On the other hand, I'm looking at my numbers, and even with my "most restrictive" potential goal-weight (150 -- and I'm pretty sure I don't want to go that thin... I'm legit big-framed... I could pull it off when I was 18, but I think at my age, I'd just look gaunt) I'm well past the halfway point. 165 puts me officially out of the "overweight" category... at the rate I'm losing (which has been pretty steady) that's a little over 4 months away.

My goal, when I get to a size & shape I like and can maintain at, is to splurge on some custom-fit jeans. (eshakti will make them to your measurements...) Maybe *gasp* even TWO pair. Can't think of a better reward. (My waist-to-hip ratio is... well, what USED to be considered ideal. Meaning modern jeans never fit right. I love the feel of well-fitting jeans, and hate bad-fitting ones, so this is something I'm really looking forward to. Resisiting the urge to do it sooner, as I pretty much have no wearable pants right now.)

Last night (where I was told I was losing "too fast") was a potluck event... I knew I wouldn't be able to eat anything there, and -- because funds are pretty tight just now -- couldn't really BRING anything, either. (My usual solution.)

Instead, I ate before I went. 2 slices of swiss cheese. (one of my favorite hunger-killers... nothing else does it for me quite as well.)

I had a little ceasar salad at the event, for social reasons, but... really? I could have skipped it just as easily.

On the other hand, the night before, the kids & I treated ourselves to dinner... I hadn't eaten, so was "starving"... had a fabulous meal (bacon-mushroom-swiss burger done RIGHT, with steamed broccoli, and some mayo to dip it in). Walked out feeling utterly self-indulgent....

That's what I love about this... When I'm hungry, I eat. I can be lazy, and grab "snack-food" (cheese.... nuts... seaweed snacks... salami) or I can be ambitious and make something (that list is pretty limitless). If I am around a lot of desert-eating folks and start feeling sorry for myself, I can make a cheesecake. (I've gotten to that place, feeling bad about the deserts I coudln't have -- usually after a party of some sort. Hard to feel deprived or sorry for yourself with a fork-ful of cheesecake in your mouth.) Heck... we're about to make chocolate cupcakes for my daughter's B-day. Recipe for 6 has 4 eggs, uses coconut flour, is super-rich, and doesn't leave you (or at least me) with cravings. And I only buy really GOOD chocolate (at least Ghirradelli), so they're amazing.

I can live like this.

I no longer meet the diagnostic criteria for diabetes. (I asked to address it with diet before starting medications.) My lipid panels are improving (We had a baseline to start from, and tested again 3 months later, when I'd only lost about 20. They weren't perfect yet, but doc was blown away by how much they'd improved) and liver is MOSTLY looking better. (We discussed the fact that the weight-loss itself can make some of those enzymes test a bit high... I really like my doc. She "gets" it. I haven't said "Atkins" or "keto" to her, but have described it, "No grains, starch, or sugar", and she fully supports it.)

No prescriptions... just real food. Mostly cooked from scratch. (Not completely -- a lot of those snacks I named are processed to some degree... but, then, they're just snacks. Salami? I'm eating maybe 5 slices.) Delicious food. And a staggering lack of hunger, a lot of the time. So I work with that.... plan which meals I'll actually eat. (When I cook a "fresh" dinner, I eat dinner. When dinner is leftovers, I may eat lunch instead, and skip dinner, since I'm not really hungry then.) That is such a great freedom, as opposed to the folks around me who seem hungry all the time.