Flat Belly Diet

godblessourhome

i love reading your posts! keep up the great work jan.
dawn

mmnichol

Fun reading!! Your gonna have your own club soon!!! :drinker:

JPriceGA

Yes, I would like the recipe for sassy water too! I have troubles getting my 8 glasses in!!

I use 8 cups of water, 1 lemon, 1/2 large cucumber (or one small one), and a half tablespoon freshly grated garlic. I then crush and add about a dozen mint leaves. Let it sit over night. You can strain it or not when you pour it.

Jan: Above you mentioned garlic. Do you really use garlic or did you mean ginger? I love your blog! It has been interesting to read your new adventure. Stick with it you are doing great!

Sorry, I meant ginger. I don't know why I get them confused! Ginger like ginger ale.

I got sick on a trip to Bejing a little over a year ago. As a "home remedy" my host made me warm coke with sliced ginger in the glass. It helps you feel better when you're all stuffy and not feeling well.

JPriceGA

Fun reading!! Your gonna have your own club soon!!! :drinker:

MMNicol - Who'd a thunk it!! I hope it's helpful. I'm actually suprised at how much doing this motivates me to stay on track.

JPriceGA

Day 14 of 28

Wahoo! I'm half-way there! (Wherever "there" is!)

I think I'll celebrate by having another successful day!

I woke up really early this morning and had an early breakfast of a peanut butter and bananna muffin. Today it occurred to me that I could save these 400 calorie recipies as meals in MFP - so I when I like a particular meal I can save it and plug it in by name when I use it again later. I now have a PBB Muffin meal :-)

Since I ate breakfast so early, I had half of my snack mid-morning. I'll have the other half in an hour or so.

Lunch was a new venture with the Crunchy Tuna melt. As always, it was the cat's favorite meal - she gets the water from the can. I like the Ezekiel bread.

I've got left-over Salmon I need to use up for Dinner tonight, so I'm thinking of trying the Wild Salmon Cashew Salad for dinner. So far, the cashews I picked up are my favorite nuts. Sunflower seeds really need to be fresh to be yummy. The first batch I got was fresh, the second - not so much. I'm working my way through them anyway.

Looking ahead - I've got a business trip coming up during my final week of this experiment. I'll definately need to plan ahead to successfully manage that! I'll be driving, so that will make it a tad easier than flying - I can take a cooler if I need to.

What I can say about this plan so far is this - the jumpstart worked for me. Eating 1600 calories a day is working for me - and it's probably what I average on MFP counting my exercise off-set anyway. Had I logged an entire month before, I'd have a more exact comparison, but for the period of time from the end of October through the time I started this - my wt was stable. I'm now loosing again. So for whatever reason that's happening, I"m feeling pretty darn pleased about it!

I'm pretty sure if I'd have just done the jump-start and quit at that point, that water wt would have come right back. I'm confident that the weight I'm losing now is true weight loss. I can see a difference.

Unless I go too long between meals, I feel good. When I go to long, I don't so much feel hungry as emotional (crabby, upset over little things that normally wouldn't bother me, etc.) It's almost like a mini PMS episode! So eating within the 4 hour window is very important for me.

I'm having fun being open to trying new foods and eating foods in combinations that wouln't ordinarilly interest me.

The major draw-back is the expense of the organic, natural & "upscale" foods called for. I'm sure once I get more used to the plan, I could find ways to scale back on the cost.

ivykivy

Feeling like that right about now :laugh:

Thanks for posting about your experiment.

What does you carb protein fat count look like for you 400 Calorie meal? For Example- is it 20g 20g 20g.

Unless I go too long between meals, I feel good. When I go to long, I don't so much feel hungry as emotional (crabby, upset over little things that normally wouldn't bother me, etc.) It's almost like a mini PMS episode! So eating within the 4 hour window is very important for me.

I

JPriceGA

What does you carb protein fat count look like for you 400 Calorie meal? For Example- is it 20g 20g 20g.

Ivykivy - The past four days I've been most "true" to the plan - and on average it's about 150g carb, 90g protein, 20g fat. The protein went up a touch once I stopped assembling my own meals and followed their recipes. The fat varies the most per day - on days I use olive oil it's higher than on days say when I eat more nuts and avocado

Days when I eat the deli turkey, even though it is the low salt version - I have the highest saturated fat and sodium. One day I had it two meals in a day and that is the only day I went over my MFP recommended sodium goal for the day. Most days the fat and protein are over the MFP guidelines.

JPriceGA

Thanks so much, Jan. I gonna give it a try. Just made my sassy water for tomorrow. Cream of Wheat I will try. It's the Talipia I can't do, I'm gonna replace with chicken. Everything else I can do for 4 days. I will spend the next days seeing if I can plan the 28 days that follow. Thanks again.

Clothes to burn - I was a bit concerned about the Tilapia, but with a bit of Mrs. Dash and some other herbs, it worked out just fine. I haven't had it again yet. But then again I only bought enough for the one meal. I still have LOTS of cream of wheat left!

pettmybunny

Unless I go too long between meals, I feel good. When I go to long, I don't so much feel hungry as emotional (crabby, upset over little things that normally wouldn't bother me, etc.) It's almost like a mini PMS episode! So eating within the 4 hour window is very important for me.

I'm like this always. I mention that I'm getting hungry, and within an hour it's like I've turned into a mad woman! It isn't so bad at home because there's food handy. But when we went to Disney a couple of years ago, whooooo-eeeeee. I kinda feel bad for my family, lol. DH said you could set a clock by me, that it was about 11:30 every day when the crank would come out.

PhotographerOfNature

Just saying hello JPriceGA and have a good 'Flat Belly' day! You are doing so good! Keep up the good work!!!!

JPriceGA

Unless I go too long between meals, I feel good. When I go to long, I don't so much feel hungry as emotional (crabby, upset over little things that normally wouldn't bother me, etc.) It's almost like a mini PMS episode! So eating within the 4 hour window is very important for me.

I'm like this always. I mention that I'm getting hungry, and within an hour it's like I've turned into a mad woman! It isn't so bad at home because there's food handy. But when we went to Disney a couple of years ago, whooooo-eeeeee. I kinda feel bad for my family, lol. DH said you could set a clock by me, that it was about 11:30 every day when the crank would come out.

It's amazing what a swing in the 'ole blood sugar can do for one's disposition! I've generally tried to limit high fructose corn syrup in my diet for years because of this. When I was a kid we'd pour Kayro syrup (pretty much pure High Fructose Corn Syrup) en masse right on a stack of pancakes. I thought that was grand then!

JPriceGA

Just saying hello JPriceGA and have a good 'Flat Belly' day! You are doing so good! Keep up the good work!!!!

PhotographerOfNature - thanks for cheering me on! I read your profile - you have some really interesting hobbies! Good luck with your wt loss plans.

SammiAnne11

:flowerforyou: Thank you for keeping such a detailed account of your journey!
I can't wait to make some Sassy water, as soon as I get out to the store!

Keep up the great work!

JPriceGA

Day 15 of 28

Well here I am starting on the second half of this adventure. I feel like I've got a much better handle on this new way of eating than I did a week ago. I do have a little confession to make - I was looking over my last week's food a bit more closely and realized that since I'm under 400 calories four meals a day, I've actually been eating closer to 1500 calories than 1600. Sigh.

One thing that has changed for me since switching to 4 400ish calorie meals a day is I no longer add up my calories at the end of the day to see how many I have left. I used to do that - then I'd have a snack to bring me up to my target for the day. Now I just plan my meals out for the day. It's tougher to be over than under my MFP calorie count.

Today, I started off with a new adventure of Blueberry Nut Oatmeal and hot Sassy water. I used a cup of fresh blueberries instead of frozen ones. It was quite tasty. It looked like there were more blueberries than oatmeal in the bowl! I've never had cashews with oatmeal. Oatmeal is really good for keeping me full for a long time.

For lunch, I got to try out a meal that I've been eyeing for a while - Boca Tacos. I've been wondering how the crumbles would taste. I wouldn't say they tasted like ground beef, but it had a nice, almost grilled kind of flavor to it. The spices worked nicely in the tacos. Like the breakfast taco meal, this one called for four corn tortillas. Rather than make four tacos, I doubled up on the tortillas. They are soft, so it was easy to do. I had a really nice avacado to use for this meal too. Normally I would have added sour cream and cheese to a dish like this, but not today! Today it was spinach and salsa. I'm sure I'll have this one again.

Snack was one I made up on my own. I wanted macademia nuts and chocolate ( I split my MUFA between them) and wasn't quite sure what to have to round out the calories. I took the general idea from one of the snacks in the book and decided to try putting it in the Stonyfield Organic low-fat yogurt. My first surprise was to see the yogurt separated from some liquid when I opened the package. It reminded me of how oil separates from natural peanut butter in the jar. So I took a spoon and mixed it back together. Not terribly appetizing to look at, but it ended up blending back together just fine. I wasn't sure how the French vanilla flavoring would go with the dark chocolate, but it was okay. Clearly it would have been better with a fruit and nut combo.

I went to the gym between snack and dinner. I was full, satisfied and had plenty of energy for my aqua fit class. I stopped at the grocery on the way home to pick up some fresh strawberries for tomorrow.

I got to try another meal I've been curious to try, Sesame Ginger Shrimp Wrap. I've never broiled shrimp. I did that in the toaster oven so I could keep a good eye on the while I cut up celery & snow peas. I had to use the pita bread instead of a wrap. I like the sesame ginger dressing - it was the perfect touch. Unfortunately, I'd finished off the cashews at breakfast - so I substituted slivered almonds. That worked out just fine.

Wow! I tried a lot of new things today!

JPriceGA

Day 16 of 28

I tried a new breakfast today - Pecan Raisin Cereal. Since I still have plenty of puffed rice, I used a half cup of that mixed with a cup of Kashi puffs. A quarter cup of rasins is a lot for a bowl of cereal! It made it quite sweet. I added just a dash of cinnamon as well.

Lunch was the Southwest Veggie Burger without the onions or jalapeno. Looking back at the book, I see I didn't include a kiwi.

Today's snack was an apple with peanut butter. Since I had plenty of left over shrimp, I had that 2.5 oz as a protein with my snack.

I'll be headed out to the gym soon. Hopefully I'll be able to get in some treadmill time. Although the gym is still pretty full, the first of the year rush is already waning.

Since I found fresh ground Turkey on sale yesterday, I think I'll try the Turkey Tacos for dinner.

JPriceGA

Day 17 of 28

Last night's Turkey tacos were tasty. I added some roasted red pepper. It was yummy. It was interesting that the instructions called for grated carrots instead of cheese. I cooked a whole package of it, so I had it again for dinner tonight with cremini mushrooms, onions and more red peppers over brown rice.

For breakfast I had the organic French vanilla yogurt mixed with almonds, strawberries and puffed Kashi cereal. I mixed it again with the puffed rice cereal.

Lunch was turkey rolled in romaine leaves with laughing cow cheese, a stick of string cheese and a bowl of applesauce mixed with sunflower seeds.

I had dark chocolate and peanut butter for my snack.

I'm continuing to feel like I'm loosing belly fat - particularly lower abdominal spots. I'm very close to reaching a major wt loss goal - my "half-way" point. If things continue to go this well, I should reach it by the time my 28 days are up.

Next week I have my first business trip - it will be the most challenging part of this adventure. I guess I'd better start planning for it this weekend.

SammiAnne11

I have a question about the Sassy Water.
Did you notice any side effects from it? I am worried about getting Diarrhea from it...sorry for the TMI.
Thanks!
~Sam

JPriceGA

I have a question about the Sassy Water.
Did you notice any side effects from it? I am worried about getting Diarrhea from it...sorry for the TMI.
Thanks!
~Sam

It's a fair question. but no. My digestive system did have to adjust some to the changes in diet, but nothing particularly notable.

JPriceGA

Day 18 of 28

I'm watching the opening ceremony of the winter Olympics, and can look out my window on a yard full of snow. How fitting. It's very sad that an athlete from the country of Georgia was killed today.

There was nothing particularly notable about my day. I've gotten to a point where the novelty is wearing off. I"m also having a harder time refraining from having a bout of the a"munchies."

I had planned to get to the gym, but the snow pretty much took out that option for today. I've been twice this week.

There is a whole chapter about exercise in the book I haven't read. I suppose I should be following the flat belly exercise program too... but I chose just to stick to the food plan and try to get to the gym three times per week.

I'm expecting to be more enthusiastic again as I get closer to the end of the 28 days.

JPriceGA

Day 19 of 28

Today I got to try turkey bacon for the first time. I could never find the brand recommended in the book, so it was Oscar Meyer turkey bacon. I baked the entire pack so I'd have it handy over the next few days. I tend to do that- cook something then eat it the next day or two until it's all gone. So today, I'm had a BLT - with avocado to boot!

My other fun thing today was I picked up some semi-sweet chocolate chips. Usually, when I eat chocolate, it's really high in cocoa usually 75 or 85%. So the semi-sweet chips seemed really sweet by comparison. Mixed with peanut butter - yum. It's nice to have something to satisfy that occasional sweet tooth.

I finished off the day with Boca tacos.

njjswim

I think I have read every book out there and have not read that one yet. The best things most dieticians and physicians recommend is low fat, low sugar, whole wheat, high fiber, and lean means cold water fish with omega 3 fatty acids, flax seed, and some chicken baked or broiled and low sodium.

Sodium causes retention of fluids and is hard on your organs
fat especially sat fat is hard on your arteries, and gullbladder and liver
sugar is hard on your blood, and arteries and pancreas
fiber 25-35 grams a day is good for your colon
omega 3 fats are good for your arteries

So just pick the right foods all the time and give up all the books and stuff that is out there and buy only foods that are good for you or limit the bad stuff. I know a recent scare of my gullbladder threw me into getter off the low carb diets for good. Sure I loose weight but my colon, heart, gullbladder and liver take a big hit and that is not worth it to me

GOOD LUCK!!!

ivykivy

What kind of exercises do they recommend? I know the You On A Diet book has a lot of plank and core work. The other day the had an article about high intensity exercise helps reduce belly fat. I know when I started C25K the first time this summer (on the treadmill at an incline) I lost and inch in my belly. Maybe coincidence though.

Day 18 of 28

I'm watching the opening ceremony of the winter Olympics, and can look out my window on a yard full of snow. How fitting. It's very sad that an athlete from the country of Georgia was killed today.

There was nothing particularly notable about my day. I've gotten to a point where the novelty is wearing off. I"m also having a harder time refraining from having a bout of the a"munchies."

I had planned to get to the gym, but the snow pretty much took out that option for today. I've been twice this week.

There is a whole chapter about exercise in the book I haven't read. I suppose I should be following the flat belly exercise program too... but I chose just to stick to the food plan and try to get to the gym three times per week.

I'm expecting to be more enthusiastic again as I get closer to the end of the 28 days.

JPriceGA

I think I have read every book out there and have not read that one yet. The best things most dieticians and physicians recommend is low fat, low sugar, whole wheat, high fiber, and lean means cold water fish with omega 3 fatty acids, flax seed, and some chicken baked or broiled and low sodium.

Sodium causes retention of fluids and is hard on your organs
fat especially sat fat is hard on your arteries, and gullbladder and liver
sugar is hard on your blood, and arteries and pancreas
fiber 25-35 grams a day is good for your colon
omega 3 fats are good for your arteries

So just pick the right foods all the time and give up all the books and stuff that is out there and buy only foods that are good for you or limit the bad stuff. I know a recent scare of my gullbladder threw me into getter off the low carb diets for good. Sure I loose weight but my colon, heart, gullbladder and liver take a big hit and that is not worth it to me

GOOD LUCK!!!

Thanks njjswim! I think the differentiator for this particular work is that we've been taught that all fat is bad just because it is fat and higher in calories. We went through a period of years where the food producers used this to produce/sell billions of dollars of low-fat foods. People avoided all fats, including those necessary to help in the absorbtion of necessary vitamins. Hence now, there is a change in nutrition information to say we do need Omega 3 fatty acids - or, not all fats should be avoided. So the "counter intuitive" idea is that you should have more mono-unsaturated fats and that instead of causing wt gain, they aid in the breakdown of the most dangerous fat deposits in the body.

I do think different plans work for different people. Despite all the marketing hype around this plan, I think it has a good balance for me.

Diabetes runs in my family, so I generally avoid processed sugars and high fructose corn syrup anyway. Following this has helped me reduce that intake even more. I was avoiding nuts, avocados and using, small quantities of olive oil, but now I'm using much more than I was. The problem with low-fat plans for me is I'd get too hungry. The problem with high protein plans for me was I didn't like the huge increase in animal fats, so I'd use protein powder. That gets old! To counter the bad taste, manufacturers load up protein-powder filled foods with sugars. I switched to stevia and making my own protein bars with fresh or dried fruits instead of sugar.

Since I have a hard time loosing wt - finding a way of eating that keeps my blood sugar stable, keeps me from getting hungry and still enables me to loose weight is a winner. The jury is still out on this one - but so far, the only down side has been I spend more on food. But even that is getting better now that I'm replacing things I use instead of re-stocking the pantry.

JPriceGA

What kind of exercises do they recommend? I know the You On A Diet book has a lot of plank and core work. The other day the had an article about high intensity exercise helps reduce belly fat. I know when I started C25K the first time this summer (on the treadmill at an incline) I lost and inch in my belly. Maybe coincidence though.

IvyKivy - I'll take a look at that chapter and let you know. I'm embarrassed to say I still haven't read it.

What is defined as "high intensity exercise?"

I am also a c25k fan - completed it last October. My pic is from the day I finished my 5K race in 41'07" I do think jogging makes a significant difference.

ivykivy

"A Little or a Lot
But not just any form of exercise will do. It was high-intensity cardio that helped the overweight exercisers carve out their middles. If you can't commit to 3 hours, know this: Working out less frequently -- and at a more moderate pace -- is also an option. A third group that took this approach didn't lose any belly fat; they didn't gain any, either. A decent accomplishment, considering they also downed about 2,000 calories daily."[i/]
http://www.realage.com/tips/a-good-way-to-ditch-belly-fat-without-dieting

It doesn't say what high intensity is but it's usually closer to your max heart rate 75% like HIIT.

What kind of exercises do they recommend? I know the You On A Diet book has a lot of plank and core work. The other day the had an article about high intensity exercise helps reduce belly fat. I know when I started C25K the first time this summer (on the treadmill at an incline) I lost and inch in my belly. Maybe coincidence though.

IvyKivy - I'll take a look at that chapter and let you know. I'm embarrassed to say I still haven't read it.

What is defined as "high intensity exercise?"

I am also a c25k fan - completed it last October. My pic is from the day I finished my 5K race in 41'07" I do think jogging makes a significant difference.

JPriceGA

Day 20 of 28

This morning started out with a real treat - waffles. Flax seed waffles. Here was a big change - no butter, no syrup. Throw on some pecans, banana and strawberries - and who cares? I had a small cup of black coffee - only my third cup this month and the first without creamer. I definitely will add waffles to the breakfast rotation!

Lunch was the California burger - I added a slice of turkey bacon to the ingredients in the book. I used an English muffin instead of a bun which worked just fine.

My valentine made arrangements for us to go to the art museum for the afternoon. Having learned my lesson from earlier in the month when I didn't take along a snack, I packed string cheese, an apple, walnuts and Valentine's day dark chocolate. We shared our snack on the way home from the museum - avoiding missing the 4 hour window or risking a crabby snap from not eating on time. Well worth the time to pack a snack and take it along!

Dinner was brown rice, chicken tenders, crimini mushrooms. Yum. I cooked extra chicken and rice, so I'll have a quick, easy meal in the near future.

I'm feeling more "on my game" again with managing the food. It's a good mental place to be going into the last week of the Flat Belly Diet.

JPriceGA

"A Little or a Lot
But not just any form of exercise will do. It was high-intensity cardio that helped the overweight exercisers carve out their middles. If you can't commit to 3 hours, know this: Working out less frequently -- and at a more moderate pace -- is also an option. A third group that took this approach didn't lose any belly fat; they didn't gain any, either. A decent accomplishment, considering they also downed about 2,000 calories daily."[i/]
http://www.realage.com/tips/a-good-way-to-ditch-belly-fat-without-dieting

It doesn't say what high intensity is but it's usually closer to your max heart rate 75% like HIIT.

What kind of exercises do they recommend? I know the You On A Diet book has a lot of plank and core work. The other day the had an article about high intensity exercise helps reduce belly fat. I know when I started C25K the first time this summer (on the treadmill at an incline) I lost and inch in my belly. Maybe coincidence though.

IvyKivy - I'll take a look at that chapter and let you know. I'm embarrassed to say I still haven't read it.

What is defined as "high intensity exercise?"

I am also a c25k fan - completed it last October. My pic is from the day I finished my 5K race in 41'07" I do think jogging makes a significant difference.

Thanks for the page reference. I checked it out. The three hours reference above is to three hours a week of high intensity exercise. I also didn't see specifically how that was defined. In their two week flat belly diet plan, they have 30 minutes of walking every day as a requirement, and a free 20 minute exercise video. I didn't look at the video. It would be interesting to track back to the actual study quoted... however... I have things to do :-)

ivykivy

I don't have anything to do at this moment:laugh:

"high amount, vigorous intensity, equivalent to jogging 20 miles/wk (32.0 km)" lost the most visceral fat.

____________________________________________________________________________________________
Inactivity, exercise, and visceral fat. STRRIDE: a randomized, controlled study of exercise intensity and amount.

Slentz CA, Aiken LB, Houmard JA, Bales CW, Johnson JL, Tanner CJ, Duscha BD, Kraus WE.

Division of Cardiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA.

Despite the importance of randomized, dose-response studies for proper evaluation of effective clinical interventions, there have been no dose-response studies on the effects of exercise amount on abdominal obesity, a major risk factor for metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. One hundred seventy-five sedentary, overweight men and women with mild to moderate dyslipidemia were randomly assigned to participate for 6 mo in a control group or for approximately 8 mo in one of three exercise groups: 1) low amount, moderate intensity, equivalent to walking 12 miles/wk (19.2 km) at 40-55% of peak oxygen consumption; 2) low amount, vigorous intensity, equivalent to jogging 12 miles/wk at 65-80% of peak oxygen consumption; or 3) high amount, vigorous intensity, equivalent to jogging 20 miles/wk (32.0 km). Computed tomography scans were analyzed for abdominal fat. Controls gained visceral fat (8.6 +/- 17.2%; P = 0.001). The equivalent of 11 miles of exercise per week, at either intensity, prevented significant accumulation of visceral fat. The highest amount of exercise resulted in decreased visceral (-6.9 +/- 20.8%; P = 0.038) and subcutaneous (-7.0 +/- 10.8%; P < 0.001) abdominal fat. Significant gains in visceral fat over only 6 mo emphasize the high cost of continued inactivity. A modest exercise program, consistent with recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control/American College of Sports Medicine (CDC/ACSM), prevented significant increases in visceral fat. Importantly, a modest increase over the CDC/ACSM exercise recommendations resulted in significant decreases in visceral, subcutaneous, and total abdominal fat without changes in caloric intake.

JPriceGA

IvyKivy - Thanks for taking the time to look that up! I've got a long way to go before I'm running 20 miles per week! Guess I'd better get my sneakers on!

JPriceGA

Day 21 of 28

Enjoyed another flax waffle breakfast. This time with raspberries mixed with yogurt on top. The rest of the day went well.