Nan’s Notes for Dr. Mike Moreno’s 17-Day Diet

So I’ve been promising that I would post the notes for this new diet and it seems several of you are feeling tight waist bands like mine after the holidays. I plan to publicly put myself on the spot beginning Monday and record my weight and progress on this blog. I have some friends and family members who weigh less than my left thigh. To you I say, “Keep all expressions of shock and awe to yourself—and Welcome to the real world.”

Others in my life may be larger than me and feel my goals and extra 10 pounds are trivial in comparison. To you I say, every 10 pounds beyond what you should weigh matters, no matter how “small” or “large” you are. It’s the same road. It’s just shorter for some and longer for others. And to any man who wishes to discuss my weight with me, to him I say, think twice!

I’ll share my own recipes and recipes from the book as well as tips about family—and doing this without having to cook separately for everyone else. That’s what’s awesome about this plan. For most of it, dinners won’t look different for my family—they will just get the starch part of the meal and I won’t! No separate meal plans (unless your family insists on pizza or red meat corn and potatoes every night.)

Okay here it goes: this is a summary—if you want the whole scoop, go to www.the17daydiet.com and order the book. Briefly, this “diet” is in 4 cycles of 17 days. I will take you through as much of the cycles as I go through myself. I plan to do the first 17-day cycle. I will probably do the second 17-day cycle since I have slightly more than 12 pounds to lose and the LESS you have to lose, the slower it will come off. I doubt I will accomplish my entire goal in 17 days. I will however go on to the 4th cycle which is maintenance.

In the meantime, the average person has gained around 10-15 pounds since October. That would describe me! Here is a synopsis of the first 17 days of this plan:

Cycle 1 is called Accelerated Weight Loss using the following principles:

• Reduce carb intake so your body taps into fat storage
• Increase protein intake so that your body goes into fat burning mode
• Correct improper digestion that interferes with fat burning
• Provide rapid weight loss as an incentive to keep going
• Get sugars and refined carbohydrates and other substances that cause spikes and dips in blood sugar out of your system. Once you do this, it breaks the craving cycle.
• Clear your body of possible toxins that interfere with your thyroid gland, which helps to regulate your metabolism and cell energy factories, which convert fuel to energy.

HYDRATION
Dr. Mike suggests starting the day with a hot cup of water with one half fresh lemon squeezed into it. It’s called a “wake up” drink. The acid from the lemon gets your digestive system started before you eat. The goal is to drink 7 more glasses of water that day. Hydration helps keep your metabolism up. It also helps your skin!

He does allow us coffee (praise God!) and tea, but these are not in place of the 7 glasses of water. He also includes one cup of green tea with each meal. This is one of the several items he promotes that have been linked to speeding up your metabolism. My advise, though, is to brush your teeth after each meal if you treasure your snowy whiteness of your pearly whites. Nothing stains them like tea products. They are worse than coffee.

EXERCISE
You didn’t want to hear it—but it’s part of the plan. The good news is that it’s only 17 minutes a day. Anyone can do that. In fact, this portion of the plan is a bit calorie restricted so Dr. Mike does not recommend you do over 17 minutes a day or you will get too tired. (Imagine someone telling you to exercise less than the usual 30-60 minutes!) You can do any form of exercise that gets your heart rate up. The program has an exercise video to go with it—but simple brisk walking or any aerobic type workout for 17 minutes EVERY DAY will do the trick.

YOUR WEIGHT
My mom, well meaning though she was, used to insist that I wasn’t overweight—I was just large boned. Well, she had a point—there’s a way to tell if you are small, large or medium boned. How much you should weigh will vary depending on your body type. The following site has a great tool for determining if you are small, medium or large boned: http://www.ehow.com/how_4878341_body-frame-small-large-medium.html.

You can also get information on your ideal weight from
http://www.healthcentral.com/diet-exercise/ideal-body-weight-3146-143.html

Dr. Mike also has the charts in his book. I have to be aware of imbalanced attitudes in either direction—once in a while I need to kill the inner runway model (she is completely unrealistic…and blind) I also have to respectfully tell the Italian mother within to stop making excuses for me.

COST
One astute friend asked me how much this diet will cost. I can’t answer that for her because I don’t know what she already eats. For me, because I already purchase and eat many of the foods on the lists, it won’t cost me much more. Long term, it’s also much cheaper than the alternative. Reducing your weight by just 10% lowers cholesterol and blood pressure as well as your chances of developing type 2 diabetes. The cost of care for these obesity related ailments far outweighs a temporary spike in groceries. This eating plan will adjust to something that fits your lifestyle—these cycles are not forever. How much have you paid for movies, pizza, ice cream, texting plans, downloading music, your last vacation? Is your health worth more than this? Mine is. I’m going for it.

THE FOOD LISTS
Below is the food list for the first 17 days. It’s really simple and so much of it is stuff I already regularly eat. The problem is that other stuff that I regularly eat is NOT on the list—namely flour and sugar products )--:

*This should go without saying, but if it isn’t on the list, don’t eat it!

Lean Protein (any of the following)
(Eat all you want before you feel full. The eggs are limited per day)

Salmon, canned or fresh
Sole
Flounder
Catfish
Tilapia
Canned tuna (in water) (Albacore is less fishy)

Chicken breasts
Turkey breasts
Lean ground Turkey

Eggs (2 eggs = 1 serving)
Egg Whites (4 = 1 serving)

Cleansing Vegetables
(Eat all you want before you feel full)

Cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, asparagus, spinach, okra, broccoli, tomatoes, onions, artichokes, bell peppers (all kinds), carrots, celery, cucumbers, eggplant, garlic, green beans, kale, leeks, all varieties of lettuce, mushrooms, parsley, scallions, spinach, watercress


Low-Sugar Fruit – Limit to 2 servings daily

Apples, berries, grapefruit, oranges, peaches, pears, plums, prickly pear cactus, prunes, red grapes. (Frozen and canned are okay. Fresh of course is best)

Probiotic Foods/DAIRY (balance your digestion) – Limit to 2 servings a day

Yogurt—sugar free; can be fruit flavored or plane (low fat or no fat) – 6 ounces = 1 serving
*The Green plain lowfat has 23 grams of protein per serving! This will stave off hunger. Sweeten it with stevia or frozen berries.

Kefir – 1 cup = 1 serving (good for smoothies –but so is yogurt)

Low fat milk = 1 serving = 1 cup
Low fat cottage cheese = 1 serving is ½ cup)

Friendly Fats -- 1 to 2 Tablespoons daily

Olive oil or flaxseed oil

Condiments

Salsa, low-carb marinara sauce, lite soy, low car ketchup, fat free sour cream, low fat low sodium broth, truvia, sugar free jams, vegetable cooking spray, fat free cheeses (Parmesan), fat free salad dressing, salt, pepper, vinegar, mustard, herbs and spices.

*Truvia or Stevia will be my friend in plain yogurt, coffee and tea!


BASIC PLAN:

• As much as you want of the specific proteins and vegetables listed
• Supplement with 2 low-sugar fruits from the list and 2 servings of the probiotics from the list
• Have no more than 1-2 Tablespoons of the friendly fats
• Exercise for 17 minutes
• Drink your green tea
• Drink your 8 glasses of water a day—and start off one of them in the a.m. as a hot wake up drink with half a lemon.



That’s it. Just eat that stuff for 17 days:

Sample menu:

Breakfast

• 2 eggs or 4 egg whites OR 1 serving of probiotic such as yogurt (Veggie omelets, scrambled eggs, fried eggs, boiled, poached OR yogurt shake with the fruit or a cup of yogurt)
• 1 fruit serving (half a grapefruit, an orange an apple, fruit in a yogurt smoothie)
• 1 cup of green tea

LUNCH
• Liberal amounts of protein from the lean protein list
• A big salad (look at the list of stuff you can make a salad with! You can combine your protein with the salad in the form of a grilled chicken salad or dump a can of tuna or albacore (which is less fishy) on your salad. I recommend investing in some expensive, aged vinegar. You would be surprised at the great taste of it—it’s way better than the yucky fat free salad dressings. I will use ONE of my FAT allowances for my salads sometimes in the form of 1 T of olive oil drizzled over the veggies.
• 1 cup of green tea

DINNER

• Liberal amounts of protein (Marinated chicken breast—in condiments from the list; salmon; lean turkey burgers; chicken wraps with lettuce, etc.)
• Vegetables from the list
• 1 cup of green tea

SNACKS
2nd fruit serving
2nd Probiotic serving

ADDITIONAL
1 serving of friendly fat that you probably had on your salad or in cooking.



See you tomorrow on D Day!