Saturday, October 4, 2008

DAC - Day 2

Still with it, took pills, drank water as instructed.

Slept through breakfast and lunch, so my first meal was at 3 pm. Awful, right?

I cooked Lemon Piccata Chicken with Jasmine Rice. It's basically chicken breasts lightly pan-fried in olive oil accompanied by a lemony sauce with artichoke hearts and capers. Sounds indulgent, but only about 400 calories per serving.

It was bad to eat my first meal of the day so late because even though I had been sleeping, I was starving by the time I ate. It was very difficult to limit myself to a single portion, but I did.

I knew I had to just give the food time to settle, and I did. I finished my serving and drank some water and went on to another activity. Within thirty minutes I realized that I did feel satisfied. However I did want more food an hour after that and I ate a banana.

I decided that would be my main meal for the day and if I get hungry later I will eat another piece of fruit or have some yogurt. Chances are it will be after 7 before I am hungry again and I don't want to eat anything heavy and go to sleep on it since I know I will not be exercising tonight.

Friday, October 3, 2008

Dual Action Cleanse - Day 1

I have to wonder how much difference there is between brands, but a common theme that makes sense is this: they all claim to work better if you reduce your intake of fried foods and starches - foods that 'gum up the works' like bread and cheese - and concentrate on fruits, vegetables and other foods that are raw or high in fiber content. They also encourage you to stay away from sugar, caffiene and alcohol.

Today was my first day and I started off ok in the morning, but before the day was done I gave in to a craving for french fries (fried starch, no less) and I found a Snickers bar while cleaning up (it was at the bottom of a basket of clothes - go figure - I don't even remember buying it, but it couldn't have been more than 2 months ago - a little behind on folding the laundry - yeah....).

Anyhow, I felt like I had four options 1)Put it in the freezer and save it for later when the cleanse is done. 2) Eat part of it now. 3) Eat all of it now. 4) Throw it away.

If I put it in the freezer I felt I ran the risk of breaking down and eating it somewhere in the middle of the cleanse. Better to 'set myself back' at the very beginning than somewhere in the middle, right?

I chose 2) eat part of it now...which became 3) eat all of it now. But then it was gone and could no longer tempt me.

I know, such unhealthy patterns of thinking have gotten me exactly where I am today.

That is why I am trying to blog about it, in the hopes that seeing it in writing and knowing that others are reading it will help me to reset my thought patterns.

We'll see...

As for the cleanse, I did follow the regimen of taking the pills and drinking the water as directed.

You never see results the first day anyhow. It's just a foundational sort of thing.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Is Colon Detox Hype?

Have any of you seen that infomercial, "Is Colon Detox Hype?"

As is the nature of infomercials, it comes on in the wee small hours of the morning.

I've seen it many times and for months now. Haven't watched it all the way through, mind you, only flipped through and listened briefly to parts 2 and 3 minutes at a time. Also the nature of infomercials.

Come to think of it, I probably saw it for the first time 2 years ago.

Well, back at the beginning of August I actually went so far as to log-on to the website to see how much it costs. It was in the neighborhood of $150. So I said to myself: No. Not at this time.

I have tried various cleanses and detox programs over the years and all of them work to varying degrees which are mostly dependent on how closely you follow the instructions.

I've found that powders you mix in drinks are usually more immediately effective than pills, but pills are easier to take and more portable, so that's a trade-off you make. Even though I like the more instant effect of powder-based programs, they are a pain on account of the convenience issue and they never taste good!

So... as much as I value the effects, I never complete a 30-day program because I give up on account of one or both of those factors. (Convenience/portability and taste/thickness.)

I saw the infomercial again about three weeks ago and decided to call.

You know they always say you'll get some special price if you call now!

So I did.

It was probably 3 am and the order-taker I spoke to had a bad attitude and would not divert from her script. All I wanted to know was the special price and she insisted in trying to take me through a series of questions about whether I wanted weight loss and how much and if I'd ever tried to detox before - yada-yada-blah-blah.

When I finally got her to tell me the 'special' price - it was exactly the same price listed on the website. Not special at all!

I was completely fed up, so I promptly hung up!

And that was the end of that. (Or so I thought.)

Roughly a week later I got a call around 7 pm from a friendly sales rep. She asked if I had called recently and what had been my experience and why I hadn't ordered.

I explained that the combination of bad customer service and lack of special had completely turned me off.

I have to give my girl Jennifer her props and the company as well for having a good follow up program.

She offered me the same original package for $50 off and threw in some freebies. She listened respectfully to my complaints. She stayed on the phone with me for about 15 minutes and answered all of my very detailed and somewhat repetitive questions. It was an entirely pleasant experience and I placed an order at the end of the call.

It finally came today! (I say that like it's been a long time. It hasn't. I'd say 7 - 14 days. I can't remember when I placed the order - oh, wait - it's on the invoice: 9/18, so, yeah - two weeks.)

You take the pills with meals - breakfast, lunch or dinner - pretty much whichever two of those three works for you. The kit came this afternoon around 4 pm, so I'm going to start fresh with breakfast in the morning.

This is merely one element of my new eating and exercise plan.

I'm going to try harder to stick to the plan and put forth more effort to blog about it regularly, but y'all know me. We'll see how it goes....