The devil paid me a visit (By Jess)

Hi all!

If you eat meat, eat lean! Eat pork tenderloin, steak sirloin, and boneless/skinless chicken rather than the heavier and fattier options. Don't worry dad, there are less of us that are not eating meat!

When making up your plate, try to make the salad or veggies the main event, and the meat portion no bigger than your palm...and of course, the carb should be lesser than the meat....this all thanks to my health mag. I agree with this, and think it will help us to lose.

As for weighing in daily, I caution you because if you don't see the lbs being lost on the scale, and you have been working your butt off or have been doing something drastic for weight loss, you are only discouraging yourself. There are many reasons you don't see the weight come off...for women it is more obvious - our periods! We carry water weight like crazy! Also, if you are eating a lot of salt in your diet, I can tell you you are contributing to retaining water big time! So ease off on the salt! Salt is no good. My mom uses "No salt" that apparently tastes like the real thing. Anyhow, I am only going to weigh in once per week, therefore I should see more encouraging results! Don't be so hard on yourselves if you don't see a change from day to day or if you plateau. I think the body goes through transitions and may plateau at certain weights.

And Neen, don't be glum! I know you are in search of your meaning in life, or what will be valuable to you...but only great things can happen to you. As you have said, the physical is not nearly as important as the mental portion, so nurture your heart and brain and do whatever you have to to feel settled and on a great path. I believe what you are going through is difficult, but you are quite practical and can come out of this! I know I can speak for the others to say we are here for you!

Ok, so I must tell that I had lunch, and what I had was one spinach/tofu samosa, a banana, handful of cherries, and an asian pear. BUT, today the devil visited me here at work, once again, in the form of a box of chocolates. Listen, it was like working through an addiction moment. More like 5+ minutes. I had so many thoughts spiraling through my head. All I could think was how bad I "needed" that chocolate. I decided to get some encouragement from my coworkers and they did a great job at stopping this craving. But I still craved them. I know I can't and won't eat just one (unlike my brilliant mom who can!), so I thought I would check out the dietary info on the back to discourage this desire in me. For a couple chocolates, there were over 230 cals, loads of sugar, and obviously nothing good for me. Then I remembered I had brought a little bag of oreo thinsations and looked at the back and saw noly 100 cals for a lot fo little delicious bits....so ate that. I feel postive and proud. Because I didn't give in to such a craving, I don't feel guilt. I know if I ate one, I would have given permission instantly to myself to have a few more because I would have already messed up. This would have the ability to make me down for the remainder of the day. Funny how one moment, one choice, can make you either happy/proud or sad/disapointed. We have the ability to take care of ourselves in some very small but significant ways.