Today’s the day – The Digest Diet Blog It Off Challenge is on!

I have tubs of 0% Greek Yogurt PLAIN yogurt** in the fridge, bananas and strawberries at the ready. I even made a big pot of Kale and Chickpea soup:

The Digest Diet Phase I – Fast Release

Phase I of the Digest Diet is called “Fast Release“. Its designed to get you losing quickly, and to help your body flush out all the junk, like McDonald’s…and Oreos…and marshmallows with animal crackers and Hershey’s chocolate…not that I ate any of that, you know…those are just examples. Really.

Okay, moving on…

These first four days are mostly shakes and soups, with a crunchy snack thrown in.

The shakes sound pretty tasty. Besides yogurt, they have honey, coconut milk, fruit and you can add cocoa powder to them, too.

The soup? Well, I’ve never had Kale before, so it will be an adventure for me. The soup I made has chickpeas in it (yum), and I get to sprinkle some low fat Feta cheese on top before I eat it (YUM).

All in all, not bad.

Here’s today’s menu:

Breakfast – Shake (I’m going to make a banana and peanut butter one.)

COFFEE – just one cup (waaa!)

Snack – 1 bell pepper with 2 tbsp of fat-free Ricotta cheese and some black pepper

Lunch – Shake (Might stick with the ‘nana & PB, or might change it up – I’m crazy like that.)

Dinner – 2 cups of soup

Alright, on to the good stuff – my official “before” picture and stats. I’m putting all this out there so I can really show you if this plan works or not. I’m not exactly thrilled to be showing all my extra “padding”, but hey – what we’ll do for a good blog post, right?

Weight: 210

Waist: 39.25″

Hips: 45.25″

Thigh: 25.25″

Arms: 14.75″

On October 2nd I’ll take another picture and new measurements – hopefully we’ll see a big improvement!

You Got To Move It, Move It

The other part of the plan is exercise. For the first phase, the plan suggests walking for 45 – 60 minutes, plus 3 1-minute activity bursts each day.

I am starting my hip-hop and Zumba classes today, so I’ll be doing those instead of walking.

Buh-Bye, Sweetie!

Since I’ve been doing Weight Watchers since May, switching to the Digest Diet isn’t as painful for me as for someone starting from scratch.

Still, I have to give up my Splenda-sweetened iced tea in exchange for water, which in all honesty is the hardest thing for me to give up. I will also miss my nightly Weight Watchers Dark Chocolate Dulce De Leche ice cream bars (only 3 Points!).

But – I have a choice. I can either be under 200 pounds in a few weeks OR I can have an ice cream bar at night.

Seems like a no-brainer to me.

(The one thing I’m not giving up is my 2 Tbsp of Half & Half in my coffee. A girl’s got to live a little!)

Okay – I’m off to throw my shake in to my Magic Bullet! Check in with me on my Facebook page or Twitter, I’ll be posting pics of my “meals”, and status reports of my progress.

**Updated – So I screwed up, I’m supposed to use plain yogurt in my shakes right now, not Greek! I was politely corrected by the people over at Reader’s Digest. Oops!

Tell me – what would be the hardest thing for you to give up from your normal diet?