Xyngular 8-Day Challenge: Day Three (Eat Day!)

NOTE: This post is the fourth in a series following our experiences as my wife and I complete Xyngular’s “8-Day Challenge”.  You’ll find information about the challenge in the initial post, “Xyngular 8-Day Challenge: Preparation Day” here (Day 1 here, Day 2 here).  If you have any questions, are interested in giving it a try yourself, or have already completed the challenge and would like to share any experiences or advice, please feel free to comment below.

 

Starting Weight: 325.2 lbs

Previous Day’s Weight: 322.6 lbs

Morning Weigh-In: 318.0 lbs

Daily Change in Weight: -4.6 lbs (Shawna’s: -2.4 lbs)

Total Weight Loss: 7.2 lbs (Shawna’s: 5.2 lbs)

Day 3 is here, and things are really starting to pick up!  Shawna and I both got a better night’s sleep than the night before.  However, we had to hustle in the morning because we forgot to prepare for our first “eat day”!  Shawna took her Xyng and Global Blend and got ready for work while I whipped together a nice 500-600 calorie lunch for her.

We decided she’d have a turkey breast sandwich on whole wheat bread with some mango slices and seaweed snacks on the side.  I toasted some bread with an ounce of shredded cheese and a little mustard.  Apparently mustard has no calories . . . so . . . ya know . . . go for it!  Then I pulled 5 oz of turkey breast and loaded it up.

WARNING: It is very difficult to get 5 oz of pulled turkey breast on to a piece of bread.  I maybe got 3 1/2 ounces on there and just threw the rest of it into a ziplock baggy for her.  I packed everything up in her lunch bag and handed her a Lean shake.

Once she left, it was time for my breakfast.  This time I added my cap-full of Global Blend juice to the shake mix.  Again, it didn’t really make the shake better or worse, just different I guess.

Not too long after Shawna got to work we realized that, in our rush, we had forgotten to pack her Cheat+ and Accelerate tablets.  Before making the trip downtown, I grabbed three hard-boiled eggs for my morning snack.  Jeannette said that she doesn’t usually eat the snacks on her “eat days”, but after my hunger battle the night before, I decided I better have at least the morning one.

I dropped off the tablets and stopped by Wal-Mart to pick up some toilet paper (not that we’ve been needing it much), then came home to start preparing my 500-600 calorie meal.  I decided to make a modified version of our “Paleo Lasagna” dish. 

I took my 2 Cheat+ tablets and grabbed a 1 pound bag of frozen organic broccoli florets which had been thawing in the refrigerator.  I chopped them up into small pieces and popped them in the toaster oven to dry them out a bit.  I like to get as much of the moisture out as I can before roasting so that they don’t get soggy.  As that was drying, I pulled another 5 oz of turkey breast.

After a few minutes, I grabbed the broccoli out of the toaster oven and drained the little bit of liquid that was in the dish.  I spread the broccoli out in a 9″ Pyrex pie dish and layered it with the turkey meat, 1/2 cup of organic crushed tomatoes, and 1 oz of shredded cheese.  Then I popped the whole thing into a preheated 350º oven for about 10 minutes.

While that was cooking, I was doing the math on the calorie count and realized that I was off somewhere.  So far, I only had about 365 calories in the dish (which is kind of amazing, because it was quite a bit of food).  I knew I had to get my carbs in during this meal, so I decided to cut up a grapefruit and add 1/2 tablespoon of chia seeds.  That brought my total up to about 520 calories.

As it turned out, it took a little bit longer to prepare than I expected.  I didn’t actually end up eating until about an hour after I had taken my Cheat+.  Hopefully they still did the job.  I certainly was full after eating the meal, but, as I said, it was a lot of food.

It was a little bland so I sprinkled some of this 21-spice seasoning.  Get this stuff!  It goes on everything (except eggs . . . garlic and eggs do not mix).  It’s organic and there’s no salt added, and it really is a pretty tasty combination of flavors.  You can find it at Coscto.  I don’t know why it’s so expensive online.  I’m pretty sure we paid about $5 for it in the store.

After lunch, I spent the next hour or so trying to figure out what we were going to do for dinner.  I finally convinced Shawna to go to HuHot, so I started looking at their online nutrition guide to see what we could eat.  Jeannette told me that if I was going to eat any veggies, I should avoid carby ones like carrots and tomatoes for lower calorie options like broccoli, spinach, and green peppers.

Once Shawna got home from work, we took our second dose of Cheat+ and made our way to the restaurant.  We both had five bowls.  As it happens, the bowls are actually pretty small when you exclude the noodles.  Shawna tried some paddock, and I stayed with chicken for my first two bowls.  I added some broccoli, bean sprouts, cabbage, green peppers, and cilantro.  I also sprinkled some chopped nuts on top.  After looking at the nutrition guide we realized that the only “sauces” we could have were lemon and lime juices, ginger broth, and hot chili sauce.  It’s definitely not as tasty without the sauces or, at least, the oils.  I actually had to a little beef on my last three bowls just for the flavor.  On our final round, I had the brilliant idea of straining the garlic out of the garlic oil and adding that in also.

If I had to guess, I’d say that I ate somewhere between 1100-1500 calories for this meal.  Thanks to the Cheat+ I only have to count 825-1125!  We came home pretty full, and that’s when the fiber from all the broccoli I had eaten that day kicked in for me.  I spent a good chunk of the rest of the night in the bathroom.  Hopefully that will allow for more weight loss for the next weigh-in.  Apparently most people don’t lose much weight on Day 3.

The Ignite 8-Day Challenge guide offers this explanation:

R e a l i t y C h e c k :

Do not expect big weight loss on day 3. In fact, in some instances you

might see a slight weight gain from day 2 because your body will retain

the carbohydrates and store them to use as energy. If your body weight

stays the same, it means you are actually losing body fat because you

are offsetting the carbohydrates that are being stored in the muscle.

We’ll see what happens tomorrow.  I suppose no gain would be a win.

 

We definitely enjoyed our meals today.  We’re actually traveling on our next two “eating days”, so we’ll have to start preparing for that ahead of time.  I’d like to do something different, so I probably ought to begin looking for ideas now.

Biggest Takeaways from Day 3:

• Take time each evening to prepare for the next day.  This way you don’t forget anything due to rushing around in the morning.  It’s probably a good idea to set yourself reminders for snacks, meals, and tablets throughout the day so that these don’t also slip your mind.
• Don’t be surprised by irregularity during the first few days.  Your diet is irregular, so your digestive system will need some time to get used to that.
• I miss fats.  I can get used to only a small amount of good carbs, but I cannot wait for some grass-fed beef, olive oil, and coconut milk!
• Eating out is over-rated.  We enjoyed our food, but with taxes and tip we paid over $35.  The whole time we were eating, I couldn’t help but wonder about the quality and source of the different ingredients.  I figure that for $35 we probably could have made our own meal with better ingredients.
• BONUS: If you go to HuHot (or any other mongolian grill restaurant), realize that there are people in line behind you when you’re at the bar.  Have a game plan going in.  If you’re not sure what you’re going to put in your bowl, stand out of line while you decide.  A 20-person bottleneck at the Sauce Bar when there’s 2 people at the grill is not cool!  Thank you.