Military diet week one.

I know exactly what your going to say... fad diets don't work. But hey, what's the harm in trying?

I'm not quite sure why they call this the military diet, I'm pretty sure that the army don't live off tuna and crackers!

I found this diet just randomly reading through blogs, first through Rocio Laura. After some research I found the 'official' website which unlike the plan Rocio followed doesn't include beetroot, win!
Themilitarydiet.com has all the information you could ever want when trying a new diet, including substitutions a big plus when your a picky eater or have allergies. If you want to see the original diet plan check out the website, I'm just going to tell you what I had over the past three days. Any substitutes or allowed extras will be marked by *.

Right so basically for three days a week you follow this basic diet plan, some say you can't substitute anything, while other provide a rather extensive list of substitutions. For this first week I'm following the diet exactly apart from substituting peanut butter.
The website I'm basing my diet off allows substitutions when they have equal calories and nutritional benefits, for example, one substitute for peanut butter is almond butter similar in calories and both provide a high protein content.

This diet claims that by following the meal plan for 3 days, eating normally for the rest of the week (under 2000 calories) and 30 minutes of gentle exercise a day you can loose up to 10 pounds. For this first week I just followed the meal plan, I did very little exercise but did eat healthier than normal on the four days off. Unlike other bloggers I've seen do this diet I'm going to weigh myself after 3 days but count the whole week, this is more of a long term diet plan for me rather than a 'quick fix'.

Day One, 24th January.

Breakfast.
Black coffee, with 2 teaspoons of stevia*.
Half a grapefruit.
1 slice of wholewheat toast.
2 tablespoons of wowbutter**

Lunch.
Black coffee, with 2 teaspoons of stevia*. (had before work instead)
1/2 cup of tuna.
1 slice of wholewheat toast.

Dinner.
85g of meat, I had a beef burger (no bun).
1 cup of green beans.
1 small apple. (had as a snack)
Half a banana. (had before bed, apparently bananas promote sleep)
1 cup of vanilla ice cream. (had as a dessert about an hour after dinner)

Day Two, 25th January. 

Breakfast.
Black coffee, with 2 teaspoons of stevia*.
1 egg (I had mine boiled with soldiers).
1 slice of wholewheat toast.
Half a banana.

Lunch.
Black coffee, with 2 teaspoons of stevia*. (had before work instead)
1 cup of cottage cheese. Torture!
1 hard boiled egg.
5 Ritz crackers***

Dinner.
2 hotdogs (no buns).
1 cup of broccoli.
1/2 cup of carrots.
Half a banana. (made a smoothie with the ice cream)
1/2 cup of vanilla ice cream.

Day Three, 26th January. 

Breakfast.
Black coffee, with 2 teaspoons of stevia*.
1 slice of cheddar cheese.
1 small apple.
5 Ritz crackers*.

Lunch.
Black coffee, with 2 teaspoons of stevia*.
1 egg. ( I had mine boiled with soldiers)
1 slice of wholewheat toast.

Dinner.
1 cup of tuna. (I'm not going to lie, I put mustard with the tuna so I could cope with it but I ended up making it inedible! The substitution list says that fish is preferable and all I had was frozen battered fish, but at least the calories match up.)
Half a banana. (made a smoothie with the ice cream, these smoothies are amazing by the way!)
1 cup of vanilla ice cream.

* No sugar or sweetness are allowed only stevia, I don't have a clue how people drink coffee without!
** Morrison's didn't have any almond butter so peanut free peanut butter it was.
*** The diet calls for saltine crackers but they're not available in the UK, Ritz are the closest match.

I was a little bit nervous about what to eat on the four days off, they recommend less than 1500 calories but the diet will still be effective if you have less than 2000. I found a post on the military diet blog that provided an extensive list of meal options for the four days off, which I will definitely be trying next week.

Before the three days were up I already felt better in my own skin, more awake and just happier in general. Some of the food was torture but next week I'm going to try out a bunch of substitutions just to mix it up a little.

Now, the part we've all been waiting for.

Weigh In. (31st January)
I know I said that I was going to wait until the end of the week but I want to start the cycle again on Monday just so it fits my routine better.

After three days I lost: 5 lbs
This week in total I lost: 7lbs

Until next time.

R x