Three Years Later

Back to where I was, weight wise 178 lbs, when I started this blog. My daughter's wedding, my initial incentive, is long past and the weight crept back. Actually, it was more like a snowball going downhill. I was putting it on with no end in sight, discussing and reading every piece of dieting advice I could find, but unable call upon willpower to diet 24 hours. I'd resumed a respectable exercise regime: Zumba 3x weekly and Pilates once. My Christmas Fitbit may as well have been embedded in my skin. I knew that the weight and nightly cocktails and wine were not doing my husband or myself any good, but life without them was simply unimaginable, at least after 4 pm. My weight had actually hit 188 earlier in the year. So what happened? What do I have to say worthy of resuming this blog?

Valentine's Day. I knew my husband would buy me the most wonderful box of chocolates and they might last a week. So I asked if he would give me one week's grace, instead. One week without placing a cocktail in front of me when I was beat or about to make a phone call; one week without bringing home a sundae from Boardwalk Ice Cream. That was all. Without those two things, I thought that I could control sugar on my own. Everything else would remain the same. Well, he joined me and by one week later we'd both lost a few pounds and it had worked. No real suffering. He did buy the chocolates and we pull out the box on Sunday night and they're delicious and I am alright with it.

The New York Times. Back in 2009, the NYT saved my dad's life. Actually, his not picking up the papers for three days brought a neighbor over to inquire why and an ambulance came, culminating in coronary bypass surgery, etc.

So now it's 2013 and I am following Mark Bittman in the NYT, who is espousing Vegan til 6 pm. I take my own spin on it. Going from being a lifelong Atkins believer to plants and fish. All in moderation. Lamb and ham are still there, but in about half the amount. But the joy of having cereal or a baked potato is indescribable. Just read Food Matters - perhaps he has stumbled upon a fine, non-threatening alternative to dieting.