A new diet

At the end of November I started a new diet.  It is a pretty serious diet.  It is called a Protein Sparing Modified Fast.  I am under a doctor's supervision, and so far I am making it.  My own doctor referred me to my diet doctor.  She is hoping a lot of my health issues will fix themselves.  I am hopeful, but I also know that some of the issues were there long before I started gaining weight. 

I am not going to say it is not hard.  I would LOVE a slice of bread and butter right now, but I will live without it.  I thought when I started this diet the hardest thing to give up would be dairy.  To my joyful surprise I am NOT craving dairy.  Sometimes I crave a pizza, but not for the cheese, for the whole package. 

I also had to give up being a vegetarian to be on this diet.  After almost 19 years I started eating meat again.  To be honest I don't like it.  I especially don't like fish.  At All.  I mean really, it made me sick.  Poultry I can choke down, but I don't really care for that either.  I tried steak, not a fan, too much chewing involved.  Pork is okay if prepared properly.  If I could eat bacon, pepperoni, and sausage I would, but those are generally highly seasoned, and don't exactly taste like what you are eating (with the exception of the bacon). 

I am quite proud that I made it through the holidays, still managed to make all the goodies for everyone, and did not indulge myself. I did cheat a little, but I still lost weight over that two week period.  

The true test is in the results.  As of today I have lost almost 30 pounds.  That is a lot of weight, and when I was doing my yoga today I was actually able to enter child's pose without my fat stomach making it impossible.  I find I have a lot more energy, and I am able to go go go all day with only a few breaks for eating and resting.  I am hoping I will have even more energy. 

What I have really learned so far from this diet is that I was mindlessly eating and telling myself I did not have time to make healthy food for myself because of the kids, or all the stuff I HAD to do, or the energy wasn't there to make the food. All of this was just a pile of excuses.  I have time to make food, and my kids still have lots of fun with me.  The amount of "snack food" I was eating was horrible.  The only reason I was eating it was because it was easy and required no preparation.  Now I await the day I can prepare myself fully balanced lunches and only eat "snack food" on occasion. 

I am going to be on the fast for a couple more months before I can take a little break and eat normal again.  My big motivation is that I plan on doing two things after making it through this.  One, going to a nice dinner alone with my husband.  Two, getting my bike fixed, or getting a new one, which ever ends up being the most cost effective.

For the record, this is NOT a new year resolution.  I started this long before the end of the year, especially if you count the time it took me to gather my medical records to be cleared for the diet.  This is just me, trying to take care of myself again.  The baby is almost two after all, it shouldn't be long before my hormones finally level out!