Flat Belly Diet

JPriceGA

I started this with my spouse today. You're welcome to join in if you've been thinking of doing the Flat Belly Diet. I can't think of when I've ever successfully followed a plan like this - but saw it on The Doctor's TV show. My spouse was intrigued and bought the book. We've been reading a bit every night at bedtime (which turns out to be a great alternative to watching TV) and decided to start today. We didn't want to wait until Monday - as everyone starts a "diet" on Monday, and most are over by Thursday.

Today is day one of the four-day anti-bloat jumpstart. We went shopping at Whole Foods for a change of pace. It certainly was an expensive choice! But we got as many organic things on the shopping list as possible. I made "Sassy water" for today before bedtime last night.

So this morning - First thing was a weigh & measure. My wt and measurements have been pretty much holding steady since November. I'm just up 1 lb from my lowest wt during the past 3 months - I've been fluctuating in a 3 lb range for a while now. While I'd rather have lost wt during that time, it covers Thanksgiving, Christmas & New Years' plus I got really sick for a couple of weeks and couldn't do much of anything at the beginning of this year. I'm getting back into my exercise groove - a harder re-adjustment than I was expecting. That was followed by "before" picture taking.

This first four day jumpstart is supposed to interrupt your normal patterns, get you onto a four meal a day eating schedule, and in a very sneaky way add exercise - after each of 4 meals, you're supposed to go for a five minute walk. Also, you're supposed to journal. So I'm going to do this here. I did a search, and didn't see much, and nothing recently about this plan - so you'll get one person's experience for the next four days. I'll decide whether or not to continue after that.

Day 1 breakfast - it's a cloudy day so the "mind trick" of eating in a sunny place wasn't possible. I forgot about the journal so didn't do that right away. For each meal you're supposed to log:
Mood
Thoughts/Challenges
Hunger

Mood - I was full of anticipation this morning
Thoughts/Challenges - Doubtful that I'd like the "Sassy Water" (mint, cucumber, ginger & lemon in 2 liters of water). I was pleased that all of the shopping was done and we just had to assemble breakfast.
Hunger - their scale goes from -5 through +7. This morning was a "0" - mild to moderate hunger. After breakfast, it was 5 just right.

So that's my first entry!
, but I'd say my hunger before breakfast was "0 - mild to moderate hunger"

makeitallsue

I tried this diet last year and I must say it did work, but I would also warn you to really make sure that you count the calories and measure , as the foods they have you eat are good healthy fats, but they are high calories and serving sizes are important...I really had trouble with the avacados....I love them on a flour tortilla with tomato...but I found 1 just wasn't enough:laugh: :laugh: I did lose 10 pounds when I first started the program, I stll use a lot of the recipes today. Good Luck!

lizeth004

I thought of doing this diet forever but never really got motivated to do it since I never met anyone's experience with it. Sure I have seen it on TV but I don't know what to beleive anymore. So I'm going to follow your writing and see what your results are. Good Luck!


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shariguymon

I've never tried this plan, it will be interesting to follow your posts! Best of luck to you! Logging certainly does help, I know, it keeps the portion sizes from creeping up!:bigsmile:

I hope you keep posting, and let us know how it goes!:happy:

JPriceGA

Thanks for the replies!

I'm on to meal #2 - Organic deli turkey, string cheese & grape tomatoes.

Beginning hunger 4 - really still not hungry after breakfast.
Mood - relaxed, and refreshed (did 30 minutes of yoga after breakfast)
Thoughts - pleased and surprised that people are following my thread. Putting together the meal was easy.
I'm weighing and measuring everything - I am concerned that the total calories is more than what I typically log in MFP - If nothing else, that's motivation for MORE EXERCISE!
Post meal -6 - just under stuffed!

Both for breakfast and lunch we heated the Sassy water in the microwave so it was more like having tea. In between I've had two cold glasses. I'll definitely get my water in today!

The string cheese was pretty good - and fun to shred :-) I'm pretty sure it's okay to play with food on this plan! The turkey & grape tomatoes were good - I never thought I'd eat a pint of them at one sitting! And, I'll do it one more time during the next for days as well.

JPriceGA

Meal #3 - blueberry shake. I don't think I've ever had a shake like this without sugar. Definitely filling.
mood - feeling rushed -
thoughts - spent the afternoon doing errands and going to the gym. I didn't want to cut short gym time, so meal #3 was late. Gotta plan better tomorrow
Hunger before 0
hunger after 5

Already cooking dinner - Meal #4 so I get it in before it's too late in the day. It was a challenge to figure out how to grill tilapia and roast a potato, and cook green beans. We ended up pan cooking the tilapia, and roasting the green beans and potato together. Next entry will be real soon!

JPriceGA

Meal #4 - end of day 1

Well, this certainly was a lot more filling than I expected. Dinner was really good, and I've already developed an affinity for "Sassy" water. I drank it all and I've made a fresh batch for tomorrow.

I hadn't read ahead to any of the 16 "mind tricks" - wanting each little trick to be a surprise for that meal. Had I read ahead, I'd have gotten some fresh cut flowers for lunch, selected some fun Hawaiian music for snack time, and changed up my dinner plates. I'll have to read ahead for tomorrow!

The plan does indeed change up one's eating habits. I discovered that not only is organic, lactose-free, fat free milk very tasty and sweet, it's also pretty expensive! I did manage to find some on sale today. No worries about being hungry. I'm going to try to stick to eating every 4 hours tomorrow.

my mood for dinner was relaxed, hunger before 4, after 5.

Enough from me for one day.

jyt2573

Thank you so much for sharing your journal here for us to see. I just bought the Flat Belly Diet book, mostly for the recipes, and I found that I have trouble adding calories back into meals when I have spent so much time training myself not to. For instance, I usually eat my salad with just lemon juice as a dressing. According to the book, I should add a healthy oil for better vitamin absorbtion, but that is another 100 calories I have deal with. I am following your progress with great interest. Thanks again for sharing!!

Jennifer

pettmybunny

Here's my question on the sassy water? Do you have to replenish the mint leaves and cucumber and lemon every day, or do you just reuse them? Do you only drink the sassy water the first 4 days, or every day of the diet? I get in a half gallon to gallon of water every day anyways, I'm just curious...

JPriceGA

I tried this diet last year and I must say it did work, but I would also warn you to really make sure that you count the calories and measure , as the foods they have you eat are good healthy fats, but they are high calories and serving sizes are important...I really had trouble with the avacados....I love them on a flour tortilla with tomato...but I found 1 just wasn't enough:laugh: :laugh: I did lose 10 pounds when I first started the program, I stll use a lot of the recipes today. Good Luck!

I'm glad to know it worked for you! I'd be thrilled to loose 10 lbs! At this point, I'm looking forward to getting down another 2-3 lbs! I just started to read through some of the recipes for the next 28 days. I'm going to start a shopping list this afternoon. some of them look good - I'd love to know what your favorites were.

JPriceGA

I thought of doing this diet forever but never really got motivated to do it since I never met anyone's experience with it. Sure I have seen it on TV but I don't know what to beleive anymore. So I'm going to follow your writing and see what your results are. Good Luck!


Created by MyFitnessPal.com - Free Calorie Counter

I'm anxious to know as well! I'm a huge skeptic - but the thing I saw on the Doctor's show that convinced me to give it a try was an animation they showed of visceral body fat. I'd never heard of that. They discussed research that had shown the visceral fat was reduced by this plan. It was validated by MRIs, not a tape measure.

A lot of my wt gain was right around the middle, and when I started on MFP and began loosing wt, I was losing inches everywhere except there.

JPriceGA

Thank you so much for sharing your journal here for us to see. I just bought the Flat Belly Diet book, mostly for the recipes, and I found that I have trouble adding calories back into meals when I have spent so much time training myself not to. For instance, I usually eat my salad with just lemon juice as a dressing. According to the book, I should add a healthy oil for better vitamin absorbtion, but that is another 100 calories I have deal with. I am following your progress with great interest. Thanks again for sharing!!

Jennifer

It seems they've cut out a lot of sugar to compensate for the fat. I know sugar isn't good, and I'm willing to give more monounsaturated fats a try. I'd switched from milk chocolate to dark chocolate over the past year for when I needed a treat, but I'd cut way down on nuts & seeds over the past few months.

Yesterday and today, the morning meal has been calorie heavy with 1/4 cup sunflower seeds, but it's balanced out by the end of the day. Typically, I'd go lighter in the morning. I'd been thinking about shifting a bit more toward the morning anyway to have more energy for the day. So far, so good!

JPriceGA

Here's my question on the sassy water? Do you have to replenish the mint leaves and cucumber and lemon every day, or do you just reuse them? Do you only drink the sassy water the first 4 days, or every day of the diet? I get in a half gallon to gallon of water every day anyways, I'm just curious...

Ok, I must confess I didn't toss all the lemons after day 1 - I will tonight though and make a totally fresh batch. Last night I added more ginger, mint, lemons and cucumber to what was already there. I squeezed the lemons and cucumbers to get more juice out of them. I also rubbed & tore the mint leaves before putting them in the water.

So far, I haven't seen in the book a directive about whether or not to keep going on the sassy water, but I really like it. I wasn't expecting to!

JPriceGA

Day 2 - I started off the day on the scale. Typically I weigh weekly, but the book suggested weighing every day. I know my wt fluctuates - I guess most people's does. I must say I was surprised though to see the scale dip a full 2 lbs from yesterday morning. You and I both know that's water weight! There's no way I lost 2 lbs of fat. Never mind that - I'm really pleased. We'll see what happens again tomorrow.

I will say, I do feel a tad thinner. I'll chalk it up to a lot less sodium in my diet for the day.

Meal #4 - puffed rice is not the most tasty item by itself, but with a little cinnamon, sunflower seeds and lactose free milk it was fine.
My mood for breakfast was optimistic
Hunger level going in - 0 - mild to moderate hunger, 5 - Just right
Thoughts - making each meal special is kinda fun - we used bowls we never have used before for breakfast. I'm not sure I "get" why they recommend canned pineapple rather than fresh, but it was pretty good. I put sunflower seeds in it too.

Rather than following breakfast with a 5 minute walk, we went to the gym.

After working out, my blood sugar was definitely on the low side, I was slightly shaky, but still not terribly hungry per se.

Meal #5 - tuna (the cats enjoyed getting the left-overs), steamed baby carrots, string cheese. Again, a very simple meal to assemble. I've never steamed baby carrots - they were quite sweet and tasty. Most of the foods so far have been "finger" foods, which is a fun change as well.
Mood - relaxed and happy
Hunger before, -2 , hunger after 5

We re-read the 7 tips to bust stress and talked about why we'd decided to do this together over lunch. Again, I used a "special" bowl for my tuna just to change up the meal from what I'd normally do.

Since it was raining outside - lunch was followed by earning 10 Wii fit credits - a nice yoga stretch!

JPriceGA

Day 2- Meal #7 - pineapple smoothie

Since the pineapple left over from breakfast wasn't frozen, this was more like pineapple & milk. Even with ice thrown it, it wasn't really much of a smoothie. Nevertheless it was tastier than expected. I put flax seed oil in mine instead of having more sunflower seeds on the side.

Hunger before -2 Hunger after 2
I exercised enough that normally I would have added more food for the day.
Mood - calm & relaxed
Thoughts/challenges - this afternoon was the first time I was a little hungry, but I kept myself busy and ignored it.

This afternoon's "mind trick" was to hang up a pair of "skinny pants" - I didn't do it - I've lost enough wt that I'm wearing what's in my closet. I'll have to go find older skinnier clothes. I know there are a bunch packed away in the basement. I'll look for them tomorrow.

So far, the hardest part has been getting out for 5 minutes of walking after every meal. It rained all day, so it wasn't very inspiring to go out!

Meal #8 - chicken, brown rice & crimini mushrooms

I'd never heard of a crimini mushroom before this. They were yummy. I was also previously unfamiliar with instant brown rice. Again, I'm not sure what the benefit is of using that instead of regular brown rice, but I followed the plan. It took about 6 minutes to cook. It tasted ok, but I prefer the "real thing." This meal all went into one big bowl together for dinner.

I'd made extra Sassy Water - drank all of it today plus some regular water at and after the gym. I'm well hydrated! Again, my sodium count was lower than usual for the day. I ended up with a fairly significant calorie deficit. Yesterday and today came in around 1350 in calories - which is my normal goal on MFP. The regular 28 day portion is targeted at 1600.

Hunger before was -3 hunger after 3
Mood generally good. Singing while cooking was fun - that was the mind trick for the evening.

dumped out the remains of the sassy water and started with all fresh ingredients for tomorrow.

JPriceGA

Day 3 - down another .8 lbs

Meals 9 - 11
Today I've been a bit hungrier, but manageably so. I sure was ready for my peach smoothie around 3 this afternoon. Food so far today has essentially been a repeat of day one. I'm a little lower on energy, but still going strong.

The fresh sassy water has been great all day.

I've not written much, but I've been successful at getting out for a 5 minute walk after each meal today.

This afternoon's mind trick was to focus on gratitude. It was a good reminder to be grateful for so many things, including friends I've never met on MFP.

JPriceGA

Day 3 is done!

Dinner was a very nice turkey cutlet, roasted red pepper and roasted green beans. Yum! I was hungrier this afternoon, but by dinner time I felt fine, not particularly hungry. Dinner was just enough food. I was successful at going out for a walk after each meal & snack today.

I'm getting a little anxious about transitioning to the 28 day portion of the plan - It would be nice if there was a grocery list for the first week.

Speaking of grocery lists - there is one for the first 4 days. We doubled everything since there were two of us doing the four day plan. The dry goods are plenty for two people to get through the four days without doubling them.

I made fresh Sassy water again tonight - making a fresh batch every day is the way to go. It sure makes it easier to get in the water. I don't like lemons much, so I like mine a little heavier on the ginger & mint.

I haven't had a chance to decide what meals I'm going to have on day 5 yet - I'm going to have to go shopping soon. Most of the meals look like they are organic packaged things - so the meals are relatively easy to assemble. The pattern so far has been no cooking required for breakfast, lunch and snack. Dinner has required cooking - but it's been quick and easy to prepare.

Finally, with three days down, I was able to compare the nutrition charts in MFP for what I'm eating now compared to the last year. I wish I'd been more consistent with logging my food - but there were some really striking differences... Saturated fat was WAY down below average the past three days. Monounsaturated fats and Polyunsaturated fats were both WAY higher than my previous average. Sodium was about half of my normal (and I try to keep it down). It will be interesting to see how the charts change later in the week.

k1979k

Really interesting reading your posts - thanks for sharing!

JPriceGA

k1979k - Thanks! I hope it's helpful. I know I'd have liked to have seen someone's experience before starting this.

Day 4 meal #13

Cream of Wheat???? uuuuugggghhh. And I bought a whole big box of it! Ok, this was the first thing I really could have totally lived without - but hey, I'm from Georgia and love grits. I know lots of people feel that way about grits! The cream of wheat reminded me of sand. But - I put sunflower seeds in it and ate it anyway.

Wt this a.m. was down .2 lbs. That actually made me feel good - it didn't go up, and I figured by now most of the retained water should be out of my system. I feel pretty confident that any wt loss going forward now will be in using fat for fuel. One thing I noticed about the success stories in the book was most had very realistic wt loss numbers... 15lbs, 7lbs, 6.5lbs, 5lbs, 13.5lbs, 6lbs. Clearly the lead off with the largest wt loss was to sell more books!

My hunger numbers haven't varied much - I'm mildly hungry at meal time, and feel satisfied or just under after each meal.

I got out for my 5 minute walk - yeah!

Meal #14 - really was tempted to eat at my desk and keep working - but I did not. However, no after meal walk this time.

Repeat of turkey slices, string cheese, but this time added steamed carrots to lunch. Those are tasty little devils. I always at them raw - usually with salad dressing. But pop 'em in the microwave for 2 minutes, and they are perfect by themselves.

I was ready to eat by lunch time so probably a -2. I was a bit hungrier later - perhaps feeling stressed from work today??? I ignored it and it passed. By the next time to eat I was back to a 0 on hunger.

Meal #15 - strawberry smoothie. This time had pumpkin seeds instead of flax seed oil in the smoothie. Strawberry is definitely the best of the four in my book. The lactose free milk has a little different consistency when blended with the fruit than my usual 2%.

Sometimes I think - I could keep doing this, without transitioning on. Then other times I think, I can't wait to move on to the next phase!

I still haven't quite gotten down the 4 meal a day pacing. I've gone ahead and entered dinner in my mfp food diary. I don't anticipate any changes for the day. Once again, calories will come in a little over 1300 for the day. Definitely not a starvation plan.

JPriceGA

Meal #16 - I worked late tonight. I'd planned to go to the gym on the way home but changed my mind on the way home. I was already late for dinner. Fixed dinner - Chicken, yellow squash and brown rice.

Since it's cold out - spent some time on the wii fit instead of the post dinner walk.

Tomorrow morning will be the final weigh-in and measure to see the results of the four-day jump-start.

Tomorrow we switch to 4 400 calorie meals, a MUFA (monounsaturated fatty acid) at every meal. The other "rule" is to not let more than 4 hours go between meals.

Mood before dinner - a little tired, but basically cheerful
hunger before dinner - 0
hunger after dinner - 3

I'm used to eating more later in the day - so I tend to feel hungriest in the evening after dinner. Right now, just before bed I'm probably a -2, or hungrier than I've been all day.

I just finished my food journal, and I noticed that over the four days the calorie count went down about 25 calories per day from about 1340 to 1240. Interesting! I sure like MFP!

JPriceGA

Results are in for the 4 day jumpstart

Wt loss: 3.6 lbs
inch loss (from for 4 measurement points combined): 2.5 inches - a full inch off my belly.


Day 1 of the 28 day meal plan

Didn't get to the grocery, so I adjusted day 1 of the jumpstart's breakfast for calories. My mood this morning was calm & happy. Hunger 0 after breakfast 4.