3 Weeks - 9 Pounds

It's day 21 of my "diet".

Yup, I made that once a year resolution to start eating better and hopefully to lose a few pounds. No more late night bowls of ice cream with my hubby, no more trips to grab fast food when I don't really feel like cooking, no more baking a cake or a pie, and having it totally devoured by the next day.

So far so good though. I've renewed my love for cooking and at the same time, lost 9 pounds. It's really not as difficult as I thought it was going to be. I have a few friends who have undergone the bariatric surgery, only to regain much of their weight back because they wouldn't stick to the new method of eating. One of them was under the impression that once she had lost all the weight she wanted, she could go back to eating a whole large Roundtable pizza, or enter a pie-eating contest at the local school carnival. She gained back more weight than she had lost, after spending over $15,000 for the surgery (including having fat liposuctioned out of her uper arms)!

I decided to try something different. I am not a candidate for bariatric surgery due to having SLE, but decided that if the total results from the surgery depends on making a life-choice of eating better, with smaller amounts, then why couldn't I just do that without having the surgery?

I started a method of eating more food, yet still lost weight. I eat every two hours. That's it. Every two hours I have a small portion (no larger than the size of my fist) of food -- good food, like carrot or celery sticks, yogurt, fresh fruit, etc. Then for dinner I have a small portion of whatever I've made for dinner that night (again, no larger than the size of my fist). Feeding small amounts of food to my stomach every two hours keeps me from ever feeling hungry, and I don't totally gorge myself around mealtime. I also make sure to drink the full 8 glasses of water each day.

I've found that not only have I lost some weight, but I'm sleeping better, have more energy and am generally happier with myself. Only 40 more pounds to go.....