Most people may have heard of the new diet craze called, "The Military Diet." It's supposed to speed up your metabolism and give you a variety of food to eat from throughout the day. My mom had done it the week before spring break, and she told me she had lost four pounds doing it. Me and a couple of my friends, Courtney and Evan, took a look at it and thought, "Why not?" None of us had ever tried an actual diet before and it's only a three day long (with an option included for the the four days that you are not on the strict diet, to make up a full week), and every night you get ice cream. I couldn't see what was wrong with that. While I did come out of the diet feeling lighter, less greasy, and pretty good about myself, there were some internal struggles that I wasn't prepared for.

Day 1
Breakfast
One cup of coffee or tea (with caffeine)
One slice of toast (whole wheat is best) with two tablespoons of peanut butter
Half of a grapefruit

Honestly, this was one of the most puzzling meals for me. I don't have grapefruit that often, and when I do it's usually like once a year when I visit my grandparents in California, because they always have these different fruits available to eat already prepared in their refrigerator. I cut my grapefruit and began my walk to class, my peanut butter bread in a baggie in my backpack for later (I was going to be smart about this diet and save the peanut butter bread for a snack) and my coffee in my water bottle holder on my backpack. I shoved my earbuds in my ears, turned on my music, and stared at my grapefruit. I was truly puzzled. I figured you were supposed to eat it like a bowl of cereal, so I brought a plastic spoon with me as well. My thoughts were as follows:

Lunch
One cup of coffee or tea (with caffeine)
One slice of bread or toast (whole wheat is best)
Half cup of tuna

I'm sure that when most people see this, they get grossed out and decide they wouldn't be able to do this diet because of the tuna, but I love tuna, so I was excited. And I mean, out of our lunches, this one was probably the best. I did the same thing with the coffee this time that I did in the morning - rather than drinking it with my meal, I had it in class and took my time drinking it. Surprisingly enough, this meal was actually pretty filing. It held me over for a long time, but not long enough. The afternoon snack cravings still kicked in, and I tried to fight them by distracting myself through homework and working out (yes, in addition to the diet, I also worked out), but I couldn't do it. Caved and stole the apple that I was supposed to have with dinner as a snack, and it was a great choice.

Dinner
Three ounces of any meat
One cup of green beans
One small apple
Half of a banana
One cup of vanilla ice cream

I would rank this as the best meal of the three days. I was so hungry when I went to eat it, because I couldn't have dinner until after 10 because I had rehearsal (and I didn't want to get in our house chef's way), so I had my apple, like I said, as an afternoon snack, and I had my half banana right before I left for rehearsal. My choice of meat was chicken, and I grilled it and my green beans in some olive oil and garlic salt. This was the first time I was cooking an actual real meal for myself, so I was nervous, but it turned out so good. It was delicious, and I'd make it again in a heart beat. Let me just tell you, one cup of ice cream is a lot. It's like three and a half scoops. I love ice cream to begin with, so I was so pumped about this. I kept putting ice cream into the measuring cup and I just continued to get so excited. Overall, the first day was pretty good.

(In order, the first is my meal, wow it was so juicy, the next is Courtney's and the last is Evan's)

Day 2
Breakfast
One egg (cooked however you like)
One slice of bread or toast (whole wheat is best)
Half of a banana

I liked this breakfast better than day one's breakfast. Maybe that's because there wasn't a foreign fruit for me to tango with, but I'm also a big fan of hard boiled eggs. And seeing as there was only one required hard boiled egg for the three days, I just hard boiled a bunch of eggs and decided to just have that be my cooking of choice anytime an egg was the food of choice. I always just ate my bread plain, because the bread I had was so good plain, and it just smelled so fresh. I was really upset with myself though, because I somehow picked bananas that were super bruised, so I never ate the entirety of it.

Lunch
One hard boiled egg
Half a cup of cottage cheese
Five saltine crackers

I've never been that big of a fan of cottage cheese, so I wasn't very excited about that aspect of the meal. I decided to have it first to get it over with, and after a couple of bites it wasn't too bad. As I said before, I am a big fan of hard boiled eggs, so I pumped for another egg at lunch. I was really surprised to learn that a serving of saltine crackers was only five crackers. It was hard for me to only have five because I like crackers, so I had to keep the rest of the crackers away from me.

(Courtney substituted the cottage cheese with greek yogurt.)

Dinner
Two hot dogs (no buns)
Half of a cup of carrots
One cup of broccoli
Half a banana
Half a cup of vanilla ice cream

Because this dinner was on the night of our chapter meeting, I didn't have access to the kitchen because when we have chapter meetings, we also all eat together, so the kitchen was taken up and I didn't want to get in anyone's way. I also didn't want to eat after rehearsal at ten o'clock again. So, I decided to just eat everything raw. And I mean, it wasn't bad, but it also wasn't my favorite. I'm sure that if it was cooked, it would have been loads better, but I just wanted to eat before rehearsal so I wouldn't be hungry.

Day 3
Breakfast
1 slice of cheddar
1 small apple
5 saltine crackers

This was a really interesting breakfast, although it also tasted very good and was quite filling. I considered combining the cheese and the crackers together, but then I figured if I ate them all separately, then I wouldn't be as hungry at lunch, because the lunch was supposed to be so small.

Lunch
1 slice of bread or toast (whole wheat is best)
1 egg (cooked however you like)

Like I said, this lunch was extremely small. It felt like nothing, no matter how long I took to eat my slice of bread. Around 3:30 I was just so hungry that I gave up and had an additional hard boiled egg. I felt like this was okay, because it was just a hard boiled egg.

Dinner
One cup of tuna
Half of a banana
One cup of vanilla ice cream

I love tuna, like I said, but more than one can of tuna can really start to taste weird. Maybe it's a texture thing, but I was at least happy that I was having more than one can of tuna. I immediately had to have my ice cream afterwards, even though I would usually try to wait until after rehearsal because I was usually hungry, but I couldn't this day.

My Personal Reflection
When we completed this diet, we all agreed that we felt good about the diet, and that we would all do it again in a heart beat, because it wasn't too bad. We all lost about five pounds each, which although wasn't much, still made us feel like we accomplished something. The one thing that I specifically learned from this diet was portion size. It really opened my eyes to the amount of food that I should eat, because I was clearly going over the portion amount. When I went to eat an actual meal the next day, the meal that was offered at my house sounded so filling that just thinking about it made me feel sick, because I didn't think I could eat that much. So, I definitely have started to pay closer attention to what I eat, and I've started to just have small snacks throughout the day, because that's what I've realized my stomach prefers, and that's what keeps me fuller throughout the day.