Day Four of my Detox (aka. The Four Day Diet)

I've noticed I'm drinking a LOT more water than usual, without any effort. I just keep finding myself getting up and filling up my cup at least once an hour at work. My skin is so great right now I'm not wearing any foundation at all anymore, just a little sunscreen and concelar on my dark circles! I'm starting to notice some arm definition :D

Tux obviously admires my taste in shoes hehe

Its  my second week of consistently working out most days of the week, and that is translating into feel fab! My body doesnt feel so soft to me anymore...its a slight change, but I feel it.


 My calf muscles are actually hard little balls under my skin know rather than mush, especially after a run.  I'm noticing a slight definition to my arms!


I'm pear shaped, so my arms are the area I will show muscle definition first, its exciting :D Unfortunaltey that also means that my bottom will be the last thing to shrink!!


My only problem right now? I am hosting a little True Blood get together for the premiere at my house (yes, its back on HBO for the summer!!! :D ) Vampires, southern grit, fantasy creatures and a sexy (unsparkly!!) cast...

We have all been waiting for this date since our get togethers at my house last year! I'm going to play Jace Evertt's "Bad Things"  on a loop...(BEST intro song EVER)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDY42pFwq7c&feature=related


And True Blood themed food is a must for the first episode!! It definitley NOT on the plan though :( But considering the year long wait I think I will have a few bites and a drink or two - my stomach has shrunk so much I dont think its possible for me to go too overboard I'd get too full!


This website has such creative ideas: http://bombshelleventplanner.wordpress.com/2009/09/15/true-blood-party-vampire-themed-gala/


Some of my faves:

red velvet blood spattered cakes



And I just HAVE to make these- very easy, yummy and  I actually have ALL the ingredients on hand (they eyeballs are made with lychees and blueberries!)


http://www.hostessblog.com/2009/10/halloween-cocktail-pina-ghoulada-with-creepy-speared-eyeball-garnish/

Breakfast:


Yay! Today is unlimited fruit day! Well, I started off with this :

Lunch


Turned out to be a hastily thrown together garden salad.....I actually threw it all in a Tupperware right before running out the door for work as I didnt have time the night before. I chucked two handfuls of spinach, two tomatoes, a cup of brown rice and 3oz of cashes into my container and threw some fruit in my purse to snack on!


The salads arent that big, so I choose spinach as my leaf, as its more nutrient packed than lettuce or anything else!




Dinner:


Guess what I still have a lot of in the fridge? Yep.... Cabbage Soup!! Made according to Dr. Ian Smith's recipe....its actually pretty good though and hey, I don't need to cook dinner and can instead relax on the couch and watch how awful this years Bachelorette is on Hulu....no actually, that is a total waste of my time...


My man helped me polish off all the soup, I thought I had to much considering I only need two cups for this detox, but he enthusiastically had several bowls tonight. He even mentioned that he liked how many vegetables you can fit into a soup and that they are more palatable that way- I agree!


I had my 10grams of psyllium husk mixed in with my lemonade that Dr Ian Smith allows, but I subbed out the sugar and replace it with this instead

I LOVE local honey!!

Psyllim is important in the detox phase. Its a colon cleanser really, and it will allow you to abosorb all the nutrients to come in the upcoming Transition phase!


I snacked on a pear and a plum and had icy cold Florida Fresh OJ, made locally, after my workout!


 Gym:


I did my forty required minutes of cardio -20 on the Elliptical, 20 minutes of running and then 10 minutes on the weight machines just to get those arms I'm looking forward to :D

Its 'that time of the monnth' for me, but I'm really proud of the fact that I've been dragging myself to the gym and getting my workouts in, no excuses! Its a bit harder than usual and I dont have as much energy, but I'm not giving myself any excuses!!

Tomorrow is the new module in Dr. Ian Smiths Four day Diet - Transition! I'm excited :D

Day Three of my Detox (aka. The Four Day Diet)

Day three was my turning point. I finally didnt feel weird and actually woke up full of energy and waaay before my alarm clock! I think the first two days were really rough as all my toxins made their way out my body and I got used to eating a really clean diet! I THOUGHT I ate pretty healthy, but I don't usually eat that much fresh food (fruits for breakfast, vegetables for snacks? Um..NO!)

When I attempted to do this two years ago I don't think I even followed it as well as I am now- sure I made salads. But I loosely interpreted "Garden Salad" and chucked all sorts of stuff into my 'salad'....croutons and creamy dressings DO make a difference in calories and the 'cleanliness' of the food (I hope that makes sense!)

This doesn't count as a "Salad" either!

There is something about fresh, un-microwaved food that makes you feel great :D

I prepped most of my food for the day the night before, I like how easy it is to just look at the foods allowed for the day and follow that, it takes out all the thinking/calorie counting and makes it foolproof! What I ate:

Breakfast:

A cup of fresh raspberries (SOO plump and juicy!) mixed with a 6oz Stonyfield pomegranate yogurt (Dr. Ian recommends you eat yogurts with fruit on the bottom, this one was great!) and one banana.

And a glass of lemon juice (water, 1tbsp raw honey, fresh squeezed lemon wedge)

I prepped my fruit salad  the night before and put it in a Tupperware, which turned out to be convenient as I couldn't scarf it all down before work for breakfast, so I just took the rest with me! I had it as a mid-morning snack, during a break at work. I sat outside in the sunshine, eating raspberries and reading this brilliant book:

Lunch:

Another small garden salad, this time I added mushrooms and used a sesame Asian ginger sauce for dressing to reduce my boredom with garden salads!

 

I also included my allowance of chickpeas/beans in this salad because it looked to small to keep me going through a work day without them!

Dinner:

Dinner? On a cleanse? ha ha... Actually, I was allowed to make CABBAGE SOUP tonight! WOWWW don't all get jealous at once now....

 

It actually tasted pretty darn good! I got home, feeling kinda hungry and pretty ready for dinner.. and discovered that it was going to take FIFTY minutes to make the soup according to Dr. Ian Smith's recipe, so I modified it by doing it in a pressure cooker (THANK God, or I may have just started eating the cutting board....)

 The soup has potatoes, carrots, onions and ham in it...I substituted the ham with two of these Gardein Chicken Scallopini made with soy and quinoa and kamut...

they are only 90 calories each and I stock up on them when they are BOGO!

The recipe makes a TON of soup by the way....my man had some too, he actually liked it! And I have a ton of cabbage soup in my fridge if anyone is interested...

I was allowed one cup...

Plus 2 cups of spinach....I skipped out on the spinach and had another half a cup of soup instead I was so over cooking by that point and still had to get to the gym

The Gym:

I did my 40 minutes of cardio....I definitely notice a decrease in my strength and energy on the harder cardio compared to my usual carb fueled self....but it felt great in the end!

Day three done...my stomach is REALLY flat and unbloated, I think its the lack of diet soda and sugar in my life :D

Day Two of the Detox (aka the Four Day Diet)

/hihi!

Today is the first day of summer! Yay :D I love sunshine, BBQs, and being by the water!Even more so after living in England for a bit, I even appreciate Floridas crazy hot summers  after living through the British winter LOL

In the Bahamas in 2010

 And I reached my goal that I first set when starting this blog, of being 130 pounds by the summer time! Now I'm only 10 pounds away from my final goal for the YEAR which is to be 120  pounds! Can't wait!

Day Two of my Detox (aka Dr. Ian Smith's "Four Day Diet")  started out great. I had my tofu scramble for breakfast and it was delicious!!

Basically I cooked crumbled tofu with nutritional yeast, chilli, a little torn spinach, tomatoes and mushrooms (less than half a cup of veggies in total)

I also had a Naked Berry juice for my fruit intake for the day, which contains: 3.25 apples, 1 banana, 27 blueberries, 1 blackberry, 38 mg vitamin b3, 11 mcg vitamin b12, 114 mg vitamin c, 19 mg vitamin b, 4 mg vitamin b6, 13g fiber, 57iu vitamin e.

 (I was trying to load more of my eating towards the beginning of the day- this backfired later though when I was hungry after work and wanted to snack on fruit but had consumed my quota for the day already!)

For lunch I had a garden salad (3 cups) and a cup of brown rice

Dinner was a cup of cooked down spinach with lemon juice (not a dinner I looked forward to haha!) /wahaha

I dragged myself to the gym...well, I went with my man so his enthusiasm gave me energy :D He has been great and really supportive lately! His music player died but he still went and did a 50 minute work out without any music (something I couldn't do!!  My music is the only thing that gets me through work outs!) Having him with me always helps :D

My rock --- >

He is also a vegetarian by the way, (and in his line of work where he hangs out with firefighters all day thast pretty brave!) and very strong even though he hadn't been working out for about a year!

He benched my entire weight + yesterday! =D>

There are a lot of great athletes who are vegetarian-  Bill Pearl and Clarence Bass were vegetarians and a couple other legendary bodybuilders were as well. Robert Dos Remedios, is vegetarian and is a lean 240 pounds and in incredible shape. Jon Hinds is a vegan, in his mid 40’s and is jacked and strong as could be. The greatest tight end in NFL history, Tony Gonzalez is also a vegetarian and obviously it hasn’t hurt him in the least.

I tried my hardest and did my 40 minutes cardio - 25 on the elliptical, 15 running - it was SOOOO hard though! /sweat

My legs felt like lead, my body ached from the previous days work out, I didn't have as much energy as usual.....but I felt a lot better at the end. My sore neck and back disappeared :D

My man and I traded back and calf/foot muscle massages afterwards too and that was great, my body needed it!!  One of my favorite parts of being in a relationship is having someone to trade massages with whenever I need one! /XD

The major downside to living with a man though? Man food. Delicious smelling, cheesy, fattening man food smells wafting through the house at all hours of the day...I had to watch him wolf down his yummy dinner of eggplant, tofu and cheddar smothered tortillas while I munched on spinach LOL

I had to fight the urge to ask for a bite....ahhh!!

When he washed it all down with a new type of blonde pale ale he found at our local organic store I was soooo tempted to cheat but I didnt, having this blog helps me stay accountable! And I REALLY want to lose weight and detox!

I felt fine going to bed that night though, wasn't too hungry. And I woke up half an hour before my alarm on Day Three, FULL of energy :D (weird huh!?!)

I've also been reading comments from people who have done the 4 Day Diet - this one is inspiring:

 went on this diet a year ago…lost 17 pounds in just over a month…I did the first month of modules and then another three modules…at that point I felt I had control of it and I have kept the weight off. I found myself craving salads with beans and rice (instead of things like icecream). He is right, just focus on the four days until you learn portion control. I needed a refresher and this diet (I prefer to think of it as healthy eating) did it for me. I have a bit of arthritis and found when I cut back on meat and focused on fruits and veggies and water (like he states in diet) that my joints didn’t ache as much. It is successful…on vacation I put on three pounds but that quickly disappeared again when I just “focused and remembered” what was good for me. I would now like to take off another 15 pounds and am going to go through it again.

Day One of the Detox (aka The Four Day Diet)

The first day of the cleanse my main issue was- HUNGER..../blur Ok, I LOGICALLY know I got enough food on day one of the plan...I ate all of this:


 Yogurt and nectarine, a banana and strawberries and blueberries for breakfast +2 cups of coffee. (forgive the lack of photos, still fixing my camera!)

 A cup of brown rice, plus a cup of beans and a cup of spinach mixed with a little organic mango salsa for lunch.

A plain garden salad (cup of spinach, cucumbers, tomato, 2tbsp low fat dressing) and a repeat of lunch for dinner ( A cup of brown rice, plus a cup of beans and a cup of spinach mixed with a little organic mango salsa)

A glass of fresh lemonade

An 8pm 'god I'm feeling hungry' banana......

... but as I lay there trying to go to sleep I felt super hungry, and all I could think about was the lovely stuffed cheese pasta with mushroom sauce I had given to my man as a sign of my commitment ( I had made it for myself for lunch on Monday at work, but then gave it up to him for his lunch the next day - wow!! LOL )


And I think its because I never felt that 'full' feeling even after a heaping plate of rice, beans and veggies...and I think thats a bad thing because it shows that my usual diet has enough crap in it that a clean day of eating makes me CRAVE things like sweets, alcohol, soda, heavy carbs and cheese to feel satiated!!

I thought I'd been eating pretty healthy-  I didnt realize I still relied on more refined carbs like bread (rather than very unrefined brown rice) to get that 'full' feeling! I could STUFF myself with rice, beans and salad and still be hungry in an hour I think....

I also went to the gym and did the forty minutes of cardio required- 20 minutes on the elliptical and 20 mintues on a stationary bike while working 3 pound weights at the same time.


As I pedalled on the bike I kept my arms moving with the weights in every direction- above my head, to the side, bicep curls....and boy do I feel it!

I cant believe 3 pound weights had that much impact, I've being using 5 pounders when doing Jillian's 30 Day Shred DVD...but I guess the fact that it was 20 minutes of arm workout is what matters, not the weights. I really liked the fact that I was working my arms AND legs at the same time ( I get bored just doing one!)

Detox Time!!!

On Sunday I made up my mind to do Dr. Ian Smith's diet plan "The Four Day Diet" Now stop- before you say 'oh that sounds like a fad!" and "nobody loses weight in 4 days" hear me out. It isn't a fad diet, and it isn't just four days. I've done this eating plan before and was impressed with his use of quinoa and his emphasis on fruits and vegetables! (the only downside to his eating plan is not enough dairy on some days, and I've taken a college level nutrition class so its a semi educated opinion) /wahaha

The four days is basically four day modules you do - you start out with a detox of mainly brown rice, fruit, yogurt, veggies and lemon juice, and then transition to adding in more food groups and he keeps changing the foods so you don't get bored.

I brought the book about two years ago and did it for a while and lost weight, but I wasn't as dedicated to my weight loss, nor did I have gym access which is also crucial for the plan (40 minutes on most days!)

Heres a little video about it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ibib5aBJ9Sk

And http://www.everydiet.org/diet/4-day-diet/comment-page-1#comments lays it out:

The 4 Day Diet was written by Dr. Ian Smith who is also theauthorof the Fat Smash and Extreme Fat Smash diets.

Smith claims that this program will help dieters to avoid the common pitfalls of dieting including boredom, not allowing treats, too much repetition, and plateaus.

4 Day Diet Basics

The 4 Day Diet is not simply a diet that lasts for four days but rather it consists of seven separate dieting modules that last for four days each. Smith claims that it is much easier for you to focus on what you are eating for the next four days rather than what you will and will not be eating for several weeks.

Another purpose of the different modules is that of increasing variety in the meal plan so you don’t get bored eating the same foods all the time. In addition it has the benefit of keeping the metabolism working well because the body is kept guessing and it doesn’t have time to adapt to the diet.

The seven dieting modules include:

• Induction (detox/cleansing)
• Transition (to reintroduce all food groups)
• Protein Stretch (to avoid plateaus)
• Smooth (when you can have some formerly forbidden foods like pizza and French fries)
• Push (the sprint just before the final stretch, back to a stricter eating plan)
• Pace (a comfortable module for you to catch your breath)
• Vigorous (the final module to lose those last few pounds)

Dieters can follow the diet plan through the seven phases for a one month program but it is also possible to create a customized program where you start with the first two phases and then do the other five in which ever order you like.

Smith places a great deal of emphasis on the psychological factors that are essential for successful dieting and says that losing weight is 80% mental and 20% physical. Dieters are provided with instructions on how to use tools like goal setting and visualization as well as with practical strategies for avoiding temptation.

Recommended Foods

Fruit, vegetables, low fat dairy, lean protein, whole grains, legumes, nuts, avocado, low calorie salad dressing.

Sample Diet Plan

The meal plans vary dramatically throughout the different segments. The following is a sample daily food list for the ‘Induction’ phase.

2 cups coffee. Limit sugar to one packet and cream or milk to one teaspoon per cup.

2 cups of raw or cooked green leafy vegetables.

1 cup freshly squeezed lemonade with no more than a tablespoon of sugar.

1 tablespoon psyillium husk.

4 servings of fruit.

6 oz plain fat free yogurt.

2 cups green garden salad with 3 tablespoons fat free dressing.

1 cup cooked beans (chickpeas, lentils etc.)

1 ½ cups cooked brown rice

Unlimited plain water

Exercise Recommendations

Each diet module comes with specific recommendations for exercise. Dieters are advised to build up slowly in accordance with their fitness levels and if necessary to break up exercise into several short periods over the day.

Costs and Expenses

The 4 Day Diet retails at $24.95.
Click Here to purchase the book at a discounted price.

Pros

• Unique and interesting approach to dieting.
• Good for dieters that get bored easily or don’t like to follow a strict diet plan.
• Addresses the psychological factors involved in weight management and dieting.
• Can be customized according to the dieter’s preferences.
• Highlights the importance of goal setting.
• Allows for controlled cheating, which may increase adherence to the diet over the long term.
• Does not require any special foods or supplements.
• Suitable for vegetarians.
• The author has a very motivating writing style.
• Includes recipes.

Cons

• Does not account for individual variations in calorie and nutritional requirements.
• The meal plan lists all the foods to be eaten in the day and does not break it down into individual meals.
• Will not appeal to dieters that prefer to follow a routine with their meal plans.

Conclusions

Smith has provided dieters with a unique approach that may help to keep up interest and enthusiasm that will enhance the chance of successful weight loss. The ability to customize the diet as well as the differences between the diet segments will make this diet appealing to those who prefer variety or have difficulty sticking with standard diet plans.