Posts Tagged ‘cabbage soup diet’

The exciting conclusion of my Cabbage Soup Diet adventure!

Tuesday, April 26th, 2011

So I’m pretty sure some of you are at least a little curious to know how this whole diet thing turned out for me.  I had my meeting with Carol the Nutritionist this afternoon and at my weigh-in I had lost . . . 7 pounds!  And that was without any exercising because I just couldn’t muster up the energy to do any of that this last week.  Carol’s words at that were: “Think of how much more you would have lost if you had exercised!”  And yet, I have no regrets about taking it easy because I genuinely didn’t have it in me.

For the record, if anyone cares to know how much trouble I’m in with the weight issue, that puts me at 225 pounds.  But it’s a start and that’s what I was really looking for, more than a massive weight loss.  It would have been super cool to lose a lot of weight, and I’m tickled by a >5 pound loss in a week, but I still have a long way to go.  My goal healthy weight is around 140 pounds.

To that end, Carol and I talked about what my diet goals need to be.  And, in short, it’s restrictive.  The foods I can eat are fruits, non-starchy vegetables, and lean protein.  No dairy.  No carbs.  No sugar.  No bread.  No rice.  No potatoes.  No cheese.  Until I can get my weight down where it needs to be, I need to stay clear away from those things.  Once I’m down where I need to be and have learned how to eat healthy foods and in correct portions, then I can look at adding carbs back into my diet, but until then . . . nada.

It’s going to be really, really hard.  And I know I’m going to have cheat days, but they have to be few and far between.  Of course, I’m starting out with a cheat day tomorrow—I’m going to have bread because I just can’t stop dreaming about it.  But I have to learn how to get appropriate carbs from fruits and veggies, instead of flour.

And that, honestly, is frustrating.  I don’t especially want to do it.  But nothing else I’ve done has worked.  And I’m really sick and tired of weighing so much more than my husband.  And my clothes not fitting right.  And being embarrassed to wear a swim suit.  And wondering if I’m the fattest girl in the room.  And not being able to run.  And hating photographs taken of me.

And that . . . is all I have to say about that.

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Last day!!

Tuesday, April 26th, 2011

So it turns out that I didn’t even touch my computer at all last night.  After getting off work, I went next door to the airport to pick up Justin’s grandma.  Then we drove to Savannah to visit with Justin’s sister for a little bit and pick up her car.  And then we drove to Bluffton to get Justin and go out to dinner.  We went to Jim ‘n’ Nicks, one of our favorite restaurants, an excellent barbeque place, so I could get a steak and a house salad and watch them eat mac and cheese and cheese biscuits that are *so* yummy.  My steak was excellent, though, so I didn’t mind terribly much.  I don’t eat steak very often, but I do really enjoy it when I do.  Anyway, after dinner, we went back home and sat on the couch chatting until around 11:30, when they both realized I was falling asleep and sent me off to bed.

Today makes it the last day of my week on the Cabbage Soup-less Diet.  I’m back to fruits and veggies today, no bananas, no starchies, and no tomatoes.  I’m happy to have fruit today.  I’ve got a bowl of grapefruit here that I’m eating for breakfast and I’m struggling because it’s just SO tart!  For lunch, I have a spinach salad with a homemade raspberry dressing that Justin made a couple days ago and I’m really excited to give it a try.

This whole diet thing has been an interesting experience, but I’ll be honest:  I’m not enthusiastic about doing it for a second week, no matter how encouraging Carol-the-nutritionist is on that plan.  She called yesterday morning to check on me and reminded me that if I was interested, I could do this a second week, with even more results.  And it’s possible that I’ve dropped several pounds doing this.  And it’s definitely sure that I’ve been able to rethink the foods I’ve been eating and the foods that I haven’t been eating and I’m ready to start on a new food plan for a healthier and skinnier me.

But let me tell you, I am ready for some starch.  I thought I’d crave the sugar more than anything, but when I think about eating some of the things I haven’t been eating, I can imagine eating just a serving of ice cream, or just a couple M&Ms.  I am able to imagine that I can stick to a serving size of a sugar-heavy item and keep my servings per day and per week to a reasonable amount.  I can manage without the caffeine.  I didn’t really drink it much anyway, and the longer I’m without it, the easier it is to get up in the morning.

But I’ve been dreaming about eating bread.  I’ve honestly been waking up in the morning having dreamed of going to a sandwich shop.  And when I imagine eating bread, I don’t imagine reasonable serving sizes.  I imagine thick slices of fresh, warm bread, and more than just one slice.  I am seriously jonesing for some bread.

I am perfectly willing to start eating low sugar content and giving up the caffeine, but I cannot give up the bread yet.  Heck, if I had to go completely sugar free, I’d probably be willing to do that, if I can only eat some bread!  And I will avoid white flour and go all whole grains and everything, just let me eat a slice of warm, fresh bread.

So I’ll be talking with the nutritionist about that this afternoon.  And hopefully on a great new plan starting tomorrow.  But for the rest of today, I’m eating fruits and veggies.

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Adventures in Baking!

Monday, April 25th, 2011

I made spaghetti squash for the first time last night.  It was not at all like I expected, but just exactly as described.

For the sake of anyone who hasn’t tried this yet and might want to in the future, here’s what I did:

  1. I got a spaghetti squash from the grocery store.  They’re yellow and oval and about 12 inches long.
  2. I took it home, washed the outside of it, and then stick it with a skewer every couple of inches to, apparently, “stop it from bursting” (according to the online directions I found).
  3. I stuck it in the oven at 375* for an hour.  (This is the step that I might change next time – I think I should have cooked it for longer.)
  4. After that hour was up, I took it out and let it sit on the counter for 30 minutes to cool.  (Trust me, this wasn’t quite long enough.)
  5. After 30 minutes, I cut it in half lengthwise with a serrated knife.  I took a spoon and scooped out the seeds.
  6. And here’s the spot that always got me in the instructions:  I took a fork and gently loosened the fibers. 

I didn’t understand how this squash had “fibers” when all the other squash I’ve eaten was more of a pulp.  But nope!  As soon as you cut this thing open, you’ll see that it’ll separate into thick fibers that do look extraordinarily like spaghetti. You just scrape it away from the skin of the squash.

We ate half the squash last night.  Justin ate some, and he doesn’t eat squash, so that’s saying something right there.  And I went back for a big bowl of seconds because I was really hungry.  And we still have half a squash left.  You get a lot of spaghetti from one squash.

Now, it didn’t really turn out exactly like spaghetti because it was crunchy.  It’s hard to pretend you’re eating spaghetti when it’s crunchy.  But I think I probably should have left it in the oven for longer than an hour.  It’ll be interesting to see if the leftovers soften up when I reheat them.

But I can’t eat them tonight because the other half of the meal was meat and tomatoes and I can’t have tomatoes today.  So we’re going out and buying me a steak tonight.  I’m really looking forward to that steak.

I’ll have more to say about my day and my diet later, but this is long enough for right now.

And, Erica, the thicker the slices on the zucchini, the better.  I’d aim for about a quarter-inch thick.  Enjoy!

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Day 5!

Sunday, April 24th, 2011

Happy Easter everybody!  I hope you’re all having a fantastic day!

Justin and I celebrated by getting to church at 7:30 for church set up and music practice.  Our regular music pastor is finally back after being out of the country for 3 weeks getting his kids from Rwanda, and I got to sing with one of the other ladies, too, and it was SO MUCH FUN!  It was a great service.  And we collect shoes for Soles for Souls (it’s barefoot Sunday) and the front of the stage was covered in TONS of shoes, so after the service a bunch of us stayed around tying pairs together and bagging them up for delivery.  So we got home around 1:00 and then showered and then I took a nap because that whole thing was exhausting.

This morning I had sliced up turkey meat wrapped up in romaine lettuce for breakfast.  It was actually really yummy.  And then I had cucumbers while practicing.  And lots of water.  I stuck a granola bar in my purse, just in case I started to feel faint, but I didn’t end up needing it.  And I felt really alert this morning, which was an exciting change.  Usually I’m sleepy in the morning, and while I didn’t have to get up as early as I have to on a regular work morning, I got up around 6:30 and felt just fine.  It’s exciting!

Yesterday was fruits and veggies and a couple bananas.  I had a banana for breakfast.  And then I went and made a smoothie with frozen berries and fruit mix and a fresh banana and pear and some applesauce to thin it out and it was *delicious.*  I felt fine the rest of the day, still easily worn out, so climbing up and down the stairs a couple times made me more winded than it should have.  And really warm, but that might have been something in the air because Justin was warm, too.

No fruits today, and I’m missing it.  I get tomatoes today, and we were going to get some from the grocery store, but apparently all the grocery stores are closed today!  So we’ve got some all natural canned tomatoes that are just going to have to work.  We’ve got great dinner plans, with spaghetti squash and tomatoes and ground beef.  It’s going to be great!

I’m still feeling pretty good.  I’m feeling a little out of it right now, but I think that’s because I’m still waking up from my nap.  And I need to drink more water.  This is probably TMI, but I’m feeling a little stopped up inside, if you know what I mean.

Justin and I are celebrating our Easter afternoon by sitting around and playing video games online with a friend of ours.  I’m pretty sure most of you are either hanging out with family or packing up boxes.  I hope you all have a great time and have a very happy Easter.

Love to you all!

 

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Day 3 (evening thoughts)

Friday, April 22nd, 2011

Today just didn’t work well for a play-by-play because I was away from my computer so much.  I was out at the chiropractor and cleaning the house and making dinner and playing cards with our friend.

But here’s a run-down of how the day went.  I was really tired a lot of the day.  And it didn’t take much to wear me out.  I had to trek up and down the stairs about four times in a row, bringing up ironing and sewing things, and it was a lot more exhausting than it had any right to be.  I was a little loopy at the chiropractor appointment, but I hadn’t eaten much at all at that point and hadn’t had any water, so I downed almost 20 oz between the chiropractor’s and home (yea for remembering my water bottle in the car) and that helped.  So did the entire cantaloupe that I ate while doing the ironing.   For dinner, I made cauliflower soup, that I added too much water to, and it was really yummy, and a completely no-sugar, nothing but apples applesauce that was also really delicious.  This mixing fruits and veggies thing is awesome.  I’m going to miss that on days 5 and 6.

My energy level right now is low again, but it’s getting late in the evening, we just said adieu to our friend (who also wasn’t feeling well), and it’s just been that kind of day for almost everyone we’ve spoken to today.  Anyway, not that thrilling of a day overall.  And hopefully tomorrow will go better.

Cheers!

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