Starting weight:  285.2
Calories/Carbs Goals (limits):  1400  / 30.0
Yesterday’s calories & net carbs:    1229  /  27.7
Yesterday’s exercise:    1 hour shopping/walking
Weight Yesterday:: 243.4    Today:  242.0
Change today::  -1.4 lbs.   Loss-so-far:   43.2 lbs.  bmi:  45.73

*Happy Dance*  *Happy Dance*  *Happy Dance*

Woooohoooo I finally saw the scale move below where I was before Thanksgiving!  Six days.  Six whole days of progress lost - for one day of indulgence.  Now, granted, there’s no guarantee that I would have made any progress during that particular six days - I’ve certainly had thresholds that lasted longer than six days.  But the potential for loss, the possibility was there.  I’m thinking … it wasn’t worth it.

This is my life now.  This is the way I eat.  It actually felt unnatural, eating the stuff I was eating.  Unnatural and a little unreal.  Yeah, the food tasted good - but it really didn’t last long.  The mmm-yummy-omg-this-is-so-delicious-sensation while chewing and swallowing my food - it was over with pretty quickly.  Okay, take, for example, the chocolate pie with graham cracker crust that I ate three pieces of that day.  Each slice took me, oh, about five minutes to consume, only because I stretched it out and made it last that long.  I probably ate each slice in about ten bites, so that would work out to two bites per minute, or one every thirty seconds.  So for each piece of pie, I experienced the flavor for 30 seconds - approximately 10 times per slice or 30 times altogether over the course of the day.

So what’s the point of this?  Well, if my goal was to experience the flavor, did I have to experience it 30 times?  I hadn’t tasted real chocolate pudding made with real sugar for at least four months.  Would I have been less satisfied if I had experienced the flavor for 30 seconds - but only just once?  If I had only ingested one bite, would I have spent the rest of the day feeling deprived because I did not get to experience that flavor 29 more times?  10 more times?  1 more time?

When we go out to eat, sometimes my husband orders vanilla ice cream for dessert.  When it arrives, he hands me his spoon and I take one small bite.  I let that spoonful melt and I close my eyes while I experience the flavor.  And then I’m good.  I don’t need any more.  Just that one bite satisfies my desire to experience that flavor.

The bottom line is this:  If all I’m having is one bite, just to experience a flavor, I can experience any damn flavor I want.  And still be totally on plan. 

That’s good to know.  =D

CARTOON OF THE DAY

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