I thought I would do a four-week dieting and exercise challenge, and to help me stick with it, I'm not looking at my body or weighing myself for the entire time. At the end of the challenge, I'll do a "big reveal" as a sort of reward/surprise for myself, and I'll see how my body has changed.
I bought long, light-weight, loose fitting clothing to exercise in (which has turned out to be sooo comfortable, btw) and I covered up or took down all the mirrors in my house (except for one, which is for DH.) I haven't been looking down when I change or shower. Intimacy has been with the lights out only. Shaving is too dangerous to do without looking, but I'll probably get a waxing the day before the big reveal. I'm on day 5, and I can already feel changes. It has been so tempting to cinch my shirt around my waist, or to step on the scale, but I must resist!
I have been doing a 4 days on, 1 day off cycle with the diet plan. I started with 2000 calories (and I must have been eating a TON before, because it's felt like so little), and I'm planning on weaning down 100 calories per 5 day cycle to 1700 calories, then working my way back up. On the back half of the 28, I'll up the amount of exercise I do to offset the increase in calories, as my physical fitness returns.
As for exercise, I'm rotating upper body lifting days, lower body lifting days, and running days, with shorter, gentle cardio sessions on the lifting days. I'm trying to incorporate a lot of stretching and mobility exercises as well. Fridays are designated as rest/active recovery days.
I can't wait to see!