Day 20

Looks like I survived my first encounter with 'room service'. I ordered a Caesar salad (it actually had very little dressing), some pasta (gnocchi), and Diet Coke. No dessert. I even ate the multi-grain roll instead of the white one. And guess what....I left some of the gnocchi on my plate, because I was full! Cool!

I'm still taking the stairs, and going to the exercise room whenever I can. I often ride my stationary bike at home, and I'm feeling more fit and more capable already. The other day in the madness that is pre-Christmas shopping, I parked my car at one end of the mall (even though I knew the store I needed to go to was at the other end), and walked from one end of the mall to the other and back, purely for exercise. I'm either getting healthier, or becoming mildly insane.

The food variety part is a bit of a challenge. It's hard to find great tasting food that's also low in calories, or (better yet), good for you. For those people that salivate over a juicy celery stick, I salute you. Stuff mine with Cheese Whiz and we'll talk. For me, there are few 'magic' foods, so I'm usually sacrificing something. One magic food for me is diet pop. I know water is better for you, but it also tastes bland, like...well...water. You can keep the caffeine too, as that doesn't affect me. Something with zero calories and zero fat, but lots of taste. Yumm! Pretty much any diet drink works for me, but I tend to gravitate to Caffeine Free Diet Pepsi, or Coke Zero. I'll even mix some juice with Diet Sprite to get a different flavour. I also like fruit, and will basically substitute sweets (chocolate, cookies, etc.) with some grapes or a pear or an apple or a banana etc. I'm worried about getting sick of salads, but I'm okay right now. I also tend to go for soups as they have mostly water. My Mom would say they're mostly salt with a bit of water, but I still think they're okay for now. I even bought Fig Newtons as they are fat free and have fewer calories than cookies when I want something cookie-ish.

Day 20
Current Weight: 197
Weight Lost To Date: 9

I'm now 20% of the way through my time period (I knew using 100 days would be easy on the math), and 29% of the way to my goal weight (which was a more difficult calculation unfortunately). As long as I keep losing at a greater rate than the days are going by, I will make my goal on time. If not, it really won't save me anything, as I've committed to lose 31 pounds (getting down to 175), or continue for 100 days, whichever takes longest. If it takes me 300 days, then I'll keep dieting until I get there (although I'll have to consider renaming the blog). If I make the 175 before 100 days pass, I'll continue for the rest of the time period, but probably concentrate more on muscle tone (I have no desire to keep losing weight until I'm 112 pounds. [insert inappropriate Karen Carpenter joke here]).

Don