Hey all! I hope you are having a great day today. Right now I am loving the sunshine and warm weather outside. I feel like spring may finally be here! Today I wanted to write to you with more updates about my weight-loss journey. Last time I talked about a 3 day detox cleanse I tried, and I gave you tips and tricks about doing the cleanse, my results, and my overall review of doing the cleanse. This post today will offer you a similar format to review the completion of Cycle 1 of the 17 Day Diet. That's right, today is my first day on cycle 2- hooray carbs! (more on that later). In order to give you a better idea of what the 17 day diet is... check out this video about the diet covered by ABC News!!
Now let's talk about my experience with this diet!
For those of you who may not know, I did do the 17 day diet in it's entirety once before. I completed all 4 cycles and had lost a little over 20lbs! Needless to say when I found myself having gained a lot of weight during my past 2 years of college I finally decided I HAD to do something about it. I wasn't happy at all with how my body was. Not only was I a lot heavier than I wanted to be, but I certainly wasn't living a healthy lifestyle. So after some deliberation I decided to retackle this Diet for a second time to help me get some of this newly gained weight off- and fast!
My Results:
(These results are based off of my 3 Day Cleanse and Completing the First Cycle of the 17 day diet)
aka 20 days of eating really healthy and getting regular exercise!
Total Pounds Lost: 13.2
Total Inches off my body: 13.75
Total % if body weight lost: 7%
I added this picture below to show you the difference the weight-loss has already made in my face! :) Yay!
Now some quick positives and negatives in my opinion...
I'll start with positive things first!
1. You really do lose weight quickly.
2. You won't be starving.
3. The food you eat can taste really good.
4. There are no calories to count- points to add up- or specific meals you must eat. Just a simple list of foods and some general guidelines about serving size.
5. The book is straight forward, easy to understand and easy to follow.
Now to the negatives:
1. I really miss eating Carbs!
2. It takes incredible will power to really stick to the diet and not cheat.
3. The first two cycles do limit you on certain fruits and veggies, which is a bummer. (has to do with higher sugar, starch, and fat content.. so it makes sense)
4. No fruit after 2 pm... seriously?
5. The time to prepare the food is higher than throwing a sandwich together for lunch.
This all being said it is a highly effective dieting tool. I've never been disappointed with my results when really following this diet plan. I mean I can't really complain about losing 13 lbs!
If you are considering doing the 17 day diet here are some tips and tricks to think about before you start and during your diet.
Before you start:
1. Buy the book- and read the first few chapters. Know what you are getting into before you start.
2. Really evaluate your desire to lose weight. Yah almost everyone in America wants to lose a few pounds, but there is a huge difference in someone wanting to lose a few pounds to fit into a pair of jeans, and someone who is feeling totally fed up with themselves and ready to make a life change. (if you are closer to the latter example then this is the diet for you.) If you only are half-a** about losing the weight I wouldn't recommend this diet to you- you'll just waste your time.
3. Weigh yourself! And take ALL of your measurements! I know it can be scary to face the hard numbers- but don't worry soon enough those numbers will get smaller- and it's important to know where you are starting from.
4. Plan, Plan, Plan! Bust out a calendar and look at exactly where the cycles will fall. If you know you have a wedding to attend during cycle 2 and it will be impossible to not go off your diet- add an extra day or two to that cycle.
5. Make an extensive shopping list and get all the food you will need for the first few days. If you live alone I'd suggest throwing away or locking up the foods in your house you can't have!
6. Talk to the people close to you and explain that you'll need their support in this diet. I'm not gonna lie- it's really hard not to cheat. But if you can manage to get your roommate to agree not to offer you cookies all the time it will help out immensely!
7. If you struggle with not cheating on diets set up a rewards system for yourself at certain check points. (I'll do an entire post about the rewards program my mom and I created. But I know that without that reward system I made I probably would have cheated a lot and not done hardly any exercise!) ((make sure the rewards you set for yourself are NOT food!))
During the Diet:
1. Plan out all the meals you are going to eat that day. It's helpful to plan ahead- it will be a lot less stress at mealtime and you can budget out your servings of the things you love. For me it's greek yogurt and fruit. I almost always eat my allotted two servings everyday!
2. You know that pesky rule about not eating fruit or starches after 2 pm? If that's hard for you- then just ditch it. There isn't a lot of scientific proof to back up that rule. So if you feel like eating a cup of grapes after dinner will help you avoid the ice cream in the freezer then GO FOR IT! (I know I do...and I still lost plenty of weight).
3. Get some exercise! During the first cycle he doesn't really harp on you to do a lot of strenuous exercise- but forming a habit of regular exercise in the first cycle will be WAY more helpful in the later cycles when it's more important to your success. This way instead of trying to start out exercising in cycle 3 doing intense cardio... you can just take your regular workouts that you are used to and ramp them up a bit.
4. Stay strong! Really try so hard to not cheat on the diet. It's worth it to follow his rules- because the only person you are hurting when you cheat is yourself!
After the Diet:
1. Once you have made it through all 4 cycles- or have achieved a good amount of weight-loss you will most likely want to go back to eating whatever you want whenever you want. You can't do that! Remember how I said this is a lifestyle change? Yah, that means it's for life. Don't worry too much- he offers the 4th cycle as the plan that you should stick to in order to maintain your weight where it is. And that cycle does incorporate eating your favorite foods but helps you learn to restrict them. I am living proof that if after the diet you just stop caring again you'll put back on the weight plus some. So really think about how committed you can be to making a forever change before you start this diet.
Where is my health journey headed now that I am done with cycle 1?
I'm so glad you asked. I am diving head first into cycle 2! Which means I can start eating some slower processing carbs(YAY) every other day! You can look forward to another health update in about 17 days.
If you have any questions about the diet, please do not hesitate to ask! My results are pretty typical of what you can expect. I know many other people who have tried this diet and experienced similar success! Good luck! And please send me a comment or message if you are going to start. I'll be glad to cheer you on!
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