growing in the goo

Yesterday I had a brief foray into eating healthily. I decided to go on the SpecialK Challenge - which is having 2/3 cup of cereal + 1/2 cup of skim milk + serving of fruit for two meals a day, then having a regular meal. Snacks can be fruit or Special K bars (which aren't all that bad, actually) and fruit. You can also drink normally. This is supposed to go on for two weeks, and at the end you should drop about 5-6 pounds. It's not intended to be a long term fix or diet, but rather motivation for healthier living.

I had noticed it on the back of the box for the past few months, and it had been sticking in the back of my brain as something I should try. The first time I saw it I scoffed "OF course you lose weight. You're starving yourself!" But something about a quick fix caught my lazy eye.

So around 9 a.m., bleary-eyed but enthusiastic, I measured out 2/3rds a cup of cereal. It immediately became clear that I've been having about 6 servings all these years. (For the record, I used 1 % milk, but I never actually drink it, so I figured that was okay.) The bowl took approximately 1 minute to eat - and then I washed off grapes and had a bunch. So far, so good.

And then approximately an hour later I was hungry. I ignored it until 11:30, when I couldn't resist it anymore - so I had a serving of CranRaisins. Not that bad tasting, actually. But not exactly on the filling side.

Then I had my second bowl (or should I say, second measuring cup) of cereal around 12:30, accompanied by a serving of Mott's applesauce. It was tasty, sure. But I was hungry again a half hour later, with dinner a murky oasis that was at least six hours away.

I remained strong. I didn't cheat. Until I was over my cousins' house, and we made cookies. Christmas sugar cookies. Now, for the record, I can make a mean plate of chocolate chip cookies and brownies. But sugar cookie land was somewhere I had never visited - I had warned the kids that it was an experiment, and that the cookies may come out badly.

Unfortunately (or fortunately for my SpecialK Challenge) they came out horribly. BoBerrin said they looked like camel poop, which was an accurate observation. Little P said that he hated them and that they were the worst things he's ever tasted. I thought it was a bit flourey, and if we only had had a mixer, it would have come out better...

at any rate. My "cheating" was a HORRIBLE, tasteless round cookie. So it didn't count. Then I came home for a half hour before I was watching another set of cousins. I had a caramel Nip. It tasted good. And I enjoyed it.

Then I went and babysat until 7:30. I came home ready to eat anything that was thrown in my path, including rotting trash. Luckily none of that was around (because have you SEEN the calorie count in that?!), so I made some tyson's chicken, going all out with two sandwiches. And while I was waiting for the things to cook, I dove into a package of cookies.

I topped off the day by watching Supersize Me for the first time. The movie was really good. People say that watching it makes you not want to eat fast food ever again. Now, it did provide me with a momentary feeling of hesitation while they talked about chicken nuggets, but I do see myself indulging in McDonald's sometime in the future. But combined with my SpecialK attempt, it did kind of act like a nice warning.

From now on, I'm going to eat more healthily. Cut down on the soda, increase on the water. Cut down on the cookies, increase on the grapes and applesauce. And walk more than once a week. I'm not going to pass on a snicker's ice cream bar...but from now on I won't pass on the salad.

Looking back on my day, I noticed that I had been hungry for just about from when I woke up to my regular meal. That had made me irritable. Me being irritable negatively affected the eight cousins that I had watched at various points of the day. It made me go from daydreaming about getting a job to daydreaming about getting a tasty, filling lunch. There's no way in hell I'm doing the starvation diet for two weeks - I don't want to lose weight that bad, I just want to change my eating habits.

Is it possible to learn a lesson in one day? We'll see. I pick things up quickly, I don't need two weeks of punishment.