Diet Blather

Work is being VERY ANNOYING this week, and I'm seriously losing all patience, so I'm going to take a short break from it and blather on in here. I hope you don't mind. :)

So, I'm continuing with the use of SparkPeople in my quest to lose a bunch of weight. I'm discovering more aspects of the site all the time, and I'm still loving it so much. I feel like, after years of eating whatever the heck I wanted, I had forgotten how a person is supposed to eat. The nutrition tracker is helping me remember. You mean I don't need to eat 3,000 or 4,000 calories a day? Weird. And I can't survive on junk food, at least not well? That's good information, thanks. :)

Okay, that was a little sarcastic, but seriously, I had forgotten how much I actually needed to eat, and tracking my food has helped me figure out not only how to get down to the right amount of calories, but also how to monitor the quality of the foods I eat. I came into this doing fine with my carbohydrate and fat intake, but wow, have I ever had a hard time getting enough protein on a daily basis. So I'm figuring out ways to get more protein. Slowly but surely, I'm figuring out what I used to just know - I'm figuring out how to eat for health, not for a cheap immediate thrill.

Although I am still having one cheat day per week, and that isn't going to stop. If I don't have one day a week when I can have chocolate and chips and burgers and whatever else I want, without worrying about calories, I'll never last on this new healthier lifestyle.

And yes, that's what I consider this - a healthier lifestyle. I'm aiming to lose weight, yes, but mostly, I want to be healthier long-term. I want to live to a ripe old age, as free of disease as I can be. This is something my parents didn't get to do. I'd like to be different from them in this respect.

And okay, this is going to sound corny, and it's going to make Sarah want to puke, but the fact is, I lived alone, single, for 37 years. This was mostly due to my own personal problems and hang-ups, but finally, after that long, I realized I could let someone in and trust that he wouldn't break my heart, and that he wouldn't leave me. Two and a half years later, J and I are still together, we're engaged, and I love him with all of my heart (as I know he loves me). I found him later in life, and I treasure what we have all the more because of that. I know what it's like to be alone when I don't want to be. It was horrible, I hated every second of it. Now I have what I always dreamed of. We may not live long enough to get to a golden anniversary, but I want to get as close as I can. I want to grow old with him, and I want to be healthy enough to enjoy all of the years we have together.

(Sarah, you can stop gagging now, the mushy stuff is over. :)

Okay, this post just went in a whole direction that I wasn't prepared for, really. Long story short, I am loving taking control of my food intake and exercise for the first time in a long time. I'm loving watching the scale go down, even though it's making me work hard for every pound I lose. I sincerely hope that I can keep this up for the rest of my life - not just until I get to my goal weight of 140, but afterwards, to maintain my weight and to stay healthy.

(And I'll continue to look forward to cheat days every week.)

Okay, it's time to get back to work. Thanks for listening to me prattle on about lifestyle changes and weight. As a reward, here are some pictures to make you smile and maybe say "aww."

Rosie sure is a cutie.

I love my Bernie more and more every day.

McDuff is the cutest little boy in the whole world. (And his birthday is this Saturday, woo! Happy Birthday Duff!)

This is one of J's favorite pictures of Willow. So this one is for him. :)