W17: D2 (June 7)

Good morning!  Sorry for leaving you hanging a few days!! 
I definitely should have posted yesterday when I passed the halfway point!!!!  At least, the pounds lost halfway point.  I have lost 45 pounds in 16 weeks.  I love it.

Well, the 17-day diet turns out to be a very low-calorie diet.  Very low-cal.  However, it is also very filling, so I am not dying to just gorge myself on anything!  I do allow myself extra veggies, however, and sometimes a little more (plain) yogurt than it calls for.  I also joined the YMCA yesterday and discovered how much easier running is when you are indoors with an air conditioner!!!  I ran on the track and truly felt as though I could continue running even when my workout was over.  I would like to still do some outdoors stuff so I can continue to appreciate the indoor track, though.  Tomorrow's run involves 8 minutes in a row at two different intervals...I would love to see if I can complete a mile in one of those 8 minutes!  Currently, including the walking 5 minutes for warm up, I am averaging 11 min./mile.  I am however, going farther than 1/2 mile when I do my 5 minute run.  Anyway, I'll let you know.  :)

So, I promised someone I would post each day's food allowances.  I'm going to do that now, and I will just put in parentheses if I "strayed" at all or altered what was supposed to be eaten.

Day 3
Breakfast
     2 hard-boiled or poached eggs (yuk. I just scrambled 'em)
     1/2 grapefruit or other fresh fruit in season (strawberries for me)
     1 cup green tea (to be honest, after my wake up drink of hot water with lemon and a cup of coffee, I usually don't drink this in the mornings.  I do drink the afternoon and evening cups, though)

Lunch
     1 large bowl of Chicken-Vegetable Soup (this refers to a recipe in the back of the book.  I didn't have any of the ingredients, so I just had a big salad)
     1 cup green tea

Dinner
     Plenty of roasted turkey breast or turkey tenderloin, steamed carrots and steamed asparagus (Sunday was a big day and I was quite busy.  I did hit the grocery store at 7 pm and got some grilled chicken bites.  I ate these and some steamed carrots for dinner when I got home.)
     1 cup green tea

Snacks
     6 oz. plain low-fat yogurt, sweetened with Truvia or a tablespoon of sugar-free fruit jam
     Kefir smoothie: Mix one cup of kefir with 1 cup of frozen unsweetened berries, sugar-free fruit jam, and 1 tablespoon flaxseed oil.  Blend until smooth.  (So, I don't have a blender and it turns out there is a product CALLED Kefir smoothie.  I just bought two kinds of that.  It's like drinking yogurt.  So far I have only tasted the strawberry-banana flavor...yum.)

Day 4
Breakfast
     Kefir smoothie
     1 cup green tea

Lunch
     Marinated Vegetable Salad or Super Salad (I didn't check the recipes in the back, but I made a crazy big awesome yummy salad with lettuce, baby carrots, grape tomatoes, fat free feta, broccoli, cauliflower, and apples...drizzled with Marie's All Natural Italian Vinaigrette (fewer calories and fat grams than the olive oil/balsamic vinegar combo allowed).  This salad was freakin' DEEE-lish, and when I tracked it on Spark People, the total calories was under 300!!)
     6 oz. plain low-fat yogurt with a sliced fresh peach, or other fruit in season

Dinner
     Eggplant Parmesan (I will type up these recipes in a separate post sometime soon.)
     Alternative dinner: Any of the lean proteins with plenty of cooked cleansing vegetables from the list.  (I grilled up some chicken and it was SO, SO good.  Also cooked broccoli and ate my fill!)
     1 cup green tea

TODAY (Day 5)
Breakfast
     2 scrambled egg whites
     1/2 grapefruit or other fresh fruit in season (going to be a peach)
     1 cup green tea

Lunch
     Salad of baby spinach leaves, grape tomatoes, and crumbled low-fat feta or blue cheese; drizzle with 1 tablespoon of olive or flaxseed oil and 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
     1 cup green tea

Dinner
     Ground turkey patties, with side salad drizzled with 1 tablespoon of olive or flaxseed oil and 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
     1 cup green tea

Snacks
     1 cup of fresh berries
     6 oz. plain low-fat yogurt, sweetened with Truvia or a tablespoon of sugar-free fruit jam

Have a great day!!

xoxo