C2: Day 3: New favorite recipes!

So far, I am loving this second cycle! The biggest drawback so far is that I am cooking for one, so any leftovers when preparing the recipes cannot be eaten for two days. It's also a bit of a bit of a buzzkill to go from eating delicious, satisfying dishes such as Tangy Pork Chops with Brown Rice or Chinese Steak and Broccoli (my new favorite recipes!) and then the next day revert back to the rather stale, limited menu offered on Cycle 1. It was fine for the 17 days that it lasted, but you realize how much you've missed grains and red meat once they're back on your plate!

But I believe in the science behind Dr. Moreno's diet plan, so am doing my best to follow the diet as he intended.

On to my meals:

Breakfast:

Old fashioned oatmeal mixed with greek yogurt
6 strawberries

Snack:

Carrots

Lunch:

Tangy Pork Chops with Brown Rice

with steamed broccoli

Snack:

1/2 cup cottage cheese

Dinner:

Blackened Shrimp with sauteed collard greens

C2: Tangy Pork Chops with Brown Rice

One word to describe this dish: DELICIOUS! I used 4 slices of boneless pork chops that were equivalent to about 1 1/2 pounds total, each cut about 3/4 inch thick. Be sure to adjust cooking time if you are preparing very thickly cut chops. Cut off fatty portions prior to eating.  Pair with your favorite vegetables (I enjoy it with steamed broccoli or sauteed collard greens).

Serves: 4

4 boneless pork chops
1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
3 TBS powdered Truvia or Stevia in the Raw
3 TBS Balsamic Vinegar
1 tsp hot sauce (I used Cholula for this recipe, but any will work fine)
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper


1. Prepare the marinade: in a casserole dish, whisk all ingredients minus the pork until Truvia is dissolved and ingredients are blended thoroughly. I recommend taste testing the marinade to make sure the balance of flavors suits your taste.

2. Pierce each side of pork chops with a fork several times to help the marinating process. Add pork chops to dish, coat each side with marinade and make sure they are thoroughly coated. I chose a fairly shallow casserole dish to ensure the pork was soaking in the marinade.

3. Cover dish and place in refrigerator, let sit for 6-12 hours.

4. Once it has marinated sufficiently, prepare brown rice according to directions.

5.  In the meantime, preheat oven to 350 degrees.

6. Place marinated pork chops in oven and cook for 30 minutes.

7. When finished cooking, cut through the thickest chop to ensure it is cooked appropriately. I cook my pork medium well (when cooking it at home), if you want it well done you may want to cook it a bit longer.

Cycle 1: Day 17

It's my last day of Cycle 1. Am I excited? You bet. A little nervous? Yep. I feel like I finally mastered the elements of Cycle 1 (as simple as they may be) and now I'm entering this new, unknown territory, the Activate cycle. While I am thrilled at the concept of eating more than just eggs, chicken and kale on a daily basis, the Activate cycle throws in one more challenging loop: you must rotate daily between the Activate (Cycle 2) and Accelerate (Cycle 1) diets. So gone are my mindless, thrown together meals during my hectic work week, and now I must actually pay attention to which foods I can or can't have when I'm meal planning.

I know, I know...It's not that difficult, really. And it's totally worth the trouble to be able to enjoy shellfish (yay!) flank steak (double yay!) and even quinoa (oh so delicious) instead of chicken. I will keep my kale, kafir smoothies and egg white scrambles on a regular rotation, but I may take a break from chicken for a while. Maybe even forever. I never cared much for chicken in the beginning, and after the amount of chickens I have digested in the past 2 and a half weeks...oooh it makes me a bit ill to think about it. If I didn't have eat cold food at work it would be different, I'm sure, but eating cold chicken 4-5 nights a week has done me in. Now cold steak on the other hand...that sounds amazing right now!

I have spent a lot of time on Pinterest lately planning out my Cycle 2 recipes. Thank goodness for Pinterest, because I usually don't know what I want until I see it right there on my computer screen. My goal is to try out at least 10% of the recipes I have repinned. Now the workouts I keep posting, that's a different story. I usually repost those because the girls in the pictures have killer bodies, and they make me want to run upstairs and fire up my barre workout DVDs. Thank you Pinterest for the inspiration!

Next Cycle, I will be making an effort to do the following:

• Drink more water. I started to slip mid way through Cycle 1.
• Buy less groceries at a time. I don't know how I thought I would eat 4 bell peppers or 6 cucumbers within one week, and let's just say I have a lot of produce in my fridge that is no longer in its prime.
• Work out 5x a week. It was fine to work out less while I got accustomed to the low calories in Cycle 1, but not it's time to step it up!

I followed Cycle 1 pretty carefully, and considering my couple slip ups, I am happy with the 10 pounds I lost during the 17 days. Keeping it simple for the last day.

Breakfast:

3-Egg white scramble

1/2 cup sauteed kale

Snack:

1 Dannon Light & Fit Greek Yogurt

Lunch:

Baked Tilapia over Mixed Greens

Balsamic Vinegar

Olive oil

Snack:

1/2 cup cottage cheese

Dinner:

Ground turkey over broccoli

Topped with low-carb marinara and fat free Mozzarella


Now time to go have sweet dreams about couscous, quinoa and red meat!

Top 5 Workouts for the 17 Day Diet

Dr. Moreno recommends at least 17 minutes of exercise a day for those beginning the diet. He does, however, state that everyone is different, therefore you need to adjust the exercise based on the individual. The 1200 calories in Cycle 1 are quite low for most individuals (particularly for those that are already fairly active, such as myself) so I decided to slowly work in intense exercise into my routine and increase as I progress into later cycles of the diet.

I am a huge fan of barre workouts. The barre workout is a blend of ballet, Pilates and yoga, with a major emphasis on core stability and flexibility. Different methods offer barre workouts with a slightly unique approach, however I have found from experience a variety of  barre methods that have provided tremendous results.

Because the barre workouts are intense yet low impact, I find them to be a perfect option to integrate while following this diet. I also add cardio 1x-2x a week, rotating the following barre workouts 3-4 times a week. I am a DVD workout junkie (I have over 60 workout DVD's at home!) and the following are my absolute top picks. The moves seem very simple- but be prepared to sweat!

NOTE: I purchase all of my workout DVD's on Amazon, and I have included a link to the product on the website. Amazon also provides detailed reviews that I have found quite helpful when deciding what products to purchase.

Top 4 Barre Workouts: 

1.  Tracey Mallett: Booty Barre:  Beginners and Beyond

The perfect introduction to barre for beginners, with a booty-kicking workout to boot! Tracey Mallett is a tremendous instructor- she has incredible energy, and her timing is impeccable. Her DVD's are staples in my weekly routines as they score a perfect 10 on all my criteria: production quality, efficiency of the workout, fun factor, and quality of instructor. The short 35 minute workout is incredibly convenient for busy schedules.




2. Physique 57

Exactly a year ago, I decided it was time to discover for myself what the barre fuss was all about. I was also a bit fascinated (yet dubious) reading all of the glowing 5-star reviews on the Physique 57 DVD's, which are one of the top-rated barre workouts on the market. The reviews were right. One week of workouts, and I was hooked. One year later, and I have yet to do barre less than 3 times a week! While I do rotate through different barre workouts, Physique 57 still is a weekly go-to. The main workout is 57 minutes long, but I love the 30-minute Express workouts that I can squeeze in on my busiest days. The instructors are soothing yet encouraging, the workouts challenging, yet fun. And I won't lie- the lifted seat (booty in barre terms) arrived in less than a month of regular workouts! In fact, the long, lean figure and chiseled core is what you will get if you follow the workouts and a practical diet religiously. If only I had started the 17 Day Diet a year ago...!




3. Cathe Friedrich's Low Impact Series: Turbo Barre

A word of caution for barre newbies: this DVD may be low-impact, but it is a killer when it comes to intensity. I do this workout on my day off of work, as it is long (74 minutes) and I know I will be a sweaty mess once I have finished this DVD. The saying "hurts so good" is perfect for this grueling barre workout, but Cathe is engaging and it is hard not to be inspired by the perfectly chiseled bodies working out alongside Cathe. I find this DVD is the most challenging of the bunch I have listed, but even months later I have yet to tire of this workout. And I feel so fantastic after I'm finished!



4. Tracey Mallett: Total New Body

This is perhaps my favorite of all of Tracey Mallett's DVD's. It is a challenging, fun, unique workout, and I feel inspired and energized following. If you were to choose only one DVD out of the five listed here, I would say go with this one! It is 60 minutes long, but the title truly says it all, as it is a total body workout.




Top Cardio Workout

5.  Zumba Exhilarate

I was looking forward to my barre workouts so much every week, but I realized my cardio time was slipping. I needed to find a way to integrate more cardio without having to make the trek to my gym, so I decided to give Zumba a try. I was pleasantly surprised at both the fun-factor and the sweat factor. Sure, it can be cheesy at times, but the feel-good energy it dispenses makes me appreciate the flashy productions and colorful attire. I only do this about once or twice a week, but I find it much more fun and effective than all of my other dance workout DVD's.