Day three.
The third morning of my diet plan started well in that I didn't have a headache and I wasn't starving hungry. I didn't leap out of bed like a spring gazelle but at least getting up wasn't the chore that it was yesterday.
And when the scales showed that I'd lost a pound and a half, things were really looking up.
Each day includes a mandatory walk. I didn't do it on day 1 because I hadn't read that section of the manual, and yesterday I really didn't feel up to it. So this morning I thought it was about time I hopped aboard the treadmill and actually gave it a go.
I did manage to walk a mile and struggled only slightly, but when I got off the treadmill I did feel quite lightheaded. I was going to have a french style 2 egg omelette “fines herbes” for breakfast, with some chopped herbs but when it was in the pan the two eggs didn't seem enough so I added another one and some microwaved mushrooms to give the whole thing a bit more body.
Unusually this morning I was so busy that I didn't actually miss having a cup of coffee. And I didn't have yesterday's headache at all. So that was a big win.
I was beginning to realize that one of the most important points about meals is that they had to either a) resemble what I would normally eat or b) be packed with flavor, because it gives the illusion that I'm not missing out.
So for lunch I started to try and combine both these points and had a repeat of yesterdays soup, and salad but with a more flavorful dressing of cider vinegar, mustard, oil and the sugar replacement Xylitol for sweetness. It deviated, of course, from the list of allowed foods, but I'm hoping that the tiny quantities and the fact I wasn't craving pudding would make it OK.
I also cheated in the evening. The allowed cooking method went by the board, but the lovely, highly seasoned, turkey stir fry almost felt like eating real food.
Day 4
At the weigh in this morning I was another whole pound lighter!
But afterwards I had to force myself to get on the treadmill. I thought it was hard work yesterday but today I simply couldn't match yesterdays pace and had to slow down. So instead of a mile in 20 minutes, I was at 0.91 of a mile and couldn't wait to hit the stop button.
My legs and body just felt rubbish. I had a long sit down afterwards. Not with the same lightheadedness of yesterday, but otherwise feeling worse. Good job I'd decided not to do the other parts of the workout yet!
By time time I’d recovered, breakfast was late. I really didn’t fancy the planned microwaved mushroom so I had a bowl of soup and some (more) shredded salad with little vinaigrette dressing to make it more palatable.
I thought about a cup of coffee, but the urge wasn’t so strong I couldn’t suppress it. Fortunately I was working from home this morning and was soon lost in the task.
Lunch, however, couldn’t come soon enough. despite having a large breakfast I was starving about an hour later. I held off as long as possible, and then succumbed to a leafy green salad with sliced cucumber and some shredded garlic chicken, the last leftover from Sunday’s roast dinner. It was lovely. Just proving once again that flavor appears to be the key which mentally makes me feel as if I’ve had a proper meal and helps stave off the hunger.
Dinner was yet another deviation from the list of allowed foods – if this diet works I could sell my own easier version at the end of it, I've broken almost every rule already!
In my quest for as much flavor as possible I actually over salted the sauce. So tomorrow's repeat performance will have to have even more vegetables in it to try and soak up some of the saltiness.
And so to bed, and another peppermint oil tablet to try and stop my stomach rumbling.
Day 5
Today dawned bright and very, very early, so early in fact that I decided to go shopping and hit the supermarket before the Saturday morning crowds.
So after an illicit cup of coffee to keep me going I set off. This meant that the walk before breakfast was not so much a brisk walk on the treadmill but an intermittent amble round the shop.
Back at the house the first order of business was breakfast, I had a large flat mushroom which had been microwaved for about a minute and a half topped with two poached eggs. On its own this wouldn't have made a tasty breakfast but I had seen in the supermarket some tempting orange cherry tomatoes which I heated briefly to soften them up and this turned a boring meal into something quite acceptable.
Lunch was chicken and vegetables. A chicken thigh poached in chicken stock with vegetables, carrots, celery, leeks, mushrooms and some thyme. Once again breaking almost all the rules, but it did make a lovely low carb, low fat meal for a cold winters day.
Despite that, 2 hours later I was starving hungry again.
Dinner was a repeat of yesterday's salty adventure, although by the time I'd added a load of chopped zucchini to the sauce, the overpowering saltiness had rounded out enough to be edible.
I was the first night I hadn't gone to bed hungry although as I lay in bed thinking that, I began to feel the slight tummy rumblings of starvation so I took a peppermint oil capsule to ward off any pangs.
If you want to follow the 3 week diet with me, you can get it here or to read the review click here
3 Week Diet – Weights and Measures
Weight
| Stones/lb | lbs | Kg | |
| Start | 13st 12lbs | 194 | 88.2 |
| After Day 3 | 13st 9lbs | 191 | 86.9 |
| After Day 4 | 13st 8lbs | 190 | 86.4 |
| After Day 5 | 13st 7.5lbs | 189.5 | 86.1 |
Fat Loss Monitor Measurements
| % Body fat | BMI | |
| Start | 44.7 | 31.5 |
| After Day 3 | 43.9 | 30.9 |
| After Day 4 | 43.8 | 30.7 |
| After Day 5 | 43.6 | 30.7 |
Still happy with the drop in body fat percentage!
All measurements taken first thing in the morning before breakfast.