Game ON

This day certainly arrived before I was ready.  Ready, but not fully prepared, that is.  I said goodbye to my good friend Papa John last night, and I panicked a bit when I had to usher my even better friend Cabernet out of my life, but I didn't let either friend overstay their welcome and I got to bed relatively early. 


Day One of a huge change in one's life is a challenge in and of itself.  Everything seems so big, so insurmountable, so dramatic, but really, it's just a new navigation of our usual daily path.  I opened my eyes in bed this morning, and my first thought was... the counting. Counting numbers, amounts, weights, water.  The time spent counting blocks, measuring, looking at the reference sheet that has a font way too small for my presbyopic eyes.  But the counting and measuring, like my formerly excellent eyesight, diminishes with time.  I remember from previous challenges, I found a few meals that worked for me, and those became my weekly staples. 


The first week is definitely uncomfortable.  I just ate 2.5 cups of grilled eggplant, and that was uncomfortable.  Now, it's time for me to eat again, and I have to find a quick one-block "snack" that won't make my abdomen split and explode wide open (I know, dramatic, but it is day 1). Today and tomorrow will be filled with cooking.  We will have our meat stash, our hard boiled egg stash, and I'm going to try to create 2 Block egg cups that are grab-and-go for the snacks.  Like you, we have our challenges - a visiting father for the weekend who will be enjoying the basement bar solo tonight.  Superbowl invites, and family gathering invites. There is even a fantastic event downtown, but all the great shops and restaurants hand out food and beverages so we will be skipping that for now.  Instead, we are opting for staying at home, playing some games, and waiting for the snow to start falling.


Also, avoid your friends who are on "failure watch."  When people question you, which they will, ("No dairy?????"  "No grains??????"  "All that measuring???????" "Gasp - No Alcohol??????") just tell them your goals are more important right now.  I tell people that I've done it before, that a few slips gradually turned into a weakened nutrition lifestyle, and I was done feeling bad about myself and my food choices.  There will always be people who try to discourage for any number of reasons.  My advice is to shrug and move on.


Finally, like the big workouts, break it down into smaller, more digestible amounts.  Don't look at the length of the challenge -take it a day, a week, or even a meal at a time. I'm happy to have started, because the anticipation of the beginning was more stressful than figuring out a meal or a snack.  Cheers to the next 83 Days!! Now, I'm off to do better things: fill my water container, stand in the kitchen, and chew some food.  Oh, and wrap my belly so it doesn't explode.