Lemonade/Watermelon Diet 3.29.17

Okay, yesterday wasn't a good day for the diet.  I had a meeting from 11am - 1pm and afterwards we had lunch.  I'm not lying I was hungry because I didn't have a chance to eat anything prior to the meeting, so I caved.  I ate salad and chicken (not too bad???).

The good news is my weight was unchanged.  This morning I still weighed in at 159.6.  The bad news, that one indulgence will prevent me from reaching my goal of 156 by Friday.  :-(  

Funny though, usually when I'm only eating watermelon or drinking lemonade, I don't wake up hungry the next day.  This morning I'm starving, can't wait to dive into my melon.

Here's hoping for a better today.

Lemonade/Watermelon Diet 3.28.17

This week makes 2 months for me doing the lemonade diet and maybe 3 weeks combining it with watermelon.  Right now I'm not sure when I'm going to end my journey, my focus is learning to eat right and making better decisions when putting food into my mouth.  I know I'm planning vacation in May so maybe that's when I will end it, but for now it one day at a time.  For me this way of eating is becoming habitual - eat on the weekend, diet during the week.  What I do enjoy is not having any headaches about what to cook for breakfast, lunch or dinner - hassle free.

Yesterday, my mind kept jumping back and forth on food, nothing too serious, it's just that I wanted to pop something in my mouth to chew on.  It was extremely busy in the office, what with us being short on staff, etc. so I didn't get very much in.  I managed 10oz lemonade and 30oz water.  I probably got 3-4 cups of watermelon in.  Not the best, but I'm just happy my water intake has increased.

I weighed in at 159.6 this morning, so maybe I will make it to 156 by Friday.  Once the weather warms up a bit more I have several dresses I want to begin wearing, I like how my body is changing and my clothes are fitting.  It make me happy that I've stuck with this for so long.

Several of the girls at the office are beginning their egg fast, promised to lose 24 lbs in 2 wks.  It sounds great and I was tempted to give it a shot, but watermelons are so much cheaper, plus I don't have to cook the watermelon.  Just cut it, chop it and stick it in the fridge.  So, much easier  :-)  But I won't knock the egg diet, it's something I may look at later during the year.

Lemonade/watermelon diet 3.27.17

I have a great weekend, although a bit tiring.  Still doing a lot of work on the house which have my buns aching this morning, but I won't complain because I got lots done.

I find I can only eat 1 meal a day, where it was difficult for me to accept that initially, I decided to embrace it and move on.  I've been living in the Bahamas for years now, and there's a food they call Boil.  Well I never knew what Boil was, but I was told if you want to eat healthy by Boil.  Well Saturday when I went to the store I saw they had this Boil.  Actually all it is is boiled veggies and meat.  However, this particular day it consisted of boiled ham, cassava, sweet potatoes, cabbage and yams.  Initially I thought, ok look bland, but the seasoning they used made it fantastic.  It was a bit too much starchy veggies for me so I just had the ham, sweet potatoes, cabbage & green beans.  Now being on this diet for so long has has cause my stomach to shrink, so I was only able to eat a few spoons for lunch & dinner.  I threw the remaining in the freezer, with plans of finishing it up on Friday.  I can't get over how well seasoned it was, I loved it!

I stayed on track on Sunday also, fixing pasta for dinner and having a glass of wine (something I don't usually drink) kept me bloated for the day.  I later had 1/2 cup ice cream for desert.  I woke up this morning still feeling full and so happy to not have to worry about food for the next few days.

My weigh in this morning was 161.4 that's up 3.8lbs from Friday.  I just hope the scale is nice to me on Friday where I will see 156 - keeping fingers & toes crossed.

Today I'll be tweaking my diet with lemonade, but rather than using maple syrup to sweeten my lemonade I'll use stevia instead.  That's because watermelon has natural sugar and I don't want too much sugar in my diet.  I'm also going to try consuming much more water, something I've been slack in doing - I'll push for 60oz but 30oz will be cool to.

Here's hoping  for an eventful week!

Watermelon Diet 3.24.17

Today is day 5 my off day.  I weighed in this morning at 157.6 that's much lower than what I was expecting.  I'm excited because I'm now 2 lbs away from my goal weight of 155.

So far, I've been enjoying the diet with watermelon, however, my preference is to mix it up with the lemonade.  I found the lemonade takes away my cravings for food and the watermelon keeps me full.  I did sip on some lemonade mixture yesterday and can happily say I did not experience any digestive problems.  

The  best part about this diet is the savings...no expensive foods or ingredients, just simple watermelon or lemonade.  No all night preparations, and no worries over what to have for breakfast, lunch or dinner.  Really simple, the way I like it.

Next week I will take pictures and measurements,  I'm hoping I can be at 155 before Easter.  I'll try to be cautious about what I put in my mouth over the weekend and make sure to monitor my intake of food.

Today I'll have chicken noodle soup for breakfast/lunch and perhaps bbq wings to go with soup for lunch.  I'm not sure about dinner, I have a porkchop in the freezer from last week.  Usually I can't eat too much, so we'll see.

My feast days will be about learning to eat in proportion.  :-)

Watermelon Diet 3.23.17

It's been an extremely busy week.  I've been meaning to post but something always came up or I was just too tired to turn on my computer.

My last post was Monday, where I weighed in at 161.4.
Tuesday - 160.4
Wednesday - 163.4
Thursday - 159

I'm sure you're looking at Wednesday and saying Whoa!  Unfortunately I got side tracked.  We held an award ceremony on Tuesday at the office which included lunch.   And of course, you know who, was responsible for putting it together.

I busy and hungry all day, with nothing to drink but a cup of green tea.  I had brought my watermelon to eat on, but running up & down prevented me from doing that.  Sooooo, by the time the event was over I found myself in line with fish & coleslaw on my plate along with a bun.  Not too bad, but later the awardees cut their cake, and who was standing by to get a slice???? You got it, me.

 Actually, I'm not too disappointed in myself.  I think I did well controlling my intake of food, it's just that I really didn't want the cake, and I should have remembered my watermelon, but I succumbed to cake.  :-(  I'm so angry, because my New Year's resolution was to refrain from eating cake, cookies, etc. until April...I came soooo close.

But what I'm thankful for is that I now realize I definitely need to work on resisting eating foods or junk that I'm really not into eating.  Once I come off of this lemonade / watermelon diet I want to make sure I know how to control my intake of food.  It's going to take a while for me to do that, and I think a lot of it can be controlled mentally.  Learning to say NO.

Take last night, one of my friends came by and she knows I love chips, so what did she bring for me to munch on while we talked...chips.  I so, wanted to put my hand in that bag and stuff my mouth, but after some thought  I just said no.  At one point I wanted to take out a chip and just lick the bbq seasoning off of it, but I stood strong, well maybe a little stooped, but I didn't give it.  I was actually proud of myself for being able to stare down those spicy chips.  :-)

I plan to be on this way of eating for a few weeks longer, and I'm hoping, no praying, that I develop a strong mental attitude where I can just say NO when I'm not hungry or when I don't want anything to eat.  So whereas before it was a battle between my stomach and food, now it's a battle between food and my mental capacity to say NO. 

3/20/17 - Watermelon diet

I weighed in this morning at 161.4  which means I had a 1.8lb increase over the weekend.  I still need to play the mental game by convincing myself that it's okay that I don't eat as much as I use to. For  dinner/lunch yesterday I had 1 steam pork chop & potato salad.  I didn't get frustrated and I was content that I was full, but then I turned around and bought 1pt butter pecan ice cream and ate all... :-( I'm not disappointed that I ate the ice cream, I'm disappointed that I felt it was okay to eat the whole pint in one sitting.  :-(   These are the issues I have to work out before coming off my diet.

This week I will stick with just watermelon & cantaloupe (I have a little left from last week).  I had some lemonade over the weekend and the belching started back, so I'm going to let it rest for the week and give it a shot next week.

 
  

Day 5 Lemonade & watermelon combined 3.17.17

Today is day 5 of my diet and stepping on the scale I'm still at 159.6...that doesn't surprise me because I'be been pretty stationary at me desk all day yesterday and when I got home I sort of sat around and then went to bed.  This new timing along with everything else is really getting to me, plus it's been cold for the past few days which means all I really wanted to do for the week was snuggle under my blanket.

I've been wondering if I should continued with combining my diet with lemonade or go back to straight lemonade for the week, but I remember on Day 3 (I think that's when it was) after drinking my lemonade mixture I once again started experiencing indigestion, it wasn't bad, because I haven't been drinking that much, but it was definitely there.  Quite annoying.  So I think I'll pick up another watermelon over the weekend.

Now we are having an event at the office on Tuesday, lots of food involved, so I have to figure out how I'm going to work that into my routine, or do I skip that day and feast???  More than likely I'll probably munch on something but I'm hoping to stay on track.  I'm beginning to enjoy knowing I don't have to worry about lots of food during the week, and I feel I'm beginning to lose my fascination of food....well not too much, but I don't sit at my desk or at home constantly thinking about what I want to eat and that's a good sign for an "over eater anonymous" person like me.  :-)

I was suppose to stop at the store to pick up some soup for breakfast & lunch, but I just chopped up another cantaloupe and grabbed that frozen chicken breast I had in the freezer.  I know that's not much of a meal but things are really crazy right now and I really don't want to worry about food.  I think so long as I have something to eat I'll be okay.

I'll try to take my measurements over the weekend and maybe even take a few pictures, but that depends, if the plumber comes I'll probably be too busy moving around the house to do very much of anything.

Gotta run! 

Day 4, lemonade & watermelon combined - 3.16.17

Today I'm combining cantaloupe & lemonade for my diet.  I love cantaloupe but I recognized some years ago that it's a trigger food for me and cause me to crave other foods.  Well so far I'm safe, I haven't had any serious cravings yet.

This week the diet wasn't too problematic, actually I'm contemplating if I should have cantaloupe again tomorrow of have soup.  I'm really not that hungry right now.  It's after 3pm and I only consumed maybe 4oz of lemonade and 2 cups of chopped cantaloupe (the chunks are big so it can be more or less).

Maybe it's because I'm still in my depressed mood right now and frankly don't give a dang right now...

Good news I weighed in at 159.6, yea! finally made it to the 150's, I love the way my clothes are fitting and it's nice to know I finally get to wear some of my winter suits (that were too small) before Spring.

I haven't done very much in active minutes this week, perhaps 10 or 20 at the most, actually I haven't checked so it may be less than that, well I'm almost sure it's less than that...  I guess sometime this week I'll link into the system to get the actual readings.

I really need some sun on my face I'm tired of feeling dismal....

Day 3 again, 3.15.17 combining watermelon & lemonade

I should be ecstatic today but I'm not.  I'm now at 160.2, however I don't think I'm eating enough melon nor am I drinking enough water.

Yesterday I got in 10 oz lemonade and today it was the same, however, my water intake is way below it should be something like 10 - 15oz.

I'm under a lot of pressure right now, trying to get my house up to par for the market and now my son is having some personal issues that seem to be taking forever to resolve.  For the past few days I've been feeling like throwing the towel in and quitting.

Having children is suppose to be a joy especially as they get older, I wish I could say the same... every year it seems to be an uphill battle. :-(  Somedays I secretly wish I could move away where no one can call or contact me, someplace far, far away.

I'm out of watermelon but I do have cantaloup.  Not sure if it will be as effective as watermelon, but it doesn't matter right now, I'm determined to use what I have.

Hoping for some sunshine in my life tomorrow.

Day 2 again - combining watermelon & lemonade

I was reading on various sites where persons had actually did a watermelon diet or cleanse.  The amount of watermelon that had to intake was unbelievable.  I can barely eat 2 cups of watermelon, and I consider myself to be a watermelon lover.

Anyways the watermelon along with the lemonade had me running back & forth to the throne all day yesterday, I think if you're suffering from high blood pressure, just eat watermelon.

This morning  I weighed in at 161.6.  That's .2 lower than Friday which was 161.8.  Combining the two is interesting.  When I'm tired of lemonade, I munch on melon, vice versa, while the melon keeps me full for a while, the lemonade actually takes away my appetite.  So if you want to be full eat melons...don't want an appetite, drink lemonade.  I thought that was interesting.

I'm thankful for this new time but I've been feeling so exhausted lately.  Between studying, working on my landscape and trying to fix up the inside of my house so that I can put it on the market is tiresome; plus coming to work.  At least with it being light outside when I get home I was able to work in my yard.  This afternoon I'm going to do some touch up work in the house.  One of the rooms need to be painted and I need to work on my vanity where I saw a small crack.  Not sure how I'm going to fix that yet.  If I'm still alive I'll spend time on my studies tomorrow.

I think one thing that has been helping me with my weight loss is Steps.  I've been trying to get at least 30 active minutes in every day.  I don't think I got that much time in yesterday, but over the weekend I did quite well.

Oh, I also noticed I didn't have problems with indigestion yesterday, so maybe combining the watermelon with lemonade is a good thing.  I'll keep monitoring it.  I drunk about 20oz lemonade yesterday and ate about 3-4 cups of watermelon, they were cut in huge chunks so I'm really not sure.  Anyways yesterday was a pretty good day and I'm hoping for the same today.

Going back to Day 1, combining lemonade & watermelon 3.13.17

My weekend started good but I messed up big time.   But since starting the lemonade diet I realize I can't consume half as much as I use to.  On Saturday my food intake consisted of fried snapper.  Loved it but that was the only food I could eat, afterwards I as stuffed.  I had no breakfast, fried snapper for lunch and nothing for dinner.  No salad, or coleslaw to go with my fish, I couldn't, I was too stuffed.  And then it dawned on me, eat some chocolate....so I did.  The chocolate didn't fill me but it made me happy...:-)

I had already eaten chocolate that Friday and then turned around and had it on Saturday & Sunday.  Definitely a disaster.   I'm now telling myself if I can't eat food eat chocolate.  I don't need that type of mind set especially when I start back eating 2-3 meals a day, so I now have to condition myself to think differently.  I don't want to get into the rut of eating junk food again...

That was the down side, the good side is I weighed in at 164.4, that's about a 2.4 weight gain.

Because the lemonade messed up my stomach with indigestion last week, I decided to see if I can tweak my diet this week.  I made 20oz of lemonade using less lemons and maple syrup and I'm going to to try eating watermelon along with the lemonade.  I understand watermelon is suppose to be a good diuretic plus it's low in calories while be high in water content, something I seriously need.

I'm not sure how this is going to work, and it might mess up my weight loss, but I need to try something different.  I'm loving the way my clothes are beginning to sag on me, it's a wonderful feeling and my knees don't hurt as much.  I definitely want to stick with this for a while longer if I can.

I ate around 3 - 4 cups of watermelon along with the 20oz lemonade, I'll keep my fingers crossed hoping I have a weight loss and not a gain tomorrow.  

Finally Day 5...3.10.17

I'll be lying if I said I wasn't excited about today.  Last night I went to bed hungry and all I dreamt about was chocolates.  I'm not sure why chocolate and not food but it was an all night-er.  I woke up this mornig extremely happy just knowing I could eat food, by food I mean my soup.  How can somebody be so excited about soup???  When you've been deprived of food for a few days any and everything can make you excited.

Because my New Year's resolution is no black tea or coffee until after March I decided to go with a nice hot cup of coco, with 1 tsp of coconut oil and of course cream & sugar.  Let me back up just a sec though.  I've been putting coconut oil in my coffee or tea for year now, I had read up on it and found that it was beneficial for reducing or preventing Alzheimer and a good way to boost the immune system preventing colds.  I've been taking coconut oil since 2014 and only had a cold once.  That was when I came off of coconut oil for six months because of my diet.  I came down with a horrible cold that lasted for 10 full days.  I now try to always make sure I slip my coconut oil in something, soup, tea, oatmeal, doesn't matter, so long as it's a tsp.

Now that I'm doing this lemonade diet I always try to remember to get in from Friday - Sunday.  Once or twice I slipped it in during the diet because I was weary of persons coming into the office with a cold...but so far I've been okay.  I have some information posted on my other blog here if you need to read more.

Oops, so sorry for straying, but anyways I was excited to step on the scale this morning to see 161.8!
Yep, my goal was 162 but I surpassed it by a few points.  Who cares if its just by a few points, I can't believe I did it.  My body has been extremely nice to me this week.  What did I do to deserve it???

So this morning, I sipped my coconut oil, popped my iron pills and chewed on my gummy multi vitamins, I'm all set to go.

Took out a small portion of fried chicken breast, I had in the freezer, chopped it up and threw it in my soup that I'll be having today, along with some other seasoning - salt, black pepper, coconut oil, crushed red pepper & turmeric.  I then chopped up some cantaloupe and placed that in my lunch bag along with a tangerine.  What I realized with the tangerines is that if I eat (swallow) the seeds it helps with a good BM in the morning.

Remember, I said I dreamt about chocolates?  I have a small box of chocolates, that someone had give me for Valentines Day in my office desk, there's about 5 pieces in the box.  When I got to work this morning I put the box in the freezer, if I'm tempted, I like my chocolates cold and solid.

Although I lost weight, I don't like that I had problems consuming my lemonade and that my water intake was low.  I'm really going to look at how I can tweak it so that I can get the proper amount of calories in to make this work for the next few weeks.

Here's hoping I don't go over 5 lbs this weekend.

Day 4 of 4 3.8.17

Jumping on the scale this morning made me smile, I weighed in at 162.6, yesterday I was 163.4! Yep, I reached my goal, maybe not a flat 162, but it's better than 163 :-)

My intake of lemonade was disastrous, only 10 - 12oz and even worse with water.  I had meetings to attend, the phones were running crazy and there were non stop walk-ins.  Definitely not a happy day.

Indigestion started bothering me again also, which is why I couldn't get much lemonade down, I've already decided next week I will have to do some tweaking to make this work for me.  Why torture myself?  I really enjoy this way of eating because it requires me to choose my choice of food carefully because I get full so fast I can only consume small amounts of food. Also, I have enough lemon juice in my freezer to last for another 4-5 weeks, so I want to see this through.

Tomorrow is my feast day so I picked up 2 cans of Healthy Choice Chicken Hearty Soup and a cantaloupe.  But because I was so hungry when I got home I fed my face a slice of cantaloupe.  I'm not lying I'm extremely hungry right now but I refuse to sip the lemonade, I'm tired of green tea and I don't want to give in to another slice of cantaloupe.  In a few more hours I'll be knocked out in bed dreaming of my hot hearty soup...

Day 2 of 4 back at it again 3.7.17

The first thing my mind wandered on when I got up this morning was baked potatoes, all I could think about was how long it's been since I had a nice, large, hot baked potato.  I'm not craving the potato it's just that I can't get my mind off of it.  It's like my body is sending messages saying you gotta get that potato on your feast day.  So, I'm already planning my Sunday meal, baked potato with toppings - not sure what kind of toppings but I know there will be lots of broccoli.

This morning I weighed in at 164.4 about 2.4 lbs less than yesterday.  However, I'm not jumping up & down celebrating right now.  My goal is to be at least 162 by Friday, but my body has shown me that it hates giving up lbs and it's not going to be an easy task.

Yesterday I had a good day downing 50+ oz of water, but today I barely got in 30oz.  I gotta work harder on the water, I'm thinking that's one of the causes of my indigestion problem last week, not taking in enough water.  Unfortunately I can't get in any more that 20oz of lemonade today, we're having chilly weather and cold lemonade in chilly weather doesn't do much for me.  Maybe tomorrow, but I do know if I don't get in those 500 calories my body might go into starvation mode and hold on to every oz of fat on me.  :-()

All in all I have lots of energy today, I'm not hungry and I don't have any cravings where I would want to break my fast.

DAY 1 of 4 - Back at it again - 3.6.17

I had a great weekend!  The weather was nice and I was able to get some plants down in my yard, painted my front door, and almost completed painting trays with pictures of the grands.  I was also able to keep my eating healthy, but I did indulge in some chocolates Saturday & Sunday.

It's amazing how much your stomach shrinks after doing this fast, what you think you can eat and what you can actually eat is mind baffling.

I have a friend who had stomach surgery I remember we were talking and she said the most frustrating experience for her, after the surgery, is that she couldn't eat as much any more.  I thought that was crazy, I mean, how can you be frustrated for not eating much????   That was several years ago, but over the weekend I understood.  I did my fish and salad for lunch and had 2 very thin slices of cranberry oat homemade bread that I had in the freezer.  I was stuffed and could barely finish my food.  Around 7pm I thought perhaps I could have a small slice of fish and another small salad.  After all I didn't have breakfast and I only had that one meal for the day.

I only manged 2 bites of fish, and couldn't get another bite down.  I couldn't believe I had to throw everything away.  I was so upset with myself.

Sunday, I did bbq chicken & salad for dinner.  There was no breakfast or lunch.  Why force myself?  Now I understand the frustration my friend had gone through.  When you're use to eating all your life, it's hard not eating as much.

This morning I weighed in at 166 lbs that's 3 lbs more than Friday.  I'm thinking one of the reasons I was having problems with indigestion is because I didn't drink very much water last week, some days I was only getting in 20+ oz.  So, my goal is to get down 40+ oz of water or more.  It's gonna be a little difficult because it's pretty cool over here, but I will give it my best shot plus I'm going to use slightly less lemon juice.

Oh, well, here's to day 1 hoping my digestive system treats me well.

FOUR DAYS COMPLETED 3.3.17

Okay, it's the lemonade that's been given me indigestion.  Because I've been having problems with indigestion for the past few days I decided to skip the mint tea and drank green tea instead, I didn't experience any problems, actually that's all I had until around 2:30pm, I then decided to sip on my lemonade slowly.  After about an hour the problem recurred.  Constant belching and feeling bloated.

Because of this I only drank maybe about 10 oz of lemonade yesterday most of it diluted with more water.  I'm not sure why the problem is persisting, I've never had it before.  Thankfully, yesterday was my last day, so I don't have to worry about the problem for the next few days, I hope.

I had a cup of chicken vegetable soup for breakfast and I stopped at the store to pick up some tangerines.  If the tangerines gives me problems I'm ditching them, indigestion is nothing to play with.

This morning I weighed 163.2 I'm hoping not to go over 4lbs by Monday when I start my fast all over again.

It's funny all of those delicious aromas I was smelling in our kitchen during the week, and all the thoughts of eating ham, biscuits, etc.  are gone, all I really want is my soup for today and perhaps a nice big salad for Saturday and Sunday.

Day 4 of 4 - Mar 2, 2017

The fragrance of food trailing throughout the office this morning is enticing.  It smells like chicken, maybe roasted or baked with garlic roasted potatoes sprinkled with salt, black pepper and Parmesan Cheese.

Maybe I'm smelling what I would like to have, because it's 8:30am and I'm sure no one is having that for breakfast, but rather than fight it, I'm learning to embrace it, and always tell myself I can have that to eat on my off days.  :-)

Yesterday evening I had an awful battle with indigestion, once again I found myself taking 2 tums to relieve me but it took almost an hour to get some relief.   This morning I'm feeling it again.  I had a cup of green tea that helped somewhat, but I can only hope it doesn't develop in full bloom later today.  I wish I knew what was causing the problem.  If I was eating food then I would monitor my food intake, but for now my only intake has been fluids - mint tea, green tea, lemonade and water.  I have a feeling it might be the mint tea so I'm going to lay low on that for today and see what happens.

Confession: I haven't been drinking the recommended amount of lemonade this week.  I've only been able to down 32oz, and that's by forcing myself to drink it.  It's not that it doesn't taste good, it really does, but I'm not feeling it...I'm also bad at getting my water intake in.  I'm managing somewhere between 30oz - 40oz a day, I really want to get it up to 60oz, gotta keep working at it.

I had lots of energy yesterday evening when I got home so I got some painting in and then I threw in some steps.  I was so proud of myself I got 50+ active minutes, Yippee!   Got up this morning and managed 21 active minutes...boy I'm on a row with this energy! 

Our insurance company is sponsoring Yoga on the Park today and I'm pondering if I should go.  I hate driving in the evening, but I use to do yoga years ago and found it relaxing, really taught me to meditate, which is what I needed at the time.

The scale was nice to me this morning, I'm now at 163.4 but with the way my weight has been fluctuating I'm not expecting much of a change tomorrow.  However, I'm comfortable with my new low for the week.

I was watching an inspiring video last night "The Weigh we Were".  The show is produced in GA and it's about people who talk about their fight with obesity and how found ways to get their weight off and have managed to keep it off.  Losing weight is about finding what's right for you, what fits your life style and stick with it.

Tomorrow is my feast day and I'm longing to sip on a cup of soup. :-)   

Day 3 of 4 - Mar 1, 2017

I still seem to be having problems with indigestion, not as bad but it's persistent, plus this morning I feel bloated (ugh).

What I find amazing is the energy level, I went home and did some painting and afterwards some course work before flopping out on the bed.  Woke up this morning full of energy, ready to go. :-)

This morning I weighed in at 166.

Doing the lemonade diet this way is a slow process, and I'm only looking to lose perhaps .5lbs to 1.5lbs per week, but the great thing about doing it this way is that I become more aware of what I eat when I eat and I don't over eat.

When I did this a few years back my only cravings were for chicken and salad, every Saturday and sometimes Sunday's during my eating days I had chicken and salad that went on for months.  And I'm now having those same cravings.  I want a chef salad or chicken with salad.  Sure when I'm smelling food or walking pass a bakery I might desire something more but in the evenings I find myself longing for a nice big salad filled with all the trimmings.  So this weekend I'm dying to have a filling salad, with lots of kale & spinach....

I'm a junk-aholic when it comes to junk food, especially chips, so I was a bit shocked when I saw a commercial with Lays and the first thing that came to my mind was 'oily chips'.

I think another reason this worked so well with me when I did it before is because I told myself I could eat anything I wanted on the weekend so long as I got back with the diet on Monday, it really makes you feel better knowing you can eat to your heart content Monday - Friday (or Thursday).  You find you don't won't half the stuff you were craving during the week, but you can eat it if you want on the weekend.  It's a mind game that keeps you from feeling deprived.  :-)

I never get tired of reading Chioma Okoli blog, definitely keeps me motivated.

==============

It's now lunch and I'm smelling homemade biscuits, with ham, drizzled with honey and a pat of butter.....is it my imagination?  I'm talking those melt in your mouth buttermilk biscuits my aunt use to make when I was younger.  I remember the first time I tasted her biscuits.  I begged my aunt to make 12 biscuits just for me.  Oh, they were the best.  Maybe I'll have biscuits and ham on Saturday.  :-)

Day 2 of 4 - Feb 28, 2017

Yesterday evening I had a bout with indigestion.  I drunk mint tea and green tea to but still no comfort, finally I settled for 2 TUMS... Sometimes when I force myself to drink water it can happen, I'll watch it closely today.

Sometimes the first day is the hardest because mentally you're thinking about the food you'r giving up, but I wasn't hungry.  Staying busy usually helps, especially when you're smelling food from the kitchen.  What I have learnt is that you shouldn't fight the  smell of food, but embrace it.  When I'm smelling something that really smells good, I try to inhale it deeply and then I tell myself when i go back to eating, I will have the same thing for lunch.  It's all a mental game.  I know I'm not going to have it for lunch or dinner because I'm too lazy to cook whatever it is I'm smelling, and if it's fast food, I promised myself not to eat fast food, but because I'm not fighting it, or denying myself the pleasure of thinking about consuming the food at a later date, it seems to go pretty well.

Yesterday I watched a Domino's Pizza commercial, I can't wait for the weekend where I can bite into a nice cheesy pizza topped with pepperoni.... (smile).

I weighed myself this morning at 166.8, yesterday I was 169.  I'm going to have to accept the fact that as I get older the pounds won't melt away as fast (sob), but at least they're melting and I'm grateful. It's going to take me a while to reach my goal weight of 150.  During my 'eat' days I'm going to have to be a bit more cautious.

Will it be possible for me to lose 16 lbs in 10 wks?

Day 1 of 4 - Feb 27, 2017

Today is day 1 of my 4 day lemonade diet.

This morning I weighed in at 169, a 4 lb gain from last week, which isn't bad, I thought I was going to weight in at 170+.

It's been a busy day so far and there' no way I can avoid the aroma coming from the kitchen.  If I had food or snacks at my desk I think I would have been tempted to munch on them.  Oh, wait, I do have some chocolates from Valentine's but I'm smelling real food....maybe turkey with rice????

I'll continue to gulp down my lemonade for today with hopes of dropping at least 2 lbs by tomorrow.   I got to stay focus on my new bod for the summer.   I'm travelling in May so I definitely want to be much smaller.

Yesterday I had chicken breast with salad, coleslaw and potato salad.  The breast was humongous and I was only able to eat half, the other half was placed in the freezer; I plan on chopping it up an using it in soup on Day 5.

Well, here's to day 1 almost over.

Getting ready again...

On Thursday I decided to start squeezing lemons again.  I had about 18 lemons left over and I have 1 1/2 containers of maple syrup left over.  I have about 6 cups of lemon juice in my freezer and I still have another 6 or 7 lemons to squeeze.  Why am I anxious to get started when I couldn't stand the taste of my lemonade mixture earlier?  I think it's just nice knowing I'll have a little discipline over eating.

I've been eating tangerines and soup for the past few days and today was my first day for really solid food, fish, salad, coleslaw and potato salad.  My number one priority is to get in enough water, something I've always been bad at, I only got in 36oz today  :-(

I'll probably have fish again tomorrow, I notice when I eat lots of protein, I don't have serious cravings, so we'll see :-)   We had a rainy day on Wednesday and I was tempted to buy popcorn, but then I remembered my New Year's Resolution no popcorn, chips, etc until end of March.  Thank God for sunflower seeds.... I'm actually hoping to give up chips permanently, but I'll take it one step at a time when that time comes.

Photos after Day 15

Sorry, I know these aren't good pictures, but I really have problems trying to get these shots right.

BEFORE

AFTER

It's difficult to see a change in these pictures

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

Some people see a change in their face, I'm not sure about mine.

BEFORE

AFTER

Phasing out after Day 15

Yes I did it, I completed my 15 day lemonade diet.  It is going to be so refreshing drinking something else other than lemonade.  :-)

Unfortunately, my day didn't start too well.  I went on the scale to weigh myself and it said 165.2; but I forgot my ipod to take a pic so jumping off the scale to retrieve my ipod I get back on the scale and it reads 165.8.  Of course I'm furious by now, so I wait a sec and give it another try...this time it reads 166.6.  WHAT THE HECK!  This is suppose to be my day for celebrating, how can this happen?  I decided to make me a nice hot cup of spearmint tea, exhale and give it another shot...168!  There's no FREAKING way I could have gained all of that on a empty stomach.  So, I'm gonna go with the 165.2, that's up .2 lbs from yesterday.

Thank God I for my old trusty measuring tape.  I whipped that out and started with the measurements.

MEASUREMENTS
Lower Hip - 46 1/4............down 1 1/4"
Upper Hip - 44 1/2............down 1"
Waist - 35 1/2..................down 2 3/4"
Chest - 42 3/4................. down 1 1/4"
Left Thigh - 27..................down 1"
Right Thigh - 27................down 1"
Upper Right Arm - 12 3/4...down 1/4"
Upper Left Arm - 12 3/4.....down 1/2"

A great reason to celebrate :-)   I'm sure I couldn't have got those results in two weeks on any other diet and I'm happy.

Now I know when I start eating food again, some weight will come on, but I hoping to gain no more than 5 lbs and next week I will start this diet all over again for 4 or 5 days making the weekends my food days.

I have photos that I will post when I have time to settle down.

Day 15 - Feb 20, 2017

Starting Weight - 176


Weigh in
165

Total Weight Loss/Gain
10.8

Fluid Intake
32 oz lemonade
40 oz water
1 hot lemon tea


Other Details:

I'm so sorry I missed out on blogging on day 13 & 14, but everything went well and today, Day 15 I'm full of energy.  I have no cravings or hunger and I feel like I can just go, go, go.

My biggest problem for day 13 & 14 was being at home, my mind was constantly on food... :-(  and I found myself forcing myself to finish up my lemonade mixture.  Actually I can only get 32 oz down, I just can't stomach it for now.  But I've been trying my best to keep up with my water intake.  The bad part about cheating myself on the lemonade is that I'm not getting enough calories in so my body is going to go in starvation mode which means I'm not seeing the weight loss that I want to see.  But you know, I don't mind, I can't stomach the lemonade.

Today's the last day and  I can't wait.

Day 12 - Feb 17, 2017

Starting Weight - 176


Weigh in
166.2

Total Weight Loss
9.8 lbs

Fluid Intake
32 oz lemonade mixture
lemon tea
60 oz water


Other Details:

I felt great yesterday afternoon and after work decided to get some steps in, of course I knew not to go overboard on it though.  This morning I still have energy.  No real hunger pains, but I'm sure I smelt buttery popcorn as I walked towards my kitchen.  :-)  I'm happy I'm able to continue with my fast.

I am so hating this lemonade, not because it taste bad, it really doesn't, I'm just tired of drinking lemonade. 

Day 10 - Feb 15, 2017

Starting Weight - 176


Weigh in
167.7

Total Weight Loss/Gain
8.3

Fluid Intake
40 oz lemonade mixture
60+ oz water


Other Details:

Doesn't look like my body want to give up any additional fat, I'm still hugging at 167.7... it's nothing to sweat over though because my clothes are beginning to hang on me nicely.

Woke up with lots of energy, but I'm realizing I'm not getting that much sleep.  I'm usually inbed from 10:30pm - 4:30am, but lately I've been waking up around 3:30am and feeling as if I got a full 6 hours of sleep???

I'm still disliking the lemonade, but it is, what it is...I have no other choice.   Thankfully this is day 10 so I can begin winding down.  I'm considering phasing out my cleanse on day 13, at least I'm thinking about it.

Day 11 - Feb 16, 2017

Starting Weight - 176


Weigh in
167.6

Total Weight Loss
8.4 lbs

Fluid Intake
60 oz water
lemon tea
32 oz lemonade mixture


Other Details:

Woke up this morning with very little energy.  I'm not sure if it's because I didn't drink the full amount of lemonade mixture or if it was just one of those days.  I made some lemon tea and put a TBS of maple syrup in it hoping that would boost my energy level.  It worked somewhat but I still felt weak and had to sit down a lot while getting dressed.

So I guess you can say I had to tweak it, definitely couldn't afford to fall out at work.  I stopped at the store and bought 2 small tangerines and 1 healthy choice soup.  I ate one tangerine and felt a whole lot better.  I checked the carb & calorie intake and the tangerine is slightly higher than a lemon, which is why it probably gave me a good boost of energy. Because I'm feeling better I don't have to touch the soup.

A small tangerine has 37cal and 9.3 carbs  ; lemons have 17cals and 5.4 carbs

Here are my measurements after completing Day 10

I would say to anyone beginning this diet to take measurements, your weight loss might not be what you're expecting but you will see positive results in inches loss.

Day 9 - Feb 14, 2017

Starting Weight - 176


Weigh in
167.6

Total Weight Loss
8.4

Fluid Intake
40 oz lemonade
50 oz water

Other Details:

I love the way my system is feeling this morning, it's at peace, totally rested.  Yesterday was like a horror show.  I cringed, shouted and cursed this stupid diet.  I wondered why I embarked on a journey that couldn't be healthy and then I asked myself the question "Is it really worth it?  Am I wasting my time?"

I went to my closet and tried on a jacket I haven't been able to wear after I bought it, yep, I bought it, gained weight, and it's been hanging in my closet ever since.  Well believe it or not, it fits!  Yes, this diet is certainly worth the suffering.

I felt a new flow of energy this morning and considered getting some steps in, however, after doing some knee bends I found myself puffing and breathing hard.  I might have energy but I definitely can't over exert myself.  I'll pace myself and walk up and down the office.

No cravings today, no hunger pains.  I feel as if I found my inner peace, and it feels good.  I guess you can say I was experiencing a Dr. Jekly/Mr. Hyde moment yesterday.

Day 8 - Feb 13, 2017

Starting Weight - 176


Weigh in
167.7 lbs

Total Weight Loss/Gain
8.3 lbs

Fluid Intake
green tea
32oz lemonade mixture
30 oz water

Other Details:

There's no denying today is a horrible day for me.  All I can focus on is food.  This morning I began craving strawberries - I DON'T LIKE STRAWBERRIES!  And then came the cravings for sunflower seeds.  I was tempted to stop at the store to buy strawberries, but then the cravings diminished, neither am I craving sunflower seeds anymore!!! What the heck.

I did manage to get all of my lemonade concoction down yesterday, but I fell short on my water intake by 10 oz.

I'm looking at my lemonade as I type.  I  hate it!  I don't want it!  I'm beginning to feel hunger pains in my stomach, my stomach is growling.

My colleague had pizza for breakfast this morning, I so wanted to ask her for a bite....someone else is having KFC for lunch, but it smells so much better than KFC.  I remember reading somewhere where they said you should embrace the aroma of food and not fight it.  I'm trying my best to do that right now but it's not working. (sob)

Did I mention this morning that I woke up feeling nauseated???  Today definitely isn't a good day for me, I just hope I can make it home were I can cuddle up in my bed and sleep.

Like Alexander said "TODAY IS A TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD DAY!"

Day 7 - Feb 12, 2017

Starting Weight - 176


Weigh in
168.2

Total Weight Loss/Gain
7.4

Fluid Intake
32 oz lemonade
hot lemon tea
20 oz water


Other Details:

Felt pretty weak getting up this morning, my body was reminding me I hadn't eaten for a while.. Made lemon tea and then decided to eat the membrane from the lemon.  Oh gosh, did that taste good!  I even got up enough strength to fold clothes, iron, vacuum and make my lemonade concoction for the day.

For me the membrane seemed to have just enough sodium to prevent me from craving BBQ chips - something I dreamt about last night, that and white cake with white icing with sprinkles of colorful candy.  Something I wouldn't ordinary eat.

So, I'm now saving my lemon rinds, not just for tea, but I'm now using them to give me something to chew on and satisfy me.

I did manage to finish 60oz of lemonade & 60 oz of water yesterday, but today my consumption might be much less.  I'm now wondering if I can make it for 15 days, I might reduce it to 10 days.  I'm sick & tired of lemons right now and I'm not sure if I can pull it for another 8 days.  :-(

Day 6 - Feb 11, 2017

Starting Weight - 176

Weigh in
168.4

Total Weight Loss
7.6

Fluid Intake
Lemon Tea
40oz lemonade
30+ oz water


Other Details:

Beginning to have a love hate relationship with my lemonade mixture.  I luv that it's helping me to achieve my goal and to become much healthier but I'm just not into drinking it right now.  It's around 11:00am and I only took 2 sips of my concoction so far plus I only took 2 gulps of water.  Definitely not a good sign.

Am I hungry? No
Do I have any cravings? No
Do I miss food?  Yes

Fleeting images of food does cross my mind, sort of like a friend or an acquaintance you haven't seen for a while.  You vaguely remember their face, how they smiled, their voice tone or your last conversation. You begin to wonder how they're doing, whether you should give them a call...then you get side tracked, start doing something else and forget.

So, for now I miss food as a companion, a friend, something I might find comfort in when I'm lonely, not feeling well, or depressed... But this lemonade is like a family member who over stayed their visit and you can't wait them to leave.

It's now around 6pm and I still haven't finished my fluids.  I'll keep chugging it down hoping I can get all of it down before bed.  I also feel guilty that I didn't do any steps or exercises, busy working on assignments, hopeful, I'll be more active tomorrow.

Day 5 - Feb 10, 2017

Starting Weight - 176


Weigh in
170

Total Weight Loss/Gain
6

Fluid Intake
Green tea
60oz lemonade
60+ oz water

Other Details:

My weight was unchanged this morning, sob, but on the good side, I'm feeling good this morning.  Woke up feeling a little light headed, but as the day wore on I started feeling better.  I feel a little hungry but its more like a reminder that I haven't eaten for the day, not a starving hungry feeling.

Here's my measurements for Day 5 (well actually Day 5 is just starting, so should I say Day 4???)

Lower Hip - 47 1/4
Upper Hip - 45 1/4
Waist - 37
Chest - 43 1/2
Upper Left Thigh - 27 1/2
Upper Right Thigh - 27 1/2
Upper Left Arm - 13
Upper Right Arm - 13 1/8

You can visit my previous blog to see what my measurements were prior. Measurements Day 1 you can see inches are starting to melt, especially around my waist.

I'm gonna take it easy today, no stepping or exercises - yesterday I did get some knee lifts in before going to bed.  Funny my arms are now hurting from my bicep & triceps exercises on Day 2.

Oh, although I'm not hungry I'm kinda tired of the lemonade already.  It took me forever to drink it yesterday and I'm struggling to finish it off this evening.  I think you have to drink all of it if you want to have positive results, ugh..

One other good news, I've been having aches in my knees, thumbs and leg muscles and I've noticed the pain almost disappeared.  Where I hurt my knee from a fall two months ago it was painful going up stairs, yesterday I realized the pain was barely noticeable.  They say this cleansing gives your body time to heal itself, I would like to know that's happening now.  All the more reason to stay on cleanse for 15 days.

I decided Day 6 & 7 will be spent relaxing at home, no exercise or steps.  I'm not tired but I seem to stay sleepy.  Anyway's here's hoping for a good tomorrow.

Day 4 - Feb 9, 2017

Starting Weight - 176


Weigh in
170

Total Weight Loss
6 lbs

Fluid Intake
Lemon tea & Ginger tea
60+oz water
60oz lemonade mixture


Other Details:

Okay this morning but not full of energy like Day 1 or 2, but I guess that's to be expected I've now been without solid food going on 4 days.  I'm hoping to be 169 by tomorrow, beginning of Day 5.

Realized the air-condition is my friend.  The colder I am, the better I feel and the more energy I seem to have.  I was able to get in a few steps, some table push up and some waist twists.

Surprisingly I'm not hungry, I was slightly hungry last night when watching  TV but then again all of the commercials were pushing pizza, donuts and ice cream.  :-)  So the best thing for me is to skip TV shows and watch movies on my Amazon Fire.

I think one reason for my lack of hunger is I'm get in my full 60oz of water, it keeps me full and even during lunch when I'm smelling food, my belly is so full of water the smell of food doesn't bother me....not yet anyway :-)

I got a lot of gooey white stuff over my tongue, understand this means my body is ridding itself toxins, it looks icky!

Later during the evening I started having some small cravings, maybe not even cravings, just thoughts of food, like boiled eggs and fried fish.  Not together, just passing thoughts.

Have much more energy this evening got some more steps in and also some side bends.  I'm really hoping I can make it to the 160's tomorrow.

Day 3 - Feb 8

Starting Weight - 176


Weigh in
170.8

Total Weight Loss/Gain
5.2 lbs

Fluid Intake
2 lemon tea
60oz lemon mixture
60+oz water


Other Details:

Woke up this morning with very little energy, felt like I had a busy day at work and was drained.  Realized I didn't put enough maple syrup in my mixture yesterday, I think I shorted myself at least 3 Tbs which may be one of the reasons for me feeling drained.

After I mixed my mixture this morning I found myself licking the maple syrup off of the spoon and believe it or not that gave me a small sugar rush.  Managed to get in a few steps, roughly 1500 before coming to work.

Didn't have a BM this morning so that means I definitely have to take the Smooth Move this evening.

So far I'm not hungry, just feel a little light, but thankfully no headache thus far.  Been forgetting to mention that I found myself waking up around 2:30am for the past few days.  Last night I woke up at 1:00am, then again 2:30am then again 3:30am, and no it wasn't to use the bathroom, I was just waking up wide eyed.  My regular wake up time is 4:30am, I've read where persons doing this had problems sleeping for the first few days.  I'm hoping tonight will be better.

Worked triceps and biceps this evening

Day 2 - Feb 7

Starting Weight - 176


Weigh in
172.6 lbs

Total Weight Loss/Gain
3.4 lbs

Fluid Intake
-Ginger tea with a teaspoon of lemon juice & tsp of maple syrup
-Lemon tea with tsp of maple syrup & stevia
-52 oz lemonade mixture
-60+ oz water



Other Details:

I woke up this morning with a slight headache plus I was a little hungry.  My stomach wasn't growling I just felt like I didn't eat that night.  I felt energetic so I did some steps (jogging in place) and got up to 2000 steps (not bad on a empty stomach :-) before getting dressed for work.

I didn't do the Smooth Move last night, had a good BM this morning so maybe I'll drink some tonight.  I decided I'm not going to do the SWF unless absolutely necessary.

Headache lasted all day on a scale of 1 - 10 I guess I'll rate it a 1.  It was one of those headaches where you want to yank off your wig and rip off your bra.  Overall I think I had a good day, no hungry spells or cravings.

Did some crunches and leg lifts not much steps.

Tomorrow is Day 3 which is suppose to be the worse day for the cleanse so I'm gonna brace myself for whatever happens.  

Day 1 - Feb 6, 2017

I'm sure a lot of my info will be repetitive, so I'll be using the  below template for daily details.

Starting Weight - 176

Weight 2.6.17

Fluid Intake for the day
2 cups of hot lemon tea w/1tsp syrup & 1 pack stevia
1 cup hot spearmint tea (plain no sweetener)
60+ oz water
52 oz lemonade mixture

Exercises
4938 steps - could have done more but didn't want to over exert myself
3 x 10 crunches

Other Details:

-Started getting hungry around 10am only for a few minutes
-Had to use the restroom constantly
-Didn't experience any withdrawals
-I did a lot of drinking today because I'm so accustom to having something in my mouth.  I really missed my sunflower seeds today.  Not because I was craving them, but just having something to keep my mouth occupied...
-Overall I had a good day today, no major cravings, hunger pains or headaches.  Day 1 gone, I'm ready to face Day 2.

Last Day for prepping for Lemonade Diet

This morning I squeezed one of my lemons to see how much juice it'll make.  The diet requires 2 Tbs of juice per serving of lemonade mixture.

I managed to get 7 Tbs which gives me slightly over 3 servings.  I had bought 10 lemons and after doing the math I would only have to use 2 lemons a day, so I felt I was off to a good start, and then it hit me, if I'm gonna be on this diet for 15 days I need more then 10
lemons.  So I rushed off to the store this morning and bought 30 large lemons and 1 more bottle of maple syrup.  I was a little upset at first, thinking about the money I had spent, but I later found comfort in knowing I wouldn't have to go to the grocery store again for the next 3 weeks or maybe 4 weeks if I push this diet to 20 weeks.

Here's the master cleanse or lemonade diet recipe I'll be using, but I don't think my lemons or maple syrup are organic.

Master Cleanse Lemonade Recipe for Detox:

• 2 T organic lemon or lime juice
• 2 T organic Maple Valley Syrup
• 1/10 t cayenne pepper
• 10 oz spring or purified water

Drink 6 to 12 glasses per day

I decided to try a lemon tea this morning.  After squeezing the lemon I cut the rinds in quarters and added to a pot of water (2 cups).  I let boil for 1 minute, turned off flames and let it steep for 5 minutes.  I then poured in a cup and added 1 tsp of maple syrup and 1 package of stevia.  Not bad, I decided that will be my morning tea for the next few days or weeks.

 After debating with myself for a few minutes I got up enough courage to take my measurements & take my pic.  Here goes...

MEASUREMENTS
-Lower Hip - 47 1/2"
-Upper Hip - 45 1/2"
-Waist - 38 1/4"
-Chest - 44"
-Upper left thigh - 28"
-Upper right thigh - 28"
-Left arm - 13"
-Right arm - 13 1/4"

Decided it would be best for me to weigh myself tomorrow the actual day I start my diet.  I know I'm gonna dread the numbers.

PHOTOS

Day 2 of Prepping

I got an early start this morning and went to Fresh Markets to purchase my items to launch my diet on Monday.  I paid a whopping $58 but that's because I bought 2 bottles of maple syrup, plus I decided to buy some spearmint tea and Stevia.  Items I probably won't be buying again for a while.  I already have the Smooth Move tea and cayenne pepper so I didn't have to buy those.  The spearmint tea is for those days where I want to taste something different other than lemons.  Now that I think about it I probably won't need the Stevia for the tea...

The lemons were a little expensive $1.09 each but they were quite large (larger than a small apple) so I'm thinking I'll only need to use maybe 2 lemons a day vs 4 a day, well that's if they have a lot of juice.

I have everything I need to get started so now it's about preparing myself mentally for the journey.

Tomorrow I will post a picture plus take my measurements and go on the scale, ugh, I'm really not too keen on doing that but I'm sure 15 days after I will be happy I did.

PREPPING FOR MY15-DAY LEMONADE DIET JOURNEY

It's Friday, February 3, 2017 and I decided to embark on the Lemonade Diet.

I'm 5'2" size 12/14 my goal is to fit comfortably in a 9/10 by the end of April.  While everyone else is probably prepping to begin the Daniel Fast, I've opted to do the Lemonade Diet.  That's because around my b'day in November and the Christmas Holiday I went on a eating binge, partly because I knew I was going to start dieting during the New Year and partly because I discovered Klondike Bars, fell in love with them, and found myself consuming 2 bars a day.  YIKES!  I packed on the pounds and begin to develop unhealthy eating habits.

During the New Year I made a resolution to refrain from eating/drinking the below foods for 3 months.  It's been 34 days and so far I've managed to stick with it.

- Chips/Crackers
- Cakes/Cookies/Pasteries
- Chocolates/Candy
- Processed meats (ham, turkey, etc.)
- Tea/Coffee/Sodas
- White bread or store bought bread, rolls, muffins, etc.

I suffered withdrawal headaches for 3 days, but it's always a good feeling when you realize you're no longer being controlled by food.

By the end of January I realized I was consuming lots of homemade bran & oat bread usually having 2 slices of toast in the morning and then a sandwich for lunch (maybe because I was baking the bread too :-).  So on January 30th I reduced my consumption of bread to just 2 slices a day.

To be honest although I've reduced my intake of junk foods I generally feel bloated every day, which is another reason for me wanting to start this diet.  The lemonade diet will give me a jump start to a better and healthier way of eating.

Today I prepped myself to give up eating sunflower seeds to reduce my intake of sodium.  I usually keep a pack of seeds at the office, in my car and at home.  I don't want to have strong withdrawal symptoms from salt so I felt it best that I try to get it out of my system now before I start my diet on Monday.

My goal is 15 days, but I'm hoping I can make it to 20 days.  My journey will begin on Monday, Feb 6th and I'll try to make sure I post my struggles and successes everyday and post pictures.

Tomorrow I go shopping for my food, oops, I mean lemons  :-)