It's time to start...no more excuses

okay, so it is tomorrow! I keep telling myself that I will start my diet tomorrow....or the first day of summer vacation (which happens to be 19 days ago!!) or the first of the month (which was 9 days ago!), so, I started today. I am doing this really differently, I am going to use the Shaklee Cinch program and see if their claims really do work...what do I have to lose? except, well, 20 pounds!

I'm starting today!

I am writing this blog for several reasons. One, I want to encourage someone if they are struggling with weight issues and if this works for me maybe it will work for them. Two, I need accountability, and encouragement myself. My pride is huge and if I blog about this, then I will definitely stick to it. Three, hey, if I am successful, maybe I can send in my success story and win $500! Yeah, bonus!!

my goal? lose 20 pounds by August 9 (that's 2 months, totally do-able, right??), definitely shape up, not be so embarrassed that I have to go to the beach fully dressed & wrapped in beach towels, fit into the amazingly cute clothes I have and be a good role model for Olivia...that should be number one. Oh! and, to make my body healthy and happy so God can use me for better things than plopping on the couch watching mindless tv shows...enjoyable, but mindless nonetheless!

So, this brings me to the daily eating program: 2 Shaklee Cinch Shakes (one for breakfast & the other for lunch); and then of course, a sensible healthy dinner...isn't that what they all say? What is a sensible healthy dinner when you are allergic to wheat, dairy, soy, & refined sugars just for starters? I guess lettuce with no dressing. BORING! I will be off this diet before tomorrow if I just eat that. So, I am going to experiment. I have more than a dozen cookbooks and I LOVE Food Network & The Cooking Channel, surely I can come up with a "sensible" dinner idea, right?? If you have any ideas, please share. Okay, so that's taken care of.

Program cost: cafe latte shake mix $40.80 for members for about 15 servings...one week's worth. Yep, that can be expensive, but it is taking the place of food for 2 meals a day...14 a week. Almond Breeze milk $3.29 ( I NEED that to mix in with it. I tried water and it was to clumpy to even swallow and tasted like a protein shake...for me to make this work, I need to make it taste yummy, or, I just won't do it.) And, dinner. Tonight we are having my spinach/watermelon salad...so the cost is: spinach $2.99 for 5oz; watermelon uncut $1.77; fat free feta cheese $2.39; calamata olives (the expensive and tasty part of this salad! yum!) $3.19; and EVOO mixed with balsamic vinegar that I already have stocked in my cabinets.

so...it looks cost friendly, that excuse blown out the window.

It's easy to do, too. I started this morning. I mixed 2 scoops of the shake with 8 oz of almond milk. I had to put it in a big plastic cup in order to get the hand held shake mixer to fit in the cup. No matter how hard I mixed, I still had the powder caked on the side of the cup, and I wasn't able to get all the shake mixed that had sunk to the bottom of the cup, sinking slowly through the milk. Hint, pour the milk in first. You get a powdery cloud of shake, but it seems to mix more thoroughly. However, I wasn't satisfied with the texture of the shake, so I tried whisking it. Still, it was slightly clumpy, and as I said earlier, there is no way I was going to be able to swallow this shake if it was NASTY!! I tried the shake bottle that I bought from GNC but all the clumps would not go away. So, into the blender it went. About 5 seconds on liquefy...seriously, only 5 seconds, and it was ready. Perfect! I poured it into a GLASS cup rather that a plastic one and I was ready to roll...well, hopefully, with this Cinch program, there will be less rolls to roll!

so...Let's get started! Each day, I will blog my weight upon waking up (YIKES!! SERIOUSLY???) By doing this, I will be more honest, humbled (that's for sure) and more apt to actually follow through. I will also blog any exercise that I partake in and how many calories burned. And, this is the most important, I will blog about every single thing that enters my mouth. How's that for accountability. I will also share my feelings and experiences, hints or ideas, and any way to help make it easier for someone else.

okay, it's time to go in search of the skinny me! I know she is in here somewhere!