Don't you hate it when Mom is right? Exercise, get 8 hours of sleep, eat your vegetables. Turns out that good old Mom wasn't so old-fashioned after all... she was cutting edge all these years.
When my friends asked me how I lost the weight (I used to weigh 180 pounds after the birth of my last baby), I told them that I stopped eating (not recommended, long story)! Then, I explain that I drank plenty of non-carbonated, not-heavily sugared beverages (mostly iced tea, *very* lightly sweetened) whenever I thought that I was hungry, then I went on about my business. If I was hungry twenty minutes later, then I ate a reasonable meal. I found that a lot of the time, I wasn't hungry, I was thirsty! And when I did eat, I didn't want a huge amount of food.
I also learned to ignore my desire to eat when I wasn't hungry. Like a lot of people, I picked up the habit of eating when I was bored. That alone added 15 pounds to my weight, easily dropped when I started paying attention to what and when I put food in my mouth. Make no mistake, it is *not* easy. Sometimes, your body literally has a mind of its own when it comes to the last piece of chocolate cake, lol!!
Some days, at bedtime, my stomach would be growling. But I knew that I shouldn't eat another helping of dinner, not if I wanted to fit into that favorite dress that was 10 pounds too small!! So, I'd have a cup of lightly sweetened tea, and read a book before bed. Some days, I thought I'd die! But, I didn't :-).
Today, my biggest problem is my eldest... I'm closing in on her size (we share a wardrobe), so just like a typical loving daughter, she's decided that I'm suffering from a homemade doughnut deficiency, or that I need to eat more ("You're wasting away... eat!!!")... I see through her machinations... she just wants to keep my skinny clothes to herself, lol!!
I have quite a bit of work to do in my garden this fall, and when I'm done, I will have lost the last of the baby weight, and then I can wear everything in my closet... of course, now I'm thinking that I'll have to brush up on my Kung-fu skills to win the clothing battles in the morning. But it *is* a good problem to have :-)!!
©2007 LaVeda H. Mason All Rights Reserved.
