Day 2 - I will survive

There were times yesterday when I seriously thought to myself two things "I'm going to starve" and "There is no way I can do this for 6 weeks".  But I stayed resolute and reminded myself that a) there is enough fat on my body to allow me to survive for several weeks on nothing but water and b) food is fuel.  I decided yesterday to start using MyFitnessPal to keep track of my calories and (soon) exercise.  It is actually a very intuitive program and much like Weight Watcher online for those who have used that before.  Only instead of keeping track of points, you keep track of calories.  MyFitnessPal has a couple other features I like too.  You can get a free app for your phone, so that you can keep your diary portable.  This will be great for nights I don't feel like getting on the computer or I'm not near a computer to check calories.  There is a short questionnaire at the beginning that helps you decide what your goal for calories should be.  Finally, there are lots of fun graphs to play with to track your progress (weight, calories per day, etc).  So as promised, here is my menu for Day 1:

Breakfast 
3/4c Toasted Oats Organic Cereal
1 c 1% milk
1/2c fresh blueberries

Snack #1
Low-Fat String Cheese
Grapes (about 1c)

Lunch
Sandwich on low-calorie Rye bread w/ 3oz turkey, 1 wedge of laughing cow cheese and 1/2 avocado
Apple
1/2 c sliced cucumber

Snack #2
3oz baby carrots
celery sticks (3 medium stalks cut up)
1oz almonds

Dinner
7oz baked boneless, skinless chicken breast
1c long-grain brown rice
2c squash (1 ea. yellow squash and zuchinni simmered with 1 4oz can of Herdez Salsa - YUM)
1/2c frozen peas

All told - this daily menu equaled about 1,649 calories.

Today has been much better.  I attribute it to two things - 1) the protein shake I had for breakfast and 2) the fact that I was so busy at work I had no time to consider whether I was hungry!  I think the protein shake was an awesome start to the day.  It made a full 16oz and was very filling.  At 11am when it was time for my snack, I could have pass, but I knew it's important to keep my metabolism revved up, so I ate it.  So here is the menu for today.  I cheated a little at dinner and had canned vegetables, because I was exhausted.  But they were still all ingredients I could understand on the can!  The other thing that made dinner a little easier tonight is that I made 3c of the long-grain rice last night and portioned it out, so I will have it for dinner the next couple nights without needing to wait 45 minutes for it to cook!

Breakfast
Protein Shake (1c 2% milk, 5 frozen strawberries, 1 frozen banana, 1/4c Chocolate Protein Powder - blend until smooth)

Snack #1
Vanilla Greek Yogurt w/ 1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2c fresh blueberries

Lunch
Salad (2 c salad mix, 1/2c cucumber, 8 grape tomatoes, 2tbsp sunflower seeds, 3oz turkey)
2 tbsp balsamic vinaigrette 
4 Grains First crakers
1wedge of lite laughing cow cheese

Snack #2
Kashi Mocha Almond granola bar
celery sticks

Dinner
8 oz baked salmon (I put some garlic peppercorn seasoning on it to spice it up)
1c long-grain brown rice
2c canned, stewed tomatoes

All told - about 1625 calories for today.  Pretty close to yesterday.

I know this is a long post, since I neglected yesterday.  I promise to be better!  The other thing I can tell you is that for week 1, I picked out two breakfasts and 2 lunches for the week.  :)  I am the type of person that can eat virtually the same thing every day.  So you have the two breakfasts and two lunches that will be rotated through for the rest of the week.  The plan is for tomorrow to be a cereal morning and a salad lunch. MyFitnessPal tells me if I keep eating like this I will lose 11.5 pounds in 5 weeks.  Not too shabby!

I can do this!