Thursday, September 15, 2011

17 Day Diet. Part 1

Periodically since I became a "grown up" I've had a twitch in my right eye. It comes and goes. When it's gone it never even crosses my mind. When it's here it's all I can think about. Horrifyingly, it's been hanging around on and off for the last two weeks. Ugh. I looked it up and it may be caused by: Fatigue or lack of sleep; Over consumption of caffeine; Physical or emotional stress; Anxiety or phobias; Brain damage or other neurological disorders; Eye stress associated with extended viewing of the computer screen; Epilepsy.

I thought long and hard about these potential causes and have decided I must have epilepsy. Darn it! Seriously though, I think it's from this diet that I'm on, and by diet I mean healthy eating plan. The word diet arouses too many negative connotations that I'd rather not arouse.

I jumped on KT's 17 Day Diet bandwagon as that's what I do. I am a bandwagon jumper. Whatever you're doing I want to do it do. Jumping off a bridge? Fine. I'll be there.

Let me give you a run down on the 17 Day Diet. It's a four phase diet, each phase is 17 days. If you fail the first 17 days or are not happy with the results you start from the beginning. The first phase has the most eating restrictions. You are allowed 2 servings of fruits and 2 of probiotics (eg, yogurt) before 2 PM and are allowed unlimited amounts of vegetables and lean protein (eg., chicken or turkey). The next three phases slowly reintroduce other types of fruits, vegetables, proteins and whole grains (in moderation).

I, like most people, love carbs...and by carbs I mean starchy, bready, delicious carbs- bread, oatmeal, pasta. I only eat fruits and vegetables in order to make my plate look pretty. I am on day 4 of the diet. Last night we went for dinner and I spent the entire time staring at my mom's garlic toast and at the pita situated at the far end of the table. A few times I looked to katie for permission to eat the heavenly carbs. She gave me a "go ahead, but i'm not eating any". She doesn't care if I cheat BUT cheating isn't the same if you're doing it solo. Cheating = Failing. On that note, let me tell you of my fails so far... I have had two cups of coffee with cream over the last four days and I probably have had more fruit today than I should have as I was snacking on prunes from my desk drawer to fight off starvation. That's not so bad hey?

I just read an article in Macleans written by Dr. William Davis the author of "Wheat Belly", he claims that eating wheat is making us fat. In his interview with Macleans he states that wheat is addictive and if you 'go off' wheat you will experience unpleasant withdrawal symptoms for about five days. After that your cravings will subside, your calorie intake decreases and your alertness and overall health improve.

So I'm pretty sure the reasons why I feel absolutely terrible, why my eye is twitching and why I can't focus on anything (but thoughts of cheese bread) is because I'm going through withdrawal. Essentially, I am a crack addict for carbs. Fantsic, i'm sure my mom would be so proud! The good news is that as I'm on day 4 of no wheat, by tomorrow or hopefully the day after, I will be FREE from my addiction to wheat. Yippee! FREE AT LAST! *insert jolly jump with heel click here* In the meantime, I'm thinking that the coffee I had after lunch (in hopes it would make my eye twitch and raging headache go away) kind of helped. I feel capable of being less of a raging b*tch now. Hooray!

Stay tuned for more misadventures of Diet Girl, a story of the hunt for healthy.

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