Week 3 Mark

Dear Readers,

It's been almost a week since I last posted about my happenings and I can tell you one thing, it's becoming a bit difficult for me to follow the diet to the letter, because of my changing schedule.

I recently started training for a second job at night, where I'm a customer service operator for a well known restaurant and the training hours are 6 to 8 pm. This said, and the training center being close to my morning work, I shifted my schedule at my morning job to 12 noon to 5 pm, so I head to the training right after.

With this new schedule in place, I'm waking up at 10 am, having my morning coffee with the dose of Siofor, making a sandwich and eating half of it because of a topsy turvy stomach and heading to work. With nothing to eat at work, I'm skipping my lunch meal till I come back home, which is after my training at 9 pm. In between, i'm having a couple of fruits, a 2L bottle of water at work and an Iced Tea Lemon Diet.

Coming home tired and exhausted, i'm spending the rest of my night checking up social activities and then dozing off to bed on a DVD playing in the background.

Some positive things about this week: I lost 3 Kilos last week alone totaling to 8 kilos in 3 weeks so far and 4 Tshirts from my 14 month old wardrobe that wouldn't fit me since my return from Dubai are now large on me (i'm actually wearing one of them right now!)

Stay tuned for further updates!

G

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2 Weeks Mark!

I know I'm probably way off from my last update and that's because of my hectic schedule. Accordingly, I decided to make my posts on a weekly basis, updated on Monday morning!

In the past week, I've had my ups and downs, my happy and hectic times, but most importantly, I had my dietician visit!

After the body composition analysis, I got my 2 week effort's results: I lost 5 Kgs of pure fat and water!!! My dietician was ecstatic! Of the 10 Kgs of water to lose, I've lost so far 1.5 Kgs and i've lost 3.5 Kgs of fat from my belly and my legs.

Seeing this so far, I can tell you all one thing: I'm getting full after 3 bites of a sandwich! My stomach is no longer accepting me to binge on food and the Siofor is still doing minimal effect on me... I should feel lucky!

One last thing I can add to my story thus far is that there are two shorts that I am no longer being able to wear because they are falling from my waist! According to Chermine, I dropped 2 sizes in 2 weeks!

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Day 9 - 10

Dear Readers,

As you have noticed, there's no Day 9 post. That's because I decided that I should take a day off and that it might be good for the both of us. However, here's a summary of Sunday:

I woke up at my friend's place, I came home as he left for the mountains. Once home, I spent some time on the computer working on my friend's blog and facebook page and it was already noon. I made myself 200grams of steak for lunch but I skipped on the salad.

Later, I went for my daily jog for 1 hour and given it was still sunny, I came home dripping sweat! I took a shower and hit the bed for a power nap.

At night, I made my 150 grams steak and then headed to Ajaltoun to watch the Comedy Night 5 show with my friends. It was spectacular! The show ended around 12:15 am and then each of us went home.

Given I was already tired, I just hit the bed.

Day 10:

Today was a very awkward day for me. I woke up to the effects of the Siofor and they weren't pretty (I won't go into details). After a bit I went back to sleep as it was 5:30 am. When I got up at 8, I prepped my breakfast as usual, headed to the bank for a transaction and then I was off to work.

Work was extremely slow as there was nothing to do, so I passed my time on Youtube and on designing some web banners for the site and for my friend's blog. One good thing that happened was that I got a call from Time Out Beirut Magazine, telling me that I won a ticket for 2 to watch the avant premiere of Total Recall! Woot Woot!

I left work around 2 pm and headed to my grandma's place to wait for the technician to come and install the internet, and yes.. I still haven't had lunch!

Coming home at 4, my sister was down from the mountains with her babies but that didn't bother me. I heated the fish that my mom had cooked already and tossed the salad.

To pass time, I decided to watch the trilogy of the Bourne again and so I did. Once done, it was already late night and I was somewhat tired.

I just hit the bed and dozed off till morning.

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Day 8

Well dear readers, today I started taking 1000 mg of Siofor and as I was expecting the side effects to kick in, I was mistaken. Things are holding up pretty well so far and I'm all good body-wise.

My day started with the regular corn cakes with Labneh on them and a sprinkle of thyme, alongside a cup of my Nescafe. I knew I had to go to the bank to make a transaction and given it was only 400 meters away, I decided to take a walk there.

Reaching the bank, I found out that I couldn't do the transaction till Monday and seeing that I was already in my running shoes and had my earphones on, I decided to do my one hour of exercise then and there (it was also a great day dreaming session for me :P ).

Coming home, I showered and I headed out to a freelance work I had set on my schedule. After that, it was already 3 pm and I headed home for my lunch and on the way home, I picked up my friend Elie to come along.

Once home, mom had made grilled steak for me with onions and peppers alongside a bowl of green salad. Elie and I munched our way through them and they were blissful (we watched Big Bang Theory while eating). Afterwards, my cousin came over and I helped her type her thesis on Word and worked on the formatting as requested by her university. I was done with her thesis at 7:30 pm and she left shortly after.

I took the fish down from the freezer and went back to my room where Elie and I watched some more Big Bang Theory and then I went off to make my dinner.

As I sat to eat my dinner, the power went out and I engaged in a 2 minute marathon to go down and bring the circuit breaker back up before my UPS died. What followed that is something I can't exactly mention publicly but it was a big stresser and I felt that it pumped my insulin levels to an all time high since I started my diet. With that in mind, I retired back to my room and now I'm planning how to spend the rest of my night.

Here's what I have in mind: Go to my friend's house, make some cookies (without eating any), watch DVD, sip on Diet Ice Tea, sleep over, wake up early, come home.

Today was a new experience for me with my diet as I hadn't experienced stress on this level before. I hope it doesn't lead to any complications and I'll keep you all posted on what happens.

T -1 week from my next consultation...

PS: once I get a scale, I'll tell you how much i've lost so far. The old one broke when mom tried to weigh her luggage before travelling and the luggage wheel broke the needle.

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Day 7

I woke up feeling normal as I had plenty of sleep yesterday night (6 hours). Reaching work, everything was fine and I was sipping on my morning coffee until I started eating my sandwiches. I had this weird feeling of repelling food but I forced myself to eat knowing that they were the only source of carbs I was allowed to have. I figured it must be due to the pill's side effects and I went on with my day.

Coming home, I made myself another White Fish Fillet platter and I sprinkled some Oregano, White pepper and Salt on it with a dash of lemon zest. It was a delicious concoction; however, I didn't have any salad ingredients so I didn't have any with lunch and that left me quite hungry. I spent some time working online on my clients' pages and then I started prepping myself for going out at night. While getting ready, I had an apple to munch on and my morning fruit today was 15 pieces of red grapes.

Once out, my friends decided to sit at a restaurant and we went to Cafe Ole in Kleyat. Once there, I ordered an Arguileh (yes, I smoke :( ) and I started browsing the menu. I was lucky that Chermine was with me there and she told me what to get. I got a Chef salad without corn, without ham and with lemon mustard sauce. Temptation can be an evil thing but you'll eventually know how to resist it and to convince yourself that it's just temporary. I'm saying this because as I was sitting there, my friends had an apple pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a Kinder crepe, while I just watched at it disappearing into their mouths and watering their taste buds.

It was as if the food gods were dragging me through the deepest corners of tempting urges back and forth. I was better than that... Why? Because I knew that without proper dieting, I would be forbidden these food for life and not for just a short period of time.

Now that i'm home, I washed a Cromb and peeled it, sliced it into pieces and i'm munching on it while I write this post. For later on tonight, I'm going to have a cup of hot tea with a droplet of Strevia and play a match of Supreme Commander 2 before heading to bed.

I hope i'm being an example to people suffering from the same thing as me, as I understand how they feel and I'm ready to help them if ever needed. I know it's not easy but think of it as a temporary inconvenience for a better future!

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Day to Day Agenda

I thought it's best for me and for my readers to take a day to day note of how i'm feeling and what i'm going through, so that current and future people with the same case as me know what to expect before taking on the challenge.

Day 6:

I woke up to feeling a bit nauseated... I think the pills are starting to affect me. After my toilet routine, I heated myself a cup of 0 Fat milk, added 3 Canderel drops and added a spoon of Nescafe. It tasted mildly sour but it was good all in all. I prepared my Double Cream cheese sandwiches with whole wheat bread and munched on a Corn Cake in the meantime and drove to work.

I ate my sandwiches alongside a cup of sugar free Ice Tea while working on some artwork designs but my energy and mood was minimalistic. This was day two where I felt this bad. I think it's the combination of 5 hours of sleep with no sugar levels and the Siofor pills i'm taking that are upsetting my stomach.

What I noticed also is that the low sugar levels and high metabolic rate induced by the diet and my exercises are increasing my heart rate to reach the limits of 200 BPM and it's getting annoying most of the time. You feel overwhelmingly tired and you just want it to stop.

Going home, I washed the Iceberg and opened a can of Palmitos and Baby Carrots and cut the cucumbers to make a green and fresh salad topped with fresh cut mushrooms. Coming to the sauce, Lemon Mustard sauce with no oil and with a slight pinch of salt is the way to go and it tastes amazing.

I turned the electric grill on and placed my 200 grams of White Fish filet on it and flavored it with white peppers and lemon zest. If you ask me, it's low cal, it's tasty and it's a new flavor for your taste buds. You can go as creative as you want by including a pinch of dried oregano on the fish and topping it with slices of lemon and baking it in the oven! (C'mon.. show me your culinary skills!)

After lunch, it was already 5:00 PM and I was overwhelmingly tired. I thought of taking a nap but my sister's kids were a bit too noisy so I ended up resting on my bed till 6:30 pm when my friend came over. We sat and spent some time together until it was 8 pm at which time, I headed with my friend to Hamra to meet with a third friend and I picked up my newly arrived DHL items on the way (I'm so excited)!

After having my oven-baked Hamour filet in a restaurant in Hamra, I headed over to my friend Lea's place to troubleshoot PC only to find out that the entire story she told me about it since morning was a sham and she got me over there to give me my early Birthday gift (i'm born on the 25th of Sep), 2 Sean Paul tickets for me and my best friend! I was ecstatic to the point I didn't know how to react... I just stood there like a statue! Friends truly are a blessing! (Await more on this front in my next blog post)

At night, i'm an insomniac.. I usually sleep around 3 or 4 am but with the new diet and with the effect of the pill I'm sleeping at 1am and waking up at 8.

So yes my dear readers, that's it so far.. Day 6 and i'm feeling topsy turvy in my stomach and my energy and mood levels are still fluctuating in realms i'm not yet familiar to.
I will keep you posted on the diet's course in the coming days and don't forget to stay tuned for me bi-weekly check up at the dietician!

Don't forget to keep a watchful eye on Chermine Bahous' tip of the day on her Facebook page. They are both insightful and may come in handy at the most random of times!

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