I don't know what day it is.

I had a pretty terrible day at work yesterday. I was late due to MTA's detour. I have to go into Manhattan and then back out to Forest Hills Queens. It takes a half hour longer than my normal route. Yesterday apparently even longer than that...I was humiliated by customer after customer, didn't get all my meals in and of course got out from work too late to get to the gym (it closes at 11pm if that's any indication of how pissed I was I couldn't get there in time). It's the kind of day that makes you want to give up. I didn't even finish my work and have to go in on one of my days off. 

But then I got home. Lit a candle. Got to talk to Matt on the phone. Drank some tea and felt a little better.   Today I'm determined to not let another yesterday happen. Life's too short to expect days like that. 

Day 7.

I expected phase 1 to be the hardest phase. Mostly because it's just building muscle which takes time and a lot of eating. I'm hungry all the time. I'm eating all the time. I'm not working out all the time which is why I thought this was going to be the hardest phase. I just have to trust the workout plan and relax. I'm so worried I'm going to gain weight because I'm not doing cardio. It's only been one week so I don't know for sure....The science of it makes sense but when I don't see results it's hard to know if I'm doing it right. I need feedback! But I just have to keep telling myself:

Stick. To. The. Plan.

Stick to the plan!

I only cheated twice and with good reason: my last meal with Olivia indefinitely and my last date with Matt for over a week. And by "cheat" I mean I ordered an omelette and forgot to say "egg whites only please," and I ordered a bubble tea and forgot to say "green tea only please."  But I'm not gonna harp on it.  Life's too short. And I stuck to the plan for all the other 40 meals over the last week. So I'm pretty darn proud of myself. That's a 95% success rate on the diet and a 100% on the workouts. I'll give myself an A for this week.

The Beginning.

So I bit the bullet on getting into shape. And by "shape" I literally mean I am shaping my body. This entails eating copious amounts of protein and vegetables. I decided to stick to a plan that was easy to understand, inexpensive, and not too time consuming.  

My Goal: To be in the best shape of my life. Healthy, powerful, and unstoppable. 

Here's a link to the Live Fit plan to which I have committed the next 3 months of my life. I've been through trials of P90X, Jillian Michael's various programs, and even personal training sessions. This Live Fit plan seems more manageable and gives me the tools to learn how to do it all myself. Basically I'm a control freak when I have to make plans and this gave me the control!

Preparation

I've spent almost two weeks getting ready to start this transformation. I've been exercising for a few years but I've never felt that I've been at my personal best when it comes to being fit. Why? Convenience. So before I started I fake started. I wanted to see all the barriers I would run into before I spent a bunch of time and money setting this up.  I wanted this to be done right so that I had no excuses and didn't waste anymore time getting to my goal. I found out that I needed to be more realistic about my time constraints. My job is terrible for planning. Retail hours basically claim your entire life - or that was my mind set. So my biggest barrier was making an eating/shopping/workout plan that conveniently worked around my work schedule. So that's what I did. 

Mental: 

I made a calendar with all my workouts, goals, and "before" pictures. I bought two little glasses so I can move over some marbles from my weight "to lose" glass into the "weight lost" glass. I also made a schedule for working out so that I have no excuses for not hitting the gym on the right days. I also designated planning days so that I knew the next time I would be able to plan again. 

Diet:

Since I have to eat about 6 small meals a day, I made a daily eating schedule. I bought more tupperware to store the massive amounts of chicken and salad I will have to bring to work. I made shopping schedules, daily eating lists and a "safe food" chart to follow. Special Purchases:  Crock pot, food scale, tupperware

Day 1: Holy crap so much food. I couldn't even try to eat it all. My workout was at night so eating so much during the day was difficult. I was so exhausted from planning everything the day before that I went to work, came home around 7:30pm, ate dinner, worked out, and went to bed at 9:30pm. 

Day 2: I was so hungry this morning...thank God. I woke up, made my egg whites with taco seasoning (I have a feeling that is going to save me....) and then hit the gym. Sleep makes me so much happier. Working out makes me so much hungrier. This is going to be a good day.