I last wrote about my healthy eating, active walking lifestyle a little over two months ago. At that point I was down 20 pounds and feeling great about what was going on. Now, two months later, I am happy to say that another 10 pounds has disappeared, and I am nearing my goal.
Over the past two months my biggest challenges have been (1) not having any clothes that fit me, (2) trying to keep myself psyched up to plan, shop and prepare healthy meals and (3) learning to make the best choices possible when I find myself in situations where my food choices are either unlimited (dining in the states) or very limited (dining in food courts in Nicaragua.)
Challenge 1: I was finally able to overcome this, in part, when, I had the opportunity to shop for a few new clothes while we were in the states. It felt really great to ignore my previous size and move down to the smaller numbers. Funny thing, though, it seemed like the only clothes I saw on sale were size L and XL. When I needed those sizes, I seem to remember that the only sizes I ever saw were S and M. Guess it's just Murphy's Law in action. I have also realized that replacing a wardrobe, however humble, isn't something that can be done all at once . . . . even on sale, it's easy to spend your entire clothing budget in just one visit. In addition, since I'm not quite at my goal weight, I don't know where my final size will land, so I bought enough to get by with a plan to shop again when we are in Kansas City at the end of July.
Challenge 2: I haven't really missed or craved any of the foods that I've eliminated from my diet (sugar, white bread, white flour, white pasta, most dairy.) What I have missed is the ability to throw a meal together, albeit not a healthy one, in 5-10 minutes, i.e. peanut butter/jelly sandwich, hot dog or chili dog, grilled cheese, macaroni and cheese. Even though I do my best to menu plan, there are always things that come up at the last minute which require adjustments to my plans. So, when we get home much later than we'd expected and it's to late to fix the dinner I had planned, it's been really hard to "stay the course" and try to eat the best way and not just the easy way. Thank goodness frozen leftovers of healthy soups--they are my go to menu item on nights like I just described.
Challenge 3: We celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary by spending two weeks in the San Francisco area. Of course, celebrations call for eating and staying at a hotel means eating out. One of the best things about the Daniel Plan is that since it's not actually a "diet," but rather a healthy eating plan, there seems (at least to me) to be much less guilt associated with making a less than healthy choice. The book encourages 90% compliance, which allows room for an anniversary meal at Morton's! When we returned home, I was pleasantly surprised to discover I had even lost a pound while we were gone--most likely to the 15,000+ steps I walked most of the days we were there.
The next time I write about this subject, I hope to be discussing how I'm managing the "maintenance" phase, but only time will tell.
