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.