Forty Days Come and Gone

It has already been one week since I made it through forty days. Total weight loss is 11 pounds! To celebrate, my husband and I went out for dessert where we split a piece of decadently dark chocolate mousse cheesecake. Yum. With a cup of coffee, it was heaven on earth! The weird thing was, after I had eaten about three quarters of my portion I was very satisfied. I finished it anyway, and I felt really full...like bad full. Six weeks ago I would have polished that thing all by myself! It's amazing what happens when you really change your habits.

Other changes: EVERYTHING tastes good to me. And this is such a blessing for someone who was such a food snob! I take simple pleasures in peanut butter smeared on a graham cracker. Or cheerios covered with my favorite fruit yogurt. Potatoes, cut into wedges, seasoned with salt, pepper and herbs and baked till their a bit crispy on the outside, are wonderful tasting "healthy" fries.

Beyond these forty days I plan to continue eating right, but I'll indulge in a dessert now and then, or go out to dinner. Just this past weekend I enjoyed dinner out with some friends at a Japanese restaurant and had the tempura (battered and deep fried vegetables and shrimp). But because I ate sensibly all week and worked out at the gym, I still managed to lose another pound. COOL!

Why is it...

that I can buy a frozen pizza for less than two bucks, but a bunch of grapes costs four?

that candy bars are 10 for $10 at my local grocery store?

It just makes me so mad! I go to the grocery store every week and pile my cart with healthy eating. And then I pass aisles and aisles of convenient, cheap, junky food that just makes my taste buds tingle. I haven't had a hershey bar in I don't know how long...

Since it's been forty days, I've loosened up the reigns on my diet. I know, we really shouldn't call it a diet, because it should be a lifestyle change, right? But I tell you, today, I was really sick of eating my salad at lunch. I started craving again and indulged by having a few extra wheat thins when I really shouldn't have had any at all...

Most days I'll prepare a lean cuisine or other diet frozen meal, paired with salad and piece of fruit. The convenience foods get pretty expensive though, so I've started trying to get realistic about what I'd be eating EVERYDAY. I've discovered the peanut butter and jelly on toast with a glass of skim milk is by far one of my favorite breakfasts. For lunch, however, I would usually eat a sandwich because I wanted to eat the chips. Now, I eat a sandwich with a salad and fruit. Not so yummy. I've got to find a healthy, salty alternative!

Wait...I've got to go...my boy is crying for me...

The end of the road

I'm almost there. It has officially been five weeks since I've started, which means my forty days are up this Saturday! In five and a half weeks I have lost just a few ounces shy of ten pounds!

I feel great. Even though the forty days are here, I'm still going to slowly work towards my ultimate goal, which is actually another five to six pounds away. At this point, it's getting kinda hard, since all the "easy fat" is lost. Now it's those last tough ones that have been hanging on for so long.

The best feeling of all is pulling out all those "skinny", pre-pregnancy clothes from the storage closet and putting them on, only to find that they fit great. REALLY great! And the skinny jeans are back :0 Even my husband is wondering if I'm leaner than when he married me three and a half years ago. Whoopee!

YOU CAN DO IT, LADIES! You really can....