An Update on My Weight Loss Progress

If my home scales can be believed, I am now down to 260 lbs.  That's 15 less than in July.  The thing is, I am not really trying. I have snacked occasionally, giving in to the allure of ice cream and peanut m and m's.  I usually treat myself to a pizza or two, usually store bought frozen or cook and eat from a grocery rather than restaurant on weekends or to some other non-healthy food.  Mostly though, I like my new way of eating, it is amazing how much more energy I have and how much better my mood usually is.  I don't feel deprived either and I have taken to exploring new ways to cook foods and even new foods.  I recently found that beets are a rather awesome vegetable.  Last night I made latkes using beets, sweet potatoes and carrots rather than potatoes, they were wonderful  I also found a black bean burger recipe I like.  My current goal is to wean myself from the diet sodas.  They need to become a sometimes food.  I am finding that I can eat all I want, even snack, and still approach a more healthy weight.  Eating less calories than you burn is the only way to lose weight, but I think that all calories are not equal and by paying attention to where your calories are coming from you get better quality calories that are not only nutritious but which also help control your desire to snack.  I am not in any danger of becoming a vegan or even a vegetarian, but I am finding those are good places to go to discover both new recipes and how to cook stuff that isn't meat.

I grew up in the Southern US and traditionally vegetables were cooked one of 3 ways:

1)  Boiled until they were a soggy, unrecognizable lump at which point they were smothered in salt and covered in some type of sauce or fat or both (butter, margarine, grease, gravy, cheese, ect.)
2) Fried in fat until unrecognizable then heavily salted and covered in something. (usually reserved for potatoes)
3) Covered in flour, cornmeal or breading and fried until unrecognizable then salted. (okra and squash come to mind)

Also, no meal was a meal without meat (you could substitute beans, but they were usually flavored with scraps of inedible meat), or bread of some type.  I was out of college before I discovered you didn't have to have meat in a sandwich.  Unfortunately it was only a few years ago I tried a meatless sandwich.  My first was a felafel,  my next was hummus.  My first meatless burrito involved a portabello mushroom cap marinated in Caribbean jerk sauce and grilled.