Day 20: 8 Pounds Down

Big thing on the 250, little thing on the 12.5! So that's 262.5, or 8 pounds down. Hooray!

Before doing my posting, I was getting clothes ready to wash and ran across a jersey from the Hamot Wellness Center (where I met Kathy Iorio, mentioned in the post below...interesting). It was with a stack of clothes I'll fit into "someday." Well, I tried it on and it fits! A little snug, but completely "public wear-able."

I was so happy I decided to wear it the rest of the day, but after a few minutes off it came again. And into the wash pile it went. While waiting for me to wear it, my cat Frisbee used it as a bed--it was itchy!

Weight Training Rides Again

Given the lack of scale movement last week, I thought it was time to revisit the weight room.

Weight training is not my favorite thing to do. But I know it's effective, even in small doses, especially consistent small doses.

As I walked into the weight room yesterday morning feeling rather mad, I remembered a gem from Kathy Iorio, a fitness guru/friend from Erie: You don't have to like it, you just have to do it.

So true.

So I got one session in. And SBF Marji volunteered to meet me at the gym before our weekly group meeting with Kathy tomorrow and "work it girl" again.

Who knows, I might end up liking it a little more than I thought...we'll see.

I Had a Dream

...and my therapist (mentioned previously for introducing us all to the concept of "Little Donna") would eat this up. So to speak.

My dream, as described to my computer screen:

Everyone was around a dining room table eating. I had gotten done eating and kept wondering why everyone else was going back for more. And everyone seemed “out of it.” Moving almost zombie-like around the room.

I wandered around the room for awhile (looking for coffee, actually, but that's a subject for another time). Then I returned to the table where, sitting across from me was a heavier and younger version of myself.

"Why don’t you eat more?" she asked, calmly, chewing something white. "Eat like we are."

I said, "No, thank you, I don’t feel like it."

She was going to leave it alone (I could tell she was feeling slightly embarrassed), and I said, "No, this is good, ask me again." So she did, more forcefully, but politely, and I said more forcefully, but politely, “No, thank you, but I choose not to eat more right now. I don't want to.” And I felt good that I had expressed myself.

And she seemed perfectly fine with it (as she went back to her food).

Follow-up thoughts I've had since the dream:

• I realized that I can speak the truth to myself.
  
• Actually, I realized I am speaking the truth to myself--and all of me is listening.
  
• My little girl (although really more of a teenager here) can ask for the truth and handle it just fine from "the adult Donna" without freaking out.
• Adult Donna is greatly relieved at that!

I find I'm now more at peace with myself and my food choices than ever before.

Three Years Without Sugar & Wheat

Celebrate! Celebrate! Listen to the music... whoo hooo!

Yes! The music is being played loud this morning as I celebrate three years on my NAFP (non-addictive food plan), which consists of not eating sugar, wheat or aspartame, and avoiding most processed foods. (ie: corn chips are not "okay.")

This morning I was thinking back to that first week, I had a huge headache on the first day and was super tired, but, it was no wonder. The night before I ate pizza, fettuccine alfredo, a candy bar and, this I so remember, I drank a half a can of sugared soda. To that point, I hadn't even drank sugared soda at all, but I figured, "what the heck." I didn't even like it--I didn't even finish it! But it was sugar, so there you go.

The thought of eating all that stuff now makes me feel more than a little ill.

As I've been mentioning my milestone to friends, most of them say congratulations and then frown slightly and look concerned as they congratulate me on my self-discipline. If it was all about self-discipline, trust me, I'd be concerned if I could keep this up, too.

The blessing about this whole thing, though, is that it has nothing to do with self-discipline. I'm happy to bypass wheat- and sugar-foods because, if they are completely out of my system, the beauty is that I don't crave them. Although in The Road Less Traveled with Food we say that everyone is following their own program and certain things work for certain people, the one thing we all have in common is that very thing: if it's not in the body, we don't crave it. Or, better put, if we stay clean, we stay happy, joyous and free!

How cool is that? Way cool!

So today I CELEBRATE, with tremendous gratitude, my NAFP and all those who've supported me along the way, especially SBL Kathy, SBF Marji and SBS Teresa! Plus, I honor myself and the God-within, around and throughout who led me to this wonderful life.

Yay for us!

Working It with a Cold

I'm working my way into a great routine where the Challenge has become part of the structure of my day--not a primary focus of it.

Woke up early this week with cold/allergy symptoms, the brunt of which hit me yesterday. The whole cold thing is rather foreign to me since I started my NAFP, so I'm grateful for that.

With whatever it was, I only had the energy to get in 30 minutes of my normal hour-long walk. I was talking to SBS Teresa about it and she mentioned that she didn't think it was unusual to start a new food or exercise routine and get a cold. That could be.

I can see where I could have caught cold on a number of fronts. In the beginning of the challenge, I was pushing to do more physical activity while at the same time I was sleeping less -- an immune system is bound to get tamped down a bit.

The good news is that today I'm practically symptom free. I got an hour-long walk in the sunshine and also got a sorely needed attitude adjustment after having a trying morning with work.

So YAY to that!