Flat Belly Diet

22 of 28 continued

Well, I never did make it out for a walk today - I let work get in the way. I had a lot to wrap up for this trip. I ended up at 1630 fpr calories today. I'll let you know how meals go on the trip.

Days 23 - 28

Wow! It's been 28 days already! I wish I could say the trip went perfectly well, but... I learned a lot!

So last Tuesday, I was getting ready for the trip, which began on Wednesday.

Last Tuesday, day 22, went fine. I had hoped to get to the gym that night, but prep had the priority.

Wednesday (day 23) worked out fine - Breakfast and lunch were right on plan before leaving. I packed a snack and dinner for the road, which also went well. Then I ran into a problem... My spouse and I stayed at a Doubletree hotel, and they handed me two warm, chocolate chip cookies at check-in. If it had just been one, I could have passed it off and been okay, but no... I ate one cookie.

Thursday (day 24) I'd packed breakfast and lunch, and planned on eating dinner out. Breakfast and lunch were fine... but then the afternoon break came, and there were... a whole plate of those cookies! I rationalized it as the "snack" for the day... do you see a pattern forming here??? I wasn't able to prep for dinner out, but split a dinner with my spouse, and as best as I can tell came in right around 400 calories there. I did make it to the gym for a two mile run that day.

Friday (day 25) did the best I could picking out a 400 calorie meal at a continental breakfast. Lunch was a spinach/salmon salad - probably 6 oz of salmon, so a little heavy there. Snack time.. you can see this comming, can't you??? Not one, but TWO cookies! Changed hotels, had a 400 calorie dinner in the room.

Saturday (day 26) Weekend playing tourist begins... with... hotel supplied (FREE) breakfast. Okay, I'm a sucker for a fresh waffle...add peanut butter for my MUFA, yogurt and coffee... and it logged in at 579 calories! ARRRGGGhhhh! (but did I log it that day... so I'd know not to do it again the next day??? Noooooo - logged after I got back!) Made a 400 calorie lunch from food brought along. Dinner was a planned outing - but it turned into, "Oh, look, a wine store!" So, wine, cheese, nuts and crackers for dinner. Lowfat cheese? Uh... no. 1800 calorie day. One mile walking on the treadmill wasn't enough to balance out that deficit!

Sunday (day 27) Weekend playing tourist ends - with a fresh seafood lunch by the water. Now, when am I going to learn to order a meal the way that fits the way I want to eat? Grilled gouper with herb butter over mashed red potatoes - Ate every bite. Didn't eat a planned snack, I ate the snicker bar the hotel maid left for us in the room instead! With dinner, an 1850 calorie day.

Monday (day 28) Back home... I didn't even want to look at the scale or tape measure. I did, however, follow all of the flat belly rules - three (3) 400 calorie meals and a snack. A mufa at every meal. 4-5 hours between meals.

Today (Tuesday) - can we just go back to day 23 and call it a do-over? Today is back to my normal routine, and I'm back on track. I weighed and measured for my, let's call it "semi-final" results.

Ok.. from January 23rd through February 22nd, I lost 5 lbs and 5.25 inches. I'll take that!

So, do I think trying the Flat Belly Diet was it worth it... yes, I think so. It's a success story comparable to several in the book.

I plan on continuing to follow the three Flat Belly Diet rules, but not focus so much on the meals in the book. The one adjustment, is I'm going to plan to vary the calories slightly based upon my exercise like MFP recommends. I'll let you know how it's going.

Oh, and so you know how it compares with my prior MFP average performance...

I count my MFP starting point as 1/1/09. From that time through 1/23/10, I'd lost a total of 21.2 lbs and 12.5 inches. So, as you can see, excellent progress, but not fast. On average, that would be 1.8 lbs per month, and 1 inch per month.

If you decide to try this, come back and tell me how it went for you!

congrats, jan! 5.25 inches! whooey! i loved reading your daily posts and am going to miss that. good luck as you continue.
dawn

Thanks, Dawn! The nice thing about the 5 inches is it really shows!

Thoughts anyone???

In my mind I've now "finished" with my experiment with this plan. I'll take a lot of it forward, but may make some changes that better fit my budget and tastes.

Because of my wt loss, MFP has re-calculated my daily calorie needs - and dropped it down to 1260. On days when I don't exercise, that creates even more of a divide between the FBD 1600/day plan and the MFP plan.

I'm a bit torn - do I go by the MFP daily calorie guidelines or stick with the 1600/day FBD plan - which has worked very well so far?

I still plan to follow the basic rules: A MUFA at every meal (1tbsp mono-unsaturated oil, olives, nuts, chocolate or avacado), 4 meals per day - 4 hours apart, and at least my MFP calorie minimum - just not sure about keeping it a standard 400 calories/meal or whether to vary based upon how much I exercise each day.

I don't think it would be difficult for a vegetarian at all. A lot of the new foods I'e been introduced to are meat substitute items.

The three rules are the the most important thing. The MUFAs are easy, 2 Tablespoons of nuts or 1 Tablespoon of oil or 1/4 cup avacado or 1/4 cup chocolate chips (semi-sweet) or 10 large olives.

Thanks for your supportive comments.

Congrats on the pounds lost. 9 pounds in 5 weeks is great. Is this more than you would lose with mfp? If the 1600 is working for you I would stick with it just customize mfp to work with the flat belly guidelines.

One thing i noticed in december when I was eating a lot of flax muffins the weight came off more readily. It may be coincidence .But after doing a little research I found omega 3 fatty acids, or ALA in particular, promotes insulin sensitivity in those who are insulin resistant and diabetic. So maybe the mufa's work the same way for you.

Thanks for sharing

Thanks, Ivy!

This last week I had oatmeal with flax seed oil as my MUFA every morning. That's going to be my standard breakfast for a while. I think the flax seed oil is a really good thing, and it tastes good in oatmeal.

What does ALA stand for?

I like your signature quote.

Thanks for the feedback! I appreciate the kind words!

For the time being, I will stick with the 1600 calories/day and keep it consistent as I have been. I think the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" idea is a good one right now. I'd like to keep the momentum going! Also, my mind does funny things when I'm facing a change that feels like I might be "loosing" something. For example, I needed to "use up" the things in the fridge that weren't on the plan, so I stopped logging my food for 5 days - so I'm sure I ate more than "normal" for those days leading up to this experiment. I've continued logging my food every day. When my MFP calorie guideline dropped, I started feeling anxious, and hungrier! Even though for a month it's been easy to stay within 1600, the past two days it's been really hard - and I know that has to be just in my head! I went over both days by about 100 - 140. Go figure. So 1600/day is where I'll stay until it stops working :-)

Looks like it's time to run a new race so I'll have a new picture :-)