DAY 1

I'll start this blog with a little background on myself.

My name is Steve and I'm overweight.  About 5 years ago I was experiencing pain in my hips, especially at night as I slept, so I went to see my doctor and was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis.  At that time I was about 80lbs over weight, so my doctor told me to drop the pounds to take the stress off of my hips when I walk.

Roughly a year later, my wife of 17 years left me.  This came as no surprise.  We were both unhappy and at each other throats practically every day.  I found myself depressed and over the next year ended up losing all the weight that my doctor had ordered me to lose.  I didn't do it the healthy way though.  I simply wasn't eating.

Once the weight was off, the depression subsided, and with a little help from one of my sisters I learned to live again.  I started going out at night and having a good time with friends again.  I even started dating.

Once I got the wild-side out of me I decided I was ready to for a serious relationship, which was a good thing because about that time I met an amazing woman and fell head-over-heels in love.  Eventually she and I moved in together and have now been a couple for nearly 3 years ....and I'm still head-over-heels, heart skips a beat when she looks at me, smiling like a schoolboy when I think about her, in love.

So, six months ago a started a new job where I sit behind a desk all day and get very little exercise.  Not surprisingly, the weight is sneaking back.  I am 6 foot 1 inch tall and my ideal weight (according to my doctor) is 190lbs - 200lbs.  As of this writing I am at 263lbs.

TIME TO LOSE WEIGHT

I decided it was time to lose weight again, so I started looking up diets.  Over the weekend I watched two documentaries.  The first one was "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead", and the second one was "Forks over Knives".

I decided that eating veggies would be my salvation this time.  Unfortunately I don't like vegetables, so the only was I was going to be able to choke these suckers down is by juicing them.  I went to my local Costco, bought a nice juicer, researched recipes from - www.jointhereboot.com - that I thought might enjoy, and then hit my local market to purchase all the veggies I will need for the first few days.

So here is my plan:

1. 30 days of mostly vegetable juice with small "healthy" snacks between juicings.
2. Basic exercise, such as walking and light aerobics (using Xbox Kinect)
It's as simple as that.

So here goes.....

DAY 1
Today's plan is Juice for breakfast, small Nature Valley granola bar for mid morning snack, juice for lunch, another snack before dinner e.i. apple or orange, and juice for dinner.

Breakfast Juice (which I've already had this morning):
Consisted of 2 apples, 4 carrots, 2 beets, and 6 red chard leaves.  I've decided to call this concoction "The Dirty Apple" because all I tasted was apple and beet (which tastes like dirt).  If you think about the amount of veggies I drank this morning it is crazy.  This is a lot of food if you just sat down to eat all that.  I felt comfortably full when the glass was empty.

Lunch Juice:
Will consist of the same as breakfast.  Since today is my first day and I haven't had any experience at this I will have to go with what I know.  I will be driving home for lunch to make the juice and then heading back to work as quickly as possible.

Dinner Juice:
Will consist of 2 apples, 1 wedge Red Cabbage, 2 large Carrots, 1 piece Ginger, 6 red chard leaves, and 1/4 lemon.  I have yet to try this one yet, but I'm anxious to see if I will enjoy it.

MY PLAN

For the next 30 days this is what I will be doing.  Every morning I will weigh in and then sit down and add my progress, side effects, and thoughts to this blog.  If all goes according to plan I should be at least 25lbs lighter in 30 days, but it could be more since I naturally drop weight fast when I set my mind to it.

Wish me luck :)