10-10-10: Battlepound

I had hoped to be one of those really awesome diet success stories - only a wimpy version.  Instead of 80 pounds, 10 pounds.  Instead of holding up the pair of jeans with a foot of extra waistband, I could show a victorious jean-buttoning photo with my elastic waste-band skirts still folded in my dresser drawer.  But I would have weekly success, and I would share really great recipes that ensure success, and in the end, I would smile, beaming, 10 pounds lighter and 10 dollars richer...oh and 10 weeks older of course.

I did lose 1 pound in the first calorie-counting, low -sugar eating week.  And then I moved on to "smarter" dieting where I ate more protein and didn't worry so much about calories - I just ate smaller portions and made my carrot cake-pumpkin mini cupcake with cinnamon cream cheese frosting, and ate it too.  As per my last post, life being what it is, I didn't write my week two update to tell you all that week two ended with a loss of exactly zero pounds.  I still am down one, and I won't know until Friday what the net for the last three weeks will be.

These actually are healthier than they look...

I am back to cutting out sugar and paying attention to calories.  Though I am sad thinking that the only way to lose weight especially when such a small amount of it, is to give up sugar.  I do a lot of sweets when I cater and I don't know how to not taste test things along the way.  Yesterday I asked every thin person I saw what their secret was, and every one of them said they didn't eat sugar.  Seriously, that doesn't sound fun.

I would also like to note, that my five year old son has an incredible skill.  Really.  He has the ability to actually will green boogers to come out of his nose the moment I start to get ready for the gym and him to the gym childcare center.  It doesn't matter if he has been perfectly healthy and clear-nosed all day.  I am curious if every child has this skill or if my child is particularly gifted.

You might be thinking right about now..."Sara, stop your whining and at least do some leg lifts while you write this blog post!"   And you are right.  I should be doing leg lifts.  I think I am in awe right now of every man and woman everywhere who sets their sights on weight loss and stick to a plan, and see success.  Even one pound is a battle.

 And then of course I think, how ridiculous we Americans must seem to so many of the world - that we have so much food available to us that one of our biggest national epidemics is obesity.  It makes me feel a little ashamed, really.

So as always, I approach dieting with the same basic principal I approach most of my life:  Read a book, analyze, get annoyed when it isn't easy, make jokes about it to keep things in perspective, but then see some underlying, deeper significance or challenge even in the midst of something that could be superficial to most everyone else.  I am doomed.  But I still have 7 1/2 weeks left and though all of the above are true, I am also pretty determined and goal oriented and that 10 dollars still has my name written all over it.