The 7 Day GM Diet

As some of you know I've recently tried this seven day cleanse called the GM Diet (yes, GM does stand for General Motors). It's a quick diet that lets you eat all you want each day, but you can only eat what's allowed for that day. Like day 1 for example is all fruit, all the fruit you want but only fruit. I won't be explaining everything about the diet here, so if you want to read up more about it and how it works, you can visit gmdietworks.com.

I had done this about two months ago and had amazing results. It was really hard for me the first three days because I have a bad habit of just snacking constantly...and my belly knows it! It was hard for me to go an afternoon without crunching on some carb-y snacks like pretzles or popcorn. But since I kept to it so well, I had amazing results.

Keep in mind that I was working two jobs as well as working out along with tis diet. Here is my day-to-day diet journal.

Day 1: Fruits
I ate mostly melons, berries, and apples
I found that crunching on Ice helped my craving for munching on things
I set aside the berries as a sweet treat when I needed it
I really realized that most of the time in my day I am thinking about food and am focused on what I will eat next. It was weird to not have that to focus on so I had much more free thinking time
I drank 12 glasses of water (very important for the diet to get enough water intake)
Went to bed tired and cranky!

Day 2: Veggies
Woke up feeling amazingly rested and happy
Ate the potato for brekky reluctantly (ew)
Just ate raw veggies all day until later when I ate cooked corn and veggie soup
Air popped some popcorn to ease the craving (its a veggie right!?)
Drank 10 glasses of water
Didn't do any working out yet
Went to bed early tired and with a headache

Day 3: Fruit and Veg
Not as hungry this day
Less craving carbs and sweets
Fruit salad all morning, veggies for snacks
Got creative and made mashed cauliflower for dinner (yUM!)
Ate raspberries for dessert (my fav!)

Day 4: Bananas!
Down 4 kilos already!
Made a banana shake with milk, so gross, bad idea (I don't like bananas in this form)
Had to have a popcorn snack (air popped, barely any calories)
Had some of the soup as well which is allowed
Ran for 12 minutes straight and felt so alive!
Bananas for snack, not even hungry for dinner

Day 5: Tomatos and Beef
Feeling really great, energy and alive!
Ate tomato for brekky (gross, I hate tomatos)
Ate beef and seasoned diced tomatos for lunch
Not craving much, less hungry than previous days
Beef and tomatos again for dinner but not even very hungry

Day 6: Beef and vegatables
Already so skinny! Tight tummy and 5 kilos lost
Carrot for brekky
Beef and corn for lunch, hot dog for dinner (had to, I was babysitting and forgot my food)
Veggies for snacks
Feeling amazing, so much energy

Day 7: Veg and Fruit (+rice)
Apple for brekky
Veggies salad for lunch
Not even hungry for snacks or sweets

Conclusion: 13 lbs lost
I ended up with so much energy, less craving, less hungry, greater portion control (who knew I needed to only eat so little to actually be full and I didn't have to stuff my face all the time?!) I was able to run and exercise with all the energy I had. I feel so awesome!

I was able to continue eating well after this diet was over. The main thing about this diet, since it is a crash diet that loses a lot of weight quickly is that you have to want to keep the weight off by using the diet to kickstart a change of eating habits. If you just go back to the way you were eating before you will definitely gain everything back. I continued with the principles I had learned from the diet and was able to keep all of the weight off and continue to feel great and healthy. (That is of course until I went home to the States and ate my heart out on American food. When we got back I did the diet again with similar results!)

I recommend this for people who will actually commit to making the sacrifices all week and who want to jump start a healthier lifestyle with awesome results right off the bat! And what you've all been waiting for, here is my before and after collage! Tell me how you go if you try this!

Recipe of the Week: Stuffed Zucchini!

What's that in the oven smelling so good? Oh, you know. Just some stuffed zucchini I whipped up. What's that you ask? Well I'll tell you!

I was going through Pinterest (I know, the P-word. I start so may sentences with "I was on Pinterest, and...") as I do every once and a while to actually write down the recipes I've pinned into my recipe notebook on my fancy little tablet. I LOVE to organize things, and my recipes are definitely important. As I was looking at this recipe online, my hubby was sitting next to me and happened to glance over. I usually try to cook new things every week so he is used to seeing "weird" recipes. (He's into simple meals; pizza or canned soup is what he'd eat without me!) But when he looked over and saw the picture for this meal, he said, "I'd actually eat that!" Which surprised me and made me super pumped to make it this week.

Here it is! It was SO delicious, I'm definitely making it again.

Ingredients:

3 large zucchini
1/2 lb ground beef
1/4 cup chorizo sausage, chopped
pinch of cumin
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup spaghetti sauce
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
1/4 cup feta cheese, chopped
2 small tomatoes, chopped

Instructions:

"Preheat oven to 375 F degrees.
In a skillet, add the ground beef and cook until it's no longer pink. Add the cumin, salt and pepper to it and stir well. Add the chorizo sausage and spaghetti sauce and cook for another 5 minutes, over medium heat.
Wash and cut the zucchini lengthwise. Using a spoon, scoop out the flesh.
Fill each zucchini half with some of the meat mixture. Top with shredded cheddar cheese, feta and tomatoes.
Bake for 15 minutes. "
I found it hard to figure out how to scoop out the zucchini but finally got the hang of it. Also, I chopped up the innards that I'd scooped out and heated it with the rest of the filling because I felt like it was a waste not to, and it made it more veg-tastic!

Hope you try it and enjoy!


Credit: Recipe from http://www.jocooks.com/main-courses/pork-main-courses/stuffed-zucchini/

Remembering Home

If you don't know, Alex and I have recently returned to Australia from a 6-week holiday back home to America! We spent the time catching up with friends, visiting family, eating (A LOT), and relaxing. God truly blessed our trip; flying was smooth sailing the whole way through customs and everything, we were blessed financially beyond belief, and built friendships and greater family relationships.

We weren't sure how the cold would feel to us tropical climate acclimated folk, but it wasn't too bad. I was so excited to have a REAL Christmas (chilly, snow, tree hunting, family, cocoa, etc) and it didn't disappoint.

Australia Day at the Jelly Bean Pool!

This has got to be one of the most fun adventures we've been on since living in Australia. And the weekend was perfect: Australia Day on Sunday and Monday off as public holiday! So we did what anyone would do, we had a family breakfast in our house and then drove 45 minutes towards the mountains to swim in a natural pool/river. Check it out!

 

 

  We are lovin' life and adventuring down under! Love, A&J