Challenge Days 9 – 16 / Jenn

So, I haven’t been writing down everything on the blog about the diet because it can be a pain to find time every day to write everything down and I imagine as a reader it is pretty boring to read. However, I have been keeping track in a journal of everything I have been doing the past week.


Here is the run down.

Days 9 – 12 was the Protein Phases and you pretty much eat the same thing every day and work out every day. This phase was designed to give you plenty of energy and smart and healthy foods. The exercise during this phase is 30 minutes of cardio and 20 minutes of weights. I did 30 minutes of cardio and 20 minutes of pilates because I don’t have weights.

What we ate:
- Coffee
- 2 Scrambled Eggs
- 1 slice turkey bacon (I did not choose to eat that, but we could have)
- A small protein shake of 200 calories or less
- 2 servings of fruit
- 1 cup raw veggies
- 2 servings cooked veggies
- 1 turkey sandwich on wheat bread
- 1 cup beans
- 1 cup brown rice

Kristen and I did the same thing where we had the fruit, veggies, protein shake and a turkey sandwich during the day and had the eggs, beans, rice, and cooked veggies for dinner. It was filling and more than enough to eat during the day. It can be boring having the same thing every day to eat, but this menu was actually good because it satisfied hunger and you didn’t feel too limited. Plus no salad was nice!

On day 12 Terry wanted to get Chinese. Friday night is usually one night where we always order something in and watch TV. My first ordering out challenge….will she take what she learned and be healthy or will she go back to her old habits and get that egg roll. Dun, dun, dun…..

Let it be known, I was good! The nice thing about the Chinese place we go to is that they serve brown rice so I got steamed vegetables with no sauce (added a little of my own soy sauce) with brown rice. It wasn’t too far off from what I was eating during the week anyways. No egg roll and no sauce cut my calories significantly and it was still very tasty!  I may just be getting the hang of this!

There were no real challenges, however after losing so much weight the first week there was no weight loss these 4 days….which I didn’t really expect. I was just happy to stay where I was and I feel better.


Days 13 – 16. Smooth Phase

This is the phase where you start bringing back those foods into your diet that are considered “guilty pleasures”. It is about how to incorporate these foods into your diet correctly and in what amounts. I really thought I would like this phase as the cravings for these types of foods have been high and I was looking forward to having some of my favorite foods…like pizza & pasta! However, after a couple days on it I must say that I am not a fan of this phase smack dab in the middle. Now, in the book he says that after the first two phases you can do any phase or phases you want and in whatever order you want. K & I decided to just follow the diet the way it was in the book. If/when we do this diet again we will have a better idea of what phases work and in what order. For as much as I was looking forward to this phase, I feel it kind of just messed up my flow of my diet. I wasn’t as hungry for these foods as I thought (it really is a mental thing thinking you want these foods) and really I just wanted a salad. Weird, no?! I had a piece of cake on Easter and it was just blah, infact I didn’t even get into my Easter candy on Easter day except for a few starburst jelly beans. What up with that?!

I also think my stomach was in a bit of shock about the foods I was eating and pepto has been my friend the past couple days. I also do not like how every day is different. It is not conducive for buying groceries and stretching out the items in your diet compared to what you spend. For example in the previous phase, I knew I was going to have 4 apples, 4 bananas, 4 cups of rice, 4 cups of beans, 8 eggs, and veggies for those days and I knew how much food to get and I didn’t waste money or food. I planned out my meals easily and had structure….which I liked. But every day during this phase the food is very different and if we buy a pizza we will have leftovers….and I don’t want leftovers because I don’t want to waste food and I don’t want to be tempted. (T. doesn’t eat leftovers so I would be tempted.) When I do this again, I think I would make this my very last phase because it will be a reward for finishing and allow you to buy food accordingly. I just feel blech about the foods I am eating right now and I do not want them. Maybe that is the point!

Now after a few days of a somewhat relaxed diet, I am eager to get back on a stricter diet and finish off the next 12-15 days with a bang! As it stands I would LOVE to lose 10 pounds by my birthday (April 22) to make my weight loss 50 pounds by my 30th! We will see. I am going to work really hard the next couple weeks to see what results I can get.

I also promise I am going to get back to real blogging and tips on this blog.....just been busy :)