The "No" Diet

I'm not wholly doing a reboot.  I can't afford a juicer right now, plus to afford the juicer and the massive quantity of veggies and such you have to juice...just isn't going to happen...yet.

So...

I'm buying Naked and another brand of all natural juice.  I buy it in the 32 ounce bottle and drink half for breakfast.  I have a salad for lunch.  Dinner has mostly been about three sweet potatoes boiled, drained, and mashed with about a tablespoon or so of organic cream cheese with the occassional ounce or two of chicken or plate of other random assorted veggies (or, like last night, another salad...)  Plenty of water throughout the day.  Fresh fruit and the handful here and there of raw pecans.

No rice, white potatoes, pasta, or bread.  No meat (other than the occassional slice of ham or bit of baked chicken).  No adding butter to veggies (like steam broccoli or green beans).  Very small amounts of cheese (because it's supposed to be NO dairy).  No sweets beyond fruit and juice.  No caffeine.

So far, although I've had moments of seemingly insatiable hunger, it's not really been all that bad.  The hunger gets sated with massive amounts of fruits and veggies.  I've had a piece of candy on one day, a little bit of ice cream on a couple of other days.

And I've lost 6 pounds.

Since Monday.

And that was an afternoon weigh-in versus a morning weigh-in.

Did I mention that I'm terrified that saying this will cause this to stop working?  (And, yes, I've counted.  I'm getting enough calories.)

We went for lunch today, and I ordered sweet potato fries (I know...shouldn't have the fried food.  Sue me.)  and taco soup without the crushed tortillas.  I must say that the three bites I had of the soup was pretty tasty.  Then my child inhaled the rest of it.  I wound up eating two of her tiny chicken fingers to make up for not getting my soup (she wasn't going to eat them anyway.) 

Then we went to Publix, and she found a recipe for Vegeterian Chili that she wanted.  I told her it had sweet potatoes in it (yummy!), but she still wanted to try it. 

What an awesome recipe!  In a dutch oven (or big pot), heat a tablespoon of olive oil.  Add in 3 cups of sweet potatoes (chopped into 1/2" cubes) and 1 chopped onion.  Cook, stirring occassionally, for about 7 minutes (veggies are getting tender).  Add chili powder, cumin, salt, pepper, cayenne, garlic.  Add 1 can diced tomatoes, lime juice, 1 can (drained and rinsed) black beans, 1 can vegetable broth.  Heat until sweet potatoes are soft.  In the future, I could probably do without the lime.  I had mine with a touch of sour cream and shredded cheddar and a generous sprinkling of Tony Chacher's Cajun Seasoning (which is great on just about everything.)

I should note that the rest of the family had a pasta with chicken and alfredo sauce and veggies.  (Of course the child liked the chili, but not the sweet potatoes, and she didn't feel like she could eat around the sweet potatoes.  I was right.  Go figure.)