You've been recruited.

If anyone still reads this blog, this is to inform you that you are now my "accountability partner" for the next five weeks of my new diet/fitness program. Yea! Lucky you!!

I'm following the 42 Days to Fit program, which slowly cleans up your diet and gets you focused on exercising 5 days a week.

I'm not going to post my weight and measurements here because they horrify me, but I'll keep you posted on the ups and downs.

Tomorrow will be the last day of week 1. Here's how it's gone so far:

How I Feel

• I started the week feeling like I'd swallowed a balloon. That hasn't changed much.
• I've had heartburn for more than a week. It doesn't seem to matter what I eat or don't eat. This is annoying.
• I'm motivated to make real changes gradually. This is a good program for gradual diet change.
• I've had more energy this week and slept a little better. 

Food

The challenge this week was to eliminate all sweets/desserts and to drink only water. Unsweetened herbal tea is ok, as is one glass of 100% juice with breakfast. 

• I had no problem with limited drinks. I have some favorite herbal teas I drink at work, plus plenty of water. I didn't even have the allowed juice. 
• Sweets were actually not a temptation. There were a few days when I wanted chocolate around 3 p.m., but it wasn't hard to redirect my attention. We went out to dinner Friday, and Atticus got a scoop of chocolate frozen custard, and I had two bites. It was really good, but I was able to stop and not miss it.
• The rest of my diet didn't change much. I made sure to eat breakfast every day (that's next week's challenge), and I brought my own lunch and snacks to work.
• I tried to increase my intake of produce.  
• I discovered that fat satisfies sugar cravings. Full-fat greek yogurt, even unsweetened, is incredibly satisfying, and you don't need a lot of it to do the trick. 

Exercise

The plan is to do 20 minutes cardio three days and two days of strength training.

• I did it! Elliptical machine and stretching at the gym Monday and Wednesday, two sets of the prescribed training circuit Tuesday, one on Thursday (no abs), and today I did 10 min on the elliptical machine and an extended training circuit. 
• My ankle hurt so bad after my workout this morning that I used my brace and a cane for half the day. Everything I'm doing is low-impact, and my PT even had me doing squats and lunges in my sessions, so I don't think the program is the problem. It's just my ankle. Time for cortisone. We'll see how long it lasts.
• I need to find a cardio exercise I enjoy. I'm going to get a bike for my birthday (when I can get up the nerve to drop a lot of money on a decent one), so maybe a ride around the neighborhood will do me more good than trudging on a machine. We're also close to the Jordan River Trail.

Goals

• Continue with patterns established this week: breakfast, pack lunch, exercise daily, make healthier choices.
• Pay closer attention to what upsets my stomach.
• Increase my strength training. While I'm tired after each set, I'm not sore later. Does that mean I'm not working hard enough? Or does that mean I've hit a "sweet spot" where I work just hard enough? I don't want to overdo it and not be able to walk or lift anything for three days, but I can probably increase the intensity a bit.

So there's my download for this week. Tomorrow I'll start prepping for week 2. :)