My Diet, week 5-Moderation

Four pounds down, six to go. Time to take stock. Do I try on that tight skirt? No. Be cool. Be patient. Those four pounds might not have come off in the right places, and I don't want to discourage myself. Good thinking.

Week five was a watershed week for attitudes more than anything else. I didn't add anything new to my top 40. I was content to just do it, same old same old. After the novelty of anything new wears off is when practice and discipline need to kick in. And a little noticing. Here's what I learned:

• I had no longing for sodas, fast food, or any sweets except pie.
• My body looked slimmer than the scale indicated. Muscle weighs more than fat, and I had probably been putting on muscle with my exercise activities.
• Some foods gave me indigestion. I could tell which foods because I was putting less food in my stomach, and eating at regular intervals.
• I missed chips and dip. A lot.
• I looked forward to my exercise classes, especially if the instructor was fun. Putting in the effort didn't really bother me, but fun was what inspired me. It was no coincidence that my dumb bells were bright yellow. They made me smile.
• My new eating habits were cheaper. Smaller portions, sharing, eating leftovers---all saved money
• If I let myself go too long without eating, I was more likely to overeat or scarf down comfort food.

I learned something important about myself---I was a creature of moderation. I didn't drip sweat in exercise class, didn't do hard minutes of twisting fierce warrior in yoga, didn't scrape the whipped cream off the strawberries, didn't eat salads without dressing or toast without butter. Even though my top 40 list said I gave up dairy or bread or reality TV, I was not completely strict with myself. And it didn't seem to be a problem. If I ate a few chocolate chips I didn't have a strong urge to eat the whole bagful (I was not foolish enough to try this with potato chips). Watching one reality show didn't compel me watch TV all evening. A piece of pizza didn't open the floodgates. My occasional tantrums were brief and didn't seem to result in binges or lying to myself. This was good information. It meant two things to me:

• My diet might take longer because I was eating some "bad" food now and then. Deprivation and sternly following my weight-loss rules might make the weight come off a little faster, but that did not seem to be my style.
• Weight maintenance after I lost the extra pounds might be easier because of my natural moderation.

Tip: You might discover something very different about yourself, but you need to know. Then you'll have a better chance of constructing a maintenance diet that will work.