From the couch to the track.

I'm still pretty much a couch-potato, but not for long! :)

It has been a little bit over two weeks now that I started my diet journey.  I got some serious help from a fitness website, My Fitness Pal. This website, such as many others out there (the former My daily plate, now a part of Lance Amstrong Livestrong website; and plenty apps and websites) allows you to log in daily calories and exercise, meet some fellow dieters, potentially make some new friends, find awesome recipes and diet tips, and encourages you to stick to your program until the goal is reached.

I believe that the key to success lies in the support system, and that’s where this website makes wonders. Tracking MFP friends’ progresses, I figured out that the best way ever to shed pounds is to run. From fast walking to jogging, the walk-run scene is the one that creates diet winners (and iron men, so please do not underestimate this one. Ever.).

NOT this iron man (although...)

THESE guys

Again, you can find online tips, about what to eat, how not to get injured, and best of all: how to start running. From scratch. Better yet, from the couch.

The official name of the most popular beginner and now infamous program is C25K (Couch to 5K). It says it all, right? It is a pretty easy program, based on the simple and yet so true idea that when you run too far, or too fast or both, too soon: you fail. If you’re not ready for it and running is too painful, you just cannot go through this pain and this miserable afterward feeling, so you just drop it. Back to square one and being a potato couch. I’ve heard and said that I’m not a runner: I could barely run to save my own life. But if you think about it, running doesn’t require any special skill (not talking marathons here!). You don’t have to learn how to, you don’t have to practice a special movement. Come on, my kids run at least 2-3 hours a day! And stop in the middle to jump and dance!

To be totally honest, I cannot run for more than 10-20 minutes at once, without being out of breath and close to collapsing. But this program starts you with sequences of running for 60 seconds, walking for 90, and repeating it to total 20 minutes. I say it’s doable.

Running is just a matter of designing a training plan, and sticking to it. Thanks to the C25K website, all the work has been done, you just have to do it. More info on the official website.

And here we go, the no-food journey is finally started

I’m on a diet. For some reason this sounds trivial but it’s not. It’s a struggle, it’s a journey, and it’s a goal that stays in my head from dawn to dusk. Each day. I wanted to be on a diet for over a year now, but it's just like when you have to quit smoking. There is no good time, it doesn't make sense to start before a weekend, or a big party, or pretty much ever. Normal eaters, the majority of the population, who weight a number and find peace with it (being anywhere from skinny to moderately fat; and sticking with it) cannot understand that.

I mentally count the calories of what goes in my mouth then I count it again on my computer at night, in my online journal. When I go over my daily goal of 1200 calories, I’m usually off by 10 or 20 calories, and I log in some exercise to compensate (the 5 minutes I had to walk to catch my bus, the 7 minutes I lifted weight from the delivery room to the office, then to our stockroom). Anything not to add another failure to my weight problems board.

I like the online system, because a diet is a mental challenge against yourself, and a virtual journal is exactly what I need to succeed. I get to share my thoughts, post my mood, seek advice and encouragements from my online friends, my fellow calorie-deprived buddies. Suits me well.

While online, you get to browse through so much more info, by hoping from a post to another. This way, I encountered dieting online store that I could not believe existed, diet recipes that (almost) sound yummy (don’t know about the taste), and crazy exercising tips. Empowering new starts stories of people like me (or real obese, which I'm far from) becoming marathon runners. Or just zipping their size 2 jeans and looking good (I don't aim for the stars every morning, you know).

Because I cannot refrain myself from chatting and writing non-stop, and most of my dieting partners are in the US (don’t draw stupid conclusions here, I’m using an American app, that’s all) I needed a new space outside the official website. Hence the new blog. Welcome into my no-sugar-barely-any-fat-story, it starts today. (Well, technically it started last week but it doesn’t sound as dramatic, does it?)