My “Jack Gets Fit” Diet Program – Week 1

Day One of my new diet, exercise, and meditation routine. I’m going to follow this diet program for the next 16 weeks in order to improve my weight, health, and mindset.

“Plan for the future, but accept good fortune”

Today’s affirmation

WEEK 1 – Diet program begins

All right, I am beginning my diet program again. Once more working to lose weight and regain some level of fitness and health.

I am attacking the program again with great energy and enthusiasm. But I know that my commitment levels have a tendency to waver and fall in the face of challenges.

I jumped in at the first of the year for a few days, determined that this would be the year, the month, and the day that I finally lost weight and reinvented myself.

A few days in I fell off course. I recommitted and re-planned and started again the last week of January. That went okay except for a few bumps here and there but after 3 weeks I’d only lost 9 pounds.

For three weeks I did my best to stick to the program. Then I kind of drifted away and after a couple of weeks, it was time to reboot. That failed. So I tried again. And I failed again.

So here I am. Nearly half the year has gone by and I haven’t made progress or even really committed myself to losing the weight I know I need to lose to get fit, get healthy, and improve my self-image.

If I am going to stay on this program I need to see faster results. That led me back to my drawing board and to re-envision and even harder line diet program.

Now I’m back, once again committed to spend 4 short months of deprivation and denial in exchange for the potential of years and years of improved health and fitness. I want a better lifestyle for myself and I plan to wring it out, starting with these next 16 weeks.

Weighing in

Today’s weight is 254.8 pounds. That is down from 262.2, which was basically the heaviest I have been in my life.

My blood glucose is 166 mg, which is unacceptably high. Especially since this was a “fasting” blood glucose reading, taken this morning before I have eaten anything.

Measures for my diet program success

I want to lose a minimum of 40 pounds over the next 16 weeks. That is 100% doable if I stick with my routines of eating, exercise, and meditation. By just changing a few everyday things I can reach this minimum goal.

By being more ambitions, and stretching my goal, I believe it is possible to lose an average of 3.5 pounds a week. I was basically meeting that goal over the last three weeks before I gave up with a whimper.

However, if I want to be even more ambitious, I can set a BHAG, or a Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal, of losing an average of 5 pounds a week.

At one end I have a reasonable goal of losing 40 pounds, which will put me in much better shape than I am today, but still leave me in the obese range. In the middle, I have a stretch goal that with effort and commitment will shave 56 pounds off my body. I would be out of the obese range and below 200 pounds. I would still be overweight.

If I could hit my BHAG of losing just 5 pounds a week it would mean losing up to 71 pounds of body weight and getting well under 200 pounds for the first time in 25 years. I’d also be able to do many of the things I’ve not been able to do for quite a while because of the restrictions my weight has put on me.

My first four steps:

This week, beginning today, I’m going to do 4 things everyday without fail, aimed at reducing my weight.

1. Cutting out sugar. No more sugar in my coffee, tea, or consumption of sugary sodas
2. Eating once a day. This is a kind of intermittent fasting called “stop-eat-stop” and involves having a meal just once every 24 hours.
3. Doing away with gluten and glucose-producing starches like pasta, potatoes, and rice.
4. Curbing my consumption of animal protein to twice a week.

Washing my weight away

I am increasing my water intake to about 96 oz a day so that I feel fuller, remain hydrated, and flush my body of waste. That can include some coffee and tea, as long as it is unsweetened.

In addition, I’m taking a daily regimen of turmeric tea (a brew of fresh turmeric, ginger root, and lemons) to start my day. I think the anti-inflammatory components of this home-made tea will offset the aches I get up with every day.

Goal for this week

I want to drop a minimum of 5 pounds this week. This will provide me with a great psychological boost and a great kick-off to the diet program.

Date	Weight	Blood Glucose	Diet Program	Exercise Minutes	Meditation Minutes	Water Intake Oz.
6/03/19	254.8	166	Following	10	40	96