Eureka! A Cheeseburger Day!

Hello Everyone,
As you know I have been searching for an eating plan that I believe I can live with. I may have found it. The name of the plan I have been following since my last post is called The Five Factor Diet by Harley Pasternak. I found this plan by accident. He was appearing on QVC, and I happened to be surfing. So as the Flavor-of-the-Week-Diet-Book-Purchasing-Fool that I am, I decided to look into this plan. Amazon and Google gave further information, so I purchased a copy. There are very inexpensive used copies listed on Amazon. That is one of my favorite ways to acquire books.

I was very skeptical about this book because the number 5 is the gimmick. I am not crazy about gimmicks. Gadgets, yes. Gimmicks, no.The other thing that almost turned me off was the "Hollywood" connection. Several celebrities endorse this plan. Yawn. Unimpressed is my word for celebrity endorsements. But still I looked through the book and it has everything I want. As a diabetic, I am interested in foods low on the glycemic index. As an unsuccessful low carb dieter, I am not interested in lettuce sandwiches. I am looking for a plan which includes all food groups with healthy carb choices. I want some meat and seafood; no tofu, thank you. I want some freedom once in a while. I don't want to spend a lot of time cooking, and I want to eat food I like.

It turns out this plan has all that. I can even have 2 pieces of French Toast for breakfast, and Jello sugar free fat free butterscotch pudding mixed with apples and cinnamon layered over ricotta cheese. Not half a cup but a whole cup, and that is just a snack. I had a delicious Mexican Chicken salad which included chicken, salsa, corn (!!!I love corn) and fat free sour cream. A very very tasty chicken soup with cannelini beans and basil in a tomato broth. Tonight I will be making a mushroom barley risotto. Every recipe has 5 ingredients...well, not including spices. But I have most of the spices. Everything is supposed to take 5 minutes to prepare. Well, sometimes it takes longer, but I don't mind slicing strawberries for crunchy strawberry bars. The point is, it is all quick and easy for me to prepare. It has not been too expensive for me either.

I saved the best for last. There is a cheat day!! Not a cheat meal, a cheat day. I had my second cheat day yesterday. I pushed it. On my first cheat day, I stuck to the program, but went out for a burger one night. Also had an almond cookie that night. I still lost almost 2 pounds that week. I stayed on the plan religiously until yesterday. I wanted pretzels and another cheeseburger and also a piece of cheesecake. Yikes! I had it all.  The author told me what would happen and I knew he was right. I did not feel that great. This morning I am happily back on the plan. Today's breakfast was a cup of Kashi Go Lean cereal and 1 cup of skim milk, and of course my beloved coffee. Oh, the coffee. That is one thing I will not change. I am not giving up half and half in my coffee. I still have lost a little over 3 pounds. If I lose 1 pound per week, that will be fine with me. So far it has been painless.

Next post, I will update you on my 100 Days of Weight Loss and exercise. In the meantime, I hope you will post your comments and suggestions.

Marie