Thursday & Friday

I had two really good days. Nothing really exciting to report. I am still staying at about 1300 calories. I didn't workout either day. That is the one negative thing. I am going to start a running program. It is called "Couch to 5K". Sounds like what I need. It eases you in and it doesn't require you to run every single day. Here it is if anyone is intested:
http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml

I had a small victory that I thought was noteworthy. I went to a birthday party for my nephew. They had pizza and breadsticks and cake. I didn't eat ANY of it! I had a snack in my car so I knew I was not going to starve. It got a little intense at the end because I was really hungry and it all smelled so good. I felt so much better after I left...even though I felt a little angry and deprived when I was turning it down. It helped me to stay focused the rest of the day, too.

I was talking to my friend, Suzy, who is also in the diet battle. She had some excellent thoughts that have helped me. She struggles with going "on" a diet and then "off". It is the whole yo-yo dieting thing. We lost weight together the first time so we know each other and are very similar in some of our struggles. She said that she is now going to try to go for a healthy lifestyle instead of a diet.

To me, a healthy lifestyle includes a lot of deprivation and missing out on things that everyone else gets to eat. Well, her approach is a little different. She is trying to stop the cycle of "this is my last day before the diet so I need to eat as much as possible because I will never eat this again". Then you start your diet, have a few good days, and "fall off the wagon". She is going to approach it like, "this is not the last cookie I will ever eat...I don't need to eat 5 of them." If you aren't "on" a diet, you can't go "off" your diet. So if you have 1/2 of a cookie, you can be satisfied in knowing that it is not the last cookie you are going to eat.

This is a good way for the weight to come off slowly and steadily. I really needed a good detox from my very unhealthy choices so the 2 weeks of "dieting" works for me. But as I move forward, I know I am not going to keep this up for a long time. I am going to try this. I have always thought of myself as an "all or nothing" kind of person. I am going to experiment with this next week. If I go overboard and allow it to be permission to eat whatever I want, then I will know. But I think this is something I can do. We'll see. I will still try to maintain my daily calories, though. Sorry about all the rambling. I don't even know if this made sense.