The second week of The 21-Day Fix has come and gone, and the success continues. I lost another 4.8 pounds, and Jenn lost another 3, bringing our totals to 11 and 9, respectively. This week, I did get in some exercise by taking Stella the dog for some walks around the neighborhood, and with a good three or four hours of yardwork on Saturday. Even with that, I didn’t know what to expect when I stepped back on the scale. You always hear those stories about any given diet, where the person in question loses a good amount of weight the first week, and even when that person continues to do everything “right”, the weight loss drops precipitously or comes to a screeching halt altogether. Obviously, your body doesn’t work on a weekly basis, but there comes a point at which it gets used to whatever you are doing and tries to maintain a status quo. This point is the oft-lamented weight-loss “plateau”. Any doctor or article on the Internet will tell you that so long as you’re not grossly overweight, that the number on the scale is not what truly matters, but rather your overall health. However, society has driven so many of us to want that number to keep dropping until we’re happy with it. I’m guilty of that mentality, but I fully realize that even by continuously following an eating plan such as the one I’m currently on, the pounds will not shed in perpetuity. All that considered, I’m quite happy with what I’ve lost so far.

The mental challenges are still there, but very little, if any, direct temptation was put in front of me during this second week. There’s the part of me that can’t wait to have a big, stupid, greasy cheeseburger, or real pizza, or a bag of gummies. However, if none of that is physically in front of you and it’s just your thoughts you have to grapple with, there are worse things in the world. I have to admit that I’ve been a bit lax this week when it came to measuring out all of my food in a strict manner. There were times when I would open the fridge and grab a few grapes between meals, or without keeping track of my allotment of greens, would snack on jalapeno pepper slices or pepperoncini (I LOVE hot peppers). Not that either one is at all unhealthy, but fairly strict portion control is one of the main points of all of this.

Portion control is a concept that has always been a struggle for me. There’s “full” and there’s “if I eat another bite, I’m going to throw up”, and when I’m eating something that I love, I all-too-frequently charge full-steam ahead towards the latter. I’ve always heard and told myself that “moderation is the key”, but in the moment, I have a hard time remembering that. Strangely, the red container that came with our kit, which we use to measure out proteins, has disappeared into thin air. To take it a step further, I accidentally killed Jenn’s scale that we could use in its place to measure out our food, when I got water inside of it while giving it a cleaning. So, in the absence of the container (which we lost during the first week) and the more recent loss of our scale, we’ve simply done our best with eating reasonably-sized pieces of grilled chicken. Now, onto some of this week’s meals!

Makeshift Chicken Parm (with Grandma’s Tomato Sauce, fresh mozzarella, and grilled chicken- no breading)

Mexican Taco Meat

Pancakes with Blueberry Jam (these didn’t come out very good)

Stuffed Peppers with Zucchini Bake (Jenn made this for dinner last night- everything was awesome)

Turkey Meatballs with Grandma’s Tomato Sauce

Steak Fajitas

Homemade Salsa with Shrimp (the salsa is “free” on the diet and I love it. I will be making this for a long time to come)

I’m still really enjoying the meals on this diet, many of which I will continue to make long after this is done. I hope you’ve enjoyed the update and follow me to the final post after next week! My Week 1 Update can be found here.