Here’s my next update on my experience with the Virgin Diet, you can read the first part here. I’m now most of the way through Cycle 2, the reintroduction cycle. This is the part where each week you reintroduce a food and test to see how you react.
Basically you have the food at one meal for 4 days, then you go back to going without for the rest of the week. The book has recommendations and recipes for these, so it’s easy. You watch how you feel and how your body responds. If you don’t have a reaction, you’re good to have that food (just not every day). If you have a strong reaction, you’ll keep on avoiding that item.
Wheat didn’t turn out to be a huge problem for me – although I don’t much miss it. We’ve subbed in rice based pasta and actually like it better. We’re not big on pasta, so that probably helps. Guess I will be able to have the occasional sandwich or flour tortilla going forward.
Soy and I don’t get along. I had no idea because I don’t do much soy, or at least I didn’t think so. I ate edamame on a salad for the first soy challenge, it did not agree with me at all. Miso soup the next day, same result. So what, right? No, there’s more to it than that. Soy is hidden in so much of the processed food that is out there. Soy oils, soy this, soy that – all hidden in plain sight, once you read the labels. The only soy item that’s ok is soy lethicin, the others are not. I’ll stick to no soy.
Eggs don’t seem to be a problem either. It’s funny, I don’t think I like them quite as much as I did before – I guess my tastes really have changed. Still, I like hardboiled egg on a salad.
Dairy. I am challenging that this weekend. I’m afraid it may be my nemesis. I haven’t had Chile con Queso in 8 weeks! No pizza. This was unheard of, in my world. I’m hoping dairy doesn’t cause me any trouble because our weekly Mexican food fix has been a part of my life for a very long time. (more later on how this turns out)
I’ve stuck it out through Cycle 1 and (almost) Cycle 2, so what are my stats?
Drumroll please…… I’ve lost 19 pounds and I lost 2.25 inches from my waist, 5.25 inches from my hips. I’m finding jeans buried in my closet that I can wear again! This is all with very little exercise, I work from home, online and have been too sedentary for too long.
I really can’t say enough good about the Virgin Diet. I know not everything will work the same for everyone but I found something that works for me and it has been so simple. (Last week I got my FitBit and started walking, results to be seen)
The Virgin Diet has completely changed how my family eats, we are eating so many more veggies, so much less junk, very much healthier. I’ve made lots of the lateral shifts and the family is following along in a lot of cases. It’s contagious, in a good way. We don’t prepare separate meals for dinner either, we all eat the same thing. Granted, the husband and kids may have a side dish that I’ll choose not to have – but the main meal is the same. It’s really worked out well.
The promise made in the book, well, initially I was skeptical because they sounded too good to be true. I thought what if it does work that way? So I committed to it and for me it completely did. I feel so much better, have more energy, less brain fog, my skin is better, all of this on top of the weight loss results – for me, it’s a no brainer to keep this up.
I’ll be starting Cycle 3 now, I think this will be a new challenge – how to fit in what I’ve learned about my body over the first 2 Cycles into my diet going forward. I still want to lose a few more pounds, I’ve added in exercise so stay tuned, I’ll have more on how it goes!
