I met one of my close friends last week for lunch before I moved out of state. We had lunch together EVERY DAY for nearly a year, while I was steadily gaining weight.

So we met up last week at a local make-your-own-salad shop, just like we did back in the day. And I noticed something interesting.

We both went through the salad line - she made her salad with lots of green vegetables, a little ham, a little cheese, a lot of lo-cal ranch. Then she took some chicken soup, a slice of pizza and a piece of cornbread as well.

I looked down at my plate. I, too, had made a salad with lots of green stuff, some chickpeas and salsa. My soup was vegetable lentil - and I didn't even start it because I got full on the salad first.

Then time for dessert - that amazing blueberry bread! She took three pieces. I took one.

And I remembered my plates from back then in 2006 looked just like hers did. Something changed in me that made me fill mine with healthy stuff (and stop when I was full, not when the plate was clean.) I didn't even notice until well after we'd taken our food.

As I've said before - you can lose weight the easy way. Your mind changes first, and you become more conscious of your choices. Fruit seems tastier than chocolate. Salad for breakfast actually sounds good. Mornings are beautiful times to go walking, not painful times to hit the snooze button. And no, I haven't dropped the weight super fast since I realized that I needed to fill my body with only the amount of good fuel that it needs, but it's coming off, and the trend will continue.

A friend and I were recently just talking about this. We've realized that since starting our diet about a month and a half ago, certain foods just don't sound as appealing to us as they use to. We use to be complete fast food addicts, and every time we went out together we'd have to stop at Del Taco or something similar. But now that we've abstained, even the smell of that food sort of repells us...

We recognize how much better we feel, and how much better we're looking. Why would we ever want to go back?

Congratulations on your weight loss, and congrats on conquering the blueberry bread challenge.

Not that I would want to tell my family this, but I also use them for comparison purposes , especially my mom. Unfortunately she and I were "twins" as far as eating habits until this past March. Now, even when I eat a little too much, it is nothing compared to what I used to. I'm satisfied with a taste of something I'm craving (most times ) and don't feel the need to eat it until it's all gone and I'm sick.

I think this is the difference between a "lifestyle change" and a "diet". I've always thought it was all or nothing but to me that's a diet -- and I can't live that way. Sure, on a diet I lose much faster but with my lifestyle change, I know I can do this forever. So, sure it might take me 2 years to lose 100 lbs, but it will be gone and I will be happy along the way.

Fruit is SOOOOO sweet when you've gone w/o refined sugar for even a short time. I've come far enough I even love the, "can you eat that," comment. I lick my fingers of whatever and enjoy. The thing they don't realize, because they don't watch long enough, is that I only eat maybe half of whatever IT is!!

I am 100% with Shelby. I don't want to be on a diet - I know myself and I know it would be a very short-lived experiment. I can be very determined and strong-willed and stubborn when it comes to certain things (for example, I know sew my own clothes when I did I would redo something three times if it was necessary and if the first attempt resulted in something just slightly less than perfect. Couple of years ago, I installed flooring on the entire main floor of my previous house - I did it all myself. It took forever but when I was finished, it was as good as professional installation (if I say so myself), including the quarter-rounds [between the floor and the baseboards] that I half-stained and half-painted to EXACTLY match the colour of the flooring itself.
But my strong will is not always as strong as I would like to be when my stomach is growling. A lifestyle change is perfectly fine with me, a diet is not.