My attempt at healthier - boring - feel free to skip

Today at the gym I decided to do things a little differently.
When I jumped on the Elliptical I hit the button that says "weight loss" and i'm 100% sure that button didn't do it's job.  However, I continued.
The weight loss program runs for 28 minutes and then 4 minutes of cool down, and the entire time that I was going through the program I tried my hardest to keep my heart rate in the "fat burn" target range which is evidently much less than cardio.  I don't know enough about all this and that to understand why-the-fuck it's that way, I just kinda play along and hope the results show up.
Other than going over the heart-rate threshold twice (but getting it back down quickly) i stayed where I was trying to stay for the entire 32 minutes and I was happy with myself.  Broke a decent sweat in the process and felt good.
It was then that I decided that I'd see how long I could go balls out and slowing down to make sure I got to 13 minutes (so that I could hit 45 total) if need be.
I'm happy to report that I did the 13 minutes without much of an issue at all and I kept my heart-rate in the target cardio area the entire time.  I kept trying to control my breathing so that I could control my heart rate better and I think the more fit I become the better I'll become at this as well.
Either way - 45 minutes is more than I had planned to hit by the end of my 1st week in the gym.
Makes my 1 hour mark seem much more reasonable at this point.

Over the course of this week I have also increased my water intake dramatically (and by water intake I mean just pure water - not all that other stuff that I dream where the 1st ingredient is water).  I am up to 80 ounces per day min (mind you I have gone entire months in my past where I have not drank a single ounce of water - so this is pretty dramatic for me.
I have also cut down my soda intake since I am drinking more water - which leads me into this.

I was reading on our works social networking forum today and some guy posted how he went about making changes in his life in order to lose weight and get healthier after his heart attack (it's fucking weird how I'm now starting to see people everywhere writing about how they had a heart attack between 35-40 and then proceed to describe me almost to a T lol).
He says one of the things that he did was cut out soda's complete - not even drinking diet sodas.  Switching up to almost all water with whatever else.
Then, in parenthesis like it's some big amount he states that he used to drink up to 5 cans of soda every single day.  I actually laughed out loud because in my prime I think I was downing over 3 two-liters of Mt Dew every single day, and probably a couple of cans/bottles as well.  This was high-school.
In college I think I lived off of Mt Dew daily and when the weekends hit I lived off of Vodka.
It's truly disturbing how much Mt Dew that I used to consume daily now that I look back at it.  So, his claim of up to 5 cans of soda every day made me laugh and I wanted to write back "Shit, that was what I called breakfast when i was younger."

I've also cut out most of the junk food that I normally ate and replaced it with a steady stream of fruit.
My daily eat list is not really that impressive - there are still some flaws with it, but it will slowly change over time to something more healthy.  I cannot cut out every single vice from day one and actually still enjoy my life.
Currently I eat a banana and a cheese stick for breakfast with a bottle of water and if I have one a small bottle of Sunny D (probably an 8 oz one I think, it's pretty tiny).
My first break at work I generally eat either left overs from the night before or a lunch meat sandwich consisting of chicken or turkey, some cheese and some mayo and mustard.
My second break at work I eat another banana and another cheese stick.
Also note that i bring a baggie full of grapes to work as well, and a sliced kiwi or a cutie (mini orange looking thing).
And, in there somewhere (or during my longer lunch break) I have a real snack brought from home.  In a small baggie I have either a couple of cookies, or some Doritos or if my mom has been in a cooking mood a brownie or something equally as delicious.
I know that I should cut out the real junk food and only do that once a week - but I can live with myself this way for right now.  We'll talk about cutting out more after i've dropped 25 pounds or so.
And other than my traditional banana after my workout, I have not been eating anything after 8pm.
No snacking, nothing.

I am very happy with the way this first week went.  I got 4 good days of exercise in and I have made at least one healthy change in my diet (more water, less soda).
Next week is going to be a challenge - Monday is a trip to the dentist.
The big issue with that is that there is a possibility of having 2 wisdom teeth removed on Monday which means no gym for a couple days afterwards.
So, we'll play next week by ear and hope for the best.

Too many words and I need to get some reading in before falling asleep.
Hope you all have great weekends and hope I have some good shit to write about after tomorrow nights tournament!