One week down.

This one surprised me.  When I saw the photo from today (right) I thought "Oh, I look the exact same" but when I put it next to last week's (left) I realized there is a difference...a small one, but I can see it.

Same here.  I think I've cut just a tiny bit off my hips.

So, it's been a week.  Not a long week, not an arduous week...just, a week of thinking about food a WHOLE lot, being hungry (but not all the time) and working out even when I didn't always feel like it.  It's been a week of feeling better about what I've been eating...better physically and mentally.  I can honestly say that almost everything feels better (I'd say everything if only I were never hungry).  Well, I was very whiny before bed last night because I got it in my head that I really really REALLY wanted a grilled cheese sandwich (which I did not eat) but it was a moment of pain, I tell you.  And then I wanted key lime pie with graham cracker crust (I think that's how it's always made?) and I just kind of fell asleep dreaming about that.

I have lost about 4 pounds.  It's funny because those pounds dropped off within the first few days and now my weight has remained the same.  But they are 4 solid, real pounds, not a fluke...since the scale has been pretty consistent.  I don't have a set goal in mind in terms of weight loss and I'm not going to post my weight here (well, maybe at then end of the challenge...maybe) but it was still cool to drop four.  Also, I think in the above photos I see some slight changes.  Anyway, Rome wasn't built in a day so I'm not going to focus on weekly changes.  The bigger picture will be what the change is like after a month.

In a week, I've learned a lot about how to zone...what works for me and what doesn't, etc.  Here are a few observations:

(1) My white board has to change.  As appealing as the idea was to plan out every snack and meal for the week, that was not realistic.  I guess I underestimated my ability to do this thing successfully without planning everything quite so much.  Today, I will change the board completely.  It will have a few different sections -- common block portions, go-to snacks, etc.  It will also have a place to track my blocks for the day.

(2) Comparing my diet to Jeff's, it seems that 12 blocks for me is a lot harder than 17 blocks for him.  He has trouble eating enough and I am hungry a lot.  But he's the type of person who is not used to eating evenly throughout the day...he typically will work straight through lunch and then be starving for dinner, at which point he can't eat, you know, 10 blocks of food at once.  So there have been days where he has fallen way short of eating 17 blocks but I have always eaten every single one of my 12.

(3) I've said it before and I'll say it again...roasted broccoli.  It's seriously one of my new favorite foods and I don't just mean favorite icky healthy vegetable.  I mean favorite foods, period.  Who knew?

(4) I'm not sure if I'm ready for a cheat meal yet.  I had one on Saturday but I kind of went off the rails...not with the dinner, but after dinner.  I think it sent me down a "bad" path.  I'd rather just have two cheat "foods" in a day rather than a whole meal.  But those cheats would probably take up so many of my much-needed blocks that who knows if it's worth it.   Which teaches me one of the most important lessons of zoning, which is that I'd rather "spend" my blocks (i.e. my calories, nutrient allotment, however you want to think of it) on a larger quantity of quality food than on a small portion of gross food.  It just make sense.  And because so much of food quantity and quality consumption has to do with how we perceive our food, this is a very important lesson.  If you look at a bag of chips and think, wow, I could have this little bag or I could have four cups of roasted broccoli...well, the chips start to become pretty damn unappealing.

That's all for now.  My kids are home today for MLK day...after having been home for over two weeks at Christmas...and only several weeks until February "vacation" and with the possibility of a snow day this week.  I should tear them away from the tv and take them somewhere somewhere intellectually stimulating like Target.