Good morning everyone! Don't you just love it when you surprise yourself in a pleasant way? That happened to me yesterday, and I'm thrilled. I started my lifestyle change on Saturday and was angelic about it. Then came Sunday and cooking a huge, special Father's Day meal. I told myself not to obsess about what I ate and to just enjoy. One of the problems I have when I cook is all the "sampling," and I managed to overcome that this time by keeping a bag of frozen grapes nearby for munching. I snacked on them all day. They were so refreshing and left such a pleasant sensation in my mouth that I didn't even want to try the food. I sampled just enough to make sure the seasonings were good and what not, but not to the extreme I usually do. Before, I would never have even tried to stem the sampling, telling myself I HAD to taste it so the food would turn out right.

This dinner had four "stages": picky appetizer things, a seafood stage, the main stage, and then dessert. To my surprise, I had no desire for the appetizers (except for one small piece of bread with garlic butter--my weakness); I made my personal main course the seafood course; and then when the "real" dinner part came I just took a bite or two from other people's plates (close friends, of course!) The kicker: I didn't even want dessert. And even better, when I woke up in the middle of the night and gave in and raided the fridge for the leftovers.... I found I didn't really want them. I ate two small bites of chocolate cake and was done.

Another good thing.. there was a ton of garlic butter left over after dinner but I bit the bullet and threw it all out. I would have been slathering that on bread all week, until every last schmear was gone. That was a tough one.

I'm really happy with the way the day went, even though I could have done better by skipping that bread and the late-night cake. But apparently, my body really wanted a taste of that cake. So much so that it woke me up in the middle of the night to get it! My eating wasn't as "controlled" as it was on Saturday but the good news is that it wasn't OUT OF CONTROL and I still enjoyed my day. Surprise! There IS life even when you're not stuffing yourself!

I know it's too soon for the good habits to already have become second nature... or is it? Maybe this time, I really am ready to be serious about this?

Great job!! You did way better than I would have with a special occasion meal, and I started eating healthy 10 months ago (I just limit the number of special occasions in my life! ). Keep up the EXCELLENT work!

Yup!You did great!Even if I have been controlling my eating and keeping my compulsive overeating in control,I would have forgot about it all at the party!When you find yourself not wanting things,I'm guessing your mind is in control and that you're really serious about it!

Great job! It's cool how once the ball is rolling, it doesn't take as much willpower to "be good" anymore.

You did really great! I haven't had a whole lot of special occassion meals come up so far, but I hope I can do that well when I do. WTG!!

I thought Father's day would be worse than it was too.. seems like this stuff's getting to be habit!

Good job!!! Being aware of what you`re eating and why you`re eating seems to be a big step in making a lifestyle change.
One of my biggest successes of this weekend was stopping eating when I was full. This is a concept I never spent much time considering, and I'm overweight because of it.
It is such a great feeling NOT to be stuffed and uncomfortable.