Progressions

I remember when I quit chocolate in March - it was hard on me. It had been my habit to stop into a drug store or convenience store and buy a candy bar or two probably most days, to occasionally enjoy cakes and ice creams and brownies. To always include two cookies with every meal at Subway (which was a footlong sandwich). To basically top off every meal with something sweet. I went cold turkey right during the Easter candy season, and Easter candy season is the best candy season - I love Cadbury creme eggs and Russell Stover coconut bird nests and Russell Stover's chocolate-covered eggs. I couldn't eat them, but I did buy and stash some so I could eat it after the month was over.

Before that month was even over, I started my Glycemic Impact diet plan, which was all about balancing out my sugar cravings. In those days I relied heavily on the "cheat day." The weight was stripping off me 5 pounds at a time, so every week or two I felt good about having a cheat day during which I'd dine out and eat candy and whatever I'd been really missing over the previous week.

I realize that now, I'm on one final day of my No Sweets pledge. I realize that tomorrow I can eat chocolate and pies and cakes and ice cream. That stuff all sounds good, but I don't NEED it. I haven't been sitting around every day wishing I could have dessert. Refusing sweets when offered really doesn't even hurt - it's just a fact - I can't eat that today.

"Cheat days" aren't really a part of my life anymore either. This isn't by design really. I would actually still love to have cheat days - I just have had issues with my weight loss having slowed down. I have spent a lot of time over the past few months really wanting to get to the next goal, and not wanting to sacrifice my progress with cheat days. Instead of having my own specially-planned cheat days, now my "cheat days" tend to be externally imposed - birthdays and dinner out with my dining out friend. Otherwise I cling to my meal plan - that is How I Know What To Eat anymore, because it's what's typed up on my meal plan. Makes things easier in a way - you already know what you're going to eat and you know you have the ingredients in your cabinets (unless your roommate eats your banana - grr). Harder sometimes, too, when preparing and packing the requisite food takes time you might not have budgeted out for yourself.

Though I do miss the freedom and abandon of the "Cheat Day" that I was able to enjoy before, lately my "cheats" tend to come more regularly and in smaller portions - like the other night when I allowed myself a glass of wine with dinner, or before I went on the No Sweets pledge, when I would have a small portion of chocolate instead of a whole bar.

I love love love being 218 right now. It's really surreal to stand on the scale and see that number, or to type it into the elliptical trainer at the gym. I went clothes shopping with my Mom the other day and my tummy is still to big to look really good in clothes - pretty distressing. So far this week I've done 1 yoga workout and 1 elliptical workout (418 cals in 30 minutes) so who knows whether exercise will reshape my body, but it's a start anyway. My mother suggested lipo again, to get rid of the belly fat cells. I actually considered it, but I'm going to keep going with the natural stuff for a long while longer. Lipo is expensive and does pose surgery risks.

I noticed that I was much more virile about climbing all the necessary stairs yesterday than my Height-Weight Proportionate coworker. I felt like my legs were strong enough yesterday to just really push me away from the ground. However, they are not strong enough to maintain certain yoga poses.