Operation Healthy: Week 1

A week ago today, I was eagerly anticipating the arrival of my newest project - portion controlled meals that were going to be delivered to my door, hopefully making a difference in my weight loss journey (or lack thereof.)   I spent a good portion of that morning cleaning out the pantry, since I'd been in touch with a few ladies following the regime that commented on the sheer amount of food products that arrived each month. So I cleaned, and I organised, and I left a whole entire shelf empty - and when the delivery came on Thursday morning, I packed it all up neatly and began my journey.

It's one thing to fork out the dollars and mentally commit to a new health plan, but it's another to actually enjoy doing it. My biggest worry was that I wouldn't enjoy the food, wouldn't be satisfied, or would simply just let myself down. Either way, I grimly weighed myself that morning on the Wii, shed a few tears of pure horror and then promptly got busy with the healthy living, starting then and there all over again.

It's not rocket science. The food is portion controlled servings which you can add to, in order to hit your targeted number of calories per day. Breakfasts are usually porridge or granola. Lunches are soups, casseroles or dairy shakes. Dinners, well, there are loads of options to choose from. This week I've eaten mac and cheese, thai chicken curry, vegetable casserole with pork sausages and pasta with beef meatballs, just to name a few. And surprisingly, they taste okay! They also provide you with snacks to munch on: oatbakes, low GI biscuits, fruit and muesli bars - and of course, I add in my own fruits and veggies as well as a portion of brown rice or wholemeal bread/pasta once per day, if I choose.

I'll admit - the first day I was dubious of the whole thing. The portion of granola was oh so tiny, I didn't possibly think it would be enough to sustain me for an hour, let alone a morning. So I added a banana to it and proved myself wrong. The portions are a good size. Perfect, in fact. It just terrifies me to think of what a 'normal' portion has been for me for such a long time - let me just say that I was way off. (My usual bowl of cereal would easily have been about three times as big as the portioned controlled ones.)

Committing to this program has also made me very conscious of making sure I'm eating enough - in that I'm making an effort to eat my food spaced out throughout the day. I think that has helped a lot with adjusting to the smaller portions, and I'm definitely more conscious of calories now too. And you know what? Today, for the first time in the last two months of eating well and exercising religiously, I was excited to get on the Wii and weigh in. I've lost 6 pounds in my first week (well, I got too anxious and weighed in a day early!) and I couldn't be prouder. In six days, I've dropped more weight than I have in the past two months: basically all from portion sizes.

It's early days yet though and I don't want to get ahead of myself - I have a lot of weight to lose and a long way to go, and the first week's loss is always going to be the most drastic. But I have a lot more hope now and a lot more understanding - and even if 1-2lbs is all I'll manage to lose each week from here on in, I'll be happy. It's movement, it's in the right direction, and I'm learning. That's all I can ask of myself.

Now all I have to do is shake this flu that I somehow picked up over the weekend.. and then I'll be right back into feeling positive and throwing myself into the next week.