Hi everyone. It’s a snowy Day 11 and after a couple days slipping off the wagon, I’m determined to get back on and not waste all of my efforts. Let’s get this week started off right…
At least someone is enjoying the snow.
Today’s Meal Plan:
| Meal Plan | Time |
| Cereal with 1% milk & oatmeal cake | 6 am |
| Cherries, macadamia nuts | 10:30am |
| Sauteed spinach & sweet potato, slice of toast with ricotta, tangerine | 3 pm |
| Cheese & quinoa stuffed peppers | 7 pm |
Today’s Workout: P90X Plyometrics DVD (1 hour)
Stuffed Pepper
The stuffed pepper was not my favorite. Not bad, but I didn’t like the flavor combo and it seemed like a lot of effort for something I could have made in half the time by chopping the pepper and tossing everything in a bowl. But it was pretty and appetizing to look at. Now if I could only make chocolate not look so appetizing.
*****
Lastly, I’ve been getting some really comments from all of you, and this one I felt was worthy of posting for everyone. Very detailed and it might offer some good alternatives for you:
… ” For those of you just starting out, here are some things I discovered (it really is a learning curve):
1) Raspberries are hard to find in some areas right now- they are really not in season. I found some at Target(Sam’s Club didn’t have any) though-$3 for 6 ounces, which isn’t too bad. I ended up mixing raspberries and blueberries and have still have had great results. I figure blueberries are great antioxidants too. They have a few more calories per cup, but not many.
2) Spinach. Sam’s carries large 1 pound organic baby spinach for around $3.50-great price and really fresh and tasty!!
3) I know that the author recommends plain non-fat organic yogurt…But, I have been mixing a 1:1 ratio of the plain non-fat with Dannon Light and Fit VANILLA- same calories(110 per cup)/just has flavorings and artificial sweetener- It really tastes much better. I feel like I am getting a little treat with the sweetness.
4) I really did not like “evening smoothie”, so I eat the yogurt topped with the berries by itself and just eat the almond butter plain. I never tried Almond Butter before, but I am hooked- absolutely love it. I will be using it from now on!!
5) My morning scramble- I also saute a little garlic in the skillet(lightly wipe EVOO on skillet) then add the spinach until it starts to wilt, then add the eggs. Sprinkle with fresh ground pepper- really yummy. I can actually say I look forward to it. I think I will start to incorporate that into my diet in the future.
6) I also found the first few days of the diet decreases “regularity”- I think it is the yogurt and the shear decrease of volume of food we are eating.
7) I have to admit I did have one small cheat today- 1 Hershey kiss 🙂 Way better than the 15 I could knock down b4 the diet 🙂 I’m actually looking forward to getting onto the scale in the morning !! Can’t remember the last time I said that!
8) The book was hard to find at local bookstores. The Barnes and Noble and Borders near me were sold out- Must be popular. I called a Borders in another town- They had it! They have a 33% off coupon online that you can print
Good Luck to everyone!!! Lisa ”
Thanks for your comments, Lisa, and everyone else that has been chiming in as well!
To close the day, here’s my late lunch concoction. Although not a recipe from the book, I was trying to use some spare ingredients in my fridge and I think it turned out pretty well. Can you believe that’s only half a sweet potato? I roasted the sweet potatoes in the oven with olive oil and a few herbs (last night), then tossed it in a skillet with 1 cup spinach and a little more olive oil. And that is ricotta on the toast. Ricotta cheese is my new favorite… it reminds me of thick, whipped butter but with a fraction of the fat and guilt. Yum!
Rocky Top Rebecca 
Thanks for sharing your progress Rebecca, hints, commentary on meals and even the struggles are all appreciated. I have just begun today. I was surprised at how yummy the egg scramble was. Took me so long to eat my breakfast….seemed like a lot of food. The parfait for lunch tasted like dessert!! I was afraid of the taste of the plain yogurt, but with some cinnamon and a pinch of nutmeg and the raspberries and almonds, it tasted sweet!!
I look forward to following your progress. Congrats on committing to getting back on the wagon!
Many thanks for posting the hints from Lisa.
Rebecca:
I love your blog. I am on day 3 and only down 2 pounds. Yesterday my 8 year old son had friends over and I decided to make cookies (bad idea) and I found myself tasting the batter without thinking. It was delicious.
My husband is doing the fast forward with me and I am making a separate meal for my 8 year old and then making baby food for my 7 month old. My grocery bill was atrocious so I am really hoping to lose a few more pounds.
I am 5’10 and started the fast forward at 154.2 pounds
Every January I begin training for a 10 mile run that I enter in the spring and I thought this diet would be a good post baby kick start.
I cannot stomach the smoothie so I eat yogurt & berries and then eat the almond butter from a spoon. Who knew almond butter was so delicious?
I love the salad with balsamic vinegar and pepper. I am raspberried out so I eat them separately so I can enjoy the salad more.
I will let you in on my results. Wish me luck!
Hi Rachel. I can totally relate to the cookie dough – one of my favorites! I too had a hard time not “tasting” things as I cooked for my husband. Bad habit! I won’t lie, if you’ve read my more recent blogs, you know that this is not a cake-walk, but it does work. I keep reminding myself that this is a lifestyle change, not a diet. GOOD LUCK!
This is myfirst day on regular plan after doing the Fast Forward. I love the recipes so far, the Black and Blue Salad and Turkey Ginger Stir fry were amazing and very satisfying. I cannot help but wonder if this is too much food? The chocolate is yummy, and I still have my snack and I am not one bit hungry. Any suggestions? Did you eat all the food allowed?
It’s wonderful to have the Blog for ideas and support! Thanks!
Hi Annie. I have ocassionally felt that it was too much food, but usually when I overestimated my portion sizes. If you’re not already measuring ingredients exactly, try doing that and see what you find. I discovered that I was accidentally almost doubling my yogurt portion on the first day of Fast Forward. Thanks for stopping by!
Perfect timing to find your blog as a friend told me about Cinch this morning! By dinner I had it loaded on my nook! I might recommend buying it in real book form as going back and forth between recipes and chapters seems like it will be a bit cumbersome.
I have about 10 pounds that I would like to lose. Like you, I cycle…and run…and swim along with it! I LOVE the cycling (not the trainer! ;), have learned to like the swim and tolerate the running. I think we have much in common as most people might not think I need to lose weight, but I know how I feel and look under the clothing and want to be at my personal best for the summer triathlon season in which I am in no way competitive, but love challenge! I will be shopping tomorrow and doing this with my hubby.
Please keep blogging and sharing it’s great motivation!
It does sound like we have a lot in common! I plan to try Triathalons next year. I want to master cycling this year before moving on to swimming. Good luck with the diet! I wanted my husband to do it with me also, but he’s a red meat addict and doesn’t care for most veggies, so it would be tough to make separate small meals all the time. Thanks for checking in!
Rebecca, I have been following your blog, and I want to thank you for posting your successes and your struggles. I have just finished fast-forward and lost 7 pounds, which I was completely surprised at because I am small to begin with, and I don’t have much weight I needed to lose. My goal was to try to kick off that extra stubborn 5 pounds left over from my back-to-back pregnancies that I’ve been trying for years to lose but have been fairly unsuccessful at. The fast-forward got me there, quickly. All I want to do now is maintain my current weight after the fast forward, but I’m afraid salt is my number 1 enemy!! I am excited to start phase 2 to keep the weight off.
But, a comment with regards to the difficulties with sticking to the meal plans… It might often be easier to stick to the plan when we have the flexibility to create our own meals based on the puzzle pieces. Sometimes I find that when I rely too much on recipes provided to me in the book, I am more likely to stray, as I do not always have all the ingredients needed, or I have to make too many separate trips to the store to get everything and it becomes “inconvenient”. But, it is really easy when I can just make something up myself that’s quick and easy based on what I have stocked in my fridge on a regular basis or depending on what fruits/veggies are in season.
Anyway, keep it up. I’ll be following your blog as I go through phase 2.
Thanks, Mika. I totally agree. I like the recipes but they all require at least some prep, plus ingredients I don’t normally keep around the house, so that leaves me looking for alternatives. I’m trying to now come up with decent subs based on the puzzle peices she talks about in the book… and now I need 2 meals per workday instead of just 1. I also have a few Kashi frozen meals that are my back-up plan, but those are very high in sodium so I try and avoid that. I’ll post my subs as I come up with them. Thanks for following! You guys really inspire me to keep going.
I am on day 2 of the Fast Forward…I subbed sliced pear for raspberries as they are not available here fresh and the frozen seem too sour to me. I am using tofu instead of eggs and soy yogurt. A great seasoning for tofu scramble is turmeric as it gives a nice yellow color!
So far so good although it is a lot less food than I am accustomed to eating…I am also a runner and work out with weights but I am sticking to just yoga this week, because I don’t think this is enough fuel for my regular workouts. Have you had any issues with this?
Hi Amy. I’m a runner too and yes, I did have issues with sluggishness on days 2 and 3. According to the book, you can add and egg or serving of yogurt if you need more calories in your diet. I also added a serving of almonds and that seemed to help me.
i hated the smoothie too, so i put some tangerine juice and cinnamon in my 0% greek yogurt, then add raspberries on top and drizzled the 2 tablespoons of almond butter on top. i still prefer the egg meals, but much much better than the smoothie. the best part about this experiment is that i realized how often i nibble at my sons snacks and pick at food throughout the day. definitely something to watch after the 5 day fast forward.
love your blog! thanks for sharing!
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Great, glad to hear it’s going well! I too noticed that I’m a major nibbler. I hope that this experimend will help me cure some of my bad habits, but it takes time. I plan to finish out a couple of weeks and then start over again with Fast Forward and do it all again until the new habits sink in. Thanks for stopping by!
I just looked over yesterday’s blog while checking in for today’s. P90x…ugh! Did that last year with my DH. Sooooo hard! I did get ridiculously strong, (could do 4 pull-ups!) but it was hard on my body! You rock if you can do that on this little food…You may need to add in some extra calories.
Okay…I started today and I must say the spinach salad with the raspberries totally bites (Pretty much the raspberries just suck!)!! Sooo sour I can hardly stand it. It ruined everything else. I would rather eat it all separate to preserve the flavor of the other food. I never thought the raspberries would be the issue. I did not mind meals one, two and four, although I did do half non-fat vanilla yogurt at lunch. The sugar content was only slightly higher. 12 grams plain, 14 grams and the calories were the same.
I was not starving until right before my smoothie. Snack time at school (teacher) was a little rough as they were all munching away on their little pretzel sticks. “Mrs. Fordyce, why aren’t you having snack with us.” Hmmm…because Mrs. Fordyce developed a fat a**…I mean butt over the Christmas holidays…LOL
Onward.
Did you use fresh strawberries Laura? I have decided to splurge on them for the salad. Mine weren’t sour. OOPS! I realized today that the yogurt I had been eating was actually VANILLA and not PLAIN. No wonder my parfait tasted a little sweet. I bought 2 containers…..the other is PLAIN. It’s definitely not as tasty, but still tolerable.
I did not use fresh raspberries. My husband and I are both doing it, and the frozen were expensive enough! 🙂
FYI! The spinach for dinner is very good sauteed with some basalmic vinegar!