For a while now I've wanted to blog about different diets. I decided the best way to do that was to immerse myself in them first and write about them after. This is diet #2.

I want to start by saying that I'm not doing any diet to lose weight. So you won't see any dramatic before and after pics here. My goal for these analysis is how they make me feel, physically and mentally. My body goal is to feel healthy and strong. I do not weigh myself regularly nor do I take my body measurements. Any weight loss I experience is not a good indicator of how much you may lose on each diet. Weight loss is extremely individual, based on your own metabolism, nutritional needs, lifestyle and activity level.

This is another Fad diet. By fad, I mean short term, usually designed for weight loss. This is not intended for a long term diet plan.

The Egg Diet: Basically eat 2 boiled eggs and a citrus fruit each day for breakfast, and lunch and supper are either fresh veggie salad or steamed vegetables with fish, eggs or chicken. There is a full 14 day meal plan set out for you.

Duration: 14 days. I did the diet as is for only 3 days. Then I added some modifications and was able to continue for a total of 11 days. However I stopped before the full 14 days were up.

What I ate: Eggs and vegetables- lots of them! Some chicken and fish too, a little bit of cheese and a slice of (gluten free) bread was allowed at the beginning of the diet. (However I changed that day so I could have bread on my dance day as I knew I would need the extra carbs.) I drank a lot of herbal and green teas to stay hydrated and have something flavourful to sip on.

Pros: Good amount of protein, LOTS of veggies, some fruit- it looked doable at first.

Cons: At first glance it looks pretty simple, but the reality is its a starvation diet. You just can't get enough calories to live on this diet as is. I ate a ton of vegetables, 3-4 cups at each meal. I had so many veggies I would be tired of chewing them before I was full! I didn't like eating something else while the rest of the family had supper. Making a nice meal for them while I ate something else- that made me pretty whiny. :)

Modifications: After day 3 I decided I needed to add calories, and wanted to keep in the super low carb style of this diet, so I added fats- butter and olive oil for the steamed veggies, homemade olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing or cultured ranch dressing for the salads. I added full cheese and plain full fat yogurt for snacks. I added nuts and seeds to my veggies.

Energy level: Honestly I felt Ok for the first 5 days or so. After that I had some fatigue, that got worse and worse each day. I couldn't keep doing my cardio work outs. I had some brain fog too. For the days I was in the office I'd have an extra piece of fruit or two so I could feel more mentally alert. By day 9 I had also stopped my weight training and I was craving carbs so bad I was eating spoonfuls of nut butter. And I was miserable. I decided to stop, it was not worth finishing the last few days.

Weight loss: Not much, I noticed my pants were looser the first few days, but then weight loss stopped as my body went into starvation mode.

Cost: Low to average, I had to shop often to keep up with fresh veggies.

Recommended for: NO ONE!

Bottom line: I wouldn't recommend this diet to anyone. Too restrictive, too few calories, not enough fat, not enough carbs. It sends the body into starvation mode. Basically you are starving. 
I also felt like this diet harmed my relationship with food. I really love food. I think food should be pleasurable and nourishing. I generally look forward to eating, I savour the flavours, the aromas, the textures. I love trying new recipes and having a great deal of variety. Food was not fun on this diet. It was boring and even with mixing up different dressings and add-ins to my salads and veggies, it got old really fast. I didn't enjoy meals. This is another reason I stopped this diet. Food should not just be sustenance, it should be pleasure.

I'm not good at following rules, I'd rather make my own. So here's the Changes I would make: Don't do this diet. Just don't. You could just add all the veggies and salads from this diet to your healthy eating plan, but don't follow this diet.

Supplements: I took a few B complex vitamins to help boost my energy levels during this diet, but it didn't make much difference.

In the spirit of full disclosure I want to include my constants: I drink 1 cup of organic coffee each morning as well as greens powder in water with 1 tbsp AVC and 1 cup of lemon water. I strive to do cardio 3-5 days per week, and weight or resistance training 4-6 days per week. These are just my normal routine and I did not change these for this diet. I did not weigh myself regularly nor did I take measurements. Any weight loss I experienced is not a good indicator of how much you may lose on each diet. Weight loss is extremely individual, based on your own metabolism, nutritional needs, lifestyle and activity level.

I hope you have found this information helpful. My goal is to share information to educate and empower people to take control of their own health. Please contact Lisa for more information. I would love to help you experience Better Health Naturally!

The information provided here is for educational purposes only. For treatment please seek a qualified health care provider.

Next up: Intermittent Fasting

Copyright Lisa Paul The Natural Path 2017