By Nevin Martell

This morning marked the first day of my month-long Protein Bar Challenge. Thankfully, this regimen includes espresso and coffee, so the day still began with a mind-and-body jolting single shot. A little after 10, I walked into Protein Bar in Penn Quarter for the official kick-off.

There was a sobering start to the affair: my weigh-in. I’ve definitely packed on a few pounds over the years and I’m nowhere near what my doctor tells me is my healthy weight – somewhere between 180-190 pounds. I’m 38 now, so freshman year of college – when I was last in that range – was a long time ago.

I stepped up onto the scale and looked down. It took a moment to register, then 219.5 flickered onto the screen. Ugh. That’s 30-40 pounds over. I have a lot of work to do in the next month if I want to start getting that number down.

Inspiration to meet that goal was easy to find though. Two of Protein Bar’s managers, Katie and David, each told me that they had lost around 15 pounds since they began working at the restaurant and regularly eating its food (and David has only been with the company a few months). And several Protein Bar fans on Facebook gave me cheery virtual pep talks by sharing their stories of eating at the restaurant and shedding some serious poundage (one guy lost 60 pounds!).

After a hearty breakfast of steel-cut oatmeal with a hint of chocolate and fresh raspberries (aka One El of an Oatmeal), I headed off to a vigorous hour-long Pilates class (there’s a phrase I never thought I’d be saying a year ago) at Willow Street Yoga. It was a strong start to my new regimen, but there’s a long way to go.

Weight: 219.5 lbs.

Exercise: One hour of Pilates

Breakfast: Espresso, iced coffee, and One El of an Oatmeal with fresh raspberries

Lunch: Buffalo Bar-rito

Afternoon snack: Two hard-boiled eggs

Dinner: Southwest Salad

As well as reading my posts about my Protein Bar Challenge here on the Plate blog, you can follow my progress on Twitter @nevinmartell (hashtag #proteinbarchallenge) or on Facebook.