8 Hour Diet Day 4

No change in the scale this morning, but still maintaining my 1.5 lbs. weight loss after the first day. I overate yesterday. I have no idea how many calories I consumed, but I know I overate because of how I felt. Stuffed. I also remember how I felt after lunch, major carbohydrate overload. So, I plan to eat cleaner today.

One interesting change this morning is that I am not as hungry. I'm not sure if my body is adjusting to the intermittent fasting or if it's a fluke. I read in the book that your stomach will shrink over time and that you will not be as hungry as you were before. It's too soon to say if this is beginning to happen to me or not.

I am pretty amazed at how easy this plan is to follow. Compared to other diets it's painless. I've tried South Beach before and hated it, especially Phase 1. Even though it produced amazing results, it wasn't worth it. There were so many inconveniences associated with that diet: the choices at breakfast were especially limited; eating out was difficult because the rest of the real world eats carbohydrates; it made it difficult to socialize because I lived in fear of getting off my diet; and I won't even mention certain bodily functions that began to shut down after a few days.  Most days I felt like I was just barely hanging on, and feared when the first opportunity to eat an honest-to-god carbohydrate would come. I knew it was just a matter of time before I fell off of the band wagon, never to return.


Another method of eating that I've read quite a bit about is Intuitive Eating. As much as I'd like to go with that idea and not worry about nutrition or calories and just "trust myself" by giving into my food cravings, I have discovered that my intuition about food is basically broken. The only foods I ever actually crave involve sugar or caffeine in some way. So there you go. All of my years experimenting with food and diet have brought me to this grand epiphany: I have to actually think about what I'm going to eat ahead of time, about whether it's good for me, and if I'm going to stick to my goals or not. I also have to push myself to workout or I will stop doing it. I'm guessing a lot of people are like that, too.

Plan for today:

8 a.m. Detox tea
10 a.m. Exercise video
11 a.m. Greek yogurt (fat free) with blueberries and blackberries
3:00 p.m. Lunch: Tuna on pumpernickel bread with a green salad and an apple
4:30 p.m. 1/2 cup fat free frozen yogurt
6:00 p.m. 1 cup homemade vegetarian fried (brown) rice
6:45 p.m. 1 cup lowfat Kefir (Probiotic milk)
7:00 p.m.  Start 16 hour fast