Fruit and Veggie Days – Lose weight a little faster when you’re in a slump.
April 29, 2008 by Lara
Filed under Health & Fitness
Have you ever gotten yourself into a rut with your diet? I mean, it’s not that I’ve really been dieting all that much to have lost the weight I did, but I still found myself in a plateau and decided that before the weight started coming back, I needed to do something.
I remember back in college in Florida, it was often just too hot to eat anything all that “carb-y”. Breads, pastas, potatoes, and anything greasy just made me feel sick to my stomach. So I had spent 3-4 days a week eating nothing but fruits, veggies, and grilled boneless skinless chicken breast. Now, the bonus here, was that on the other days, I was eating whatever I wanted, but I HAD LOST MY TASTE FOR FAST FOOD ENTIRELY. I mean, the smell of it made me ill. The thought of all that grease in my mouth had me reaching for ice cold water. I’d hypnotized myself!
It was amazing – I was losing 3 pounds a week, and never feeling tired or cranky or anything. I didn’t count calories, but I’d often eat a whole watermelon in a day, or two packages of strawberries, or a whole bag of salad with some chicken breast cut up on top. I didn’t worry about sauces or dressings (though I’ve always bought lower fat or low sugar versions anyway – but I didn’t worry about how much I was using) and I just ate when I was hungry until I wasn’t hungry any longer. Stuffed, even. On fruit! :) Of course I also had my coffee with milk and Equal in the mornings, a little diet soda (not too much, as then I preferred Crystal Light or water or even iced tea), and mainly water.
So, I’m going back to that. Yes, it can get expensive, but that’s why after work today I’m going to buy some seeds and seedlings for the backyard. It’s a done deal.
I’m doing that right now (eating only fresh fruits and veggies) for 3 days – mono dieting to prevent breast cancer – the real reason I decided to do this now is because of what I learned about Splenda (posted on my blog a couple days ago).
So, I’m detoxing. You’re right though, it does help you lose weight, although I think much of it is water weight. I don’t limit myself either, on how much I eat. :)
You know, at first I thought it was just water weight myself, but when the weight didn’t come back on after going back to eating whatever I wanted, I was convinced otherwise.
I did this a few years ago and had lost almost 40 pounds. The reason it came back on was because I got lazy, stopped “moving” as much as I had been, and stopped keeping track of my weight. Not because it was 40 lbs of water! :)
How’s it going so far? I started doing something similar this weekend. The plan I devised was to eat only raw foods (aka fruits & vegetables, seeds & nuts, olive oil, etc) in the mornings and afternoons. That way, I can have 1 meal per day of anything I want. The season is just around the corner for fruits and veggies. I picked up fresh strawberries for $1.86 per container, which was pretty good.
I am going to try the following for lunch. It is called “Todd’s Waldorf Salad” – look it up on YouTube. It is 1:1:1 ratio of apple, tomato and avocado. Dice all veggies in a bowl, drizzle with olive oil, sprint with salt and cayenne pepper and stir. Sounds really yummy!
Jenn
Thanks for the interesting article.