was glad to have such a high volume of protein in the middle of the day. I have survived through day 2 with a full dinner planned and I expect that to remain the same through the evening. Due to some issues, I am staying home from work tomorrow. I hope that I don't screw up my diet by being at work. Although I don't enjoy work, it can help create some needed structure to my day.

I did force myself to go to Curves again today. I very nearly skipped it, but at the last moment, I redeemed myself and went. I needed to get up and move. I have a very sedentary job and I find that if I don't make myself get up, I can sit for several hours at a time. I find this to be disturbing.

I hope for a successful evening and day tomorrow.

The Dawn of New Day : The Paleo Way

OK... I finally started the Paleo Diet. I am please to announce that as of this moment I have been 100% successful today. I still have dinner to get through and of course the evening, but I am confident that I will succeed. I have to say that I felt like and even seem to look like Jabba the Hutt today. It's really quite horrible. I suppose this diet could not have found me sooner.

Having been a previous Atkins Diet Follower, I am not finding this to be that difficult. I will need more protein tomorrow during the day. I don't want to O.D. on veggies and fruit. I find that getting things together the night before was very helpful today. I plan to cook some extra chicken for tomorrow. The more the merrier at this point.

I weighed myself this morning and of course found out that I have regained much of the weight I had lost doing Atkins. This of course is caused by actually eating semi regular foods. Atkins is very strict and when you add in any sugar it really causing the weight to creep back on. So although I am starting exactly at square one, I'm very close to it. I'd almost be disappointed in myself, but it's not worth my effort at this point in time. I will just have to regroup and start again. I made it to Curves today at lunch. That was good. I have been retaining so much water from eating out over the weekend, I my legs were actually in pain from sitting. So doing the circuit really helped.

I hope the chicken recipe that I found for dinner is good. It's basically chicken breasts coated in olive oil and sliced almonds with pepper and garlic.

Starting Tomorrow

OK... I know I was supposed to start today, but I will start tomorrow. I needed to get a few more things in order before jumping in with both feet first. I am very excited to stop eating processed foods. I think there is a chance that they make me tired.

Anyway, tomorrow I am having lots of fruits and veggies. I am having an egg for breakfast filled with a ton of veggies.

So as I drift off to sleep tonight I will dream of a better tomorrow.

A question was asked....

Why this diet?

Why I chose this diet:

1. It basically guarantees that you will lose weight.
2. Eating simply and like a person from Paleolithic times appears to be healthy.
3. Yes there are great limitations, but I find that I work well with limitations.
4. The diet has been linked to curing Syndrome X diseases, lowering cholesterol, blood pressure and of course fat-fat-fat.
5. By limiting the foods like grains, sugar and dairy I can focus on only eating pure nutrition.
6. I can also learn to enjoy foods in a more natural state.
7. I can learn what food should really taste like.
8. Of course, I will say this one twice... it basically guarantees that you will lose weight.
9. It also aids in the prevention of certain Cancers, high blood pressure, diabetes and other chronic illnesses.
10. It has been said that is can assist in clearing up brain fog. I've been noticing that I have been getting that all too often.
11. I may personally have a mild gluten sensitivity and this help determine if it's true.
12. Eating lean protein helps to rev up the metabolism.
13. I am rather accustomed to the Atkins Diet and this is similar, so subtracting the diary from Atkins lowers fat intake and by adding fruit I can increase vitamin and nutrient intake.
14. Being able to have fruit will make this plan easier to stay on, since on Atkins you can't have fruit.
15. Some people have reported reversing hair loss... and I have hair loss. I hope it grows back!

These are just a few of the reasons. I do know the diet seems limited, but at the same time coming from an Atkins world, it seems almost easier. Now that summer is nearing the availability of fruit and veggies are abundant, so this is a great time to start this plan.

Test Post

This is a test post. I sent 3 posts yesterday and none of them are showing up.

What Can I Eat?

Today I started the journey trying to figure out what I can eat if I need or want to dine out. Of course this has nothing to do with the core of the plan, but I need to start thinking about this. I think for the most part the day to day eating will be simple, but I will need to plan at least a day ahead. I will also need to limit my trips to the store mainly because bad carbohydrates will call my name upon entry to any grocery establishment.

I decided that it will be nearly impossible to eat out and avoid salt so I will pretend I didn't actually ingest any salt and just focus on the other portions of the diet. I can eat Thai food. Yum. I will have to skip the rice, but I have done that before and I will have to ask for cashews instead of peanuts. I will have salad if necessary, but I will skip the dressing. I could opt for some lemon wedges or just go plain. I could do the unthinkable and opt for a bun less burger, but that isn't really a burger it's just a slab of meat. Of course fries are out and although fries aren't amazing by themselves and are only made truly good based on what is cascading over them in form of fatty, sweet, salty dips and sauces, I think the burger joints are out. Sorry Red Robin, I can't deny your sauces. I will have to stay away.

I think I will have the hardest time staying away from Starbucks. I can deal with not having frothy goodness in the morning, but I often find myself at Starbucks, Tully's or any coffee stand on the weekend. Unless the world can create a sugarless, fat less, non dairy coffee that isn't processed, I will have to stop visiting latte land.

I've done it!

I am back blog world. I have blogged once before through myspace and have of course let that go by the wayside, but now I have decided that I will become the Morgan Spurlock of fat chicks.

How do I achieve this? I will start the Paleo Diet on April 26th and I will attempt to complete 30 full days of this plan. I will blog about my success and failure. I hope to have more success than failure this time around. I am still reading the book for the diet, but so far I have come to some conclusions: 1.) This is sort of like the Atkins Diet without dairy and with fruit. 2.) I believe that addition of the fruit will make it easier to stay on and follow the plan. 3.) I also think that by avoiding all high fat foods, other than nuts the weight may just melt off. I know that's far too optimistic, but I am also counting on the fact that with this plan you also avoid salt, sugar and anything processed and focus on lean animal protein.

The book basically and very nearly guarantees that you will lose weight by following this diet and that you can practically eat unlimited amounts of fruits and vegetables and still lose weight.

I will put this plan and myself to the test. Over the next several days I have to figure out exactly what I can eat. I need to try to branch out and try some new recipes and learn to love vegetables that are starch free. This could be a horrible challenge.