I have mastered Phase One of the Best Life Diet….I’m hydrated, working out, increasing my fiber, reducing my calories and lo and behold, lost 6 pounds in the first month and feel like a rock star. Six seems to be the magic number of pounds lost among most of us girls for the first month, and by golly, I’ll take that six and raise you 8 for Phase Two. Seriously..that is my goal.

Phase Two is here and though I’m not scared, I’ve develped a routine in Phase One that I’m almost afraid to change. I figured out what works well for me for breakfast, lunch, and dinner during Phase One. I am a bit hard-headed and can eat the same thing every day for years and never think twice. HOWEVER, now I’m going to be integrating my family into the meal cycle and giving up some of my core favorites as part of Phase 2 (soda for one, even though it is diet soda)…that means I’ll have to change things up a bit. In addition, my husband has a different palate than me, and variety for him is key…it will take some rigging to figure out what works for both of us. Though I do think my fitness regime is rubbing off on him…he used our treadmill this weekend for the first time in 2 years and even though he was in his pajamas and slippers, I’m not complaining! From an acorn grows a mighty oak…

So my goal for this next month is to add variety to my diet–change it up. Realistically, if I can set a goal to cook at least 3 times a week…we are good for leftovers a couple of days and we always order out one day a week (usually Thai and it is pretty easy to do Thai healthily–steamed chicken and brown rice is my usual or Tom Yum soup is also brothy, spicy and good)…I’ll feel like I’m succeeding. There are some awesome recipes I’m going to try in the Best Life Diet book as well as other low-fat recipe sites…you’d be amazed what is out there. For me this will be a huge feat–a year ago the most cooking I did was pushing the “start” button on the microwave.

Good luck this week everyone. For Phase Two we can weigh every week so Fridays are my days to weigh..hopefully I’ll average 2 pounds a week for this month. But I won’t crawl into a hole if I don’t…just staying on the losing path is good enough.