Melissa's Refeed

[MelissaE]

I started refeed today. It looks like I'll be finishing just in time to fly down to Florida for my brother's wedding. Yay!

So I'm going to try to explain the refeeding days because I never understood that until now. Basically you get the refeed program which is 30 days total and each day has specific foods to add to your original diet program. Dr. Cohen sends you something like this "3 to 10 and then 12 14 15 18 19 20 22 24 27 29 30" which means that you would do days 3-10 of the refeed program, then skip day 11 and do day 12. Does that make sense?

So today I added +30g protein and +40g veggies to my diet portions and I added 100g blueberries in addition to my 3 apples.

One question I had - are you not supposed to use cheese as an added protein?

Ok - I'll be adding a piece of bread tomorrow! Yay. You should've seen me at the store trying to pick out the best loaf of bread. I wanted one that would be really yummy. I actually really love healthy whole grain bread but they say not to use that on refeed. So I ended up getting a loaf of Arnold whole wheat bread. I love Pepperidge Farm bread but they didn't have any except for cinnamon raisin.

Tomorrow I'm going to add pineapple as my "good" fruit. We're out of blueberries but we're going blueberry picking this week at my husband's aunt's farm so I'll have a whole bunch.

[PhyllisRis]

Good job explaining things....and I'm so happy that it's blueberry season now for our refeed!! I truly missed them last year while on this diet!
Good luck....we're in the homestretch!
Phyllis

[Dayanira]

You too!!! You crossed the "fine thin" line towards Refeed! CONGRATULATIONS girls!!!

I can't wait to join you!
Keep explaining and detailing your journey ladies! It really helps.

[jgiolas]

Congratulations on reaching your goal!!!!!! :dance:

[Evolution]

Hello Ladies...Oh Yea! I am "ALL IN" to this "refeeding thing!" :party1:

My motto this AM: Read, read and reread all of the instructions and suggestions!!! Confession: I am still learning things regarding rules, etc. Your comment about 3 apples...I read the "New Customer" instructions as; at least one apple a day, but not more than one...UGH!

We picked Blueberries on Sunday...I still cannot believe I did not eat one berry out of the 15lbs we picked! I too cannot wait to enjoy the harvest. I missed our "famous" strawberry season (disappointed to see they were on the bad fruit list)...maybe next year!

Cheers Ev~

[MelissaE]

Oh I feel so full right now. Just finished my lunch.

Refeeding day 2
Breakfast: 1 egg, 70g veggies
Snack: apple
Lunch: tuna sandwich with lettuce, tomato & onion (with my 1 slice bread) & a small salad on the side. 100g +15g (115g) tuna & 115g+20g (135g) veggies total
Snack: 120g pineapple (my added "good" fruit), 2 crackers
Dinner: chicken (115g) w/ sauteed zucchini & yellow squash & steamed cauliflower (135g)
Snack: apple

I need to fit one more apple in there somewhere. Maybe one with dinner & one around 8pm.

We have a very large vegetable garden so we have a lot of zucchini, squash, cucumber, lettuce, cauliflower & onion right now. So most of my meals have those in them. In about a week we'll have green peppers & tomatoes ready.

Lunch seemed like a lot of food! You should've seen how ecstatic I was to have my bread. Arnold brand bread makes "Sandwich thins". Their weight, ingredients & nutrition facts are equivalent to one slice of bread so that's what I ate today. You can see the sandwich thins here (http://arnold.gwbakeries.com/subcat.cfm/subcatId/131)

I'm going to see the new Harry Potter movie today with my daughter. I'm bringing my pineapple & crackers as my movie snack, and I'll get an iced tea or diet coke.

That's my update for today. Hope Phyllis & Evolution are doing great on their refeeds. :)

[Evolution]

Melissa, those Sandwich Thins you gave reference to are made by "Orowheat" in our part of the US! I had heard about them from a friend that is doing W.Watchers and they are considered 1 point. (I guess that is good???)
Do you consider 1 piece as 1 slice of bread? or the 2 pieces/sides as 1 pieces? As they look like a bun replacement. :thinking:

Ev~

[MelissaE]

One bun (the top and the bottom) is equal to one slice of bread. I looked at nutrition facts on sliced bread and compared that with the buns - and that's what I came to. One slice of bread is 43g and 120g calories (this was one brand of white bread I was looking at). Then one bun (top & bottom pieces) is 43g and 100 calories. The ingredients are also very similar...the buns don't have any weird chemically altered ingredients as far as I could tell.

[PhyllisRis]

Melissa...thanks so much for doing the homework and sharing the info about the sandwich thins!! I will definitely look for those at our local grocery store tomorrow!!! I'm also going to buy a container of strawberries and a small bunch of bananas as I will soon be allowed to add a bad fruit. YEAH!
Phyllis

[MelissaE]

No problem! I actually got an email about them from one of my dieting/healthy eating newsletters. That's how I knew to look for them.

Mmm...strawberries & bananas! That's coming up soon, huh? I do my grocery shopping today for the week so I have to go through everything I'll be needing to add in my refeed program and buy it all today. I need to go blueberry picking today.

[MelissaE]

Refeed Day 3
Breakfast: 1 egg, 70g veggies, 1/2 apple
Snack: 1/2 apple & 2 saltines
Lunch: tuna (130g) sandwich with lettuce, tomato & onion & one "sandwich thin" bun. small cucumber & tomato salad on side (135g) & 120g pineapple
Snack: apple & 2 saltines
Dinner: sauteed chicken (130g) sauteed zucchini & small salad on side (135g)
Snack: apple

I really can't eat fruit with my breakfast or else I become starving all day....I made the mistake of having an apple with my breakfast so as a result the rest of the day I was soo hungry. Even the added protein (I added 60g old protein today) wasn't enough to keep me full.

[MelissaE]

Refeed Day 4

Breakfast: 1 egg, 70g veggies
Snack: 1 apple, 2 saltines
Lunch: Grilled cheese sandwich! And 105g cucumber & tomato salad with balsamic vinegar. I took my piece of bread, sprayed with cooking spray then cut in half - put mozzerella (60g) in the middle and cooked on stove. Mmm it was so good.
120g pineapple
Snack: 1 apple, 2 saltines
Dinner: 160g chicken and 195g vegetables (that seems like so much)
Snack: 1 apple

I had one slice of white bread today (good quality country white bread)...blegh, didn't like it. My husband is going to eat the rest of that loaf and I'm going to get whole wheat. Does anyone know a really good wheat bread brand?

[PhyllisRis]

Melissa.....good idea with the grilled cheese!! Why didn't I think of that?? ;)
Phyllis

[Dayanira]

Melissa...You're doing such a good job! But I wonder if you are one of those people who by eating apples make them hungrier. I'm not sure if it is in the guide or maybe Shasha mentioned about it in some posts. My advice -although I'm not an expert - would be to eat one apple a day and eat it at dinner time and choose other kinds of fruit for other meals or snacks. I've always eaten 2 apples during my diet, but about 2 weeks ago when I was feeling so hungry in the afternoons, I was eating 3 apples a day, too!!!

Give it a try, after all Refeed is about experiencing new food!

[Evolution]

Melissa~Good Bread is one of my goals, as well. As leaving bread behind for this new life was my biggest struggle...

Looking for a satisfying wheat bread, while staying within the parameters of rules, makes it that much more difficult. In the NW part of the country we have Franz Bread and Orowheat for the major producers. But the more I look at the ingredients the more I would rather make my own loaf (bread machine of course). So in the meantime, I am going to one of our farmers markets to see if I can find a basic loaf from an organic style baker. It may seem like a lot of work, but one slice of really good bread is worth it to me! :drool:

Ev~

[MelissaE]

Not much time to write, but just wanted to say that my weight has been steadily going down still (about .2 per day) and yesterday I lost a whole pound! Yay!

I went to a Farmer's Market yesterday and there was a bakery which looked like it had good quality fresh bread. They didn't have any to buy but I'm going to go to their bakery today and see what I can find. :)

I'll post more data about my refeed tonight when I get home. I'm going new clothes shopping today, yay!

[MelissaE]

Whew, life has been super busy for me. We went blueberry picking yesterday so I have some fresh blueberries to eat the next 2 days, then I start adding the "bad" fruits. We couldn't go berry picking on friday so I had to buy store-bought blueberries, blegh - there's a huge difference in fresh off the bush. I think blueberries are going to be my choice fruit the rest of the summer after I finish this diet. Then it's apple season so I'll get tons & tons of apples from the local farms here.

Ok, so refeed has been going well. I had my piece of bread on an empty stomach and didn't like that, it gave me heartburn.

I got 2 compliments the other day. One girl came up to me and said "Melissa, you've lost gobs of weight haven't you? You look really good!" The next one was kind of funny. A guy that hasn't seen me since winter went up to my husband and said "is that the same girl you've always been with? She looks totally different" and then when I came over he told me I looked really good and asked what I was doing. So that was nice. I rarely get compliments because I spend most of my time at home with my daughter.

Well the best part of this summer is that I haven't had to buy any vegetables for a few weeks now. I've been getting them all fresh out of our garden. Tomatoes aren't ready yet....it needs to warm up a bit, but we have so many zucchini we don't know what to do with them all. Its been in the 70s here in Michigan all summer, where are those 90F days?? It feels like summer hasn't come yet. I guess I'll get my bit of hot weather when I go to FL in 2 weeks.

I guess that's my update for now.

[MelissaE]

Well I had a hard time finishing my lunch today. I'm up to adding 90g old protein and 120g old veggies. I split it up between lunch & dinner so each meal only has 45g protein & 60g veggies added. So today I made my tuna fish sandwich with some onion & lettuce, then there was about half a bowl of tuna that didn't fit on the sandwich, and I still had to eat another 125g vegetables, so I cut up some cucumber & cauliflower but it was hard to eat the rest of the veggies, I was so full.

[PhyllisRis]

Hi Melissa....
Isn't it amazing how adding just a "little" bit more food makes us feel so full now??? And I'm not feeling hungry much in between meals anymore, either. I added a banana as a bad fruit today and I didn't like how it made me feel WHILE I was eating it....I could really feel the sugar in it. I've decided that I don't like bananas anymore where I used to LOVE them! Cool, one less thing to buy in the future.
Gotta LOVE those Michigan blueberries!!
Phyllis

[Dayanira]

Hmmm fresh veggies! When I just started with 1PD my garden was full of tomatoes, zuchinies, celery, spring onions, cucumbers, etc. I miss them!

I've never been fond of bananas, but lately I've been craving for them. I hope that as soon as I'm able to taste them again that desires goes away.

You ladies are doing a fantastic job!

[MelissaE]

I just bought 2 bananas to eat and some strawberries. Maybe I'll skip the banana and just do the strawberries. I had sweet cherries yesterday as my "bad" fruit but they were too sweet for me.

So my weight was going down (lost 1.8lbs since refeed started) as of Saturday....then I added another piece of bread and it went up a bit, now its back up 1.6lbs. I was supposed to have 3 pieces of bread yesterday but couldn't fit the third one in. Maybe I'll just continue eating 1 piece with my crackers. I'm scared its going to cause more weight gain.....I dont like the bread either but then if I dont eat it, is it going to effect what I can eat after I finish refeed?

Also, I know this question has been raised a lot - is the 2lbs cumulated weight gained or just 2lbs gained from your weight the previous day?? And is it 2lbs from my weight when I started refeed or if I lost weight and then gain 2lbs from that?

[KMac]

how was the banana?- out of all the fruits thats the one I miss the most.
I'll get there sooner or later..lol

[sdp126]

Someone said "banana" - LOL.

I only laugh because my husband sent me a video on "How to peel a banana like a monkey" the other day.

It's embarrassing that we call ourselves more evolved. (Google it if you want to see the video).

Most "evolved" humans open a banana from the stem side, which can be difficult sometimes if the banana isn't cooperative.

Monkeys and apes open a banana from the bottom by pinching the end and peeling it. It's shockingly simple and shows who the true geniuses are on this planet - LMAO.

Try it sometime (if you're allowed bananas). You'll be smart as a chimp.

Suzanne

[MelissaE]

Haha, that's really interesting about peeling a banana. I never thought about it much. I normally cut a slit in the top with my thumb nail before peeling it.

I haven't had the banana yet. I ate strawberries with my lunch. I'll probably have the banana as my snack or with dinner.

I had "french toast" for breakfast. Used my egg allowance and whisked it up with a little splenda & cinnamon, dipped the slice of bread in it and cooked it in a pan. In a few days I can add 1.7oz of milk, which is about 3 1/2 tbs I think, so I'll add that to the egg mixture for my french toast. Mmm.

For lunch I had a tuna (175g) sandwich with lettuce & onion (and my Sandwich Thin bread) and a cucumber salad on the side (170g)

I think for dinner I'm having steak (170g) & zucchini (190g). I need to figure out something creative to do with my bread at dinner. I don't like eating it plain and can't put butter on it yet (next week I can!) Last night I made garlic bread out of it. I sprayed it with olive oil cooking spray, sprinkled salt, pepper, garlic powder, parsley & put some minced garlic on top and toasted it in the toaster oven. Mmm. Then I dipped it in balsamic vinegar left over from my salad. Any other ideas?

Eating bread by itself as a snack gave me heartburn so I'm trying to make sure I eat it with my meals. That's my update for now. I'll let you know how the banana goes. :)

[PhyllisRis]

OMG....French toast...that is such an awesome idea!!! That's my breakfast tomorrow!!! Thanks for the idea. THAT'S why it's a good thing to post stuff like this on the forum...:)
Phyllis

[Evolution]

Hey, Melissa! It seems everyone celebrated your Banana and French Toast but did not answer your weight gain questions. :drool:
The 2 lbs gain they want us to be aware of is from one days weight to another. Sounds like your up and down weight that you posted is similar to mine.
Nice job with creative cooking!

Ev~

[MelissaE]

Thanks for the answer Ev. It's been staying around the same .2 range for the past 2 days. Yay. As long as it doesn't go over 140, I'm happy.

The banana tasted very yummy. I ate it with my dinner so the sugar in it didn't effect me much (since i ate it with protein). I guess I'll be eating that as my "bad" fruit since the strawberries here aren't very fresh (imported from CAli). I could also try some watermelon, mmm.

I can't believe how big my steak was last night. I cut a piece for my husband and put it in the marinade. Then later when it was time to cook, I cut my piece & weighed it - it was bigger than his. This is getting fun!