Music man wants to make sure I train on my bike at least once a week so he made me go out for a ride this morning while he watched Little Man. Twist my arm ;) It was such a lovely, cool morning that I decided to go for a longish ride on our nearby bike path finishing in just over an hour. I felt really speedy and realized I really enjoy riding.
When we were in Laguna a few weeks ago we stopped at The Path bike shop in Tustin on our way home and picked up clip pedals and shoes with cleats for me. (If you are in the OC and need a bike, gear or tune up this place is awesome!!!) Today was my first time riding with clips and I chose riding the bike path for that reason; I wanted to make sure I was safe since I was using new gear. I've come to realize that riding in traffic may be safer than riding near pedestrians. People out exercising seem to use good road etiquette but people out for a stroll just meander all over the path, jump out or stop right in front of you, and just aren't that courteous. I think I've felt safer every time I've had to ride in traffic.
Today is day 8 of the 17 Day Diet. I actually lasted for a whole week of a challenge! I got on the scale this morning and I am down 7.8 pounds in one week! It's pretty crazy because I don't think I have that much weight to lose so I'm surprised to have all that water hanging around. The diet is working really well for me thus far so I want to note why I think that is.
1. No alcohol for a week. One of my downfalls is that I'm a lush and it is not out of the ordinary for me to have a couple beers or glasses of wine on the average weekday night...and even more on the weekend :O
2. Eating whole foods. This eating plan is all about eating whole, unprocessed foods. And I've followed that for the most part. I love that there aren't any shakes or bars they try to sell you. Huge selling point.
3. For a lower carb diet you get to eat fruit. It's only 2 servings a day but at least you get that sweetness. This is one thing I haven't followed, I am definitely eating 3-4 servings of fruit each day. But this is good thing for me as I've always been great at eating tons of vegetables, but fruit, not so much. So the fact that I reach for strawberries as a snack is a great thing.
4. No counting calories. I don't feel super restricted, if I'm hungry I eat. I have cheated here or there and had a spoonful of hummus with my carrots or pb with my apple. This has not seemed to slow down the weight loss too much though.
5. Doesn't feel like a diet. I'm not eating much differently from my normal diet except for the lack of grains and legumes. But I get my spinach omelet or yogurt and fruit for breakfast, a huge salad for lunch and I'm eating the same types of dinners but where my quinoa or sweet potato would be there's a side salad instead.
I don't have many bad things to say about the diet. I do miss my lentils and rice but that's my problem, not the diet. Also, I get a few servings of those things in cycle 2.
But it is a diet so it's not geared to very active people, I think they recommend 17 minutes of exercise a day, ha. I am 4 times as active as that! You can't run 10 miles with such little fuel so I have cheated a bit. I have eaten a few bananas, higher sugar fruit like melon, and before and after my long run I had extra carbs like homemade granola, baked sweet potato wedges, and some homemade popcorn. I also cheated at a party the same day as my 10 miler with some olives, manchego and 2 small slices of baguette but I have zero guilt about those nibbles. 10 miles needs refueling ;)
Cycle 2 seems like a better fit for more active people so I'm looking forward to it. It's a coincidence that cycle 2 begins on the day of Music Man's birthday party at his favorite brewery so the extra carbs will give me a little leeway and ability to enjoy the day more. We will also be taking a big ride that morning so beer me up!
I'm looking forward to the second week being as successful as this first week has been. I've gotten creative with meals so I hope I can stave off the boredom. last night we had a really delicious eggplant lasagna with layers of eggplant, zucchini, carrots, pasta sauce and lowfat cheese baked for an hour at 375. Next time I will add spinach and lowfat ricotta to make it even more like lasagna. It was a little soupy too, I kept draining the liquid so i was thinking of dehydrating the veggies a little next time. maybe in the oven for an hour at 250 like i do to firm up my tofu. I bet the texture would be awesome then. It was paired with grilled chicken to complete the meal.
I had the leftovers for lunch,
along with a small scoop of 2 ingredient chocolate ice cream; just frozen bananas and cocoa powder blended in the Vitamix. My MIL (Hi Cathy!) reminded me of how delicious this banana ice cream was and now I've been eating it nearly every other day. Delicious!
Have a great rest of your week! And because I am sentimental, here's a photo from exactly 1 year ago ;)
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