Two weeks ago I very publicly said I was going to put into motion some things that would create big change in my life.

That kind of thing is pretty easy to say with the rush of fresh energy and excitement about the new year – so knowing my track record for sticking with things, I also pitched the idea to my local paper and in response to a call for entries from HuffPost50 – making it even more public, in hopes that the peer pressure would keep me on the right path.

Well, neither the paper nor HuffPost50 will be publicizing my progress, which was disappointing at first, but now, I have to say I’m relieved. The really great thing to come out of that experience is that the rejection didn’t deter my progress!!

In the first 15 days of this year I have not had any alcohol (except for 1/2 glass of champagne at an event where I couldn’t turn it down); no coffee or caffeine, just herbal tea; at least 8 cups of water a day; I’ve walked at least 5,000 steps most days, and I’ve begun to put together my own yoga practice at home 3 or more days a week in addition to going to a real class on Saturdays (twice in a row now!). Just this alone, has made me feel so much better than I was feeling, and had I not set my goal at losing 52 pounds, may have been enough to improve my health in the following ways:

• Whether it is the increased yoga, or water, or the decrease in weight – the pain I’ve been feeling in my left knee has all but disappeared!
• The visceral fat in my abdomen has shrunk significantly, so I can once again do forward fold positions in yoga, as well as bend over to tie my shoes!
• The pressure on my windpipe/lungs/heart have decreased so now I have worked my way up to 2.5 miles on the treadmill from the 1 and 1.5 I was barely able to do last week!
• I wish I would have taken some measurements before I started this, but I know I’ve lost inches because I don’t have to immediately change into sweats when I get home, since now my clothes, and underwear are much more comfortable!

I think the big star in this experience has been my made-up cleanse/diet.

For the first week I was trying to reduce the amount of food I ate, without adversely affecting my energy. I ate a cup of oatmeal and greek yogurt for breakfast, and a cup of brown rice with ghee and liquid aminos for lunch and dinner (on all but a couple of occasions. And I was never hungry, AND I lost a total of 7 pounds!

The second week I wanted to adhere more closely to the Ayurvedic cleanse/detox called Kitchari, which I had originally planned to do. Click on the link for the recipe, but basically it’s brown rice, lentils, asparagus, zucchini, sweet potatoes, and lots of cumin, coriander and tumeric. Again, never hungry, AND I lost 4 more pounds as of today!!

This coming week I plan to continue the Kitchari, along with everything else I’ve mentioned. In fact until I start to feel hungry, or out of energy I see no reason to change this at all.

So many times I burn out on my goals after a month or so, but this time I truly feel like I can make it – 11 pounds in 15 days is a pretty great kickstart! The whole idea behind being really public about this is that hopefully others will see my progress, join my little bandwagon, and the peer pressure will keep us motivated for the entire year.

There is a definite energy in the air at the first of the year, which is why I chose the traditional January 1 date to make my resolutions for the year ahead.  But my point in going into this is that you haven’t missed the boat, just because we’re a week, or two weeks, or two months into 2015 – you can start any time. I can assure you that your body doesn’t care when you start a self-improvement program—it just wants you to do it!