Diet lessons

I've been on this diet/workout thing for several weeks now. It's the longest I've stuck to something designed to make me healthy for a long time.

Gone are the days where I would just shove snacks into my mouth without thinking. I don't just stop at McDonald's randomly anymore while I am out. I don't consider eating a box of Whitman's Sampler a "snack" anymore!

Well, we'll see how I do with the Easter candy.

Anyway, here are some things that have been interesting to me as I have been on this diet:

1) I feel better after I exercise. I get kind of a rush that lasts the whole day. When I skip exercising, I actually miss it. I just want to do something more than ride my recumbent bike now. We've had 4 days of rain, but once it clears (should be outta here by Sunday), I'm going to start walking in my neighborhood.

2) I get cranky when I don't eat. I haven't experienced that much before because seems like I was always eating (which is the reason I need to diet!). My husband has always said he can tell when his blood sugar drops when he's skipped a meal or is late eating a meal. I've never experienced that until lately.

Example of my crankiness: Yesterday I had cereal and a snack bag of chips. I didn't eat more than that because I wanted to go out to eat last night after my son's baseball practice (an indoor practice, because of the rain). We were at that facility for about 2 1/2 hours. So, by 8:30 p.m. I was beyond cranky. I was really cranky! We ended up going out to eat and I was okay, but it's funny how much skipping a meal can affect your mood.

I have to work on not skipping meals. It really just sabotages me in the end. As is evidenced by the pizza and fries I had last night for dinner. I also had a salad, but the food choices were not good!

3) I'm an emotional eater. Because I have not been eating through my emotions as much lately, I cry more now than I have in years! I also seem to have more bad dreams. That may be because a lot of stressful things have been happening lately, but it might also be because my way of coping with stress (eating) is not available to me. I think the exercise helps the stress, though.

4) Things aren't as much as an aggravation to me lately. I'm more willing to try different things. I'm not as annoyed by a day filled with lots of things to do. I think my overall attitude is more positive.

So that's that. I just have to keep going. I have a long way to go. I have a lot of weight I want to take off. I just have to go forward and not backward.

I'm considering joining Weight Watchers. I've been following the plan at home, but I think the support of the meetings, the accountability of the weigh ins, and the ability to track my progress could all really help me in the journey.

New recipe to try this week that is related to health: Tammy's Strawberry Green Smoothie. I'm going to make them this afternoon, which is a hard time for me to stay away from snacking!