Day #3 - Cheese

Yesterday was another successful day on the challenge. By complete coincidence someone brought in smoked pepper jack cheese to the office and put it in the kitchen. Off course I had a slice or two! But because I adhered to the rest of the challenge there was no guilt involved in eating cheese on cheese day!

The other thing I'm going to consciously try to do is drink more water. I'd estimate that I drank about 70 oz. yesterday, which is slightly more than the recommended amount.

I also made it to the gym for the first time this week. I wasn't in the mood to run so I did some lifting, ab work, pushups, lunges, etc. I jumped on the elliptical for 10 minutes at the end.

Breakfast = Tea + Granola Bar

Mid-morning = Greek yogurt + granola

Lunch = Salad (strawberries, crasins w/ raspberry vinaigrette)

Mid-afternoon = Banana

Dinner = I ended up going out to dinner. We went to a Vietnamese restaurant and I ate a fresh spring roll and Vermicelli with pork. It was the first time that I had ever had it. It contained pork, rice noodles and lettuce with a sauce called nuoc cham, which essentially fish sauce. The rice noodles filled me up completely but it was nice not to feel guilty about it.

Day #2 - Bread

It was very odd not to weigh myself this morning, especially after doing so well with the challenge yesterday. I know that tomorrow will be even more tempting to weigh in but I promise I won't do it. What's the point!?

Today was a great day on the challenge. I don't feel like I was hungry or had any severe cravings today, which is definitely a success. There were some sweets in the office kitchen today that didn't even seem tempting. But, cheese! of all things cheese! is the strongest craving that I have. Maybe it was just because I knew I can have some tomorrow.

Breakfast: Cup of Tea + Granola Bar

Mid-morning Snack: Banana

Lunch: 1 serving of cherries + homemade salad (lettuce, crasins, tomatoes w/ raspberry vinaigrette)

Dinner: Subway (6" chicken sandwich - no cheese promise!) I did however get a bag of Sun Chips. I have a 3 hour night class on Tuesdays after work and being hungry can make the class feel like 6 hours.

I had some regret about the chips but I think overall it was another successful day.

I'm watching Biggest Loser and I'm in love with this season. The women (Hannah, Olivia and Irene are such great examples of strong women. I know not everyone is the biggest fan of the show but I definitely find it motivating.

Day #1

Well my first day on this crazy "diet" is coming to an end. I'm trying not to think of it as a diet but as a challenge. I know at this point I'm definitely thinking about it too much, in the sense that I am letting it overtake many of my thoughts. However, I'm confident that as this path down food addiction recovery progresses and my body becomes more comfortable, partaking in the challenge will become habitual and less forced.

Today I ate -

Breakfast: "The usual" =cup of hot tea and Kashi granola bar

Lunch: I went out to lunch with a senior executive. Dinning out is hard! I was so nervous to be having lunch with her that I almost completely forgot about my challenge. I ordered a turkey and cranberry sandwich and a side salad. "Luckily" I remembered when the food came out and ended up making a sort of chef-salad out of the side salad with the turkey and cranberries from the sandwich. Hopefully she didn't think I was a freak. It was definitely a near miss with the bread.

Dinner: I went grocery shopping right after work, which I typically don't like to do, as I'm usually starving at that time. I was a woman on a mission though and purchased several different fruits as well as both plain and Greek yogurt. I also bought granola to add to the yogurt to serve as a method to curb cravings. I ended up picking up some sushi for dinner because I knew I was in no mood to cook! The sushi was guilt free and filling, which is just what I needed to stay motivated.

I didn't even eat any ketchup! I should have thought about the rules more and combined ketchup and french fries on Friday. Oh well!

Tomorrow will be one of the first days in over a year that I will not weigh myself. I've decided to give this challenge a whirl and see what it does for me in a week. No sense in prematurely evaluating its effect.

The Rules

I will limit each of my strongest cravings to one day a week:

Monday = Ketchup

Tuesday = Breads

Wednesday = Cheese

Thursday = Chips & Salsa

Friday = Fried Foods

Saturday = Sweets

Sunday = Soda

I make the following promises:

1. I will do this for at least 6 months.

2. I will not attempt to influence group dinning decisions.

3. I will not cheat.

4. I will not annoy my friends by constantly talking about my commitment.

5. No special occasions can trump the rules.

Of course this experiement is rooted in weight loss and attempting to live a healthier life style. I'll update weight gains and losses weekly.