"Why are you on a diet?"

I get this question often when I talk about my diet at work. One person said, “You are my goal weight. Why are you trying to lose weight?” Which was flattering, but the fact is, this is the heaviest, wait...WAS, the heaviest I’ve been my whole life. Even in college, the ‘Freshman 15’ was more like -15 because I accidentally lost a lot of weight from having tonsillitis twice in one semester. After college, if I wanted to lose weight I would cut back for one or two days and would lose 5 pounds overnight. And, in my late 20s I went on a low carb diet and the pounds melted off. Now that I’ve reached my 30s, the weight comes a little easier and goes off a little harder. I tried cutting carbs and that didn’t work. I started exercising and that didn’t work. All I could do was maintain, which wasn’t making me happy.

I talked to a friend a few weeks ago who had tried Weight Watchers and what sold me was “I could have my glass of wine each night on Weight Watchers.” It probably should have been, “I lost 6 pounds in the first month.” But let’s be serious here..what diet can you be on and still have a drink each night? I thought to myself, now this is a diet I can do. And, here I am almost 3 weeks later and not having a drink each night but saving the drinks for when I really want them. I have replaced my winding down drink with working out. I have substituted happy hour and burritos for cooking at home. I have 9 more pounds to go until my goal weight and will continue on this path until I reach my goal. It will be challenging and some days are harder to stay focused (like today) but the hard work and dedication will pay off.

Tonight’s dinner was a bit of a splurge, totaling 9 points. Carnitas recipe courtesy of http://www.skinnytaste.com/ with homemade pinto beans. I could have shaved 2 points off if I didn’t add a few small slivers of pepper jack cheese and guacamole but it was well worth it!




(photo by Nico)