I really think this is a bad diet idea. This has not been a good day. I started the Daniel Plan today (this was written yesterday, July 21), and I am starting to regret gaining weight in the first place, because it forced me to lose it. I realize I will be a lot happier in 40 days, but this first day is crap.
I went nuts yesterday. I did everything I knew I wasn’t supposed to do in a healthy living lifestyle and compressed it into three days of bad choices and an upset stomach. I enjoyed barbecue on Friday; pizza on Saturday; and wrapped it up with a day of hamburgers, fried everything and DQ. I thought to myself, “If I’m going to detox my system, I might as well go all out. I thought this would prepare me. I was wrong.
Before you think I’m going to quit or that I have already written this plan off, realize that it’s the hunger talking. I’ve gotten to a point in my life where I’m stubborn enough to stick to something, but old enough to complain about it until it’s over. So bear with me, and I’ll do my best to share some useful thoughts in spite of the brain-splitting caffeine cravings.
Bad Diet Idea? Nah …
The Daniel Plan offers many of the standard foods you expect to eat during a healthy eating/food detox program. They’ve got the shakes (which I am getting as we speak from the lack of FOOD!) and vegetable combinations, snacks that before today would have been considered an insult and there’s the constant concern with drinking water instead of your other favorite beverages. I’m not unfamiliar with the ways of these types of plans. I went into this morning with this knowledge and knew I could harness it for the good of my sanity. I was wrong.
I started the day with a breakfast shake endorsed by one of the leading doctors who developed the Daniel Plan.This is when I began questioning whether this was a bad diet idea. My wife has joined me in this move for better health, and as I was attending to our daughters at breakfast, she began drinking what looks like an Oreo milkshake. She later dubbed it “stank.” Not the “stank shake” or “stank in a cup.” Nope, she kept it simple. Stank.
She walked around the room trying to choke down each mouthful. I offered my loving support by taunting her mercilessly. I laughed and giggled and took great humor in the fact that it would not be nearly as difficult for me. I can eat just about anything. I was wrong.
Fortunately, I went with the chug method. This was the only saving factor for me. If I would’ve attempted to drink it like a human being, then I would be at the big and tall store right now. The science behind this drinking and the other meals we enjoyed (?) today makes sense. We need to cleanse our bodies of the bad stuff so the good stuff can start happening. Nothing good happened today.
I must admit, I stay up late hours and wake up early. It’s a part of being a business owner and a wannabe good dad and husband. I drink A LOT of caffeine. This was the most difficult part of the day for me. I drink a lot of water already, but I also balance it out with more than 2 liters of soft drinks. I had a mere fraction of that today. This caused me to go to bed earlier than necessary. Not the most productive of activities, but the forced rest made me reconsider calling this a bad diet idea just yet.
We’ll see what happens tomorrow but as you can see from this post, this diet is messing with my mind. So I may just have a passerby take a picture of me passed out in the kitchen holding an unopened bag of cookies as my contribution to my Daniel Plan journal tomorrow. I hope I’m wrong.
My Daniel Plan Journal Day 1
Good: Enjoyed the quinoa lunch; most of my “good” list is a projection of the results, not of the day itself
Bad: Why bother …
Goal for tomorrow: Wake up at my goal weight
Recommendations to others considering the plan: If you are a nightly dessert eater, add something after dinner (my wife and I split an apple and string cheese). After exercise and making it through the meals, we were spent at 8 p.m.