seventeen days

So I had quite a few people (ok, two) ask about the 17 Day Diet. So I shall use this time to educate all of my faithful readers. First of all, click the link and watch the little video clip from the good Doctor. He probably does a better job explaining it than I will.

Phil505 first started talking about this diet a couple months ago. He'd seen it on the show The Doctors and it's also been featured on Dr. Phil, and it's currently taking the internet by storm, or so says ABCnews (click for another video). He kept saying, "One of these days I'm going to order the book." And he did just that approximately 32 days ago, give or take.

The diet plan consists of four cycles that you go through 17 days at a time, then you move to the next one, or go back and repeat, until you reach your goal weight. The doctor's theory is that a habit forms in about 21 days, so 17 days is just enough time to shake things up so your body doesn't know what's coming. You also can't have any fruit or the good starches after 2:00. It's really retraining your mind about how your body needs food.

After going shopping before really reading the food list and coming home with a bunch of illegal food, we began Cycle 1 on March 14th. Cycle 1 consists of a lot of protein, fish, yogurt, "cleansing" veggies, and a selected list of fruit. You're also supposed to drink lots of water and green tea. The first few days of weaning yourself off the starches and bread were hard, but not that hard. I do miss my Wheat Thins, but I lost 12 pounds in Cycle 1, so it's ok.

We started Cycle 2 on March 3oth. Cycle 2 alternates with Cycle 1 every other day. So one day you get good starches (brown rice, oatmeal, legumes, etc.) and the next day you don't. You also get to add in more choices in the lean meat category.

Cycle 3 adds more food choices as does Cycle 4. Our plan is to go back to Cycle 1 when we finish up Cycle 2 next weekend. We also need to kick in the ol' exercise plan. We're supposed to do at least 17 minutes a day and build from there. So far, we haven't done such a great job in that department. But as of this morning I'm down 15 pounds and I wore a shirt to church today that I couldn't wear back in December. So I'll take that as progress.

I'm trying to incorporate new healthy recipes. Today was a success. I made roasted carrots for lunch (just baby carrots, halved, tossed with a little olive oil, salt & pepper, parsley, and dill, sprinkled with a little fresh lemon juice) and tonight I modified this tomato soup recipe for our Sunday Souper. I eliminated the bacon and cream, reduced the amount of flour, and didn't have any carrots or the pepper. Turned out great!

So there you go, all the info you ever wanted about a diet plan and more.