20 lbs baby!

O.k., a little crowing involved now. I am 20 pounds lighter. Yahooo!!!!! I have a whole new set of fat clothes I can wear since I'm less fat than I was. My closet is opening up for me. There is more to come, once I lose some more weight. And of course, since summer is winding down, I now have a whole set of shorts I can wear. Oh well. I'm looking at the obscene number of pants I have in my closet that haven't been worn for three years. I'll get there.

I have to apologize now to those who will have to put up with me for the next few months. I am now in full weight loss mode and that means I'll be the expert on all things healthy and weight related. I will be slightly unbearable. And I can only hope that you will bear with me and not think things like "she'll put it back on as soon as she starts eating pretzel M&Ms again." Or "just wait until winter hits and she doesn't have all these nice fresh fruits and vegetables to enjoy." It will be a long hard winter, but I am hopeful and committed and frankly it's soup season, so it's always easier to lose weight when you eat lots of soup.

Crowing done. I have to get back to work now. Must do sit ups. Finish my snack of honeycrisp apples (which, frankly, make me feel like I'm cheating they are so darn sweet) and mozzarella cheese stick. Take a shower. Do some freelance work. It's all life. Only there's less of me to enjoy it, and that's just fine.

I'm so full of crap - but not literally

Past posts just crack me up. "Back to the diet", "Back on track", "going nowhere." Phooey, all of it. Here's what it all comes down to....

July 4th. It's hot. I'm cranky. I'm wearing my fat shorts and my fat top that make me look fat. We go to a party and I'm sitting there in all my fatness, when a squabble among the boys breaks out. One is crying, my son is saying "does she look fat to you?" as he's pointing at me. The crying boy is upset because another kid is saying he said I was fat. And my son is defending me. I'm laughing it off, boys will be boys, but it kills me.

July 4th was my Independence Day. Independence from fat, from cholesterol, from not fitting in my clothes. I'm not dieting. I'm Clean Eating. And frankly, it is the only way to go.

If you are unfamiliar with clean eating, think of it this way...you only eat real food. Nothing processed, nothing with more than five ingredients (that you can read and know what they are), fresh from the earth foods or stuff you make with fresh ingredients. It's really that easy. I'm eating fruit, vegetables (which I did before), beans, chicken, fish, turkey, eggs, plain yogurt, no sugar (unless it's organic and unbleached), no soda (which I thought might just kill me, but hasn't) and no white flour. All whole wheat, baby.

I'm making my own tortillas, bread, granola, refried beans, and salad dressings. I use real butter (whipped), olive oil, nuts. It's all such good food (and I eat about six times a day) I'm never hungry. It's amazing. I've never felt like this before. And the positive changes are better skin, no breakouts, almost no migraines anymore.

And I'm 20 pounds lighter. I have more to lose, but it's only been two and half months. I'm not starving myself. I am eating. Oatmeal for breakfast every morning, with various toppings - apples, peaches, strawberries, blueberries, yogurt, applesauce (also homemade), cinnamon - and some eggs whites or a whey/soy protein shake, chocolate flavor of course. I'm eating chocolate, only it's 73% cocoa, so dark and almost fruity. A little square a couple times a week. It's just enough and I don't get that annoying sugar high and subsequent drop. I'm watching ingredients. (What the heck is sodium acid pyrophosphate anyway?)

Now, just so you don't think it's all rainbows and puppy dogs, I have discovered the dark side to Clean Eating. What they don't tell you about in the books. Here's the real reason you lose so much weight...you spend all your time in the kitchen preparing your fresh foods. It's a bit of an exaggeration, and I am getting better at it, but I do spend a lot of time cooking and prepping. I'm standing a lot and using my arms. Quite a workout. There's no time to nibble Pretzel M&Ms (even if I did have them in my house, which I did religiously before the CE takeover). I'm busy. But it's all good. I'll take the busy. You can have my fat.