The Beginning of Six Long Weeks

It's hard to remember a time when I didn't worry about eating too much. I've been a Weight Watcher's member more times than I can count, but never got my "Life Time" award. Several months ago I was referred to Dr. Joel Fuhrman's book Eat to Live and it made a lot of sense to me. Using his principle of Health = Nutrition/Calories to guide my eating so that I get the most nutrition from the fewest calories, I have lost about 13 lbs and finally made it back to my pre-first-pregnancy weight! However, there is much more to go.

In essence, I have about 4 months to lose 20 lbs. That doesn't sound difficult to most people, but for the last six weeks I've been plateaued and I'm getting nervous.

So, I've decided to open my Eat to Live book up and strictly abide by the Six Week Plan. Fuhrman promises that this will be the most exciting 6 weeks of my life, so I figured I'd blog about it (to keep me honest) and share the excitement!

Fuhrman's Six Week Plan is basically this:

Eat fruit for breakfast, as much as you want but at least 4 servings.
Eat salad with beans for lunch with flavored vinegars for dressing.
Eat 1 serving of a high carb food, like whole grain, or a starchy vegetable, plus salad and vegetables for dinner.
Tofu is allowed, as well as 1 oz of nuts/seeds per day.
One tablespoon of ground flax seeds should also be eaten each day for the omega 3 fatty acids.
2 oz. of avocado can be eaten daily.

The goal is to eat one pound of raw green vegies (can include mushrooms, tomatoes, carrots) and one pounds of cooked green vegetables daily.

No dried fruit or fruit juice is allowed.
No dairy, no refined oils, no added salt, no animal protein (except low fat fish occasionally).

If I follow this plan, I may lose up to 20 lbs, which would let me meet my goal ahead of schedule.

I plan to blog about what I am eating everyday and how my weight loss is coming. I've been weighing myself everyday (almost) and that has helped as well.

This morning I made myself a "green smoothie" using my Vita-Mix and the following ingredients:
water
kale & chard
unsweetened canned pineapple and juice
frozen blueberries
frozen peaches

It was pretty tasty!

For lunch I ate a huge salad made with romaine lettuce, tomatoes, celery, hearts of palm, walnuts, carrots and mushrooms. The one cheat that I am allowing myself is a spritz of olive oil spray on my salad. I also added a dash of Bragg's Liquied Aminos, several shakes of a no-salt seasoning mix and some rice vinegar.

After that I ate a small apple.

For dinner, I plan to make a recipe called Company Rice and Beans made with canned tomatoes, zucchini, onions, garlic, beans and oregano and basil. I'll serve this over rice with a side of steamed fresh green beans.

Dessert will have to be some fruit...maybe melon.

I think this first week will be the most difficult because my sugar and carb cravings will be haunting me, but then they should simmer down. Wish me luck and let me know what you think!