food flitting

Three weeks into my diet, I'm 23lbs lighter and still doing very well with it. I thought it would be a lot harder than it has been, actually.

Even the things that I really missed at first - like bread! and pasta! aren't calling to me all the time any more. I gave up coffee without a whimper - not allowed the caffeine and just doesn't seem to be much point to decaf to me. I would probably still be missing chocolate, but I found a low-fat, no-sugar brand of chocolate ice cream that I can have. I'm sure technically it's not on the diet, but since it has less calories than the same amount of cottage cheese, I have decided it is an allowable option for my 1 cup of milk a day.

I am eating a lot of baked zucchini these days... and have a container of baby carrots, celery and radishes on the counter, and cut & ready to eat melon in the fridge, that I snack from whenever I want something.

my-calorie-counter.com is probably the biggest key to my success - I use their online food diary to keep track of everything I eat and find it really useful. Not only does it keep track of calories, it also shows fat, protein, sodium, cholesterol and so on ... the default daily allowances are for 2000 calories a day, but I'm only on a 1000 calorie a day diet so I just cut them all in half.

When I first started using it, I was putting things in after I ate them - now I put them in before... that way I can see what the food is going to do in each of those areas, and if it throws any of them over, I just don't eat that. It has been particularly helpful when it comes to my salt intake. Who knew there was SO much salt in SO many things?!

Since I have cut my sodium intake down drastically, I am noticing that some foods that I used to enjoy - like processed cheese for example - are just loaded with it. My cheese slices don't even taste like cheese any more - I had one yesterday and it was disgustingly salty! Even the low-sodium tomato juice that I thought was bland when I first started this whole diet thing tastes salty to me now.

One major plus to this whole diet thing is that it gives me an excuse to buy veggies that I like but hubby doesn't... he likes his corn ... but my diet sheet clearly says NO corn. So I make corn or whatever other boring veggies he wants for him, but I have asparagus or brussel sprouts or broccoli or spinach or zucchini or... well, you get the idea.

Eating out is still a pain - but even at restaurants I have been able to keep my calorie intake below my daily allowance. So far, anyway. This weekend we're going to a reception on Saturday and dinner at hubby's daughter's on Sunday ... so we'll see.