Ten pounds, 30 days. Game on. I walked in announcing to Ryan that he was on his own for dinnertime carbs starting tonight. Let me tell you, the shit hit the fan. WHAT?! That’s right; it’s all chicken and veggies for the next month. If you want potatoes, noodles, rice, you’re on your own. We fought for the next 20 minutes and I finally revealed my hand.

I was going to be part of a research project to test the effectiveness of a nutritional supplement. The project involves taking a pill twice a day with meals, restructuring my diet and working with a trainer three days a week. How could I say no? I’m finally walking again after breaking my fifth metatarsal in August and it’s only now that I can start working out again. With ski season only weeks away, why wouldn’t I jump at the chance for the best preseason training I could hope for? I would get into shape, look hot for the holidays, help with a company’s campaign and do it all for free. I was made for this.

Ryan thinks I’m going to die taking some unknown ‘drug’ but the truth is I had the cancer doc go over the list of ingredients before agreeing to sign up and I read all sorts of info on the product (I can’t reveal what it is until I get that cleared by the company). It’s been on the market for a few years and it’s even sold on Amazon. No negative side effects were discussed but there were various comments to the effect that the pill is untested. Not anymore! TMG sent a handful of actors over to the offices to see which of us would make good candidates. We had to want to lose 10-15 pounds (no more), be willing to take the ‘before’ photo (that means me standing in gym shorts and a sports bra without tightening my tummy muscles), workout at least 3 times a week with a professional trainer, 30 minutes of cardio at least 5 days a week, follow the diet, take the pill and take some “after” pics. It sounded doable.

The photos on Friday were painless. Today, however, I met with a trainer at Xcel Fitness who went over my new diet. No sugar, no carbs at night, no milk (almond milk in my coffee is ok), no juice, no melon, no chips, no pretzels, no noodles. Let me give you an example of a typical food log for Jill:

Breakfast-

2 pieces of bacon

2 pumpkin pancakes w/ maple syrup

Coffee w/ skim milk and Truvia

Lunch-

Plain regular-sized beef hotdog and Ruffles

Dinner-

Cheese tortellini w/ tomato sauce

Broccoli

Garlic biscuit

Sm. Piece of pumpkin Bundt cake from Corner Bakery

Snacks-

Jello

Orange

Chocolate truffle

1 can of diet soda

This is my food log starting tomorrow:

(6 mini meals)

1 slice of whole wheat toast w/ honey

2 eggs

Orange

2 oz Turkey

Apple

5 almonds

½ c. brown rice

3 oz chicken breast

Broccoli

Greek yogurt w/ 1 Tbs Agave

5 almonds

Chicken

Broccoli

Snack

Almond Milk breeze w/ protein scoop.

Luckily, coffee is ok (w/ almond milk and Truvia) but all that Halloween candy is off limits. Yep. The hardest part is going to be the diet.

Tomorrow, we’ll see how the exercise part goes. No pain, no gain, right? Or should I say loss?

P.S. My 5’6″ frame currently weighs in at 120 lb- naked, in the morning. Why do I want to lose 10 pounds you might ask? I want to get ripped and strong; right now I’m soft and weak from my summer of ‘healing’. 🙂