Lunch

This is a typical lunch for me. One marinated salmon fillet cooked stove top in light cooking spray, half a can of kidney beans and broccoli. Very simple. I eat this every day for either lunch or dinner. It's very satisfying. 

Breakfast

Every morning I eat the same breakfast - 7 days a week. 

I start by spraying my non-stick skillet with light butter spray and adding a handful of spinach leaves. 

I cook them until they wilt.

Then I dump in half a can of black beans. 

Next, I beat two egg whites and one egg with yolk and pour that into the mixture, stirring until it's cooked. 

And finally, I dump in about 1/3 cup of salsa for extra flavor and stir until it's heated through. 

And this is the end result. It's not pretty, but it's tasty and it fills me up. Four hours later, I'm still not starving, but it's already time for my next meal. 

Preparation Is Key

I don't know about you, but for me preparation is key.

If my diet is all prepared and easy to just grab and cook/heat, I have a better chance of sticking with it.

I do all of my shopping in one day and usually get all of my meat, veggies and beans purchased - enough to last me the week. Sometimes I have to run back and grab a few more things, but that's okay.

I can't eat my meat without some bold flavor so I buy these marinades for $1 or less at the grocery store. They help you out by telling you on the back which meats they flavor the best. These are some of the marinade choices. I love them all. Not pictured is Baja Citrus and Montreal Steak. YUM!

Next, I separate my meat into baggies. The chicken breasts are so huge that my son and I split those so I package one to a bag, but the hamburger, steak and salmon goes two to a bag. Then I pour a little marinade in each one and squish it around a bit, then seal the bag.

For this week my steak is marinating in Montreal Steak, my fish is marinating in Baja Citrus and Garlic Herb and Wine and my chicken is marinating in Chipotle Pepper, Garlic Herb and Wine, and Spiced Brandy and Herb. It gets me excited just thinking about those tasty marinades.

PS: I didn't mention hamburger because I totally forgot to buy some at the store. That's what I'm running back for tonight.

And finally, I pack everything in the freezer, except for what I'll be eating today. All of my frozen veggies are packed in behind. I've got peas, broccoli,and  brussel sprouts.

Every night before bed I pull out the meat for the next day and refrigerate it. It's so easy to just grab the bags of meat and veggies and a can of beans and whip up a meal.

BINGE DAY!

First of all, I just want to say that I will NOT be getting on the scale at any point today because I'm scared to death.

This is a mandatory binge day. The diet calls for it. I can eat whatever I want. I can eat crap to the point of getting sick.

You would think I'd be skipping around, popping all sorts of naughty things into my mouth and thoroughly enjoying it.

The problem is, it's only been one week on this diet, I've made significant progress, and now I'm terrified of completely undoing it all.

This is the part where I just have to trust Mr. Timothy Ferriss when he says, "It is important to spike caloric intake once per week. This causes a host of hormonal changes that improve fat-loss."

He actually says on page 88 (of this 522-page book) "Yes, you can eat anything you want - in any quantity - on Saturdays."

Here's how my morning started off. I sauntered into the kitchen, looked around, opened the fridge, saw the usual fixings for my strict breakfast, shut the fridge quickly and went into panic mode. I saw a chocolate bar sitting on top of the microwave so I ate one  piece and cringed. Then I made myself some herbal tea.

And that's where I'm at right now at 10:20 AM. I am lost.

That's Not A Diet!

Those are the words my dad proclaimed when he stopped over and saw the size of my lunch plate.

I laughed and said, "Yeah, I'm definitely not starving. In fact, I have to sometimes force myself to eat because I do this FOUR times a day."

That right there is chicken cooked stove top in vinaigrette dressing, broccoli and lentils boiled in chicken broth.

This is meal #2 of the day. I've got to do this two more times today in four-hour intervals. Definitely not a starvation diet.

You may look at this and think, "How in the world do you lose weight on THAT?"

Because I've hardly exercised this week, I've been eating like this and I'm down 9 pounds in less than one week.

I can't explain it, folks. It's just working and that's all I know.

The Most Effective 4 Minutes Of Your Life

Raise your hand if you hate working out.

I'm raising both of mine.

I do love to get outside and do physical activity. It's just the whole working out thing like, "Okay, I'm going to the gym now to spend the next hour or two of my life sweating my face off and causing myself to be in intense pain. I...can't....wait...."

Or putting on a workout video. BORING!

I'll never be a runner, which seems to be the latest fad. That's great for those  who can run. My genes do not allow for that. I tried it a few times, woke up the next morning with intense arthritic-like pain, called my father who had knee replacement surgery in his 40s and he said, "Oh no. No. No. You will never be a runner. Don't do that to yourself."

So I've power walked with friends and that's great - lots of great venting sessions, good exercise, but it never lasts. It's hard to coordinate schedules - especially when you and your friends are all mothers with young children and they have husbands who would like them to spend time with THEM in the evenings - not YOU.

In spite of my intense hatred for the above, I try to do it as much as possible anyway.

BUT, if I'm having a long work day, rough day with the kids, just not feeling like I want to spend an hour torturing myself today and there's no other opportunity for physical activity, I have discovered the following.

The 4-minute workout, which has been called the most effective fat burning workout you can do in a day. Go ahead, do your other workouts on top of this or don't work out at all aside from this.

But do this every day and you will feel amazing. And see results.

Only 4 minutes? Yeah, you haven't tried it yet. It's SO HARD!

Here's the run down: (The links show you the exercises)

1. One minute of  Burpees

2. One minute of Prisoner Squats

3. One minute of Push Ups

4. One minute of Mountain Climbers

Try it. I dare you! Just do this every day. It gets easier and easier to get through. I seriously doubt it will ever get to the point where you're doing it and hardly breaking a sweat or breathing heavy because the guy who introduced me to it who happens to be in fantastic shape and personal training is his life struggles to get through this without grunting and groaning and panting and sweating.

PS: I'm down to 170 pounds! I can't wait to work my way down through the 160s now!

Crack Water

This diet calls for a LOT of water.

And I'm sorry, but I don't like water all that much. It's boring and also it makes me gag....unless I've just worked out hard in which case I can't get enough of it.

So I concoct a little something my youngest sister refers to as "crack water" because it's so good (like crack, apparently) that you can't stop drinking it.

And that's the idea - to drink water like it's going out of style. 

My personal favorite is Sweet Leaf Vanilla Creme. You find it at Sprouts and it costs $12.99 a bottle, which will last you about 3-4 weeks, depending on how much you use. I just drop 2-3...okay like 5 to 6 little drops (not droppers full. Just drops. CALM DOWN!) into my water and it's like candy. Or crack. We like to say crack in my family because it's funny to us. Clearly we are a sick people. But the important thing is, it makes necessary evils less painful.

And that, my friends, is how I'm able to drink water all day long.

PS: I'm down to 172 from 179 in about 4 days. WOOHOO!