17 Day Diet- Day 1

I did pretty good today.

I realized that I totally forgot to drink my lemon water first thing so I'll be sure to do it tomorrow morning. I drank it with lunch.

For breakfast I had a serving of frozen strawberries blended with water and 2 scoops of vanilla protein powder. (We were unfortunately out of eggs.)

I also ate a pink lady apple.

For a snack I had a salmon patty. I was cooking them up for my husband's dinner and they just looked soooooooo good.

I also had 2 ounces of chicken breast for the same reason that I was cooking them up to have on hand and it was calling my name.

On my way to the grocery store I had one of the Oikos vanilla yogurts and some baby carrots.

When I got home I realized that I had not had ANY green tea (oops) so brewed a cup and a half and snacked on some roasted cabbage.

Also I poured some of that yummy blue cheese over the last of the iceberg lettuce mix.

Around 4 pm I had some soup I made a few days ago with chickpeas, kale, tomato and a tiny bit of chicken chorizo sausage. The chickpeas are a semi-cheat. I think the carbs slow down weight loss but they're allowed on the vegetarian plan which I'll be switching back and forth between.

For proper dinner I had 4 ounces of chicken breast with a bunch of broccoli and a tbsp of the caesar dressing for dipping.

Finished off the night with my last probiotic. 6 ounces plain greek yogurt with 2 tbsp sugarfree jam and 1 tbsp slivered almonds. The almonds count as "healthy fat". I don't cook with olive oil generally and I don't like it plain on salad so most likely I'll be using nuts in place of oil.

I've drank all 3 cups of green tea and 8 cups of other liquid. Tea is supposed to count against your water intake but I have a trick for taking the caffeine out. I'm assuming the caffeine is the reason they don't want you to count tea as water.

Estimated total calories are 1,250.

Also I weighed in today. 135.1.

I'll weigh in again next Sunday or Monday.

Haven't done my 17 minutes of exercise yet, but I'm gonna do that riiiighhttt.... now. Yay elliptical!

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.

17 Day Diet- Groceries.

What I bought for groceries and how much I spent!

Meat, lots and lots of meat.

FYI, I didn't take pictures of multiples.

In the photo and in my freezer I've got a total of 2 pounds of chicken sausages, 1 pound chicken chile lime burgers, approximately 14 pounds of boneless skinless chicken breast and approximately 6 pounds ground turkey.

3 lbs salmon burgers, 3 lbs tuna steaks, 1 lb ruffy, 14 oz tuna in red curry sauce and 14 oz tuna in green curry sauce.

For marinades and dipping.

Hot & sweet mustard, tequila lime marinade, balsamic dressing (which I dropped and busted so I won't be using it, clearly), sesame soy ginger, mojo criollo, and garlic and herb.

3 bags brussels sprouts, 1 giant bag green beans, 2 bags broccoli florets, 2 bags asparagus spears, 2 bags cauliflower.

A basil plant.



2 pints cherry tomatoes, 4-5 roma tomatoes.

Celery, baby carrots, purple cabbage, Kale, iceberg lettuce salad mix, bunch of onions and garlic, 4 avocados, mushrooms, yellow pepper and a cucumber.



Dressings for salad. Light balsamic, salsa, poppy seed and caesar parmigiano yogurt. (Oh my gosh that stuff is AMAZING!)

Leftover 1/2 bag cherries, leftover 1/2 bag peaches, 1/4 bag black berries, 2 bags strawberries, 2 bags blueberries, leftover frozen red grapes.

Oranges, 5 pound bag of pink lady apples, lemons.

3 pears, 2 small containers of blueberries, pomegranate arils (cheat).



Crazy yogurt stash.

2 quarts of nonfat plain greek yogurt, 4 Oikos vanilla, 5 nonfat strawberry, 5 nonfat vanilla, 4 nonfat key lime, 4 nonfat vanilla (different brand), 4 nonfat orange creamsicle.

Sugarfree blackberry jam for stirring into my plain greek yogurt. (It's allowed.)



Lite sharp cheddar cheese (cheat) and fat free feta cheese (allowed). Also I have a ton of laughing cow wedges I may or may not use in swiss and chipotle flavor (cheat).

And low fat mozzarella and full fat cheddar and pepper jack I will probably use for the husband (super cheaty).

My fat free half and half (cheat), my fresh lemon-water-truvia concoction (lemonade) and miso. Miso counts as a probiotic. I really like having yogurt twice a day so if I make miso I'll be cheating and having 3 probiotics in a day (cheat).

Tea, lots and lots and lots of tea. I didn't buy all this grocery shopping. I collected it over time.

I had to make a second shopping trip today. On impulse I got bolthouse blue cheese yogurt dressing. (SO GOOD. HOW DO THEY DO IT?! I swear magic has to be involved. Uhhh I also dropped this bottle and it smashed open but thankfully only about 1/4 c spilled out and the rest I put in a tupperware. WiFi is a fan of blue cheese dressing. Good to know.) Enchilada sauce, generic splenda (I may or may not use this in cycle 1 to make these as a cheat or if not I will definitely be making them in cycle 2), italian lettuce mix, spinach, head of red leaf lettuce, ranch dip mix, onion dip mix, country gravy mix (cheat), taco seasoning, 2 18 count cartons of eggs, light sour cream (cheat), 2 jalapenos, 3 limes, and a green bell pepper.

So far I've spent $200 on groceries although some of that was definitely on unnecessary perks (like the basil and pre-seasoned meats and marinades and flavored yogurts). Bear in mind this was also for two people. And one of us is male. (Hint: Not me.)

I'll definitely be spending a lot more on yogurt, eggs, and meat though... Especially cuz I've gotta feed my husband like 1-2 pounds a day to keep his calorie count high enough.

Eeek. We'll see how long my meat stash lasts and what comes up on sale. I might have to switch myself to the vegetarian version to cut costs.

Good news? I have my tentative meal plan for myself and my husband already planned. Woohoo!