Stats: Days 1-3

Day 1

Weigh-in: Target weight + 11.2 pounds

Breakfast: Eggs and toast with butter. Because it didn't say I can't have butter.

Lunch: Salad

Dinner: Chicken with veggies

Snack: I admit it. I am weak. I was supposed to have 11 almonds, but I cheated. With a sweet, moist, delicious pumpkin muffin. Pumpkin is healthy, right? You really can't expect me to give up sweets cold turkey.

Hmmm...turkey sounds good. Pumpkin muffin sounds better.

Exercise: Does vacuuming count?

Day 2

Weigh-in: Target weight + 9 pounds

Breakfast: Eggs and toast. This toast would taste a whole lot better smothered in Nutella.

Lunch: Chicken wrap

Dinner: Steak & green peppers

Snack: 11 almonds. These almonds would taste a whole lot better atop a mound of coconut, smothered in chocolate.

There was also one minor indiscretion today. My husband came home from work with an Iced Venti Green Shaken Tea with Sweetener from Starbucks because he's sick and tired of hearing me whine so sweet and thoughtful. He also handed me a Hershey's Cookies and Cream candy bar. But I only ate 2 squares. And only a teeny, tiny sliver of the Boston Cream Pie he picked up at the store.

Exercise: Huh?

Day 3

Weigh-in: Target weight + 8 pounds

Breakfast: Cereal. The healthy kind that tastes like cardboard. Not the kind with delightfully bright-colored marshmallows, or crispy miniature cookies, or sweet and airy chocolate puffs.

Lunch: Steak wraps

Dinner: Mediterranean Pork Chops, broccoli, quinoa

Snack: 1 mini Babybel cheese wheel. These remind me of France. France is in Europe. Europe makes the best CHOCOLATE!

Exercise: So I finally decided it's time to get on the treadmill because I know diet lifestyle and exercise go hand-in-hand.



Even the makers of those magic diet pills you see advertised on TV know this. Not a one of them says, "Lose 10 pounds a week while you sit on the couch vegging out to your favorite soaps with a bag of chips beside you and a soda in your hand." No, they same something along the lines of, "For effective results, use with a balanced diet and regular exercise. Oh. And may cause excess gas, kidney failure, and possibly death."

So there's really nothing magical about those pills. And there is really no easy way out of dealing with the consequences of having eaten too much chocolate. I don't know how much longer I can go on feeling like I'm cheating whenever I sneak in some chocolate without chocolate.