A minor milestone...

This probably won't seem like a great deal to most people, but for me, it indicates progress in a good way. Yesterday, I threw out all of my 2x pants because, although I could wear them, they were baggy and loose. I'm solidly in a size 1x now, at least on the bottom (I tend to wear baggy shirts a lot longer). I had ordered 10 new pairs of capris and pants from Lane Bryant in 1x, and those arrived on Friday, so I washed and packed up all my 2x stuff and will drop it off at a clothing pick-up point some time this week.

Ciao for now.

Feeling better...

Well, I've been serious about my eating plan for 10 days now. I've managed to go out to eat a few times, making sure to buy "healthy" choices. Understand, this has nothing to do with depriving myself of any kind of food, and everything to do with watching my total calorie, fat and sugar intake while eating on a very rigid schedule. Since Jan. 19, the date of my physical with my doctor, I've lost 8 lbs. While this is too fast to maintain for a long time, I have good guidelines as to when to cut my calorie intake again, etc. (i.e., when weight loss drops below 2 lbs. per week, I will cut 200 more calories/day out of my diet). Right now, I'm eating 1850 calories a day.

For the first few days, I know I ate more than 1850 calories, because I wasn't really counting calories, just getting myself used to the eating schedule. However, for the last five days or so, I'm being more of a stickler. There are *so* many choices of what you can eat if you're eating healthy things. I was actually amazed. I've been buying low-fat stuff again, and adding more carbs into my diet. I actually think my overall blood sugar may have been too high because I was trying to process way too much fat. I know now that I've added back more of the starches/fiber back into my diet, I'm making it through my workouts much better. We'll see what the doctor says when I go back on March 1.

Also, I'm learning to savor my food more, and appreciate what I am eating. Because I'm eating six times a day, I haven't binged, and when I do get that "urge" I'm popping some sugar-free hard candy into my mouth and that usually does the trick.

On other fronts, work continues to be absolutely crazy. I signed up for my SunRocket today though, so I should be able to stop using my cell phone soon, which is good. It was worth paying for the SunRocket myself in order to get the business stuff off of my cell phone. Although my company has said it would reimburse me for the cell phone, it has yet to do so, and I'm just tired of trying to fight that battle.

I'm going to take my first of 17 exams for my SixSigma Black Belt this week. My goal is to work through one test per week until I'm through, and hopefully by then, I'll also have my 12-page minimum business plan put together to submit for review. I'm planning to use the time I spend in Michigan each week (Tuesday/Wednesday night) to work on my Black Belt, which will mean I don't have to devote time to it when I'm actually here at home and can hang out with folks.

I think that about covers it for today. I've been posting every day on my "book" filter, so I'm tending to post here more as well, which is a good thing. I need to write more.

Ciao for now.