Results

My 8 week weight loss challenge has come to a close. The results are in and I managed to loss 3.8 lbs! Though not amazingly fantastic numbers, it's still a loss and better than I have done in past challenges.

The next challenge for our group starts on Nov. 3rd and runs through Dec.29th. Just the thing I need to get me through the holidays. Now if I can just get past Halloween and all this candy.

How it went

I decided to give the banana diet a try, what could I lose? Yeah yeah I know I hate puns too. So Wednesday evening I went and bought a bunch of banana's. Thursday morning I ate one and a glass of room temperature water just like the diet suggested. Lunch came around and amazingly my alarm clock of a stomach was not growling. I was hungry, but not extremely like normal. I did the same thing for Friday and same results. Saturday I had a normal breakfast because I had company in town and they wanted to try my waffles. Yum-o. Sunday I went back to the banana diet. I needed to test this diet further though. This morning I had a bagel with butter since we only had one banana left and I thought it best to leave it there as a snack for my son.......point???

I"M STARVING. My alarm clock of a stomach is going off at 11:15am, 45 minutes before I even get to go to lunch and and hour before I will be able to eat anything. I think I am going to be buying banana's this evening......I haven't stepped on the scale so I don't know if it resulted in any weight loss, but at least it curved my hunger pains.

Bananas: A weight loss wonder food?

Posted in it's entirety from:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4735981a19716.html

Bananas: A weight loss wonder food?

By MINDY LAUBE - SMH | Wednesday, 22 October 2008

A new diet said to result in fast, stress-free weight loss has taken Japan by storm.

The Morning Banana Diet is possibly the world's easiest diet to follow - except in Japan where its intense popularity has led to the nation's worst-ever banana shortage.

Banana importer, Dole Japan Company, has increased supplies by 25 per cent over the corresponding period last year but is still struggling to meet demand.

Consequently, banana prices are soaring but with the celebrity endorsements and more than 600,000 copies of the diet books sold, demand for the fruit shows no signs of slowing.

Adherents of the diet love it for its simplicity and reported success.

Essentially, the regimen requires dieters to start the day with a raw banana and a glass of room-temperature water. After that, they're free to eat whatever they want for the rest of the day - except for sweets.

Desserts with meals are banned and just one sweet snack in the mid-afternoon is allowed.

Alcohol consumption is discouraged and early dinners (before 8pm) and taking to bed before midnight are the diet's only other strictures.

But perhaps the diet's greatest appeal lies in its laissez-faire approach to exercise. It counsels weight-watchers to work out only if they want to and then to exert themselves in the least stressful way possible.

The craze reached a new zenith last month when the Tokyo Broadcasting System aired a television program in which the very hefty former Japanese opera singer Kumiko Mori attributed a sudden seven-kilo weight loss to the diet.

Bananas have been in scarce supply on Japanese supermarket shelves ever since.

The Morning Banana Diet was developed by an Osaka pharmacist with a keen interest in Chinese herbal medicine.

Sumiko Watanabe devised the dietary regime for her husband, who had become exasperated by his inability to lose weight by more orthodox means.

Mr Watanabe is now a lean 59 kilos at 175 centimeters and attributes the diet's magic to its stress-free approach.

Nutritionists are divided on the efficacy of the diet but bananas are a rich source of resistant starch, a type of fiber found in carbohydrate-dense foods such as potatoes, corn, barley and bananas - especially slightly unripe fruit.

The indigestible starch is being touted as a wonder diet food by advocates as it is said to help induce feelings of saiety and increase the body's fat-burning capacity.

Update

I weighed myself yesterday for my week 7 check-in and came in at 151.4! That's only .2 pounds from my ticker....now to remember what date I imputed that weight on......off to check ticker factory (so glad they save this information).

Okay back

Seems I weighed 151.2 on August 8th. Wow! I still can't believe I let myself gain back 4 pounds in a month. That should have been a loss but I have been dealing with other forms of loss like the loss of an uncle, the notice that my grandmother has inoperable cancer and not long to live....it's all hit me hard and I have turned to comfort foods and snacking to keep my mind off the negative.

Even now I am having difficulties concentrating at work because financially I can not go to see my grandmother though I long to. My father will be heading there next week sometime. I wish I could be on that flight with him...we all do...it's just not possible.

So I sit typing here, listening to my thoughts and ponder what I can do. Mostly I know my grandmother would want me to be healthy. When she was still healthy enough for travel she came to visit and I told her about my health issues and the goals I had set for myself. She was impressed with what I had done, especially my eagerness to go to the dentist. She's been wearing dentures for years now and knows just what kind of pain they are and told me to take care of my teeth always. I know she wants me to be happy and for my family to be happy and she kick my butt if she knew I took something away from my family just so I could afford to fly and see her. So again I ponder and now it's about money and food and how I have neither...I so need to go grocery shopping but I have like $60 for the next two months. Guess that will keep me on my diet since I can't afford to by anything extra. At least we have meat in the freezer from our very successful hunting trip.

Maintaining

Last night before going to bed I thought I'd weigh myself.....157!! Yikes I'd gained 4 pounds since Friday. I blame it entirely on the visit from my not so favorite aunt...or mother nature however you want to look at it. She must be leaving because for fun I stepped on the scale this morning and I came in at 153.2!! This is the same weight I was last Tuesday (Sept. 23rd). I'm quite excited and knew all my weight gain had to be water weight as I have been really watching what I eat. I've had a few not so good for you snacks, but I haven't gorged on them and I am doing really well with my portions and food choices. This week I've done quite well, breakfast's and lunches were quite small....here's dinner.


Saturday
Hahaha - Can't remember

Sunday
Eggplant Parmasan
Green Salad w/ Ranch
Birthday Cake

Monday
Thin Cut Steak
Green Salad with Ranch Dressing

Tuesday
Grilled Salmon
Spinach w/garlic and ginger sauce
Keystone Light

Wednesday
Beef Round Steak
Chayote (mexican squash) w/ginger and lime sauce
Southern Style Cornbread w/margarine

Thursday
Baked Chicken Breast
Cauliflower

Friday
Green Salad and Fruit