An Inspiration through a Challenge

My SIL, KT, put up a blog post on Sunday that talked about starting up "Game On Diet".  When I went to the web page and got some brief information, I decided that it was a little like "The Biggest Loser" except for one thing--you don't win by how much weight you have lost but how many points you have accumulated over 4 weeks and the competition can be single person or groups of any size.  And you get points for attempting to improve your lifestyle--food, sleep, exercise, establishing non-food related good habits and dropping non-food related bad habits.  There are some deductions for things like obsessive weighing and   And there is grace--a day off of the food plan, getting to eat 100 calories of whatever you want each day and days off for exercise, water, and one meal. I got all this from buying the book on Kindle on Monday, reading it until midnight (which, if I was on the plan, means I would have lost sleep points) and then finishing it in the morning.  The game is starting today, so I thought I would give it a dry run on Wednesday.  I have been wanting a really good excuse to exercise and reverse the upward creep that my weight has been taking lately and I have been feeling very lethargic lately and have been wanting to see if changing the diet would work.  This program seems like fun, seems to be doable and

So all day Tuesday, in between teaching the kids and doing some other work, I started planning my week.  My goal is 8 pounds of weight loss and, of course to win.  My habit to break is raising my voice in anger, though raising my voice to call kids from any point in the house to where I need them to be is okay.  My new goal is to keep the kitchen and my portion of the office neat and organized (both of them, a herculean challenge that will require LOTS of prayer).  My biggest challenges in this program is no butter (sob), VERY limited sweets, and no juices or sodas (not even diet).  If you want to know why, you need to read the book, which does have objectionable language scattered throughout the book, so be warned.  It also has some really funny parts in it, so if you read it late into the night, you run the risk of waking your husband as the bed shakes from your attempts to laugh silently.

I started out the morning drinking 2 glasses of water, which I measured to be 3 cups (350 mL).  I will need to drink nine cups during the day to meet the 3 L minimum. I am going to forgo coffee this morning because I don't want to spend every 15 minutes taking potty breaks.  I can do this because I drink half decaf and the headache shouldn't be too severe.

Exercise:  High Intensity Interval training of walking and jogging in 1 minute intervals with my dog.  I let the dog take marking stops during the walks and he blew one walking portion by needing to have some quality time.  I excercised 25 minutes in all and did some additional stretching when I got home.  I drank another glass of water.  So far, so good, but the afternoon is still ahead.

Meal 1 (7 a.m.):  I started to get myself cereal and milk, before I realized that milk is considered a carb and I can only have one serving of carb.  DRAT!  That also means that cereal is not on the menu for the next four weeks.  I switched to a piece of whole wheat toast with a drizzle of sunflower oil (because butter is on the banned substance list and I don't want to throw away my 100 calorie freebie so soon) and a drizzle of honey (one of the three approved sugar sources).  Then, I realized I needed a protein, too.  I looked over the list.  If I had really been thinking, I would have included some mozzerella cheese or peanut butter on the toast instead of sunflower oil.  I ended up grabbing a leaf of swiss chard we keep for the tortoise and guinea pig, put 1/4 cup of mozzerella in the middle and eating it as a wrap.   It actually tasted pretty good.  Breakfast was more difficult than I thought.  It wasn't exactly satisfying, but I didn't leave the table ravenous.

Meal 2 (9:30 a.m.):  My stomach told me it was time to eat.  I had a plan this time and it worked.  My fourth water.  Not having coffee at this time was a good decision because by now, I would have gone to the bathroom about ten times.   Then I read that I needed to have two handfuls of veggies, not one.  No biggie.

Meal 3 (11:30):  I had to eat a stalk of celery to make it.  Snacking is forbidden except for celery and cucumber.  I can eat all the celery and cucumber I want.  yippee.  I am up to five glasses of water and I still seem thirsty.  Lunch wasn't too bad except for the fact that mayo is another banned substance, which caused me to re-think my standard half sandwich for lunch.  This time, I figured out that if I use half carb servings, then I can have fruit and some other carb, which allowed me to have half a banana and a splash of milk to cover the taste of the too-ripe banana.  Then I had my 100 free points of an oatmeal scotchie.  Unfortunately, I had problems stopping at one and ended up eating three.  Later on, I checked to see how much of a hit I was going to take--20 points!!  I am glad that this is my dry run.

Meal 4 (3:30p):  I felt bloated from the extra sweets I consumed.  On Wednesdays, I have to eat early anyway because I help out with childcare for ESL classes, so the timing worked perfectly. By this time, I was feeling like a pro, though I have to admit, the piece of chicken that was available was a leg, which would probably not be considered a lean protein.

Meal 5 (9:00p):  This was delayed because I had to fill in for someone for childcare at the Bible study held on Wednesday nights.  I fulfilled my 3 L minimum of water. I went shopping for some brown rice and black beans to make lime-cilantro rice for tomorrow.  Tomorrow will be tricky because it is co-op day and I will need to prepare food ahead of time.

And currently I am trying and failing to get into bed by 10 p.m to make the 7 hour minimum and because I am really tired.

Thank you KT for your kick-in-the-butt inspiration.  This is something I am really looking forward to doing.  I really admire the way you have been working to lose the weight you have over the past year or so.  You are awesome!

P.S.  Does this count as communication for tomorrow, since that is most likely the earliest you will read it?