Day 106: Diet Hard (Whee!): With a Vengeance

Days remaining: 117
Pounds remaining: 134.5
Inches lost/gained this past week: -2.75
Pounds lost/gained this past week: -11.5
Percentage weight loss this past week: -3.89%

Total pounds lost: -18.5
Total inches lost: -19.0

Well... let's just say the past several weeks have been horrible from the Project's point of view! I don't ever remember hitting such a diet low. This is the post I always dreaded would need to be written and yet knew would have to be shared to ensure Project integrity.

I'm not sure what happened, but I do know the diet was boring and I wasn't interested in finding out new and creative ways to enjoy low-calorie foods which led to a sort of funk and lethargy from which I never fully recovered.

In retrospect, it seems all the snow threw a curveball into everyday life. Snow, to me, bespeaks hot chocolate with whipped cream, fresh chocolate chip cookies, movies, lounging around - a holiday atmosphere. Unfortunately, these delights are not in line with gym time, reduced calorie eating, and gallons of sweat.

I wanted to quit so badly and then one day, I actually did. A pan of rice krispie treats with chocolate chips was way too easy to make and once I tasted them, I didn't stop. Mouthful after mouthful of buttery, chocolaty, chewy goodness went down accompanied with thought after thought of what I was going to have to say about this major infraction.

I think I just shut down. For weeks, the same 5-8 pounds have been lost and gained and I had not been able to drop below a certain plateau line; no matter what. All diets got tossed out the window and I did go back to eating whatever I wanted to eat... almost.

To my delight, I was okay with making more healthful choices and choosing the smaller portion sizes and enjoying them just as much as if I had eaten a much larger portion. Examples? Previously, I would have gotten a venti Java Chip Frappuccino and now I found myself quite content with a tall size instead. Skipping dessert, eating more veggies, cutting back on carb portions just a little, and scaling back subsequent meals after a large indulgence were all tactics I tried.

Soon, it became apparent to me that I needed to get a grip and do something drastic. Through various circumstances, it became clear that the next step was to go on the Candida Diet. What does that entail? Well... imagine a way of eating that removes all wheat, corn, yeast, sugar, dairy, most fruit, and (horror of horrors) caffeine. That is the Candida Diet.

So our whole family is now on the diet and yes, there are things you can still eat... it boils down to meat and vegetables and not much else. On the plus side, this diet is designed to kill yeast overgrowth. Granted, none of us have a serious issue, but this will kill that overgrowth and, we're hoping, will give us more energy and smaller girths as a result. Even Peter is seeing benefits, though I must admit to the difficulty in having removed Cheerios, crackers, mac and cheese, hot dogs, and bread from the little man's diet.

We started Monday (22 March) and I have already lost 11.5 pounds!! I'm back in the gym, am losing inches, and am newly inspired to get this weight off. I have broken through that plateau barrier I couldn't break before and am excited to see what will happen next.

It's not easy doing this particular diet, but I know it will do wonderful things for our family. Thank you, my faithful readers, for your concern and encouragement to get this blog back up and running. It really is because of you and your participation in my Project that I haven't given up completely and a major contributing cause to the reinvigorating of this blog.

Moving on!