Day One Diet: The Beginning of the End

So to start the year off right I've decided to ease into the whole diet idea instead of totally changing my lifestyle cold turkey. I see dieting like quitting smoking (even though I have never been a smoker). I feel that easing into the change is better than just jumping into it. So to start the diet plan I am using the Special K Challenge which has been promoted all over the TV as of late.

The idea behind this is to eat Special K products throughout the day and have a solid and healthy dinner in the evenings. The nice part of this is they track your progress and have you choose a plan that suits your taste. It's a two week process where you can lose up to about 6lbs which is a start. Ultimately I'd like to be around 30lbs lighter by the Fall, but lets do baby steps so it's not overwhelming.

www.specialk.com

The other thing I'm starting is a fitness routine. My roomie and I bought a portable elliptical machine recently and I've resolved to start with 200 reps every other day. With a workout DVD I bought for each day I don't use the elliptical. It has stretches, kickboxing, yoga and cardio for 10 minute sessions. This works for me because I HATE working out. It has never been something that has appealed to me. When I was younger I loved sports and swimming. However, college and grad school has made me rather lethargic when it comes to working out. Thus my dilemma. I SHOULD weigh around 140 and be toned. HA! So again, baby steps for me. After this two week session of working out and the Special K Challenge, I'll find a similar plan that works for me that allows me to eat foods I still enjoy as well as diet foods. And I'll enhance the workout routine so that it hopefully will become second nature to me.

Now I should note again that I am an incoming PhD student. I work as a professor 5 days a week and will be taking two evening classes. So the challenge will be to manage my studies and the lack of being home to make full meals every day. No fast food! I might allow a sweet tea from McDs here and there but otherwise I can't allow myself to cheat! Now my big dilemma is that I am a Dunkin Donuts junkie. I get an iced caramel latte with skim, no whip a few times a week, as well as a bagel. It's not horribly unhealthy but it certainly doesn't help me LOSE weight. Plus it's a money sink. So I do have coffee I'll make here, but I don't want to totally lose my treats. So I'll allow (to start) two lattes a week. That's IT. When I get further along I'll lower that to once a week. My biggest issue with diets in the past was that I couldn't eat the foods I enjoyed. Weight Watchers worked a bit but I was still always hungry so it was easy to "fall off the wagon."

So far today I did the 200 reps while watching CSI: NY (yay Gary Sinese!). I've also had my "breakfast" ... but I had to go grocery shopping so it was closer to lunch. Chocolatey Delight Special K cereal. I'm jonesin for some baby carrots and OJ so that might have to happen soon. Right now I'm optimistic for this. I took a photo of myself this morning in a bathing suit (which I'm NOT open enough to want to post on here so, my apologies, you'll have to imagine my 170lb glory). That was motivation in and of itself. I'll take sporadic photos to post on here for you all to see progress and I'll take bikini photos for myself to see where I want to be.

Here goes nothin!

~ M