3-2-1

I have never once in my life thought twice about the food that I was eating.  I have never seen an advertisement for a diet pill and considered purchasing it.  I have never looked twice at the diet foods in the grocery store.  I have never counted calories.

I simply did not care.

But this new healthy living project at work has made me think twice about some of these things.

The fact of the matter is that I am overweight because I eat too much, I eat the wrong things, and I don't exercise.  And it is time for that to change.

Those who know me know how much of a picky eater I am.  Because of these food preferences, it is really hard for me to find a way to make this diet/exercise thing work.

After much research online, I have decided to join the Slim-Fast 3-2-1 plan.

I get three snacks, two shakes or meal bars, and one 500-calorie meal each day.  Also, I'm expected to exercise for 30 minutes each day.  Yes, I know, it is one of those fad-ish diets.  But I think it's going to work for me, and here's why:

1.  The one food that I don't know how I could live without is chocolate.
With Slim-Fast, I basically eat chocolate all day long.  I drink a chocolate shake for breakfast.  I eat a chocolatey meal bar or drink another chocolate shake for lunch.  I eat a chocolate snack bar for one of my snacks.  That's more chocolate than I normally intake on a daily basis!

2.  I don't have time to make breakfast; therefore, I don't eat it.
As mentioned above, with Slim-Fast, I just grab a ready-made shake from the fridge.  I'll drink it on my way to work.  No problem!

3.  I am not in a place where I am ready to force-feed myself vegetables and red meat or fish.
With this diet, I never have to do those things.  The shakes and meal bars are nutrient-rich, and numerous scientific studies have verified that they are an acceptable meal substitute.

4.  I don't want to make time for weekly meetings and weigh-ins.
The other diet that I researched a lot was Weight Watchers, as it is the only other diet plan that is scientifically proven to show results.  That being said, my weekly schedule of commitments is crazy, and I knew I would have a hard time making things work.

5.  I don't want to consume my life with counting.
Another con for Weight Watchers.  I don't want to spend my days looking things up in a reference book and converting that number to points and then counting those up.  With slim-fast, I only have to count once per day, and that is for my dinner.  I just have to make sure that I don't go over 500.  Because of the lack of variety of the meals that I eat currently, I have figured out what a 500-calorie portion looks like, so it's barely taking me any time at all.

6.  I don't want to spend a lot of money on food.
As it was, I spent maybe $60 per month on groceries.  Maybe.  I went out and bought a month's supply of Slim-Fast supplies and spent $60, so it seems that this plan is in line with my current grocery budget.  At Sam's Club, I can buy in bulk, so that saves me some money.


I am currently only two days in, and so far, it's going well.  There are only a few problems that I am anticipating.

• I don't feel completely full.  I'm hoping that once I have adjusted to the new portions, that this feeling will go away.
• While I did buy a variety of flavors of meal bars, snacks, and shakes, I'm wondering how long it will be before they get old.
• I spend my whole day looking forward to dinner, which is when I get to eat "normal" food.  The Slim-Fast stuff does actually taste good, but not as good as cheese pizza or pasta.

My cousin is getting married on September 17th.  In Mexico.  I would really like to be swimsuit-ready by then.  The Slim-Fast online tools told me that if I am faithful to their plan, I could lose 71 pounds by then with a healthy weight loss of 1-2 pounds per week.  71 pounds is way over my goal, and I would be more than happy by losing even half of that.

I guess we'll see what happens.  But now, it is time for my snack!  I'm thinking clementines...