Game On!

Tyler and I have decided that after having toured London, Paris, NYC and the other random places we have been this summer, we want to try and live a normal life while here in Chicago. Of course, there are a few touristy things we may want to see, but for the most part we just want to find a happy rhythm and live here.

Enter the Game On! Diet Challenge. Now before everyone freaks out, "You're too skinny to be dieting!" "You look fine! You shouldn't be starving yourself!", let me explain- I KNOW. This isn't your average no carb, don't eat, work out 23 hours a day diet. Basically you form a team for 4 weeks and then you get points based on your meals, your habits, your exercise, your sleep, your water intake, and your support for teammates and opponents. If you don't complete one of the things you don't get the points and there are also penalties for things like snacking or tricking an opponent into losing points (too bad). We are supposed to eat 5 small meals a day that are balanced (fruit/veggies, carbs, proteins, etc.) and we are allowed 100 calories a day of whatever we want (28 M&M's are my fav). We also get one day off from everything each week, and an additional meal off each week. Not bad eh?! So basically we just start eating better which gets me to cook more and gets both of us to try new things :) And trust me, you get more than enough to eat so it's not a starve yourself diet. On the first day Tyler and I almost didn't want to eat meal 5 because you've already had plenty to eat and LOTS of water. We are supposed to drink 3 liters of water a day, and since I never drink water, I am now spending the majority of my day in the restroom. Pregnancy prep is what I call it :) Tyler calls it looking like a fool in front of all of his co-workers- maybe he should explain so people don't think he's sketch.

We decided to give it a try because I think it will help give us a nice balanced schedule that we can hopefully keep up after a month. So far it has only been 2 days, but already it is so nice to get up early and workout and then be ready for the day. The other aspects of the plan are great too. Because of all our traveling and crazy schedules we've kind of dropped the ball on our daily scripture reading and prayers, so we have each chosen one of these to be our good habit points. I also like having a set bedtime so we aren't staying up late doing nothing and then sleeping in just because we can, and it's nice to have someone there to push you along (mostly for Tyler because we all know how hard it is for him to eat veggies), but also give you some friendly competition.

Of course, you need to pick a prize for the winner too; which is the best part! We have decided that if Tyler wins he gets my cell phone upgrade in October (because he can't possibly wait for his own upgrade two months later.... ) and if I win Tyler has to finally give in and take my to the ballet; specifically The Nutcracker this Christmas. Yay!

The new contents of Tyler's brown lunch bag. P.S. The flowers were Tyler's house warming gift to me when I arrived- so sweet!!

Anyways, I'm not advertising here, just chronicling my life cause I'm pretty excited to see how this next month goes. You should all probably cheer for me now :)