Challenge - Day 1/24

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

I spent the early months of summer working with a wonderful nutrition coach and a personal trainer at the gym. I was able to shed AND KEEP OFF 18 pounds of weight put on by stress and laziness in my life. My tenacity and interest waned throughout the end days of summer, as is wont to happen with any 'regimen' I adopt. I am not good at writing things down and I believe that I can do it on my own. These things are not true and I do need a good support network.

To get around my 'boredom' with my plan, I approached a friend who is an Advocare Coach. She herself lost 70+ pounds of post pregnancy weight a year or so ago. She is also a track coach at one of the local high schools. A natural cheerleader, she was on board with me getting started with her. I timed things to begin at the end of my vacation. After an hour coaching session last week, and a shopping spree, I was ready to begin.

Day 0 - Food and prep.
I spent time going through the menu plan and supplement plan to determine what I'd need to eat clean without worry for the coming week. I spent an hour after the grocery store prepping, cutting, cleaning and cooking food for lunches and daily snacks. Salads pre-made in quart size baggies, veggies in snack baggies, almonds divided, turkey burgers cooked and frozen to make easy-protein-filled snacks for on the go. I wrote out what to eat at what time. Is this sustainable? It's only for 24 days, so here we go.

Day 1 - My Mondays and Wednesdays always begin at the gym with a 5:30AM Spinning class. I am not a morning person but I have learned to either keep quiet or put on a good face. At 5:00 I had my first legitimate taste of Spark, a vitamin and energy (caffeine) laden drink mix that is a bit sweet for my taste, but down the hatch it went. I sweat like nobody's business at the gym and sustained 75-80% of my MHR during workout--I usually keep it closer to 65. I don't know if it was the supplement or because I had been off the gym for nearly two weeks during vacation--I had been to Spinning the Saturday before today, though, so it wasn't Day one for the gym.

Breakfast came within a half hour of getting home from the gym. Two Omegaplex supplements (fish oil looking things--probably the 'omega' in Omegaplex), a fibery-drink with the flavor of peaches and cream, two eggwhites and one whole egg, scrambled, and a peach. Delish. The fibery drink wasn't so bad as I anticipated. It is like drinking heavy peach syrup. I was recommended to chug it down and so I do. By this point in the day I have had at least a quart and a half of liquid if you count my intake at the gym. know that I'll be in the ladies' most of the day.

My morning snack was a grilled turkey burger and a half cup of raspberries. The burger was still frozen somewhat...boy was that interesting to chew.  Lunch came and my salad exceeded the size of the plate I had on hand. It looked like I was having a smorgasboard for lunch by the time I finished arranging my plate with shredded chicken on top. Water served me well again at lunch. We had a lunch meeting and so I was able to eat with 50+ of my colleagues as we met to discuss faculty matters. I was able to leave early as I had a desk shift to cover back at the library.

During the shift's first hour we were pretty busy. We had a faculty member who needed some assistance getting a high quality scan of a picture in a book. I took him to the Center--to help promote even its lower level services, and spied a community candy bowl on the table with the scanner. I took a Hershey's Special Dark miniature and walked back after handing off the faculty member. At the second chew, I realized what I had so mindlessly done. I found two tissues and spat the whole thing out. I had just shared with the student working the desk with me that I was 'off sugar' for a while and then I did this. I confessed, and we discussed mindlessness--he's a theology graduate student. So the good news is I caught myself before swallowing. The other good news is I have identified a trigger for mindless eating and know how it happens in the workplace so I have the opportunity to focus on that change in the next 23 days.

Dinner was great--orange roughy and steamed peas and Omegaplex. I ate some turkey breast for my evening snack and then took the 'Herbal Cleanse' pills before sleep--honestly, those are the worst-tasting thing I've encountered so far. Wish me well on my challenge. I think I'm going to need it.