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Week 3 Update of the Game On! Diet Plus Welcome To and My Tips For the 11! Bloggers Starting the Game Next Week!

I'm almost at the end of week 3 of the Game On! Diet challenge! I will admit, before last evening, I was starting to feel a bit weary, the big weight drop from the initial week didn't exactly repeat itself, and I was starting to feel a bit overwhelmed by the food preparation. But after last night's coaching call with authors Krista and Az, and hearing from one player in particular about how much the Game has changed her life, I have a newfound energy to finish off this week and go strong into the final week! Plus, last night on CBS News, this fantastic piece ran about my husband's Boot Campers who are playing the Game! (cannot believe he didn't get bumped by all the celebrity news...) AND, I lost another pound when I woke up this morning!

And not only that, but the knowledge that next week I'll be joined in the Game by ELEVEN fellow fabulous book bloggers, who will be starting the game just as I'm finishing it (but I'll be back!) is just phenomenal. The players we welcome next week are:

Julie at Booking Mama
Dawn at She Is Too Fond of Books
Jill at Fizzy Thoughts
Jill at Rhapsody in Books
Denise at M. Denise C
Candace at Beth Fish Reads
Jennifer at Find Your Next Book Here
Ti at Book Chatter and Other Stuff
Amy at My Friend Amy
Jenn at Jenn's Bookshelf
Kathy at The Brain Lair

I can't wait to read everyone's posts and tweets and to cheer them on. (Follow the hashtag #gameondiet on Twitter). As these new participants gear up I wanted to offer some tips that have really helped me play the Game.

1) Read the food chapter first and plan out what you think you're going to eat for the first week - this will help a lot. You can see what we ate the first week (more or less) here.
2) From that menu, make a shopping list (there's a suggested one in there too) and get everything this weekend.
3) On Sunday, cook whatever you can from that menu ahead of time -- cook up a some brown rice, grill chicken, chop cucumbers and celery and put them into baggies in the fridge
4) Look at your first week ahead of time in terms of family commitments and your schedule and identify when you will take your meal off and your day off, also try to identify the time each day that you'll exercise
5) Plan that first day's meal times -- when you'll eat breakfast, and then the next 4 meals, spacing them no less than 2 hours and no more than 4 hours apart

On tonight's call Krista and Az each outlined what each of their typical days on the Game look like, so if it's helpful for you, here's Book Club Girl's Typical Day on the Game:

7:30-8       Wake up, weigh myself and drink 1-2 glasses of water right away with my vitamins

8-8:30       Meal 1: Egg whites cooked with onion and spinach, feta, wheat toast w/olive oil + coffee 
hint: chop the onions and separate the eggs the night before to save time

11-11:30    20 Mins of Exercise in my office, doing this routine, or a combo of abs and working 
with exercise bands (if I miss the am time frame, I work out in the aft or evening)

12-12:30    Meal 2: lunch of salad with grilled chicken, broccoli, cucumbers, onions, pepper, 
other veggies, a little dash of balsamic/oil dressing and a piece of fruit (or potato)

4:00          Meal 3: snack of two low-fat cheese sticks, 6 cashews and a banana

7-8:00       Meal 4: Dinner with the family, grilled chicken or fish, veggies, red potato

10-11        Meal 5: Lowfat Ricotta cheese dessert with vanilla, maple syrup and 1/2 c of partially  
thawed frozen fruit (I looove this, very desserty) plus some cashews (I eat these separately as I don't like nuts in my desserts ;))

And of course, I drink a lot of water throughout the day and munch and cucumbers and celery when I'm feeling peckish. I actually keep forgetting and running out of time to eat my 100 calories of anything! (but have bought those 100 calorie cookie packs for those occasions).

New Game On-ers, I'm here for you, send questions my way, can't wait to welcome you!

Book Club Girl is Still Getting Her Game On - and Has Lost 6 lbs!

I wanted to give all who are interested an update on my first week (or week and 3 days now) on the Game On! Diet. Well, so far so good, the first week went pretty well. There was a fair amount of food preparation but eating so much fresh food felt really great, as did getting 7 hours of sleep every night. I managed to squeeze in 20 minutes of exercise on six days (I'm in love with this HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) Routine). On some days when I couldn't work out, I made up for it by power walking to the train, or into town or home from the train.

There were moments of temptation, to be sure, but the team aspect really kept me honest. I sat at the Carlyle hotel having tea with an author with scones and CLOTTED CREAM in front of me, but was able to abstain because I kept thinking of my teammate and how I couldn't let her down. By Saturday am I had actually lost 6 lbs! That night was my "meal off" when I could eat whatever I wanted for dinner and I went a tad overboard with mussels, chicken and a lovely brownie for dessert. Then on Sunday, my "day off," we had a big family party after my daughter's christening and between the wine, the cream puffs and the brownies, well, let's just say that when I weighed in on Monday am, I had gained back 3 of those 6 pounds! Yikes. I do love brownies.

But I still lost my goal for the week -- your goal is to lose (a very safe) 1% of your weight each week, so my total score for the week was 766.8 out of a possible 850 points. I did have one penalty for the week, as I snuck in an extra glass of wine (my whole family was here!) so that lost me 25 points. My teammate was even more rocking, scoring 826. So far we're kicking our opponents' butts! We had another really helpful call with the authors on Thursday night that helped us with some questions about the eating and point system.

Monday and Tuesday I was back on track and those 3 pounds that snuck back on over the weekend fell off by the time I weighed myself this morning. And... drumroll, I've lost two and a half inches off my waist! One treat in particular that has been sustaining me is my favorite late night snack/meal #5 for the day, Kevin's Vanilla Strawberry Almost Ice Cream Treat. Some days I've needed to snack on the cucumber slices and others haven't needed them at all.

Many of you have asked me for more information about the book and how the game is played, since it's not on sale until 6/30 and I keep blathering (twittering) on about it, so I wanted to make sure everyone knows that you can read the entire book online right now for free! So check it out and start thinking about who you'd like to play the game with!

Book Club Girl is Getting Her Game On!

What, you may ask, does that mean? Well, today is day one of the Game On! Diet challenge that I've embarked upon with some of my coworkers. Now, I couldn't decide whether or not this was something I should post here since it's not technically book club related, but it is book related, and it is about me (the "girl" in Book Club Girl), so hope you'll indulge me. These posts won't take over the blog but this is a big deal for me, and it would seem really odd for me to be posting every day and not mention it occasionally.

The Game On! Diet is the brainchild of Krista Vernoff, head writer and executive producer of tv's Grey's Anatomy and Az Ferguson, winner of the Body-for-Life Challenge. When Krista returned to work after having her baby, she called on Az to help her lose the baby weight. He made her a workout regimen and eating plan that she, well, didn't follow at all. So Az went back to the drawing board. Knowing that Krista had a VERY competitive nature, he decided to present her with a healthy lifestyle plan in the form of a game, that she could play with a team, and that she could play to win. This appealed to her very much. Rather than the focus being on losing weight, the focus is on winning points, a far more tantalizing prospect. So how do you earn points? You can earn a maximum of 100 points a day for doing the following:

1) Eating 5 balanced meals a day, every 2-4 hours -- 6 points per meal
2) Exercising for at least 20 minutes a day -- 20 points
3) Sleeping for a minimum of 7 hours per night -- 15 points
4) Drinking 3 liters of water a day -- 10 points
5) Adopting a healthy new habit that you practice every day -- 10 points
6) Dropping one unhealthy habit -- 10 points
7) Communicating with your team members every day -- 5 points

You earn penalties (points lost!) for:
1) stepping on the scale more than once a day
2) unsanctioned snacking (you can have as much celery and cucumber as you want throughout the day, plus 100 free calories of whatever once a day, no other snacking)
3) Colluding with the opposing team to get them to break a rule
4) Drinking alcohol (see exception below)
5) changing the healthy or unhealthy habit during the course of the game (you have to pick those and stick to them).

It's not about total deprivation as you get:
1) One day off a week, when you don't have to follow any of the rules
2) One meal off a week when you can eat what you want and have one unit of alcohol
3) each day you can have 100 calories of anything as a bonus treat

If you don't lose at least 1% of your weight each week, you lose your alcohol privilege for the duration of the game. The game runs for 4 weeks. Because the book is written by a tv writer, it's funny and extremely approachable, not all diet scary. (no clues as to the fate of George and Izzie on Grey's however ;()

Our points are handed in once a week and tallied with our teammates. The winning team will get to do something to the losing team that we have yet to determine. I am so excited to play this, and having teammates who I'm beholden to will help to keep me honest.

As for my new habits (and they made habits a part of the game because studies have shown that true weight loss happens when there is a lifestyle change, rather than just a diet and exercise change). The unhealthy habit that I'm going to break is being on my blackberry or the computer in the evening hours from the time I get home until the kids are in bed. So from about 6:30-9:30 every night, my husband (who's also playing the game) and I are going to be focused on our family and not distracted by work (it's a tad embarassing that this is something we're not already doing). The healthy habit I'm adopting: three times a day I pump milk at work for my baby. Usually I do this while emailing, talking on the phone, working like a maniac. My healthy habit is going to be that during one of those times I will not be on email or the phone, and will sit at my desk and read, probably starting with short stories, for that 15-minute time period, making it a relaxing and enriching time, rather than a hectic, multitasking time. It's interesting that both of my habits involve turning off technology. I guess there will be a little less tweeting and blogging!

So how am I doing so far? Well, this morning I stepped on the scale and recorded my starting weight. I also measured my waist as even more than losing weight, I want to regain my pre-baby shape. I had a great breakfast of egg whites, spinach, onions and feta cheese with wheat toast and my next meal of the day will be two cheese sticks, 6 almonds, a plum and an apple. For lunch I brought a huge salad with grilled chicken. Check out the picture of all the food I brought to work, it seems like A LOT! You can learn more about the food portion of the game here, and basically, it's all about portions and balancing your protein with your carbs, and including healthy fat in each meal. I plan to do this Twenty & Plenty 20-minute workout in my office around midday. I've already talked with my teammate this am, after she power walked to work so I've earned my communication points for the day!

The days off and meals off make me feel like I really can do this -- I've already planned out a couple of the days off (my daughter's christening next week, the other's graduation the following week). And the meal off gives us even more flexibility if we end up out at a restaurant or just need a break (or, ahem, a drink). To prepare for the food part of the game, I planned out my menus for the week, shopped for it all on Friday at Costco, and made a lot of things yesterday so I don't get tripped up by preparations during the week.

I'll report back in about a week as to my progress. If you're interested in finding out more, you can listen to the great call we had with the authors last Thursday night here. About 30 of my husband's boot campers (he runs an exercise boot camp) are participating in our town, so we all spoke to the authors to get our various questions answered.

That is all, thanks for reading, wish me luck, and game on!