3 Day Diet

A little while ago a friend posted on Facebook about "The 3 day Diet" and its lose 10 pounds claim. I'm not sold easily on anything and I don't do diets. But just for kicks I looked at the link she provided and then told my two coworkers about it. They were in. So this past Monday we started our diet. The way is works is for three days you follow a strict meal plan precisely and this diet claims it “works on a chemical breakdown and is proven to work” and you are not allowed to substitute anything and only drink water, tea or black coffee. 

First of all, nope, I don't need to go on a diet. I did it more for experimental purposes than anything else. Also, I do not believe nor expect to lose 10 pounds. Let my first ever dieting experiment begin. 

Breakfast: 1/2 Grapefruit, 1 slice toast, 2 TBS. Peanut Butter

Lunch: 1/2 cup tuna, 1 slice toast, coffee or tea

Dinner: 3 oz any meat (we chose grilled chicken), 1 cup beets, 1 cup green beans, 1 small apple, 1 cup vanilla ice  cream

We started this really late in the day because we forgot about it and bought groceries last minute. So we ate breakfast at 1pm. Lunch at 3 and dinner at 6. Yeah, it was tough. We were not happy by dinner time. Mostly because it had only been a few hours since we ate lunch and breakfast. We kept whining like little kids that don't want to eat their vegetable. But that ice cream was good! Overall, it wasn't a bad meal combination at all. Lesson learned: 1 cup of anything is A LOT of food. 

Breakfast: 1 egg, 1 slice toast, 1 banana

Lunch: 1 cup cottage cheese, 5 saltine crackers

Dinner: 2 hot dogs, 1 cup broccoli, 1/2 cup carrots, 1/2 banana, 1/2 cup vanilla ice cream

This day was actually pretty easy. We spaced out the meal further apart, and that helped so much. Although I did feel really hungry around 10pm that night. Really hungry, but I didn't cheat. Lesson learned: all of that food is less than 900 calories.

             

Breakfast: 1 hard-boiled egg, 1 slice toast,                                       

Lunch: 5 saltine crackers, 1 oz. cheddar cheese, 1 small apple

Dinner: 1 cup tuna, 1 cup beets, 1 cup cauliflower, 1/2 cantaloupe, 1/2 cup vanilla ice cream

I was angry by this day. The hunger from last night had doubled by breakfast and one little egg and a slice of toast did not cut it!  Lunch was pleasant but it felt more like a big snack and dinner...dinner was the worst! Too much food,  and even though I was hungry I couldn't finish it all. Lesson learned. I don't like plain tuna. I like tuna melt sandwiches. 1 cup of tuna is too much tuna for any human being to eat in one sitting.

Overall Weight Loss: Me: 2lbs, Coworker 1: 4lbs. Coworker 2: 6 lbs.

Bottom Line: I always do my research before trying things out. But not this time, I did it halfway through and guess what? It's a fad diet that is floating around the Internet. It's origin reads like an urban legend. There are different versions of this diet although most of them stick really close to what is above. Some even claim to be associated with a medical facility like Birmingham Hospital, Kaiser, Cleavland clinic, although no official record exists. They all claim it works on a "chemical breakdown" but when you really examine this diet it's just a low calorie meal plan. Very low calorie. Depending on how you prepare your food (only salt and pepper is allowed for seasoning) and what brands/options you choose to eat you are consuming between 600- 1200 calories each day, if you are eating double or triple this normally well duh! You will drop some weight. While it looks harmless enough, after all you do eat veggies and you get to have ice cream every day, it's really not that great and by the third day I felt a little weak and tired. Being in starvation mode lowers your metabolism which results in making it harder to loose weight. The weight you do lose is temporary, think about it. It's only 3 days and then you go back to normal... as in the weight you lost is back too. Plus we didn't include any exercise. I think I would have passed out if I had. I know what I should and should not eat so in the end this diet didn't harm or help me and only made me more sure of the fact that dieting is not for me. Truthfully, I will not recommend this to anyone. Plus I would have cracked had I been on my own after day 1. 

Here are the good things that came out of this: I realized I really enjoyed having breakfast in the morning, I pretty much already knew that but I usually only have a decent one on the weekends. Now my coworkers and I plan on making breakfast every day (we have a full kitchen to use). Also, seeing the calories being counted, thanks to the myfitnesspal app, I learned that measuring your food and calorie counting is a little difficult and time consuming but sometimes it really puts things in perspective. I won't be calorie counting but definitely am a little more aware of the big differences in foods and some surprising ones. A cup of baby carrots (47) or 1 Oreo cookie (53) hmmm...I guess carrots it is. But I'll probably sneak in a cookie once in a while.

So, while your diet is your business, here are my 2 cents: I say skip the fad diets. Just learn how to eat well because we all should anyway. Want to loose weight? Well, I can't help there, but maybe just do some research, make sure it's backed by professionals or ask your doctor. Oh and exercise. I eat when I'm hungry and I do indulge my cravings for baked goods once in a while. 

Now I'm off to have a piece of the chocolate croissant my other coworkers brought in to help us celebrate the end of our diet. They were soooo supportive through out the 3 days (it's hard to read but that last sentence was full of sarcasm.) Just a piece thought.... maybe... I'm not making any promises.

♥always,
Marisol

pssst.... I only had 3 bites of croissant, but a very good balanced breakfast!