WHAT: The 10-week diet

OBJECTIVE: To lose weight

PROBLEM: To LOSE the weight

Two weeks ago, my work buddies and I went back on the program. Our 10-week diet program, that is. It's not officially a competition, but rather an accountability and mutual support group to try and lose the weight the we easily gained over the past year, since our last efforts. One has adopted some of the South Beach diet practices, where you are supposed to only do very little carbs for at least the first 2 weeks. I am doing the Jamba Juice lunch approach, with a sensible dinner, almost 0 fast food and some gym time. Jamba has curbed my diet, and has become a lower calorie substitute for food. Amazingly, my appetite feels smaller by the day!

There is a spreadsheet I created to help us track our progress. First you fill in your start weight. Then you fill in the total lbs. you want to lose, (i.e. goal setting). What the spreadsheet does is calculate the avg. lbs that each would have to lose per week, to make the target weight by the 10th and final week. Weigh in is every Monday, which helps remind us that we need to eat responsibly over the weekend--the most vulnerable time to mess up. The average lbs. is a progressive figure, such that after weigh in, it calculates the average you need to lose per week to make the goal. The first couple weeks are hard as hell; but soon enough the discipline begins to sink in. Thank God!!!

I figure I should log my weight progress on a weekly basis, My start weight was 178.6. Last week I weighed in 177.8-a measily .8 lbs. I did pretty good overall last week. I might be teetering on a 2-lb. loss for the past week. I did a lot of athletic activity, and at my age, I have survived to tell about. Just kidding, I guess I'm not that old yet. :) But I still survived!