I feel good...

I've lost 13 pounds since August 1st. That's a lot for me. I started counting calories as well as carbohydrates and have calculated that I can lose weight as long as I stay within the 1,700 calories range, and the 40 carbs range each day.

Another thing that is helping me with this weight loss is fluid. I drink a lot of fluid. I drink a lot of coffee in the morning, and then I switch to iced tea in the afternoons, and then Crystal Clear water from Kroger in the evenings. I don't drink that much coffee or tea on the weekends, and mainly drink the flavored water. The other thing that is helping me tremendously is pre-planning. I make a large pot of soup and divvy it out into six serving containers. That way, I just grab one each day for my lunch at work, and I also eat a salad with that. When I'm finished with lunch, I'm stuffed.

So, I feel good. My clothes aren't tight any longer, and I can see my waistline reappearing. Just 43.5 pounds to go until I reach my original goal of 180 pounds. I know that I can do this. Heck, I went from 352 pounds down to 189 pounds in 23 months, so I can lose 43.5 measly pounds. I'm setting a realistic goal of September of 2006 to reach 180.

So, I feel good. In fact, I feel great. I'm overcoming food temptations daily now, and am using little mind tricks to do it. Losing weight is 95% mental, yanno. They don't tell you that, but it's true. It's all in the mindset or frame of mind. The easy part is eating the right foods.

The hard part is making the right choices of foods to eat.

One of the mind tricks I use is really not very nice, but so the Hell what? It works for me. For instance, we went to the Golden Corral to eat dinner while we were in Terre Haute depositing Ben at college the weekend of August 20th. Now, Golden Corral is a buffet of enormous proportions. In the past, I could never resist the dessert bar, nor the fried and breaded foods. That day, since I was already famished and tired and sweating from moving Ben into his 110-degree dorm room, I had an "I don't care" attitude and went up to the buffet with full intentions of just loading up on everything.

Then, I did the little mind trick. For those of you who are superior-minded and judgmental, do not read any further.

Okay. I warned you.

I walked up to the buffet with my plate, my mouth literally salivating for carby, calorie-laden foods, and then I just turned around and scanned the dining hall. I locked my eyes on the fattest people I could find, and saw them shoveling the food into their pie holes. I stood and watched as they wrenched themselves out of their chairs and loped to the buffet line for their third platefuls of food. I saw their drooping bellies extending nearly to their knees -- and was disgusted.

I immediately changed my mindset and headed for the salad bar of the buffet. With salad in hand, I went to our table. Jole -- John's ex and Ben's Mom -- said, "You're gonna eat more than THAT, aren't you?" I said, "Yeah, I'm just gettin' started." But in my head, I knew I wouldn't eat anything I shouldn't. After finishing my salad, I ate a little bit of pot roast and a small piece of steak, and then filled up the rest of my stomach with unsweetened iced tea.

And, I was done.

It was kind of difficult to watch John, Jole, Ben, and Philip eating desserts from the dessert bar, but it was also satisfying to sit there watching them eat it, knowing that I had a choice NOT to.........and I made the right choice.

So, neener, neener, NEENer. I was victorious over the moment, and they weren't. I made the right choice, and they didn't.

And while the previous statement may not be entirely true, it worked for me when I needed it.

And, because I've been making right choices since August 1st, I'm down by 13 pounds.

So, I not only feel good........I feel GREAT!