Day One: I cheated in my mind

Anyone who has known me for a significant period of time knows that whenever I restrict my intake, the food dreams start. This morning was no different, however since we are in the early stages of food restrictions, the dreams haven’t gotten gory yet (e.g., no body parts were consumed). No, this morning’s dream was relatively mild – In the dream I had already broken my diet vows with the consumption of a Martha Stewart Chocolate Mousse with Raspberry Glaze. I ate the Mousse and then began to panic in the dream because how would I be able to forgive myself for my dietary indiscretions after making such a public statement about going (mostly) vegan? I opened my eyes at about 17 minutes after 5am, relieved that it was only a dream but a bit perturbed that my alarm never went off. Zombie kissed me as if she could detect a bit of imaginary mousse on my face.

Upon arriving to work the weigh-in and “before” pictures were taken (I posted a link on my Facebook page since I'm having trouble copying and pasting individual photos from the link). Four contestants are competing (we’re missing Caryn’s photo) and we have all contributed $100 to the prize, winner takes all (Similar to the television program the winner is defined as the individual with the greatest percentage of weight loss, not the greatest number of lbs lost). This is a nice little prize and should explain the ferocious comment left under yesterday’s blog (The Last Supper) by Tater – she is one of the four contestants and plans on taking the $400 and the glory (unlike last time around :-P ). If you have read the comment, you can see we have a delightful bit of trash-talking-banter going on to keep ourselves motivated.

So, the food…I started off the day with lots and lots of water and black coffee (Frankly, I think I had a bit of water retention working in my favor for the initial weigh-in). Breakfast was 1 cup of cocoa puffs (yes, they’re vegan http://www.peta.org/living/vegetarian-living/accidentally-vegan.aspx) with a half a cup of unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze (UVAB). Snacks were a quarter-cup of Thai Chili Lime cashews (Trader Joe’s), 2 baby tomatoes, and 2 kiwi fruit. Lunch was 2 cups of vegan chili, which was quite spicy without any dairy to mellow things out. I did purchase a rock-hard avocado from the grocery store across the street. Dinner tonight will be an Amy’s Breakfast Burrito (because it’s the best thing I’ve got on hand that I can eat while on a road trip) with baby carrots. Bedtime snack will be 16oz UVAB and a banana. I’ll only be coming in at about 1400 calories but I had a big day of calories yesterday so I think that’s OK. With Pad Thai on the menu tomorrow, I’ll have no trouble meeting the 1800 calorie goal.

Exercise was minimal today because I had to work a 12-hour day which will be followed by a four-hour drive (I took a little nap in between, we'll be leaving in a bit). Our charge nurse took a walk with me and I played around a bit with the eight-pound free-weights in my office. This is an area I really need to work on.

I talked to Tater about how I feel weird every time we do these diets. Not just because I’m hungry (and at times - like today - feeling a bit light-headed as I adjust to the new regimen) but because it’s weird not to have food to look forward to when my workday is over. I mean, after working a 12-hour day there is nothing I want more than to eat so much pizza that my stomach actually hurts. Tater theorizes that this is merely habit and that we need to find something new to look forward to. I want to argue that there's more behind this, but that's what all junkies (in this case, a food-junkie) say about the things they're addicted to (in my case, pizza). This certainly deserves some reflection. For now, I suppose I have Zombie and Voodoo's kisses to look forward to, so I'll try to focus on that.