Week one of my five-week “Must lose 10 pounds before my 35th birthday!” challenge went well – I’m down 2.5 pounds. I might have even lost a full three pounds if I hadn’t made that fettucini alfredo on Saturday night. I didn’t eat a lot of it…oh, wait, now that I think about it, I guess I did. Three bowls. I wanted to finish this jar of alfredo sauce I had in my fridge, and I hate wasting food, so there’s no way I would have thrown it out.

I justified it by telling myself that the diet would officially start on Monday. I mean, who starts a diet on a Friday anyway? Other than the pasta I didn’t stray really from my diet over the weekend (just a few bites of chocolate cake when I was at my grandma’s house), and on Monday I was officially in diet mode. I didn’t eat any bad carbs at all this week. Just salads for lunch, and meat and vegetables for dinner.  Tuesday was a bit of challenge, because they put out a platter of cakes and cookies at work and I REALLY wanted some. But I didn’t eat any – instead I just took some and gave them to a friend, and his happiness was almost as satisfying as eating them myself. Almost.

I DID allow myself to eat some banana bread – but it was made using my sugar-free, gluten-free recipe, so technically it’s not a cheat. I found it when I was cleaning out my freezer, and I brought it into work to share with my friend Tiffany, who is on this fitness kick with me. It’s definitely not something I should be eating every day, but it’s a good late afternoon snack that keeps me from being starving when I get home.

Exercise-wise I’ve been doing good too. I exercised every day, and I went back to Zumba on Tuesday and my salsa class on Wednesday – both of which are super-intense cardio. I was gonna go to salsa on Thursday, but I had a dentist appointment. I’m planning to do Zumba every Tuesday and salsa every Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday (I have a year-long unlimited pass for salsa, so there’s really no reason for me NOT to go). If I throw the gym in there two or three times a week, the weight should just melt off me.

So yeah, down 2.5 pounds. I don’t really consider this to be “real” weight loss though. I’ve lost and regained the same five pounds a dozen times this past year, so I consider this “equalization” to get back to what I think is now my body’s normal weight. In a week or two I should be down to where I was before Australia, and that’s when the REAL challenge will begin. I’m not going to do anything differently than I am now, but I think it will take a bit longer for me to lose that last 5 pounds. Even still, I’m feeling pretty good.

To be continued…