17 Day Diet - Cycle 1, Day 1

So I kind of fucked up already.  This is a no soda diet - but I had some diet soda still around, and I didn't want to toss it. So I drank it today, along with my required water and tea.  Probably not the best way to kick things off, with a ton of chemicals, but if this is the worst that I do to myself, then it's probably okay.

I had to start my day off by going to buy all the food stuffs I needed to get this show on the road.  Grocery shopping in the suburbs on a Saturday was not a great idea.  So I got home to eat "breakfast" around noon.  This contributed to why I wanted the soda.  But here is the menu that I consumed today.

Breakfast (or lunch if we are being honest): 6 oz fat free Greek yogurt, flavored with two tablespoons of sugar free strawberry jam.  This was actually pretty good, though it could use a little more sweetness.  I will resist, in an effort to curb my sweet tooth, which is the villain.

Lunch (eaten at 3:00 pm): A weird cheese enchilada dish.  It had chicken, peppers and onions, cream cheese and enchilada sauce.  I ate it with some salsa.  Not having it with tortillas or rice was weird, and I didn't especially enjoy it.  Lucky for me, I still have three servings left!  I am tempted to toss it, but I don't like to waste food or money.

Snack: Green tea!  I missed my fruit opportunity by a few hours, so I guess I will save that for tomorrow.  Not really jonesing for apples yet anyway.

Dinner: To be determined.  I bought some asparagus and Parmesan that I thought I might make.  I also have a soup recipe I wanted to make (chicken and green chiles - yum!), but after my failed cooking experience earlier, and the fact that I still have enchiladas in the fridge, I feel like that is a no.  So it is still to be decided.  I am also supposed to have another yogurt serving, so I am considering a kefir smoothie, but that would need fruit, which is now verboten as it is 4 pm.

Choices, choices.  I will update once I have decided.

Is the 17 Day Diet a Good Fat Fighter?

So it has now been nearly four years since I initially started this blog.  And I only ever posted it on it once.  Ah, the flighty attention span of a 23 year old nanny.  Quick life update: I finished nannying, went to graduate school at Harvard, and now I am a high school teacher.  I am also about a month away from turning 27.  So things have absolute changed.

Except for my weight.  Incredibly, it is exactly the same.  I am nothing if not consistent.  I am still weighing in at a cool 208 lbs, which remains way too much for my frame, my health, and my confidence.

In the intervening years, I have had moderate success with Weight Watchers, but nothing really seemed to stick.  So I have been doing some research, checking sme books out of the library, and I have decided to embark on the 17 Day Diet.  The 17 Day Diet is not some crash diet that you only do for 17 days - rather, it is a cyclical diet, where each phase is 17 days, and you hopefully end up with a clean eating lifestyle that focuses on whole foods and healthy carbs.

I am starting in Phase One, called Accelerate.  In this phase, carbs are limited.  Now some people are probably wondering why I can't just do the good old "calories in versus calories out" thing.  I could do that, but I have recently come to realize that I am a carb addict - all of my favorite foods are refined carbs, and I eat a ridiculous amount of processed carbs and sugar.  When I am not thinking about my diet and really making an effort to eat healthfully, I am all carbs all the time. Breads, candy, pasta, pretzels, pierogi, pizza, lo Mein, etc.  It's rough.  So I have decided to go with a plan that initially limits carbs, and encourages a healthy addition of them in a controlled way.  Hence, the 17 Day Diet.  I am not hardcore enough to go Atkins, so I figure this is a good compromise.  So that is the plan.  We will see how it goes.  If I post again, then we will know it is working!

Does this black background make me look skinnier?

I hope so. I guess I need all the help I can get at this point.

I am 23. And I am at my all-time highest weight of my entire life, which is sadly at about 208 pounds. This is especially sad since I am only 5'3, so it is a pretty noticeable amount of fat.

I've haven't been really skinny or really even average weight since I was probably 8 years old. I can distinctly remember when my school pictures went from being adorable to a little bit scary. Throughout my teens and high school years my weight fluctuated between 160 and 180. I would kill to be back around 160, even though I still felt really fat back then and only slightly better than I feel now, almost fifty pounds heavier. Hell, even 180 sounds pretty good right now.

I guess I have kind of a weird body shape or I carry my weight differently, because despite having gained fifty pounds since my 160 days, I've only gone up two clothing sizes, which has made being in denial much easier. Back in the good old days, I wore a size 10, and now I am up to a size 14 at 208 pounds. During my freshman year of college, I actually managed to lose about 25 pounds and got down to about 140, and I wore a size 6. Sadly, that success was short-lived and I quickly shot back up to 180. I still think back to how I managed to lose that weight at a time when most people are gaining their freshman 15. I think it was a combination of walking to work, then working long hours as a retail slave at the Gap, where I would have 15 minutes to eat dinner, which was often just a granola bar. That schedule, coupled with an easy course load that allowed me to spend at least an hour working out every day, led to some pretty good weight loss results.

Sadly, that schedule is not really feasible for me anymore. Since graduating from college I have taken a job as a nanny to tide me over until graduate school in the fall. My charges are two adorable infants, but since they aren't really mobile yet, neither am I. When the weather was better I was able to take them out for nice long walks through the neighborhood, but now that this cold New England weather has settled upon us for a few months, the walks are much briefer and often non-existent. I spend the majority of my days sitting on the floor and playing with the babies, or changing their diapers and feeding them and putting them down for naps. So not much by way of exercise.

I get out of work at 5:30, and rarely have any motivation to hit the gym. I know I have to go to the gym, but I usually make excuses when it comes time to leave work, and once I am home in my apartment the inertia sets in and I can't find the motivation to leave.