My GM Diet Experience

About a week ago, I talked about my plan to start trying out the GM Diet (click here). I will be honest to tell you that i was not able to strictly follow this diet plan. I strictly followed the diet plan to the letter upto the 2nd day, but from the 3rd day onwards, there were a few lapses here and there. Here's how my GM diet went. 

DAY 1: Fruits, except bananas. 

Weight Today: 127.3 lbs 

I started my day with 4 slices of cantaloupe and 2 glasses of water. After this i already felt full as I normally do not eat breakfast at all. By midday, i felt really hungry my stomach was growling really bad. I ate an apple and a glass of water for midday snack. For lunch i ate an apple, a pear and 2 glasses of water. I was still hungry after this, so you can imagine the self control i had seeing the daing na bangus that my mom was having for lunch.  I was hungry the entire afternoon, my stomach wouldn't stop growling. I snacked on half a cantaloupe and 2 apples the entire afternoon and about 3 glasses of water. For dinner, i avoided joining the husband at the table to avoid temptation. He ate alone. Poor husband. In my room, i chowed down 2 pears and 2 glasses of water. Overall, this wasn't such a bad day. I mean yes i kept getting hunger pangs but as I really like fruits, I had no problems at all eating them constantly. 

DAY 2: Vegetables

Weight Today: 126.8

I woke up today feeling extremely light. I weighed myself and was happy to see i lost half a pound. Not much, but this is a start right? I braced myself for a dreadful day ahead. Its Vegetables day! I am not a big fan of vegetables, especially potatoes. I know the plan says to eat a baked or boiled potato for breakfast but knowing i will not be able to stomach this, i substituted with a sweet potato instead. Now sweet potato, this i really like. Especially the yellow ones. For breakfast i ate 2 medium sized sweet potato and 2 glasses of water and i was full. Compared to the first day, the hunger pangs wasn't as terrible. By midday, i snacked on half a cucumber and water. The cucumber was yum! For lunch, i had 1 sweet potato, blanched cauliflower, half of the remaining cucumber and water. It wasn't very appetizing, but i felt full afterwards. For afternoon snacks i had store bought garden salad with no dressing. I had 2 sweet potato and half a cucumber for dinner. I am so glad this day is definitely coming to an end.

Day 3: Fruits (except bananas) & Vegetables

Weight Today:  125.8 lbs

I already lost 1.5 lbs in total. I'm so happy! I'm thinking this might just be water weight but i am so happy i am making progess. All in all, i ate 6 medium-sized sweet potatoes, 2 cucumbers, 1 cantaloupe, some kiwi, an apple, and lots of water. My hunger pangs and cravings have also been less frequent. I have also been sleeping early the past days (I normally sleep at 11 pm) to stop myself from getting the midnight cravings.

Day 4: Bananas & Milk

Weight Today: 124.3

I lost 3 lbs! Wohoo! I started the day with 2 large lakatan bananas and a glass of lowfat milk. For midday snacks I had 2 boiled saging na saba (i googled for the english term for saging na saba and  apparently its Cardava Banana). For lunch i had 2 boiled cardava banana, 1 lakatan banana, a glass of milk and water. By midafternoon, i was so hungry i almost fainted twice. I had a terrible headache around 3 pm and felt so weak. Mom got really worried, she made me eat a bowl of oatmeal. I devoured it in less than 5 minutes. I felt a little better after the meal but was still a bit weak. Come dinner, I ate a bowl of oatmeal again, 2 lakatan bananas, and a glass of milk. I slept early.

Day 5: Beef & Tomatoes

Weight Today: 124.1

Not much weight loss today. Probably because of the oatmeal i ate yesterday. The plan calls for 2 10oz piece of lean beef but i know i consumed more than this today. All in all i consumed 3 slices of beefsteak (minus the sauce), 3 tomatoes, 2 sweet potato and half a cucumber. I wanted to stick to the diet plan but it was just too difficult as i kept getting headaches.

Day 6: Beef & Vegetables

Weight: 124. 4

I gained .03 lbs today from yesterday. Overall, i still lost 2.9 lbs from when i started last Monday. The diet plan says to eat as much beef and vegetables as you can, and i sure did! Today i ate a burger from Flame It (Yum!), a slice of beef, 4  sweet potatoes, 1 cantaloupe and a cucumber. 

Day 7: Brown Rice & Vegetables

Weight: 124.4

I woke up this morning with the realization that i do not have brown rice in the pantry. I totally forgot. I remembered making a mental note to myself 2 days ago to buy half a kilo of brown rice which as expected, i forgot about. Instead of brown rice, i had a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast. Since its a Sunday, i cooked lunch. This is the only time i get to cook for the husband as we normally are both very busy during weekdays. I made him slow cooked adobo (hubby says i make the best adobo in the world), and some chili shrimps. By noon, my stomach was growling from all the delicious smells in the kitchen. And because we always ate lunch together during Sundays, I had no excuse (diet or whatever) to not have lunch with him at the table. It was the heap of steaming hot rice that got me and made me throw all caution into the air. It was heaven at first bite. In all fairness i only ate about 3/4 cup of rice, a lot of the shrimps, and a teeny tiny piece of adobo. For snacks i only had a stick of banana que while the husband had no bake blueberry cheescake. Ugh! The pain i had to endure watching him eat bite after bite after bite of that cake. Come dinner, the husband and i had pochero and a few other things at Kusina Uno. It was a Sunday and in normal family tradition, we always try to eat out once a week, this was my excuse. I only ate again about 3/4 of a cup of rice, lots of the pochero meat and soup, and 3 lumpia. I fear what my weight will be tomorrow....

GM DIET CONCLUSION

Does it work? Based on experience, yes it does work. Especially if you strictly follow the diet plan. I cheated a couple of times but in the end i still lost 2.8 lbs. This is not a diet though that you can follow the rest of your life, because it is VERY difficult to follow. More so if you have a stressful 5-8 job, the banana and milk will not be enough to sustain your energy requirements. If the temptation or the cravings will not get you, then hunger, dizziness, and headache definitely will. 

I am not a fan of any diet plan that involves depriving oneself of the food you want to eat because in the end, once you get fed up (and surely you will) you'll eat double the amount of the food that you enjoy but miss eating. The GM Diet is a good way to kickstart a healthier eating habit/lifestyle probably, but in my opinion is not a good way to permanently lose weight. Now that i have been more conscious of what i eat and and the amount of food i consume, here's how i plan to permanently, and little by little lose the excess pounds:

1. Start getting some physical activity. Hubby and i will start hitting the gym tomorrow and will do so 4x a week, for 2 hours per session.
2. Drink lots and lots of water. The benefits of drinking lots of water will not only be beneficial to your skin, but will also aid in weight loss. I drink a minimum of 3 liters of water everyday (about 12 glasses of water).
3. Decrease my rice consumption to not more than 1 1/2 cups of rice per day. 
4. Eat more fruits and vegetables. 
5. Decrease dining out to a maximum of once a week. It doesn't help that the husband has a big appetite and takes pleasure at eating good food. This is his only real vice as he doesn't drink or smoke. He has a very active lifestyle though and is involved in a lot of sports activities so he hardly gains weight no matter how much he eats.  
6. Sleep early. There was a time when we had late night McDonalds delivery for 3 days straight due to movie marathons that end super late at night. We have stopped late night movie marathons and McDonald's delivery altogether. Last time i visited the McDelivery website was 3 weeks ago. What a feat! 
7. Snack on fruits, camote and boiled cardava banana instead of bread, pastries and sweets.
8. Eat everything in moderation. When i normally can down 3 cupcakes, 2 donuts, or 2 slices of cake in one sitting, i'll decrease that to maybe just 1. 

To all those trying to lose weight, or still planning to lose weight - MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU!