Week One in the Books

One week down...a life time to go. Just finished my first week of the new healthier me. Its been a good week and a successful one. It was also a very busy week which was a good challenge for my new program but I was able to stay on course (Yeah Me!).

Diet
I have stuck almost exclusively to the raw foods way of eating. The one exception was the soft pretzel I had at the NASCAR race Saturday night. I was hungry and they did not sell anything at the concession stand that would fit in my diet. I figured the pretzel was better than the mound of french fries. BTW, $4 for a soft pretzel? That's highway robbery.

Actually the eating part has been a lot easier than I expected. I am eating a ton of salad. I am literally pooping weeds (is it a sign of getting old when you start discussing your bowel movements?). Haven't found any four leaf clovers yet though.

Salads, nuts and fresh fruit, its been very easy to stick with the eating plan. Its also a lot less expensive way to eat. Take meat and alcohol out of your diet and watch your grocery (and dining) bill plummet. And I actually like the food. Today's lunch salad consists of romaine lettuce, collard greens, mushrooms, green pepper, onion, celery and chik peas (garbanzo beans). Top it off with a little lemon juice. Doesn't that sound yummy? I am actually looking forward to lunch.

What's strange is that I have not had any cravings for a particular food (thought I would be jonesing for pizza) but I have really craved salt. And that is weird for me. I never thought of myself as a salt person (do not use extra salt on any foods, haven't since i was in high school). And I never eat that much chips or other salty foods. I wonder if I was getting a lot of sodium with my beer?

Exercise
As I mentioned in a previous post my first 6 weeks are going to be devoid of exercise. I want to run a small experiment and see how my body adjusts to just a change in eating habits. During the second 6 weeks I will incorporate a Body-For-Life like exercise program. I think it will be interesting to see what my body does each of those periods. I know a lot of the early weight loss is the easiest but we'll see.

Beer and Smokes
NONE. YES! I knew if I cut out the beer the smokes would follow as I only smoked when I drank. I am happy to say that this week I made it through bowling night, a NASCAR race and pool night and never once touched a beer. That was a tough week for me. All three of those activities usually went hand-in-hand with beer so I had the whole Pavlov's dogs thing going on. But believe it or not I never really had the hard urge. Very glad about this.

Tale of the Tape
Its been a good week but I realize most of this was probably water weight and that I will not see this type of typical weight loss from week to week.
weight - 223.2 (down exactly 5lbs)
fat% - 31.8 (down to 70.9 lbs of fat)
BMI dropped to 28 (goal is under 24)

Just for today I will live one day only, forgetting yesterday and tomorrow, and not trying to solve the whole problem of life at once.