About a month ago, I walked into Medical Weight Loss Clinic, and signed up for their diet. After paying for their rather expensive program, I feel I’m committed.  I can’t say I’ve ever actually “dieted” before.  I’ve cut back on the amount I’ve eaten at one point or another, but mostly my weightloss over the years has come from exercise, primarily.

I’ve been very happy with my progress so far.  I started the diet two and a half weeks ago, and have lost fourteen lbs so far.  Their diet includes so many rules.  My head was spinning, the first week, trying to remember it all.  I’m slowly getting the hang of packing my lunch for work every morning.  I’m slowly getting used to eating in the morning.  Part of the diet is their expensive protein bars and powders you make into drinks, three a day.  Those are easy to forget.

As far as the actual food goes, they break all foods into four categories (protein, starch, vegetables, fruit), and only allow plain yogurt or skim milk for dairy.  Each category has a list of foods to choose from and a serving size for each food.  So far, I’ve been happy with the vegetable selection: I’ve been eating a lot of onion, peppers, zucchini, lettuce, broccoli, and asparagus.  I’ve never been a big fruit eater, but grapes aren’t so bad.  So for my weight and progress into the plan, I’m allowed 2.5 servings of protein, 3 servings of starch, 4 vegetables, and 3 fruits.  A serving of meat is 3.5 oz of steak, or 7.5 oz of fish, or 6.5 oz of chicken breast, for example.  A serving of vegetables is a cup of asparagus, broccoli, zucchini, 2 cups of lettuce, 1/2 an onion, or 1/2 a green or red pepper.  The servings of starch are really what hurt.  The most tasty starches, like potato, pasta, and rice are extremely limited: 1/4 cup of pasta or rice and 1/2 of a small potato, and only once per day.  Other starches on the list I’m a fan of include rice cakes and diet bread (35-40 calories per slice).

Absolutely no processed foods are allowed.  No table sugar, no salt.  I’m allowed to flavor food with herbs, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder, but that’s about it.  Condiments are limited to one serving per day of mustard, werchestershire,  ketchup, and diet margarine (like I Can’t Believe it’s Not Butter).  There are othes, but I can’t remember them.  I don’t do much of that, except for the margarine.

Really, I’ve never felt so healthy.  It’s so great to never have that “overly full” feeling after eating too much. I’m enjoying cooking each night, perfecting my use of spices in place of salt.  With the protein bars and drinks I don’t get hungry between meals.  I’ve started to eat fish regularly for the first time in my life, and so far, it’s been great.  With only a few exceptions, I only cook what I’m allowed to eat that day, so I resist temptation.  But pasta and rice are measured after they are cooked, so I just cook a whole bunch and serve a little at a time.

So, now for the confession.  I was at a friend’s house last night, helping them with computer trouble.  They offered food and drink when I arrived, but I declined. The fix turned out to be much more lengthy than I expected, and I became hungry.  As the night grew on, I became more and more hungry, and finally gave in to the chicken salad in their fridge.  It was so heavy, and while tasty, I knew it was filled with all kinds of things I wasn’t allowed to eat.  To top it off, I had whole milk and some potato chips with it which were just so greasy, and the most salt I’d had in a long time.  My stomach hurt bad the whole night… not because I ate too much, but I guess because of all the stuff I wasn’t used to any more.  I guess it could have been much worse, but I think I’ll do my best to avoid cheating again.

According to the scale this morning, I hadn’t gained any weight back, but I didn’t make any progress yesterday either: same exactly weight as Tuesday.

Hopefully today is better.  Going back to the friend’s house tonight again to finish what I started on their computer.