Brown Rice and the 17 Day Diet



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When you reach the second cycle of the 17 Day Diet, you can have some starchy carbs every other day.  Dr. Mike Moreno stresses having brown rice instead of white rice due to its low glycemic load.  If you are still on the fence about switching over to brown rice, try different types and accept that this change is good for your health, not just your waistline.  I Love California Basmati Brown Rice and will never go back to white rice.  It smells like popcorn when it is cooking and cooks fluffy and light. Still not convinced?  Read my article below for the full health benefits and types of brown rice available. Keep an open mind and, in time, you'll learn to love brown rice better than its unhealthy, stripped-of-nutrients, bleached cousin!



Brown Rice and Your Health



What kind of rice are you serving with your meals? If it is that same boring white rice, there are many benefits to switching to one of the healthier brown rice choices.



The Difference between White Rice and Brown Rice



Both white and brown rice are gluten-free, and contain no trans fat or cholesterol, however, the

differences between the two can be monumental in regard to many diseases and health conditions.



The 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends that the foundation for a healthy diet be three servings daily of whole grains. Brown rice is 100% whole grain, with the bran and inner germ layer still intact. It is not milled like white rice which removes the fiber, the plant-based carbohydrate part of the food our bodies don't digest. Fiber can relieve constipation and prevent several conditions such as gallstones, kidney stones, hemorrhoids, and diverticular disease, a condition in which small pouches develop in the colon that become infected and cause painful digestive problems.



Health Benefits of Eating Brown Rice



1. Lower Blood Glucose.  Diabetes tells us in their Fall 2010 magazine edition that eating five or more servings of white rice weekly increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, while two or more servings of brown rice actually lowers that risk. Their article, "Brown Rice for Lower Blood Glucose," states "replacing 50 grams of white rice (one third of a serving) with the same amount  of brown rice would lower type 2 diabetes risk by 16%.



Physicians consider a healthy diet one that includes foods low in saturated fat, cholesterol and made with whole grains. Selecting brown rice in place of white rice as a whole grain choice has several benefits for your body.



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Day 46 on the 17 Day Diet - Tips for Dining Out on a Diet

Okay, I was lamenting about how slow the weight loss was and then a few days ago I lost a pound and today another! That's now a total of 16 pounds. I'm trying not to weigh every day...but dang, that's hard! 



I may recoil back tomorrow because I took my grandson out for his birthday dinner tonight and I ate a little more than I should have.  But tomorrow back on it! I thought I'd share this article about eating out when you are dieting.  Dining out is like a landmine for those of us trying to lose weight!





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Tips for Dining Out on a Diet

Willpower in a Restaurant

Dining out can be the downfall to many diets. It is almost impossible to completely avoid going "out" for lunch with friends, or having a birthday dinner with family. Here are some methods to keep you on your diet and not give into temptation.



Review your Diet Commitment before Dinner

Before leaving the house, meditate, pray; review your goals, whatever it takes to move your weightloss goals to the front of your mind. Remind yourself of how much losing weight means to you and acknowledge that it requires sacrifice and commitment to get there.



Ask yourself, "Is eating the wrong food worth going backwards on my diet?" or "Will throwing my body out of fat-burning ketosis be worth this one meal?" or "Do I want to gain back that one pound I worked so hard to lose last week?" Take a diet suppressant right before you leave, if need be. Change your attitude about dining out. It's about the company, not the food after all. If you don't agree with that, you need to do some soul searching.



Review the Restaurant's Menu Ahead of Time for Choices that Fit Your Diet

If the destination for dining out is planned ahead of time, check the internet to see if the restaurant has a website. Most major eateries have nutritional information online. If so, plan a meal that is in line with your diet's guidelines. If not, call the restaurant to make sure they have something you can eat without guilt.



Most restaurants have a meal or two that fits into a low fat or low carb diet, and will, at very least, offer a salad that works for almost anyone. Look for grilled chicken or fish with vegetables that are low on the glycemic index. Get used to the idea that if all else fails, you'll order a salad with low calorie dressing and enjoy it.



Stick to Your Diet Guns and Order Naturally

Before ordering, quietly tell the waiter you are on a restricted diet and need to have your meal prepared with no sugar and reduced fat. Ask how they cook their fish or chicken. Ask if they have a low-fat salad dressing and get it on the side. Ask them to leave the potatoes or rice off the plate, so you won't even be tempted.







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Another pound gone! Review of "Start Walking at Home" with Leslie Sansone

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Happy to report that I finally lost another pound, bringing my total weight loss on the 17 Day Diet to 14.5 pounds.  This is day 44, ten days into the achieve cycle.  Just as I was losing faith in the diet's principles the numbers on the scale change!  Yesterday, I walked my pup and exercised inside for a total of 45 minutes, which I plan to continue every day going forward. I am getting very close to the healthy weight I used to be for most of my life....only 17 pounds left. I am the most confident I've felt in years.



Since I've renewed my commitment to exercise as I am losing weight on the 17 Day Diet, I'm sharing an article I wrote about one of my favorite walking workouts with Leslie Sansone.  If you are in need of a workout that isn't complicated, but works, try this one (and you can order it from Amazon....See My Favorites in the sidebar):



Review of "Start Walking at Home" with Leslie Sansone

Stay in Shape with This Easy Walking Exercise Routine!

In my continuing quest to find a variety of workouts that will motivate me to stay on track with my weight loss and fitness routine, I decided to Leslie Sansone's walking workout routines. Leslie Sansone has over 75 in-home walking videos and she owns Studio Fitness in New Castle, Pennsylvania. This workout review is of her 1 and 2 mile workouts featured in her "Start Walking at Home" series, which I tried on exercise TV. I found them both easy to follow and energizing!



The simple act of walking has inherent health benefits for everyone. The American Heart Association (AHA) endorses a regular walking routine to prevent heart disease and claim that brisk walking for 30 minutes can reduce the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. If you like the idea of a walking routine to get or stay in shape, check out AHA's "My Start" walking site, where you can sign up for newsletters, connect with "sole mates" that share your quest, plan a routine and track your miles from walking, as well as enter your daily food intake. Additionally, if you don't have one, purchase a pedometer to track your steps during a walking program. You'll find yourself taking the longer route when you have that step counter clipped to your waistband!



Exercise Video Reviewed:Start Walking at Home



Instructor: Leslie Sansone

Exercise Level: Beginner to Mid-level

Total Workout time: 20 minutes for the 1 mile, 30 minutes for the 2 mile

(5 minutes warm up and cool down included)

Equipment needed: Just your athletic shoes!

Estimated calories burned (using Calorie Count's Database): 130 - 1 mile / 185 - 2 mile



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After 37 Days on the 17 Day Diet I've Lost a Bowling Ball!



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It's my third day on the Achieve Cycle and I'm so happy to have gotten this far.  After a week of my weight loss lingering at 13 pounds, I finally dropped another half pound as of this morning.  It's interesting too, because now that I can eat more, I'm finding I am often not all that hungry and eat less!  I have to admit that I look forward to my two servings of starchy carbs, but for the most part, I'm still enjoying most of the other foods I've been eating on the first two cycles. I'm happy that in just 37 days there's 13.5 pounds less of me!  I'm getting into pants I haven't fit into for a year. My skin has a healthy glow and I feel good about myself.  Life is good!



Here's how I'm looking at my weight loss after 37 days on the 17 Day Diet:



My drop of 1/2 pound today = a can of tomato sauce or a canister of Parmesan grated cheese

My total loss of 13.5 pounds = a pro bowler's bowling ball

I've lost 3.5 pounds more than a 10 pound bag of potatoes on this diet!

When I reach 15 pounds I will have lost weight equivalent to a market umbrella!

Since last fall my 20 pound drop equals a 19-inch flat screen TV plus a bag of sugar!



For more fun weight loss equivalents read "Losing Weight One Pound at a Time"

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Automate Your Diet and Fitness Routine

Part of a successful weight loss plan involves several moving parts.  This article I wrote a while back has ideas that work in perfectly with the 17 Day Diet! Automating works!

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Turn on Your Internal Auto Pilot to Stay Fit!



Staying fit isn't easy, but if you automate your diet and exercise routine, you'll find it easier to hit and maintain that healthy number on the scale. Here's how to do it.



Automate Your Food Shopping

Shop no more than once a week and use a shopping list. Head directly for those items, rather than strolling up and down every aisle where tempting food lurks. Many stores offer home delivery and their websites allow you to save your shopping list for future use. Consider this option, since it will keep you out of the store and less likely to purchase a treat that might sabotage your diet.



Automate Your Meal Planning



When trying to lose weight or maintain your weight, it isn't necessary to cook like a chef and plan a wide variety of meals. Keeping a balanced diet in mind, plan a simple, weekly menu that includes healthy foods that you enjoy. Then repeat!



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Want My Background Story? I'm a Medi-Weightloss Flunkee!

Here's how I looked at my lowest weight after Medi-Weightloss

My weightloss story includes initially following the Medi-weightloss plan whereby I lost 40 pounds (at a cost of almost $1,200!), but then gained back 20 of those pounds during the next year.  This post on my "My Medi-weightloss Tips and Advice" blog will give you my background story and how I ended up on the 17 Day Diet.  Here's that post:



Update and Admission (from Medi-Weightloss Tips and Advice Blog)

I've gotten some emails asking how I have been doing in maintaining my weight loss over the past year.  I'm here to give you an update and add a few recommendations if you have started the Medi-weightloss program. 

First of all, I am thankful that I went to the Medi-weightloss clinic when I did over a year and a half ago, because I was depressed and not feeling very hopeful.  But, once on the program my mood lifted as those pounds melted away!  My weight loss reached an amazing 40 pounds when I stopped going to the clinic.

I had about 2 weeks diet pills left so I continued to follow the program's guidelines until the pills ran out and then much of my willpower vanished.  During those two weeks following my departure, I lost another 2 pounds and I was still flying high at a total of 42 pounds lost....but then....over time I gained back 20 pounds! :(



Here's how it went:



I tried to stick with the routine I had developed, but once I didn't have the diet pills to lean on, I cheated a little here and a lot there.  The holidays came and went.  I saw a ten pound gain and went back to the Medi-Weightloss clinic for help.



I was disappointed at their reception.  I told them I had fallen off the wagon and wanted to get back on track.  But instead of hearing what I had expected, which might have gone like this: "This happens sometimes and we have a restart program," or "We are glad you came back before this got out of hand, here's what we can do," I faced shrugged shoulders.  Seriously!  In fact, I was told that it's not easy to lose weight like the first time and that maybe I was just at the weight my body wanted to be at. Then the RN added, "But if you want to try, we can do it, but I don't want you to be disappointed if it doesn't work, and I don't want you to waste your money."



In spite of the ambivilance I had faced, I paid $75.00, got a vitamin B shot, and a week's worth of diet pills, leaving humiliated. This is not what I had expected from the team that had celebrated my initial weightloss with me. I was not given any diet advice other than go back to the first phase of the diet.  Logically, I should have been able to figure this out on my own, right? But, I think I was expecting something more than what I got, and I went home feeling defeated and alone, and cancelled the appointment I had set up for the next week.  I decided that this clinic was too expensive for the support I had gotten that day.



Over the next few months, the scale went up slowly as I vascillated between eating right and blowing it completely.  The holidays were hard, birthdays were hard and almost all my bad habits came back.  When I had gained back 20 pounds, I went to my doctor for my annual physical and found out that my cholesteral was slightly elevated.  He and I talked about the fact that I had gained back the weight and he agreed to prescribe phendametrazine for me so I could regain control.



I thought this plan would be better since I only had to pay my doctor's fees and the cost of a $20 prescription each month, cutting the costs by 3/4's! That was last fall and over two months I had lost 7 pounds...not as impressive as when I was going to Medi, but at least I was headed back down.



The week between Christmas and the New Year, I starting seeing Dr. Mike Moreno on shows like The Doctors, Dr. Oz, and Dr. Phil talking about his new diet, the 17 Day Diet.  All the doctors recommended it highly and there were people claiming to have lost weight quickly on this plan.  Maybe it was the time of year (New Year's resolution time!) or maybe some divine intervention...I don't know...but I sat glued onto the TV screen and decided that I was going to start this diet in 2011!



I started the 17 Day Diet on January 2, 2011 and as of this post, I have lost 13 more pounds, which means that I have lost that 20 pounds I gained back after I stopped Medi-weightloss.  And the best part is that I am enjoying the food on this diet, and losing weight WITHOUT diet pills! I know it may sound like a fad diet, but it actually is a great roadmap for getting off the extra weight quickly and transitioning back into mainstream eating as you progress through each 17-day cycle.



This is my last post on this blog (note: The Medi-Weightloss Blog, not the 17 Day Diet Blog!), because I feel I have found a better (and less costly) method to lose weight and am hopeful I will maintain it.  I don't want to discourage you if you are losing weight with Medi....keep it up.  But if you fell off the Medi wagon like I did, or have been worried about how you'll maintain the weight loss (since Medi doesn't actually provide a maintainence diet plan), come join me on the 17 Day diet once you're off their program.  I've started a 17 Day Diet Tips Blog and plan to journal regularly how I am doing and provide helpful tips there.  I'm feeling energetic, sleeping well and extrememly positive about this plan!



Whatever plan you follow, make your health top priority, and don't give up!  If one diet doesn't work, find another.  And don't overpay to lose weight.  Switching over to the 17 Day diet will cost you around $25 for the book or around $50 if you buy the exercise DVD too. That's a big savings over the $1200 I paid for Medi.



Good luck...let's find a way to lose weight that we can maintain for life...that's the goal we must keep in sight.

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Watching the Scale

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This is my 14th day on the second cycle (Activate) of the 17 Day Diet and I've lost 13 pounds.  Usually, when trying to lose weight, I only weigh myself once a week or at most, every couple days. On this diet, however, I have been stepping on that scale daily. The weight isn't coming off on the activate cycle as fast as it did on the accelerate cycle, but am seeing a steady downward trend. 



During the first cycle I was losing 1/2 pound most days...it was amazing, but it only makes sense that this pace isn't sustainable.  Interestingly, I'm finding that during this second cycle, which alternates between a day on accelerate and the next activate, I've noticed that I tend to see a drop in weight on the day after the Activate day, which seems backwards to me.  I'm wondering if anyone else has noticed that?  And I've even gone up a pound or so some days, but the very next day, I would have lost that pound plus another one!



I'm sharing this so you won't be discouraged if you don't see the number on that scale that you were hoping for.  I'm finding that if I just stick with it, week by week I am keeping off the weight I've lost during the week prior and an additional few pounds.  The trick here is to be realistic and happy that your weight is less week after week.



This diet has been truly wonderful for me!  After losing 40 pounds on Medi-weightloss, (eating less than 1000 calories a day and taking diet pills), then gaining back 20 after I stopped, I was feeling despair.  But this diet has gotten me back on track eating delicious healthy foods without those diet pills! I hope you are experiencing good results too! Happy guilt-free eating!

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Tips and Advice for the 17 Day Diet

Ideas Dr. Mike Moreno Didn't Think Of!

If you have jumped on the 17 Day Diet train like me, you are establishing some healthy eating habits while that number on the scale is going down. Here are a few fun and helpful tips you can use as you lose those pounds!



How's it Working for Me You Ask?I am currently on the second cycle of the 17 day diet (day 27 to be exact) and have lost a total of 12 pounds, which I am thrilled about. During these last 27 days, I have developed a good routine, tried some of the recipes in the book, and come up with some ideas that I thought you might find helpful. Here they are:



Tracking WaterAt first I thought I might float away trying to drink all the fluids on this diet, but soon I developed a pattern. To ensure that I get my eight glasses of water in each day, I use a water bottle that holds 32 ounces, which means less tracking. I fill it up each morning and carry it around with me wherever I am in the house, when I'm driving, at my daughter's home, etc. Once I've finished it off twice, I automatically know I have gotten my water in for the day.



Make Lemon Zest out of all Those Lemons!As all 17 Day dieters know, every day starts out with a cup of warm water that contains the juice of half a lemon. This is my least favorite part of the diet, but I do it. During some research, I found that lemon and limes have the same nutritional properties, so I switch between them in the mornings. The health benefits I uncovered during my research gave me more incentive to stick with this part of the plan. (They both are rated 'excellent' on the " World's Healthiest Foods Rating " chart.)



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