Saving the other knee... (weight)

 Did you know that every extra pound that you carry is hard on your knees and hips?  Each counts as 4 pounds on the knees and 6 pounds on the hips.
As the New Year approached this year, I eavesdropped on a thread on Twitter where someone asked their friends for suggestions on good plans on reaching a healthy weight.  There were several options, but The 17 Day Diet struck me.  I can do anything for 17 days, right?  It allowed me to go into surgery 20 pounds lighter. 
Then I kind of slipped and Girl Scout cookies came out... So I'm about to start again on the first of the month.  It's really good, and my cholesterol was good enough that my doctor wrote to congratulate me. 
I took pictures along the way to keep myself motivated.  Although I quit with the pics on day 15, I'm posting them here - as much for myself as for anyone interested.  I took the pics because the food was appetizing and pretty colorful.  I wanted to keep a record so that I'd remembered what I liked and what we didn't need to do again.
Here we go.  On the first day I didn't think of it until dinner.

Day 2

It turns out that pears and berries in Breakstone's live culture cottage cheese is a good breakfast.

Chicken, onions, and Brussels sprouts for lunch.  Rotisserie chicken was my friend.

 

Flounder with cauliflower and broccoli.  Not bad with some olive oil spread
I'd always stuck with butter, but this wasn't bad and the results were great.

Day 3

Berries and scrambled eggs for breakfast. 

Chicken with cauliflower and broccoli for either lunch or dinner.
This will quickly get boring.

Day 4

Starting to get very boring.  I see some sauce in the bottom there.

Some carrots and preserved lemons with the salmon and purple broccoli.
I don't like purple broccoli.  In the dark, there's no difference in taste, but...

Day 5

An orange and yogurt for breakfast.

Getting rid of that broccoli.  We don't need to do that again.

Here we have realized that a little salsa on that fish will
make a big difference.  The next day I went on a salsa and
dressing spree at the store.

Day 6 

There were berries nearly every day.  And I love scrambled eggs.

Tossed salad with chicken.  Not bad, but it was cold weather.
It didn't satisfy for lunch and dinner like a hot meal.

Day 7

Here we have berries, cottage cheese, and pear slices.
I tried a sprinkle of matcha on the cheese.  Once. 
Not a fan.

Salad with a little chicken.

All the veggies!  Cabbage, Brussels sprouts, and snow peas.
Chicken with salsa.

Day 8

Apple with eggs, and a side of Benefiber probiotic powder.
This plan encourages some form of probiotic daily.

Beautiful, delicious haddock covered in salsa with snow peas.

Day 9

  That's a small fiber filled muffin.
I notice I've started taking CLA (eh...nah) and there's
an elderberry gummy there.

Haddock, salsa, and cauliflower

Day 10

Tossed salad with warm chicken.

Day 11

I had to have a bunch of pre-surgical tests done, so couldn't eat
until mid afternoon.  Yogurt, grapefruit, AND eggs!  Oh boy :-)

This is about when I realized that flounder doesn't have much flavor unless
you can fry it in butter.  Lots of veggies.  That's Molly McButter on the asparagus. 
Not as good as the olive spread.

Salmon on salad.  I'm surprised to see so much salad.
I don't remember that...

Day 12

ALL the berries!  I really felt like I was pampering myself
on this plan. 

This is a meal that I'd order at a restaurant, so it
wasn't hard to take.

Day 13

I will admit to starting to get pretty bored at this point.
I got some small batch sauerkraut to use as a condiment.
That jazzed up the cooked cabbage.

This is where I discover the cauliflower "rice" blends
and various options.  Game-changer!

Day 14

Yogurt with berries.  This was a lemon yogurt with
no sugar/sweetener and they just waved the lemon
over the vat.  I'd rather use some with more flavor and
risk not losing that 1/10th of an ounce that day.

Just a pinch of grated Parm made a huge difference in
this chicken and veggies lunch.

There's that cauliflower rice again. 

Day 15

Haddock, asparagus, cauli-rice, and some salsa.

 There were a few specific "rules" to follow.
-8+ glasses of water every day. 
-Nothing to eat after 6pm
-2 T olive oil in meals each day
-17 minutes of exercises/day
-no fruit after 2pm

Now that I put this up here, I can't wait to get started again! 
I learned that I like haddock the best of the typical white fish varieties in the store. 
My local store offers both snow peas and sugar snap peas fresh.  Snow peas, fresh or frozen at this time of year are not great, but the sugar snap peas are wonderful.

That's about it.  I have 3 days to get stocked and get any junk out of here! 

Note... when I did this, standing and doing dishes on my bad knee wasn't happening.  Hence the paper plates.  They were there for a reason.  Now I can use my regular dishes.