The Six Week Un-Diet

Or SWUD. For short. But first, let's start with today's eats.

It's a school/workday today. I lack motivation.



The PSMF has taught me about the value of protein! Nothing fills me up for longer. I started the day with a ham n' egg sandwich and a bunch of green grapes.



Followed by some BBQ flavored popchips (new addiction, these things practically count as eating a vegetable) and tea.



Even though I wanted a eggwich for breakfast, I also wanted overnight oats! What to do? Breakfast for lunch! In this jam jar:
1/4 rolled oats
1/4 oat bran
1 tsp flaxseed meal
1/2 scoop chocolate protein powder
3/4 cup almond milk
1/2 cup water
bunch of blueberries
and chocolate granola on the side.



I didn't feel quite full after eating this but oats always seem to take a while to expand in my stomach. Quelled the (psychological) hunger with a hot cup of matcha tea and a piece of gum. It worked!



Work kept me super busy until I snuck downstairs for an iced unsweetened tea. Paired with a fruit cup for an afternoon snack.



I knew this time that the hunger wasn't psychological, so I also ate half an apple.



More work, then it was finally time to go home! I froze some leftover rice from a while back and left it in the fridge to defrost this morning. I lived with a Japanese roommate in my 2nd year and was intrigued by her rice-making habits. She would make a big pot of rice, use what she needed, and then pre-portion the rest of the rice in saran wrap and freeze it. Then for the rest of the week she'd thaw out only what she needed.

Those Japanese don't mess around! The rice tasted almost as fresh as when I had it the first time around. I panfried 1/4cup egg whites & 1/2 of a lean ham chop with a chopped tomato and teriyaki sauce. I stirred 3/4cup of rice at the end and it soaked up on the tomato juices! Mmmm super yummy.



After dinner I sat down with my two Real Estate assignments due tomorrow (Urban Land Economics and Real Estate Economics) ... one of the assignments is super hard and involves using regression in excel and CALCULUS. Omg I went into business so I would never have to do Calculus again in my life!!! Being super frustrated with my assignment, I ended up munching on the rest of the Popchips. Straight outta the bag. There was about 1 serving left.



And to further procrastinate. I ate a little bowl of frozen grapes and Puffins cereal. Stress eating to the max.



Now instead of fueling my frustration with more food, I decided to take a blogging break.

While the PSMF may be over, my journey with weight loss is far from. Ideally, I would still like to lose 20lb, but will focus on 5lb increments to be more realistic. While I certainly don't want to restrict my food intake in any drastic form, I still want to make choices that allow me to reach my weight loss goal.

Enter - the Un-Diet.

The whole concept of a diet is that it is a TEMPORARY restriction in food consumption in order to reach a desired weight or body fat%. As soon as that goal is met, the diet is stopped and normal eating resumes.

However, your weight is a reflection of your dietary LIFESTYLE, and that in order to maintain a satisfactory weight, you also need to maintain that eating lifestyle. One of the reasons why I keep yo-yo dieting is because I change my eating habits SO EXTREMELY. Naturally the pounds will shed off, but as soon as I revert back to my previous ways, they will creep back up. I had never dieted up until the age of 20, and had maintained a happy, healthy weight. As soon as I started dieting, the lbs actually started to creep up!

That's why, I hope this next 'diet' will be my last. And by that, I mean, I hope to continue to eat this way (and lose weight) for the rest of my life. I thought about the more mainstream diets associated with weight loss and whether I could see myself eating that way forever:

Atkins - out of the question, I love carbs
South Beach - flexible and intuitive, but too many rules and 'forbidden' foods
Zone diet - too rigid
Calorie Counting - too obsessive, food isn't homework
Weight Watchers - another form of calorie counting
Body for Life - too many meals

Since there wasn't any 'dieting lifestyle' that I felt suited me. I decided to come up with my own diet! All these guidelines are flexible, but comprised of things that I know benefit me. (They might not benefit you ...)

The Guud un-Diet

Food

1. Eat Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner but it's ok to skip a meal
2. Eat 1-2 snacks per day, no foods are off-limits
3. Only eat when hungry
4. Stop eating when 7/10 full
5. Do not eat while doing homework or studying for exams (stress eating!!)
6. Snack after dinner if still hungry, but do not make it a habit (leads to munching)
7. Incorporate protein in every meal - aim for 40 to 50g a day
8. Incorporate vegetables in every meal - aim for 4 - 5 servings a day
9. Make feel-good food choices, this means both physiologically AND mentally
10. Limit calorie-dense and fatty foods (nut butters, full-fat cheese, coffee cream) they're not off-limits, but shouldn't be eaten with liberty either
11. Satisfy sugar cravings with natural sugars (fruit, honey, cane sugar, 100% fruit juice) and not artificial ones
12. Eat slowly and mindfully
13. Drink 6 - 8 glasses of water a day
14. Drink a glass of water with lemon juice upon waking (helps metabolism)
15. Teas and coffees ok, but do not overdo caffeine

Lifestyle
13. Exercise for 30+ min everyday
14. Alternate between yoga, cardio, strength training
15. If there isn't time for exercise, then walk for at least 30min.
16. 7-8hr of sleep a night

That's all I can think of now! The hardest parts for me will be fitting in the exercise everyday and not snacking after dinner. However, both of these are POSITIVE lifestyle choices that I think I can stick to in the long term. The main weight loss aspect will come from rules 3 and 4, so many times I eat until I am STUFFED, or eat when I'm not even that hungry. For the next six weeks (until my 21st birthday!) I will be living by these guidelines and updating you guys with weekly weigh-in results. Already, I feel a sense of relief in the guidelines, I can eat out wherever I want, eat whatever I want, and 'dieting' will not interfere with my normal life! I guess the big question is: will I get results?

Only time will tell, but for this present moment: housing price indices awaits!

PSMF - Summary ... and what's next?

I promised you guys a summary of my two-weeks on the PSMF diet and here it is.

The PSMF permitted me to eat 85 - 90g of protein a day, and unlimited fibrous vegetables. No meal could contain more than 5g carb or 5g fat. On an average day I ate between 600 - 700 calories.

On > January 8th I set out on my journey at 140.2lb.

During the first week, I was amazed by the almost instant results and stuck to the diet well, no cheat foods (at all) and kept my meals clean and simple. By the end of the first week I was down to 134.8lb. Very few cravings.

After my first refeed, I saw my weight jump back to 138.0lb overnight! (Due to water retention from higher carb intake)

The second week was an uphill struggle from the get-go because of this. I felt like I was working so hard to lose weight that I had 'already lost', and started eating foods like sugar-free jam, sugar-free jello, and other foods that aren't technically permitted on the diet but weren't against the rules. (They were 0g carbs/fat)I also started guzzling diet soda like a madwoman because I craved sweet things.

All signs pointed to an impending meltdown, which is exactly what happened at the end of the second week and what prompted me to stop. I binge-ate the ENTIRE day. From 7am til midnight, I just non-stop ate all the things I was depriving myself of. I wasn't physically hungry, but felt so psychologically drained that it was like trying to fill a black hole. I kept on telling myself, "I'll eat whatever I want today, and go back on the PSMF tomorrow." and this just lead to more and more consumption. In the end, I felt physically sick, and told myself that I would stop the diet and just eat like a normal person. That seemed to quell the raging beast. After a rough estimate I think I ate between 8000 - 12000calories that day.

But back to the PSMF.

The Pros:
- rapid results in the first week due to body's ketosis and loss of water retention
- never feeling hungry because of so much protein
- heightened mental awareness (I experience this with any low-cal diet, maybe it's because I try so hard to NOT think about food during the day that I manage to concentrate more on work and school)
- mostly fat loss, very little muscle loss (I have a scale that measures body fat %)
- if taking the proper supplements, (10g fish oils, 2 multi-vitamins, calcium, magnesium, fibre) should not experience nutritional deficiency

The Cons:
- extreme constipation due to lack of fibre (I'm not sugar-coating it for you here) by the second week, this one caveat made me consider giving up every day
- dehydration (I felt dehydrated ALL THE TIME, the worst being in the morning upon waking up, I felt like I could drink water forever and still be thirsty)
- lack of energy (while I wasn't physically hungry, I was out of breath climbing up just a few flights of stairs, I couldn't walk very fast)

In summary, I think the PSMF is the most efficient low-cal diet out there. After all, it's medically prescribed to treat obese patients. You could technically eat less calories, but then you start to burn away at your lean muscle which is never a good thing. While there were several physiological cons, none of them were enough to deter me from the diet had I not binged. I would recommend this diet to people who are looking for a quick (and safe) way to lose a few lbs before a big event, or to just jump start their healthy eating habits. I would not recommend this diet to anyone who has binging tendencies or eating disorders.

So I weighed myself this morning (3 days after diet) and was 137.5. This means during two weeks on the diet I lost 3lb. (Keep in mind I over consumed 2-3lb worth of calories on that one binge day.) A potential 6lb weight loss over 2 weeks is pretty darned good!

The gears in my head are already ticking about what's next. Stay tuned for details!

Zebra Xing!

Fashion and I manage to co-exist. I try not to piss it off and it usually leaves me alone. This morning however, I was really glad to have taken a picture (and thus a GOOD, semi-awake look) at my attire because somehow ... I managed to channel my inner ZEBRA.



Yeah, that was a close call.



Allowed myself a luxurious extra half hour of shut eye this morning (6:53!!!) and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast.
Overnight oats:
1/6 cup rolled oats
1/6 cup oat bran
1 tsp flaxseed meal
1/3 cup lite vanilla soymilk
1/3 cup water
1/2 sliced banana
1/4 cup blueberries
1/4 cup chocolate granola

That's a lot of stuff crammed into this tiny jam jar!



Lunch was equally an adventurous combo. Two slices whole wheat bread schmeared with edamame hummus, cucumber slices, 1/2 cup microwaved egg whites, a slice of fat-free cheddar cheese, and lotsa pepper! Eggs in sandwiches taste fantastic, but somehow my bread got soggy so today's dining experience was a little diluted. (har har)



My tummy was content, but my mouth wanted more. Broke out the emergency orange.



Several hours of homework later, the darned scone craving struck again! I considered resisting but then asked myself why? I certainly had enough of an appetite for a snack, and so set out on a quest to locate a worthy companion for my stomach. Would you believe I walked for half an hour all around campus to locate the perfect scone? Considering myself somewhat of a scone connoisseur, the UBC catering variety were far below my taste buds. I scrounged bakery after bakery and could not find one that I wanted to eat - some were too big, some were whole wheat (?!), some looked like stale oddly-shaped cakes in disguise. Surprisingly, I found myself at Starbucks!

Now I'm not a fan of Starbucks' scones at all. They're too cake-like and sweet and are usually covered with some nasty sticky frosting. Today however they had a miniature version that looked like a large thumbprint cookie! I decided to give it a shot. (These aren't the tiny triangular ones, they are about the size of a large dinner roll) It wasn't as crumbly as I liked and bordered on cake denseness, but had just the right amount of sweetness and a tart raspberry filling. I went to my last class satisfied!



Because of the late snack, I wasn't at all hungry when I got home. However, I've fallen into the habit of making dinner immediately upon stepping in the door (from the starving PSMF days) and pacified myself with a big bowl of sugar-free lemon jello.



When I was finally ready for dinner, I decided to use up some bits and pieces from my fridge. This flatout wrap has been in my fridge for over a month! It was stale, but not moldy, so it passed the Tracy test. However, the tomato sauce I spread over it tasted vinegary (does not pass the Tracy test) so I scraped that off and opened a new can. On top of the 'pizza' I layered deli ham, mushrooms, tomato, spinach, and 1 slice of fat-free swiss cheese. This was pretty much a giant salad pizza!



Munched on a handful grapes while the pizza was in the oven and don't quite feel like snacking anymore. (Shocking?!) Guess the scone satisfied my sweet cravings .. maybe I'll make a habit of it? :)

One thing I'm trying to do is to not label foods as 'good' or 'bad' but rather by how much I enjoy them. As much as I love ice cream and sweet treats, eating too much of it will definitely send me in a sugar coma. My equilibrium mode always leads me to crave feel-good foods, such as fresh fruit and hearty grains, and now after my PSMF stint, I definitely recognize the importance of protein as well. From now on, I will try to better honor both my cravings and my hunger, meaning: eat what I want, only when I'm hungry.

Life after a diet ...

I'll admit. I'm serial dieter. From the master cleanse to the raw foods diet, I've attempted every diet I could lay my hands on, the most recent being my two week PSMF stint. It's gotten to the point where I don't even know how to eat 'normally' anymore. I deprive myself for a few weeks and shed some pounds, then I binge and stuff my face and put back on those same few pounds, over and over again. I think in the past year I've lost the same 5lb more than a couple of times.

Since my PSMF diet ended prematurily, I spent the past couple of days racking my brains trying to figure out what's next. Back to calorie counting? What about the South Beach diet? Or adopting a Paleo diet? Then I thought, why not take a break and stop thinking about food all the time. Live life in the PRESENT, and not 10lb into the future.

And that's what I will be doing until further notice. No more counting this or restricting that, but just eating the things I like when I'm hungry. Key word being - HUNGRY. I came pretty close to intuitive eating in early December when I stopped 'dieting'. I ate everything in moderation and didn't deprive myself. I want to get back to that happy, healthy relationship with food and what's a better day to start than today?



One of the things I want to focus on is eating only when I'm hungry, and until I'm 7/10th full. A lot of the time I eat out of habit, or because I should. But breakfast doesn't always have to be 7:00am on the dot, nor does it always have to be around 300 calories. If I have a late dinner, I want to be comfortable the next morning eating a LIGHTER breakfast, or maybe even skipping it! (The horror!!)

That's exactly what I tried to focus on this morning. Since I didn't have a proper dinner last night and instead had a late-night pastry, I wasn't hungry this morning. Knowing that I wouldn't get a chance to eat again until close to 1pm, I had a bowl of cereal (Puffins!) with half a sliced banana and a blob of blackberry yogurt. Nothing too heavy, but enough to sustain me.



When I got into the office at 12:40pm, I was more than ready for this sandwich. Oh bread! How I've missed you! Let's never fight again!!! A cream cheese & turkey sandwich with spinach & cucumber on whole wheat CHIA bread.



At around 4, I need a mental pick-me up. Enter grande iced americano and a giant delicious mandarin orange.



When I got home at 6pm, I was more than ready for dinner. But I had plans with friends at a restaurant for 8pm. I didn't want to arrive starving, so I chopped up half an apple and nuked it in the microwave before adding a blob of yogurt on top. This was the perfect snack to fend off the edge of hunger.



The restaurant we chose to celebrate Timothy's 22nd birthday was Las Margaritas, the famed local Mexican restaurant. As much as I claim to be a foodie, I know next to nothing about Mexican cuisine. This was my third time visiting the restaurant, and I still hardly knew the difference between an enchilada and a quesadilla. Luckily, this time proved to be the best of all my dining experiences there and I hope to try out more Mexican cuisine in the future!

One of my friends was running a little late for dinner, and the rest of us were more than happy for the complimentary tortilla chips (hot from the oven!!) and salsa. I had a biiig handful of these.



For dinner, I went with the dine-out Vancouver menu for $18. It features an appie, an entree, and a dessert, with three choices for each.

I started with the snapper cerviche (supposed to be scallop but they ran out) ... this was a cool and refreshing dish, but I couldn't take more than a few bites because of the excessive sprinkle of cilantro.



Which was fine because my entree was delicious! The website describes it as Conchinita Pibil - A famous dish from the Yucatan area of Mexico. Achiote marinated pork, oven roasted in a banana leaf. Served with pickled red onions, rice, tortillas and black beans.

It came with three warm, doughy (mini) tortillas which you add the filling to. There was also a variety of hot sauces at our table to choose from. I topped two tortillas with ample amounts of the pork, rice, and red onions. (The black beans were pretty flavorless so I left them alone.) Paired with the hot sauce, each bite was a unique experience for my (unrefined) palette. I could've easily polished off the third one as well, but wanted to stay true to my 7/10 rule and left it alone.



The dessert I chose was the churros con chocolate. Doughy, cinnamon-dusted fresh-from-the-oven churros drizzled with a thick dark chocolate sauce. I shared with my friends Z and Tmo who each ordered a different dessert from the dineout menu. (Flan and this AMAZING caramel crepe) Had generous bites of each, and it was the perfect amount of dessert.



After the dessert, I left the restaurant feeling 8/10th full. Very content, but not bursting to the seams or bent over backwards. What's wonderful about the whole experience was that I wasn't concerned with the number of calories or fats I was consuming, but the friends whom I shared them with. And if that isn't a worthy indulgence, then I don't know what is!



Tmo's 19th! (In my 1st year dorm room)



Tmo's 20th! (Ok I couldn't find any bday photos from this year so we'll pretend)



Tmo's 21st! (After Red Robin's ..)



And hopefully many, many more fatty meals to come. :)

PSMF - the end?

Right now I am sitting in a Blenz sipping a strawberry iced tea and munching on a mixed berry scone.



Last night I enjoyed this steak sandwich dinner ...



Along with more than my 1/4 share of this quadruple tiered cake ...



With good friends ..





The day prior, I gorged myself on scones ... it all started with this delicious blueberry cinnamon beast from cafe artigiano at 7am,



and also involved an orange and ginger from liberty tea merchant



and a chocolate chip variety



but that was only 3 of the nine purchased that day, yes nine. I'll spare you the nitty-gritty, but I essentially had a binge day. A bad one. In fact, by the time I got home from work I was in tears thinking I had undone all my hard work the previous week. This led to some really self-destructive thinking and behavior. At this point, I knew that I could not do another week of the PSMF. Under-eating I can deal with, but once that control is gone, I can't deal with the person left without clear boundaries. Another week of the PSMF would just encourage the restricting/binging cycle, and that cycle is exactly what brought me to this place.

So my journey with the PSMF ended after 13 days, at some point later in the week I'll post a full recap with my thoughts on the diet, the pros/cons, and what I would've done differently. I'd like to think that it wasn't a failure, since I made (almost!) the two week mark that Lyle recommended, and that it was a good learning experience.

Normal food tomorrow! I'm stocked up on carbs and fruit. Life can begin again :)

PSMF - 13

One day away from the two week mark.

Weight: 134.4 (-0.0, -5.8) Would love to hit 6lb by tomorrow.

I've been really tired lately from school/work. On top of everything, the weather has been miserable!!



Breakfast, usual scramble w extra cucumbers today (30g, 190cal)


Pumpkin mousse (5g, 40cal)



There wasn't any more food at home so tossed together a very random PSMF-permitted lunch. The last 6 pieces of cooked turkey breast, half a can of tuna mixed with dijon mustard, and a bunch of roasted broccoli. (28g, 200cal)



And no more food until I got home from school for dinner. Was so hungry by the time I got home that I threw together the quickest meal possible. A quarter head of red cabbage stirfried with lemon sole fillet. (22g, 120 calories)



Followed by a big bowl of pumpkin cottage cheese. (16g, 130cal)



Total: 101g protein, 680calories

I overate by 10g+ protein today, which I guess is what happens when I don't pack snacks for the afternoon. To be honest, today has been the hardest day craving wise. All afternoon, I craved a warm, buttery scone and could not stop thinking about it. Sweet like a cookie, dense like a cake, but hearty like bread. My refeed was last Friday, which means I've gone 6 days without a cheat meal. I can't do a refeed tomorrow because I'm going out to dinner on Saturday night and am using that as my free meal ... this is worrisome.

Lyle says that when your body starts craving carbs - it's time for a refeed. There's been a little voice calling in the back of my head for the past few days now, but I've been able to brush it aside until this afternoon. Can I really make it until Saturday night? Do I even want to? Lyle also says that the secret to dieting success is to BE FLEXIBLE when you need to, and that if you're too restrictive, eventually you will cave - binge and undo all your hard work.

One to think about for sure ...

PSMF - Day 12

Has it really only been 12 days? I feel like I've been on this thing for a lifetime.

Weight: 134.4lb (-0.6lb, -5.8lb)

The worst part about this diet is that I wake up tired every morning ... :( I miss bouncing out of bed 10min before my alarm goes off.



Usual breakfast scramble, ran out of mushrooms so subbed in broccoli. Crunch crunch. (30g protein, 180cal)



Today I wanted more food. 1 egg white + 1 TBSP of pumpkin + a ton of cinnamon = breakfast dessert. (3g protein, 30cal)



Veggies to munch on at school and work. (0g protein, 40cal)



Chocolate Protein Bread for lunch. This batch turned out dry as cardboard, but when you're on the PSMF, anything slightly sweet tastes like heaven. (30g protein, 160cal)



Felt seriously weak by the time I got home from work. Took 5 minutes just to walk up the flight of stairs to my room. In my zombie-land state, whipped up a concoction of random proteins and produce. 1 bag of shirataki noodles, 1 roma tomato, red onion chunks, and 1/2cup egg whites cooked in soy sauce. (14g protein, 120cal)

Unfortunately the onions had gone bad and were inedible. Managed to pick around them but certainly did not make for a satisfactory meal. (WHY DID I PUT IN SO MUCH?!)



This calls for dinner number 2. 1/4cup egg whites + 2TBSP pumpkin + vanilla extract + baking powder + cinnamon. Microwaved it for too long though and it deflated into a pancake. Still tasty! (7g protein, 60cal)



And same dessert as every other night. Lemon-lime jello w/ cottage cheese. (7g protein, 50cal)



Total: 91g protein, 640cal

So tired ... must homework ... blog later ...