Ah, here we are. The first official day of this six week challenge. It helps to think of it as SIX. Six weeks. That’s not so much. One week at a time. One day at a time.

I don’t mean to be dramatic. At 5 pm, I’m feeling pretty okay. I know I’ll make it through somehow, but I am becoming less and less impressed with this eating plan.

Frankly, it’s dumb.

No oils or fats for six weeks? Note to self — research the effects of short term fat restriction on brain function. Will I become anxious? Will it affect my sleep? Will I be able to focus at work? If not, I’ll be adding a tablespoon of hemp seeds to my non-fat (blergh) yogurt.

Okay so when she showed us the plan, I immediately commented that I would not do well without fats. Obviously there is a bit of fat in lean meats, but it’s looking like my Day One macros will come in at 5% fat.

Yeah, that’s too low. I normally eat about 30% per day fat (haha, that matches my body! Oops!) and I’m happy with that. That means nuts, seeds, avocados, cheese… all the good stuff. This is actually pretty integral to my health IMO.

Also, because I could tell that this would be very low calorie, I decided to track everything in My Fitness Pal.

Hoo boy. I put all my meals and the protein shakes for day one into the app and before any calorie burn, it totalled around 1100 calories.

Oh, oh boy. When I want to lose a little weight, I aim for 1700-1800 NET calories, as in after I account for workouts. That means I eat about 2200 calories and then my workout is subtracted from that. And I lose weight that way. Eating just over 1000 calories per day and doing 45 minute HIIT workouts could potentially put my health at risk.

So, this is where we’re at now. I am following the plan to the letter for today and then reassessing. I will likely add some vegetables because this is coming out to about 4-5 servings of produce for the entire day which is just sad considering that’s one of the only things I can eat.

How did today go?

I will definitely be tweaking the layout of the meal plan a bit, splitting servings and moving them around a little. A cup and a half of plain yogurt or 6 egg whites at breakfast is just… ew. No thanks. I don’t care how good you are with food, there’s no saving that.

And protein shakes? So, that’s not something I’ve ever consumed. I do prefer vegetables, nuts, seeds, cheese, beans… I had one on the way to the bus today and yuck. Not the best.

My meals today were (keep in mind I split the servings and moved them around): at 9 am, 1 tbsp of apple cider vinegar in a cup of water followed by 1/4 of an apple (that’s ludicrous… seriously) with a big mug of unsweetened licorice tea; at 10 am, 3/4 cup egg whites from a carton, scrambled with cajun seasoning… but I added too much and it was salty so not only were these SCRAMBLED EGG WHITES (gross), they were too salty with 1 cup of broiled broccoli (seasoned with ACV, soy sauce, garlic and crushed chilies); at 11:30 am, a protein shake, blech; at 2 pm, 1/2 cup quinoa, 6 oz chicken breast, 1/2 cup spinach, 6 cherry tomatoes, chopped peppers, all topped with sea salt and lemon juice and soy sauce — this was good; and dinner was haddock, baked with seasoning on top, and a spinach salad with lemon juice. Not the best, but not the absolute worst.

Also had my first 45 minute HIIT circuit workout. It was definitely hard, but no harder than I expected it to be. Lots of skipping, jump squats, throwing a medicine ball on the ground… I had to stop quite a bit but I look forward to when these moves get easier.

Successes & Tweaks

Today I printed off two calendar pages to cover the six weeks. I numbered today Day 1, and counted up from there on each day until final weigh-in (November 24). Then I counted from 0 back up moving backwards from the final weigh-in so I can see how many days I have left. I can use this calendar to cross off each day as I survive them, and make notes of interest such as net calories, noteworthy things like mishaps or workouts, and my weight.

Also, I’ll be adding plain cocoa to my shakes tomorrow.