I still have kept off 3 of the 4 pounds I lost on the Perricone diet – despite the numerous chocolate Joe Joe’s cookies I’ve consumed. So there is something to be said for that crazy diet after all!

Well – it’s done. I just relucantly ate my oatmeal, fruit and “omlette”, completing 3 days of the Perricone Face-lift Diet. So here’s the “skinny” so to speak -

What worked:

• I lost close to 4 lbs (so I guess it’s good for weight loss!)
• My neck looks marginally improved – not quite so saggy. BUT – is that merely the result of losing weight? Probably plays a big part.
• I did seem to have a little more energy – especially considering I had 2 nights of 6 or fewer hours of sleep and then had to be “on the go” the day after.

What didn’t work:

• I have to say, truthfully I WANT my skin to look a lot better but I can’t really say there’s any noticeable improvement
• My skin tone looks about the same as it did before

Is it worth it?:

• Maybe to lose weight and feel good about what you’re eating (but big question – if I were to have my mercury levels tested right now, what would it look like? All that salmon…)

Oh yeah – and I forgot to mention a couple of tiny things . I did cheat twice last night. One rather small, and one pretty major!

I had a very small piece of pizza last night with my dinner – the rest of the family was eating it and it looked so good. Because we had a huge snowstorm, I resorted to frozen pizza but I swear it tasted unbelieveable to me!! Second, at that point I decided I needed a good snack last night. So I just took a flying leap off the wagon and ate a cupcake (I was making them for my son’s birthday) without frosting, though, and a little Ben & Jerry’s Half Baked frozen yogurt. Oooooh boy. Yummy!

I’ll let you know how fast the weight comes back on. I’m guessing by Monday with the weekend I have ahead of me…

Just a quick note. I’m struggling! I just finished my 5th serving of salmon in 48 hours. That’s a LOT of salmon. Today I “cheated” by having spinach sauteed with garlic with my lunch. But it was good, and I figure that’s an OK cheat. But will I make it through the rest of the day? Not sure.

The bonus of this is that I have lost 3 lbs! That’s nice! And my skin does look healthier so far. Not a huge difference by tiny lines are less noticeable and my saggy baggy neck is a little firmer (the skin is more elastic). I have a generally healthier glow, despite the fact that I am a little sleep deprived.

The biggest challenge – next to the monotany of the menu – is preparing the food. I had a dr’s appointment for my son at 8 am this morning. I had to get up, make that oatmeal/omlete/fruit breakfast, eat the eggs (I ate the oatmeal and fruit in the car) and drink the water, get the boys up and dressed/brushed and out of the house by 7am. Drop one at daycare and then drive the other downtown to the dr’s (a story for another day!) So fitting that meal in there was not easy – but actually not as bad as I thought it might be.

The question is, once I eat my corned beef and cabbage (a requirement when marrying into the McGovern family) on Saturday and the birthday cake for my son on Sunday – will all of my hard work be for nothing? Will the effects be immediately sucked out of my skin and into the fat and calories of my splurges? Hmmm….

Perseverance. That’s how I would sum up today. I actually refused all of the sweet and savory temptations that came my way. Yummy Udon noodles (another weakness), potato chips and HUGE incredibly tasty looking cookies at a lunch meeting. Birthday cake, chips and salsa, guacamole dip at a birthday party. I couldn’t even believe it. This is NOT my thing – I basically don’t possess willpower. I can’t figure out where it came from.

I literally sat in a big lunch meeting today like a total dork and brought out my carefully packed salad with salmon (which tasted good but not nearly as good as those Udon noodles would have), and my cantaloupe (which by this time is starting to be only a tiny bit appealing after having eaten it for the past 4 meals).

Later, I announced to co-workers that I was off to enjoy my snack of turkey, nuts and apple. The looks I got were not of interest or admiration, but more of general puzzlement. And tonight at my friend’s birthday party, I had to leave when they brought out gooey chocolate cake. It pretty much doesn’t get more tempting for me than that. But I did it!

Dinner and the evening snack were not easy, but I persevered. Just one more day to go!

And I’m so proud of my husband who went along with this until he realized he blew it by drinking coffee (a big no-no) – and eating pretzels while making dinner. But he’s done pretty well, especially since he was bamboozled into this whole thing.

I’m sure for those of you who have dieted before, you’re thinking I’m a big whiner. That is true. I know. For Pete’s sake it’s only 3 days! We’ll see how it goes tomorrow. The thought of grilled salmon for 2 more meals is not doing it for me at this point…