April 12, 2016

The 3 Day Military Diet- Day 1

I can't believe I am writing a post about a diet; I never thought this day would come.

Since being in an office job I have noticed it is nearly impossible to forego eating junk food at my desk all day. I now have a full understanding of the "Cubical 20" (much like the Freshman 15). I decided I need to be proactive before I begin gaining that cubical 20.

I came across this fad diet on Pinterest called the "Military Diet." I wondered how eating small amounts of strange foods for 3 days could have any effect on the body. After doing research I found that every single person found success with this diet. The girls at work and I decided we would attempt this challenge starting on Monday. I even convinced my parents and roommate to join in on the "fun" as well.

For those of you who aren't sure what this insane diet I am talking about is, here is the website

The diet consists of 3 meals per day. I did find out you are able to spread out your meals and even move things around within the day. So for instance, day 3 lunch is practically nothing, so I plan to eat some of my dinner earlier.


I am recording my thoughts, tips, and tricks for the diet if anyone wants to attempt this for the future.

Day 1:

Breakfast- 1 piece of toast with peanut butter. I ate this on my drive in to work. I am not much of a peanut butter on bread fan so it was a challenge finishing this, but I knew I would have to finish it to sustain the rest of breakfast.

Once I arrived at work I had my glass of  hot tea. I was able to add Stevia to the tea to give it some flavor (Stevia is allowed on this diet!). After my tea I ate my 1/2 grapefruit. I am not used to eating grapefruit raw (without sugar on top, I should have added Stevia). It wasn't horrible, but a bit bitter..

Around 10am I started STARVING. All I could think about was food and cooking and recipes and CHICKEN WINGS! This was also a slower part of my work day so I think that had some effect on my mindset as well.

I have never been so excited to have my lunch break. I pushed lunch back as long as I could stand, and I ate around 1pm.

Lunch- I had 1 cup of hot tea with caffeine. I actually used the same teabag twice and made a cup of iced tea with it as well. Basically just watered the tea down, and it was surprisingly pretty good.
I also had a piece of toast with tuna on top of the toast. I cut the piece of toast in 1/4's so it would seem like I was eating more. I also added Mrs. Dash seasoning and mustard to my tuna (these seasonings are allowed because they are 0 calories). After I ate my lunch I didn't feel full, and I was worried how I would get through the rest of the day.

My lunch with mustard on the tuna

Mom and David's lunch. Mom has cottage cheese since she is a vegetarian

Tuna lunch with hot sauce (Jen from work)


Finally around 2pm I started feeling a bit better and was counting down the minutes till my shift was over and I could go home and eat. Shout out to Morgan for listening to me complain all day!

I regret not bringing the apple to work because that would have been enough to hold me over around 3-4pm.

Dinner- When I got home from work I sliced my apple and ate half of it raw out of the slicer. I cut the pieces very tiny to confuse my brain that I was eating more. I took the other half of the apple and sliced it up as thin as possible, put some cinnamon on it (again, this is allowed), and baked them in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. This made the apples extra sweet, warm, and soft. I had that snack about 15-20 minutes after I ate the raw portion of the apple.

Lovely photography of my baked apples

I tried to hold off on eating my meat and veggies as long as I could. I was getting bored sitting around the house, and I finally caved. I cooked my dinner around 630, and I ate at about 7. I had 3 ounces of chicken seasoned with Mrs. Dash as well as 1 cup of green beans that I boiled with salt water and Mrs. Dash. I also added some mustard to my plate to dip the chicken in. Mustard has been my life saver! I have never eaten a dinner so slowly that my food is cold by the time I am almost finished. This diet really makes you appreciate portion sizes and preventing food waste. I found myself practically licking the plate at the end of my meal.

Chicken and green bean dinner with mustard. Yummy!

I planned to eat my ice cream and banana as a "dessert" and wanted to push this as late as possible. After dinner I felt surprisingly full and wasn't even really craving the ice cream until about 830pm. The ladies at work had the genius idea of baking the banana to make it warm and mushy for an ice cream topping. Trust me, you get super creative with this diet! I baked the banana at 350 degrees sliced in a dish for about 15 minutes. The banana looked  ugly in appearance, but tasted amazing. 1 cup of ice cream is an AMAZING amount of ice cream. My roommate has a food scale so I was able to accurately measure all of my food for this challenge. I could hardly finish the ice cream because it was so much and so rich. The banana helped break it up though! After I ate my "dessert" I didn't become hungry at all before going to bed!
Mom made her ice cream with baked apples and banana


End of day thoughts- According to the website day 1 is about 1400 calories! That sounds like so much considering I was eating teeny tiny amounts of food. Shockingly that is about the amount of daily calories I need to maintain my body weight based on my size and activity level (ha, none).  This really goes to show that calories add up SO fast. I drank about 100 ounces of water today, and that doesn't include the hot tea I consumed.

Tips-  Some helpful tips I learned today were:

  • Add seasonings to everything (you can use any seasoning that are 0 calorie) I added Mrs. Dash, Mustard, Hot Sauce, and even Lemon Juice in my food and water
  • Eat your food as spread out as possible so you have less starving moments
  • Try and stay off of social media such as Instagram and Pinterest. These sites contain nothing but food pictures, and it will torture you!
  • Try to remain as busy as possible throughout the day. When you just sit bored you will think of nothing but food. 
  • Water down your hot tea or coffee so it lasts longer, sounds crazy but it is worth it
  • Get creative with your foods (aka- baked apples and bananas). This diet looks boring on paper, but I have discovered some yummy recipes for the future. 
  • Split the ice cream serving in half. The ice cream is 300 calories. If you eat half of the amount that is 150 calories you can have elsewhere (cottage cheese, yogurt etc)
  • Learn about the substitutions you can do on the diet  here.  If you are a vegetarian or don't like certain menu items there are always alternatives. The important thing to remember is to match the calories, not the portion sizes. 



2 comments:

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  2. Thanks! I wonder how many calories you were able to lose? I tried the 3 Day Military diet last week and lost 6 pounds. It was not easy as it looks, but the results and the knowledge I gained about my eating pattern are priceless. I learned portion control and counting calories. I also replaced some food to make it healthier. I opted out of hotdogs and chose lean chicken breast instead. For more tips here's a resource site that helped me, too http://3daysmilitarydiet.com/diet-plan/3-day-military-diet-shopping-list.html

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