Day 38: In Search of MUFAs - The Flat Belly Diet Experience

Calories:
1838

Exercise:
Calorie Torch 30-minute interval walk (Flat Belly) with Wittle Waist move during high-speed sections.

Emotional Pulse:
Doing well; not bored, therefore not desiring to gobble; excited by weight loss and increasing endurance, in home and in gym.

I thought I'd start doing something new with each post.

As you know, my goal is to lose a total of 150 pounds by 25 July through the combined efforts of dieting, exercise, and improved living. To this end, I post a weekly status report showing my pound and inch losses and gains over the week that has just ended.

This evening, as I was returning home from the Y (::pat on back, pat on back::), it occurred to me that I could add another level of accountability to my attempts to post daily - especially in light of the fact that I've had a couple of rough days comprised of strong desires to blow the diet and eat everything in sight, then go out and buy some more to eat.

I will post each day how many calories I have eaten that day, my goal being 1800-2000 calories per day (a bit higher than the suggested 1600 per day because I am still nursing a baby). I will also post what my exercising activities were and a general emotional summary of the day. I imagine this will also help in curtailing various impulses to gorge on dried fruit... which is better than Krispy Kreme, I have to say!

Today marks the unveiling of what exactly is this diet I'm currently following.

At Jason's urgent request, we decided to follow the Flat Belly Diet! Though I didn't know it at the time, it turns out this diet is the hottest thing around right now. We bought the bright yellow book with friendly black lettering at CostCo for about $8.97 and it has changed our lives in eleven short days (though some certainly felt longer than others).

The Flat Belly Diet is fairly simple and has three basic rules:

1. Never go more than four hours without eating (I'm still working on that one).
2. Keep each of the three meals and single snack at about 400 calories (for the average woman).
3. Include one MUFA at each meal, including snack

So, what is a MUFA?! MUFA stands for MonoUnsaturated Fatty Acid and it is found in the following five items and/or groups:

1. Nuts and nut oils - some are higher in MUFA counts than others; macadamias are the highest
2. Olives - any type
3. Olive oil
4. Avocado - Hass are the best, with higher MUFA than California avocados
5. Dark chocolate - this HAS to be my absolute favorite and the saving grace of this diet!

So... it's a very simple diet plan and one that's not hard to stick to - and this is coming from one who absolutely HATES diets. I rarely feel hungry despite the smaller portions, and that is due to the inclusion of MUFAs. The fatty acids help you feel full longer... which is a wonderful thing!

Someone asked me what the difference was between this and WeightWatchers so I began thinking. I would say the greatest difference lies in the unshakable rule of including MUFAs with each meal. True, WeightWatchers does say you must include your fats and oils, yet these are the very things which are so commonly discarded because they contain SO many calories and because they have so much fat.

The other primary difference (as pointed out by my mom) lies in the lack of artificial sweeteners. If you're going to have something sweet, it should be the real thing. Artificial sweeteners do the body NO favors whatsoever; leaving you craving more sweet things and bloating that abdomen even more.

Although they are not explicitly forbidden (except in the first four days' Anti-Bloat Diet), it is highly encouraged that you cut back severely on caffeine (dehydrates and stresses the body), salt (aids and abets water retention), gassy foods (broccoli, cabbage, etc.), and gum chewing (extra air gets inside your gut).

This diet assures that each dieter will actually lose weight and inches off the belly, as promised, and will enjoy a lighter emotional feel - due to the increased happiness of your body.

Why are MUFAs so special? This particular fatty acid targets and aids in the dissolution of visceral body fat; this is the fat that congregates around your internal organs and increases your likelihood of disease and assorted other bad things happening.

Even very skinny people can have too much visceral fat; even though they have hardly any subcutaneous fat (the blubber which is normally referred to as 'fat'). You can be the perfect weight and BMI, yet still be woefully unhealthy. Amazing!

Just as a quick testimonial to the power of MUFAs, the week before we actually started the Flat Belly Diet, we added a MUFA to each meal. Didn't really change the way we were eating, just recorded everything and added a MUFA each meal. At the end of the week, I had lost 2.25 inches... and was eating an average of 3000 calories per day!!

Now, we are about to begin Day 12 of this diet. Jason is down about 12 pounds and I have bid farewell to at least 7.5 pounds AND 4.5 inches!! If that doesn't encourage you, feel free to communicate with me... I'd love to encourage you.

For those who can't wait to lose weight yourself, click HERE to purchase your own copy of the Flat Belly Diet (via my brand-new I-think-I'll-try-this Amazon.com Associate link).

As I mentioned before, I HATE diets. Yet this is one I am absolutely loving. Yes, I have my rough patches, but overall, I'm excited to see the weight coming off. I'm enjoying feeling my clothes fit looser. I'm reveling in the increased endurance I have to deal with every-day challenges.

I am not perfect and don't always have happy days with this diet, but I am learning - for perhaps the very first time in my life - how to control my passion for eating.