An Introduction

Last week I linked to a challenge that turned out to be just the thing I needed to kick my ass into gear - 30 Days of Blank. The premise was simple - the theory is that it takes 30 days to make a habit. So you sign up to do something every day for 30 days - something you've been wanting to do but just haven't done.

Well, for me the choice was simple: 30 days of dieting. I wrote a little bit about this on my main blog, but I know some people just don't care about diets or talk about diets, so I decided to create a whole new space dedicated just to this subject. And here we are, at 30 Days of Denise!

Oh, that's me - Denise. I'm newly turned 40 years old, and have about 73 pounds to lose as of Saturday morning. I'm engaged to a great guy who I'll call J here. We have four dogs and five cats, and live together in my house in the country. And we both love to eat. But for the next 30 days, that's going to change.

Well, okay, I'll never stop loving to eat, but for the month of August, I'm at least going to be trying to teach myself how to do it in moderation every day.

So, enough introduction, here are my rules:

1. Eat between 1200 and 1550 calories per day.

2. Log my food into sparkpeople's website everyday (this is an awesome site for anyone looking to lose weight - it's all free, they get your information and give you a calorie range to help you obtain your goal, and they give you a nutrition tracker where you can track every bite of food you eat, so you'll know you're eating the right amount. You can also track your exercise, and if you're the social type, you can participate in their message boards to get a ton of support).

3. Exercise at least three times a week. This can mean doing a workout video, it can mean doing yardwork or housework, or just going for a walk or a bike ride, but I have to be active at least three days a week.

4. Weigh and measure myself on day one (done).

5. Weigh and measure myself again on day 31 (but avoid the scale in between).

And that's basically it. I can eat anything I want, as long as I stay in my calorie range. I decided not to weigh myself during the month because I tend to get obsessed with the scale, and it can ruin my motivation. I figure if I manage to behave for 30 days in a row, though, and then step on the scale, I'm bound to see a huge difference, which will make me very happy.

So that's the plan! And if this succeeds, I just might be repeating it month after month, until I get to goal. That should only take 8 or 9 months. Sigh.

Okay, that's a long enough post for now. I'll be stopping in once a week to record my calories for the week, and I'll post every now and then when I feel like talking about my progress.

Wish me luck! It could be a long 30 days.