The 17 Day Diet (blog tour edition)

Get it at Indiebound.org or Amazon.com.

Um.  Do-over?

Not the book or the premise of the diet, but me. 

In fact, I learned much from The 17 Day Diet by Dr. Mike Moreno, and will be carrying quite a few healthier habits with me into future years based on the changes I made in attempting to use this reasonably flexible, commonsense plan.  I did lose 5 pounds in the first 10 days.  And I made a book blogger/17 Day Diet friend in the bargain.  All good.  Except then I tanked.

So let's start with the good stuff:  Which healthful habits have I embraced, you ask?
* Eating a small cup of organic probiotic yogurt (thank you, Trader Joe's) every morning: tasty, and definitely beneficial to my digestion.  An easy shift for the better.
* Drinking green tea: Moroccan Mint Tea from Stash has become a delicious afternoon pick-me-up.
* Trying a new soy-based product or low fat vegetarian meal each week, and continuing to beef up my skills at Indian cooking and vegan recipes too.
* No serious carbs or high sugar fruits after 2:00p.m.  It makes so much sense, metabolism-wise, and I'm gradually adjusting to it. 
* Plan ahead for restaurant eating (most restaurants have their menus on their websites now, so I pick out my food before I go - much easier to stick to my choices!), and try to meet with friends for a walk rather than a nosh.
* Exercising FOR SURE at least 17 minutes every day.  I had been doing an hour or so every other day, but I think that consistently building in 17 minutes (which of course morphs into at least 25+ minutes) to make exercise a daily must-do has helped me.  In fact, I suspect I'll be more lose weight as a result of seriously upping my exercise than as a result of dietary restrictions.  Because that's just me.

So what's the rub?
I think it has something to do with my vegetarian tendencies and my current leaning toward more vegan meal choices.  The restrictions on grains, dairy, nuts, and fats in the first 17-day cycle of this 4-cycle plan combined with the "no red meat, poultry, eggs, or processed sugars" of my own typical daily food choices of late left me with a very small window of food opportunity.  And in the end, my body and brain got bored with the salmon-soy-n-salad routine and started screaming for more.

I held to the plan for about 10 of the first 17 days and lost 5 pounds, but then the sameness of the food (again, a perhaps unfortunate confluence of my own predilections and the diet itself) in the first 17-day cycle (Accelerate) just got to me and I blew it.

All is not lost, however, as I decided to get a jump on the second 17 day cycle, Activate, which allows for grains like quinoa, and legumes, and sweet potatoes, all of which are helping me to feel satisfied and to find healthy vegetarian and vegan recipes.

One thing I have learned about myself:  I rebel against restrictions.  And that's certainly not Dr. Mike's fault.

Anyhoo, I'm still on my own veggie version of the second cycle, and finding success.  And perhaps that's a strength of this book: There are four cycles, and they all have their merits.  One's bound to suit you, and to help you get more heatlhy too.  

MFB,
L