Starting Today

Starting yesterday, actually, I am making a huge change in my life. To say that I've started a diet is a bit of an understatement. I'm not on a very (very) low calorie meal plan that has me eating every two hours. A lot of baked chicken and fish is in my future. haha.

I decided to start this blog to log my journey. I am not going to be overweight on my 30th birthday. I WILL NOT. I have just over two years, but my hope is that this will work much faster than that. I just need to be able to stick with it. To say I could do it in just a few months would, I think, make it easier...but the prospect of having to live this way for a year or longer kind of scares me, to be honest.

I gained my first 20 or 30 pounds after I turned 21. Of course, my drinking increased...so I was constantly consuming empty calories late at night. A bit of a no-brainer. The confusing part comes when i gained the rest of it. When Shaun came home, and was so sick...I gained 70 pounds in seven months. To be frank, I literally have no idea how it happened. It was like i woke up one day and was wearing a size 18. When we split up, I vowed to lose the weight i had gained. hell, at that point it even seemed feasible. That was two years ago and I've somehow managed to pile on about 40 more.

So this blog is to say one thing...I'm not kidding myself anymore. I refuse to be this overweight on my 30th birthday. The weight isn't going to magically melt away unless I change my lifestyle dramatically. So...that's what I've done.

I started a plan called Smart for Life, you can visit their website (http://smartforlife.com/) and check it out if you want. Basically you get these 'cookies'...that are totally NOT cookies. I think they just tell you that to make you feel better about them. Haha. I will eat six of these not cookies a day, one every two hours. Then for dinner, six ounces of protein and two to five servings of vegetables. I had my first dinner last night and that is a LOT of veggies. Plus there are a handful of veggies I can have unlimited amounts of, so i threw some of those in the mix. I can still cook with balsamic vinegar...which most know is a staple in my kitchen. I just can't use oil or butter. I can't have red meat (it's only temporary. it's only temporary. my mantra...) or pork. All of which I can deal with. The worst part? No alcohol.

I don't think this is the worst because I'm some huge drunk...but do I drink every day? Yes. Have I for years? Yes. Even if it is just a glass of wine or a cocktail at night before bed. The doctor I met with on Wednesday told me this would be the hardest part. So far, no problem. Haha. It has officially been one day. Last night I was so tired from eating less than 900 calories all day, I was just ready to go to bed once I got home from Mom's.

I did discover two things. One, dinner isn't going to be horrible on this plan. The amount of veggies I can eat makes up for everything else, as long as i don't cook them with oil or butter. And two, I'm CRANKY when I'm not eating much. I know my body will adjust to this thing in a week or two, so I'm definitely looking forward to that. I don't like snapping at people for no real reason. Last night Chris was teasing me about something and I gave a kind of dry response and we both just started laughing. I hugged him and said 'I'm trying SO HARD to not be cranky. I'm sorry!' I'm just glad he understands that it isn't me, it's my stomach talking. Haha.

I tried a different kind of cookie this morning and I've found my favorite so far. It actually has icing on it and I'm not choking it down at all.

So anyway...my before picture. ::sigh:: That is what the picture at the beginning of all of this is for. Haha. That is the only full body picture I can find because I delete most of them. So...here we go!!!

Houston, we have lift off,

Lauren