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Sunday, May 8, 2011

17 Days

di·et [dahy-it]  noun, verb, -et·ed, -et·ing, adjective

such a selection or a limitation on the amount a person eats for reducing weight: No pie for me, I'm on a diet. 
 
 
Tomorrow I embark on a new chapter in my weight loss journey. I'm going to be starting the 17 day diet with my mom.

Honestly, I don't like that it's called a diet. Technically, by definition it is a diet but when I think of the word 'diet', I think of something negative. I think of the Atkins Diet that eliminates carbs, I think of the yogurt diet where you can only have yogurt or how about the egg diet? You get my point. The 17 day diet is different. Yes there is some restrictions on food but they aren't long term restrictions. 

That is what I love about this 'diet'.

The first 17 days you are only allowed to eat lean protein (egg, chicken, turkey and fish), cleansing vegetables (almost every vegetable is on this list) and low sugar fruits (apples, berries, grapefuit, oranges, peaches, pears, plums, prunes and red grapes). You are also supposed to have two servings of probiotics a day; this includes yogurt, kefir, acidophilus milk, yakult, Breakstone Live Active cottage cheese, reduced salt miso, tempeh, sauerkraut and kimchi.

As far as drinks go you are supposed to have 3 cups of green tea a day and at least 8 cups of water. I will be adding in a cup of low fat milk because I'm a milkaholic. 

There are 3 cycles after the first one, each 17 days long (duh!) and each cycle introduces more and more foods back into your life so that by the time you are to Cycle 4 you can eat pretty much whatever you want.  

I like that you are taught what to eat, when to eat it and still have the opportunity to make decisions that fit your body. I think of it more of a roadmap instead of a diet.

I plan to write everyday to update on my weight loss and how it's going.

Hope you are all doing well and Happy Mother's Day to all the moms in cyberspace :-)