Alas, I tried to find a fun image (for about 10 seconds), decided it wasn't worth it, and moved on. Y'all know what that big red "K" looks like.
For anyone who doesn't know: the Special K Challenge lasts for 2 weeks. Challengers (i.e. me) eat some combination of a shake, a protein meal bar, or a bowl of cereal with milk or yogurt for two meals plus two small snacks plus a "well-balanced" dinner for two weeks and ka-blam! 6lbs down!
First of all, my reasons:
- I've been feeling squishy. I'd lost most of the holiday weight, but before the holidays I was already carrying around a few extra pounds.
- It's winter. I don't like running when it's this cold and the sidewalk is covered in ice. I barely get off the couch when the heat isn't blowing. I don't do cold well. I should probably rethink living in Chicago...
- I've been eating a lot of crap (aka. Pizza Rolls) and needed a kick in the butt to get back on the healthy eating track.
- I need to sweat more.
So how did the first week go? Pretty well! I'm not a huge fan of the shakes - call me crazy, but I prefer to eat my food - but I have two left, so I worked them into my plan for this week. I have rediscovered a love of granola and cereal, especially with fruit. I'm actually surprised how not hungry I've been. I've been intentionally keeping busy and trying to keep to an eating schedule, so I think that helps. I'm also tracking the food in my calorie counter to keep from eating too few calories and throwing my metabolism into crisis mode.
I didn't work out as much as I would have liked (when I say "work out," I mean, "yoga"). It was a busy week and I'm hoping to make a habit of eating better before working the exercise component in. By the beginning of March, I want to be in a place where getting back into running and training for an 8k in April isn't going to completely kick my ass.
The absolute best part about this is the new meals I've discovered! My biggest downfall is eating healthy all day, getting home starving, and just eating whatever comes to hand first. Usually cookies. Frequently Pizza Rolls. I'm not proud. And I'd fallen into a rut. Of cookies and Pizza Rolls. During Week 1, I had a steak salad, a veggie burger with side salad, chicken with chop suey veggies over brown rice - and all of these things took about 15 minutes to make. Quick, easy, delicious, healthy. Can't beat that combo. Dessert every night has been light whipped cream with strawberries and I couldn't be happier about that. But I think the biggest accomplishment of the week was kicking my soda habit. I ran out of soda about half way through the week and just didn't get any more. No caffeine headaches! I have coffee in the morning and I'm good. I drink water the rest of the day and I think that's helped a lot too.
Oh - to go back to one of the themes of this blog... I be poor, yo. How did I afford all this fancy Special K food? Aldi. They have knock off versions of almost everything Special K has, so that saved me a ton of money. I did buy a couple things name brand, but having the Aldi versions of most of it helped a ton.
Week 1 Results: I've lost 3lbs and 4 inches overall and feel like I've generally deflated. I'm looking forward to the Final Results.
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