Mon Apr 17 - The gigantic huzzah: 21.0 pounds lost, total so far. Yippee!

My friend Rhonda at work asked me one day, "So which diet are you on?" I've never believed in specific diets. Sure, you might learn a little bit about other foods if you're forced to eat from a list, but will you stick with it? Probably not, which is how the diet industry makes its billions of dollars every year.

So I've summed up what's going on in my life as "My Annoying Diet."

• I just eat less and exercise. That's annoying.


• When I eat less, I'm sometimes hungry. That's annoying, so buck up and deal.


• To eat the right foods, I have to go grocery shopping more often. That's annoying, so buck up and deal.


• I have to cook more often, and have the food ready in little boxes or bags so I can just grab them in the morning and race out the door. That's annoying, so just buck up and deal.


• There are more dishes to wash. That's annoying, so buck up and deal.


• I can't just cheat and go through drive through all the time. That's annoying, so buck up and deal.


• When I want to lose weight by exercising, I have to actually get off my behind and go out and exercise. Regularly. All the time. In little bits. Repeatedly. That's annoying, so buck up and deal.


• And my favorite: When you lose weight, your pants start to fall off. That's annoying. So take them in (every morning), and buck up and deal.

I can deal with this level of annoyance in my life, because darn, my pants are falling off and I have to keep sewing them smaller. Gee, rough life, hmm?

Oh, and I'm not sure I've written about this yet, but I know I've described it in person to several of you. I think of the whole thing as a numeric scale for hunger, when to eat, and when to stop eating. Zero on the scale is completely full, just plain normal full. Ten on the scale is "fainting dead away with hunger." Most people don't start eating until they've hit about a 7, 8, or 9. And they don't stop eating until they're headed into negative numbers, stuffed past full.

I've been going on the guideline to try to eat when I'm about a 5, and stop when I'm about a 2. This means that sometimes, when I've really been sticking to this, I can go without having actually been *full* for for days and weeks at a time. It's kinda weird. But then again, it's really kicked my weight loss back into reality. When I'm headed to sleep, I'm most likely to be hungry, and I just think "Oh well, too bad, you'll eat tomorrow." It's never much more than a low-grade hunger, and it's fairly manageable. I just have to decide to be like this. (And it's working, so my smug-ego is being fed. *grin*)
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I went a little bit nuts at the grocery store this morning, before work, over in the Kosher Food section. I got some really *yummy* matzoh ball chicken soup, some gefilte fish, a can of hummus, and a can of reduced-sugar macaroons. I've always *adored* macaroons, and the reduced-sugar ones taste the same as other ones. The hummus was *heavenly* on matzoh with soup for lunch, and I'm just thrilled. I'll probably add a can to my earthquake/emergency food box. It wasn't bland, and had just the right level of garlic for my taste. And I've also always *always* liked gefilte fish, so I'm just in heaven today with food. And this evening Cat's making a bunch of kosher-for-passover foods, and I'm taking some of the camping equipment back to her house.

As for the rest of my work day: My Friday deadline was defined as "before noon Monday" and I sent the finished link off to my boss at 11:59 am. I was really happy about that. So a small break for lunch, back to work, and continuing to update files in the background while my Beta files are in review. [Beta is considered successful if you hit 85% ready/done and I hit 87% by 11:59 am. Yippee!]

And for a half-an-hour I took a break from *my* life and my work, to hang out with the HR recruiter in her office. She and I have occasionally chatted outside about organizing and life improvements and things, and she gave me a call last week to say "I heard you're helping coach Craig on getting organized. Can you coach me?" Now, I tease Craig that I'm not doing anything more than just hanging out an hour a month and setting an alarm so he'll work on his cleaning-up-tasks. Sure, I pitch in and help him decide to throw out, recycle, or archive materials he doesn't really need anymore. But he's doing all the actual work. I just hang out and chat and see that he doesn't skip working on it or work too long on it and get discouraged later that it always takes too long to clean. We'll see where my time with Jessica goes over the next several weeks.

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Today's Blessing That I'm Thankful For: All the friends who are encouraging me and are impressed with my stick-to-it-ness for losing weight. That internal "smug" is getting her ego fed, and there's no motivation quite like feeling successful and smug. *giggle* Thanks guys!
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Weight Loss This Week: Mon 4/17 21.0 total lost (down -5.6 lbs from Fri) Dude! I knew the numbers didn't seem right! I kept hovering between 16.8 and 14.4 pounds lost, then went away for the weekend, and weighed myself this morning at a lovely 21.0 total pounds lost. Yay me! And yup, I took in another pair of pants this morning before getting dressed. My sewing machine just sits out now in my bedroom, and I have taken in a pair a day for the past week and a half.