Jorge Cruise's Belly Fat Cure -- Day 1

I am in the process of getting myself into shape. I just finished 3 grueling months of P90X, which I highly recommend, and today I'm starting an almost sugar free diet. Yes, I know I'm nuts! Who can live without sugar???!!! I was lured in by the author's promise that I would lose up to 9 lbs/ week so I'm willing to try.

Before all this craziness began, I ordered Jorge Cruise's book "The Belly Fat Cure" where he talks about how to get rid of your spare tire and how to stick with this life style change. This is not a "see food diet", you see food and eat it, it's all about controlling sugar and swapping carbs for the rest of your life. Sounds complicated, what's swapping carbs?? Basically he means getting rid of the highly processed ones and eating healthy carbs from whole wheat breads, tortillas etc.

The book offers several one-week menus: Carb lover, meat madness, chicken and seafood, quick and easy, and sweet bites. You can choose to follow one or keep track of your own eating by writing down how many sugars & carbs you're eating. My husband and I chose the meat madness because for me it's easier to have the menu for the whole week already done and just follow it. No having to think what to make for dinner and the recipes are right in the book! Love it!

I get to eat 15 grams of sugar/day and 6 servings of carbs. You know I'm in trouble if a cup of my morning cereal has 9 grams of sugar and the milk has 12 grams/cup. Yes, shocking! Instead of my beloved cereal, this is what I ate:

Ezekiel sprouted whole wheat English muffin with butter and Cheddar cheese. I was in a hurry... I could've had a super cheesy ham omelette (sugar value 3, carbs 2) with hashbrowns, bacon and the Ezekiel English muffin. I couldn't eat that much but my hubby did.

Morning snack: 10 walnuts (sugar 1, carbs 0)

Lunch: Old-school BLT on Ezekiel sprouted whole grain bread (sugar 1/ carbs 2). It was delicious!

Afternoon snack: 10 pecans (sugar 1/ no carbs)

Dinner: chicken fajitas (sugar 2/ carbs 2).

YUM! You can see that we're not starving on this plan and as a matter of fact, the food is delicious.

According to the book, not all sugar is equal. As a matter of fact, sugar is evil. Americans eat WAY too much sugar which for example drags your immune system down and can kill you. The average American consumes 47 teaspoons of sugar a day. Holy cow!! So what to use instead? Drum roll please.... Stevia and Sugar alcohols like Xylitol, Maltitol and Erythritol. I hate to tell you but I told you so!!! Please pay close attention now: ABSOLUTELY NO ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS (Saccharin, Aspartame, Sucralose, High-fructose corn syrup, Agave nectar, Acesulfame K)

I'm going to try this for 7 days at first and then decide if I want to continue. I'll try to blog each day about my results, struggles etc. so if you decide to do it, you'll know what's coming. My starting weight is (yes, I'm really going to reveal the BIG number) 140lbs and my waist is 31". I'll give those numbers again at the end of the 7 days.

TTFN!