10 Tips for Surviving the 17 Day Diet - Part 1

One of the hottest trends in dieting right now is Dr. Mike Moreno’s 17 Day Diet.  This low carb/high protein diet has been featured on shows like Dr. Phil and The Doctors.  I learned all about Dr. Moreno’s diet by reading his book titled, appropriately, The 17 Day Diet. 

I have to admit that I have no specialized training that qualifies me to write about the subject of dieting.  I am not a doctor or health care specialist.  All of my experience about diets and weight loss comes from the school of hard knocks.  I have been following the 17 Day Diet for about 4 months now and have lost a satisfying 67 pounds.  Dr. Moreno’s diet is simple, straightforward and effective.  Here are my top 10 tips for anyone about to start the 17 Day Diet.

1. Plan your snacks.  This seems simple and Dr. Moreno talks about it in the book, but no amount of talking about it can be as harsh as being caught unprepared.  Planning two or three snacks per day can be hard, especially when we all go places where there are few healthy alternatives readily available.  Early on in my diet I was caught at work or on the road with nothing to eat and no place to get anything remotely healthy.  Diets are about change, and one of the biggest changes you can make is to be prepared with healthy eating alternatives.

2. Prepare enough protein to have leftovers for lunch.  Like most diets, the 17 Day Diet promotes salads as a healthy meal.  Take it from me, if you try to eat a boring salad every day for lunch you won’t be on this diet for very long.  I have found that one of the best ways to make a salad more interesting is to add chicken or turkey.  Prepare enough dinner the night before so that there is a leftover chicken breast.  Dice the chicken and put it in a Ziploc bag so it is ready to grab on the go. 

3. Get your family on the diet.  Just the other night, I was watching a television show where the father was on a diet but the rest of the family wasn’t.  There was gravy being poured and butter being spread but not for poor dad.  Not until his cholesterol came down.

This is why most diets don’t work.  You can’t surround yourself with high calorie foods and expect to not be tempted.  What’s the best way to avoid high calorie foods?  Get everyone around you on a diet too. 

I can honestly say that if my wife weren’t on the diet too, it never would have worked for me.  I do feel a little bit bad about having the kids on a diet.  They still get enough to eat.  It’s just more chicken and vegetables with less pizza and fried tacos.

4. Avoid eating your kids' snacks.  If you have kids you’re going to have snacks.  Expecting children to completely give up a tasty treat just isn’t going to happen.  You need to have snacks for the kids that you won’t eat yourself.  Whether that is a certain type of graham cracker or a booger flavored jelly bean, don’t buy anything you can’t say no to.

One of the worst snacks I ever got for the kids was a bag of yogurt dipped pretzels.  The bag didn’t last very long and I don’t think the kids got any pretzels.  Now I keep things like store bought Rice Krispy treats, something that the kids like but that I can turn down.

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