No sand in my shoes!

This South Beach plan seems to be working. Duh. It's worked for so many others, why wouldn’t it work for me, if I work at it?

Of course, it’s only been four days for real, not counting the almost-two-week trial period I was on in January. Four days of no sugar, no bread, no crackers, no starchy vegetables …

or, to put it another way, four days of taking care of myself.

I haven’t felt particularly hungry and by yesterday my energy level was much improved. I thought I might keel over before the sun set Saturday, but I think I just need to remember to eat before I go for a two-hour walk.

My husband and I took his mother out for a birthday lunch yesterday at a local state park which offers a sumptuous Sunday brunch buffet – a dieter’s delight, lemme tell you. I managed to eat only salad, roast beef au jus, sautéed squash and green beans, passing up quite an array of food porn which I won’t even describe here. The only sugar-free dessert they offered was Jell-O. I passed.

I’m now down six pounds in 20 days – I've almost, almost, shed all the weight I’ve gained since Election Night. (Since we had a big party with tons o’ food – and tons o’ leftovers – I count that as the beginning of the holiday season.) Only a pound and a half to go and I’ll be back to where I’d been maintaining since late summer. Which was still too fat, but at least I wasn’t gaining.

This has been a difficult winter, in more ways than just weight gain. But the weight gain has contributed to a general feeling of “why bother,” “what’s the use,” and “let’s eat!” I hesitate to declare that I’ve turned a corner, but it kind of feels like I have.

Pop over to the photo blog to see the great new seasoning I found Saturday at Tiny Kroger. TK still doesn’t have cilantro, but this stuff probably doesn’t spoil the way unfamiliar produce does.