Day 7 of Week 3 I used A Body Builder's Diet Secret

Weight today: same

Total lost: 8 pounds in 20 days

Kix cereal bites: 35

1/2 cup of oatmeal: 150

2 tsp of sugar: 30

1/3 cup of skim milk:30

1 tbl of powdered creamer in coffee:30

with sweet-n-low

total: 275

coffee with 3 tbl of creamer: 105

and sweet-n-low

vanilla protein shake: 110

total: 215

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running total: 490

7 oz of grilled chicken: 245

1/2 cup of potato dish: 150 (est)

1 m&m cookie bar: 150 (est)

total:545

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running total: 1035

pretzels:15

4 tbl of chocolate malt-o-meal:172

2 tsp of sugar:30

1/4 cup of skim milk:22

coffee with 1 tbl of creamer: 30

total: 269

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running total: 1304
1/2 cup of Blue Bunny light Bunny tracks ice cream: 150

total: 1454

Today's challenge: Getting through a nearby picnic and making sure I drink lots of water.

Note on Picture: Yesterday's secret weapons were pre-made chicken and potatoes, chicken and brown rice and vanilla blended with banana and ice and water protein shakes.

What's in your six-shooter?

I Used A Body Builder's Diet Secret

You read this right. I borrowed my diet strategy yesterday from body builders.

Since I don't know how many of my readers are hip on what body builders do to diet, I'll explain. Ever see those perfect bodies on magazines and wonder how they do it?

They have to watch every single thing they put into their mouth. They can't leave that to chance. So they prepare their food ahead of time and take it with them. They can't trust the restaurants to get it right. They can't take the risk that the local gas station has what they need to fuel their bodies, so they take it all with them.

While that may seem like a lot of extra hassle, it is also the perfect solution.

You've just taken that huge diet pressure off. You've burst it's big ole bubble. What confidence!Now you can go anywhere you want...anytime you want and you don't have to worry about the food issue. You just pull out your pre-measured meal, and eat it while everyone else makes do with the choices that are out there.

And you eat it when you want. Yesterday, I ate all my pre-made meals at exactly the time that my body needed them. I didn't have to wait in line...I didn't have to wait till it was "time" to eat. Heck, I didn't even have to wait till grace was said.

How empowering.

Remember when I wrote that you should be eating six meals during the day to keep your metabolism running high and to also keep yourself from snacking out of hunger? Well this is exactly what body builders do.

And since we are building our bodies...let's use their strategy.

So, yesterday, I figured out about how long I was going to be gone. And then, I simply packed the meals that I normally ate when at home. Then, when the time arrived for my meal to be eaten, I just grabbed it and ate. So, even though the surroundings were different, and the activities going on around me was different, my body was still able to respond to the schedule that it had been on during the week.

So, at 10 a.m., I drank my protein shake. At noon we stopped at a gas station and I warmed up my potatoes and chicken. Around 1:30 everyone else was eating food, but I was not because I was waiting for my next meal. At 3 p.m. I drank my second protein shake. Then, around 5 p.m. I had my chicken and brown rice. Around 6 p.m. I had some frosting licks and then a pudding package.

And preparing the food wasn't too hard. The night before, when I made my meal, I simply cooked up additional chicken breasts along with the one I was eating that night. I also cooked up additional potatoes for the next day along with the amount I was eating that night. The next morning I made up the rice. But brown rice is easy to do, because you can actually make yourself up a big batch and it will last 3 or 4 days in the refrigerater.

Yesterday was definitely a success. I stuck to my diet, which felt great. I knew exactly how many calories was in what I was eating. I didn't have to wonder. And the food I ate was tasty and filling.