I have been on this weight-loss journey for about 5 weeks now.  And I have been documenting my thoughts along the way, as well any research and interesting facts I have uncovered. But I am puzzled, perplexed (in a good way) and pleasantly surprised by the progress I have made.

I must say it has been an interesting 5 weeks, because I have managed to stick with my Mediterranean diet, which honestly, I really enjoy.  I get excited about fruits and salad.  I love my little lunches, in my fancy containers. I no longer have any cravings for cookies, or chocolate (which in the past has been my downfall).  And I am puzzled by that.  Why?  What magical little step in this process was the thing that clicked my brain back over into thinking like my old self, my relatively thin self.  Of course, there are people that will say “Who cares, what does it matter, as long as it is working for you.”  Well, I do care, because I need to know what it was.  Was it the Mediterranean diet, which minimizes the intake of all processed foods?  Everything is fresh, nothing comes from a package – well, except for the yogurt.  Avoiding all the additives that are in packaged foods – for a long enough period of time, has my body and brain reverted to desiring fresh, unmanipulated foods?   I have noticed, my acid reflux has diminished significantly as well.  I just don’t seem to have any problem with it anymore. Yay!!!!!

I am perplexed by why it has taken me so long to hit on the right combination of diet and exercise.  I only go to the gym 3-4 times a week, but when I am there I am busting my butt, for the most part – sometimes I just like to float on the water.  I have increased my lengths to about 40/workout, still aiming for 1 mile of swimming (about 70 lengths), but that will take time.  But I don’t consider swimming a chore, or a thing I dread doing.   And I always feel so refreshed afterwards.

I have been keeping a journal and tracking my workouts, food eaten, water drank.  Based on my daily fluctuations in weight, I have slowly been trying to delete things out of my diet that may be impeding my progress.  I recently stopped drinking Ovaltine with milk at night and that one little thing seems to have made a huge difference, and knocked out a couple of hundred calories a day.  Increasing my water intake seems to have helped tremendously, the more I drink, the faster the weight/fat seems to come off.

And therefore, I am pleasantly surprised by the progress I have made.  I am down about 17 pounds at this point (so I am losing about 3 pounds per week), but the most amazing thing, is how quickly my “metabolic syndrome” stomach had decreased.  I did some measurements last night, and I have lost 5 inches of my stomach.  That is really surprising.  My Mum used to tell me, each pound of weight lost, is equivalent to 4 sticks of margarine gone from one’s middle.  As usual, she seems to be right.  Which means, I only have about 212 sticks of margarine to go. That’s not so bad.  And really I don’t mind, because this time, my weight loss journey doesn’t really seem like a struggle at all.

Photo credits – cutepics.com