The Military Diet--Day 3 and Summation

Day 4

Official weigh-in: 133.4 pounds

Official weight loss: 3-1/2 pounds

--After the first day, I didn't lose any more weight, which was very discouraging. Last night, which was Day 3, I had eaten the entire day's allotment by 4:30 pm. Sorry, but 1100 calories just isn't enough food for a whole day. I don't know about you, but unless I was comatose, I couldn't do it. And it didn't help that I had a retirement dinner to go to, and was absolutely famished when I got there.

--I had a plan and am pretty proud of myself for sticking to it, even though there was temptation all around me. I ate only 1 mozarella stick (there were plates of appetizers, and believe me, I was so hungry it wasn't easy to resist). I ordered a glass of cabernet sauvignon and iced water (which I drank all of) and ordered salmon and asparagus. I had a second glass of wine and only took 2 bites of the au gratin potatoes that came with it. I weighed the same this morning as I did after the Day 1. At least I didn't gain!! I said no to dessert. 

Summation

--One of the things I forgot to mention is that coffee is allowed on this diet, a LOT of coffee!! Which I love anyways, so that's fine, and I substituted sugar-free vanilla syrup in place of CoffeeMate. 

--I think overall it taught me a lot about myself and my eating patterns; first of all, I thought I knew what to eat! Realizing I ate more apples, bananas, and ice cream in the last three days than I've eaten in 10 years taught me that number one, I really don't understand nutrition and number 2, I don't need to feel bad about wanting ice cream once in a while and should actually eat it!! I have a lot of myths about certain foods that are just plain incorrect. 

--I also learned that I DO have willpower, and that given a script, I'm excellent at following it. I loved the challenge. I learned that I do tend to overeat, even on "healthy" food, and I don't think I've been getting enough of the right types of nutrition, CLEARLY, if I haven't had an apple or banana in 10 years. Who eats an apple and a hard-boiled egg for dinner?? People DO. People who eat for their health and not their emotions, THAT'S who. 

--I also learned that since my parents didn't have any money growing up, eating out was something we just never did, unless it was McDonald's. Now I gave up fast food about 10 years ago, and red meat over 5 years ago, but I still somehow have a Pavlovian response to eating out. I do love french fries and anything salty-crunchy-greasy and we do eat out a lot, and I realized that to me, that's my reward. FOOD. And I saw on Facebook one day, someone posted a quote that said, "Don't reward yourself with food. You're not a dog", and I thought about that a long time these last three days I was "depriving" myself. And I use the word "deprivation" because isn't that how we always feel when we are on a "diet"??? You can have this but not that. 

--My husband tells me, "Lauren, just run 10 miles a day. Then you can eat whatever you want." Well, I like to run, but I don't even know if I CAN run 10 miles a day. I think he must've said it in jest, because the truth is, it's impossible to do (for me, maybe for YOU). So, what can I do to keep myself from gaining weight? How can I lose that last stubborn 5 pounds???

--I can continue to exercise and log my food intake on my FitBit profile. That is the best way to face head-on what really goes in my mouth. 

--It's not about deprivation, it's thinking about my body as a machine that needs the right kind of fuel to operate at maximum efficiency. I CAN have ice cream, and I CAN have apples for breakfast and feel good.I

--I feel cleansed. I feel spiritual today as I embark on eating "normally", which for me has taken on a different tone. I fully plan on continuing to add apples and bananas and cottage cheese to my daily eating plan (note: I wanted to say "diet" but that implies deprivation). I have not felt bloated, which is a truly wonderful feeling. I look better in my clothes just losing that 4-1/2 pounds (I lost a pound the day before I started the 3-day diet). And that maybe it's not about actual poundage--what the scales says--but how I look in my clothes and feel when I look in the mirror. I look pretty damn good at 133.4, and yeah, I know I'll look even better if and when I can lose the next five pounds. 

--I plan on implementing the Day1 of the Military Diet, and possibly adding Day 2 on a weekly basis. It feels so good eating clean, that the idea of going and eating bar food really doesn't appeal to me. And if I can do this on a weekly basis, it's likely the pounds won't sneak up on me during the holidays. It's a way for me to have my fun and dial it back. It was actually not that hard at all (Day 1) and I actually think it will be fun and challenging to do it on a regular basis.

--I also learned that I could never be a supermodel if this is what it takes to be super-thin!! I love food and I just think good food and eating is sexy and a wonderful part of life. In my desperate desire to look a certain way, it was a real wake-up call that if that's what I have to do to look the way I want to look, it's just not worth it. I will continue to focus on transforming my body through weightlifting and exercise and really try to remember that my body wants and needs more fruit and veggies and that the reward isn't french fries or a slim waistline. It's hopefully building a strong immune system so I'm healthy for my kids and my family and have a happier life. That all sounds so cliche but I've never tried any kind of crash diet before. And honestly, I don't judge others the harsh way I judge myself, and I'm sure not even my husband would notice an extra 5 pounds, so why does it matter so much to me? My friend and personal trainer Mike firmly believes and tells his female clients that we shoudn't even be weighing ourselves daily the way we do; that we put way too much emphasis on a number we think we should be.  Rather, shouldn't we have an honest assessment of how we feel and look in our clothes as our guide? Thank you Mike, I will try to keep that in mind.

--Will I ever do the 3 day Military Diet again? No. The third day was ridiculously low in calories, and unsustainable. They need to realize some of us have 18 hour days and 1100 calories isn't enough. I was so weak and dizzy from lack of food, and it would've been helpful to have had suggestions for healthy snacks. I understand the whole concept is a crash diet to lose as much weight as possible in the shortest amount of time possible, but really, starvation only leads to bingeing, and I know I for one do NOT want to resort to that.

--If you give the Military Diet a try, PLEASE comment here and let me know how it goes for you! I specifically want to know these five things:

1. What is your current weight?

2. How much do you want to lose overall? (not just in the 3 days)

3. What is your target weight goal?

4. How much did you lose on the 3-Day Military Diet?

5. How did you feel?

--Thank you for reading and I would love to hear from you!

I Survived (and lost weight) on the "Military Diet"!

I have been pretty fortunate in my life that I've never really had a weight problem. I've always been super active and could pretty much eat whatever I wanted. I've never been "skinny", but more, "just right". Fast forward to middle-age, where a person's metabolism slows 10% a decade, not to mention living in Wisconsin now. It's a drinking culture as well as we are cursed with 6-7 months of either bitter cold, rain, or some other type of crappy weather that keeps California girls like  me hiding indoors. I found myself having gained 16 pounds since we moved here 5 years ago, and it was starting to freak me out. 

I DO love to exercise, and still play lots of tennis, I box, I lift weights, but to be honest, I'm inconsistent, just like I am with eating healthy. I used to tell people (and myself) that I lived by the "80/20" rule: that if I ate healthy 80% of the time, the other 20% wouldn't matter. I had to get real, and realize my diet has become more like, "20/80". YIKES, hence the added poundage.

I heard about the "Military Diet" (from here on out will be referred to as "MD) from my hairdresser last week. She's 22 and gorgeous and clearly (in my opinion) didn't need to lose an ounce but she did the MD and got down to 119. That is close to my goal weight, so I listened to her and immediately Googled it to get more information. At first glance, I was horrified. "Tuna and a half a banana for dinner"? Ewwww. I haven't eaten a banana in years. And get a load of this though, you get ice cream every night! WHAT KIND OF A DIET ALLOWS YOU TO EAT ICE CREAM???!!! That's another food I gave up 10 years ago because, well, ice cream is very calorically expensive.

I Googled "The Military Diet" and read actual testimony from women all over the world who'd tried it and their results. I wanted some sort of guarantee that putting myself through this would be worth it. I had a feeling I'd be a bit grumpy being so starved, and wanted a head's up.

I made the choice to do the MD this week while my husband was out of town for work, so I wouldn't be tempted to eat out or drink, and he wouldn't have to watch my wacky food intake. I went to the grocery store on Monday, diet in hand on my cell phone, and bought everything I would need to get me through the following three days. I was pumped up and ready for the challenge. Could this diet really work?? Could I really lose up to 10 pounds in three days???

I decided to chronicle my short journey here, wondering and hoping if any of you reading this have tried it and what your experience was like. I'm on day 3 as I write this, so I'll update it tomorrow after my morning weigh-in.

Enjoy!

Day One

Official weigh-in: 136.6 pounds. 

--I got very dizzy around noon. I was sooooo hungry.  I was in the mall and very disoriented. I became panicky and stopped right in the middle of shopping at Victoria's Secret and drove straight home to eat and follow the Diet. I had not exercised in the morning, but had a tennis drill from 6:30-7:30 and since I'd eaten lunch at 1:00 pm (which wasn't much food), I was very concerned about passing out during tennis.  I ate the whole banana (I was supposed to only eat 1/2) an hour before tennis. I became dizzy again as I was putting my racquet away and hurried home to eat dinner.  I ate the apple while my chicken cooked. I cut it up and sprinkled cinnamon on it. It was the first apple I think I've eaten in years and it was pretty tasty! The Diet doesn't tell you how to prepare the chicken or green beans, and I was starving, so I cheated and used a tablespoon of organic coconut oil in each pan.  (I also had cheated at lunch time by putting 2 tablespoons of Veganaise (a vegan mayo) mixed in with the tuna).

--The chicken and green beans were awesome, and I felt pretty satiated. I let the dinner digest for a couple hours and saved up the ice cream for a bedtime snack. I never allow myself to eat ice cream, and this felt like a huge pat on the back for my efforts all day. I found that except for the dizziness, I wasn't grouchy or irritable at all. I was determined to see this thing play out.

Day Two

Official weigh-in: 133.2 pounds

--I had lost nearly 3-1/2 pounds overnight!! I was so excited and pumped for Day Two. I felt very motivated, but I was ravenous. I woke up extremely hungry, and I was concerned because I had a huge day of exercise ahead of me: 45 minutes of boxing and an hour of weightlifting and that was just the morning: I also play an evening tennis league and had that as well. I was worried I'd pass out.

--I got through the boxing and weightlifting just fine!!! I never felt hungry or dizzy. I think it was the banana that had done the trick, and I made a mental note to possibly start eating bananas before workouts in the future.

--Lunch was a full cup of cottage cheese, and I haven't eaten cottage cheese either in a decade. I like it well enough, just again, it's dairy and high in sodium so it's not a food I readily eat. And the few times I have eaten it, I've mixed in canned pears or pineapple, and so, just plain cottage cheese was hard to eat all of it. I was getting full!! I was also to eat a hard boiled egg with it, and the two just really didn't have a party in my mouth. The Diet allows substitutions, so I had bought popcorn rice cakes in place of the saltines, and they satisfied by cravings for salty/crunchy better than I think 5 stupid crackers would have. The caloric exchange was exact.

--Okay, time for tennis. I was starving by 4 pm, and tennis didn't start until 6:30 and goes for 90 minutes, so I ate my dinner apple (again, sprinkling it with cinnamon). I was STILL hungry, so I cheated and ate 2 rice cakes (for an extra 70 calories). I got through tennis just fine, but I began to notice that to lose weight, I am going to have to eat less on a regular basis and have this constant feeling of being hungry. I didn't like it!!!

--While I was cooking my dinner, my daughter came up to me and said she noticed how much thinner I looked! "Especially around your tummy and waist Mom!" she said. Yay!!! That was all I needed to hear!!

--Dinner was 2 hotdogs, but since I had chosen turkey dogs, it left me with a bonus of 170 calories!! I at everything according to plan, steaming everything, EXCEPT I replaced part of my 170 calorie surplus with 1/4 cup of shredded cheddar cheese all melty on my veggies. It was scrumptious!!!! I thoroughly enjoyed my bedtime snack of vanilla ice cream (with a tablespoon of Hershey's chocolate syrup on it) and ended the day 675 calories under plan due to my 3-1/2 hours of exercise! 

Day Three

Official weigh-in: 133.4

Up 2 ounces

--Weighing more this morning really bummed me out. I felt defeated and frustrated, as I had not eaten enough calories and should've lost more weight. Three and a half hours of exercise and a defiency of 675 calories and still I gained. That doesn't make any sense!! And today I've got a retirement dinner to go to and I don't want to eat or drink anything. SIGH.

I am determined to carry it out though.

--I can't remember the last time I ever ate an apple for breakfast. It was odd but again, I cut it up and sprinkled cinnamon on it. I substituted 2 rice cakes again for the saltines, and even with the ounce of cheese, I was still hungry. It's going to be a long day.

--I didn't exercise today because I thought I was driving to go see my son in Madison, which ended up getting rescheduled to tomorrow because our water heater broke and the repair guy was here for over 2 hours. I had showered and gotten ready only to sit around. It's a good thing I didn't go to the gym because I was SO hungry by noon I was dizzy again and confused. I was out running errands and raced home to eat my egg. I decided to save the toast to eat with the tuna (my dinner). My stomach literally hurt I was so hungry, so I cheated and had 2 rice cakes with the egg (70 additional calories).

--At this point, I've only eaten 390 calories, and all I can think about it that fucking tuna and toast. I was good and didn't mix in Veganaise this time, and spread the tuna on the toast and just sprinkled salt-free seasoning on it. I tasted terrible and way too fishy without the mayo. I shared some of it with my cat, who didn't mind it at all :)

--So, all I have left is a half a banana and my 1/2 cup of ice cream, and it's only 4:35 pm. There's no way that's going to be enough food. 1100 calories is way too low. According to my fitbit, I've burned 1252 so if I eat more than that, I won't weigh any less tomorrow morning, which will kill me. And I still have the retirement dinner to go to, and I don't want to show up ravenous, which is how I feel. Maybe I'll eat a whole banana instead at and see if it curbs my appetite? And skip the ice cream, since I'll probably have a glass or two of wine.

--Sigh.

--Will wrap this up tomorrow.