Monday, April 1, 2013

Dieting again!

It's been way too long since I posted anything about this diet effort, but need to get back to it to help me keep on track. Unfortunately, like so many diet efforts, I stopped watching what I ate. Some major stress entered my life in October and I started eating too many carbs. Then the holidays hit and we all know how hard it is to control the carbs then. Next came my birthday and the wonderful brownie hot fudge sundae I like to have for my "cake." The bottom line is that after losing 16.5 lbs. I put 14.5 lbs. back on. UGH! By February 25th I had had it (couldn't fit into some of my clothes and the dreaded muffin top was back). 

I loved the Metabolism Miracle diet because I never felt hungry, or at least not for long because you are supposed to eat/snack every 3 hours. One thing I would do differently on that diet is to watch my calories. I found that I was probably only reducing my calories enough to lose 1/2 to 1 lb. a week so my progress was slower than I would have liked. I think the whole process of controlling the blood sugar levels that this way of eating promotes is very important and good to follow. That said, I needed something else to jump start me this time, but I will come back to this way of eating soon.

I am now following The Six-Week Cure for the Middle-Aged Middle. It is based on the same theory of resting your liver and switching your body to be a fat burning machine instead of burning carbs for fuel. The first two weeks were grueling and the second two weeks had so much meat I thought about becoming a vegetarian when I was through. The third two weeks is a time of transitioning back into eating carbs, but only if you have lost the weight you want to lose. I have lost 10.5 lbs. in five weeks so I am really happy with that, but I want to lose another 20 lbs.  This diet is mostly directed to those who have 10-20 pounds to lose around their middle and want to lose it quickly. Today I am starting back on the first two weeks phase and will do that for a week and then switch to the meat week for a week and back and forth until I reach my weight goal. This is the recommendation of the doctors who authored this diet as a way to keep tricking your metabolism.

Even though I am losing weight more quickly on the new plan, I look forward to eating again according to the Metabolism Miracle diet plan. The current diet I am following is awfully strict in the beginning and typically I only get about 1200 calories a day at the most. It consists of 3 protein shakes a day and one meal for the first phase of it. The 'meat week' does include veggies.

Something I heard recently from another diet plan is that "Nothing tastes better than being thin feels." That saying is going on my fridge or maybe better in the cupboard where I keep the milk chocolate chips for my amazing cookies that always get me into trouble.