The Diet

So as I stated in my last blog, I thought I had a heart attack last week. 

Part of the evidence my mind came up with was the amount of beef, salt, fried food, and sweets I've been eating non-stop since Sallie's surgery. 

For instance, its recommended that you only have two servings of red meat a week according to Harvard and the National Heart Association. Or according to the Brits, 2.5 oz a day. I was having 2 servings of salt covered beef A DAY. 

We had to cook for a lot of people and it was cold, so there was lots of roast, beef chili, London broils, and cheeseburgers. 

Not only that, but with Matt and Rob in town, post event relaxing, and New Years, there was a lot of drinking involved.

So, Sallie and I felt gross. I gained 4 lbs and that was unacceptable after all the hard work I've done. We decided to go on a sort of cleanse diet. This book, Slim for Life, is the framework for this. 

It starts out with a juice cleanse, which Sallie and I did a few years back. It's not worth it. By the end of the two days of nothing but juices, I had barely enough energy to keep my head up. And if any of you know Sal, she gets maaaadddddd when she's hungry. 

So we skipped that this time. 

It's quickly followed by a fat flush, which is a day long. We decided to go ahead and do this. Also, miserable. It's basically cucumbers blended with water, with diced cucumbers garnished on top, and cucumber juice. We had a little bit of cabbage at one point. Basically, not going to do that again.

But we got through it and I feel better today. 

This diet is too expensive to do all 28 days it asks you to, so we are just doing the first three days and then we came up with rules we have to follow the rest of the month. The rules are as follows:

1. No dairy

2. Low sodium

3. No fried foods

4. No red meat

5. No pork (Just cause I don't like it)

6. Not heavily processed foods (If I'm buying corn, the second ingredient shouldn't be Xantham gum)

7. Make as much from scratch within reason (salad dressings, etc)

8. Only drink Friday / Saturday

9. No carbs (Oh sweet God, bring back my pasta and bread)

10. After the first week, allowed to break the rules for one meal a week.

Sallie and I took our weight, blood pressure, and measurements at the beginning of this and I'll post the results when we get them.