VLCD #1- Thursday July 7th 2011

Now I see why part of the protocol is to buy and prepare your food before you start the diet. Of course I waited until the last minute to do anything, until the end of my binge day to go grocery shopping for the diet. I figured I'd be full--which I was--and the shopping experience wouldn't be so bad while I was getting ONLY THE THINGS I NEEDED.

It was 10 pm last night before I made it to the grocery store. Even though the store was practically empty and I only had a few items to get, it still took over an hour to finish. Because of my hip pain I have to use the little go carts they provide and they don't go very fast. I also had a hard time finding the Melba toast. By the way, you can locate these on the cracker aisle. They will probably be on a bottom shelf at your store like I found at my local HEB. I found them between the unhealthy crackers and unhealthy cookies. Don't bother checking the gluten-free aisle because although the flavor and texture of these crackers is not tasty, they are not gluten free.

I made it home by 11:30 exhausted from work and shopping and eating and I went straight to bed.  I knew I should go ahead and cook my food for the next day, but I didn’t. I figured I'd have time in the morning.

I didn’t—I woke up late, quickly grilled some veal and put some frozen spinach in my to go container along with my apple and one piece of Melba toast.

I did well ignoring my "hunger" during the day, which was not really true hunger at all. It wasn't until I was on my way home that I had this feeling like something was missing. I felt like there was something that I needed that was eating away at me. I couldn't put my finger on it until I passed my neighborhood Mexican restaurant. Ahhh yes… that's it--happy hour! It was difficult to pull my mind away but I did.

I rushed home, drank my water and heated up my dinner of veal and spinach. I ate one piece of Melba toast and cooked my chicken for the next day so that I would not run into the same issue I faced this morning. I saved my apple for later so that I would not go to bed hungry. The day wasn’t really that tough, but the lessoned learned was to prepare, prepare, prepare.