Saboteur

It was time for accountability. I couldn’t convince myself something so small could do any harm. I knew the calorie count of a serving, something around 160 calories, What’s the big deal in that? No, there had to be more.  I took the box and examined it.  15 servings per box size I was buying and a little arithmetic was in order.  2400 calories, 2400 calories I was adding extra to my diet per week!  That’s the part I wasn’t figuring out, how much per week.  160 calories a day doesn’t sound that bad but add it together paints a different picture. My box usually didn’t last a week, but I did only buy 1 box a week or else it could have been worse.

Crackers are my diet’s saboteur and even though they are my favorite food; I am giving them up. In reality they don’t taste that great.

3 Day Diet, What I Lost In 3 Days

Here are my feelings about the 3 Day Diet so far.  1st it is isn’t a lot of calories so I’m guessing it must be around 800 at the most.  Some of the websites out there say it is around 1000  The fact that there are many variations floating around and you can’t find the “official” 3 Day Diet, it’s probably a red flag all is not kosher here.  Whatever you do, do not pay for this diet because there are enough menus out there for free and you will definitely get the general idea of the menu without paying.

  One huge criticism I have with the menu  is with the measurement of the tuna fish where you either have 1/2 cup or 1 cup and anyone who asks questions seems to be confused about this one topic.  It turns out one 5 oz can of tuna is a half a cup and that is what the tuna can says – so go by that.  I am  aware that 4 oz is a half a cup but I think we are talking fluid oz and the tuna company is measuring weight I guess, so stay in the tuna world and take their word for it.  In any case the 5 oz can contains 2 servings and it says one serving is equal to 1/4 of a cup so 2 servings is a half a cup, which is the whole can.  This part of the diet is really flawed because no one seems to really understand it and why it’s not spelled out that you need to eat one 5 oz can of tuna is just another red flag that this diet isn’t kosher and someone thought it would be funny to be vague and see how it shakes out.  So just remember when the diet says a half a cup you need to eat the whole 5 oz can and when it tells you to eat a whole cup on the last day then you need 2 whole 5 oz cans of tuna. Sheesh, that’s a lot of tuna.

On the bright side of this diet; I think I have to defend it a little bit about if it is healthy or not?  In many reviews I read  how unhealthy and unbalanced this diet is but I don’t actually agree with that statement.  I don’t see any problem other than it doesn’t vary in food choices, but it is kind of balanced.  You get a small amount of protein and you get protein at every meal and there is either fruit or vegetables at almost every meal and sometimes both,  So I really don’t understand the haters on this topic.  You even get a small amount of bread and some vanilla ice cream which who could argue, if you have dessert, make it vanilla ice cream. I really didn’t find Nutrisystem’s desserts as healthy as vanilla ice cream since they seemed to be laden with chemicals I couldn’t pronounce. In my opinion, if you have to have a dessert then vanilla ice cream is a pretty healthy choice.   The other criticism is that the is too low in calories but the  MediFast diet was designed by a doctor and you ddidn’t get anywhere near 1000 on that diet.  I tried the MediFast before and the 3 Day Diet is more humane, which says a lot about how difficult following these diets really can be.

Day 1

The 1st day of the diet I loved having peanut butter on my whole wheat toast and I was lucky to have bought a delicious grapefruit that morning so breakfast was enjoyable for me.  I drank a cup of hot Lipton tea without anything added.  I grew up drinking hot tea every single day of my life so it’s not a problem.  Giving up skim lattes is harsh but I can have them on my 4 regular eating days so I’m not depressed about it. 

Lunch was tuna fish on a slice of toast, it’s not terrible.  I went my last 2 years of high school eating a plain tuna fish sandwich with just lettuce every single day.  I know for a fact tuna can help you lose weight. 

Dinner

The hard part -the green beans.  I like green beans very much but I like green beans with seasoning and some kind of oil or margarine added.  It was really rough  to get a cup of unseasoned green beans down the trap but I managed all but a few. The carrots were easy.

 I had Perdue prepared grilled chicken bites and I weighed out 3 oz on my scale.  It was sparse.  I had a Granny Smith apple and a cup of Breyers Natural Vanilla ice cream. 

2nd Day

I sliced a hard boiled egg on top of a slice of whole wheat toast and a cup of hot Lipton tea. 1/2 of a delicious banana.

Lunch

one 5 oz can tuna and 5 Saltine crackers.    The tuna wasn’t that pleasant to eat without the slice of toast.

Dinner

1 cup of steamed broccoli and 1/2 cup of steamed carrots.  2 all beef hot dogs and I ate BallPark but I heard that the kosher brand Hebrew National is a more healthy choice if you can find those.  My grocery store gets run through with the hot dogs so I’m lucky if I can find the store brand.  I had my hot dogs with mustard and just cut them up.  It was really difficult to eat the hot dogs without bread, They didn’t even taste like hot dogs without the bread.  I also had a half of a banana and a cup of vanilla ice cream again.

So at the end of day 2 of the 3 Day Diet I was feeling pretty bad and began a headache that I ended up taking aspirin. I drank a couple glasses of water to try and help but I was pretty hungry and grumpy.  I came the closest to cheating at this time but I was able to fend that off. The water helped to make me feel better and I took a bubble bath and forgot about my hunger and it probably took about 30 minutes before I felt relief.

Day 3

Breakfast was a hard boiled egg sliced over toast and a cup of hot Lipton tea.

The rest of the day I was away from home so things didn’t go exactly as planned but I tried to assimilate the diet as much as I could.  Lunch menu was supposed to be 1 slice of cheddar cheese, 5 Saltine crackers, 1 apple, and coffee or tea.  I went to Starbucks and bought the fruit and cheese plate and I only ate the apple, which was probably a little less than a whole apple, I brought my own crackers, I had a venti skim latte, which I’m hoping can be ok to  take the place of the cheddar cheese and the ice cream I won’t be have for dinner. 

Dinner

Menu was supposed to be 1 cup of tuna which is 2 whole 5 oz cans, 1 cup carrots, 1 cup green beans, 1 apple, 1 cup of vanilla ice cream,  instead I had six steamed shrimp and probably about 3/4 cup of steamed broccoli so I didn’t end up with 2 vegetables or the apple and I also didn’t eat the ice cream since I had the skim latte for lunch.  That finished up day 3 of the 3 Day Diet. I felt famished from 9pm onward and the thoughts that go through your head to eat are huge.

Day 4-weigh-in

My total weight loss was 3 lbs.  The diet advertises up to 10 lbs so not even half of  that.

I’m Trying A Fad Diet

Usually I have nothing to do with fad diets but I’m quite desperate now.  Today I’m starting on the 3 Day Diet.  It seems like nonsense but it’s 3 small meals, so I don’t feel any harm can come from trying it. I’ll blog again on Wednesday and report if there was any weight loss.  The confusing part of this diet is how you are supposed to be able to eat normal sized meals for the next 4 days with no snacking in between and I wonder how you don’t regain anything you lost the 1st 3 days?  After the 4 regular eating days;  you repeat the 3 day diet again and it’s supposed to change your metabolism.  I’ll let you know…my metabolism is messed up so if this can jump start it…then great!

Thoughts On How Sensei Diet Works For Me

I’ve been struggling a little bit getting started on the Sensei Diet.  The main culprit seems to be the shopping list since I chose to cook my own meals.  I substituted a lot of things or just left them out when I didn’t have them.  Yesterday I went to the store and tried to grab most of what I would need for the week and found I still fell short on ingredients when I tried to cook. 

My first criticism of the diet is the calorie listing for the foods.  I spent quite a bit of time in the bread isle trying to replicate the calorie totals for the bagels and english muffins but I couldn’t find any that matched.  I am wondering now if the calories they list for the food are ballpark figures.  This is how they list a bagel on the chart, 1.0 bagel 71 cal. so I assume they mean 1/2 of a mini bagel because 1 whole mini bagel is more like 120 if you buy Thomas’s bagels and then you can see how the calories still don’t add up.  They don’t list what brand they refer to but I looked at all the brands in my store and none matched the calories and I had same experience with the english muffins.

I wish they were more clear on the serving sizes.  They definitely need to tell you the serving is 1/2 of a mini bagel if that is what it is, instead of listing 1.0 bagel which will definitely lead to mistakes of eating a whole mini bagel.  The only reason I even fathomed you only get a half a bagel is when I went through the menu and noticed sometimes you get 2.0 bagel, which I assume means you get both halves and not 2 whole bagels, because that would be crazy. The calorie listing of items like apples 53 cal seems off to me also.  I would  like tha calorie totals to be put in ranges instead of  just one whole  total number, that way I would know I am not ruining my chances of this diet working-otherwise I am wasting my time here.

Another criticism I have is a website issue and how it times out and you have to sign in again even after only a half hour of being idle.  I really have a low tolerance for websites like this.  I know it’s necessary on banking sites but for a diet site?  It’s a major aggravation to me, as I cook something and run back to check out directions only to find I have to sign in again.  Another glitch I found was when I clicked on an item to get an alternative, I found many times the wrong food item would pop up with the alternatives to that item instead of the item I clicked, example: I needed a substitute for a banana but when I clicked on the word banana I was taken to a page that had the substitutes for the bagel and this happened multiple times but like all glitches-not every time!

The next part I have issues with is when I want to change a meal out to another meal.  It is easy enough to do; you just click change meal, but only 6 choices pop up when actually there are a lot more choices.  If you click on one of the 6 choices, and then click change meal again there will be other choices but still only 6 at a time.  I find this to be a major flaw because I’m not patient.  They should give you all the meal choices for breakfast, lunch and dinner at one time.  If anything causes me to quit this diet, it will probably be this feature of the diet.  I don’t have that kind of patience to keep clicking on 1 of 6 choices at a time and then have to do it over and over; just tell me all at once what I can have and let me deal with it. 

So my feeling today is that I’m frustrated with this diet.  Some things don’t make sense like the calorie totals listed on the menu compared to the calories I find on actual food in the store.  Serving sizes aren’t that clear and there is much room for error. I don’t think I am nit-picking either because how many of us have gotten ourselves into trouble with our weight by not realizing that we are actually eating 2 servings when you miss that a package contains 100 calories but wait…there are 2 servings in a package so you actually ate 200 calories!  Yes, this little detail means a lot. Do I get a whole mini bagel or just 1/2 a mini bagel?  I’m guessing a  half but it wasn’t openly clear.  The bottom line is that I have a deadline for losing some of this weight so I’m not sure I will continue this diet, because I’m not sure I’m following it correctly and I feel like I’m throwing valuable time away if I’m not.

Review Sensei For Weight Loss App

Today, I downloaded the Sensei For Weight Loss App on my iphone for $1.99.  I plan on keeping track of my thoughts on this program while I’m doing it.  I signed up on my phone and went through the short question section easily, but I was a little confused when I didn’t get to choose what type of diet I preferred, like when I saw it on the demos.  I then went online and checked on my laptop what type of diet I ended up following and it was the Mediterranean diet, which is what I wanted.  I guess you get that plan when you choose to cook your own meals instead of picking fast food or frozen food.  Idk, one of the choices was quick and easy-this part wasn’t straight forward to me.

When choosing your meals you get a screen to eliminate foods you know you won’t eat.  I’m a pretty open eater so the only food I prefer not have is nuts and seeds so I checked that choice to not include in my diet, but if you don’t want pork or beef, you can definitely cut those out of the diet.  One food item I don’t want in my diet is soy because I seem to have a negative reaction to it but there wasn’t a choice to eliminate it and actually I’m not even sure it will be an issue on a Mediterranean diet.  I will write about it if it ever comes up and I notice you can completely change any meal, skip etc. and it looked like you can favorite foods you like and substitute quickly for a favorite meal.  I will definitely be doing that and I will write how easy that is to do when I finally do it.

The next section I went to online was the exercise section, maybe it can be set up on the phone but I didn’t see it and it didn’t pop up to cue me…sooo it escaped me.  I liked the drag and drop feature of setting up your workout but the choices are slim pickings.  There was a link to click if you didn’t see your exercise and a chart there to substitute a similar exercise -so for jump roping I use the elliptical icon.  The inability to use your actual activity is a bit disappointing but I just think of it as a placeholder for whatever I’m doing.  I suppose if I want, I can use another app to really log my exercise accurately and I might end up doing that, but this app lacks that great feature.

I feel hopeful being able to stick to this Mediterranean diet because that is the kind of food I like to eat and at least I won’t feel guilty I’m not eating healthy.  When I’ve followed a Mediterranean diet before, what ended tripping me up was the lack of organization;  I just couldn’t get the recipes and ingredients together-too many choices and confusion.  The shopping list  creator should be a big help. 

In the end what I want to find out is if I can lose weight on this plan.  I’m not overweight but I want to lose 15 lbs and that will make me pretty thin.  The trick is to find a way to get your body to let go of the last bit of weight it refuses to let go of and that is completely different story than losing weight when you are overweight.  I want to find out if this diet can do that. I’m not going to tell my starting and ending weight because I hate saying numbers like age and weight, but I will say the number of lbs I gain or lose.

There are still many parts of the plan and app I have not used yet and I still have a lot of questions, so I’ll keep updating when I make these discoveries.

Part of the Herd

The article said the actress didn’t have an eating disorder, well at least it said that her family “said” she didn’t have an eating disorder.  I doubt it.  Don’t most of us women have an eating disorder?  If we are honest about it?  I know I do have one but it’s not like I’m endangering myself.  I’m just obsessed with what goes into my body and what it does to it. I do unhealthy things sometimes to lose weight and I feel as if I’m  like just about every female out there. I want to be thin.

The article said she weighed 115 lbs, but she looked like she weighed a lot less.  115 is around my weight and I look nothing like that, so I’m skeptical about the truth of  her numbers.  Her height is less than mine so that’s not it.  I’ve weighed less than that and I still didn’t look as thin as she did.  I don’t see the shame in admitting she had a thing about being thin.  Most people don’t naturally look like that, some do, but most not.  2 of my sisters used to get made fun of because they were so skinny. One would eat huge bowls of ice cream trying to gain weight to no avail; the other was ridiculous and still is about food.  She probably does have an eating disorder.  I don’t think either one has an attractive body, but then they think I’m fat…even though I weigh about the same as an actress accused of being too thin…you can’t win.  It’s just a difference they chose to try and make me feel bad about myself.  I don’t look like a skeleton dressed in  a garment, but I feel thinner than most people around me when I’m out.  It’s not a surprise that I haven’t spoken to either for over 3 years. 

All of this has nothing to do with the reason I was going to write here; after much contemplation, I got some filler injections today.  It ended up costing a whole lot more than what I expected.  A lot more than my initial consultation.  Ahh, well, that’s life right?  I thought I would get Juvederm but this doctor wasn’t the same doctor who did my consultation, even though it was the same practice;  he injected Perlane, which I’ve never heard of.  Initially I’m very happy with how it looks.  I have a little bruising but it is much less than what I thought it would be.  I didn’t feel self- conscience riding the subway afterward and didn’t think anyone was staring like I had been in an accident or knew I had injections.  I even stopped at the store for a few things on my way home.   I’m just a little sore.  I like the results, very cute.