Day 1, and Counting

Today's Starting Weight: 261.2 pounds. Yech.
Starting Spanx Size: E
End of Phase 1: 13 Days

Day one of my diet, and I feel... **gasp** full. Surprising, right?

A few years ago, I took South Beach lunchables to work and dropped ten pounds - from my belly. Without even trying. So when I decided to go on a diet last year, I went with what I knew would work. I started the diet, ignorantly, right before a long list of celebratory events that included cake and ice cream and pie and yumminess and I fell off the wagon before I ever began. The South Beach Diet Super Charged Handbook ($25.95 hardback) and The South Beach Diet Cookbook ($27.95 hardback) became nice shiny paper weights.

Having spent the aforementioned $54 and change on the required reading, I pulled the handbook and cookbook off the shelf yesterday and began creating my diet meal plan and shopping list. To further commit myself to the plan, I spent $65 of my hard earned cash on a subscription to the South Beach Diet webguide. (I rationalized spending the money like so: committing even more cash to this diet in such a trashed economy will guarantee my attentions; and, the first week is a free trial of which I can pull out at any time.)

The website is not as user friendly as Dr. Agatston's team probably believes. However, it does offer some great tools. I set my beginning date and it created a full menu for the week. I then went through the menu, and switched out whatever meals I did not want (mostly egg-based breakfast items). I clicked on the menu items for recipes and the shopping list basically wrote itself.

Cooking for the fam was easy. For breakfast, they scrambled to finish off the Cinnamon Life Cereal, possibly the greatest temptation living in my house today. For lunch, the kids had grilled cheese sandwiches, grapes, and chips with Daddy. Daddy cooked. For dinner, everyone ate what Mommy ate. Neither kids ate the steamed green beans; Grace ate the "mashed potatoes," David did not. Matt said, "Are these potatoes?" I asked him what he thought they were. "Potatoes." I told him it was mashed cauliflower. His response? "Wow. I'd take this over mashed potatoes any day." Hmmm... I don't know that I'd go that far, but they were pretty good.

You may be wondering why I am putting myself through this humiliation, admitting my weight and Spanx size on a world wide mass communication format. By creating for myself an assignment, I have created a source of accountability. I had a dream last night that I woke up and had five followers to this feed, just overnight. I remember thinking in my dream, Wow. Now I really have to stick to this. Look at these people that really want to know if this works or not. Cheesy, I know. But I can't control the cheese in my dreams. It just flows.

When I woke this morning, I had no new followers. (My husband scoped it out last night, if that counts for anything.) I don't know if anyone will ever read this, but the accountability worked today. Because if I am going to slip up and dig my hand in the Cinnamon Life box, I may not be the only one who will know. As a girl who hates to lie, I'd feel guilty about pretending I had a perfect day when I didn't. And I'd have to sign on to my blogspot and write about how I didn't even have the willpower to last the day. And since the good opinion of those around me means that much to me, peer pressure will win out and I will persevere through this diet.

Day one: complete.

Day two: I'm staring you down, and I will be the victor.