Lincoln Lifestyle Change Challenge

I'll refer to this as LLCC from here on out. Change is a comin' in the Lincoln house. Ritchie and I have been feeling, to put it bluntly, FAT. We've acquired some pretty bad habits in the past few months. I'm bummed because when I was pregnant and had gestational diabetes we were eating really well. Limited desserts, lots of veggies and proteins, and plenty of walking (albeit, slowly - I mean, I was carrying an extra 25 pounds) was worked into our daily routine. We felt great. We talked a ton about keeping those habits up because we felt so wonderful and how healthy and fabulous our family was going to be.

Fast forward 11 months and we seem to have forgotten everything we learned. Desserts are a daily occurrence in our house. And I don't mean 3 strawberries and a dollop of whip cream. I'm talking whole pies consumed by 2 people in approximately 2 days. Or several cookies followed by ice cream. This is all, of course, after eating close to a 1,000 calorie dinner of either pizza, Chipotle, or spaghetti and bread just to name a few examples. Not only has this packed on pounds, but it drains our monthly spending budget pretty quickly. On top of everything Max is now eating what we eat and I refuse to give him pizza or fast food and want him to have well-balanced, healthy meals from early on to develop good habits.

So, in an effort to save our waistlines, our health, and our bank account we've decided to take action. We've attempted this many a time and I'm even hesitant to write about it for fear of failure. But, that's exactly why I'm choosing to blog about it. If I write a daily record for all to see of what I ate and what kind of exercise I accomplished I'm hoping I'll be more inclined to actually follow through with it. Right now we're committing to one month. September. We actually started today though because we figured why wait one more day? So here it is. LLCC Day 1

Daily Calorie allotment = 1213 for a goal of losing 2 pounds per week in September

Breakfast:Around 200 Calories

1 cup Cheerios and Go Lean cereal mix

1/2 cup milk

3 strawberries

Lunch: Around 320 Calories

1/3 chicken breast with steak sauce (I sort of hate plain chicken - but love it smothered it steak sauce - which is luckily very low cal)

1 tomato with 1 ball of mozzarella cheese and spinach, drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar

Dinner: Around 350 Calories

1 Slice of Turkey Loaf

1 cup of green beans

1 red potato

Snacks: Around 150 Calories

1 apple with swiss cheese

2 strawberries

I still have around 200 calories to consume tonight and am trying to decide how to use them. So far I feel great and didn't feel hungry at all! I actually couldn't even finish my dinner tonight it was so much food. Which is odd considering the fact that I had no problem finishing a 1200 calorie Chipotle burrito last night. Well... onward. Tomorrow I am having lunch out with a friend, so that will be my first challenge (and on day 2 no less - I suppose it has to happen sometime). I'll be blogging about this daily (or trying at least) so I hope I don't bore you all to tears talking about my eating.