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I'm not sure hat's tripped this change, but I'm not asking. 

I broke a three year travel restriction with a trip to Brazil.  It was amazing.  It was HOT.  It was two weeks of not being chained to a desk.  Though I had an amazing time, I felt unfit.  The epidomy of the pasty oversized American tourist. 

The day after I got back, I had a doctor's appointment where my excesses were confirmed by an embarrassing number n the scale and the return of marginal bloodpressure.  I have to make a change if I expect to avoid prescription medications correcting my dietary laziness.

At about the same time I got Facebook message from a great group fitness instructor advising me of her schedule for the week.  She had dropped a class since I was last a regular and it was timne for me to get back into it. 

Enter Beachbody. 

There are more than enough signs telling me to take action. Beachbody has the tools to drive me to the next level... including an oh-so-easy online diet tool.  I go online, answer a few questions, select food preferences, and viola! "You should be on the 1,600 calorie Vegetarian Balanced Slimdown diet, with a 200 cal. add-on buffer for being active.  I could view the weekly menu, and even print out my grocery list.

Today is Day 10 on my get moving program; Day 3 on the VBSDP.

Why vegetarian?  I'm not a vegetarian. I like red meat, white meat, pretty much all meat.  It doesn't upset me that my food once had a face.  I can cope, BUT while in Brazil I had beef as a dietary staple.  Beef in Brazil tastes WONDERFUL.  I had a steak the first week back and had I not known better I would have thought I was eating the styrofoam packaging. It tasted fake. 

Vegetables tend to be lower calorie and higher nutrition.  Essentailly more food volume for the caloric allotment. So meals feel like meals, no child-sized portion meals for me. Also, since I'm not gnawing on a pork chop, there is a higher dairy budget.  I like cheese.

So far, so good. I'm liking the food, though I will be a bit more picky with changing out meals.  I like cottage cheese. I like pineapple.  I do NOT like cottage cheese with pineapple.

Added bonus, or maybe I'm making the best of lemons, I get to visit my doctor again in two weeks to get my bloodpressure rechecked (* I caught a cold on the airplane and was on cold meds to make work bearable.  Most cold medications drive up blood pressure. I insisted that was a factor in my latest reading, and had a couple months of about daily readings to back me up.)  End result: I have to do blood work Monday, adn next Monday have another visit to the doc. 

Short term goals:

Stick to the diet. It's important to me to not have high cholesterol and all the chemistry be where it should be.  Also, it helps me achieve my other short term goal:

WEIGHT. I tipped the scales at 220. OUCH! Granted it's not the most I've ever weighed, but it's about 30 pounds off of my best weigh-in.  I want to weigh in at no more than 210 next Monday.  I behaved last week, adn started the slimdown this week.  So I have a good start.  If I can drop 10 pounds between visits it will show I'm taking the right steps.

Longer term goals:

Fitness. I like going out for a run because I feel like it.  I like being able to do pretty much whatever I want whenever I want.  A marathon in three months, sure. A 60-mile bike ride this weekend, ok! Olympic distance Tri next month, I'm all over it!  That is the lifestyle I want to live. It's much less stressful than seeing all of these things as major challenges.

WEIGHT: I've always been substantial. I'm not built skinny. There's nothing wrong with it.  I'm good with the more powerful frame.  I am NOT ok with carrying around junk weight. Oh yeah, and I'm vain... more correctly I aspire to justify my vanity.