Could I possibly be the only person on the planet who becomes inflicted with a stomach bug and gain weight?
I swear it happened. On the evening of Mother’s Day, I came down with a fierce stomach flu and I’m still suffering with the symptoms a week later. According to Healtline, symptoms can last up to ten days. Fantastic.
However, this brief Web MD stomach bug explanation makes no mention of weight gain. In fact, it is common knowledge that most people lose weight on a stomach bug. Truth be told, I was hoping for the same results.
After noticing my clothes fitting a bit more snug and my stomach looking a bit distended, I chanced stepping on the scale mid-week and discovered that I had gained five pounds. FIVE POUNDS?! WTF?!
How does that even happen after barely eating a thing for three days, drinking water and sh*tting my brains out? Not that I want to lose muscle weight, but shouldn’t I have at least lost a bit, don’t you think? It appears that my body decided to retain water weight and with each squirt. Fabulous.
Apparently, I’m the only person on the planet who gains weight after marathons, the flu AND a stomach bug. Between the two illnesses within two months, my weight has hit a whopping 160. That is five pounds less than when I gave birth to my third child. In other words, I’m pushing my pregnancy weight here and I’m not happy about it.
I have been struggling to lose weight since January and it seems my body is rebelling against me. Despite all my efforts of portion control, limiting my cheats and exercising, I’m seeing no results. And then to not lose weight on a stomach bug, I feel so cheated! I should get a do-over! A Mulligan, I tell ya!
The weight of this weight is depressing me. With bathing suit season here, I am too ashamed of my weight gain to go prancing around the beach with my kids. I have never dealt with negative thoughts of my appearance, but when I look in the mirror at myself these days I honestly loathe what I see. All my efforts are in vain.
Therefore, desperate times call for desperate measures.
Now, don’t judge me, but I’ve decided to go on a crash diet to lose this weight. I swear to you, never in my life have I ever attempted such foolishness, but I am that desperate.
I know what you are thinking. “It’s not healthy to lose more than 4-5 pounds a month.” “You’ll gain it all back.” Honestly, I’m willing to chance it and I also plan to follow different plans to avoid boredom.
Feeling frustrated with body fat, I searched for “successful crash diets” to help me lose weight quickly to give myself a new starting point. Since I love to eat, I can’t do meal replacements or shakes and I don’t enjoy heavily restricting my caloric intake. Obviously, drinking more water and cutting back on alcoholic drinks will do wonders for me as well.
To scale back the numbers on the scale, I decided to turn back the clock and follow a really old school diet – The 7-Day Cabbage Soup Diet. Remember that one? I bet your moms at one point attempted it. Apparently, the diet recently resurrected and became popular with celebrities.
Divas Can Cook shares a contemporary version to the old school circa-1950 7-Day Cabbage Soup Diet. She tweaks the Cabbage Soup recipe a bit omitting the V-8 juice and offers some interesting menu options for the intense plan.
With this diet, I’m hoping to hit the reset button and begin again because this weight just won’t do. As for my family, I will modify the menu for them such as adding beans to the soup when I serve it to them. I can serve them loaded baked potatoes when I’m eating a boring plain one and pasta is always a dish my kids love.
So, wish me luck and hope I can drop few lbs and gain some sanity before summer approaches. Here’s our dinner menu for the week.
Sunday – Pollo al Peperoncino with Grilled Summer Veggies
Meatless Monday – Cabbage Diet Soup (Add cannellini beans for the family.)
Tuesday – Loaded Baked Potatoes (Plain potato and steamed broccoli for me.)
Wednesday – Roasted Veggies and Mashed Cauliflower
Thursday – Pasta for the family (Soup for me.)
Friday – Mojo Grilled Chicken Breast and Roasted Tomatoes
Saturday – Turkey Burgers and Steamed Green Beans (Burger no bread for me)
Have you ever become so desperate and followed a crash diet? What recipes are you pinning and planning for dinner this week?