A milestone

Today, I got on the scale for my weekly weigh-in. I wasn't really sure what to expect... last week I'd been dissapointed because while I lost a little, it wasn't much... but this week, I hit (and actually surpassed) a major milestone... As of today, I have lost 21.1 lbs!! It's been two months almost to the day since I started tracking my weight and counting calories, and now I've hit a major (for me, anyway) milestone.

While this may not seem like much to some people, it means a lot to me... I've had a really hard time loosing weight for the past several years. It took keeping a food diary (on Loseit! for iphone) and counting calories to realize several things:

1. I have a really disfunctional relationship with food. I can start eating and not be able to quit.

2. My idea of portion size has been totally warped by years of eating out, and massive restaurant portions.

3. Even some really healthy things can be very, very calorie dense... and overeating those things (hello guacamole!) will lead to weight gain.

4. The little things really do count. Coffee creamer, for example. I love my coffee, and I love, love the flavored creamers... mmmmmmm french vanilla. But that stuff really adds up calorie wise. Even the fat-free vanilla creamer has 30 calories per tablespoon. And who, who uses just one tablespoon? Not me!!! of course, I also use mugs that are about twice the size of the average coffee cup... but this could also be symption of #2...

So, I've made some changes. I've switched from the flavored creamer, to unflavored, fat free creamer, which has 10 calories per tablespoon... while the difference in one serving may seem small, let's go back to what I said above... who uses just one tablespoon? Not this coffee drinker. In all honestly, I probably use two or three tablespoons of creamer in each cup. Compare the two, and for one average cup of coffee, for me, it's a savings of 60 calories to use the unflavored, fat free!!! Figure that I don't stop at just one cup, and you can see where the calories can quickly spriral out of control for me if I use the flavored creamer.

Although, I admit I miss the sweetness (did I mention that I love french vanilla... like a whole, whole lot?)... but Splenda to the rescue! Splenda makes "flavors for coffee" sweetner packets! With zero, Yes, I said ZERO calories. And they are pretty good... I've only been able to locate the hazelnut flavor so far, but am on the lookout for vanilla. (one caveat though... they are really sweet... they work fine in my big mugs... but for smaller coffee cups this may be overwhelmingly sweet). I've even added a few packets to a bottle of the fat free plain creamer... eliminating the need to add sweetner as a second step.

So, I'll toast this milestone with a mug of coffee, with fat free creamer and splenda... here's to the first twnety... and high hopes for the next!