17 Day Diet

So I've decided to do something that's possibly incredibly stupid.

The 17 day diet.

The diet is actually a series of 17 day cycles. For the first cycle you cut out starchy vegetables, all grains and breads, all sweets, and limit your sugar.

It's basically low carb.

You get 2 servings of approved low-sugar fruits, 2 servings of approved probiotics, and unlimited amounts of approved lean proteins, and approved vegetables.

The list of approved foods can be found here.

In addition to that you are supposed to take a multivitamin, drink 3 cups of green tea a day, have 6-7 glasses of water, and drink a glass of hot water with lemon as soon as you wake up.

You aren't supposed to eat your fruits after 2 pm (8 hours before bed) and you're supposed to do light aerobic exercise for 17+ minutes a day.

You only do this for 17 days, during which time you are supposed to see rapid weight loss results. The book admits that much of this is water weight, but that it will also help reduce sugar/white flour cravings and give you a confidence boost to push on with the next cycle.

The next cycle adds starchy vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and more kinds of lean meat in. But I'll explain more about that when I get there.

I'm going to try to stick to "the plan" as much as possible.

That said, I've already decided on a few cheats I've got to allow myself to be able to do this.

1) Coffee is permitted but non-probiotic dairy is not in cycle 1. I can't drink coffee black so I'm allowing myself 3-4 tbsp of non-fat half and half daily.

2) You're not really supposed to use artificial sweetener. Stevia based sweeteners are encouraged. I don't mind stevia in drinks but can't do it in my yogurt. Gonna use equal or splenda in my yogurt.

3) The flavored yogurts I bought my husband and some of the ones I bought myself have a little more sugar than recommended. I'm not gonna worry about it because that's the only added sugar we'll be having.

4) I have a few unapproved fruits and vegetables in my fridge that I need to use up. Gonna do so in the next few days.

5) You're allowed "non-fat" cheese in moderation. I bought a non-fat feta and a reduced-fat cheddar I'll be using sparingly.

6) In the vegetarian version of the diet you replace meat with beans and faux meat among other things. So I'll occasionally be having beans and maybe a boca burger or two.

7) I might eat fruit after 2 pm.

8) The thought of drinking a glass of hot water with lemon totally disgusts me. I need to research why the water is supposed to be hot. In the meantime I made lemonade with fresh lemons and stevia and will be drinking that (cold) in the mornings.

9) My husband is doing this with me and so I'm definitely going to have to "pump" up his plan to make sure that it's calorically enough for him. Especially because he is on his feet at work moving around 30-40 hours a week. I will probably be adding in extra fats for him.

That's all I can think of at the moment but if I stray at all from the plan in any other way, I'll explain it as I come to it.