Day 17

Well... I skipped my walks on Friday and Saturday.  I was so exhausted from having consumed no protein for 3 days, I just couldn't make myself get up.  Fruit and veggie day was fine, and banana, milk, and soup day was a little better.  I only ate 4 of the possible 8 bananas.  The veggie soup I made is actually quite good- it's a little spicy, which I can't really figure out.  I don't think I put anything spicy in it other than maybe a half teaspoon or so of chili powder.  Anywho, today is "feast day" with beef and tomatoes on the menu.  Still not sure how I'm going to eat 6 whole tomatoes.  Right now, I've been up for about an hour, I've drunk 1 bottle of water so far, and I am STAR-ving.  I went down to the fitness center and rode a bike for 15 minutes, went 3.45 miles.  Stretched, now I'm cooling down before my shower.  I honestly feel a little like I could throw up.  Whatever.  Oh, I weighed myself when I was in the fitness center... Said I wasn't going to weigh in till the end, but I couldn't resist.  I've lost three pounds. I was hoping for more, honestly.  Meh.  Still going, I guess that's the main point.

Day 14

Yes.  Two full weeks in, and I'm still going.  Pretty proud of myself for that simple fact.  Yesterday was pretty good.  Ate fruit all day, and drank something like 86 oz of water.  I really thought the water was going to be a problem for me, but luckily (sarcasm) it's been damn near 100 degrees out and I'm mega-dehydrated so my body actually needs all the water I'm supposed to drink.  So, let's see.  Adhering with the GM diet's day 1, I ate about 1/4 cantaloupe, 1 apple, 10 strawberries, about 20 each cherries and raspberries, and ten blueberries.  Wow, typing it out like that, it kinda looks like I hardly ate anything... But I wasn't hungry, not at all.  Last night I roasted some vegetables and made my "wonder soup" for days 4-7.  I also packed for myself some carrots, celery, broccoli, and cauliflower.  My breakfast potato is scrubbed and waiting to go into the microwave.

This morning's routine was pretty much the same as usual.  Up at 4, stretch, 25 crunches, 18 minutes of cardio, home, stretch, water.  Today for food is probably going to be tough for me.  Only vegetables... not sure if I have strong enough willpower to avoid the occasional taste of mousse or cake or whatever is around.  Shit.  It's gonna be hard.  I'm actually kinda considering going fully paleo when this is over.. Nothing but meat and produce.  I know it's going to be difficult to keep the weight off otherwise, and I don't want to bounce all the way back up from whatever I lose.  Whatever.  On to day 2... here we go.

Day 13

So... Day 13 of my healthier lifestyle has started, but it's day 1 of the GM diet.  So far, so good, I guess.  Woke up at 4, as usual, stretched, walked with Rosie (actually, we started at a jog, but she wasn't having it).  I don't know if I'm going to keep taking her out with me.  She's so willful, and if she doesn't, want to walk, she just stops.  Obviously, that's not exactly conducive to a strong workout with an elevated heart rate.  I have to keep stopping to coerce her to come with me.  I can't just tug on her leash, because she slips out of it so easily.  It's extremely frustrating.

Anyway, as I was saying.  Day one of the GM.  I've almost downed an entire bottle of water, and I honestly feel like I could vomit because of all the fluids sloshing around in my belly.  Eating cantaloupe, and 10 cherries.  The water is what I've been most concerned about.  It's really hot, and I know I get dehydrated so it should be easier to drink a lot of water (8-10 glasses a day, with an elevated intake on day 5 to flush out uric acid), but I still can't see how I'll be able to keep a half gallon of water down.  Definitely glad I didn't try to drink anything before we left.  I packed a lunch/snacks last night so I'd be able to just grab-n-go this morning.  Oh man.  My stomach is gurgling from all this water.  Wish me luck.

Day 12

This morning I did as I said I would yesterday.  Went down to the fitness center.  Stretched, got on a treadmill.  Stupid thing kept quitting my program, so I had to move to a different one.  I walked/ran for a total of about 15 minutes at speeds varying from 2mph-6mph.  Then I did some high knees on the treadmill at 1.5 mph, for 1 full minute.  Stretched again, tried to do a plank using a stability ball.  Lot harder than it looks.  Sigh... the results of my weigh in.  It's worse than I thought.  179.5 lbs.  Which means I was probably over 180 at some point.  I feel so gross.  Tomorrow is the big day, starting the GM diet with Katie.  I don't know if she's really committed to it- I keep asking her if she's read about it, and she keeps conveniently forgetting.  I don't know If I'll make it all the way through if I don't have anyone else for support.  Crap.  Wish me luck.

Day 11

So, I guess I had kind of a bad weekend.  Didn't walk with Rosie, wasn't very good with food.  Drank 3 sodas.  Boo.  Anyway, back at it this morning.  I s'pose the important thing is that I keep getting back at it.  So here I go.

I added a little more to our walk this morning.  I keep adding just a little bit more at a time to the distance of our walk every couple of days.  It's starting to get so hot though.  The weather is very weird here.  Instead of reaching the peak heat at midday like we're used to, the high comes around 4 in the afternoon, and the low temp for the day doesn't hit till between 4 and 5am, which is why I get up 3 hours before I need to be at work.  Typically, it's in the mid 50s-low 60s when we go out, but this morning it was hotter outside than it is inside (75-80), and the humidity is stifling.  This is a problem.  It's obviously best to do my working out in the morning because it jump-starts my metabolism and gives me that much-needed shot of endorphins to start the day.  By the time I'm done with work, I'm WAY too tired to try to work out, but the fitness room at the apartment doesn't open until 6am.  I work at 7.  That obviously doesn't work.

Another problem: I haven't been sleeping well.  Sometimes I'll take some benadryl or melatonin to knock myself out for a proper amount of sleep, but if I miss my bedtime like I did last night, I can't take pills that'll put me out of commission for 8 hours.  So I go without, and my possible 6 hours of sleep turn into about 3 hours of sleep and 3 hours of rolling around trying to get comfortable so I can fall back to sleep.  Grr. 

Tomorrow, Tuesday the 19th, I don't work.  My plan is to get up a little before 6, and go straight down to the fitness center to do all my work and weigh myself and get back up to the apartment before it hits swass level outside.  I have to weigh myself.  Stupid that I don't have a scale still.  Katie and I are starting the GM on Wednesday, and I have to document a start weight before I get into that so I know where I am when it's over, and how hard I'll have to work to keep off whatever I lose.  I'm excited.  Nervous.  Little scared to get lazy and gain it all back.  This is going to be really hard work, but I'm ready.

Day 8

An update to yesterday's post... It's called the GM Diet, and it was developed by General Motors for their employees, and field research was conducted by Johns Hopkins.  There are in fact some side effects, naturally, since in the first 3 days you're being deprived of much needed protein and carbohydrates, you feel some fatigue and muscle weakness. Here's a better link that gives you tips on how to prepare, how you'll feel on specific days, meal plans, etc.  My friend Katie said she wants to do it with me, so I'll have some support.

On to today.  4am wake up, stretched, did some light calisthenics, walked with Rosie.  Ran into a stray dog, she got mega spooked and kept stopping the whole rest of the walk.  Weirdo.  Came back, stretched.  I need to get into the fitness center so I can weigh myself.  Nothing else really to report today.  Peace out.

Day 7

Here's my breakfast.  Smoothie and hard-boiled egg (white) with grapes and a peach.  Oh, and a quarter cup of raw almonds (not pictured).  Same routine as usual this morning.  Woke up at 4am, stretched, walked with Rosie, came back, stretched again, looked for another workout to do, got sucked into pinterest.  Showered, ate breakfast.

I found something on pinterest last night that I think I'm going to try.  It's a 7-day cleanse during which, if done properly, you can lose between 10 and 17 lbs.  Here's how it goes:
Day 1- Fruit.  You can eat as much fruit as you want, anything except bananas, but ONLY fruit.
Day 2- Veggies.  Same principle- veggies, veggies, veggies.  Start the day with a baked potato with 1 pat of butter, all veggies the rest of the day (only the one potato).
Day 3- Fruit and veggies.  All fruit and veg all day, no potatoes today, and no bananas yet.
Day 4- Bananas and milk.  You can consume up to 8 bananas, and 3 glasses of milk.  Day 3 is supplemented with a special soup- basically broth with a bunch of negative-calorie vegetables.
Day 5- Feast day.  Beef and tomatoes.  You can have 2-10 oz. portions of lean beef, and fresh or canned tomatoes (6).  You don't have to eat all the beef, but you must eat the 6 tomatoes.  Water intake is increased on day 5 by 1 qt.
Day 6- Beef and veggies.  Eat lean beef and veggies all day, to your heart's content.
Day 7- Brown rice, fruit juices, and veggies.  It gives no amounts, but these are the things you can consume.

Everyday you must drink 10 glasses (I'm guessing 8 oz glasses) of water.  You can also drink black coffee, herbal or leaf tea, and club soda or seltzer.

Here's a link to the blog where I found this (called GM's Diet).  It explains why it works, and what the nutrition on each individual day does for your body, and gives the recipe for the soup.  Also says that you can repeat this flush as often as you like with no complications.  I really want to do it.

Gotta get going.