What is “Cheating”? And Who Knew, the Way I Am Eating Actually is a “Diet”!

A friend of mine today complimented me on how well I’m doing (always very nice!) and asked if I ever cheat. I said that I don’t really. She followed up by asking if that means I never eat sugar or other foods like that. I responded that I do eat sugar, I have sugar in my coffee every morning, and I have a piece of dark chocolate almost every night, along with a cup of tea with honey (which is basically sugar). I made the kids these chocolate chip granola bars, made with honey and sugar (but less than the packaged kind) and I find myself having a little piece of one almost every day, because they are really good. It has made me realize that I’m sure we each have a different definition of what “cheating” means. And for me, I think if your definition of cheating is too restrictive (i.e., no sugar, no chocolate, pretty much saying no to anything at all), then cheating becomes too easy to do, and once you feel like you are cheating a lot you may lose your motivation. I’m not even sure what would be “cheating” for my new way of eating. Maybe if I had a giant bowl of pasta with cheese sauce, or a whole carton of ice cream. However, I will sometime have a small portion of pasta with cheese sauce, or a small serving of ice cream when I take the kids to our local ice cream place. I’ve come to realize that the most pleasure you get from eating any particular food is in the first few bites…after that you are just eating it because it is there. So I try to really savor those first few bites…and then stop..and then eat a lot of veggies so I don’t have room for anymore of that tempting food.

Those who’ve been reading this blog, or who know me, know that I haven’t really been following any particular “diet,” just trying to eat in a way that makes sense to me. I was logging my calories, and realized that I could eat a ton of vegetables for a lot less calories than most other foods, and that way I could eat enough to feel satisfied and still lose weight. I have small portions of (mostly lean) proteins and (mostly complex) carbohydrates, and then lots and lots of veggies. I was doing a bit of random web browsing the other day, and came across the Volumetrics Diet. This almost exactly describes how I am eating now, with only a few exceptions. The only major one is that I don’t do any soups, my family just isn’t into them. However, I do cook spaghetti sauce with tons of veggies, and tonight we are having Slow Cooker Veggie Chili  (which I have started adding tempeh to, it’s surprisingly very good). Anyway, I may pick up the book about the Volumetrics Diet and see how close it is to how I am eating, and see if I can recommend it to people who ask how I’ve lost all the weight. As I’ve said before, what I think is most important about how I eat is that I feel comfortable living like this for the rest of my life. I’m not feeling deprived, I don’t really feel like any food is completely “off limits,” and I’m never hungry. This really isn’t a “diet” (even though apparently it sort of is), it’s just a new way of living.

Less Than 10 Pounds to Go! And a Bit of TMI…

I have less than 10 pounds to go to reach my goal. How crazy is that?

It will likely take a while to lose those last 10 pounds, as I am now taking it very very slowly. I consider myself to now be in “maintenance minus a little.” I am mostly eating like I am maintaining, just trying to eat a little bit less so I keep losing the last bit. I figure that way when I am done, going into maintenance mode will be a fairly simple thing. This has made me realize why most people likely fail at keeping the weight off. My new smaller body needs way WAY less calories than my previous body to maintain its weight. The amount of non-vegetable food I eat is pretty darn small. Good thing I have come to love vegetables so much, or I would be pretty hungry most of the time. I’m pretty sure that to maintain I will be eating less than I was eating when I first started losing. Maintenance for me will not really look any different than losing did.

Now, here’s the possible TMI part of this post…you have been warned. I met with a plastic surgeon on Monday, the first of several I will probably have initial consultations with before making a final decision. The only negative of losing all the weight has been the amount of loose skin I now have all over my body as a result. Take a lesson from me, if you can get the motivation to lose weight while you are still young, do it. I am almost 45, and my skin has been stretched out for so long that it is now like a deflated balloon, and will not be going anywhere on its own. I need work done on my arms, my boobs, my stomach, and my thighs. The meeting with the plastic surgeon was actually kind of nice, because she seemed to think I was mostly done and didn’t necessarily need to lose the last 10–but she did see where it could come off my thighs, which is why I still want to lose it. She said I probably have about 10 pounds of skin to be taken off, so I may end up under my goal after the surgery. That’d be okay with me. My goal weight put me at the top of the “healthy” BMI, so being more towards the middle would be nice. The best part of the meeting was when she was examining me, and kept saying “you’re so tiny under there!” The extra skin still makes me look like I have a bit of a belly, but I could feel my abdominal muscles under all the skin. Nice to have that confirmed, there’s not really any fat left on my stomach, it’s all skin at this point. The trade-off with the surgery, of course, is a lot of scars instead of a lot of skin. I will take that trade…most, except for the arms, won’t show. Also, it will likely be 2 or 3 different surgeries, each one with about 6 weeks to full recovery. So that will be less than fun. Again, totally worth it in my opinion. Not only for vanity’s sake (though of course that is most of it!), but also because the skin flapping around is pretty annoying when I am exercising. I did warn you about the TMI thing, right?