Day 5: Weight loss? What weight loss?

   I had two bites of a pumpernickel bagel today. I couldn't resist! It was left over from a meeting and sitting in the office kitchen, all alone. I think that's a relatively small cheat though - I didn't go completely off the rails! Other than that, I am on track. A 4-5pm meeting today even had me sitting in front of a plate full of chocolate chip cookies, and I totally resisted. To be completely honest, I the no bread thing is not as hard as I imagined it would be. I crave them, but I am OK substituting with rice or oatmeal.
   This is the first day that the herbal supplements caused some seriously, um, urgency around getting to the bathroom, if you know what I mean. Still not planning on cutting down my dose, but I can see how some might want to go that route. Maybe station yourself close to a bathroom and don't book any meetings around your first coffee of the morning - just a suggestion!
   To be honest, I don't feel like I am losing weight. At all. But, like I mentioned earlier, I don't really feel like I am cutting my calories - I may even be eating more. However, I have to admit I feel much more satiated and 'balanced' on this Wild Rose diet than what I normally eat. I am not overly full or overly starving - it's actually really nice. I know a lot of people do cleanses for weight loss, and I don't think this is one of them, unless you have really poor eating habits ahead of time. I'm eating olive oil heavy salad dressing and almond butter ever day - normally I would avoid those foods because of the fat content (even though I know it's healthy fat, blah blah blah). I guess you could lose weight if you stuck to this diet but were restrictive - but I am trying not to let myself get super hungry so that I'm less likely to cheat. Even though I am not losing weight, I do enjoy not feeling like I am on a roller coaster between being starving and stuffed all day.
   A really simple, delicious dish I whipped up with some of the left over brown rice I had is just frying it up with an egg and adding rosemary, salt and pepper. So simple, but really good - and really quick to make when in a rush. One thing I am kind of using as a crutch so far as been salt - not good, I know! Definitely going to try to include more herbs and spices instead of salt moving forward.

One of my favourite indulgences: oatmeal with apples & cinnamon