Starting Fresh in the New Year

Happy New Year Everyone!! I hope you’ve all made some doable resolutions to make you healthier and happier! I have made 3 of them:

They are:

• Dress nicely almost every day- I have all these cute clothes, but end up wearing a boring t-shirt and jeans or workout gear all the time.
• Drink more water- I’ll admit, sometimes I don’t drink quite as much as I should.
• Keep up my fitness- I have never made it through an entire year without some sort of hitch in the workout plan. This year, I want to keep fit and motivated the whole way through.

It’s time for change.

I love kicking off the New Year with something that signifies “turning over a new leaf” (pardon the cliché). My plan for having a clean sheet in 2011 is to do Yoplait Light’s Two Week Tune-Up. Sunday was my first day on the challenge. Ok, it wasn’t much of a challenge, but nonetheless, it is a DIET of sorts. I am not a huge fan of dieting, but I thought, What the hay, I could use the clean out after all of that holiday junk.

I was a little leery when I first heard about the Tune-Up, because as you are well aware, I LOVE food. Love might actually be an understatement. Adore, obsess over, worship, glorify, idolize- those are just some of the words I might use interchangeably…

On Day 1 of the Tune-Up, my breakfast consisted of

• ¾ cup papaya
• 1 slice gluten-free bread (with a super thin layer of cream cheese)
• Yoplait Light Cinnamon Roll yogurt

Can I just tell you how amazing the flavors are? 33 heavenly flavors, to be exact. GLUTEN-FREE cinnamon roll? Yes please! I really tried not to inhale the yogurt. It was delicious. I have no idea how they make the flavors so true to the actual food. It totally filled me up.

After breakfast and a fair amount of nagging, I managed to convince my mom and stepdad to go on the required 30-40 min walk with me. We took all the poopers and enjoyed the perfect Florida winter weather.

After the walk, I was hungry again, of course. The Tune-Up calls for a snack consisting of 2 servings of veggies between lunch and dinner. That’s 2 cups. Why the Hades would I eat 2 cups of vegetables in one sitting? Bearing in mind the complete ridiculousness of this idea, I resolved to “split” the snack into one serving between breakfast and lunch, and one between lunch and dinner. What a smarty pants I am. ;)

Love me some rabbit food.

My mama, Mons, and I made our way to the grocery store to stock up for our joint venture into Yoplait land. We weighed ourselves, just to see if there would be weight loss along the way (I am not planning on losing any weight). Mama and Mons were supposed to start the Tune-Up with me, but alas, these greasy, scrumptious-looking eats led them astray.

Burger and fries. Greasy. Fatty. Terrible. Classic.

 I managed to stay strong and steer clear of this all-American lunch. I settled for my Yoplait meal.

Corn flakes, banana, and yogurt just don't measure up to the aforementioned  foods.

 The Black Forest flavor was incredibly tasty, so I ate up. Little did I know that there was gluten lurking in my food… I checked several of the other containers and assumed that all of the flavors were gluten-free. Obviously I was SORELY mistaken (no pun intended). I began to feel a twinge in my tummy. I was so upset; when I consume gluten, I feel polluted. I quickly gulped down some Gluten-zyme and Pancreatin and drank a ton of water. Luckily, within about an hour, I was back to normal. I did, however, feel sluggish for the rest of the day. Boo.

Later, while looking over the Tune-Up for the millionth time, I discovered that you are supposed to fit in 3 ADDITIONAL servings of dairy on top of the Yoplaits that you are consuming at breakfast and lunch. When I realized I was allowed to eat even more food, I rejoiced. Food makes me excited. I had a serving of dairy with my afternoon snackie.

1 cup chopped broccoli. Cottage cheese with cumin, chili powder, and Louisiana Hot Sauce.

 The cottage cheese mixture soundss gross, but it’s not. I come up with crazy concoctions sometimes, but this one was a definite winner. If you’re not a fan of cottage cheese, just blend it up and you have buffalo ranch dressing. Perfect for veggie dip or atop a salad.

I realized I am in desperate need of going back to school, because all I do these days is work out, think about food, blog, eat, and think about food. The other 5% of my time is spent meandering around the house and otherwise wasting time.

I chose to spend my afternoon doing just that. Time seemed to fly by and dinner time came. I had my 2 servings of veggies and 6 oz of lean protein. Great success (said in Borat voice).

Tuna salad. Lettuce, cucumber, tomato, carrots, banana peppers, tuna, 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar, and a squeeze of lemon.

 I think this Tune-Up is totally doable. I'm currently drinking another serving of dairy... This is a perfect way to start the New Year!

What are your New Year’s resolutions? How do you plan on staying healthy this year?

Don’t forget to enter the Tune-Up Giveaway! Only 5 days left!