Game On!

I have given up Diet Coke.

To add insult to injury I am also hard core dieting.

In the past, Diet Coke has been my diet crutch. Feelin' hungry? Pop open the soda. Ahhhh.

I understand that was not the healthy approach. I do. But it just made it a little easier....like I a treat I could have as often as I wanted.

But not this time.

My friends and I are engaged in something called the Game On Diet. I will call it GO for short, mostly because G.O.D just seems wrong.

Anyway, basically GO is a competition with strict guidelines and scoring. It advocates not only losing weight, but overall lifestyle changes.

So far I like it. It's been less than 2 weeks, I'm down 5 lbs so far. I'm drinking crazy amounts of water (the GO requires 10 10oz glasses a day to get your points.) It asks you to practice one good habit per day and ditch one bad habit. I am moisturizing my face twice a day and not slacking on laundry. 7 hours of sleep is required every night (minus one "off" night) to get your points. Exercise also earns points. You can be docked points for breaking rules, like snacking or stepping on the scale more than once per day. It suggests a meal plan, but allows you to use your own foods and programs like Weight Watchers if you so desire. What they do not advocate, at all, is soda, especially diet soda.

My GO team has 3 members versus another 3 member team. We are playing for 4 weeks. At the end of 4 weeks a victorious team will be declared and another friend has promised to mail out prizes to the winners. Also in contention: the good bed at our Spring get together.

I do miss my Diet Coke. The first week was the worst, but it's getting easier every day. I drink hot tea if I feel like I need the caffeine, but even that hasn't been needed on a daily basis

So there you have it. I blogged sometime back, after the death of actress Natasha Richardson, that mommies need to take better care of themselves. With GO I feel like I am. And while the weight loss is great, so are the other results. I think my skin looks better. I haven't had to search madly for any clothing, all stressed out because I can't find matching socks, my eating choices are better and I'm getting more sleep than before.

When our 4 weeks ends, I will blog the overall results and whether or not we are going to engage in another round. My competitive self says we will, especially if I am not amongst the official winning team members.

I suspect, though, that we all win, if not in points, then in lifestyle. And that is certainly something I can recommend to anyone.