Weight Loss Challenge...with Me and Only Me.

About 10 days ago I posted about my attempt to cut some lbs over the course of the next 6 months. If you missed the post and want to catch up, you can find it here. I figured I would update you guys on how I did on achieving my weekly goals plus let you know what my new goals are for this week. Here were my original goals:

Using smaller plates for my meals

Not returning for seconds

Eating more servings of vegetables and fruit

Taking more time to eat my meals

So far, I'm happy to report that I have not broken any of these "rules" with the exception being yesterday as all of our small plates were dirty. I however used the inner ring of the big plate as my guide, so I'm pretty sure that things worked out ok. It's pretty amazing how fast I felt these small changes. I mean, I'm definitely feeling hungry more often now, but as I told my coach, I'd rather feel hungry than feel overstuffed and bloated. The great part is that there are no calorie limits so when I am hungry I can eat. I've never been much of a snacker, just more of an over-eater during meals. Well now I find myself snacking throughout the day on stuff like carrots, grapes and peanuts.

After knocking my first set of goals out of the park, we decided to up the ante a bit and set some tougher goals for me to try and meet. My new goals are as follows:

I will continue with small plates and no second servings

I will eat three servings of vegetables at least 3 days per week.

I will continue to slow down my eating by chewing more and more slowly, and setting food/utensil down between bites.

I will lift 3 days/week and spin 3 days/week. I will also do a separate workout on one of the weekend days.

I will watch the videos (that were sent to me) and begin playing around with the 12 Kg kettlebell.

I will ride my bike while Mandi runs at least 3 mornings/week.

Seems simple enough. I will say though, these have already proven to be much more difficult. The ones that I struggle with the most are eating three servings a vegetables a day and eating more slowly. If it were three servings of fruit a day, I'd knock it out of the park. I'm constantly snacking on grapes, watermelon, pineapple and cherries. I think the main issue for me is I'm not a big raw vegetable fan. The only two that really come to mind are celery (with peanut butter) and carrots (with hummus). Maybe I'm just overlooking some that I would actually like? That's my hope at least. And of course, since I now am always very hungry for my meals, slowing down and setting my utensil down between each bite is quite a challenge.

So I now turn it over to you guys...Any recommendations on ways to get in my three servings of vegetables? Also, how about any tips to make myself slow down as I eat?

Oh yeah, as I reported, I started this journey at 205 and was down to 197 a week later. A week after that I was down to 193. Something's working!!