A Four-Day Win

In the new book I'm reading, The Four-Day Win: End Your Diet War and Achieve Thinner Peace by Martha Beck, it all about creating a series of four-day wins. A four-day win is something you do consistently for four days. Beck gives this example of how four really is a magic number...if someone asks you if you play poker and you've played it one time you'd say, "I've played it once" but if you've played 2-3 times you'd probably say "I play sometimes" whereas if you've played 4+ times and someone asks you that same question you'd probably say "Yes, I play poker". Beck identifies 4 days as the amount of time it takes to start a habit. Obviously, you have to continue past four days to truly make something a habit but Beck says, four days helps lay the foundation. And if you think about it, there's nothing you couldn't do if you were only taking it four days at a time (she's calls this chunking your goals). If for example, your first four-day win was to exercise everyday you could probably incorporate exercise into your schedule for the next four days pretty easily. As you can see this book is all about building healthy habits...healthy habits that are formed in the mind but carried out through your day-to-day actions. It's really about making you think like a healthy, thin person.

My First Four-Win
Since I've started this blog I've notice what some of my bad eating habits are. One of which is always eating something sweet after lunch and dinner. Even if I'm full I will still want something sweet after my meal. So my first goal is this...no eating sweets right after a meal. If I still want that cookie or piece of chocolate an hour after I eat then I'll eat it but I at least have to give it an hour. Beck says the most important thing about your goal is that it has to be quantifiable. So say your goal is to eat more veggies, it can't just be "I'll eat more veggies" it has to be something like "I'll eat 3 serving of veggies each day".

As for my progress for the day, here is how it breaks down
6:00 am

•    Boot camp with participants (I participated in at least 35 minutes of it)

7:30 am

• Amazing grass with cranberry raspberry juice

9:00 am

• Jimmy Dean Breakfast Sandwich - It was a whole grain bagel, egg whites, turkey sausage and cheese (260 calories and really tasty considering it's from a box)
• Coffee, fat-free half&half, truvia

12:30 pm

• Red Lobster - Wood-grilled chicken and wild rice pilaf (I only finished about 70% of my meal) (around 420 calories for the amount I ate) 
• 1 of those wonderfully delicious cheese biscuits (140 cal)

2:30 pm

• Right after lunch I wanted something sweet so bad but I waited till 2:30, ate a Kellogg's FiberPlus bar and I was fine

5:30 pm

• Skinny Cow (150 cal)

6:30 pm - Working out 30 minutes with my evening boot camp class

After class I wasn't really hungry so I didn't eat but now that it's almost 10 pm I can feel myself getting hungry so I'll have an apple and call it a night. This is the second day of staying within my calories...I feel like a champ.

I Have A Choice

I know that each week it seems to be a "new strategy" but like I said before, this is all a journey and the most important thing is that I find what really works for me. So I have yet, another strategy...rather, a different mind set. With the prior attempts I felt like I was in this major food struggle. I wanted all these forbidden foods but my plan(s) didn't allow them so I felt this huge internal conflict which only caused more stress which in turn made me want to eat every more. It's weird how we make food into this huge force to be reckoned with when really, it's merely what we make it. I'm going to look at food like this from this point forward..."is this food going to take me closer or further from my goal?". If the answer is further, I need to make a better choice. My choices don't have to be dramatic or complicated they just needs to be a step in the right direction. 

Today in a nutshell

7:30 am 

• Amazing Grass (wheat grass) mixed with a Cranberry Raspberry Juice (made of 100% juice) 

8:00 am 

• Kellogg's FiberPlus bar -130 calories and 35% of your daily recommended fiber. I must say they did make we a little bloated (and gassy) but according to what I've read the bloated feeling will go away once your body adapts to the extra fiber. This bar kept we full all the way till lunch at 12:30ish
• Coffee with just a fat-free half & half     

12:00 pm

• Herbalife Aloe, Tea and Shake. I had Dani, the wonderful co-owner of D&G Nutrition, mix in a banana into my shake...super yummy

3:30 pm

• A gala apple and a piece of light string cheese (carb and protein mix)

6:30 pm

• Kashi Sandwich (300 calories and really tasty) 
• Skinny Cow Cone (150 cal)
• 10 Strawberries 

All-in-all my calories were right around 1200. This morning I also did some strength training and cardio...I feel great.

New Strategy

Ok. As you as you can see, I've kinda fallen off the wagon. But like the trooper I am, I'm back with a new game plan. Over the weekend I ate way to much and exercised way to little but I also happened to start reading a new book...UltraMetabolism by Dr. Mark Hyman. From what I've gathered so far it's all about reeducating your metabolism. The reason we need to reeducate is because most of us have poor eating and lifestyle habits which have thrown us way off track. His program essentially has 3 phases:

1. Preparation - is all about eliminating Sugar, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Hydrogenated fats, Junk Food, Alcohol and Caffeine. This pre-phase is intended to last 1 week. Although Dr. Hyman does give suggestions for weening yourself off coffee he thinks "cold turkey" is the best way to get off sugar (it's gonna be tough for me).
2. Phase I - Detoxify - this phase is intended to "unlock and restart" your metabolism. In this phase you are still avoiding the items from the preparation phase but you start to really incorporate whole, natural foods into your diet. This phase is 3 weeks.
3. Phase II - Rebalance and Maintain - This is what he describes as the "lifestyle phase". According to the book, at this point you have transitioned over to healthy foods, healthy living...leaving your bad habits and cravings behind.     

So this week I'll be eliminating all the food as indicated in the preparation phase. I'm nervous but I know I can make it through. Dr. Hyman gives the following suggestions for making the transition easier.

• Include protein at breakfast
• Eat something every 3-4 hours
• Eat small snacks. He suggests fruit and some nuts
• Avoid eating 2-3 hours before bed
• Avoid quick absorbing carbs like white bread and refined, processed carbs
• Pack healthy snacks to help you avoid temptation
• Plan your meals ahead of time
• 1-2 oz of 70% dark chocolate is allowed daily
• 30 minutes of exercise, 5 days a week

My Plan for Day 1 

8:00 am - Plain, Non-fat kefir and frozen blueberries

11:00 am - Chicken Salad

3:00 pm - Cantaloup and a handful of almonds

6:00 pm - lean protein and veggies

Exercise at least 30 minutes with my boot camp class

I'll check in tomorrow to let you know how things go.

Day 9

Breakfast

• Ezekiel Bread
• 1/2 banana
• 1 tablespoon Almond Butter

Lunch

• McAlister (new restaurant in town, located new Cattle Barons on Telshor) 1/2 Smoked Turkey sandwich and side greek salad
• Click here for McAlister nutrition info. The site actually gives some healthy recommendations

The rest of the afternoon was just a whole lot of snacking

• Skinny Cow Ice Cream Cone (150 calories)
• 3 Dark Chocolate Squares (50 calories per square)
• 1/2 banana (60 calories) 

Dinner was more snacking

• 2 slices sandwich turkey and a slice of cheese
• 1 tofutti cutie (140 calories)
• fat-free hot chocolate (50 calories)

I went to bed craving a smore (which I could have made) but I think I had cravings all day because I was only feeding my body empty calories so I was constantly hungry. I wasn't giving my body any sort of nutritional value, like the day before. Tomorrow, I'll try to get the most "bounce-to-the-ounce" from my calories.