Great Start, So Far

Day Three of the 8-Week Challenge and so far, I’m feeling great!  As long as I can stay away from injuries, stress and candy, I should be golden!  I survived the “Before” picture trauma and now I will focus on making sure I have the best “After” picture I can possibly come up with.  Oh yeah, and the benefits of lower weight and better health – as if I could forget that mission.  I’ve recently had a handful of people tell me they’ve been following this blog, from my best friends to colleagues to Gold’s Gym members that I hadn’t met before.  I am so very grateful for the support and the interest, and I just wanted to say thanks to anyone who is reading The Great Shape Project!  I love to write and I’d also love to rock a pair of skinny jeans, so this blog helps me indulge future possibilities.  It's also been so helpful for me to share what I go through with my weight.  I've been used to living with shame about it and I find now that it's a little easier to be open than to hide.  Confronting my demons with this blog has taken away some of their scariness, and hopefully will make it easier to defeat them.

Speaking of sharing, here is the latest diet update: I'm doing a ten-day juice cleanse based on a documentary I saw called “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead.”  It's about a man who was inspired (and inspired others) to consume nothing but juiced fruits and vegetables for 60 days.  He lost a little less than 100 pounds and went off all of the medications he was taking for things like high blood pressure and high cholesterol.  His transformation, mentally as well as physically, was astounding, as was the transformation of the trucker he befriended along the way.  I highly recommend this documentary as it is an incredible testament to the benefits of a diet including a wide, colorful variety of fruits and vegetables.  It got me so fired up, I ran right out and got a juicer and a whole mess of things I never would have purchased before, like Swiss Chard, beets, kale and ginger root.  Armed with a bunch of recipes I found online, I've made it my mission to follow a juice diet (with some added protein along the way as advised by Bo, the Super Trainer) for ten days and see what happens.  I would really love to do it for 30 days, but honestly, there is no way I can go that long.  To say that I'm not fond of vegetables is putting it very sweetly, and I know there will come a point - not very far away, I'm afraid - at which I will buckle under the pressure of greens, greens and more greens.  I've already had to plug my nose while drinking one concoction I made, and it's only the second day!  I'm a bit of a child, I know, but only when it comes to things that are good for me!  I also had to call my sister and ask her for prep tips since many of the veggies I bought are completely foreign to me.  Bo is on board and very supportive, and my sweet fiance has agreed to make my juices for me in exchange for his release from doing the cleanse with me.  I feel a little tired and I definitely have to get used to the whole concept of drinking all of my meals for ten straight days, but I'm really determined to see it through and see if it makes a noticeable difference in the way I feel.

 I will keep you posted.  Down the hatch!