What a fun day we had today! I love this time of year with the good weather! It makes it easier to get out and walk. I hate being cold, so I know winter walks are going to be a big challenge. I’ll figure that out when I come to it.

Today I got to sleep in until 8:30 which was just so nice! After a leisurely cup of coffee I had breakfast. You worriers will be happy to know my breakfast was NOT cheese! In fact, I have not eaten ANY cheese or bacon today 🙂 But it wasn’t a low carb day either. Breakfast was leftover pasta sauce thick with lean ground beef and turkey sausage (no pasta) and some sliced, buttered French bread. You know, I find it really easy to skip pasta. The pasta itself isn’t that appealing to me (it’s all about the sauce!) and I can do zucchini noodles or sliced summer squash in place of pasta. But one of my favorite foods is crusty bread with cold butter. So although I *am* reducing carbs overall, I did have that bread with the sauce this morning. I’m sure you’re going to just *love* what I had for lunch! I took my daughter and her friend to see The Jungle Book in the afternoon, so my lunch was buttered movie popcorn and a diet Coke. Dinner’s going to be something super low carb, maybe some steak and veggies. I didn’t need or want any snacks today; everything I ate was satisfying enough!

So I know (based on past experience) that some people will be just appalled at my choices today. I didn’t share this for no reason, though. I’m sharing this because I think today exemplifies what I am working towards for life: flexibility instead of rigidity, choices instead of restriction, happiness instead of guilt. I will not be ashamed of what I eat. I refuse to feel “bad” for making a decision to eat things I enjoy, in moderation, in a state of feeling sane about food. This is *very* different from how I have eaten and felt for the past decade or more. I used to think of a food I wanted, then feel bad for wanting it. Then I’d eat vegetables instead and fight the craving. I’d try and try to stop myself from eating certain foods. I’d get a desperation in my head and when I finally gave in, it would end in a binge… not just of huge amounts of the desired food, but of everything else I had been depriving myself of for days or weeks. And then I’d feel huge and gross and terribly guilty.

No more! Listen, I know I won’t lose weight if I eat candy bars or movie popcorn or buttered French bread in large amounts or often. No one has to explain that to me. But I also know I won’t lose weight depriving myself of things I enjoy, white knuckling it through another “diet” and feeling horrible every time I “go off” my diet. I did not “go off” a diet today. I calmly chose to eat a reasonable portion of higher carb foods. I consciously decided that while yes, this is a higher carb day, that’s all right. If I have a higher carb day once every 2 weeks, or however often I feel like doing it, that is just a choice in maintaining my calmness and food sanity.

Do you know what I crave now? Nothing. Is there more French bread in the kitchen? Yes. Do I want it? No! I am fine, I feel good, and I will make lower carb choices 90{7920e18cf5186565893a18d1f69fa52bf2806dc683a7bfcea51d671d2f7d8125} of the time so that my blood sugar stays stable. (By the way, the post title is a little joke. I don’t actually restrict cheese, much to the chagrin of some readers! But I thought some might appreciate that I actually had a cheese-free day.)

I walked a couple of miles with my dog when I got home from the movie, and it was just so nice to be *able* to walk like that! I’ll bike shortly.

Oh hey, here is something funny. We went to a theater with reclining seats. When we all sat down, we were trying to figure out how to make them recline. Suddenly, my chair was reclining! The kids said “hey, how’d you get it to recline?” and I said “I don’t know, it just reclined automatically!” We continued looking for a button or something and then suddenly my chair went back to normal, by itself! Turns out, the recline switch is on the inside of the arm rest and my ample hip was pressing on it every time I shifted around in the seat! Ha. I thought it was pretty funny… and at least I have another way to gauge my weight loss. I’ll have to go sit in those seats again 50 pounds from now and see if they still recline themselves!

(c) Escape from Obesity – Read entire story here.