The first day of the rest of my life.

Today was day one of Take Shape for Life.  I’m really glad I started on a weekend.  The food isn’t bad but it isn’t really delicious either.  It’s going to take a lot of getting used to.  But I figure after a week or so of this, I’ll get used to the difference in taste and texture.  Eating every 2 hours is a little weird though and I’m supposed to stretch out eat meal for at least 15 minutes.   I have an app in my phone that reminds me when it’s time to eat so that helps a little. 

For breakfast I had Chocolate Chip Pancakes with sugar free syrup.  This was actually really good.  Not as fluffy as regular pancakes but still good.  One packet makes about 3 pancakes.  And I’m allowed 2 tablespoons of syrup, which is exactly enough.  This meal left me feeling full and satisfied. And held me over until the next time I was supposed to eat. 

For my 2^nd meal I had a caramel crunch bar. Basically like a chewy bar or a cereal bar.  It tasted like peanuts which threw me off a bit but it wasn’t unbearable.  It was a nice snack and I drank some more water so that I could wash it down.

For lunch I had chicken noodle soup.  I read online that since it’s a dehydrated food, I should let it soak for a while in hot water before I heat it up and eat it so that all of the veggies and meat had time to “rehydrate”.  I did that and I didn’t have any issues with texture.  I’m going to find out how to doctor it up a bit to make it taste a little better.  Today I only used some Mrs. Dash table blend and it was an improvement.

The next meal was Chili Nacho Cheese Puffs.  These were a little weird.  They have sort of an after taste to them, but nothing too gross.  Just different than what I’m used to say if I were to eat a bag of Cheetos or something.  It’s a nice alternative though.  I wasn’t all that hungry when it was time to eat these.  I only ended up eating half of the bag. 

Next, it was time for my Lean & Green meal.  I chose to eat boneless skinless chicken breast and broccoli.  Something simple since I didn’t really feel like cooking.  So I had 6 oz of chicken and 1 ½ cups of broccoli.  I ate slowly to give my body a chance to digest and so I’d know when I was really full instead of the usual scarfing serving after serving down until I was completely stuffed.

My final meal was my dessert.  I had a Brownie.  This was a nice little treat.  It tastes really good and was a nice way to end the day.  I’m glad that I have that option so my body still feels like it’s getting the snack it’s used to getting. 

Overall it was a good day.  I didn’t hit any major challenges with hunger.  I thought I’d be starving by the middle of the day but I wasn’t.  It’s been about 4 hours since my last meal and I’m still fine. 

I didn’t go to the gym because I wanted to see how the first day would go and what my energy level would be like.  So, tomorrow I’m going to try a light workout and see how I feel afterwards.   Right now, I feel pretty good.  This stuff gives me unbelievable gas lol but I’m not feeling bloated, sluggish, or tired like I normally do. 

I can tell that the hardest part of this whole thing is going to be dealing with boredom.  Normally, my go to reaction to boredom is to eat or take a nap.  Both of those things are counterproductive to losing weight so I’m going to have to find something else to occupy my time and my mind.  Tomorrow I’m going to fill most of my day up with housework and hopefully it will be enough to keep me from thinking about food or snacks or other delicious treats.  I’m also going to go through my cabinets and fridge and get rid of anything even remotely tempting that isn’t a part of this plan.  I don’t need anything in my face that I know I won’t be able to eat for months anyway. 

So today, during the time I was sitting around doing a whole lot of nothing since my internet is still out, I made my goals for the week. My goals are:

 

1.    Lose weight.  I’m not going to say how many pounds I want to lose because that doesn’t matter.  All I want to do is lose something.  It’s been so long since I’ve lost a single pound that anything would be an accomplishment. 

2.       Workout at least once every day.  My job requires me to work out every morning, but I’m thinking about starting the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred in the evenings since I do have time to kill and need to do something besides nothing. 

3.       Stick to the 5 & 1 plan.  I’m notorious for not sticking 100% to a diet or sneaking in cheat foods.  If I can stick with this for a week, then I know I’ll be able to stick with it for another.

I’m confident that I’ll be able to accomplish all of these goals this week.  A small victory is still a victory and sometimes that’s all we need to be able to keep going.

Thanks for reading.  Until tomorrow…