Day 7 - Easy like Sunday morning

Ok, not really easy, but it hasn't been as hard as my denial kept telling me it would be.  I've been weighing in every day since Monday.  Here's what my weigh-ins look like:

mon	238.0
tues	238.0
wed	234.5
thurs	234.5
fri	234.5
sat	234.0
sun	231.0

Yes, that's right! I am down 7 pounds now. And, like I said, I wouldn't say it was easy, but I haven't the issues that I thought I would. First of all, after about the first 36 hours, I stopped craving my usual intake of junk (I think doing the "before" photos helped with that). So resisting temptation hasn't been an issue this week. Second, I am not forcing myself to eat food I don't enjoy. I have been preparing fresh vegetables, eating fresh fruit, getting my protein in from nuts, mostly, but I did eat a can of wild tuna this week as well. I fixed the kale recipe that I posted and today I am doing a red cabbage and apple recipe from Martha Stewart. It includes bacon; I used turkey bacon, of course. I don't eat very much pork, even at the height of food anarchy, and the turkey bacon is much lower in calories. And calories count. Every little calorie counts when you're doing VLCD (very low calorie dieting). And that brings me to my third point - I am tracking my food, but I am not obsessively tracking every single morsel that touches my lips.  I have years of experience with weight loss, weight maintenance and staying fit.  I know the calorie count and nutritional content of many foods without looking them up.  I know what normal, non-gluttonous portions are supposed to look like.   And I also know that chewing a stick of gum shouldn't have to be subtracted from the 500 calories I am allotting myself for nutrition.   The idea here is to wring the best nutrition out of a very small amount of food, not spend 350 calories eating a chocolate cupcake and then starving the rest of the day.  The cupcake makes a difference, though, and should be counted - well, it shouldn't be eaten in the first place.  But the few calories in a stick of gum or an Altoid do not matter.  That's because I am staying honest with myself.  I am not going to sit down and eat a case of Altoids, so I think I am ok with not writing down each Altoid that I may consume.

So, all in all , it is going great and I remain motivated because of that awesome 7 pound weight loss this week!