Day 1

8:00 Alarm, wake up.  I’m a little nervous going in to this that it will be harder than I anticipate.  I’m already concerned about breakfast, since I haven’t precooked anything, have no veggies chopped, and no meals prepared.  Mental note to make my cheat day the same as grocery day and batch cook day, so that I dont have these worries in the future.

8:05 Up, out of bed.

8:15 Weigh in and measurements, pictures.

I”ve opted not to post the first picture in the post, but instead as a link.  It’s there, but I’m not forcing you to click on it.  [Week 1]

8:30 Coffee with 1/2 tablespoon cinnamon.  NEVER again.  Taste was awful, upset my stomach.  Will stick to black from now on, or with a little cream.  Glass of grapefruit juice follows, which isn’t helping my stomach at all.  Also, I’m burping cinnamon now, which is an awful taste.  Has anyone ever seen the cinnamon challenge videos?  I feel almost like that.  Ok, maybe not quite that extreme.  I won’t link to the videos here since I can’t find a “clean” one, but head on over to YouTube and have a look, if you are interested.

9:30 Chicken breast and spinach with balsamic vinegar and cracked peppercorns.  Feel rather full after, but my stomach still isn’t quite settled from cinna-coffee.  What an awful idea that was.

12:45 Lunch!  Spinach salad with carrots and broccoli, wholechicken breast.  I sprinkled it with garlic powder, red pepper flakes, cracked peppercorns, red wine vinegar.  I’m actually struggling to finish this. I think my eyes were bigger than my stomach on this one.  Is that actually possible?  I ended up saving 4 chunks of chicken and a little spinach for leftovers.  Maybe if I have a mid afternoon or evening hunger.

I’m keeping a 20oz glass of ice water on my desk at all times, with the goal of staying hydrated.  Every time I focus on the glass, I force myself to take a sip, even if I’m not thirsty.  I’m used to drinking a LOT of sweetened tea and soda, so I need this exercise in getting real actual water into my system.

Aaron (my room mate) has lots of questions as to the cans and can’ts of the diet.  Specifically, morning coffee.  Can we have cream?  I just checked the label on my CoffeeMate creamer, and it is lactose free, non dairy, so I can continue to use it.  This is good news, especially after the coffee and cinnamon debacle of this morning.  In reading one of Tim’s blog posts, I discovered that I COMPLETELY messed up on the cinnamon.  He advises NO MORE THAN 1.5tsp per day, and there was a typo in the book that read 1tbsp.  Since I used the 1tbsp, this is probably why I had such counteractive results.  I thought it seemed like too much, but I’m not an expert.  Perhaps I’ll skip the cinnamon tomorrow and try it again on Wednesday.

18:30 Dinner time.  Chicken and chili bean stuffed peppers!  One of my favorite dishes.  Had a glass of water with dinner.  Had some spinach as well, with more than a dash of balsamic vinegar.  Bad pour on my part.  I’ve noticed that I seem to be taking more time to actually consume my meals.  I predominantly eat at my desk while working, or surfing, and with both lunch and dinner today it almost felt like a stuggle to finish (though much more with lunch, since I didn’t  actually finish).

19:00 Coffee, black.  I don’t normally drink black coffee, but I think I could grow to enjoy it.  I remember when I was in college, there was a couple that was very much in to their coffee.  They preached that the ONLY acceptable way to drink coffee was black.  Maybe they were on to something.

Thoughts for Day 1: This isn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be.  I already know that I’m making a big batch of chili later this week, which is one of my specialties.  I felt full throughout most of the day.  The only time I really felt “hungry” was at about 22:00, but by that point I was so close to bed that I pushed it off.  I am going to need to find something “sweet” to placate myself in the near future, for evening snacks…