Weakened

On February 1, 2004, I went on a diet for the first time in my life. I was not fat, but I weighed more than I should. I had been in a state of denial. I told myself I was not fat, and I did not weigh too much. The facts were I had been gaining a small amount of weight every year since I reached middle age, my cholesterol was high although my doctor was not concerned because the ratio of good to bad was high, I panted when I went upstairs, my clothes were uncomfortably tight and I had a pain in my right knee.

I did not purchase any diet books, go to Weight Watchers nor count calories. I just made some adjustments in what I was eating. I cut out all snacking, I switched from whole to two percent fat milk, I switched to Diet Coke from Classic, I stopped using salad dressing and mayonnaise, and I stopped going in fast food restaurants. In addition I read the nutrition labels on all the food I bought and never exceeded the stated serving size. The first month I lost five pounds. I continued with my diet and every month I lost an additional five pounds. By the end of June last year I had lost twenty-five pounds. Now my clothes were too big. I added a few treats back into my diet. I would occasionally have desert but kept the portions small. I continued to shun fast food restaurants and junk food.

A year has now gone by, and I have not gained the weight back. In fact I have lost two or three more pounds. Last fall when I went to the doctor’s office for a checkup, the nurse had me step on the scales. She was looking at my chart and not at me. She set the scale to what I had weighed on my last visit. The scale would not balance. She was getting very frustrated. I was enjoying this immensely. Finally I told her I have lost some weight. Then she shifted the weight and calculated that I had lost twenty-five pounds. My total cholesterol dropped fifty points, I do not pant when I go up stairs, and my knee stopped hurting. The only thing that hurts is my clothing budget.

The hardest part of my diet is not snacking in the evening when I watch television. I really have to fight a craving to eat something. Finally I weakened and bought a big jar of Cheez-it Party Mix, pictured above, this week at Sam’s. So far I have restricted myself to the serving size of one-half cup which is supposed to have 130 calories. I am pouring the party mix into a measuring cup. It sure tastes good!