The sick plan-loving part of me

When I ordered a set of Turbo Jam (TM) workout DVDs (which I highly recommend), it came with a brochure outlining a 10-day plan to "kick start" my metabolism. For each day in the plan, there are recommended meals and snacks (along with recipes) and a recommended workout. The brochure beckoned to me this morning as I was deciding between different Turbo Jam or Yoga Booty Ballet DVDs for my morning workout.

I like plans. And despite my rebellious nature, there's a sick part of me that occasionally enjoys sticking to plans that other people lay out for me and/or being told what to do. This sick part of me is the reason the hundredpushups.com plan appeals to me, even though I can't motivate myself to do more pushups on my own. I need(ed) a plan to outline the schedule, number of sets, and number of pushups each set. This sick, plan-loving part of me also attracted me to martial arts, because in martial arts training, you usually have a master of some sort who tells you how to train.

So, as the plan-loving part of me was getting excited this morning, I thought, "why not try the Turbo Jam 10-day plan?" It isn't so much that I want to lose weight (though I have noticed that I somehow gained 10 pounds in the last year and a half, despite working out more than ever), but that I want to think about my food differently. Overall, I am impulsive with food. I eat according to mood, and go through phases when I eat voraciously (example: an entire pizza for dinner one night). I don't plan my food well. Most of the time my mind blanks entirely as to what I could cook for myself, and most of the time, by the time I realize that I'm hungry, I'm too hungry to eat anything other than already prepared foods.

So a plan for meals and recipes was especially appealing to me. The Turbo Jam 10-day plan mostly involves chicken and turkey, both of which I don't like. So I am substituting chicken and turkey with tofu and veggie substitutes. For lunch today (day 1 of the plan), I made a tuna salad with lettuce, spinach, capers, onions, egg, mustard, olive oil, and lemon. (I added the lemon even though it wasn't part of the recipe.) It was astoundingly delicious, and so much healthier than the food I usually eat.

I realized as I was shopping for ingredients to cook these meals that the Turbo Jam 10-day plan was forcing me to buy more fresh vegetables and berries, both of which tend to be kind of expensive here in Boston.

I also realized, as I was eating according to the plan for day 1, that I was eating more food (in terms of quantity, not likely in terms of calories) than I'm used to eating. It's 8 pm, and even though I got up at 7 am, I've only so far eaten the breakfast, lunch, and two snacks for the day. I don't think I'm hungry enough to eat the dinner today.

I really appreciate that the plan shows me tasty ways to eat my vegetables and make sure I get enough protein.