7 days down

I have liked nearly every meal that I have made during my journey on the Cinch! diet...except one. I have decided that I absolutely despise whole wheat pasta. If someone has some suggestion as to how I can eat this stuff without gagging, I'd really appreciate it.

I decided after my 5 day detox to just pick out 4 meals from the book to have for the next 5 days (one breakfast, one lunch, one snack, one dinner). That way, I could save on groceries by not having to throw out anything. So now, I have 3 more days of this nasty gross pasta. Now, before I am too negative about the meal, I do enjoy the veggies and the ricotta cheese. Maybe I'll eat it with a piece of whole wheat bread and toss the pasta...who knows.

I think I've gotten a handle on the diet, and I have a pretty good idea of what to do when I go out of town next week for National Conference. (At least I hope so!!)

The Skeptic

Ever since I was a 7th grader, I have worried about my weight. I have done many diets from Weight Watchers, to shake-based diets, to hard core exercise diets, to low carb diets, and even at a very low point of my life, starvation (don't ever do it, it messes up your body for YEARS after...and could kill you).
While I have had small success with Weight Watchers, and even great success with my sister-in-laws protein supplement program, I have always been skeptical when I see a diet claim that you can lose up to 8 pounds in just 5 days. I've been on enough diets to know (at least I thought) that it is pretty much impossible for you to lose that much weight, and still eat, in that short amount of time...unless you're on the Biggest Loser and have your diet planned out for you AND you're working out 8 hours a day AND you have 100+ pounds to lose. I only have a little under 30 that I want to lose. Surely, that would not happen for me. Even as I picked up Cinch! at Barnes and Noble, and even as I paid for the book, brought it home, read it, went grocery shopping for it, and started last Thursday, I knew that I would not come anywhere close to losing 8 pounds. The claim that the author makes is that you will lose UP TO 8 pounds if you follow the diet EXACTLY as she lays it out for the 5 food-5 day detox. I figured I may lose 3-5.
When I stepped on the scale after the first day, I had already lost 3 pounds. I have gone for months at a time where I have exercised and eaten "healthy" and haven't lost but one or two pounds. After the second day, I was down another 1.8 pounds. I thought, "This is nuts."
I continued to read the book, and I know from my reading that after I stop this detox that the weight loss will go much slower, that this is just a jump start to the 25 day diet, to get you motivated to stick with it.
Now that I've completed the 5 day-5 food detox I am 8.6lbs lighter!!! Yeah, that's right. Me the skeptic actually lost MORE than what the claim was. I am so excited, and I am so motivated to continue working on this diet. Today, I was able to branch out and make a different meal with different food (Chocolate Oatmeal!!!) and it was so good.
Last night, I went to a friend's house for a 4th of July meal, and brought my own food. (I warned her in advance that I was going to do that.) Even though there were chips, hot dogs, grilled chicken, brownies, and strawberry pie, I can honestly say that I was not tempted by any of it. I had eaten at 4 before I went to their house, and was still full by the time everyone started eating around 6:30. Even at 8:00 when I was supposed to have my last "meal" of the day, I wasn't that hungry.
If you're thinking, man, I need to try that! I will tell you right now that it is difficult. It is hard to eat the same 5 foods for 5 days. You probably will get sick of raspberries and yogurt by the end of the 5 days, and at points throughout, you may crave other food or you may feel hungry. The main thing I will say is stick it out.
Over the next 5 days, I picked out 4 different meals from the 100 recipes in the book. On the 10th, I'll weigh again. My goal is to lose just 1 pound over these next 5 days.
So here are the stats so far:
Starting weight: 163.4
Today's weight: 154.8
Next goal: 153.8

Super Excited

So, I'm on day four of my 5 day detox. This has been a definite learning experience for me. I'm learning more about nutrition than I have ever learned before. I read two more chapters in the book last night, and one was mainly all the different recipes that I'll be able to have for the next 25 days. Let me just say, they look absolutely DELICIOUS!!! I'm so excited to try them out. I still have no idea what I'm going to do during National Conference. I guess I'll just eat in moderation and make smart choices when dinner and lunch different places.
Lost more weight from yesterday. :) I must say I have never lost weight this fast before in my life; however, I know that once I'm off the detox system that the weight will come off more slowly, and I'm okay with that. I really feel like this book is going to help completely change the way I eat, and hopefully Charis and Matt will follow. Although, I don't think anyone will ever get chips out of Matt's diet.
I cannot wait until Tuesday when I get to try some of these new recipes, and reveal how much weight I lost during my five days.

Two days down

Well, I finished day two yesterday, and I started day three today.

I used to think that I wanted a diet/exercise program that was easy and quick, but I have realized over the years of losing and gaining weight that a "diet/exercise" program to just lose weight is never going to solve the real problems. If we're fat or overweight, we got there for a reason, more than likely it's because of what we've been eating. We can't change those eating habits for a season and expect that when we reach our "goal" that we can go back to those habits. Deciding to lose weight has to be a life-long decision or the weight WILL come back. Trust me, I've been there, done that multiple times.

This book is teaching me a lot about nutrition, a lot about keeping your metabolism going, and a lot about what stops your metabolic processes in your body (artificial sweeteners being one). Here are some of the decisions I have made about my eating habits in the past 3 days.

1. no more soda - diet or otherwise - there is too much research out there to just ignore the danger-signs of diet soda...in fact, a nurse once told me that while I was pregnant it was safer for me to drink a regular Pepsi than any diet drink because of the lack of artificial sweeteners.

2. eating 4 meals a day. For the past two days I have eaten every four hours. I have so much energy, and I don't ever hit that "low" where you feel like you really need a nap.

3. as much as possible, I am going to eat all-natural foods.

4. I don't need to use salt to season. There are so many other seasonings out there that don't have all the negative side effects that salt has.

That's it for now. Oh, and I weighed again this morning...totally can't believe it. Can't wait to share it with you :)