Unrelated to Anything Else

Today's morning weigh-in shows that I've lost 75 pounds since I started my efforts on June 10th 2006.

If you'll all excuse me for a second. ***WAAHHHHOOOOOO!!!!!!*** ahem Ok, I'm back now.

Lately I've found that I get sick if I eat what used to be a normal-sized meal for me. I tend to still try to eat it, old habits die really hard, but I get ill and stuffed and feel awful. While hubby-Eric and I have adjusted most of our meals down to my new normal, every once in awhile we run across a meal that we haven't and I get ill because I have the "clean your plate" habit.

I also have to pay a lot of attention to serving sizes and watch closely how much I'm actually eating so I don't eat too much too fast. I still tend to shovel food into myself before I have a chance to start digesting, and that's not good for the health. After a meal or a snack, I have to force myself to wait until it's digesting before I ask if I'm still hungry. The answer is usually, "No, I'm not still hungry." If I could only learn to eat slower, I wouldn't need to wait to know for sure. Even when I try to eat slow, I'm usually done with my food twice as fast as hubby-Eric.

The various 100 Calorie Packs have come in extremely handy in monitoring my caloric intake. Two new ones I've just discovered are the Keebler Grasshopper and Keebler Mini Fudge Stripes. Both of them yummy, and both fill places in the taste spectrum that other types of packs hadn't quite reached. The Hostess cupcake 100 Calorie Packs are ok, but nothing to write home about. I still haven't actually found the Breyer's Ice Cream ones, but they tempt me. They'd tempt me more if there was an all-chocolate one. I'm addicted to the Lorna Doone 100 Calorie packs at the moment. Of course, when you consider that I usually only have 1 or 2 of the packs each day, and that new brands come out practically every week, you see that I have plenty of time for experimentation.

In any case, I try to make sure no snack goes over 150 calories, and no meal goes over 600. It's a balancing act, and it takes a lot of nerding out and reading food labels even when it annoys people you are eating with. But it's working. It's 75 Pounds worth of working. I cannot argue with results. This change in lifestyles to counting calories and exercise won't work for everyone, but I sometimes feel so great about it I want to tell everyone I know so they will give it a try.

One last thought... I've got to once again thank Mark Evanier, whose story helped kick me into action and make this weight loss really happen. I do not think I could have done this without him. Thank you, Mark, for sharing your story. You've helped at least one person with it.