Three weeks down. Day 22. Weight 221.5

Things are going really really well. So well, that I don't remember what the problem has been in the past with dieting. We are moved into the new rental house and something about living here seems to make it a lot easier to diet. My husband has been really supportive about the diet and yesterday I went to a family get together with my family and my twin brother even noticed I have lost weight. I feel so much better already! Clothes that have been too tight to wear are starting to be an option again.

We live a block away from a farmer's market. This makes getting fresh produce a lot easier. This refrigerator seems to be keeping my vegetables in a lot better shape than the last one we had. (It tended to be to cold and would freeze cucumbers and lettuce and we couldn't get it to turn down without being too warm). I keep frozen tilapia, salmon, chicken breasts, and lean hamburger patties in the freezer and try to keep a good stock of fresh and frozen veggies on hand. It has really helped to not get hungry and make carby meals.

I am being really focused about not having ANY off plan days or meals until after Halloween. Then not even having off plan days or meals but ramping up my caloric intake to maintanence for two weeks and then going back to losing after the break. Lyle McDonald recommends a diet break to reset hormone levels during dieting. That makes a lot of sense to me. I aim to still log my food and stay at maintance level of around 2000 calories per day, while eating fruit, veggie, and milk carbs but no refined grain carbs. My husband suggested that I push it back so that I could be on diet break for Thanksgiving, but I really think that I am going to stick to the book with this one. November 1st would be 12 1/2 weeks of dieting... then a break for two weeks, then back on the diet to hopefully lose the remainder of the weight... perhaps taking another two week break in mid February.

I am averaging 827 calories per day so far. I have days with higher and days with lower of course. I would like to get 70 - 100 grams protein, 50 - 85 grams veggie/skim milk carbs, and 20-35 grams of fat per day. I am taking a multi-vitamin each day and using plenty of lite salt to make sure I get enough potassium. I am plagued with leg muscle cramps in the middle of the night if I am not careful about that one! I have been drinking a lot of diet coke and it does not seem to be hindering my weight loss at all. I also drink water.

So far so good. I am just focusing on each pound and each day though.